PODCAST PEOPLE: A Summary of the Real Leaders Podcast

“We all have the superhero power of choice to live this lifestyle through the habits that we build. And it really comes down to just continuing to do it, 1% step after 1% step, day, after day, after day.”

David Nurse is a former professional basketball player and current life optimization coach, worldwide keynote motivational speaker, and bestselling author of Pivot & Go.

The following is a summary of Episode 120 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with NBA life optimization coach David Nurse. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

Pivot and Go

David shares his journey with basketball and how he pivoted multiple times to finally realize he was meant to be a coach. He explains that failure was a crucial component in forming his career.

“Honestly, rejection, just like we’ve been pivoting terms, is a great thing. Failure is a great thing. Because failure is not only an option of a way you can learn and grow, it is the only way you learn and grow.”

Failure is something David acknowledges as an opportunity for self-assessment. Whether this means addressing internal concerns or acting upon a large-scale call for change like a global pandemic, sometimes the best course of action is to pivot.

“I don’t give up right away, but also see the bigger picture of when you aren’t succeeding in something that you thought was your gift. Most of us don’t assess ourselves. We just do life and just go go go go go, and then 10 years down the road, we don’t know where that time went. Take time, at the end of each day. Take time once a day, per month, and just assess yourself. Where are you at? And you’ll be able to learn a lot about yourself and think like, hey, I’ve been banging my head against this wall and it’s not going. But what are the skill sets that I learned from doing this? Could I use it in a different direction? And then if it coincides with what you’re passionate about, then that’s when you know how to pivot.”

Surviving to Thriving

David shares that the difficulties he’s faced on his career journey have become all the more meaningful because they have come to serve a greater purpose. His decision to continually take steps forward has enabled him to help others do the same.

“We are our biggest defenders. Our biggest full-court press is ourselves because we give up when things get tough. Now, if everybody could look at it from this mindset-pivot of thriving over just surviving, that would open huge doors for everyone. Think about a difficult situation that you go through. You can embrace that and you can actually want those to happen. Because you know that somebody else coming along the way will go through that same exact thing and now you can help them through it. So it’s for a much bigger purpose than just yourself. You’re pivoting those difficult situations from just surviving to thriving.”

To affirm this thrive mentality, confidence is required. But David re-defines confidence as something beyond the abstract, something attainable for all of us:

“I like to say confidence isn’t about the results that you get or isn’t about anything the world might say it is. It’s about true self awareness.” 

Transcript

Connect

Find more of David’s insights here:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

PODCAST PEOPLE: A Summary from the Real Leaders Podcast

“Simply if we make people’s lives easier and better, if we reduce stress, if we build and curate experiences for other people that we personally would want to have, we will always have a customer.“

Blake Morgan is a keynote speaker, customer experience futurist, podcast host, and author of two books on customer experience. She is recognized as one of the Real Leaders Top 40 Female Keynote Speakers Worldwide.

The following is a summary of Episode 126 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with customer experience futurist, Blake Morgan. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

How to be Customer Centric

Blake explains that as a customer experience futurist, she teaches companies how to prioritize the customer over product or profit. The mark of a customer-centric company is one that endeavors to make the customers’ lives easier and better.

“Companies do not organize themselves around the customer. They organize themselves on how to be most profitable for the next quarter. And they’re not willing to make these bets, make the investments, be misunderstood for long periods of time, like the Amazons of the world, like Netflix. And that’s a shame because the companies that do it well, they are reaping all the profits and the others are getting left behind.”

Blake lists Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify as examples of companies who offer a positive customer experience because it has been built into the fabric of each company. They continue to come out on top because customers want to come back — the service is so seamless customers rarely have to call for customer support.

“My belief is that you should never, ever, under any circumstances have to call a company unless you want to. And [Amazon] really understands that and they’ve taken it to such an extreme level that this company has put a stake in the ground on customer experience. And they’ve got billions of dollars in profits to prove it.”

Blake suggests that many businesses could learn from this example, as there are still so many industries renowned for poor customer treatment (such as insurance companies, healthcare providers and the DMV). Covid has made the need for a seamless customer experience all the more pertinent, because inconveniences like requiring in-person visits and manual receipt signatures are obsolete in a pandemic world.

