Our podcast episode features an enlightening discussion on the paramount importance of introspection in leadership, particularly through the lens of identifying and addressing one's blind spots. As we engage with our esteemed guest, Chad Brown, a scaling strategist and coach, we delve into the essence of leadership beyond mere titles and positions, emphasizing that true leadership is intrinsically linked to personal integrity and self-awareness. Chad recounts his transformative journey from operating a thriving media production company to realizing the necessity of fostering sustainable leadership practices within his organization. He elucidates the significance of external feedback mechanisms, positing that effective leadership is often contingent upon one’s ability to solicit honest insights from trusted advisors. Ultimately, listeners are encouraged to cultivate a proactive approach to leadership, focusing on aligning their actions with their stated values and goals for personal and organizational growth.

A profound exploration of leadership and the intricacies of personal and professional growth unfolds as we engage in a conversation with Chad Brown, an esteemed scaling strategist and coach. Chad's journey is marked by the establishment of his media production studio, Shade Tree Films, which he founded in 2008 and successfully sold in 2021. Throughout our dialogue, we delve into the myriad challenges that leaders face, particularly the often-overlooked blind spots that can impede effective leadership. Chad articulates the necessity for introspection, urging listeners to assess their leadership style not merely by title but by the impact they create in their professional environments. The conversation reveals that true leadership transcends hierarchical structures and is rooted in the ability to inspire and empower others. By sharing personal anecdotes, Chad illustrates how he learned to recalibrate his approach to leadership, pivoting from a state of relentless busyness to one of strategic delegation and empowerment, thus enabling sustainable growth both for himself and his business. For those seeking to enhance their leadership capabilities, this episode serves as a clarion call to reflect upon their practices and consider the importance of external feedback in identifying and addressing blind spots.

Takeaways:

• In order to effectively lead, one must first examine their own blind spots and challenges.
• Leadership encompasses more than just a title; it is fundamentally about one's character and approach.
• True success in business requires a shift from working in the business to working on the business.
• The importance of having a supportive network or board of advisors cannot be overstated for achieving sustainable growth.
• Identifying misalignment between personal values and actual results is crucial for effective leadership.
• Delegating responsibilities early on can significantly enhance a leader's capacity to scale their business.

Links referenced in this episode:

• founder-freedom.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight - Welcome

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Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to the amazing podcast. I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger, and today we have a fantastic guest, Chad Brown. Now, as you know, I love talking about leadership.

I love talking about business. I love talking about things to help you get more shit done. But I want to tell you a little bit about Chad because he.

He is a scaling strategist and a coach. There's some knowledge that we're going to dig into on that one.

Who want to increase their profit and work less. Right. Make more money, less time. Work on your business, not in your business. All the time. So, Chad, welcome to the podcast.

I am so glad to have you as the guest.

But here's one thing I want everybody to know that when you are done listening to this podcast, what you should walk away with is knowing that there, that each and every one of you needs to look inward and have your own barometer and challenge yourself to find your blind spots. Okay, Chad, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

You're welcome. So, you know, we were talking about, that we were talking about and I just said, you know, challenging with blind spots.

I mean that, you know, there's a few things that just kind of popped into my brain and I think it's. I think one of the things that we were talking about in the pre show was that so many leaders have.

Well, first of all, they don't call themselves leaders. A lot of times it's. It's the manager or the VP or the director. So we need to obviously change that. People are meant to lead.

We as humans are not animals. We're not being corralled, but it's bringing out the best in other people.

But in order to do that, the hard part is, as you are sharing, is that we need to look inside and find and challenge ourselves to find out what our blind spots are and what is our barometer for success. What. What's the, what is that level that we're looking at as our measuring stick?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, leadership is not. It's not something you do. It's not a Title. It's not a salary.

It's not, you know, something you climb into in the corporate ladder. It's how you are, it's who you are, it's your way of being. And that's, that feels like a little like intangible for people when it talk about it.

But I really. Each team that I get to work with, the very first principle that we work on is leadership at every level. And I really mean it.

Not whether that's self leadership, whether that's a customer service, an IC customer service representative leading your clients through a challenging software process or whether you're a manager or a supervisor or an executive. Everybody is leading somebody in some way or the opportunity is for them to lead in some, to something some way.

I would actually say everybody is leading in some way. But how are you leading? And you said look inward and I get the concept of that.

What I would actually say is look outward, look at the results that you're causing. If the results that you're causing are different than what you said you were out to do or what you say you're about.

And by the way, I'm not preaching this like you know, some guy who's got it all figured out and is perfect at it.

This is all, this is all continual failure that I've gotten to experience in my life and in my roles and in my business that have led me to this point.

But is sometimes, a lot of times the ideas that we have about ourselves and our leadership are different than the results that we're actually causing. Everybody knows what it's like to work for that person that's just disconnected from their impact.

