Episode #52 - Guide on a Mission - The Four Types of Characters We Play in our Lives (a discussion on Donald Miller’s New Book) - Teacher Zone

Episode #52 – Guide on a Mission – The Four Types of Characters We Play in our Lives (a discussion on Donald Miller’s New Book)

So we’re continuing our discussion through Victims, Villains, Heros, and Guides, and how we play those roles in our business.

Today, we’re focusing on the personal transition from Hero to Guide.

And also how you can help your teachers, coaches, instructors…all of them see all of that they’ve conquered and achieved so that they can help your students do the same.

Let’s go!

Watch it Here

Or Scan the Show Notes Below

0:00:05.7 Tyler: Welcome to the next episode of The Teacher Zone with Chris and Tyler. As you can see, we are in the same room. This is not CGI.

[chuckle]

0:00:18.4 Tyler: What’s up, dude? So I’m in town, so I’m right in Chris’s office right now. So we’re gonna just do this podcast. Episode two of the hero’s journey, right, Chris? How are you today, buddy? 

0:00:30.1 Chris: I’m awesome. Tyler and I…

0:00:32.1 Tyler: I can tell you’re right here, right here. I don’t even have to ask him.

0:00:37.1 Chris: Well, Tyler and I’ve had a bunch of meetings today. And it’s really funny ’cause we’ve been trying to incorporate a little bit of what we’re discussing. So over the last number of weeks, if you haven’t listened to the other podcast, please go back to The Teacher Zone with Chris and Tyler. We’ve got episodes on transforming your business. We’ve got episodes on… Including our transformation formula. Also, transactional versus transformational leadership, right? 

0:01:01.0 Tyler: It’s all connected, that’s correct.

0:01:03.3 Chris: And what are the elements of a good leader? For all of you that are listening, you’re leaders in your business. What are the elements of a leader essentially? 

0:01:13.2 Tyler: Well, especially as founders, we have to create our standards and create this business. We gotta stand for something. So standards and our mission have to be… We have to be decisive about… And have clarity about that, right? So there’s that mission, there’s the… We’re in charge of the mission, the resources/money, finances, and the people.

0:01:36.5 Chris: The people.

0:01:36.6 Tyler: And we’re talking about the people today, and what they have access to or what they don’t have access to.

0:01:42.3 Chris: Well, mission is the story that you have created, that you’re conveying to everybody but there’s vision. You always hear people talking about mission statements that you hear mission, vision, values. It’s not imperative that you create all that by the way, totally up to you. We’re all making this up anyways. You can create whatever it is that inspires you and your team, to get up every day and do what you do. So you can call it your vision statement, your mission statement.

0:02:04.9 Tyler: We call it our why, like Simon Sinek’s TED talk that you all should watch, that is a really basic… ‘Cause we all understand why, and then everybody’s concentrating on how and what? How and what? How and what? How and what? And then the why is like, “Oh, I get it.” So you can call it your why if you want.

0:02:21.7 Chris: Well, let’s real quick tell the difference. All of you listening have different teaching businesses. We happen to teach kids music. What would be two different ways to describe one, just describing our what to a family and when describing it in a why methodology. Our what would be more cold, the why would be more heartfelt.

0:02:42.5 Tyler: Right. And the what…

0:02:44.9 Chris: So explain a piano lesson in a what and explain it in a why.

0:02:46.0 Tyler: A what. You’re gonna learn basic rhythm theory. You’re going to learn dexterity and posture. You’re gonna learn some basic theory music theory as well, so you know where the notes are, why they are. You’re gonna learn to read the notes, and then at some point you’ll glue it together and you will play a song.

0:03:05.0 Chris: Okay, so that’s a what. Pretty cerebral.

0:03:09.2 Tyler: Kind of a how too. It’s kind of a what and a how.

0:03:12.0 Chris: Yeah, what and a how. So then and explain it. I’m a mom and I’m like, “So what do you do there for piano lessons?” Now do it in a why format.

0:03:18.9 Tyler: Okay. Los Rios Rock School, when piano happens, not only do they… We concentrate on that linear academic form of learning and grinding through what makes a piano work, but after we’re done solving the puzzles in the same lesson, we also speak the language of music with another teacher on a different instrument. So they’re trying out what they just learned and connecting with another human being and creating music together. And then it goes on from their groups of kids connecting and speaking music together, and then shows, where they’re executing shows of their choice, songs of their choice through teamwork and communication. And then they speak that to the world.

0:04:04.9 Chris: So you see the difference with what he just did there. The first one was a lot more like…

0:04:09.0 Tyler: It was still kind of a what though, a little bit. The why is we’re literally adding confidence to your kid’s life to make them better people in the future.

0:04:19.5 Chris: And giving them greater connection. ‘Cause you said connection over and over. And that’s the big one, so we’re giving you confidence and connection, those are…

0:04:26.1 Tyler: So be careful, don’t just gussy up your how and what like I did. You gotta be careful. Like sure, I can make it sound great. It’s what I do.

0:04:32.5 Chris: But no, no, if you said your why, and simplified it to that, to empowerment, self-esteem and connection, as a mom, I’d be like, “I’m sold. I don’t even care about the piano anymore.” Really, you’re gonna…

0:04:46.9 Tyler: What were we talking about? 

0:04:48.6 Chris: You’re gonna give my kid more connection with other humans, which in today’s day and age, we know is really difficult. And you’re going to give them more self-esteem? I’m in.

0:04:58.3 Tyler: Yep.

0:04:58.7 Chris: I don’t even care what you teach. So anyways, something to think about guys. Bottom line is that lately we’ve been really trying to explore that to be a big, great business, you have to really know who you are, and then you have to trust those around you to be the heroes. So we’re talking about this book, so for those of you who don’t know, it’s a great book you can get. It’s a brand new one called Hero on a Mission by Donald Miller he is the story brand guy. We’ll follow up at the end, but just so you know, we’re gonna actually have some workshops coming up on right at your store.

0:05:31.1 Tyler: Two work shops. So there’ll be two episodes after this, with two special guests and a workshop where we’re gonna workshop with our guests together. And then you can workshop with the same questions at home while you’re listening. By the way, if you’re listening to this now and you didn’t miss the previous episode of The Hero’s Journey, go back and check it out, ’cause you had some homework. If you remember, it was find… We separated the types of characters, the avatars that are in a story. So just slight review: Victim, villain, hero or guide. And then we asked you guys to go find out, take an inventory of your week and say which one of those were you and when? 

0:06:13.5 Tyler: Just with yourselves, find three to five incidents or interactions where you were those things and label them and see how you did. Then the next thing was, we wanted to ask you guys if you even had a guide. And so that’s very important, we’re about to get into what guides do and how they give access to their people so that they can be empowered. But you don’t have a guide yet. So we need to touch on it quick. Chris, can you go back in time? We’re gonna get in the time machine. We’re actually already in it. It’s this office, is a time machine. That’s why we couldn’t do this episode unless I came out here. So we’re gonna go on the time machine. Chris is gonna take us back to 1988. Sunset Strip, Hollywood. And tell us how your analogy of having a guide versus not having a guide may have affected some things in life.

0:07:13.7 Chris: Well, I was… You guys I was thinking about it. So I’ve owned seven businesses, a lot of you own a lot of businesses, or this is your first. And as business owners, we’re always learning. And you talk about a why. One of the big things that… As Tyler and I’s why and why we have this podcast and teachers on and all that is ’cause we believe you guys are heroes. And we believe that to be an entrepreneur takes so much guts, it takes so much stamina, it takes so much waking up and doing a lot of what you didn’t wanna do just to make what you do happen. So we believe in that. But I was analyzing it in the context of the Hero’s Journey that we’re talking about. And I was thinking, “Gosh, what are my failures?” And one of my failures was a band I was in, we moved to Hollywood. We were a pretty good band, we worked our butts off, but we didn’t make it as back in the day, they called it making it.

