How to Start the Year Strong

Damon Pistulka  00:09

All right, everyone, it is Friday, and you know what that means. It is time for manufacturing, e commerce, success. I am one of your co hosts, Damon Pistulka that pretty gentleman. Right over there is Curt Anderson, the other co host. And man, am I excited today, because we are going to learn how to start the year strong. We’re talking with Darcy Eikenberg today. Curt, take it away, my friend. Man,

Curt Anderson  00:36

dude, what a great way to kick off the year. I’ve been looking forward to this for months. So Darcy, Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us. How are you? My friend? Happy

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  00:45

New Year, my friend. I am so grateful to be here with you today and just to be able to put some energy into the year already. You know, here in this that’s we’re only like in the 10th day, and it feels just happened already, that,

Curt Anderson  01:00

like 24 you know, went by like that. Now we’re already 10 days into 2025 so what a great new year. And so again, like you’ve been such an inspiration to me and so many people around you. High level consultant, you have a wonderful book that we’re going to talk about. And speaking of books, Damon, I do I have to admire. Look over Darcy’s shoulder. You notice how, like, it’s color coordinated. Like, is that impressive? Like, who thinks of that? Yeah, yeah, Darcy, nice touch. You’re making an assumption

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  01:30

that I thought about that. Yeah?

Curt Anderson  01:33

Well, it looks, it looks wonderful. So give us a little bit. We’re going to dive in. We have a ton of cover. You have a lot of we’re going to talk about leading leaders. We’re going to talk about, like, how to, like, really roll up your sleeves, dive into, like, just make 25 a wonderful monster year. You know, we were talking before we went live. You know, there’s a lot of things going on, uh, tough. Mutual friend of ours going through some tough time with natural disasters happening. But we want to stay resilient. We want to stay focused. Like, how can we stay in gratitude, even like when things are a little bit off, but give us a little background on yourself, and then we’re gonna dive in some tips for 2025

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  02:08

Sure. Well, I serve as an executive coach to leaders of leaders. That really means the people who have teams where those teams are responsible for groups of other people, departments, other other parts within a company, because that that leader, leader level, is where it gets complex right, where there’s no one right answer. And managing the leaders. Being able to lead the leaders means we can actually lead our companies and lead the businesses in ways that work for everybody, so I focus in on that. But I also do speaking. And again, you mentioned my book, red cape, rescue, save your career without leaving your job. So I do executive coaching around some of those topics as well.

Curt Anderson  02:56

Yeah, I love it, and I see you’ve got your book right over your shoulder. And what I did is I dropped your website in the chat. So guys, drop us a little note, let us know that you’re out there. Connect with Darcy on LinkedIn. Do yourself a favor and stop by her website. Red cape revolution. What a phenomenal name. That’s the name of her book. Strongly encourage you, welcome you, invite you. Grab her book. She also has a free guide on her website, so stop by her website, check it out, see what she has going on. So, all right, one more question for you before we dive in, red cape revolution, how? How we’re love it. Where did you come up with this

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  03:30

brilliant name? Yeah, so red cape revolution came out of that feeling when you were a kid and you’d grab a towel or a sheet and you’d wrap it around your shoulders, and you felt strong. You felt confident and in control. And when I was looking at what was going on in my coaching business and with the clients that I was working with and the situations that were coming up, I realized, wouldn’t it be great if we could feel like that red cape feeling all of the time, and so many things in our workplace environment seem to push against that. So do we need a revolution? Do we need to think differently? And so that’s where red cape revolution came from. You know, of everything that we do to try to make every person feel like they are in their superpower space, that they can soar. Because I truly believe that it’s time for the revolution in that. Because when each of us is in our superpower space, we feel like we can soar. You know, work at our best and highest use for the things that are needed, then that helps everybody. It lifts everybody up. And our world has a lot of problems and challenges right now, and so we need everybody to be bringing their superpowers to work, to wear their red cape now more than ever.

