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Leadership, and the Courage to Ask for Help with Mike Carroll · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm here with Michael Carroll.
• 0:04
  Michael, how did God get you into business?
• 0:08
  Yeah, that's a great question, Lyle.
• 0:09
  Um, God got me into business by virtue of uh just being born, really.
• 0:14
  Um, my dad has been an entrepreneur all of most of his life.
• 0:19
  He grew up with an entrepreneurial father.
• 0:22
  Um, so as did I.
• 0:25
  And now at 41 years old, I am uh getting into my own business venture.
• 0:34
  I've had several before, uh
• 0:37
  whenever I was, you know, prior to my military career and um but I I think I've gotten a little bit wiser over the years.
• 0:45
  And so now it's uh I'm able to be patient in in business ownership.
• 0:53
  So
• 0:53
  do think your dad told you about entrepreneurship that didn't scare you away?
• 0:58
  Ooh.
• 0:59
  you know, I always really admired the uh the steady pace of it and not knowing what was coming next.
• 1:08
  Right.
• 1:08
  Uh the the ability to really control your own destiny and and have control over every aspect of the business um while also being able to impact people's lives.
• 1:22
  And I I believe that's why I enjoy coaching so much is because
• 1:27
  I am able to have that impact on people's lives and uh and still control the outcome of the business.
• 1:36
  Uh I guess that makes sense.
• 1:40
  so yeah.
• 1:42
  Absolutely.
• 1:43
  Yeah.
• 1:43
  A lot of people when they come from an entrepr entrepreneur family, either they're forced into it or they're afraid of it because of they see all the ins and outs or like there's
• 1:51
  it's all over the place.
• 1:53
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:53
  And you know, I was really I the part that I am afraid of is uh the financial side, but I think technology has come a long way since uh my dad started his business.
• 2:04
  And so I'm not over here with a uh counting machine, you know, running the tape each day.
• 2:12
  Yeah.
• 2:13
  Yeah, exactly.
• 2:14
  Yeah, technologies come so well.
• 2:15
  Even with AI, you know, even with finances, you know, it's there's so many technologies out there that'll cover it.
• 2:21
  Mine will tie into my bank and pull the data and it'll have me reports and everything all together and just gotta make sure they go where they're supposed to go.
• 2:27
  It's that's a whole nother world.
• 2:32
  So what's God doing your business right now?
• 2:34
  Wow.
• 2:36
  that's a loaded question.
• 2:37
  Uh, God is doing so much.
• 2:39
  I am so grateful for everything that He has given me.
• 2:46
  while I haven't even had my first official coaching client yet, uh, he has laid a foundation for something that is gonna be so great and so impactful to thousands of
• 2:59
  people.
• 3:00
  Um, you know, I
• 3:04
  He he gave me some insight into uh the framework that I created, Carol Carol Leadership Coaching Around, which is the Forge framework.
• 3:16
  And that's faith ownership, resilience, growth, and engagement.
• 3:20
  Um, and it's it's a progressive framework, right?
• 3:24
  You know, because faith is a foundation.
• 3:26
  Uh we have to take ownership of our problems, and we develop resiliency by doing so.
• 3:33
  We grow from that experience and then we uh engage in service to others.
• 3:39
  And that's really my favorite part about this framework is service to others.
• 3:45
  Because through other uh adventures in my life, I have learned that service to others is something that I am just passionate about because I love to see when the light bulb goes
• 3:58
  off in someone's head and they finally are just like.
• 4:02
  my goodness, that is that's what is going on.
• 4:06
  I can't believe that I didn't see that, you know?
• 4:08
  And so we're just a uh we have the ability to uncover things in someone's life and shed light on things that they had no clue about.
• 4:20
  Uh well, they had a clue about it, but they just couldn't put their finger on what the exact cause was.
• 4:26
  And so to be able to drill down into those things is uh is something that I've
• 4:31
  I'm really excited to uh to do in my leadership coaching business, um, something that I've done for, you know, uh a decade and a half and with the military and uh and leadership
• 4:45
  post military, it's just begun to grow into something that is I know is going to flourish and like I said, impact thousands of people's lives.
