From the Bass to the Boardroom: Gerald Leonard's Unique Productivity Insights

Business as UNusual Ep 21 - Season 3 Transcript

Edited s3e21 Gerald Leonard

[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Aicila: Hello, Gerald in very delighted to have you here today.

[00:00:04] Aicila:Welcome to the show. , we already had in five minutes, a nice wide range of topics. I have a feeling this is going to be quite delightful. And thank you for joining me today.

[00:00:13] Gerald: thank you for joining. Thank you for allowing me to be here as well. I'm really excited to be a part of this and looking forward to our conversation.

[00:00:21] Aicila:You have a lot going on. Would you be willing to give folks just a quick synopsis of either different businesses, the program you were just talking about? So they have a sense of the possible directions this can go.

[00:00:32] Gerald: Right. My name is Gerald J. Leonard. I am a trained classical and jazz bassist, but I'm also the CEO of a consulting business called Turnberry Premiere and a business called the Leonard Productivity Intelligence Institute. I'm a keynote speaker where I use music and jazz and playing my bass as a way to create an experience.

[00:00:56] Gerald: To teach the principles of productivity, neuroscience, [00:01:00] meditation, qigong, and brain gyms, all based on what I learned as a kid playing music. That I've used throughout my career and about a incident that happened to me where I lost the ability to walk six weeks before my TEDx talk, and I won't tell you if I delivered it or not.

[00:01:20] Gerald: We'll share that the office on our series here and and it led me to create a program where I teach a lot of the principles that I've learned. Growth Strategies Mastermind, and it's a program that I'm relaunching as of May the 21st, where I'm speaking at the Scrum Alliance Conference in New Orleans, where I'm actually doing a major keynote presentation, playing jazz and speaking about these topics.

[00:01:46] Aicila:Wow. I mean, jazz in new Orleans, it feels like there's some crossover there.

[00:01:51] Gerald: It was funny when they called me, they said, I said, how did you find me? They goes, don't worry about it. We've looked at your TEDx and podcasts and television interviews, [00:02:00] and we've listened to your music. I said, well, who else are you looking at? They got, they said, no one else because you have this thing where you're playing music and you create an experience and you're creating jazz and you're talking about agile and project management and neuroscience.

[00:02:16] Gerald: We want you, what is it going to take for us to have you? So it was a great, they put me in a good position to negotiate. Yeah, it was a lot

[00:02:23] Gerald: of fun.

[00:02:24] Aicila:fantastic. I attended a climate week in Amsterdam a couple years ago and there's a university professor there who said that, playing jazz releases oxytocin. I don't know if that's true.

[00:02:37] Aicila:Okay, cool. Now I can confirm that.

[00:02:39] Gerald: is. Playing jazz releases oxytocin, but it does a lot more than just that, but it does create oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin just to really get the body engaged. But it also allows us to connect with people on a mental, emotional, And even a spiritual level. [00:03:00] You'll be amazed when you see musicians work together.

[00:03:03] Gerald: If you've gone to a jazz concert or even a rock concert, a band, and you watch a band and they really get into it pretty soon, things are happening and they're not even looking at each other. And they know exactly when and how, and yeah, they've rehearsed it to some extent, but there are many things that happen in the performance when you're connected like that instantaneously.

[00:03:25] Gerald: And it's because we're, as human beings, are able to communicate on a higher level than words can express.

[00:03:33] Aicila:I read a book several years ago called the general theory of love. And it was the first time that I had really been introduced to a larger comprehension of how our limbic systems work together and co regulate one another.

[00:03:46] Aicila:And since then, I have been constantly fascinated by things like that.

[00:03:49] Aicila:It's like, Oh, it's your limbic system. Like it's connecting, you know?

[00:03:55] Gerald: We have an energy field that goes out about three meters from our body. Basically you [00:04:00] stick your arm out and from your heart, this energy system goes out and if you've ever seen a picture of the earth where they have like the energy of the earth vibrations around the earth, we, each human being has the same thing.

[00:04:13] Gerald: When someone steps into your field, or if you're engaging with someone on a conscious or subconscious level, even. Us having this conversation and based on where you are in a different country or a different place We're still emotionally and energetically connecting because of how we're created as human beings.

[00:04:31] Gerald: It's really fascinating how, our thoughts are our motivations. Our energy radically interacts with other people on a subatomic level in a quantum physics level to where we're really engaging with each other, so it's pretty interesting.

