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EP614: Justin Winstead - Become An Improver
67 Plays4 days ago
“As an emerging thought leader with a desire to serve, my biggest challenge is focus. There’s so much opportunity, so much need. Trying to figure out which avenues are the right ones to serve and give is a challenge.”
What if you could live a life where you're not just existing, but actively improving every day? How can you shift your mindset from survival to thriving and leading with purpose? What does it really mean to be a leader? A lot of people want to be a leader but are not a liberating leader
Whether you're leading a team, growing a business, or navigating your personal journey, we all share the same struggles—overcoming limiting beliefs, aligning our actions with our purpose, and pushing past the obstacles that hold us back. Exploring how to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be, whether you're looking to improve communication, enhance leadership, or align your business with a higher purpose. This isn't just about business strategy—it's about understanding the human side of leadership, the power of belief, and how purpose-driven leadership can transform a team from good to great.
Justin Winstead is the author of Become an Improver and an emerging thought leader who is on a mission to inspire others to adopt the mindset of constant improvement. His journey from a ministry background to a seven-figure business owner is nothing short of transformative. Today, Justin shares his powerful insights on identity, purpose, and the impact of leadership that uplifts rather than manages.
Expert action steps:
- Show thanks.
- Grow healthy.
- Be on purpose.
- Be accountable.
- Serve others.
Book: Become an Improver
Website: Improver.coach
Books mentioned:
Entree Leadership
Total Money Makeover
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
I had a really jaded way of viewing the world and it wasn't accurate. You're afraid of money. You're afraid of success. You're afraid of business. You need to overcome your fear. You're not going to plant that flag and move on. You're actually going to embrace that as your identity every day. And that's how you will serve people. We never execute consistently in ways that are different than the way we see ourselves. So sometimes we need an identity makeover. We need to see our true identity so that we can live that out consistently. I believe in the potential of everybody. Average is living without purpose. Average is serving self, not having gratitude. Average is not having integrity. That's what the majority of the world is where they operate. They're just out for themselves. I want to inspire people to take on the identity of I am someone who is intentionally growing, learning, developing, sharpening as a way of making a positive impact in my surroundings and the world around me.
00:01:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:01:36
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nicky Maloo. And boy, do we have an exciting guest signed up for you today. Today's guest is one of our emerging thought leaders. He is a true thought leader in the arena of leadership and culture. And he is the author of his brand new first ever book, Become an Improver. I am speaking, of course, of none other than the one, nearly the legendary Justin Winstead. Welcome to the show, Justin.
00:02:16
Speaker
Oh, man, what an introduction. Let's go. Thanks for having me on, Nikki. I love you. You just reminded me. Did you ever watch Night's Tale, the movie Night's Tale? And they always get these boring introduction of the night and then they get the one orator on there. And he's like, man, he gives the incredible introduction to the guy played by a Heath Ledger. You just reminded me of that. I'm like, man, I'm ready to go charge. Let's go. I should go watch that again. It's been a while since I've seen it. You know, I had in my introductory style after ah the legendary Bruce Buffer, who does introductions at the UFC of the fighters. Yeah, in the right corner. And he just always go, the reigning, undefeated. I mean, I just, I listen to that guy and go, damn, I want to be that good. I want to be that good at introducing people.
00:03:08
Speaker
Oh, that's so much fun, man. This will be a blast. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, me too. So, Justin, tell us your backstory. How'd you get to be the great Justin Linstead?
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, well, I know there's somebody watching or listening to this that's going, what is that accent? And this is what happens when you take a Louisiana boy who's a mixture of country and Cajun, and then you put him in Texas with a little Texas twang. You mix all of those together, and this is what you get. And that's really the overarching arc of my story as I started in Louisiana and ended up in Texas. So how did that happen?
00:03:47
Speaker
Well, as a young boy, I was raised in a small farming community. My dad, a great man, a hard-working man, but it was a high school dropout, and it was hard to make money without an education. My mom was a public school teacher, and so there was a little income there, but we had siblings. and it just It was hard getting by. Financial literacy was a challenge in our in our culture where I was at and in our family. and so We had a lot of compassion, a lot of community. but I just remember as a young boy growing up and thinking, there's the haves and the have-nots in the world. and i could
00:04:26
Speaker
I often feel like I was on the half knot side of the equation and I felt like I was disadvantaged and that I didn't have the things that other people had. And and so there was a lot of fears and insecurities that that created in me from an early age. um As I grew up, I ended up having an experience where I became a Christian and that began to shape my worldview as well. And I thought, well, this actually matches up with this feeling that I have that money is bad and rich people are evil. And if you were successful in business, you must have cheated your way to get there. And so I kind of had this warped worldview and then I get into Christianity and there's some scriptures about the love of money is the root of all evil. And so it it felt like it reinforced this deal. And I thought, well, What do I do with this? Where do I go? So I ended up going into the ministry because I thought, well, I don't care about money. That's what the bad people care about. I care about people. So I'm just going to go serve ah in the ministry. And I love to talk. I love to visit with people. I love to teach. And so it seemed like a good fit. So early on in my life, ministry was the path that I was on. And that's what I thought my life would be about. I did that ah for a little over 10 years.
