SNS 106: Saturday Night Special – Interview with Expert Connector Barry Moline

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Welcome to tonight's. Saturday night, special episode, 106.

[00:00:05] Barry Moline: I'm Barry Moline. I challenge you to invest in yourself. Invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your call. Having the ability to connect with others is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:32] people are not out to get us. Sometimes something will happen and somebody will make a wrong turn and, get in our lane while we're driving or, they'll step in front of us or who knows what they actually are not paying attention to us. They're in their own world.

[00:00:51] They're just,

[00:00:51] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants [00:01:00] you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself.

[00:01:10] Invest in others. And develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:17] And tonight, Saturday night, special, I interview Barry Moline. I asked Barry to share with you why so many people in today's world have real barriers to connecting with each other. I also asked Barry to share the secrets to building relationships. And connecting with others and Barry and I also share with you a little bit about his journey and story and how he came to focus on making connections.

[00:01:46] Now, one area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity. Getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be [00:02:00] really tough. I've got a course called productivity for your passion. That's designed to help you do this and then to hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done, but actually getting the right things done.

[00:02:19] What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your personnel. Cause the truth is a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.

[00:02:37] But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work, but there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone. And we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out over@inspiredstewardship.com slash lawn. Barry Moline has been bringing people together in the workplace for four [00:03:00] decades.

[00:03:00] He calls it building teamwork as the current executive director of the California municipal utilities association. Barry knows the importance of synergy and diplomacy. And what can go wrong in their absence. There is power in sharing our personal stories as a means of connection from his volunteer work with the U S peace Corps in Guatemala to his leadership of associations, businesses, government, and nonprofits.

[00:03:27] Barry has strive to solve the issues of communication, stagnation, siloed information, unfounded assumptions, and more by teaching his staff and his colleagues to relate to women. With a vast depth and breadth of experience working with the media. Barry is in a unique position to provide insight and commentary on topics ranging from interoffice politics to actual politics and everything.

[00:03:53] After four years of research, Barry wrote a book called connect where he presents specific actions people can [00:04:00] take to achieve the highest level of teamwork. Barry learned that leaders must set the stage and provide the right environment for individuals to first get to know each other before taking on the important work, their organizations.

[00:04:14] Welcome to the show,

[00:04:15] Barry Moline: man. It's great to be with you, Scott, really looking forward to it.

[00:04:20] Scott Maderer: Here in the intro, we talked a little bit about the book that you got a connect and your history and various things like that. But as we think about the world today, you just wrote a book on connecting to other people.

[00:04:33] And yet I think right now it's an environment. At least in the U S and I think worldwide, most of us would agree is polarized a lot of people not getting along. A lot of people just standing on each other, standing out other sides of the room and yelling at each other at the top of their lungs.

[00:04:49] So what do you see as some of the real barriers in the world today that are holding people back from really making good connections?

[00:04:57] Barry Moline: First of all, great observation [00:05:00] there, there's actually two ways to think about this. One is there is a lot of polarization on things like cable news and social media.

[00:05:11] And if we're paying attention to those if we're looking to those sources for news we just have to be careful that we are. Not paying too close attention to the particular tribes that we belong to. Tribes are good groups that that we like. They may be political groups, religious groups that they're community groups.

[00:05:35] They're just, like-minded people. We just have to be careful about. Who we're listening to and what they're saying and think for ourselves. And when we do that, we can, we can agree with the majority of what we're hearing, but we can also say, scratch our chins and say, is that really true?

[00:05:55] I don't know. But bottom line is that it's good to be aware of it. And [00:06:00] the other element is that even though we have these societies, Pressures and elements that are like firing at us to pull us apart. There's an innate characteristic of most people that actually want to get along with others.

[00:06:18] We, we like to engage with other people. The cable news. Tries to pull us apart, but humanistically, we actually want to build bridges to each other. And that's the part we need to tap into as individuals is the outreach that we actually want to work with others and just socialize with others more often, even those that we know.

[00:06:41] Disagree with, if we can set those aside and just not talk about them, we have so much more in common with people just even though think about walking your dog on the street, you can have a conversation with anybody about it. Do you know, their dog, your dog, what's going on the weather, anything have a [00:07:00] wonderful pleasant conversation, never talk politics or anything that might create friction.

[00:07:05] And then you go wow, that was, I built a bridge with that person. That was really nice. So I think that at our core, We really want to engage with other people.

[00:07:15] Scott Maderer: I agree. I think we, we do have a desire to connect. Again, a lot of times we see things holding us back from those connections too.

[00:07:23] As an individual, what should we be watching out for? Or what should we be doing differently? What can we practically do? Turn off the cable news? Yeah, that might be one, but what are some of the things we can practically do to help gear us up for making those connections?

[00:07:38] Barry Moline: I think the first thing that we can do is actually intentionally try to engage with other people.

[00:07:45] I call this sharing personal stories and that's how we get to know other people. And it's how we understand each other's hearts and what's going on sorta inside them. And when we do that, [00:08:00] no, we don't have to. Yeah, like we're talking about work. For example, we don't have to know all the details of what's going on in our colleagues lives and and get to the intimate details.

[00:08:14] People don't want to talk about that level of engagement, but it is good to just know what's going on. Regarding people's vacations what they did last weekend. Maybe it's some interesting things they have coming up. And the next weekend those CA what kind of shows they're streaming online, maybe we've got some good ideas.

[00:08:36] There are podcasts they're listening to, and those are the ways that we build bridges. In a sort of a gentle way and learn about each other when somebody says, they like the Mandalorian, for example, an action star wars kind of thing, I'll I didn't know that you were into that.

[00:08:55] I can tell you about a show that I watched that, is in that genre. [00:09:00] And, you may not have heard about that. Same as true with, Podcasts, here's a business you're listening to this business podcast. Oh, you might be interested in this business podcast as well.

[00:09:09] And that way we're building bridges. It's a light way. We're not getting into the details of each other's families and so on, but we can. Deal. Like I say, build those bridges and initiate those relationships in a way that allows us to understand a little bit more about each other. And then when we know each other a little bit, we start to each other.

[00:09:33] And when we like each other. We want to do a good job for each other. So if we're working on the same project together, I kinda like her, I kinda like Kim, I'm going to do a little bit better for the team because I'm invested in this team.

[00:09:49] Scott Maderer: So when you think about, making a connection with each other how did you actually come about.

[00:09:55] Learn, what brought you to writing a book on connection? What what made you [00:10:00] think this was an important thing to put out there?

[00:10:02] Barry Moline: There was a single incident that was an inspiration. And that is I was working in south Florida in a community. I had parachuted in, I didn't physically parachute, but I came into this community and.

[00:10:17] They had a lot of friction on a variety of issues. They were fighting over the dog park. They were fighting over the marina just a whole bunch of things. And I was there to talk to them about. Their electric utility and ways that they could work together on that. And they were already bowed up and ready to fight on any topic.

[00:10:39] And after a few weeks of working with them, I was talking with a friend and I said, gosh, these people here are so eager to fight. Does anybody get along anywhere? And he and I started to go. And we've found some interesting case studies about [00:11:00] organizations. They, some of them were businesses.

[00:11:02] Some of them were nonprofits. Some of them were individuals that had unique experience. It says, and they were all following a different model. The one where people were getting to know each other first and they were successful, they set the stage for teamwork and then they, and then it happened naturally.

[00:11:22] We said, I said to my friend, maybe we ought to write a book on this. And he said, it's a great idea. I'm not sure that I really have the, the wherewithal to write a book, but Barry, I'm going to route you on you write the book. And I took the challenge. It took me four years to pull together.

[00:11:39] I used to work. I would work on the book while I was traveling. So every time I traveled somewhere, Go get dinner. I go back to my hotel room and I'd work for an hour or two and just constantly pulling information together. And that's how it happened. It was just grit and persistence.

[00:11:59] And in the [00:12:00] process of writing. I found, I actually had a preface at the beginning at the outset where I thought to myself, I know how to bring people together. I can do this. I'm a professional at it. I know the answer. And I'm just going to write what's in my head. And then I did this research and I realized.