[00:04:49] Aicila:It's really true. And There's both hope and challenge in that, that I feel like I confront. Right. What does success look like to you?

[00:04:59] Gerald: For me, [00:05:00] success isn't just about money, right? A lot of people look at success and they think, , if you're making seven figures or if your business is doing this and doing that, and from a world standpoint, my business has become successful, but to me, I've also known people who've had successful businesses and have been very unhappy people.

[00:05:21] Gerald: Right. And so to me, success is being in a state where I am being abundant. And not just an abundance of I have a lot of stuff, but that I'm, but that I'm not walking around in the world with the scarcity mindset that I'm being generous, that I'm being generous, not only, and a philanthropic standpoint, but also, In a forgiveness or in a compassion or being sympathetic or, being generous to connect with people and not moving up the food chain so much that now you can't go back and connect with people who are [00:06:00] not where you are in life.

[00:06:02] Gerald: To me, success is really about embracing life and being able to be in a place where you can enjoy the journey as you keep evolving and learning and growing. Right. Because I mean, all of us to go to the next level. And it's part of our nature that we get to one place and we go, okay, great. I accomplished this goal, but now I want more.

[00:06:23] Gerald: Well, that's a, that's a natural human instinct and it's nothing wrong with it. It's just understanding what that means and how we can grow into that. But at the same time, understanding that we then have a responsibility to share and give back and connect more than anything else. So to me, that's, that's success to me.

[00:06:44] Gerald: It's much more than just money.

[00:06:47] Aicila:Yeah. No, I think that's really true. I mean, money isn't real to a certain extent. It just represents things. Right. And

[00:06:53] Aicila:the

[00:06:53] Gerald: right. Having a lot of money

[00:06:54] Aicila:time,

[00:06:54] Gerald: freedom.

[00:06:56] Aicila:Freedom or time or, you know, the ability to manage your resources [00:07:00] effectively. The, the real power in life is, is our, is our connections in the world that we live in.

[00:07:05] Aicila:Right. And the ways that we can support and influence one another. I feel that. , you do productivity. We talked about this a little briefly beforehand and agile and you also do music. So I feel like that would have an impact on the industry that you're working in. Can you describe a little bit about the impact of maybe a place that you've presented or the ways that the feedback that people have given you about the way that you show up and how that affects their engagement.

[00:07:31] Gerald: Sure, sure. When I start off, I usually play a song that I wrote called Vertigo and I share a story that happened to me in 2018 and I'll come back to that story, but then I'll get into what are the things that are principles that I learned even as a kid learning music. And there are three things that I learned that I share

[00:07:53] Gerald: that have radically changed my life and that really when people grasp it, they go, wow, I can leverage that in my [00:08:00] own life. I don't have to be a musician. And that is one early on. I learned to really grow as a musician. I had to practice and I had to do something called deliberate practice. I had to think about what I was going to practice and really focus on.

[00:08:13] Gerald: The repetition of practicing and practicing to get better and to grow. The next thing I needed was a band, right? Playing by yourself is fun, but then you want to have a band. You want to have people that you can play music with. And how did that relate to me as an adult? As I switched careers, I had to learn that, okay, I'm getting into a new area.

[00:08:37] Gerald: Well, what do I, what did I do in music? Well, I practice. Okay. So how do I practice computers? How do I practice project management? How do I practice whatever skill that is writing? So I had to practice what I need a band. So what's my band? And when I joined, got into project management, I realized that.

[00:08:55] Gerald: Groups like the Project Management Institute, or the Microsoft Project User Group, or [00:09:00] other groups that were a part of industries or associations that were related to my field, they were like my band. They were people who had a common goal, a common theme, I could talk shop, we could connect, and it was like playing in a band, working with people who were all going in the same direction, playing the same music.

[00:09:19] Gerald: And then the third thing is you need to have a coach and I look at coaches or mentors on two levels. One, you can either find a coach who's like a travel agent or you find one that's like a tour guide. A travel agent coach is someone who says, okay, here's how you get there. Here's what you do. Well, you ask them, have you ever done it?

[00:09:39] Gerald: Well, not really, but you know, this is what I've studied and what I've learned. Here's what, here you go. It's kind of like going on vacation and they, the travel agent gives you the brochure of how to climb Kilimanjaro, but he's never done it. Right. That's like, okay, great. You give me some information, but you really can't help me.

