The Power of a Positive Mind: Live with Valorie Burton

Mark Cole:

Hey. Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. We are the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole, and today, I’ve got to tell you, at the next level, I’m excited. Now, I say almost every episode because when you get to hear from John or when you get to hear content, when you hear things that will make you better, it’s always an exciting day. But then you couple today and what we’re doing, it’s the next stratosphere. Because today I’m coming to you live from what we’re calling our Maxwell Leadership City tour. We started in Atlanta, and over the next few episodes, we’re going to have a city tour podcast episode that we’re going to invite you into a different city around the United States. I know we have thousands, tens of thousands of you listen from Philippines alone. So we’ve got to come to Manila too. I got it. So invite us. We’re on our way. But not only that, we’re coming to cities because we want you to understand the magnitude of women and men that are committed to not just listening to a podcast, but making the podcast have feet, have hands, have a voice. These women and men are called Maxwell Leadership Certified Team Members. And in the studio today, we have around 100 in the studio or in this auditorium. And I’m just going to let you see because this is our first live studio, our live crowd, and I want you to see what I’m seeing today. So crowd want you say hello to the podcast family right here. I promise you podcast listeners, this is not mine and Valerie’s family, as in biological family. These are really people that are here because they love to add value to you. And we’ll tell you more about that later. Also joining me today is Valerie Burton. Now, she’s been on the podcast before. You know her as my friend. You know her in fact, the last podcast. If you want to hear how much of a Valerie fan I am, go back to the last podcast. We’ll put it in the show notes because I could spend all day talking about you, Valerie, and my respect for you and my appreciation for your work.

Valorie Burton:

Well, Mark. Thank you. You know, I feel even more that way, but you have always been such an encourager to me and believed in what I was doing and now getting to work with you even more as a thought leader for Maxwell Leadership and a mentor for the certified team. So it’s good to be here again.

Mark Cole:

Yes. And so today I really want to dig into some things that you’re super excited about. But for those of you that have not heard of Valerie, one will put more information in our show notes for you to hear more about her. But she’s the CEO of the Coaching and Positive Psychology Institute, which is also known as Cap she’s a world renowned speaker. She’s been highlighted on all major media outlets here in the United States. She speaks all around the world. You’re a Maxwell leadership thought leader, but today she is a life coach that is going to help you help others become better. And so, Valerie, I am excited about you being here. I’m excited about working alongside of you. Welcome to the podcast.

Valorie Burton:

Thank you. I’m excited to chat about this stuff.

Mark Cole:

Well, before we get started, let me tell you this. If you want to see a good version of the podcast, you need to go to YouTube, go to Maxwellpodcast.com. You can find that on YouTube. And you’ll see this episode. You’ll get to see the audience that just greeted you, because we love our YouTube audience as well. I love this idea. Valerie, I’m going to jump right in. Because you love positive psychology, that must mean there’s a different kind. Is that negative psychology? What is the difference between psychology and positive psychology?

Valorie Burton:

That’s the reason some psychologists don’t like the term positive psychology, because it almost automatically makes people think, whoa. What is it? I typically say there is a traditional psychology, and traditionally when we think of psychology, we think of fixing what’s wrong, fixing problems, which is really important because some of us have issues, right? And so we need to be able to fix those things that go wrong. But positive psychology is the study of what happens when things go right. What is it that happens when you are happy? What is it that happens when you are resilient? What is it that happens when you tap into your strengths or express gratitude or you connect heart to heart with people? So it’s all the good stuff. What is it that helps you flourish and what makes life good and meaningful? So that’s what positive psychology is.

Mark Cole:

So you’ve worked with a lot of leaders, including myself, and John and I both are avid readers of your content. What is the impact of positive psychology in the world of leadership skills?

