Scaling Starts with Leadership
Download MP3Hello and welcome to the Service Based Business Society podcast. I am your host, Tiffany Ann Botcher. On our weekly episodes, we will dig into everything you need to know about scaling your service based business without losing sleep. With my experience in creating over 7 figures per month and a passion for marketing, finance, and automation, this show will provide tangible tips and techniques for scaling your business. Let's get started.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode. This is season four, episode 21. And today we're diving into a topic that so many business owners can relate to, becoming an accidental leader. You start with a great idea, turn it into a business, and before you know it, in order to scale, you're leading a team.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But leadership isn't always something that entrepreneurs set out to master. It's often something they grow into, and that's exactly what we're talking about today. Joining me on the podcast is Jim Carlo, a seasoned leader with over thirty years experience in the health care and technology industries. He's been in the c suite. He's led high performing teams.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:He's turned struggling portfolios around and navigated major mergers and acquisitions. And if that wasn't enough, he wrote a book on leadership, the six pillars of effective leadership, a roadmap to success. Jim's approach to leadership is shaped not just by his professional journey, but by deeply personal experiences that have influenced his perspective on resilience, growth, and leading with intention. We're gonna talk about what it really takes to step into a leadership role as a business owner, the challenges that come with it, and how to do it well without losing sight of the vision that started it all. Welcome to the show, Jim.
Jim Carlough:Well, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here this morning.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's such an important topic, leadership in business, and whether you have a giant business or or a small emerging business, scaling business, leadership really is the key piece. We talk a lot on the podcast about mindset and it being a real difference maker, but ultimately leadership is really kind of sharing your mindset externally.
Jim Carlough:I would totally agree with that statement. For me, leadership was not natural at first. When I first started in business back in, unfortunately, the early eighties, making me very old, it was a lot different. And I remember one of my first management negative interactions was when an employee decided to elevate their voice to get their point across. And I unfortunately reacted in almost a similar way and really learned a lot from that, that exercise.
Jim Carlough:But as I've developed as a leader, I've also learned that a lot of this is human nature and working with people as individuals and understanding of certain key elements that will make you a more effective leader. And that's really what prompted me to write the six pillars of leadership. So, anyway
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So one of the pieces that that really kinda jumps out at me is you talk a a lot about, you know, leadership being learned and not necessarily something that you're born with. And I always felt and so my leadership journey, I've shared quite a bit on the podcast, was not that was not leadership was not something I ever, you know, set out to to do or be a part of. And a part of my more corporate career, that was that was definitely kind of the direction. And then now starting my own business and growing a team and and, you know, we have kind of multiple teams at this point. So leading is is is part of the core.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There's there's no way to do what I'm doing and and not be leading people. But I always felt like I was missing this, what I called kind of this charismatic visionary leader piece that I felt like you had to be born with in order to do that effectively. And so now I'm I'm really learning that, I've kind of no. I don't think I'll ever be what I define as that charismatic visionary leader, but I don't I don't need to be. I found ways to lead in my own style.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so when your book came across my email, I was like, hey. That's very interesting, and I I wanted to dive more into the topic with you.
Jim Carlough:Oh, I I'm sort of of the same kinda background. I wasn't born a leader. I definitely developed all of my skill sets and I actually was very blessed by having some great mentors and managers throughout my career. And they really, really made a difference in my life. My first leadership opportunity, ironically, I received the same year I graduated college, and I was elected a city councilman at the age of 23.
Jim Carlough:That was that thrust me into leadership immediately. I had never dealt with, you know, a union before, and we had more than one union in the community, let alone deal with corporate, not corporate bureaucracy, but more civil or citizen led bureaucracy dealing with the public directly. So, even though it was a small town in New Jersey, thirteen thousand people, it was really an eye opening experience from my perspective. And then and I also believe that it's a it's a learning leadership is a learning process that never ends. And like you, I don't necessarily believe I'm that charismatic leader that can get up like Steve Jobs used to be able to do and and, you know, rally the crowd or like, some of our former presidents have been able to do.