[00:09:58] Gerald: If you have, who's a [00:10:00] expert, who is a tour guide, and they've climbed the mountain many times, they're going to say, okay, here's how you prepare. Here's what you need to bring. Don't bring this, bring that. When you get to this point, look over here, you're going to see something that you've never seen. So they know all the little intricacies that you would want to be a part of.

[00:10:20] Gerald: So practice, having a band, having a mentor or a coach. And how does that relate to me when I'm performing? I share those concepts and I also talk about neuroscience. I talk about. Kinesiology, brain gyms, and here's why. In 2018, I was at a weekend workshop, and it was a great day. I got up, I jumped into the shower, and everything turned upside down.

[00:10:48] Gerald: I could not go up from down. I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital near where I was staying, and they kept me for a day and a half. And they [00:11:00] gave me some minutes to make what I was going through. Stop. And after a day and a half, the guy asked me, one of the attendees actually says, Hey, can you use this Walker to scoot down the hall?

[00:11:11] Gerald: And support yourself because you have to be mobile for us to allow you to leave. So I was able to use a Walker. To kind of scoop myself down the hall because I had lost the ability to walk and this had six weeks before my TEDx talk and so

[00:11:29] Gerald: I was driven home. I'm laying in bed. I'm laying in bed and.

[00:11:36] Gerald: I'm thinking, okay, what just happened to me? I felt like someone hit me upside the head with a baseball bat that I was on a big ship in the middle of the ocean. I couldn't look at TV. I couldn't look at my laptop. I was an independent consultant at the time and I was the sole breadwinner of my home.

[00:11:55] Aicila:Mm-Hmm.

[00:11:56] Gerald: I'm laying there with all of that going on. I start rehearsing my [00:12:00] TEDx talk, and my talk is called What If Practices and Performance Fall in Love with Music, but I talk about the neuroscience of music. And one of the books that I read talked about when you're a musician and you're actively playing, the brain gets so activated that it will rewire itself if there's damage.

[00:12:18] Gerald: So as soon as I could get up and grab onto the walls or grab my walker, I made it to my office. I played my bass a little bit, and then, you know, every day I would play a little bit and start trying to walk without the walker. Three weeks later, I walked into my doctor's office unassisted.

[00:12:37] Aicila:Wow.

[00:12:37] Gerald: And he looked at me and he was like, what happened?

[00:12:40] Gerald: How did you, I can tell you've been massively impacted. And I share what happened and I share what I've been doing. He goes, Oh, you've already started your therapy playing music. And what's your TEDx talk about? I told him what it was about. He goes, good luck. And you know, I look forward to hearing it and I was still really impacted, but three weeks later I stepped on stage and delivered that talk

[00:12:59] Aicila:[00:13:00] Wow.

[00:13:01] Gerald: if you watch the talk with knowing that story, you'll see that was very deliberate in how I turn.

[00:13:07] Gerald: Because I couldn't move my head really fast anymore. If I did, I would. So I had to be very deliberate, but I was determined to deliver that and it was about setting goals and working through and I made a decision as I was going through that to get better, not better, and not to grow through it and not to go through it because a lot of times when things happen to people, they can tend to get sidetracked and focus on what happened.

[00:13:32] Gerald: Why did this happen? Blah, blah, blah. And next thing they're getting bitter about life and situations or the lack of support they're getting and that does, good, and , to me, bitterness is drinking poison, thinking you're hurting someone else, but you're hurting yourself.

[00:13:45] Gerald: And so it was really about getting better and growing through it. So what did I need to work on? And that led me to what I learned that I put in my program called the growth strategies mastermind. [00:14:00] And when I left the doctor's office, he basically told me and he looked me in the eye and says, Mr. Leonard we're going to be able to help you get some of your capabilities back, but you're going to have a permanent disability.

[00:14:13] Aicila:Hmm

[00:14:13] Gerald: so I logged that in and I logged it away, but I also changed it. And I said, I don't have a permanent disability. I have a permanent constraint because words create worlds, right?

[00:14:25] Gerald: I've learned from I named Judith Glaser who passed away. I did a certification with her in neuroscience. And one of the things she would always say is that the words we use create the world that you see. If you use words like disabled, you're telling your body. That you're disabled. And guess what?

[00:14:44] Gerald: Your body's going to respond because every single thought you have has an electrical impulse that creates a neural peptide, emotional connection, chemical connection, and your body responds to it and starts to obey it. If I use [00:15:00] the word constraint. I'm telling my body, you're not disabled, you're just constrained.

[00:15:05] Gerald: You're just limited. So then what do you do with a constraint? I've studied the theory of constraints. Read reading. The, the goal from Elliot Radd, and I study with d Jacobs for two weeks up in the, up in Connecticut at the Gold Red Institute. And a constraint is something where it's a limit on the capacity or a throughput, but if you elevate the constraint and, and use that constraint, you can actually increase the throughput.

[00:15:31] Gerald: Of an organization. Think about it this way. When you use a water hose, you turn the water on to water your garden. What do you put on it to make sure you water the garden? You put a nozzle,

[00:15:43] Aicila:Yep.

[00:15:43] Gerald: right? And nozzle do? It constrains the water. It holds back the water, but it lets it go out through these little bitty holes and it creates more spray.

[00:15:52] Gerald: So the water becomes more efficient. So with that in mind, I started looking at my life going, okay, I have a [00:16:00] constraint. So what? Things do I need to focus on that's going to make me just are even more effective than I was before. And so I worked on me. I worked on my mindset. I studied, neuroscience. I studied kinesiology.

[00:16:15] Gerald: I studied something called brain gyms. Cause I was going to physical therapy and and all of the things that deals with the body and the brain rewiring and so on, and through that process, I learned about meditation. I learned about de stressing my body through yoga. And as I began to do that and set goals, I started seeing my goals come to me so much faster than they did before.

[00:16:42] Aicila:Yeah.

[00:16:43] Gerald: Now I had actually raised my level of vibration and my mindset and my energy level to a different level because of what I was doing. And I became a magnet for the goals that I was studying in my life. I was attracting in my life. I went through a divorce through [00:17:00] that whole process, which again, I made a decision to get better, not bitter, and to grow through it and not go through it.

[00:17:06] Gerald: And after everything was settled within less than a year, I had some friends and folks that I knew from 20 years ago reached to me and say, we want to buy 49 percent of your consult, your consulting practice, which changed the trajectory of my business.

[00:17:24] Gerald: And put me on a whole different level, but it was something that I attracted as I was building out rebuilding my life.

[00:17:32] Gerald: And so these principles are things that I teach in this program to help people realize how they can be productive, but also. intelligently productive or productivity smarts is what I call it.

[00:17:45] Aicila:I talk about business as unusual and I also, with my clients, one of the things that. I feel is so important is to recognize that you are a person. I worked a lot of small businesses, solopreneurs, and they push themselves. You're talking about like that and they don't. [00:18:00] And I think there's a lot of cultural reasons that gets, , managed out there, however, If you don't treat yourself like your life matters, right? No one else is going to.

[00:18:11] Aicila:And that which matters to me today is going to matter tomorrow. So part of my process has to be having the ability to sustain myself, not just my business, but myself as a human, right?

[00:18:22] Aicila:I have to do things I love, spend time with my family. And most people really recognize that intellectually, but they have a hard time prioritizing it because they get a lot of messages that say, that's not how we do. And I feel like the biggest part of my job often is to stand between the messages and the person that I'm working with, so they trust themselves and their instincts.

[00:18:41] Aicila:And they recognize that they need to actually be in joy, be in collaboration, be in connection. And it's not just that there'll be more productive. They'll also be more impactful. They, they will be able to expand their impact to in ways that they don't even understand by simply being that [00:19:00] person in the world.

[00:19:02] Gerald: exactly. Exactly. And they will be in a place, where you can experience gratitude, joy, and love, right?

[00:19:09] Gerald: And, those words are so important because when we focus on, and this is another part of my practice, which I started doing on a regular basis in the morning is I write out five things no matter what.

[00:19:22] Gerald: And it can be something really simple. Because one gratitude is a different vibration level, a much higher vibration level. And by reprogramming reprogramming my brain to focus on what I'm grateful for. Then again, words create worlds. So if I'm grateful. For the small things that I go throughout my day and I look at different situations or circumstances.

[00:19:48] Gerald: And I said, man, I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for that. If I get a bad email or an email, that's man, you got a lot of this to do or, a customer complaint, which, or whatever, whatever email is. Right. If it's [00:20:00] not one that I'm like looking forward to, I can stop and look at that email and go, I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to serve. Or I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to address this issue and correct it, or I have this extra work I got to do.

[00:20:12] Gerald: I'm grateful that I have that work. So then I change the emotions because the meaning that we give things are the meanings that of how we look at life really are things is it's the way we give a meaning to certain things. And so sometimes things can be neither bad or good. It's just simply the meaning we attach to it, which then creates an emotion, which kind of can take you either up a spiral if it was positive or down a spiral.