• 4:59
  So your middle letters are which stands for resilience.
• 5:02
  Let's talk about resilience a little bit 'cause a lot of people don't understand what that means and how to implement or anything.
• 5:07
  So kinda tell us your take on resilience.
• 5:10
  Yeah.
• 5:11
  So um I'll tell you the Air Force answer.
• 5:13
  And yeah, so resilience is being able to bounce back from a setback or a hurdle that you face in life.
• 5:24
  And um but what a lot of people really miss out on with resilience is the part that comes before that in my framework is the ownership of whatever you might be going through.
• 5:40
  And really um uncovering or you know, peeling back the layers of the onion, right?
• 5:49
  And seeing what caused the situation so that you can understand it better.
• 5:54
  Um, but then looking at your situation and realizing that okay, God has placed me here for a reason.
• 6:04
  And what that reason is right now, I'm not sure, you know.
• 6:10
  that's what we're that's where the growth uh portion comes in in the forge framework.
• 6:15
  But um God uncovers so much and resilience because we we like to speed past and just get better.
• 6:26
  And sometimes we just need to sit in it.
• 6:29
  Sometimes we need to sit, get comfortable in that uncomfortability so that we can uh experience growth.
• 6:39
  in the next stage of our healing.
• 6:42
  so, you know, in leadership, that might look like maybe you got a bad performance review one year.
• 6:52
  But taking a step back and realizing that, I've been doing this for um 10, 20 years now and this is my first one.
• 7:00
  Okay, well, let me look into that and let me dig into my faith first.
• 7:09
  let me figure out how to how I can own up to some of the the flaws that have developed over the years and grow from that, you know.
• 7:18
  Once I realize, okay, this is it, and I've sat in that uncomfortability for a while, then comes the growth.
• 7:25
  and we really just from there rise up from the ashes that that were and form a new creature, you know.
• 7:35
  So
• 7:36
  So yeah, I mean resilience is is a tremendous tool that we have.
• 7:43
  Yeah, as an entrepreneur, we think we want to just get started and take off running.
• 7:46
  We don't realize there's a crawling and there's a walking process through that.
• 7:50
  It's like a baby.
• 7:50
  We don't make fun of a baby when a baby falls or stumbles.
• 7:53
  We just let get back up.
• 7:55
  And in business though, we take ourselves so seriously that we beat ourselves down when we fall down.
• 8:00
  We don't have that get back up and it's just a it's a mindset.
• 8:05
  yeah, that's uh I love that you put it that way because all too often we we fail to see it from a child's perspective, which is a lot more simple than than what we think and make
• 8:19
  things out to be.
• 8:20
  Um, you know, there's several experience experiments out there where uh they task kindergarten class to build the tallest tower with
• 8:31
  a bunch of sticks and putty and they tell a group of in engineers to do the same thing.
• 8:38
  Well, the engineers are going into detail and just forming this beautiful structure and it it gets to be so tall and you're it's impressive.
• 8:47
  But then you look over at the kids and they're just trying they have one mission and that's to get it to the tallest point.
• 8:52
  And you know, they're like, oh theirs is not this tall.
• 8:55
  So we're gonna we're gonna build ours taller.
• 8:58
  I don't care how sound the structure is, you know.
• 9:01
  And so um when we really take take a look at it from that perspective and and uncomplicate it, then that is whenever we make real strides towards the next step of growth.
• 9:18
  Yeah, we overthink things as adults, don't we?
• 9:21
  yeah.
• 9:22
  Yes.
• 9:23
  Especially as men.
• 9:23
  I know you focus specifically on men, that's why you've forged a strong name and everything.
• 9:28
  And men tend to overthink in general, just 'cause we We're guys, we're in our heads too much.
• 9:34
  Yeah, yeah, we think we have to carry the world and uh you know, it's really
• 9:38
  So what would you tell a guy who feels like that?