Curt Anderson  04:54

Well, I love it, and you always bring just such a high level of inspiration. Okay? Contagious enthusiasm, which I just love. It’s why you’re so successful. So I want to dive in. Let’s talk about, so we want to talk about leading leaders. Before we go there. Let’s speak to like, maybe like the solo marketer or solopreneur out there. So, you know, 2024 maybe it went okay, maybe not as good as they wanted it to, or wherever. But it’s always funny, like, you know, team, when we talk about this on Monday, you know, on our live show, if it’s June 1, I don’t feel like I’m re sag new month. But when it’s January 1, we feel like it’s we’re resetting a new start. I can be a new me. You can be a new you. So let’s, let’s start with, like, the solo marketer, maybe the solopreneur. What are some things that that they could roll up their sleeves and, like, really kind of juice up, spice up. 2025 what do you what are your thoughts there?

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  05:44

Yeah, well, to really be able to start the year strong for anyone, I think no matter what your role, and I think that it when you are a leader, even if you’re a solo you are actually leading your clients, right? You’re leading other leaders in many ways. And so recognizing first that to remove the pressure of the beginning of the year, because there’s to your point, there’s no real magic in the calendar turning over, like we could actually choose to hit reset any time that we want, right, any day. So you know, remembering that just because we’re sitting here on January 10, just because I didn’t get moving on my goal on the second or the six doesn’t mean I have to wait until beginning of February, or that I have to wait until, you know, like the next quarter begins like, I can choose now I get to choose to start moving forward on anything. So I think there’s the first part around recognizing that, you know, that I can move forward on the things that I want. I think there’s also the piece around starting the year strong, where, especially for someone who is solo, of recognizing not just what didn’t get done or where we were had a gap, because that’s where our brain normally goes, right? But what are all the things that worked in 2024 like, where did we shine? Where were we wearing our red cape and take a little time to brag on ourselves, you know, even if it’s just on a piece of paper to ourselves, but I just find it’s too easy to skim over the good things. And even if the good things have been going on year after year, it’s like, Yep, I’m doing the this same work with this client again, like we can’t take that for granted. Yeah, you know, I mean, the things that are working, they’re working for a reason. They are working because you’re making them work. So I think it’s super important to be and and to not just know it, but to write it down, to make the invisible visible, right, to look at it and say, Yes, this is a good thing that happened in 2024 I’m proud of this. I’m grateful for it. I want to keep it moving, or I want to shift it and change it for 2025 but recognizing where we’ve been, and not just the gaps. I think recognizing where the progress has been, is super important,

Curt Anderson  08:23

yeah. So let’s, what do you have, Damon, because I have a question for go on. I mean, that’s, that’s,

Damon Pistulka  08:28

I think someone, someone even, was it Jay Shetty, or somebody wrote gap, focus on the gap, not the gain, or something again, yeah. I think, I mean, that is, yeah, it’s such a natural thing for us to do, oh, we, you know, we ended up $2 short, or ended up, you know, 10 seconds short in our race, or whatever it is. And really, you look back and you go, I made a lot of progress from where I was at until where I’m at now. And I think that that reflection is is critical, because we get to the end, like you said, we’re always looking, Oh, we didn’t make it again, whatever you want to talk about. Didn’t make my weight goal or whatever it is, but you made it a ways. You made it partially there. You’re better than you were back. Then focus on that. I’m better, and I’m going to get better, or we’re going to change this. Because we learn something. We got farther, we keep going. And that’s the real key between, I think, people who long term over their career or even in their personal lives, figure out how to live happier, how to get better relationships, how to have more successful businesses, because you gotta know what went well, and even how far you came when it didn’t end up quite where you wanted to be. It’s so, so important. And

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  09:48

increasingly, I think, is as the sort of the world gets complex and we want different things, it’s less about what did I do, and more about you.

09:59

How did

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  10:01

I act? Who am I being? Like? How did I make the choices to get there, right? It’s, who do I want to be? Yep, and do I have in do I want to be more that person more often? Because the doing, you’re you’re absolutely right. The we, we forget that, oh, gee, I only made half as much money as I thought. But wait, like, what did I do to get there and pour pour gas on doing more of those things? You know, being, being the person who is of value and who is making offers and who is reaching out, it’s a different mindset then the achievement like, oh, I only check off that. You know, these things that I did.

Curt Anderson  10:47

Okay, alright, man, I love this. Alright, so let’s go here, guys now, and we didn’t plan this, so I don’t, I hope I’m, I’m not going to put you on the spot. Let’s so the person out there. So, you know, hey, last year went pretty good. I’m feeling pretty good. I’m coming into 25 I feel confident, I feel strong. And that’s a superpower that’s one of your red capes, is you help executives leaders on like, how to build that confidence, how to take things the next level. Let’s say like, Okay, I’m here. I want to be here. To get here, I have to change myself. I can’t be the same person this year in 25 as I was last year, if I have a new or more ambitious, different goal, can you just share a little bit, any tips, strategies for the leaders that you work with? I’m like, How can I change me? How can I help elevate me to get to that goal? Any any of your thoughts there?

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  11:36

Yeah, I think the first thing is, really to be clear about, what would it look like if I’m at the place that I want to be in the future? So you know, not what the role is or how much I’m making, but what would it look like who’s around, who’s surrounding me, who? What am I doing? Where am I spending my time? And you know, what? What things am I saying, No to right, where am I? What am I taking off my plate, and getting really clear on that vision first, and then, when you get clear on that vision, it’s like, well, who does that require me to be? Does it require me to be the person who’s who’s less worried about upsetting somebody, because I’m going to say no to going to their meeting or that I’m going to call my client more often to see if there’s other opportunities there. And I’m going to, you know, be persistent with the risk of maybe eventually they’re going to think I’m Oh, you know, I’m too much, or I’m annoying them, but that’s okay. Am I doing that because I want to be in service or I want to be seen as helpful? So I think getting that clarity first is super important, because obviously we can decide to be somebody different, but it’s not going to motivate us if we don’t see where it’s going to where it’s leading to

Curt Anderson  13:06

love it. So a couple takeaways, right? There is like, kind of like, envision Damon. We’re talking the other day about manifesting, right? So you’re in the manifesting and number, I think a great tip. I don’t know if either one of you want to chime in. How do like, the power of saving No, right, the power of like, again, can’t do what I did last year if I want to do better, bigger, stronger, whatever this year. Any Do you guys have any tips? Advice is like, how do you how do you comfortably? How do you get comfortable out of being uncomfortable? To say no. Darcy Damon, what do you have?

Damon Pistulka  13:39

Well, I want to just comment on what Darcy said, because the first thing, and I think some people run to when they’re thinking about, what’s it look like when I, when I, when I next level, is Curt asked, and you have to stay away from money, I think because everybody goes well if I made, you know, 300,500 whatever the number is in their world that they want to make 150,000 doesn’t matter. It’s not the money, right? The money, if you’re going to move forward, you should almost assume that your money is going to come with you. It’s going to that will be but when you focus on something like that, you can get there and you feel so hollow inside that you’re just like, I am not in a place where I want to be. And I think you said something very important is, how who are the people that around me? How do I feel? What does my day look like? Because if you get there and you realize you’re doing something that’s sucking your soul and will to live out of you, then it’s not going to do you any good to move there right then, that that’s I because you focus on money and it just it, it screws things up. I think,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  14:49