[00:20:40] Gerald: On a spiral if it's negative.

[00:20:42] Aicila:Yeah. And what's interesting to me about that is also, you don't have to say anything to anyone. When my kids were in middle school, there were some moments I struggled. And I thought, I read something about appreciating. I said, all right, I'm going to get up every day and I'm going to just say out loud to myself, five things I appreciate about each of [00:21:00] my kids. And sometimes it was. Their room is not a disaster. It was very minimal stuff and it

[00:21:07] Aicila:changed things. It changed the contention that we had been dealing with. It really shifted things. I didn't tell them that if they listen to this, they'll know. Hi kids. I love you. Middle school is hard I apologize. It's just the way it is. But it was just really interesting to me how it didn't say anything to them and telling you what I was doing it, it was me simply looking myself in the mirror and saying. I appreciate these five things about each of these humans that I get to interact with.

[00:21:32] Aicila:I love them. It was just, there were some things that were struggles at that

[00:21:35] Gerald: Yeah. Yeah. And many times when we're going through something, the, the reality of what we're experiencing is our reality. It doesn't mean that's anyone else's reality because they may be in the same room and seeing the same things, but they're experiencing in a totally different way. And so, you know, what I found is that when I'm dealing with family or dealing with friends or dealing with [00:22:00] situations if I experience an emotion that is not a positive one from that situation, then there's something in me.

[00:22:09] Gerald: It doesn't mean there's something in them. It means there's something in me that. Is being reflected back to me that I don't like.

[00:22:16] Aicila:Yeah.

[00:22:17] Gerald: Instead of looking at them and saying, well, you need to fix this and you need to do this. Because I feel this way, it's like, wait a minute, they're not experiencing that situation at all.

[00:22:26] Gerald: I'm the one that's experiencing it. And so working with some of my coaches, one of them is a gentleman named Dr. Paul Sheely. He's created a number of programs, books and so on. And. He introduced me to through a story, through this concept from Hawaii called Oponopono. And the idea behind it is that when you're experiencing something in life that is kind of rubs you the wrong way, if you will, right?

[00:22:55] Gerald: It's kind of basic, basic language rubs you the wrong way. That [00:23:00] you, you repeat these four words until you internally resolve it. And that is, I love you. Forgive me. I'm sorry. Thank you. And by saying that, what you're saying is I'm not sure what's in me that is reacting negatively to whatever is being experienced.

[00:23:21] Gerald: I'm not even sure where it exists. I'm not sure if it's in my past or my future, or where, what part of my body is stored in because energy memories and things like that are like literally physically stored in our bodies. But by that little prayer, if you will. , I love you, forgive me, I'm sorry, thank you.

[00:23:42] Gerald: And thinking about that emotion, it begins to resolve itself and you begin to see the world in a different way. And all of a sudden the people that were getting under your skin or rubbing you the wrong way, it begins to change that [00:24:00] situation. And it's really fascinating, but I think it really goes back to the world that we're experiencing is from our own personal perspective and reality.

[00:24:13] Gerald: And Dr. Joe Dispenza will always say, our personality creates our reality,

[00:24:20] Gerald: And so that leads us to say, when someone says, I believe something, they're right. Right? Or that I see this, or this is my reality. They are totally correct, but it means that people can be from the same family and have totally different realities. Based on how they see what they see based on the words they use based on their mindset, their disposition, based on the habits they've created and formed and based on their thinking process.

[00:24:51] Gerald: And so it's really important that as we want to create as a title of your podcast of business as [00:25:00] unusual and we want to create unusual success, then that means we have to become an unusually. And introspective person, not just that we're staring at our belly buttons all day long, but that we're very reflective, right?

[00:25:15] Gerald: And that we decide to really work on ourselves and that when we experience a situation that is negative instead of looking at the other person or other people in the room or the team first look at yourself and go. What is it about me that in my reality? I'm experiencing this negative response, right?

[00:25:40] Gerald: Because when you do that, and you decide to focus on working on you, yeah, there may be some things in reality that you have to talk to some people about. More likely than not. When you work on yourself that way, the situations tend to resolve themselves. Like

[00:25:59] Gerald: Yeah, it's kind of [00:26:00] your kids, right?

[00:26:01] Aicila:Yeah, exactly. I didn't say anything to them. I just, I dealt with me and it shifted things for, for our daily interactions in a way that I enjoyed anyway. I was like, this is much nicer.

