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Wine, Wisdom, and Winning: Steve Doyle's Secrets to Success · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Unstoppable Success Podcast, where we spotlight visionary leaders who have mastered the art of growth, purpose, and powerful connections.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Jacqueline Stollminger, connector, high performance coach, and creator of the Leap to Your Success Framework in Two Steps TS.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Each week we dive into bold insights, real conversations, and powerful strategies to fuel your growth, deepen your relationships, and ignite transformational momentum.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And why?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because you were meant to be unstoppable.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's leap into the podcast.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hello everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger, and you know, on this podcast, we hear from amazing humans who have done great things in the world, who not only have had success themselves, but have also done things that we know you want to hear about because their life has been an unstoppable success.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so today I get to bring to you Steve Doyle.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you a little bit about Steve.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: He is another remarkable human.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Steve is a seasoned senior executive with over three decades of leadership in the wine and spirits industry.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: He has been recognized for driving transformational growth, building powerhouse brands, and leading high-performance sales and marketing teams across global markets, creating a world-class culture.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: His expertise has led to an involvement in several mergers and acquisitions, including the successful sale of Vinmotion Wine Company.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: He is also incredibly proud of his mentorship, his coaching and fellowship, which has developed over 400 people moving into leadership roles, many of whom he continues to mentor still today.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much I could tell you a lot about Steve.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's had a great career and he's also had challenges.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, I want to introduce you to Steve.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So Steve, welcome to Unstoppable Success.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Jacqueline, thank you so much for that intro.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: That was fantastic.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I uh I'm I'm blushing actually.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I appreciate that.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: But uh it has been an amazing career for me.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: I've been very, very fortunate and very lucky.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and I think again, to your point, uh you mentioned I'm most proud of my fellowship and the and the teams that continue to still call me today.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: And we have wonderful conversations.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I tell you, a lot, a lot of times I learn more from them than I think they actually learn from me.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: But uh it's been it's been really terrific.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: And how could it not be good in the wine and spirits industry?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say, well, first of all, you're starting off in an industry that is absolutely fantastic with wine and spirits.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: But something you just said, Steve, I have to point out you just said something that, again, listeners, it is so quintessential to being unstoppable and having unstoppable success.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that is you you learn from those you lead.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, totally.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: I, you know, I think a lot of times, uh Jacqueline, and I read an article, uh, it was uh a gentleman wrote it about the Celtic uh folks coming from Ireland uh into this country in the 20s and 30s, and this article was really interesting.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: It was based on how did these people from essentially an island, 3.5 million of them came through New York, Ellis Island, and Boston primarily.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: How did they come here and come to maybe the toughest city in America and succeed?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so they have uh this article had the the um Irish mindset, and it and it was very interesting.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Irish and fourth generation, and uh and one of the things, the very first thing it talked about was uh always having an openness to learn and having a kind of uh an appetite, if you will, to listen to others as much as you want them to listen to you.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so many times I've had sales reps or region managers or division vice presidents uh that uh we would start down the road of a key topic, and um and I just uh tried to listen as much as I could, and many times uh I got great feedback from them uh about that particular topic or strategy or tactic.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I was able to turn around and actually share it again.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: So um, you know, the listening part uh and um having good conversational rapport uh with your team, uh both colleagues as well as people report to you, has been tremendous for me.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I what you just said again, again, that whole listen to learn and being able to have that rapport with colleagues and be able to, and then also being able to take what you learned and whatever that story was that came from here, you know, from A, and you can then share it with B is so incredibly powerful.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I absolutely I I just the other day I had a gentleman call me and he was uh regional manager for me when I was working at J.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: Loore.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we had a great conversation and he brought up uh working with his distributor partners and et cetera, and he mentioned that he's been working really hard and putting into their emotional bank account with him.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: And he felt like you give you get what you give, so to speak.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: And uh again, it was a great statement uh from him to me about the emotional bank account and just again engaging with people intently uh and and as Stephen Covey says, with the intent to understand uh before you're understood, so to speak.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: So uh again, I have so many examples of that uh in my career, and um and I I I like to think that I've I've you know I've used that in the right way for sure.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm sure you have.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love that emotional bank account.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So remember, people, you know, it is about the emotional intelligence as well.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Totally in being that success.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to go back, you know, yeah, you know, because you have had you've you've had great success.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You you you rose up in the wine industry.