The Customer of the Future

Blake explains that companies need to address three elements to remain resilient in the future and create an overall positive customer experience:

psychological – building customer experience into company culture and operationalizing leadership development into company strategy

technical – shifting to digital operations, incorporating big data, analytics, AI and machine learning, tracking customer history and anticipating their needs, but at the same time incorporating more human interaction, not less

experiential – marketing and customer communication, having a data and ethics mission statement, serving customers who expect a zero friction, customer experience, and taking care of a customers that are not reading the terms and conditions

Transcript

Connect

Find more of Blake’s insights here:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

PODCAST PEOPLE: A Summary from the Real Leaders Podcast

“We’ve impacted a lot of people’s lives in a very positive way, and we’re proud of all of that. But what we’re most proud of is the team that we’ve built. And I think a real leader is someone who consistently inspires the best in others and inspires them to join a mission. We are very proud of the mission that we’re on, which is to revolutionize energy with simple, powerful solar solutions.”

Trevor Hardy is the CEO of BlueWave Solar, a Certified B Corp. with a vision of protecting the planet by transforming access to renewable energy. BlueWave Solar is among the Real Leaders 100 Top Impact Companies of 2020.

The following is a summary of Episode 60 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with BlueWave Solar CEO, Trevor Hardy. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

On Board the Solar Coaster

Trevor shares his journey from a career in real estate private equity to a more meaningful endeavor on a new frontier. When he “jumped on board the solar coaster” ten years ago, the industry was in it’s wild west days, but solar’s potential was too impactful to ignore.

“In the US, I think it’s a no-brainer, and I say a no-brainer because it makes fundamental economic sense right now. Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of new power. I said to myself, “Why aren’t we doing this as a community? You know, we’ve got this unbelievable resource. Why aren’t we doing this? It seems to be the most obvious thing.”

Community Solar

BlueWave Solar capitalizes on solar potential as a community solar service provider. Their solar farms offer innovative community solar subscriptions. These farms consequently eliminate individual households’ need to install (and independently finance) rooftop panels. As a result, homeowners, renters, small business owners, and municipalities can all be part of the energy revolution. Additionally, there are environmental and economic benefits for everyone.

“When you look at the broader economic impact of installing these large solar farms, were you also employing local people to build the facilities? Are you employing local people to manage and maintain those facilities? A lot of those facilities in rural areas which are really really struggling economically, I mean, it is a no-brainer.”

Connect

Learn more about BlueWave Solar, or follow on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

PODCAST PEOPLE: A Summary from the Real Leaders Podcast

“Our philosophy, which is echoed when you look at consumer behavior, is when given a choice, if it’s easy to do the right thing, people do it.”

Pete Davis is the CEO of Green Print, an environmental technology company that offers sustainability as a service. This helps companies meet sustainability goals and makes it easy for businesses to do well by doing good. Green Print is among the Real Leaders Top 100 Impact Companies of 2020.

The following is a summary of Episode 91 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with Green Print CEO, Pete Davis. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

Turnkey Sustainability

Pete explains the Green Print turnkey sustainability programs for companies of all sizes. This helps them calculate their environmental impact, and then implement a strategy to reduce it. The ultimate goal for these companies is to reduce their footprint through investing in third party sustainability projects.

Green Print focuses on addressing four hot button environmental issues: energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water waste, and plastic. As a result, companies are partnered with projects that sequester carbon, replenish water supplies, or invest in renewable energy sources. But Green Print has a particular focus on the fossil fuel industry and companies that rely heavily on transportation.

“Last year, we offset emissions on about 1.4 billion gallons of fuel, whether it was gasoline or diesel, planted about 100,000 trees, and offset about 5 million tons of carbon emissions.”

A Bridge to the End Goal

While off-setting carbon emissions is a step in the right direction, Pete admits that Green Print’s efforts are not going to achieve the end goal. Systematic changes are what will do the most right by our planet, but until such changes are in motion, Green Print is helping pave the way for a greener future.

“It’s not a crutch, we’re not saying we don’t all have to reinvent things like transportation. We’re saying that until we get there, this is a bridge to that future. And we’re going to do our part now. Until we’re all driving reduced or zero emission vehicles.”

Transcript

Connect

Learn more about Green Print here, or follow on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn