Latest / Not All Business / Stories Over Prompts | Why Leadership Storytelling Beats AI Every Time

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Stories Over Prompts | Why Leadership Storytelling Beats AI Every Time · Not All Business

0:00
Have you ever fallen out of a tanning booth naked?
0:02
Well, neither have I, but today's all about stories.
0:06
We're talking to Julie Lancaster, CEO of Lancaster
0:09
Leadership and author of Beyond Words.
0:11
How our stories and strategies inspire action.
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Julie's calling 2026 the year of leadership storytelling.
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The leaders who win won't be the ones who prompt AI the best.
0:22
They'll be the ones who can influence, connect, and motivate
0:25
through authentic lived experience.
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We're diving into why storytelling matters more than
0:29
ever, how to trigger real motivation in your team.
0:32
We breakdown elements of a story and what you need to make them
0:35
memorable, and how Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway could
0:38
teach you a life lesson. So welcome to Not All Business,
0:41
a podcast by two former CEO's who went from competitors to
0:44
friends. I'm Blakely Graham and my Co
0:47
host is Heather Cooper, and we're joined by our producer
0:50
Clay Cornell. Now let's get down to business.
1:00
Heather, have you been oh, could we do that again?
1:05
Heather 321 and we're live. Oh.
1:11
That's good. We're so we're so you.
1:16
Been following all of our comments lately.
1:19
Yes. It's so great.
1:21
It's so. Great.
1:23
Sudden the listeners have like unleashed and we're getting like
1:27
the best comments like there was one tell me it was after
1:31
Bailey's episode. Remember she said open the
1:34
horseshoe. Someone in the comments did like
1:37
just an emoji array of like a circle and an arrow and then a
1:41
horseshoe and I'm like that would make the.
1:43
Perfect tattoo. How good would that be that
1:46
would be? Oh, and then we had another
1:48
listener say that they want to see get ready with me, which I
1:52
know what those are because I have a teenage daughter that
1:55
sits in front of the mirror and like talks to herself.
1:59
But then someone same list, same listener said G.
2:05
Yeah. What's the acronym?
2:07
I don't know, hold on. It was like could you do a G UW
2:12
RM? Get UN ready with me.
2:16
Yeah, I mean, I had to Google. I didn't know that.
2:18
But like, what does that mean? Do they want to see me, like,
2:21
take off my makeup? Do you do that?
2:24
I don't do it. See, I spend all this money get.
2:26
UN ready. No, because I'm so fucking
2:29
tired. And you know what?
2:30
I I have all of this, all of this stuff that I buy Kirsten,
2:35
God bless her. She tries to keep my face
2:36
looking nice. And like misiller water,
2:39
whatever it's called. I got, I got the, I got the
2:43
products right. I got you got the retinol, you
2:45
got the collagen, you got the stuff you put on your face at
2:47
night. And I bought a.
2:48
New one swears that. I swear to God.
2:51
I mean, maybe once every two weeks.
2:53
Kirsten, I'm so sorry I'm admitting this publicly, but
2:56
you're supposed to do it every night.
2:57
I walk to my bed, I get undressed at my bed and I climb
3:01
into bed. That's that's my get unrady with
3:05
me. I'm sorry.
3:06
I have a pile of like bras and pants next to my bed.
3:11
It's just I get and then it's that's it.
3:13
I'm good in the morning though, really.
3:15
Hoping that's not what she meant.
3:17
I really don't think she wants. To see it was sexier than that.
3:21
No, I, I think she wanted us to like debrief, like our trips
3:25
that we take, our networking events and things like that.
3:29
I don't think she wants to like see this no makeup.
3:31
I really don't. And I don't actually really wear
3:33
a lot of makeup, so she doesn't want to see me put it on either.
3:37
Doesn't make sense. No, I think there's a window for
3:40
that. It's like when you're teen, yes,
3:43
and then. But then also the grandmas that
3:45
do it crack me up and they're adorable.
3:47
I've seen the grandmas that do it.
3:48
Yeah. No one, no one gives us a crap
3:50
at our age but. Well, when does it ramp back up?
3:53
Like how much older do we have to get before we're cool again?
3:56
I don't know 7580. All right, mom, I'm going to
4:03
have my mom do it. Get ready and it get ready.
4:07
It's it's too long. The get ready in the morning.
4:10
I mean, it's like, OK, I sit up in bed, I lay back down and I
4:15
try again, lay back down. Then I try the third time.
4:18
Usually I'll get up, go to the bathroom, come back, sit down.
4:21
It's like it's a whole thing where I'm actually ready to get
4:24
up. I know it's.
4:26
About slow. I'm very peaceful.
4:29
I meditate in between those, by the way.
4:30
Oh. For the love of goodness.
4:32
I don't even pick up my phone. I don't even pick up my.
4:35
That is, that's a double humble brag.
4:37
OK, I Blakely, I know you want to say something, but do either
4:40
of you have a cooler like by your like get ready station?
4:44
Do you have like a like a? Mini fridge.
4:46
Do not. My daughter does.
4:49
Yeah. It's ridiculous.
4:50
Heather, you said you. Do wait, did you say you had
4:52
one? Yeah, I do.
4:54
Sorry, I think it's ridiculous. It's not ridiculous, it's pretty
4:57
freaking great. What's it for 'cause you can't
4:59
fit drinks in there? She puts her to buy her drinks.
5:03
Oh, I'm not putting food in there.
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I'm putting my eye under eye things so they're nice and cool
5:08
and they deep up OK. This doesn't just happen OK.
5:12
This the OK. It's a whole process.
5:17
Hey Clay, I'm curious, how do you know about the little
5:20
fridges that the that the ladies keep in their bathrooms?
5:24
OK, so in a in a previous life, I was a wedding video editor and
5:30
so I would edit basically the get ready with me stuff for the
5:36
women. And that's where I learned
5:39
pretty much most of what I know. So those have been around for a
5:43
while. Yeah, and I was curious about
5:47
the get on ready with me because I've never edited that kind of
5:52
content and I've never watched. And you know, some like I know
5:56
what the get and by the way, the things that women talk about
5:59
when they're getting ready, I mean, it is hot Goss, right?
6:03
But the get on ready with me, like what are you talking about?
6:06
Like everyone's tired and they don't want to talk anymore
6:08
unless it was like. A crazy night.
6:11
Unless it was a crazy night. So what would you talk about
6:13
during a get unrady with me? What are people talking?
6:15
About I don't, I don't know, I don't have crazy nights anymore.
6:19
I really don't or if ever, to be honest, other than that bar
6:22
fight we talked about last week. But.
6:26
I'm taking you out. I'm going to keep you up past
6:28
9:00 one of these days. Yeah.
6:31
It's going to happen and then I'm going to video the whole
6:34
thing. I'm not going to tell you about
6:37
it. I'm just going to do it.
6:38
That'll be. Better I think that I think that
6:40
these get unread. This is my conspiracy hat.
6:44
I think that these get unread with me.
6:46
Videos are a total like corporate created thing to sell
6:53
more products to women and. Pyjamas and products and it
6:57
turns into a competition and little night masks and those
7:00
like glowing fucking plastic things that people put on their
7:04
face. I don't know about those, but I
7:06
believe you. I mean it sounds.
7:07
Red light. You're talking about the red
7:09
light, right? It looks super scary.
7:12
I tried one of those once and they say you can like read while
7:16
you have them on, but it's like blaring red light.
7:19
And I'm like, oh, so I bought those goggles used to wear in
7:22
this sun tanning booth that we don't do anymore.
7:24
We don't do. Those kids.
7:25
I miss the tanning booth. There I do too.
7:27
I. Don't miss the warm there.
7:28
Smell. Smell was gross, but it was so
7:32
warm. Sometimes I would go just to be
7:33
in there just because it'd be warm, you know?
7:35
Detroit is so cold. Yeah, just go warm up for 15
7:38
minutes with some cocoa butter. OK, wait, wait.
7:41
OK, real quick. I've never smelled the smell.
7:45
A burning skin. Yeah, what does it actually
7:47
smell like? Burning flesh.
7:48
It's it's burning flesh, but it's burning.
7:50
They had this brown tropical oil you would put on.
7:54
First, it was called an accelerator.
7:56
Yes. And you would put that on and
7:58
the smell and then you'd have to like wipe down, disinfect the
8:02
bed. It was so disgusting.
8:04
And then they. 'D be like OK, it's five extra
8:06
dollars for the accelerator and they were just Oh my God, the
8:10
money they were making because it would be a little plastic cup
8:12
and that was like squeezed into it and then they were selling
8:15
those for 5 bucks if you wanted to accelerate it.
8:18
Not all of us had your kind of money, OK?
8:20
Some of us, hey. Bullshit.
8:21
It's cheaper if you buy it in bulk.
8:24
Heather, do you want to hear the most embarrassing story for
8:28
someone else? We were in the waiting room of
8:33
the tanning. This is in college when everyone
8:34
was tanning. OK, It was before we knew.
8:36
It was now for you. OK.
8:37
Is wait, first of all, is this East Lansing?
8:39
This is Michigan State University.
8:41
Oh yeah, here we go. Yeah, and my friend and I were
8:43
too poor to have our own tanning package.
8:45
Shout out to you, Leslie. And so we we wore the same
8:48
winter coat and it was the tanning coat.
8:50
And so we had both blonde hair and we had a red jacket.
8:53
And so we would go in every other day because we bought the
8:55
All You Can Tan package. But then we would just wear the
8:57
tanning coat and they would know.
8:59
That's like having a fake ID in. College.
9:01
It was awesome. Anyway, so I was standing there
9:05
in my tanning coat and this poor girl was in one of those stand
9:10
up ones because there's the beds that you can lay down.
9:12
And there's the stand. Ups and they have like the
9:14
handles. So scary.
9:16
And she was totally naked as you do, because you don't want to
9:19
have the tan lines. Whatever.
9:21
She passed out, those poor little she passed out in the
9:25
tanning booth and then fell out out of the tanning booth and out
9:30
into the waiting room because it was the first one.
9:33
So she busted through both doors because she didn't lock the
9:38
first door and she's laying naked.
9:42
It totally passed out on there, Yeah.
9:45
Is she OK? I mean, I don't know.
9:47
We were all laughing so hard. I was, I mean, the workers came
9:50
in and handled it and then we're like looking away.
9:52
I think I grabbed like a towel and kind of threw it over her.
9:56
Topside at like a tanning boost salon because back in my college
10:01
ours were like in the back of a clothing shop.
10:04
It's like they couldn't quite afford to have a whole salon so
10:08
they just had a bed in the back. Room so sketch.
10:12
This sounds this has this industry like progressed like is
10:16
it like safer now or is it they're?
10:18
Still, they still have. They still do it.
10:20
In fact, it's getting on trend again.
10:22
And I'm like, stop it. Like I thought the spray tan is
10:26
supposed to be the safer thing. Now talk.
10:28
About smelling bad. God, the spray tan.
10:30
I've never had one. Do you?
10:31
Remember the Sneetches book? Do you remember the Sneetches
10:34
book? The Starbelly Sneetches.
10:36
And the The Lorax, is that The Lorax?
10:39
Yeah, I don't know where the guy comes to town and he's stamping
10:41
the stars on the belly and it was so cool.
10:44
And then same guy brings in another one.
10:46
He's like, it's not cool to have, you know, the stars on
10:50
your belly anymore. And so then pays them to take it
10:52
off. That's what the tanning industry
10:54
is doing with the laser light therapy because they're like,
10:58
here, come get tanned. And then now it's not cool to be
11:00
tanned. So now here come use this and
11:02
try to get the spots off your faces.
11:05
Oh, and then here you want to be a little bit more tan, right?
11:08
It's just like. It's all the whole circular
11:10
racket, yeah. OK, yeah, we're uncovering.
11:13
This is real off topic today. This is now officially a true
11:17
crime podcast, so we're about to blow up.
11:22
I have thought about that before.
11:24
What do you mean honest to God? You say true crime?
11:26
Could you kill someone via tanning bed?
11:29
Could you? I've thought that when I've been
11:30
laying in it. Like what if someone broke in
11:33
here, locked me in and kept it on totally?
11:37
How long would it take me to die?
11:39
Like, I don't know, you would heat up, you'd boil from the
11:42
inside. Like the radiation?
11:44
On the outside, Oh, gosh, now this is getting gross.
11:47
It's getting gross. OK, I have real news.
11:50
What is it? What is it?
11:52
Did you follow Jason Lemkin or do you follow Jason Lemkin?
11:56
Yeah, everyone follows, right. Everyone follows Jason Limpkin,
12:00
his like post Clay, just I know you don't follow Jason Limpkin.
12:04
He was what did he he founded Echo Sign.
12:10
I think that got bought by Adobe and so successful founder and
12:14
then he became like this voice of sass essentially.
12:18
And there is this annual conference saster and he's kind
12:22
of like the grandfather of it, although I think he's younger
12:25
than me. Anyway, he like just really like
12:28
throws provocative posts out all the time and sometimes they
12:32
grate on me and sometimes I agree with them.
12:34
And there was one that like just popped up today and I purposely
12:39
printed it out knowing who we have on today.
12:41
And I'm only going to read like the first sentence and I'll
12:43
summarize it. So watching 3 founder CE OS at
12:49
200 million plus ARR quit their startups the past two weeks or
12:54
so. And then he goes on to say like,
12:56
oh, how he kind of gets why they quit.
12:59
And then he goes on to say, but quitting because it got harder
13:03
in the age of AI. No respect, none at all.
13:09
I take issue with that because think about our companies,
13:15
Heather, project management apps, they are still out there.
13:20
They're still going strong, They're still growing.
13:24
And yet would I have started that company today?
13:30
Would you have started that company today?
13:35
I would have started it with a lot less people and a lot less
13:37
money. I would have had you could
13:39
still, you know, you're just so able to pivot so quickly now.
13:44
So I think it's a different model.
13:45
I mean, I think there's always still going to be a need for
13:47
people who aren't going to go out and build their own
13:50
solution. I mean, yes, you can vibe code
13:53
and yes, you can get there, but you still have to know enough
13:55
about what you don't know to actually make it work for you.
13:58
And at that point it's like diminishing returns.
14:00
Like maybe it's just easier to use QuickBooks then go build my
14:03
own? Yeah, you're right.
14:07
But you would go in eyes wide open I guess.
14:11
And my struggle with this post is 200 million AR.
14:15
First of all, let's just say a founder is still running a
14:19
company with 200 million AR That's unheard.
14:22
That's I don't even believe it. Is.
14:24
He saying they're bootstrapped. No, I, I had plays question AR
14:30
is at annual recurring revenue. So like how much subscription
14:33
dollars you're getting? Were they bootstrapped?
