Latest / Something Extra / Compassion-powered Resilience w/ Gary Baker
Transcript
- 0:02Lisa Nichols: Chromosomes.
- 0:03Lisa Nichols: Little strands of nucleic acids and proteins are the fundamental genetic instructions
- 0:08Lisa Nichols: that tell us who we are at birth.
- 0:10Lisa Nichols: Most people are born with forty six chromosomes, but each year in the United
- 0:14Lisa Nichols: States, about six thousand people are born with an extra chromosome, making them a
- 0:18Lisa Nichols: person with Down syndrome.
- 0:20Lisa Nichols: If you've ever encountered someone with Down syndrome, you know that they are some
- 0:24Lisa Nichols: of the kindest, most joyful people you will ever meet.
- 0:27Lisa Nichols: They truly have something extra.
- 0:30Lisa Nichols: My name is Lisa Nichols, and for thirty years, I have been both the
- 0:34Lisa Nichols: CEO of Technology Partners and the mother to Ali.
- 0:38Lisa Nichols: Ali has something extra in every sense of the word.
- 0:41Lisa Nichols: I have been blessed to be by her side as she impacts everyone she
- 0:45Lisa Nichols: meets.
- 0:46Lisa Nichols: Through these two important roles as CEO and mother to Ally, I have
- 0:50Lisa Nichols: witnessed countless life lessons that have fundamentally changed the way I look at the
- 0:54Lisa Nichols: world.
- 0:55Lisa Nichols: While you may not have an extra chromosome, every leader has something extra that
- 0:59Lisa Nichols: defines who you are.
- 1:00Lisa Nichols: Join me as I explore the something extra in leaders from all walks of
- 1:04Lisa Nichols: life and discover how that difference in each of them has made a difference
- 1:08Lisa Nichols: in their companies, their families, their communities, and in themselves.
- 1:11Lisa Nichols: If you like this episode today, please go to Apple Podcasts or
- 1:16Lisa Nichols: wherever you listen and leave us a five star rating.
- 1:20Lisa Nichols: I'm thrilled to have Gary Baker on the show today.
- 1:23Lisa Nichols: Gary is the president and CEO of Undivided Wealth Management.
- 1:27Lisa Nichols: Gary Baker, I am thrilled to have you on the Something
- 1:32Lisa Nichols: Extra podcast today.
- 1:34Lisa Nichols: Thank you, my friend.
- 1:35Lisa Nichols: Thank you for making the time to be with me.
- 1:37Gary Baker: Absolutely.
- 1:38Gary Baker: This is, something I've been looking forward to a long time, so thank you
- 1:41Gary Baker: very much.
- 1:42Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 1:43Lisa Nichols: Me too.
- 1:44Lisa Nichols: Well, you and I go back, way back to twenty thirteen.
- 1:48Lisa Nichols: Do you remember how we met?
- 1:50Gary Baker: I do and there's just a a mini story before we even met, which,
- 1:54Gary Baker: you know, takes us out of the country and me meeting your son and
- 1:58Gary Baker: and all of those things.
- 1:59Gary Baker: And so if if you want to, I can take a little trip down
- 2:02Gary Baker: memory lane and kinda share that story because I love talking about your son.
- 2:06Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 2:06Lisa Nichols: Absolutely.
- 2:07Lisa Nichols: What was the trip for?
- 2:08Lisa Nichols: You can maybe tell our listeners a a little bit about that organization if
- 2:11Lisa Nichols: you can because they may not be familiar.
- 2:14Gary Baker: Sure.
- 2:14Gary Baker: So so one thing that I realized early on in my career is you
- 2:17Gary Baker: know, of course, I wanna help people.
- 2:18Gary Baker: I wanna understand cultures, different people, and so we were connected with a group
- 2:22Gary Baker: called Opportunity International through one of our mutual friends, Rich McClure,
- 2:26Gary Baker: and they were doing what they call an insight trip, which is where you
- 2:30Gary Baker: go down and kind of visit the culture, understand their business model, what they're
- 2:33Gary Baker: doing, etcetera, just so you can start to understand what your contributions and, you
- 2:37Gary Baker: know, what you're what you're trying to do to help them.
- 2:40Gary Baker: And so you and Greg were supposed to go on the trip, and I
- 2:43Gary Baker: was excited because Rich kept saying, wait till you meet Lisa Nichols.
- 2:46Gary Baker: She's this dynamo person, you know, which which I was excited.
- 2:49Gary Baker: And then, obviously, unfortunately, something was going on with Greg's father at the time,
- 2:52Gary Baker: and so you guys decided to substitute your son, Jordan.
- 2:57Gary Baker: Who was who was how old at that time do you think?
- 3:01Lisa Nichols: Well, that was twenty thirteen.
- 3:03Lisa Nichols: Oh, now I have to do math.
- 3:04Lisa Nichols: He was early twenties.
- 3:06Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 3:06Lisa Nichols: Like, maybe twenty one, twenty two.
- 3:08Gary Baker: So at that point in time, Sarah and I just had our first son.
- 3:12Gary Baker: And, you know, you always wonder when you have a baby, like, what do
- 3:15Gary Baker: they turn out to be?
- 3:16Gary Baker: And and Jordan is full of life in many ways.
- 3:19Gary Baker: I mean, he's a great looking kid.
- 3:20Gary Baker: He has a great personality.
- 3:21Gary Baker: He has all of these interests.
- 3:23Gary Baker: It's one of those kids that has the possibilities to do anything, and so
- 3:26Gary Baker: when I first met him, that's my initial reaction.
- 3:29Gary Baker: And then over time throughout the trip, I felt like I became like we
- 3:33Gary Baker: became like surrogate parents like, Jordan, I know your parents aren't here.
- 3:36Gary Baker: I don't know if I would do that if I were you or make
- 3:38Gary Baker: sure you're home by ten thirty.
- 3:39Gary Baker: And he's probably like, who the heck are you?
- 3:41Gary Baker: Like, I just met you.
- 3:43Gary Baker: So I became like his like older brother and but he is just such
- 3:47Gary Baker: an awesome human being and person.
- 3:49Gary Baker: And so when I got back, I just I said I have to meet
- 3:53Gary Baker: these parents.
- 3:53Gary Baker: I have to meet the person the people who produce this great human being
- 3:56Gary Baker: and so that's where we met in your office.
- 4:00Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 4:00Lisa Nichols: I I remember that, and we had talked about this.
- 4:04Lisa Nichols: We had never met doctor Tom Hill before.
- 4:06Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 4:06Lisa Nichols: And you brought doctor Tom Hill with you, Gary, and a lot
- 4:10Lisa Nichols: of people know doctor Hill.
- 4:12Lisa Nichols: I have traveled to Denver.
- 4:14Lisa Nichols: I have traveled to Dallas, and people know I've got a good friend in
- 4:18Lisa Nichols: Michigan.
- 4:18Lisa Nichols: He's like, hey.
- 4:19Lisa Nichols: Do you know Doctor Tom Hill?
- 4:20Lisa Nichols: I said, I sure do.
- 4:21Lisa Nichols: You know?
- 4:22Lisa Nichols: It's just crazy.
- 4:24Lisa Nichols: But Opportunity is a great organization.
- 4:26Lisa Nichols: Greg and I are still on the board of Governors.
- 4:29Lisa Nichols: If any of our listeners want to learn more about that, I will
- 4:33Lisa Nichols: tell you the one thing about that organization, Jordan came
- 4:37Lisa Nichols: back.
- 4:37Lisa Nichols: So these Opportunity really helps with micro financing for
- 4:42Lisa Nichols: entrepreneurs, right, in developing countries, Gary.
- 4:45Lisa Nichols: And but what they do that's very different are trust groups.
- 4:50Lisa Nichols: So if you have got a loan from Opportunity, you are in a trust
- 4:54Lisa Nichols: group with ten other people, and Gary and I are in
- 4:58Lisa Nichols: a trust group.
- 4:59Lisa Nichols: If I renege on my loan, Gary has to pay my loan back.
- 5:03Lisa Nichols: Well, guess what?
- 5:04Lisa Nichols: Everybody pays their loan back.
- 5:06Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 5:06Gary Baker: It's incredible.
- 5:08Gary Baker: And I'm gonna take it even a step further if you don't mind, but
- 5:11Gary Baker: correct me if I'm wrong too, but the majority of their trust groups are
- 5:14Gary Baker: actually made up of women because women want to provide for their families.
- 5:18Gary Baker: So if they're making extra money, they know it's gonna go to the family,
- 5:21Gary Baker: not towards, you know, whatever else it could be spent on.
- 5:24Gary Baker: And one of the stories that they shared with these trust groups is that
- 5:28Gary Baker: one of the ladies actually had her loan payment, but the husband took it
- 5:32Gary Baker: and went down to the local bar or something and he was spending it,
- 5:35Gary Baker: so these ten ladies as a trust group said, nope.
- 5:38Gary Baker: We got a loan payment to make.
- 5:39Gary Baker: They went down to the bar and got the money back from him.
- 5:43Gary Baker: I mean, that's how powerful these trust groups are.
- 5:45Gary Baker: I mean, they and the courage, I should say.
- 5:47Gary Baker: So not only
- 5:48Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 5:48Gary Baker: Is it leveraging knowledge and insights, etcetera, but it it gives them a
- 5:52Gary Baker: branded collaboration around courage and and and
- 5:59Gary Baker: it's powerful.
- 6:00Lisa Nichols: It is so powerful.
- 6:01Lisa Nichols: And I just remember Jordan coming back and saying there was a major
- 6:05Lisa Nichols: difference.
- 6:06Lisa Nichols: He saw the entrepreneurs that were part of opportunity and ones that were not.
- 6:10Lisa Nichols: He said there was a big difference, you know, in, the success of those.