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to go back to did you did you know you were gonna go into the wine business?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did you like wine?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did you even like wine?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, great question.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you, it was an interesting, quick story.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: But I was uh on campus interviewing, I was 22 years old looking for my first job, and I just interviewed of and and some of your listeners may remember this uh retail uh company, but it was called Kmart.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I interviewed with Kmart and with a couple of gentlemen who were they were terrific to me.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: They uh uh we had a wonderful conversation that I remember.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they were probably my age now, and um, and when I left there, um again, it was it was good, but it wasn't high energy.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't uh I remember leaving there a little disappointed, I guess, in the sense of about that organization.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: And lo and behold, the organization obviously didn't make it, essentially.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: But but walking down the hallway, I know, walking down the hallway, there was an office door open.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and in sitting at that office were two young guys, probably not much older than me.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so I just knocked on the door and I introduced myself and asked them who they were with, and they were with Gallo Wine Company.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh I told them back up, back up, back up.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, so you didn't so you're interviewing, but you didn't have an interview scheduled with I did not, no, I did not.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I just saw that as an opportunity.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was literally and figuratively an open door.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: An open door, yeah.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, absolutely.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I think one thing too uh that I have always told my team is confidence is so important.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if you don't know, if you don't look like you know what the hell you're doing, uh people aren't going to necessarily trust you and they may not follow you in that sense.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I walked in with complete confidence, uh felt good about myself for sure, and what I accomplished from school.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: And they said, Well, why don't you sit down right now?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so we did, and we had a great conversation.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I got back, called back for a second interview, and the next thing I know, I'm in Indianapolis, Indiana, and I I have a grocery route and I'm calling on Kroger stores and Marsh, and I'm getting up at 4:30 in the morning and uh moving pallets or tomatoes so I can get to my wine to build displays and that kind of thing.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: So so again, it really was happenstance.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, maybe fate if you choose to go that way.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: But uh from my standpoint, I um it couldn't have been a better opportunity for me.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: And and the reason is because Gallo is an organization, I have so much respect for them.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: They are still a family-owned organization today.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they're uh, I believe they're the largest wine company in the business.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they're they're out of modesto, California, and they're a marketing juggernaut, and they have high standards, they have sales process, they have mentoring, they have curbside coaching.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: All those things that I got a chance to experience as a young sales rep got embedded in me.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so that uh became uh again a catalyst for me as I went forward uh to who I was gonna be as a as a manager or leader or ultimately hopefully an executive.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: So uh again, that's most people in the wine and spirits business, you'll find they almost fall into it accidentally.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: No one no one goes to college and says, man, you know what?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: I am gonna be maybe at UC Davis, perhaps.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: You want to be a winemaker, maybe, but nobody really walks into it thinking this is a career.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: But so I so I have a question.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you're at university and you're looking at the list of people that are coming into who you'd want to um interview with.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Had you seen that Gallo was coming, and you just said I wouldn't want to work for a wine company, or was that?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, I had not, yeah.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: You know, to be honest with you, I had not seen them, and I don't think I probably knew who really Gallo was, to be honest with you.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: At 22 years old, I was probably drinking beer more so than anything else.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, so I I I I probably really didn't know them, to be honest with you.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: But I I think again, what attracted me was this young talent uh that was interviewing me and the and the and the comparison, it's not an age thing per se, it's more of an energy thing.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: And the comparison of that energy level, uh, and when I walked in, they were so accepting of absolutely.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: We got an hour, sit down.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and it was fantastic.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: So uh I you know, I again I I think I I got a little lucky, and and at the same time, I I feel like I made my luck as well.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's actually I I absolutely love that.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um so I I think it's just so great.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I just think that's so so cool if you kind of like walked into an open door.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and people are sitting there.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: But but again, listeners, this is something that is really quintessential.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: It goes back to it goes back to it starts at values.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as a company, when you are bringing people in into your fold, you have to know your value, the values that you that that you want to instill in your your people.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know those values, those core values, then you really need to define those because you will attract the right people if you know the right values.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the energy that you have really does matter.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I will say uh, you know, hundreds of times, you know, you can walk into a room and you can either be radiating great energy or you could not be, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's right, that's right.