14:35
So he mentioned something about it being, he says, stay
14:39
bootstrap, do whatever you want. But then he also says, you know,
14:45
you took on a lot of capital. So I'm a little, I'm a little
14:49
confused by that, but he writes growth way down, no M&A options.
14:53
It's supposed to get easier at that stage, but now it's harder
14:56
than ever. New AI competitors everywhere,
14:58
no access to capital, loss of market share, but there's a loss
15:01
of a lot of stuff like, you know, when you had your
15:03
competitors like I, I could watch cloud coach, you know, and
15:08
you could watch task grade. We kind of knew, oh, I know it.
15:11
We would like know what each other's moves would be.
15:15
And it was slower, right? And capital was like free and
15:19
cheap back then practically. And so I just I struggle with
15:23
this like we're not saying, hey, it was really hard first of all,
15:27
for that founder to get to 200 million founder burnout's real.
15:30
And all the sudden like literally overnight bam and AI
15:36
bomb goes off and we're like not expected to want to quit Look.
15:40
And they have no respect. Like I just that bummed me out.
15:44
Like I get it, like you don't want to leave your company, but
15:49
also like everything changed over Flippin Knight.
15:55
So how do you become like the founder?
15:58
That can lead through that too. Like it's just you're much to
16:01
ask. I agree with you in that then
16:03
you are transitioning into a founder of a new company because
16:06
there's no way your company can just remain the way it was.
16:09
And so now you're saying, OK, so I've gotten the company this
16:12
far, it has to completely shift and change.
16:16
And if not, I'm going to lose everything.
16:17
So am I up for this like new startup of that's going to have
16:21
to be a new thing and I can get people being like, no, actually
16:24
I'm not. And frankly, I don't know
16:26
anything about it because everybody that's coming in, it's
16:28
like they have no history of this.
16:30
They have, there was really not a ton of ways to prepare.
16:33
So they're having to learn, relearn a whole new business
16:36
model. It really is like starting over.
16:38
It is starting over. And you know, I always say like
16:41
there's a stage and a time for everyone in your company.
16:45
And my stage and time was, you know, like to 10, maybe I could
16:49
have made it to 50 million, but I wasn't going to ever be the
16:53
person to get us to 200. Yeah.
16:55
And so. Exactly how to be the person to?
16:57
Go to AI. Yeah.
16:59
And then what? What multiple did you get out?
17:02
Nice. Try.
17:03
I know exactly what kind of math you're trying.
17:05
To get so close this time we got.
17:07
So I'm going to, I think it might need to involve involve
17:09
alcohol to get out of her. I think it's a get UN ready with
17:14
me type. It's a get UN ready with me so
17:16
bleakly. Hey, can you pass me that
17:18
blanket? Hey, what was that again?
17:19
What did you? What was that?
17:21
Just kidding. All all I'm saying to like come
17:25
full circle is if I wasn't the founder to get us to 200
17:29
million, I probably also wasn't the founder to get us through
17:33
AI, right? Like I was already.
17:35
Well, and I think there's a lot of founders and that night, I
17:38
just don't think we need to shame anyone who isn't going to
17:41
be the one to reinvent their company through AIAI or reinvent
17:46
themselves. But maybe it is possible.
17:48
And that is why I think we should pause and bring on our
17:52
guest Julie, because I know she has a great point of view of
17:55
leadership and leading through the age of AI.
17:59
And I'm curious about it because it looks pretty damn tough.
18:05
So let's bring Julie on. Let's.
18:07
Bring her on. Hi, Julie.
18:12
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podcasts. Nice to see.
19:12
You it's great to see you too. Thank you so much for.
19:14
Being here, did you enjoy our getting ready?
19:17
Oh my gosh, all I'm thinking about is the tanning bed smell.
19:21
Yes. Right.
19:22
Did you get? Do you remember the smell?
19:24
Prom. I remember it like it was
19:26
yesterday. And you had to figure out when
19:30
you were going to go tanning so that you could like let that
19:32
smell wear off, shower, put other lotion on that's.
19:35
Real, real big. Yes, yeah.
19:38
Oh, did you remember? Trying to lotion over the smell
19:41
like like if you didn't have time for the shower.
19:44
Yeah, and we then go on to the whole next idea of like self
19:47
tanning cream, which also has a smell.
19:50
Yeah, it does. It does I.
19:52
Wonder what it is that makes it smell so it's.
19:55
Probably banned. It is some not safe chemical
20:00
that's you know. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty nasty,
20:04
but worth it 'cause I 'cause we look so good though.
20:07
That's all that matters. That's the that's the other
20:10
thing is we didn't like it did. A little bit orange.
20:15
Yes, like so unhealthy. I don't know why.
20:19
Anyway, brainwashed. I guess so.
20:22
OK, So what do you think, Julie? What was your response to
20:25
Blakely's LinkedIn question here?
20:28
Is that? My response to that is I believe
20:33
in anybody who's willing to have resilience, and I think
20:37
resilience can look different to everybody.
20:39
And I don't think it's anybody's business to tell anybody else
20:43
what their resilience should look like.
20:45
So whether it's in quotes quitting, or whether it's
20:48
changing directions or it's doubling down or whatever, it's
20:51
our one life and let's do what we want and what seems like the
20:54
right thing. There's no there's no room for
20:57
shaming other people. I agree and you know, I want to
21:00
get into you talk a lot about self motivation and I want to
21:03
get into that, but like it. If that were my company, I'd be
21:07
looking at it and say, OK, well, here's the deal.
21:09
I could stay in business at 200 ARR and then I could do like a
21:13
bolt on AI thing to try to still seem relevant.
21:16
But the truth is those companies are going to be even worse
21:20
situations because you're competing against other people
21:22
who are starting with AI native ground up that are always going
21:25
to iterate faster than trying to push an old product into AI,
21:30
vice versa. So the motivation that it would
21:33
take to do that would be intense and you'd really have to check
21:37
in with yourself and know whether that's, you know, going
21:40
to be possible. So that's one thing.
21:42
If you're the the founder, the CEO and you have that
21:44
flexibility to walk away, right? What do you do if you are the
21:50
COO or the VP of whatever and you're in a situation where now
21:55
the CEO is deciding to stay but kind of going the other way?
21:58
How do you how do you navigate gearing up and getting motivated
22:03
to do something that you might not necessarily believe in?
22:06
Oh, it's so good, right? Because we all know the people.
22:09
We all know the people. And we've been these people too
22:11
who are like, I can struggle through anything.
22:15
Yeah. And that's OK for like a short
22:17
term solution. But that is not the way to do a
22:20
life, right? And talking to ourselves is a
22:24
lot of how we do the self motivation.
22:25
But if we're trying to motivate somebody else, we can tell
22:29
stories just like it's already happening here, right?
22:33
The tanning bed. And I can see, I can see the
22:35
place that I used to go. I mean, telling stories, that's
22:39
what people care about. It gets them to feel.
22:42
They say that, that the idea with storytelling is getting
22:46
people not to not flatline, but to actually feel.
22:48
And when we feel we're apparently 261 times more
22:52
compelled to action. Really.
22:55
So, OK, just being a good storyteller isn't good just for
22:58
like, around the dinner table, but you're saying at in the
23:01
boardroom that being a powerful storyteller can actually elicit
23:05
action. Exactly.
23:06
Now here's the thing though, there's a lot of terrible ways
23:08
to tell stories. And I I grew up thinking I hated
23:11
stories, honestly. Really.
23:13
So you grew up under 2 bad storytellers?
23:15
Sounds like oh is that like long winded drawn on?
