IAM184- Business Coach and Author Helps Develop Leaders After Three Decades in Leadership

Wayne Strickland is a business coach, author, consultant, speaker, and enlightened leader. In his award-winning 38 year career, he rose to a successful Vice President at Hallmark Cards, for over 25 years, where, in his 35th year in the business, he lead the launch and development of the Hallmark Greetings business across multiple Amazon platforms. He has worked with the leading retailers across the world and lead teams of 10,000 and 5000. He has also started new organizations from scratch. He considers developing your own leadership philopsophy critical to long term success.

• CEO Hack: Have crucial conservation, burn the friction and have the toughness to go forward.
• CEO Nugget: (1) Slow down (2) Think about it (3) Strike your balance
• CEO Defined: Sharing the htings that helps other people

Website: http://waynestricklandspeaking.com/

Book: Get over yourself, Decide to Lead

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Wayne Strickland of WayneStricklandSpeaking.com. Wayne, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Wayne Strickland 0:37

Great to have, great to be here, and happy holidays to you.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Happy holidays to you as well. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Wayne, so you hear about all the awesome things that he's been able to do and accomplish. And Wayne is a business coach, author, consultant, speaker, and enlightened leader. In his award-winning 38-year career, he rose to a successful Vice President at Hallmark Cards, for over 25 years, where, in his 35th year in the business, he lead the launch and development of the Hallmark Greetings business across multiple Amazon platforms. He has worked with leading retailers across the world and led teams of 10,000 and 5000.

He has also started new organizations from scratch. He considers developing your own leadership philosophy critical to long-term success. Wayne, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Wayne Strickland 1:27

I'm ready. Let's go.

Gresham Harkless 1:28

Let's do it. So the first question I had was the hair a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Wayne Strickland 1:35

That was Thank you, I was very fortunate to spend 38 years with one great company that allowed me to do a lot of fun things and grow and work on a lot of different projects work with a lot of retailers. And it wasn't easy along the way. I think through just brute force and determination. A lot of times I kind of just worked my way through a lot of issues. And sometimes I didn't do such a good job. I mean, I had a lot of failures in my 38-year career. And so what I'm trying to do with waynestricklandspeaking.com is I'm trying to give people some insights and advice on some things I learned in my 38 years.

So maybe their career won't have to be so painful and get knocked down by just doing dumb things and not having the coaching and the insights and the thoughts around what they need to do to grow when I get especially in a difficult position. So my whole thing now Gresham, is about giving back and trying to teach all new leaders, some of the things I learned along the way.

Gresham Harkless 2:31

Well, that's awesome. 30 years is definitely a long time to be in the career and the fact that you've been able to have your bumps and bruises, as you mentioned. But you don't just hoard that information or that knowledge you're looking to kind of give back to other people. I think that's pretty admirable. And I appreciate you for doing that.

And I know you touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you're helping to develop these leaders. Can you tell us how you're supporting the clients that you're working with?

Wayne Strickland 2:53

Several ways Gresham, there's a written about two books out there. My second book is called Get over yourself, Decide to Lead Insights from hard lessons learned and I speak to a lot of groups. I think there was a best with first or second-time leaders people that they were managers, I got my first leadership job and everybody thinks they know how to do everything it does. It's not until they take their first big fall or get a slap on their head that they realize maybe they don't know everything and they're willing to listen.

So I think I'm most effective, where people that's willing to listen. And then the second thing I've done and I didn't know I was going to do this when I started. I partnered with two women that are really unique and best practice in their field. And the first one is very unusual. But I'm partnering with a lady named Tanya O'Callaghan from Ireland. Tanya is one of the greatest bass players in the world. And she plays with people like Twisted Sister and the Food Fighters and Guns and Roses. And I met her about a year ago to play in a thing called Rock and Roll fantasy camp. I've always wanted to be a rock and roll player.

So I went there as a student, and she was one of the teachers and I met her and we struck up a friendship. And now we do a keynote presentation. We've got one coming up in April, where she talks about the struggles and amount of energy and dedication it takes to break into the Rock and Roll field, especially from a young woman in Ireland to break through this culture and get into the United States and be successful.

And after she tells her story for 15 or 20 minutes, I talk about what leaders can learn from her story things there is no entitlement if you're a musician, when you play, you get paid. It's not like in the corporate world. Gresham, you know, you may have a bad week, but you're still getting paid this week.

And the fact is she's the master of her craft. I mean, at one time she was playing with seven different bands, just so she could be the best at what she was doing in our different genres of music, right? So you have to learn all of that. And for corporate leaders ask the question, what are you the Master of what's your picture craft if you're the best in the world at or What do you want to be the best in the world at and I don't know what people know that I don't know they have aspirations to be that.