[00:12:22] I was wrong. My premise was I could sit people around a table and like everybody would take turns, sharing some information and I would control how long people talked. And I would facilitate this process. And what I learned instead is when you just give people. The the action items, the ideas about how to interact with each other and then encourage them to do it in small ways on a regular basis.

[00:12:52] And I'll give you an example they'll do it on their own and that organic way is much more effective at building [00:13:00] a stronger bridge. And for example icebreakers at the beginning of meetings, when you get people together, spend five, seven minutes doing an icebreaker and ice breaker is simply, for example, what we talked about earlier is everybody let's go around the room and talk about one show that we're streaming and we're enjoying, and you don't talk about all the reasons why and the characters and so on.

[00:13:20] You just say, I'm streaming the show hacks on HBO and. And then you move on to the next person you knew. And very quickly, in a few minutes you get one, you get a few ideas, but two, this is the important part is that after the meeting, you go up to that person and you say, Hey, you mentioned that show has.

[00:13:38] Tell me about it, what's it about? And then you engage in that conversation and you build that bridge there. So having that steady effort of people getting to know each other a little bit, whatever that might be that builds that bridge. Another strand of that bridge day by day meeting by meeting and then [00:14:00] people develop a stronger relationship.

[00:14:03] Scott Maderer: So you started studying all of this. Did did you notice that some people were better at this than others? Were there things that some people did that seem to be, quote the secrets of building good connections, that that kind of thing.

[00:14:15] Barry Moline: I did a lot of observing in the process and I can tell you that I have a friend, his name is Tommy.

[00:14:24] Thomas tart actually, that's his official name, but we call him Tommy. And Tommy is one of those people who is just a natural connector. And you probably know people like this and your listeners probably know people like this, or maybe they might be that person, but Tommy loves other people. He doesn't want.

[00:14:48] Get anything from them. He just loves engaging with people. And again, there's nothing that he wants from them other than just to learn about them. And Tommy and I [00:15:00] were golf together. And after we golf, we will. No, sit down for a meal and I'll go to the, we'll get our table. I'll go to the bathroom and come back.

[00:15:10] And he's talking with three tables around us and having conversations with a bunch of people. And sometimes he's even gotten up and moved to another table. And now we're going to have. Lunch with another group that I'm surprised, but here we are. And I said to Tommy once how do you do it? How do you, how is it that you, you build these bridges so quickly that you engage with people so quickly and you love people so much.

[00:15:40] How do you do it? And he said, and this really surprised. What are you talking about? I said, Barry, I'm sorry. I said, Tommy don't you realize that wherever we go, you have friends everywhere. You walk into a room and everybody's your friend. [00:16:00] And he said, no, I don't know what you're talking about.

[00:16:03] And I just saw it and said, I'm just gonna watch you and see what you do. And. What Tommy does is the first thing he will ask somebody is where are you from? Everybody loves talking about where they're from. He Tommy loves college sports. So college sports are in cities all over the country and he loves all the different sports.

[00:16:28] So there's lots of different schools and he's either been to, your city. Or he wants to know about it. So if he's been there, he'll say, Hey, wait, it was Joe's, barbecue is still there. Cause I ate there and it was great. Now you're talking about your barbecue and having a good time about that.

[00:16:45] And if he hasn't been to your town, he'll say what's it like, and he really wants to know what it's like. Cause someday he might visit there and he might want to go to a restaurant that you recommend. And by doing that. Suddenly he and his [00:17:00] conversation partner are talking about where they're from and just having a grand old time.

[00:17:06] And that is one technique. One. A way to get to know people just by asking where they're from and genuinely wanting to know more, you, they might ask them where you're from and you talk about your background and your journey and how you got to where you are today. And those are the kinds of conversations that, again, build those bridges.

[00:17:29] But it's amazing how quickly people will want to know more about each other and you learn amazing things about people. People are eager to talk, they love talking. And if you just ask those open-ended questions, they'll engage.

[00:17:43] Scott Maderer: So I think a lot of times, a lot of the folks that are listening have been either in a team environment, maybe at work. Non-profit or church or whatever, or they may even be a leader who's trying to build successful [00:18:00] teams. So beyond just that individual level, the Tami level of connecting with people, how do you actually facilitate and help build successful teams that actually make connections to each other?

