William Sampson
December 8, 2020
Today on The Jay Allen Show, Jay speaks with Willaim Sampson from WK Speakers. During the conversation, they discuss the world of safety and how the DISC profile can be a benefit to you, your workplace, and your family life.
Hear it all today on The Jay Allen Show on Safety FM.
Today on The Jay Allen Show, Jay speaks with Willaim Sampson from WK Speakers. During the conversation, they discuss the world of safety and how the DISC profile can be a benefit to you, your workplace, and your family life.
Hear it all today on The Jay Allen Show on Safety FM.
[00:00:02] spk_1: this is visited, this show is brought to you by Safety FM. Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the J. Allen show. Hopefully, everything is going good and grand in your neck of the woods. Thank you for coming out once again and hanging out as we do these things that we do here on Safety FM. Thank you for taking a look at what we always have going on here. It's been very exciting seeing all the people coming out to Safety FM Plus to see what it's all about. Hopefully, you are enjoying the video streaming service. It's available everywhere, of course, anyway, so let me not take too much time at the beginning of this thing and let's get you started in talking about what we have going on here today in the show, I really think you're going to enjoy this episode as I get to talk to William from W K. Speakers. That's correct. William builds better humans, and he's not shy to say it. He is also the executive director with the John Maxwell team, certified in the dis method of behavioral analysis and having been trained by Maxwell organization, William Works with individuals, teams, companies and non leader dependent high performing teams from the bench to the boardroom. I hope you enjoy our conversation here today with William From W K. Speakers on the J. Allen Joe s. So I have to tell you, I normally don't ever have anything planned out because that's just kind of the way that it works with this thing. I just kind of dio we do some research on what we can find, and then we go from there. Are you fine with that? Sure. Absolutely good, Good, good. I love it that way because if not, then it just sounds like we're kind of robotic. And that kind of get told,
[00:01:54] spk_0: Yeah, right e. Actually, my daughter and I have talked about doing a podcast cause she's, um I've raised her to be a strong, independent thinking young woman, and it's come around to bite me and ask a couple of times, but she's very what role? I'm very conservative, but we have the ability to have, you know, really difficult conversations, but still respect one another and just learn to agree to disagree. And we thought about doing a podcast on just on that exact thing because that's, you know, something that this world needs more of right now. Oh,
[00:02:26] spk_1: absolutely. I think that's a great conversation starter, especially a great concept for a podcast, because it seems like you either have to watch or listen or do this. And that's the only people that I can speak Thio according to the majority or this other group. So it's either one way or the other. And I think that we need to sit down and have some of these conversations,
[00:02:47] spk_0: you know? And that's that's largely what I speak on is, you know, my my tagline is you saw on social media. I build better humans, and it's all based around the concept of until we can sit out around the table and have an open, honest conversation and respect each other's differences of opinion. We're never gonna get this, Get this right.
[00:03:07] spk_1: So how did that come about for you? So let's start off with that. How did that about that tag and I would imagine has to turn people on and turn some people off all at the same time. So how did you come up with
[00:03:18] spk_0: it? You know, just with E.
[00:03:23] spk_1: I don't know if I should tie that in together. I build better human than I e. That's kind of
[00:03:28] spk_0: weird. E out of left field. Okay. Eso you know, it's I worked. Really? Yes, Uh, primarily with this method of behavioral analysis. So, you know, part of what we'll talk about today is, you know, in my presentation, I do this for safety, Pete, folks and conventions and whatnot is, you know, changing the B s and your B b s. Uh, you know, and it's just changing that belief system. And it's it's all about helping people understand one another. And you know what? Our strengths. What are our weaknesses? What are our fears and helping people understand that just because I'm good at something that the jays not good at that doesn't mean Jay's not really great at other things. And if I bring J and to help me out, we can collaborate and way both. We get the best of both of us. But you know, so many times people say, Well, I got to shore up this this part of my my my being because it's not strong enough. Well, that's nonsense. You know im. My dad and brother both flew for the Navy. Ondo when I was a kid growing up, you know, you take all the standardized tests and they say, you know, you'd be a great engineer and all that I'm like, No. Yeah, I have the intellect to do it, but they don't have the I don't have the personality too, So, I mean, I could do the math. I could do the special relations. I could put stuff together, but the desire to sit down and work with work out, you know, complex equations. I'd rather go to the craft store by a knitting needle and just do a home lobotomy
[00:05:00] spk_1: e. So when did you come up with this concept? So when did you say Okay? I'm open to the idea with working with strength of other people and kind of collaborating together because a lot of people let's just be realistic are not open to that. So at what point in your career do you say Okay, this is what I would like to see.
[00:05:19] spk_0: You know, I'm I'm a high I personality style, which means I'm very outgoing in Relational. So I've always been that leader. That's that's that's sought consensus from people that are different. I mean, I was my first part of my career. I was in the clothing business, and I had I mean, I had a very diverse group of people working together, and they worked together fabulously. But it was because we way we all. We all appreciated the strength of one another. I'm and realize that we couldn't do it all. So I guess it's something I kind of intuitively have known my whole life because my dad being the engineer, my brother being the engineer, you know, they're at the opposite end of the spectrum from me. And it was, you know, when I first got when I knew it was a kid growing up, if I was gonna have a conversation with my dad, it was vastly different than Mom. Mom was pretty much as long as you're not bleeding in your home for dinner. It's good. Just go have fun. My dad wanna know where was I going? Who is that going with? What time was I gonna be back? Was it gonna cost any money? Was it gonna be dangerous? Forget it. I'll just quest mom so, so kind of understanding that when I first got into professional sales, I worked for Prudential Insurance and I sold group medical insurance. When I'm going through training, I learned, you know, reading the right book. I find out, well, architects and engineers to get our best rates, and I thought, Okay, well, that's great, But this this is gonna be like working with dad. But the rates were so good when that category it was almost like giving this stuff away. So once you once you were able to to deal with that personality style and understand how they made decisions, it was pretty simple. But I would literally sit in my car before going into a meeting and go through the mantra in my head. They think like that. They think like that. They think like that. And I just knew that is I was going to give me every detail I could think of and that they were going to ask me a ton of questions because that personality style just requires more information. They just need to know everything. They gotta have all the t's crossed all the I's dotted, and then they have to process before they didn't make a decision. So I just I mean, I just kind of intuitively knew that from dealing with my dad as a kid. So I just you know, I would give him everything I could think of, and and they would ask me questions. And, you know, I'd get back to him on a lot of stuff because it wasn't stuff that, you know, I was. I had, you know, readily at my disposal. So get it back to him. Give him time, toe process follow up on. I usually got the deal, but it was It was understanding at an intuitive level that they just they process information differently than I did. And I fast forward more years and I'll admit, and I started studying human behavior. I go, Oh, I get it that Z that's that's their that's that's That's their personalities. Down here is mine, and they're literally at opposite ends of the spectrum and their greatest fear for a C wired personality style, which is typical. Your architects, engineers, accountants, those kind of folks, um, is making is being criticized, so they will. They will hold off making a decision until they have all the facts so that they could make a decision that that's that's rock solid.
[00:08:28] spk_1: So when you look at this, do you turn around and go? That this is kind of adaptable to all industries. Because, of course, you said you were talking about insurance, and then you kind of fast forward a little bit. And now you also reference a little bit ago about that. Your You talk to a lot of people taking about taking the b s out of BBS. But now that you're dealing with safety people, do you see that they do kind of the same style before they actually make a decision?
[00:08:50] spk_0: Yeah, yeah. Uh, it depends on what? What their level is. And most of the people that I'm dealing with, the SSP You know, I've spoken to a couple of the A s S p you know, their regional conferences. And I've spoken to a number of of the local chapters on this Andi Yeah, the ones that are the the engineering mindset. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:16] spk_1: But that's kind of the the aspect that you've dealt with when you were younger, as you reference is, Well, too because of your brother and your father. So when you look at this and Ugo using the A s S p for an example, depending on where the person is inside of their career, do you almost see the same characteristics that you're having the conversation where you go? Okay, I can go here, here and here. But if I say this, I'm gonna turn them off.
[00:09:41] spk_0: You know, a lot of that comes from from just experience in working with people, on learning to read people's personality. By the way, your you, they interact with you. Um, so you mean people that air into this the safety role at the SSP level tend to be more of that, that analytical type person. But you know, you'll have a guy that that's a leader on the floor shop foreman. That's the head of the safety committee on he's He's likely going to be a completely different personalities time.