yeah, and, you know, there’s a lot of ways to get to a million dollars, you know, some of them are not legal, you know, some of them are not ethical. So. Of them, you’re right. You could wake up with a million dollars and have no family around you, or not have your health or so getting clear, you know, about like, Who do you want to be there? And I think also there, I think there is a piece of belief, you know, so having role models, having sort of character, identities, or, you know, abusing somebody else that you see in the world. There’s a phrase that jealousy doesn’t have to be a negative thing. I jealousy can inform you of what you want more of, you know, like when you use it as a healthy jealousy, like, wow, you know, Curt and Damon have this awesome live show. You know, they show up for their people. They talk to cool people. What is that saying that I’m interested in that maybe I can try something. I can try an identity where I’m going to show up and be visible for my people. I mean, there are ways that we can make that real, you know, make the invisible visible. And you use the word manifest, you know, the interesting science behind some of that, I mean, manifest is just making something happen. But our brains are can be very visual, and if we can’t really see it and feel it, then it’s hard for us to get into action and consistent action over time to be able to get to maybe we don’t get to exactly what you know we’re envisioning, but we’re going to get a hell of a lot closer, right, if we can see it and take consistent action toward it. Well,

Curt Anderson  16:34

I agree. Damon has a book read over his shoulder called Traction. It’s a wonderful it’s about the EOS system, and in that book, they use a quote with one of the coaches from the Pittsburgh Steelers, way back in the steel curtain days, they envisioned winning the Super Bowl, you know. And so, like, Well, it worked. They won four, you know. So it’s like, how do you manifest? Like, what’s the win to you? You know, the promotion the you know, for our entrepreneurs out there, you know, the new client, the taking your business to the next level, that type of thing. Let’s go here again. So if we’re talking, say, solopreneur, solo marketers, or, like you said, it could be anybody out there, we’re going to dive into leaders before we go there. I’ve had the honor and privilege of just what a blessing you’ve been to me in my life. Past few years, you and I came together in a group, in a community, sure, and we were in a mastermind group, and it just, boy, you talk about iron sharpens iron like we were in a group of just really amazing, incredible, high level people. And you just feel like the rising tide, right? Like you, it takes you to the next level. How important has it been for you and your life and or slide into like as you’re coaching your clients. How important is community mastermind? Kind of like, you know that iron sharpens iron. How important is that for folks out there?

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  17:46

Yeah, every bit of progress happens through people. I think we sometimes can get so isolated into our area of expertise, you know, our tactics, our tools, or what have you. But when you really look at where progress is made, where advancements are made, you know, they’re all made through people. They’re the idea of the one person sitting in the lab, you know, just doing things over and over. That’s not how innovation is created today. That’s not how I how new progress happens so and you know, at the same time, we’re at the intersection of people feeling lonelier than ever, people feeling disconnected, as opposed to feeling in community. And so I think it takes even more of that intentional energy to say I need to get myself in community. I need to connect with other people, whether it’s something formal and structured, like a mastermind that we were in, whether it’s a community of like minded people, maybe in my maybe even in my physical community, right in my town, or if I don’t see where I don’t have it, you know, maybe it’s my turn to go first and just create it like, let me invite some people, and we can do that even within our organizations. You know, it’s, it’s amazing to me. You know, how many people, even at very like senior experience levels, feel like they just don’t have enough time with other interesting people they can learn from. And I say, Well, why don’t you invite somebody for lunch or coffee or breakfast? It’s like, oh, yeah, I can do. Can do that, right? You know, it’s we. We’ve forgotten some of those skills that actually, you know, in our our parents day even were how work and innovation get done, and as technology has taken a bigger role, I think we’re we were losing some of those, those skills, and maybe even we’re over indexing on like feeling uncomfortable or the awkwardness of you. Another person might not want to go to lunch with me, or might not want to have breakfast with me, and not realizing, like, that’s okay, all we need to do is what we can control, which is, it’s my move. Let me start first. Let me reach out.

