Latest / TWRS-Leadership Straight, No Chaser / Success Doesn’t Disappear… You Kill It Daily

Transcript

Success Doesn’t Disappear… You Kill It Daily · TWRS-Leadership Straight, No Chaser

• George R. Dovolis: Most people do not lose success overnight. They lose it slowly through habits they refuse to change. Welcome back to Together We Are Stronger, Leadership Straight Up, No Chasers. Tonight, we are breaking down the actual create sustainable success, leadership and business and life. And tonight we have a special guest, Walter D. in the house. Thank you so much sir for coming in. The Dutch Mentor: Thank you, George. Thank you, Scott, for having me here and look forward to a great evening to adding value to you and to the folks who are listening to the show tonight. George R. Dovolis: Well, we appreciate it. let's go ahead. You know, Walter, you first led into the world about mentorship and personal development. ⁓ The Dutch Mentor: No, it's like anything else life. It's a journey, right? A mentor ⁓ usually speaks from deep personal experiences, is different from what a coach is. So I took a journey from my teen years, you know, ⁓ growing in Holland, moving to America, a new language, pursuing a career ⁓ initially in entrepreneurship and ⁓ into medicine a medic and a flight ⁓ Went back to school in my thirties ⁓ get my George R. Dovolis: Yes. The Dutch Mentor: master's, my fellowship program, work my way into the healthcare system and hospitals. And that's where I started being promoted very quickly from doing to leadership. And what I found is that, you know, to be promoted from a high performing doer to a leader, there's a gap. And that, and people get stuck into what I call the valley of despair. People continue to do because that's all they know how to do. Nobody taught them how to be an effective leader. And that's where I found a couple of really Scott Brandt: you George R. Dovolis: Mmm. The Dutch Mentor: good mentors to help me overcome those difficulties and learn how to become a highly effective leader. that's what I, you know, through a lot of trial and a lot of errors and a lot of, you know, you falling down and getting back up. I learned how to become a highly effective leader and perform at a high level. And that is something I wanted to pay forward. So when I had the opportunity post COVID to say, listen, I have a nice runway and I do not need to worry about finances. This is my time I want to do this on a full-time basis and help people across any industry but primarily I work within the healthcare space to help people who are technically sound who are frustrated as leaders because it's too time-consuming and to mentor meaningful intentional mentorship action noble mentorship I have helped hundreds of people find joy in the work that they do and of course because of that they're providing better care to patients. George R. Dovolis: is amazing. Scott Brandt: It's interesting because we had a guest on Chip Scholz In book he talked about the issue is we have professionals and When you're professional have the pride you really buy into what you're doing But when it comes to the leader a lot of us don't look at leadership as being a professional piece and so like you had highlighted was that gap ⁓ of ⁓ The the and you get into leadership, but a gap there And it's crazy because even like come from the military, it's the same way where you get leadership training, but it's very lost. It's very black and white. And the issue we run into is everybody's unique. And so I find it very unique how you talked about that gap. so ⁓ it comes to really buying into leadership, being that professional, really, what is it that people would wanna do really to switch that over to tap in and being looking at as a professional piece instead of here's a characteristic or however people wanna say you can be a leader. The Dutch Mentor: Yeah, I think that's a great point. Right. So first we need to recognize that our academic journey is very limited. ⁓ I teach in Rutgers University myself, a bachelor's master's degree prepare programs. Listen, we good at making people more worldly, but we don't teach them actually how to lead people. Right. So ⁓ people come of school, then they become doers and doers can be high performing. get switched over to George R. Dovolis: Mm. No. The Dutch Mentor: leaders and that's where that value of despair is. So the first thing we need to recognize that leadership is a separate profession. soon as you buy into that concept, now you have to go do something about it. ⁓ don't become a leader by chance, right? It is by design, as I call that. So are there innate leaders who are highly inspirational, who get it all down? Yes, of course. But there's very few and in between. So the thing to do first is A, say to yourself, right? That's where pride and ego needs to take a backseat and say, listen, I need help. Now, the interesting part is that 95 % of executive leaders know and understand how important it is for people to go to a development period as a new leader. The problem is only 5 % of those leaders take meaningful action to help their frontline leaders to go through the period of time. So we are failing the leaders in the making, right, the future leaders by not giving them the time and attention. We send them to a conference, we send them to a webinar, we send George R. Dovolis: Mm-hmm. The Dutch Mentor: them to an online classroom. Listen, be honest with you, 95 % of what we talk about is forgotten by tomorrow morning. So