• 9:40
  They're just feel they're carrying the world on their shoulders.
• 9:43
  Give yourself a break.
• 9:45
  Take a load off.
• 9:46
  You know, it's it's not all yours to carry.
• 9:51
  God built us so that we could live in a brotherhood.
• 9:56
  And you know, at as you could kind of gather um from the forge framework, you know, iron sharpens iron, just as another man sharpens another man.
• 10:08
  Uh, we are we are made to
• 10:13
  develop one another and to lean on one another whenever we're having those troubles.
• 10:18
  So if you're going through that right now, take a load off, take a break.
• 10:24
  It is okay.
• 10:26
  I promise you, everything that's there today is going to be there tomorrow.
• 10:31
  Even if it does have a few more tasks stacked on top of it, it's okay because those tasks are going to be there tomorrow too.
• 10:38
  And the next day and the next day and the next day.
• 10:42
  Nobody is going to care, I promise you.
• 10:45
  You know, I mean, until you drop a million dollar contract or something like that.
• 10:50
  But um, that's not the point of this here.
• 10:53
  The point is that you're you have the ability to step away whenever you need to, um, and delegate.
• 11:04
  Build yourself a uh a group of people who can share that load with you.
• 11:11
  Yeah, I tell people as an entrepreneur, you're never in it alone.
• 11:13
  Number one, you've got God.
• 11:15
  And number two, you've got a whole group of people.
• 11:17
  If you just reach out, there are other men going through the same thing you're going through.
• 11:20
  Don't be afraid to reach out.
• 11:22
  Say, hey, I'm having a rough week.
• 11:24
  Who's gonna who's gonna go eat lunch with me?
• 11:26
  Keep it simple.
• 11:27
  It doesn't have to be something big or sh you got, we got a strategic luncheon.
• 11:31
  No, go have lunch with somebody.
• 11:32
  There's nothing weird about that.
• 11:35
  Buy their lunch if you're worried about it.
• 11:36
  Come buy my lunch.
• 11:37
  I'm in Dallas.
• 11:39
  one of the heaviest things we carry around with us is our cell phone, right?
• 11:43
  Um, because when we really need to reach out to someone, that's probably the the heaviest thing that you can pick up.
• 11:50
  True.
• 11:51
  Good point.
• 11:52
  So we're gonna move into our business growth tip.
• 11:54
  What's your business growth tip for us today?
• 11:57
  Yeah, so business growth.
• 11:59
  Um, lean into your network.
• 12:00
  Uh it it kind of leads fluidly right into this.
• 12:03
  Lean into your network and you know, make sure to build that network early and build your foundation.
• 12:11
  Don't rush for you know with respect to where you're at today and where you'll be at a year from now.
• 12:21
  Um, right now you're you're building up the foundation.
• 12:26
  And at the end, when you when you make that first sale, that's your keystone, right?
• 12:32
  You're you're really setting in the last final brick just so so that the whole house doesn't come down on you.
• 12:39
  Um make sure that you're covering all your bases and uh and really just looking into things, recognize your weaknesses.
• 12:49
  So um don't be afraid to lean on that network because if you do.
• 12:56
  Uh, a lot of times, nine times out of ten, you're gonna be thankful you did.
• 13:00
  Um, I think there's a very rare occasion where where you're not gonna be thankful that you reached out to someone and and asked for help on a specific task.
• 13:10
  And let's step back for a minute.
• 13:11
  So we're talking about our network.
• 13:12
  What would you say is a good foundational network for an entrepreneur?
• 13:16
  What kind of people or positions do they need to have in place to help them?
• 13:20
  Yeah, I mean, what are you doing?
• 13:21
  Right.
• 13:22
  Um, as a coach, I have built a network of coaches that are in, you know, we don't all coach on the same thing, but building relationships with these coaches will help you with
• 13:37
  your clients to help refer them to another individual that if you under and that's an that goes along with this, know your weaknesses.