- 6:14Lisa Nichols: And so, yeah, it's a powerful if any of our listeners want to learn
- 6:19Lisa Nichols: more, Gary and I can definitely connect you.
- 6:21Gary Baker: You know what?
- 6:22Gary Baker: And if you don't mind, let me because I think this is important, since
- 6:25Gary Baker: you're taking me down memory lane.
- 6:26Gary Baker: One thing that I noticed about Jordan, which was profound to me, is
- 6:31Gary Baker: I'm I'm one of those people who likes to get involved, but I kinda
- 6:34Gary Baker: sit there and watch and listen and learn and then eventually I will engage.
- 6:38Gary Baker: He he was friends with everyone on the first day.
- 6:41Gary Baker: As soon as he walked in, I mean, of course, you know, they're talking
- 6:43Gary Baker: to him, they're playing soccer with him, he's sharing like clothes with them, I
- 6:47Gary Baker: mean, he has zero fear to immerse himself in
- 6:51Gary Baker: the culture to learn and they accepted him which was awesome and I just
- 6:55Gary Baker: remember thinking, how does he do that?
- 6:58Gary Baker: Like how does he have the courage to just step out of his own
- 7:00Gary Baker: coverage?
- 7:01Gary Baker: Language barrier, cultural barriers, you know, monetary barriers.
- 7:05Gary Baker: I mean, there's no barriers with someone like Jordan.
- 7:07Gary Baker: He just immersed himself in in what's right and and that probably was
- 7:11Gary Baker: what now I think about stands out to me stands out to me the
- 7:14Gary Baker: most about him is just how comfortable he was immersing himself right away.
- 7:18Gary Baker: And so you do learn a lot about cultures and to your point, if
- 7:21Gary Baker: you're gonna take a trip like that, you know, don't be afraid to truly
- 7:25Gary Baker: immerse yourself in there because that's how you really grow and learn.
- 7:29Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 7:29Lisa Nichols: That's good.
- 7:30Lisa Nichols: Well, thank you for that, Gary.
- 7:31Lisa Nichols: I'll make sure that I share this episode with him because I know that
- 7:35Lisa Nichols: that will, fill up his tank.
- 7:37Lisa Nichols: So thank you for that.
- 7:39Lisa Nichols: You know, but I just remember you, Gary.
- 7:40Lisa Nichols: I mean, from the time that we met, you are this passionate, humble,
- 7:45Lisa Nichols: incredibly brilliant servant leader.
- 7:48Lisa Nichols: We've talked about this.
- 7:49Lisa Nichols: You're very people you're a people centric leader.
- 7:52Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 7:53Lisa Nichols: I want to dig into all of that, but before we do, just take
- 7:57Lisa Nichols: me back to a day in the life of Gary Baker as a young
- 8:01Lisa Nichols: boy.
- 8:01Lisa Nichols: Now were you a mischievous boy, kind of like Jordan
- 8:05Lisa Nichols: and Jack, or were you a studious boy?
- 8:09Gary Baker: So, so how far do you wanna go back?
- 8:11Gary Baker: Do you wanna go to like, you know, junior high, high school kind of
- 8:14Gary Baker: going back that far?
- 8:15Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 8:15Lisa Nichols: I mean, what would you like to do?
- 8:16Lisa Nichols: What kind of what kind of were you a good student?
- 8:18Lisa Nichols: Were you, you know, tell me a little bit about you.
- 8:21Gary Baker: So, it's it's funny that you bring this up because I've just done some
- 8:24Gary Baker: some writing about this aspect of my life, and so my my parents actually
- 8:28Gary Baker: had me when they were eighteen and nineteen years old, and so they were
- 8:31Gary Baker: very young parents, and my dad actually owned two bars.
- 8:35Gary Baker: So I grew up in this environment that was uncertain, chaotic,
- 8:40Gary Baker: not what I would call, like, a normal childhood.
- 8:44Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
- 8:44Gary Baker: And so but it was normal to me, and I had a lot of
- 8:48Gary Baker: adult conversations, I got to see a lot of humanity, sometimes at the worst,
- 8:52Gary Baker: sometimes, you know, just the just the realness.
- 8:55Gary Baker: And so you learn how to navigate those things and understand where people are
- 8:58Gary Baker: coming from and how to navigate conversations in quotes or, you know,
- 9:02Gary Baker: a lot of different kind of unique environments to say the least.
- 9:07Gary Baker: But what that did was it teach taught me a lot of, you know,
- 9:10Gary Baker: just how to be resilient, how to be persuasive, how to understand, how to
- 9:13Gary Baker: seek with empathy, how to live with empathy, to realize that, you know, not
- 9:17Gary Baker: everybody has the plain vanilla white picket fence, you know,
- 9:21Gary Baker: two story, you know, when a, you know, four kids and a dog, you
- 9:24Gary Baker: know, four people and a dog kind of scenario.
- 9:27Gary Baker: But I never knew the difference.
- 9:28Gary Baker: Because one thing that that I have come to believe, and I I try
- 9:31Gary Baker: to not that I'm some great wise old parent, but I'm forty eight now
- 9:35Gary Baker: and my kids are getting older.
- 9:36Gary Baker: One thing that I never doubted for a second was that my parents loved
- 9:40Gary Baker: me.
- 9:40Gary Baker: And so I realized that regardless of circumstance or environment, if you feel
- 9:45Gary Baker: love or appreciation or support, you could literally endure anything.
- 9:49Gary Baker: And so in high school, I became very outgoing
- 9:53Gary Baker: and I I but I was outgoing in the sense that I was curious
- 9:56Gary Baker: about other people's lives
- 9:58Lisa Nichols: and I
- 9:58Gary Baker: just wanted to get to know people.
- 10:00Gary Baker: So I didn't hang out with a clique even though I had my little,
- 10:02Gary Baker: you know, sports group and, you know, I was a baseball player and all
- 10:05Gary Baker: of those things.
- 10:06Gary Baker: I literally got to know everyone or tried to get to know everyone.
- 10:09Gary Baker: And I and as a kid, you don't do those things because you're trying
- 10:12Gary Baker: to achieve something or get something.
- 10:14Gary Baker: It's just who you are.
- 10:15Gary Baker: Mhmm.
- 10:16Gary Baker: And so I realized at a very young age that I definitely was a
- 10:20Gary Baker: people person, but I cared about people and hearing
- 10:24Gary Baker: their stories and getting curious about, you know, what they want to do and
- 10:27Gary Baker: and how do they want to accomplish things or whatever it may be.
- 10:30Gary Baker: But this is what the difference was.
- 10:32Gary Baker: Because I grew up in an environment like that that caused me to have,
- 10:35Gary Baker: you know, quote, kind of, you know, grit, you know, just that level of,
- 10:39Gary Baker: grinding and and resilience and all those things that we need to be entrepreneurs,
- 10:42Gary Baker: etcetera.
- 10:43Gary Baker: I learned that at such a young age that it became like one of
- 10:47Gary Baker: my superpowers in my twenties because most people, if they live
- 10:51Gary Baker: a normal plain vanilla life, they're not used to disruption, they're not used to
- 10:53Gary Baker: chaos, they're not used to uncertainty, and so when they have that
- 10:55Gary Baker: chaos.
- 10:55Gary Baker: They're not used to uncertainty.
- 10:57Gary Baker: And so when they have that drop in their lap for the first time,
- 11:00Gary Baker: they're dealing with it sometimes for the first times in their twenties and thirties.
- 11:04Gary Baker: And I'm thinking, like, this is a Tuesday for me growing up.
- 11:07Gary Baker: So, like, this is nothing.
- 11:09Gary Baker: And so I just realized, like, what what arguably could be something is is
- 11:12Gary Baker: my you know, someone will call a setback or, you know, or or, drawback
- 11:16Gary Baker: or whatever it is of this kind of, you know, chaotic childhood.
- 11:20Gary Baker: Be actually I'm I'm grateful for it because it helped me learn a
- 11:24Gary Baker: lot more about life.
- 11:26Gary Baker: So much so that I actually wanted to be a psychologist because I wanted
- 11:30Gary Baker: to help more people understand they can overcome adversity no matter what the
- 11:34Gary Baker: circumstances.
- 11:35Lisa Nichols: That's so powerful.
- 11:36Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness, Gary.
- 11:38Lisa Nichols: There that's so powerful.
- 11:39Lisa Nichols: We could peel back the onion.
- 11:40Lisa Nichols: There's so many things in there.
- 11:42Lisa Nichols: You talked about, you know, it may be a little bit uncertain, you
- 11:46Lisa Nichols: know, a little bit a non traditional, type upbringing, but your
- 11:50Lisa Nichols: parents loved you.
- 11:51Lisa Nichols: And there are studies out there that say even if a child
- 11:55Lisa Nichols: has one parent or one person in their life that loves them,
- 11:59Lisa Nichols: it makes a world of difference in their life and who they become.
- 12:03Lisa Nichols: So, you know, I think love and a goodness gracious,
- 12:08Lisa Nichols: boy, I mean, we could do a whole podcast on the mistakes that I
- 12:11Lisa Nichols: made as a parent.
- 12:12Lisa Nichols: I've made so many mistakes as a parent, but I have said to people
- 12:16Lisa Nichols: at the end of the day, just make sure that you're loving
- 12:20Lisa Nichols: your kids.
- 12:21Lisa Nichols: Love your kids because I feel like your kids, no matter what it is
- 12:24Lisa Nichols: that they're that you're that they're going through, they've got to know that somebody's
- 12:29Lisa Nichols: in their corner.
- 12:30Gary Baker: And and and the beauty, I know it sounds kinda cliche, but love's free.
- 12:34Gary Baker: So it doesn't matter what school they go to, it doesn't matter that you
- 12:36Gary Baker: can buy them a car at sixteen or, you know, whatever these things are.