[00:10:11] spk_1: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I agree with you 100% there. So as you're doing this stuff with the A S, S p and then some of the regional ones, do you normally go into organizations as well and speak to some of the leadership that's there,
[00:10:24] spk_0: that's that's my plan. Yeah, that's that's why I speak in conflict I'm always looking for for for leverage When I'm when I'm looking for speaking gigs, e wanna be able to speak to a group of people that have that are within diverse companies. So speaking of the SSP, I mean, I've got got 50 people in the room. It's most likely I'm gonna have at least 40 companies represented there. And, of course. And if what I'm making saying telling them, make sense, then I've got access to 40 companies toe to go to work for.
[00:10:54] spk_1: So then let's kind of do some highlights then. So there's a reference that you have about the edge. So what is the edge? Tell me about the edge.
[00:11:04] spk_0: The edge
[00:11:05] spk_1: you have, you have a portion. It says that you give people the edge because you build better humans. What is the edge there that you're giving
[00:11:12] spk_0: them the edges? My belief is that the self awareness and emotional intelligence are the cornerstone of every relationship you will ever have, both personally and professionally. In that edge is the ability to understand people that don't process or don't think the same way you do. And to be able, Thio develop empathy for people that are different. And, you know, just like when we start our conversation with, you know, having the ability to thio have those open, honest conversations with people that are just different from us, whether it's, uh, whether it's, you know, racially or or sexual and text or whatever it is. If if somebody processes information, there is just different than we are. Yeah, it's real simple. When you sit down with somebody and you're the same personality type, you just click. And then there's people that that you just kind of the conversation kind of feels like it's dragging on and you're having a pull stuff out of them. Well, if you understand what their personality style is, and you could speak to them the way they need to be spoken to and provide them with the information, um, the way they receive information, then you're gonna have a better opportunity to connect with that person. So it's it's it's all about the edges about being ableto have, you know, to connect with people that are different than you are
[00:12:32] spk_1: so right now is because you get to speak toe to these different people. What are you seeing based on interactions afterwards? That they're telling you that the disconnected they're having with either their organization, their C suite, maybe even there they're the same tear? Or maybe the people that report to them? Are they telling you what they're seeing their failures based on the conversations you're having with them,
[00:12:53] spk_0: you know, not not so much. Unfortunately, um, I did. I don't really I'm not getting as much feedback on what's what's going on in their organizations is is I'd like thio.
[00:13:09] spk_1: So right now, Are you doing the majority of the stuff like Via Zoom? Or we're talking pre cove it or pre whatever. This mess is altogether or
[00:13:18] spk_0: I've been I've been speaking on this for about three years. Andi, I've done this professionally full time since January of last year, so I'm just just coming in on closing out my second year, Onda first the first.
[00:13:33] spk_1: The
[00:13:33] spk_0: first year was really just a matter of laying the groundwork and letting people know. You know what I'm talking about? Because I had and I'd come out of a software sales role that the reason I do a lot of work with SSP is in my former job, my soul, like a software that was a content management for digital signage. So we did a lot of work with with safety field. So that's kind of my connection in there. And I've got you have developed some relationships and friendships with people that are in SSP, and that's that's kind of my connection with those guys. You
[00:14:04] spk_1: kind of you are always going to go, because I was I was gonna ask, How do you go from selling insurance to How do you make it here? Because I mean it Z not the easiest place to get Thio. Most of the times it's either punishment and people or got people got here by mistake. So I want to be like, How did you get here? For sure,
[00:14:23] spk_0: you know, how did you have the people get the safety role?
[00:14:26] spk_1: Yeah, right, Because normally what happens? It's either some money spent. Somebody quit. We're gonna move you there because if we think you know some things about safety, so how are you enjoying it so far? So you're doing public speaking when, of course, it was available before. But how are you liking this? I mean, of course, doing the different things that you've done work wise. And then now you get to interact with people that are inside of the field of safety. You get to speak to them at a high level. How are you liking that? Like, do you feel personal gain out of that?
[00:14:53] spk_0: You know I love it. I say I've been in the relationship business my whole life. I've just had three different products that I've sold, if you will. Um, early in my career, I was in the clear, uh, tender clothing business. So I ran retail stores for Hart, Schaffner Marx. And as I started getting ready to, you know, start a family, I realized that wasn't that lifestyle of retail. Wasn't going to give me the freedom of my time that I wanted to be the kind of father I wanted to bay. So that's I had a lot of clients to rent insurance. My stepfather had been with potential for years and years eso that I made the transition over the financial services. I spent 15 years in that world and then transitioned out of that into software sales in 2000 and five and did that through 2000 and 18. Eso It's always been I've always been in a relationship business, So it's always been about doing something that help help my client, you know, either protect their family or in the in the software sales role. It was just helping them communicate with their with their team better.
[00:16:02] spk_1: So when you take the leap of faith of going out there and starting your own organization and you say, Hey, this is what I want to do I want to go from the bench to the boardroom. How does that actually work? How do you How long are you sitting on this gym before you decide tow truck you afford?
[00:16:16] spk_0: Um, in 2000 and 17, I was still with the company, my software company and I was I was working on a deal that would have been about 2020 22% of their top line revenue for one deal, and but it required them to make some changes to the programming, and they had some internal area systems hang ups that would make that difficult, and they were about to migrate to a different server and they would have to write the software twice, so they just said, we're not gonna do it. Eso they gave That kind of told me that they weren't in it for the long haul. So I started looking for for my last career, basically
[00:16:55] spk_1: hold on 22% of the revenue of the organization. They said they decided not to move forward with
[00:17:01] spk_0: it Well, and
[00:17:04] spk_1: hey, would almost say You can't write this stuff. It kind of writes itself. That's that.
[00:17:10] spk_0: And that was That was in of early first quarter of 17, maybe early second quarter of 17. And by third quarter of 18, they were sold. So I was I mean, I saw the writing on the wall essentially, um, but anyway, so I I I stayed with them and I started looking for content providers because I don't really feel like I had a story that was was sellable on Guy. I've been a fan of John Maxwell's for years, so I joined John Maxwell's team, and so that's why I get a lot of my content from or initially, but over the over time is I'm, you know, developing my story and working with with clients and different, different ways. E I read the time, so I pull information from also all different sources. But the bench to the boardroom really is, is talking about within an organization. You know, I used John Wooden's quote about when, when an opportunity arises, it's really too late to prepare. So within an organization, leadership has has identified, you know, a certain number of people within that organization that they see potential in. So what I wanted. What I do is I could come in and talk to them about developing their leadership skills so that when an opportunity comes for that person, you know somebody gets poached from another company, you have somebody retire. They want to open a new a new facility, new branch or whatever, or just organic growth they need. They need, you know, put together a new team, that they've got somebody that they could plug into that position that's ready to go. And if they're taking over a new team, there's not gonna be any dip in performance of that team because this person is already is already up to speed. So that's that's what I talked about on the bench. Now we get to the boardroom. We hopefully within a within a board. We've got a very We have a very diverse group of people. Unfortunately, most boards looked like the founders, especially when is in. And I worked primarily with small, medium sized company, somewhere between 50 and 500 employees. So within, within that realm there, typically privately held there, they're probably still have the owner, the founder owner. It has some piece of the puzzle. There's a company. I'm just engaged right now that that's the exact situation. The the owner founders 57 years old. He's doing very, very well. Um, he started a nonprofit, so he's working on going from success to significance. But within the board, he's everybody pretty much less like him. So what we what we really need is a board that has a more diverse background. People with you know, that did have different from different cultures that just they think differently. And the work that I do with within boards it could be for profit or nonprofit doesn't really matter. But when you've got a diverse group of people, what we need to do is figure out how how to get them to work better together. So again, I work with the disk method. Behavioral analysis. We do a disc assessment on each one of the team. We debrief the entire group together, whether it's virtually or in person s so that everybody understands the strengths, weaknesses, fears of everybody at the table. And once everybody has that knowledge, then they have the ability to, as we said earlier, to realize, Okay, well, J is really good at this, and I'm really good at that. We can work together and and here's if we're doing this type of project, here's the people we need to put together on the team to get that done and one of the way if we're on video, the analogy that I use, I've got a nice ain't pen. It's got a gold clip on it. It's got a black barrel. So what I'll do is I'll hold the clip up to the to the camera and and as and say, Look, if if if this is an issue our topic that we're trying to discuss and all you're describing is the clip, then I turn it around and see show the side that I see and all I see is the barrel. I think we're on different planets. I'm wondering what you're talking about because I don't see what you see. So with with helping people develop that self awareness and emotional intelligence, they have the ability to say, You know what? Maybe that person sees something that I don't and maybe I could be open to a new idea. And if that's the case, then I can listen to understand, not to respond. And that's one of the things that one of things that that I teach at all levels, whether it's, you know, high school kids or boards of directors, is we. We have thio. We've we've become a society that just wants to react. So when when? When somebody says something, if it doesn't sit right with with somebody, well, then they're just gonna fire back and they're going to react to it. They're not gonna respond. So just getting people to slow down enough thio to say, Well, you know, maybe they see something I don't. And one of the quotes that I worked with a lot is from Victor Frankel, who was a Holocaust survivor and a psychologist, and his his statement or his quote is between stimulus and response. There lies a space, and within that space we have the man has the opportunity to decide how he's going to respond. So it's it's all about what I what I teach is all about getting people to think differently. And that's what you know. Changing the B s and your B B s is just changing your belief systems. Yeah,
[00:22:46] spk_1: So let me ask you, let me ask a couple questions here. So when you go into an organization, as you were using the example that there is a lot of people that kind of look like the owner or the or the or the CEO and you tell them, Hey, there needs to be some diversity and inclusion here how does that conversation normally go? Because especially if this is what they built and there are smaller company being, as you said between 50 to 500 how does that normally go for them? How did they How did they take the information?
[00:23:12] spk_0: You know, that's interesting, because we just built a, uh, workshop on diversity and inclusion and one of The part of what we talk about in there is that companies that have a more diverse and inclusive workplace are significantly more successful than those that do not. Uh, and it's it's really because of the changing demographic. In the next 3 to 5 years, 75% of the workforce is gonna be made up of millennials.
[00:23:42] spk_1: Absolutely, Absolutely No. You said that you just build this course. We have to start telling people about your website. I don't want to leave them out, you know, without them knowing where we're kind of hanging out, taking a look at some of these
[00:23:51] spk_0: things UK speaker dot com wks or my initials and speaker just fit in with the S on the end of my initial. I'm a really I'm a really, really creative kind of guy because you can tell it
[00:24:07] spk_1: works as long as it works. A study of the actual work force will consist of millennials. Do you think that things will change and I'm gonna ask kind of some strange questions here because we're getting a lot of these. We'll say the cancel culture and the wool coach er, which means let's cancel people out now or the I have a better understanding now of the world from this perspective. Do you think that that will have huge impacts into the work force going for? And now, of course, I'm asking the crystal ball question. So we will take the answer however it comes about, but I understand that I'm asking for something to dio predictions. And now, if you do hit it on the on the head, I do want lottery numbers next, so just
[00:24:48] spk_0: keep that. You know, I think the answer is it can't help but change. Um, because as yeah, I'm a boomer. So as as the boomers start to retire Onda next, Gen Xers, you're one of whoever. The ones are between us and the millennials. Um, yeah, I look at my daughter. She's 28 years old, just turned 28. So she like I said earlier, she she looks at the world vastly different than I dio, but at the end of the day, we pretty much want similar things. We we do have a We do have a little different vision on what the world should look like. It could look like, um so, yeah, it's gonna have to change. I mean, our our generation changed it from from our parents and grand parents, and I think it's just the evolution of society. The part that makes me sad is, as you talk about the cancel culture and the, you know, we just way should be respectful of our history on be able to teach and talk about it without getting without getting wrapped around the axle. Um, you know, sure there was. There's good and bad things that got this country where we are. I think I'm starting feel like we're getting off on a different I'm getting on a soapbox here, and I probably gotta hop off of it. Um, but yeah, to answer your question directly, I don't think we can help but have have the workforce change based on the way the younger generation, just the way they think and act and believe.
[00:26:24] spk_1: Okay, so let me ask a perspective Question then, if you don't mind, do you take a look at this that there's almost like two different worlds that we live in at one time? And let me explain what I mean by this. So we have a kind of our our physical world that we live in like you are. You are right now where you have a conversation with somebody in person and you're there and you have the conversation. But then there's also this digital world that we live in, where it's these pictures, these videos, that we kind of change kind of some of the perspectives of what people might think of us in person because of what they see digitally. Do you think that has an impact inside of the workplace?
[00:26:54] spk_0: Without a doubt, one of things I talk about is that we tend to judge ourselves on what we know. Our weaknesses and failures are, and we tend to judge the rest of the world based on the highlight reel that we see on social media. So one of the one of the pieces that I did a lot of work with early co vid you know, his kids people were first starting to figure out the, you know, were sequestered at home. Our kids are not in school, you know. I'm trying to figure out how to work from home. My, you know, my spouse is at home now my kids are at home you know, how am I supposed to do my job if I still have one in all the stresses, it comes with that change the environment. Um, so the piece I did was called family stress to family best, And basically, what it does is it helps parents look at their Children or pay attention to their Children and notice cues on how they how they respond to things or how they react and help them understand that this it's a 10,000 ft level presentation. But it gives them some tips and q's on how toe understand what personality style their child Maybe. And if that's their personality style, here's Here's how that's personality style response to stress. So when a parent can understand about their child that they're not, they're not acting out because they're trying to be little jerks. They're just they respond to stress. And that's part of what emotional intelligence is. Is understanding how how things impact our ability to to make decisions, how how stressors or triggers impact our ability to get along with each other? How to respond? Um, and a lot of times, if people aren't self aware enough to understand that that they're they're acting differently because they're stressed out then then they they don't know. So what happens is the more million part of our brain, the animal part of our brain just starts to react. So one of the things that we've seen is a huge rise in domestic violence and child abuse in those kind of things, because people are stressed out, they don't they don't have to talk about, you know, we we has got especially with these guys. We just say, Well, you know, just suck it up. Buttercup, just bear your feelings. Get damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead. Go on. But if we understand that that were responding differently to our our our Children, our spouses or or anybody in our lives because we're stressed out If we can understand that, then we could say, Hey, look, you know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean I didn't mean to blow up. I'm just really stressed out about X, y or Z once. Once we once we breathe it into to the universal, we can talk about it Then Then we can change things because you can't be wary of something until you're anywhere of it. once You're a word.
[00:29:44] spk_1: Well, it's interesting that you say that because you are seeing a lot more conversations now about emotional intelligence. You also are seeing conversations about depression. You're seeing conversations about people contemplating suicide. We're also seeing that the suicide rate has gone up since the pandemic. So as you see these things and you speak about him, do you think this is becoming mawr closer to the forefront now? Or do you think that we still have tons of work to dio to bring this to
[00:30:13] spk_0: the forefront? Uh, yes, both. It is coming to the forefront more, but we still got what We still got a long way to go. Um, because and in one of the pieces I'm working on right now is A is a six piece and six unit program, for it was designed for kids in high school to help them understand, you know what? Just basically how to think differently. And it starts off with the disc assessment, helping them understand that it talks about that, you know, attitude of mindset, changing your change. If you change your mind, you could change your outcome. Um, and it's based on a quote that I buddy of mine and I came up with over dinner one night way said that your circumstances air no more responsible for your results or your actions, and the mirror is for your appearance. So it's getting people and I. Interestingly enough, I use the same curriculum in a business accelerator program because we're just We got to teach people to think eso
[00:31:17] spk_1: let let me ask you when you say that because let this kind of give some perspective. If you don't mind. Of course. Do you think that someone who might be born into privilege And let's say, for instance, my my parents have a leader jet have the same thing as somebody who might be that was born into poverty with a single parent?