0:08:01.4 Chris: And really, what making it meant is similar to just having a business. It meant being able to eat off your music. And we never really got to that level, and I was trying to analyze why. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, “Oh my gosh! We didn’t have a guide.” We were four heroes that were literally trying to make it up and we never asked for help.

0:08:23.2 Tyler: And people were talking at you.

0:08:24.6 Chris: Yeah.

0:08:25.7 Tyler: About it.

0:08:28.3 Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:08:28.4 Tyler: They were talking at these kids. You were 18 or 19.

0:08:30.4 Chris: We were 18, yeah, yeah.

0:08:31.3 Tyler: So these kids… We’re like 230 years old right now. That’s why we’re your guides. You got to be 200 years old or more to be a guide. I’m just kidding. But people will talk at you, even maybe unsolicited advice that you’re categorizing into, maybe trying to do, and it isn’t the right advice because they aren’t a guide.

0:08:53.6 Chris: Yeah, so a guide… The precursor for a guide is they have to have done it. We actually had something in EO. I was on Entrepreneurs Organization for almost 10 years. And we have a thing in EO where you’re not allowed to give each other advice because it’s considered condescending and this is for all leaders. And you guys are leaders too, we’re all leaders. It’s silly for Tyler and I to be here and be like, “You should do this.” Please, I hope you don’t think we’re ever saying that. We try not to use you statements like that at all in our lives.

0:09:27.4 Tyler: No one wants to hear you need to do this.

0:09:28.5 Chris: So a healthy technique that we try and utilize as much as we can, and they use it in EO. They call it gestalt but it basically means that you’re only telling… If you’re ever gonna tell somebody something, you’re only telling it with basically your experience and that’s it. So if you don’t have experience with that, then you’re helping them find someone that does. That’s the bottom line. So the context here for the hero’s journey today, as we talked about, you guys are heroes and that you all need guides too. So please keep looking for other guides in your life.

0:10:00.7 Tyler: There’s another thing about guides that I learned from Todd Duncan and Dan Martel. They have to intrinsically and authentically want you to succeed because they already have and they know what it feels like. They know the joys, the hardships, the freedom, the time bought with money, maybe money buys time, right? Well, it depends on what your currency is. And they are like, you know what… And a couple of things need to happen. They need to care about what you’re doing. They need to like you. And so if you can check those two off and they’re already successful, you’re almost there. They think what you’re doing’s cool and they like you and they have a couple of mil in the bank or something like that. That might be a good sign to start.

0:10:48.1 Chris: Well, and Tyler and I, we do attempt to be good mentors and guides on this podcast, for instance, but again, we’re learning too. We’re all learning. And every guide’s transitioning between the four roles like we talked about. There’s days when we’re having a bad day, as I’m sure that you did on your own homework. Where you’re feeling like a victim or you’re feeling like a villain because you’re grumpy, or is it you being the hero that day, that’s okay. But also remember if you’re owning a business, you have to be a guide as well. And a guide can only guide on things that they’ve already been through. So that means… Let’s just take it in context. Had, back in the day… Tyler brought up my youth. Back in the day, had my first band business, had we actually had people that have been through it before give us advice, I’ll bet you we would have had a lot greater success than we did.

0:11:41.3 Chris: And so I think the same thing goes for you guys. So one of the things that I would recommend is, if you don’t have a mentor, find someone in your town and you can do that what, through the chamber of commerce, there’s a lot of ways you can meet people. And find someone that’s near and dear. It could be a family member, just someone that’s been through it and has built a business. And as you’ve known, you probably already know someone in your mind, maybe you’re close to them already, maybe not. Those types of people have been through it. And if they’re a giving soul, they won’t just be like, “Hey, I don’t have time for that.” And if they do, they were honest. That’s cool too.

0:12:20.5 Tyler: Well, yeah, and so, here’s what’s so cool. So I used to have a group of software… Fellow software owners, there was nine of us that would travel around the world, and somewhere in the world, we would call ahead and we would… We were in South East Asia, Australia, all throughout the US, Canada, and wherever we were, we would call ahead, and we would call the business leaders that are in software, and we would ask for a meeting and we’d say, “Hey, there’s nine young budding entrepreneur software owners coming into your town. Can we get 10 minutes?” We couldn’t believe how many awesome people said yes. And so one of the guys you just brought that memory back, his name’s Aaron Levie and he has a company called Box.com, and right now they were just awarded last year, I think, if not the best place to work in America.

