The Transformative Power of Supportive Partnerships in Business

When the relentless pace of Silicon Valley threatened to consume him, Brian Kramer chose the scenic serenity of Lisbon for a reason. In a heartfelt conversation, we uncover Brian's incredible transformation from agency titan to executive coach, revealing how leaders can chase their dreams without the nightmarish cost of burnout. As we traverse Brian's journey, we're reminded of the vital harmony between professional success and personal tranquility, lessons that resonate for anyone standing at the crossroads of ambition and well-being.

Our dialogue takes an introspective turn as we discuss the art of being fully present, a skill that both grounds us and propels us forward. Brian and I dissect the subtle distinctions between comfort and complacency, affirming that while ease can be a foundation for growth, stagnation is its undoing. We shine a light on the unique value of coaching, a catalyst for hidden potential, and we reflect on how embracing change with open arms can lead to an enriched life, underscored by a robust network of support.

As the episode draws to a close, we celebrate the unexpected beauty of 'co-operation'—finding strength in partnerships, even with those we might consider rivals. We delve into the humanity that underpins our professional personas, sharing anecdotes that remind us how personal passions, like supporting the Michael J. Fox Foundation, can shape our approach to business and life. Each Monday, join us for more engaging conversations, as we build bridges of relationship and value, steadfast in our commitment to enrich the tapestry of leadership and life.

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Just Make A Difference: Leading Under Pressure by Ron Harvey

“If you don’t have something to measure your growth, you won’t be self-aware or intentional about your growth.”

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Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Unpacked Podcasts with your host leadership consultant, ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron's delighted to have you join us as he unpacks and shares his leadership experience, designed to help you in your leadership journey. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, ron Harvey.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Good morning. I'm Ron Harvey. I'm the vice president and the chief operating officer of Global Core Strategies and Consulting, and our firm is really built around helping organizations create a winning culture through the lens of leadership development. So we spend a lot of time just helping leaders be better, where they become a good place to work and people are ready to go to work versus sitting in the parking lot wondering why are they going to this organization. So our goal is really to help us get better at taking care of the people we're responsible for and responsible to.

Speaker 2: 0:55

But every single week, I release a different podcast from leaders from around the world that share their introspective and their experiences and behind the curtain, if you will about how they become so successful, what are some of the challenges, and we're super transparent on this podcast. So I do unpack with Ron Harvey, with leaders that join and come on that don't know what the questions are. Quite honestly, neither do I. All of our questions will come from the conversations that we're having and we'll continue to build upon that. So stay with us for the ride. We'll be with you for about 20 minutes, so I'm super excited to have Brian Kramer with us today, who's joining us on the different time zone, so I'm going to pause and welcome to the show, brian. Glad to have you. Would you please share with us who you are, what you do, where you're located? Anything honestly that you want to share is unpacked, is real live. So I'm going to hand it over to Brian.

Speaker 3: 1:43

So cool, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much. I love what you're doing in the world and I'm honored to be on the show. My name is Brian Kramer. Where am I in the world? I'm currently in Lisbon, portugal, and I moved here a little over three months ago from California where I was born, raised and built my career, my family and my life.

Speaker 3: 2:04

Other than taking a short trip to Arizona where I went to college, I came back and continued forward there, saw all kinds of changes in Silicon Valley, built several businesses. My last one was an agency marketing agency that we had for over 25 years. We worked with large enterprise companies, eventually started small, very small, like two people, and then we're way up to 30 employees and $30 million business, working with Cisco and Netflix and MasterCard and all kinds of really cool things. I ended up becoming a keynote speaker, writing two bestselling books. It was really. I really love writing. Like writing is just like one of my favorite things in the world.

Speaker 3: 2:46

So that's kind of where that took me into eventually a TED talk that created more speaking and I started speaking 200 days a year, traveling 200 days a year to speak, and then I burned out and we could talk about that if you like or not, but I burned out and I ended up wanting to shift and change who I was, what I did and how I was showing up in the world, especially for my family and my belief system. So I had to search for what that was. We ended up exiting the agency and creating a whole new paradigm shift for who we wanted to become. For me, in short story, was an executive coach, and so I've taken everything that I've learned, plus coach training, plus a little bit of consulting, and merged it into a unique place to where I can help executives really rise up, make more whether it's more money or more time for their family and not burn out. Really create more for their life with less. So that's who I am.