[00:31:37] spk_0: Um, you know, it's if you if you're born into privilege, then you you have access to things that people that that are about born into poverty don't have the one of the other things I have. And people have to listen because it's it's close to something else is you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it. Think,
[00:32:01] spk_1: think, not drink. Okay, Got
[00:32:02] spk_0: it. Um So you know, we we can. And this is the and this goes back to my my statement about, you know, way judge ourselves on our weaknesses and failures and everybody else on the highlight reel. I, you know, worked with CEOs that have have the deal with the same same emotional issues that the people that they're you know, they're they're worried about making their next rent payment. Have, um, and it's mhm. We've We've taught people how to do things. We haven't taught people how to think about how to do things. So, um, yes, if if you've got privilege, you have access to it. The question is, and we see lots of we see lots of people that have plenty of money that are born into extreme privilege that turn out to be useless because they
[00:32:55] spk_1: e think it's a fair assessment. But I just wanted to get your perspective on it, because, yes, I think that it's a it's a combination of both its's, depending on whatever you decide to move forward with. I think it's depends on how you look at your perspective and how you want to proceed. So no, I mean believe I don't think there is a wrong answer. I definitely don't get there. Right. Answer either. But I just wanted to see what you thought
[00:33:17] spk_0: about one of things that the in this in this program that I talked about is, um, with two s's in the module on responsibility, and it's talking about whether you have an internal or external locus of control. So somebody that has an internal locus of control, for example, believes that they have control, that they understand that there's certain things that they can control, and that's what they focus on. They understand that there there's events that they have no control over mhm that will affect them. But they But they understand that. That's that's not everything. Sure, sure. Something happened, Cove. It came up. I have no control over Cove in what I have control over is how I respond to Koven. Okay, so I make sure that I'm you know, I wash my hands, I take my vitamins, I wear my mask. I make sure I don't get close to people that are sneezing or coughing and that kind of stuff and then you've got people have the external locus of control that believe there's nothing that they could do about it, that it's just, you know, the world is just just a dark, dingy place that has it just wakes up every morning, conspire on how they can, how they could make William Sampson feel bad. And that's that. T get people to think past that. And and you know, a lot of times that has to do with privilege. People that have privilege think Well, OK, I got some. I have some ability to control this, whereas people that are not born into privilege think that the world, you know, I'm poor because my parents were poor and they're poor because they're my grand parents were poor and, you know, they just back to the If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. They don't Nobody's nobody's help them understand that they have the ability to. If they don't like your circumstances, all they have to do is change their their their thought process and their thought process will change there. Their their habits and their habits will change their outcome. So to understand that you you have control over just damn near anything. You know, when we look at we look at people that have risen from And I love Ben Carson, for example, uh, you know, with the story back Carson and his mom, you know, she was a domestic and she realized that that the the environment that she worked in and the environment she lived in were vastly different. And what she recognized was the number of books that were in the house of the people that she worked for versus the number of books that were in the homes of the people she lived with. So she may have been in his brother. Read a book. I don't know what Remember what the time frame was, but once a week, once or twice a month, whatever waas and write a report for Carson was in was in medical school. Before he realized or found out that his mom couldn't read, she had never been able to read any of them of the reports that they had written. But she still made him do it
[00:36:13] spk_1: right. It's a It's a great story with that and that za fun part about it. Now let me ask something kind of strange here because we talked about it briefly, but we really didn't take a dive into it. You start talking about the disc profile. How old do you think someone should be when they do it the first time?
[00:36:31] spk_0: Um, you know, we have way. And I say we that's Maxwell's organization. We have, uh, report reports based on disk for kids as young as a Okay, So with the youngsters, it's all a matter of, you know, this is where you get your energy from. You know, Alan gets his energy from this. William gets his energy from that. Mikey gets his energy from that Susie, get your energy from here and once not right or wrong or good or bad, they're just different. So that's part of especially with younger kid with kids from eight to, you know, eight Thio do into their teens. That's part of that developing self awareness and emotional intelligence. It's like, Okay, you know, because it just it z Part of what we talked about earlier was just because I get my energy from this and and analogous his energy from that once not good or bad or right or wrong, they're just different and when we can understand that, it's okay and cool to be different. One of the things that goes away, or at least has reduced his bullying. Because if a bully comes up to you on the playground, says Allen, your a believable Blankety blank, blank blank. And if you don't have any self awareness, you go. Gosh, maybe I am. So now you've you've taken on that that which somebody else is placed on you, which is not your It's not yours to carry in the first place. But if you've got good self awareness and the bullet comes up, says out on your Blankety Blankety blank and you go, No, not no, that's a different conversation. A bully could be, you know, 50 years old, be a CEO of the company. Or it could be a line manager or he could be a You know, you could be a safety safety engineer. Now
[00:38:18] spk_1: it is very interesting on how you tie that in together, and I think it's a great especially if you're saying is the young age of eight. Now here's another question for you regards the disc profile. How free you think people should actually take it.
[00:38:31] spk_0: You know periodically its's your basic core. Who you are is not really going to change. It will change based on your circumstances sometimes. So, for example, if I'm working with a an executive in his company and he says, You know what? This would be really helpful for me, for my family to do so we could understand the families. And that's part of what I was doing when I was with this This summer in spring, with the family stress to family Best is giving giving people kind of a 10,000 ft level, but also saying, Look, if you if you're interested in doing a an actual assessment, um, of you and your kids and your your family and do the debrief within the family, you know well, I'll charge you to do that. But the seminar was free, Um, but if if we do it with an executive at work and he wants to do at home, I'll say, I want you to retake that The assessment based on you know who you what? Your role is at home because you may be a high powered executive at home, but you get at home and Typically, Mama wears the pants in a lot of areas, So you will. You will respond differently to that assessment in the home environment as opposed to the work environment. So I would I would definitely say in that situation. It should be redone. But typically your who you are fundamentally is probably won't change unless you're doing. You know, if you're doing a personal development and you're you're working on yourself and changing yourself, you will have. You will have better awareness. But again, it's probably not going to change who you are. Fundamentally.
[00:40:17] spk_1: Yeah, And of course, depending I've heard different things. I've heard one guy say between 5 to 10 years, and I was like, That seems okay But then I was like, kind of looked at It was like, Does it make enough sense to do for it? And being there's something it sounds like that you interact with? Quite quite often, I figured I would ask the question,
[00:40:35] spk_0: Yeah, and I you know, And this is just one of many assessments. There's e worked with a guy. We're just we're starting to do some partnership with the guy who's, um he's worked with a lot of really big companies like the Alcatel's and Johnson and Johnson. Those kind of folks, Um, and he's He's got 15 different assessments. You know the process. You know what? Your what? Your cognitive skills. How do you You know what? Your value based skills, what do you How do you process information, you know, from your perceptive styles or the those kind of things. So looking at different how you respond in different environments and different, um, just assessing different parts of the personality. And that's that's part of what I'm working on with this program is that's what I want to do is take this into schools where I will do the kind of the first part of it. We're helping helping the kids do. Do the assessments understand their their personality style kind of get it started, and then the balance of it would be kind of a train. The trainer thing for the for the teachers to facilitate the other five modules as as they go through this. Um, so
[00:41:56] spk_1: So let me let me ask you this. So right now, with a lot of the stuff that you're mentioning, is this learning management systems that you have available via your website, or is this actual courses that you teach
[00:42:07] spk_0: personally? What I teach and and and and part of what I'm what I will be doing the towards the end of this year in first quarter of next year is making that more virtual where that's available on my website. Okay, you know, I think again, back to you, you can lead a horse to water which can make you think you can. I can have this all available on my on my my website. But unless there's there's some triggering event to get somebody to go, you know what I need that and that's that's where it comes from from me being out there speaking and in helping make people aware, because until, like I said earlier, until you can't be where something until you're anywhere of it. And so what my my job is the speaker is is to make people aware of ways that they could be better. They could be that better human on day could be a better human by first of all, understanding themselves and those that are close to him because one of things that I my frequent statement says. Until you're the best version of yourself, you're not going to be the person that those who depend on you need you to be
[00:43:17] spk_1: so true. E think True statement has not been said. Now if people want to know more information about you in the service offerings, that you have work and they go to find out more information
[00:43:26] spk_0: on my website e speaker
[00:43:28] spk_1: dot com Well, I appreciate you coming on to the show
[00:43:32] spk_0: today. It's been my pleasure.
[00:43:35] spk_1: Well, I hope you enjoyed our conversation today with William from WK Speaker. To find out more information about William go to w k speaker dot com. You've been taking a listen to the J. Allen show exclusively on Safety FM, the radio station, the podcast network and whatever portion of the volte version you wanna be tied into anyways. Always thank you for being the best part of safety FM, and that is the listener. Safety FM is the home of real safety talk. Well, don't be worried. We'll be back with another episode of the J. Allen Show before too long. Goodbye for now. Want more of the J Allen show, don't you? Safety FM dot com.