- 12:39Gary Baker: And of course, you know, I wanna do those things for my kids, but
- 12:42Gary Baker: on the flip side, I realize as a foundation, as a human being,
- 12:46Gary Baker: that's all they genuinely need and then they can figure out their own lives,
- 12:49Gary Baker: they can accomplish things they want to, but to your point, we've also seen
- 12:54Gary Baker: when you have the absence of that, you will fill that in with something
- 12:58Gary Baker: else.
- 12:59Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 12:59Gary Baker: And and that's where, you know, that takes a lot of unwinding and so
- 13:03Gary Baker: as much as the world was chaotic, I will always be grateful to my
- 13:06Gary Baker: parents that I never doubted for a minute that I was loved
- 13:10Gary Baker: in chaos.
- 13:11Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 13:12Lisa Nichols: I love that.
- 13:13Lisa Nichols: Well, I think that's gonna give people hope and then just,
- 13:18Lisa Nichols: you know, talking about I love too, Gary, just
- 13:22Lisa Nichols: that you had lived in chaos and you had learned how to
- 13:27Lisa Nichols: navigate that at a young age.
- 13:28Lisa Nichols: So we may have a listener out there that feels like they're
- 13:32Lisa Nichols: living in chaos right now, but don't despise that.
- 13:37Lisa Nichols: Is it hard?
- 13:39Lisa Nichols: It absolutely is, you know, and sometimes just literally it sucks,
- 13:43Lisa Nichols: you know.
- 13:44Lisa Nichols: Life can suck sometimes, but don't despise that piece because
- 13:48Lisa Nichols: something's being worked out in you that I think
- 13:52Lisa Nichols: will eventually come out to possibly help you in the
- 13:56Lisa Nichols: future and to make you a stronger person.
- 13:58Lisa Nichols: So, there's just so much about what you said I love, but you went
- 14:01Lisa Nichols: on to Mizzou to study personal finance and then received your MBA from WashU.
- 14:07Lisa Nichols: Now you're teaching there as an adjunct professor.
- 14:09Lisa Nichols: I wanna talk a little bit about that, but what, Gary, drew you to
- 14:13Lisa Nichols: personal finance, you know, and what has kept you in it?
- 14:17Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 14:17Gary Baker: So For
- 14:18Lisa Nichols: over twenty five years or however long you've been in that.
- 14:22Gary Baker: So, there's I I'm starting to develop at least my own personal formula.
- 14:26Gary Baker: I don't know if this necessarily applies to everybody else's life, but there's a
- 14:29Gary Baker: personal formula.
- 14:29Gary Baker: So you you have the love foundation, and then with that love foundation, you
- 14:33Gary Baker: can kinda get this encouragement from your parents.
- 14:35Gary Baker: I got a lot of encouragement from doctor Hill.
- 14:37Gary Baker: That's what I refer to him as the great encourager because that's what
- 14:41Gary Baker: he does.
- 14:42Gary Baker: He tells people like, dream as big as you want to,
- 14:45Gary Baker: and he's right from that standpoint.
- 14:47Gary Baker: So you get love, you get encouragement.
- 14:51Gary Baker: But then I wanted to help people.
- 14:53Gary Baker: And so I told him my grandfather wanted to be a psychologist, and he
- 14:55Gary Baker: said, well, you know, there's a lot of ways you can help people.
- 14:58Gary Baker: And I would go to his place or his house on the weekends and
- 15:01Gary Baker: do like chores and things like that, and we'd always talk about the stock
- 15:04Gary Baker: market and business and leadership and things along those lines.
- 15:08Gary Baker: And so, he said, well maybe you could be a financial advisor because you
- 15:11Gary Baker: like numbers and, you know, the markets and all of these conversations we've had.
- 15:15Gary Baker: And he said, why don't you have a call with my financial advisor?
- 15:18Gary Baker: So at eighteen, I'll never forget, I was staying in his kitchen, he handed
- 15:21Gary Baker: me the phone, and he said, Gary, you know, I appreciate the fact that
- 15:25Gary Baker: you want to be a financial advisor to, you know, because you like the
- 15:28Gary Baker: markets and the numbers and you know, all of those kinds of things, but
- 15:31Gary Baker: but I just want you to know that most of the days I feel
- 15:33Gary Baker: like I'm a psychologist, not a financial advisor.
- 15:37Gary Baker: And I'm like, home run, this is it, this is like, if I can
- 15:40Gary Baker: merge those worlds together to where I can help people with the math
- 15:44Gary Baker: and the numbers and, you know, the markets and the economy and all the
- 15:47Gary Baker: things that I find interest in, but I also can still help people
- 15:51Gary Baker: at a, you know, even to a certain degree to a psychological level.
- 15:55Gary Baker: I'm like, this is, this is perfect.
- 15:57Gary Baker: And so I'll I am so grateful that, you know, that he was available.
- 16:00Gary Baker: And this is where it just goes to show you, like, I I hope
- 16:03Gary Baker: people become mentors and and reach out and have these conversations when young
- 16:07Gary Baker: people reach out because you just don't know the impact that you could have.
- 16:10Gary Baker: I mean, but that was a true trajectory changing moment.
- 16:13Gary Baker: And so my pathway became easy.
- 16:16Gary Baker: Learn about the markets and investing and learn about people and just keep on
- 16:20Gary Baker: following those two engines and here we are twenty eight years later.
- 16:24Gary Baker: So the personal finance was easy.
- 16:27Lisa Nichols: Amazing.
- 16:27Lisa Nichols: That was a pivotal point for you.
- 16:29Lisa Nichols: Your path became clear at that point.
- 16:32Lisa Nichols: I love that.
- 16:34Lisa Nichols: Well,
- 16:36Lisa Nichols: you've worked in a lot of big, big institutions and we'll we'll talk.
- 16:39Lisa Nichols: I've got a question about that, but you founded undivided
- 16:44Lisa Nichols: wealth and I just want to know, like, what sparked that
- 16:48Lisa Nichols: leap and I think, you know, I know what it is, but I'd love
- 16:52Lisa Nichols: for you to tell our listeners and it goes back to a lot of
- 16:55Lisa Nichols: what you just talked about and being able to help people.
- 16:57Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 16:58Gary Baker: And so what what you'll hear a lot of financial advisors talk about when
- 17:01Gary Baker: they meet with their clients is they say, we talk about the markets or
- 17:04Gary Baker: what's going on in their portfolios, etcetera, for about ten minutes, and then we
- 17:07Gary Baker: start talking about their life for the rest of the time.
- 17:10Gary Baker: And and that that's a very true statement.
- 17:12Gary Baker: And the reason why you only talk about ten minutes is because most people
- 17:15Gary Baker: think, well, I don't know that.
- 17:17Gary Baker: I don't care to know that.
- 17:18Gary Baker: That's why I'm actually working with you so you guys can figure those things
- 17:20Gary Baker: out.
- 17:21Gary Baker: And I don't wanna be bored for the next sixty minutes or ninety minutes
- 17:24Gary Baker: or whatever it is.
- 17:25Lisa Nichols: Right.
- 17:25Gary Baker: But then what happens is, this is also a unique factor of being a
- 17:28Gary Baker: financial adviser, is it's one of the occupations that you actually meet with a
- 17:32Gary Baker: client, at least, you know, on a quarterly basis over a long
- 17:36Gary Baker: extended period of time.
- 17:37Gary Baker: So when you meet somebody over a quarterly basis, over a long extended period
- 17:41Gary Baker: of time, and they're talking about something that's very private and sensitive to them,
- 17:44Gary Baker: their money, they're also open now to talk about everything else
- 17:49Gary Baker: that is going on in their life and anything that they want to do
- 17:51Gary Baker: that has real significant meaning, at some point in time is gonna cost some
- 17:55Gary Baker: level of money.
- 17:56Gary Baker: So it starts to bridge that gap, you know, funding education, you know, just
- 17:59Gary Baker: whatever the it may be.
- 18:01Gary Baker: And so what I realized is, well, what our industry is missing
- 18:05Gary Baker: is the people part, the the human part.
- 18:08Gary Baker: And so if back to that time, we're spending ten minutes on the financials,
- 18:12Gary Baker: great.
- 18:13Gary Baker: Nail that, be a black belt in that, understand it.
- 18:16Gary Baker: But then also nail and be a black belt in the things that matter
- 18:19Gary Baker: most to them, which is the other sixty minutes.
- 18:22Gary Baker: So if you can get become skilled at understanding who they are, why
- 18:26Gary Baker: they exist, what they want to accomplish, where they want to accomplish it, what
- 18:29Gary Baker: do they wanna leave back.
- 18:30Gary Baker: If you can actually become a guide on that side of the equation in
- 18:34Gary Baker: addition to the monetary guide.
- 18:36Gary Baker: Well, to me, that's the dream.
- 18:38Gary Baker: To everybody else, it's like, whatever.
- 18:39Gary Baker: Glad you're happy doing that.
- 18:40Gary Baker: But, I mean, that's been my dream since I was eighteen, and Yeah.
- 18:43Gary Baker: Thankfully, I've just spun it into what it is today.
- 18:46Lisa Nichols: I love it.
- 18:47Lisa Nichols: I love it.
- 18:48Lisa Nichols: Well, let me ask you this.
- 18:49Lisa Nichols: You created the undivided experience center
- 18:52Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 18:52Lisa Nichols: From scratch.
- 18:53Lisa Nichols: I've been there multiple times for events.
- 18:56Lisa Nichols: What was the vision behind that, Gary?
- 18:58Gary Baker: So perfect.
- 18:59Gary Baker: So,
- 19:01Gary Baker: what I've always envisioned is I don't wanna help people think about life.
- 19:04Gary Baker: I wanna help people live life.
- 19:07Gary Baker: And so, you know, if you think about our building, you know, ten thousand
- 19:09Gary Baker: square feet, twenty five hundred of it is the wealth management part.