it's not actionable, it's not meaningful, it's not deep enough. So where I start, where people recognize that they need to take the bull by the horn, they need to take ownership of their own career journey, and they need to seek mentorship. And I remind everybody, we just had the Olympics. All of the athletes were there, winners or not, there's not a single person there that didn't have a really you could coach or mentor. So why do you think in your professional journey to becoming the top performer that you should do without a coach and a mentor? Right? So that's number one. Number two, it is really about raising self-awareness. And people are not very self-aware. that is something, once you break through and take that journey down ⁓ lane of understanding why am I doing what I'm doing? People are really good at telling me what they do, but not why they do it. So the four P's, purpose, passion. people and process are the first things we need to discover. And interestingly enough, I find on regular basis that people don't work in an area that they feel passionate and purposeful about, or working for the right organization with the right people, the right processes. So, you know, again, 40 to 50 % of people on Sunday afternoon have anxiety about going back to work on Monday morning. Right? So that's where self-awareness comes into play. George R. Dovolis: mmm yes The Dutch Mentor: Once you get out of self-awareness and you understand you are, how you want to position, what kind of a leader you want to be, now you have to attain the attributes of a highly effective leader. And you don't do that by reading a book or taking an exam. You actually go do things. ⁓ you have to understand the core responsibilities of a leader. I love the people that I lead. I lead to context and not control. I lead ⁓ winning team, psychological and physical safety. I lead with great focus. And those are some of the fundamentals that people need to really buy into and learn to take meaningful action on a daily basis so they can create new habits and behaviors as a leader, not as a doer. And that comes with delegation and motivation. innovation and inspiration and partnering are all functional items that belong in the group of becoming a professional leader. And again, the vast majority of people fall short on that. George R. Dovolis: That was powerful. Scott Brandt: The piece is such a weird thing ⁓ a lot of people have the fear ⁓ going ⁓ tapping into self-awareness because ⁓ looking in the mirror and you're having to face the good and the bad. ⁓ so people are hesitant to try to go through, find out what that fault is, what that failure is. George R. Dovolis: Mmm. Scott Brandt: and what's the lesson, but that self-awareness piece really, we want the good stuff, but then a lot of people hesitate to go and look at the bad things or the not so good things, however you want to say it. And so would you say is really that key step really to go deep and get ⁓ the realm of self-awareness and really go deep to get to know ⁓ you are as an individual? The Dutch Mentor: Yeah, so good question. the first thing we need to realize is that we have become what we have experienced in our lifetimes up to this point in time. I mean is this in the first six, seven, eight years of your life, all you do is watch people and people telling you what to do, how to do, when to do it. So that's your foundation out of ⁓ foundation. you take actions of this. George R. Dovolis: Hmm. The Dutch Mentor: actions, you gain experience, experience that gives you, if you take actions, those actions give you results. So that's who you are today. Now, remember the first thing, you think who you are and how you are, but your reality is the problem is that doesn't matter. Because what you have to learn to do is to manage the perception of you. George R. Dovolis: Yeah. The Dutch Mentor: And the only way for you to know how people perceive you is by going out and asking people that. So as a leader, we have to learn to become vulnerable. So by simple asking three questions, go to 15 people around you, above you, to beside you below you, family and friends and ask them with sincerity. Right. I'm asking you three questions. I want you to write these things down for me. What am I great at? What are my blind spots and what should I do more of? And now the key thing is to collect that information, by reading each one of them and reacting to that, but actually taking that exam yourself so you establish where your reality is. Let everybody answer. Let's hope you get 10 out of the 15 back. You don't look at any of them until you have collected enough. You put it on a table and now you can look at high with a highlighter. What do I see as commonalities? And when you start seeing two, three things the same, that becomes your strength, or that becomes your blind spot, or that is what you need to do more of. And that's now you can take that into consideration that raises self-awareness to vulnerability. Now, an example of this is that our natural behavior is when somebody tells me something or that I messed up to react to that, right? It's lower brain activity. George R. Dovolis: you Hmm. The Dutch Mentor: for flight. That rarely gives us the results that we want. So I'll give you an example, George, you and I can relate to that. Somebody comes up to me says, Walter, your hair looks funny. He said, go ask you. You didn't tell me my hair looks funny. And now somebody else comes to me and says, Walter, your hair looks funny. And