• 13:48
  Um
• 13:49
  Because if you're not able to help this person, don't do the them the injustice of of trying to help them anyway.
• 13:55
  Um, refer them to someone else.
• 14:00
  I promise you another client is going to come knocking at your door.
• 14:04
  Trust God.
• 14:05
  yeah, God's an abundant guide.
• 14:07
  We have to realize that.
• 14:08
  And people are afraid that their competition's gonna compete with them, you know, two roofers in the same city.
• 14:13
  But there's enough roof for everybody.
• 14:15
  Y'all can still connect together.
• 14:17
  You can still help each other in different ways.
• 14:18
  I mean, that's people forget that an industry specific connection, whether it's in your city or in another city, is a good place for y'all to hold each other accountable.
• 14:29
  Yeah.
• 14:29
  Yeah, definitely.
• 14:30
  And, you know, uh bring each other's best practices to to light.
• 14:35
  Um, you know, where'd you struggle when you were doing such and such?
• 14:39
  It's it's almost like a mentorship network, you know.
• 14:42
  Um you're able to lean on one.
• 14:44
  Yeah, and that's the other side of it.
• 14:45
  You know, you have to have that mentor person, somebody who's been there for a while, but you also have to be pouring into somebody else who's new to remind you how far you've
• 14:52
  come.
• 14:52
  Because we forget to check back behind us to see how far we've actually come.
• 14:56
  We're so busy moving forward that we forget, hey, there's some there's this people ahead of me, and that's our competition, that's our comparison.
• 15:03
  But in reality, we should be comparing ourselves to who we were five years ago or two years ago or one year.
• 15:09
  right.
• 15:10
  Yeah, you'd be surprised.
• 15:12
  Yeah, exactly.
• 15:14
  So if somebody's just starting to build a network, where would they where should they go?
• 15:19
  Um honestly for me, uh, you know, I I made my first connection in coaching through LinkedIn.
• 15:26
  Um, you know, there's there's a lot of different opinions on that platform.
• 15:32
  Um, you know, there there's a lot of sales going on within the the platform, but there's also the ability to make make your uh to build a network there, uh, especially if you're
• 15:44
  building an an online or remote network.
• 15:47
  Um
• 15:48
  or remote business, excuse me.
• 15:49
  Um now if you're if you're doing something locally, then uh that's another place you want to go as well is to your local chambers of commerce, to your local rotary club.
• 16:04
  you know, different organizations throughout the the county or parish, wherever you might be, um, those are gonna be a tremendous help to you.
• 16:16
  Because they can they have those ex exactly what we've been talking about.
• 16:20
  They have the people who've been there for ages and have done that, you know, they've they've experienced something that you are going through right now and they wish they had
• 16:29
  done something different.
• 16:31
  You're their chance to do something different.
• 16:34
  So let them pour into you.
• 16:36
  You know, it it's it's just as much of receiving as it is giving.
• 16:40
  Yeah, and I'm just gonna a word of encouragement for anybody listening.
• 16:43
  If you think you're too busy to attend these meetings, then you need to step back.
• 16:48
  You're doing too much.
• 16:49
  You've got to have those connections, especially as men, we're task-oriented people, but you gotta step back and make those deeper connections.
• 16:57
  Not superficial, not football, let's talk football and weather.
• 17:00
  Dig a little bit deeper and say, Hey, how is your life going right now?
• 17:04
  How are you health wise?
• 17:06
  How are you spouse wise?
• 17:07
  How are you?
• 17:08
  business wise, be that c deep with another man.
• 17:11
  Have that person that's account you can be accountable to.
• 17:14
  And you're only gonna find those if you're consistent in those meetings.
• 17:16
  Don't go to all those meetings one time and think everybody's gonna happen.
• 17:19
  You may go for three months before you really dig in and start connecting with people and that's okay.
• 17:23
  'Cause you're gonna pick up tidbits all along the way when you're getting into and involving yourself in those organizations.
• 17:30
  Yeah.