0:13:09.9 Tyler: But what’s funny, we go into his new skyscraper ’cause they went public and have a huge skyscraper now and stuff. But he’s still a relatively young entrepreneur. And he walks in the room and shuts the door and he goes, “This is so effin awesome. This is so effin awesome.” And we go, “Hi, nice to meet you.” And he’s like, “I just think that you guys coming in to me is the coolest thing ever. And we’re like, “Really?”

0:13:32.2 Chris: Is that what you expected to happen? 

0:13:35.2 Tyler: Never. I expected this prima donna, my company went public, I’ve got a skyscraper, guy to walk in. And he was this humble, awesome guy that was like… He goes, “I am such an idiot. I can’t believe I didn’t have the guts to do what you guys are doing right now. Because this is so cool. Because what do you wanna know?” And maybe just hung with us for three hours.

0:13:54.0 Chris: And then they proceeded to go back in time. I’ve heard this story and say, What would you have done different? What was your biggest takeaway? And oh my gosh, and he just said things that they also didn’t expect to hear to be honest. We’re not gonna get into those details, but the humility, how they approached him. Now they had a little bit of strength in numbers, they had nine software owners, and that automatically makes an entrepreneur go, “Well, that’s interesting.” And entrepreneurs like interesting things. Does your phone ever ring and you’re like, “Not interesting.”

0:14:28.3 Tyler: But you just reminded me, I had a mastermind group in Denver years ago, and you’ve done them too. You can create a mastermind group in your town of other business owners. And you all meet once a month or once every three months, whenever you want. And you guys can be your own collective Mastermind group.

0:14:47.1 Chris: It’s like, it’s AA for entrepreneurs in your area, because guess what? We need each other as much as alcoholics need each other to stay sober.

0:14:56.3 Tyler: 100%.

0:14:57.4 Chris: Because it’s intense. Life is intense. And life is based off of fear, like the victim and villain, that is fear-based. It’s only fear. You cannot tell me it’s related to anything else, like sadness or anything like that. It’s fear.

0:15:14.4 Tyler: I woke up this morning, as an example, I have to do this every day, ’cause I’m a really optimistic person. But I do… Tyler and I take on a lot in our lives and then we have families. So I do wake up with a second in the morning. Not every day, but some days I’m like, “Oh,” and I woke up this morning and I went like, “Oh, it’s Monday.” And then I went, “It’s Monday,” and I immediately changed my posture, I changed my energy and I’m like, “I’m gonna make this the best day I’ve had in a while.” And then I immediately got into hero mode. I didn’t let myself go there. So just if you see yourself feeling that way, just know that you have the power to change it back into hero mode and/or guide depending on who you are.

0:15:52.1 Chris: You can’t be a guide and be in fear. You can be a guide and talk about fear and how you overcame fear, because guess what? That meant you were a hero at one time.

0:16:03.1 Tyler: You can’t be a guide without having been… Gone through the Valley of Death. No, without having gone through a hard moment, because that’s what makes Yoda Yoda, right? That’s what makes the…

0:16:10.9 Chris: Yoda had been fighting the good fight for 900 and like 23 years.

0:16:17.5 Tyler: Right. He’s like, “Young Luke, I’m done. You do it.” Well, or if you take Karate Kid, another great… You’ve got lots of… We were watching Cobra Kai the other day, the new season and all the victim…

0:16:28.6 Chris: We finished it. It was amazing.

0:16:30.3 Tyler: Oh good. They go victim, villain, victim villain, hero, victim, villain, hero, guide, guide. They go back and forth if you watch that, and the original movie did a lot as well. And Mr. Miyagi obviously is the guide, and obviously Daniel was the victim. The villains were coming after him. He emerged into a hero that overcame challenges and Mr. Miyagi helped guide him through those challenges.

