Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam.
Welcome to Power CEOs, the truth behind the business. I'm Jen Gode, entrepreneur, investor and business strategist. And we are here because I believe that iron sharpens iron. And when we bring industry leaders, people who are disrupting what's happening in the world of business and are successful doing so, we're all able to learn and grow. As a result, our businesses grow and the ripple effect impacts not only ourselves, our teams and their families, but our communities and our world. Today, we're joined by somebody who embodies the very heart of powerful leadership and unapologetic action. Jeffrey Hayslett is a global business celebrity, former Fortune 100 CMO hall of Fame speaker, and the founder and chairman of the C Suite Network, one of the world's most influential communities for top executives. He's a four time bestselling author, a media powerhouse, and I'm really excited to, to bring this conversation so that we can think bigger, act bolder, and use media not just for attention, but for leverage. Welcome to the show, Jeffrey.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Hey, mic drop. I'm just gonna quit while I'm ahead. That was great. Super job.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Thanks. Well, let's just dive into it. Most founders think that media is about attention. Sometimes they think it's about stroking the ego or whatnot. The smartest executives know it's about leverage. You built businesses, brands and deal flow through media. What are most entrepreneurs and executives getting completely wrong about media?
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Well, you have to be a media company now. Let's just be very clear. It's about content, content, content. You know, content leads to your community and then leads to commerce. And it used to be that you use the content primarily through advertising and you try to get them into the funnel and you did that primarily through advertising and trying to find it. What if I told you, you, you spend less money by nurturing those people, giving the content they want, and therefore they become great fans and followers as a result. Now you have less people you have to go sell to, in essence, so you don't have to sell to people. It really moves the game from eyeballs and ears to hearts and minds, and that's really truly where you want to be anyway. So. And then if you look at AI and the way AI is doing things and search is changing a great deal the way it was, it used to be about links and everything else. Now it's all truly about content. So you need to, you know, be able to rate, put that content out there. And I think that's just the best thing you can possibly do as a CEO. As a founder of a company and of course your marketing. And most people have always done that. They've looked at marketing. I'm a former chief marketing officer of a Fortune 100 company and know a little bit about it. You know, a lot of people see, you know, marketing as more communications function, and that's really not it. It's about the inception of the idea all the way through customer satisfaction. That's the way you should look at marketing. And content is playing a bigger and bigger part in that.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: You're right. And you know, one of the things that I personally have found that many founders and executives miss on is the digital asset. Once they have that content, they're not really looking at the digital asset that they have or leveraging that as business assets.
So talk to me a little bit about. Let's, let's take a little bit of a step back. At what stage should a CEO or a founder think very seriously about media, above and beyond pr? Is it at startup? Is it slightly thereafter? At what stage do they need to really think about, hey, I need to be building this content asset?
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Well, it should be before startup, because in the end, what you want to do is you want to own the category or at least be one of the top three leaders in the category. And if you don't know what your category is, that's a problem. That's first. But, but content's going to help you get there, especially if you're a startup. Because look what we're doing right now, for less than a few hundred dollars, you can do an episode of a podcast, right? Or you can actually create, you know, a TV show as we're doing right now. So you can do a little bit of both. And it's really truly about. I just met with about a hundred thought leaders that's part of our C Suite Network Thought Council.
And one of the, one of the speakers that was doing a case study today on AI and how he's using a.
Jeffrey taught him this, meaning me about step and create. Create an asset, a digital asset like this, and then step, repeat it. Because now this is a, this is a podcast, this is a TV show. It become a blog, it become clips that you can break up and send out. You can send pieces of those out to email. So it's about stepping and repeating. So you want to be very smart in thinking about the content that you want to create, how you want to deploy it, and then of course, deploy it and deploy it many, many times over and over and get it out to again, the audiences you want to do. So you should be thinking about that right off the bat.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Agree more. And like, one of the things that I think media really does for you is it's, it's a trust accelerator and a credibility boost because now you're in front of someone else's audience, especially if you're doing a TV show or, or a podcast, you're in front of someone else's audience who by nature of the beast, is giving you branding by association. So why wouldn't we leverage that time and time again? I personally use media for deal flow.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Oh, totally.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Top of the funnel to learn who I'm going to invest in.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Well, or, or let me give you an example. What we tell a lot of people is interview the people you want to do business with. I mean, you know, because for the most part, let's be clear, a business podcast isn't something you rush home to go watch or see. So you do it when it's. It's convenient. I used to have a television show on prime time television. Now I was a judge on Celebrity Apprentice for a couple of years. At the same time, I went out and created my own show on Bloomberg, and I was the number one business show on prime time. But when was the last time anyone rushed home to watch a primetime show, much less a business show? Right? So you really have to learn to go where the people are, to be able to take the content to where they want to hear and listen. And by the way, for the most of most people who do this, you're not going to get famous. That's. This would be very clear. A lot of people think, oh, I'm going to be the next Joe Rogan. No, there's only one Joe Rogan. There's only one of these. One of these. And every once in a while they get lucky because who would have thought Joe Rogan would have been as good as he is today? Right? Most people wouldn't have projected that. But good for him, good for her, or whoever it might be that does that. For the average business show, you're going to get about 2500 shows a month. That's the average. If you're, you know, above average, which most of the shows that are on C Suite Radio, C Suite TV are, then you're going to be in the top 10% of podcasts in the world, or at least business podcasts. So even then, they're not huge numbers. Not huge numbers. Again, it's about speaking to your community.
You don't need 100,000 listeners, Jen. You Just need the right hundred, you know, and then if you, if you look at it from that perspective, then that's really what. You don't want to be the noise out there. You want to be the destination for somebody. And that's what media will do for you.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Absolutely. So talk to me a little bit about what you've seen change for leaders once they control their narrative. Because that's the other thing that media is. Media is about us talking to our audience and controlling the narrative. Really, it's building our brand and creating that container, as you said, and speaking to them and touching the hearts as well as the minds. So talk to them about a change that you have seen.
Once leaders step up to the plate and begin to, to have this content library and actually leverage the assets in that way.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Well, it's again, getting back to what I said earlier about owning a category. Right.
You begin with the end in mind. You know, my son's my chief marketing officer. He says, you know, what problem are we solving? And so that's what leaders start to think about. When they start to see the value of this asset, they start thinking about, okay, this is the problem we're solving. Now let me speak to the journey along that so that I add value to the equation. And so your message gets to be a lot, a lot better. It's like Henry Kissinger back in the 70s. Now, this was a long time ago, Jen, but Henry Kissinger was Secretary of the State, the United States. And he would show up to a press conference and say to all the media that was there, what questions do you have for my answers? Okay. And so if you, if you start to think of it like that, what problem am I solving? What journey am I going on? What's my destination?
What am I trying to solve for the folks that need it? Then you can start to offer the kind of content that's more valuable. And that's where it really begins to be very, very interesting.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Absolutely. So let's talk about, let's talk about how busy we are. We have a, we have a CEO, we have a founder. They have time for one media channel to focus their time on.
What should they focus on as that entry point that they then can leverage in other types of content? Like would it be a TV show that then they turn into podcast and clips, etc. Is it a podcast? What, what would be the one thing to be that starting point that they would then, you know, clip and repeat?
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Okay, here's the answer.
I don't know.
Now what, what do I mean? By that is, who is it you're speaking to and what is it they want? So many of us start with, I'm going to go put it on Facebook. I'm going to go put it here. I'm going to go put it here. But your customer might not be there. I want to know where your customer is. I want to know what they're consuming, I want to know what they're reading, where are they going to? That's when I'll make that decision. And then people who are like them so that I can expand that audience. And in some cases, you might have to do it in a number of different places. But I'm going to tell you that podcast is pretty good, right?
Video is even better. You know, they used to say a picture is worth a thousand word. Well, video is worth 10,000 pictures, right? And podcast. What's great about podcast? You're inside of someone's head all the time. All right, so there's lots of different ways to be able to do it. But sometimes I will tell you a book is better. Sometimes I might tell you it's a blog. But it really just depends on what's good for you in terms of being able to do it. Because not everybody. Yeah, no offense to everybody that's trying to do a podcast or wants to be on tv. Not everybody looks like they should be on tv all right. Now.
And then some people don't have the, the, you know, the, the chops for being able to do a show. So there's a lot of things that mix into it. But I'm. But the real key answer is I don't know until I know where you're going and who your customers are and where they are. That's you. Once you know that. Because a lot of people, again, to make this mistake of. I'm going to build it and hope they come. I don't want to do that. I want to know where they're going to, and that's where I'm going to set up my. My ice cream shop.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: I absolutely couldn't agree more and treat this like marketing. Who are you? What problem are you solving? Who are you solving it for? Where are they? Where are they hanging out? And give it to the audience, like, be where they are. And so we're going to have to take a brief break. But media builds up authority. Authority alone doesn't scale your business. In the next segment, we're going to dive into something that's already been mentioned here, and that is the room that every leader needs to be in and why peer groups and such as C Suite Network change outcomes faster than strategy alone. Stick around. We'll be right back.
