Storytellers and the reason why it's important is because stories help Inspire and connect they help Inspire and connect your team and motivate them to do the best they can do we're also going to get into the importance of feedback feedback is critical it's absolutely important that you're able to give your team feedback but even more important that your team feels comfortable sharing feedback they have on you because if they do do and you create a safe space for them that's a tremendous learning opportunity for you.
And I share some tips that I've used over the years to help create a safe space for my team to share feedback with me finally we get into building trust trust is the Cornerstone for all leaders if you don't have trust you're going to have a hard time delegating scaling and most importantly I think you're not going to be able to develop the type of culture you want for your organization so let's get started stick around join Darren and I as we help you continue on your journey of growth and becoming a.
Great learn itall leader hello and welcome to the learn itall podcast I am Darren Bridget and I'm joined today by a very special guest uh you probably seen him on these shows before he is my co-host and partner in crime Damon lambi Damon thanks for being here today Darren always a pleasure so we're flipping the script today and uh and I'm interviewing Damon the reason we're doing that is because.
It's the about oneye anniversary of Damon's uh book the bestselling book The learn itall leader so first off Damon congratulations on that thank you I as we go through this today I think this be an opportunity for our listeners to learn a little bit about what happens when you challenge yourself to try something really new and and we're learning from uh learn learning expert here in Damon in terms of that process what he's learned since publishing this book and uh just kind of the whole.
Little bit about what made you want to write a book and and what your process was like and and a little bit about what it was like to to write it right you know it's funny for somebody that that people say love to share everything that goes on right uh this whole process about writing a book I only told a very few amount of people and and there's a couple reasons for that number one my original goal was I was trying to get it out by my 50th birthday uh which was September of uh.
20123 and at that point I was going to give it to my mom as a present uh and to surprise her I missed that I missed that by about eight months and the other reason why I didn't tell anybody I was writing a book really was because I had a lot of imposter syndrome going into it and there are certain points where I just wanted to flat out quit and not do it and I was afraid that maybe people would think it was terrible and so I didn't want to go out and share with the world that I was doing something and.
Then have to reverse it so that was really the reason why I I didn't share it with anybody and my inspiration for writing the book was a couple things one uh my wife Cara was fantastic she really encouraged me to do it you know she said you're you're a great story teller get out there and and and share with the world all that you've experienced through your baseball career as well as you know your time at learn it number two Darren as you know I'm incredibly proud of the team we've built at learn it and what we've done and how we've.
Helped um upskill over two million people over these years and so that was I wanted to be able to tell those stories and and weave in all a lot of our employees from Carly Lutz to Joe Patty to dele Lewis Evans Matt everybody and number three I think my story is a little unique in the sense that you know I I didn't get an NBA I I I didn't have a bunch of different jobs what I did have is I played college baseball to a pretty high level and I played for three.
Hall of Fame baseball coaches and I wanted to share my experience of what I learned from playing baseball and playing from these men so that other athletes or people in my position would realize that those kind of skills are transferable and they can you can really have a great impact so those were my three reasons really for writing the book I think it's kind of fascinating that uh first off nice nice nice job I think it's kind of fascinating that you you had you you you had a.
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Little bit of imposter syndrome while you were writing it and and so you did
Let people know because often the advice is you got to let people know or you won't do something but you didn't let everybody know which I think was is a smart way you're still you still have some accountability with people close to you and accountability for yourself but you you're writing a book a bit about impostor syndrome experiencing impostor syndrome while you're writing it did writing the book help you overcome some of those feelings of impostor syndrome.Absolutely uh and one of the things that I didn't realize that came out afterwards is how many people deal with imposter syndrome I would say without a doubt the number one thing that people come to me after writing my book They're saying I really resonate with what you talked about imposter syndrome can you talk me through your three-step framework on it and so it was great and and I and I love the fact Darren that people would open up to me about their impostor syndrome now to.
Take it a step back yes I did tell you know my wife knew and I actually I Ed some tips on what I learned about giving and receiving feedback as well what I did was I took uh there's a gentleman on our team named Nick Silverthorne who was like my avatar for the type of person that I thought would best benefit from reading my book somebody relatively early in their career uh who had a a learning growth mindset and you know wants to evolve in their career whether it's in leadership or you know just continue to be really successful and.