0:16:56.1 Chris: Right, okay.

0:16:56.4 Tyler: And then they keep repeating that in different ways. And the new one…

0:17:00.3 Chris: The new one now, Johnny is a victim, villain, guide. And he wants to do this thing, and so it goes back and forth. And then everybody, all of a sudden they start to work together and grow and they’re… Everyone’s becoming heroes. And when you are humble enough to see things that you didn’t see before that you need to fix or work on, and you humble yourself and become a human, not better or worse, then you’re a hero in a different way. And that’s when you have enlightening thoughts and experiences that you can relate in layman’s terms to people. Because it just makes sense to. You’re flying 10,000 feet up now. They’re trying to fly a 1000 and it’s harder to see.

0:17:48.1 Tyler: So Tyler and I since we’re here together, we can literally talk for the next three hours. So over the next 10 minutes or so, let’s talk about what we talked about with regard to their staff, and then the students.

0:18:02.4 Chris: Yes.

0:18:04.5 Tyler: And then also, let’s impart that one last element that gestalt I talked about. I like everyone that’s listening to try this. When you’re with your… If you have kids, when you’re with your kids or your students or whoever you’re with, try to not… Or your staff, try to not give advice. Try to only speak in context of your experience. If someone’s having a challenge, you can ask a lot of really great questions about what is the biggest part of…

0:18:31.3 Chris: Right, so the challenge is your kid isn’t practicing or showing up enough? When I was teaching, I had this kid named Jeremy who wasn’t showing up, and I couldn’t figure out why yet. And so at this point we had to handle it ourselves, but right now you have a team to back you up. So you can get advice…

0:18:50.5 Tyler: Do you see how much more we all learn from story? It’s innate in humans, we learn from story. Well, that’s why we wanna workshop this the next two. We learn from story, we don’t learn from being told what to do, so we’re not asking you as a guide to go…

0:19:05.8 Chris: That’s transactional.

0:19:06.5 Tyler: Yeah, and we’re not saying go tell your teachers what to do. What we’re saying is to be a true guide to your teachers, tell them from your experience and help them find their own guides, which may or may not be you, by the way. You need to give them permission.

0:19:19.3 Chris: Right.

0:19:19.6 Tyler: Permission’s a big one, isn’t it? 

0:19:21.0 Chris: Right, and so when we are in charge of the people as founders, the money and finances, resources and the mission, we have to let them know that we’ll take care of that stuff. So if you need something, you have permission to be the hero now. And do whatever it is you need to be, and think up. And then the transactional leadership, go back and listen to that one. We don’t want that, because now if we go that route they’re not the hero, they’re just waiting for me to say the next thing.

0:19:52.3 Tyler: Yeah, we all wanna get out of that habit in transformational leadership episode, we explore the concept of transformational leadership means you are not giving orders, you’re letting your team… Teachers are leaders, they’re their own heroes, and they’re their own guides to the student who are heroes. And so they need to feel empowered to be able to get the tools they need, maybe they need an extra class for something, maybe there’s gear or equipment they need, maybe they just need advice from someone that’s not you.

0:20:25.6 Chris: Maybe they’re Castling and failing and not… And afraid and reluctant now to not ask questions. So there’s a lot of stuff there that they need permission to do, and it can be based on your standards. You created the standards, so it’s not like you’re just giving them the ability to lead how they want, but you’re trusting them to be exemplary teachers, so they need to be them.

0:20:49.6 Tyler: So there’s several things we’ve done over the years, and we don’t do enough of it, to be honest, but that we try and make our teachers feel like heroes, so they could be better guides. So how can you in your business do that? Some of the things we’ve done, we put the teacher bios outside of their offices, so when you walk by, you can actually see all the cool things they’ve done in life. Another thing that we did is we did… And we need to get back to that, teacher’s showcase, teacher’s spotlight. Where we would talk about what gigs they had coming up or whatever they’re working on or something special about them. Helping teachers to embrace their Hero’s Journey, allows them to be better guides.