[00:18:13] Barry Moline: It's also important to do a couple other things. One is. You want to assume positive intent. And we tend to look at the world as where the center of the universe. Each one of us is the center of our own universe. We're not sorry. I know it's. We we definitely walk through life with that with that feeling.

[00:18:36] And yeah, unfortunately there is a bigger world out there to know that you are the center of your own universe. And people are not out to get us. Sometimes something will happen and. Somebody will make a wrong turn and, get in our lane while we're driving or, they'll step in front of us or who knows what they [00:19:00] actually are not paying attention to us.

[00:19:02] They're in their own world. They're just, telling their own story, listening to their own music and so on. And then suddenly, they might interact with us. And what we might think is a negative way. But that, but they're really not after us. You know that now I will say that occasionally, a very small percentage of people are like, I don't like that person, and then there's friction and conflict and I've dealt with that in the past and, have ideas about how to deal with it. But that is a very small percentage of people. I'm 64 and I can count on one hand the number of people that I've had friction with. I Like serious friction with wow, this is a really tough relationship here.

[00:19:47] How do I deal with this person? This is a tough cookie. And, and like I said, I've got some ideas on that, but still the point is that people are not out to get us. And it's important to, to understand [00:20:00] that. That's not happening. So if you're feeling like that, if you get an email and you're like reading it negatively, when somebody wrote it, they might not have written it negatively.

[00:20:10] They may have written it just in a normal fashion or were not really good writing emails. I think emails are a really poor way to communicate. It's important to talk on the phone and you can hear in people's voices a more calm, demeanor. And or see their faces, know, you can see if they're smiling and engaging.

[00:20:27] Generally, they're not mad at us and they want us to succeed. They want to succeed themselves, but they're okay if we do. Okay.

[00:20:36] Scott Maderer: You mentioned that was part of it was to start with assuming positive intent, but, so if you're still trying to build those teams, where do you go from there? What's next?

[00:20:45] Barry Moline: The w another element, another really key. Is to try to talk about the same amount of time talk equally.

[00:20:53] I, I say, but talk about the same amount of time and that too. I'll answer your question in a little more [00:21:00] depth, but I just wanted to get that in because. Sometimes we get into what I call competitive conversations, where you tell me a story about something that your kid did, on the sports on the baseball diamond.

[00:21:14] And I think, oh what story can I tell that'll one up what Scott just said? Maybe my daughter, really excelled. And that ballet recital. Oh, you should've seen that. And here we are trading stories that sort of one off each other, and it's not a competitive conversation. If you're telling me about your son.

[00:21:35] I want to know more about that. I should want to know more about that. I want to ask you questions about that and I'm not worried. I shouldn't worry about telling you about my kids. If you want to ask about that. That's okay. But still the point is. Focus on the other person and try to be aware of the amount of time that you're talking.

[00:21:54] If you're telling stories and telling some great stories, because we are the center of our universe. That's [00:22:00] okay. Pause and then say, how's it going with you and tease out a few stories from from your conversation partner, because I'll tell you actually, an interesting statistic and that is the, I said, talkie.

[00:22:13] The sweet spot is 46% of the time. So actually talking a little bit less than half the time and 46%, like where did that come from? If you've ever gotten on a phone call, with a major provider like a cable company or phone company, they'll say this phone call will be recorded for customer service.

[00:22:34] I think they're recording. Just in case I get mad and they want to go back to the recording and say, Hey, you got mad. That's why we hung up on you. And it's not that at all, the reason why is because they're actually trying to figure out what works with their customer service representatives.

[00:22:54] What the best conversations are, what are the more successful conversations and. One [00:23:00] organization in San Francisco does research by pulling all this stuff together. And what they found was that when customer service representatives talk 46% of the time, a little less than half, they have the greater customer service rating.

[00:23:17] They're better with sales when they're teasing out more. Information from the person they're talking to. So that concept of talking about the same amount of time, that, or a little bit less, that's the sweet spot for being effective, both in business and in, in socially. So there's a good business rationale for trying to talk equally.