Valorie Burton:

I think at this point, it’s tremendous. So the term really kind of became known. It’s been about 25 years now since Dr. Martin Seligman was president of the American Psychological Association. In that year, at their big convention, he challenged researchers to start to more balance out the research in psychology, which had become largely about mental illness. And so you’ve probably noticed over the last couple of decades a lot more research books and so forth about happiness and joy and strength and resilience. And that’s because researchers really have been doing a lot more of that. When we think about leadership in particular, it is so important to think from this perspective. For example, I say often that positive emotion is a success strategy. So we actually know from the research that when you’re happier, you’re more successful. We tend to think it’s the other way around. If I can succeed at things, then I’m going to be happier. And there’s a little truth to that because you get a bounce. If you’ve ever had something really good happened or met a goal, you get a little happier for a while. But what happens is you get used to it, and it becomes your new normal, and then you just need something else to make you happy again. But when we experience positive emotion, it actually helps us do a lot of things. We set better goals. We persevere longer. We actually are stronger. So positive emotion acts like a cushion when you’re dealing with stressors. So there’s all of this really good stuff. You’re actually more creative. You actually make better decisions when you’re in a positive frame of mind. So as a leader, if you think about that with your team, teams collaborate better and they communicate better. When there’s a positive environment, it’s very relevant for leadership.

Mark Cole:

Wow. Okay, so before we again dive a little bit deeper into positive psychology, this idea of coaching, you’re America’s life coach. You’ve been coined a lot of things around coaching, so kind of break that down for me so that the audience can understand positive psychology, this idea of coaching, and how that really can help you with your performance.

Valorie Burton:

Yeah, this was kind of a vision for me. I started coaching first. My coaching came out of the writing because my mission is around inspiring others to live more fulfilling lives. So it was like a journey, okay, let me start writing, fulfilling this purpose. I kept getting interviewed by media, and they kept calling me a coach. And I was almost arguing with them, like, no, I’m not coach. We got to call you something. It’s the media. They need, like, a short snappy title. And so I was like, well, let me at least look into what this is. And then I realized it was the one on one of what I was speaking about and writing about. And then when I got my own coach and I saw how my life was transforming and how it was changing what I was doing in my business, that’s when I realized this really works. Like, not only was I excited about helping other people, but I believe so strongly in it, but having such a love of learning, I was like, what proves this out? Because it was a lot of kind of anecdotal evidence, oh, I’m coaching over here. This works. You ought to try it. And that’s when I discovered positive psychology, and I was like, this could be the academic underpinning that coaching really needs. And coaching is moving people from where they are to where they want to be and helping them navigate those challenges. But understanding what the science and the research of flourishing and performing says about how to do that is perfect. It’s a really great marriage between the two.

Mark Cole:

So there’s life coaches, there’s business coaches, there’s athletic coaches. In fact, in the studio here today and listening podcast land. If you’re on YouTube, give us a comment. How many can remember a coach that made a huge difference in your life, whether that’s athletically business okay? And just on the count of three or in the notes, I want you to yell their name as fast as I can. They may be listening to the podcast and they want to hear their name.

William:

Okay?

Mark Cole:

So think about it. Think about it. One, two, three. It was nice to meet them. Now, do you remember what they taught you, the game plan, audience? Or do you remember how they made you feel, how important you were, something they taught you? Raise your hand. How they made you feel? Raise your hand. And in the audience here, Valerie, we get the point that it’s about how you come alongside and create just, I guess, this sense of belief, this sense of hope, this sense that I am here, but I can get better. So is there a difference in life coaching, in personal coaching, in business coaching, in athletic coaching? Do you see differences in those?

