Latest / The Person behind the Position / The Three Things Everyone Needs

Transcript

The Three Things Everyone Needs · The Person behind the Position

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the person behind the podcast.
0:07
Speaker 2: Podcast that looks beyond what people do to discover who
0:11
Speaker 2: they are.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Michael Chisholm.
0:41
Speaker 2: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Person Behind the
0:48
Speaker 2: Position podcast. Of course, you know my name is Michael Chisholm,
0:52
Speaker 2: and today I have a guest who has spent more
0:56
Speaker 2: than 40 years working on leadership teams around the world.
1:01
Speaker 2: But David is also a world-class mountaineer whose life has
1:06
Speaker 2: taken him far beyond the boardroom. So I want to
1:12
Speaker 2: introduce to some and present to others, David, my guest,
1:18
Speaker 2: who we will learn today, who is the person behind
1:21
Speaker 2: the position.
1:22
Speaker 1: Welcome, David. Michael, how are you doing? Good to be here.
1:27
Speaker 1: Glad you're here.
1:27
Speaker 2: Glad you're here. So before we get into the meat
1:34
Speaker 2: into who David is, before the consulting, before the mountaineering
1:43
Speaker 2: for a venture up.
1:46
Speaker 1: Who was David? Well, it's pretty much like any other
1:50
Speaker 1: kid growing up. You know, I actually worked in a laboratory.
1:53
Speaker 1: I was, uh, uh, my father was a chemist. I
1:56
Speaker 1: kind of became a chemist later and, um, just did
2:00
Speaker 1: your regular high school sports and then got involved in
2:05
Speaker 1: climbing and that led into ice climbing. Then, obviously, the
2:10
Speaker 1: opportunity to climb all over the world and do a
2:12
Speaker 1: lot of other crazy things. And then, of course, things
2:15
Speaker 1: evolved into more of a business. Okay, okay.
2:21
Speaker 2: So, was there anything about younger David that you still
2:27
Speaker 2: recognize in yourself today?
2:31
Speaker 1: You know, I think the biggest thing was I was
2:33
Speaker 1: always a little bit introverted and a little bit shy.
2:39
Speaker 1: And I think that's what kind of drew me into
2:43
Speaker 1: this kind of counterculture type sport when I was younger.
2:47
Speaker 1: But I was definitely interested in taking some, maybe some
2:52
Speaker 1: risk in terms of things that people didn't normally do.
2:56
Speaker 1: And it was an interesting time because now retrospectively looking
2:59
Speaker 1: back at it, you know, back in the 70s and
3:03
Speaker 1: 80s when we were, or 70s when we were teenagers
3:06
Speaker 1: getting involved, it was kind of a, counterculture mentality and
3:11
Speaker 1: group of people. And people kind of looked at those
3:14
Speaker 1: kids and thought, well, they're really not going to do much.
3:16
Speaker 1: But the reality is that they were involved in sports
3:19
Speaker 1: and activities that, you know, had huge amounts of risk
3:23
Speaker 1: and took lots of communication skills and lots of commitment
3:27
Speaker 1: and accountability. And kind of on the surface, it kind
3:30
Speaker 1: of looked like they were maybe on the fringe of
3:33
Speaker 1: what was normally accepted, if that makes sense. Okay, it does.
3:38
Speaker 2: Something that you said that you were introverted and shy.
3:43
Speaker 2: Do you find yourself still in those spaces today?
3:51
Speaker 1: Well, but I mean, obviously, you know, I've been in
3:54
Speaker 1: the business for training and development for a very long time.
3:57
Speaker 1: We talked to a lot of people, a lot of
3:58
Speaker 1: groups and so forth. I've had to get past that.
4:02
Speaker 1: But is there still, am I still like the most
4:05
Speaker 1: gregarious person if I walked into a group of strangers? No.
4:08
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not that type A type of personality.
4:11
Speaker 1: But I've learned to, you know, find the confidence in
4:17
Speaker 1: what I do and then really believe in it. That's anything.
4:21
Speaker 1: You know, you take any shy person, I don't care
4:25
Speaker 1: what their age is. And if you ask them to
4:27
Speaker 1: talk about something they're familiar with, they're probably pretty good
4:30
Speaker 1: about it. It's just other things they're not comfortable with,
4:33
Speaker 1: a lot of times they're going to kind of come
4:36
Speaker 1: up and maybe be a little bit more reserved on. Okay. Okay.
4:45
Speaker 2: So I know that your degrees that you hold are
4:50
Speaker 2: in plant physiology and soils chemistry, yet your life kind
4:55
Speaker 2: of took a turn into consulting and leadership development.
4:59
Speaker 1: How did you get from there? to hear. Yeah, so
5:03
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, I grew up in a laboratory and
5:06
Speaker 1: so I had an inclination to that type of thing.
5:08
Speaker 1: Studied it in school, high school, went into college, of course.
5:13
Speaker 1: The idea was to get into that type of a
5:15
Speaker 1: business and I worked professionally in the field for a while.
5:18
Speaker 1: At the same time, I started this whole mountaineering idea
5:24
Speaker 1: around a hobby that I was definitely involved in, you know,
5:28
Speaker 1: totally committed to. And, um, And as that kind of
5:34
Speaker 1: fledgling business started taking off, I realized that that was
5:38
Speaker 1: really where my passion was. And so with time, we
5:44
Speaker 1: punted and adjusted. You know, originally we were taking a
5:49
Speaker 1: lot of CEOs, CFOs on big, extravagant, long trips to
5:53
Speaker 1: climb big icy mountains, drop big caves and so forth.
5:57
Speaker 1: Kind of adventure travel stuff, but a little bit more extreme.
6:00
Speaker 1: And they would ask us some time, and we got
6:03
Speaker 1: to know them well. And we put together some team
6:07
Speaker 1: activities for their staff, but they didn't have, you know, three,
6:11
Speaker 1: four weeks, and they didn't have, you know, five or
6:14
Speaker 1: six people. They had a couple hundred people, and they
6:15
Speaker 1: had a few hours. So we didn't have any idea
6:18
Speaker 1: what it was, but we looked into it, and we
6:20
Speaker 1: realized that since we were teenagers, being involved in this
6:26
Speaker 1: type of an extreme sport, you know, we were already
6:30
Speaker 1: in that whole world of being accountable and communication skills
6:34
Speaker 1: and being clear. And it was a fairly easy transition
6:38
Speaker 1: for us to apply it on a professional level once
6:41
Speaker 1: we started looking deeper into it. Then that's how we
6:45
Speaker 1: moved into that realm. It went from there. Okay.
6:49
Speaker 2: So at what point did you realize that the life
6:53
Speaker 2: you were building wasn't necessarily the life you originally planned?
7:03
Speaker 1: Well, good question. Because we didn't really, you know, now
7:10
Speaker 1: looking back, if I had, well, if I was advising
7:14
Speaker 1: somebody to start a business and I'm a huge proponent
7:17
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurship, I would say, hey, take a look at
7:21
Speaker 1: what you're interested in, what you can be good at,
7:23
Speaker 1: what your passion is, but also look at the market
7:26
Speaker 1: because that's a huge thing. um, important part of it.
7:30
Speaker 1: You know, you can, you can love doing something as
7:32
Speaker 1: much as you want, but unless somebody is going to
7:35
Speaker 1: pay for it and buy it, and you're going to
7:37
Speaker 1: struggle a lot with it. And we didn't start the
7:41
Speaker 1: business with the idea of making a lot of money.
7:44
Speaker 1: In fact, that was very, that wasn't part of it
7:46
Speaker 1: at all. It was just something to help support our
7:49
Speaker 1: interest in those types of activities and kind of build
7:53
Speaker 1: on that passion. Um, And it wasn't until the mid-80s
8:00
Speaker 1: that we got introduced more into this whole concept of
8:04
Speaker 1: team development, personal development, that we realized that, wow, this
8:09
Speaker 1: is something we can do. It could help support us
8:14
Speaker 1: then because when you're young, you really don't have a
8:16
Speaker 1: whole lot of needs, right? You don't have a lot
8:20
Speaker 1: of expenses. You don't have a mortgage or anything like that.