23:20
Exactly. You must know.
23:22
You must know the people I know. No, just kidding.
23:25
Yeah, I think she does. Actually.
23:27
That's the long winded hostage taking.
23:30
Like when I was young, I was polite, I was nice, I would
23:33
smile and nod and inside I'd be thinking where is the nearest
23:38
fork for me to like, gauge out my.
23:40
Eye, but I they're like, oh, she was really enjoying it.
23:44
Exactly. And I thought, what can I do?
23:47
I need to feign my own death and because are.
23:52
These your parents you're talking about?
23:54
Don't. Make her out.
23:56
But now, And the second answer is I will never divulge who I'm
23:59
talking about. No need to throw anyone under
24:02
the bus. However, there might grandpa
24:04
relation. There might be some.
24:07
Sorry, Grandpa. They know who they are.
24:09
Probably not. Okay, so.
24:12
And now I recognize in all the training that I do or when I'm
24:16
working with folks who could use a little dose of motivation,
24:20
when I can do two different kinds of stories.
24:22
One, it's the stories that humanize the challenge where I'm
24:26
like, here's how I sucked too, or here's how it was really hard
24:31
for me too. Like if someone was not knowing
24:37
how to prioritize, like if I was having a corrective conversation
24:40
with them about like they needed to prioritize things better,
24:43
which seems to be a common conversation at work.
24:45
I might whip out the story of when I was getting to give the
24:52
motivational speech, the motivational talk at a
24:55
graduation. And there's all the graduates
24:57
and they've walked in and they're sitting down and I've
25:00
worked really hard on my speech and I'm going to, like, change
25:02
their lives. And I've got the twinkle in my
25:04
eye and there's 1000 people in front of me.
25:07
And I start, you know, I grip the mic just like this.
25:10
And I look just like this. And I start talking 10 seconds
25:13
in. One of my colleagues on the
25:15
stage behind me, I was the Dean of education at the time and I
25:19
think she was the executive director.
25:20
She said, and we all know like, what means.
25:25
And I was like, I am kind of busy here.
25:28
But I slowly looked around, like to look at her and she did this
25:32
motion and it was like taking her hand from like eye level
25:36
down to her shoulders. And I thought, I have no idea
25:40
what that body language is. What are you doing?
25:42
So I turned back around, tried to get back in my groove,
25:45
started talking again. 10 seconds later, she was like
25:47
Julie. And I was like, this is
25:49
ridiculous. And then she said she actually
25:52
used words and she said you may all be seated.
25:57
Oh, everyone was still standing. I did like the slow lookout into
26:02
the audience and I was like, there are 1000 bits of
26:07
information standing quite literally in front of me giving
26:11
me information that I am totally not seeing.
26:14
And so right. And then I was able to try and
26:16
make it kind of me, like, you may all be seated.
26:18
And they all collectively sighed.
26:20
And I was like, Oh my gosh. And I tried to say like, you
26:22
thought I'd make you stand there all day.
26:24
And they all laughed but kind of were like, thank God she's
26:27
studying. Me right, like see gosh, she's
26:29
got that yeah. OK, so this, that was a great
26:31
story. Thank you.
26:33
So I want to hear, I want to break that story down and I'm
26:36
going to get into what are the elements of a good story because
26:39
I could tell when you were transitioning from us just kind
26:42
of having this conversation and we're hypothesizing about XYZ
26:46
and then it transitioned into your, your voice kind of she's
26:49
like, I want to hear why that was just because you really
26:52
brought me in and I was really, I didn't know where it was going
26:55
and I was excited to hear more, but I wasn't thinking about
26:58
myself. I wasn't checking the time.
26:59
I wasn't, I was actually engaged.
27:01
So I want to hear what you did there.
27:03
Well, actually, I love hearing that feedback because we all of
27:07
us know that if we are going to sit down and have a meeting,
27:11
like if someone's like, oh, here, join one more meeting, put
27:13
another meeting on your calendar.
27:15
There are very few people who are like, yay, It's more like,
27:18
oh, what do I have to do now? And so there's a difference even
27:24
if we start a story with a meeting.
27:27
But again, these important parameters matter because we
27:30
want to get people to feel. We want to inspire to action.
27:32
People won't always pick up what we're putting down.
27:36
But OK, here are the components. First of all, I want to say what
27:40
we don't have to do. We as leaders don't need to go
27:43
out there and study the craft of storytelling because if we do
27:48
that, we never will. And then we'll never tell
27:50
stories. Or we'll tell us.
27:52
We'll tell them. Thank you for that.
27:54
Yeah, that was a nice. That's a relief.
27:56
That's good. Exactly.
27:58
Like what's the beginning, the middle, and the end?
28:00
That's exhausting and it feels really too academic.
28:03
But I want to share with you this model because it's an
28:07
acronym that we can remember. It's rest, REST.
28:11
And these are just the four things to keep in mind.
28:13
So the first is, it might seem simple, but it's not.
28:18
The first is it should relate to what the person in front of you
28:22
is actually interested in. Not this whole I would like to
28:25
take up airspace, or I just remembered something or this is
28:29
the worst one. You just told a story about you,
28:32
so now I want to tell a story about me.
28:34
Oh man, that one drives me crazy.
28:36
Right there. Felt that, yeah.
28:40
Oh my God, there was this time when I I'm just kidding.
28:43
Exactly. I'm like, Oh my gosh, does she
28:45
know she's doing? Just like that.
28:47
Don't. Scare us like that.
28:49
I'm sure I do do it all the time, but anyway, OK.
28:51
Well, and it and another thing for us to remember another
28:54
acronym is wait, which is why am I talking?
28:59
Just. Stop and consider talking.
29:01
Oh, that one is good. Good.
29:03
Right. Good.
29:04
So for for us to consider that if I'm just trying to take up
29:07
airspace or feel special, just stop.
29:09
So you want to relate. The second is can we engage?
29:13
Now this sounds so simple. When I was the Dean of education
29:18
and I was working at this small college, I would get one time a
29:23
month to have a faculty meeting and I had 1/2 an hour with all
29:27
the faculty and I can pack an agenda.
29:31
I'm like a hard charger. I want to get through all the
29:33
important things. There was like no time for
29:35
hellos. And there are always these two
29:38
people who would try and raise their hand and one person would
29:42
be like, I wonder if we could do it this way or someone else
29:46
would be like, I don't know if that's a good idea.
29:48
And I thought, don't you know, decisions have already been
29:52
made. We've got a plan.
29:53
Just get on board. Aren't you a team player?
29:56
And The thing is, is that I prided myself on how I taught in
30:01
the classroom. I had classes like introduction
30:05
to motivation or communication styles and and so I knew a thing
30:12
or two about communication. I felt like I engaged the
30:14
students so well. I forgot that that was a
30:17
transferable skill that I could bring into my meetings.
30:21
Those 4 poor folks who like suffered through my meetings
30:24
where I thought the best meetings were when nobody was
30:27
talking except for me. So terrible.
30:30
So the second is, can we engage even if it's like, can anyone
30:35
relate to that and just ask people to raise their hand or
30:39
have you experienced this before?
30:41
So you're getting a nod or an uh huh or a no, you don't have to
30:45
turn over the floor because if you're trying to tell a story,
30:49
you don't want to do that. You want to keep it, but somehow
30:52
be engaging with your audience. So that's to engage.
30:56
The third is probably my favorite one, which is keep it
30:59
short. It's so simple.
