Mack Story
Summary
Mack Story, founder of Blue Collar Leadership, discusses his journey from working in the manufacturing industry to starting his own business focused on educating and developing blue collar workers. He shares how reading the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" transformed his life and inspired him to focus on the blue collar world. Mack talks about his passion for helping and connecting with people in this industry, and shares his experiences working with different companies and organizations.: Lynn and Mac understand that peopple are the most important thing in an organization. Taking care of people, not chasing ROI, and sharing personal stories is how Mac builds trust with employees when performing process improvement consultations. Mac teaches leadership principles to all levels of employees, and the best leaders are always open to learn and grow. Lynn agrees that employees will work harder for leaders who invest in their personal well-being. Mistakes and the value of teaching them. The guest explains how he became a speaker and coach, how his background as a warehouse worker helped shape his message, and how he got started in the John Maxwell Team. He shares a story about how he became a Christian and how it transformed his life, and discusses the concept of leadership as influence and how he gets people to buy into his message. He also gives an example of learning a language before going to a foreign country and relates it to learning how to lead before getting promoted. Mac and JJ were talking about leadership, influence and Mac's speaking career. Mac also discusses his background and his thoughts on leadership and how having influence is similar to learning a foreign language. JJ and Mac also shares leadership and how its like taking a ship out of harbor and the difficulties that comes with it. They are also both fans of John Maxwell and unfortunately, not both aren't very good at having a scripted presentation. Mac Ledford is a motivational speaker, author, and leadership consultant who specializes in blue collar leadership. He has decades of experience in this field and is highly respected for his authenticity and relatability. He is the founder of Blue Collar Leadership and hosts the Blue Collar Leadership podcast. He and his wife Ria have written over 35 books on leadership and personal development. They offer training and coaching services and have clients from all over the world. Mac is passionate about helping blue collar workers In this episode, host and guest Max Smith discuss Max's background in the blue collar industry, as well as his success in leadership, publishing and speaking. They also touch on the importance of authenticity, genuine relationships, and making a positive impact on people's lives. Max shares his thoughts on working hard and having a good work ethic, as well as the importance of staying true to yourself. The pair also discuss the gritty and authentic nature of the warehouse industry, and the importance of creating a strong
Transcription
Speaker 1
[00.00.00]
Hey, it's Ben from the Warehouse Underground podcast. Running out of space in your facility. It is one of the worst things that can happen. Completely slows down your OP, but the customer doesn't care. That's your problem, right? But it doesn't have to be. There is a solution out there that can be a shelter in the storm until it blows over, and that can come from warehouse on wheels. They deliver on demand storage trailers when you need them, that flex with your operation and with locations all across North America, there's a very good chance that they can help you to know. Long term leases for a new facility. No delays, no over Pam for space you don't need no CapEx, just simple smart storage delivered right to your door. So don't let your dog and your aisles become jam packed with pallets wrecking your operation. No, let Wow be your side storage solution while you go back to focusing on main line operation. Hey, what's up everyone! Thanks for tuning in to episode number 31 at the Warehouse Underground podcast, Real Talk or Warehouse DC and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. I'm Ben, the host of the show and joining me on the show today, the one and only Max story. He's the founder of Blue Collar Leadership, helping leaders engage the front line to improve the bottom line. Now, at its core, blue collar leadership is all about educating, mentoring, developing and engaging people that are working in the blue collar world because Matt came from that. Now he has published many, many, many books. He has online courses that he has created. He runs his own podcast, which I've listened to, which is excellent, and he travels around the country speaking at events and companies and organizations that want to help optimize and develop and truly mentor their blue collar labor force. But on both sides of the coin, which we'll talk to him a little bit about that in the show. I appreciate what he's doing because it's very gritty. It does not have corporate jargon. It's how real people talk, how real people think about things and how real people feel. And I appreciate that because in the warehousing world, as you know, the majority, the lion's share of the labor force is frontline employees. Yeah, we got managers and leaders. But the biggest percentage of the people out there are frontline hourly employees, and I really care about them a lot, as I know Mack does as well. So I'm really excited to chat with them about his history and his journey and all things that blue collar leadership is doing and what it stands for should be a really great discussion. And so with that, I'll bring him on the stage. Mac, my friend. Thank you very much for coming on the Warehouse Underground podcast. How are you today,
Speaker 2
[00.02.59]
sir? Thank you. Ben. I'm doing well. Man, that was a quite an intro I gotta live up to now. Yeah, well, you know, I mean, you I feel like you deserve it, though, Mac. I mean, I, you know, before I do any show with a guest, I always do my research on their background and what they say and what they do. And you can usually tell when people are very genuine and authentic. You know what I mean? And you come off as a person that's very genuine and authentic, which I really respect. And so you feel like you definitely earned that, earn that interest. So, uh, thanks again for coming on the show. So I talked a little bit about it in the intro with, you know, your creation of blue collar leadership. You know what what it is. But what was the original thought process
Speaker 1
[00.03.44]
behind it? You know, I know you you came from the manufacturing industry, you know, the 11,000 hours and lean and that type of thing. So you're you come from from the ranks. But you know, what was the genesis behind this creation and how did it and how did it all get rolling in the beginning.
Speaker 2
[00.04.00]
Yeah. So like, like you just mentioned I was in manufacturing, actually the first 20 years of my career, from 1988 to 2008. And then, uh, then I started out, started my own lean manufacturing consulting business at that time, did that from 2008 to 2012. And then I started doing what I'm doing now in 2012. So the reason I'm telling you that little, uh, timeframe there is 20 years into my career when I started design and started my. Starting business. I had never I had worked at multi-billion dollar global companies, big, big outfits and first ten years I was an entry line, entry level factory worker. And then I worked my way up through management. And when I resigned, I was a lean manager and quality manager for our facility, supporting other plant managers around the country and in Mexico. And I'll tell you all that to say, during those 20 years, no leader ever invested in one penny or one minute introducing me to the type content that that I kind of discovered by accident. Uh, yeah. A frontline quality technician actually took my iPod in 2005, put a lot of music on there for me off of his friend's dad's computer. When he brought it back, he said, hey, man, I put a business book on there for you too. I said, what was that saying? He said, seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And right on. I said, is it any good? He said, I don't know. I never listened to it. And he said, but my friend's dad, who had the computer, talked about it all the time, and I didn't know it. I didn't even listen to it though, for three years till I was starting my own business. I'm driving around and listen to my music and a guy starts talking after one song went off and I was like, what is that? And I forgot about it, looked at the screen, had my iPod plugged into my stereo, and this was 2008. So I had, you know, plugged in there and, uh, looked at the screen and said, the seven Habits of Highly Effective people. I said, oh, that's that's that dude, this book that gave me. And yeah, I'm in business. I ain't got any business. Maybe I'll listen to it. And, you know, that was 17 years ago being and I've been I've been reading every day since then reading watch the podcast, you know, watch videos, podcasts. But I like to read. I like to read real books. I read a lot of ebooks and listen to audiobooks a lot, and in the past. But anyway, when I discovered it and I got into it and I only had a one hour highlights and I didn't know there was anything in that other than that in the world for for months. And I just listened to it over and over and think about it. And it was, you know, one hour of the highlights of the seven habits and. But I transformed my life with no. I probably could talk about the set and have is better than not to throw the book because, you know, he didn't change his life for that book, but I did.
Speaker 1
[00.06.28]
It's an awesome book. And sometimes I know exactly what you're talking about, because sometimes in your life, the moment you hear something in a way that you have never heard before, somebody slang or somebody take on something, sometimes it's just like the light bulb goes off, the epiphany happens and you're never the same again. And you can always point back to that moment in time when that happened. It sounds like you had that with with that book, so that's cool. I have read that book. It's it's it's incredible. A lot of people have, but it's a very good book. If
Speaker 2
[00.06.56]
not, I read it many times since then, since I once I discovered there was a book and there was more than a one hour audio, the whole book was like about 13 hours on audio. But as I got into it and and later I started doing some, uh, going to seminars and stuff like that. I know you want to mention something about John Maxwell later, and I won't get too deep into it here, but but when I went to that first conference with John Maxwell, I realized most of the people in the room were white collar people. Most of them were white collar executives. Most of them had the company was paying for them to be there. And and I, you know, Rhea, my wife and I were paying five grand for me to be there. And also my son was sitting beside me and paying five grand for him to be there. So we we put our ten grand out of our pocket, you know. But what I realized was. Why is nobody focused on the blue collar world? Why? Why in 20 years had I never heard this type of content. So that's why I led me to, you know, get behind it. I know when I put blue collar on the on my shirt or on a book title that blue collar folks know what that means? It means that's for them. And and that's why I created the blue collar leadership brand. I wrote the first blue collar leadership book in 2016 to really kick off that brand.
Speaker 1
[00.08.03]
Yeah, I love that Mac, because sometimes and I come from the warehouse and distribution center industry sometimes some people in that in that area that that labor force feel slighted, right? Like sometimes they will feel neglected, feel slighted. And some of those people are extremely talented. In fact, many of them are. They just they just may have not developed it yet. Right. They they haven't they didn't get their seven habits book. They didn't have that epiphany. And so if you put some time and care and feed into them, they can they can really blossom. Right. And and I'm sure that I think you really hit on something with what you're doing and I, I just, I respect it so much because I know there's so many people out there as well as, you know, that can and will benefit from, uh, from this type of talk and this type of, of a spotlight that you put out there.
Speaker 2
[00.08.55]
Yeah, it's a privilege. I get to meet those people all over the country and beyond the country. And it's pretty, pretty cool, especially when I discover someone like me that hadn't heard it. And then they just lighted themselves on fire. I, I love meeting those folks. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.09.09]
it's it it's invigorating, isn't it? When that happens, when when you feel like you really connected with someone and you see them, you see them change. They were going one way and then they went another way and they never turned back. I love that. I love that when that happens. So now let me ask you this question. So like. I saw on the website that you have worked in many, many different industries. I shouldn't say worked in, but you have spoken at events in many different industries, but do you have main ones that are your bread and butter that you always sort of come back to, or are you just anywhere that there is a blue collar or labor force or a blue collar culture or world? I'm there. You know what? Where do you fall on
Speaker 2
[00.09.49]
that? Yeah, actually, our biggest segment of our business is construction industry that I and I don't chase clients. I don't cold call. I don't even follow up with class I got I tell them they call me to start with and I'm happy they can call me anytime they want, but I'm never going to bother them because they're busy. And that's just my model. I don't like bothering people, I don't spam people, I don't do email list and blast and all that sort of stuff and all that. I don't like it myself and I don't do it to others. But manufacturing, actually the probably the smallest segment, they won't stop production, you know, to do any development. That's why I never had any probably why I don't get to go in many organizations, although I do sometimes and but but I and I speak at white collar organizations. My wife and I had the privilege of speaking at Yale University on blue collar leadership, innovation and development. And, uh, I never saw that one coming. I had to get on Google at that time, find out what state. You know, Lynn, I had no idea. Yeah, well, I could be there, but but yeah, I mean, our our clients, people say, you know, who's your perfect client is it doesn't matter the industry. It doesn't matter if they're white collar either. We speak it, like I said, some white collar organizations, but probably 90% or more is blue collar organizations. And it doesn't matter what kind. But what does matter is the the people who bring me in. The majority of them care about their people. They don't call me and talk about ROI because they don't care about ROI. They care about people. If somebody calls me and starts talking about ROI, I know they care about money and they ain't necessarily worried about the people because that's that's the two kind of people that call me, the ones that never mention ROI, and the ones that won't quit talking about it, and the ones that won't quit talking about it. I know already they're not my client. They're trying to check a box and, and and do all this stuff. People who care about their people want to help them have a better life at home and at work. That's the people that I want to do business with.
Speaker 1
[00.11.37]
Yeah. I mean, people shouldn't have a ROI. I mean, I know, I know, sometimes they do in businesses, but, you know, machinery has a ROI. Right. Like, technology has a return on investment. Like people. There's an infinite. They can have an infinite return. I mean, how do you how do you measure that? I mean, it's as as human beings. So, uh. Yeah, I can I can appreciate that. Now, now, I follow you on LinkedIn, Mac. And you post a lot on LinkedIn, and I do, and you give a lot of good nuggets of of wisdom and knowledge. And one of the things that I've seen you talk about a lot on LinkedIn posts and on your website too, is that you don't always you don't only just focus on blue collar employees, but a lot of times you will also focus on the people that are leading them. Right? So you, you, you know, you really got to hit both sides of the, of the coin there, which I appreciate because you have to have both of them for this, just this work. Right. It has to kind of be an agreement and that has to work. So is that a philosophy that you develop over time? Have you always kind of been that way, or did you morph into that? The more and more into this you got and the more experience you got, because I, I, I really like that that concept of of getting both sides and closing the loop there. So what do you think about
Speaker 2
[00.12.54]
that? Yeah, it's really a holistic approach. And I learned all that from those 11,000 plus hours. You know, facilitating really facilitating Kaizen events. You know, in different I get a different team every week. You know, a different team of 6 to 8 people different. A lot of times they didn't know each other. They definitely didn't know me. They didn't like change, didn't like the balls. A lot of times they didn't like me, didn't like last consulted. So I, I walked in into a hostile environment most of the time on Monday morning. And that was my team and all the stuff I teach and talk about. I didn't have weeks and months and years. I really only had about four hours to, to, to to get it, you know, to build trust because the first four hours on Monday morning, I was talking about personal growth and leadership development. I wasn't worried about process. I was I was sharing all this stuff that I shared and just helped them as people and tell them some of my stories and, and things like that, and, and make a real connections and, and get, you know, take the sword out of their hand and let them know that I'm just here to help them help themselves and, and and I know what they're dealing with at the top and on the side and you know, all around them and forget about all that stuff and let's go make you, you know, your job better, but also take away some nuggets going to help your life be better. And so as a consultant, I was. They hired a lean manufacturing consultant to improve the processes. But what they got was a surrogate leader. Because I was hiring the owners, I was the lead. And every every level of every level. I mean, I was all I was all up and down the org chart all the way to the bottom, left and right at every level. And because I was had, I had to make it happen. This stuff that I teach, I, I teach high impact leaders take responsibility. So I don't care what's going on in the organization. Back in those days when I walk in, I'm the leader. I'm responsible. It's up to me to make that week be awesome. And I got five days and these people don't like me and all that stuff I said a minute ago, and usually by them, you know, by lunchtime on Monday, we're good to go. And then now we can learn some stuff about process improvement. We can analyze the current state, we can come up with a future state and then actually implement it on Thursday. I didn't just develop a plan with people when I was doing lean consulting. We did develop a plan, but on Thursday was execution day. We we went from current state to future state on Thursday, however long that took moving machines, moving airlines, gas lines, water lines, written big, big forklifts to move heavy equipment and just sometimes relaying out an entire, you know, workplace. And and then on Friday we validated it to to the plan and and then I'm going to do it again somewhere else the next week so that I never had a bad team. And, you know, I'm sure you heard of Jocko Lake. And everybody said this that understands high impact leadership. Again, that's what I call it. Anybody who knows what that is, they always know there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. And just because they're a bad leader doesn't mean they're a bad person. I mean, you can be a phenomenal person, be a terrible leader. And so when I say bad leader doesn't mean I'm talking about their bad person most of the time. These. Bad leaders have never had any leadership development. And you know, when I say you put it up being and appreciate you sticking that up on the scroll earlier, one of my taglines is helping leaders engage the front line to improve the bottom line. And people who don't know how to lead well think that means I come in and fix the people, the the the workers and I. I help the workers to, to to lead themselves well. But then I also help the leaders lead themselves well. But the, the leaders also have an additional responsibility which is leading those around them. Well, but by the way that I teach leadership, I teach the same principles to everybody. If you're an entry level person, you need to lead yourself well. You need to lead your team well. You need to lead your leader, your boss well. So I talk about I tell different stories, but but I teach the same principles because the leadership principles, our leadership principles, it doesn't matter how old you are if you're at home, if you're at work, no matter, no matter where you live in the world, and what kind of industry at that heart didn't matter that the principles are the same, the practices are different. Yep.
Speaker 1
[00.16.41]
And I think that's that's really true. And I think a lot of times, depending on maybe the experience level of the leader or the age or whatever, sometimes people feel insecure, like, I should know this, right? Like I'm in charge, so I should know all these things and they're uncomfortable sort of raising their hand and saying, hey, I, you know, I need some leadership training, but that's okay. I mean, that's what we do, right? Like, no one expects people to have all the answers. Like leadership is is a skill. It's skill, it's knowledge, it's wisdom, it's repetition. And. The best leaders, I think, are open and willing to learn that and grow. And. If you have a blue collar employee or team of employees and they see and authentically feel that their leader is willing to learn and grow and engage with them, God, I mean, they'll bend over backwards for them. You know what I mean? Because they've they've spent their life with so many leaders that just are not that way. They come in, they want to give orders. They they want to fix everything. And they're so used to that. And you're never going to you're going to I mean, they're going to do it right, but you're never going to get to that next level. I think in performance and doing that, and those are the things that happens when you're not out there, you know, like when you're not managing, when you're not leading, when that employees working 40, 50 hours a week, you don't see them for 47 of them, 46 of them. What's going to motivate them then? Then what's going to make them want to do their best? And I think, like you said, Mac, it's those investments that you made in them emotionally and, and as a, as a mentor up front to really make them feel like you understand them and you're there for them and you have their best interests at heart. So I love that. I love that that's your philosophy.
Speaker 2
[00.18.29]
I'd like to say you just triggered something that I always talk about a lot. Not on. Always. It's too much. Ain't never enough time to talk about all the stuff. But. But you just. You just said something. I often say when it when it hits me like it did just then. But I tell the teams when I'm speaking, usually I'll usually I'll mainly only tell this when the leader is on the front row learning with them. You know, being a student, when a top leader, sometimes the owner of a company, or sometimes it's the CEO and and they got the entire workforce there, maybe hundreds of them out there together. And, and I always tell when when that's happening, I can I can tell it without, you know, rupturing a relationship with the owner because the owner sit there. But I'll tell him, I say, you know, when we come and speak, there's you, the three types of leaders, the ones that bring us in to go fix the people. And we don't ever see those leaders, and they ain't many of those. But sometimes we we get those people behind us and we. That's okay. We still want to help the people that are in front of us, but we know it's not really going to stick. And last, if the leader is really not involved and and it all has to be and they are busy and doing other things, but one one type of leader don't want to be. That's kind of I'm talking about the one that's not there because they don't want to be, not because they're busy or something. That's okay. That's excusable. They got a lot going on. But. The top leader could be in there if they want to be, because we meet those kind all the time. The other, other kind is the kind that comes and stands in the back of the room, crosses the arms like this, kind of looks around, see what everybody's doing. And you know how they receiving what they got. Got me in there to deliver. And then the third type, which is the high impact leader, and they come in and sit out on the front row and pull out the notebook, and they take more notes almost than anybody in the room, and they don't even turn around and look and see what anybody else is doing. They stay there to learn.
Speaker 1
[00.20.08]
Yeah. I mean, I always hate to stereotype people, but when I see over my career, when I've seen a new crop of new young leaders, if the one that is like you mentioned, that is taking notes, that is willing to humble themselves, that is going to be engaging, right? That doesn't have all the answers. But they learn. I look at them and I'm like, that person is going to be senior ops leader at this company. I guarantee you, if I come back here 6 or 7 years from now, that person is going to be a senior ops leader or general manager. You can just tell it. You just tell it right away. You know
Speaker 2
[00.20.42]
what I know? Yeah, they might bump their head up against the leadership lead and have to go somewhere else. But they'll they'll go somewhere else. But if if they got leaders willing to lead them yeah they're going to do exactly that. They'll go as high as those leaders in that company. They'll let them go. And and those kind of people though as soon as they hit the lid, they don't get frustrated and just, you know, say, if can't beat em, join them. There they go. Find them another place to grow because they want to grow.
