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Why the best leaders choose to be held accountable.

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Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's make it optional.com.

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Helping you build freedom without losing your edge. This is the going long podcast with Billy Keels.

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Why the best leaders choose to be held accountable is absolutely the episode for you. If you've ever thought about like, hey, you know I want to be doing this. But do I really need to have someone else that can help me get to that next level? I've done a lot of things myself, and maybe I do, or maybe I don't need it. Well, this, it's going to be a really brief episode. You know, I like to keep these solo episodes very brief, and I want to speak to you if you've ever had that doubt about is accountability a good thing or not? I mean someone looking at from the outside in. And as you know, I like to speak a lot, and I'm speaking a lot more with people on LinkedIn. It's crazy. It's it's actually really cool. So this is another conversation that actually came through a direct message. Someone was reading my post, and we started a conversation. Eventually we got on the phone, and, yeah, it was just a really great conversation. But there's also, I like to think about these things, because I went through something very similar, and when I started to go through something similar, I realized I'm having a very similar conversation over and over and over. Guess what that does? It means it's here for me to share on the podcast with you. And this, this is actually I had a conversation with it, and I'm going to make this anonymous, but an executive who was in a really, extremely well known, market leading company. He's been in the role for just over a decade and

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but what was really interesting like a classic high achiever, right? So he's a super high achiever in his sales leadership role. He is a mentor to other people. He's also someone who performs at a really, really high level as an athlete,

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high performing athlete. And as we're going through this conversation, one of the things that I recognize, because it happens a lot, right? And that's why I want to talk to you about why the best leaders choose to be held accountable. Because we got to a certain point in the conversation, he was telling me about this other thing that he was doing on the side. And I was like, okay, cool. So he's already doing something on the side. So I was like, Okay, this is pretty cool. And so he starts to tell me about it, and as he's starting to tell me about it, I realized, Oh, I asked him a question. And I asked him, basically, you know, kind of what was, what he was building for. And he said, I don't know what I'm building. I enjoy

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doing what I'm doing, but I don't even know what I'm building. And what I thought was super amazing about this is it wasn't even like he was asking for help. He was just like, in it, he was like, you know, I don't even know what I'm building. But the thing is, is such a passionate sales leader that I recognize and this when we're talking about the thing that he's building on the side, but he said, You know, I could tell from the way that he was telling how he works with his sales teams, how he works with the people that are part and connected to these, this very large company, the way that he was talking about high performance in terms of an athlete,

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that he's the person who continues to show up for everybody else, and he's done that his entire life.

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And I can also tell that as he puts everybody else first, that even though he continues to perform at a super high level, that he puts himself last. But the thing that really inspired me, and why I want to bring this particular story out, is because he's continues to do things differently. So you know, he's got the great job. He's making, you know, really solid salary, like, doesn't have any problems eating at night, and he enjoys all of the things that he's doing, whether it's his corporate role in the sales leadership position, if he's enjoying that, he's that he is present as well with family. And he's at the point where he's like, Hey, but, and I'm putting a lot of energy into this thing on the side, and it's not really doing exactly what. I don't even know what I wanted to do, but I don't know if it's really doing it. And so,

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because of the industry, you know, he recognizes that there are some, just like a lot of people, there's a lot of stress that's being put in the in the enterprise software space. There's a lot of pressure. Margins have to improve. And, you know, we just saw even a couple weeks ago. I don't know when you're listening to this, but even one of the biggest companies in the enterprise space laid off 30,000 people. Oracle, right? I will say that name because it's, it's something that, depending on when you're listening to this, it's something that happened in very recently. It was pretty dramatic, 6am email and all this other kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, what he what he bring it back to the conversation, is

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the guy that I was speaking to like he really wants to continue to contribute, in spite of all of the squeeze and all the things that are happening. He wants to have more confidence in terms of what the future looks like. He doesn't want somebody else, you know, who could be 1000s of.

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Miles or kilometers away to really have the the

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last say in terms of how he can continue to provide for his family and do these things.

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So we started talking even more, and he's he's not really saying that he wants to retire, but he realizes retirement is on the horizon. He's continuously auditing his time. And you know what he wants to what he realizes that the rhythm that he's going at now, in terms of high performance athlete, you know, high performing sales leader, and putting energy into this thing on the side, he knows that he can't keep the rhythm up forever. Actually, told me, Look, man, I can't keep this rhythm up forever. And then what we got into the next part, and that's really what is interesting about this, for today's episode, is I asked him kind of how he's been able to do some of these things. And he said, Well,

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he recognizes that having accountability absolutely brings out the best in him. And he gave me like, all the way back to his high school. And he started sharing with me how every time he's had someone that has held him accountable, it's made him better.

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We started talking about exercise, like exercising he's always gone to even when talking about just working out, he mentioned, yeah, even, like, I hire the person at the gym because I want to make sure that I have someone to work out with or, you know, early on, he started out having friends, but then when he realized he wanted to take it to the next level, he went to have a professional coach that was helping him. He even got so much into say how he was working with family, having outside in

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point of view, to be able to help him understand how he can be better at home. And the thing that I thought was really, really interesting, and this is why I'm also sharing it with you, he's even mentioned to me that he likes being able to have someone who can actually just be there to help him think through things, someone who's not connected to his family, someone who is not like not a spouse, that he's going to bring all this stuff home for spouse, but being able to have somebody on the outside, and as it relates to, you know, some of the things that he's now wanting to build, and continue to build out, but do it in a way that is getting a better return on time, better return on sleep. I talk about that too, R, O, S, return on sleep. And so this was the part that was that was really interesting, because he's seen the pattern, and it's helped him to perform at a really, really high level, which is why I come back to why the best leaders choose to be held accountable, because this accountability is something that continues to motivate and focus him in the things that he's doing. Has it been uncomfortable? Well, yeah, because there's a constant stretch between, you know, his corporate identity is his home life identity, and this identity around the things he's been putting a lot of time, effort and energy into, that's not like, you know, like I said, he's building it, but he doesn't even really know what he's building it for.

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So as you start to do things where you have done it really pro bono for a really long time, and you start to now figure out how you can monetize, how you can make money from it, how you can get cash from it. Yeah, there's some uneasiness, there's some some discomfort, but that's a part of the process. So you're not alone. Others have done it before. Heck, I did it. And so don't feel uncomfortable. It's just a part of the process. And when you are looking to to

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roll into that new identity you're looking to develop out new networks. That's a part of the process you can never grow unless you go through some discomfort. And so as he's now continuing to, and just to kind of put it into the today's episode is, you know, continuing to look for steps forward, how he can be much more intentional about the way that he's now looking to build out this, this, this business that he's, you know, been pouring into for quite a long time, being very intentional about it and being comfortable with it, because at the end of the day one, he continues to, and this was why, why we were on the call, once he gets to the point that he gets the ability to actually choose what the Next chapter of his life looks like, because he is now having an asset that not only does he control, but it also produces more more cash. It's giving him much more confidence, much more courage to do things, more to evolve this side business,

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rather than waiting for the day that the next chapter of his life is actually written for him. So that is why the best leaders choose to be held accountable. Because with accountability, it gives you focus. When you have focus, you are able to perform on the task at hand. This just happened to be a lot of time and effort and energy, a lot of of IP of capital that he that he has in his instance, that he wants to perform for himself and help him to have much more control and produce cash is an important thing. So listen, if you know a leader who's looking for some accountability, they're in this space and they're trying to figure out the next thing, or they've been putting a lot of time, effort and energy into something that's not really that is not.

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Producing cash, profit, confidence, courage to do more and share today's episode with them, because it's something that can be very easily achieved, especially when you're performing at a really high level. Anyway, you just want to focus it on a new area, and you need some accountability,

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and then make sure that you help them understand that you care. It's not just the share, but it's the share and care. Get on the phone, have a conversation, meet them for tea or for coffee, or just have a zoom, whatever the case may be. Do that show them that you care. And while you're doing that, guess where I'll be. I'll be right here, ready and performing and getting ready to prepare for the next episode. So until then, go to make it a great day. And thank you very, very much.

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