31:03
So 5 minutes or less, 3 minutes or even is even better even it
31:07
can be a 22nd story, which we want to be clear what we're
31:10
talking about by storytelling, we're talking about our own real
31:14
lived experience. So right, it might be this
31:19
morning. Here's the thing that happened
31:21
or yesterday when I did this. I don't know something that's
31:26
that's relevant. I just had a chance to have
31:29
coffee with Robert Chaldini, who's one of my acts.
31:33
Oh my gosh. That's cool.
31:35
He's my. Gurus.
31:36
He wrote the first book that I actually took notes on, like in
31:41
a Word document, his book on he's the like the godfather of
31:44
influence, right? And and so I got to sit down in
31:48
Phoenix, AZ with him at a coffee shop.
31:51
He ordered a small mint tea, which I thought, oh, that's
31:56
something unique, sweet and peculiar.
31:58
And I got to ask him all about storytelling because he's, you
32:01
know, all about influence. And he said 3 minutes or shorter
32:06
and introduce mystery, Like somehow get people to something
32:12
where you're making them. Hungry.
32:13
Be on their edge, like, like you did.
32:15
Like, what does this mean and the like, right.
32:19
That's all mystery, yeah. That was that was like leaning
32:21
in. What was that?
32:22
What I'm like, does she honestly?
32:25
I honestly was like, did your pants fall down and you didn't
32:28
know? Like I'm like my mind is going
32:30
like. Did your is your bra hook?
32:32
Right. Like is you showing cleavage?
32:34
Probably. What does it mean?
32:36
Yeah. Yeah.
32:38
So keep it short, right? Keep it short and somehow be
32:41
interesting. There's this quote who's it's
32:44
sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, which is, I'm sorry, I
32:47
didn't have the time to write you a shorter letter.
32:51
So it's right like make it powerful.
32:54
The last one. The last one then is the theme.
32:58
What's the point? What's the actual like, why are
33:02
you telling it? What's the moral of the story?
33:04
What's the lesson you're hoping that they get?
33:07
I would tell that graduation story if someone was struggling
33:10
to see the right priorities and for me to say, look, I didn't
33:13
even see that it was a priority. 1000 bits of information right
33:16
in front of me. So I've been there too.
33:19
So now I have the confidence that you can turn this around.
33:21
Let's help you figure out how to how to prioritize better.
33:25
And so we want to think about what's the theme, if there's a
33:29
lot of themes that can be helpful in the workplace, right?
33:35
Resilience, right? Like we were what we were
33:38
starting to talk about. Here's a time that I struggled
33:40
to bounce back or bounce forward and then I was able to, it could
33:45
be about self-confidence. It could be about when we have
33:50
change in front of us and change looks hard or it looks unknown
33:55
in front of us, but we've been here before and we can do this.
33:58
And so it could be a story about any of that.
34:01
The point when you bring it home, if you have already told
34:06
them through a story and you kind of brought them along that
34:08
they're going to remember that forever versus just one
34:11
conversation where you drop it in and it makes sense.
34:13
And that's a good point. Are they going to remember it?
34:15
They're going to remember the story, that visual of all of
34:18
those people standing there. I've one more quick question, of
34:21
course, question on the short piece of it because I struggle
34:26
with that painfully. What very long are the?
34:30
Details I am, but it's because I'm so excited or I want you to
34:34
know everything that's in my head and I want to get it out
34:36
right and. So.
34:37
I I struggle with which details to include and which ones to
34:42
leave out because I that details running through my head and I'm
34:45
like is this relevant? Is it not like the tanning coat?
34:48
So I told the story of the tanning bed.
34:50
My story was about how this chick fell out in the waiting
34:53
room. The tanning coat had nothing to
34:55
do with that story. It just.
34:57
Popped in my head a story of my opinion.
34:59
The tanning coat, I just never know, like, what to leave in and
35:05
what to get out. And then sometimes you can see
35:07
people's faces for that. You're like losing them.
35:09
They're like, OK, where is this going?
35:13
That's the most important piece because quite frankly, if you
35:16
haven't told this story before, it's a shitty first draft,
35:20
right? You're like testing it and.
35:22
We all well. No, yours was not.
35:25
No, it was. It's fine.
35:28
But don't forget the camera. We were telling it for the first
35:30
time. We're like that.
35:31
Was AD minus. We learned.
35:34
We learned and so it's practice. Once you've told it the first
35:39
time, next time you're going to be like, I know what to put in
35:42
and what to take out. The other thing is that you read
35:45
your audience. So if you're starting to lose
35:47
someone and you have the idea that short is better, you're
35:51
going to quickly figure out how to transition.
35:54
So I think it's just it's, it's that.
35:57
Got it? And what if you're married to
35:58
someone who likes to interrupt your stories to bring attention
36:01
back on himself? Are you talking to Scott?
36:04
Hypothetically. Hypothetically, so that's.
36:07
Great. I'm talking about Nick.
36:09
He calls it color commentary. I'm like, keep it to yourself.
36:13
I'll color my own commentary. That's interesting.
36:16
Well, I think that starts getting into communication
36:19
styles because there's this concept of dynamic conversation.
36:22
Have you heard this? No, no.
36:25
Well, it's what you both are really good at with a podcast is
36:29
if someone's talking, someone else interjects, which is
36:32
intended to add because it's about the excitement.
36:35
Yeah, but some folks. Don't worry about.
36:40
Your name or introvert? Extrovert.
36:41
It's like I'm supposed to talk and then it's your turn and when
36:44
you're done then it's my. Turn.
36:46
So this could be a little bit of that.
36:49
OK. All right, good.
36:51
We're going to work on it. That's your homework, OK,
36:55
Marriage. Council earlier, earlier you
36:58
gave us permission to not go out and like read the book on
37:01
storytelling, right? We just need to know rest, REST.
37:06
My question is, and I know this comes up a lot, so Clay,
37:09
Heather, you're kind of like bored of it.
37:12
I have a memory problem. It's a real thing.
37:16
So sometimes I want to tell a story, but I don't really have
37:20
any stories in the story bank. Are you are the A, are there
37:23
tricks for that? B, are you like journaling these
37:26
down and then tagging them like resilience?
37:31
Great change. I love you.
37:34
You're so fucking operational. I love how your brain works.
37:37
No, I love you. It's a gift.
37:39
I love that you're trying to put tabs on your stories that don't
37:42
exist yet. It's really cute.
37:45
Stories are there but like do I need to see a hip Rolodex?
37:51
Well, good question is, is that I think you are exactly right on
37:54
track. So so here's what I have the the
37:58
benefit of getting to tell a lot of stories.
38:01
And one of the most important things I think about
38:03
storytelling is not to let people know that this is the
38:06
17th time you've told it. It's not like when I tell this
38:11
story, this is what I always say, ignore that.
38:13
Like this is the first time I'm ever telling this.
38:17
And so honestly, you just have to figure out what the story is
38:22
first. And then that's so funny that
38:24
you use the term story bank because in my book Beyond Words,
38:28
which is about storytelling and and about how to utilize that in
38:32
leadership, it says create a story bank exactly with what
38:36
you've said. Great.
38:38
A class, yeah. A+ story Bank.
38:43
Because honestly, I'm I'm the same.
38:45
I don't think there's anything wrong with you, your memory.
38:47
I think you're so present that it's hard to think of the past
38:50
in the moment. For example, here's even this
38:53
SO. That is a nice reframe.
38:55
Well, it's true that. It's true.