And I would say actually there's disconnection for all of us in our impact.

And if we're willing to look what's actually there and get the feedback and ask meaningful questions, then we can find out what our actual impact is and then we can make adjustments towards what we want it to be.

Right. You know, it's so, it's true. It's like, you know, we have to look at the, as you said, the impact that we're, that we're having.

So tell me, what was your first instance for yourself when you realized, oh, it was a big, oh being a leader than I thought I was.

It was a big old moment and it was multi layered and I'm still unpacking it.

You go where. You go where the work is when it's. When it's happening. Especially so much of our work was live, live event production.

And so it got to the point where I had allowed the business to take over my life. I had. I'd been. At the time, I'd been married about four, five years. We had two. No, no, sorry. Six years. We had two daughters.

One was four, one was one. And we had moved out to Southern California to start this. This production company.

And my wife, Ess, essentially, in a matter of probably nine months, 10 months, became a single mom in a small apartment in Southern California with no community. And I was, God knows where, doing production, speaking from stages, you know, all of that sort of stuff.

And it really happened fast and all under the guise for me. And here's where. Here's where we're going to, you know, here's where the feedback is coming from, right? Or where we can find it.

I was doing all of this under the guise of. I was doing it for them, my family, right?

Look at me, the hero of my story out here, the road warrior, working my ass off, doing everything I can to build this company, make the income, all of that sort of stuff. And I deemed myself. I titled myself a family man. Well, this went on for a good two years, and it was quickly becoming unsustainable.

And I didn't at the time, now I do, but I didn't at the time realize the impact that it was having on my wife, that it was having on my kids, and that it was having on me as an individual and my identity around being a husband and being a father. And at the same time, I was a terrible leader inside the business. Our. Our turnover with our employees was really high.

We would run them ragged until they, you know, until they either quit or broke or, you know, whatever. And it was. It was falling apart. And I had a business partner, 50, 50 business partner at the time.

And I came to him and said, look, man, this isn't working. I don't know how to do this thing, but this.

We're going to kill ourselves and we're going to ruin lives along the way, marriages and, you know, relationships with our kids. And luckily, he was on the same page, and he was like, yeah, I agree, this is not going somewhere good.

And it's really weird to have a conversation like that when your company's just, like, growing like wildfire. And it's like everything from the outside looks like success, success, success, you know?

And long story short, we decided if we can't figure this out in the next six months, we'll close the doors. And that was a, that's a big decision to make. And, and so we started exercising our network for help. We didn't know who to turn to or what to ask.

We didn't know the questions to ask, whatever, but we just put it out there, hey, we need help managing this thing. And we got connected to a business coach. I didn't even know business coaches were a thing. I didn't, I honestly didn't even know it existed.

And we got connected to this, this guy who's now my best friend. His name's Adrian Kaler. But he, at the time, he was a stranger. He came in the very first call that we had. You talked about that moment.

That, oh, moment. This was it for me.

We got on that call, and I thought we were going to talk about systems and time management and all of this, you know, really tangible stuff. And in this call, I just, off the cuff, said, well, I'm a family man. And he stopped me and he said, no, you're not. I said, what do you mean I'm not?

Screw you. Like, I am. My family is my most important thing to me. And he said, no, it's not. And he said, you want to know how I know?

He said, look at the results in your life. How's your wife doing? How's your kids doing? How's your time with them? How's your presence? How often?

And it just hit me like a ton of bricks, like, oh, I've been saying I'm one thing and setting my life up and acting as if I'm something totally different. And he said, you want to clean this business up? I said, yeah. Said, it's not going to happen until you stop lying to yourself.

And that was the pivotal. It was the most impactful leadership training moment of my life, which it was so clear to me. What are the results that you're creating?

And if it's not the results that you say you want or that you, you know, say that it's who you are, then there's disalignment. How would you say that? It's not aligned.

You're misaligned.

Misaligned. There it is. I, I, I, I chose every prefix, so that was, that was it. And ever since that day, again, not perfect, but that's my barometer.

What's happening outside of me? What Results am I causing through other people? And are those results what I want to be causing? And if not, it's not like it's a problem.

It's not like shame on you. It's just make some adjustments, realign. Figure out what might cause that. The result that you say that you want.

You MMA'd your life and business measure, monitored and adjusted.

Yeah.

So did you guys close your businesses in six months or did you keep going?

No, we kept going. We figured out how to run it in a sustainable way.

We learned how to train leaders within the business to take on a lot of the work that we were not allowing anybody to participate in. We learned how to empower people. We learned to hire people that did things better than we did.

We learned how to remove ourselves from crucial parts of the business. We ended up, I mean, just total. In the next 18 months, total turnaround, we moved out of Southern California.