then I make a little mouth, whatever, right? And then the air person comes to me and says, Walter, your hair looks funny. And you know what Walter needs to do, right? He better go to the bathroom, look in the mirror, because it's likely my hair looks funny. Right? And that's way we need to learn to not react to things, but we need to respond to things. So I'm going to give you a very simple equation that every leader needs to write down on a post-it note and keep on their computer. plus R equals O. Events are to happen. Good, bad, somewhere in between. Death, births, accidents, weddings, whatever. Events are going to happen in our lives. There will be outcomes from those events, but the outcome is manipulated by how you react or how you respond to them. People who are hyper self-aware learn to stay in the upper brain by processing the information, by taking a nanosecond or even say... think about this and I'll get back to you and then properly respond. And then they have likely more outcome. People who reacted at first person says, my hair is funny. They will, they will take an action, but there's actions rarely give you the result, know, the desired results. So that's really how we get started by getting leaders to understand who they are, how they, what they think their reality is, what the perception is, identifying the gap and then working on, closing the gaps between your thoughts, your reality and the perception. George R. Dovolis: if you're getting nuggets out of this, like we are just don't sit there quietly. Hit the like button, drop us a comment. Let us know what landed on you. we need to just think of this. We're talking about self-awareness. Why is it so critical in your growth? The Dutch Mentor: Well, listen, we have one life to live, right? Is that if you don't connect your why to your purpose and to the people and processes, you're likely not going to work at the level that you desire, right? That you have an innate desire in ourselves. Now, forcing my slogan is this, right? Is that you need to dream big and act small. When I work with people, ask them, what is your dream? They will often tell the dream is the one step up from where they are. So we are limiting our own potential by not dreaming big enough. Now, some people are big dreamers, but they don't take any action. So they get frustrated. Well, I would want this, I, but I don't get it. Well, the thing is this, right? We need to make sure that if we dream big, we also have to design daily steps. So my slogan is in just 15 minutes per day, you too can be dot dot dot, right? In my world, in 15 minutes that you can be the leader that you always wish you had and the leader that your team needs to thrive under. Right now. George R. Dovolis: Yeah. The Dutch Mentor: The leader can be, want to play guitar or I want to play the saxophone or I'm in helicopter pilot. I can learn how to fly a helicopter 15 minutes a day, do it consistently for 90 to 120 days. I can learn how to fly a helicopter or anything else that you want to do. It takes a consistent behavior in order to get these things done. So it starts with the why. And the why is impactful for two reasons. A, it connects you to your true purpose. But more importantly is this. And a lot of people, you know, scratched ahead. Why did I get not selected for this job? How is it so difficult that I fall short in the second or third round? Well, listen, every job that's open today, there are probably 400 to a thousand applicants for that. Right. So you need to learn to differentiate yourself. So you need to differentiate yourself on LinkedIn. You need to differentiate yourself in your CV and you certainly need to be able to differentiate yourself when you go for an interview. by somebody asking me, Walter, what is your why of, you know, or a lead in telling me about yourself. I always tell my mentees, take a step back and ask, before I get into telling you what I do, I would like you to know why I do it. And then I tell my story. So for example, so people have something to hang on to. This is a 45 second setup, eight second hook, 30 seconds in between, five seconds of closing. So here's mine. Right. As a young Dutch boy, 14 years old, was riding my bicycle home on a windy day and I saw an old farmer across the road. He got hit by a car. I was the first on scene. I had him in my arms and he was dying. I felt completely helpless. That's the hook. you want to learn a little bit more. At ⁓ moment, I had an epiphany that I never wanted to feel like that again. I never wanted to feel that I could not help somebody. From that day forward, everything I've done is taken one step closer to become a phenomenal care provider. George R. Dovolis: Hmm. The Dutch Mentor: And now I have, since I cannot take care of patients anymore, I've dedicated my life to take care of people who take care of patients. That's the closure. So now that 41st seconds I just gave you is my why. That's my driver that I get up every morning to help people become better who can take care of the frontline, who can take care of patients. Right. So that is something that is memorable. So your why is not only important to you because you need to work on the things that matter for you. And it's very individual, but it also needs to become a memorable story that out of those 20 interviews, they can remember me because I told them a story that they can buy into that they understand. And by the way, the buy-in is only nine seconds or less. Right? When you go to Instagram, you