Sam welcome Back to Power CEOs want more of what you're watching? Stay connected to Power CEOs and all of your favorite now media TV shows. Live or on demand, anytime, anywhere. Download the free Now Media TV app on iOS or Roku to unlock nonstop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. Catch our podcast version right from our website at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready when you you are. Okay, folks, we have been talking here with Jeffrey Hayslett. We started with why, why do you want to have media? Why digital assets? Why it's so important right now is to talk to your community to really add value and to build that credibility, that know like trust so that you can then have that engaged viewership that is going to listen and want, want the solution that you are selling.
So, but we want to shift to another topic because before the break you heard a little bit about C Suite Network being mentioned. But part of that is the peer group concept. Peer groups are one of the most powerful and often underutilized tools for executive clarity, accountability and accelerated growth. So I really want to dive into what happens when we stop operating alone on that island and put ourselves in the right rooms. Jeff, you're the perfect person to have this conversation with. You know, how can our viewers start to think about knowing where to find that meaningful peer support? I'm not talking about networking events, but real high impact groups that offer that insight, challenge and shared experience.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, you don't want networking groups. You want a network. Right. And that's how you be able to scale yourself in terms of finding trusted colleagues, trusted, you know, peer relationships. I built my entire career on this. You know, there's not hardly a person. I don't know. People say that all the time. So Jeff, how do you know all these people? Look, they've become my friends, has become my network. It become everything to me. And I found out very early on in my career that you're only as good as the people that you are around. Right? We've heard this over and over and over. So I try to surround myself with all great people all the time and new people because there's a pony out there somewhere, right? I'm going to find something that's great. So we all need that kind of backup and we need that. We need a place where we can walk into A room, take the armor off and have great, meaningful, transparent conversations and get counsel. Now, there's a difference. A lot of people will try to give you advice. You come to the C suite network, we don't give you advice. All right? Advice is given by people who've never done it before, but counsel is given by people who have done it over and over again. And that's the key, is to be able to find those relationships, find those people, find those peer to peer groups. And in fact, that's why we call them councils. We call them councils and very much like a mastermind, very much where people get together, give, they state their problems and come together and they use it obviously to network. That work is one of the byproducts. But mostly they're coming for trusted conversation, trusted relationships and lots of gives that they give. Because the more you give, the more you get.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: That's right. And so I'm going to ask this question because this actually is a question that I have and it always confuses me because I'm of the mind that I want to be in the room with people who have been there, done that, that we can bounce ideas off transparently. But so many really smart, successful leaders resist joining high level peer groups even when they need it the most. Why do you think that is?
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Well, a lot of people, for most people, it's fear.
Nobody likes to be able to put themselves out there and be seen, really be seen.
So that is it. But I will tell you, the most successful leaders I know are all parts of peer groups. Okay. Whether it's their coffee clutch or whatever it might be, they all have some kind of group that they participate in that's very, very helpful for them. And you know, that kitchen cabinet, that other group I can toss things through and toss ideas out to that I don't have to be vulnerable in front of my team. I can be vulnerable with the people that I also trust over here so that I can work with my team even better. And I will tell you that most successful leaders do, but most people who don't do it is one, they think that they know it all, like they know everything. Which I think as a leader is one of the biggest mistakes and biggest bugaboos that could cause harm to you and your company is because you think you're smarter than everybody else. That's. And I think most great leaders don't know what they don't know of. And they go into a statement of trying to be more aware of other things around them and opens them up. For new possibilities and, and it's really, truly comes to fear and that most, and that's a human trait. But once you get past that moment of fear, that three seconds of fear that you're going to be found out, you'll move through it very quickly and you'll become a much more confident and better leader.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with you. And you know, it's really funny because all the successful leaders that I know, when we find out one thing, we realize there's 10 more things we don't know. It's like this ever burgeoning amount of knowledge that we, we sort of are aware of all of a sudden. Oh, well, I didn't even think about that. I didn't even realize that that was the thing. And we're seeing that a lot with AI and with security and, and what's happening right now. So let me ask you, because I know this is going to be the question I'm going to get from my audience. Well, how do I know that this is a powerful peer group that's going to allow that vulnerability and be a safe space and have that counsel from, you know, all the other glorified networking clubs? What are the things that we should be asking ourselves when we're doing, say, due diligence on that peer group?
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Well, you'd kind of like to know who's in it. And you're going to find that for the most part, you're going to be able to punch above your weight. Everybody loves to punch above their weight. They want to know, you know, they don't.