[00:44:28] spk_0: The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the host and its guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within this podcast are only examples. It should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they're based only on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast, maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast, Jay Allen E.
Hear it all today on The Jay Allen Show on Safety FM.
[00:00:02] spk_1: this is visited, this show is brought to you by Safety FM. Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the J. Allen show. Hopefully, everything is going good and grand in your neck of the woods. Thank you for coming out once again and hanging out as we do these things that we do here on Safety FM. Thank you for taking a look at what we always have going on here. It's been very exciting seeing all the people coming out to Safety FM Plus to see what it's all about. Hopefully, you are enjoying the video streaming service. It's available everywhere, of course, anyway, so let me not take too much time at the beginning of this thing and let's get you started in talking about what we have going on here today in the show, I really think you're going to enjoy this episode as I get to talk to William from W K. Speakers. That's correct. William builds better humans, and he's not shy to say it. He is also the executive director with the John Maxwell team, certified in the dis method of behavioral analysis and having been trained by Maxwell organization, William Works with individuals, teams, companies and non leader dependent high performing teams from the bench to the boardroom. I hope you enjoy our conversation here today with William From W K. Speakers on the J. Allen Joe s. So I have to tell you, I normally don't ever have anything planned out because that's just kind of the way that it works with this thing. I just kind of dio we do some research on what we can find, and then we go from there. Are you fine with that? Sure. Absolutely good, Good, good. I love it that way because if not, then it just sounds like we're kind of robotic. And that kind of get told,
[00:01:54] spk_0: Yeah, right e. Actually, my daughter and I have talked about doing a podcast cause she's, um I've raised her to be a strong, independent thinking young woman, and it's come around to bite me and ask a couple of times, but she's very what role? I'm very conservative, but we have the ability to have, you know, really difficult conversations, but still respect one another and just learn to agree to disagree. And we thought about doing a podcast on just on that exact thing because that's, you know, something that this world needs more of right now. Oh,
[00:02:26] spk_1: absolutely. I think that's a great conversation starter, especially a great concept for a podcast, because it seems like you either have to watch or listen or do this. And that's the only people that I can speak Thio according to the majority or this other group. So it's either one way or the other. And I think that we need to sit down and have some of these conversations,
[00:02:47] spk_0: you know? And that's that's largely what I speak on is, you know, my my tagline is you saw on social media. I build better humans, and it's all based around the concept of until we can sit out around the table and have an open, honest conversation and respect each other's differences of opinion. We're never gonna get this, Get this right.
[00:03:07] spk_1: So how did that come about for you? So let's start off with that. How did that about that tag and I would imagine has to turn people on and turn some people off all at the same time. So how did you come up with
[00:03:18] spk_0: it? You know, just with E.
[00:03:23] spk_1: I don't know if I should tie that in together. I build better human than I e. That's kind of
[00:03:28] spk_0: weird. E out of left field. Okay. Eso you know, it's I worked. Really? Yes, Uh, primarily with this method of behavioral analysis. So, you know, part of what we'll talk about today is, you know, in my presentation, I do this for safety, Pete, folks and conventions and whatnot is, you know, changing the B s and your B b s. Uh, you know, and it's just changing that belief system. And it's it's all about helping people understand one another. And you know what? Our strengths. What are our weaknesses? What are our fears and helping people understand that just because I'm good at something that the jays not good at that doesn't mean Jay's not really great at other things. And if I bring J and to help me out, we can collaborate and way both. We get the best of both of us. But you know, so many times people say, Well, I got to shore up this this part of my my my being because it's not strong enough. Well, that's nonsense. You know im. My dad and brother both flew for the Navy. Ondo when I was a kid growing up, you know, you take all the standardized tests and they say, you know, you'd be a great engineer and all that I'm like, No. Yeah, I have the intellect to do it, but they don't have the I don't have the personality too, So, I mean, I could do the math. I could do the special relations. I could put stuff together, but the desire to sit down and work with work out, you know, complex equations. I'd rather go to the craft store by a knitting needle and just do a home lobotomy
[00:05:00] spk_1: e. So when did you come up with this concept? So when did you say Okay? I'm open to the idea with working with strength of other people and kind of collaborating together because a lot of people let's just be realistic are not open to that. So at what point in your career do you say Okay, this is what I would like to see.
[00:05:19] spk_0: You know, I'm I'm a high I personality style, which means I'm very outgoing in Relational. So I've always been that leader. That's that's that's sought consensus from people that are different. I mean, I was my first part of my career. I was in the clothing business, and I had I mean, I had a very diverse group of people working together, and they worked together fabulously. But it was because we way we all. We all appreciated the strength of one another. I'm and realize that we couldn't do it all. So I guess it's something I kind of intuitively have known my whole life because my dad being the engineer, my brother being the engineer, you know, they're at the opposite end of the spectrum from me. And it was, you know, when I first got when I knew it was a kid growing up, if I was gonna have a conversation with my dad, it was vastly different than Mom. Mom was pretty much as long as you're not bleeding in your home for dinner. It's good. Just go have fun. My dad wanna know where was I going? Who is that going with? What time was I gonna be back? Was it gonna cost any money? Was it gonna be dangerous? Forget it. I'll just quest mom so, so kind of understanding that when I first got into professional sales, I worked for Prudential Insurance and I sold group medical insurance. When I'm going through training, I learned, you know, reading the right book. I find out, well, architects and engineers to get our best rates, and I thought, Okay, well, that's great, But this this is gonna be like working with dad. But the rates were so good when that category it was almost like giving this stuff away. So once you once you were able to to deal with that personality style and understand how they made decisions, it was pretty simple. But I would literally sit in my car before going into a meeting and go through the mantra in my head. They think like that. They think like that. They think like that. And I just knew that is I was going to give me every detail I could think of and that they were going to ask me a ton of questions because that personality style just requires more information. They just need to know everything. They gotta have all the t's crossed all the I's dotted, and then they have to process before they didn't make a decision. So I just I mean, I just kind of intuitively knew that from dealing with my dad as a kid. So I just you know, I would give him everything I could think of, and and they would ask me questions. And, you know, I'd get back to him on a lot of stuff because it wasn't stuff that, you know, I was. I had, you know, readily at my disposal. So get it back to him. Give him time, toe process follow up on. I usually got the deal, but it was It was understanding at an intuitive level that they just they process information differently than I did. And I fast forward more years and I'll admit, and I started studying human behavior. I go, Oh, I get it that Z that's that's their that's that's That's their personalities. Down here is mine, and they're literally at opposite ends of the spectrum and their greatest fear for a C wired personality style, which is typical. Your architects, engineers, accountants, those kind of folks, um, is making is being criticized, so they will. They will hold off making a decision until they have all the facts so that they could make a decision that that's that's rock solid.
[00:08:28] spk_1: So when you look at this, do you turn around and go? That this is kind of adaptable to all industries. Because, of course, you said you were talking about insurance, and then you kind of fast forward a little bit. And now you also reference a little bit ago about that. Your You talk to a lot of people taking about taking the b s out of BBS. But now that you're dealing with safety people, do you see that they do kind of the same style before they actually make a decision?
[00:08:50] spk_0: Yeah, yeah. Uh, it depends on what? What their level is. And most of the people that I'm dealing with, the SSP You know, I've spoken to a couple of the A s S p you know, their regional conferences. And I've spoken to a number of of the local chapters on this Andi Yeah, the ones that are the the engineering mindset. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:16] spk_1: But that's kind of the the aspect that you've dealt with when you were younger, as you reference is, Well, too because of your brother and your father. So when you look at this and Ugo using the A s S p for an example, depending on where the person is inside of their career, do you almost see the same characteristics that you're having the conversation where you go? Okay, I can go here, here and here. But if I say this, I'm gonna turn them off.
[00:09:41] spk_0: You know, a lot of that comes from from just experience in working with people, on learning to read people's personality. By the way, your you, they interact with you. Um, so you mean people that air into this the safety role at the SSP level tend to be more of that, that analytical type person. But you know, you'll have a guy that that's a leader on the floor shop foreman. That's the head of the safety committee on he's He's likely going to be a completely different personalities time.
