Radio Interviews

Talent Talk Radio Show

Mark Villareal, Senior Vice President of 5 Point Enterprises and Mark Miller, Vice President of Marketing for Emergenetics International talk about their thoughts on leadership development, employee retention and the importance of having a solid strategic plan.

http://www.talenttalkradio.com/e/mark-villareal-and-mark-miller-12012015/

Interview:

Chris: Let’s get to our guest, as I mentioned we have two great ones today. My first one will be Mark Villareal, he’s the Senior Vice President of 5Point Enterprises. We’ll also then have Mark Miller, so it’s a show of Marks today. He’s the Vice President of Marketing for Emergenetics International. I look forward to speaking with Mark Miller on the second half of the show, but let’s go ahead and get to our first guest, Mark Villareal. Mark welcome to the show.

Mark: Thank you Chris. Thanks for having me; I’m excited to be on.

Chris: We’re excited to have you, why you don’t tell everyone a little bit about yourself and what you’re doing for your company 5Point Enterprises.

Mark: For about 35 years I’ve had the privilege of managing people and managing teams. I am in my 20^TH year, you mentioned 5Point Enterprises; I’ll kind of explain the dynamics there. New Horizons computer learning centers is where I am on my 20^TH year but it’s a franchise organization that has company stores and franchises. I have served both on the franchiser side and on the franchisee side of the business, and part of what I do, first of all, is I strongly believe that leadership makes a difference, and that that best leaders approach leadership with a servant’s heart. So with New Horizons, 5Point Enterprises is one of the franchise ownership groups that owns about 22 locations in 12 different states, so we’re one of the largest in North America. New Horizons computer learning centers, they help businesses achieve and maintain their strategic advantage through technology and computer training to keep them current, or we also help individuals change their life by training them in technology to advance or change their career. New Horizons is in over 300 locations worldwide in 70 countries, so quite expansive.

I’ve been with the 5Point Enterprises group, I’ve been on both sides as mentioned but I’ve been with 5Point Enterprises about six years now and we have over 300 employees. Hopefully that tells you a little bit about myself, New Horizons and 5Point Enterprises.

Chris: That certainly gives us some good background here to know a little bit about what your company is all about and we’re probably going to dig a bit deeper here not only with the company, with you as well. I know when I looked at your LinkedIn bio one of the first things that caught my eye was that you have a passion for developing people in a manner that really helps them achieve their goals. So as a business leader you know the importance of personal and professional development which I think sometimes people ignore that dual perspective, sometimes we only focus on the professional part when we’re dealing with our staff.

What is it from a leadership development perspective we can do to really help people reach both of their professional and personal goals?

Mark: First of all to understand that it’s not taboo to understand what the personal goals are. I think the first thing as a leader is to come across genuine as an individual and to show interest in that person. When people see you as genuine they see things more than just a business, they actually see that you have goals whether personal or professional wanting to achieve and it puts things on a better perspective.

I would say that I believe good leaders work to understand their individual people both personally and professionally and when you understand that you realize that they affect each other, what they want to succeed in professionally helps their personal goals as well, and understanding that is important.

One of the things that over time I find amazing is that when you take time to know about your individual people from a genuine standpoint, how much they open up and appreciate their place of employment. It’s not just a job, it’s a place that they see cares about helping them achieve personally and professionally. Once we know that then we obviously take the steps to create development plans in both areas. When I talked about that you got your professional development plans, but even have personal development plans. We have sent people to seminars that help them develop that doesn’t exactly tie back to their job, but I think a great leader is a good coach, and I think great leaders coach constantly and they don’t make it about themselves but about their people, so when your people see that interaction it’s actually motivating. They see it as not just a gimmick that you’re trying to do it but sometimes they’ll approach it with caution until they see it in action and they see that you have done it for others as well.

Once you have that, it’s a lot easier to gain agreement on accountability and to be open and direct. I always tell people if you need my help I owe it to you to be able to come across directly and honestly and do you want me to do that? You’ll always get that buy in when you approach it the right way.

Finally it allows you to celebrate the victories, to share successes and allows you to point, because you understand both, to the small wins that are leading up to the big wins of obtaining those goals.

Chris: Absolutely. You touched on a lot of great things there. The very first one about it’s not taboo to talk about personal goals, a lot of times we don’t do that because maybe it’s taboo or maybe sometimes people just don’t care. We’re looking at that employee, that person as a whole of where are you trying to go in your life, period, whether it’s just with work or not and there are so many things that cross over. We spend more time at work for a lot of people than we ever do at home or with our own personal stuff, so adding some sprinkling in of that can really give you a better connection and help you with your staff.

I also kind of wonder how has the focus on others and their advancement and growth really helped you to achieve your own personal goals as well? Has there been a connection there?

Mark: Absolutely. I grew up with a father that was a sports fanatic, had every TV on a sport. It allowed me to see that the best coaches — I always relate a lot of things to sports, but they focus on their team players, they focus on their game plan and as they focus on their players and the game plan, as their people develop and have success it all has to be tied back to their success, so it really shows where the best focus should be. The coaches with a vision, because they’re developing people, actually build a legacy where that team can be successful even years after they leave because of what they built, because of that development, so it’s not shortsighted.

That allowed me to learn early on in my career that it’s not about me, it’s about the people that are employed. I talk about a servant’s heart that I’m there to help serve and get them to their goals. I think we all have seen, Chris, the shortsighted manager where it’s about me and it’s about the hard work I’m doing for you and it doesn’t have that long term affect that builds a really great environment. I just simply found that the more I focus on other individual’s success, that mine came naturally and then it developed the next leaders, people being promoted, people growing. It creates a great culture and as they grew it was easy to give them responsibility and larger roles and many of them became strong leaders themselves. That is an environment that feeds itself.

Chris: Yeah, and I think sometimes those shortsighted managers can really be worried — if I help this person too much they’re going to outgrow their position, they’re going to outgrow our company, we’re going to lose this person. That could be true, that certainly could happen that ultimately you get someone who’s stagnant and who’s not progressing and they end up leaving your company anyway or they’re going to stop producing and you’re going to wish they left your company. Do you see that very often?

Mark: Without the right environment like you said, you’re going to see those that probably should leave, and those you said could have been successful not stay, and that’s why by evaluating it, you’ll hear me say many times — anyone who knows me I talk about humility as a strength in a leader. You need to have that humility to say I either need to take action or I need to correct that. You even earn the right to say I need to address these things here in order for you to be successful, and we have to agree on what we need to do to help drive that success, or we have to agree that this isn’t the place for you as well, because you actually owe it to the other team members that are succeeding to keep that team successful as well.

I always say it doesn’t make a person a bad person if they’re not successful within your company, so there’s that respect issue there as well. It’s like hey, you gave me the effort I asked for and it just wasn’t for you and I wish you the best.

Chris: Right and that can be tough to do for some people for sure. I know that your current role, Senior Vice President, you have the opportunity to really directly influence not only the performance of your direct reports but also in that shaping of the culture of the company. What do you identify as some of the keys to creating and maintaining that positive or productive culture for the company that you’re in?

Mark: Right, well first off and there’s a statement out there that culture is everything. I truly believe that in my heart, so to me it not only starts at the top, but has to be driven from the bottom up, so it all meets in the middle. I say there’s always several steps when defining how to create the right culture.Everything starts with the right values for your organization. When you set those values and incorporating in other people’s opinions for those values, but most of all when you define with those values are, I have a saying that values are what you live by; principles are what you stand on. Those values become principles that therefore everything is automatic. If you say your value is integrity and someone drops a five dollar bill and you don’t tell them hey, you dropped a five dollar bill, then you’re not living your values. So actions speak louder than words and once you define that then everything else that you build from your organization ties back to that. The people you hire, the people you keep, the people you promote and the mission and the vision that you build all have to tie back to your values. It’s where everything is created.

I have had the privilege working for some really good leaders that they constantly communicate the vision, so it’s not setting a vision and then saying well there’s a vision, and that’s our vision statement. It’s constantly talking about here’s our vision, here’s where we’re standing, here’s the strides that we’re making and here’s or roadblocks or here’s some bumps in the road that we had, andhere’s where you could make a difference, and that’s the culture of people seeing direction, where sometimes those roadblocks can be big roadblocks.But if they’re understanding the vision, and it’s being driven from the top, and every leader drives it from there that creates that positive culture.

The One Minute Manager, an old book that I read when I was 23 changed my life, talks about catching people doing something right. I talk about rewards or consequences, obviously I’d rather work with rewards and catch people doing something right, talk to them about that help them work on their strengths, but there are consequences too, and that’s where if you’re managing in the right way people open up to allow you, and you owe it to them to be direct on what you need to correct, or things that you need to do, and they appreciate that, because you’re doing it out of help driving their success.