They, they wanted to be in a group where everybody is kind of above them so that they gain more out of it and they're not always the lead on it. So, and I will tell you, even when you think you're the top dog, you can learn from everybody in the group. And, and that's the first thing you have to be willing to do. All right. The second thing is you should talk about what are the gives in the group, you know, like what, how do you, how do you organize? How do you, how do you do your sessions? What, what's happening in these sessions? What are some tangible results? You know, why shouldn't I join the group as, as a, you know, as well as why I should, should join the group and then really, truly what the benefits. The other thing I think is important for a group like this to have that peer group is the confidentiality to understand how, you know, confidential is the information. Because in a lot of these groups there are huge breakthroughs people cry, people hug, people shout, people you know are quiet. I mean, it's everything and those kinds of groups. But you want to find out what the results. The other thing I would ask a lot of people is what's the retention rate? You know, because if you've got people like in our groups, I think our average is 5.8 years. And if you're paying 10,000, 20,000, $75,000 a year, that says something. That says something that people are getting that kind of value. Certainly there's always turnover, but if you have longevity in that. Also, I also want to know who the anchor is, who's the lead, because that the. And what are the values of that person who's really leading that group? And so those are some key things. And maybe last but not least, do we sign a contract, meaning a pledge that says how we're going to operate? So what are the operating principles inside of the group are very helpful as well.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you for that. I think you nailed the due diligence pretty well. So this has been incredibly valuable already. Before we run out of time, I want to know, how can people follow your work and continue the conversation, whether it's C Suite Network, your podcast, or some. Some of the other things that you have going on, how can they reach out to you?
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Well, thanks for mentioning my podcast and TV show as well. It's all business with Jeffrey Hazel. You find on C Suite Radio, C Suite tv, and all places you can watch TV or listen to podcasts. That's where we're at. You can find me easily. Hazela.com.
Hey, Jen, thanks for asking. I tell you what, it's real simple to find me, Jeffrey Hayslett. You just look me up. Hazlett, you can find everything. But also our C Suite Network website has everything you need to know. You can find all of our social media connections to the million or so that we have out there, and it's just an easy place to find us. And of course, the podcast, you can find me on C Suite Radio, C Suite tv, and anywhere that you listen or watch for podcasts, you can find us.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Thank you so much for sharing that. We have just a couple minutes before we have to break.
But we've talked about media. We've talked about the importance of getting that content out and having that digital asset and clipping it and repeating it so that we can build that credibility. We've talked about the importance of peer groups. Is there anything else that we didn't cover today that you really want to leave our audience with. And how can they take action based off of everything that you've given us today?
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Well, first of all, this podcast stuff, this TV stuff, this content stuff is going to be around for a long time. We're just in its infancy of it. But here's the key word that I would use for everybody that's listening and watching right now, and that's commitment. Make a commitment. Whatever you're going to do, make a commitment and stick with it. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes time to build an audience. It takes time to build a community. Because as fast as you build it, they come to you is as fast as they will leave you. So if it takes a long time to build it, it's a long time for the leave. And just keep this in mind. 38% of podcasts never make it past the 10th, 10th episode. And of those that are left, 48% of those fail before the first year. So if you're going to make a commitment, stick with it. Make it, make it happen. And I'll guarantee you the rewards will pay off.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. And that consistency is key because that's brand trust, folks, what he just told you is make a commitment, stick with it. Because building that brand trust, you want to keep that trust going. Thank you so much for your time, your expertise today. I really appreciate you. Thanks for being on today, Jeffrey.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Excellent job and thank you so much for having me.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. So you guys have an action step right before the break. We do have to take another brief break before we dive into some more amazing content.
But make sure that you take action today. Right now, I want you to make a commitment. If you are going to do something, let's commit to doing it and commit to it for the long term because you will thank me and you will thank Jeffrey later next year when you have seen the fruits of your labor. We will be right back after these important messages.
Foreign.
The holidays bring joy and pressure. Long to do lists, family dynamics, financial stressors, travel, kids home from school. We're out of our routine. Maybe we have business deadlines. Somehow, through it all, we're expected to smile and have a great time. But here's the truth. If your nervous system isn't well trained, stress might hijack your performance. At work, at home, in your body, how do you stay grounded when the chaos kicks in? You're in luck, because today I have an excellent guest here who's going to give you a sneak peek into how elite performers train for pressure. Rachel Vickery is an amazing former elite gymnast. She's turned into a performance coach. Top tier elite athletes, elite military units, high stakes leaders.
She helps people to train their nervous system so when pressure hits, they don't crumble, they're able to execute. And today she's here for you. Welcome to the show, Rachel.
[00:25:30] Speaker C: Thank you. Jen, thank you so much for having me on the show.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: I'm really excited about this. It's perfect timing and I know we have you back next month to really dive deep into how to manage under pressure and a lot of other things. But let's talk about what's real for my audience right now. Holiday stress.
Why does the holiday season, something we're supposed to love and cherish and have so much fun, leave so many of us feeling burned out, reactive, overwhelmed?
[00:25:58] Speaker C: Yeah, awesome question, Jen. I mean, the thing that we forget about, right, is that we've got this nervous system that's under underpinning everything else that's got going on for us. Even though like mentally, emotionally, you know, we might be excited for the holidays, we're excited to see people like, you know, there's that joy, there's that happiness, maybe there's the stress for some people because I've seen family members that they might not necessarily like so much, you know, but our nervous system underneath that is also getting absolutely hammered. Right. Our physiological stress response. And unfortunately for so many of us, we're already coming into the holiday periods with our physiological stress responses already elevated. Right. Because that's modern life. And I know you've had other guests on the show that have talked about some of that in the past. And then we add into the, into the system, you know, the lack of sleep, you know, the extra sugar that we tend to eat, you know, those snack foods that are filled with salt and sugar, a lot of alcohol. Often for people, you know, sleep disruption, high stress relationships, pressure to buy, to buy the right gift and you know, that, that sort of stuff. Right. And so coming into our holiday season, our physiology is getting escalated even higher close to whatever our threshold is. And so I think one of the most important things that we can do as we're coming into this period is just taking a bit of note of what is it that I'm dumping into my physiology that I wouldn't normally put in there. And can I just front load a few, a few strategies, I call it front loading buffer. So that when we hit into that high peak moment, you know, in, in this environment, it might be catching the flight on, on Christmas Eve when travel chaos is hitting or, you know, it's that that's that meal. You know, have I got enough buffer to absorb an extra increase in my physiological stress response without me crossing my threshold and completely losing it and having that meltdown or that family argument or whatever. Right. So some of the things that we can do is really making sure that we're optimizing our sleep coming into that really critical period, even if it's a few nights that we really get that extra, extra good sleep, perhaps cutting any extra alcohol out of just our normal week so that we're saving our nervous system for, for those parties or for those, you know, those, those holiday meals, trying to, you know, limit the sugar and junk food and refined, you know, foods that we're going to have again, you know, elsewhere so that we're eating really good, clean, nutritious foods that are well fueled, you know, to, to absorb for that sugar, taking some, some time out where we can actually just switch off from noise. You know, maybe we're just going to sit and breathe for, for a minute or two, just somewhere where it's nice and quiet or we're just going to not feel that space with being on our devices, those sorts of things. Whatever, whatever works for you to put enough buffer into the system.
And also in that sort of front loading period, just reflect on how do I know when I'm starting to get escalated so that we can catch that in the moment when we get into those periods.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: So I love this concept of a physiological buffer because what we're doing is we're really setting ourselves up for success so that we have more room, more spaciousness when the inevitable ish hits the fan, because it always does.
So for you folks at home, I just want to kind of reiterate a few of the things that Rachel piled in because it was a lot of gems. Number one, if we know we're going to parties, it's not going to be nutritious food most of the time. So when we have our meals beforehand, make sure we're front loading our nutrition. We're getting in those, those nutrients that we need, whether it's the protein or it's the fruits and veggies, whatever it is that we need for our bodies, we're getting that before the party.
And that way when those other more empty calorie or junky foods are around, we don't feel like we're missing so much because we've already sort of nutrient packed our day. She talked about front loading, rest and getting that in. And so that comes down to scheduling. And so we know we've got three parties back to back in three nights. What we want to do is maybe make sure that we're getting a little extra sleep ahead of time, the beginning of the week.
And this isn't because we're weak. It's not because like we're just, it's aging or because our system has no ability to death. What it is, is it's understanding what it is that we can have and what, what capacity we have. So I love that physiological buffer. So now we've talked about what we can do beforehand. Making that buffer, maybe having the nutritious food, getting the sleep in, avoiding some of the excess alcohol and whatnot prior to the event or series of events and taking some digital downtime. Now let's talk about we're in the events. Maybe it's a holiday meal. We've just been delayed on our travel because of weather. We're running in late and so we're already stressed out because we're late. We were in the mess of travel and now we're at dinner and that one person who always triggers us immediately starts and makes a comment, what can we do in that moment?
[00:30:56] Speaker C: Yeah, having a front loaded strategy that you know, you can deploy in that moment's really, really important. And just on that, Jen, I just want to reiterate. Sometimes we can actually cross our threshold even when everything's going really well. Right? Because, because the physiological stress response can still creep up under the surface even when we're happy and it's fun. It's still overstimulating in those environments. So that's I think sometimes important to really reiterate because otherwise people think, oh, it's only going to happen with those difficulties, difficult relatives, you know, all that stressful travel. But actually I think all of us are human and all of us can, that that nervous system can creep up without us being aware of it. So, so in that moment, if you feel like you, you're starting to sense your things, you know, your heart rate's starting to get a little bit, you know, faster or you can feel your jaw tightening or your breathing's getting tight or you can feel that heat starting to escalate in your body. I think we all know what our things are, right? Just being able to take a tactical pause. And what I mean by that is just using a little strategy. I call it a get out of jail card where we just look up, we breathe out, we do a really long slow exhale because that actually slows our heart rate. It pulls us just back under our threshold so our smart brain can come back online so we can say the thing we meant to say or, you know, we've just got that little bit more control of ourselves and just having a thought that we've already thought about before we actually walk in into that situation scenario that is either gratitude or opportunity or curiosity, you know, so that we can say that in our mind. And those three things, you know, looking up, breathing out, having a gratitude or an opportunity or curiosity thought that just. We play through our mind those three things actually in our nervous system, turn on the calm nervous system. So that's just going to give us that little de escalation strategy for us to just buy that time. You can do it in five to 10 seconds before you actually then say or act. The other thing that I think is really important is that we've got agency. We can actually say, hey, look, I just need to go to the bathroom or you know, just find an excuse or a way to actually get yourself out of that situation just to take yourself down to calm. You know, it's a fantastic circuit breaker if you're feeling like things are actually starting to escalate. And I've done that in holiday situations where, you know, and they've been really enjoyable, you know, family celebrations or whatever. But there's just a lot of noise and there's a lot of, you know, all of those things and I'll just, I'll just find a reason to just go off to another room or walk outside, de escalate myself and then, and then I've got that, you know, that joy that I can actually re. Engage with and bring that nice energy back into the room.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: So I really like this. It's like your calm protocol for the holidays. It's, it's, hey, I know that I can breathe. I already have a gratitude or something that's ready to pull up and worst case scenario, I'm going to remove myself from the situation because overstimulation is real. It's noisy, there's a lot of people. And then with family especially, it's louder and louder and louder. So having that change your physiology to change your psychology and allow yourself to have that spaciousness, so important. So folks, you've had so many gems just now. And you know, the holidays are not just about logistics. They're not just about the emotion or how we're going to put things together. And there's a lot of other things that go into it. We may be experiencing grief or loneliness or. Not everyone comes from the same situation. But no matter how we are experiencing the holidays. We have a choice in how we respond. And so that's what today is about. It's about how can you set yourself for success with the strategies on the front end. Fuel your body, get your rest, make sure you're not over scheduled so, so that you have a successful holiday season and then when it arises, because it will, it arises for all of us, how are you going to calm yourself in the storm? This has been so amazing, Rachel. I literally cannot wait until we have you on in January to really dive deep into more of these thriving under pressure circumstances.
How can people reach out to you?
[00:34:54] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks Jen. I'm on LinkedIn. Rachel Vickery or my email address is rachel@rachel vickery.com thank you so much folks.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Reach out to Rachel. I think it's incredibly important and your actionable items are right here in front of you. Have a plan. How are you going to get your right nutrition in? Are you going to do it at breakfast and lunch so that when you're at the party you've already handled your nutrition. Get your movement in early, get your sleep in ahead of time so that you're set for success and then get your plan of action ready. When you do feel that you're getting a little stressed out in a situation so that you can take that deep breath, you can maybe remove yourself and you can continue to enjoy the holidays. We do have to take a brief break, but we'll be right back after these important messages.
Foreign.
You've got your year end numbers to hit. A team that needs you. Clients who want to sprint while your family's waiting at home. Welcome to the holiday gauntlet. This is where most leaders break. They don't even know they have cracks at the seams. But what your real advantage is is not another to do list.
It's learning to control the one thing that no spreadsheet can track. Your nervous system.
Welcome to the special edition holiday episode segment of power CEOs. I'm Jen Gode and I'm here with Rachel Vickery. Rachel is phenomenal. She's a former elite gymnast turned performance strategist. She works with pro athletes, tactical units, business leaders everywhere.
But today we're going to skip the theory and just welcome her in because she's going to tell us how to survive and thrive this holiday season. Welcome to the show, Rachel.
[00:36:55] Speaker C: Hi Jen. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Okay, so every December, CEOs founders start to show some cracks, some chinks in the armor.
It's not just about the scheduling stress. It's about everything that's happened over the year, and then we put the holiday season on top of it.
What's happening to us?