[00:10:11] spk_1: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I agree with you 100% there. So as you're doing this stuff with the A S, S p and then some of the regional ones, do you normally go into organizations as well and speak to some of the leadership that's there,
[00:10:24] spk_0: that's that's my plan. Yeah, that's that's why I speak in conflict I'm always looking for for for leverage When I'm when I'm looking for speaking gigs, e wanna be able to speak to a group of people that have that are within diverse companies. So speaking of the SSP, I mean, I've got got 50 people in the room. It's most likely I'm gonna have at least 40 companies represented there. And, of course. And if what I'm making saying telling them, make sense, then I've got access to 40 companies toe to go to work for.
[00:10:54] spk_1: So then let's kind of do some highlights then. So there's a reference that you have about the edge. So what is the edge? Tell me about the edge.
[00:11:04] spk_0: The edge
[00:11:05] spk_1: you have, you have a portion. It says that you give people the edge because you build better humans. What is the edge there that you're giving
[00:11:12] spk_0: them the edges? My belief is that the self awareness and emotional intelligence are the cornerstone of every relationship you will ever have, both personally and professionally. In that edge is the ability to understand people that don't process or don't think the same way you do. And to be able, Thio develop empathy for people that are different. And, you know, just like when we start our conversation with, you know, having the ability to thio have those open, honest conversations with people that are just different from us, whether it's, uh, whether it's, you know, racially or or sexual and text or whatever it is. If if somebody processes information, there is just different than we are. Yeah, it's real simple. When you sit down with somebody and you're the same personality type, you just click. And then there's people that that you just kind of the conversation kind of feels like it's dragging on and you're having a pull stuff out of them. Well, if you understand what their personality style is, and you could speak to them the way they need to be spoken to and provide them with the information, um, the way they receive information, then you're gonna have a better opportunity to connect with that person. So it's it's it's all about the edges about being ableto have, you know, to connect with people that are different than you are
[00:12:32] spk_1: so right now is because you get to speak toe to these different people. What are you seeing based on interactions afterwards? That they're telling you that the disconnected they're having with either their organization, their C suite, maybe even there they're the same tear? Or maybe the people that report to them? Are they telling you what they're seeing their failures based on the conversations you're having with them,
[00:12:53] spk_0: you know, not not so much. Unfortunately, um, I did. I don't really I'm not getting as much feedback on what's what's going on in their organizations is is I'd like thio.
[00:13:09] spk_1: So right now, Are you doing the majority of the stuff like Via Zoom? Or we're talking pre cove it or pre whatever. This mess is altogether or
[00:13:18] spk_0: I've been I've been speaking on this for about three years. Andi, I've done this professionally full time since January of last year, so I'm just just coming in on closing out my second year, Onda first the first.
[00:13:33] spk_1: The
[00:13:33] spk_0: first year was really just a matter of laying the groundwork and letting people know. You know what I'm talking about? Because I had and I'd come out of a software sales role that the reason I do a lot of work with SSP is in my former job, my soul, like a software that was a content management for digital signage. So we did a lot of work with with safety field. So that's kind of my connection in there. And I've got you have developed some relationships and friendships with people that are in SSP, and that's that's kind of my connection with those guys. You
[00:14:04] spk_1: kind of you are always going to go, because I was I was gonna ask, How do you go from selling insurance to How do you make it here? Because I mean it Z not the easiest place to get Thio. Most of the times it's either punishment and people or got people got here by mistake. So I want to be like, How did you get here? For sure,
[00:14:23] spk_0: you know, how did you have the people get the safety role?
[00:14:26] spk_1: Yeah, right, Because normally what happens? It's either some money spent. Somebody quit. We're gonna move you there because if we think you know some things about safety, so how are you enjoying it so far? So you're doing public speaking when, of course, it was available before. But how are you liking this? I mean, of course, doing the different things that you've done work wise. And then now you get to interact with people that are inside of the field of safety. You get to speak to them at a high level. How are you liking that? Like, do you feel personal gain out of that?
[00:14:53] spk_0: You know I love it. I say I've been in the relationship business my whole life. I've just had three different products that I've sold, if you will. Um, early in my career, I was in the clear, uh, tender clothing business. So I ran retail stores for Hart, Schaffner Marx. And as I started getting ready to, you know, start a family, I realized that wasn't that lifestyle of retail. Wasn't going to give me the freedom of my time that I wanted to be the kind of father I wanted to bay. So that's I had a lot of clients to rent insurance. My stepfather had been with potential for years and years eso that I made the transition over the financial services. I spent 15 years in that world and then transitioned out of that into software sales in 2000 and five and did that through 2000 and 18. Eso It's always been I've always been in a relationship business, So it's always been about doing something that help help my client, you know, either protect their family or in the in the software sales role. It was just helping them communicate with their with their team better.
[00:16:02] spk_1: So when you take the leap of faith of going out there and starting your own organization and you say, Hey, this is what I want to do I want to go from the bench to the boardroom. How does that actually work? How do you How long are you sitting on this gym before you decide tow truck you afford?
[00:16:16] spk_0: Um, in 2000 and 17, I was still with the company, my software company and I was I was working on a deal that would have been about 2020 22% of their top line revenue for one deal, and but it required them to make some changes to the programming, and they had some internal area systems hang ups that would make that difficult, and they were about to migrate to a different server and they would have to write the software twice, so they just said, we're not gonna do it. Eso they gave That kind of told me that they weren't in it for the long haul. So I started looking for for my last career, basically
[00:16:55] spk_1: hold on 22% of the revenue of the organization. They said they decided not to move forward with
[00:17:01] spk_0: it Well, and
[00:17:04] spk_1: hey, would almost say You can't write this stuff. It kind of writes itself. That's that.
[00:17:10] spk_0: And that was That was in of early first quarter of 17, maybe early second quarter of 17. And by third quarter of 18, they were sold. So I was I mean, I saw the writing on the wall essentially, um, but anyway, so I I I stayed with them and I started looking for content providers because I don't really feel like I had a story that was was sellable on Guy. I've been a fan of John Maxwell's for years, so I joined John Maxwell's team, and so that's why I get a lot of my content from or initially, but over the over time is I'm, you know, developing my story and working with with clients and different, different ways. E I read the time, so I pull information from also all different sources. But the bench to the boardroom really is, is talking about within an organization. You know, I used John Wooden's quote about when, when an opportunity arises, it's really too late to prepare. So within an organization, leadership has has identified, you know, a certain number of people within that organization that they see potential in. So what I wanted. What I do is I could come in and talk to them about developing their leadership skills so that when an opportunity comes for that person, you know somebody gets poached from another company, you have somebody retire. They want to open a new a new facility, new branch or whatever, or just organic growth they need. They need, you know, put together a new team, that they've got somebody that they could plug into that position that's ready to go. And if they're taking over a new team, there's not gonna be any dip in performance of that team because this person is already is already up to speed. So that's that's what I talked about on the bench. Now we get to the boardroom. We hopefully within a within a board. We've got a very We have a very diverse group of people. Unfortunately, most boards looked like the founders, especially when is in. And I worked primarily with small, medium sized company, somewhere between 50 and 500 employees. So within, within that realm there, typically privately held there, they're probably still have the owner, the founder owner. It has some piece of the puzzle. There's a company. I'm just engaged right now that that's the exact situation. The the owner founders 57 years old. He's doing very, very well. Um, he started a nonprofit, so he's working on going from success to significance. But within the board, he's everybody pretty much less like him. So what we what we really need is a board that has a more diverse background. People with you know, that did have different from different cultures that just they think differently. And the work that I do with within boards it could be for profit or nonprofit doesn't really matter. But when you've got a diverse group of people, what we need to do is figure out how how to get them to work better together. So again, I work with the disk method. Behavioral analysis. We do a disc assessment on each one of the team. We debrief the entire group together, whether it's virtually or in person s so that everybody understands the strengths, weaknesses, fears of everybody at the table. And once everybody has that knowledge, then they have the ability to, as we said earlier, to realize, Okay, well, J is really good at this, and I'm really good at that. We can work together and and here's if we're doing this type of project, here's the people we need to put together on the team to get that done and one of the way if we're on video, the analogy that I use, I've got a nice ain't pen. It's got a gold clip on it. It's got a black barrel. So what I'll do is I'll hold the clip up to the to the camera and and as and say, Look, if if if this is an issue our topic that we're trying to discuss and all you're describing is the clip, then I turn it around and see show the side that I see and all I see is the barrel. I think we're on different planets. I'm wondering what you're talking about because I don't see what you see. So with with helping people develop that self awareness and emotional intelligence, they have the ability to say, You know what? Maybe that person sees something that I don't and maybe I could be open to a new idea. And if that's the case, then I can listen to understand, not to respond. And that's one of the things that one of things that that I teach at all levels, whether it's, you know, high school kids or boards of directors, is we. We have thio. We've we've become a society that just wants to react. So when when? When somebody says something, if it doesn't sit right with with somebody, well, then they're just gonna fire back and they're going to react to it. They're not gonna respond. So just getting people to slow down enough thio to say, Well, you know, maybe they see something I don't. And one of the quotes that I worked with a lot is from Victor Frankel, who was a Holocaust survivor and a psychologist, and his his statement or his quote is between stimulus and response. There lies a space, and within that space we have the man has the opportunity to decide how he's going to respond. So it's it's all about what I what I teach is all about getting people to think differently. And that's what you know. Changing the B s and your B B s is just changing your belief systems. Yeah,
[00:22:46] spk_1: So let me ask you, let me ask a couple questions here. So when you go into an organization, as you were using the example that there is a lot of people that kind of look like the owner or the or the or the CEO and you tell them, Hey, there needs to be some diversity and inclusion here how does that conversation normally go? Because especially if this is what they built and there are smaller company being, as you said between 50 to 500 how does that normally go for them? How did they How did they take the information?