Chris: Absolutely. One of the things you mentioned was it starts at the top but it’s certainly driven from the bottom up and you’re kind of meeting in that middle point and I couldn’t agree with that more. That is something that so many companies don’t realize, they are either totally top down and just ignore it, or they just figure it’s bottom up and they don’t do the planning they need to do to really direct things. There’s certainly a fair amount of planning that needs to go into any good business and good culture so do you find there’s a connection between the actual business plan and creating that and having that process really engrained into the company to really help the company and the individuals and everyone reach their goals and have that ideal culture that you’re looking for?

Mark: I think it’s very important that people need to know how you plan. Strong leaders don’t manage by consensus so it’s not like let’s get everyone’s consensus and we’ll do that, they actually have a way that they get everybody’s input into the planning. But a strong leader has to then go out and through action gain a consensus on what’s been decided on the direction that you’re going. To me planning and business planning is a roadmap to success, I always say that we owe it to our people to give them a roadmap on how to be successful. Like many people, I traveled over the holidays and I drove back from Tennessee to Texas on Sunday and with the rain and with accidents and with weather, there were times I had to get off the roadmap but I knew where to get back on because I had a roadmap to reach my final destination. That’s what good business planning does for people, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be roadblocks or detours, but it allows you to know where you have to get back on that road once you go around that detour because we believe that this is the destination that’s going to take you to that success.

As we educate people on that, and as we manage to it, and as we’re able to show them where they’re straying. If you do a GPS so to speak, that’s what a roadmap is. Here’s the GPS, but here’s where you are, your red dot is over here and we need to get you back on the map, and this is why you’re struggling. It allows for better conversations, better planning and better adjustments.

Chris: Once you kind of have that whole system in place, I’m wondering, too, if you’re starting to notice any changes with the changing workforce. There’s always been a lot of talk about millennia’s and having that new generation coming in. One of the areas we’re noticing a lot of discussion on is this sort of transient or shorter longevity let’s say for employees. We’re getting a shorter lifespan let’s say for this particular generation coming to the workplace. Have you noticed anything around that, have you identified any trends within your own company’s hiring where people aren’t making it a career anymore, they don’t go to a company for 20 or 30 years or however long. You may only keep them for two or three or five, have you seen any of that recently within your own work?

Mark: I have seen the warnings of it so let me take it from that perspective. I am in my 20^Th year, so when I tell some people that they say, “Wow, usually people have worked this many jobs within 20 years.” But the gentleman in the office next to me I hired 15 years ago. I have people that have been here 15 to 17 years, a good portion of them.We are seeing millennial’s come onto the workforce and it’s really I think how we share the vision and tell the story of are you coming here for a job, or are you coming here for a career? I think the mindset is a lot of people are looking for jobs not realizing what a career is and how good that can be. And then finally I would say then it’s the environment that you create.You want a work environment where people want to work, where if you had no openings they would fight to get a position. I have seen that and I will say the best environment I’ve seen created is where you run a company where you say “give us 110% and we’ll do everything to advance your career with our organization, with our corporate office or even with your personal dreams.” If you want to own your own business, come give me 110%, earn the money that allows you to do that, and we’ll help advance your career.

In the environment where we have that created, we have seen entry level people, I can name four of them off the top of my head right now, that went on to be high level managers within our corporation and other people who went and owned their own business, but they’re the same people that are scouting for us for employees because they’re saying “that’s a great place to work and I know what it takes to be successful there.” So they send the right people and it creates that culture that’s infectious. A culture can be infectious both ways, bad culture or good culture. I always talk about A-Players, B-Players, and C-Players. Obviously you want to create and hire A-Players.You need your B-Players to gravitate towards those A-Players, and if you have any C-Players you need to define really quickly if they’re just a C-Player and they are the ones that aren’t going to make it with your team.But if you keep them too long, they’ll infect the B-Players that will gravitate towards those C-Players, instead of what you want them to gravitate towards, those A-Players. That’s the environment that it just becomes a cycle that’s so infectious that quite honestly is easy to work in.

Chris: Absolutely. We certainly see that in companies that have great culture, they have that kind of characteristic. It seems like you have a pretty good handle on a lot of the different things that we talk about here on the show on a regular basis, usually I want to ask this question from a guest like yourself. We get great answers, a lot of pressure here Mark, I’m setting you up for a great answer.

Are you reading a book right now and can you tell us about it?

Mark: I do a lot of reading. I have actually just finished a book called The Circle Maker. That’s a Christian based book but it focuses on defining and listing out what they call your 100 BHAPs. We have all heard of BHAGs which is Big Hairy Audacious Goals, well this is your Big Hairy Audacious Prayers, but it really talks about listing them out in several different categories and praying on them, so therefore you would be amazed what comes through.

The other book I just finished is Double Double, which is by Cameron Herold who is the CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. The book teaches you to look three years out, you can even do it farther and create what is called is a painted picture. In other words, put yourself three years from now like it’s today and write where you’re at, what you’re doing in business, what you’ve accomplished, what you’re doing in your personal life and when you do that, once again that gives you the vision to look out. In fact I did mine and I have mine hanging on my wall and I was amazed how much that three year vision is actually pretty accurate. Instead of guesswork you’re putting it out there and it kind of helps you drive towards that.

Chris: It sounds like two great books that people might want to check out, and just as a reminder that we always list these on our blog recap on PeopleG2.com. You can go to the blog and we’ll have a recap here in a few weeks of this entire interview and we’ll put the books there and list them out. In case you didn’t have a pen and you couldn’t write them down they’ll be listed there for you, and you can also go back and listen to the podcast.

You’ve talked about a lot of great things today Mark. If someone didn’t take very good notes but they should have taken away at least one thing, one or two things — what should they have heard today from some of the great advice that you gave?

Mark: I would say first of all leadership is not do as I say, not as I do. You’re being watched, so a good leader leads by example, leadership is a commitment to build others and trust that by building their success yours will come naturally instead of trying to look for the rewards openly they’ll come naturally. A good leader, their reward is seeing their people succeeding. They’re seeing their people on stage because they won awards and because they’re the best in the world. I don’t think of anything that’s more rewarding than that, so that’s the fulfillment that a good leader has and enjoys.

Chris: Mark again, we really appreciate you being on the show, you’ve given our listeners a lot of great information and some good books to check out. I’d love to have you come back at some point and give us an update on how you’re doing, how your company is doing. I know we didn’t even get to half the questions here so we have a lot we can talk about.

Mark: I would be happy to, just let me know and I’ll make myself available.

Chris: Alright. So up next we will have our second guest, the second Mark of the Day Mark Miller who will be joining me after this quick commercial break.

END

Nancy Gaines spent over two decades consulting to Major Fortune 100 Companies where she helped groups move from overwhelm to overwhelming results — consistently.Mark Villareal is a published author, speaker and coach with his recent release of “Shortcuts Get You Lost!”

September 8, 2016

94__Mark Villareal_Author of Shortcuts Get You Lost

Interview:

Announcer: You are listening to the Nancy Gaines show. The goal of this broadcast is to help business owners be successful and gain the advantage. Nancy has helped some of today’s top Fortune 500 Companies atop a wide spectrum of industries work through their toughest challenges. She can help you too! So if you can’t find the solutions you need, there are no more books to read or workshops to attend. The Nancy Gaines show can be the difference between your success and failure. And now your host, Nancy Gaines.

Nancy: Hi, this is Nancy Gaines and welcome to the Nancy Gaines show, where we provide actionable ideas for entrepreneurs to grow their business and be even more productive. So the focus of today’s podcast is all about leadership, and I am so excited to have an amazing guest with me, Mark Villareal. He is the author of Shortcuts Get You Lost. Welcome Mark, would you like to tell our group a little bit more about you?

Mark: Well, thank you, Nancy. I appreciate being on the show, and it’s an honor. Yes, I am a big leadership advocate. I have a strong passion for leadership. I will say that early in my career, as I became a leader, I realized that the more I focused on other people’s success, mine came naturally. So, it really helped me to develop within myself then, how do I define peoples’ objectives and goals? How do I build a roadmap to success for my people? And then, over time, how do I teach future leaders how to do that as well?

Nancy: That is awesome. What do you think is the difference between leaders and managers?

Mark: Well, sometimes you have one that can be autocratic. Do as I say, not as I do. I think a true leader, is someone who leads with humility, and I preach that when I talk about values, that I put humility first. I believe that humility is a strength and not a weakness, and it allows that leader to be genuine to their people, and to understand their people’s goals and objectives within their business, but also personally. When you come across genuine to your people, they will follow you. People have an innate hunger, I would say that they want to be led. But they look for those true leaders that have that gift that can develop that. I call that servant leadership. It is nothing new out there to an extent. But not all leaders serve their people. That is why it is important to me, to lead with a servant leadership lifestyle.

Nancy: I like that. So how did you come up with the name of your book, Shortcuts Get You Lost?