We weren't happy there, but we'd made up a story that we needed to be there. But the company was still based in Southern California. We moved back to Utah. It was, I mean, it was. Yeah.

Eventually, maybe three years later, we, me and that partner, amicably, I bought him out. And he was very excited about that. I was very excited about that. Anyway, it just opened up so much possibility for me.

And it, and it really is a result of that single principle.

Right, that's. That's really fantastic. So you figured out how to work on your business, not just be in the business.

Right on. Yeah.

Right. Because that's one of the key things about, about leadership too, is first and foremost, you have to start and be the CEO of yourself.

Right on.

And, and work, you know, and then you can work on your business. You don't want the business to be, you know, on you. Right. You want to be up here. So tell me, so you've had, you had this great turnaround, right?

And you've, you've kind of figured out this new change. What, what then led you, you know, to like selling the business verse versus continuing on.

I. In the process of building that business, we were really fortunate.

I was really fortunate to become a name in the industry that people look to for help.

And I started an education arm of that business where we coached other filmmaking companies, other video production companies to do something similar to what we did. And I just realized that that's what I really loved to do. I really love to help people figure it out.

I was, I was kind of over the production world, if I'm being completely honest. It didn't excite me as much anymore as it did when I was a first, you know, brand new storyteller with a camera.

And the really cool part of all this, one of the really cool parts of this story is that one of our first interns in that business was the one that bought it from me. And so that was such a beautiful end and transition to my experience in that business.

I could have, couldn't have asked for a better transition from that.

So it all aligned and, you know, as the years were winding down for me in that role in that business, Adrian, who had been our business, our first business coach, asked if I would come and work with him in helping businesses develop their leadership teams. And so it was just a really. Everything happened really naturally. It was a natural progression for me and that was the thing I was going to do next.

That's really fantastic. Really, really fantastic.

So if you're thinking, you know, thinking about what you've known from obviously, because that's a huge growth, that's a huge growth for so many different businesses where you get started and, and you think you know how to, it's. It's. You think you know how to grow something and it's so hard to let go of the, of the pieces.

So if you could give our leaders and people who are listening, like the, like, one little tip, maybe it's even like something to look for, to know that you need you. Maybe you need. That's when you know you need some help. What is that?

This is what I do every single day. I was just in my. I run a small accelerator program for creative entrepreneurs. I was on a coaching call just today and working with one of my clients.

And he is so resistant to, to handing over parts of his business.

And what he doesn't see is that handing over those parts of his business are actually what's going to allow him to grow in the way that he says he wants to grow. So this is another time where I had, I didn't have to. I chose to point out, hey, man, you're lying to yourself. No problem. Not like we all do it.

It's not a big deal. But just notice you're lying to yourself.

You say you want your business to go here, but you're unwilling to let go of certain parts of this business that are crucial. Crucial that your time is not spent on them. And so it was a really big opening conversation for him and a realization.

I don't know if he's going to take action on it or not. I hope he does, but I Would say, what are those indicators? Well, it's always earlier than you think.

It's always earlier than you think because by the time you're working around the clock, juggling as many things as you possibly can, and what's going to happen is you're going to. I'll put it on me.

What I did was I made up then I didn't have time to then hand over those things to look for somebody who could do it better than I could to train them to build the systems around it, all of that sort of stuff. So the earlier the better.

I mean, literally, if I, if I'm lucky enough to start working with somebody who is in their first year or second year, I'm telling them, build. I know you're alone, I know you're solo right now. Build systems as if you had a team right now. SOPS company Wikis. Start thinking about the.

We do a really cool process where we break down all the tasks they're doing in level 1, 2 and 3, four tasks based on energy and. Sorry, I'm blinking. Based on energy and I can't think of it right now. I don't know why.

Anyway, we break down the process and it categorizes the tasks that they're in. And then we start with level one tasks. Those are the first tasks that they, that they delegate and it breaks it down really, really simple.

And then you know exactly what you need. We put those into a role. Typically that's like a, an administrative role. And. Yeah, and. And I would just say start earlier than you think.

Right. You know, and it's, it's true because I think a lot of times people are in these businesses and as.

Or again, in, in a leadership role, when you started a company, right. And you're trying to do everything yourself and then you're adding people on and there is that sense of it's my baby. I.

It's, you know, and as a parent, it's like a. When you think about your kids, like, it's a hard thing to like, you know, watch your kid drive off in the car. Right.

Or, you know, those are huge milestones. But it's the same thing in your business. You have to learn to let something go so that you can continue to grow.

That's right. Yeah. Energy and value. Sorry, value is the other access that we were talking about or that I was thinking of. So. But I, I completely agree.