Speaker 2: 3:44

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing. I mean to leave California, go to Portugal, really change your whole lifestyle and culture and environment, you know, which is huge for most people. I want to dive into some of the stuff and unpack a little bit of no. Thank you for the work that you're doing. Thank you for your coaching. I'm a coach I want to dive into for the leaders that are listening. I'm going to dive into something you said that people COVID showed us burn out. Leaders tend to chase these things. A word that comes to mind is I'm listening to you talk. How do you chase your dreams, be content without burning out?

Speaker 3: 4:19

Here's the thing when we're leaders in these certain positions and we're starting to really create both a vision for what we feel like we need in our lives in you know one day I'm speaking out and perhaps what we then need to do to get there, the two are very often times conflicting, and when you look at both and you try to be all things to all organizations or all people, it's really quite impossible to do, and so you really have to create alignment. It's like if you take your finger and you look and you put it right in front of your face, maybe, like you know, just a couple of inches out, and you look at your finger and you just stare at the finger, then all of a sudden everything behind it becomes blurry. I'd invite everybody to do that. Like, really just take a look at your finger and see if you can focus on just the finger, and now just focus on the background, everything behind the finger, and see if you can look at the background, make it really clear, and then make your finger really clear at the same time. Impossible, can't do it. You can't focus in both places at both times.

Speaker 3: 5:23

So you really have to figure out and align in a way, a strategy, a breakthrough that's going to get you to where you want to be from a big picture standpoint, but not be attached to the outcome, not be attached to the specifics of it. You're going to be attached to the big dream but not the specific, like the house, the car, the thing. That's the unattachment. If we become attached to that, that leads us to burnout Because if it doesn't happen in a timeline where we think it needs to, it's going to create more havoc in our lives.

Speaker 3: 5:56

So you really want to focus on the dream, but not the specifics within the dream and then come back to the finger and look at what's in front of you. To get there to the dream, be unattached to the details. Be attached to the thing that makes you happy, doing what you do every day. That's the generality, without having like two hours to go through. You know front to end how I would approach it. But if you were to just you know even just go through that exercise, it's going to help you out.

Speaker 2: 6:23

Yes, yes. So, brian, as I look through your thing, say Zen master, so I understand why Zen master I mean. So you just did like a two minute masterclass on how not to be attached to the outcome, focus on the dream, and I think people struggle with that initially because you kind of enjoy the outcomes and sometimes those are motivational factors and you lose sight of the alignment of why do you really do what you do? Is it really for the outcome? So thank you for sharing. How do you help someone detach from the outcome If that's where we're at and that's what you really want to do? What's the short masterclass in a couple minutes of? How do you help leaders Because you're measured by outcomes? Your evaluation talks about outcomes. People lose jobs and outcomes are not there. Football teams don't make it to wherever and outcomes are all around us. How do you help leaders when outcomes are part of the expectation from organizations and society? How do you help us get disconnected from that?

Speaker 3: 7:14

Yeah, well, let's define outcome, and outcome is often described as a goal that gets completed, and sometimes we mistake outcomes for impact, and so an outcome sometimes can be really specific, and when we shoot too much and we're too specific to the outcome, then there's no wavering on what that goal, how we go about achieving it, and so I prefer to focus on impact versus outcome, because impact is an emotion. Impact is how we want to feel when the outcome happens. So how do I want to feel when I go to present to this audience? How do I want the audience to feel? What is the emotion that I want them to have?

Speaker 3: 7:58

We have this array of emotions, where we are human beings, that separates us from everything else in this earth by one thing, and that's emotion. So if we can create an impact, meaning an emotion, then the outcome will be more likely to happen. But if we go about it just creating outcome for outcome sake, then the idea of it happening is not very high. So when we go to create this podcast together, the emotion that I hope for, that I desire the most, is that we have right now maybe humor and fun and educational. Maybe that's the flavor of the emotions that I'm going for Now, in that, in being those emotions, we're going to create a more desirable outcome, and so I prefer to focus on those areas and I'll say this where are your feet right now?

Speaker 2: 8:50

Flat on the ground.

Speaker 3: 8:52

Yeah, so be there, be where your feet are. Wherever your feet are, be there and create impact. If you're creating emotion and being present, you will arrive to your outcome every single time.

Speaker 2: 9:06

Well, okay, so we have to unpack this because I say that statement, I heard someone say it and I loved it, and it get a total talk around it. He said be where your feet are. Let's unpack that for a second because I don't know if everybody's going to get it. And it is actually fun because the one thing I think we struggle with as leaders is being present. So can you share a little bit more fun info, enjoyment and educational. How do you help someone be where their feet are? What are some things we can actually put in place?

Speaker 3: 9:32

So the only way to put that in place is to, in my opinion, is to create this sense of knowing that when we future trip or we past trip, we are getting farther away from our present being. I'll say that again when we future trip or we past trip, meaning we look at the future and think, oh, if I only do this, then I can have this, if I do this, I can have this, if I create this, I can do this, I should do this if I'm going to want this or want to create more. And past tripping is I should have, I could have. Why didn't I? What did I do wrong? What could I've done better? That's past tripping.

Speaker 3: 10:14

So we are really good at future tripping and past tripping. When we take those two things away, we have no problem being present, being right where our feet are. We have to spot it in a moment and understand it, remind ourselves that maybe our little saboteur, or whatever that loudest voice is in our head is saying you should have, you could have, you might have, or future tripping why aren't you doing enough? You should be doing more. When you take these things away, you start to become more present.

Speaker 2: 10:45

Wow, I don't think I've ever heard it that way. So hopefully you coined that future tripping past trip, because it's phenomenal, because we do get caught up in that space on either end of the spectrum versus really being in that space of current where your feet are. You've changed careers, you've moved and leaders oftentimes get comfortable. How do you help people not get so comfortable or convenient that they don't work as hard as they can as leaders? Because sometimes I Struggle at this place or I've had people that struggle where they're too comfortable, almost like they're not working or Going in the direction like man, but I'm comfortable. I don't want to deal with this. Change is what I want to focus on. How do you help leaders not get comfortable and not address change and embrace it?

Speaker 3: 11:25

Well, sometimes, when we get comfortable, it's actually a good thing. So I just want to make sure that we're establishing that there's a difference in being comfortable or being lazy. Okay, I believe in comfort. I think that there's nothing wrong with it. I think if we arrive to a place and everything's working, then that's not a good time to break it and just say let's, let's deviate.

Speaker 3: 11:48

If you're lazy, if you're not feeling fulfilled, if you're not creating more and you're feeling that empty space in you that's not feeling like you want. You need to do more and you should be, and it's real then yeah, that is a real challenge and we have to establish which ones, which? Yeah, so what do we do? We have to let go first. We don't want to do more, we want to do less, because we need to open up space so that we can see what the answer is. And the answer is not doing More. The answer is actually settling in and allowing it to just be. Just create from wherever you're at and be with it.

Speaker 3: 12:24

And I know that sounds really challenging, like how do you be? Well, go back to what we just talked about before. Don't future trip, don't past trip. Look at where you are and be there. Once you're able to be there and be comfortable with, I'm safe, I'm okay. Nothing that I do now will jeopardize my future or my past, and everything is going to come to me when the universe Says, hey, it's time now. All of a sudden, we're open to reception, we're open to new things, we're open to things that we didn't see before, and maybe we even need somebody to actually help us through that, somebody like yourself or myself that can help you spot the blind spots, that can help you see what you're not seeing. And then, at that point, combined of being open, being receptive and seeing the blind spots of what's possible, you can now feel like everything is possible, everything. It becomes not a challenge but just a fun way of being, so that we can take on more of what we truly want to do.