[00:23:12] spk_0: You know, that's interesting, because we just built a, uh, workshop on diversity and inclusion and one of The part of what we talk about in there is that companies that have a more diverse and inclusive workplace are significantly more successful than those that do not. Uh, and it's it's really because of the changing demographic. In the next 3 to 5 years, 75% of the workforce is gonna be made up of millennials.
[00:23:42] spk_1: Absolutely, Absolutely No. You said that you just build this course. We have to start telling people about your website. I don't want to leave them out, you know, without them knowing where we're kind of hanging out, taking a look at some of these
[00:23:51] spk_0: things UK speaker dot com wks or my initials and speaker just fit in with the S on the end of my initial. I'm a really I'm a really, really creative kind of guy because you can tell it
[00:24:07] spk_1: works as long as it works. A study of the actual work force will consist of millennials. Do you think that things will change and I'm gonna ask kind of some strange questions here because we're getting a lot of these. We'll say the cancel culture and the wool coach er, which means let's cancel people out now or the I have a better understanding now of the world from this perspective. Do you think that that will have huge impacts into the work force going for? And now, of course, I'm asking the crystal ball question. So we will take the answer however it comes about, but I understand that I'm asking for something to dio predictions. And now, if you do hit it on the on the head, I do want lottery numbers next, so just
[00:24:48] spk_0: keep that. You know, I think the answer is it can't help but change. Um, because as yeah, I'm a boomer. So as as the boomers start to retire Onda next, Gen Xers, you're one of whoever. The ones are between us and the millennials. Um, yeah, I look at my daughter. She's 28 years old, just turned 28. So she like I said earlier, she she looks at the world vastly different than I dio, but at the end of the day, we pretty much want similar things. We we do have a We do have a little different vision on what the world should look like. It could look like, um so, yeah, it's gonna have to change. I mean, our our generation changed it from from our parents and grand parents, and I think it's just the evolution of society. The part that makes me sad is, as you talk about the cancel culture and the, you know, we just way should be respectful of our history on be able to teach and talk about it without getting without getting wrapped around the axle. Um, you know, sure there was. There's good and bad things that got this country where we are. I think I'm starting feel like we're getting off on a different I'm getting on a soapbox here, and I probably gotta hop off of it. Um, but yeah, to answer your question directly, I don't think we can help but have have the workforce change based on the way the younger generation, just the way they think and act and believe.
[00:26:24] spk_1: Okay, so let me ask a perspective Question then, if you don't mind, do you take a look at this that there's almost like two different worlds that we live in at one time? And let me explain what I mean by this. So we have a kind of our our physical world that we live in like you are. You are right now where you have a conversation with somebody in person and you're there and you have the conversation. But then there's also this digital world that we live in, where it's these pictures, these videos, that we kind of change kind of some of the perspectives of what people might think of us in person because of what they see digitally. Do you think that has an impact inside of the workplace?
[00:26:54] spk_0: Without a doubt, one of things I talk about is that we tend to judge ourselves on what we know. Our weaknesses and failures are, and we tend to judge the rest of the world based on the highlight reel that we see on social media. So one of the one of the pieces that I did a lot of work with early co vid you know, his kids people were first starting to figure out the, you know, were sequestered at home. Our kids are not in school, you know. I'm trying to figure out how to work from home. My, you know, my spouse is at home now my kids are at home you know, how am I supposed to do my job if I still have one in all the stresses, it comes with that change the environment. Um, so the piece I did was called family stress to family best, And basically, what it does is it helps parents look at their Children or pay attention to their Children and notice cues on how they how they respond to things or how they react and help them understand that this it's a 10,000 ft level presentation. But it gives them some tips and q's on how toe understand what personality style their child Maybe. And if that's their personality style, here's Here's how that's personality style response to stress. So when a parent can understand about their child that they're not, they're not acting out because they're trying to be little jerks. They're just they respond to stress. And that's part of what emotional intelligence is. Is understanding how how things impact our ability to to make decisions, how how stressors or triggers impact our ability to get along with each other? How to respond? Um, and a lot of times, if people aren't self aware enough to understand that that they're they're acting differently because they're stressed out then then they they don't know. So what happens is the more million part of our brain, the animal part of our brain just starts to react. So one of the things that we've seen is a huge rise in domestic violence and child abuse in those kind of things, because people are stressed out, they don't they don't have to talk about, you know, we we has got especially with these guys. We just say, Well, you know, just suck it up. Buttercup, just bear your feelings. Get damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead. Go on. But if we understand that that were responding differently to our our our Children, our spouses or or anybody in our lives because we're stressed out If we can understand that, then we could say, Hey, look, you know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean I didn't mean to blow up. I'm just really stressed out about X, y or Z once. Once we once we breathe it into to the universal, we can talk about it Then Then we can change things because you can't be wary of something until you're anywhere of it. once You're a word.
[00:29:44] spk_1: Well, it's interesting that you say that because you are seeing a lot more conversations now about emotional intelligence. You also are seeing conversations about depression. You're seeing conversations about people contemplating suicide. We're also seeing that the suicide rate has gone up since the pandemic. So as you see these things and you speak about him, do you think this is becoming mawr closer to the forefront now? Or do you think that we still have tons of work to dio to bring this to
[00:30:13] spk_0: the forefront? Uh, yes, both. It is coming to the forefront more, but we still got what We still got a long way to go. Um, because and in one of the pieces I'm working on right now is A is a six piece and six unit program, for it was designed for kids in high school to help them understand, you know what? Just basically how to think differently. And it starts off with the disc assessment, helping them understand that it talks about that, you know, attitude of mindset, changing your change. If you change your mind, you could change your outcome. Um, and it's based on a quote that I buddy of mine and I came up with over dinner one night way said that your circumstances air no more responsible for your results or your actions, and the mirror is for your appearance. So it's getting people and I. Interestingly enough, I use the same curriculum in a business accelerator program because we're just We got to teach people to think eso
[00:31:17] spk_1: let let me ask you when you say that because let this kind of give some perspective. If you don't mind. Of course. Do you think that someone who might be born into privilege And let's say, for instance, my my parents have a leader jet have the same thing as somebody who might be that was born into poverty with a single parent?