Jim Carlough:But the reality is, I think I don't know that you have to be a charismatic leader. I think you have to be an attentive leader. And one of the other things somebody asked me long long ago is, does your leadership start when you get in and sit down at your desk? And my response was no. Leadership is twenty four seven, and it starts when you exit your vehicle walking into the office building and the people you interact with.
Jim Carlough:And that led to a whole discussion about the difference between leaders who engage with people and leaders who don't. And I think without I don't think you need to be a visionary, but you have to not be afraid to interact with the people that you work for with.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Absolutely. I think that there's also this element of either starting in kind of a leadership position or kind of ascending into leadership, and sometimes that can be a bit of a transition, especially if you've been really a part of the team and and now, you know, you're you've maybe been promoted into some kind of leadership position and now you you feel like you, you know, instead of, you know, kind of being with the people, now you have to kinda guide the people and there's this shift. And sometimes that can be a real challenge as you kind of learn to be a leader and do so kind of while also kind of leaving certain parts of your old role behind. I I find that that is actually more difficult at times than kind of starting in a leadership position and building relationships based on that dynamic.
Jim Carlough:I I would agree with that because if you look at the dynamics of a team, if I was managing or if I was on a team of 10 people and then all of a sudden I was asked to be promoted, most of those 10 people ate with me or had coffee break with me or whatever every day. And we talked life outside of work. We may have done things outside of work. And then when you become their manager or their leader, now there's a reporting responsibility. That can create unique challenges, especially for a first time manager.
Jim Carlough:And so, for a first time manager or leader being thrust into that, they already know the company. They already know the products they're serving. They already know the function of the team. But now they have to transition from potentially friend to manager. And and that transition can be difficult.
Jim Carlough:And there's there's really no roadmap to follow in terms of what are the key elements, which as I looked around at what leadership books were out there, I said I think this is something that that may be missing. And so, my book is perfect for somebody who's in that position of first time leader being promoted to leadership of an existing team or from within existing team and just looking for what are the key things that I have to be able to instill to really be successful.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Absolutely. I often I reflect a lot, on my time, you know, kind of progressing into leadership as well. And I find it almost, my daughter is turning 12 this year. And so I remember being 12. And I and, you know, it's it's interesting as you move through life, you always feel like you've kind of got it all.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I've I think back to being 12, and and I was like a grown up. And I look at her and I'm like, not I get like, my feeling of what I was at 12 versus what I see as being 12 is very different. And then I think about, you know, you go through, you know, university or whatever, and you feel like you've got it all figured out once you're leaving and then you realize, you know, you start the workforce, you realize you don't, that's very different. And so you kind of go through these kind of ebbs and flows of life. And so I look back now at some of the the pieces of leadership that were a challenge.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I I definitely, you know, was part of the team and then moved into leadership, and I was often a lot younger than a lot of the people. And and I don't know that that was a thing for them. I think it was a thing for me more than, like, in terms of I respected them so much and now leading them. And so, you know and now I look back and I I think, gosh, I I would I would do it so differently now. And I think that, you know, every part of life hindsight is 2020.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But when I left corporate, I really felt like I'd done so much growing. And I'd been with the same company for over ten years, and I felt like people who were there had really been there through all sorts of kind of growing. And I felt like I was never gonna get to not, like, drop the things that I wasn't good at or hadn't been good at ten years ago unless I left. And that was a real struggle for me because I didn't wanna leave, really, for a while. I didn't wanna leave.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But then I was like, but all of these people have watched me grow up, basically. And they, you know, they remember or still critique things that I was like, hey. I haven't done that in, like, eight years though. And so, you know, now if we shift that into business ownership, people going through that same journey, if it's your business well you're not leaving so now you have to figure out how to navigate that and realize that you are gonna make mistakes and you are gonna grow and unless you have turnover on your team which, you know, obviously we all don't necessarily want, you are gonna have to figure out how to navigate that and keep going and not think, well, I need a fresh start to to kind of kick off from from where I know now.