look at videos, it takes less than nine seconds. Actually, it's only three seconds before you swipe left or right. the same thing as when you go to an interview, it is the first ⁓ seconds or the first five minutes. People already have made up their mind if you're going to be the next employee or not. Like it or not. Right? That's why the why is so very important. George R. Dovolis: Yeah. Great point. Great point. You know, when it comes to high performing individuals, and what makes them so different from someone who's just average? When you ask someone you talk about high performance. The Dutch Mentor: Yeah, it's very simple. the word action is the piece of the puzzle, right? So high performers are intentional in their actions and they do it consistently and they learn to measure what they do and hold themselves accountable to that. Either themselves or they hire a coach, a mentor, or a buddy to hold them accountable. That is the magical sauce right there. George R. Dovolis: Mmm, yes. The Dutch Mentor: So I'll give you two equations that I used. first equation is, as a leader and wants to build a high performance team, you need to build trust and engagement. If there's no trust, there can't be high performance. If there's trust, but no engagement, it can't be high performance. So it is really important to build trust and engagement in order to get high performance. That's one. The second one is that high performance is the function between the technical skill and behavioral capacity. And every time we fall short of high performance, what we tend to do is go back, we reteach people a technical skill. But what we really should be doing is looking at the behaviors of why people are not doable. And often it is you, I, as the leader who is not doing certain things. George R. Dovolis: you The Dutch Mentor: And the sooner you can wrap your head around that and learn to take meaningful action on a daily basis, measure your results and hold yourself accountable, the quicker you'll start accelerating in everything that you do. Just make a difference what it is you do. George R. Dovolis: We just answered three of my other questions just on that why and on the high performance because you take a look at individuals and I just did ⁓ content yesterday about most talented is not always the best, it's the ones who dig in and ⁓ is one of the things I wanted to ask is, why do so many talented individuals fail before they reach their potential? The Dutch Mentor: Well, mean, that is pretty simple is that a lot of them suffer from ego and sense of superiority, pride, and they don't they don't fail by they don't take enough risk to fail. And people often when they do finally fail, they get so bruised, they fade away. So again, high performing leader is willing to be humble, lead with confidence, but with humility. Somebody who is out George R. Dovolis: Yes. Scott Brandt: Hmm. The Dutch Mentor: looking, not inward looking. So it's always in it for the team, not for themselves. They lead not for promotion, but they lead for cause. They have high emotional intelligence, by the way, which is a muscle that needs to be maintained on a daily basis. Otherwise, that too will fade away. And they celebrate the successes, no matter how small they are. So again, that's the difference between the people who become high performing leaders versus people who just continue to struggle. There is no consistency. And this is the problem that we have as human beings. And I'll use a very simple example that all of us can relate to. On December 31st, we're going to make that promise to ourselves. This is the year, baby. I am going to buy that membership and I'm going to go to the gym. I'll buy that membership and I go to the gym the first week three times, the second week two times, the third week one time. And the rest of the year, I go back three or four more times. And that's the problem. That's the kind of behavior that holds us back from reaching our full potential. we need to come back to the realization and we need to take meaningful action against that in order to be able to overcome that. And that requires self-awareness. And it often requires you to work with a coach or a mentor to really break through to that moment. Scott Brandt: So it's an interesting thing because when it comes to like mentorship, I heard somebody's like, something the nature is the mentor, you need to tell the mentee what to do. And I'm the issue with that is if you're telling them what to do and you're like, this is the only way to do this, you as the mentor ⁓ are doing harm than good for yourself and the mentee. ⁓ The Dutch Mentor: Hello. Scott Brandt: And it's such a weird thing because There was somebody else that was talking about, if you have a business coach and they give you homework to do whatever, have us do it for you and you can focus. I was like, that's not the purpose of coach. That's more of a consultant and you helping them out. But when we look at the world of mentorship, where do a lot of people get that wrong when it comes to trying to find. that individual that can help them go to that next level, but they overlook whatever they miss out. What is it that people get wrong when it comes to trying to find a mentor in the world of mentorship? The Dutch Mentor: Yeah, good question. So there's a distinctive difference between a mentor and a coach, but we can address that secondly. So first is this, just because you retain a mentor doesn't mean that you're going to be improving. Right. The