8:22
Speaker 1: But then as you get a little older, of course,
8:25
Speaker 1: things start piling up and you start realizing that, gosh,
8:28
Speaker 1: I still got to pay rent. I got to pay
8:30
Speaker 1: for gas and insurance. Right. And it started becoming a challenge.
8:34
Speaker 1: And so, um, we realized that there were more people
8:38
Speaker 1: at a bigger market for that field. And so we
8:42
Speaker 1: kind of adjusted, but it was a learning curve because
8:44
Speaker 1: it didn't exist when we started. You know, when we
8:48
Speaker 1: first started and we started doing team building for corporations,
8:52
Speaker 1: we had to call AT & T the Yellow Pages
8:55
Speaker 1: and get them to put the topic in the phone
8:58
Speaker 1: book because it didn't exist. And, of course, that was
9:00
Speaker 1: more the web. And so we kind of pioneered this
9:04
Speaker 1: industry around a– particular need, we weren't copying anybody, which
9:10
Speaker 1: is a lot different. I mean, if you're starting a
9:11
Speaker 1: business on anything, I want to, I want to sell
9:14
Speaker 1: hot dogs or you can see who else is selling
9:16
Speaker 1: hot dogs. Right. But we didn't have that luxury. And
9:19
Speaker 1: so we had to define it. And then we had
9:21
Speaker 1: to figure out what we could do, then how we
9:25
Speaker 1: could sell it, market it, find clients and all that
9:28
Speaker 1: type of stuff. So we definitely kind of learned from
9:30
Speaker 1: the bottom up. Okay. Okay.
9:34
Speaker 2: So you spent your professional life helping people discover things
9:38
Speaker 2: about themselves. When it comes to like mountaineering, because you
9:42
Speaker 2: are the first mountaineer I've ever met. So what has
9:46
Speaker 2: mountaineering forced you to discover about David?
9:50
Speaker 1: Well, I think anybody who's involved in any kind of
9:56
Speaker 1: a sport where it's their total passion or commitment, it
10:00
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's surfing, mountaineering, skiing, caving, playing ice hockey,
10:07
Speaker 1: it just takes a certain amount of drive. And so,
10:10
Speaker 1: you know, we're all, I think, given some kind of opportunity,
10:14
Speaker 1: I guess a gift for no other word. And if
10:17
Speaker 1: you're lucky enough to be able to find that, where
10:22
Speaker 1: your passion is, then working at it is just a
10:27
Speaker 1: total joy. I mean, you can feel it inside. It's
10:32
Speaker 1: hard to describe, but people will relate to it who
10:35
Speaker 1: have discovered it. You know, and obviously I'm a lot
10:38
Speaker 1: older now and we've had the business for a long
10:41
Speaker 1: time and worked with a lot of people. But I
10:43
Speaker 1: can certainly tell you that when you work with groups
10:47
Speaker 1: and organizations and companies and so forth, obviously 60% of
10:51
Speaker 1: the people sit there and are older and think about
10:54
Speaker 1: in terms of, God, I wish I had done something different. So,
10:58
Speaker 1: and that, and that's, that's a big number, you know,
11:01
Speaker 1: and they stay in the job because of course, uh,
11:05
Speaker 1: The consequences of not having it, the security and the
11:07
Speaker 1: safety of having it. And that's great. That's fine. But
11:10
Speaker 1: then find your passion within your job as opposed to
11:14
Speaker 1: wishing you weren't there. So, I mean, you get one
11:17
Speaker 1: chance on the journey. That doesn't mean you can't change it.
11:20
Speaker 1: But people need to at least think to themselves years
11:24
Speaker 1: in advance, if I'm still in this position, what decisions
11:28
Speaker 1: do I wish I had made? You know, there's kind
11:30
Speaker 1: of a game you can play where you close your
11:33
Speaker 1: eyes and you think to yourself 10 years down the road,
11:36
Speaker 1: but you're not real happy. Maybe things are tough. And
11:39
Speaker 1: you think to yourself, I don't like where I'm at.