[00:23:43] But your question ultimately was how do you do it? How has this teamwork stuff, how does it happen? And what I can tell you is that it's the long game. You have to build trust with people. And the way to build trust with them is to get to know them. [00:24:00] And the way to get to know them is in this method of asking folks.

[00:24:07] How their weekend was what they're doing next weekend, finding out about their lives, their journeys, taking the initiative to get to know people. And when you do that over time, then they feel comfortable and it, two things happen. One is the team gels when they know each other better. And two is that.

[00:24:31] They want to work better together. And I mentioned that earlier, but they want to work better together because they like each other Google did what was curious about the teams that they had operating in Google? It's a big company. It's 150 teams going on simultaneously. And they noticed that some teams are working better than others and they.

[00:24:52] They're an analytical company. And they said, we can figure this out. Let's find out what the right mix of a team needs [00:25:00] to be in order for people to get along well and for the team to be effective. And they looked at teams that had friends on them and teams that had a big mix of gender of races, of different age groups.

[00:25:16] They looked at every different configuration of teams and they couldn't find any correlation between. Positive results and the composition of a team. And so what they did is instead they watched the teams and what they found was that the teams that spend a little bit of time with each other when they got together and these teams are getting together maybe once or once every two weeks when those teams.

[00:25:42] Got together. They just caught up with each other, Hey, how you doing? Or, you had a vacation, how was your vacation? Tell us about it. Oh, you were, you saw fireworks, in Las Vegas on top of a hotel. What was that like? And people were just telling us stories and then some people actually.

[00:25:59] Went through difficult [00:26:00] periods, divorces and health issues or family health issues. And they talked about that. So there was this, this vulnerability and sharing about some personal stories. And when that happened, when they turned to the work, everybody was totally engaged in wanting to work with each other.

[00:26:20] So Google said we need to promote. Is team leaders that spend time with the team talking about what's going on in their lives. And it's a long game. People will do it and people want to talk even over time. Those that are less interested in talking, we'll share a little bit. And of course you don't have to get too touchy, feely.

[00:26:43] You can start at a high level and talk about podcasts and streaming and then. If you, then the team might get to, more personal things in my own job. I'm the CEO of a company in California, the California municipal utilities [00:27:00] association. And I came into a difficult situation. It was a turnaround situation.

[00:27:05] I had a staff that didn't know me. Didn't trust me. They had. Three CEO's in the past four years, I was just the latest one to come along on a conveyor belt. And they were very guarded and I did these things that were in my book and I knew it wasn't a game. I just knew that they would work over time and.

[00:27:29] Over time, the team got to know each other better. And then individually, I reached out radially to each one to learn about what was going on and the lives of my staff. And I can say that everybody's still here on the same staff five years later and we get along really well. People are off doing their own things.

[00:27:51] We overlap a little bit and we brainstorm really well. There's a high degree of trust and an [00:28:00] understanding, w through COVID we dealt with a lot of anxiety people who were dealing with kids and at home and trying to teach them. And of course we gave them flexibility, but they also talked about it when we had staff meetings and the kinds of problems that they had.

[00:28:17] And they even said, I got a question, do you have any ideas? How I can, separate work and get some time here. And, we just brainstormed a little bit. I took a trip in the middle of COVID a car trip, and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to ask how I should travel.

[00:28:34] If I should ask this question to my staff, but I did. And they had so many great ideas. I was delighted that I asked this question because my wife and I came up with a bunch of ideas about how to eat. Some of them had traveled a little bit and we were unaware of, how gas stations work and how hotels and how restaurants are working so that we had achieved a higher degree of trust with each other.

[00:28:58] And like I [00:29:00] said, it was a long game. We've achieved a higher plane of teamwork together. And as long as you trust the process, it will work.

[00:29:09] Scott Maderer: So I'm going to turn and ask a few questions that I try to ask all of my guests. But before I do that, is there anything else from the book from your experience with this connect that you would like to make sure that the Lester's here or walk away with?

