IAM1309 – Author Helps Readers Achieve and Enjoy the Epic Journey

Zander Sprague is the author of three books, including his most recent, EPIC Begins With 1 Step Forward: Plan, Achieve and Enjoy the Journey. Zander loves speaking to audiences around the world. Nicknamed the “God of Enthusiasm” because of his contagious energy and passion, he is a popular speaker, trainer, and podcast host. He is here today to help you plan, achieve, and enjoy the journey!

• CEO Story: 20 years in the corporate world. About 10 years ago, Zander was tired of teaching someone else’s stuff. And so he started his own company, wrote books, and is just so passionate about helping people.
• Business Service: One-on-one or corporations, create that epic environment that they are looking for. Discovering the strengths of a team and utilizing them.
• Secret Sauce: Not yet. Holding out that optimism. Leaving the door open and achieving it.
• CEO Hack: Having a team of supporters, people who believe in you.
• CEO Nugget: “Oftentimes we are the ones who put the roadblocks in front of us, if we just move forward, we’ll find out that it was not there.”
• CEO Defined: The company and employees are dependent on your actions and words. Listens most to what's going on.

Website: zandersprague.com

Linkedin: zander-sprague

Twitter: zandersprague

Instagram: epic_begins

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNes8j7ZYk4roP_iEhnnDtQ

Book Link: EPICBegins

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Transcription

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00:18 – Intro 

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.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless 

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, I have Zander Sprague of Zander Sprague LLC. Zander, super excited to have you on the show.

00:55 – Zander Sprague 

I’m so excited to be here Gresh, thanks so much.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless 

Yes, I'm excited as well too to hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. And before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Zander so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Zander is the author of three books, and he is an Amazon best-selling author, including his most recent epic begins with one step forward, plan, achieve, and enjoy the journey.

Zander enjoys speaking to audiences around the world, and he's nicknamed the God of Enthusiasm because of his contagious energy and passion. He is a popular speaker, trainer, and podcast host as well. He is here today to help you plan, achieve, and enjoy the journey. Zander, super excited to have you on the show. Always excited to have a fellow podcaster. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

01:37 – Zander Sprague 

Absolutely. I this is great. Thanks so much.

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01:40 – Gresham Harkless 

Yes. Absolutely. Appreciate you as well too. And so to kick everything off, what I wanted to do was rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:50 – Zander Sprague 

Well, I mean, interesting. I spent, over over20 years in the corporate world doing everything from computer programming, and quality assurance, but most of my time, technical instructor. But having worked for companies big and small and having been, downsized, and repurposed, all these different words that happen when companies change. I've worked for a lot of startups and worked for them for 2 years, and then stuff changed.

And I found myself looking for a new job. So about 10 years ago, I was like, I'm tired of teaching someone else's stuff. I have my own stuff that I wanna teach that I'm passionate about. So that's what I did. I started my company. I wrote a couple of books, and I just love helping people. And my latest, venture with Epic begins with one step forward. Yeah. I'm just so excited about and hopefully, we get to talk about that a little bit.

02:53 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. Absolutely. We definitely will. And I love that experience that you have and I imagine a lot of that's probably embedded in that journey that you help so many people on, and you talk about in your book as well.

03:05 – Zander Sprague 

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we get to where we are because of the experiences that we've had and, hopefully, we learn from some of them. And even, I found in my own journey that their stuff that I learned that I wasn't really aware that I learned, but also now I'm applying it 5, 10 years later also. And I'm like, oh, wait. I could do it this way.

03:29 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. And I think that's why I love that word journey, that we've been touching on is a big part of the work that you do because I think so many times we look at life and business and everything in between in silos, and we can say, oh, I'm never gonna use this experience. It's never gonna work.

But I love what you said, how those things sometimes come up when we least expect it, and we don't even realize we have that kind of tool in our tool belt when something happens.

03:53 – Zander Sprague 

Absolutely. And it looks. It is a journey. I mean, I really think, all of us, throughout our life, have, multiple epic journeys. And for me, just take a minute because I think this is what I thought about what epic really means. Epic to me means every pilgrimage includes commitment.