Curt Anderson  20:15

Yeah, just just ask. And I think really important point there. So even if you’re a little bit on the introverted side is, you know, get on LinkedIn. Follow some folks that are in your space. Join a group you know, like you’re saying, Get out into the local community, get involved, or, God forbid, like rope your sleeves. You be the community leader. You start your own group, you know, and and you know, these live, you know, could be a LinkedIn live. It could be a video just you know, when you come in fiercely as a community builder. Damon roe is using that line educator. So yeah, great opportunities there. Speaking of education, let’s dive into we want to talk about leaders. And so we’re talking about leading leaders. And again, like this is a if you’re just joining us here, we’re here with my dear friend, Darcy Eikenberg, please check out her website. I have the link in the chat, so check that out. She has a free guide. She has an amazing, incredible book. So she’s just a powerhouse, Darcy, let’s talk a little bit, leading leaders. Any tips, advice? Let’s start there.

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  21:15

Yeah. So you know, and in the context of of kind of where we are today, and thinking about starting the year strong, you know, I think that when you’re a leader of leaders, you do have to recognize that, that you know that you are becoming somebody new, right? That, yep, and many times the leader of leaders came out of a particular lane, like it came out of finance, or they came out of marketing or what, but you now have to have a broader view. And I think the challenge that a lot of leaders and leaders are having is helping everybody else elevate to those broader views. How do we help our teams feel like one vision, one company, as opposed to, you know, all these different lanes. So what does finance think? What does HR think? What does technology think? You know, what is compliance think? And this is the challenge. It’s the so the leader of leaders has to first of all recognize that the only way that in today’s environment that we’re going to manage the complexity, that we’re going to grow further is by making sure there’s time invested developing their core team, as much also for their growth and development and for their peace of mind. Because I think one of the challenges that I see with a lot of leaders, of leaders, and this could be in the C suite, it could be in a department or on a project, but when you’re working with people who are managing other people, how do we create better communication tools? How do we make sure we are communicating differently and at a higher level, and not just tactically, you know, not just one from column A, one from column B. But how are we actually thinking differently about communication? Because getting to our bigger goals isn’t going to happen if we’re not really, if we’re like at cross you know, at crossways, and we’re not really being clear about what do we want and what does the company need? And how do we keep that in mind? First,

Curt Anderson  23:26

any particular, I want to use the word fails. Any particular, like, are there things that, like, you know, leader has great intentions. They come in and just, man, I just, I went up to the plate and just totally whiffed, you know, are there any things that, any tips that you that we should try to maybe stay away from that you’ve seen with all the leaders and executives that you’ve worked with. I think

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  23:45

the biggest thing that somebody can be aware of right now is the failure to stay consistent. Because this time of year, we get really excited and we’re like, oh, I’m going to have a team off site, and we’re going to get super clear on where we are for the year, and we’re just going to drive our goals and we’re going to kill it, and we’re going to, you know, do check ins on a regular basis, and I’m going to do my I’m going to develop my successors or my key leaders, and then life happens, and then, like, everything’s coming at us, and we’re responding To every single shiny object, and then it’s like, somebody says, Oh, yeah, it’s the third quarter. Where are we going to have another what are we going to talk about? What we decided we would talk about in January, like, Oh, we don’t have time for that. So this is one of the reasons that, when I work with leaders and teams, what we’ll often do is set up the entire year, you know, we’ll set the commitment as you know, I think of it as an arc of conversation. It’s the commitment. And this is where involving somebody externally can be helpful, right? Because they can hold you to it. If you’ve got time booked with me, with you, you know, the with some. You’re going to keep it on your calendar, you’re going to show up. But if we are intentional, we get inconsistent on it. It’s easy for the these bigger things that actually, in the long run, make work work better. It they may seem like they’re optional, or they’re seem like they’re secondary, but so the consistency, you know, it’s setting yourself up front to be consistent. It’s kind of like knowing that you’ve got, you know, healthy groceries coming in at the beginning of the week is a lot easier than it being Thursday night. I’m like, let’s order out for pizza, because I don’t know what to eat. How do you set yourself up to be consistent? I think that’s the biggest fail that I see of good intentions, of like, Yes, I know we need to collaborate better, we need to communicate better, but not being consistent in following through on what it takes to create those changes and install them in your organization in a way That makes it stick.