- 19:12Gary Baker: So we cover their investment plan, we cover their financial plan, and then in
- 19:16Gary Baker: their financial plan they start to give us the things that they want to
- 19:19Gary Baker: accomplish in life.
- 19:21Gary Baker: Well, great.
- 19:22Gary Baker: How do I do that?
- 19:23Gary Baker: How do I start my business?
- 19:24Gary Baker: How do I sell my business?
- 19:25Gary Baker: How do I change my career?
- 19:26Gary Baker: How do I, you know, you know, lead lead my company better?
- 19:29Gary Baker: How do I give back to the community?
- 19:31Gary Baker: All the how do I do and live the important things of life
- 19:35Gary Baker: start to come up.
- 19:36Gary Baker: Well then I said, this is great.
- 19:38Gary Baker: Let's build an experience center that allows them to have a taste
- 19:42Gary Baker: of that experience of something they want to do.
- 19:44Gary Baker: It becomes like a catalyst.
- 19:46Gary Baker: So if they wanna try something, great.
- 19:48Gary Baker: Let's put it to the plan, plan, understand it, but then let's just literally
- 19:51Gary Baker: walk out of our wealth management doors and into our experience center doors and
- 19:55Gary Baker: put it into practice.
- 19:56Gary Baker: Make a connection, launch a business, you know, change your career, meet with one
- 20:00Gary Baker: of our life consultants or, you know, business consultants or what have you.
- 20:03Gary Baker: Let's put it into
- 20:05Gary Baker: action.
- 20:05Gary Baker: So I care more about people what I care more about I do care
- 20:09Gary Baker: about how much money someone has, of course.
- 20:11Gary Baker: Right?
- 20:11Gary Baker: And I want to grow that, of course.
- 20:13Gary Baker: But I care ten times more what they can do with it and
- 20:17Gary Baker: what that money can do frankly for others.
- 20:19Gary Baker: So it's not even just what it can do for them.
- 20:21Gary Baker: That's the first step.
- 20:22Gary Baker: That's the success part.
- 20:24Gary Baker: But the fulfillment part is, but what can that success then do
- 20:28Gary Baker: for others?
- 20:29Gary Baker: And that's when the fulfillment comes in.
- 20:31Gary Baker: So if we can do all of that in one place.
- 20:35Lisa Nichols: That's amazing.
- 20:36Lisa Nichols: I love it.
- 20:37Lisa Nichols: Well, you know, let's talk about this because you just talked about starting a
- 20:41Lisa Nichols: business.
- 20:41Lisa Nichols: So I mean, you really did step out, you know, with
- 20:45Lisa Nichols: courage, you know, to start undivided because you, I think you were like
- 20:49Lisa Nichols: at some big brands like Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo.
- 20:53Lisa Nichols: What was it like Gary to step out of those roles
- 20:57Lisa Nichols: and start?
- 20:58Lisa Nichols: I mean what what kinds of things were going on in your
- 21:02Lisa Nichols: brain and your heart?
- 21:03Lisa Nichols: I mean, was there fear there at all, or were you like, you know,
- 21:06Lisa Nichols: what's the worst that can happen?
- 21:08Gary Baker: So it's funny they bring that up.
- 21:10Gary Baker: So one, while I was at some of those larger firms, of course they
- 21:13Gary Baker: helped me become a great investment planner, financial planner, but it's just not their
- 21:17Gary Baker: focus because of the training development that has to go into relational planning, life
- 21:21Gary Baker: planning, business planning, etcetera.
- 21:23Gary Baker: So it's just not a focus of what our industry does.
- 21:26Gary Baker: So I realize at some point in time we can create a difference, you
- 21:28Gary Baker: know, for our own value or for our own firms and then hopefully take
- 21:31Gary Baker: it to the industry.
- 21:32Gary Baker: And so, but I realized I couldn't do it on our own, or on
- 21:35Gary Baker: my own, so we have one heck of a team, so they were all
- 21:37Gary Baker: courageous enough to say, yep, let's let's go do this together.
- 21:41Gary Baker: But the main impetus for for starting your own firm was so that we
- 21:44Gary Baker: had the freedom to really open up this whole another lens of services.
- 21:49Gary Baker: And and the problem is it's I mean, like I said, some of these
- 21:51Gary Baker: larger firms do great at investment planning, financial planning.
- 21:54Gary Baker: It's just they don't have the infrastructure, the training, development, you know, the the
- 21:59Gary Baker: the lab, the innovation side.
- 22:00Gary Baker: They just don't have the capabilities to do this real life development stuff that
- 22:04Gary Baker: that, you know, we were focused on.
- 22:06Gary Baker: And so we had to create our own kind of company to basically show
- 22:09Gary Baker: that one, it's possible, which we've done, which has been an exceptional ride over
- 22:12Gary Baker: the last five years.
- 22:14Gary Baker: But it's all because of the team that we have and that they all
- 22:17Gary Baker: believed in this vision.
- 22:18Gary Baker: And so they used to tease me.
- 22:20Gary Baker: I used to use this acronym called FIR, f I r, that everything,
- 22:24Gary Baker: every conversation needs to be financial, intellectual financial value, intellectual value, and then
- 22:28Gary Baker: relational value.
- 22:29Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 22:29Gary Baker: And relational value to me is where the experience of life starts.
- 22:33Gary Baker: So if you could relate to a client and then start to build a
- 22:36Gary Baker: plan that relates to all of their, you know, monetary, you know, means, etcetera,
- 22:41Gary Baker: now you're helping them do something with their money and live the life they
- 22:44Gary Baker: want to.
- 22:44Gary Baker: So it's been absolutely a team effort, from day one, and I'm just
- 22:49Gary Baker: grateful for a million things that we're doing here, but that's one of the
- 22:52Gary Baker: things I can't thank our team enough for having the courage to go do
- 22:56Gary Baker: it because now back to my point.
- 22:59Gary Baker: When I was a child and going through all of that, I mean, yes,
- 23:02Gary Baker: I'm scared of things.
- 23:03Gary Baker: I'm nervous around things, but I just don't have that fear of,
- 23:07Gary Baker: you know, I don't have a fear of going from a one deviation normal,
- 23:11Gary Baker: you know, predictable life to an uncertain life because I've already lived that.
- 23:15Gary Baker: I already have that armor, that gear.
- 23:17Gary Baker: So
- 23:18Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 23:18Gary Baker: And that's where all the change happens.
- 23:20Gary Baker: So for me, it was a no brainer to go do it.
- 23:23Gary Baker: I was gonna do it anyway regardless, but I know with
- 23:27Gary Baker: certainty it would have never happened without our team.
- 23:29Gary Baker: And so thankfully we had some courageous team members that went on this journey
- 23:33Gary Baker: with us.
- 23:34Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
- 23:35Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 23:36Lisa Nichols: I mean, the the the thing that really makes you guys
- 23:40Lisa Nichols: stand out, I love the whole fur, you know, the financial, intellectual,
- 23:44Lisa Nichols: relational, that whole I mean, the way that I look at it,
- 23:49Lisa Nichols: Gary, when I think about it, it's a holistic approach
- 23:52Gary Baker: Yes.
- 23:52Lisa Nichols: To serving someone.
- 23:54Lisa Nichols: It really is.
- 23:55Lisa Nichols: It's a holistic approach, you know.
- 23:57Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 23:58Lisa Nichols: They
- 23:59Gary Baker: And and I will say this and I do mean this and and this
- 24:02Gary Baker: is something that's like most people that know me like there's certain hot buttons
- 24:05Gary Baker: for me.
- 24:06Gary Baker: I I agree with you.
- 24:07Gary Baker: It is a whole person approach.
- 24:09Gary Baker: It is a whole life approach.
- 24:11Gary Baker: But this is the thing that I am I am, like, most passionate
- 24:15Gary Baker: about and protective of is this, is back to the fur.
- 24:19Gary Baker: You can lose money and go make more money.
- 24:21Gary Baker: You know, you can go to school and learn a new, you know, you
- 24:23Gary Baker: can the the industry can change or whatever it is and you can learn
- 24:27Gary Baker: a new skill set, whatever it is.
- 24:29Gary Baker: But relational means that you're getting someone's heart.
- 24:34Gary Baker: And you cannot I can manipulate money.
- 24:36Gary Baker: I can manipulate intellectual things.
- 24:38Gary Baker: People do it all the time.
- 24:39Gary Baker: You get into the business of manipulating hearts to make more money or
- 24:43Gary Baker: create intellectual processes and you're going down a dangerous path because if
- 24:48Gary Baker: you break someone's heart, they will remember that forever.
- 24:52Gary Baker: But on the flip side, if you
- 24:55Gary Baker: inspire someone's heart, if you motivate someone's heart, if you care
- 24:59Gary Baker: for someone's heart and you genuinely can show that, that's a
- 25:03Gary Baker: whole different level of relationship.
- 25:07Gary Baker: And so I am overly protective of humans' hearts and
- 25:11Gary Baker: our clients' hearts and what they are because my point is if you're gonna
- 25:14Gary Baker: give me your greatest fears, your greatest dreams, your greatest visions,
- 25:18Gary Baker: your greatest passions, your greatest doubts, concerns, whatever it is,
- 25:22Gary Baker: one, I want our team to be experts on helping you with that.
- 25:25Gary Baker: But two, I don't take that lightly.
- 25:30Lisa Nichols: That is that is good.
- 25:32Lisa Nichols: You know, and as you were saying that Gary, the thought just
- 25:36Lisa Nichols: occurred to me, you know, you can inspire, you
- 25:40Lisa Nichols: can break.
- 25:41Lisa Nichols: Right?
- 25:42Lisa Nichols: And in both of those scenarios, there's a ripple effect
- 25:46Gary Baker: That's it.
- 25:47Lisa Nichols: To that.
- 25:48Lisa Nichols: There's a law of multiplicity that comes into play, and that can either
- 25:52Lisa Nichols: be for good or for bad.