[00:26:11] Gerald: Exactly. So whether they changed it or liked it or not, mom was happy now.

[00:26:15] Aicila:Yeah, exactly. The stories we tell matter. I noticed that, they're funny stories I had about them when they were younger. And I realized one day, like a lot of the stories fit into sort of a genre. And I said, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to create that. My one child is, artistic that they weren't, but like I'm not going to just tell the stories about them being artistic.

[00:26:34] Aicila:I'm going to tell the other stories too, not just to other people, but to myself, because they were a whole spectrum humans. And it's just so easy to get into a habit because they're entertaining or they're memorable and realizing I actually have a lot of control over this and I want to make sure I use it in a way that is responsible, right to give more room for their space. Especially as a mom, I feel like you end up having a lot of influence. You have to be thoughtful about how you talk about stuff. Words create worlds, as you [00:27:00] said.

[00:27:00] Gerald: Exactly. Exactly.

[00:27:04] Aicila:So you sort of touched on this and your journey. One of the things that I find really interesting is that, while, many people have experiences. There's plenty of people that have studied jazz. There's plenty of people that have gone into business. What you chose to do, like one combining the two, a lot of people have an either or aspect to that kind of stuff to really say I'm going to bring this all in. And that unique, you know moment or the experience that created that uniqueness for you that. They said, oh, , I'm gonna move into business and I'm gonna keep my music. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring this in. And not doing one or the other.

[00:27:45] Gerald: Yes. For the longest, obviously, I've been doing both for a long time, and I did my bachelor's and master's my master's at Cincinnati Conservatory. I actually had the pleasure of studying with a gentleman up in New York named David Walter. [00:28:00] This is back in the late 80s he was taught at Juilliard Manet School of Music.

[00:28:05] Gerald: I studied with him for a year and played professionally in New York, but also got into doing some ministry work. And then that's when I decided I want to go back into music. But I also knew that I didn't want to go on the road all the time. Cause now at that point I had a family, right? And I had kids and I grew up where my dad and mom were always there in my life.

[00:28:26] Gerald: And I can remember seeing my dad in my eye mine's I've just. Getting up, going to work, coming home, and I owed that to my kids. That's, I felt that personally. And so that's what I got into computers and it, and I always tell people I got into it at a time where if you could spell you could get in.

[00:28:45] Gerald: Right.

[00:28:47] Aicila:That's fair. nobody knew anything about it. They're like, go for it.

[00:28:53] Gerald: I had this training and leadership now, and I had this music skills. For the first part of my life, I kept [00:29:00] them separate. I would play concerts and do music and do different shows and so on. And then I'd go be a consultant. And then I started speaking like when I joined the Microsoft Project User Group and things, and I was like leading, like the president of the club and president of this and president of that.

[00:29:19] Gerald: I started speaking more. And so I just reached into my life. I talked, I told stories about music and I told stories about ministry and I told stories about business. And people would come up to me and they would say, can you tell me about that music thing again? And Now I'm talking about complicated project management projects I did for the National Archives or GEICO or the Defense Logistics Agency or Delmonte or Partners Healthcare System in Boston.

[00:29:47] Gerald: And they would come up to me and go, tell me about the ministry stuff that you did, or tell me about the music stuff you did. And they, people were interested in my life. They were interested in this unique person I was being in having these, [00:30:00] and that they didn't want me to separate. This is my music life.

[00:30:04] Gerald: This is my ministry life. This is my business life. It was like it, it all came together. And then one pivotal day, a weekend, I met a gentleman named Willie Jolly. And Willie is one of the top five speakers in the world when it comes to, motivational speaking and voted by Toastmasters and also by the National Speakers Association.

[00:30:24] Gerald: And his wife was an educator and he was putting on a program. About growing in your speaking business. And I thought I've been speaking for a while for free and as a part of my business and I would actually get clients from it. I didn't really focus on charging for my speaking.

[00:30:38] Gerald: And I thought that might be another revenue stream. So I went to his program and Willie was also a jazz singer. before he became a motivational speaker. And he was doing that where he would speak and he would sing at the end of his speeches. And the crowd was erupting, standing on their feet and so on.

[00:30:56] Gerald: And his wife and him and his wife looked at me and goes [00:31:00] you're this musician that's a really good bass player and you have this business and you help companies with their company culture. And you're all about that bass, the culture is the base of an organization.

[00:31:15] Gerald: And so that actually became my first book. I wrote a book called Culture is the Bass. And I told my story about how music played a part in my life, but also how culture was much more of an emotional connection and a feel. Yeah, there were certain specific things that I did research around and discover.

[00:31:34] Gerald: And That there are seven principles vision, values, buy in, stories, execution, best practices, and the environment. Those are seven principles that I talk about in the book that create a framework around how to build a culture. And it was all based on case studies and things I researched from MIT and the Wharton School and NIH, because I like peer reviewed content, right?

[00:31:56] Gerald: Scientifically based, peer reviewed content. And then I [00:32:00] took all my musical stories and applied that to it as well. And people loved that book. It really resonated with them because they could relate to the musical piece of it because you didn't have to be a musician to relate to it. And that was really the beginning of the process.

[00:32:17] Gerald: And then I wrote a book called Workplace Jazz. It was about agile teams, business teams, because the small agile teams. It's just like a jazz quartet or a trio, right? Small group that's moving really quickly, got a big mission. And then my last book that I've written was called A Symphony of Choices, and it was a business novel.

[00:32:35] Gerald: And it was again, using a musical context, teaching very complex business principles within the music context. I'm finishing up the editing of a book called Productivity Smarts, where I talk about 24 prolific musicians and artists and their productivity superpower. Again using music as a foundation that everyone can relate to, but sharing secrets that I've researched and learned [00:33:00] about, Taylor Swift and Miles Davis and Ed Sheeran and John Coltrane and Stevie Wonder, and why were they able to produce so much music? As musicians. And how can we learn from that as business people?

[00:33:14] Aicila:mm-Hmm. That sounds great. Can you share some advice you've received that's influenced the way you approach your work?

[00:33:24] Gerald: Sure. I would say one, Les Brown is it's my speaker coach. And I get a chance to speak to spend time with him and work with him and learn from him. And he would always say, make sure that when you're telling a story, that you're including the audience in the story. In other words, when he, if you listen to Les Brown, when he tells a story, He also asks questions throughout and it's the way I just took a program through at Harvard Business School and it's almost like the Socratic case study method that they, where they teach at the Harvard Business [00:34:00] School.

[00:34:00] Gerald: That's how Les Brown speaks.

[00:34:02] Gerald: And it was like, wow, this is top notch, but it pulls the audience in to the conversation. And, telling stories is also an amazing way For people to learn really complex concepts. Another one is something I learned from a gentleman named Mike Rayburn, who's played at Carnegie Halton times.

[00:34:22] Gerald: He's a professional speaker, but he was coached by Brian Tracy. And I've had Brian Tracy endorse my second book, Workplace Jazz. And he said, he told Mike, he goes, if you really want to see your goals come to light. Every morning I want you to write them out by hand.

[00:34:39] Gerald: And so he goes into affirmations and then write them out by hand.

[00:34:45] Gerald: And then take a few minutes to see yourself living that goal and then let it go. And then every morning do that. And I started doing that and I started doing that in February of 2020. By February, November of [00:35:00] 2020, that's when the guys came and bought 49 percent of my company and gave me a big deposit.

[00:35:06] Gerald: And the business and my books and my career has taken off. And in fact this morning I had a client call. I knew I was going to have this our interview, but my morning routine is I'll get up by five 30 and I have a, I do some yoga. I do some meditation and I will spend time writing out my goals and planning my day as I'm writing out my goals and some other things that I do.

[00:35:32] Gerald: I'll have a call here or there, but they're really short. But I, that's one thing that I made a part of my life now, and I've been doing it now almost four years and everything that's happened in my life. I can trace back to my morning routine of writing out my goals, meditating, de stressing my body, doing yoga.

[00:35:53] Gerald: This is another one when you're stressed, your body is constantly in fight or [00:36:00] flight mode. Right. And so you never get into creative mode or listening to your intuition. But when, if you do yoga or exercise and you distress your body and you're removing all that excess energy.

[00:36:14] Gerald: And when you sit down to plan and think now your body's in a state of creativity. It can perceive all of the wonderful things that you want to do with it. Those are just some of the, pieces of advice I've been given.

[00:36:28] Aicila:Yeah, I have to get up and do the same thing as stretch and relax and listen to inspiring things. And I write out my day and my week and all of that. Cause I find that when I do that it flows easier. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:36:48] Gerald: You're welcome.

[00:36:49] Aicila:A lot of times when you're trying to create new things or, or build I, to a certain extent, I feel like that's a transformation, right? You're teaching people how to [00:37:00] understand productivity in a context that is also about being in joy and in life. There can be moments where you face a little hurdle.