Speaker 2: 13:26

Yes, phenomenal responses. I pack a little bit. I mean, we're both coaches and leadership space, love what we're doing and have changed a Lot of things throughout our career. What is the benefit? I mean, I have a coach as well as well as a coach. What's the benefit for having someone in your corner as a coach and what's the role of a coach? Because I think that's a little conflicting or confusing for people. You know the first, the role of it and what's the benefit of it.

Speaker 3: 13:49

Yeah well, I tend to be more of a coach Sultan rather than a purist of a coach. But I'll help you. All will jump in. I'll give you mine. I'd love to hear what yours is too.

Speaker 3: 13:58

For the purist coaches out there, it's somebody who's walking alongside you and helping to see the things that perhaps you're not seeing. But it's not you filling in the gaps. It's helping somebody who who we believe, is already creative, resourceful and whole and understands what they need. They just need someone else to help them pull that out of them and see what's possible and that when we come up with that ourselves, it becomes more of an opportunity. If we help somebody else, tell us what to do and you'll see this in your own lives. You know, as you're listening to this, nobody likes to be told what to do and we don't embody it, we don't experience it. We're immersive, experiential human beings. We have to see it for ourselves in order to believe it and take it on. Somebody can help us who can really pull that out and walk alongside us. It doesn't mean that that person actually has done it before. That person can just sit alongside and actually see the opportunity within you and then help you extract that as you go through Whatever dialogue or coaching opportunity you do as a coach, so tonight tend to blur the lines.

Speaker 3: 14:57

I tend to see both a coaching opportunity but also a consulting opportunity.

Speaker 3: 15:02

They're where, you know, maybe there's things that they haven't experienced before, where they have not done, have an opportunity within I don't know a suite of everything like operations, sales, creativity, accounting, like all the fundamentals of business, to where I have built all those systems, I've built those companies, I've done all those things and so I can extract and help to put some of those things in place At the same time, or at least point out where to go to get them, and then coach along the sides at the same time. So I see the duality a lot more and what I do. And then, finally, a mentor. A mentor is somebody who's actually been to the mountaintop, where do you want to go, and they're throwing a rope down and pulling you up. So that's a little bit different than a coach. That's somebody who's like, maybe done what you're looking to achieve. They have the impact, they created the impact and now they want to throw the rope down to you and pull you up towards when to go and where to be in that impact.

Speaker 2: 15:56

Yes, yes, phenomenal response. You know, thank you for sharing. And I'd say that because, if you're listening, you want to figure out which one do you need at what time in your career path, wherever you are on this journey, and you'll find yourself needing probably one of the three or all three different people different times in your journey. So, being clear about what you're walking into and what you need so you can ask for it, you don't get something that you don't desire at that time or that, oh, you bring the wrong person onto your team For what you're not looking for. And for me, brian, when I look at it, I totally agree a hundred percent with you on the coaching component of it is that person doesn't have to walk in your shoes. That person is really in the passenger side of the car. They're never really grabbing the steering wheel of that vehicle. They'll have some guard rails up so you can stay focused and get to where you're trying to go to. But they're not the driver. You're the driver and they want to help you get to your destination by asking some very you know fun, fact-finding questions to help you uncover everything that may already be in you. So I'm 100% on board with you and how you approach it, and I do a lot of consulting as well. So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 2: 16:52

One of the things that I want to be able to dress that you shared in your intro, it's how important your family was as a leader. You don't want to lean all the way into the professional or all the way to the personal side of. I don't like the word call balance. I like the word call integrate, because it's never been balanced for me, to be quite honest, it's never been 50 50. The scale never tipped in in favor all the time. How do you help leaders make sure that they respect the boundaries with family and professional and aspirations and goals? How do you do that effectively without getting burned out or your family feeling like they're not that important?

Speaker 3: 17:26

Yeah, you know, I got hit hard over this one. I remember when I was sitting on the couch and I had my laptop, you know, on my lap and I was working away while the TV was on and I looked over and my son was sitting At the coffee table right in front of me watching TV and he had a small Old laptop of ours and he was sitting there in his diaper, you know, typing away and doing some game on it and I thought to myself, oh my god, what did I just do? I'm like creating little monsters of who. I am sitting here on my laptop on the couch, you know, at night, and this is what we do and that's not what I wanted to be when I grew up, so it's not who my, my dad was or my parents were and they were real family oriented and I started that, you know really disappear actually into Traveling, like I mentioned, 200 days a year.

