IAM2600 – Podcaster Helps Entrepreneurs Understand about Authentic Thought Leadership

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Nick McGowan Teaser 00:00
So I think a lot of people are trying to do that online and just in their business. They're trying to show, hey, I'm competent in what I do, and I have ideas and I have thoughts around it.

So I know it's kind of a long-winded version of what that means, at least to me. But I think there are many components and pieces to it.

So back to what I said, where I think it can look different for different people. For me, that's podcasting.

Intro 00:23
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Gresham Harkless 00:49
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh here and I have an awesome person on the show today, Nick McGowan. And Nick has done some awesome things.

I had the privilege of being on his podcast, but we were talking and just reconnecting, talking about collaborating. I think we met in a networking group and I thought it was awesome because we started to have so many different synergies, whether we're talking about entrepreneurship, podcasting, life at that.

We even talked about playing cards and things like that, how those things start to synergize. So I guess to kind of kick everything off, Nick, I want to have a phenomenal conversation with you.

But for people that don't know, could you tell us a little bit more about you and what your background is?

Nick McGowan 01:25
Sure. So hey, everyone. I'm Nick McGowan. I'm an entrepreneur, mentor, and podcaster.

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I know that a lot of times people can like riff about like, I do all these things and all these, but those are about the core components of what I do.

I'm excited for you and I to chat today to talk about thought leadership, podcasting, entrepreneurship, really living authentically without that being a stupid buzzword.

It's something that we actually do that makes sense to us and that we wanna be here. And you're right, I think we did connect through some networking thing.

Almost like one of those, like, all right, let's have a 20 minute chat and see if it makes sense for us to ever talk again.

Some of those become awesome friends, just like lifelong friends. And I think that was like maybe two, three years ago at this point, dude. So we've talked a lot since then and I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 02:11
Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the things that I really loved the most was that we kind of had that synergy around digital marketing.

I think you started a digital marketing company and had that experience, but I would love to hear more about that. But definitely like when you talk around thought leadership, like what does that look like for you?

Like, how are you defining that? What exactly does that look like?

Nick McGowan 02:29
Well, thought leadership, I think, can look different for different people. It's really being the thought leader to what makes sense to you to talk about. So a little bit of a setback. It's funny to me how words can mean different things to different people.

I had a boss at a company years ago who was literally in a line of seven or eight bosses over a two-year period at this company.

It was wild. They'd bring people in and be like, go do this thing, and then just kill them off. And that was the end of that.

This lady had said thought leader over and over and over and over to like nausea, where it was like, I remember being in meetings and like poking a friend in the leg every time she would say it.

And he was like, stop, stop. So for the longest time, I thought of thought leader as something negative, just from that connotation, but never really thought about what that looked like.

Took a bit of a step back, did a lot of my own internal work over the past, let's say 20 years, but a lot of concentrated work into deep subconscious work, changing, limiting beliefs, even my winning strategy and trying to figure out like, what is important for me

and why am I here? Like, what's the purpose of life? and started thinking about thought leadership again. My partner and I have talked about it a lot.

She has a business where she works with people specifically on theirs as well and their purpose in life. And the more that I look around, people are trying to be a leader about what they think and what's going on and what matters to them.

And I think a lot of this ties into the timing, where we're at in the world. Like, look, you and I are podcasters.

We couldn't have been podcasters in the 80s. We couldn't have been podcasters in the 1880s. We couldn't have done anything on anything electrical at that point besides maybe some electricity in your house for like an hour or two, whatever that was back then, you know?

So there's the timing of things and how things are set up for us to either use them appropriately or not, just like a lot of the stuff that's happening right now with AI.

But I think people are trying to be a thought leader in what matters to them on social media or being a podcaster. When I started the podcast, it was out of sort of selfish and selfless reasons, but mainly selfish because I wanted to have conversations with people. I wanted to talk about these things. I wanted to heal.

I was also doing some coaching and mentoring, and I couldn't really have the conversations that I was having with those people sort of behind closed doors out in the public.

But being a podcaster, you're able to do that. and share my thought leadership. So I think a lot of people are trying to do that online and just in their business.