Mark: You know, it’s a funny story, but I talk about my mom a lot. In fact, I have blogs out there on my website and on my LinkedIn profile, and I always share stories that I learned from my mother and how it is relative to business today. So, Shortcuts Get You Lost, was a story about one time I was coming home from school and I used to always watch these kids that lived on my same street, but they would take a shortcut. And they would get home sooner than I did. But I did not know that shortcut, and so one day I took it, and I got lost, and I got scared. And then I had to backtrack to where I started that shortcut and I got home later. Which my mom was first afraid, and then she was angry. She taught me, “Mijo, the danger,” and mijo means my son in Spanish. “The dangers of a shortcut is, when you get lost, you have to backtrack to where you started and it will take you longer. And the bigger danger is had you had success, then you start taking other shortcuts in life, and shortcuts will get you lost.” That is where that title came from because I preach it when I talk to leaders, when I build business plans, and I always talk about a roadmap to success. I think, Nancy, you know as well as I do it is important that we can give our people a roadmap to success. How to spend time on things or what’s important and what’s not important to put aside, and how to recognize when you are straying from that roadmap to get back on plan.

Nancy: Your mom was pretty insightful. So how do you tie this in together into leadership?

Mark: Everything that you learn as you are growing up from both your parents, but I always say that my mom was the best leadership coach, who chose to be a housewife, and she took pride in that. But it relates to when people are straying, so whether its sales or a business process, and people have a roadmap that they are supposed to follow, but they take a shortcut because maybe they want results quicker. They may have some success, but they may not have the full success that you could have had, and it makes them blind to it. I will give you an example that you may have a quick sale, but not realize that because you took a shortcut, you do not understand that organization whoyou sold to, their whole objective, and their whole plan.  So you are celebrating, but you are blind to what you did not receive.  So, we use it in everything, whether a flowchart in how to map out your day, to what things to give priorities to, and it really works strong in business.

Nancy: Very cool. What is your favorite chapter of the book? Maybe the chapter with your favorite lesson?

Mark: I would say that my favorite chapter is chapter 5, called The Current and the Rocks. And it’s funny, because it’s another story. But, this was one that I use an example of people that go whitewater rafting. They’re taught by the instructors to focus on the current and not the rocks. Because if you stare at the rocks you’ll stray towards them. So, I teach in that chapter that when you build a roadmap to success, how to keep your people focused on the currents, and how to challenge them to be stronger. How to raise the expectations, and how to lead them to where they will have that fun experience.  If you have ever gone whitewater rafting, and you have people who focused on the rocks, your experience is going to be a lot different. And when you go whitewater raftingand you focus on the current, then you have a nice safe trip.

Nancy: I have gone whitewater rafting. I never thought about looking at the rocks or the current. So the current would make sense right, because it basically lays out the path for you?

Mark: Yes, it’s the safe flow. So you know, in the chapter it talks about first of all yourself, personally as a leader. Have you checked yourself in the mirror? Are you being genuine to your people? And then it talks about, there’s two views of success. Whose are you focusing on? Are you focusing on yours? Or are you focusing on your people? Because if you focus on your people, and if their goals and objectives are built properly within the organization, then yours will come naturally. The next part is, are you challenging your people, and raising the expectations and holding them accountable? And that’s where once again another saying my mom taught me was, if your climb was easy, maybe you chose a hill instead of a mountain. It’s important for us to sometimes climb those hills, and we can celebrate that success, but are we really looking to those mountains that we want to accomplish things?

Nancy: That’s cool, now you have a day job right, verses being an entrepreneur?

Mark: Yes, I do. I have been in the current business I am in for,(pause) I celebrated my 20-years last February.

Nancy: Oh congratulations, are you a manager and leader in your current role?

Mark: Yes, I am a Senior Vice President and so I have managed several different aspects in this business. We are what is called a franchise organization. So I have been on the franchisee side of the business, and the franchisor side. Presently I am on the franchisee side where we own twenty-two locations. So, we are one of the bigger ownership groups, and so I have managed a big portion of the organization. But what is exciting here is that two people that reported to me two years ago are now equals to me on the Executive Team, and, I take pride in that. That hopefully I had something to do with that, to help develop them, and that’s where humility comes in. Because that should excite you. One of the owners of the business is someone that I hired and trained into the business many years ago. And once again, I tell people, one of the best things you can ever do for your career, is to hire your future boss. Because when you do that, you train them, you develop them, the trust is there, and they share your same values.

Nancy: Absolutely. So good for you for hitting twenty years and good for you for promoting your peers and I always like to think, promote your replacement, or find a replacement for yourself because that’s the only way you can move on yourself to bigger stuff is when someone can take on your work. Do you agree with that?

Mark: I one hundred percent agree. Some leaders are afraid to hire people smarter people than them. I look for people that are smarter than me. And it’s awesome when they can grow, and you see them grow. But when you talk about, when you lead with humility, you want to learn from other people. And I always say, that the day I stop learning, is the day that I will die. Because I want to constantly learn and that’s why, you know, that even after twenty years in this business, I wrote a book. I am working on my next book. The things that I learn it’s just exciting. But, you can learn from everybody, and it just really creates a great environment when people see that as genuine leadership.

Nancy: So where can people find your book? Is it available now?

Mark: Yes, it’s currently on Amazon. It’s on Barnes and Noble.com. It’s also available on ITunes, and in Canada it’s also available on Kobo.com. So it’s out there.

Nancy: Awesome! Very cool, and when people get your book what is the one takeaway you want them to remember? If there’s nothing else that they learn from the book, what is the one message?

Mark: I think the biggest message would be everything is built on the foundation of the right values and principles. And if you don’t have the right values and principles, then things will go astray. So it’s important that you first define what values and principles that you want to manage and grow your organization by, and that you live them every day. And everything else, every decision is built upon that. Your vision, your mission statements, and you point back to it. But, while humility is important, because if for a moment you don’t live a value, you have the humility to say, “I apologize. I had this value, I didn’t live it. But, because of humility being a value, I am correcting it right here.” When you do that, everything else builds strong and you build that stronger foundation that things can survive.

Nancy: I totally agree. I have four values myself. They are decisiveness, persevere, simplicity, and fun. So, you’ve told us about humility is one of yours, do you have any other ones?

Mark: Well, I think that I would like to think that I have ethics as a value, integrity, I always talk about that people that say that they have integrity as a value, but if someone dropped five dollars out of their pocket and they don’t tell them, then they just didn’t live their value. So, I go down to that very foundation, and then respect. And respect is important because, I have a saying here, and once again it came from my mother, but it’s everyone’s a ten. Because I think it’s very important that we show respect to every employee whether they make it with us, or whether they do not. And some of our best customers are former employees that weren’t successful with us. But it’s because we had the right environment, the right culture of respect, and so, they just understand it wasn’t for them.

Nancy: That totally makes sense.  So let me ask you my fun question that I ask everybody on my podcast. If you had one more hour in your day, how would you spend it?

Mark: Well, it’s funny because I am a man of faith, so I would spend it in the bible.  Recently my wife said, “I notice that you are getting up earlier every morning.” And I said, “Well, because I need my God time.” And if I had one more hour, that’s where I would direct it, and then let the rest guide me from there.

Nancy: That’s perfect. Yes, even just meditating is just really helpful for people to kind of set their day. So, good for you, I like that answer. And then is there anything else you want to add that I didn’t think to ask you? Either about your book? Your business? Your life?

Mark: Well, I would just say that it’s an exciting time in business and in leadership. You know we’ve had great leaders out there. Great people that write books. You know I am a big John Maxwell fan and there are others. One Minute Manager talks about catching people doing something right. I just think that it’s real important, that we as leaders look for those that want to be led. Especially with this millennial age. Because they are truly looking to be led, and I think we need to recognize that, and give them the time.

Nancy: Great, those are great parting words. Well, I want to thank you so much for being on the show today. You gave some valuable tips. Some great advice. You inspired me in some new things too. Thank you for your time.

Listeners, you can find our podcast on iTunes and sound cloud, and if you are looking for ways to structure your days with more systems I just created an amazing report. One hundred systems you must have to boost your results. You can find it at NancyGaines.com/systems. Until next time, go out and gain the advantage.

Announcer: You’ve been listening to the Nancy Gaines show. Where you can gain the advantage. To schedule a VIP Strategy Day, or free consulting session with Nancy, connect with her on her website. Nancygaines.com, that’s Nancy G-A-I-N-E-S.com. On twitter, Nancy L. Gaines, and on linkedin, Nancy Gaines. Be sure to check back on Nancy’s website for new episodes. Until next time, you’ve been listening to the Nancy Gaines show. Go out and gain the advantage.

Viki Winterton is Host, Expert Interviewer, Publisher, Best Selling Author, PR, and Business Success & Advertising Veteran. She is the creator of Experts Insights Radio Mark Villareal is a published author, speaker and coach with his recent release of “Shortcuts Get You Lost!”.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/expertsinsights/2016/09/22/mark-villareal-on-expert-insights-radio

Interview :

Announcer : Welcome to Experts Insights weekly radio show hosted by Viki Winterton, founder of Experts Insight family of opportunity. Home of bestselling books, award-winning magazines, global broadcast and communities. Expert Insights is a highly educational, inspiring and empowering show focused on your professional and personal success. Featuring outstanding guests from across the globe, including best-selling authors, top coaches, world stage speakers, thought leaders thriving, entrepreneurs and visionaries. With proven strategies, secret formulas, and treasured resources to help you succeed and make an impact. Welcome, sit back and enjoy the show. And now your host, Viki Winterton.

