Category Archives: Podcast

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Am I In Control of My Dream?

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Reality…is the enemy of fantasies but not of dreams – Rudy Ruettiger

Dreams by definition are not supposed to start with reality. They are supposed to be fantastic, incredible, and out of the box. After all they are birthed from hopes, desires, and possibilities. They are after all the products of imagination and creativity. But this poses a problem. Is a dream worth pursuing if it has no chance of becoming reality? I do not think so!

If your dream depends a lot on luck, then you are in trouble. If it depends entirely on luck, you’re living in fantasyland. Ralph Waldo Emerson stated that shallow men believe in luck whereas strong men believe in cause and effect. Ann Landers says it this way, Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams.

The more unrealistic your dream, the more you will be tempted to depend upon things that you cannot control to make it become a reality. If your talents do not match your dreams and you fail to recognize it, then you are destined to work but not win. Here are three insights to help you build upon your strengths

Building on Your Strengths Activates The Law of Least Effort

This is about finding your true purpose and your true area of excellence. Your effort becomes much easier and you are more excited about your dream. The single biggest mistake in leadership is that we help others see the potential of obtaining goals without helping them to see who they are first. We strive for the goal without training the person.

Building On Your Strengths Enables Consistently Good Results

Dreams do not come true because a person does something well once in a while. Success is not an event – it is a lifestyle! Dreams are accomplished when someone performs with excellence day after day.

Building On Your Strengths Gives You The Highest Return

Greer Garson, winner of the 1943 Academy Award or best actress stated, Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come. Successful people always put their time, energy, resources into their strengths because they receive the highest return from it.

Here are 5 questions that demand an answer from you if your goal is to succeed in your dreams.

What is my dream?

What is my starting point?

What are my strengths and weaknesses?

What are my current positive and negative habits?

How long must I practice these habits to reach my potential?

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Wishful Thinking” by Dan Lebowitz





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Is My Dream Clear?

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“Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for” – Peter Marshall

“If you have a clear vision, you will eventually attract the right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you” Michael Hyatt

Here are 5 insights on bringing your dream into focus.

A Clear Dream Makes A General Idea Very Specific

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this; decide what you want. (Ben Stein)

In deciding what you want requires that you will be specific with measurable goals. ILL. Move from “I want get out of debt – to – I will pay off all credit cards by December 31st this year? Or I need to improve my leadership – to – I will read one leadership book every month.

A Clear Dream Doesn’t Become Clear Without Effort

When Michael Hyatt took over Thomas Nelson Publishing he tells about a retreat that he took with just pen and paper. He wrote down all of the problems that he was facing to better understand the solutions for growth. Learn to ask good questions, utilize good resources, learn from other people’s experiences, and interview key people. The key idea is to land on a process and method that will work for you. EFFORT is required.

A Clear Dream Affirms Your Purpose

In clarifying your dream you will discover that your purpose becomes more clear. If you have already answered the ownership question to verify that your dream is really your dream, you should be encouraged that clarifying your dream will reinforce your work. It is transformational when your dream and clarity are aligned, your work becomes transformational for you and others.

A Clear Dream Determines Your Priorities

New lifestyle habits must emerge to keep your clarified dreams alive. You will learn to say yes to the things that advance your dreams and NO to the distractions that keep you from accomplishing your dreams. Clarity of vision beings clarity of priorities!

A Clear Dream Gives Direction & Motivation To The Team

Your dream will require the participation of others. Targets that are not hit usually are the result of fuzzy goals. Author Ed Rowell says a dream is a better future in need of an architect who will show others how to make it a reality. If you are a leader, you must become the architect. You must draw the picture with clarity so that your team will know where they going and why. Followers do not give their best to something they do not understand. People do not stay on course for something they cannot see. Nobody becomes motivated by something they kind, sorta believes in.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Wishful Thinking” by Dan Lebowitz





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Is My Dream, My Dream?

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Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think;

Whatever you want, be sure it is what you want;

Whatever you feel, be sure it is what you feel. – T.S. Elliot

Simply stated, You cannot achieve a dream that you do not own! Think for just a moment about your personal history. How have your plans, goals, and desires been influenced by others? Are you aware of how your vision for yourself has been impacted? Is it possible that you have been influenced by the comments and decisions of others?

Instead of offering excuses about not chasing your dreams, I want to give 5 insights on taking ownership of your dreams.

Be Willing To Bet On Yourself

You may succeed of nobody else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you do not believe in yourself. Owning a dream means that your belief in yourself outweighs your fears. If you want to succeed, you need to believe that you can. You must bet on yourself if you want to see your dreams come true.

Lead Your Life Instead of Just Accepting Your Life

The power of choice is the greatest power that a person possesses. It is sad but many people just accept their lives, they do not become leaders of their own life. Therefore they cannot get out of their own way. Reaching your God given potential requires taking responsibility for yourself and your life. It means taking an active leadership role of yourself.

Love What You Do – Do What You Love

Successful people allow their passion and talent to guide them? Why? Because talent, purpose, and potential come hand-in-hand. There is always an alignment of talent and passion if we have the courage to pursue our purpose and take risks. Carly Fiorina once stated, “Love what you do, or don’t do it!” Make the choice today to do something that engages the mind and the heart. This decision engages the total person.

Don’t Compare Yourself To Others

Success is doing the best you can with what you have wherever you start in life. Do not allow other people to set the standard for you in the same way you should not live someone else’s dream.

Joyce Myers stated once that God will help you be all you can be, but He will never help you to be someone else. If you focus your attention on who you are not by comparing yourself to others, you risk losing sight of who you need to become.

Belief In Your Vision of The Future When Others Don’t Understand

“If success is not on your terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your soul, it is not success at all” – Anna Quindlen. The authors of the book, If It Ain’t Broke…Break It, states, “we do not have a clue as to what people’s limits are. All of the tests, stop watches, and finish lines in the world can’t measure human potential. The potential that exists within us is limitless and largely untapped…when you think of limits, you create them.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Wishful Thinking” by Dan Lebowitz





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What Is Your Dream?

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Here is my definition of a dream that can be put to the test and pass: a dream is an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will, and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. A genuine dream is a picture and blueprint of a person’s PURPOSE and POTENTIAL!

Some have been discouraged from dreaming by others. Have you ever met someone like that? They usually say they want to keep you grounded in reality. We are thankful the Wrights Brothers did not listen to such advise.

Some people are hindered by past disappointments and hurts. There are events in life that can crush us and wound us deeply. We must rise above the hurts. Disappointment is the gap between expectation and reality.

Some people get into the habit of settling for average. Columnist Maureen Dowd says, “The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”

“The poorest of all men is not the one without a nickel to his name. He is the fellow without a dream…[He is like] a great ship made for the mighty ocean but trying to navigate in a millpond. Kenneth Hildebrand.

Some people lack the confidence needed to pursue their dreams. Erma Bombeck once stated that it takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

Do you feel that you have a dream worth pursuing? So what do you do next? I want to share 10 questions that we are going to explore in the coming weeks that will assist you in the discovery of your dreams.

10 Crucial Questions

  • Ownership – Is my dream really my dream?
  • Clarity – Do I see my dream clearly?
  • Reality – Am I depending on circumstances within my control to achieve my dream?
  • Passion – Does my dream compel me to chase hard after it?
  • Pathway – Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
  • People – Do I connect with the right people I need to realize my dream?
  • Cost – Am I willing to pay the cost for my dream?
  • Tenacity – Am I moving closer to my dream?
  • Fulfillment – Does working on my dream bring satisfaction?
  • Significance – Does my dream benefit others?

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “8th Anniversary by Diamond Ortiz



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How To Motivate People

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I am going to give you 13 insights on how to motivate people in this Podcast. Get your note page ready and let’s dive into this content.