• 17:31
  And if if I could add to that, um, I I just saw this the other day on a video and it said, look for the croissant.
• 17:38
  so the croissant is just a position of a person's feet.
• 17:43
  They're open.
• 17:43
  So they're open to communication.
• 17:45
  Um, and so you know, looking for that for those little small subtle communication cues that you can use to your advantage when
• 17:57
  when you're facing those uncomfortable moments of of introducing yourself, especially if you're an introvert like myself, um, it's very, it's very hard and it takes a lot out of
• 18:07
  you to to go to these events.
• 18:11
  And so when you get home, you're just like, oh my goodness, this is I'm glad that's done.
• 18:17
  but it's a necessary thing that we must do as entrepreneurs to be able to go, uh,
• 18:25
  Go out into the world and and share the kingdom, build the kingdom of God.
• 18:31
  Yeah, and on the opposite side of that as well, find those people who've been there forever and get in with them.
• 18:37
  If you're the biggest person in the room, you're the most knowledgeable person in your room, you're in wrong room.
• 18:42
  My wife gave me a quote, I don't know who said it, I would quote if you find out who it is, you can leave it in comments or something.
• 18:47
  But she said, If you're iron sharpening iron, why are you hanging out with butter knives?
• 18:54
  I was like that.
• 18:55
  you real quick.
• 18:57
  And so a lot of times, you know, you're you're trying to be the big dog, but sometimes you just need to be part of a pack.
• 19:05
  All part of community.
• 19:06
  We're all part of humanity.
• 19:08
  God's called us all to be in a family with him.
• 19:10
  So number one, I would encourage you to get involved with network.
• 19:12
  Number two, get involved with your church.
• 19:15
  Connect with those people, have those deeper conversations.
• 19:18
  Be real with people.
• 19:19
  Don't be afraid as a man to hold back.
• 19:21
  Just be real.
• 19:22
  Because the more real you are, the more you're gonna be real.
• 19:25
  before your Lord and Savior.
• 19:26
  That's just I'm gonna start preaching, I better quit.
• 19:28
  All right.
• 19:30
  So as we end up here, what is your little bit of tidbit of wisdom you wanna leave us with and how can we get in touch with
• 19:38
  what is my tidb of of wisdom?
• 19:41
  Um get uncomfortable.
• 19:45
  I actually have, you know, I pulled a real dad move, uh, but it it it actually illustrates the point perfectly.
• 19:53
  Um just above the thermostat, you know, the the sanctuary of all dads, uh is a sign that reads
• 20:04
  Life begins outside of your comfort zone.
• 20:08
  And you know, it's it really is true because if you stay within that small zone of comfort, you're gonna stay small.
• 20:16
  Um, once you go beyond and and just just even if you tip a toe out, dip a toe out every once in a while, and then you know, get comfortable for this a minute, go for longer next
• 20:28
  time, longer, and then eventually that.
• 20:31
  That uh sphere of influence will grow and you're gonna be like, How did I get to this point?
• 20:38
  so if if you found any sort of value in what I've said today, ah please don't hesitate to reach out.
• 20:46
  You can reach me through my website, uh, fill out the contact information there.
• 20:50
  It'll shoot straight to my email.
• 20:52
  Um, you can also reach out to me if you'd rather talk on the phone.
• 20:56
  I
• 20:57
  my phone number is 765-525-2584.
• 21:04
  and you know, I'll answer.
• 21:05
  Uh it's it's just me on that line.
• 21:08
  There's there you might hear a a Google receptionist, but don't be afraid of her.
• 21:13
  She'll she'll get you to me.
• 21:15
  So um yeah.
• 21:16
  website is Carol Leadership Coaching.
• 21:19
  That's Carol with two L's.
• 21:20
  So there's three L's there in that Carol Leadership Coaching.com.
• 21:24
  Yes, it is.
• 21:25
  Thank you so much for that.
• 21:26
  You're welcome.
• 21:27
  Thanks for being with us today.
• 21:28
  Thank you.