I think that's, I think that does category categorize a lot of founders, this like idea that it's theirs and they don't want to give it up. And what if somebody messes it up? I do think that's relevant. I do think. I do think that's present. I definitely experienced some of that.

I also think there's a demographic that I work with that get beyond that. And now they just think it's impossible to do it. Like, how would I find the time?

I don't know how all of those sort of things, because to me, they tend to get past a point of, all right, if I don't let something go, this thing's gonna die. Or I. And that's where I was right. It was no longer that this thing was my baby and I didn't want anybody to mess it up.

It was that, like, if I don't do something, it's gone.

Well, it's. Yeah. And it's also going to be gone because you're not going to have the energy because you're going to, you're going to.

It's going to kill you from the inside out. Right?

Yeah. Yeah.

So I, you know, we started off by talking about, and we're talking about that barometer and, you know, you were saying it's something people have to look on the, you know, outward.

And I would also say sometimes we really need to kind of go in and look inside of us to say, as you were saying, I was, I, as you were sharing, you were going to break. And that's like that big time where you need to look in and say, okay, something isn't working, and I know something needs to change.

We also have to look outside and know that.

And I think this is a hard thing, is to find those key people that can be the, your board of directors and advisors that can say, I'm like, like, hey, Chad, you're gonna kill yourself. Right, Right.

Yeah.

You know, so would you say part of when you're, when you're working with people is to help them also find that team to, to rely on?

Yeah, I'm part of that team for my clients. Right. We talked about, we mentioned blind spots. Blind spots are called blind spots because you can't see them. Right.

So it's fun to talk about it, but then in reality it's like, no, they exist, but you don't know they exist because you can't see them. And you need outside people, human beings who care for you and who are clear on your aim. What is it that you want? What's your, what's your vision?

If they're clear on that, they're committed to you. Getting it, then they will. They can see those blind spots. They can see what you're not considering, what you're not doing.

And they can, if they're bold enough and willing to stand in what you say you want rather than your excuses or your, you know, all of whatever might allow them to go back on not being bold. But if they're bold enough, they'll tell you, hey, you're not seeing this, and this is going to. This is coming for you.

Right, Right. It's. Yeah. Having that team or having that person is so important, you know, to help you see those blind spots.

It's like, you know, you become that little indicator on your car that beeps at you if you're changing lanes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always encourage my. And I do this myself. I always encourage my clients to put together a board of advisors.

And it doesn't have to be formal, but you can just.

Somebody that you respect that has been where you've been or has some sort of expertise in what you're up against, just go to them and just say, hey, would you informally be a member of my board of advisors? Could we set up something regular?

Would you be willing to set up something regular with me where I can just let you know what's going on and you tell me what you see honestly and boldly?

Yeah.

And that's huge.

And. And what number are you at?

I'm somewhere around 35 in all the capacities that I'm in.

Okay. All right, so we've got, you know, 65 more. Yeah, there's room for 65 more. And what are you going to do to celebrate when you get to 100?

Well, that's a good question. I haven't even thought about it. Well, I typically take about four weeks off between January or December and January, and we do some kind of trip.

So I think that will feel like some sort of celebration. But I haven't said anything specific. I like that question.

All right, so I want you to think of something that you're going to do to celebrate, because it's. It's. It's, you know, that. That part of it where you're going to go away, that's obviously something for you and your family. Right.

But, you know, if you could enlist your Family in what that would be? Yeah, what would that, what would that be? And then what is the one thing that you would want to do for yourself?

Because you know you are putting in some of that work.

Yeah.

I think actually what would be the best celebration is some sort of get together for all of the people that has that I've like that I've worked with over 20, 25. I think that would be the best form of celebration of the work that we've done together.

That'd be really nice. A big old thank you celebration kind of thing. I like that. Okay. Okay.

So if you are a leader, have a business and you want to be one of chats 100 or you want to. You're curious about that, how can they find you?

Connect with me on LinkedIn. That's probably the best place I'm present there. Open to getting messages there.

You can email me@chad.chad lbrown.com you can also check out my website. It is specific to creative entrepreneurs, but the principles apply and I'd be happy to talk talk with you.

My website is founder-freedom.com founder-freedom-com.com yep.com sorry.

Founder-Freedom.Com okay, we got that and we will put that in the show notes.

So thanks for that.

You're welcome. So, Chad, thank you so much for being an amazing guest.

I could talk to you for hours and hours because I this is like a topic that it's like so near and dear to my heart. So if you have enjoyed this podcast, please do me two favors. Number one, hit the subscribe button because that's really important.

Number two is share it with a friend or a colleague because this is a message that they might be able to gain something from or it might just be something that they need to hear. So I want to thank each and every one of you for listening and being an amazing audience. And thank you, Chad, for being an amazing guest.

And again, this is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast. Thank you for listening.