Jim Carlough:Yeah. I totally agree. You know, I I often say nobody said life was easy and I've told my grown children that, you know, we never told you life was going to be easy. And my daughter often will say, and she's turning 30, she'll often say, dad, I really don't like this adulting thing. And, and it's interesting to, to see and hear that perspective now.
Jim Carlough:All of my children are very successful, so I'm very, very blessed and lucky. So I give a lot of credit to my wife who really did the day to day raising of the kids while I worked and traveled and did what I had to do. But it's real interesting whether you're a small business owner or a medium sized company owner or just thrust into that position, you all of a sudden now have to pivot and start to think about things you didn't think of before. And, you know, one of those things is empathy and being able to understand what your employees are going through. And that's something that you're not born with.
Jim Carlough:You have to learn that. And I, you know, when I worked, I worked for Perot Systems, which was owned by Ross Perot for a period almost a decade. And I had it one of my teams was a team of software engineers, support people, account management people, about 25, maybe 30 people on the team. And we were gonna be sunsetting the product that they had been working on for ten years for newer technology. And I and I thought to myself, I have to tell these people that their jobs are going away, but they're not going away tomorrow.
Jim Carlough:And I struggled with what would I want to be told from my manager that would make me want to stay? And this was a real reflective opportunity for me to try to put something together that to be different. So, I actually went to the entire team and said to them, I will promise you I will give you as much notice as possible before your position is impacted. That's number one. Number two, if you wanna learn the new technologies and transition into that at the point we don't need this role, I will provide that.
Jim Carlough:Three, if you decide this is not for you and you want to exit, whether within the company or externally, I will help. What I didn't expect to happen, well, what I was hoping to happen was to keep everybody until I didn't need them. I achieved that goal. What I did not expect is for two straight years, that department had the highest employee satisfaction level in the entire organization of more than 15,000 people. I never expected that.
Jim Carlough:And it really taught me a valuable lesson about understanding, being able to put myself in that person's shoes and being able to convey that and not one person left, everybody stayed, many of them are still in touch with me today.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's incredible when you can go through a situation like that and and kind of come around the other side and it not necessarily go exactly how you thought? Because that is I mean, people don't like uncertainty. And so when people hear, you know, my job is ending, first of all, people are upset. Like, there's an emotional component to that for sure. So now people are kinda dealing with the emotional piece and the uncertainty of the future.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I mean, those two things together to navigate our that's, that's quite the, quite the.
Jim Carlough:It is, which is even more the reason why I was shocked to see the satisfaction ratings. I mean, I literally was shocked. And I think I gave everybody a sense of purpose for a period of time and an understanding that I had their back. And I think that also tied with empathy, I think, is important for a leader. Leaders have to understand that the their employees wanna make sure that their back is covered.
Jim Carlough:I mean, if you take the example of the military leader, you know, he's got a cover for his troops. He or she covers for his troops. When you talk about the business leader, your employees have to have a sense for you're part of the team, you're in it with me, and you've got my back. And mistakes will happen. I've made a fair number of mistakes in my career, and I've learned from every one of them, and I've never repeated the same failure or issue twice.
Jim Carlough:And I think people, your employees will see that and recognize that you're not perfect. I'm far from perfect, but I'm willing to give things a try. And so I'm willing to fail for the greater good of learning something better or trying to figure something out. And so I'll roll up my sleeves with my employees and and work through those.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yeah. It's, there's always this balance of being like, when you're saying you're you're you're in it and you're you're with them, and and I feel like there's this piece as you're growing in business because one of the things I often talk about with clients is who are struggling with the, like, you know, I feel like I just have so many decisions to make and I never can make the right one and I I always say, hey, you have to kinda go back and think traditional business. And so at one point if there was this organization, you know, picture everyone sitting around the boardroom table and you've got HR, you've got legal, you've got accounting, you've got sales, marketing. I said now you're all of those people. So in your mind you've got, you know, marketing thinking, hey, this is a great idea.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Then you've got operations saying, hey, this is a crappy idea. And then you've got account. And so, you know, you've got all of these, and you're making all of these decisions in one as one person. And then as your business grows, you're adding in specific people. So it takes you know, there there's kind of this you go from one person to a group of people, small group of people, and a lot of times that small group of people has lots of jobs because just like you as one person, you know, it's it's it's everybody's doing all the things.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But as you grow and start, you know, defining pieces, having specific teams with specific roles, there's kind of this secondary transition almost from, you know, one to a few and then a few to a bigger group. And so you've kind of got this kind of multi staged approach. And I think that, you know, oftentimes, you know, business owners sometimes underestimate the the actual leadership skill that's required to do those things. And so just because you launched an amazing service or an amazing product or whatever, now you've got this business, started as an idea, now you've got this legitimate business. But managing people in a way that allows you to grow and scale and hit those success targets is is a whole other piece that is is not just, you know, developing the product or service in a way that can be more efficient or more productive, but but the actual people part of these businesses is not to be underestimated.
Jim Carlough:It should never be underestimated. That's for sure. And the other aspect of it is people want to have a sense of accomplishment, but also an opportunity for growth. And I I I think any leader has to be able to understand what each employee wants to do today and what they want to do in the future and work with them to make that happen. I always ask people when I do their performance reviews, you know, what is it what are your goals for next year?
Jim Carlough:And a few years ago, somebody had a goal of they wanted to get on the board of a nonprofit. I thought it was a great idea. So, we made a list of nonprofits and solicited them and found a board position, which, you know, again, it doesn't benefit me or us directly, but it benefits the employee and their growth and development. And I think as a new leader, you have to think about not just what the employee wants to accomplish today, but where do they see themselves? And and what is the pathway there to kind of learn those skill sets and or to obtain that?
Jim Carlough:And so I think we as leaders have an obligation to understand what our employees want to get out of life or out of this role before they move on to the next role or up in the organization. And having a better feel for that as a manager puts puts you in a better spot to achieve that.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Absolutely. That actually makes me think I was I was kind of part of a leadership retreat many years ago. And the first whole day was really not about organization or leadership or anything, but was really framing what did you want out of life. Because before we could figure out how we were gonna get there, we had to figure out kinda where we were going. And so it it was interesting because we had a group of all very similarly aged people, all very ambitious, all, you know, kind of ascending through leadership in that position.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And and so you think a lot of of kind of common goals. And and I didn't find that actually to be the case, and what what each person deemed as successful was very different. And, you know, everyone kind of all had kind of one thing that was, like, their their thing that made them six you know, I someone's like, I, you know, I wanna I wanna be on the cover of a magazine was, like, his thing. Someone else, I wanna be able to buy this specific car. These were kind of, like, these weird kind of success markers, but all had a different lifestyle that they were going for.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And and so it was interesting to kinda navigate and hear just the variations because because I think oftentimes we assume what, you know, what success means to someone is similar to ourselves. And so as people are going through, one of the key pieces of leadership that I've kind of learned along the way is that, you know, you you don't really know what someone's what their success looks like. So you can be kinda thinking, oh, they're gonna really wanna do this or they're really you know, this is gonna lead to that. And so really getting to know someone first so that you can understand where they wanna be and and if that direction even aligns with what they're hoping.
Jim Carlough:Total, totally agree with that. And in that process, you also learn a lot about the individual. I try to find and learn a lot about my employees and their families. And, you know, it's not that I'm being nosy, but, you know, who do you do on the weekend? Or if you're into kids' activities, what are they?