Viki : Hi, this is Viki Winteron and I am thrilled today because with us we have Mark Villareal. Mark has a passion for developing individuals in a manner that helps them achieve their goals. He has been helping business leaders succeed for over 35-years. He is a published author, speaker, and has been a guest on Talent Talk Radio. He continues to thirst for learning opportunities and strives to demonstrate his humility and Christian faiththrough all that he does. Mark, it is a pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for joining us.

Mark : Well, thank you for having me Viki. I am excited and I am very honored.

Viki : Fabulous, so let’s start for those who have not had the pleasure of getting to know you yet.Tell us a little bit about how you came to this fabulous passion and purpose in life?

Mark : Well, Viki, I will explain it like this. First, it was how I was raised. So I think our parents have a big impact on us, as both my parents did. My mother, as I am the youngest in the family of seven kids, and I had a special relationship. I say that she was the best leadership coach who chose to be a housewife. So a lot of what I teach, and what I’ve learned is from the values and principles that she taught me growing up that relate to everything about business today.

Viki : Oh that’s amazing. So tell us a little bit about how you’re contributing in your business today?

Mark : I will say this, you mentioned that for 35-years I’ve been in business, and this current business that I am in for twenty years. But through that I have had that passion for leadership. So in developing future leaders, current leaders and maintaining leaders that need to keep learning, developing and growing leaders underneath them. That’s the passion that I have, and what I do will impact within our organization. I have been with the organization on our corporation’s side, which is a franchise organization, so I have been on our franchisee side as well.Currently, I am with the largest franchise ownershipgroup of the company, so we have a lot of leaders to develop. Especially when you build succession plans. So that is the passion that you talk about. How you build roadmaps to success.How you access the next leaders and develop them, and then how you teach them to build roadmaps to success underneath their people as well.

Viki : So tell us a little bit about what you think are some of the most important components to leadership and then we will get into your book because it’s so powerful.

Mark : I believe the first component is who you are as a person.So it starts at the top on leadership, and it starts with the very foundations of what values and principles that you set. How genuine you are. So when I talk about values and principles I talk about mine, personally. The first one is humility. I believe the best leaders believe that humility is a strength and not a weakness. So therefore they build upon that. Then they have respect, integrity, initiative, and accountability. Andwith each one they need every decision that they build from there for their business, their organization, and for their people to point back to those. Someone that has humility first will hire people smarter than they are, so they can continue to learn from them as well. But also they will admit their mistakes and be seen as genuine by their people. When you have that foundation, everything else built on top of that is on solid ground.

Viki : Now you know humility is an interesting word. I heard someone compared it to playing piano and they said humility is where you deny your talents.Like if someone said,“Please, oh please play the piano.” You say, “Oh, I am in a group of people, I am so humble I am not going to show off.” That’s not the kind of humility that you are talking about. The kind of humility is that you do take your God-given talents and you do utilize them. Describe humility a little bit further from that perspective because some people have a misconception about humility.

Mark : Well, I think the example that you gave is a very good example. Because the reason I wrote my book is from humility that I have something to share, and I believe, and I have demonstrated that I have a gift to build leaders. To identify future leaders, and to identify what steps it takes to build them to success. So, by understanding like the piano example that you gave, certainly they want to play and to share it. But humility is that hunger that you want others to learn and you want others to succeed. And the difference is with humility, you realize that when you focus on others success, that yours will come naturally. So it’s not about me, in that extent, it’s about you. Let me focus on your goals and I become successful because you succeeded.

Viki : Wow, thank goodness that your definition of humility included you writing this wonderful book. So start with the title of your book and tell us a little bit about why you wrote the book.

Mark : Well, as mentioned, I’ve been in leadership and developing leaders, and coaching. I have worked on manuals for our corporation and different aspects on what it takes to train people. So it’s always that you have something to share and a passion. This is something that I wrote, Shortcuts Get You Lost is a story of teaching people.First of all, that if you take a shortcut and you get lost, you have to go back and start to where you started that shortcut. Therefore it takes you longer than what it would have had you not taken the shortcut. So that is a lesson I learned from my mother when I got lost going home from school and tried to take a shortcut, and she also taught me that had I had success I might have created bad habits to take more shortcuts in the future. That’s the danger of a shortcut. So with my book I had something to share with Shortcuts Get You Lost, that really I made each chapter so that it builds on the next chapter. That it starts with the foundation of who the leader is and why that is an important role, and the responsibility of that leader and the things that they have to think through. They have to access, and make sure that they map out for their people for success to be built on top of that.

Viki : Mmmm, gosh that is really powerful. Really powerful, and I know that in chapter two you kind of get to the heart of the problem, which I’d like for you to tell us a little bit more about that concept.

Mark : Yes, well the heart of the problem is actually the title of chapter two, so thank you very much. Sometimes we as leaders want to hire people that come with all their gifts, as naturally we want people with talents. But I think the heart of the problem sometimes is the self-managed person does not exist. Now there are people that will succeed that are unmanaged. But the highly talented people still need us to remove roadblocks, and strategize with them. It’s at a different level. So when I talk about the heart of the problem I talk about foundational, what do you do when you first look for people? How do you create an environment when you are managing them? So there is an aspect in there that talks about how everyone is a ten. Once again a lesson from my mother, that everyone is treated with respect, whether they are successful with us or not. And that is an important key. Because there are certain things in my life that I could not go out there and do. But it doesn’t change who I am. So first the culture is, everyone is a ten. Treat them with respect. If they’re not successful with us it’s okay. And in our business today, I will tell you that some of our best customers are former employees who weren’t successful with us. But they respected us on how we treated them and they are good customers of ours today. I also talk about how we correspond and interact. I believe that we owe it to our employees to be factual, not negative. But to create that environment where I coach them and that it is really about accountability to lay the groundwork.  To be honest with them, to be open, and for them to see you as genuine. So that’s really the core of chapter two.

Viki : Mmmm, fabulous and you know I like to keep things really simple so I know in chapter three you approach the myth of complexity. Tell us a little bit about that.

Mark : Well, here’s what I think that’s important. I always talk about how we owe it to our people to build them a roadmap to success. It’s funny, it’s kind of like a GPS. When you have to roadmap, and if you’re traveling where you are going to and it’s not uncommon that you have to take a detour, or there is an accident, and so you stray off that roadmap and it’s important that you find your way back to that roadmap for your highest level of success. When we build our roadmap to success, sometimes I think the myth of complexity, as I call it in the book, is that we think it is complex to do that, and so therefore we don’t. And it is important to me to help people identify what are the behaviors that drive the results. So it’s really foundational, what are the behaviors, and I call it cause and effect. What are the causes that get the results that you desire? Therefore when you break that down, and you teach and you manage to the behaviors, you will see your results start coming naturally and consistently and that’s where that’s important. So we talk about also, within the culture, when we’re working with people, and let’s say they’re struggling. Before we think about, are they not going to work for us? Should we let them go? I ask the question, did I give them the benefit of my time. I ask my managers, did you give them the benefit of your time? Then we structure what that means. We make sure we give them the benefit of our time, and then from there we can make better decisions onwhat they need to do to help drive their success better, or sometimes it is a difficult decision that they may not work out with us. But at least we give them that benefit. We talk about confrontation is a benefit. Which means when issues come up we confront them. It doesn’t mean to be confrontational. But what it exactly means is we confront them when they arise, and then we get to the other side of them. The final thing we speak about is to share yourself with your employees. I believe in some businesses, they think it is taboo on being personable. I like to know my employees not only in professional goals,but their personal goals, and I think they tie together. I encourage them even, that if you want to have a trip to Hawaii, I want to see a picture of Hawaii at your desk. I want to know that, when we are talking about your professional goals that they tie into your personal goals. If I can help you achieve that objective, you actually appreciate your job and environment, and your employer much better.

Viki : Yeah, and I think that is so true to know people on different levels, and I think it’s especially true now with so much technology. You know there seems to be a lot of superficial information that rolls around everywhere including social media and so forth. I think that the idea of getting down to that really authentic self is really important to know different dimensions of the people that you are working with. I am hoping that it’s not a lost art because I love doing business that way and I think it’s just so important in building relationships.

Mark : I believe that one hundred percent. I believe the more genuine you come across to your people, they respect your decisions even when they may disagree or they have a different opinion. They appreciate that you took their feedback and their opinion. But when they see you as genuine, then they realize sometimes that when the hard decisions come. But you’ll see people, who, as I call it that they will “take a bullet for you.” Because when they see you as genuine they see you making the hard decisions. But the right decisions, and what’s in the best interest of the organization, and everybody as a whole.

Viki : That’s beautiful, really beautifully put. So, we all look at knowledge in being important and continuing to gain knowledge. But, talk a little bit about knowledge being a vehicle for change.

Mark : Well, Viki, let me explain it like this. I think sometimes that we get so busy in life, and especially at work and our work environment, that we make quick decisions. We make spontaneous decisions and a lot of them work out and they do well. But I teach in, “Knowledge is the Vehicle for Change”, which is a chapter of my book, that good decisions and bad decisions take an equal amount of time. So why don’t we have a process that can be automatic. That helps us make those good decisions. But the first factor is, whoever is making that decision, to realize somethings about themselves. The second factor on making that decision, is to always point things back to the values and the principles of what the organization is built upon. In the chapter I actually take people around a baseball field, because values and principles start at the home plate. But then I teach them what first base is. What’s second base? What’s third base? But in baseball, the goal is to make it back to home plate. That’s important because values and principles at home plate is where you start, and its where you want to finish as well. So, that’s the first part. So when I am talking about who you are as a person, you have to really look at yourself.Have agood reflection of who you are, who you want to be, and that’s actually a daily task. Do you do that each day? Do you look at yourself, and at the end of the day and are you satisfied at who you were from that day. I talk about how there are two views of success. You have heard me speak of this before. But if you look at winning teams, and there are great winning teams in sports out there, the best coaches view of success is not their own. It’s focused on their teams’ success. And that is why they not only had quick success, but long term success. From there we then build a philosophy on, how do you teach your people accountability. However, I am a firm believer that when you can raise expectations of your people, thatthey will rise to the challenge. With that being said, sometimes we have to challenge ourselves on what our goals and objectives are. But we want our people to own them and we want them to be the ones that are really choosing that. But we work through that process. But there is a saying that my mom used to teach me, and she used to challenge me on my decisions, that if your climb was easy, perhaps you chose a hill instead of a mountain. So she was really trying to teach me that it’s okay if you chose a hill and you had success, celebrate it. But son, I want you to choose mountains because they are out there, and I believe that you can accomplish them. We teach that to our people. What wraps up the chapter is how to keep that culture of gratitude and thankfulness, and appreciation. It works in a circle that it just generates more. You tell your people you’re thankful and you show it, and they see it and they believe thatits part of life. It just creates a great environment.

Viki : Yeah, and I think you know when looking at those opportunities to reach for more. Be grateful with what you got and so forth. But to reach for more. If you can, view that as a challenge or as an opportunity, and sometimes that opportunity just presents itself. It’s so exciting when it does and how you accept that, it really does depend, as you suggested here, on your mindset and where you’re at.

Mark : Well, it’s very important that sometimes they say, what is worse than a goal that is set too high? It’s a balancing act, that if you set a goal too high and they don’t achieve it they feel defeated. But what’s worse is setting a goal too low and then achieving it. So it’s that balancing act and that’s why it’s a two way forum. Too many times in businesses individual goals are set by management and they should be set by the people with management participation teaching them, and yes, challenging them. But at the end of the day do you take ownership in your goal, and in your objective. And now from there we can work backwards and build that roadmap to your success.

Viki : I love that concept. That’s really fabulous. Really fabulous, and I know that you believe that leaders are really coaches looking for opportunities to coach. Tell us about a little bit about that.

Mark : Well, Viki, I was asked before on what the difference is between a manager and a leader, and I believe that leaders are coaches. Managers may sometimes be autocratic, and say “do as I say, not as I do,” type philosophy. A coach is looking for opportunities to coach. And in the book I utilize a poem that I wrote many years ago when I attended a football game, and it was about what I witnessed that the coach was doing. When the players came out, and they fumbled the ball, he encouraged his player, and said, “Get ready to have the ball again.” When they weren’t playing right, he called timeout and reorganized the team. When a player wasn’t following his blocks correctly, running the football, he stopped them and coached them so it was continuous. Too many times in business we wait for the results to coach and manage. To where the best philosophy is that you coach during the game, during practice, and you coach to the very end.Even in the example that I give on that poem, I talk about where the team was losing, but yet they were playing hard and it’s because of how that coach coached them. Because he knew that, “I want you to still play hard because I’m preparing you for the next game. And I’m preparing you for who you are, and who you are is going to drive your success with us, or on your next role that you may go to, and I am there to help you with that.” I believe the best coaches not only coach, but they look for opportunities to coach, and every time they do, their team grows.

Viki : Mmmm, I love that. I really love that and it’s a new perception really in management style and it’s so lovely. Because of the way it recognizes contribution and provides encouragement as opposed to just being more of a dictator in the way that management works. So I’m so in appreciation of everything that you put in your book and these wonderful, wonderful approaches to developing people. I was wondering, that when you were going through writing the book, did you run into any personal challenges yourself in doing that?

Mark : You will hear writers talk about writers block and I think that happens to all. I encourage writers to have different methods that helps them through writers block. So I am a man of faith, so I pray quite a bit and I believe in that faith. But I also then will come up with, “okay I have writers block,” let me write some questions down that I can ask other people on their thoughts. With that, and then meditating as well, you’ll be surprised on where the next things come from that help you, “Okay I see where that matches.” And I see that I can input that here and that adds on to this portion very well. So I would say, define two or three methods. Not just one. And allow that then to guide you, and then seek answers from others. You will be surprised how others are there to give feedback, and how many people out there are willing to help you. I always say that a true leader pays it forward. So I talk about myself as I have a hunger to continue to learn. Bur I want to pay it forward and pass it on as well. There are so many people out there that will do the same.

Viki : Yeah, oh and that is such a wonderful point. I love the point to where the fact that you suggest leaving some space when you get blocked. Whether it be in meditation, or whatever practice you use in order to leave a little space for creativity to enter in. I often share that I used to, when I was younger, push harder when I would come to a block with what I was doing. That was a sign of pushing harder, working more, and you know it worked eventually. But it was painful, and if I had learned to leave a little more space for the creativity to just enter and flow much earlier on, it would have been a much more pleasurable experience.

Mark : Exactly! I have a sign up in front of me, and once again it’s one of the lessons from my mother. But is says stop, look and listen, because she used to tell me sometimes that you need to stop and look around you. You need to listen to what is out there and you need to take the time to hear it. And when you are doing that you are looking around and you are listening.And that’s when by doing that, that pause, actually sets you up to take your next steps.”

Viki : Oh fabulous. Yeah such wise advice. What a wise mother you had.

Mark : I did.

Viki : So tell me, what do you hope readers will take away from your book, Mark?

Mark : I hope it encourages readers to realize that they can make a difference. Each day it’s like, can you make a difference with one person? We have a millennial workforce group coming in, and I have found that they really have a hunger to want to be led, and people look for leadership. They look for those leaders to follow. Whether they know it or not. But you see it when they find those leaders, they will follow. They want to learn. They have a hunger. And the millennial group right now has a passion that they come unafraid and they have a courage that I haven’t seen before. So that’s what excites me and I really just like to see other people want to get involved, and hopefully the book helps them to see from a perspective, and it’s written in a fable form that they see that, “This is something that I can apply. And this is something that would work in my business.” Because it not only works in business, it works in life as well.

Viki : Fabulous. Mark, if we were to look beyond just the readership, if you were to look at the work you are doing in general around leadership, and how that might impact the world, along with your book of coursealmost like if it were a legacy, what would that look like for you?

Mark : I think, hopefully, and how it would impact the world is we build one leader at a time. So, if we can build better leaders that lead with humility. Take the right decision making processes. It starts one person at a time. If we can build that, each of us makes better decisions. Each of us treating people with respect. I think we’d have better conversations. I think we’d have a better world, and I think we’d have better results. Whether it’s an industry. Whether it’s in helping out there in the world socially. I just think that, when people see it from that perspective, they really can see that everything they do, can make a difference.

Viki : Ooh, I love that, so beautiful. What a beautiful way to close our time together. Mark, tell me again, the name of the book, and tell everyone where they can find it. And then also, if you have a website where they can connect with you, that would be wonderful.

Mark : Yes, the name of the book is Shortcuts Get You Lost. You can find it on Amazon.com, and you can find it also on Barnes & Noble.com, on iTunes, and on Kobo.com. So it is out there on several websites. I have a website that is titled www.mistevonline.com. Mister is spelled out, m-i-s-t-e-r-v-online.com. You can see where I have blogs there, more information on my book, and you can also find me on LinkedIn, and on Facebook as well.

Viki : Wonderful, Mark, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing this wonderful approach to leadership and I am especially appreciative of the work that you are doing with our future leaders. Thank you so very much for being here.

Mark : Thank you for having me, Viki.

Viki : And for those of you that would like to learn more about Expert Insights Publishing, our best-selling books, our award winning magazines, our global broadcast communities, you can find us at getei.com. That’s g-e-t-e-i.com, and everyone have a wonderful week.

Debbi Dachinger is a Media Personality whose specialties are: Radio & TV Show Hosting, Red Carpet Correspondent, Bestselling Author, Success and Media Expert, Frequent Interview Guest, Keynote Speaker, and Certified Coach

Mark Villareal is a published author, speaker and coach with his recent release of “Shortcuts Get You Lost!”

http://debbidachinger.com/?p=11066

• Opening Introduction & Commercials –

Debbi speaks about her closet and uses the metaphor of what her closet would tell her of it would speak to her. 

Debbi: Mark Villareal is a bestselling author, public speaker, business coach and expert guest on talk shows.  Villareal has won numerous business awards throughout his 35 years of business; he has been awarded the most outstanding franchise location in his industry of over 260 locations worldwide. He helps business leaders succeed by assisting employees and managers reach their next level of success. Mark has an innate ability to quickly identify high-potential individuals. He mentors clients through professional development plans and focused coaching. Mark has assisted in developing consultative sales executives, managers, and business leaders, through a unique vision that businesses as well as leadership, is effective with a foundation of right values and principles. He believes that humility is a strength and that the best leaders continue to pay it forward.  Mark’s website is: www.MarkVillareal.com

Mark, welcome to Dare to dream, it is so great to have you.

Mark : Debbi, I just want to say, that I am so excited to be on your show, and I love listening to everything you said there prior to the introduction. It’s an honor to be here.

Debbi : Thank you so much. We may have to find out about your closet.

Mark : Yes, you have me thinking about it. (Laughter)

Debbi : Yes, well let’s start there then. If your closet could speak, what would it say?

Mark : It would say, look at me closely. Because there are many things that you can help others with.

Debbi : Mmmm

Mark : My closet is real organized, so that there are suits here, and winter stuff here. But I probably have so many things that I hold on to, that I need to go through and whether it’s Goodwill or Salvation Army, and just say to myself, these are probably best served elsewhere.

Vicki : What do you need to make more space in your life for?

Mark : I always try to make more space for family. It starts with my Christian faith, as I was asked by my wife, why are you getting up earlier everyday now? I replied with, I needed more God time. But with more God time, it includes everything that is built on top of that. So it’s everything that evolves around family.

Debbi : I really love that answer. I have been also, when the alarm goes off, rather than bolting right out of bed and jumping into gym clothes, allowing myself the grace of time to connect with spirit. And just be there, and check in with myself and ask if there is a message for me today? What is mine to know and let go of? So what is it you do when you wake up earlier? What is your practice?

Mark : Well, first I talked about my faith. I have my practice on meditating in the Bible and the scriptures I go through. Then something that my mom taught me, and I wrote about it in my book. In fact, I created a poem that talks about it and I teach in business. She said, “I want you to get up each day and look in the mirror, and then end each day and look in the mirror, and see if you’re satisfied with how your day went. Ask yourself these questions.” She listed out a list of questions. Did I accomplish things? Did I help others? Did I live my dreams? Did I move things forward? And, did I do as much today, as I plan to do tomorrow? Because she used to always tell me, in fact she would call me out on it growing up, “You keep saying you are going to do these things tomorrow.You know if you did as much today, as you plan to do tomorrow, you would accomplish a lot more in life.” So that is what I do.

Debbi : Wow! That’s great advice! So most days when you look in the mirror at the beginning, and at the end of the day, what is that like for you?

Mark : Well, it’s an evaluation, and you talked about, where I talk about humility, it’s because you have to be accountable to yourself first, to say, “When I evaluate this, did I accomplish it? What could I have done better? Am I satisfied with the day?” Certainly challenges happen and occur. But did I conquer those challenges? Another statement is, confrontation is a benefit. Which does not mean to be confrontational. But did I confront any challenge the way and the manner that I needed to so that I can quickly assess it and get to the other side. So that evaluation then allows me to say, here is what I need to do tomorrow. Then the next morning when I wake up, that reflection that I am looking at, reminds me, “You told yourself you are going to this, so make sure you do.”

Debbi : That’s lovely, so you essentially bookend you day.When you check in at the beginning, you check in the end, and it helps inform you for the next day. I love that you have so much integrity and responsibility in how you show up for yourself, for spirit, and for your fellow men and women.

Mark: Well, thank you. It’s a foundational thing. That’s when you talk about leadership.Everything is based upon the foundation that you built, values and principles. I have a saying that goes, values are what you live by and principles are what you stand on. Because if you have the values you need to live daily, that your principles become automatic. It shouldn’t be a question in your mind. What occurs and what happens. So when you are doing those evaluations, whether it’s personally or in business. It should be that humility allows you to call yourself out. If you didn’t live a value. And that’s where you can make corrections as well.

Debbi : So values and principles both personally and in business. You’re talking about leadership, Mark, and I am so curious because of all the work you do in leadership, and your book about leadership. What makes your leadership style unique?

Mark : Well, hopefully it is not unique, but it starts with what I call servant leadership. There are other authors out there that write about it and give a great example. But it starts with putting other people’s success first. If everything is built upon the right foundations, and therefore goals and objectives are defined and created, if your focus is on others people’s success, yours will come naturally. So that humility allows you to not come in worrying about, “Oh I have to make sure I look good.” It’s about helping others achieve their personal and professional goals. So that might be unique. Because in today’s society people believe that it is taboo not to get or understand people’s professional goals and their personal goals. But I think they are equally as important. Because you can help them achieve both through the profession and they actually value their jobs and the workplace culture and the environment you create from that. It just cycles out of control to where people want to work for you.

Debbi : Yeah, imagine that. Imagine living in a society, and imagine even corporate America rising up to a challenge to what you’re talking about to actually have happy employees and leaders that act as servants and know that as I give I shall receive and so will go this business. Is it challenging? Is that challenging to do, to be a principled leader?

Mark : It is at first. Only because, one: a lot of people are not used to it. So they have to first see that you are genuine on who you are, and my mom used to always say, “Show people who you are, don’t be afraid to. And they will see, and then therefore follow you. Because people want to be led.” People have an innate hunger that they are looking for leaders. Whether they know it or not. Your show, Dare To Dream, is a great example that I tell people, “I want to know what your dreams are.” If you have never been to Hawaii and that’s one of your dreams. Then put a picture of Hawaii up where you work because then we will work professionally on what helps you to achieve that, and we will celebrate together when you’re taking that trip to Hawaii. So it’s that type.

Debbi : So I’ve done that before, by the way. I’ve actually put up a picture of a car once. I said I wanted to create it in a color and everybody said it would be difficult to style. The dealership said no way. A week later, I am telling you the picture was up on my board. I cut out a little picture of my face, waving as though I was driving the car, and I have certainly manifested things like that. I think, having that dream you’re talking about with a modicum of detachments really created magic.

So we’re going to be taking a break, and when I come back, I am going to be asking Mark some questions about what absolutely sabotages a leader, and what absolutely creates massive success for a leader. Stay tuned for that. You are listening to Dare To Dream Radio. Sign up for free newsletters which show replay links, inspiring videos and upcoming events at Debbidachinger.com.

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Debbi : I am interviewing Mark Villareal at markvillareal.com. Mark, what are three things that you see leaders do that absolutely sabotages their efforts. What are three things that are killers for a leader?

Mark : Well, number one, and you heard me mention it, is not sticking to their values and principles and we get challenged with that daily. So that would be number one because sometimes we have numbers we have to make, or businesses that we have to build, but if we get challenged on that, like I said, that value has to become a principle that makes it automatic. Number two, I would say is that they stop taking shortcuts and hence, the name of my book Shortcuts Get You Lost, and the dangers on the shortcuts is that you have to start back at where you started that shortcut, or you’ve had some success by taking a shortcut and it teaches bad habits. Then, number three, is they don’t share the vision enough. Vision is not something that you say, here is our vision and I expect everyone to remember it. It’s something that you share constantly. It’s something that you point back to. That you set milestones for. That you show people, hey we’ve made steps towards our goals and our vision and we are making progress. Vision, in a sense is, what are your dreams? So whether that is personal or professional they are not sharing the vision enough.

Debbi : When you mention shortcuts, that’s one of the sabotages for great leaders is they take shortcuts. What do you mean by shortcuts? Can you give some examples?

Mark : Well, I’ll start with an example on when I was a young kid and where the story comes from. That going home from school I saw some kids who lived on the same street that sometimes would take a shortcutthrough this wooded area and they would get home earlier than I did. But I did not know the shortcut. One day I wanted to get home earlier. So I tried the shortcut and I got lost. I got very afraid, and then I had to backtrack and find that spot where I took that shortcut and therefore then started on the route that I should have been on. It made me arrive home late. It made my mom very worried. Then it made her very angry, and that’s when she taught me that shortcuts get you lost. So in business, people can take shortcuts. One example is sometimes when you are taking a shortcut on someone that maybe doesn’t have the character. When I talk about character, I talk about maybe they don’t have the values that you want them to live by. But yet, maybe they can get quick results for you. So you take that shortcut. But long term it will hurt you because one, it will spread. It not only affects your business but infects your business, and it will start spreading to others. So, that’s where I talk about people not sticking to their values and their principles. Other types of shortcuts are just in process on whether it’s a sales cycle, not really going through to understand your client’s objectives and what they’re trying to achieve.  Understanding really what their business is, their industry and who their competitors are and what gives them the strategic advantage. So you might have a quick success, but by not understanding that,you don’t realize how much you really could have effected that client and really become a trusted advisor in their business.

Debbi : I see.So you’re saying, the three top ones that sabotage leaders, to reiterate. One, is not sticking to their values and principles when challenged. Two, they take shortcuts, which creates really bad habits and gets them completely off of the path. And three, they don’t share the vision and the dream with the team. So if that’s so, what are three things that you know as an expert,Mark, which absolutely turns a leaders efforts into massive success? What are three things that you know are winning actions or behaviors for a leader?

Mark : Well, I would say, first, be humble and then teach but also learn from others. People, really appreciate when someone with humility is out there teaching and they then correct themselves sometimes. But also, they actually appreciate people who are out there saying, what can I learn from you? Because that just shows a genuine person and they rally around that. Two, I would say, is build a culture and talk about what type of culture you want. Don’t just try to build it and hope it develops. But tell them, and educate them on the things that you are doing. Even if it is simple things on how this builds on this, and that builds on that. Don’t underestimate your people. Then number three, teach them the difference on focusing on what keeps them out of danger, than worrying and changing their focus that takes them into danger. In my book I talk about that, because I refer to it as the current and the rocks. To where, whitewater rafters, they learn from their instructors, well – most instructors, to focus on the current, and not the rocks. Because naturally, what they do when they focus on the rocks out of fear, their raft will actually drift towards the rocks. But if they focus on the current, they actually stay safer, and they have a better experience. And you ask people, who focused on the rocks, how was their experience, versus those that focused on the current?And each will tell you, “Oh that was dangerous. That was scary.” The other will say, “That was awesome. That was great.” But it was the same ride down.

Debbi : Interesting. I know that as children growing up, having boundaries and discipline, understanding in one’s household, this works. This doesn’t work. This is safe. This is unsafe. It’s really great. Really great and helps develop children actually into functioning adults. So I hear you saying the same for the employees of the company, that they can be taught the difference between what will work, or what will not work as an employee of the company, and therefore what’s rewarded or not. As the other thing you mentioned as the success principles, be humble. Teach and learn as a leader, which also of course means you have to talk and listen. And then the second thing you mentioned was build, and talk about a culture of what you, and your business are doing that you bring the employees in to what’s going on. You make them a part of it. All of what I am hearing you say is that this is really creating a team. The word team is bantered about. But you’re saying that a real successful leader, the winning action is you just don’t talk about being a team, but treat them as a team. Treat them as an equal contributor to this success. Is that correct?

Mark : Yes, absolutely correct. One of the titles of the chapters of my book is called ‘What Coaches do.’ And I wrote that chapter because I believe a leader, is a coach. Not all managers are leaders. But hopefully all leaders are coaches.

Debbi : That’s funny.

Mark : So, it doesn’t mean that you always get consensus when you make a decision. But it does mean that you create the environment that they can give feedback and input. But you tell them what you’re looking for. I use an example and I will age myself here for this, where I talk about how I am always looking for the next Walter Payton.He was a great running back for the Chicago Bears. But I say this, because Walter Payton was so gifted and they called him Sweetness as his nickname. But he showed up to practice early. He listened to the coach, he watched film, and he followed his blocks. What an example that he set for the rest of that team and in that locker room. Where he didn’t say, ‘Coach, I’m Walter Payton. Obviously I know this stuff automatically.’ So I always tell them I’m looking for that because it tells them what type of environment I am trying to create. If Walter Payton did that, why wouldn’t I expect that from them individually?Because I teach them on how much it takes them to their next greatness and how much more that they can accomplish. So everything is about coaching.

Debbi : You are talking about your book too. You’ve been mentioning the chapters. One of the ones I likes was‘Crap or Honey.’ And in that chapter you’re sitting in Mr. Scott’s office and you are waiting for him to arrive, and you notice that there are four signs on the wall. Mark can you mention what those signs were about and why they are meaningful?

Mark : Sure, the first sign is, ‘A Little Change in DNA and You’ll Get A Frog, When You Could Have Had a Prince.’ So that is just about the chapter that you are speaking about that it is really important who is on top, and forgive me to say, crap or honey. But it talks about whatever you have on top, is what will roll down and infect or affect the rest of the team. So you have to be cognizant as a leader that what changes you’re making, whether it’s a little change, or a big change, that a little change in DNA and you’ll get a frog instead of a prince. That’s vastly different than what you wanted. So we talk about, think about and build a process on how you make decisions, and how often you make decisions, that might change things drastically. The next one is, ‘Follow Up, Support, and Reaction.” In other words it is challenging that leader, and this is Mr. Scott who put this up because he wanted to show not only himself, reminders, but show his team, here are areas that I’m focusing on. So it’s self-accountability. And he said, I want to focus on how I follow up. How I support you, and what my reactions are and how quickly I react. Certainly we want to be proactive. But in business, sometimes it’s reactive because when you bring us things, how quickly can we remove roadblocks, give you support, and help you get to the thing that you’re trying to achieve. The other one is very foundational, it’s ‘Rewards or Consequences.’ We’re taught that when we are little. Our parents correct us with rewards or consequences and so we speak about that in business because we talk about it from day one. That I’d rather manage with rewards. If you do these things, and if you listen to me, and if you show that you are coachable then you will receive rewards. You will receive more accounts. More of this, more things that will drive your success, but there are also consequences. Which is sometimes, I have to make corrections, and I owe it to you to do that. I owe it to you because I value you as an employee to say, sometimes I have to manage by consequences, and that’s where the rewards or consequences come from. Then the final one is called ‘Cause& Effect’. That we always evaluate what causes bring what effects. Once again, that kind of relates to the number one about a little change in DNA. But also it allows us to evaluate as we go in business, these are the results that I am achieving, or not achieving, and so what were the causes that drove that for us to be very cognizant of that.

Debbi : You know, as I was reading your book, and as I am listening to you now, Mark, I kept wondering how have you changed? Because you made it your mission to align yourself with very successful leaders and interview them, and spend time with them, and shadowing them, to find out why are you functioning so highly? Why are you doing well? Why are your employees doing so well?From the time that you had the idea to do your book in this way, and to the time that you have completed it now, and the book is out in the market. How have you’ve changed from learning from these individuals?

Mark : For example, the first things that I would do, would be to write down things like, I need to focus more in these areas. So talking about, when you said, how do you make more time? So, some of the examples I learned from others was a saying that I actually used when I would teach others now about touch it once. Learning what things that you, even if they’re simple or big, and we try to manage this on what is important and urgent. But somethings you can just touch once and get to the other side of it instead of letting the simple things pile up. That’s where you talked about clutter earlier. That’s helped me in business to where I eliminate that clutter as there are things that I touch once, or teach others to touch once. I would say the biggest change is just my hunger to continue to learn more and to pay it forward. So that was the reason for writing my book first, and I am working on my next one. Creating my blog. It’s how much can I give back? Because the more that I would research others, and share ideas with others, and learn, I found there are so many people out there willing to mentor you and share their ideas. That they paid it forward to me, I want to pay it forward to others. That is probably the biggest change or the biggest growth. I would say that I always had that, but it’s now, what are more ways that I can do that? And share ideas? Get out and there and speak, and help, and there are some women groups that I mentor. I have mentored some women that have grown into leadership roles and higher leadership roles, and that’s just exciting. It makes you want to look for more opportunities like that.

Debbi : How excellent. So now a great leader, even more so, after working with all these people. Creating this book, and now on to his next book and blogs, and mentoring and so forth. Well, we’re going to come back and find out more about the importance of proper management implementation from Mark, and also about his personal and professional dreams.

This is Debbi Dachinger on Dare To Dream Radio. Join me on twitter, my name, @debbidachinger. Stay right there, I’ll be right back.

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Debbi : Debbi Dachinger, I am back with Mark Villareal, speaking about leadership and his new book which I have right here called ‘Shortcuts Get You Lost! A Leadership Fable On The Dangers Of The Blind Leading The Blind.’ Rewardsand consequences you were talking about through this process, felt it was real important to implement that. Talk more specifically, rewards and consequences. What does that look like, and what’s a good way to implement that?

Mark : First, I announce that I use and that I manage by rewards and consequences, and in a sense, I even talk about that I play favorites. In fact sometimes, when I use to hire a lot of people I’m like, “Have you ever worked at a spot where they played favorites, but they didn’t want to admit it? Well, I want to tell you up front that I play favorites, that way you don’t have to complain about it.”

Debbi :  (Laughter)

Mark : But let me tell you what that means. I play favorites for those that listen. To those that show that they are coachable. It doesn’t mean you have to execute perfectly. But if you listen and show you are coachable and that you’re trying to execute, and then obviously those that execute better and grow. Those are the favorites where I play. So it’s really about the business, and so that’s when you’ll earn the rewards, the promotions, and even more opportunity. Consequences are for those of you who are not coachable and I will have to let you know because I owe it to you.And because we’ve driven other people to success, I want to ask people,if we made all these other people in the past successful, then if I see something in you that you are doing, that I think is detrimental to your success, do you want me to point it out? When it’s at the beginning when you hire people that you say that, everyone says yes. So, it’s easy for me to remind them, “If you remember, when we talked about when we hired you that if I saw something that you were doing that was going to be detrimental to your success, you told me that you wanted me to point it out. I am doing that here. Let me be straight we you.” That’s where I talk about, we treat them with respect. Everyone’s a ten. Because sometimes they’re not successful with us. But they’re still a ten. Therefore we’ve had people who were not successful with us that have gone on to other businesses, and refer customers to us. Because they just weren’t successful in our industry, but they appreciated how they were treated with respect, and they know that we’re a good business because of that. So that is pretty much how we implement it and how we teach how to implement it.

Debbi : And what about the rehire technique? What is that?

Mark : Debbie, I am sure you’ve heard of, this is where the rubber meets the road.

Debbi : Yes, I have.

Mark : Well, the rehire techniques is, when you are coaching those people and I talked about those that are coachable. Those are the ones that you want to give your energy to, because they’re making the difference. Then there are those that aren’t coachable, or are struggling with it, or are fighting it. There comes a point to where you have to say, this is where the rubber meets the road. However, we teach that in the rehire technique. The rehire technique is where you bring them in, you have reached the point, and maybe even in that discussion they’re still saying why they’re struggling, that you have to say, I need you to take a step back. We both do. I need to explain to you that I have this position available. You state the role of the position. This is the job description.These are the expectations and what is expected in the execution. I need to know, if you want that job moving forward, because we have reached that point. And it is very effective, because you are letting them know that we’re at this point, that I’ve had to get to this, define everything that needs to be done. To see if you’re going to reassess the position and therefore, because if you do, you know what the criteria is moving forward. There is no ambiguity. That’s what we call the rehire technique.

Debbi : It’s like renewing your wedding vows. (Laughter) It’s like we’ve come this far, are we going to keep going on the same path and renew this, or are we going to make another choice? I am sure that’s a very interesting conversation to be a fly on the wall for and hear what unfolds when a manager says that.

Mark : I would say yes. I would say most of the time, because you established everything else. Factual, not negative. We don’t bring negative things, we are just factual. Here are the facts, here is your performance. Here are the things that I’ve asked you to do, and here are the things that you have fought or you haven’t done. Here is where your struggles are. Here are the corrections we tried to make, and that you did not make. So it’s very factual. There may be, and probably have been one or two people who still fight it. And we have had in the instance where someone says, well since you put it that way I then I kind of see that this isn’t for me. So therefore you make that decision together and you say, I respect that. I don’t want you in a position that isn’t for you, and so let’s talk about the next steps.

Debbi : The next steps indeed. I am sure that a lot can go either way depending on the choices that are made and what is really in somebody’s heart if they are really aligned with the company or they’re done, andthey’re meant to be doing something else. What about you Mark, your dreams. You talked about the importance in dreams and how you include that in your daily check-ins. How do you make dreams come true? Do you have a secret formula or something you know always works?

Mark : Well, I will say this. First of all, if I don’t know others dreams then I can’t make them come true. On my personal dreams I have to define them and I actually have a list of, it’s actually what I call….you’ve heard of BHAG, big harry audacious goals. Well I have a list of my BHAP, big harry audacious prayers, and I have broken them down into five categories. One category being family. One category being influential, how can I influence others? Another category is experimental. Another one is physical. That goes a lot with health or skiing the top of a mountain in Lake Tahoe. And another one being travel. So I teach that to others too, because if you don’t list your goals you’re never going to accomplish them. And then to teach to how to really step outside and take risk. My mom used to say, “Everyone has dreams, I just want you to live yours.” Too many time you hear about who say, “Yeah, I always wanted to do that.” So I reply like, “What steps did you take to accomplish that?” So it’s just really teaching people that they can take steps and put that dream out there. We’ve done that in business, Debbi, where people sometimes had dreams of owning their own business, and that’s okay. We would say, “Give us 110% and we will do everything to advance your career. With that being said, if they give us that 110% we help them achieve, whether it’s the income, or the other things that they’ve gone on to own their own business. But they were very professional when they worked for us, and they achieved their goals which helped us achieve ours. That’s a culture that people want to work in.

Debbi : Yeah, mutual dream creation, that’s pretty powerful. You enable somebody, in a positive way to forward and create what’s in their heart and by virtue of doing that, you’ve also reaping benefits. It’s sort of a collaborative dream where everyone benefits. What about challenges. I am really curious, have you hit any roadblocks ever with a dream? I am sure we all do. When you have, and if you have, what have you employed to get yourself through? What do you know works?

Mark : Well, I will say that I can’t think of anyone that has not had a challenge with a dream, or a roadblock that comes up. So there are a couple of things that I employ. My mother, and forgive me for speaking about my mother a lot but I say she was the best leadership coach, who chose to be a housewife. She taught me to stop, look and listen. Because I was always trying to move forward and if I didn’t stop, to be aware of what was really happening. To look around and to really understand my surroundings, and to listen to what others had to say. I talk about others that want to pay it forward so I seek advice and from trusted advisors. Others that maybe have lived the dream or achieved it. And you realize that they had challenges to and what steps that they took to get around those. People want to share. People want others to be successful. They’re, your truly people aren’t greedy about, “Nope, I’m the only one that wants to achieve this so I don’t want you to.” So really, not being shy. They talk about men really don’t like to ask directions. I might be the rarity that I have no problem asking for directions. Because I think life, as business that a roadmap to success we have to provide our people. And it’s just like a GPS. When you’re traveling, and I traveled from Tennessee back to San Antonio, and there was an accident. That was a detour. That was a challenge. I had to get off that roadmap to success but it showed me where to get back on, and that’s why a roadmap to success is important. So, what I find successful is building a roadmap to that dream and then therefore if I have to take a detour, I still know that there’s a point that I want to get back on that roadmap.

Debbi : Get on the roadmap. Talking about GPS and directions, and saying, yes we’re all going to hit obstacles in our path to our dream. But it’s about what you do when you hit that obstacle. Are you going to veer off and start driving to the next state, even though it was never your attention? Are your going to find a way to patch up that road? Heel that road? Take a roundabout? Whatever choices you make but to keep on the path to your dream. Stay right there and we’ll be right back.

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Debbi : Debbi Dachinger, Dare To Dream Radio. I am back with Mark Villareal the author of Shortcuts Get You Lost! at markvillareal.com. Mark, this is Dare To Dream. What do you next dare to dream? What is your next future dreams and goals?

Mark : I mentioned that I am already writing my next book, so I dare to dream that that’s going to get out there, and it’s going to touch the lives of others. So that’s really the biggest reason that I do this. That is has an effect on others. I want to leave a legacy and I think that’s my biggest dream. Zig Ziglar used to talk about what would people say, at your funeral? One thing I want people to say at my funeral is, “He was a good man.” Because no matter if you were my best friend or a stranger, if whoever says that, that’s a very good thing to say and probably the biggest compliment. But I want to leave a legacy to where people can say, “This is how he touched me. This is something that he wrote that made a difference in my life. Something that he said here.” I want my family to say, this is the difference he made and hopefully as I live my life he’ll smile down on me as I hope my parents are smiling down on me as well.

Debbi : And if you could go back and say anything to your sixteen year old self now, what would that be? To your sixteen year old self what would you say?

Mark : Learn to be still.

Debbi : Mmmm

Mark : Biggest lesson from my mom. Because I was always racing to get to the next thing and she used to say, “You need to learn to be still. Because it’s in those moments that you’ll actually make your bigger decisions. That will accelerate where you need to go.”

Debbi : Wow!

Mark : Big message from her.

Debbi : That’s a big message period. Learn to be still. This year Mark, what is the most important thing, that’s new, that you have learned this year, that you are still grappling with or learning to implement?

Mark : I will say it’s the new millennial workforce is they come in with a lot of courage and a lot more knowledge than when I came into the workforce. So understanding how to have an effect on them but actually, learn to be still is a great message with them because they want to race forward so much. So actually slowing them up. But I have learned that they have the same hunger to find leaders to follow. So I am grappling with how to make a difference with them. So I am learning, and having an effect. But how can I make a bigger impact? So that’s something that I am seeking each day and learning from others as well.

Debbi : Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your expertise. I appreciate it.

Mark : I really appreciate you having me on it’s been a blessing.

Debbi : Markvillareal.com and I end today’s show with a quote from Eckhart Tolle. “Acknowledging the good, that you already have in your life, is the foundation for all abundance.”

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