11:42
Speaker 1: Maybe it's financially, maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's a
11:45
Speaker 1: professional job, whatever it is. Maybe it's where you live, whatever.
11:49
Speaker 1: But then you think to yourself, God, if I'd only
11:52
Speaker 1: made a certain decision 10 years earlier, what would that
11:54
Speaker 1: have been? That would affect my life today. And so...
12:00
Speaker 1: Now open your eyes because the reality is it's today, right?
12:03
Speaker 1: It's not 10 years in the future. So make those decisions.
12:06
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean it has to be all or nothing.
12:09
Speaker 1: You want to start a business? That doesn't mean it's
12:11
Speaker 1: sink or swim. That means just start slowly. You want
12:13
Speaker 1: to start a new profession, look for a new position,
12:16
Speaker 1: get a new skill? Take it slowly, but do something.
12:20
Speaker 1: Go back to the whole mountaineering metaphor, in all honesty,
12:23
Speaker 1: there's an old saying that says go up or go down,
12:25
Speaker 1: but don't sit down. Just sit down and it'll kill you.
12:29
Speaker 1: And so this is the same thing in personal and
12:31
Speaker 1: professional development. Do something. Take a step somewhere. And you
12:37
Speaker 1: can always adjust it if it's the wrong step, if
12:40
Speaker 1: it's the wrong direction. But you've got to move in
12:43
Speaker 1: some direction as opposed to just think, oh, I could
12:47
Speaker 1: do that. I should do this. So, it's everything. Okay.
12:55
Speaker 2: So do you say that or do you feel like
12:59
Speaker 2: mountaineering has helped you in your professional life?
13:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah. I think as a young kid, without even
13:08
Speaker 1: thinking about it, you learn to take risks and mitigate challenges.
13:13
Speaker 1: You can never take the risk out of any kind
13:15
Speaker 1: of activity, right? easy or mundane or difficult it may be.
13:21
Speaker 1: But if you have the right interest and information, then
13:28
Speaker 1: you can make the decisions around those risks. And it's
13:31
Speaker 1: the same thing with business or with climbing. You know,
13:34
Speaker 1: you talk to most people who are ever heavily into
13:37
Speaker 1: any kind of a high-risk sport, it's not 1,000%, it's
13:41
Speaker 1: not 100% success all the time, right? You're going up.
13:44
Speaker 1: On climbing, you certainly back off enough. Sometimes you get
13:49
Speaker 1: the summit, sometimes you don't. It's the same thing. If
13:51
Speaker 1: you're not willing to fail, you're not going to take
13:54
Speaker 1: any type of growth out of it. But you've just
13:57
Speaker 1: got to make sure that that failure, obviously in business,
14:02
Speaker 1: maybe it has a consequence that doesn't bankrupt you or
14:06
Speaker 1: put you under, right? And in mountaineering, it doesn't have
14:10
Speaker 1: a consequence that can be a lot worse. Okay.
14:16
Speaker 2: So what does David today understand about himself that David
14:25
Speaker 2: in the 1980s didn't know?
14:31
Speaker 1: Well, how long do we have? I mean, obviously there's
14:37
Speaker 1: a lot there. You know, with any age you mature, right?
14:42
Speaker 1: You kind of get synergy. You kind of go through
14:45
Speaker 1: that whole growth phase of just trying to be everything,
14:49
Speaker 1: do everything, be as successful as possible, make as much
14:53
Speaker 1: money as you can, right? Build a business, raise within
14:58
Speaker 1: your profession. But as you get older, you start realizing
15:02
Speaker 1: that success and security is important, but their relationships that
15:11
Speaker 1: you build along the way are equally or more important.