[00:37:07] Aicila:You're like, oh gosh, this is discouraging. We all have those moments. Can you talk a little bit about what you do to keep yourself inspired?

[00:37:15] Gerald: I would say one it's about the journey, right? And it's not that I don't have challenges or struggles. Or what someone would call a failure of a situation. But one thing I, I strive not to do is turn a mistake or failure into a now it's a verb, right? Cause sometimes what can happen is when you're struggling with something, you're going, Oh, it happened again, or this and that.

[00:37:48] Gerald: And then pretty soon you begin to see yourself as that thing. And you're taking that failure and turning it into a now. So now it's not the failure. You are the failure and that's a no [00:38:00] no. So 1 keep it separate and then look at those situations when it happens as stepping stones are learning opportunities.

[00:38:09] Gerald: Thomas Edison had took him 10, 000 steps or failures. are learning opportunities to create the light bulb. If he would have stopped at 9000, we'd still all be lighting candles in the hallway at night, trying to trying through life and wouldn't have television, radio and all those other things because of electricity.

[00:38:30] Gerald: Because he kept going until he figured out a way and that's really it. I think when we're trying to do something really Amazing. I think life test us to go. How bad do you want? And so it puts barriers and resistance in the way. And it's our job to understand that when we make a mistake or fail or whatever, that it's just a stepping stone.

[00:38:55] Gerald: Also surround yourself. With experts [00:39:00] surround yourself with a supportive team. I always use the phrase that coaching and mentoring is like being on the HOV lane. If you're from any big city or right now, especially because of the way traffic flows and even small cities are beginning to experience a lot of the congestion, if you will.

[00:39:18] Gerald: But in big cities, they have something called an HOV lane or high occupancy lane.

[00:39:23] Gerald: And during commuting times, what you would normally take you 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes could take you two hours

[00:39:31] Gerald: just because the amount of traffic on the road. But if you look to your left or to your right, and there's that HOV lane, you'll see people going the normal speed of 65, 70 miles an hour.

[00:39:43] Gerald: But they always have somebody else in the car with them,

[00:39:47] Aicila:Mm

[00:39:47] Gerald: right? They have somebody else in the car with them. And they're like going through life and they're not struggling. They're enjoying this process. To me that's the beauty of coaching and mentoring. Because if [00:40:00] I have a really important goal.

[00:40:04] Gerald: And I can tell you, I think about every important project or goal I have in my life, I have a coach and a team,

[00:40:12] Aicila:Hmm.

[00:40:14] Gerald: because if I try to just, okay, I'm going to do this by myself, then I'm going to be like the people who are in the regular traffic lane, trying to go home. When instead of it taking me 20 minutes, it's going to take me two hours and that, and then, and for a project and for a lifetime goal, that could be, it could take me if I'm in the HOV lane with a coach and a team that could take me two or three months to get the results that I'm looking for, if I'm trying to do it by myself, it could take me five or six years or maybe never, right.

[00:40:47] Gerald: If I run out of gas flat. And so I would say, Having Having that support around you and also your mindset, the mindset of even if I make a mistake or [00:41:00] I don't hit it on the 1st 3rd try that those are learning opportunities and that it's possible, right? It's possible. It may be hard, but it's possible.

[00:41:12] Gerald: I can figure if someone else has done it, I can do it too. Roger DeBannister broke the four, four minute mile. And after he did that, everyone else started breaking the four minute mile, someone needed to see possible.

[00:41:28] Aicila:I really appreciate your stories and your analogies. They make things very clear. Thank you for sharing and for the way that you present that. For folks that are listening and they want to learn more, follow you, sign up for your class, get in touch, what's the best way for them to do that?

[00:41:45] Gerald: Well, my team and I, again, my team and I have created a dedicated page on my website called, and it's at GeraldJLennard. com forward slash unusual. So Gerald J. Leonard dot com forward slash unusual. [00:42:00] And there's some giveaways, some free tools that you can find. If you want to have a call with me there's a link.

[00:42:08] Gerald: There are a page that you can click on and have a call. It also has information about my books and all of my social media connections, LinkedIn, Facebook, and those things. All of that's on that page and it's dedicated and set up specifically for the podcast listeners that are listening to me right now.

[00:42:27] Aicila:Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And I hope everybody gives it a look see. I thank you for your time today.

[00:42:34] Gerald: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[00:42:36] Aicila:Thanks everybody for listening. I'll see you next week.