Jim Carlough:This is my experience or whatever. I think we have a holistic responsibility as a leader to not just the employee, but the employee's family. And I actually learned that working with mister Perrault. He was very focused on his employees and making sure that they were well taken care of, especially in the time of need.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yes. You know, it's it's anytime that you, you know, you got these employees and I think that there's been a very interesting shift over the last few years. You know, I think that for a long time, people asked a lot of people who work for them and everyone just, you know, decided that's how they were gonna be successful and and they just they just did it. They worked the long hours, they did the things. And then there was kind of this transition to the quiet quitting phase and people kind of pushing back and saying, hey.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I don't I'm not doing the extra. And so and I I think, ultimately, it's come back around again. And there were a lot of people in the, you know, kind of speaker space that were talking about how, you know, the for a while, it was the hustle grind, hustle grind, and then everyone shifted to this whole work life balance and, you know, all of these things. I think, ultimately, it was interesting because for me, I would I would say a lot of the people who were talking about that were were people who had already done the hustle and the grind and had set themselves up in a way that now they could tail it off, but you had people who were starting off who were like, oh, no. I don't need to grind and hustle like that anymore.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I said, no. No. Those people already earned their stripes, and now they're they're wearing them. But you can't you can't wear the stripes if you've not earned them yet. And so I I mean, I I definitely come from the hustle grind probably to fault a little bit.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so but it's it's interesting how that kind of shapes into leadership because a lot of the I mean, I I talk to business owners every day. And one of the things the the the most common kind of two pieces that it when it comes to team management in any way is, you know, how do I motivate people to wanna work like I work? Because, you know, I would just have done it, you know, and I would just work this hard hard and they don't wanna do it. And the other piece is that people, you know, are no longer as money driven and so, you know, there's this I want I want more personal time, I want more balance, and so but they find those people harder to motivate. And so what would you what would your advice be to a business owner that's that's feeling those two concerns?
Jim Carlough:So I'm like you, and my engine is always running at a high RPM level.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yes.
Jim Carlough:In fact, recently, a coworker announced that they were going to be retiring. And one of the comments he said is, Jim, I will never understand how you have so much energy. When somebody confronts me with that or an employee says, I can't that's not me. I'm like, I'm not asking you to be me. I'm asking you to understand your role and exceed in the expectations set for that role.
Jim Carlough:Don't be you know, don't be emailing at 03:00 in the morning because you couldn't sleep. That's not what I'm asking you to do. What I'm asking you to do is achieve these specific goals. You keep your focus on those goals, we will be successful. If you can do it in five hours a day, so be it.
Jim Carlough:Right? We can, we can give you some other things to fill in the time. But don't, don't try to be something that's not in your DNA. And so there's, I've had a few people that can't keep up with me. But for the most part, typically, when I see people overworking, and I think overworking can be can produce a lot of stress for the individual, but also for the home life, I'll call that out directly to the individual and make them take the time to go spend it with their family.
Jim Carlough:It's not uncommon for me to pick up the phone, throughout my career and call somebody and say, Tiffany Ann, you're you're getting off at 12:00 today. The employee say, What, what do you mean? Is there something wrong? No. You've been working hard.
Jim Carlough:I want you to sign out. I want you to check out. I want you to go home, take your family out to dinner, and I want you to enjoy the weekend. Nobody told me to do that. But it's just when I see somebody really trying to achieve, whether they've met all their goals or not, they sometimes just need that break.
Jim Carlough:And so, I'll typically, you know, give them that opportunity. I don't know why I went down that path, but it just sparked a memory in my mind. But but to your point, to get back to the question, yes. I'm in alignment with with your thoughts, with your
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yeah. That that actually, you know, makes me think. We used to you know, back very early on in my career, we had kind of this business mentor, and he would kinda pop in occasionally, but was not part of the day to day operations. But our kind of leader at that time, he would he was very much, you know, working with people, but not so great with with paperwork and not so great with the more office y side. He was great with people, great sales, but not great at the kinda office y side.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Multiple times, I remember him just, like, getting progressively more and more stressed through the and and then this mentor would come in, and he always would bring dinner and and sit down and say, okay. How are we gonna you know? And and the plan was basically to dig out of whatever the situation was, whether that was, you know, we were behind on invoice review. He was gonna sit with this person until it was done. And and sometimes it was just a matter of doing it together and and having that because it was, you know, same thing, late nights away from his family and and whatever else.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so, you know, I I still know that person today, very successful, built you know, has built definitely a a huge kinda empire for himself. And so you look and you say, okay. All of that was for something. But in those moments, especially, it it can be, you know, a little bit daunting. And so that person kinda coming in and and saying, like, hey.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Let's just let's just get it done. And I I often kinda thought, what what would things have happened had that been left another, you know, a month, three months without that kind of person to come in and say, no, no, it's okay. Like, let's let's keep going. We got this. Let's let's just do it together.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Let's just take the one off the top of the pile and let's do it.
Jim Carlough:You know, I encourage everyone to have a mentor, and and I have a mentor. And for that sole purpose of level setting with me, and in your example of the invoices, it wasn't, it was the stress of the volume of invoices that kept increasing. So, they couldn't see the forest through the trees to develop a plan to get it done. So, somebody comes in, throws down some food, rolls up their sleeves and says, Let's do this together. Sometimes that's all that it takes.
Jim Carlough:And this isn't rocket science, but having a mentor who somebody is not directly involved in that situation day to day to be able to take a look at it and say, Hey, I think I know how to help you fix this. Let's do this together. I think reduces stress and builds camaraderie and also gets people back focused on the things that they need to do to get things done. So, I can very much appreciate that leader and the volume of stuff. There are often days where I say, how am I gonna get through that 200 emails that just hit since yesterday or or whatever?
Jim Carlough:And having somebody to focus me is always a good thing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Absolutely. So when you were when you were writing the book and you were working on these pillars, how did you decide which were the most important? Obviously, it's a it's a topic. It's been written on by there's a lot of, you know, people who have a lot of perspectives. So how did you choose what you believe to be the most important?
Jim Carlough:It was my list initially was probably 12 specific items. And I said to myself, 12 is going to be too much for anybody to try to handle. What are the most important characteristics that I think have made me the most successful? And I focused on those and they are in order, integrity, which to me is non negotiable, compassion and empathy, which a lot of people confuse the two, but they're two very, very different things. Humor, because I think everybody has to have fun.
Jim Carlough:You don't need to be a stand up comedian, but you can you I use humor to deflect during times of conflict to kind of level set everybody and get people relaxed. Because a lot of times, that confrontation is just stress generating and people, somebody needs to break that ice to calm it down. And that's how I use humor. And the last two are focus and stability. And when I look at all of those aspects of it, you don't see energetic in there.
Jim Carlough:You don't see working twenty hours a day in there, but you see things that are all from a human perspective, things that are not typically taught that have to be learned. And so, I said if somebody were to say to me when I was 23 years old, here are the six things you need to focus on to be successful. Those are probably the six things that were hardest for me to learn and develop over time. And I said if somebody can do that, they'll start off and be a great leader.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So, integrity is such a, such an important piece in all parts of business. And I think that I'm going to choose my words very carefully. I think that if we have this, in my mind, that kind of visionary charismatic leader, oftentimes as they continue through some of those people, if you spend any long amount of time, you know, I mean, if you come across these people in a short interaction, I find that it you don't often see so many other things, but if you spend any time with working with someone for an extended period of time, then you start to see always with any person what I call the negative underbelly of the situation. And so I would say that integrity at times can be a bit of a struggle. It's start you know, sometimes you see something where you've heard the same story five times and it maybe gets different each time or situations, or you'll be a part of a meeting where we're talking about a situation that happened and you've been there for so long that you were a part of that situation.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so it might start, you know, in kind of a loose, not necessarily storytelling type situation, but it can progress from there. And so when you're talking about kind of a learned skill, how how can we, for someone who maybe thinks, you know what? Maybe I haven't been in the best of integrity or they work with someone that they think, yeah, the integrity there is is maybe not as good as it as it should be. How do you how do you help someone get that back on track?
Jim Carlough:So I I mentioned earlier being elected to public office. Shortly after getting elected, the city manager asked to see me. And I went and sat down and he congratulated me. And and I said, Don, what can I can I do for you? He said, look, he said, you did a great job.
Jim Carlough:You're gonna be a great councilman. I wanna give you one piece of advice, and this is the piece of advice I would give to every leader. And he said to me, when you go home at night and you lay down and put your head on your pillow, I just want you to ask yourself one question. Did I do anything today for my own personal benefit at the expense of another individual or organization that I know was not right to do? He said, If you can answer that question every night with no, you can rest easy because you've done a good job.
Jim Carlough:I ask myself that question every night since that day in 1983 when he said that to me. And to me, there's one path. And if you lose that integrity path, you'll lose the trust of your team immediately. And once you lose that trust, you'll never regain it. It's very difficult to regain, And it's something that just sticks with them.
Jim Carlough:And they'll notice that. I very much, and people who will hear this, who know me will say, Yep, that's Jim straight down the center of the roadway. And because to me, it's non negotiable. It's non negotiable. So hopefully that one simple question can help people if they start to think about their life and the things they do every day, whether personal or business related.
Jim Carlough:What was what was who was the benefactor of that? Was it for the common good or whatever?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's very interesting. So when I, started my business and I I have shared, you know, I I come from a a tech finance background, and I always joked I it was if I if I could just have a closet and a computer, I was I was good. I was not the natural leader. And so, when I started my business and and when I when I left corporate and whatnot, I I didn't really have a huge plan. I was like, well, I know how to do a lot of things, and I'm well educated, and, well, we'll figure it out.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I quickly realized that none of that mattered until I could actually talk to people and and sell them on my idea and and actually start to work with them. And so, you know, you kinda get going on this whole, I need to learn about sales. I need to learn about, you know, influencing people and and all of these types of things. And one of the things that I truly enjoyed, was I kind of dove into this learning about all types of leaders and not always the good ones. I enjoy a good podcast, American Greed, you know, this cult leaders, these types of things because, you know, good leaders can use their powers for not good things.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And some of these people are are very good at leading the wrong direction. But learning some of these techniques and pieces was kind of how I not to use it for evil, but to kind of be able to study some of the common things between some of these people. I found it very fascinating. And, you know, it it definitely had, you know, a different perspective for me in terms of, you know, it's it's one skill set, but what are you using it for? And and making sure and integrity for me is a huge one.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I often just think about if I if I had to put that on display, put it on a billboard later, you know, that kinda thing. If my kids, you know, ten years down the road learned about that for those are the kinds of things for me that it's like, hey. Can I is this in integrity? Is this the right direction?
Jim Carlough:Totally agree. Totally agree.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So you talked a little bit about your book. Where can people find it?
Jim Carlough:So people can find it directly from me. I've self published it, but it's also available on Amazon as well as, Barnes and Noble. So anyone can check it out there. It's called the six pillars for effective leadership, a roadmap to success. My website is simply www.jimcarloallconnected, j I m Com.
Jim Carlough:And I'd be more than happy to ship them a copy. If they if they send an email to me or go through my website, I'll have the they'll have the ability to check off an autograph copy if they'd like.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Fantastic. And so where do you like to hang out online if someone wants to follow, check out some of your other content?
Jim Carlough:So some of my other content, I I am posting all my content to my website. I'm also in the early stages of pushing it out to a YouTube channel that's not fully set up yet. So, I would say stay tuned to YouTube, but definitely go to my website where we'll be linking podcast things, press releases, etcetera. So there'll there'll be a lot of assets and content in the website itself.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Fantastic. So if you had one piece of advice, you know, if if people were gonna listen to one thing today, what would that be?
Jim Carlough:I would say the one piece of advice I would give them is don't be afraid of being a leader. It's, it's not that difficult. It is a learning opportunity. You're not born that way. And I truly believe that most anybody who would like to be a leader has the capability to become a leader.
Jim Carlough:It's doesn't have to be as hard as people think it is. And you don't always have to go to the ranks of CEO to be successful in what you're doing and to accomplish your personal goals. So, it's very much achievable and out there for anyone.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That was a great piece of advice. Thank you so much for being here today, Jim.
Jim Carlough:Thank you for having me, Tiffany Ann.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We're all out of time for today, but the fun doesn't stop here. Make sure to subscribe to the Service Based Business Society podcast on your preferred podcast app. If you're hanging out over on YouTube, search for Tiffany Ann Botcher. Your likes, shares, and reviews really do help the show. Until next time, have a great week.
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