Speaker 3: 18:21

And it got to the point to where I really was unhealthy. I blew up, physically, blew up. I ate my way around the world because the food was so good. I love food, still do and then I ended up getting type 2 diabetes and it just really like went into a whole tailspin and then finally, I had had it. I found my breakthrough moment, if you will, and being overweight and alcohol and all those things were the breakthrough moment of this is enough. I'm going to die. I will not meet my grandchildren. I will not get to enjoy my life if I continue down this path.

Speaker 3: 18:55

While on the outside, looking in, everyone thought, wow, he's really living a great life, he's running an agency, he's speaking all over the world, he's writing bestselling books. That is not the case. The life inside was just tearing me up and I almost to the point to where I wasn't suicidal. But I did not want to live this life anymore and I thought about how can I change this? At such an incredible level that I needed to really change it. And that was the moment that I realized like this has to change. When I looked at my children one day when I was home and saw them, and they're like why weren't you again at our stuff? And I'm like this has to change. And I did. We exited the agency and, you know, six months later we were out. My wife and I owned the agency together Not we're still together as a couple, but the work. And then I took a year off. I lost 85 pounds, I lost diabetes. I picked my kids up from school, dropped them off almost every day.

Speaker 3: 19:45

Anybody can change anything in their life is figuring out what is the breakthrough moment for you, what's the not enough, what's the I've had enough, what's that this has to change? Or else, if you can define what that is for you and get some help or support to define what that is for you, anything else is possible and that really changes our belief system. Once we change our belief system, we can make it last. It's now been almost seven years that I've kept the weight off, that I've not had diabetes, that I ended up moving to Lisbon, portugal, and my kids are now close to me and still at a distance, but we're so close and we still talk and we still have a family, and so these are the things that are really important to me, and that's because I made them part of my belief system and I traded in the things that weren't serving me for the family life that I really wanted.

Speaker 2: 20:35

Thank you for your vulnerability and transparency of sharing, because this unpackment around Harvey has really led people behind the curtain, because people do look at us and say, man, they're living the life and externally it may look that way. Internally, you're trying to figure out. This is not working for me and I think leaders you know, such as yourself, that share that people understand what to chase and what not to chase. They learn from our lessons learned by us being open and transparent about that. Congratulations on so many years of really keeping the weight off, you know, and to stay free of diabetes, which you wanted a different life because you want to be around your grandkids.

Speaker 2: 21:10

I do a lot of business development and people like you and I in rooms together collaborating versus competing. How do you help small businesses or people feel like they always have to compete against a person that may be doing exactly what they do and find a way to collaborate? I call it co-operation. I cooperate, my competition. How do you help organizations realize there's enough for all of us? How do you work with other people that are doing what you're doing?

Speaker 3: 21:31

So I don't see it as competition at all. There's always a unique. We each have our own unique, almost like a fingerprint. You can see here up here I've got a fingerprint. I think every one of us has like a unique fingerprint. You know, while I do know that if you look at certain things in the world, there's competition, like sports for instance, and at the same time you can change the behavior by understanding that how we train together is not going to change how we race together, and so if we can train together, we can make each other stronger when we get into the race. Let's say, if we're running, that's up to our own unique skill or our fingerprint, to how we're going to show up in the moment, but nothing says that we can't train together to make each other better runners or better whatever.

Speaker 3: 22:19

You know Arnold Schwarzenegger initially the way that he ended up breaking into the bodybuilding world was to hire his direct competitor to train him and get him to do what. He ended up becoming the seven or 10 most winning 10 championship in the world, and his competitor, if you will, said at first that he didn't want to train him, because why would I train my competitor? And at the end of the day, they ended up learning so much from each other and then building a business and business empire together that it ended up becoming the most mutually beneficial relationship ever. And yet still they showed up on stage and competed against each other. And so you know, when you think about that, it's how we train together, not how we compete together.