0:21:26.9 Chris: They don’t have permission to do that themselves, they think… They assume that, “Oh, I can’t… What can I say? Am I sounding too pretentious if I say the things that I’m proud of?” See what I mean? So we enable them to know, “No, it’s okay. Write it down, we’re gonna frame it.” So we enable them to be this hero, and now they’re like, “Okay, that’s neat.” And now the whole alumni knows not just their teachers’ accolades, that these teachers are working over there with unbelievable people.

0:22:00.1 Tyler: When you talk about storytelling, our school director, Phil, he’s hilarious. He did his, in the Fresh Prince… He actually did his bio… He did the intro to the Fresh Prince as his bio. It’s so great. And so all the kids and everyone have gotten a great laugh at him as he’s trying to sing his bio.

0:22:21.5 Chris: I have it right here. I’ll do a little piece of it. “In Southern California, born and raised in the studio was where I spent most of my days, rocking out, practicing, tracking, all cool. And shredding some guitar when I wasn’t in school, when a couple of friends who were all really good, started making music in my neighborhood, joined a couple of big… Couple of little bands. And my parents told me, “You’re moving to LA and study music at USC.” I studied recording, I got my degree, I got a job at a studio that was called Harmony, worked on a bunch of big records, and won some awards, but I thought this was a fun job, but now I’m really bored.” [laughter] I rode my motorcycle for a month across the US, and I thought about my life and what I wanted to do next, I realize I wanna teach and move back to my home, so now I’m at Los Rios yelling at kids about Metronomes. [laughter]

0:23:19.4 Tyler: He wanted to tell his Hero’s Journey. And it what’s so great guys is he works with teens.

0:23:24.8 Chris: Guys, it’s written on a whiteboard outside of his office.

0:23:28.1 Tyler: Yeah, it’s hilarious.

0:23:29.7 Chris: And so just know that when you empower your teachers to embrace their inner hero, and you let them know that they are both a hero… And because they’ve been a hero, they’re also a really amazing mentor and guide, then it really… I think… I think it just gives them permission. It gives them permission to also seek other guides that they need and not feel stuck. So I think that that’s the main thing we want to impart today, is that you gotta give your teacher’s permission to celebrate their hero-ness and understand that that automatically makes them a fully bonafide guide to their students, and sometimes the parents. The parents are waiting for that expertise, whether it’s Jiu-Jitsu yoga or whatever, like, “Hey, my back hurts, and am I doing the stretch right?” People are waiting to be told the right information so that their life is better, and our heroes are the ones doing it.

0:24:22.8 Tyler: Well, and the thing about it too, guys, is that if you don’t articulate it and you don’t let the teachers to feel celebrated, they’re gonna unknowingly… I don’t know if you guys have seen this, but for some teachers, especially if they’re really young, they might not know how to celebrate their students as heroes. They’re kind of like, “Do you know who I am?” And that’s a wrong attitude, that’s a victim, they’re coming from victim or villain to their students. So it’s very important that you guys help them to understand, listen, “You are a hero as an example to the student, but your role with them is guide.

0:24:58.6 Chris: And they are the heroes.

0:25:00.1 Tyler: The student’s the hero.

0:25:01.9 Chris: It trickles down. So we started with founders, we gave permission, they are now heroes because we went through it and we’re giving them, we have the power, and they need to be knighted, whatever process you need to make it real. And then in turn, that trust starts to build with their students who might not think they’re heroes yet.

0:25:23.6 Tyler: Yeah, it’s their job to let him ’em know, you’re a hero. And then one of the things we do at our school, that I know a lot of you might do too, is that once you’ve leveled up and you’ve actually become from a student to almost a peer, so this is some of our older teens, we then have them be a guide to our youth. And we let them know you’re becoming such a hero, we’ve had some kids who have some pretty insane accolades for kids, and rather than let their ego get out of control, we immediately get into “Awesome job here, a Time to Be a guide.” [laughter] Because nothing will humble you more than having to then suddenly work with a seven-year-old that doesn’t care.

0:26:00.9 Chris: And not just humble you, if you’re ever feeling like a victim and a villain, this is just basic life 101… Go help someone.