And, I'm not talking about a pilgrimage like some people might think that kind of a religious one. But when we're when we are on our epic journeys, like I am and like you are, there's a commitment that is involved. It's a passion project because you love it and want it to succeed, so you'll do whatever it takes.

And like any journey, there are times when It's going really well. Times where there's a detour. Sometimes when we hit a pothole, find out that we have a lot more resilience and a lot more tools in our tool belt than we actually thought that we had.

05:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And, I think it's so important, especially that commitment speed. You know, things that happen that we ultimately don't want them to do, and that ultimately will show you how committed you are. So I love that that's a big part of what you do and how you broke that down. And I imagine you probably cover that a lot in your book.

05:19 – Zander Sprague 

I do. I do talk about that and I mean, here's an interesting kind of little backstory. I'm a licensed professional clinical counselor. I went to graduate school and got my master's. I'm in California, so I needed three thousand hours of internship to be able to take the licensing exam.

That's a long time. I got it. Finished it up in February of 2020. Was all ready to take that license exam and go out and speak. And in March, we were all staying in our homes, and I couldn't take the license exam. I couldn't go speak anywhere.

So I really had to, like, change what I was doing and figure out where I was. Like, what was I gonna do? And as I was sitting in my apartment, which I have to say, I didn't. I mean, my apartment was okay, but I wasn't really happy living apartment. I wanted to live in a house, and I had all these dreams of what I wanted to do.

And I had this epiphany that in my life, my epic journeys have begun with one step forward. That first step, I think, when we think of epic, we think of a journey where, like, oh, that's a long time. And, yeah, I was on a 7-year journey there, and I thought I was almost to the finish line.

It turned out that I had, like 90-degree turn I had to figure out. And that's where the idea for the book came up. And then I'm like, I wanna write a book to help other people seize their epic. Go step into their own epic because I think you think about epic, we think about these things that we wanna do, and then that's what we do.

We think about it, and then we go, oh, it's too hard or I can't do it. I mean, people who start a company have an idea, and then you have no idea how you're actually gonna do it, but you gotta take one step forward to start that journey.

07:08 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. That's extremely powerful, and I think, it reminds me of the quote there's I think that I always butcher it, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, I think, something along those lines, and we forget about that.

07:20 – Zander Sprague

No. I mean, that's absolutely what it is every day, we have to take steps forward. And I think the key to all of this and the key to my success and other people's success is, creating structure and understanding the steps that you want to take today. Realize that it is iterative, and it will build on itself. And if you just do what you need to do today.

07:50 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. That's extremely powerful. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know touched a little bit upon, like, what we can find in your book and what you've been able to write and create. Can you tell us, I guess, a little bit more that we can find there, and what you feel is what I like to call the secret sauce and what sets either you or the book apart and the work that you do and makes it unique?

08:08 – Zander Sprague 

Well, there are two words, Gresh, that I think are so important. They are not yet. There is so much optimism in those two words. Have you run your marathon? Not yet. That doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. Means, I just haven't done it today. In our business, have you hit a million dollars in sales? Not yet. You just say no. It just sort of puts a stop sign. Spite.

And I'm a big believer that not yet it's so powerful for all of us, whether it's in our work life or our personal life with not yet. There are things I want to do, but I haven't done yet. Certainly, there are things that I want to do, but I may never achieve. But I still hold out that optimism.

And I think not yet so important as a CEO, as running your own company, that not yet. It leaves the door open that it is possible and that you can achieve it. And it helps when you're talking to people, not yet. My book is just about to come out, in pre-sales. You have been a bestseller in two categories so far.

Really excited about that. But when people asked about the book, has it come out? Not yet. It is coming out. Comes out February 9^th, but I can't like, mind just going no. It just sort of shuts that down, and I want people to embrace not yet. It gosh. It just opens up so many more doors.

09:49 – Gresham Harkless 

So is that a little bit of like what you work on and how you help and support the clients that you work with is working one on one and individually or in groups with people that that wanna make sure they get the best of them?

09:59 – Zander Sprague 

Yeah. I do one on one. I do I work in corporations to come in and help either the executive team, create that epic work environment that they're looking for or if they wanna bring me in and just generally talk to people about how they can step into their own epic in in the company, work with managers to say, discover what the strengths of your team are and utilize them. Because the fact of the matter is that when we are doing things that are our strengths, it comes more naturally, and we enjoy that.

There are some great there's Clifton Strengths Finders, and that's a great way to find out how where are my strengths. And then when you see that, you look and go, yeah. That wow. That would be great. And I know I've done that and said, here are the things. And I'm like, yeah. Those are things that feel natural for me to do.

11:01 – Gresham Harkless 

And so, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. You might have already touched on this, but this could be, like, an app, a book, or a habit that you have or something from your book. But what do you feel like makes you more effective and efficient?

11:13 – Zander Sprague 

I think what really makes me effective and efficient is having a team of supporters. People who believe in me. I get rid of the naysayers, people who tell me that I'm crazy and I can't do it and it's not gonna work and stuff. And it's not yes people, but it's people who believe in what you're doing. And so those days where you're having a hard time, you get to call them up, and they're and they will go, you got this. You're doing well.

And I think that's so important. And certainly, as a CEO, running your own company. It can be really lonely. There are so many decisions you have to make. Everyone's looking at you, and I think it's really important to have that support network to help you just realize that you are on the right path. Sometimes we have to make really hard decisions that are not gonna be popular, but that is what you need to do.

But there are people who are there to go, yes. You did what was best for your company or best for you. Certainly, as a small business owner, there are times when I've had people working for me, and it's just not working out. I'm not it's not and it's not easy. I get it. I don't like to be the meanie. I like to be the nice guy, but sometimes that's what you gotta do. So I think having that support network, is really good.

And when you started when you're starting up, there's so many things that you're doing in those days where it just did wow. Just doesn't seem like it's going right. Those cheerleaders who can help you are really important.

12:49 – Gresham Harkless 

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

13:03 – Zander Sprague 

My roadblocks are a mirage. What I mean by that is oftentimes, we see things and go, oh, that's a roadblock. I can't do this. I that's not possible. But oftentimes, we are the ones who put the roadblock in front of ourselves. So I think that, when we look at something and say, there's that roadblock, oftentimes, we put it there, so it's a mirage. It doesn't exist. If we just move forward, will find out that poof, it just wasn't there.

13:35 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. And I appreciate your authenticity and being able to share your story and that experience. And that week well Zander, now I want 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 this show. So, Zander, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:51 – Zander Sprague 

That's a good question, Gresh. I think for me being a CEO means that the buck stops with me. I'm Zander Sprague LLC. I am the one up there. So my actions and my words are what define the path that not only myself but also my employees our on. And I also think a CEO means that we are the one who listens most to what's going on because I can't know everything that's going on. But if I take time and listen, I will learn so much.

14:33 – Gresham Harkless 

Well, awesome, Zander. I truly appreciate your time. Appreciate all the awesome things you're doing and, of course, the impact that you had here today. What I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best people could get a hold of you, get a copy of your books, and find about all the awesome things that you're working on. Of course, Subscribe to your podcast too.

14:53 – Zander Sprague 

Absolutely. So, it's Zander Sprague with a Z. So zandersprague.com is my website. My book is, for sale on Amazon and many other book real retailers. But, if people wanna help me out, and I think you'll really enjoy the book, there's a lot of good information in there to help you along. If you read the book and you're loving it and you're like, Zander, I need some help on my epic journey, contact me through my website, or zander@zandersprague.com. That's my email.

15:38 – Gresham Harkless 

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I definitely appreciate that. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. But Just like you said, so well, I think when you're able to have that support, and I love that you provide that support as well to you to help people to lean into their epic to seize their epic so that they can be epic.

It is something that we so often forget and don't think that it can be for us, but I love that you're able to help people to see that but also to empower them with the ability to be able to do that too. So thank you so much for doing that with us today, and hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:11 – Zander Sprague 

You bet. You too.

16:12 – Outro 

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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