Speaker 2: 23:01

Yes, I love it because people get stuck in that space of not wanting to work side by side with the person that can actually make you better than you ever thought you could be. You know, I look at the Olympics a lot of those athletes actually train together and then they go out and compete and it's a really good competition and they're cheering for them to do well and the other person cheering for them to do well, but you're making each other faster, stronger, smarter, more visibility, whatever the thing is that you call winning. They'll help you win, and so I love that idea. I'm not unpacked for a second. I want to do some rapid fire questions and I call them fun fact finding questions about it, so people see us as human beings. I'm going to do about three or four of them with you If you get a chance to travel. Would you prefer traveling by boat or by airplane?

Speaker 3: 23:45

Oh wow. Well, if it's a cruise ship, I would prefer the cruise ship. Yes, but if it's for getting from point A to point B, you know, I don't mind taking a ferry across the little area. That to me is more fun than a plane. But if I need to get to from here to Croatia, I'm going to take a plane. Hands down, yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:05

Yeah, awesome. Would you rather be in the mountains or the beach?

Speaker 3: 24:10

Oh, ocean. I've written both my books next to the ocean and the water is my zen place. That's why I moved here, because it was near the water. You know, I lived in California, I live here. I'm a water ocean person. That said, I grew up camping and I grew up in the forest and I believe that that is another zen place for me, and if I can't be near water, then I will find that as an immediate second.

Speaker 2: 24:32

Yes, yes, horror movies or comedy.

Speaker 3: 24:36

Comedy, straight up comedy. I've dabbled in stand up and I think that comedy is just a beautiful way of living life, let alone, you know, spending your time. I mean, I walk away. You know, I'm pretty pretty good every time.

Speaker 2: 24:49

Yes, yes, comedy is good for the soul. Yes, yes, so if you afforded an opportunity to have all the resources or financial resources that you could be afforded, what would be an organization that's super important to you that you would donate to, and why?

Speaker 3: 25:04

I would probably donate to the Parkinson's Maybe the Michael J Fox Parkinson's. They're doing some incredible things. My dad has Parkinson's, and I want nothing more than to help him and others like him after seeing what they go through and the quality of life that they lose over time. You don't die from Parkinson's, but you lose your quality of life from it to the point to where it's hard to maintain a quality of life, and so I believe that they're getting closer every day, and with that kind of money and resources, they might move faster and get to where they need to be so that they can have an even better quality of life.

Speaker 2: 25:42

Yes, yes, I learned through Parkinson's from a brother in love, my sister's husband, and watching how it really changes the quality of life for people. So, yes, thank you for sharing that. So, as we begin to wrap up the session for everyone to listen to, what are the key takeaways or nuggets that you would love to leave people with about what you share so far today?

Speaker 3: 26:00

I'm going to say something a little bit out of what I said so far and add on to it, which is that right now, in the midst of how the world is going and where everything's at, and we're a little bit nervous because AI is coming on the scene what does that mean for me and what do I have to do with my skill sets and how do I stay relevant? And all of these different things is, if you take anything away from today, I would say that take this one thing away being human is your competitive advantage right now more than ever. The more that you stand out as being more of a transparent human, it's going to actually show up, because everything is so automated these days and everything is really technology driven, and so when you stand out with things like a thank you card in the mail or a personalized email that obviously comes from a real human, the things that we do within, organically ourselves that shine through, those are the things that are going to make a bigger difference in the years to come.

Speaker 2: 26:59

Yes, yes, thank you for saying that too, brian, and that's really where we came up with unpack. I said let's just have a real conversation, without any question, free set, and we just talk and become human. And this whole podcast is about what you just said. How do we just show up and let people see us as human beings? So if I'm a leader, I'm in an organization, regardless where I'm in the country. Technology allows us to connect with people like you. What are the top three reasons why most people call you? What's happening in their lives? It says, hey, pick up the phone, reach out to Brian.