Speaker 1
[00.21.08]
And sometimes this happens too. And, and I this kind of just came to me. But. The higher up you go. In an organization, particularly fulfillment centers and distribution centers, the more complex and layered and sometimes political it can come that that's just happens. That's just the nature of the beast. But yeah. And that's that's everywhere. But I think if you're the type of person that has the trust and the respect of all of your blue collar labor force, right? They almost take care of everything for you. And now you have time, right? You have bandwidth to do the other type things that you need to do now in your senior level position, because they're handling and everything. They're they're honored and they're proud to do that. Those type that that's the goal and leader. I think in my opinion you can see that right away. And I I've always tried to be that way. And I think others should try to be that way too, because in this industry, maybe not in others, right. If you're, you know, Wall Street or this. But I'm not on Wall Street. We're not on Wall Street, right? I don't know how that world works. Right. Well, you know how this world works, and that's how you want to be. I think that's the ticket to
Speaker 2
[00.22.16]
the top. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.22.18]
This one. So. All right. So let me ask you this because I, you hinted at this a little bit earlier and I saw it on the website. So John see Maxwell a lot of people have heard of John C Maxwell. He's the best selling author. Incredible books out there. If you have not read John C Maxwell, you definitely should that. But you have received a license to teach his best selling content. What's the backstory behind that? How how how does that work? I didn't really know that that was a thing. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, he's he's still doing that. And I don't know how much it costs. Now, like I shared with you before, it was $5,000 back in 2012 when I when I chose to be a part of that. But but anybody could do it to can do it. He had something back then called the John Maxwell team. It's something else now, but it's the same, same thing. But, uh, anyway, the those first four years, I just was reading all kind of stuff and somewhere during that first four years from from, uh. 2008 to 2012. You know, I'm reading all kind of books. And when I'm reading those, uh, lean Kaizen events, I'm taking my backpack in. I'll have like eight books in there, a couple of ones I always had with me. Seven habits, speed of trust. Those were always in there. And and when some other ones. And then one day, uh, one of the the lane coordinators, she, she brought me a book. She said, I got you a book back. I said, what is it? And it was, uh, John Maxwell book. I think it was. I can't remember now. I think it was a 17. A lot of the teamwork. But it could be. It could have been the 21 laws of Leadership. She gave me both of them within a week, and I can't remember today which one I got first. But anyway, so I dove into, I mean, I read it, I was out there for a week and I had four nights. I read whatever it was, whenever, whenever any of those people I was leading would give me a book. I read it quick because I want them to know I appreciate them giving me a book. And just like you mentioned, the book we're going to talk about later, and I'll finish that thing in 24 hours, because it matters to me because, you know, you thought I had read it and I hadn't read it, so I made sure I had read it now. But anyway, we'll talk about that later. So. So, uh, I quit drinking alcohol in June of 2012. I quit doing that. I had to find something to do with my time, my money, my feeling, my head, feeling good on the weekends, sort of being drunk head around. And I wasn't a daily drinker. I was a binge drank of the party drinker, the tailgaters, the holiday drinker. Hunting season comes. I didn't drink for six months, you know, and I was focused on hunting then. But but leadership fields fills my tank. I don't need anything else anymore. But my values changes slowly. That fell away in 2012. So that happened in June. Uh, June I quit drinking alcohol, quit using, uh, profanity in August when I went to the John Maxwell training. But in between that, uh, I was basically sitting at home one morning, you know, Saturday morning, they usually I was at home, you know, we had a pool, hot tub, nice house that we made, like staycation place. And that's what I did when I was home after consulting all week, come home, party all weekend and then do it again the next week. And this Saturday morning. You know, I changed my my whole life was changing. So I'm sitting around looking at leadership stuff on Saturday morning and something about a day about books from John Maxwell popped up, probably on Facebook or LinkedIn somewhere. And I saw that I was like. You know, I, I like I like all this stuff. I, I ain't got any books. I hadn't written any of my own books at that time. And I was like, I need to write some books so I can go out and speak and talk about this stuff, because I can't do anybody else's stuff. I gotta do my stuff. So yeah, I signed me and my son up for that. It was, I think it was $800 a piece for a day, uh, a full day of John talking about how he writes books. He had his publisher there. He had his ghostwriter there. And Charlie, uh, Wetzel, I think's his name and and and it was awesome. But the first break, right before break, they talked about the John Maxwell team and and you can, you know, pay to join and you get access to at that time it was five of his books. And you can teach him and get paid on them one time, you know, one time fee you get to go to a three day live conference is part of it. And it's not like you don't have it official until you go through the three day live conference. And, and, uh, they do speaker training, coaching, training, all kind of stuff like that. And I didn't even care about any of that when I heard that you could teach from John's book and get paid for it, and you didn't have to do nothing, kind of. But, you know, give him credit basically, and they give you a. Yeah, and they give you downloadable workbooks and, you know, all this kind of stuff so you can go do it. I went and talked to the folks at break and, and, and I had to make sure I couldn't believe it was true. I just couldn't I kept going round and round with him like he was all this stuff, like, for real. And that's too good to be. That's like candy for you.
Speaker 2
[00.26.57]
And and because I didn't know him and but by the by lunchtime I did. And I went over there and signed me and me and my son both up and, uh. We drove off in it and we went down to that conference. I actually raised my hand and and accepted Christ with John that weekend. I didn't never see that coming. I had no idea that was about to happen. And for me, we were there on a week. One of the days was Sunday, and he always does a service when he's doing doing a training on Sundays. So I went in early to that and, uh, me and my son both and pretty much everybody, people were there from all around the world, uh, you know, getting certified as a full team member. They called it back back then. And, uh, he, he got done doing his service and he said, you know, say a prayer or whatever. So I had enough integrity by then, even, and respect for people, even though I wasn't a Christian, I was agnostic. I would still bow my head and, you know, respect the folks doing a prayer. And, and he said, if if you, uh, if you're not a follower of Christ, look up at me. And my my integrity had grown enough, then I couldn't play play like I was and keep my head down. So I, my son was actually in front of me and he raised his head. And he was, I think 20, 21. Then, uh, he was 20. He raised his head up and, you know, I, he he can't see me. He didn't know I had raised my head up because he was looking at John and and John, you know, said a little bit of stuff and said, if you want to, you know, accept Christ into your life, raise your hand, repeat after me. And my hand went up, my son's hand went up in front of me. And that was pretty awesome. And and then, uh, he gave us both the US in about a hundred and some other people, you know, uh, leadership. He got a he's got a John Maxwell leadership Bible where he talks about a lot of these principles come from the Bible. And so he's got it. He's got it mixed in with his. Is a secular teaching mixed in it. You know, as a text box throughout the Bible showing where he gets his principles from. But I don't talk a lot about my faith. I do it in one of my books, the one on transformation, because it led me to a lot of my transformations. And, uh, that's why when I lived there that day, before that day, if I said a one word sentence, it had two words of profanity and and and and for me, it's one way I tell it. I pulled over and told my son, they're on the way out of the parking lot. When that event was over, I said, I said, you know what's going to be my because I was, uh, this was 20, 2012, so I was 40, 43. I think my birthday was somewhere one of them days we were there was my birthday, actually. And that was it was, uh, I think I was 43. And I told my son, I said, you know what? My competitive advantage is going to be in this space because, you know, I'm, I'm, I just heard about this stuff a couple of years ago, and now I'm down here at the Maxwell training with these people who've been living it all these years and been in money, going all kinds of training. I said, my competitive advantage is going to be the degree that I live, what I teach, and I mean, I'm perfect, but but that's what drives me to really try to be a good role model. And that's why I said John won't ever know it. He probably still don't know it. I mean, even I talked to him some and I never told him, but yeah, that was just a commitment. He was going to let me use his name and spread his message and and just say his name. I needed to not be using the language that I was using. I had already quit drinking. Yeah. And yeah, yeah, you're
Speaker 1
[00.30.06]
like, this is not going to work. You know, this this is not on brand. This is not I don't want to be this no more. You know,
Speaker 2
[00.30.14]
I'm just.
Speaker 1
[00.30.15]
Yeah, I've decided I want to be something different, you know? And I think once you make that decision, one piece, once people make that decision and they they make it, only they can make that decision, right? It can't be your friend or your parents has to be you. Once it comes from you, I think it's the most powerful when they do that. So
Speaker 2
[00.30.32]
I love that. Yeah, love that story. I tell people I, I got enough work to do judging me. I'm just trying to see make sure I'm kind of getting better. You know, I there's a quote from Michael Joseph and be great for your folks. If I, if I worked in a company, it'd be on the wall in the break room. It might be on the wall in the hallway up front and in the meeting rooms. But it's a quote from a guy named Michael Joseph, and he's got a book by the same title, and he basically says, uh, you don't have to be sick to get better.
Speaker 1
[00.30.59]
And that's right. That's
Speaker 2
[00.31.00]
right. Powerful. A client actually shared it with me from. He heard it from Kirby Smart. And I like to give credit when I can remember where it came from. So I just looked it up, see where it might have come from. And it was actually a book by that title from Michael Josephson. He he might have spoken wherever Kirby Smart was at when he heard it. I have no idea, but I just appreciate my client sharing it with me. I ain't never forgot it since he said it that, hey, I like
Speaker 1
[00.31.22]
that, I like that. I like Kirby Smart too. I'm a Georgia fan. So just on that out there in the audience in case audience listening. But anyway, so let me ask this question now. Now I've seen you post about this and, and this is a concept that I think is very applicable in the world of warehousing and distribution. And that is when people get promoted into a leadership role for the first time, they usually will get some type of handbook. They know what the metrics are they have to hit and all the things that come with that. But how they lead, I think sometimes they realize is, is, is up to them. It comes from their values, what they believe in. And how do you draw that out in people? Because I know you've mentored a lot of new, new leaders, and I know you firmly believe in this concept, but what are your thoughts on that? And how do you kind of get people to really take ownership of, of their values, determine their their effectiveness and their style as a leader.
Speaker 2
[00.32.23]
Yeah, I'll approach it really using the principle that I learned from John. John. You know, John is known for saying leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less than pretty much. That's how I get anybody to buy in. Any thing that I'm talking about is I help them understand, you know, I asked him some questions first. And let me just say, if you don't mind, I don't know if you have Carlos Coady on your show or not. I hope you do, because he's phenomenal and he's in the warehouse industry. He's a lot of my stuff. I've been mentoring him for a long time, and I am he he's going to be a phenomenal guest for you. Yeah, but he can answer all these same exact questions. Really good. And put it exactly into your world. But, you know, his stories will be different than mine. But but the principles can be exactly the same. But how? I get people to do it. You know, I one thing when I first get going, no matter who I'm talking to, doesn't matter if it's top leaders. A room full of CEOs leave, a room full of HR people, a room full of entry level people. Boy Scouts we talked to the other week, you know, here locally in town, it doesn't matter who's because his principles, they're they're all saying. So to get people to really buy into all the stuff that I talk about, I gotta get them nodding and agree and telling themselves a story. Because one thing I say when we start speaking in most places is I tell the crowd, you ain't going to believe a word we say the whole time we hear. You're not going to believe nothing we tell you. I said, you're you're only going to believe what you tell yourself about what we say. You know, if you agree, you're going to say what we saying is the truth, and then, you know, you're going to agree with it. If you disagree, you're going to think it's a lie and you you ain't going to agree with it. But until you decide what we say doesn't even matter. It's what you say about what we say. So I won't be able to to tell themselves the story, that their life will be better if they have more influence in the way I do, that I, you know, I ask them questions. I'd say, you, you you think your life will your life be better at home or at work, wherever you want to frame? It doesn't make any difference. Most people take this stuff home is you know what I'm talking about it. I'm talking to it. Usually at work, they're listening for home because they start figuring out, hey, this stuff helps me at home much as it does at work. And I'll ask them, we life be better if you have more options or less. What do you think? Everybody says bend more, more. It don't matter who they are, where they are, how old they are. It is common sense. All this stuff I talk about is common sense. And they say more. I say, well, you think you have more options in life if you got more influence or less influence, more gameplay, right? More influence, everything you want out of life. Is it easier to get if you got more influence or less influence? You know, I, I play this question game and and everybody's nodding just like you. Everybody knows because everybody already know the answer. I tell them already when I start talking, you already know the answer to everything I'm going to talk about today, but I'm going to try to frame it and ask some rhetorical questions that that's going to help you value it at a higher level, so that you say, I need to work on intentionally increasing my influence instead of accidentally because it's like going to the gym. You know, if I just go to the gym every day and don't really do nothing while I'm there, I really ain't going to get any stronger. I'm not going to get any fitter. I'm like, I can walk around gym 2 or 3 hours. But it's the same way. Walking through life without focusing on intentionally developing your influence. You missing out? It'd be like, yep, three. And I tell em and be like, you know, one example? I try to get people out of their space so they can comprehend this real easy and real quick. I say, anybody in the room speak Japanese? Most time nobody does. I say, what if we went to Japan and we just said, we're going to live there from now on, but we ain't going to. We're going to refuse to learn the language. We just, you know, if we learn a little, it'll be okay. But we ain't focused on learning the language. We just don't gotta get by versus somebody who goes there before they even get there. They're learning the language. You know, you talk about people getting promoted. I'm learning how to leave before I even get promoted. Right. So now I'm learning how to speak Japanese Japanese before I even get to Japan. So when I get there, I got a head start. And then now I'm I'm in Japan. I'm surrounded by people who know Japanese and they're speaking it, and it's written everywhere. And I'm trying to learn it from all the research, you know, the sources I can and and I don't. You think I'm going to leave the person that's not even trying in the dust that they ain't even heard Japanese until they get over there. I'm gonna leave them in the dust, you know, personally, especially especially professionally. And I say, you know, leader learning leadership is the same way. And and I describe leadership is influence. Like John. It's a synonym. It's the same thing. A lot of people don't know that that who don't study leadership. So what I'm saying you need to learn leadership. I'm saying you need to learn how to increase your influence. It doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter if you're a boss, if you're not a boss, doesn't matter if you work in quality or safety. Nobody reports to you. It doesn't make any difference. It actually matters more then because you don't have any formal authority. All you have is your moral authority. People follow you if they want to, not because they have to. And and so that's. That's why I try to drill down to to the root cause value is I value having more influence. That's the. Until later. Unless. Until they value having more influence. Anything else that I say doesn't even matter, because. But everybody wants more influence. So once you get them to nod your head and then you can take them down that path and ask them some more questions, then then you can, then they start getting interested, and then they want to read the books and they won't listen to the podcast. And and then they won't apply this stuff in their life.
Speaker 1
[00.37.38]
Yeah, I think and and this is what I tell people sometimes, Mac, I say
Speaker 2
[00.37.43]
just the the hardest part in all of this is just getting the boat out of the harbor. If you can get your boat out of the harbor right when it's heavy and you gotta untie the rope and you gotta push it and it's awkward and everything, if you can get it out of there driving it on the on the high seas, that's easy. I mean, it might look tough, you know, because all that. But that's really the easy part. The real, true, honest to goodness hard part is, is getting it out of the harbor and slugging it out and deciding that you're going to do that. But if you can do it, then you can build that momentum up and up and up and up. And then the more that you get into the good stuff, the more it just starts to fuel your fire and off you go. But I think it's that initial phase where people have to make that decision. They have to tell you and admit, yes, I want. Influence. Right. I've agreed that that is the way to improve in my leadership journey. I need to have better influence. And then you're like, well, here is the way to do it, right? Like, this is the path that I can I can take you on. And now that you're ready, now you're ready. But if they're not willing to step into the boat, if they're not willing to leave the harbor,
Speaker 1
[00.38.52]
it it don't matter. You know, it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have. I mean, knowledge and doing is is not the same thing. Knowledge and deciding and doing is a is where you want to be. That makes a difference there. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.39.05]
You ever heard about, uh, John Maxwell's dad is Melvin Maxwell. He passed away a while back, but he used to ask John a riddle when John was a little boy. And John shares and writes about it. I write about it in my book, you know, give John credit for hearing it for me. Actually, the dad credit, because that's where he got it from. But I in most of my speeches with something that you just said, I don't know if you've ever heard this. If you hadn't, you'll like it. Uh, they he always says five frogs sitting on a log board decide to jump off. How many are left on the log? And when I do that in the living room, if it's a small room, a lot of people say one. I said, let me ask you again, and this is not a trick question, so let me tell you that up front. Five frogs sitting on a log board decide to jump off how many are left on the log, and I'll say, I'm giving you a hint. Right now it's five and people will be looking. I say you wonder why it's five and not one? Because Ford decided to jump off. They hadn't jumped yet. And and I always end by saying, if you heard me or say something today and you decided to do something different, if you thought about something nobody even know that you thought about, or you read something or you had a conversation with somebody else, or there's some more speakers later, or somebody come before us and you decided to do something different because of your time here. Today, I got some leadership truth for you. And I heard this from John two, and he says, this leadership truth is kind of like a surgeon. Scalpel may sting, may hurt. Yes. To hell. And I'll say, here's a little leadership truth for you. If you decide to do something different today, you ain't you ain't done nothing yet. You just thought about it, thinking about do you any good until you take action,
Speaker 1
[00.40.40]
you must do. And another thing too. And I give this advice to people all the time. The more you send it. Right. The more you commit, the more you go out there. The farther down you get, the less and less crowded it becomes. It's very crowded right there at the starting line with everybody deciding, what am I going to do? Like it's very crowded there. You have tons of competition. Everybody is saying you start really sending it and getting down that road. You find that it's much less resistance because not much traffic on the extra mile. You know what I'm saying, as
Speaker 2
[00.41.12]
there is a pretty open road. But that's um, but that's much easier said than done, Mac, though. And that's why I'm glad that there's people like you out there that can really be the spark and that people need, right? And coach them and speak in a language they understand to, to, to send them off on their way. Now, ultimately, they have to walk their walk. Everybody has to walk their own walk. But that that initial phase, if there's people like you that can help in that initial phase, I think that I think that's great. I mean, I think people will really benefit from that. So now you mentioned you mentioned Rhea, right? So I'm not going to do this whole show and not bring her up Mac, because I don't want to I don't want to get any, any hate mail. But Rhea is fantastic too. So I, I watched some of her, uh, videos of speeches that she gave, and she's fantastic. Um, now, I would love to get her on the show, too, by the way. Just sort of thrown out there. But what's what's
Speaker 1
[00.42.05]
what's the energy been like with you and your audience? Because you you do things with her. And are you guys always very aligned on how you're going to present something or how you're going to, um, convey something to the audience, or do you have some kind of kind of creative differences sometimes. And then how does it how does it get ironed out in the end when you, when you go, uh, give, give your speeches
Speaker 2
[00.42.30]
together? Yeah. Well, we always know how we're going to talk about. We don't ever know what we're going to say. That's the truth. I even share that with the audience. Sometimes I say, I bet you guys wonder what we're going to say today. Me to. I don't know either, but we speak authentically. Like you talk about being authentic early. I don't we don't script anything. I don't I can't I can't do any scripted speeches. It ain't going to happen if I gotta do it. I don't even like PowerPoints, but some people want us to have to have them. And when we do it, we don't have many slides and ain't much on any other slides. And, uh, it just messes me up. But but yeah, we. You know, us speaking together in the backgrounds that actually healthcare administration. She was a director for regulatory affairs and compliance in a large hospital. You know, and she's trying to get doctors and nurses. And main issue was the doctors, you know, that a lot of times a lot of ego and stuff. And she has no authority over all these people. You know, she worked in in 2500, 3000 person hospital. And it kind of like lane kind of like quality, kind of like safety. You're responsible for everybody doing the stuff. But nobody reports to you hardly. You got a little team sometimes. So you gotta have influence or you're ineffective. So all this leadership stuff matters even more when you're responsible for a function like that. So, you know, when we speak, it's much more dynamic. It's much more entertaining. She's she's she's kind of a blue collar girl. But she worked in the white collar world, you know, for, for, for most of her career was in medical field and that sort of stuff. But I mean, when I met her, she was raising and selling horses and, uh, you know, doing, doing a lot of farm kind of work. And she's, she's probably done some stuff to some chickens and, and things like that in her life, you know, on the farm, the blue collar folks do, the white collar folks don't do. And when, when they make it a meal.
Speaker 1
[00.44.12]
Well, I think it's good that she. She sounds like she's sort of comfortable in both sides. Right. And I think that would help in the position where, where you're in where I kind of got to be a liaison between the blue collar, you know, culture, which I understand very well, and the white collar collar too, because they look, we got we talked about this in the beginning. They both need to be simpatico. Right. Like they both need to be together. So having a background and a comfort in both of those I think is a huge a competitive advantage for you and her as you're traveling around the country, I'm sure.
Speaker 2
[00.44.43]
Yeah, it's very unique. I mean, we we we are unique because we neither one of us need the other one to be on the stage. We both can can make it happen without the other one. But so we we, you know, we toss it back and forth and I interrupt her and she interrupt me, and I interrupt her a whole lot more because I, she triggers everything in me to want to come out. So just like I just like you're doing when you're talking on here, I know he's just listening to you talk. I want to stop you every two seconds and tell, you know, two hours worth of stories about something. But she, uh, we we just got invited. We'll be. We keep 20, 25 of all. We started out in, uh, Cancun, Mexico, speaking to a window depot with all their, uh, what they call them. Uh. I can't remember. I call them owners, but they're not owners but from around the country. And we spoke to them. And this year, 26, I mean, next year we'll be speaking in Puerto Rico for the reason that you just said they may. They highly valued us. Speaking as a as a couple, there will be speaking about 400 people in a lot of about 75% blue collar, but about 25% white collar. And, you know, I speak to the white collar folks too. And but but I she don't sound like me. I tell everybody I'm bilingual, I speak English and country and there ain't no doubt about it. And she doesn't sound like me. She sounds like, you know, she speaks very properly and and that sort of stuff. But she's a yeah, she's a huge asset and she's got lots of books too. And some books we a few of them we wrote together and uh, she just phenomenal. But she does a lot of our background work. But she'll come on here and again, you know, we share the same principles. And and again, most people will always be most people like our personal stories. Hardly anybody hires us to tell the personal stories because most of the people don't. Even in the space that we speak in, most times they ain't never. First of all, they usually even hired speakers, much less kind of motivational speakers. And then they start hearing our story. Like. Like when I told you, John Maxwell, you know, my son was there with me and raised his hand. And we paid for him to go from 15 to 19. That boy hated me. He didn't want nothing to do with me in his life. And when he was 17, I discovered that seven habits. And when he was 19, my mom had told him, you know, give me another chance because she had seen me transform. And and then she had started reading all these books I was reading because she couldn't believe I was transformed. I wasn't out of high school. I was in the Marine Corps, in the infantry unit then, and I was only in the reserves. Not not full blown. I just made me want to go to Parris Island. Prove what? Nothing to it. And and I graduated second with a meritorious promotion. So it was it wasn't that big a deal for me, but. But I was crazy. Like, I liked the guns and the the grenades and all the stuff, the knife and everything. And so I had a lot of unlearning to do, to be the person I am today. That's why I know your values matter. You know your choices matter. And it is a choice.
Speaker 1
[00.47.31]
Yep. I absolutely and I think you it's just authenticity, Mac. You know, I mean, I think if you're talking to a certain audience, they are going to be able to sense if you're authentic or not, if you're genuine or not. And if you come off as high score on the scale of authenticity,
Speaker 2
[00.47.51]
they're going to.
Speaker 1
[00.47.52]
You're going to have their attention, right? They're going to want to hear you. They're going to listen to you because, you know, not everybody can come off as authentic like that, Mack. But, you know, you really come off genuine and authentic. And I know that that that resonates with the people that you mentor and that you coach and that and that you speak to. So really appreciate that. So so let me ask you this. Where can people find. Oh, no. Go ahead.
Speaker 2
[00.48.12]
No. Go ahead. I'll tell you that piece right there. You know, what I always say to that is, uh, when it comes to blue collar people and authenticity that those those, uh, boys and girls, men and women, they can see in the dark. Oh, absolutely. They they got they got night vision about when it comes to seeing, being authentic. I mean, that's that's one reason a lot of them don't like training. When, whenever they think. They think when we're coming in, you know, they'll say later, we were in Kentucky the other week and the guy at the end, he came up and told the owner of that company what he said, sir, I, I didn't I didn't want to come to this. I was like, oh, I know that's boring training, he said. But I said this all week long because it ain't what normal training is like. It's different. We're trying to move people. We're trying to cause them to choose to change their values. You talk about that earlier. That's that's our mission. When we go in somewheres not to teach somebody something, it's to motivate and inspire someone to look in the mirror and say, I need to change my values because I can't change their values. Yep. So anyway, I got
Speaker 1
[00.49.10]
that and and that message and how that message gets delivered. Needs to be tailored to that crowd, and you're the perfect person to tailor it to them, obviously. Yeah, obviously you've had a lot of success and you keep having success with that. And I hope that you have a lot more Mac, because not everybody there's not a lot of people out there that I know that are doing what you're doing in the space that you're that you're doing it. And so I really appreciate it. I respect it. I want you to know that, like, I really appreciate respect what you're doing a lot. Um, so now where can people find out more about you? Now, I already mentioned your website and your podcasts and everything, but we're. Where do you want people to go? And and what do you got cooking up for 2026 and beyond? Maybe.
Speaker 2
[00.49.55]
Yeah. First place they can they can call me on my cell phone one day. And right here in front of me, it's (334) 728-4143. I give it out everywhere. That's sometime it's 3000 people in the audience and I usually go, I don't have it on me most of the time. I gotta lay in somewhere up there. I'll pick it up and say, this one right here. The one that the one I talked to on this is the phone number. You can call me and it's on my website and. I mean, I've been paid 750 bucks an hour to coach and people back. I mean, I ain't done that since 2016, but I do it for free. Now, I don't want to talk about deer hunting and football and, uh, whatever people talk about besides leadership, personal growth. That's that's all I want to talk about. So anybody listening to your show today, they can call me on that number. They can go to the blue Collar Leadership Comm website. There's a link right there if they want me to call them at a specific time, so they know they'll get me and they'll be available. I'll be available. They can go, you know, look on that calendar and put their put their phone number in. I'll call them back. And I just want to help people have a better life. And as far as you know, and I am on LinkedIn, social media, I just started a little tick tock a minute ago. I gotta learn all about that. I ain't okay, I ain't looking forward to that because I got enough social media and other junk to do. Because I do everything, really. I do everything. There's nobody else. I don't want it to be anybody else. If it's too much to do that, I gotta hire somebody that ain't going to get done. Because I often authenticity is one of my high, highly, highly valued traits that I mean that to be authentic, you call, you're going to get me. Or either I might call you back, you ain't gonna get somebody else. And and and that's supplying. The man's going. Take care of things. We we just raised our rates or whatever and and, uh, till we ain't busy and we'll ride for a while if we get too busy. We raised our rates again and just supply and demand. And as far as 26, you know, we're going to start off in Puerto Rico talking to that group. Real excited about that. Uh, Rias, she just started in the last few weeks. She's creating a lot of blue collar leadership merch. You can go on our store and see that she's great and we come out. I'm sure somebody has it somewhere. We ain't been able to see that it's protected. But something I've been saying forever, you know, blue collar, the blue collar workforce is the backbone of America. And we got shirts and got a flag behind the text. And she's making today. She made 4 or 5 different shirts. One's got a bulldozer, one's got like a lineman climbing up. And yeah, one's got a high branch and a hammer crossed. And she's going to do a tractor, you know, for the different kind of the different trades and different jobs that people do. And that's something we're doing. And, you know, through our books we got a lot. We got like 35 books. So and, and I would share with the audience, you can you can go preview my books. I do kind of like try before you buy. I don't like scamming people. I don't want somebody to spend a penny with me that don't want to. So they can go to blue collar leadership.com/download, and they can preview the first five chapters and the entire outline of pretty much all of our books. And you don't have to put on an email to see it. You don't have to subscribe to anything to see it. It's just right there. You can actually download a PDF and share it with people and, and uh, actually one thing that may be valuable to you and your folks, uh, it's these five types of leaders.com, the number five, the five types of leaders.com. Anybody can go there and and watch a two hour video training. They get eight page downloadable workbook, fill in the blanks, actually get a certificate of completion. So if there's anybody out there who's wanting to climb the ladder of the leadership ladder, go take that course, get that certificate and and stick it in your, you know, in with your resume or give it to your HR folks. Let them know you're growing and invest in yourself. And you all have to put some information there. But you want to put anything you got anything to do with pay. But that's actually on a paid platform. So you got to fill in some of the required boxes. Still, we ain't gonna spam you. You ain't gonna get nothing from us. And we had one guy the other week, somebody must have did it. And then they had like 12 people signed up for him for it from some construction company in Rhode Island. I think it was. I can't remember that this is a free value there. I give away lots of stuff. And I got my Blue Collar Leadership podcast almost 500 episodes. All I do is mainly to teach people.
Speaker 1
[00.53.58]
Yeah, it's a great podcast. I hope people look it up. I hope people listen to it. I've listened to many episodes back, by the way, and you know, you have some interesting guests on there. I like listening to you right before on the show, but you also have some cool guests on there, and I like to hear people's perspective. And it's just it's real. It's real and authentic and gritty. And that's kind of how the warehouse underground is to. And I appreciate that part of that. And I really like it. And thank you very much for coming on the show, my friend. I mean, I love chatting with you, right? You think you want to. Let's do a part two. You want to come back for a part two. You want to do a part two in the future? Yeah,
Speaker 2
[00.54.34]
man. We can drill down into a specific topic if you want or talk about personal stories. If you got value out of that. And hope you'll come on my show, because I don't really, you know, I won't ask you all kind of things and learn about your story and where you come from. And I love your background, by the way. This. Yeah. I mean, you're doing such a professional job, man. I ain't got all this professional stuff. It's just me and whoever I'm talking and and sharing some stuff. But if you'd like to. Come on, I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.54.58]
absolutely. I love to do stuff like that. I hear that from from people. Sometimes they're like, hey, man, like, who's the real Ben? You know, like, we see you on your podcast and your answer and it's asking the questions. We want to hear you answer the questions. So I would definitely like to do that. And maybe we can set that up for the future. I think that would be
Speaker 2
[00.55.15]
cool. Yeah I appreciate that video. I don't know if you saw my on On the Blue Collar Leadership YouTube channel. Got a playlist called Real People Getting Real Results. I do upload the audio on my podcast, but also the videos go there. Under that playlist. I got like 30 something now, and the only people that get on that show is on on any of anything that I do. It's got to be somebody I know some kind of way and like and how I know you, you know, yesterday, yesterday, yesterday. Unless you told me you listen to my podcast or read my books, that's all somebody's got to do is have a indirect or direct connection with me. And I, I'm happy to talk to them and let them share. Let them help me motivate and inspire other people. So yeah, I love that. I mean,
Speaker 1
[00.55.54]
you never know. You never know who's listening. That's what I tell you. It could be that one guy or that one girl out there hears it and you never know. And that's enough for me. You know, if you can make a difference in one person that ears what you say, or they like what you said, or you've made them, the light bulb go off. That's that's why I do this, right. And, uh, you know, so and I know, I know, I know you identify with that. I know you know what I'm talking about
Speaker 2
[00.56.16]
when I say that job. I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on that.
Speaker 1
[00.56.21]
Yeah, you got it, my friend. So, Mark, I'll see you around. Look for Mac and I to do a part two in the future. And then I'll be appearing on the blue collar, uh, leadership podcast myself in the future. So thanks again, my friend. I appreciate it, Mac.
Speaker 2
[00.56.35]
All right. Thanks. Take care. All right, guys, that concludes today's show. I love chatting with Max story. If you've not checked him out. Blue collar leadership. Follow him on LinkedIn. Call him on a cell phone. And I don't think I've ever heard anybody give their cell phone number out. I mean, this is very authentic and very genuine. So I hope I hope that he finds nothing but success in the future, and I hope that everyone will will follow him and reach out to him and use him as a resource and a mentor, too, if they're in that space. As the Warehouse Underground goes, please sign up for the community. Almost have 230 people that have signed up for the community now inside their message boards, live shows. So we have one coming up later. I think two weeks from now we're doing another live show in there, which is which is pretty cool and some good networking with the other members in there. Check out the Tiger Team Show episode seven should be released next week. I'm trying to get episode seven outs next week, but it may be 2 or 3 weeks from now. That's the show that I do with my co-host Jordan, which is funny, sarcastic, witty, all
Speaker 1
[00.57.44]
about things going on in the world of fulfillment centers and distribution centers. So I think you will like that show. If you work in that environment, you will get the stuff that we're talking about right away. The first time that you hear it, and we think that we will like that. So thank you again for Mac. As this show goes, I will see you next week for episode number 32. God bless.
Speaker 2
[00.58.05]
Bye bye.