How To Motivate Other People

Appreciate the power of motivation

  • We do not lose weight because of a lack of knowledge, rather a lack of motivation.
  • Motivation helps you helps you to know what to do, what habits to break and how to excel.

Belief in your team

  • Believe in the vision
  • Believe in the cause
  • Believe in your team members

Give a person a reputation to uphold

  • Talk up an image they must uphold
  • Give them a reputation based upon their strengths

What gets done gets rewarded

  • Follow the 4 to 1 principle – 4 positive strokes to every single negative

Hold more celebrations

  • Ken Blanchard stated that people do better when they feel better about themselves.

Encourage participation

  • Give people a chance to create – they will own it when you do

Set high standards

  • The real issue is that we will not aim at high standards and miss, rather we will aim a low standards and hit them

Know motivational moments

Communicate effectively

  • What do they sing about, cry about, dream about?

Reinforce motivational versus hype

  • Habits change your life
  • Hype excites in the moment

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “8th Anniversary by Diamond Ortiz

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The Power of Motivation

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What motivates you to become a great leader?

  • Books are at the top of the list for me – they motivate me.
  • Pictures are inspiring and motivating.
  • Podcasts.
  • Music is inspirational.
  • Seminars and various learning experiences are motivating.
  • Places and spaces can motivate.

Average leaders direct people!

Good Leaders Direct and explain to and for people

Great leaders Direct, Explain,Inspire, and Demonstrate for people.

The Leader who motivates other is self-motivated

  • Motivational leaders do not lack motivation. They are self starters.
  • Your motivation gives you credibility to motivate others.

The Leader who motivates should motivate others with the right motives

  • Manipulation is moving people for personal advantage. Motivation moves people for mutual advantage.
  • Do I motivate only people who can help me?
  • Do I motivate only people when I am in a leadership assignment?
  • Do I motivate others by using leverage or guilt?
  • Do I unconditionally love others if they do not respond to my leadership?
  • Motivate people out of their comfort zone but never out of their gift zone. You frustrate people when you do that.

A Leader who motivates creates a motivational environment

  • In the book Coaching For Improved Work Performance, lists 5 reasons that people do not perform the way they should.
    • They do not know what they are supposed to do – A mission issue.
    • They do not know how to do it – A training issue.
    • They do not know why they should do it – A soul issue.
    • There are obstacles beyond their control – A leadership issue.
    • They do not care enough to do excellent work – An attitude issue.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “8th Anniversary by Diamond Ortiz

Intentional Living Mastermind Learning Group – ACCESS CODE: Intentional2019


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Rule of Five

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John Maxwell teaches the Law of The Lid in his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. This laws states that you cannot lead beyond your current capacity. If you are currently a 4 and yet desire 6’s – you must grow yourself to be become a 7. This reinforces the leadership maxim that “Everything rises and falls on Leadership!” Understand this maxim is not 80%-90% of the time. It is 100% of the time.

The Daily Five suggests that if you had a tree to chop down and you take an axe and swing it fives times daily at the trunk, that tree will fall eventually. What is the tree in your life that you desire to conquer? What is your dream in life? Where is your axe? What tools are you using? Use them daily for success!

First, Lead Yourself

  • Before you can lead others, you must lead yourself. If you would not follow you, why would others follow you?
  • Mahatma Gandhi stated that we should be the change we desire to see in others. People do what people see.
  • The Law of Magnetism suggests that we attract who we are not what we want. We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are.

Second, Add Value To People

  • Zig Ziglar stated that if you help people achieve their goals, they will help you obtain your goals.
  • When I stop valuing people, I risk manipulating people.
  • Start by making yourself more valuable today so that you add value tomorrow.

Third Study Leadership Daily

  • Thankfully we are living in an era in which we have access to some of the best leadership thinking in the world by means of digital technology.
  • Learn from deep thinkers not just what is trendy. Deep thinkers help you build a solid foundation that endures. Trendy thinking is like a sugar high!
  • Visit Presidential Libraries. David Gergen’s book Eyewitness To Power gives insights to four Presidents leadership.
  • Leaders do not grow in a day rather, they grow daily. What is your growth plan? If you cannot articulate it on paper, your are probably day-dreaming.

Fourth Practice Leadership Daily

  • What are you doing to train others in the craft of leading?
  • Do not waste your time on individuals that will not practice the disciplines of leadership.
  • Practicing leadership gives you confidence in your leadership abilities. It helps you to have a mastery of the issues.

Fifth Intentionally Grow Daily

  • Put yourself in a place where others are better than you are.
  • Put yourself in a place where you are challenged for growth.
  • Your focus should be forward. Your attitude should be affirming.
  • Wake up excited to do something significant.
  • Get into a place where failure is affirming.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “8th Anniversary by Diamond Ortiz

Intentional Living Mastermind Learning Group – ACCESS CODE: Intentional2019


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Leadership Culture – Live Intentional

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As we begin a New Year – New You dialogue, we are examining what it means to have the right Culture for your team. Culture is a visualization of what we value as a team, so people can see what you personally value. There is no confusion – absolute clarity is achieved.There is a crucial question that must be asked; “Why do you want to be a leader?” There truly is only one answer – Add value to people! What? Did you really think it is about the perks and privileges? This New Year – New You dialogue is about re-examining the true essence of being a leader.

Most people do not lead their lives, they simply accept their lives and call it fate! Many people never come to terms with the correlation of personal action and results. To them there is always this mystical force that I cannot know or control that keeps me from being my optimal best.

It is time in this New Year – New You dialogue to stop accepting your life and start leading your life. Here are 4 insights to consider if you are serious about intentionally leading your life.

There is nothing in your life that is beautiful, lasting, and worthwhile that is easy.

  • Our digital age has distorted reality. We believe that everything significant is instant.
  • Relationships are one inch deep and one mile wide. Lasting relationships take more than Likes, Shares, and Tweets.
  • Life is worthwhile when…
    • You Learn
    • You Try
    • You Stay – do not quit!
    • Care
  • Digital Technology doesn’t replace the human element – HU

Achievements are not accidental.

  • Many people have uphill dreams and downhill habits.
  • You cannot coast uphill.
  • Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances. Orison Swett Marden

Willful Choices.

  • Consistency compounds! No one ever rewarded consistency for one weeks effort.
  • Stephen King, one of the great authors of our time was asked, How do you stay inspired to create? He responded by saying that creativity fortunately shows up for me every morning at 7:00am. Stephen King writes an average of 2,000 words per day. Willful choices!
  • Consistency doing the right things over the course of life compounds into significant legacy’s.

Become the author of your life.

  • Stop reading your life and start writing your life.
  • Is your life a page-turner? A yawner? A cliched story you’re tired of repeating? Every life is a story. The story of your life doesn’t have to read like a bad novel, filled with guilt, anger, and hopelessness that limit your understanding of the past and close off possibilities for the future. Even ordinary lives have the elements of great literature, and we can revise trite or destructive story lines to craft a new narrative of courage, fulfillment, and imagination.(See the book, The Story of Your Life, by Mandy Aftel).

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Canal 3” by Quinicas Mooreira

Intentional Living Mastermind Learning Group


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Leadership Culture – Adding Value

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As we begin a New Year – New You dialogue, we are going to examine what it means to have the right Culture for your team. Culture is a visualization of what we value as a team, so people can see what you personally value. There is no confusion – absolute clarity is achieved.

There is a crucial question that must be asked; “Why do you want to be a leader?” There truly is only one answer – Add value to people! What? Did you really think it is about the perks and privileges? This New Year – New You dialogue is about re-examining the true essence of being a leader.

There are 4 insights that I will give you in this podcast on how to add value to your team members. First, I want you to ponder the quote by Stan Belyshev; “How many people will be better off because of who your are and what value you can add to their life?” Adding value to your team is actually a compounding work. Your effort to add value compounds through your team to other people that you will never meet. “Multiplied Value” is the image to grasp!

I go back to my opening question, Why do you want to be a leader? Leadership done correctly, compounds and multiplies like no other work. Leadership legacy is not about brick and mortar, rather, it is about helping people obtain the dreams and goals within themselves while partnering with you in a vision that is too big to obtain by yourself.

We can only value people to the degree that we value ourselves.

  • We see people not as they are, burt as we are. The cardinal sin of modern day leadership is to not value the people they are serving.
  • Intentionally love people, Intentionally believe in people’s potential, and Intentionally show unconditional love for your team. Practicing this daily will increase your desire to connect with your team rather than correct your team.
  • Perhaps you need to establish a bedrock truth for your team – There is NO ROOM on this team if you do not love people!” When you stop loving people, you risk manipulating people.

You must make yourself more valuable

  • When was the last time you learned something new for the first time?
  • Adding value to your team members requires that you get better. You cannot give what you do not have.
  • What is your “Growth Plan” for this year? What I know by experience is, if you cannot articulate it in writing you are only daydreaming. The old adage is true – If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there.
  • You have to keep growing, learning, and developing. You must drink deeply in order to give out abundantly!

Know and relate to what other people value.

  • Learn to walk slowly through the crowd. Listen carefully as you talk to people – you will learn what is on people’s hearts, struggles, dreams, and passions.
  • One of the great challenges of leadership is to learn to take your cues from the people you are leading.
  • Care enough to actively listen to them.
    • Passive listening allows for distractions and interruptions.
    • You are never really focused on the person in front of you.
    • Your personal significance gets in the way of effective communication.
  • The biblical passage of Matthew 22:36-40 comes to mind.
    • The greatest thing that God values is “Loving Him heart, soul, and mind.”
    • The next greatest thing that God values is to love people in the same way that you love yourself.

Intentional Living Mastermind Learning Group

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable serviceMusic: “8th Anniversary by Diamond Ortiz

Do the things that God values.



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Who Is Standing In Front of You?

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If you really want to soar in the coming year, end-of-the-year planning is not just about getting your strategy straight and your financial house in order. You also need to get your head right and that means tuning up your spirit, renewing your mental resources, and recommitting to your deepest values.

When you have a team member or potential team members stand in front of you what do you see? Are you filled with questions or thoughts of….

  • WOW, I am glad they are not on my team!
  • I hope they don’t ask to join my team!
  • They are failures!
  • Do  you see how they dress – so tacky

I want to suggest two powerful questions that will change your focus on how you view your team. These two questions will also change you action plan in dealing with your team members and how you are casting vision.

Who are they?

While literally observing your team members, do you as a leader really know who they are? Do you know their hurts, fears, struggles, and dreams? There are two great axioms of leadership;

  1. Do not ask for a hand until you have touched a heart.
  2. You do not get what you want as a leader, you get who you are.

If you continually ask for help and make demands upon your team without ever showing care for them as a person you risk the following:

Loss of engagement

Loss of productivity

Allow mediocrity to settle in

Every leader must come to terms with the idea that employees are evaluating you through the lens of the question – Do you know me? People desire relationships. This is where the millennials are changing the workplace by their desire to be relational. They are not looking for a boss or paycheck. They are looking for relationships and conversations.

The second axiom is, you do not get what you want you get who you are. Therefore, we reproduce our relational traits attitudes and all. Said another way, we must personalize and then model the behaviors we ultimately seek for our team. Said yet another way, people do what people see.

The second question to ask when observing another team members is, “Who can they become?” This is a question about another person’s potential. A leaders perspective then becomes, “How can I add value to this person?”

All individuals ask the same basic questions about our lives. “When my life is through did I leave a footprint that shows I helped someone! This is an issue of significance and legacy. I left something behind for others – I left my world better than I found it. I personally do not think that people wake up in the morning and declare “I want to be average” or “I want to climb my way up to middle management.”

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “8th Anniversary by Diamond Ortiz