38:58
Yeah. When So I teach, I do a lot of
39:00
team building activities, right. Some people love those things,
39:02
some people hate them. But like games with tarps and
39:06
balls and things and when agree, no trust falls and no kumbaya.
39:11
But just about anything else, yeah.
39:14
And when a group will come to me and say, OK, we want to work on
39:17
trust, that's a comment on or we want to work on accountability
39:22
or we want to work. On.
39:26
We want to work on patients and I'm like, and I'm thinking as
39:31
I'm sitting here, which team building activity would be the
39:34
best? My mind goes blank.
39:36
So I have to go to my my document where I've written out
39:39
just in like weird code, like the two-minute dump.
39:42
No one else even knows what that means, but I know what it means.
39:45
And then there's 50 and I'm like, ah, yeah, I should do this
39:48
one and this one. But to have them all at the
39:50
ready in my mind, I only remember a few and it's kind of
39:53
a disservice if I just rely on my memory.
39:56
Yeah, OK. I can.
39:57
There you go, blankly. I'm going to throw the burn book
40:01
out. I'm going to replace it with the
40:03
story. And you want to know how you
40:06
could get started? OK.
40:08
Yes, this is your homework and I want to hear back in a week.
40:12
No, I'm just kidding. With my get on ready with me.
40:16
Exactly at the end of the day, do this.
40:19
My debris, yeah. OK, so Matthew Dicks.
40:22
He's written a book called Story Worthy, and he has this strategy
40:28
called Homework for Life. And it's once a day.
40:31
And I just do it when I'm brushing my teeth because I'm
40:34
held hostage during that time. And I really shouldn't be trying
40:37
to make the bed or open the blinds because it ends in
40:40
disaster. He says for, you know, 30
40:43
seconds each day. Just think back, what was
40:45
something somewhat noteworthy that happened today?
40:49
Now I'm the same as you and I, well, sometimes they worry about
40:53
my memory. And if someone was like, well,
40:55
remember back to what you did this week, I'd be like, I don't
40:58
remember what I did this week, but I can generally remember
41:00
what I did today. And he.
41:03
Says just. Keep it as a note.
41:05
I just put it in my phone. I think he uses an Excel doc or
41:08
something like that. And you just make a tiny note
41:10
that the thing happened and that's then the potential seed
41:14
for a potential story later. Because it is painful to try and
41:18
sit there and be like, try and come up with a story about when
41:22
I had to overcome a challenge. And like, then I started
41:26
thinking, what challenges if I've ever faced in my life, have
41:28
I ever done anything? I can't remember.
41:31
Yeah, I just thinking that through.
41:34
I bet you this technique also works really well in interviews,
41:37
right? Like like that's the question
41:39
you'll get. You'll have to overcome a how
41:42
did you overcome a challenge? And if you have a story bank,
41:45
like what a powerful way to engage someone you're
41:48
interviewing with. I love.
41:49
That that's so true and people the interviewers just want it's
41:53
behavioral interviews these. Days, right?
41:55
That's right. And so they tell me about the
41:57
time when, yeah, if not, you'll come up with a terrible I I've
42:02
heard such terrible stories that I'm like, that's all I could
42:04
think of. Like blah.
42:06
Yeah. What about intergenerational SO
42:10
communicating one generation to another?
42:12
Do you have any tips for people of an older generation talking
42:15
to a younger and vice versa? Absolutely, because I don't know
42:24
if this is a gendered thing or not, but I've had several older
42:28
men who I, who ask for coaching, ask for coaching on this topic.
42:32
Not necessarily for their grandkids, but for younger
42:35
folks. They're like, I have so much
42:37
wisdom, but when I start sharing my wisdom with the younger
42:41
folks, they glaze over. So what do I do?
42:45
Good for them for caring. Yeah, exactly.
42:48
They're like, I want to be relevant.
42:49
I want to be helpful, but I don't know.
42:52
I don't quite know how to do it. And quite frankly, it comes back
42:55
to the R of rest, like during the pandemic.
42:58
My dad, who lives on the East Coast and is part of a church,
43:03
he said, Julie, can you teach me and the other folks in this
43:07
church, like through Zoom about how we can connect better with
43:10
our grandkids? And I thought some kind kind
43:16
thought. And so we did this great Zoom
43:19
call and it was really about, well, first it's about what
43:22
interests them. So let's talk about music.
43:26
Let's talk about games, probably video games.
43:29
And first you're going to ask them what they like to play and
43:31
what they like to listen to. And then you're going to go do
43:33
the research and you're going to go listen to that music.
43:36
And then you're going to ask if you can sit.
43:37
Down and then be horrified. What's that?
43:39
This is what we did with Eminem with Daily.
43:41
Horrifying. Yeah.
43:42
We're getting getting her on the trail.
43:45
Yeah. So, so start with yeah, we're
43:48
all going to play. So did they do it?
43:51
Did it? Did it work?
43:52
I, I guess I didn't get the whole whole afterwards finding
43:57
out, but I got to watch my dad with my at the time my kids were
44:02
what, like 12 and 16? I watched him try and I thought
44:09
it was the sweetest thing I've ever seen.
44:11
Yeah, yeah, the clay, this. Reminds me of when your dad when
44:16
you had Emeris and Emeris was, I don't know, 3-4 ish and he went
44:23
out and bought a scooter. Do you remember that?
44:26
And he he could learn to scoot. Yes, and he went and he would go
44:30
and he rode the scooter in the bike park and stuff and he just
44:33
wanted something to be relatable with his grandson.
44:36
Oh. That's.
44:37
So sweet he bought a sick scooter like this.
44:40
Thing is. Amazing.
44:43
It's really cool. And we did.
44:44
We went to the skate park and we skated around and we had we
44:48
learned to wear our helmets together and it was awesome.
44:52
It was great. It was an amazing thing that he
44:54
did. And he knows that's just one
44:56
thing. He's done that in so many ways.
44:57
But like Julie said, he goes and does the research.
45:00
He learns about this stuff. He has a curious mind.
45:03
So he'll ask a question and then actually go learn a little bit
45:07
about it or listen enough to find out enough to care more
45:09
about it. And then he can engage on stuff
45:12
like Minecraft, dog man, scootering, all the stuff that
45:15
emers cares about so. Yeah.
45:18
It totally works. Totally works.
45:20
It works and it works in the workplace too, right?
45:22
There's so many generations in the workplace and sometimes
45:25
that's a, a source of contention, right?
45:28
Like how do the really seasoned folks feel valuable and get to
45:32
impart wisdom to the folks who are not as seasoned and want to
45:38
move at a more rapid speed? Yeah.
45:40
And I think like, like the YC, what is that Y Combinator?
45:46
What Y Combinator? Y Combinator Anyway, you know,
45:49
they'll be investing in these 2020 223 year olds and they'll
45:54
throw them, you know, $5,000,000 to, you know, launch this
45:57
business idea. And so these guys get so cocky,
46:01
so many of them, like you'll see him presenting.
46:03
Last year we saw him present at Human X and they're on stage
46:06
and, and they're just feeling so proud.
46:09
And they're brilliant minds. Don't get me wrong, they really
46:12
are, but they're lacking what I've talked to.
46:14
When you talk to these folks, these other VCs and PE firms,
46:19
one thing they don't love about the YC is that they're missed.
46:23
They've never built a business. They don't understand the grind
46:26
of it and everything. They just take so much for
46:28
granted. And I think the younger
46:31
generation looking at older generation, especially in tech
46:35
is tough because they just don't have the respect, frankly, of
46:39
understanding what that older generation has kind of been
46:43
through and learned because they do, myself included, come off
46:46
like, oh, I didn't know the excels could do that, The
46:49
spreadsheet could move that or, you know, whatever.