00:05:42
Speaker
And I moved to Texas, actually, to finish out my seminary degree. And I told my parents, don't worry, I'll be back next year and we' we'll move back. I was married at the time. And I got out here and realized that um I had a really jaded way of viewing the world and that it wasn't accurate. ah Part of that was books like Entre Leadership and Total Money Makeover and Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and you know some of these financial books and business books. And it just began to opened my eyes to a whole new world. I was watching Batman Begins. And Batman Begins, part of his story is he falls into this light well as a young boy. The bats cover him and he develops a phobia of the bats. As he grows into adulthood, he wants to do good in the world and be a hero and fight evil. But before he can do that, he has to overcome his fear
00:06:32
Speaker
of these bats, and he does, but not only does he overcome it, but he overcomes his fear and then embraces that as his identity. And as I'm watching this and reading these books and spending time in prayer and meditation, I start feeling that same calling that Justin, you're afraid of money. You're afraid of success. You're afraid of business because you're ignorant about it. You haven't conquered your fear. You need to overcome your fear. And all you're going to overcome it, you're not going to plant that flag and move on. You're actually going to embrace that as your identity every day. And that's how you will serve people. So as Robert Kawasaki said, I'd look for a job for what I could learn, not what I could earn. And I opened up my
00:07:17
Speaker
skill set to new industries and ended up doing some real estate, some oil and gas. ah Insurance is where I really began to get a good foothold and make some strides. Worked for an agent for a while, then went out and launched my own agency. I sold that agency a few years ago, and that was a good debt-free sale, seven figures net, and so somebody in their 30s, that was a good success. And so now what I do, and part of how I built that agency was using the things I loved about doing ministry way back in the day, helping people in life, being an encourager, serving others' needs, teaching, encouraging. I brought all that into building my business, and then now that's what I do full-time, is I teach, consult. I work one-on-one. I work with the teams. We develop training programs, and I just want to help people alter the trajectory of their life, like my life trajectory,
00:08:11
Speaker
has been altered. I'm living in a nice home. I've gotten to travel around the world getting ready for a trip to Patagonia to go hike that. And for a little country boy that was raised in a trailer house in Louisiana where we could look through and see the floor underneath because we didn't even have solid flooring. And I think, how did I end up here? Well, I've kind of taken note of those things and that's what I want to pay forward to the world.
00:08:36
Speaker
That's a heck of a story, man. So Justin, I want to dive deeper into your journey to becoming a Christian. So talk to me about that. Yeah. I was eighth grade and on the football team and me and one of my teammates got into a little scuffle. He takes off his helmet. I take off mine and we're yapping at each other. And then he grabs the face mask of his helmet and he just backhands across my forehead. if The helmet hits my head and I was kind of a rough and tumble
00:09:07
Speaker
young man and I just got ready to launch into him and fight. And I went to go forward and I thought somebody held me back. And so I turned around and was like, who's got me? And there was nobody there. And I thought, well, that was really strange. And it was this weird thing. I just felt stuck and I didn't know what to do. So the only thing I could do is he hit me on one side of the head. I just turned the other side as kind of a statement of, I don't know, rebuke or me trying to, I don't know, send some message like, Oh, here's the other one. That was nothing. And it was a ah weird experience and I didn't know why it was happening and why I didn't decide to fight him. But my best friend comes over and he pulls this kind of a part and he says, Hey man, you've had kind of a rough day. Why don't you come out to my youth group tonight? We're having free pizza and I think that would maybe help your day. and a little better than it started. So I went for free pizza and ignored pretty much everything that was going on and at the event until these two guys were speaking. And one of them said a phrase and he said, turn the other cheek.
00:10:10
Speaker
And I thought, wait, what what is he saying? This turned the other cheek. And so I started like paying attention because that had just happened earlier that day. And I knew it was a weird experience. And the the guy began to talk about grace.
00:10:25
Speaker
and mercy and forgiveness. And those were things that were foreign concepts to me. I didn't quite know what to do with that. ah But as he began to talk, I realized that I was in need of that, that I was in need of grace and mercy and forgiveness. I started looking at my life even as as an eighth grader, and I wasn't like killing people or doing drugs or anything like that, but I was living selfishly. I was lying. you know My language was not building up. I was just living a life that was me-focused.
00:10:57
Speaker
And in that moment, I became very convicted about that and realized that I did believe that there was a God and I had enough sense to know we didn't just appear from nowhere, that something put all of this into motion. And in my inner spirit, I felt that I had grieved the God who created the universe and that I was in need of His mercy and forgiveness and that it was being offered to me. So that night I accepted that gift of forgiveness and It was a weight lifted off my shoulder. I could tell a change happened on the inside, but it was felt on the outside, and I became a new man. I was very soft and tender-hearted for several days after that, and it was like it was like there was a new light that had come into my life, and that's been there since.