And then for her collaboration, she has incredible collaboration skills. Because if you're a member of a band, especially if you're a member of seven bands, you don't have time to not like a business where you can say, hey, just put that off the next month, we'll just put that on next month's agenda. Now you got to figure it out right now.

So I found that these musicians have incredible collaboration skills and listening skills. And they, when they get ready, they play, they focus. I was at this camp for four days, I never once saw one of the professional musicians pull out their cell phone or their laptop and check emails when we were supposed to be practicing. When you practice, you practice, I mean, for hours, and it's incredible the dedication they have and the focus. And I think for business leaders, it's a lot to learn there.

So we have this whole keynote, and then we do a q&a. And then we actually play we put together a band, and we have, she's really playing I've got some other musicians who are pretty good. I kind of in the background, almost embarrassed myself.

So that's one. And then the other one, I found this lady that actually hired her about a year ago to help me with my social marketing, social media marketing. And after I got to work with her, I found that she had such depth in things like LinkedIn, LinkedIn groups, Instagram, and Twitter, and all these things, have incredible insights, not insights, but knowledge about how it worked.

And it triggered a lot of thoughts for me about how underleveraged those platforms are in the business world for business leaders, if you and I had an organization, and we had a board of directors with a leadership team, that leadership team needs to be using those platforms to help us support your brand or your business, or you're launching your new product, and very few do. And so we've got lots of we have very provocative ideas for groups.

And we've got a presentation coming up in two or three weeks that she talks about the platforms. And I'm proud to be the provocateur and ask him provocative questions. But I do think, no, in a year, or two or three, but there'll be some board down the road that wanted leaders picking his team if he got two people that had the exact same skills, but one's got a social media network of 5000-10,000 people and the other one doesn't, then he probably will, he or she will probably pick the person with the biggest network because they can help them spread the word. So that's how I'm using things. I'm partnering with people. And I'm using my experience, and I'm trying to get out to talk to people that want to learn.

Gresham Harkless 7:22

That's awesome. And you definitely sound like creating a lot of value. And like you kind of touched on a little bit like making sure that you are leveraging what everybody's strengths are. Because you have that knowledge and that information, you're able to partner with those people that have those specific kind of fields of expertise, I guess you can call them and then you're able to kind of make a great win, win, win opportunity sounds like so that's awesome that you've been able to do that.

And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you or your organization apart.

Wayne Strickland 7:50

Well, we're pretty honest, I think we tell pretty candidly about why we failed. I mean, I think people that hear me speak, I did a presentation last Friday do some lectures about 40 people, it was a small group of 40 people from people in their 50s in their 30s. And the consistent feedback was, Wow, you really shared a lot of personal information about the choices you made that cause you to fail.

And I tell a lot of stories, 38 years, you capture lots of stories, I give a lot of lessons to those stories, and I gave examples of what I did wrong that caused me to fail. I think people appreciate that. Because we all make mistakes, right?

And one of the things I tell people is you're gonna fail, get good at it, you know, learn how to fail and fail really well and fail really fast and learn from it and get back up and go again. I think too many times people fail. And they sit there and they feel sorry for themselves, or they point the finger at somebody else and they become the victim and hey, guess what you're gonna fail. So fail, really get good at it, fail fast, learn from it, get back up, and go again.

So I think my secret sauce is I'm very honest. And I'm very transparent. And I don't hide anything. And I think people really appreciate that.

Gresham Harkless 8:59

Yeah, definitely in the fact that you're definitely given. And I think in this day and age, you know, transparency, and authenticity is definitely key things that people look for in this 24/7 kind of world as you mentioned on social media, where you can literally review and check and see what everybody's doing. It definitely pays to be transparent and authentic. So definitely appreciate you for that. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Wayne Strickland 9:31

You know that about 20 years ago, I was going through a rush sale professionally and I got to the President that company asked me told me to get an executive coach and I thought it was because so just because actually because I was such a bully. Yeah, it goes hand in hand. Right. And this lady named her name is Ellen Karp she got with me and I thought there's gonna be like a 30-minute little session right that ended up lasting about a year and a half. It's still happening today. I had lunch with her last Friday like 20 years later. And she got me to read this book. She said you need to learn how to have Crucial Conversations.

And those are the conversations that are hard or tough. There's a lot of been a lot of emotions that had gone into it a lot of drama maybe and says, you gotta learn how to have these crucial conversations. You've got to look somebody in the eye and be honest and peel the onion and all those metaphors that we can use. And it's a book I think Kerry Patterson and Joseph Greeny wrote a book, and Ron Macmillan is still in print. And it's just a great book.

And I don't know that there's anybody I've ever given it to that didn't think it was terrific and helping them out, you still got to have the courage to go have that crucial conversation, you got to have the toughness and the discipline to go do it. But you'll have that crucial conversation and my presentations, I call it finding the friction. It's easy to be a leader when there's no friction, but there's always friction. As a leader, you find that where that friction is at, is it people aren't getting along? Or is it that one organization is not working with the other organization, but there's friction, and you need to go find it?

And it's okay to have a little friction in your organization because that means there's a right amount of tension, and everything's kind of nice and tight, but too much friction costs you money. And it gets things knocked off track and it's bad. So have a crucial conversation, find the friction have the toughness to go do that, I think this is the best advice I could give anybody.

Gresham Harkless 11:23

Yeah, that makes sense. And a lot of times as you mentioned, people don't have the crucial conversation, they'll put their head in the sand, so to speak, and hope that it passes. But if you're in an organization where it's vital that you have to get things done, and you're having, you know, maybe two team members or something that is not on the same page, and you can definitely derail not only just the project, or whatever you're working on from that day, but also maybe the entire year and the company itself.

Wayne Strickland 11:46

Yeah. And all the times you just say, Hey, I was wrong. I had I didn't have my facts, right? Or I didn't have all the facts, I made a bad assumption, or I just had a bad day. I was wrong. And they shut down. They just got to say that because you were wrong. And some people just can't do it. They think it's like, a loser badge of honor or something they just can't admit you're wrong. You say you're wrong. Move on.

Gresham Harkless 12:10

Yeah, well, I think that goes so far by just saying that, because I think that you know what, what is behind all that is that, you know, none of us are perfect, none of us, quote-unquote, walks on water. So it's important to kind of understand and when you own up to the fact that, hey, I made a mistake, or hey, I did this wrong. I think that that helps to get people on your side and understand that, hey, this person is just as human as I am. I made a mistake yesterday, and this person is admitted to making a mistake today, he kind of feels somewhat of a connection when that happens.

Wayne Strickland 12:36

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:37

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Wayne Strickland 12:46

I would tell my younger self to slow down, think about it, don't go so fast, have some balance in your life, you don't need to work 14 hours a day. Find those things that make you happy. And those things will make you whole be successful at work, rest, and replenish yourself because this is a long journey, and you don't have to do it all today.

So have some perspective and have balance in your life. And I never would have thought I'd have said that 30 years ago, but I think leaders have got to have balance, they've got to have a well-rounded life, and they've got to have people in their lives that make them feel special. And they've got to have activities in their life where it's spiritual, or whatever it might be. And you got to have a healthy body and you got to do some things that bring you joy, and my younger self, but you got to have all that. And if you get out of balance to get off you get off the tracks, and you get off the tracks, sometimes really hard to get back on the track. So that's my tip for the younger me.

Gresham Harkless 13:43

There you go. I love that advice. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Wayne, I want to ask you what does being a CEO means to you.

Wayne Strickland 13:55

It means sharing the things that you know, to help other people.

Gresham Harkless 13:59

Absolutely. I love that. And it all goes back to making sure that you're giving back and you've been able to do that. So I appreciate you, Wayne, for taking some time out to give back to us and being a great leader and person that passes on such so much great information, what I wanted to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then how best people get a hold of you.

Wayne Strickland 14:21

Listeners out there and the readers be the best you can find those things that you need to be the master of and be the best you can and that you're not going to be the master of everything. Nobody is perfect in everything, you're gonna have some areas where you're not going to be the best.

And that's where you need to hire people that are better than you and you and it's so much richer to learn how to work with a lot of different people that have different backgrounds and skill sets than you and bring that team together to make do something special. And it is to try to do it all by yourself because you can't. So find those skills that you're great at find out how to work with a lot of different people with backgrounds and find out how to bring those people together to do something really special. That's my advice to your listeners.

Gresham Harkless 15:01

Awesome, and if people want to reach out to you what's the best way?

Wayne Strickland 15:04

You can find me at waynestricklandspeaking@gmail.com. You can go to my website, waynestricklandspeaking. Have a book on Amazon. You can just type in Wayne Strickland, you'll find it gets over yourself, besides elite insights from hard lessons learned. It's an easy book to read on a couple of our flights. And I hope everybody gets something to thank everybody to listen to this gets a handful, a couple of three ideas. And that's great.

Gresham Harkless 15:28

Yeah, definitely. And I appreciate you Wayne, and we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that everybody can follow up with you. But again, I truly appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Wayne Strickland 15:38

Thank you very much, Gresham.

Outro 15:40

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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