46:51
Like it's and they're just quicker and they have these
46:53
types of skills. And it comes off like the older
46:55
person doesn't get it or is an inept or is too slow to move
46:58
along with the times. And it just skips over all of
47:01
that wisdom and knowledge, and it's not valued enough in our
47:04
world, especially if they're not like the CEO, right?
47:07
If it's just a middle level manager who's 55 years old,
47:11
they're kind of overlooked. That's true.
47:14
And it and it takes us back to emotional intelligence for any
47:17
generation, for any way that we're different from people.
47:20
And all of us know that, that the beauty of the way to create
47:24
a strong team is to have folks who aren't all the same.
47:28
But it starts with, if we're looking at the emotional
47:30
intelligence model, it starts with having self-awareness.
47:33
What are my strengths? What am I and growth areas and
47:36
it moves into how do I make choices?
47:39
How do I regulate right when I'm when I might be feeling
47:42
impatient or I'm wanting to move at the speed of lightning and,
47:46
and have heads roll in between, I don't know, like, and then it
47:51
moves to self motivation. And then there's an empathy
47:53
piece. And then there's social
47:54
relationships, all the five levels.
47:56
If we can't do that, we there's that old African proverb, if you
48:00
want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go
48:03
together. Oh yeah, that's a good one.
48:06
That's important. Yeah.
48:08
So how what? What advice would you give to a
48:11
younger generation working with an older generation?
48:14
How to communicate and tell stories?
48:16
When we're telling stories, I think the intent in the
48:19
workplace and in a lot of places, but if we're talking
48:21
about the workplace is to influence and to connect.
48:25
Right. They like progress.
48:27
They've lived their life trying to achieve it.
48:29
Have you? Heard of reverse mentoring.
48:32
So I think this concept can be really helpful when there's
48:36
generations who were in the classrooms of the industry in at
48:40
really different times. So reverse mentor.
48:43
Well, first, this is my favorite, one of my favorite
48:46
quotes. They say if you're over 40, you
48:49
should have a mentor who's 25 years old or younger.
48:53
That's nice. Yeah.
48:53
I have two of those, Kate and Jake, my children.
48:56
Yeah. Right, right, right.
48:58
This reminds me of that movie The Intern.
49:00
I love that movie with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.
49:04
Exactly. Love it.
49:05
Right, right. And so that's what reverse
49:08
mentorship is. But if we call this reverse plus
49:11
mentorship, it's a really great tool that that leaders and
49:16
organizations can have. Whereas there's someone who's
49:19
really seasoned and there's someone who's less seasoned, but
49:22
the the person who's more seasoned, there's a two way
49:24
exchange so the seasoned leader can share.
49:28
Here's here's our decision logic.
49:30
Here's our customer history. Here are the land mines we've
49:33
already stepped on and and the younger can person can do.
49:38
Here's how we might use AI. Here's how we increase
49:44
efficiency. Here's how we cut out
49:49
traditional ways that are no longer helpful.
49:51
And so there's a mutual respect. What do you think about that?
49:57
I love that. I would love it if like for
50:00
every decision or project that comes up, if you were tasked
50:06
younger generation and older generation with basically like
50:10
the pro con, like what you just said.
50:13
Like what if it was your job as an elder in the organization to
50:17
say all the land mines and then come around and be like, and
50:21
this is how I would do it, right?
50:23
And just like let them think on both sides of their brain and
50:25
then have the young dude. You know what happens.
50:28
You know what happens if you don't do this?
50:30
If you make an older person, an organization, feel irrelevant,
50:34
feel like they don't understand or there doesn't count anymore,
50:37
they know damn well you're heading down the path.
50:39
Yes. They do.
50:40
They know. And they're like, OK, really OK.
50:43
You know, OK, yeah, you should try that.
50:44
Oh, never thought of that. And that.
50:47
And they're just sit back and laugh and they, you know, they
50:50
collect a paycheck. They're disengaged and they're
50:52
just, they don't feel respected. So they're like, why am I going
50:54
to go out of my way to help you? You don't have, you don't care
50:57
what I think anyway. And then then you have a single
51:00
company learning the same lessons over and over again
51:03
because they're not collaborating.
51:05
Yeah, yeah. This has been incredible.
51:08
A few things that stuck with me is we we covered so much today,
51:12
but I love the goal of a story is to influence and connect.
51:18
And that human necessity that we have to rely on right now across
51:23
generations, across borders, as one human to another, to
51:28
influence and connect is more important than ever.
51:32
I love the idea of doing that through story and it's
51:37
interesting and it's memorable. And there's probably going to be
51:40
a laugh or there's going to be a moment of reflection in a story.
51:44
So I think, I think, I think humans might have a chance.
51:47
Here is what I'm saying. Yeah, I think I think we might
51:51
beat the bots if we can learn how to talk to each other
51:53
through story and relate to each other, engage.
51:58
Keep it short, Heather. Keep it short and have a theme
52:01
to tie it all in together. It's it's going to spread.
52:05
And we were seeing that all over.
52:07
So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
52:09
Before we let you go, we want to ask you a question we do ask of
52:12
all of our guests and we ask ourselves as well, which is what
52:16
brought a smile to your face this week.
52:19
What brother? You could think Clay Blakely if
52:22
you guys want to jump in first, if you.
52:23
I've got 1. Good.
52:25
Let's go, Clay, Let's go. Clay.
52:27
It better be a good story, though.
52:29
We're going to be. Under 3 minutes please.
52:31
OK. Keep it short.
52:32
Under 1, yeah. This past weekend, I had a
52:36
little birthday party and people were kind of filing in, and we
52:40
ended up in this little vault in the back of this old building.
52:44
And it's kind of this like heavy door that like, don't shut it,
52:48
you might get locked in. But it was kind of like a cozy
52:51
little atmosphere. And my sister Chelsea came and
52:56
we were talking and her and her husband shared that Chelsea is
53:00
expecting her again. Yeah.
53:02
So I have a new family member coming later this year.
53:06
I'm very excited. Oh.
53:07
My. Gosh, yeah.
53:09
Are you allowed to say that? I texted her like about 30
53:12
minutes ago and asked if it was OK.
53:14
OK, yeah, made my. Smile the week.
53:17
Oh, because because Jesse does craft cocktails, he's very good
53:21
at it. And so I know Chelsea enjoys 1.
53:22
So what did you notice? Because she wasn't having a
53:24
cocktail. OK, it was so sneaky because she
53:29
so we're locked in the back, not in the vault, actually locked,
53:32
but we're basically really far back.
53:33
She goes to the bar and before she comes in it's because we
53:37
didn't see her come in and she ordered something so she had a
53:40
drink with her when she came into the back.
53:42
But it was. Smart girl.
53:44
It was a non alcoholic drink so she had.
53:47
I have tears in my eyes. Okay, congratulations that.
53:52
Was a nice little birthday treat.
53:54
Nice. Quick question, did you get any
53:57
subscribers? You had a quota, you were going
54:01
to get subscribers at the party and take a video of that
54:04
happening, didn't happen. OK, well, good to see your
54:07
priorities there. Fired.
54:08
Straight, we had a conversation about that.
54:11
That's crazy. All right, is this project worth
54:13
doing? What?
54:14
What are the questions again? I what?
54:18
How much time is this going to take?