00:11:48
Speaker
Eighth grade, that would have made you 14? 12 years old. Yeah, I was, I was young. I was 12 years old. I started low early, but 12 years old. 12 years old. Wow. That's incredible. Good for you. And by the time I was 14 and 15, I was speaking on stages in churches. You know,
00:12:10
Speaker
oh I'm a Christian. In my family, we're from Iran originally. And when I was 11 years old, the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran. And my late father, God rest his soul, he could see the writing on the wall. This wasn't going to be a place to raise a Christian family. So he and my mom got together. They said, we got to leave. We got to take the boys. And that's what they did. um They made a plan. They got me and my two brothers out of Iran. It took them a while. Didn't happen immediately. but ah From the time I was 11 until I was almost 15 is when we landed in Canada, where I now live in Toronto. and At the time, I didn't want to leave my home, I didn't want to leave my friends, but looking back, it was a single greatest thing mom and dad could have done for us. because They took us from a legacy of religious tyranny to a legacy of religious freedom. and It was beautiful. It was bi was absolutely beautiful.
00:13:04
Speaker
Anyways, that's so good. Yeah, I love it. Thank you for sharing that and two of our new best friends are here from Iran now and we just got them moved into their own apartment. It's two single moms and Yeah, so I'll tell you their first names you remember them in your prayers, but this is a har and Neelu Are two new friends that we have here from Iran because I had a Neelu as in Neelu fantastic. I'll definitely pray for them ah You know Um, are there questions? Yes. Recently, uh, the English is still broken, but they come to our Bible studies and they hold up their phone with Google translate and they try to gain as much as they can. That's great. That's great. It's hard because I talk fast and I talk in redneck. And so the Google translate struggles.
00:14:00
Speaker
You might be a redneck if you talk fast. Jeff Foxworthy, God bless him. So let's shift gears. So tell me, brother, um in the professional work you do, what's the itch you scratch for folks? And how do you go about doing it?
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, well, there's kind of two main ones. One is really more of the individual and then one is from a and that's more personal. And then the other one is more team and that's going to be more professional. And so the individual one really has to do with um purpose and potential and complacency? In the inner struggle, like am I really living out the mission that I'm supposed to on this live? Do I even have a mission? And so how am I supposed to think about my existence and what is my identity? So when I work with individuals often, we're we're kind of unpacking unpacking that and and helping people discover their reason for being on the planet and walking into the right identity because we never
00:15:17
Speaker
execute consistently in ways that are different than the way we see ourselves. So sometimes we need an identity makeover. We need to see our true identity so that we can live that out consistently. So we can talk a little bit more about that. That's where the word improver, that's the name of my company is improver group. I'm referred to as the improver coach and my book is become an improver. So that's that personal side.
00:15:42
Speaker
of things. The professional side of things that usually involves more of our businesses and our teams, they actually talk about being a team of improvers. and On that, it's really about what does it really mean to be a leader? and Often, people conflate leadership and management. and We try to create understanding about what a leader really is. And then dialing in even deeper onto what does it mean to be a liberating leader? Because there's lots of people who are leaders, but you want to be a liberating leader. And so I help ah businesses and teams walk into a culture where ah leadership is not management by authority, it's leadership by influence, and where they learn to be a liberating leader and create a culture of that.
00:16:29
Speaker
John Maxwell talks a lot about that. Yeah. Big John Maxwell fan. I had the privilege of interviewing him on my podcast. Interview number one forty nine, episode one forty nine. And he he and I got along. He was gracious enough to give me his personal cell number. And that's a big deal because guys like that don't often do that. But great guy. Really, really great. Great man. Really enjoyed John Maxwell. I agree.
00:16:55
Speaker
Um, I got to meet him one time, uh, Nikki, and, uh, it was at an event where I won't name the other person, but this other person was a, uh, a famous college football coach who, uh, has won tons of championships and is very much in the news and everything, uh, still, but I meet this coach and he was a grumpy curmudgeon, just not a very nice guy. And we were doing a little photo op with him and I shook his hand. We did the photo and I put his photo on my stuff cause he's well known, but, but he really it wasn't that pleasant. And I understand it because there's a little Tonga line of people and they're just doing the little handshake picture thing. But you know, John Maxwell was at that exact same event. And I had the same amount of time with him as I did this college football coach.
00:17:41
Speaker
And John's embrace when he shook my hand and his his curiosity and in asking what my name was and his care in the way that he experienced. I mean, it was it wasn't like I had dinner with him, but we had 45 seconds together to just greet, take a picture, wish each other well. but I felt a difference there and and and I just, I already loved the guy, ah but I loved him even more after that. One of my habits with books is I take books when I'm reading them and I dog-ear the pages the first time I read the book. And then I go through all the dog-ear pages and underline and highlight what it was that was doing. It's not Maxwell's books. Every page is dog-eared and everywhere. i got There's no distinction there. he's It's kind of hard doing my technique with him. No, for sure. I yeah ah got to see him speak live four times, twice at an exclusive mastermind in 2018 and 2019. And then before that, in the mid 2000s, when George Bush was president, he spoke at a couple of network marketing events that I attended back in the day. So when you and I talked about network marketing off camera, that was that just made me laugh.
00:18:51
Speaker
um yeah So given this, what is what's your why? What's the reason you do what you do professionally? What's the debt you're looking to make in the universe to paraphrase the late great Steve Jobs?
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, I want to inspire a movement of people who take on the identity. In addition to their other primary identities, I want them to adopt the identity of being an improver. And I juxtapose the word improver against the word existor and the word diminisher. And so people can choose to have a negative impact. We call those diminishers. They can choose to have a neutral impact. They're just existors. Or you can have a positive impact, and those are improvers. And I want to inspire people to take on the identity of I am someone who is intentionally growing, learning, developing, sharpening as a way of making a positive impact in my surroundings and the world around me.
00:19:54
Speaker
And the big hairy vision piece of that is I want to see two and a half million people sign up for that identity. So we're going to be launching a website in September of 2024 that is improvertchallenge.com. And that website will be one where people can go to it, read the heartbeat of what it means to be an improver and decide if they want to accept that challenge or not. I like it. yeah You know, um
00:20:26
Speaker
just gave me an idea for doing a challenge in my own Yeah. Well, I just, you know, if they lay me in the ground and they say, you know what, he was constantly working on growing himself and he was making the world better. And then he inspired others to do the same. Like to me, that's where all here, eternity's welcome being well done, good and faithful servant. Like you, you you serve people and you didn't get haughty and high and mighty. You weren't self seeking. That's what I'm, that's what I'm about. That's my heartbeat.
00:21:00
Speaker
It's a great heartbeat. It's a great heartbeat. What you're doing is good. I like the number two and a half million. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful number. And you do that and God will take care of you and your business. No question about it. 1000%. So, brother, who is your ideal client? Paint a picture for me.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, ideal client really is the average of several different types of clients that I work with because I do solo preneurs and I do people just looking for life direction, aspiring professionals, emerging leaders. So I do the one-on-ones and then I also get on stages and do keynote things and speak to large crowds.
00:21:46
Speaker
but but Really, where I probably excel the most is in the are those teams who have you know anywhere from a dozen to a few dozen people who are trying to get to the next level. and Maybe there's been conflict or miscommunication or turnover or a leadership failure and they're doing some repair.
00:22:07
Speaker
Or maybe they're just trying to get to the next level when things are clicking on all cylinders, but they want to increase their capacity. And so they're trying to figure out mindset habits and the right way to think and do. ah So I love going in and helping those teams with either cohorts or internal programs to strategically to think through their development industry.
00:22:32
Speaker
ah you know People are people, and we're all dealing with the same struggles. and you know My challenge and your challenge are the same. It's the guy who brushes his teeth with us in the mirror every day, and it's what's between our ears. We're all dealing with the same struggles. ah But a lot of the industries that I've dealt most in have been real estate, finance, ah oil and gas insurance. Also, I've dealt some in the retail and restaurant. One of the clients I have is I work with a lot of Chick-fil-A operators here in the U.S.
00:23:00
Speaker
And so, coach a lot of them and their teams. But yeah, that so mid-sized teams are really an ideal fit, but I do love working with small teams and individuals as well. I don't get as much on the upper corporate end where people need everything super polished and they're looking for the Ivy League degree and they want me to be politically correct and walk around. That's not as much my jam there.
00:23:25
Speaker
and And let me also put a qualifier. I weren't with anybody regardless of belief, but because of my ministry background and my outlook on life, I do excel with those who think deeply about their faith and they're trying to align their earthly occupation with something that they feel like is a part of their ah ultimate purpose. And so so really, if you've got that element, I can go even deeper.
00:23:56
Speaker
God bless you, Justin. um So there's a few things I want to say in response to what you just said. So first off, I interviewed Steve Robinson, who was Chick-fil-A's chief marketing officer. He worked with the late, great Truett Cathy for a couple of decades.
00:24:12
Speaker
joined them back in 1981, took them from a $100 million dollar company to a $8 billion dollar company or whatever the heck the number was. So that's really cool that you work with a bunch of those folks. I would love to find a way inside my work to work with faith-based organizations like that at a larger level, because we've been working primarily with solopreneurs and entrepreneurs. I love working with them. They're my people, no question about it. But hey, you can reach a lot more people and, frankly, make some more money by getting to some larger ah organizations. We've helped our clients do that in a really big way, some of them tremendously.
00:24:48
Speaker
so of me eight figures as a result of what we've taught him to do, but something we ought to figure out for ourselves. So, you know, you've given me two ideas for me. I should be giving you ideas for you here on this show. So I kind of feel bad. But at least you're getting to talk about your business, because we talked about this earlier on before the the the recording that I said, hey, man, we don't want this to be a big pitch fest. And you said, no, no, no, it won't be. But I probably sometimes don't even talk about my business at all. I said, don't worry about it. I'll make sure you talk about your business. So I'm delivering to you that way.
00:25:19
Speaker
but But it's a beautiful thing, what you're saying. I believe very strongly that um folks need somebody to believe in them, to care about them. My dad, when I was a kid, used to tell me all the time, son, you got to believe in people. Everyone needs someone to believe in them. Everyone loses faith in themselves every once in a while. You just give them that little spark of belief that can turn their own internal belief into a roaring fire.
00:25:48
Speaker
you know And I've found that to be true. My dad passed away for February 23rd, 2020. God rest his soul. ah you know He was at the time 81 years old, but he passed that torch to me because dad was a believer in his fellow man.
00:26:03
Speaker
you know i He was the kind of man, if you knew him, Justin, you were looking for work, he would sit you down in his office, call all his entrepreneur buddies, and ethically manipulate those sons of guns until one of them gave your job. If you were trying to start a business, he'd sit you down, he'd listen to your ideas, and he was a very smart businessman. He'd done his MBA. you know He's from Iran, but he's done and he's done his MBA in ah in ah in a-based business school. So he came back and he'd sit down and and he'd get you sorted out to get your business going. He'd get you access to capital, even clients. Even if you were competing against him in his field because he didn't believe in competition, right? He didn't care. He said, yeah, come on, let me help you out. And if you were trying to buy a car or a house and you were not able to come up with quite enough money, the bank wouldn't give you all that you needed. You were tapped out. But you needed just a little bit more. Dad would give you a loan.
00:26:57
Speaker
And then when you tried to pay him back, you'd say, that was that one done but that was a gift, man. Forget about it. You don't have to pay me back. I'm not taking your money, man. Come on. Just go enjoy your house. And people would always say to me, OK, Nicky, man, come on. this Your dad sounds like too good to be true. Who would do this, Nicky? Well, I said, well, the late great Napoleon Baloo. Why would he do it? What's the percentage? What's in it for him? I said, oh, really good question. Well, first and foremost,
00:27:22
Speaker
He was a devout Christian. He believed he'd been blessed by his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that it was his duty as a devout Christian to share those blessings with other people. What was in it for him is he got to be a Christian. like That's how he did it, man. That's how he saw it. And then secondly, he also could do it because, well, he had money. He was he was rich. like The dude was just... He was a good businessman. and he He had really been blessed. So he wanted to help people. He said, what am I going to do? Spend all the money on myself and my family? How many things do we need? We're good. We got the house. We got the pool. We got the this. All right, let's let's help some people now. you know And that was that was how dad thought.
00:28:02
Speaker
And i I see you as a kindred spirit, a fellow believer in not just in God, but in people. So it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, that's right. And and even the tagline of the book about it a challenge to escape average and unleash greatness, it's built on that belief that every person has greatness that is available to them. I believe in the potential of everybody. And I just know that that the greatness is there. And I use the word unleash on purpose, obviously, because a lot of times we have things like limiting beliefs and insecurities. Those things are holding us back. And thankfully, someone came along and helped unshackle those things in my life.
00:28:44
Speaker
um the way I've had several people who've helped to and untangle the leash that was holding my greatness back. and Every day, I'm getting more and more in line with what I can do and what I can accomplish. and so I want to help other people ah do that same thing. because Average is living without purpose. Average is serving self. Average is not having gratitude. Average is not having integrity. That's what the majority of the world is where they operate. they're just out for themselves, I want to help people escape that way of living. And I want people to really find the greatness of what it means to be on purpose and to serve others and to win with integrity and to fulfill their potential. Amen, brother. Amen. So, brother, who is like your ideal, ideal client?
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we kind of chatted about that a little bit earlier with the teams, but, you know, do you want me to give you some specific names? We don't have to give you names, but go a little bit more deeper into the pain. Like, like, what is it that they're really struggling with? Go down from 30,000 feet to like a thousand feet.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yep. So I would say, you know, perfect client today would be someone who is trying to build a faith driven empire and they're investing in multiple companies and they understand the business side of things, but they want to try to keep a culture of excellence, of faith, of integrity, of service built in. And they need someone like me to come in and like, Hey, I'll handle the business side, but I want you to come in.
00:30:19
Speaker
and ah help make sure the integrity of our leadership is intact and that every person, even if they don't feel like an um a leader, they feel like an improver. So that would be the the ideal thing, ideal client. That's good. And so how do you go about attracting these folks? And by the way, I love that you say you want to work with faith people. I had a client who was ah a coach and he's ah he's a devout Christian. And first he was like saying, I don't know if I should go into this. I said, no, man.
00:30:47
Speaker
Trust me, you need to be a Kingdom business coach. Get out there, look for Kingdom business owners, and go in hard. He resisted me for over a year, but when he finally stopped resisting me, he got so much business, he said, I don't know why I resisted this. He says, I don't know either, but I'm glad you finally did it. Anyways, but keep going, please.
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, for me, and I talk to people about their purpose, and one of the things we look at, it's not the only thing, but we do look at proficiencies. And we are a product of our nature. We are a product of nurture and a product of choice. And when I look at my own life, just my nature and then the people who've nurtured me and the choices I've made,
00:31:25
Speaker
um I'm really more adept at at helping and serving faith-driven people, but I love anyone and everyone and willing to help you know where I can, but that's just where my proficiencies lie um in there. how do you And we balance that with passions. How do I attract them? How do you attract these people to become your clients? like What is it that works for you?
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah, so still working on fine tuning that approach. And I think we're all trying to figure out how to fill the top of funnel in business and and grow that. ah But so far, most of my success has been with warm networking and just through relationships and doing what you and I are doing right now, which is learning one another and figuring out, oh, well, where is the connection between this person and that person?
00:32:10
Speaker
so so That's been a way of doing it. I love events. so I like building to significant dates, whether they're online or in person or whatever. ah you know ah Zig Ziglar used to talk a lot about the power of an impending event. and Impending events can be motivating and unifying and really create a lot of momentum.
00:32:31
Speaker
So this time last year, I was actually organizing our improver summit and we brought in speakers ah from all all around the country and and it was an amazing event. And so I like attracting people by way of serving them through events.
00:32:47
Speaker
And then my newest iteration of this is writing a book that I hope that when they're sitting around their house having a cup of coffee and they crack open a book that I can do, I try to do three things, the three E's. I want to enlighten the mind, encourage the heart and equip the hands. So if I can strengthen their mind, their heart and give them resources that are helpful to their life and business, I'm hoping that they find that attractive and would like to go further and deeper.
00:33:16
Speaker
You know, you said a lot that was really great in what you just revealed. um One of the things that I ah really, really think makes a ton of sense is um doing what you do with going into your warm network, creating warm networks, creating events. i I also think what you're doing coming on shows is something that works. And that's something I'd love to chat with you about offline. And um here's what I found works for thought leaders and heart-driven leaders like yourself.
00:33:52
Speaker
um Honestly, it's being part of part of a ah ah group of folks where everybody knows that it's time to get out there and talk to people and get business. Because a lot of folks in our space, they're such good people, they forget about that part, or they're a little nervous about that part. It's not their favorite part of the day. It's like, get out there and get the business in.
00:34:15
Speaker
And I understand that. And unfortunately, what happens when you when you don't do that to the full extent that God intends for you to do. And I say this very deliberately, then the person who should be getting a good man's help will not. Instead, some charlatan marketer is going to come in and scoop them up and they're not going to deliver. And they're going to make that person upset because they didn't get the the the help and they got ripped off at the same time. so you know what ends And that's why I think that's super, super, super important. So Justin, don't need to mention any names, but share with me a great success story.
00:34:55
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah, what would be a really great success story? Well, let me start saying this one, and I might think of ah of a better one midstream, but the the one I'm thinking about right now is one of the Chick-fil-A's that we were working with. Well, let me back up. We have a whole cohort of Chick-fil-A's who are coming together for monthly training,
00:35:15
Speaker
And they're in a group, there's 40 or 50 different people in this room that we're equipping. There was an optional add-on to go deeper beyond the cohort and add-on one-on-one coaching. And so this one location said, you know what, we'll sign up for the one-on-one coaching, come in and work with our core leadership team. And so there's six of them we're doing additional coaching with. Well, there has been life transformation among those members that has been noticeable and incredible, but then the Chick-fil-A had an opportunity to get a second location. And it's hard enough to become an operator of one location in Chick-fil-A. Their interview process and acceptance process is really difficult. Well, it's even harder to get a second one on there. Well, we actually were able to lead this team in such a way that their culture was so strong and their leadership capacity was so great that Chick-fil-A awarded them their second store. And I know that we had a part a big part to play
00:36:12
Speaker
and giving them language and ideas and tools that would help them demonstrate to Chick-fil-A corporate that they could they could make that change. So that would be a big one. Justin, we'll talk offline, but I should connect you with Steve Robinson.
00:36:32
Speaker
I think that yeah that would be valuable for you and him. um But that's fantastic, man. I love it. I love it. that's You got time for one more? I got one that's not a corporate one. Yeah, go for it. Give it to me. Yeah. So I got another young gentleman who actually I met through Chick-fil-A and he's running a side hustle business trying to create cheesecakes. So he's doing these really incredible tasty cheesecakes and I meet him And he's wanting some just basic business coaching because he doesn't understand the the technical side of business. But he's telling me all the things about his ingredients and all the the the logical stuff about the cheesecake. And I asked him, I said, well, where'd you get the recipes from? And he tells me that his grandmother is giving him the recipes right now. She's passing these down to him in the kitchen, showing them how to do this. But she's got Alzheimer's and she is being very forgetful in all of life. But when she goes into the kitchen, her memory comes back and she's able to show her grandson how to create these cheesecakes. And he didn't realize the incredible story. of making more memories in the kitchen. And so through our coaching, he's now rebranding his business and he's telling a different story. That's not just about the ingredients in the cake. It's about creating memories around the table with those you love the most. And I just know his business is going to skyrocket. Oh, God, are you kidding me? If he keeps telling the story, it's going to do extremely well. Grandma's Cheesecakes, man. He should rebrand the name of the company and call it Grandma's Cheesecakes. Oh, my god God. You know what? You just gave me an idea now. You gave me something, but I'm going to tell him a cheesecake you'll never forget because of her Alzheimer's. So, ah you know, hey, that's good, man. That's good. So. Yeah. brother
00:38:21
Speaker
um as an emerging thought leader, as a man with a massive desire to serve and to make a big dent in the universe. What's the biggest challenge you're currently facing in scaling and helping more people?
00:38:37
Speaker
ah You know, it's funny, I coach people in this, but my biggest challenge is focus because there's so much opportunity, there's so much need, there's so many ways to go. And ah trying to fill out figure out which of these avenues are the right ones to just serve and give, which of these are a waste of time, which of these are actually beneficial, and how do you capitalize? You know, when I worked in real estate, doing land flipping. When I did insurance and I'm working in these commodities, even retail and restaurant to a certain extent, those costs are pretty fixed and it's a pretty clear exchange of value. And one of the struggles that I face sometimes is clearly demonstrating the value exchange for the price you pay and really making that transaction happening. And then They're just getting my name out there, just people hearing who I am and getting on stages. So those are my two biggest challenges. Wow. Powerfully said, man. Powerfully said. So. To build on that. You're such a heart driven man and you ought to be big, you ought to be huge. What frustrates you the most about you not being like a household name within your industry yet?
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's good. So the easy one on that is ah social media algorithms. And just like, if you don't play their game, you don't get the reach. I'm like, I'm looking at this person as all of this guy eating Cheetos off of his belly button, getting millions of views. And here I am trying to offer life changing wisdom and I can't get ah them to show my content to the feed. ah So that's probably the, the biggest frustration I have in business. The one that's more within my sphere of control,
00:40:37
Speaker
It's probably my own ability to focus my message and identify true pain points and and and really solving those for people and not confusing them. And so I get frustrated when it makes sense to me and I want people to hear my heart.
00:40:54
Speaker
And ah often I rely too much on logic. And the fact is, most people are feeling their way through life. They're not thinking their way through life. And I try to go too deep with the thoughts sometimes and I leave out the emotions and and I frustrate myself when I do that and I don't connect.
00:41:15
Speaker
You know, it's interesting that you say that. um My mentor is a man named Mark Von Muser. He's actually also my co-author on my new book that came out today. And he used to be Tony Robbins' director of coaching and training. He's a Christian as well. And he was a Navy vet. And he's the world's greatest heart-driven sales thought leader. He's the best. By far helped Tony Robbins add over 150 million to his business over a five-year period. So he he knows what he's doing, right?
00:41:44
Speaker
um Here's what he said to me. He said to me, everybody thinks that the way they need to sell is they need to logically demonstrate the superiority of their method, their program, their product, whatever he said. Nobody buys that way. People buy based on their heart. If you can touch their heart in your conversation,
00:42:11
Speaker
And they have a need. OK, that's very important. He said they have a need. That's super, super important. They're going to buy. If you can't, they're not. It's that simple. And he said the smartest thing you can do in a conversation, in a in a in a podcast, in a in a short YouTube video, or Instagram Live, or whatever,
00:42:33
Speaker
is come from here and reach out to right there on on the other side. So um that's so good. Isn't it? And your book, you told me your book earlier and I was kind of on there. Get book, get paid, right? Yeah, it's on Amazon. Get booked and get paid. You mentioned it a moment ago, but you didn't say the title. I wanted to give it title yeah effective get and Sorry, sorry about that. So sure, we're we're gonna have to start mentioning. we're gonna I'm gonna go on my Facebook and other profiles. I'm gonna temporarily change my profile picture to the new book. So I think that's what we need to do. It's it's good. So so imagine, ah Justin, it's a year from now. It's three years from now. It's five years from now. And you have built your vision.
00:43:23
Speaker
You got the two and a half million people that are doing the challenge. Your your business is where it needs to be. youre youre You've got the impact you want to have. People know who you are. What would that look like? Paint a picture for me. Speak to me as though it's real and it's happened. Yeah. So.
00:43:42
Speaker
First off, let me just say that I've got a wife and four children at home. And right now we are still trying to get the coaching and consulting business to a stage where it's supporting and the lifestyle that we had when I was doing insurance and that kind of deal. So we're trying to scale up the revenue. So one piece of that means Hey, we're we're back living the way um we feel like our our lifestyle is what we desire. So one, it would be taking care of my family the way I want to take care of them. The second one would be ah that I made some kind of best seller's list with the book, not because I care about the title, but because that
00:44:20
Speaker
States that people are getting the content that I desired them to get when I put it together. So I want to hit some type of you know Amazon, whatever, some kind of best sellers list and know that there's thousands of people, if not millions, that are reading the words and that are thinking about whether or not they're living a life as an exist or a diminisher.
00:44:41
Speaker
And then I think it looks like that I've got other coaches and we're working together to ah help companies, help individuals, because I can't be all things to all people. And I think a lot of this was like, man, I was able to get enough leads that I'm now referring out to people who are more specialized and can better serve um the leads that I'm getting in and that my life is really part one on one coaching with high Performance high potential leaders and then part working with groups and workshops and cohorts I love it So brother you got your book coming out um Congratulations The book is called become an improver by justin winstead. When is it officially out?
00:45:32
Speaker
October 1st is the launch date. Pre-orders should be available later. It'll be in September. Pre-orders early September at the latest. okay so We'll make sure this comes out late September, early October to kind of coincide in in time with with the launch of the book. We end each episode by asking you, our guest expert,
00:45:53
Speaker
for your top three expert action steps. These are three bullet point, kind of 20 words or less of your best advice to help my listener take his life, take her life, business, faith, love, belief to the next level. What say you?
00:46:12
Speaker
Oh man, it's difficult to to narrow that down to three. um The core of my book is the daily high five. I'm tempted to just give you those five. not That's it. That's it. We'll give you some bonus. So, so the core of the book are five daily habits that I think will help a person instantly improve and you can do it anywhere. And this can be applied personally or professionally, faith driven or not faith driven. Doesn't matter. These things apply. So it would be first to show Show thanks, grow healthy. And by that, I mean have intentional plans for your growth, setting goals around growing, ah being on purpose with your life purpose and not just being intentional daily, but knowing what your purpose is in life and making sure you're on mission with that. So show thanks, grow healthy, be on purpose, be accountable. You need to have someone who's helping you with accountability and encouragement, and then serve others.
00:47:09
Speaker
If you do these five things each day, your life has no choice but to change internally and externally. You're going to grow yourself, you're going to grow your business, you're going to grow the people around you. I love it. I love it. I wrote these down. They were awesome. Show thanks, grow healthy, be on purpose, be accountable and serve others. yep Justin Winstead, brother, it was awesome. So how do people, how do people get ahold of you? How do they,
00:47:38
Speaker
How do they get ahold of you? What's the best way? Yeah, so if you're trying to connect with me directly, ah LinkedIn forward slash Justin Winstead. If you go to Facebook forward slash The Improver Coach, so you can do that on the socials. But if you want to go to my website, it's improvergroup.com and it's improve with an R, improvergroup.com. And my book, if you want to get updates on that and special deals, that's improverbook.com. So improverbook dot.com. That's the easiest ways to get in touch and stay in touch.
00:48:11
Speaker
So, I love it. If someone wants to like have a conversation with you because they're dealing with some of the stuff you talked about, do you offer an introductory call, strategy call, anything like that? And if so, what's the link for that?
00:48:28
Speaker
Yeah, so the easiest thing on that is if you're on LinkedIn, just go find me on there. and I should pop up immediately. and There's not too many Justin Winsteads. But yeah, send me a direct message on there or you can go to the website and fill out a contact form on there and say, hey, I'd like an interview.
00:48:44
Speaker
And what I'm willing to do on that, I'm doing this promotion right now where I am asking for 10 minutes of feedback and advice from ah people in exchange for 30 minutes of coaching. And so, yeah, if someone's listening they or watching this and saying, hey, I could use a little encouragement. ah Yeah. And you want to start there, then I'll ask you a few questions over about 10 minutes and then you get 30 minutes for me to discuss whatever I can discuss with you to help you on your journey.
00:49:12
Speaker
That's awesome, man. That's like a 30-minute free coaching call. take Take advantage of this, people. So, listener, Justin Winstead, rhymes with instead, is the real deal. This man is awesome. Become an improver. that's That's a fabulous book. I can't wait to grab a hold of it and read it. ah Longtime listeners to the show know I read over 100 books a year, so this is this is cool for me to to speak to an author that actually has got something worth listening to.
00:49:39
Speaker
um go to Go to the show notes at thefaultleaderrevolution.com listener to find out more about Justin, to find out more about his company, to find out how to contact him, how to get on his calendar, to get that 30-minute free coaching call. and If you like this, give us a like, give us a rating, give us a review. That helps with the algorithm. That helps more people who should know about us, know about us. and If you have a friend who is hurting in life right now,
00:50:07
Speaker
and could use a positive voice. Justin's is a positive voice and so is mine. So share this episode with him and say, hey, you're going to feel better listening to these two men. So make sure that you do that.
00:50:19
Speaker
Justin Winstead, pleasure to have you here, brother. Thank you so much. Yes. God bless you. Thanks for the opportunity. Unleash greatness. Amen. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. To find out more about today's guest, the one and only Justin Winstead. Go to the show notes at thethoughtleaderrevolution.com or wherever you happen to listen to this episode. Be it iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Audible, YouTube, rumble, or what have you. Until next time. Bye bye.
00:50:50
Speaker
This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.