thing is a mentor's role is not to do the work for you. The mentor's role is to share from deep personal experiences and provide your guidance and be your accountability partner. Right. So when I work with somebody, will say, listen, today, this week, we're going to work on our personal brand. Right. This is what that means to me. This is the journey you need to go on. Now you need to go out and do ABC and D now again. So it is on the end of the day, what, what am I going to do by that? That psychological contract. I need to take a meaningful. meaningful action on a daily basis. So those people, ⁓ part of that equation, as I laid out earlier, is that they need to measure their performance on a daily basis. So for example, if I say I'm going to do that reflective survey and I'm going to collect 15 people. So I need to lay out a little process map, right? I'm going to put the survey together. I'm going to decide if I'm going to handwrite it, type it, or email it. I need to come up with a story to get people to buy into it to really give me meaningful feedback. I need to send it out. I need to do a follow-up and I need to do a third follow-up and then I need to collect information. So there's a bunch of processes that need to take place. Well, if you just talk about it and never take an action, you never get any results. Right? So the key thing is that if you write that journey map and every day you say, this is the milestone I want to reach, it takes no more than 15 minutes to do that. You give yourself a green. George R. Dovolis: . The Dutch Mentor: If you don't do it, you give yourself a red, or if you sorted it, you give yourself yellow. Our brain is programmed to understand colors. That's reason why we have stop lights, and they're white, yellow, and green. I think is our brain knows what that means. So if you have more than two yellows or reds in a row, we need to take a countermeasure. need to hold something back from, so I love my, espresso from Starbucks two o'clock in the afternoon because, know, it's a nice pick me up and I ⁓ work hard, so I deserve that. Well, I have a yellow and a red, I cannot have my espresso. Right? So you don't want to be demeaning to yourself, but it needs to be meaningful. ⁓ George R. Dovolis: Hmm. The Dutch Mentor: difference is this, and this is really where the real thing comes in, Scott. Those who are willing to hold themselves accountable through measurement are the ones who accelerate. You ask me the question, what makes a high performer a high performer? That's the difference. So of the hundreds of clients I've had, Scott Brandt: Hmm. The Dutch Mentor: People resistant to ⁓ measurement, right? Because they say, I what is that going back to elementary school when I have a scorecard? And no, we know we did that because that we knew that work back then and still works today. So those people who adopt early on to measuring are the ones who will accelerate and compare to everybody else. So I mentioned ⁓ the Apple Store, the Dutch mentor mobile app. is a guide 15 minutes a day breaks it down between self care, mindful growth, adoptive problem solving, rhythmic operations, thriving community and performance. There are micro lessons in there, but there's also a measurement tool in there that you can hold yourself accountable on a daily basis. And I see that. So you're always sharing that with somebody. So you have somebody else looking at that. So that's what the accountability is. And again, people who say I am going to do takes in action, who actually measure the performance against the do and stay on track are the ones who will break through and make it to the top. The problem is that the vast majority will never do that. And that comes with a real cost, right? And I want people to realize that is that because mentoring should not be done by your boss. George R. Dovolis: Mm-hmm. Scott Brandt: Mmm. The Dutch Mentor: It's good to sit down with them once a month. They have one-to-ones, but often they are too busy, they're distracted, they don't have the time, they skip meetings. Mentorship should be done on a weekly basis, 15, 20, 30 minutes at a time. It should be meaningful and should be in a very secure environment that you feel like you can be vulnerable and talk about these things. So it's making a small investment in yourself. It's about hiring somebody to do that for you. Or if you're lucky enough, you have a really good friend who can fill that role, that's fine too. do it on a very regular interval in order to be able to make it successful. And this is why I say that. Most people feel that they're performing at a level they should get a raise, or they should get a promotion, or they should be eligible for a transition into a new role. But they don't get there. And the difference is, if you invest $1,500, $5,000 into yourself, but you work with somebody, no different than going to the Olympics, and now you get that raise in 12 months. Even a five or $10,000 raise over top of what you have today, over 30 years, it's worth a million dollars. Think about that. But how many people are willing to make that small investment in themselves? Two reasons why people tell me I don't have time and I don't have the money. George R. Dovolis: you The Dutch Mentor: But I call them all out on bullshit because you scroll on Instagram more time, more than 15 minutes a day, and you surely pay more at Starbucks every month than it would cost for you to retain a mentor. And there's two things you can completely live