Damon Pistulka  25:58

Yeah, that’s huge. It’s huge. It’s taking that time a couple things. The consistency is massive, right? And what the one thing I love about working with manufacturers, if they know anything, they know consistency, because they gotta produce stuff over and over. It’s gotta be good every time. Blah, blah, blah. That’s awesome about them and and if they can just take that same kind of people, can take that same kind of consistency and do your leadership development and communicating vision and measuring results, and do the kind of things that you need to do, you can, you can do it. But if you’re, if you’re inconsistent, like if we, if we want to build our leadership team, and we have this thing in January, and we’re all excited for it, and we don’t talk again until June, that’s we’re doing ourselves all a disservice. But if we took 30 minutes a week to discuss it even and only discuss the most important thing that we wanted to do, and we took, we have 10 things to do, just focus on one, or what you can get done even in 15 minutes a week. How much farther you’re going to be head by June? Just with that consistency,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  27:12

right? And you make such a great point about in our professional work, like so manufacturer, you know, everybody knows the stuff that they have to get done every single day to get to the outcome. But when we’re talking about the things that make that work better, which are our people behaviors, you know, how we’re communicating, how we’re making decisions so important, how we’re saying no to things, you know, how we’re making choices for the future. Those are things that never feel like they get enough air time. And those are things that, when there’s a hiccup in your business at some point which there will be, there always is, right? A new competitor comes in, an expense goes up dramatically, a key employee leaves. Those are the things that getting that infrastructure in place. You know, investing in that infrastructure of your your leaders are working smoothly. It helps everything else go better. But you’re right. It is not something that seems as prescriptive, but you can make it prescriptive. You can take commitment and be consistent to it and and measure progress and output in it in the same way you can with a product. Yeah? And

Damon Pistulka  28:26

I think there’s some simple things, you know, if we’re talking about leaders, leading leaders, one of the first things is just schedule it on your calendar. Yeah? Schedule it out for the whole year. You know that Tuesday morning, 7am I’ve got it every day. This is what we’re going to or every week, this is what we’re going to do. Going to do. Our team is going to do this meet, unless there’s something horrible you’re meeting, and it’s got to be pretty darn bad, I mean, and I mean, you got to be down with the flu or something, right? Because if you do that, that just that consistency, that commitment, and and you as a leader, what is one of the most important things you want to teach everybody else in your organization? It’s consistency,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  29:10

right? Making a commitment and following up on it. You know, I haven’t read it yet, but I read an article about, there’s a new book around Nvidia, you know, the chip, and the CEO of that has a process where in his leadership team, every Friday there’s like a two or three questions that they that, you know, go out automatically, and then they email back to the CEO, like, you know, by Monday, or end of day, Monday, or whatever, and he reads them all. But it’s, you know, it’s in they are sort of thought provoking. Not just what did you do this week, but sort of thought provoking questions. And, you know, the tools to do this are pretty simple, right? I use a tool in my business. It just attaches to Gmail of being able to send out some repetitive but it’s that prompt. And it’s allows someone to keep in touch, to be able to surface new ideas, to Smell, smell, where things might be going awry beforehand. That just doesn’t take a lot of time. But it’s just consistent practice. It’s just an agreement of this is how we do things here. You know, we check in, we share these updates in this way and and not compromise on it, and not give in, because you mentioned one on ones. And so many times I’ve had people say, Oh yeah, you know, we used to do one on ones, but then we give away our time to what feels more urgent, instead of, you know, what we know is important, or the one on one turns into the task list, as opposed to the Hey, how’s it really going? Like, what do you need for me? Like, tell me, you know, let’s talk about the things that are difficult.

Curt Anderson  30:51

Alright, absolutely, man, I’m just, I’m taking a tons of tons of notes. So alright, see somebody out there. So again. Happy New Year to everybody joining us. We’re here with Darcy Eikenburg, please do yourself a favor. Connect with Darcy on LinkedIn. Check out her website. We’ve got it in the links below, red cape revolution, and we are just having a dynamic conversation. So you know, if you don’t deem yourself a leader, well, maybe you’re a leader at home. You’re a leader with your family, your leader with loved ones. And now we’re talking Darcy, as you said, even leading clients. Okay, leading leaders. What a great way to elevate other leaders. That’s a great way for you to become a better leader. Is to create leaders, right? And so for those entrepreneurs that do have employees, do have 3040, 50 employees, we’re talking to them a little bit. Let’s dive into like, creating leaders. Okay, so we’re leading leaders. How do we help like? I don’t like shamelessly or just be that goal giver, but what are some tips, advice strategies that you give to your executives? And how can we help elevate and raise other leaders? Yeah,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  31:51

first of all, I think we have to recognize who we are and where our natural tendencies are, because I think it’s very common to want to grow others in the same shadow of who we have been, right? You know, I always say self awareness is the new leadership superpower, Darcy. You know what’s

Curt Anderson  32:21

coming. That was a drop the mic right there. Could you please repeat that? Sure,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  32:26

self awareness is the new leadership superpower. If we don’t know who we are and where we are, it’s hard to see the differences that are out there and where we might be biased on something where we might be over indexing on a skill that we’re really proud that we have, but not recognize that someone else may have different skills. So knowing where we are first allows us then to say, then to kind of flip the same process, to understand where other people are and to not see immediately, oh, they have gaps because they’re not good at speaking in front of large crowds, or they’re not good at whatever, but to recognize, how do I, how do I help them from where they are, grow into the kind of leader that they need to be and also that they want to be. Yeah. So these are different types of conversations that I think a senior leader, a leader of leaders, can have to be able to grow leaders and almost even paint, paint a future picture for them, not like here’s the role that you’ll have, but to really mirror back if you see great things in somebody, don’t dismiss the fact that hearing to say, I’ve noticed how you manage that project team, and I was really impressed with how you dealt with the conflict that came between it and product. And those are really great skills that we need more of in the organization, like that kind of stuff. Can sometimes feel, I’ve heard a lot of leaders that I’ve coached say, you know, I feel like embarrassed or goofy to say it. It feels so like movie of the week, you know? But but people remember that it comes from a genuine place. Yeah? People remember that. And people don’t know you’re watching. And when you catch people in the act of doing things you want to see more of what happens is you get more of it. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  34:41

and I can’t agree with you 1,000,000% about being a leader and leading other leaders, and the difference in what you need to talk about when you’re building leaders and leading leaders, it’s not like leading a group of technical people that we have an objective. We’re going down the road. We’re doing this. It has to move into the culture kind of things. When you do talk about recognizing good things, it it, it talks about communicating and ensuring values are shared across the group. And you go as a as leaders are promoted in a lot of organizations because they’re technical prowess, or they’re able to get be more efficient than our people, all these kind of things. But when you switch into the point to where you’re leading other leaders, that’s all kind of it’s good to know, but that’s about it. Yeah, because you have to, you have to try to be building the culture and the and make sure your culture includes the values that are shared, that you the ownership everyone else wants to make sure, or communicate it out to in the organization, through and to the customers. And it’s a completely different feeling, because you have to do that, and it just drives it. You know, coming from a technical background, I still kind of suck at it, but when you but when you do it, it’s what makes a difference. It’s it what it’s what helps those leaders develop into the leaders they want? Because they’ll figure out that you will get them the technical skills. I mean, you will get the technical skills, but the people skills, the values, the you know, the how we really treat each other is huge, yeah.