15:17
Speaker 1: And I say that you hear that type of thing
15:22
Speaker 1: all the time, but you also need to make sure
15:27
Speaker 1: that you're comfortable enough to be able to concentrate on
15:30
Speaker 1: those relationships. You know, So you've got to make a
15:35
Speaker 1: living first, whatever it is. You've got to be able
15:37
Speaker 1: to craft that out there. You've got to find that
15:42
Speaker 1: security or find your means and then concentrate on the
15:46
Speaker 1: people that helped you get there. Because whether it's a
15:51
Speaker 1: business or an individual, you're not doing it alone. And
15:53
Speaker 1: if you are, it's pretty tough. It's pretty difficult. You know,
15:57
Speaker 1: the worst team to work on, I don't care if
15:59
Speaker 1: you're climbing mountains or building a business, The worst, the
16:02
Speaker 1: easiest team is the one, right? But you're making all
16:05
Speaker 1: the decisions. Nobody argued with you, but you got to
16:08
Speaker 1: do all the work. It gets a little bit more
16:11
Speaker 1: complicated with two people. It gets more complicated with 50
16:13
Speaker 1: people or 200 people or whatever it may be. When
16:16
Speaker 1: a family, obviously, it's a little bit more complicated because
16:19
Speaker 1: you have all these different people involved. But the reality
16:23
Speaker 1: is you also have that incredible support. So you've got
16:26
Speaker 1: to have that give and take. It's the same thing
16:28
Speaker 1: in business. You can't do it alone. I don't care
16:30
Speaker 1: what your business is. If you are doing it alone,
16:33
Speaker 1: then you're going to be pretty limited. But if you
16:35
Speaker 1: have more people, more employees, customers, and all that kind
16:38
Speaker 1: of stuff, you're going to have to learn how to
16:40
Speaker 1: deal with them and work with them so they support
16:44
Speaker 1: whatever it is you're doing. It's the same thing in
16:46
Speaker 1: a family. Okay.
16:50
Speaker 2: So I've read about the clients, the countries, mountains, accomplishments, degrees,
16:56
Speaker 2: and experiences. but what's something important about you that I
17:01
Speaker 2: would have never learned from reading your resume?
17:11
Speaker 1: Something important. I don't, I don't know, Michael. I don't
17:19
Speaker 1: know if there's really all that much important about anybody
17:23
Speaker 1: except that, you know, they kind of have an internal look.
17:27
Speaker 1: Did they, Everybody is a little bit deeper than what's
17:31
Speaker 1: on the surface. You know, everybody, they have a need,
17:35
Speaker 1: and that need will be for some connection to some people.
17:42
Speaker 1: You know, I guess this is the best way to
17:45
Speaker 1: look at it. I've come to the realization that everybody
17:48
Speaker 1: needs three things out there. They need something to work on.
17:53
Speaker 1: You need something to believe in. And you need something
17:58
Speaker 1: to look forward to. If you don't have those three things,
18:02
Speaker 1: then you're just kind of drifting. You're looking for them
18:06
Speaker 1: some way. I don't care if you're a kid or
18:09
Speaker 1: I don't care if you're an adult or an elderly person.
18:13
Speaker 1: You need, again, something to work on, something to believe in,
18:17
Speaker 1: and something to look forward to. And you're going to
18:21
Speaker 1: find those things either with a combination of work or
18:25
Speaker 1: personal relationships. It's not a matter of how much money
18:32
Speaker 1: you can make. It's a matter of if you can
18:34
Speaker 1: fulfill those different requirements. Okay.
18:44
Speaker 2: So why are those three things important to you? With
18:50
Speaker 2: the moving forward? the three things that you named, why
19:01
Speaker 2: are those things important to you with everything that you do?
19:05
Speaker 1: Why those three things? I've just kind of come to
19:09
Speaker 1: a realization that leadership, personal, professional development, there's all kinds
19:13
Speaker 1: of books written on it. The point is that those
19:16
Speaker 1: books normally are written either by Somebody who has done
19:20
Speaker 1: something amazing, built an incredible company. Maybe they're a Navy SEAL,
19:25
Speaker 1: they're a celebrity, something. Something that, you know, you can
19:28
Speaker 1: kind of put on a pedestal and is somewhat motivational,
19:32
Speaker 1: but nobody can really relate to it. Or books are
19:36
Speaker 1: written by people who maybe are on the academic side,
19:39
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of stories and statistics and definitions.