- 25:56Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 25:56Gary Baker: Now now you're gonna make me tear up because you you at least of
- 25:59Gary Baker: all people on this earth, you get exactly what I'm talking about, and you
- 26:02Gary Baker: know the core of it because you lead that way, and you've seen both
- 26:05Gary Baker: sides.
- 26:06Gary Baker: Yes.
- 26:06Gary Baker: And and as a business owner and people, we have to make these decisions.
- 26:09Gary Baker: And and culture matters and people matter.
- 26:11Gary Baker: And this is why people trust you and follow you and all of those
- 26:14Gary Baker: things.
- 26:14Gary Baker: I hate to say it.
- 26:16Gary Baker: And I know how smart Greg is too.
- 26:17Gary Baker: So Greg is very smart.
- 26:18Gary Baker: So maybe he he's the brains, you know.
- 26:20Lisa Nichols: Smart yeah.
- 26:21Lisa Nichols: He's he's brain.
- 26:23Lisa Nichols: He's on another level.
- 26:24Gary Baker: He's on a whole another level.
- 26:25Gary Baker: But here's the thing.
- 26:27Gary Baker: They wouldn't follow you if it wasn't for your heart.
- 26:30Gary Baker: And that's where trust comes from because that's where empathy comes from.
- 26:32Gary Baker: That's where authenticity comes from.
- 26:35Gary Baker: They follow you, I follow you.
- 26:36Gary Baker: We've been friends for, you know, fifteen years now or whatever it's been because
- 26:40Gary Baker: of your heart.
- 26:42Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 26:43Lisa Nichols: Well, I appreciate that.
- 26:44Lisa Nichols: Well, I tell you what, I've got lots more questions for Gary, but we
- 26:47Lisa Nichols: need to take a quick break and we'll be right back with Gary Banker
- 26:51Lisa Nichols: on the Something Extra podcast.
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- 27:23Lisa Nichols: So welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with my
- 27:27Lisa Nichols: dear friend, Gary Baker.
- 27:29Lisa Nichols: We have been having so much fun.
- 27:30Lisa Nichols: It's just, been amazing, Gary, just to hear your wisdom,
- 27:35Lisa Nichols: and, we've been talking about a lot.
- 27:38Lisa Nichols: You know, your firm is really designed to help their your clients
- 27:43Lisa Nichols: live exceptional lives, and we've talked about fur, you know,
- 27:47Lisa Nichols: all of those, the intersection of all of those.
- 27:50Lisa Nichols: But let me talk to you a little bit about leadership in your team
- 27:54Lisa Nichols: because you do have an amazing team there, and you guys have received
- 27:58Lisa Nichols: lots of accolades, innovation firm of the year, humanitarian service
- 28:02Lisa Nichols: award, and I know that you were one hundred.
- 28:05Lisa Nichols: So congratulations on that.
- 28:07Lisa Nichols: But let me ask you, what is your philosophy when it comes to building
- 28:11Lisa Nichols: high performance teams, Gary?
- 28:14Lisa Nichols: How does it start?
- 28:16Gary Baker: Oh, wow.
- 28:17Gary Baker: So,
- 28:19Gary Baker: you're you're asking a great question at a very interesting
- 28:23Gary Baker: time in my life.
- 28:24Gary Baker: So, I'm gonna break down my life into kinda two components.
- 28:28Gary Baker: So the the first half of life, it was this kind of entrepreneurial person
- 28:32Gary Baker: that takes a different type of skill set.
- 28:35Gary Baker: A lot of those childhood skill sets that I needed, the, you know, resilience
- 28:39Gary Baker: and just focus and drive and ambition and all of those things, that's that's
- 28:43Gary Baker: what helps, I think, an entrepreneur, like, just get through all the stuff that
- 28:47Gary Baker: they need to get through to get to a point to where they feel
- 28:49Gary Baker: like they're a business owner.
- 28:51Gary Baker: And once you become a business owner, it changes the dynamic to where now,
- 28:55Gary Baker: to your point, which is dead on, it's not about you anymore.
- 28:59Gary Baker: It's about the team.
- 29:00Gary Baker: And it's about what the team can do.
- 29:04Gary Baker: Period.
- 29:05Gary Baker: And so to create a high performing team, and that that's what I love
- 29:08Gary Baker: about where we are now as an entity.
- 29:10Gary Baker: And so I may have shared this with you, but we recently launched our,
- 29:15Gary Baker: life leadership and business consulting firm called Evoliation
- 29:19Gary Baker: that is led by a gentleman named Paul Hott which has been a phenomenal
- 29:23Gary Baker: experience for me alone because he is actually the one that
- 29:27Gary Baker: is still training me on how to be a better leader, how to lead
- 29:30Gary Baker: a high performing team, but ultimately how to build, a better company.
- 29:35Gary Baker: And so it's great to have somebody that is right next door that is
- 29:38Gary Baker: taking all of my kind of life planning, relational planning, principles, etcetera, but turning
- 29:42Gary Baker: it into this overarching business model.
- 29:44Gary Baker: And so, to be brief, what I have learned in the last probably twelve
- 29:48Gary Baker: to eighteen months is that, first, you definitely have to have
- 29:52Gary Baker: a sense of purpose and drive so that people can rally around it.
- 29:57Gary Baker: The second part is once you have that in place, then the next part
- 30:01Gary Baker: is you have to the the team has to have a personal connection to
- 30:05Gary Baker: the purpose.
- 30:05Gary Baker: Meaning it can't just be the CEO's purpose or the entrepreneur's purpose it has
- 30:09Gary Baker: to be some way that you have to understand your team member's purpose and
- 30:13Gary Baker: how their purpose is found in the overarching purchase.
- 30:17Gary Baker: So there has to be like a center and then all circles around it
- 30:20Gary Baker: kind of have to overlap.
- 30:22Gary Baker: Mhmm.
- 30:22Gary Baker: Because that's what you want is consistent, that's where engagement comes from.
- 30:26Gary Baker: That's where passion, drive, all of those, you know, working later, working harder, etcetera,
- 30:29Gary Baker: because you all want the same thing.
- 30:32Gary Baker: So there's the next part.
- 30:33Gary Baker: Then you get into that, you know, the notion of psychological safety,
- 30:37Gary Baker: which means that it's a whole different environment than being an entrepreneur.
- 30:40Gary Baker: An entrepreneur is about going fast and making a lot of pivots.
- 30:44Gary Baker: A business owner is about going slow so you can go faster and
- 30:48Gary Baker: arguably bigger, which means you have to voice
- 30:52Gary Baker: concerns, questions, doubts, worries, all of those things.
- 30:56Gary Baker: And so I'll give you a perfect example.
- 30:57Gary Baker: We just had our strategy meeting two, three days ago and one of the
- 31:00Gary Baker: people on the team openly shared, this is what I'm fearful of, this is
- 31:04Gary Baker: what I'm concerned with, this is what's bothering me.
- 31:07Gary Baker: And I told her afterwards, I said, I am so grateful that you shared
- 31:10Gary Baker: all of those things because now I know what you're thinking on the inside
- 31:13Gary Baker: and now we have to figure out a way to alleviate those concerns.
- 31:17Gary Baker: So she was seen, she was heard, we got better from it.
- 31:21Gary Baker: But that's what you need to slow down to make sure like, it's like
- 31:24Gary Baker: you're building a foundation because you want the bricks and the mortar to stick.
- 31:28Gary Baker: And And in order for it to stick, then you have to create that
- 31:31Gary Baker: environment that you can make sure that you're properly setting the right brick at
- 31:35Gary Baker: the right time without any hesitancy because everybody's on board.
- 31:38Gary Baker: But you have to create the environment that allows that to happen.
- 31:41Gary Baker: And then last but not least, you gotta get into accountability and responsibility.
- 31:45Gary Baker: And accountability and responsibility is because we have a purpose, because
- 31:49Gary Baker: your purpose is embedded in this, and because we have this zone of psychological
- 31:54Gary Baker: safety to air out any of your concerns, any of your questions, any of
- 31:55Gary Baker: your doubts, well then we all have to go to work.
- 31:55Gary Baker: And you questions,
- 31:57Gary Baker: any of your doubts, well then we all have to go to work and
- 31:59Gary Baker: get our stuff done.
- 32:01Gary Baker: And that's where a level of accountability and responsibility takes hold.
- 32:04Gary Baker: But if you're feeling the sense of purpose, you feel like you're connected
- 32:08Gary Baker: to where the company is going and and have the same kind of vision,
- 32:11Gary Baker: etcetera, and you feel open that you can share your concerns,
- 32:15Gary Baker: accountability and responsibility should almost be easy.
- 32:18Gary Baker: Because the only reason you don't take accountability for something or responsibility is that
- 32:23Gary Baker: you didn't do something in the first three tiers.
- 32:26Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
- 32:27Lisa Nichols: That is so good, Gary.
- 32:29Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 32:29Gary Baker: I'm telling you, Paul's good.
- 32:31Gary Baker: Paul has treated you well.
- 32:34Lisa Nichols: That is that is really good.
- 32:36Lisa Nichols: I like that.
- 32:39Lisa Nichols: Well, can you can you tell me this?
- 32:42Lisa Nichols: I mean, you've learned, as have I, lots of leadership lessons.
- 32:46Lisa Nichols: But what is one lesson, maybe, Gary, that you learned the
- 32:50Lisa Nichols: hard way?
- 32:52Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 32:53Gary Baker: So, you know, you you only learn by reconciling the past
- 32:57Gary Baker: and and taking all of, you know, the hardships.
- 32:59Gary Baker: And so, again, as I mentioned before, back to my childhood, I'm fine with
- 33:03Gary Baker: the ups and downs.
- 33:05Gary Baker: I look at downs differently now.