Valorie Burton:

Well, I think that first of all, all of it is coaching. And so coaching in itself is a discipline. And I think no matter what type of coaching someone wants to do, they need to understand these core principles, these core competencies of coaching. And then you apply that in different ways. I think in athletic coaching, you do think of the person teaching you specifically how to do some things, whereas in personal and executive coaching, you’re really side by side. It’s not a relationship where the coach is kind of the expert and the clients down here, they’re together. And what the coach is doing is pulling out from them the answers that are already inside of them. They are serving as a sounding board. They’re helping create a structure. Because if you’re working with someone every week or every couple of weeks, it’s an automatic structure. Some of us need deadlines and accountability. It’s not that we need someone to tell us what to do. We need to know, I’ve made this commitment, this investment in myself. Here’s what I’m doing, here’s what I’m going to do by next week. And even if you don’t do it until an hour before your coaching session, you did it. And if you didn’t have the coaching session, you probably wouldn’t, right? So there’s a structure, there’s momentum that builds up. And then I think, very importantly, it’s this safe space to be able to really bring challenges and opportunities and talk through what is the right next step, what is the game plan, who do I want to be? How do I want to show up? How can my values be expressed through my goals and my vision? It’s the big important stuff. And oftentimes people don’t realize just how much they’re going to get out of coaching until they go through the process.

Mark Cole:

Wow. So you’ve coupled positive psychology and coaching to create that impact at the personal level and professional level. Why don’t you give us a personal way you’ve experienced positive psychology working and creating impact in a workspace.

Valorie Burton:

Well, I think one of the most powerful ways is if you’re in an organization, it’s very normal when things go wrong, when there are mistakes to dissect what happened. Right. That it’s almost like, how could you let something bad happen and not go back and figure out everything? A positive psychology approach would say, where are the wins? Where do we have people succeeding when we thought they weren’t going to succeed? And how could we figure out what enabled that so that we can be intentional about creating more of it? Right. So you’re looking for the places where things are flourishing, and you’re finding those ways to replicate that or to extract lessons from it that you can then apply to succeed in the future or to fix challenges and problems that might occur.

Mark Cole:

Wow, okay, so then take me to this whole concept. Before you can intentionally grow, you’ve got to have this plan. You’ve got to have a growth mindset. So how do you begin to put into practice? Give me some practical things of how a leader can get into a practice of developing this growth mindset.

Valorie Burton:

Oh, growth mindset is one of my favorite topics involved. I heard you speak on it, and she’s really good. So there is quite a few researchers involved, but one of the main ones is Dr. Carol Dweck. She wrote a book called Mindset that was really a life changing thought process for me. So basically, many of us grow up praised for being smart or being talented or even as adults, we thrive on that. Right. And it’s about your natural gifts, and we praise people for that. But what Dr. Dweck and other researchers discovered is that that’s not the most important thing. Effort is actually more important. We’re actually capable of doing a lot more than we realize. But we often say, well, I don’t have that gift. I don’t have that talent, I’m not that smart at whatever it is. Right. We can actually learn and grow. So those who have a fixed mindset tend to believe that their talents, their gifts are set. And the reason that’s a problem is because when they get to a challenge they can’t figure out or they face a problem they haven’t come up with a solution for, they think it’s a condemnation on their intelligence or their talent. And so oftentimes you might find yourself shrinking away from a challenge because you’re afraid it’s going to show people, I’m not as great as you think I am. What she discovered she actually discovered this working with gift and talented students, is that a growth mindset looks at a problem that it can’t figure out and says, oh, there’s something more for me to learn. They’re not actually intimidated by the challenge they can’t figure out. They’re actually inspired by it. They actually realize, oh, well, I was smart enough to do all this other stuff. If I work a little harder, if I learn, if I ask around, maybe I’m going to get smarter, maybe I could be more talented. And so she called this a growth mindset, and it really applies. It applies in our leadership abilities. I had to apply this because I didn’t use the word leader and I was leading and I didn’t consider myself a leader. It applies in relationships. Maybe you didn’t grow up with great relationship role models, and so you’re like, I’m just not good at this. Well, what if you could get better at it? It could be the same in finances or health. So developing a growth mindset is essential. Otherwise we back down from opportunities that are in front of us because we’re just afraid it means something that it doesn’t actually mean.