[00:37:21] Speaker C: Yeah, great question. That's what we call allostatic load meets physiological creep. Right. So what does that mean? So I think the challenge for so many of our high performers and our high achievers is they are mentally and emotionally able to do really hard things and keep going and keep, you know, just keep digging deep and pushing through. But your physiological stress response is under the surface, paying the price for all of that. Right. And so allostatic load is all of the stuff that you just said, those demands, those expectations, those poor sleep, the livelihoods, the everything that we're responsible for.
Having our physiological stress response just be escalating under the surface, and then what ends up happening is, as humans, we've all got a threshold. And as long as that physiological stress response can stay under our threshold, our performance is fantastic. But as soon as we just get that one last thing, it can be the idiot that cuts us off on the traffic. It can be that employee that doesn't call in. It can be that board meeting that we just have to get caught at the last minute that we have to step into. Our physiology crosses our threshold, and then a whole lot of negative performance stuff starts to show up. Right. Our smart brain goes offline. We become very reactive. Our stuff just flies out sideways. We say the wrong thing. We misread a situation, so we might misread a report or we don't hear an instruction so well. And that's those cracks that you start to talk about that can really tank performance.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So, like, what I'm hearing is the reason we make so many errors in December, and we have all of these challenges. Maybe we're zoning out in meetings or we're missing stuff at home. Things are like, if it's not in the calendar, it ain't happening because it's falling out of my brain situation.
It's. It's because of this cumulative allostatic load and because we crossed that threshold. And so how do we know? Like, how can we assess that or figure out where am I in that? Am I right butting up to that threshold and it's only December 1st, or do I have a little bit of space left?
[00:39:19] Speaker B: How.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: How can we as leaders figure out where we are and then maybe create a strategy for it?
[00:39:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I think there's. In our bodies, we can feel things like, you know, heart rate's going faster than it should be. We're not sleeping so well. If we relatively normally sleep, you know, we can feel that we're getting a little bit short and a little bit irritable, or we're having to reread that paragraph three times before it actually makes any sense to us. I've got a really nice litmus test, and down here in Australia, I'd rather. I would use a slightly different phrase, but I call it the three idiot rule. And we substitute idiot for another word. Three idiot rule. Right. So basically what that means is if you meet one idiot by lunchtime, there's a fair chance it's probably them. If you meet three idiots by lunchtime, there's a fair chance it's probably you. Right. So it's a real, you know those days that you just find everybody, like, everybody's an idiot, everybody's frustrating you, everybody's just, you know, whatever. Right. That's actually an us problem, not a you problem. And so that's a really nice way to go, actually. Maybe my arousal state, I'm crossing red line. And that's actually for me to go, maybe I need to step back a little bit, take a bit of a pause, a bit of a breather, you know, say no to a party. I was going to go to, like, whatever it is just to put enough buffer back into our system because, you know, when we're running a business or we've got, you know, livelihoods, multiple millions of dollars on the line with it, those decisions, unfortunately, we don't get to check out come 1st of December.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: That's absolutely right. And so you and I both have that performance background. And a lot of the things that we both share, we both share this mentality is we don't rise to an occasion, we fall back on our highest level of training. And so it's not really necessarily about being tougher. It's about training that recovery into our day.
How can we have a strategy in December that will help us create that buffer so that we can navigate all the challenges that the end of the year brings for us both personally and professionally?
[00:41:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I think being aware of whatever your big ticket items are that, you know, are actually going to be like the final straw that's going to push you up, you know, and so sleep is such a cornerstone, performance habit, that whatever you can to optimize sleep, sleep, whenever you get that chance, I think that can at least, you know, give you a little bit of buffer if. If you can. And. And it's kind of one of the easiest, and I'll say That in inverted commas because I know it is such a challenge for our high performance to get really good sleep. But if that can be optimized, fantastic. Trying to make really smart food choices in the, in the meals that you do have some control over, you know, so eating really good protein and, and vegetables and fruits and trying to stay away from the refined sugars and carbohydrates as best as possible.
Taking some, that little moment of time, you know, if you're driving into the office rather than thinking in your mind, what have I got to do? I've got all, you know, and you're staying stuck in your head because unfortunately our physiology reacts to our thinking as if we're actually in that moment already. So driving into work, literally just breathing, you know, four seconds in, six seconds out, like trying to be present, like whatever it is, just to find those micro pauses through the day, right? And then really curating whatever we're letting go throughout through our heads. You know, we can absolutely buy into pressure of I've got this to do and I've got that to do and I've got all of these things and oh my goodness. And it's also overwhelming, right? Or we can actually just go, you know what, what have I actually got control over right now?