- 33:07Gary Baker: I look at at downs as absolute learning environments because when you're going down,
- 33:11Gary Baker: you're only down for a reason.
- 33:13Gary Baker: It could be external, you know, the markets, the industry, you know, whatever it
- 33:16Gary Baker: may be, or it could be something going on internally, but that actually is
- 33:20Gary Baker: a healthy thing because that is where you're basically reviewing the foundation of what
- 33:24Gary Baker: your future growth is going to be built on.
- 33:26Gary Baker: So in a strange way, I avoided negative situations
- 33:30Gary Baker: or downturns because I thought it slowed down the process and when I was
- 33:34Gary Baker: an entrepreneur that's probably half true.
- 33:36Gary Baker: But now that we're more of a business owner kind of mindset, I am
- 33:40Gary Baker: constantly seeking those cracks in the foundation or what we're missing and how do
- 33:44Gary Baker: we need to speculate or whatever we mean to do, which means I have
- 33:47Gary Baker: to have more patience and grace and understanding and go slower.
- 33:52Gary Baker: And by doing that, I actually get to listen to people, hear their opinions,
- 33:56Gary Baker: hear their thoughts, which is it's it's exceptional to hear what other
- 34:00Gary Baker: people's ideas can do to fill those cracks.
- 34:02Gary Baker: So it's not even like here's a crack and now I have to go
- 34:05Gary Baker: fix it.
- 34:06Gary Baker: It's here's a crack, how do you want us to fix it?
- 34:09Gary Baker: And then they take ownership and responsibility in that.
- 34:11Gary Baker: And so what I've learned is when you go fast, in theory
- 34:16Gary Baker: you may get a little bit further, but you miss everything along the road.
- 34:20Gary Baker: It's like when you're driving eighty miles an hour down the road, you know,
- 34:23Gary Baker: everything's just whipping by you and you never get to see the sights or
- 34:27Gary Baker: have the conversations because you're just so focused on the destination.
- 34:31Gary Baker: And on the flip side, when you're going twenty, thirty, forty miles down the
- 34:34Gary Baker: road, you get to slow down.
- 34:35Gary Baker: And even if you get into the passenger seat or the back seat, you
- 34:38Gary Baker: get to see everything, you get to have the conversations, you get to learn
- 34:41Gary Baker: about people.
- 34:42Gary Baker: And so and and there's a a mix of this and it kind of
- 34:45Gary Baker: gets into something that, you know, we were talking about just on the break
- 34:48Gary Baker: of leading this exceptional life.
- 34:51Gary Baker: And and I'll just liken this to also leading an exceptional company.
- 34:55Gary Baker: That the best way to help live an exceptional life and build an exceptional
- 34:59Gary Baker: company, be an exceptional leader is the combination of success and fulfillment.
- 35:05Gary Baker: So self success is drive ambition, it's the accolades,
- 35:09Gary Baker: it's the awards, it's the monetary value, it's the results of
- 35:13Gary Baker: doing the activity, you know, success or failure.
- 35:16Gary Baker: Fulfillment is everything you get along the way.
- 35:19Gary Baker: It's everything that you even overcome along the way or experienced.
- 35:24Gary Baker: And one of our good friends, John O'Leary and I were talking about our
- 35:28Gary Baker: business, and I texted him about three years ago, and I and because we
- 35:31Gary Baker: joked that we're building the arch, like, he builds one side, I build another
- 35:35Gary Baker: side.
- 35:35Gary Baker: So for his side with his movies coming out is going a lot faster
- 35:38Gary Baker: than my side, so I gotta really pick it up.
- 35:40Gary Baker: But what I asked him was I said, you know over the last ten
- 35:43Gary Baker: years of us sharing all these war stories like did you enjoy it?
- 35:46Gary Baker: Did you have fun?
- 35:47Gary Baker: And he said, of course I did.
- 35:49Gary Baker: And at that moment like I really didn't and it was because I was
- 35:52Gary Baker: so focused on success I missed all the fulfillment.
- 35:56Gary Baker: And so this back half of life, I will absolutely trade success for
- 36:00Gary Baker: fulfillment because oftentimes I found myself successful
- 36:04Gary Baker: by myself.
- 36:05Gary Baker: I found my success, you know, without other people or just what
- 36:09Gary Baker: I wanted.
- 36:10Gary Baker: And I'm like, I'm not spending the next ten, fifteen years of my life
- 36:15Gary Baker: alone and just what I want.
- 36:16Gary Baker: And I'm frankly enjoying hearing from other people and learning from other people and
- 36:20Gary Baker: growing our team and watching what they can do.
- 36:22Gary Baker: And so that that exceptional part of the thing and, you know, even part
- 36:26Gary Baker: of your, you know, something extra, do not lose sight of the fact that
- 36:29Gary Baker: fulfillment should be equal to, if not even greater than success.
- 36:33Gary Baker: Otherwise, that success will not be worth it.
- 36:36Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 36:37Lisa Nichols: That is so rich, Gary.
- 36:40Lisa Nichols: I mean, because success without the fulfillment part is not
- 36:45Lisa Nichols: an exceptional life.
- 36:47Lisa Nichols: No.
- 36:47Lisa Nichols: I mean, how many people do we know that the success, they've got
- 36:51Lisa Nichols: all the accolades, they've they've got to the top, you know, to the summit,
- 36:55Lisa Nichols: if you will, financially, all of these things.
- 36:58Lisa Nichols: But if if you get there and to your
- 37:02Lisa Nichols: point, there's no one that you've brought along with you, I mean, that's
- 37:07Lisa Nichols: I it's not an exceptional life.
- 37:08Lisa Nichols: It's not a fulfilled.
- 37:10Lisa Nichols: So I love talking about not just the destination.
- 37:14Lisa Nichols: Right?
- 37:14Lisa Nichols: But it's enjoying the journey along the way, and I think that that's what
- 37:18Lisa Nichols: John was talking about.
- 37:19Lisa Nichols: So I I love love that and could not could not agree
- 37:23Lisa Nichols: with you more in that.
- 37:25Lisa Nichols: But, you know, sometimes it is a little bit of an oxymoron, though, don't
- 37:28Lisa Nichols: you think, Gary?
- 37:29Lisa Nichols: Because so many leaders, they wanna go fast.
- 37:32Lisa Nichols: It's like charge harder, charge harder, and they don't take time.
- 37:36Lisa Nichols: It could kind of, a little adage or a little
- 37:40Lisa Nichols: saying along the way, take time to smell the roses.
- 37:43Lisa Nichols: Take time to smell the roses along the way.
- 37:46Gary Baker: And see and this is where I don't know this for certain, but this
- 37:49Gary Baker: is absolutely what we're focused on, you know, with our companies, is if you
- 37:53Gary Baker: chase success with the hope that you get to fulfillment, which to your point
- 37:57Gary Baker: of smelling the roses is, they say take time, you know, like a marginal
- 38:01Gary Baker: amount of time to smell the roses, but then you miss the whole rose.
- 38:04Gary Baker: So my point is is if you change your mindset to say, I wanna
- 38:08Gary Baker: have success so I can be fulfilled, I don't know that that actually is
- 38:12Gary Baker: gonna happen.
- 38:13Gary Baker: However, if you can become successful at being fulfilled,
- 38:18Gary Baker: it is actually and I'm living it and seeing it in the last couple
- 38:21Gary Baker: of years, it's actually amazing to see how you actually get more success.
- 38:26Gary Baker: It's just different.
- 38:27Gary Baker: It's just different.
- 38:28Gary Baker: But it's so I I just I wanna be successful at being fulfilled.
- 38:34Lisa Nichols: I love that.
- 38:35Lisa Nichols: That's that's beautiful.
- 38:37Lisa Nichols: That's that's that's beautiful.
- 38:39Lisa Nichols: So let's say that again if we can.
- 38:42Lisa Nichols: So if you are hoping to be successful so you'll be
- 38:46Lisa Nichols: fulfilled,
- 38:47Lisa Nichols: It's really about being successful at being fulfilled.
- 38:51Gary Baker: That's it.
- 38:51Gary Baker: And then I'm gonna Is that
- 38:52Lisa Nichols: right?
- 38:52Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 38:52Gary Baker: And I'm gonna take it a step further.
- 38:54Gary Baker: So so think about it as a as an equation and kind of like
- 38:57Gary Baker: an infinity cycle to where you have success on one side and fulfillment on
- 39:00Gary Baker: the other and you want that infinity loop to just be going back and
- 39:03Gary Baker: forth and kind of feeding each other.
- 39:05Gary Baker: Mhmm.
- 39:06Gary Baker: Well, the cross line in the center is your purpose.
- 39:10Gary Baker: S o if you lose sight of your purpose, your fulfillment bucket starts
- 39:14Gary Baker: to get siphoned off, and that's what happens.
- 39:16Gary Baker: It starts to to get smaller and smaller because the purpose starts to become
- 39:20Gary Baker: monetary value, you know, something else, and any person that has a true purpose
- 39:25Gary Baker: of that that leads to fulfillment, this is the difference, because I can have
- 39:28Gary Baker: a purpose of making more money, well that's just more success, but if I
- 39:32Gary Baker: have a true purpose of becoming fulfilled, the only way you get
- 39:36Gary Baker: fulfillment is by serving and helping other people.
- 39:41Lisa Nichols: Amen.
- 39:42Lisa Nichols: That's a mic drop right there.
- 39:44Lisa Nichols: You know, Gary, that is a mic drop.
- 39:46Lisa Nichols: Because that for me, I'm like, it's really not at the end of the
- 39:50Lisa Nichols: day, it's about at the end of my life, it's gonna be,
- 39:54Lisa Nichols: like, how many people,
- 39:57Lisa Nichols: you know, did I make an impact on?
- 39:59Lisa Nichols: What's the difference that I made in people's lives really?