Mark Cole:

Well, it reminds me I had on this podcast several years ago, Carly Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett Packard, done some incredible things. And John Maxwell, all of you listening to the podcast. John defines leadership as influence, nothing more, nothing less. Carly was on this podcast and she said, you know, Mark, leadership is really problem solving. Nothing more, nothing less. And I went, oh, don’t tell John Maxwell that. He’s always thought it was influence. But what she was really saying is a mindset that leaders don’t see problems as a reason to vacate leadership. They see it as an opportunity to step into leadership. That is exactly why we need leaders. This idea that there is a degree of uncertainty to leadership, it is a fact of life. Our ability to change our mindset, whether it’s growth, whether it’s leadership, comes in our ability to change the mindset. And wouldn’t you agree, most of the time we can’t unlock our mindset without help.

Valorie Burton:

We have to be open to be able to grow is to say, especially if you were praised in certain areas and your identity is set with those areas, to be able to say, yeah, there are some levels I haven’t reached, but do I want to achieve my potential? Do I want to learn more? Is it okay for me to not know the answer or not be great at this yet? I mean, that’s powerful. So on a practical level, I would say, where is that area that you always shy away from? Maybe you’re in marketing and you’re like, I don’t understand the accounting. I’m just not good at that. Okay, but would you be willing to learn something in that area? That doesn’t mean you need to become an accountant, but if you understand accounting, you’re going to be much better at marketing. You’re actually going to expand the number of opportunities you have because you’re understanding all the needs of the company in a bigger way. And so just being able to say, yeah, I could learn from here. A growth mindset says where I am today is a starting point. Wow, this isn’t the end. I haven’t reached this lid that I can’t get above. I get to raise the lid and grow. And that in itself is powerful to me. That’s the exciting part of personal growth that you’re willing to keep growing and that it’s not any kind of condemnation on who you are when you don’t know answers.

Mark Cole:

So then you get this epiphany perhaps for some. I need to grow. I need to unlock myself. There’s a blind spot that I have. How important is it from your perspective? And she’s a life coach. I understand that. How important is it your perspective that follow through in that companionship or that partnership as you begin to unlock these things that’s holding you back from growth?

Valorie Burton:

So I think this is something I discovered for myself. So I love any kind of positive psychology assessment, like figure out who I am. I created one around happiness triggers. The things that just kind of trigger your happiness naturally. Well, I love doing the ones on strength. And there’s a character strength survey that’s called the Via. But there’s also the strength finder, which is gallup, and there’s a strength on there that I envied, which is terrible.

Mark Cole:

You had strength envy?

Valorie Burton:

Yes, I did. And my husband had it in his top five and I don’t know where it was.

Mark Cole:

It’s even worse. You envy it and then it sure significantly.

Valorie Burton:

Yeah. And I was like, it was called activator. Activators, when they have there’s an opportunity, they go like, I am an over-thinker. Anyone else in here overanalyze? You have an idea. It takes you like five years to move forward with it. Right. I analyze it, I plan it, I write the plan, I write the vision. I’m a visionary. But I mean, activator, I was like, I want activator. But those activators, they just run into stuff like, you need a plan. This was difficult for me. Well, I actually retook the strength finder and activator was in my top five.

Mark Cole:

Come on.

Valorie Burton:

And this is how I did it. I’m also a learner. I love learning. And I began to tie learning to action. In other words, rather than feeling like I had to be perfect and have the whole plan figured out, I realized that action is how you learn. So I would just say to myself, what action could I take? What could I learn? What action could I take that would teach me something that gets me closer to the goal? And so that’s a growth mindset that you say, I’m taking a step forward. The step doesn’t have to be perfect. This might not work, but I’m still going to learn something from it. And so that freed me because I had not given myself permission to take action unless I had all the answers first. But when I just made that simple mental shift because I love learning. I love growing. And I said, well, you grow by taking action. And the thing was, I always teach that with coaching. In between coaching sessions, you take action and then you come to the next session and you go, what happened? What did you learn? If nothing happened, there’s still something to learn if you procrastinated. Let’s dive into that. So I realized I knew that on a philosophical and a professional level, but applying it to myself actually helped me to activate my Activator. It helped me to take action more often.

Mark Cole:

That is so encouraging. So if anybody’s got strength envies, she knows how to help you get past that. So just real quick, did you take your test to your husband and say, ha, I was just kidding.

Valorie Burton:

I did him, but he was so proud of me. I was like, you will not believe this. I wanted activator. And your natural strengths, generally, the ones that are just innate, they’re going to stay pretty high for you. But you can be intentional about saying, I want more of this in my life. Like on the other strengths assessment, I wanted more humor and playfulness. That’s Jeff’s number one, by the way. So if you don’t have it, you can marry it.

Mark Cole:

There you go.

Valorie Burton:

Have your date. Take a strength. Marry the party I’m looking for.

Mark Cole:

I want a party.

Valorie Burton:

But I did the same with that. I was like, I want more humor and playfulness. And so you can take strengths that you want and be intentional about incorporating those more, because strengths really are just values in action. It’s what we set in motion because we value it.

Mark Cole:

Podcast listeners, that right there is worth the price of listening in. Thank you for that. Let me change this just a little bit. John says that you cannot give what you do not have. We’ve all heard John say that. How does that apply to positive psychology and coaching?

Valorie Burton:

So I believe it applies because we have to walk the talk. So for me, I went back to grad school to study positive psychology. I was so fascinated when I discovered it. And there goes the love of learning, right? I was like, I’m going to go to grad school again. It was the most wonderful experience, but I had to apply it. I know it works. Like, I know what the science says. I know what the research says. I had to start applying it in my own life very intentionally. Cultivating positive emotion, that meant, for example, movement is a happiness trigger. 20 minutes of cardio boost your mood for up to 24 hours. I got very intentional. It wasn’t that I didn’t exercise before, but I also saw it as something different. Now, this isn’t about weight. This is about well being. This is about feeling good. This is about the fact that when you get some cardio in, you think more clearly. I worked for an hour this morning on the elliptical. Like, I knew something I needed to do before I came up here. And so I just used the notes on my phone. I think I wrote, like, 800 words worth of a plan that we’re working on because I was working out. And as I’m doing that forward movement, I’m moving forward. So I think it is being able to incorporate positive psychology as a lifestyle, incorporating what you know from leadership, what you know about positive emotion, resilience. This was a big piece of my studies in positive psychology, and I had to put that to work just as I was finishing grad school. I found myself going through divorce, and then I found myself working on resilience training with the military. How interesting is it to be teaching and facilitating resilience training while you’re needing resilience for yourself? And I had to have those conversations with myself. This isn’t something you’re just teaching for other people. You got to make sure this works for you. And that’s what gives me so much conviction, because in the most difficult times in my life, I know that I know that, I know that this works, but you have to be intentional. It doesn’t just happen. You have to decide, I’m going to connect heart to heart with my neighbor. I’m going to get out and serve. Because we know if we serve others, if we do something for other people, it actually benefits us just as much as it benefits them. Right? And then that positive emotion makes us more creative, helps us make better decisions. So it really is about walking the talk and just trying it. The little things make a big difference, boy.

Mark Cole:

There’s no doubt about that. So what’s the most fulfilling aspect of coaching others?

Valorie Burton:

It’s the feedback. Like, there aren’t too many jobs where people are just like, oh, my gosh, thank you so much, and they can’t wait to talk to you.

Mark Cole:

Yeah, I’ve had a job or two that was not like that.