without. If you really are meaningful and want to accelerate in the role that you're in and that you want to perform at a higher level, and of course, to be able to provide for your family. George R. Dovolis: Mm. Wow. Well, you know, we're talking about this and I'm going to bring this up. How important is communication when you're the leader of a team toward trying to get them to our common vision? The Dutch Mentor: Critically important. So the first part where I talk to purely leader ship power one is self-awareness, recognizing who you are as a leader, developing habits and behaviors of a high performing leader, making sure you get understanding responsibilities. Part two is about problem solving at the root cause rather than putting band-aids on things. You can ask me questions if you'd to learn more about it. But the third part is the rhythmic operation, right? That's the R in smart. And the rhythmic operation has five elements to that. As one, we need to always make sure that we have the right people in the right roles with the right skills, knowledge, and abilities and time on the team that we lead. we don't have that, we need to spend more time. If I have a soccer team, that is but doesn't have a goalie, it's unlikely I will win. So too, on any team that you manage, large or small, you have to make sure that you have the right people and the right goals. Then ⁓ we to make sure that we ⁓ unify the vision. So as a leader, it is critically important to lead with clarity. And you sidestep that. If people do not understand what the North Star is and why you want to get that done, in other words, they cannot get to buy into it. They are unlikely to perform at the level you need to have them perform to become a high performance team or have a high performance outcome. So the authoritarian style that is telling you what to do rather than you to, you know, or getting you to understand why it needs to be done is not effective outside of a commander control system like the military. Right. In the military. It's like I grew up in emergency services. We don't ask questions. say your commander says go. You say and how fast, right? You might question you had that stuff, but that's not ⁓ not the culture you grow up In the corporate world today, especially with the new millennials and disease, if tell them what to do, they will look around and give you a finger. And so like I'm going home and not feeling well. George R. Dovolis: Yeah. The Dutch Mentor: But if you take the time and explain to them why it is important to the organization, why it's important to them, they can buy into it. And then it's much easier, in other words, you lower the resistance to change and you lower the threshold in order to get it come up with a unified vision. And that requires compromise, common bond, common understanding, making sure that we build trust and that we remain teachable by willing to make changes to our own institution, at our own experiences and cultural upbringing. The third part is that we need to measure. We need to have meaningful measures to whatever it is we do. If we don't measure it, it's very difficult to be successful. 70 to 80 % of the things we say we're going to do in any organization is likely not done to the extent possible because we are either not unified, we don't have the right people, or we're measuring the right things. Then it is about the cadence of accountability. every day and every week, not once a month, not once a quarter, we need to have meaningful driving metrics that we look at, not just outcome metrics, and then we need to take action. and countermeasures. So actions deliver outcomes. If the outcomes are not what we desire, we need to take countermeasures. And if you run that rhythmic operation, that's an operating system no different than an iPhone operating system. If you stay true to that, it is amazing, but you can do result wise in a very short term. George R. Dovolis: Okay. Wow. You know, we're definitely grabbing some nuggets tonight. And I'm going to ask you because you say you fly helicopters and planes. The Dutch Mentor: I do. George R. Dovolis: to fly and influence the way that you are in leadership in life, meaning that how did this create, when you brought that all together, flying ⁓ The Dutch Mentor: Yeah. So there's some great, great parallels between flying and leadership. So one thing in flying, we fly by checklist, ⁓ just by rogue memory. And what we tend to do in leadership, we just go by, ⁓ know, what we feel, what we think, what we do. But we should too have a system in place, the operating system that we talked about, that if we follow the checklist, do we have the right people? George R. Dovolis: ⁓ huh. Yep. Mm-hmm. The Dutch Mentor: Do I have to write unified vision? Do I have to write measurements? Do I have measures and countermeasures? Am I taking actions? I get the results more like that. In flying, it's the same thing. I have to be very disciplined in my approach even before I leave. I have to ask myself, am I safe? Do I have any stresses, medications, any environmental issues, anything that limits me from performing at my highest level? George R. Dovolis: Yeah. The Dutch Mentor: Well, on the way, I want to make sure that the ⁓ weather, meteorologically speaking, we are safe to go. When we get to the airplane or the helicopter, I need to check that out and pre-flight it to make sure it is ready to go. In leadership, we have to have these check-ins as well. there's strong parallel between the two