Speaker 3: 27:25

Thank you for asking. The biggest things for me that I see is what's next? What's next for me? And I don't know what that is, or I know what it is, but I don't know how I'm going to get there. The next one is I'm working hard, I'm working too hard, or I'm working so much and I'm not seeing quality of life, or I'm not seeing how I can get everything done and have a quality of life. And so how do I get both? How do we do both? What's that formula for me?

Speaker 3: 27:53

And the third thing is, intrinsically, how do I create all the different systems, structure and process that's needed around me so that I can be less in the trenches and more in the strategy? And so that's a huge one, because we all get mired into the detail, we get mired into the everyday and we don't know how to interact with it and yet still stay 500 or 1000 feet up. So how do I stay in tune with both? Imbalance or if in harmony? If you will, I don't balance as hard this is coming from a Libra but you know how do we stay in harmony between the doing and the being, the strategy versus doing. So those are the three areas that I think I see the most.

Speaker 2: 28:36

Awesome, Awesome. I love the word harmony too, so can you share with the audience that people are watching and listening to us? You know the best way to reach you with the email upon a website.

Speaker 3: 28:45

I try to make it easy. It's at Brian creamercom. That's Brian with a Y, kramer with a K. Ironically, not too long ago I was telling my dad he asked me something. I was like, yeah, that's Brian with a Y, creamer with a K. He's like I named you. I'm like, oh yeah, but you name me with these, not Brian with an I, and so I have to say that every time. So anyway, brian with a Y, kramer, k Com. And if you email me, it's Brian at Brian Kramercom. I have a newsletter on my website and I write one letter. It's not really newsletter, it's a letter that I write once every two weeks to everyone on what's on my mind and what can we do to make one little shift in our life or in our leadership. And if you hit reply to that, I will reply back and, as I believe in the human to human being, and so that's something that I can promise and everything's on there. If you want to start a conversation, please go there as well, or you can email me directly. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Yes, you're welcome and I will tell you H2H. You know, as I look at the bio and human to human is which is we're losing touch with sometimes because everything's so automated, we're losing touch with each other. Here's what I've heard people say is we're super connected but very disconnected from the human to human and because of technology was super connected, I can reach across the ocean, but I can't talk to the person sitting next to me on the airplane.

Speaker 3: 30:06

Right, yeah, you're absolutely right, I think in Faith Popcorn called this in 1984 in her book the Popcorn Report. One of the chapters was called cocooning and she predicted that we would all be cocooning in 2010 and onward. And we continue to cocoon more and a lot of it is really around the trend of being served and having things delivered to us and not having to come out, not having to go to the market, not having to go to the store. We've got Amazon, we've got Instacart, we've got things that can create things for us, but now we're losing touch with community and losing touch with that connection, that deeper connection. So I'm speaking at high level. I mean there's a lot of a lot more that goes into that, but just you know, for example, say so, yes, I agree with you. Connection is everything.

Speaker 2: 30:52

Yeah, it's amazing to bring when I'm in conferences, how many times when you take a break, the first thing everybody pulls out is their cell phone, versus us going to talk to each other. I'm like man we come here to connect but then we work so hard to connect outside of the room Soon as we get a break. I love the conversation, so for everyone that's listening and the work that we talk about and the things that we do. You know we'd love for you to reach out to Brian on myself and the work that we do across the country. We love it, we're passionate about it and we care about people. You know you look at the work that he's doing is phenomenal work. The best way to ever reach us. You know global strategies.

Speaker 2: 31:24

If you look us up, we're on the web, but also you can reach me at our Harvey at gcsconsulting. I'm happy to respond. I'm just like Brian. I respond to everything. Make sure that I stay in touch with people. We would love an opportunity to see if it's a great relationship. Partnerships matter, relationships matter, but we love what we do and that's important for so there's anything we can do in your organization or your company, or you need a speaker or you need a coach or looking for a co-sultan, which is what Brian does. Please feel free to reach out to either one of us and share this podcast with someone that you think can use it and leverage it, and it'll be of use for them. So thank you very much for joining us. We love the work that we do and we want opportunity to share with you later on.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Well, we hope you enjoy this edition of Unpacked Podcast with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron Unpacked's sound advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are or the people you serve, because people always matter.