[00:29:24] Barry Moline: We talked about the basics and I would probably say this, that teamwork opportunities are all around us. It's not just work. It's at our houses of work. It's in volunteer groups that we engage in there, even when we go to the tennis court or pickleball court, if we want to play doubles with somebody, just having a good attitude they abound all around us and so we can get a lot of practice doing it.[00:30:00]

[00:30:00] People are eager to talk and engage. And I think that when we know that people are okay, Sort of breaking the ice that when we know that in advance, then we can, then it's good to to just open our mouth and talk standing in line at the grocery store, it's good to get reps in and it, and I'll tell you that.

[00:30:22] I learned that really from my wife, who we have this sort of inside joke for many years, wherever we would go. We just hop in an elevator at a hotel and from the 12th floor to the first floor, she's made a friend and as she knows about their family and they know about our family and it's been, 20 seconds and I would kid her about it.

[00:30:46] The her ability to engage so quickly with people. And then, and I would just completely shut up. And then as I was writing the book, I realized she was right all along. And that was the model [00:31:00] that I needed to follow. So people want to talk and there, so it's good to just get those reps in and blurt stuff out.

[00:31:11] You'll be amazed at the conversations that you.

[00:31:13] Scott Maderer: So one of the questions that I like ask everybody of course my brand is about stewardship. And so as I've talked to people about stewardship, I've found out, everyone has a different definition, a different experience with it.

[00:31:27] So I like to ask people that what is stewardship to you and what is its impact been on how you lead your life?

[00:31:34] Barry Moline: Though the way that I feel about everything that I do is I want to leave the world a better place for the people that are behind me and whether that's, environmentally or w relationally, and I've learned things, I've learned things in my life, and I'm happy to give them away.

[00:31:59] [00:32:00] And that's that to me is the, stewardship. I'm I'm sure has a different perspective from everyone. The way I see it is sharing information. And if I've learned a lesson, I'd rather that somebody else. Avoid the hardship and just get the lesson, at least get the information.

[00:32:23] Maybe if they want to still experience the hardship, they can get through it faster by having heard. Oh yeah. Yeah. Barry said that, I should watch off of that. It, it doesn't work in every situation. Not everything is a perfect analog to every other situation, but still. My preference is to share as much as possible with other people help other people.

[00:32:46] And like I said, my rear view mirror at age 64, it gets bigger and bigger every day. I want to help the people that are behind me so that their lives are easier and [00:33:00] they can accomplish more in their lives and smooth over. The bumpy spots that I already been through. So the way I see it is taking what I've learned and helping others as much as possible.

[00:33:12] So kind

[00:33:13] Scott Maderer: of thinking about that, what you just said about leaving the world a better place. Let's say I invented a machine where I could pick you up today and bring you into the far future, maybe a hundred or 150 years in the future. And you were able to look back on your life. What's the impact that you hope you've had on the world?

[00:33:31] Barry Moline: Way Scott, you are really posing great questions. This is what I jokingly

[00:33:38] Scott Maderer: refer to as the easy question of the interview.

[00:33:40] Barry Moline: What do, what would I want people to say about me? I'd say that I would want people to to say that Barry brought people together and. And I I would say he brought people together and help them achieve their [00:34:00] highest level, whatever that might be, because I like to look at people that I, that are around me and tell them.

[00:34:11] What I see in them and the future that I see for them. For example, I have somebody on my staff who's in his early thirties, and I can tell that he is going to be a leader. He has all the ingredients to be a great leader, a CEO, whatever he chooses to be in his life. He just brings people together. He's got a good strategic model.

[00:34:34] He's thoughtful and, he has to learn some of the elements of leadership along the way, but he has a great foundation. And I told him recently that exactly, that I thought that his future is in leadership and I'm going to look for ways to get him some training outside of our relationship.

[00:34:55] But mostly he needs to know that and he needs to. At his [00:35:00] life, as one of developing as a leader, I wanted him to change his thermostat, his internal thermostat to think I'm just not a cog in the wheel. I'm going to be the leader of some organizations. And I said, I'm not sure whether it's this organization.

[00:35:17] I would like it to be at some point in the future. And if it's not, it's going to be somewhere else. I think that. Looking for the highest the opportunities for the highest level for people to perform at their highest level. That's where I'm all about. And I think encouraging people to do that is a great motivator for individuals.