0:26:11.0 Tyler: Yeah, so let’s…

0:26:13.5 Chris: You can’t be a victim while you’re helping someone, it doesn’t go together.

0:26:19.6 Tyler: And by the way, I’m gonna just say it, if you’ve got staff members and you work with them lovingly and they cannot get out of victim mode, or they can not get out of villain mode, fire them.

0:26:26.9 Chris: Yep. One foot in, one foot out, just flighty. They don’t believe what you believe, the standards…

0:26:33.1 Tyler: We’ve done it, we’ve done it and we regret every minute of it, we no longer… Ty and I have made admission to one another, to no longer allow cancerous individuals that are victims and villains to be a part of our organization. Period.

0:26:46.7 Chris: And it doesn’t mean that their… Their avatar means they’re a villain in life in general…

0:26:53.2 Tyler: They might be a good person…

0:26:54.2 Chris: Maybe they don’t fit…

0:26:55.9 Tyler: But they’re bringing that to the your organization. They’re bringing poor me, or they’re not taking enough action… Everything someone else’s fault, or…

0:27:04.2 Chris: The bottom line, they’re throwing a wrench in the gears and slowing the whole machine down and it’s overheating… That’s what’s happening, right? It’s an ecosystem that has ick in it, like when you put that…

0:27:14.7 Tyler: So, the definition again that he put in the book, is a victim is someone that’s stuck, that’s someone that just doesn’t look for a way out, they just feel stuck. A villain is someone that pushes other people down to get what they want. A hero, on the other hand, is someone that’s willing to do whatever it takes, in other words, overcome whatever challenges, to achieve whatever goal or mission that they’re on. So remember the hero story, that’s why we wanna workshop this… Keeps getting re-written. You need to keep every year with your staff all the time. Just keep reminding them of your vision. Keep helping everybody understand what y’all are standing for at your organization. And then helping them, if they’re feeling a little bit stuck, helping them get in back into hero mode. Let’s re-write that story, let’s be willing to overcome challenges, so you can be a wonderful guide to the heroes that we truly serve, which is your customers, your students.

0:28:12.3 Chris: Yep. So next week, get ready for workshop time. You’re gonna get two perspectives. Next week will be first, I believe if we don’t know the order, we’ll see how… We might do two next week, and we don’t know who’s gonna be first. But you guys are gonna meeting some… Be meeting some amazing people. Brad Alexander from Clarity messaging, he’s our story brand guy, that helps us with everything we do to get our messaging across and be clear. And then also John from Michigan School of Rock. He used to be in journalism, and had workshops about pods and leadership that kind of applied to what we’re talking about…

0:28:53.9 Tyler: Yeah, John is a great guy and just a great entrepreneur and business leader and musician. He also used to be a writer, and so John has some really great insight to help us write our story that have an intro, a middle and an end. And so we’re gonna have him on to help us all just make sure that we’re really… Guys we’re writing it every day… You’re making it up anyway… Right? Like, you may not think you are, but you are. So you might as well take hold of your story, help your staff take hold of theirs and really make sure that you’re empowering the heroes that are your students…

0:29:30.2 Chris: Yep, the fabric of reality is easier to manipulate than you think… Don’t assume. So we’re gonna workshop some stuff next week, so you can kinda see what that is. Maybe you’ll break free some stuff, maybe you’ll take away a couple of nuggets, but I’m looking forward to… I need a workshop. We got a big workshop coming up in February with our coaches too, so we need a big ‘ole one, and then we have these two with you guys…

0:29:53.9 Tyler: A three-day coaching workshop we’re going to…

0:29:54.9 Chris: Yep. So…

0:29:56.1 Tyler: Well, we can have five, ’cause we’re in person.

[laughter]
0:30:00.2 Chris: Yes. Remember, if you’re not growing, you’re dying you guys, and remember this podcast is brought you by teacherzone.com. You can find our webinar on there, our e-book, and also, if you are getting anything good out of these talks, send them to a friend. Send them now. And it helps everyone, so we appreciate your viewership and listenership. And we’ll see you on the flip side. Take care, everybody.

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