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever baggage you've had for that day, leave it.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Leave it up.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that energy that you're manifesting really does matter.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, you you saw that.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, you know, Kmart kind of old and soggy.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, exactly.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Versus Gallo, who has always evolved and changed and with the times as I look at them.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: No question, no question.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's one of the things about that organization and a couple others I've worked for, is that the willingness again for an organization to learn and the willingness for an organization to um, you know, not hold the proverbial sacred cow and and be okay when your organization brings to you new ideas, uh, and being okay to take a look at those.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I always felt that way from a Gallo aspect.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: If if I came back in from the field for a meeting on Friday, um, and uh Dan Heller uh was was a district manager at the time, you know, he always listened.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's that's really important for an organization uh to understand um that um you know being able to get communicate, have good communication with your team is important.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: And and I also think Simon Seneck talks about this, Jackal, and I also think that um not to be so not to be cliche about it, but uh you have to treat your people well.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that's not about salary, that's not about insurance, that's not it's about treating them with respect, treating them with 100% attention.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, if if if you're out on a work with and and you've got a young sales rep or a young manager with you, uh don't put your phone on the table because you're sending a message to them already that if this phone rings, we are interrupting our conversation.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: And uh instead, keep the phone in your briefcase or keep the phone in your pocket and be engaged with them when you have that opportunity, and you'll get uh again back what you give relative to that for sure.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that that's been proven to me over and over again with the folks that uh I've been fortunate enough to touch uh as well.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that I there's a lot, there's a lot that you just said that I think a lot of stuff in there.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: I know, sorry.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, but there's so many good little nuggets.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that I think that is really like to encompass the whole thing that and that as you're talking, that was just coming out in my brain, and you said treat people with respect.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And what I the the what as you're saying that and as you're speaking, the things that are coming up in my my emotions are we are as a leader, you are not better than anybody in your team.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And just because you have D V P, S VP, C O O, CEO, I don't give a rat's ass the letters you have before or after your name, do not think that you are better than anybody else.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: I will be honest and tell you when I became my first role as a manager, I hate the word manager, yeah.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was like, I had the snobby nose.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Oh, I'm so much better of a manager.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, yeah.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: Look at this business model.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's right.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish I had somebody that had said, hey Jacqueline, right?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I learned, right?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because you saw, and but but it's so great for you to be able to say that and also to be able to have that experience from the get-go.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, understand that that's right, heard and listened to, and that ideas could flow.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't seem like you ever had anybody sort of put a book over you, like to keep you down.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, certainly you would run into some managers in this that regards.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: Not everyone was uh maybe in that same mode, but again, I and you you touched on a really important thing.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: Early on in my career, I got opportunities at 24 and 25 years old to lead a sales organization of 50 people.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: And they were coming out of college and and so forth, so they were young in themselves, but um I because I left Gallo and went to a company called DiAgio, and they were another leader in the spirits business primarily.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: They had brands like Johnny Walker and Bailey's Irish Cream and Smyrnoff and Jose Cuervo at the time, and they had an excellent training program.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: And and what happened for me is I I met some tremendous mentors.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and some of them were executives, uh, Fred LaDrux, uh, for example, some of them uh senior DVPs, Don Reisdorf, Henry Weaver.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, those people I still talk to today.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you mentioned I had some challenges, and I'll have a chance to touch on that in a few minutes.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: But in these challenges I had this past year and a half, um, some of those folks I hadn't talked to for a while, they called me out of the blue.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: And and one gentleman, uh Marty Melinsky, said to me, Uh, hey, when one of my guys is down, I want to know what's going on.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: And and it was tremendous.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, and and so for me, Hubline, or excuse me, Diaggio was another opportunity early in my career to see what true mentorship was, to see what true leadership was from these gentlemen, uh, and um and learn from that.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: And and one of them said to me, uh, once you're mentored, you have the responsibility to return the favor.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so that happened when I was 26, when I was 27.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, and so again, when I got in my 30s and and and I suddenly found myself in a national role, sales and marketing, or working on a merger or working on the sale of a company, uh, those things uh framed again who I who I became.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: So the mentoring part of that is uh is is is so key, uh for sure.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it is, it's really important.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if I could go, if I could instill something in any of the listeners, you know, for you to have that unstoppable success and for you to actually grow rise up, you know, be a mentor and be a mentee.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Out look for those people.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to reach out to somebody, whether it's on LinkedIn or you know, go to your local library and and look up different that might be in the industry and reach out and connect.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: No question.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: And the power of networking, uh, I know you know John Scott from uh the wonderful place that I live right now.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: He's a general manager here at the club here.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: And um he asked me what I wanted to do in my retirement.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I told him, I said, John, you know, one of the things I love doing was teaching, so to speak, not from an academic uh perspective, but teaching, you know, my teams and and and so forth.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Well, let me introduce you to Brian Sandoval, the president of the University of Nevada, and perhaps there's something you can do there.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so he did.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: I had a wonderful conversation.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: I met the dean of the business school, Greg, and the next thing you know, I'm involved with UNR from a speaking perspective and sitting in MBA classes and and being able to share.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm doing it all for a hamburger, basically, you know.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, it was so energizing in that sense.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: So it goes back to the why, yeah, often overused because of Simon's book.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but it's true.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: If you really understand what your why is, uh you can um you can search that out and find it for sure.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I've I've found that in that sense.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's truly right.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's true, like the word why is I think overused.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I I almost like to say it's it's it's not really the the why, it's it's it's the reason, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right, that's right.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's the reason.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and what's what do you feel in your heart and where you know you know, the long the long-term passion goal, like for yourself.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like how am I gonna get there?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is the reason I am here.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, that's right.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: No question.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I and I think that's really important because I I do think certainly I in my entire career, there were times I wasn't sure what my why was, to be honest with you.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I I think it's not an easy question to answer, to be honest with you.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: So uh searching that out and uh and thinking about that um I think is as is as important as uh you know communicating and and and and engaging for sure.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: So um to to touch on that as as we shared, you know, you you've had some recent challenges, but you're you're not stopping.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: No, I I uh again for your listeners, I I just had a major health issue where I I had a brain tumor, actually.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: And um uh and I'll yeah, of course.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: No sorry, my dog, guys.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Listeners, I have a dog who's a Portuguese wife who started to go after something, so I'm sorry that I had to stop there.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been on stage.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what is going on?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: On here.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hearing something.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I didn't.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: No, all good, all good.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I no, it's good.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's good.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, a little humor when a in a serious note is always good.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh listen, I had a brain tumor, and and um the wonderful people at renown, uh, and terrific doctors.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Dr.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Strominger, I don't want to embarrass you, but uh I'm a huge fan.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Dr.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Moore, who was my neurosurgeon, uh, Dr.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh Patel, my radiologist.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I realized that I was not gonna let this define who I was.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I did lose uh about 60% of my eyesight.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but I'm it sounds crazy when I'm playing golf and I'm going fly fishing and I'm still hiking and I'm concentrating on the things I can do.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, Jacqueline, I said to myself, I wrote this down about two months after I got out of the hospital what are the five things that I feel like have really helped me?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: And those five things, number one, first of all, was mindset, and and you you are what you believe, and I just refuse to believe that uh my life is gonna be uh that altered.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: And number two is your tribe, and again, sometimes often over word views, but you know, you're part of my tribe now.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my yoga instructor, Lisa, is part of my tribe.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: My uh my strength training, my family, of course.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: So your tribe is really critical.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh vulnerability, and I mentioned to you when we first met, you know, vulnerability, I think, allows authenticity.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: And when you're authentic, people lean in and they'll trust you.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I've had strangers in an airport help me find my luggage out of the blue, and a wonderful 80-year-old woman named Pearl and Chicago hair.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_03: And then the last two pieces are gratitude and the gratitude piece and being able to um to think about the things to be thankful for is incredibly powerful.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then the last one is have some faith, especially in yourself.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so I've leaned on those five things and I've shared those things with other uh friends and and and and mentorees that have had some challenges in their life, and hopefully it helps.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: But it's certainly helped me, and and I miss the industry, I miss all the guys and gals that I worked with and and had arguments with or debates with, but uh they've been tremendous in reaching back out to me uh when they found that I had some issues.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I really appreciate it.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean first of all, you'd never know, right?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like you don't you would never know, right?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so the mindfulness and the mindset is so important, and I think you know, the I would say, and and I would love the tip on this.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right, the the tip is like the mindset of being able to to control how you think each day.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can wake up in the morning and you can and you can think, oh my god, this is gonna be an amazing day, or you can think, oh my god, like or like I'm gonna shit, right?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is, like that feeling of like or the pit in your stomach.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: So what tip would you give to the listeners to say, here's what you could do each day to help with your mindset?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'll tell you exactly.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I had a good friend of mine, he's a CEO of a pharmaceutical company, and they are working on trying to find a prostate cancer cure.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: And he's a tremendous, tremendous man.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: He could do that faster.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: He's so humble.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and I I love him.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: And when this happened, we had a great conversation.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Steve, he said, what I do every day is I decide how this day is gonna go.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I wake up and I have a cup of coffee, and I'll see he has a uh a place in Capitola that they live now.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I sit out and I look at the ocean and I just determine.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I don't mean your agenda, I don't mean you gotta go to the doctor, you got whatever.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: I mean how are you gonna treat people today?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: How are you gonna treat your wife, how you gonna treat yourself, uh, and how are you gonna choose uh to treat other people?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: And again, what I found is that when you uh treat folks uh as your equal, uh they want to help.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it makes it for a much better day than if you're miserating about luck of the job, you know, that kind of thing.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so every morning, uh that is what it looks like to me.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I've been doing that now for 80 weeks, and I'll continue to do it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I certainly don't mean to minimize anyone else's challenges, whether he helped or otherwise.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I don't, it's not as simple as I'm making an internet sound, because believe me, there are the days that I get up and um I really have to work harder and talk about how I'm gonna make this a positive day, so to speak.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: But again, uh it's how you start the day yourself alone that's gonna make a difference.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: And um so that that's what I would suggest for folks in that sense.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: And again, those five things I talked about, really, you know, your your family and your tribe.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's so so very important to lean on the people that love you and that around you.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I really like that.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I like being able to start your day that way and then with the mindset.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, what one thing that I would what I what I like is and in a little tip that that I um I haven't done it more recently, but it's something that um is is part of that tremendous is having those few people that you could have on the group text that might say in the morning, hey, good morning, let's start our day strong, or whatever it is.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're all setting the intention and you know, if you wake up in the morning and you're having a shit day or you're you just don't feel that power in you, you're just like, where's the power gonna come from?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody sends you like somebody in the message, you know, maybe it's you're maybe you're not the one that's starting it that day, or somebody starts it, and all of a sudden it can start to radiate something within you that brings out, you know, like, hey, you know what?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, remember, we're all badass, or yeah, whatever, whatever that is, right?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's right.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the energy level is so important, you know, and and again, I'm I'm really proud of this.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, not from an ego perspective, but my Jay War sales team, uh, I've been gone now, as I mentioned, 80 weeks.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they still reach out to me to see how I'm doing.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: And and I would say number one, they're just they're just good humans.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: Number one.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: I would say number two though, I try not to be grouchy.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: When they call me, I'm like, I I try to have as as good of energy as I possibly can have because they're gonna want to call you again.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: And getting those phone calls has been so good for me uh that you want to stimulate that as positively as you possibly can.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: I I used to tell my team this, Jacqueline, we would be in a meeting, it's a tough maybe a tough month or a tough quarter, maybe financially not trying to, we're not quite making the targets.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: And the one rule I always have for them is do not be an energy vampire.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Don't do it.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_03: If you're gonna be an energy vampire in this meeting today, then go ahead, you're excused, take a hike, go go outside, get some fresh air, whatever.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: But please don't be an energy vampire and drag the rest of us down with you.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's whether it's business or life, not to get too deep, but I think it's it's really critical.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: And uh when I walk in, whether it's uh you know, meetings with buying a house or a car or whatever, um, let's have some good energy with the Starbucks guy because we got there at five o'clock in the morning, so to speak.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: So to speak.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it's and that's and I would say I think that is so important because again, you know, we started on the topic, you know, we you know, part of your success really does to be unstoppable, it takes energy, but you have to it starts it starts here and it goes to your heart.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, and with the right energy.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I love what you just said, you know, if you if you see somebody whose energy has waned, yeah, you might want to either say, Hey, are you okay?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, that's right, that's right.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_03: And and change the environment up that you're in, yeah, for sure.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: And you can do that, you just have to be self-aware, uh, you know, and that uh again, uh a mentor of mine told me at one time.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: I said, uh we were I was interviewing him actually to come into the organization.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Um, how do you handle tough conversations with the people that you're managing?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and when when they're not quite working out uh on the objectives or whatever you've got them aligned for.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, you know, the first thing I think about is what's going on at home.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: What's going on outside of work that might be affecting work?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, and I again that was one of those learning moments for me.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: I never sometimes I never really quite thought about it that way.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, not to get too personal in a work environment, but certainly you need to be aware that if somebody's going through, you know, their your father's sick or whatever, you need to be aware of that and put that in your uh in your the back of your mind as you're dealing with them, uh, to have some empathy uh sometimes when you need it.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, at the same time, you know, at the end of the day, you got to make the objectives as well.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: So you got to really balance that for sure.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it's true, but that's also where that emotional intelligence comes in.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's exactly again.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_03: You said that before.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's so important.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, several books written on that.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: I've read a couple, and the emotional intelligence side of that uh is the part that you don't get quite taught in school.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you can be an engineer or an economist and you know, in uh high-powered school, but if you don't know how to relate the people, you don't understand um, you know, again, how to how to have good conversational rapport with them, how to how to probe them and then align with them, and then hopefully raise them, you know.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh that's that's an ongoing conversational process for sure.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's something, it is something that it's an ongoing thing, and it's and I and I I truly believe is that that our success comes from and it's and it goes back to your very first conversation you had, I would bet with the people at Gamelow when you walked into that open door, which is basically they were they they got to know and want were probably asking questions about you, yeah, and to see if you're the right fit and knowing, and then when you go into that organization, people don't just look at you as as a number, as an oh, Steve's number um one, two, three, four, five.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's Steve, and we need to we need to know what Steve likes, what he wants, his values.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: How can we help Steve get to where he wants to go?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they want to cultivate you for sure.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: And Gallo, yeah, like I said, Gala was like that, and so was Diaggio, very much so.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I and again, it was a wonderful thing that happened that early on in my career.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes that doesn't happen for folks until much later in North Korea.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: So no, you're you're spot on.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: You're spot on.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that is what so Steve, I could talk to you for hours about this.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, me too.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: I love talking, you know that.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, how can people connect with you, learn more about you, learn more about the things that you're doing?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where can they find you?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_03: Just that uh I took all my filters off, so it's wide open.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and you can go, it's Steven, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, Doyle, D-O-I-L-E, and just uh jump in there and send me a note.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I've connected with a lot of people here recently, and I've actually connected you with some folks as well from the Kellogg School and in uh uh school of business in Northwestern and so forth.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: So uh LinkedIn has been a really uh great tool that I never probably maximize, to be honest with you.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_03: You're always so busy, and now I have an opportunity to do that and pull it up on my big screen and actually see it.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so that's that's probably the best way, the easiest way, and and I can circle back around on any kind of message and uh and I'll get back to folks within the day, uh, for sure.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I I'd love to hear from people.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: And again, as we talked about already, uh I'm I'm I'm still learning as well.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_03: So folks have something to share uh that might be good.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: I I have in my iPhone, and I've been doing this since probably about 1993.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you have your notes uh uh uh app in your iPhone, and I I hear things and and it just resonates with me, and um, and I put it in there.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so even preparing for this conversation, I just reflected back on some of my notes of five years ago, 10, 12 years ago, uh kind of like talking about the Irish mindset.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so I have lots of things to share, but also I'm more than willing to steal an idea or two from you as well.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, but uh thank you.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, you're welcome.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, listeners, I I want you to do me the favor.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to go onto LinkedIn and I want you to connect with Steve and uh learn more about him, learn what he is doing, and then do me the other favor.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Besides hitting subscribe, please share this episode with your friends and your colleagues because our goal is to help everybody have unstoppable success.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jacqueline Strominger, your host.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Steve, for being an amazing.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Jacqueline.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate it.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Love having you on.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: So many great bits of wisdom and tips and insights.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And listeners, thank you so much for listening.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, without you, um, you know, we you know, we just so appreciate it for everybody who listens and share the episode.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm Jacqueline Stomager, your host, Unstoppable Success.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me on the Unstoppable Success podcast, where we don't just talk about the work, we leave for the something today with a funny news, talking to you on the video, or maybe the extra point forward.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't even sell this episode in the podcast with a five holiday for some time.