[00:35:36] And so I'd like people to to look back at me and say that I helped motivate some people to get to a higher level.

[00:35:43] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for you, Barry, as you continue on this journey you've got the book it's been out for a while. What else are you working on? What's on the roadmap and on the horizon.

[00:35:52] Barry Moline: I I'm actually working on another book it's called living the leader's life [00:36:00] and. I can tell you the elements of leading that I've focused on. And I'll do that in a second and I've actually set the book aside. It's about three quarters done. I set the book aside because I need to do a little more traveling.

[00:36:15] To finish the writing of the book, because I realize, okay. During COVID I wrote a good amount of the book. And now that, that things are like I'm back in the office a few days a week, and I'm not getting quite the amount of time to do that, but I am starting to travel. So I'm going to. Get the book done, within the next six months or so.

[00:36:36] And we'll do that in one interesting element of the book. I've decided that I'm gonna distribute the book in three ways. It will be available on Amazon. It'll be available on Kindle and in those ways you have to put a price on it when you're using those platforms, but I'm going to give it away.

[00:36:50] I'm going to give it away for free because. As a PDF, I have a website, very, I'm only in.com and it's going to be there for free because I just want [00:37:00] people who want to learn about how to be a better leader to just have that information. So that's the, that's just an FYI part of the stewardship philosophy and the elements of leadership, the world of course needs another book on leadership, right?

[00:37:16] There's a lot. Let me just say that again. The world, hold on, let me silence this bugger. The world needs another book on leadership, there's a lot of books on leadership. I'm not sure that my book is the one that's going to turn everybody around to be the greatest leader ever.

[00:37:37] It's just that the ideas are in me and I want to get them out there. And that's the rationale. And I think it's going to benefit people who are paying attention and want to be better leaders. That's my reason for doing. The way I look at it is there's four elements. One is standing up and that is being assertive [00:38:00] and, and speaking out whatever that might be, we have those experiences in our lives.

[00:38:05] Leaders do that. The second one is working together and that is all the elements of. Of teamwork that I talk about in the book connect, that's an important part of leadership. The third is reaching out and helping other people. And part of that is developing a strategic plan to know where you're going.

[00:38:26] And then of course, Bringing the people together and helping them out to accomplish those big goals. And then finally there's a leader's mindset that people need to know about it. And I would describe it as calm and thoughtful, and that is leaders are they are they don't jump to conclusions.

[00:38:47] They are chill. They're doing a lot of things, keeping a lot of balls in the air and they're doing it in a way where they're keeping everybody keeping all the pistons [00:39:00] firing. So those are the elements of leadership that I'm focusing on. There's a lot of information and a lot of case studies and it's based on.

[00:39:10] A lot of the experience that I've had of being a CEO for 25 years, as well as what I've learned along the way from others and bring in case studies from other leaders.

[00:39:20] Scott Maderer: Barry, is there anything else you'd like to share

[00:39:23] with

[00:39:23] Scott Maderer: us?

[00:39:23] Barry Moline: One of the things that I'd like to offer to folks is a handout that I have. It's 30 plus icebreakers that will help get the conversation started. In your organization or in any group that you have. So there's some great ideas there, and you're bound to find something to work with your group and get your teamwork mojo on.

[00:39:48] So we can I'll send you the link, Scott, and you can put that in the show notes. And if you all want to visit Barry moline.com, you can see some of the other things that I do. [00:40:00] Speak on these issues. I talk really about two things. One is teamwork and the other is leadership and, I'm happy to talk to everyone.

[00:40:11] In fact, there's one other thing that I'll offer to every single one of your listeners. And that is if someone is interested in writing a book, I learned how to write a book from scratch. And there's a process. There's a book publishing industrial complex. That is a maze. There's a lot of people that want your money and I don't want your money, but I will share everything that I've learned about publishing books.

[00:40:40] If anybody just wants to contact me again, my contact. Contact info is@verymylene.com. So you can see my phone number, my email address there. Just get in touch with me and I promise you we'll have a great conversation about it. And I'm eager to help you fill your dance card with [00:41:00] information about how to get a book.

[00:41:01] Scott Maderer: thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:41:29] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get everything episode as it comes out in your feed until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .