Unpacked with Ron Harvey
People Always Matter. Join Ron as he unpacks leadership with his guests.
Unpacked with Ron Harvey
The People-Pleasing CEO: Finding Balance Between Service and Self-Care
Ron Harvey speaks with James Spearman, an aircraft maintenance shop owner and Air Force National Guard KC-135 pilot, about balancing entrepreneurship with effective leadership practices and personal wellbeing.
• James shares his aviation journey inspired by his grandfather's World War II flying experience
• People-pleasing tendencies can undermine leadership effectiveness by avoiding necessary confrontations
• Being the constant "hero" who fixes everything prevents team members from developing problem-solving skills
• Deployment 4,000 miles away forced James to let his team step up, revealing their untapped capabilities
• Working 60-80 hour weeks led to physical health issues including stress rashes and nausea
• The "oxygen mask principle" – leaders must take care of themselves first to best serve others
• Reactive leadership decisions during emotional moments rarely yield positive outcomes
• Investing in coaching and personal development is essential for entrepreneurial success
• Having crucial conversations respectfully maintains both accountability and relationships
• Taking time to think before responding to challenges prevents damaged relationships
Find James Spearman at www.spearmanaircraft.com or check out his podcast, The James Spearman Show, featuring stories of aircraft owners.
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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...
Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host leadership consultant, ron Harvey of GlobalCore Strategies and Consulting. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, ron Harvey.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon. This is Ron Harvey, vice President, chief Operating Officer for Global Core Strategies and Consulting, a professional services leadership development firm based out of Columbia, south Carolina. We've been around about 11 years. We spend all of our time helping leaders be more effective at taking care of the people that they're responsible for responsible to know their direct reports. How do you do a really good job of just doing this in this world where there's so many changes, so many generations and so much happening? How do you just be an effective leader and take care of those people?
Speaker 2:So that's what I do on a day to day basis, you know, within our organization, but I pause and do a podcast for our guests and for our people around the globe that listen and tune in to give them practical knowledge and wisdom and best practices about leadership and about some challenges and about what other people are doing that they may not ever encounter in person. So I love that our guests come from all over to do that, and so, no different than all the other guests, I want to bring James on. James Spearman is, you know. He's coming out of Tennessee with us and I love to have guests with all backgrounds. So, james, I'm going to hand you the microphone man and let you introduce yourself however you wish to, and then we'll go ahead and get into the work and the questions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, ron, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate the opportunity. A little bit about me I own an aircraft maintenance shop in East Tennessee, right at the heart of the Smokies near Pigeon Forge, gatlinburg, and we have about six employees We've ranged from six to ten here, have about six employees Um, we've ranged from six to 10, um here, and we primarily focus on uh privately owned aircraft Cirrus aircraft, diamond aircraft, um, and uh now Epic aircraft as well, and so these are aircraft that are owned by a small business owner or business um, and they're using it to to airplanes are pretty much a time machine.
Speaker 2:So they can uh, they can.
Speaker 3:If, if you are a business owner and you own multiple units like, let's say, multiple locations and you need to visit a few of them all within one region within one day, this would save you a significant amount of time and make sure you could still have dinner with your family. So we also do upgrades. We're a Garmin avionics dealer and that's all of the little instruments that you see in the airplane. Normally it's taking all that out and put nice new shiny glass and it builds safety and situational awareness for the pilot. I do that during the day, and then I also fly for the Air Force National Guard in Knoxville. I fly the KC-135. It's a refueler. It refuels all the fighters and pretty much every airplane in the inventory whenever they need gas while in the air Right, so fuels the fight.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, this is intriguing. There's so many questions that just show up, you know, based on your sharing your background. So, james, you're doing two things. You're serving our country, thank you for that, you know I'm serving the country and keeping them in the air with fuel, but you're also a business owner, I mean. So you know you're you're doing things in aviation and you think leadership and you think aviation. And I use a video from the Blue Angels when I talk about leadership, about how important it is when you're 18 inches apart from each other, flying at 700 miles per hour and everything has to be just right, and I always tie that back to leadership. So I will unpack for us throughout the day is aviation and leadership, and you're in an organization that is about leadership as well, which is their National Guard. But talk about your journey. What made you get into your industry? What was intriguing enough for you to say, hey, I want to get into this space other than flying? You're upgrading, outfitting, helping business owners. What's interesting about that for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So aviation in general most people that are in it there was a point in their life where they kind of got the spark. And once you get the spark it just never goes away. And for me personally, my grandfather was a World War II aviator and he flew in World War II and then later on has become the Air Force, and so I grew up looking at pictures of him in airplanes. My dad told me stories Fortunately I never got to meet him, but got to see that growing up and then my dad took me to a local air show.
Speaker 3:Normally there's a local airport around and they'll have, you know, little fly-ins and air shows and it was no different there. And my dad took me there and I was in middle school and I just kind of made up my mind this is it, this is what I'm going to do. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like. I actually wanted to fix the planes to start with, which I still do. I just that was the first thing that kind of caught me. I wanted to be a mechanic and then, as I started fixing them, I thought that would be pretty cool to fly these things too. So fast forward. I also my was a, an artist, and he always worked for himself, and so I always kind of had a little bit of an entrepreneurial bug in me, and so it it was unique that the opportunities aligned where I was able to purchase a business in aviation, where my experience, my degree was in wow, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:So, as you, so as you, you like you say you're, you're running, you know, sometimes with the 10 people in your organization. What do you, what do you tell people that that have a staff? When you think of leadership in your role and and and taking care of your team, what are some of the skill sets that you bring to the table to make sure that that? Because what you're doing is important, especially, like you know, I talk to friends now and you look at all of the things that aviation is going through. There's a lot of challenges and changes that people are nervous about aviation. How do you keep your team grounded as a leader with all that happening?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so a lot of it's been learning, because when you get in to start a business or really anyone getting into a field where you're going to be a leader, normally it's because you were good at whatever the thing was right. So you were a good mechanic. In my experience, you know, in my space it was a good mechanic, a good pilot, and I see a lot of business owners like that In the Air Force right, like the best technician normally gets elevated to a leadership position. The problem is that's completely different, right? So being a good leader is not exactly, you know, there's not, it's not the same. So you know there's some things that cross.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I've had to, you know, kind of make mistakes and learn how to lead people and it's taken me years, you know, I wish, you know, I wish I would have started, you know, probably pushing a little bit harder and trying to educate myself with coaching on actually just managing, managing people. I would say my unique, my style, naturally, is just kind of like a charismatic guy and that's just the only thing I had. I never had a way to like hold people accountable and have crucial conversations that needed to happen and so, and I'm kind of a people pleaser too. So all of those things mixed together make inconsistent management. So, yeah, I've had to kind of take my lumps and and, uh, learn, learn the hard, the hard way through most of it and then, um, and invest in coaching, honestly, to help me kind of okay, here's, here's the basics on how you would manage. Uh, someone the air force has helped a little bit too, going through officer training and stuff, but it's different, it's definitely different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean thank you for being so transparent and vulnerable there, like, hey, you know I had to figure it out. You know, I know that I'm a people pleaser. You know, I know I'm not confrontational, but that doesn't exempt me from having to do the tough conversation and that's the ownership piece of it. Like, even though I don't want to and hope that I never have to do those things, how do you build up the muscle for it? And Air Force and running the business is different. In uniform for our listeners, they almost have to listen.
Speaker 2:There's some severe consequences. But when you're in corporate America you are running a business. You know the consequences is you can fire them or your clients. You may lose some of your clients because they're not doing it. So there's a different style of leadership that you got to be able to embrace. What have you learned over time, like being in the business and you think about where you are now and you know that your places I don't call it weaknesses, I call it opportunities for growth you notice that you got these places where you got to grow at. What have you been doing? You know, over time, you know you got a coach, which is a really good idea. I'm an executive coach, so I love working with leaders like yourself. What have you learned over time about yourself that that's helping you start having those crucial conversations and holding people accountable?
Speaker 3:I think in the beginning specifically, there's a lot of areas, I would say but especially in the beginning, what I didn't realize was what people pleasing was, and it was. It was, um, allowing something to happen or doing something to make somebody else happy, even to my detriment at times, um, or the company's detriment, or the team's detriment, um, just because I didn't want to make them unhappy, right, and I'm the number one sales guy in our company, right, just as the founder it's the founder is always the sale. You know the number one sales guy, and so you know what do I do in sales? I make people happy, right? So, and so I had to kind of unlearn a lot of a lot of that stuff that, hey, it's okay, it's actually you're loving the person by telling them you know where they're actually at, rather than just showing up one day and let them go Right, like they need to know these things and and and you know, saying no, this was really really hard for me, even to my detriment.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and there are a lot of people that are listening, that are in that position. So you know, the thing I love about, you know, the podcast, is that people come on the top openly and honestly like, hey, you know what? I don't have this right yet, I'm still working on it. You know, the business is still flourishing. You know, I'm I'm I'm doing these things and with the military background and a CEO, and most times we think, because we have a title or with a CEO, we're supposed to have it right all the time. So I'm glad you said, hey look, I'm still working on it. I I'm not all the way where I want to be at now because there's this unwritten rule like leaders think they got to have all the answers and they got to be perfect. Can you, can you speak to? How did you begin to navigate away from feeling like first you got to have all the answers or you know you got to be perfect and you got to do it right all the time. How did you do manage?
Speaker 3:and navigate that, either from your military experience or from being an entrepreneur experience, or from being an entrepreneur, that one takes time too. I um, especially from the military, where you want to have some sort of level of you know. Uh, that saying is, you know, perception is reality, right. So in the military, you know, you want to be perceived that you've got it all figured out, otherwise people don't think you might not. So, uh, but the reality is you're never going to know everything. It's impossible. And there's people that start businesses every day that have no clue, they've never done any facet of it and they can become successful over time. And so, leadership, definitely right, just because you've never done it before doesn't mean that you can never be good at it.
Speaker 3:So, um, actually, the, the, what I've noticed, the willingness, willingness that um, that has grown to just take those on and just not, you know, okay, well, we'll figure it out. And that's places in the team, right where we've got a meeting, and they're like, well, this or that we shouldn't do it. And it's like, okay, well, we'll figure it out. Now we can do it, we'll figure it out, yeah, we'll just figure it out. And so, um, yeah, and, and ultimately it's, it's a from a self-esteem point. When you kind of let go of this, I have to know everything. Mentality, um, your, your life actually gets a lot happier.
Speaker 2:Okay for me not to know everything yeah, which which is good for you, as you share it. So you're going from, you know, leaving your company, you've learned that, hey, I don't really have to have all the answers. What do you tell the leader that does have all the answers, and that can be a downside as well. So where you're the know-it-all, arrogant or cocky, how does that get in the way? Because there's two extremes I may not show up like I have any answers, but then I show up like I have all the answers. There has to be a nice sweet spot in there where you're not on either end of that spectrum all the time. How do you show up if the leader that you do have all the answers, but make room for everybody else to have a voice and have some answers yeah, what? But make room for everybody else to have?
Speaker 3:a voice and have some answers. Yeah, what comes to mind for me? Two, two different things. Right, there's been if you're, if you're cocky and you're a jerk like that's a separate right, so. But aside from that, yeah, there there are areas where I'm I'm really confident. I don't know everything. I know that I don't know everything everywhere, everywhere, but I'm pretty confident in some of my, my skill sets, yes, that I can make things happen right.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and you're running the business, like and that's the important part like that when you know there's some places you really shine every one of us if you don't have those, then get a coach so you can figure out what those are. If you're listening, if you haven't defined where you're really good at, like, get a coach, coach so you can start defining those places where you show up and you know what you know what you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but when it starts to become a problem, what comes to my mind when you say that is when you don't give the team an opportunity to grow right. So if you're always the hero as a leader, you come in and fix everybody's problems. You know what you're training everyone to do is oh, he's got all the answers. And then they don't do anything until you tell give them the answers. They never learned to solve the problem themselves, and I actually had to learn that the hard way too.
Speaker 3:Um, when I was deployed actually this past year, I was deployed to the Middle East and I was, you know, four or five thousand miles away from my business, and it still had to go.
Speaker 3:And so normally I'm used to being the hero and I can jump in and kick something out the door or fix whatever it is right, and I had to. All of a sudden, I can't do that anymore. I have to rely on the team, I have to get them to where they can get it through, and so that's another big learning area that will just make your life better when you start learning to work through people, because there's only so many hours a week right, and I've definitely been guilty of working 60, 100 hour weeks, stuff like that. But at the end of the day you got to ask sit down and be like why am I working 60 hours a week? What? What of these things could I be delegating to my staff, my team, you know, and that would take that much off my plate. So maybe I could have a more manageable normal week and take responsibility for it.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm loving the conversation because you're leading it too, as I you know, you shared a real experience. No, you got deployed when you did. You did you find out, like you know, when you got deployed 4,000 miles away from your business and you were the hero all the time, did you find that people were willing and waiting to help you?
Speaker 3:Because we don't. We think like, oh, I'm the only one that can do it. But if you just get out the way long enough, you'll be amazed what kind of talent's on your team. Yeah, you'd be surprised. You're exactly right. And yeah, my staff when I was gone, they really stepped up big time and helped me out and I learned oh OK, they can do it. You know, I don't have to be the one that does this, and it's not that it's like oh, I thought they couldn't. It's just you get addicted. You get addicted to always fixing the thing, always solving the problem, always. And so the first time it happens when you didn't have to do it, you're like, oh okay, wow, that happened and I think a part of it.
Speaker 2:You know when I went through that. I'm going through it as well. You know we've been in business 11 years. A part of it is your ego drives it Like who doesn't want to feel needed and who doesn't want to feel like they have the answer and that they're wanted in the company, like, hey, ron is here, but but it's not sustainable. I mean, it's not scalable. Your business will actually be held back if you, every time it's going to be successful, you got to be present. Your business will be in trouble at some point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're exactly right. You become the learning factor. You're the bottleneck of every system. Until you let go, it's not going to grow. You can't scale it. Yes.
Speaker 2:So what did you notice? So, when you, when you deployed, what did you actually notice in your business? How did your business do when you finally accept it? I don't have to be there for everything.
Speaker 3:What started happening in your business that you needed to happen anyway. Well, I mean, honestly, I'm trying to do everything yourself, I mean, is extremely stressful, and so I mean I would. I would get rash. I'm rubbing my arm because it's like taking me back trauma, wise right. I would get like rashes on my arms, I would feel nauseous, I'd throw up because of the stress, you know, because I'm just in my mind, I'm like I can't. No, this is going to happen if I don't do it, and so I'm sure I'll work till midnight, sure I'll work the weekend, sure I'll, you know. And so my life started getting a lot better when I started, which allowed me to focus on other areas where really do need my attention. You know not, I don't I don't need to be doing everything, but there are certain things that I really do need to be focusing on, but I can't focus on those when I'm trying to do everything all at once.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I love it. I mean I tell people that as an entrepreneur, business, a business developer or leader in an organization, there are about 10 things that actually you are the only person that should and could do this thing, but the other 90 things out of a hundred, somebody else can actually do them. And I think when you get caught up with all the things that make, I struggled because I would do the things that made me feel good and avoid the things I didn't like doing.
Speaker 2:So I would step in your way in a heartbeat. Yeah, let me go do this because it struck me either way. It made me feel like, okay, I'm adding some value. But they look like, yeah, but this other thing is falling out of the sky on us because you're not spending your time over there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of the coaches. I mean I do the same thing. I procrastinate with things I don't want to do. That may really need my attention. They got to be done but they make me feel uncomfortable because I hate it or I don't want to do that thing. You've got a couple of options to get it done, but you know the hard conversations that you have to have. Like you said, we led this with hard conversations, right? So those are ones that you got to have. He worked with me. He's like how about do those? First in the day, wake up and crush whatever it is that makes your, your, your stomach uneasy, and then the rest of the day then do the other things.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love it like do this the hard stuff first, when you got the most energy, yeah can you speak to the entrepreneur that's spending 80 hours, like you were, or 60 hours like when is enough enough? When do you start realizing, like, because sometimes we do think that, in order to be successful, more hours mean better results or more results, or if I don't do it, it's not going to get done. I got to do it because my business is going to fail. You can rationalize why you're doing it, but it's still not healthy. Like, how do you make that decision of when to stop and stop and be healthy? Because you don't want to see your team work 80 hours, but you're setting an example of what it looks like because you work 80 hours.
Speaker 3:And I'm still guilty of it. Right, there are certain times where I've got to drop everything and I'll work 60, 80, whatever the hours, because there's some crisis that we have to. We've got to. It requires it. There's one job that we're way behind on there was something is doing it, but realizing that that's not sustainable and this is a one-off thing. Whenever this is done, I get back to my normal schedule, which is my calendar, and putting it on the calendar being intentional.
Speaker 3:I think it was Stephen Covey that talks about your little bowl with the rocks in it. Right, if it's full of all the little rocks, there's room for the big rocks. Yeah, you pour some dirt in there and make roots. So, you know, sitting down with my wife and just planning the year out, planning the year out and be like these are the big rocks, these are the things that are important, right?
Speaker 3:Because you know, let's say, you put 80 hours in a week and it's really successful, and then at the end of it, nobody's there, your wife and your kids aren't there left, right, it can have really big consequences, not to mention, let's say, health issues, right, maybe your wife sticks by your side, but you put yourself into the hospital, like I said. I mean, I was having pretty severe health and my body was telling me this is not sustainable, and sometimes you can do that for a really long time. Then, yeah, you start having heart issues and you're, you know, premature, much more premature time frame and so having a having a bigger perspective on, okay, this is not, it's not sustainable, okay, how can, how can I? And then, but then you kind of feel guilty, right, because you're not putting 80 hours in or 60 or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you feel guilty. We do feel guilty as leaders. Sometimes you feel guilty because you're not putting it in, but also the message that you're sending, and I'll be biased here for a second. Like men are horrible about taking care of themselves already, like we just don't do a good job of taking care of ourselves like we should. Our body's telling us stuff that we're tired, we're exhausted, something's medically wrong. And while I can't afford to go to the doctor, you know you can't afford not to. Let's be real, if you want longevity. So how do you help the entrepreneur understand? There are some things that taking care of you, if you're the sole source, if you're this person, can you speak to self-care?
Speaker 3:to self-care, yeah. So, um, this one was hard too, because now they're some of it's getting into like therapy, right. But you know, there's probably a reason that if, if you're kind of like it says you and I, you and I were kind of similar people pleasing, right, you're not used to looking after your own needs. You're always trying to make other people happy, and so even to your detriment. And so once you realize that the other thing is, you feel guilty when you take care of yourself, when you do that stuff.
Speaker 3:But somebody really helped me put this in perspective and I was like, james, would it be better for your, let's say, your wife, your daughter, your team, if you were the 10.0 version James versus the 1.0 version James? Would it be better for them? Wouldn't it be good for them if you were 10.0, james instead of 1.0? And I was like, yeah, and that's when it started to click in my head. It's like, okay, no, it's good, I need to invest in myself, I need to work on a coach, I need to go to the gym, I need to do the things that make me like their self-care things Right.
Speaker 3:So get a good night's sleep, only work a certain amount of hours, you know, usually, and prioritizing the big things and those make you better and it's OK you can, it's OK to look after yourself. Normal people outside looking in they just hear, oh, like egotistical, you know whatever, greedy bosses or whatever. But you know, what we're talking about is actually the opposite, right? So so you're so scared you can't even, you can't even take care of your basic needs. You feel guilty that you're taking care of your basic needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is a culture thing I mean. And you're taking care of your basic needs? Yeah, which is a culture thing, I mean. And you got to be mindful. You know, in the leadership world, I say, look, if I tell my team I want you to spend time with your family, I want you to go to the baseball games or the football games or the dance recitals, I got to do the same thing and we'll always tell our staff well, when are you going to do it? Like you know, isn't that being hypocritical? Like you're telling us to go and do anniversaries and birthdays and these things that are significant and important, but I never see you do it. James, when are you going to do it? Cause I'm sure your family will. And it's like this wake up call where they get to hold you accountable to ensure that your audio matches your video. Like we hear you saying it but we don't see you living it.
Speaker 3:And, ultimately, the route where this ends like well, like we talked about health issues, maybe lost relationships, but ultimately you hate what you do and I've been there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, when you really hate what you do the business that you built you hate it. You can't sustain that, and so it is possible to put this in a manageable way where you can take care of your own needs, take care of your team, build something awesome, but you know where you actually love what you do, and that's over the past year. That's what I've been working on quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Hey, congratulations, thanks for sharing. You know what I was thinking when you were talking about the different versions, james. You know I'm like man, so here's the analogy that came up yeah, when, when iPhone first came out, it was just iPhone, but every year, and sometimes twice a year, they roll out another versions. And so the question that came to mind like what version are you in your career If iPhone has changed once a year, at least twice a year at a minimum? Like what, how often are you improving yourself?
Speaker 3:because iphone realized to be sustainable and around long term, they keep getting better yeah, and I'm going to give you a huge shout out, because if you're a coach and you're working with people and people are listening to this podcast, I mean and that if you're struggling in your business somebody told me, like, invest in yourself first yes get a coach, get it start working with therapists do, and I was like, well, how's that gonna help my payroll, you know, and it didn't make sense, but yeah, it helped significantly.
Speaker 2:That is like step one get a coach, start working on yourself first yes, yeah, I tell people all the time, and I guess you're in aviation so you'll appreciate this. You know, if you're in the air and you're traveling with your small child and all of a sudden there's a danger and airbags fall down, the very first thing they tell you is put on your mask first. Before you put it on, and that's in my head. I'm like like you're absolutely insane, I'm going to put my kid's mask on first. That's what most parents naturally want to do. But the importance of that is that if you don't get oxygen to your brain, you're not going to help your child anyway, because it happens so fast. So you've got to be able to make sure you can rescue and save, and if you don't get yours on, your kid is going to be in trouble if you don't get yourself together. So, leaders, you've got to actually model what they teach us in aviation Put your mask on first. That way you can be of service to the people that are counting on you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's exactly right. That's a great, great saying too. A lot of people use that analogy in this, in this exact area, like, and we talk about it, and this is when I fly the tanker, I mean that's a real thing. It's there's action statement, it's oxygen on. Like, put it on. Step, put the oxygen mask on. You have a puncturization issue.
Speaker 2:Step one I love it, I mean, and it works in every industry and everything in your life. You know, you can literally say well, what am I? If I say this is what we do, then I should do it first, you know, and I think that's super important. So, professional development for everyone that's listening develop yourself self-care, spend time with your family, continue to learn your career, delegate you be first to delegate. Trust you be the first to trust. Like, all these things are good principles and practices, regardless whether you're an entrepreneur or you're working in a corporation. Like how are you letting people see it be done versus telling them how to do it? People will always remember what they see more than what they hear Be a good role model. Is there anything, as we look at time, is there anything that you share through your experiences as a, as an entrepreneur, some leadership principles that you practice every day in your business, that will be helpful to anybody, whether they're entrepreneurs or not?
Speaker 3:Practice every day. Well, one that really hits home, kind of where we started, that I've been working on is the having the conversations when they need to be had. You know it really is and doing it in a way right like you don't want to be a jerk, you say things respectfully, but you know staying up for yourself, doing the right thing, having integrity. But part of that is you know doing the right thing for yourself too.
Speaker 2:So I love it. I mean because you don't have to be a jerk to hold people accountable and sometimes we think that's what it is, because I think everybody me personally I don't think anybody's behavior should make you disrespectful. Like whatever happens to you doesn't mean you get to respond in a way that's unprofessional. Like never let anybody else's behavior derail your character. If you're a nice person and you're a respectful person, regardless of their misbehavior or their being unprofessional, you should still stick with your character. If that's truly who you are, you can still be nice, you can still be kind and say hey, no, james, that's not acceptable. That's not what we're doing versus yeah, that's not who you are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're true to yourself for one. And then, ultimately, can you get it to a point where it's something that you actually enjoy doing where you love, and you can get there. You totally can, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is very possible and I'll say, you know, as we look at leadership, we look at, you know, organizations. Now people are leaning on us more and more to treat them like humans, to treat them with kindness. And if you're running an organization because like we pay them a salary don't mean you treat them any kind of way, and I think people want to still be respected and treated, you know, like decent human beings that's there to help you and help you achieve your dreams. So, if you're listening to us, always take care of your team, do it respectfully. And you got to make some hard choices Doesn't mean that you got to be mean about it. You can still respect them, even if you got to make those hard decisions and someone's not doing what they should be doing. So do it respectfully.
Speaker 3:Along those same lines and elsewhere. In the beginning, when I first got going, I'd react. I was very reactive with almost everything. See a bill that I wasn't expecting, freak out, you know, somebody do something that I didn't like. I'd, you know, react emotionally in the moment some sort of crisis comes along, react immediately. And the thing that probably the actually the thing the number one thing that I use every day is just you don't have to react to everything immediately. Maybe, maybe sleep on it, Maybe take a day, think about it, think about your response, and then you'll have better ideas of, like you know, maybe we should ask him about this bill rather than just go ballistic on him, right? So thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 2:That's a. That's a good way. You know, one of the things I I've learned over time and people ask me I say, look, I've never, ever in my life, made a good decision when I was frustrated. It's very reactionary, I just did what I felt like and I didn't think about it. And that's very dangerous because it's hard to repair some of that damage if the person gives you a chance to repair it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the person may not. They may like no, you came out of character, I didn't expect that from you. And they just may not be able to recover from it. So be really, really mindful, you know, as James is saying, like, don't be so reactive. Sometimes, sleep on it, take them. I know there'll be times where you just got to make a decision, but even then you can still make sure that you do it in a very professional, responsible way. Like don't be irresponsible and because someone's misbehaving and doing something that's totally out of, don't mean you got to come out of character. Like stay true to good leadership.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:So, james, it's been great man, I mean, I don't think I've had anybody on the podcast that has your background in action repair and aircraft and business owner in that space. So I love it. We aircraft and business owner in that space. So I love it. We'd love to be able to bring you back on the show, you know, in a couple of months and just, hey, let's go back to this where we are now. But what's the best way to reach out to you? If someone else is listening and they run podcasts, you know how do they find you? Are you on LinkedIn? What social media platforms are you using where people can support your business? But also if they want to bring you on a podcast to promote your business and to talk about leadership or whatever it is that you bring to the table.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. So the easiest way is going to wwwspearmanaircraftcom. That's got a link to actually my podcast, which focuses on aviation and the James Spearman show, and normally each person that owns an aircraft has a pretty unique story, right, like they probably had to be pretty successful to purchase something like that. So I focus on those and then, yeah, if you own an aircraft, I'd be happy to help you with it. And honestly, normally what my customers look like is they're in their 40s or 50s. They're not in the learning stage anymore, they're in the earning stage, and so now they have enough resources where they might think about buying back some of their time.
Speaker 3:And well, an aircraft buys back a significant amount of time and it's a time machine. And so many of my customers are 40s, 50s, 60s, and now they're kind of met with this I'd like to buy an aircraft. What do I do? And so happy to help there, walk you through that process on how do you get an aircraft, do you learn how to? On how do you get an aircraft dealer and how to fly the Ohio pilot, all of that sort of stuff. And then, if you happen to be in the Smoky Mountains near Pigeon Forge, we also do flight training in a seaplane. That one's iconicridescom and, yeah, those are the things that we offer and I appreciate you, ron, I really do. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be on your show.
Speaker 2:And you did a phenomenal job and anybody that's in that space that I can do a couple of things on our podcast for all our listeners. We do a couple of things. We are very organic and we keep it real and have fun, but we build and develop businesses and we build and develop relationships and we add value to our leaders across the board. You know, we know those things keep our community together. It keeps us working together and supporting one another. So reach out to his organization. You know, if you're in aviation and you have an aircraft, go on this podcast. You know, if you want to invite him on and let him talk about his experiences as an entrepreneur, business owner, hey, invite him to your podcast.
Speaker 2:Had a lot of fun with you and hopefully at some point, you know, we'll be able to see each other and meet face to face. But if there's anything that we can do, please reach out to him and hopefully we shared some information. That's super important. We talked about a lot of stuff. Please take care of yourself, take care of your team and keep your integrity in place. Be a good leader. Until next time, James and I'll sign off and thank you for joining us and hopefully we shared something with you that made a shift for you and how you see your role as being a leader in your organization. Thank you all for joining us and we'll see you on the next podcast. Unpack with Ron Harvey. Every single Monday, we release an episode.
Speaker 1:Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpacked Podcast with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron unpacks sound advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are, for the people you serve, because people always matter.