Valorie Burton:

So I think the most fulfilling is seeing others. What we’re talking about the growth mindset, seeing others grow and having those epiphanies, those AHA moments being more purposeful, seeing people show up the way they really want to show up, that they feel so good about how they’re showing up, what they’re doing, that they’re not wasting their lives in any way. That even when they don’t show up the way they want, there’s some lesson out of that that they can take and use as they move forward. What I have found is everything, just about everything in terms of the challenges you face at work or at home, there’s a coaching opportunity in it. If you don’t know the answer, don’t be afraid of that. Go. What’s this trying to teach me? What’s the message in this? For me, one of my favorite coaching questions is looking back a few years from now, what will I wish I had done? Like, you just go, okay, let me step into the shoes of my future self. Look back, what is the wisdom of my future self say? And you always get an answer.

Mark Cole:

Wow.

Valorie Burton:

And that’s fun. So I think that’s probably the most fulfilling because people are making important choices when they invest in the time and the resources of a coach.

Mark Cole:

Well, I watched you for our podcast listeners, our podcast viewers, we’re in the City tour here in Atlanta, and I watched you in a meet and greet with for our podcast listeners, we have over 48,000 coaches with Maxwell leadership in 165 countries. And Valerie, you’re a big part of that. I’m going to let the audience share with you how big of an impact you are in just a moment. But I watched you move in and out of our meet and greet and just seeing the joy light up on people, there’s nothing better than that, is there?

Valorie Burton:

It’s awesome because when someone says, you made an impact on me and I don’t even know you, but I feel like I know you, I get that a lot online. Like, that was my best friend. In my head. I always love that because I write that way. Like, when I’m writing, I’m writing specifically to a friend because that’s how I want people to feel. And it’s the same with coaching. It’s the same with speaking and then hearing back. That that’s how someone experienced it. I can’t really describe how much joy.

Mark Cole:

That so Valerie speaks to literally thousands of coaches twice a year in Orlando at our event, and then she’s on call, she’s helping coaches, and because she likes it so much. Is there anybody that’s been impacted by Valerie Burton? That’s a coach in here. Yeah. Feels good, doesn’t it? Hey, podcast viewers, listeners, if you’d like more information about speaking with one of our coaches because we have them all over the country or in all over your country too, or if you’d like to be one of us, become a coach, trained and certified by Valerie and the rest of our team. You can see how to do that in the show notes. Okay, Valorie, what role does self awareness play not only in leadership, but in developing others to develop the skill of self awareness.

Valorie Burton:

Oh, my goodness. Self awareness is a tough one because we perceive ourselves often differently than others perceive us. But it’s really valuable if you can listen. First of all, noticing how you impact other people, how you are coming across to other people and what that means for them, because oftentimes what we think we’re delivering is different from what we are delivering. So self awareness, the way I look at it, is an opportunity for us to say, where do I have an opportunity to grow? What is my growth gap? How could I close this? Because when you’re leading people, you need to. Understand how those people are receiving you. You need to understand your impact. Hopefully, you’re having a positive impact. But the problem is that leaders are the most contagious people within an organization. They set the tone. And so the research shows that if the top leader has a negative attitude or her team has a great attitude, leader comes into the meeting, everything shuts down. That self awareness is critical. You have far more impact on the people on your team than their peers do. There’s one study that I just never could get over, which was that showed that those who consider their boss to be incompetent have something like a 40% greater chance of suffering a heart attack within a four year period of time.

Mark Cole:

Oh, Lord.

Valorie Burton:

Okay. If you feel like your boss doesn’t know what the heck they’re doing, get.

Mark Cole:

Out of there.

Valorie Burton:

Because your boss has a lot of influence over what you are experiencing on an everyday basis. So leaders owe people their self awareness, saying, where can I grow? Where am I doing it right, that I can do more of? But where am I falling short? Where am I causing stress unnecessarily? Where could I maybe ease up a little bit? It could just be your voice tone. It could be just noticing what people are doing right and saying thank you or acknowledging it in a meeting. Those little things make a big difference because typically what I have found is that people want to please the person that they’re working for. They want people to be happy with their work. Right? And so if they never hear from you that you appreciate anything, that’s a great deal of stress. It’s a burden. It affects morale. So self awareness is critical.

Mark Cole:

Wow. All right, so one last question. You just spoke to us leaders to be good, or we’re going to literally, physically kill our people. No pressure. Then I want you. You’re an entrepreneur. We have a lot of entrepreneurs that listen, view our podcast. We got a lot of entrepreneurs in the room today and visually and audio listening and watching to us. Watching us. So you’re one. So as an aspiring entrepreneur, maybe one that’s just getting started, just getting their feet wet with it, or they’re considering starting a coaching business, what would be your advice for them?

Valorie Burton:

Well, my first bit of advice is you’re going to doubt yourself, and you’re going to think at times, this is a great idea, and then you’re going to think, have I lost my mind? Am I going crazy? Okay. So I’m just going to tell you that you’re going to experience those thoughts, too, and they may not ever go away. I have been in business for myself since 1997. Okay. And there are still days where I this is an interesting path you chose, Valerie. Yeah, but I’ve never regretted it. I’ve been entrepreneurial in spirit since I would go back to fourth grade as the first time I had a little business venture. It’s just a part of who I am. So I think what’s really important is that you have a clear vision and that there is a purpose at the core of that vision. Your purpose is your why. How are lives better because you are here, because you have this business. And if you understand that, then you can create a compelling vision. The vision is the how. How do you carry out that purpose? How are you making that impact? Your mission should be a simple sentence. One sentence describes your purpose. But your vision can be as long and vivid, it should be very vivid as you need it to be so that you can see it and you’ll know it when you reach it. But keep yourself reminded of it. That vision should be in front of you every single day. Because purpose fuels perseverance. It will be difficult at times. Just expect it to be difficult. So you’re not surprised when you bump up against those challenges and you’re like, oh my gosh, am I in the wrong place? No, it was never going to be easy. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. But if you can go back to purpose, you’ll have the energy to keep persevering if you understand your why. Because Mark, there were times, especially in those first seven years, and I’m saying seven, it took seven before I felt like, oh yeah, this is really, really going right. And I would think over and over again, if I had stayed in my PR job, I’d be making a lot more money. I’d have a great title by now. But I knew that wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. And so since I knew my purpose and for me it was calling like I prayed to know my purpose. And so I knew if I got quiet with that purpose, I was in the right place. I wasn’t supposed to turn around and go do something else. And purpose always kept me going because I wanted to know when I get to the end, whenever that’s going to be, that I could look back and know that I accomplished what I was put on the planet to do. And so if your business doesn’t for you ignite a sense of purpose, then go back to the drawing board. What’s your purpose? What’s the impact you’re trying to make? Because it will get hard. But if you know the purpose behind it, you’re going to keep going.

Mark Cole:

And I’ve taught often, as does John, that purpose piece that you just really captured well in putting a plan, get clarity around the plan. And I think it’s getting people around you just to stay with the P. But it’s the accountability. And as entrepreneurs, often you that’s listening to this podcast, so often you feel like you’re the only one, you are in it alone. That’s why I love our community. That’s why I love what we’re doing today on this podcast. We’re in community, and we’re realizing, hey, I’m not alone. When you recognize as an entrepreneur, you may not have anybody on your team, you may not have anybody that understands your purpose and your why, but you still need to bring people around you that will keep you accountable to the plan that is attached to your purpose. And when you can put those three together, I feel like that’s the magic.

Valorie Burton:

That is so huge, so connection. I mean, resilient people don’t go it alone, right? There is no extra badge. You get no extra award. That, oh, I did it all by myself. And it’s not even nearly as fun doing it all by yourself anyway. But having some people that have been there and done that, and sometimes you won’t know them personally, right? You may start to meet people eventually, but I had some role models that I didn’t know, but I studied, right? And then that sense of community that you mentioned is so very important. Like, the Maxwell leadership team wasn’t around when I started doing what I’m doing when I am at the IMC. And I see that connection, that whole idea, even as an author, having other author friends, I will never forget. As a matter of fact, I was doing Thrive back in the day when John Maxwell would have the big women’s conference. I MCed it, and one of our speakers came, and we were in the car, like, on the way to the event, and she’s talking about this deadline she had not met. It was Liz Curtis. Higgs.

Mark Cole:

You remember Liz.

Valorie Burton:

And so she starts talking about procrastinating. This is an author that I was just in awe of because the number of books that she had written, and she was just so funny in my head. Liz is the kind of person that she was just sitting down every single day. And I know, I know she’s got a process, but at this particular time, she was talking about how badly she had procrastinated, and I was just sitting there and going, Liz Procrastinated blasphemy. And somehow I felt like, oh, well, I’m a real author too. Then if Liz procrastinates, I’m not alone. And it was funny because I said something to her like, you Procrastinate. And she’s looking at me like, who are the writers, you know, that don’t Procrastinate? Right? And when we’re in community with other people, we realize we are not alone. The problems that we’re experiencing are not unique. There’s not something uniquely wrong with us. We can stop beating ourselves up. We can laugh at ourselves a bit, and then we can talk about, so what do you do when that happens? How do you get over? Like, we get tools from each other, and that is powerful and keeps us going, because if we realize, oh, I’m not alone. Oh, this is normal. This is a normal problem to have then we just kind of figure, oh, it’s a normal problem. I need to learn how to deal with it and keep going.

Mark Cole:

Valerie, I’ll wrap this podcast the way I’ll wrap the last one, which then puts you on the hook for another one. I could talk for a lot longer. I love digging deep into your passion to help others reach their full potential. That’s what we’re all about at Maxwell Leadership. That’s what we’re all about with this podcast, and that’s what we’re all about with this community of coaches that we have around the world. We want to add value to you so that you can multiply value to others. One of my favorite things is to challenge you, our viewers you, our listeners, to leave us comments to tell us how is the podcast impacting? How well did you enjoy Valerie today? Give us your feedback through whatever player that you have. In fact, today, sitting in the meet and greet, somebody came or standing in the meet and greet, somebody came and told me the impact that the podcast had on them. And so I asked William Gordon to come up here and share live. Yeah, let’s give it William a hand right here. One of our Maxwell Leadership coaches, he’s in the room today. And so rather than me reading some great comment, and we love every one of them, I thought, William, why don’t you tell us how the podcast has impacted you? How you doing, my friend?

Valorie Burton:

Great.

Mark Cole:

Say hello to Valerie.

William:

I’ve known Valerie for years.

Mark Cole:

Have you? Back when she was three?

William:

Yes, she was part of the National Speakers Association.

Mark Cole:

I love it.

William:

Years ago, this was totally unplanned, so I’m very nervous, but we’re going to get through this thing. So when I think about this podcast, really three things come to mind. First of all, I think about when you want to listen to a podcast, you have to be intentional about it, right? A podcast is not something that just jumps on your car radio, so you have to go and you have to find it, which is the first law in the 15 laws of growth. Intentionality. And secondly, you have to keep going back. I keep going back, which is consistency, another law in the 15 laws. And the third thing is that it makes me feel so alive, it makes me feel so positive. To listen to these podcasts and just to be a part of Maxwell Leadership is just a total awesome experience for me. And as I share with you in the way John has talked to us about adding value, adding value is a lifestyle, and the way that we treat people and the way that we love people is a way of living. And it’s more than just being a member of Maxwell Leadership. It’s about living it every day, getting up and saying, how am I going to add value to somebody today? How am I going to add value to myself. And how am I going to change my world? Because if I can change my world and I can change somebody else’s world, collectively we can change the world.

Mark Cole:

Oh. Give it up for William Gardner. Yeah. He had three points in an illustration. Podcast family. He’s going to have to come back at the podcast. That was phenomenal. Hey, we love you. You’re a part of our family. Join us in impacting the world. Because everyone deserves to be led well.