[00:31:37] spk_0: Um, you know, it's if you if you're born into privilege, then you you have access to things that people that that are about born into poverty don't have the one of the other things I have. And people have to listen because it's it's close to something else is you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it. Think,
[00:32:01] spk_1: think, not drink. Okay, Got
[00:32:02] spk_0: it. Um So you know, we we can. And this is the and this goes back to my my statement about, you know, way judge ourselves on our weaknesses and failures and everybody else on the highlight reel. I, you know, worked with CEOs that have have the deal with the same same emotional issues that the people that they're you know, they're they're worried about making their next rent payment. Have, um, and it's mhm. We've We've taught people how to do things. We haven't taught people how to think about how to do things. So, um, yes, if if you've got privilege, you have access to it. The question is, and we see lots of we see lots of people that have plenty of money that are born into extreme privilege that turn out to be useless because they
[00:32:55] spk_1: e think it's a fair assessment. But I just wanted to get your perspective on it, because, yes, I think that it's a it's a combination of both its's, depending on whatever you decide to move forward with. I think it's depends on how you look at your perspective and how you want to proceed. So no, I mean believe I don't think there is a wrong answer. I definitely don't get there. Right. Answer either. But I just wanted to see what you thought
[00:33:17] spk_0: about one of things that the in this in this program that I talked about is, um, with two s's in the module on responsibility, and it's talking about whether you have an internal or external locus of control. So somebody that has an internal locus of control, for example, believes that they have control, that they understand that there's certain things that they can control, and that's what they focus on. They understand that there there's events that they have no control over mhm that will affect them. But they But they understand that. That's that's not everything. Sure, sure. Something happened, Cove. It came up. I have no control over Cove in what I have control over is how I respond to Koven. Okay, so I make sure that I'm you know, I wash my hands, I take my vitamins, I wear my mask. I make sure I don't get close to people that are sneezing or coughing and that kind of stuff and then you've got people have the external locus of control that believe there's nothing that they could do about it, that it's just, you know, the world is just just a dark, dingy place that has it just wakes up every morning, conspire on how they can, how they could make William Sampson feel bad. And that's that. T get people to think past that. And and you know, a lot of times that has to do with privilege. People that have privilege think Well, OK, I got some. I have some ability to control this, whereas people that are not born into privilege think that the world, you know, I'm poor because my parents were poor and they're poor because they're my grand parents were poor and, you know, they just back to the If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. They don't Nobody's nobody's help them understand that they have the ability to. If they don't like your circumstances, all they have to do is change their their their thought process and their thought process will change there. Their their habits and their habits will change their outcome. So to understand that you you have control over just damn near anything. You know, when we look at we look at people that have risen from And I love Ben Carson, for example, uh, you know, with the story back Carson and his mom, you know, she was a domestic and she realized that that the the environment that she worked in and the environment she lived in were vastly different. And what she recognized was the number of books that were in the house of the people that she worked for versus the number of books that were in the homes of the people she lived with. So she may have been in his brother. Read a book. I don't know what Remember what the time frame was, but once a week, once or twice a month, whatever waas and write a report for Carson was in was in medical school. Before he realized or found out that his mom couldn't read, she had never been able to read any of them of the reports that they had written. But she still made him do it
[00:36:13] spk_1: right. It's a It's a great story with that and that za fun part about it. Now let me ask something kind of strange here because we talked about it briefly, but we really didn't take a dive into it. You start talking about the disc profile. How old do you think someone should be when they do it the first time?
[00:36:31] spk_0: Um, you know, we have way. And I say we that's Maxwell's organization. We have, uh, report reports based on disk for kids as young as a Okay, So with the youngsters, it's all a matter of, you know, this is where you get your energy from. You know, Alan gets his energy from this. William gets his energy from that. Mikey gets his energy from that Susie, get your energy from here and once not right or wrong or good or bad, they're just different. So that's part of especially with younger kid with kids from eight to, you know, eight Thio do into their teens. That's part of that developing self awareness and emotional intelligence. It's like, Okay, you know, because it just it z Part of what we talked about earlier was just because I get my energy from this and and analogous his energy from that once not good or bad or right or wrong, they're just different and when we can understand that, it's okay and cool to be different. One of the things that goes away, or at least has reduced his bullying. Because if a bully comes up to you on the playground, says Allen, your a believable Blankety blank, blank blank. And if you don't have any self awareness, you go. Gosh, maybe I am. So now you've you've taken on that that which somebody else is placed on you, which is not your It's not yours to carry in the first place. But if you've got good self awareness and the bullet comes up, says out on your Blankety Blankety blank and you go, No, not no, that's a different conversation. A bully could be, you know, 50 years old, be a CEO of the company. Or it could be a line manager or he could be a You know, you could be a safety safety engineer. Now
[00:38:18] spk_1: it is very interesting on how you tie that in together, and I think it's a great especially if you're saying is the young age of eight. Now here's another question for you regards the disc profile. How free you think people should actually take it.
[00:38:31] spk_0: You know periodically its's your basic core. Who you are is not really going to change. It will change based on your circumstances sometimes. So, for example, if I'm working with a an executive in his company and he says, You know what? This would be really helpful for me, for my family to do so we could understand the families. And that's part of what I was doing when I was with this This summer in spring, with the family stress to family Best is giving giving people kind of a 10,000 ft level, but also saying, Look, if you if you're interested in doing a an actual assessment, um, of you and your kids and your your family and do the debrief within the family, you know well, I'll charge you to do that. But the seminar was free, Um, but if if we do it with an executive at work and he wants to do at home, I'll say, I want you to retake that The assessment based on you know who you what? Your role is at home because you may be a high powered executive at home, but you get at home and Typically, Mama wears the pants in a lot of areas, So you will. You will respond differently to that assessment in the home environment as opposed to the work environment. So I would I would definitely say in that situation. It should be redone. But typically your who you are fundamentally is probably won't change unless you're doing. You know, if you're doing a personal development and you're you're working on yourself and changing yourself, you will have. You will have better awareness. But again, it's probably not going to change who you are. Fundamentally.
[00:40:17] spk_1: Yeah, And of course, depending I've heard different things. I've heard one guy say between 5 to 10 years, and I was like, That seems okay But then I was like, kind of looked at It was like, Does it make enough sense to do for it? And being there's something it sounds like that you interact with? Quite quite often, I figured I would ask the question,
[00:40:35] spk_0: Yeah, and I you know, And this is just one of many assessments. There's e worked with a guy. We're just we're starting to do some partnership with the guy who's, um he's worked with a lot of really big companies like the Alcatel's and Johnson and Johnson. Those kind of folks, Um, and he's He's got 15 different assessments. You know the process. You know what? Your what? Your cognitive skills. How do you You know what? Your value based skills, what do you How do you process information, you know, from your perceptive styles or the those kind of things. So looking at different how you respond in different environments and different, um, just assessing different parts of the personality. And that's that's part of what I'm working on with this program is that's what I want to do is take this into schools where I will do the kind of the first part of it. We're helping helping the kids do. Do the assessments understand their their personality style kind of get it started, and then the balance of it would be kind of a train. The trainer thing for the for the teachers to facilitate the other five modules as as they go through this. Um, so
[00:41:56] spk_1: So let me let me ask you this. So right now, with a lot of the stuff that you're mentioning, is this learning management systems that you have available via your website, or is this actual courses that you teach
[00:42:07] spk_0: personally? What I teach and and and and part of what I'm what I will be doing the towards the end of this year in first quarter of next year is making that more virtual where that's available on my website. Okay, you know, I think again, back to you, you can lead a horse to water which can make you think you can. I can have this all available on my on my my website. But unless there's there's some triggering event to get somebody to go, you know what I need that and that's that's where it comes from from me being out there speaking and in helping make people aware, because until, like I said earlier, until you can't be where something until you're anywhere of it. And so what my my job is the speaker is is to make people aware of ways that they could be better. They could be that better human on day could be a better human by first of all, understanding themselves and those that are close to him because one of things that I my frequent statement says. Until you're the best version of yourself, you're not going to be the person that those who depend on you need you to be
[00:43:17] spk_1: so true. E think True statement has not been said. Now if people want to know more information about you in the service offerings, that you have work and they go to find out more information
[00:43:26] spk_0: on my website e speaker
[00:43:28] spk_1: dot com Well, I appreciate you coming on to the show
[00:43:32] spk_0: today. It's been my pleasure.
[00:43:35] spk_1: Well, I hope you enjoyed our conversation today with William from WK Speaker. To find out more information about William go to w k speaker dot com. You've been taking a listen to the J. Allen show exclusively on Safety FM, the radio station, the podcast network and whatever portion of the volte version you wanna be tied into anyways. Always thank you for being the best part of safety FM, and that is the listener. Safety FM is the home of real safety talk. Well, don't be worried. We'll be back with another episode of the J. Allen Show before too long. Goodbye for now. Want more of the J Allen show, don't you? Safety FM dot com.
[00:44:28] spk_0: The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the host and its guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within this podcast are only examples. It should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they're based only on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast, maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast, Jay Allen E.