What is going to be most beneficial for me to put my time and focus into? And I'm just going to focus on those things and whatever else I'm actually going to feel totally okay about, about pushing those low priority things to the side.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: That's fantastic. And so folks, I just want to like highlight something. This is what we're doing this time of year, Founders. We double our load, we cut our recovery time and that's a performance crash waiting to happen. Rachel just gave us some really good things that we can focus on. Double down on our sleep, double down on our nutrition, make sure we're fueling our body even better maybe than we do the rest of the year and take some downtime. And then you said something, you talked about focus. And really the edge in business is about focusing on the most important things. It's so incredibly important during the holiday season that we focus on the most important things and let the other stuff fall off our plates or delegated or automate it so that we can be present and doing the high level work that we need to be doing, but also giving ourselves a little bit of a buffer so that everything that's happening in life as well, we have space for it. So let's, let's just talk about that Holiday triggers. Holiday triggers happen.
You know, you've talked about how can we have a strategy going in, but once we get to that point where we're escalated, how do we bring ourselves back down so that we can make that right choice? Because a lot of times what I've noticed happens is it's back to back events because it's an expectation to go and, and so it kind of creeps up on you and then all of a sudden you're, you're in this reactive state.
So what can we do once we re, we're in that state and we realize it? To bring us back down and, and make the right decision and, and have the right, the right conversation or, or whatnot. So that we're, we're above the line, if you will.
[00:44:40] Speaker C: Yeah, beautiful, Jenny, use that word, buffer. And I think that's such a critical one. I talk so often about putting buffer in the system, you know, so that you do have space between your threshold and your arousal state to absorb that buffer that you're going to get in those moments. I think it's really critical also for us to understand that whilst we can compartmentalize mentally and emotionally, we can't actually compartmentalize on our physiology. Right. And so the physiology that we've already absorbed through the high pressure business, we carry that into that family environment or vice versa. You know, we might be carrying all of that physiological pressure and stress into that final decision that we have to make in the, you know, without within our business. And it can be a dumb decision that's going to cost millions of dollars. Right. And so we can't really overemphasize, I think, the importance of running this really smart physiology and more importantly, knowing how to de. Escalate ourselves and be in control of ourselves in any moment because we can't control so much of what's going on around us. But there are three things that we've actually got control over and we put it together as a tactical pause or what I call a get out of jail card. You know, that you got close to your threshold or you've crossed it and you need to immediately get under. So those three things being just, you know, look up, raise your, raise your vision that actually cues your nervous system to think you're safe.
Really long, slow exhale and you can, it doesn't have to be loud or noisy or anyone be aware of it, but breathe out slowly. It actually slows our heart rate down, pulls us back under that threshold and then having a thought that is either gratitude or opportunity. Or curiosity or already front loaded that we've primed it, that that's the thing that we're going to think about. And I'm not talking about crystals and rainbows and unicorns or I'm so grateful for this bad family situation. Not at all. Right. But it might even be, I'm so grateful that in five hours I can actually get out of this situation.
It doesn't really matter what it is. But the reason we use gratitude is that gratitude and opportunity actually turns off that primal fear brain, the one that's triggering us to into pressure and stress and all those things, sorts of things. You can do that in five to 10 seconds. Look up slow, exhale, breathe into your belly. Gratitude thought, move into the next thing. And I would always say, particularly in these really high pressure times in, in December, really anytime you have to make an important decision or, or you're about to do something that you know, there's actually a higher consequence to the outcome of that, even if it is the family conversation with Uncle Jim, you know, it's just front loading the action with that little tactical pause. Just so you know that hey, I'm fully in control of myself in what I'm about to escalate. The other thing would be don't be afraid to remove yourself from the situation if it's getting heated and it's getting full on. And you might, you might just say, you know, hey, I just need to go do this thing, whatever it is, so you can get out of the physical location as that circuit breaker. Gather yourself, breathe, shake it off. I know you like that one.
Come back into the room, re, engage, do whatever you need to do.
[00:47:33] Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you. This has been so amazing and I know we have you on in January. I can't wait to deep dive how to create our edge by improving our neurological training. But how can people reach out to you if they would like to learn more?
[00:47:49] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you for asking that question. I'm on LinkedIn. Rachel Vickery or my email address is rachelachelficary.com thank you so much for having.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: For, for dropping these gems of wisdom during this holiday season. And you, yes you, your, your takeaway is pretty easy. Assess where you are, put a plan in place so that you're front loading and creating that buffer whether it's nutrition, sleep, etc and then have your press, have your tactical pause, press pause, remove yourself from the situation, breathe, have that gratitude or whatever you've decided cited is going to be your de escalation plan. And let's make sure that instead of crashing into the holidays, we are training for January today. We'll be right back after these important messages.