They're trying to show, hey, I'm competent in what I do, and I have ideas and I have thoughts around it. So I know it's kind of a long-winded version of what that means, at least to me.

But I think there are many components and pieces to it. So back to what I said, where I think it can look different for different people.

For me, that's podcasting. For somebody else, that may be putting together presentations that actually show their way of thinking and feeling about a situation, and then maybe putting that in front of somebody.

Likewise with an artist, their thought leadership could be their paintings, their music, or something like that, and how they speak through that.

I mean, from a music standpoint, as a musician, there are things that I can't actually verbally say, or write out, or text, that I could feel just from some bridge of some song or something along those lines.

Gresham Harkless 06:15
Nice. I absolutely love that definition. So I would love to hear a little bit more on your journey, your connection with entrepreneurship. How did you get into this place where you can start to figure out how to solve those problems?

But I think what you touched on, one of the words that really stuck with me is do it in an authentic way. Do it in alignment with who you are. How have you been able to do that?

Nick McGowan 06:40
Lots of experiences and lots of a deep inquisition to understand, like, why have I done these things?

I think there's also a couple major things, like, I've noticed for myself, getting into long-term relationships really makes you do a lot of work in beautiful ways. I was married for eight years. I've been with my partner for a number of years now.

We just, we as people need to do life with other people, but there's not always the times where we have to do things the way that other people tell us to.

But getting into those long-term relationships or getting into a career or something like that, anything that there's a length of time to it, that's coupled with you actually deeply caring and having a tie to it.

Then you're able to see these things more often. And even if it's not as clear, you're able to become more self-aware, to be able to see, I really have something here I need to work on. Or, hey, I really love this thing.

Even just from the simple point of, I really love being loved, or I really love caring for people. And again, going back to, like I said, understanding why you do that. Is that because you had childhood trauma? you care for people out of, you just want to be safe.

And if that's a thing, then you become aware of that and go, oh, I thought I was just loving on people, but in all reality, I'm loving on people to make sure that I stay safe and I can keep them in front of me because something that happened when I was, you know, 5 years old or whatever that is.

So, being able to understand those pieces to it and then understanding What do we want to do within the world and help with the entrepreneurship? So, when I think of entrepreneurship, and I think there are a lot of people that can toss the word around.

It's really, I believe the definition is basically like, you make money in different ways. Like, okay, cool. It's not just having a job. This is the money you make.

But I want to touch on this real quick. I don't think entrepreneurship is for everybody. And I don't mean that as a slight. I don't mean that as like they couldn't do it because they probably and most likely could.

But it's not always the right thing for those people. So those people that maybe are the caregivers of the world from a healthy perspective and not out of trauma or something like that.

Those are typically great people to be able to work with the entrepreneurs because sometimes entrepreneurs can be very visionary, but it can tie into what can look like neurodivergence of ADHD. Sometimes it is ADHD, things of that sort.

But there are people that just like being on a team, they're going to pitch that idea and then other people need to help with that.

So I think there are people that are trying to become entrepreneurs right now that are just actually dissatisfied with where they're at or what they're doing right now, but are kind of in that right path.

Gresham Harkless 09:49
Yeah, I think that's such a powerful thing. And so I guess for you, how have you been able to, I don't know if that's something that you've always had or you feel like that introspection or that ability to kind of see the forest for the trees.

And see all the things is something you've been able to cultivate. Like where has that come from or where and how have you been able to kind of sharpen that saw even more?

Nick McGowanv 10:07
It's a mixture and it's also a lot of cultivation and voices over and over and over again. So the book that I told you was Last Word on Power by Tracy Goss, total life fcker.

Like it just fcked me up, flipped me inside out in a beautiful way. Because what I'm talking about right now is a main component to her book.

It's the winning strategy. It's the subconscious winning strategy that we develop as little kids in our formative years to say, oh, this is how I stay safe or loved or away from being abused or what have you, or whatever our core wound is.

And mine is to not be unloved, to not be lovable, to be abandoned.

And I figured out a strategy that taught me to do things to help with that. Fast forward decades later, it's so ingrained, we don't even know that we do it.

People will say it's part of our character and what we are, and they're just such a loving person, or they're such a grumpy person, or whatever it is. And that's not actually true.

That's just a symptom of this strategy that was developed that is subconscious and running the way that we operate. And we don't even think about it. So when we start to actually think about that and get into that work, We can then start to uncover, I didn't do that at 15. I didn't do that at 25.

I didn't even do it at 35. It took me to 38 to learn about that, to then go, wait a minute. I've got to look back through every single thing to kind of take inventory of life and go, why did these situations happen this way? And be able to tie it back to that strategy.

But there were a lot of things that were part of that strategy I had, and I still have it. We as people will always have that. It's about being aware of it and saying, well, sometimes I can use that. Sometimes I can say, fck you, you know, like, get away from me.

Being able to understand how those pieces have led to different decisions and the way that I've handled life, I'm able to do more of that work. So being able to look at the situation.

Yeah, absolutely. So I would love to hear just some nuggets and some information that you can kind of share with those people that are or think that they might be thought leaders and how to go through that process and how to get on more podcasts or start their own podcast.

Yeah. So I'm totally biased when it comes to podcasting at this point. because it makes so much sense to me as me because I communicate and because the best way that I communicate is verbally and it can be on video and audio.

But for somebody who writes incredibly well and that's the way that they communicate, podcasting may not be the best thing for them.

It could still be a really great thing, but may not be the first thing that I would suggest that they go to. So as a thought leader, somebody who's like, okay, I want to actually talk about this and I want to continue to pursue this topic, this genre, whatever it is.

Understanding ourselves is really important. Like I've had different people that they're like, I want to be on a podcast and said, well, why? Well, I've been told that I should.

All right, cool. No, that's out of the way. Why do you want to be on a podcast? I'm going to talk about these things.

Well, you know, whatever. We can go through all of that to ultimately understand that somebody really loves to be able to write.

And it's like, well, why don't you shift toward a book and actually get all of that out in writing. And then we can also couple that with podcast interviews and turn this into more of a strategy.

Everybody I talk to on my show, I tell them, this is not a promotional show. People don't give a fck about your books, your service, anything, unless they can connect with you.

Because think about it from your own perspective. If there's somebody that you want to buy something from or a thing that you want, it has to, it has to answer a question for you.

It has to scratch an itch for you. It's not specifically about those people. So being able to understand what we want to talk about, what we're here to talk about, and then understanding from the perspective of the podcast hosts, why would they want you on the show? What would their audience get out of this?

And what actually makes you different than everybody else. One of the things that I think is a really awesome, easy fcking takeaway for people is when you're doing outreach for podcasts to be a guest on, make sure that you include a few things.

Why you think it matters for you to be on the show, what you can do to help with the audience, some references. It blows my mind

Gresham Harkless 14:44
Yeah, absolutely. If there's anything lastly that you want to kind of leave us with, something powerful that, you know, we can kind of take away to make sure that we're using it on our podcast journey or frankly on our life journey at that as well.

Nick McGowan 14:57
Self-exploration, I mean, I have the mindset and self-mastery show because I think mental health, mental wellness is a major component to our life and self-mastery is a pursuit.

So understanding that there's work for us to do, but it's an actual pursuit of us to do that work and just take it each and every single day.

I do think as part of purpose and our purpose in life is communal, but that doesn't mean that somebody's purpose is to be the next Steve Jobs, or an Oprah, or something like that. It may just be to be the best parent you can be, or the best partner you can be, or just the best version of you that you can be, because the world fcking needs that.

Gresham Harkless 15:43
Absolutely. And Nick, best way for people to get a hold of you to have those conversations, find out about podcasting, all of those things, what's the best way for them to do that?

Nick McGowan 15:50
Easiest way is just go to themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com. Cause that's got my information on there. It's got stuff about the podcast.

And that's the best way to go through it. We're on social channels and stuff. The Mindset and Self Mastery Show. You can catch up on all the episodes, more info about me.

And there's also info about podcasting services and how it can help with thought leadership.

Gresham Harkless 16:11
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Nick.

Of course, we're going to have a link and information in the show notes as well, too, so that everybody can follow up. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Nick McGowan 16:18
Thank you.

Outro 16:19
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co.

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Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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