54:19
I think I remember another one which is why am I talking.
54:23
That was another. Really good one, all right,
54:28
Blakely. I can't remember, did I tell you
54:32
guys the story about the van that we're getting?
54:36
The Story Bank Check your story bank real quick.
54:38
I know, that's what I'm saying. I don't remember if I've told
54:41
stories, but I told you the story about what we've named the
54:43
van. You told me, but I don't know if
54:45
you told Clay did. I tell you, Clay, OK, I just
54:48
make sure I didn't tell like the podcast.
54:49
Like, that would be a dumb story to tell twice.
54:53
My smile of the week is we're going on vacation next week,
54:55
which we have not done in a long time.
54:57
It's just my husband and I for a full week.
55:00
No kids, no dogs. It's so exciting.
55:02
And we're going out to California to pick up a van that
55:07
we had built out, getting ready for empty nesting.
55:10
And we name all of our cars. So all of our cars have names.
55:15
And when we're thinking of a name for this car, it's blue.
55:19
It's made out of steel, I think, right?
55:21
Our cars. So we named it Blue Steel.
55:25
And you think that would have been because Heather got it,
55:30
because it's a Blue Steel van. But my husband, he's gonna love
55:35
being outed. He has this thing where every
55:39
time, I'm not joking, every time he goes past a mirror, he goes.
55:46
Like, like, he pops his cheekbones a little bit.
55:49
He has everything like after he brushes his teeth, he's like,
55:54
just like Zoolander. Is it right with Zoolander Blue
55:57
Steel? Yeah, Magnum blue steel.
55:59
So when he was like thinking about like, oh, yeah, we could
56:03
band that blue steel. That sounds like a good name.
56:05
The kids were like dying laughing.
56:08
Like, Dad, that's you. You're blue steel.
56:11
But anyway, to bring it all full circle, he had special mugs for
56:15
us made. Love this so much.
56:18
Let's see it. Let's see.
56:19
And it's. Our family all.
56:22
Doing the blue steel, we're going to have to put a picture
56:26
in the show notes so you can see it more clearly.
56:28
Good. So it's all pretty.
56:31
It's all of you on the mug. They're all.
56:33
Doing. They're all doing.
56:35
We're all doing the blue steel, Yeah, which like the kids and I,
56:40
we do not go around looking at ourselves in blue steel.
56:42
That's just a Scottism. But I love that he like, made
56:47
mugs. That's so cool.
56:48
For our trip. It's so good we're.
56:51
Going to have so much fun so. I wonder if he does that in his
56:54
bedroom by himself if he like posts in front of the mirror and
56:57
makes. I catch them all all the time.
56:59
Did he want to be a model and it never happened?
57:01
He doesn't know he's doing it. It's like a tick.
57:04
It truly is. I don't believe that.
57:05
I don't know. All right, I love it.
57:08
I love it. I love it, Julie.
57:10
OK, I got 1. So this was just today because,
57:13
right, I can remember the stories of today, but you asked
57:16
me back the whole week. OK, so I was having a meeting
57:21
right here in my office and my I have a dog that's a giant dog
57:26
and his name is Frank. And this morning I was like, oh,
57:30
let me just let Frank be in here in the office with me as I'm
57:33
doing some back office stuff. Like Frank needs some love.
57:35
I should be a little less rigid and whatever.
57:38
So then I was just about to have a meeting with the
57:41
Superintendent of schools. So a Zoom meeting where I'm
57:44
trying to do the like, OK, got to be professional, got to be
57:47
ready. Got to be like relational, but
57:49
also like, seem like I know my stuff.
57:51
And I close my door real quick just to make sure we're all
57:54
ready. And we start talking.
57:57
And I can see right here behind my chair, a tail.
58:01
And I was like, Frank is in the room.
58:07
And it's. Sounds so simple, but but I was
58:10
like, OK, maybe he'll just stay back there.
58:11
But no, Frank has a big personality.
58:13
He's 3. And he then all of a sudden got
58:16
excited about something, came up and brought his giant head up
58:19
here beside me. And I thought I could either
58:21
come totally clean and be like, I didn't know my dog was in
58:24
here. And then I kind of sound like an
58:26
idiot or I could be like, I'm just testing out.
58:29
This is what I said. I'm just testing out having the
58:31
dog in here today to like see if he can hang and, and so I like
58:36
lied in the moment about something that didn't even
58:38
matter, but that's where I went to.
58:40
And so it was fun. It's OK.
58:43
I'm just testing it. Just testing it.
58:46
That's fantastic. That's good though.
58:48
OK, that relates to episode we did.
58:50
Would you like, do you call out an embarrassing moment or not?
58:52
And so you did. Oh, that's right, that's right.
58:54
I love it. Good one.
58:56
OK, so mine was finally went to Casa Bonita for Nick's birthday,
59:02
Nick's birthday and we we had a great time and what?
59:08
Is it the staglomites are good? Yeah, like, like.
59:12
No, I already, I already took that picture.
59:13
This isn't actually, this is a nicer 1.
59:16
And so we took the kids. The first time we went, it was
59:18
an adult trip to Casa Bonita to check it out.
59:20
OK, that's when we did the stalagmites.
59:22
The mighty ones are from the ground.
59:26
We did the little museum on the way out and they have this
59:28
little guy, this little horse rider thing like where you put
59:33
the penny in, you ride on the. Sandy at Meyer.
59:37
Horse. Yes, like Sandy at Meyer, yes.
59:40
Clay. So guys, I touched this thing
59:44
and it I was three years old again.
59:46
I mean, it brought me back like I remember trying to hang out.
59:50
I had a little dress because we only went like it was a big deal
59:52
to go like once a year. You got all dressed up.
59:55
And I my little hands like trying to hold on to the slick
59:57
white main, like the plastic main and getting a little scared
1:00:01
but also having so much fun. And I just got transported back
1:00:03
to that moment so. That's so cool.
1:00:06
Shout out to the South Park dudes for keeping it nostalgic.
1:00:11
Like keeping that thing. It doesn't work anymore, but
1:00:13
they have it there because people like me are going to go
1:00:15
there and have that moment. It was really special, so.
1:00:17
That is awesome. Yeah, shout out to those guys
1:00:20
for sure. Good time.
1:00:21
I had three sopapillas just getting ready for the pip for
1:00:24
the bump. That's good.
1:00:27
All right. Well, thank you so much, Julie.
1:00:29
Oh. Yes, play always asks one final,
1:00:31
final question. Oh, what is that?
1:00:33
One final question for you, Julie, is where can people stay
1:00:37
in contact with you? Where can people connect with
1:00:39
you, see what you're doing, get involved?
1:00:42
I would love for people to stay connected.
1:00:45
So we've got a website whichislancasterleadership.com,
1:00:50
but there's no DLINCASTER leadership.com and that's where
1:00:55
people can find out about doing leadership academies, doing
1:00:58
group coaching for their leadership teams, one-on-one
1:01:01
coaching retreats, strategic planning.
1:01:04
We've got a lot of exciting things happening, just
1:01:06
supporting people in living their most intentional and best
1:01:10
lives, where they have both productivity and.
1:01:14
Love it and the name of your book is.
1:01:17
Beyond words. And it's right back here, which
1:01:22
is how our stories and strategies inspire leadership
1:01:25
action. Love it.
1:01:28
Awesome. Thank you so much for being
1:01:30
here, Julie. Thank you, Julie.
1:01:32
Good luck. Yay.
1:01:35
All right. Till next time, see you next
1:01:37
time.