What I did was I would share a section of my book with him and I would say hey Nick you know and I'm his boss right and I would say Nick here's this chapter can you read this for me and by the way I don't think this part is great so I I I tried to open up and allow him the opportunity to give me constructive feedback and that was super that was super helpful because at that point then he'd be like yeah you know I I I like what you're saying here but you need to explain this better or you know go in.
This direction make it more practical so that was a huge help for me I like that that that that's key because your boss comes to you here's this book that I'm writing you know and you're feeling like well I better say it's great so you actually made sure that felt safe giving you some actual feedback on it absolutely because I think whether it's writing a book whether it's leading a team whatever it is you know you can't do it in a in a silo I I think it's it's really important to be able to have an open mind and get diverse opinions and.
And hear what people have to say now you don't have to take everybody's opinion all the time but why reinvent the wheel as well so getting that feedback was a huge help and you know it's also kind of nice hearing from him and Candace Porter another person who who was reading parts of my book they're like this is actually really good because one thing I could tell you through the process I was like man I hate this this is this is it's just like listening to your voice when when you're when you're on video I I wasn't sure how it would um people would.
Resonate with it if we keep talking about this I'm not going to just discover that it turns out I was the only one who didn't know you were writing a book there was a lot there was none of my siblings knew you know oh wow and and again like I said I'm I'm typically an open book they were shocked this I mean it took me over two and a half years they were shocked that that uh for a project like this um I was able to keep my mouth shut yeah okay well let's um fast forward a little bit to now you've you've you've got the book you've you've published it and since.
Then just to put this into perspective you've been invited to to do speaking engagements I think you've done over like a hundred podcasts because you've been invited because of the book it's a bestseller um you know did this were you surprised by the reaction to the book like like and and even just what was it like to publish it because now it's like you can't control it anymore the words are out there the book is out there like what if people don't like it but of course it turns out seems like people liked it pretty well yeah my original goal was just to to get it out there and.
Not do anything I didn't sign up for any marketing package I wasn't planning on anything I I just was going to put it out there and then and then hopefully it would just go away you know because again I wasn't sure what people would think but then I started passing it out to to you know people on our team my my old baseball coach Andy Lopez and people are like hey this is great people can benefit from this and people are excited about it and so you know I've run learnet for 27 28 years and I've I've been on thousands of of custom meetings and customer calls.
And internal presentations but I've never got out there on a stage before um
And stuck my neck out there but once I did Darren uh once I did get this out there I said to myself you know I want to get good at this and the only way to you know and getting out there and talking and presenting and the only way to get good at something is to really put your neck out there and do it so I signed up with a couple podcast Brokers and I did about a hundred podcasts and uh the the first 15 of them were were.Close to Awful right and one of the guests uh one of the first host I was on was Andy stork and I uh saw Andy at at the recent ATD conference and I told him thank you for having me on my on your show just like a lot of things I look back that was one of my very first podcasts and I've really evolved over time and it's almost cringeworthy to watch how I did it before and I'm far from great but I'm lucky to have people like you have helped coach me over the way and you know for our listeners out.
There whether it's writing a book whether it's public speaking whether it's taking on a new role you just have to have the courage to go out there and do it and and try if it's something that you really want to do and that's what I was that's what I've been trying to do for our team is to show our learnet team that hey you know we're all working hard some of you are out there making Prospect calls prospecting calls others of you are building content and trying new things here's my way of contributing I want to get out there get out of my comfort zone and add value and.
And share my ideas as a leader both on a big stage and through podcasting first as a guest and now I love doing our show together with you yeah yeah it's fun so I think a lot of people don't know this about you and it it's really hearing your story right now it just seems um it really stands out first off you write this book that you're not really comfortable doing but you push yourself through doing it and you you take feedback along the way and you get a lot.
Of input and I know you people like you know kind of helping you with editing and working on the whole thing um so you're you're putting yourself in the line of fire there and then you you the book is published and instead of just sitting back and going hey everybody liked my book you continue to put yourself in positions that are kind of uncomfortable for you because you're you're not naturally the person who wants to be you know in front of the audience speaking not at all what is it with you what is it with you pushing yourself into uncomfortable situations.
Over and over again is this like what's going on here well it's funny because you you say putting yourself out there uncomfortable speaking I think my wife and my my brother especially would laugh and say are you kidding Damon's the biggest uh extrovert out there I kind of feel like I'm an introvert to a sense in certain situations uh but you know I'm I'm 51 years old I I run a learning company and one of the ways that I've been able to really enjoy what I do at learnning over these years is to continue to reinvent learn it in a way.
But also to reinvent myself and always continuing to challenge yourself and put yourself out there and that that's kind of like why I did it is because I I want to I want to keep evolving and growing and it's like that um Gandhi quote that I'm probably going to butcher but it's in the back of my book you know live like today is your last day and learn like you're going to live forever right so even at 51 there's still plenty of.
Time for me to get out there to get keep learning and growing and I want to do that for our team I want to do it for my wife but I also want to do it for my kids you know Lucy and W I want Lucy and W to look at their dad as somebody who's always constantly looking to get better better and better yeah yeah you still got that fire still got that fire still got the fire so um demon it's been a year you know a little over a year since you published the book and first off I I think it's really important that especially as a leader of an organization you do get out there with your thought leadership your opinions.
And people these days people need to know who you are what you stand for what you care about in a lot of ways this book was your opportunity to do that take a position but it doesn't mean that maybe you feel like some things weren't explained as well as you thought or that you haven't even learned since this book came out is there anything in the book that you wish you could go back and maybe change a little bit or have your ideas evolved around any of the things that you've written in the book that's a great question and you could say no you.
Say oh Darren actually I think it's perfect far far far from perfect I think uh another one of the areas that that people really like is around the trust tax and and talk about the importance of getting people the opportunity you know putting their trust in them and um going into relationships open instead of guarded I I would have liked to elaborate a little bit more on a professional side around the trust tax uh especially around delegating and scaling because that's uh that's a.
Question I get lot you know people were saying well you have these examples of things that didn't work out can you give us examples of of how you felt more comfortable delegating so that's that's one area I would have also liked to like going into this again I didn't really think that much about the athlete perspective about uh identity you know one of the big things about it afterwards was okay my first 22 years of my life I I thought of myself as a baseball player and that was it and then um you know my baseball career ended I.
Pivoted over to learn it and I didn't realize that these skills were transferable and that's something that's really sprouted out of this book is is helping athletes and not just athletes but you know people who maybe were accounts and lost their job and they wanted to follow their their passion into something like um I don't know being a teacher or in sales I wish I would have elaborated more on how that the skills that you build throughout.
Your career can be transferable and you need to have the confidence to to realize that and go for whatever your dreams are nice so uh maybe a little bit more professional practical advice in some sections particularly around the trust actx and um and and it's surprising the the reaction sometimes right like there was a lot of interest around the the athlet side and of course a lot of people really want to hear your baseball stories things like I still like hearing your baseball stories you know it's funny think I was just.
Thinking about the TR tax I had people ask me about the truck I I I I had federal judges to baseball coaches say hey you know I've dealt with trust issues you know with my clerks to you know people on our team it it it's just really fascinating how people resonated with it and hearing their stories around trust because I think trust is something that's so important when it comes to leadership yeah so uh since the book you've done a bunch of podcast you had some speaking engagements and things like that any unusual experiences out.
There on the road or I know you had book signings and thing you did you you've done too what's uh what's it been like to uh to be out there you know sharing your ideas and and any any uh any stories from the road any stories from the road that you feel comfortable sharing should qualify that's funny I would say that it's been exciting and you know I I've had an opportunity to do a a talk at the Naval Academy for a large.
Uh a group of Fire Chiefs um senior level Fire Chiefs and that was an incredible experience as as well as do a a talk out I got my shirt on my Atlanta Braves shirt in center field for the Atlanta Braves uh not the players um but the the the sales leadership um for their ticket sales and one of the interesting things of my stories from the road Daren is that a lot of the challenges that organizations have or the goals that they strive for whether.
Whether you're leading a a large fire department a sports ticketing team or just a sales team for a SAS company a lot of them are the same and they have and they have very similar challenges and it's just it was just kind of fun to see how um that going through my book would help them address some of those challenges yeah nice I love that I love the those pictures of you at the Atlanta Braves I mean it's funny because you were actually drafted by the Atlanta Braves when you were like 17 or.
Something you're like a kid just about yeah and that and I talk about that in in my book and then the Atlanta Braves is you know we're really fortunate they're a big learn it client they their ticketing team and so when I uh when I kicked off my speech or my talk I just said you know this is really it's things have come a full circle you know I started off at 17 and I had the choice of going play professional minor leagues or down a different path I chose a different path and never in my wildest dreams did I think IID end up in the.
Learning and Development world and here I am 29 years later speaking to the Atlanta Braves organization overlooking the ballpark uh about being a learn it all leader it was just it was surreal is really what it was yeah it's funny how you just don't I mean you thought you might be there but not in this capacity it's like your life just just is it's it always feels familiar but totally unfamiliar how your life goes absolutely it's it's amazing it's crazy how things.
Turn out it really is right um okay so Nick Silverthorne great you know colleague that we work with a young guy also an athlete like a an amazing swimmer at Cal um and he's sort of your target like when you were writing the book you want to have your audience in mind and so Nick was kind of your audience right how how is Nick uh Nick doing now and and what would Nick say is is the helpful parts of of this book or or maybe even just like what would Nick say.
Is is like the helpful thing to be paying attention to what do you what do you want your target audience to be thinking about I think what I well first of all I think Nick is doing a fantastic job and what I want my targeted audience to be thinking about especially because remember chat gbt I talked about Ai and technology in our in my book but it was prior to chat gbt and so since then I think that Nick and a lot of members of our team almost I think everybody is the.
Willingness to adapt to adapt and be creative Innovative with where the world is going and around Ai and how to leverage AI not to replace humans but how to leverage Ai and you know get better and better and I think that that's something that we're doing at learning out as an organization and it's the mindset that that I've shown that Nick's shown that you shown just like that video you made for me the other day about the Habit coach it's like I think.
That it it's it's a great example of the learn it all mentality where it's like we have to keep learning it have to keep evolving because and you have to have learning agility because the pace that things are evolving these days with ar IAL in intelligence uh AI it's incredible so that's really uh I think one of the biggest takeaways that hopefully when people read my book and and the target audience is that you let's just keep learning and evolving and especially around what's happening in the world with AI keep learning keep.
Growing reminds me of that uh you know still got the fire kind of thing we were saying at the beginning how do you how do you help people you know because sometimes I just want to park in on the couch in front of the TV with the bull ice so do I stay there for like you know two days what how do you how do you keep how do you keep moving forwards with such motivation I keep moving forward with such motivation because I look I look at the team we have at learn it let's say we have 50 60 people at learn.
It and I look at my own my own family and I feel a lot of responsibility I I I feel the responsibility to make sure that learn it is always relevant um and not just for our team Darren in my family but also for our customers you know that that we're aligning what what our product and services are with what they need to be able to meet their challenges or their skill gaps or their goals and so that a lot of times that's what motivates me you know is that um I.
I don't want learn it to be leap frogged by other organizations and I don't want to let our team members or our customers down so I I take it upon I think a lot of times I take it on myself and hold myself accountable to to really do my share to keep learning and growing and that's also really important just for our culture at learn it right because how do we how can we get out there and and Champion uh having a learn it all culture learning learning learning if I if I'm not going to do it myself and I think that's important for.
Leaders out there that want to have a learning culture you need to you need to lead by example yeah it's so it I think people lose sight of the fact that it's it's really often about helping others like the motivation comes from wanting to help others not just kind of give in for you and and what you're saying is that that's the motivation to keep learning like the best thing that you can do for other people is to keep learning and that makes perfect sense especially like in a work environment where you work with a bunch of other people if you have that learning.
Mentality that's how you create a better culture together how you get over issues you know that might and conflicts that might might surface that's the attitude you learn for other people I like what you said there and I think it was Elias Simpson one of our episodes said the same thing great leaders realize that they're working for somebody else they're they're actually they're working on behalf of their team you know it's not about me me me it's uh it's really.
Servant leadership I think great leaders realize that they're working on behalf of and supporting their team we should start wrapping this up a little bit de but I got a couple other questions for you one of them going back say you mentioned that you you didn't tell everybody so when your siblings finally saw the book and your mom uh how did they react well I could have I could have written a my name on a card handed to my mom and she would have cried you know so uh she so I mean obviously she was beyond excited my.