of them. And interesting enough, over time, the Institute of ⁓ IHI, has a lot of practices out of aviation. by having a sterile cockpit or a timeout or a checklist that we follow to make sure that we don't leave anything, we don't leave a surgical instrument behind in the patient after surgery or that we provide sterile environment. In other words, we do a check to make sure that we don't have any unnecessary exposures. So there's lots of parallels to that. George R. Dovolis: Yeah, you you try to create the leadership and the lifestyle, then you bring in the flying influence, the helicopter influence. What an amazing experience. And ⁓ really last questions I have is if someone's listening tonight and wants to begin transforming their life, what is the first step they should take tomorrow morning? The Dutch Mentor: But so first thing we need to do is to dream big and act small. And the dream big is the easier part of it. Really stretch your thinking of what it is that you can do or want to do in life. But then start taking small, actionable steps. So I've been, if you go to my website, know, thedutchmentor.com or you go to my YouTube channel or to my Instagram channel, or you go to LinkedIn or you go to Amazon and buy any of my books. I have guides out there that gives you a step-by-step guidance on what you need to do in order to be able to accomplish anything that you set out to do. The thing is you have to take action. Right now I recommend not to do this alone. George R. Dovolis: Okay. The Dutch Mentor: And if you can afford it, would just say, go hire a mentor for a period of time. So for example, in my world, have a platinum membership people with $399 per month. They can work with me for 30 minutes per week. And a lot of people take advantage of that who want to get themselves ready for an interview or for promotion or want to get a kickstart. If you're an emerging leader and you can go on a six month journey with greater intensity that comes at a price. Again, the key thing is this, I offer this to anybody who's listening, go to my website, thedutchmentor.com book a free consultation call. Let's have a chat about how to get you started on the path of being a better leader or a better version of yourself. And hopefully that will have an impact on the people you serve or the people that you love. And you owe it to yourself and you owe it to the people around you that are not stagnant. You continuously every day, minutes a day, ⁓ take small steps to get the outcomes that you desire, whatever that may be the case. George R. Dovolis: your last question I ask everybody what do want your legacy to be sir The Dutch Mentor: Well, so interesting, the legacy that I would try to, you know, that I'll leave behind is no different than me joining your podcast or why I have my podcast. I want to make an impact on one life every time I speak. Right. I get an interesting enough as a paramedic today, I get at least two or three phone calls per year from patients I've taken care of and saved their lives 10, 15 years ago. And they still call me. That's, you know, this is not about pride and ego, but I knowing that you have had a material impact on somebody else's life is there's no greater reward. No money can buy that for you. Right. So for me, it is that if I can leave somebody a better version of themselves, who can be a better father or mother, George R. Dovolis: sir. The Dutch Mentor: or son or daughter, that's what I want my legacy to be. George R. Dovolis: Amazing amazing right before I finish Scott. I know I've been taking all of you have any questions for Walter before we get off Scott Brandt: No, I have quite a few nuggets here. Ultimately, like I always say, is you're not ready, find a nugget and then as you implement it, come back, see what else is here. Don't overwhelm It's really finding one or two things to implement and then work on it, watch it grow, and then come back and see if there's anything else that you hadn't caught before. And then if there is something there, take that, implement it, and continue to grow as an individual. George R. Dovolis: Wow. The Dutch Mentor: Scott, that is powerful. And remember that one or two things you want to work on, not even three, four or five. And if anybody wants to read a good book and they struggle with it, The ONE Thing it is phenomenal way of learning how to manage your time and how to look at it, at the in a different way. It is the one thing that you should be doing and should be doing first every day that has the greatest impact on everything else that you do. So it's not having a to-do list. Throw it in the garbage. No good. Make a priority list. Because in the priority, you can identify what weighs the most and work on that first. And then you can work on the second, third, or fourth item if necessary. But yeah, if you do more than two things at the same time, bueno, no good. George R. Dovolis: Well, Walter, we want to thank you for bringing the wisdom and the heat tonight. The conversation reminds us that growth is always possible and you stay open, stay humble and always keep moving forward. If you got nuggets out of this, you got to hit it up. Just to watch it. Hit the like, try to drop a comment. You want to follow us and get serious about your growth. Hit the subscribe button. Stop being a spectator. Level up. Thank you, Walter, for everything. Scott, thank you. And together, we are stronger. We'll pull up a seat. We'll get started next time. Thank you. The Dutch Mentor: Thank you.