- 40:02Lisa Nichols: You know, it's gonna be the the currency, I think, you know, that we
- 40:06Lisa Nichols: need to be looking at at the end of our life.
- 40:09Gary Baker: I I appreciate that.
- 40:10Gary Baker: And I'm gonna take it two steps further just to to honor you because
- 40:13Gary Baker: I, you know, I want your listeners to know that, I think they know
- 40:15Gary Baker: that, I want you to know this that I mean Lisa in Saint Louis,
- 40:19Gary Baker: you're like, you're the example of that.
- 40:20Gary Baker: I mean, I know like your business goes through ups and downs, that's the
- 40:24Gary Baker: success measure.
- 40:25Gary Baker: But what you do for other leaders, and I see how much involvement you
- 40:29Gary Baker: have in different organizations, that's your fulfillment bucket.
- 40:33Gary Baker: What people admire you for isn't technology partner
- 40:37Gary Baker: success.
- 40:37Gary Baker: What What they admire you for is your focus on fulfillment, which,
- 40:42Gary Baker: of course, leads back to success.
- 40:44Gary Baker: You are running that infinity circle better than most people I've ever seen because
- 40:48Gary Baker: you stayed true to your purpose and your faith.
- 40:52Gary Baker: And so that's what people are attracted to.
- 40:54Gary Baker: It's like, how does she have success and fulfillment without actually saying
- 40:58Gary Baker: those words?
- 40:58Gary Baker: That's basically what they're saying.
- 41:01Gary Baker: And you get to live it every day.
- 41:03Gary Baker: And that's how most companies, I think, should be led.
- 41:06Gary Baker: That's the focus of, you know, evolution and what we believe in is is
- 41:09Gary Baker: be successful so that you can be fulfilled.
- 41:13Gary Baker: But the only way that you're going to do that is be successful at
- 41:16Gary Baker: serving and helping other people.
- 41:19Gary Baker: And that's the formula.
- 41:21Lisa Nichols: Well, thank you for that, Gary.
- 41:23Lisa Nichols: Thank you for that.
- 41:26Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 41:26Lisa Nichols: That was those were very kind words.
- 41:28Lisa Nichols: I appreciate it.
- 41:28Lisa Nichols: So you mentioned faith,
- 41:31Lisa Nichols: and that is one way that you and I a big way that we
- 41:34Lisa Nichols: have connected.
- 41:35Lisa Nichols: So let me just ask you this.
- 41:37Lisa Nichols: How has your faith guided you in both your business,
- 41:41Lisa Nichols: your leadership, and, you know, the legacy that you wanna leave in this
- 41:46Lisa Nichols: world?
- 41:49Gary Baker: Well, this just kinda hit me.
- 41:51Gary Baker: So, I'll tell three stories to kinda summarize my my life in, like, three
- 41:55Gary Baker: phases.
- 41:55Gary Baker: So when I was younger, I did not have faith in my life and
- 41:59Gary Baker: I just had to figure out life, but I found faith in other people
- 42:02Gary Baker: and I didn't realize like a lot of the people who took me under
- 42:05Gary Baker: their wings or allowed me to stay with them or, you know, was my
- 42:08Gary Baker: baseball coach or whatever it is that they did, I didn't realize that most
- 42:12Gary Baker: of those people were faith filled.
- 42:14Gary Baker: And that's why they were doing it because that's just what faith filled peoples
- 42:17Gary Baker: do.
- 42:17Gary Baker: So like those faithful people helped me grow into the person that I am
- 42:21Gary Baker: today.
- 42:22Gary Baker: Like every time I'd go to my grandparents house we'd also go to church,
- 42:25Gary Baker: you know, or they would talk about it in some way shape or form.
- 42:28Gary Baker: They weren't religious people at all, but it was a part of their routine.
- 42:31Gary Baker: And so, faith filled people help other people, like I just
- 42:35Gary Baker: said, it's it's the part of the process.
- 42:37Gary Baker: So, going to a bible story because I didn't have faith growing up, didn't
- 42:41Gary Baker: understand the bible, didn't know how to pray, didn't understand any of those things
- 42:43Gary Baker: so, when I really came to faith was the story of Lazarus where
- 42:48Gary Baker: you know it's Jesus' friend and when he found out that he had passed
- 42:52Gary Baker: he wept.
- 42:53Gary Baker: That's when I realized that when I was having my worst nights, you know,
- 42:57Gary Baker: as a a kid that I would say, you know, I wouldn't wish this
- 43:00Gary Baker: on their wish this on, you know, my worst night or my worst enemy.
- 43:04Gary Baker: Not that there were horrendous nights, like I said, I was always fine, which
- 43:07Gary Baker: is a blessing in some way.
- 43:08Gary Baker: It's just the environment was chaotic.
- 43:10Gary Baker: But I would say, you know, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy,
- 43:13Gary Baker: and I would think, why am I doing this by myself?
- 43:15Gary Baker: How am I by myself?
- 43:16Gary Baker: Well, it's just because I didn't have faith and I didn't know that Christ
- 43:19Gary Baker: is really sitting there right with me.
- 43:21Gary Baker: That he is equally weeping with me saying this isn't right, this
- 43:25Gary Baker: isn't who you are, this isn't what it's gonna be about.
- 43:28Gary Baker: But if you don't know him, you don't know that he's sitting right there
- 43:31Gary Baker: next to you.
- 43:32Gary Baker: Mhmm.
- 43:32Gary Baker: And by hearing that story and every time I hear the story of Lazarus
- 43:35Gary Baker: I realize he's weeping with us when we're going through those hard challenging times.
- 43:39Gary Baker: And so faith started to become a part of my life.
- 43:42Gary Baker: Then growing, you know, in the twenties and thirties and, you know, I started
- 43:46Gary Baker: to realize, okay, this business model and quote and when I put on my
- 43:50Gary Baker: entrepreneur hat could be successful.
- 43:53Gary Baker: And and every time that I lost my way, it's
- 43:57Gary Baker: when the dial of purpose left serving somebody else
- 44:01Gary Baker: and went to growing the business model or growing the the, you know,
- 44:05Gary Baker: the product or the model or the tool or the thing that I was
- 44:08Gary Baker: doing that didn't have to do with people.
- 44:11Gary Baker: Mhmm.
- 44:11Gary Baker: That's when I when I took the dial off of purpose, that's when I
- 44:14Gary Baker: would find myself alone.
- 44:16Gary Baker: Because it was about me and what I can create and what I could
- 44:19Gary Baker: do and my ego and all of those things and I realized, okay, I
- 44:23Gary Baker: didn't know what was happening.
- 44:24Gary Baker: Now looking back, I do.
- 44:25Gary Baker: And that's where by having that benchmark of faith in your life, that would
- 44:29Gary Baker: always bring me back to what this is about which is serving people.
- 44:33Gary Baker: And so now you get to this last stage or this next stage where
- 44:36Gary Baker: I am now of this success and fulfillment.
- 44:39Gary Baker: God gives us all, gifts, talents, all of these immeasurable, you know, things
- 44:43Gary Baker: that we can do.
- 44:45Gary Baker: He does not, I mean I can say this with the level of certainty
- 44:47Gary Baker: and anybody I think who has you know, in the sense of faith it
- 44:49Gary Baker: just doesn't make sense logically, he only gives you those tools so that you
- 44:53Gary Baker: can serve other people, so you can help his people.
- 44:57Lisa Nichols: Absolutely.
- 44:58Gary Baker: And therefore the more people you help, the more fulfillment you come from it,
- 45:02Gary Baker: the more tools and skill sets he gives you.
- 45:04Gary Baker: So so now in this next phase, I'm never gonna learn lose that
- 45:08Gary Baker: that dial of purpose of serving other people And I will always just
- 45:12Gary Baker: rest on my faith that when I'm going through downturns or dealing with frustrations
- 45:16Gary Baker: or, you know, just different situations I may go through, I know that I
- 45:19Gary Baker: have my faith right there next to me.
- 45:21Gary Baker: I know when I'm losing my compass is when I take my eye off
- 45:24Gary Baker: of serving other people.
- 45:26Gary Baker: And I know that the end goal of anything that we build
- 45:30Gary Baker: will be measured in how many people we've served not in the mandatory
- 45:35Gary Baker: value that we've created.
- 45:36Lisa Nichols: Yeah, that's so good Gary.
- 45:39Lisa Nichols: That is so good.
- 45:42Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 45:43Lisa Nichols: I always say my faith is what keeps me centered.
- 45:47Gary Baker: Yes.
- 45:48Lisa Nichols: That's what keeps me centered.
- 45:50Lisa Nichols: That's what keeps me grounded because my purpose is found
- 45:55Lisa Nichols: through my faith and and that is Jesus came to serve.
- 45:58Lisa Nichols: Right?
- 45:59Lisa Nichols: Not to be served.
- 46:00Lisa Nichols: He came to serve.
- 46:01Lisa Nichols: He was the greatest example of that.
- 46:03Lisa Nichols: And so I could not agree with you more when you when you lose
- 46:07Lisa Nichols: sight of that, then that is when, you know,
- 46:11Lisa Nichols: you get really off balance and yeah.
- 46:14Lisa Nichols: So my faith is what really keeps me grounded and centered.
- 46:18Gary Baker: Well, and this is where, like, I'll just share, like, our individual stories.
- 46:21Gary Baker: So you see, like, timing of faith and how it just shows up.
- 46:23Gary Baker: So I didn't have faith growing up, but I got I I received resilience
- 46:28Gary Baker: and all of these other kind of tools.
- 46:30Gary Baker: So now that I have faith, I can utilize all of that that kind
- 46:34Gary Baker: of, you know, tools to help other people, you know, navigate their their kind
- 46:38Gary Baker: of downturns in life and the things that they're going through to help them
- 46:41Gary Baker: kind of center to to find faith or to do whatever.