19:44
Speaker 1: And it kind of goes in one ear and out
19:45
Speaker 1: the other. You can kind of define things. But the
19:48
Speaker 1: reality is that professional personal development is really simple. You know,
19:54
Speaker 1: it boils down to those three things that I just mentioned.
19:59
Speaker 1: People want something to work on, something to believe in,
20:03
Speaker 1: and something to look forward to. And so you can
20:05
Speaker 1: define those three needs however you want to. And so
20:10
Speaker 1: I think the whole point is that trying to look
20:13
Speaker 1: at people more of a simple way. I mean, here's
20:16
Speaker 1: a great example. You know, communications. We talk about communications
20:19
Speaker 1: all the time. It's so important for family interactions, for
20:23
Speaker 1: personal development, professional development. But the reality is we all
20:27
Speaker 1: think we're really good at communications. But the point is
20:30
Speaker 1: that we all really need to work at it simply
20:33
Speaker 1: because we take it for granted. Right. And the more
20:36
Speaker 1: we have familiarity with a subject, I don't care if
20:38
Speaker 1: it's playing football, I don't care if it's working on
20:41
Speaker 1: a piece of machinery, if we're in sales, it doesn't
20:45
Speaker 1: matter what it is. If we just get older and
20:47
Speaker 1: we get what we call more life experiences, the more
20:51
Speaker 1: experience we have with anything, we have a tendency to
20:55
Speaker 1: minimize the communications around it to people that we're talking to.
21:00
Speaker 1: Because we expect them to understand it just like we do, right?
21:02
Speaker 1: Or we don't really think about the whole impact of it.
21:07
Speaker 1: But the point is that communications aren't just to get
21:10
Speaker 1: people to do things. Communications is to get people to
21:14
Speaker 1: take a risk. Everything has a risk behind it. And
21:19
Speaker 1: so if you think about that, well, communications are not
21:21
Speaker 1: to drive actions to drive risk. Well, what are the risks?
21:25
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the risks is that I'm just
21:26
Speaker 1: going to do it wrong. Or the risk is that
21:30
Speaker 1: I'm going to upset somebody or I'm going to make
21:33
Speaker 1: somebody mad or I'm going to lose a bunch of
21:35
Speaker 1: money or I'm going to physically get hurt. And so
21:38
Speaker 1: communications isn't just to drive action. It's getting people to
21:42
Speaker 1: take action, but actions are risky. I don't care if
21:45
Speaker 1: you're talking to your 10-year-old or you're speaking with your
21:48
Speaker 1: wife or you're talking to a boss or people that
21:51
Speaker 1: you manage. And so if we start thinking about communications
21:54
Speaker 1: that way, then maybe we'll start Stop minimizing it because
21:59
Speaker 1: we're familiar with it or we want you to read
22:02
Speaker 1: our mind. Hey, you know what I mean? Just, you know,
22:03
Speaker 1: do it like we normally do. No, they have other
22:06
Speaker 1: things going on too. And so then if we look
22:09
Speaker 1: at communications that way, then maybe we'll take the time
22:12
Speaker 1: to be even more clear. And here's the other whole
22:15
Speaker 1: fast point is that we all talk about good communication
22:18
Speaker 1: and clarity, check for understanding, all those types of things.
22:21
Speaker 1: We've all heard it. But the point is that nobody
22:24
Speaker 1: has to be taught to communicate well. We all know
22:28
Speaker 1: how to do it naturally. Because the minute, I don't
22:31
Speaker 1: care again, the minute you have a lot on the line,
22:34
Speaker 1: like you're going to do the wrong assignment, or you're
22:38
Speaker 1: going to lose a bunch of money, or you're going
22:39
Speaker 1: to lose your job, or you're going to physically get hurt,
22:42
Speaker 1: everybody gets really good at communicating, clarifying, making sure they
22:47
Speaker 1: understand what it is, because nobody wants to really get hurt.
22:52
Speaker 1: And that's a key point. And that's why in our world,
22:56
Speaker 1: we've kind of boiled it down in terms of leadership
23:00
Speaker 1: and development as it's a fairly simple process. It's easy
23:04
Speaker 1: to say, but it's hard to do. But if it's
23:07
Speaker 1: easy to say, then we can define it in terms
23:10
Speaker 1: of what we need to do, and then we can act.
23:13
Speaker 1: We're very big believers in that. I don't care what
23:16
Speaker 1: it is you're trying to change or look at. whether, again,
23:22
Speaker 1: it's personal, professional, if you can't identify it, if you
23:26
Speaker 1: can't specifically name it or define it, then you can't
23:33
Speaker 1: act on it. And it's as simple as, okay, let's
23:37
Speaker 1: just say as a business, I need to find some
23:40
Speaker 1: more business. That means nothing. It would be more like, okay,
23:45
Speaker 1: I have to answer the phone. That's the simple transition.
23:50
Speaker 1: Redefine it, right? So it's just a matter of you
23:55
Speaker 1: can't define what it is you need to do well
23:58
Speaker 1: or change to make a change, then you're not going
24:01
Speaker 1: to make the change at all because you're just going
24:04
Speaker 1: to kind of drift along. Okay.
24:09
Speaker 2: So if all of these positions, the consultant, the entrepreneur,
24:14
Speaker 2: the mountaineer, the expert, the advisor, and none of these
24:18
Speaker 2: accomplishments came with you, Who is David.
24:23
Speaker 1: Behind the position? Well, today I'm just a dad and
24:30
Speaker 1: a father and just trying to push the company into
24:34
Speaker 1: a new generation. You know, I'm really fortunate to have, well,
24:40
Speaker 1: they're not kids anymore, but to have my kids have
24:44
Speaker 1: grown and matured in the company. They went off on
24:47
Speaker 1: their own, got their own I'm experienced in backgrounds, but
24:51
Speaker 1: now they're taking things over. And so I have the
24:54
Speaker 1: opportunity to help guide that transition over and kind of
25:00
Speaker 1: stay more in a coaching role. They carry things on.
25:03
Speaker 1: So that's, I guess, who I am today. That's the
25:11
Speaker 1: best way I can answer it. Okay. Okay.
25:13
Speaker 2: So where can our listeners follow you or get more
25:19
Speaker 2: information about you and your company?
25:22
Speaker 1: Sure, you bet. So, you know, we are VentureUp and
25:27
Speaker 1: we have spent, oh gosh, 40 years doing training and
25:30
Speaker 1: development with experiential training. We work with small and large groups.
25:35
Speaker 1: Then you can find us on the web at VentureUp.com.
25:37
Speaker 1: We're also on LinkedIn, obviously. But the main thing is
25:41
Speaker 1: that we run programs across the country and internationally. We
25:45
Speaker 1: open it up in Tokyo here in a couple of months,
25:48
Speaker 1: and we work with small teams and big teams. And again,
25:51
Speaker 1: our approach to professional development is really starting with the individual.
25:57
Speaker 1: Most managers, most senior executives, They've got to look in
26:02
Speaker 1: the mirror, learn to manage themselves first. There's a lot
26:06
Speaker 1: to that part of it. Then, of course, they can
26:09
Speaker 1: start working with the people that they're responsible for. Okay.
26:15
Speaker 2: So, David, thank you for allowing us to meet the
26:18
Speaker 2: person behind the position. And to everyone listening, maybe the
26:23
Speaker 2: question isn't simply what you've accomplished, what position you hold,
26:27
Speaker 2: or even what mountains you've climbed. Maybe there's another question
26:32
Speaker 2: worth asking. Who are you behind the position? I'm Michael Chisholm,
26:38
Speaker 2: and this is the person behind the position.
26:43
Speaker 1: Good luck, Michael. Thank you. Thank you. if you've enjoyed
27:07
Speaker 1: this episode share it with your friends