- 46:44Gary Baker: But the beauty is is I also receive my faith by watching
- 46:48Gary Baker: someone like you and, you know, and I do hope you really understand like
- 46:52Gary Baker: the the meaning you are to me and to probably all the people that
- 46:54Gary Baker: you've interviewed and you're around.
- 46:56Gary Baker: You were given a gift that your faith came to you early.
- 47:00Gary Baker: And you stuck with it though to live it.
- 47:03Gary Baker: That's what the courage is is you receive the gift early and then you
- 47:06Gary Baker: stuck with it so that someone like me could receive the gift of faith
- 47:10Gary Baker: later on in life, but then have a pathway to follow of what does
- 47:14Gary Baker: it look like to live.
- 47:16Gary Baker: And so that's how the world's supposed to work.
- 47:18Gary Baker: We learn from each other.
- 47:20Lisa Nichols: Amen to that.
- 47:21Lisa Nichols: No.
- 47:21Lisa Nichols: I always say we we were creative for community and we do.
- 47:25Lisa Nichols: We learn from each other.
- 47:25Lisa Nichols: That's why I love this podcast so much, Gary, because I get to have
- 47:29Lisa Nichols: amazing people like you on and then get to share you with everyone else,
- 47:34Lisa Nichols: and we learn from each other, no doubt.
- 47:36Lisa Nichols: Well, I've got just a couple more questions for you.
- 47:38Lisa Nichols: You're an adjunct professor now at WashU.
- 47:40Lisa Nichols: You earned your MBA.
- 47:42Lisa Nichols: How does it feel now to give back in that way to
- 47:46Lisa Nichols: your alma mater?
- 47:48Gary Baker: Yeah.
- 47:49Gary Baker: So I'll I'll tell you a funny story that when I went to get
- 47:52Gary Baker: my MBA there, again, I was on the success track, which
- 47:56Gary Baker: I wanted to get in there, get my MBA as fast as possible, and
- 47:59Gary Baker: then leave.
- 48:01Gary Baker: And my point is is I didn't walk around campus, I didn't get to
- 48:03Gary Baker: know a lot of people, I just wanted the degree so that I could
- 48:07Gary Baker: show, like, I have some level of intellect or I have some validation or
- 48:11Gary Baker: I have something or needed something to put on my wall.
- 48:13Gary Baker: And and I did want to learn, and I did learn a lot from
- 48:16Gary Baker: the school, but I didn't soak it all in.
- 48:19Gary Baker: And so now when I leave class, I end up talking to students
- 48:24Gary Baker: for an hour and a half, you know, sometimes after class, because I'm soaking
- 48:27Gary Baker: every minute of it in.
- 48:29Gary Baker: And when I walk around the campus, sometimes I'll just look up at the
- 48:33Gary Baker: buildings and the architecture and everything and go, I can't believe I get to
- 48:37Gary Baker: teach here.
- 48:37Gary Baker: It's it's amazing.
- 48:39Gary Baker: But I also just reflect on, I can't believe how much I missed when
- 48:43Gary Baker: I actually was here as a student.
- 48:44Gary Baker: And so back to that success and fulfillment, that's one thing I definitely remind
- 48:48Gary Baker: the students in our classes.
- 48:50Gary Baker: Don't miss every single thing that's around you in these moments
- 48:54Gary Baker: because you're never gonna get them back.
- 48:57Gary Baker: And so I'm just grateful that I have appreciation for the building and
- 49:01Gary Baker: the environment and, you know, and ultimately what I get to do now with
- 49:03Gary Baker: the students.
- 49:05Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
- 49:05Lisa Nichols: Well, I was gonna say, you know, what are you what are you teaching
- 49:08Lisa Nichols: the students?
- 49:09Lisa Nichols: And I bet that's what you're teaching them, Gary, is not to miss, you
- 49:13Lisa Nichols: know, to to slow down and just appreciate and enjoy the journey.
- 49:17Lisa Nichols: Right?
- 49:19Gary Baker: You nailed it.
- 49:19Gary Baker: And and so it's a leadership class and it's around, like, relational intelligence, but
- 49:23Gary Baker: this is how I kind of position it is is I really believe that
- 49:26Gary Baker: leadership is taught the wrong way in our society and this
- 49:30Gary Baker: is what I mean by that.
- 49:31Gary Baker: Is leadership is basically external which means you can go into
- 49:36Gary Baker: Barnes and Noble's or, you know, Amazon whatever and buy ten leadership books.
- 49:40Gary Baker: And those are ten people who are flat out googers on their respective topics
- 49:44Gary Baker: and content, etcetera.
- 49:45Gary Baker: But they're trying to get you to believe in their version of leadership or
- 49:49Gary Baker: for you to understand like how you can apply these different aspects, you know,
- 49:52Gary Baker: their their topics to you.
- 49:55Gary Baker: Well, if you don't know who you are, you don't even know what to
- 49:59Gary Baker: apply.
- 50:00Gary Baker: And so I teach leadership from the inside out.
- 50:03Gary Baker: Mhmm.
- 50:04Gary Baker: What I mean is is I will spend two thirds of the class helping
- 50:08Gary Baker: them understand every single thing that goes on inside
- 50:12Gary Baker: their history, their generational influences, their parental influence, the societal
- 50:17Gary Baker: influences, the forms of value that we're all chasing, their mindset.
- 50:22Gary Baker: I want them to understand that they need to understand who they are and
- 50:25Gary Baker: then they write this in a document, it's like their own constitution.
- 50:29Gary Baker: And if you think about this, there's been I think twenty seven amendments to
- 50:32Gary Baker: the constitution.
- 50:34Gary Baker: There's been eleven thousand proposed.
- 50:38Gary Baker: So if our country Wow.
- 50:39Gary Baker: If our country doesn't have a document, I'm not saying it's the best document,
- 50:42Gary Baker: it's a working document, it's, you know, continues to improve, but it's a pretty
- 50:45Gary Baker: sound document that if we have this document, eleven
- 50:50Gary Baker: thousand have to go through this document or this filter and it only produces
- 50:53Gary Baker: twenty seven changes in someone's life.
- 50:56Gary Baker: On the flip side, if they don't have that filter or that document for
- 50:59Gary Baker: themselves or our country, there's eleven thousand proposed changes
- 51:03Gary Baker: and life just becomes chaos.
- 51:05Gary Baker: And most people are living in chaos because they're getting
- 51:10Gary Baker: eleven thousand things of ways to live their life or eleven thousand leadership,
- 51:14Gary Baker: you know, tactics, techniques, or whatever it is to be a better leader.
- 51:17Gary Baker: And they don't know what to apply it to because they don't have their
- 51:21Gary Baker: constitution.
- 51:21Gary Baker: They don't have their leadership guide.
- 51:24Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 51:24Lisa Nichols: They don't know who they are.
- 51:26Lisa Nichols: That is an amazing metaphor.
- 51:29Lisa Nichols: That is an amazing I love that.
- 51:30Lisa Nichols: I won't forget that, Gary.
- 51:32Lisa Nichols: Well, let me ask you this.
- 51:33Lisa Nichols: This is called something extra.
- 51:37Lisa Nichols: What do you believe is the something extra that every leader needs?
- 51:42Gary Baker: That is the easiest question to answer on the face of the planet.
- 51:48Gary Baker: You just have to love people.
- 51:50Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
- 51:52Lisa Nichols: I
- 51:54Lisa Nichols: I I believe that.
- 51:57Lisa Nichols: You've got to genuinely love people.
- 52:01Gary Baker: That's all that matters.
- 52:02Gary Baker: That's all that will matter.
- 52:03Gary Baker: That's all that will be remembered.
- 52:06Gary Baker: It's it's the closest thing to Christ that we can get and live on
- 52:10Gary Baker: this earth, and it's the thing that matters the most to every other human
- 52:13Gary Baker: being on this earth.
- 52:15Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
- 52:16Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
- 52:16Lisa Nichols: He was the perfect model for that.
- 52:18Lisa Nichols: Right?
- 52:18Lisa Nichols: Gary too.
- 52:19Lisa Nichols: He gave everything.
- 52:21Gary Baker: No more leadership books.
- 52:22Gary Baker: Just read the Bible.
- 52:23Lisa Nichols: Just read the Bible.
- 52:24Lisa Nichols: He gave everything because of one thing, and that was
- 52:29Lisa Nichols: love, his love for us.
- 52:31Lisa Nichols: So, my friend, this has been so good.
- 52:34Lisa Nichols: I appreciate you so much, and we just we just need to spend more
- 52:38Lisa Nichols: and more and more time together.
- 52:39Lisa Nichols: That's what needs to happen.
- 52:42Gary Baker: Well, I you you need to stop doing so many things in the community
- 52:45Gary Baker: and slow down just so you can, like, be, you know, in one place
- 52:48Gary Baker: for more than thirty minutes.
- 52:49Gary Baker: So this is about the longest.
- 52:51Gary Baker: I've known you for fifteen years.
- 52:52Gary Baker: We talk all the time and it's, you know, five minutes, you know, five
- 52:55Gary Baker: second text or whatever.
- 52:56Lisa Nichols: Yes.
- 52:57Gary Baker: But I loved it.
- 52:57Gary Baker: I look forward to it.
- 52:58Gary Baker: Lisa, you are a fine human being and I'm just grateful to have you,
- 53:02Gary Baker: in my world, so thank you for being you.
- 53:04Lisa Nichols: Absolutely.
- 53:06Lisa Nichols: Thank you, Gary.
- 53:08Announcer: Thank you for listening to today's show.
- 53:10Announcer: Something Extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production.
- 53:14Announcer: Copyright Technology Partners Inc two thousand and nineteen.
- 53:17Announcer: For show notes or to reach Lisa, visit tpi dot co
- 53:21Announcer: slash podcast.
- 53:23Announcer: Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever
- 53:27Announcer: you listen.