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  36:16

And increasingly, the technical skills are becoming commodities, right? Yeah, we can outsource things. We can we can AI them, right? I mean, there’s so many things that we used to have to only go to sue for because Sue was the expert. But as Sue grows, Sue doesn’t need to be the expert in everything. She needs to be able to connect what her group does to the broader goal of the company. And you’re right about when we think about, you know, values and culture, I always say culture is just the way we do things here, and so as a senior leader, as a leader of leaders, keeping clear and consistent on the way we do things here and being very overt, you know, like, if, because sometimes cultures are created inadvertently, right? We We reward the culture. Just get stuff done at all costs, even though it might take us three times as much time, or we might, you know, bruise up a lot of people along the way, or the culture of, let’s do it right the first time. What does that mean for us to live up to that, live up to that, live into that.

Curt Anderson  37:31

Okay, man, is this good? Alright? So self awareness. So, Darcy, I’m asking for a friend. Okay, how do you any so that some, you know, a friend of mine asked me to ask you, how does a person become, how do you improve your self awareness? I couldn’t agree with you more. I love the we there’s a tendency like, hey, I want this person to be like, how I do things. Maybe you’re at home, your kids, your you know, whatever. And then in your business, how do you have that self awareness? Any tips advice there to kind of step back and like, let this person shine, to be the leader that they can be. Not how as a leader we want them to be,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  38:10

right, right? Well, I think the first part of the self awareness is that you have to have time alone with the most important person in your business, and that is you, you know, you have to be able to take that time, and whether that’s in, you know, sometimes this is where the value of working with an executive coach comes in, right? It is a time booked on your calendar with somebody else who is going to ask you the hard questions make you slow down, yeah, stop and think, I mean, certainly we can do some of this on our own. There’s great books out there. There’s great tools, but we have to decide that it’s important enough for us to put time into it. And when you’re at a certain level of leadership, time is, is the thing that’s more valuable, right? Like money you got money, you can, you know, you may always want more or not feel you can have enough, but how do I make the most of my time? So that is something where a coaching situation, or even if it’s a group, can sometimes help to get to that piece faster. But I do think that asking yourself the hard questions, what are the things that where I am strongest, you know? What are my beliefs about how work has to happen? What are the things that I know are, you know, I hate to talk about weaknesses, but there are things that I know that are outside of my superpower space, right? The things that are that that hit my hot buttons, the things that are just where, you know, I I’d like to look the other way when those things happen. Knowing those things about ourselves can then help us recognize also too, and even things you know you mentioned Dave. Them before values Am I really clear on what my personal values are? Because sometimes when another person is rubbing against us, it’s because we have a values mismatch. It’s not because they’re good or I’m good, they’re bad or whatever. For example, I had a client where what she discovered as she was doing her own self evaluation, you know, in our coaching environment, was that she had us very strong value about cooperation. But when she looked at one of the relationships on her leadership team where they just didn’t seem to click, she realized, just looking at the person’s behavior that they really valued competition, you know? So both of them are excellent. There’s no right or wrong value, but you put them together next to each other, it’s like two keys on a piano, right? Yeah, it’s not music, it’s just noise. So so understanding that about yourself helps you understand something about someone else.

Curt Anderson  41:02

Yeah, okay, this is so I’m going to side in here. So I just finished over the holiday, I read a great book. It’s the No rules, no the Netflix book that Reed hassings, the founder of Netflix, wrote a book on like, how they built such a powerful culture. And I think it says, no rules, rules. Your whole Mo is, like, you know, getting rid of rules, vacation time. And this that the other thing. And through the book Darcy, you’re going to love this, they use the term brilliant jerks. And so you and I have a mutual friend. He’s a high level exec like Damon. You know him very well. He coaches CEOs and coaches high level executives. We all know what I’m talking about. And he uses the term Mikey coaches brilliant jerks, like the difficult, challenging people in an environment, who they are. They are brilliant. They are visionaries, but boy, they just have that social awkwardness, or like, you’re saying, like, maybe that competitiveness is just like rubbing everybody the wrong way. Darcy, I don’t know, you know how many people can have that, like, look in the mirror and say, like, Oh, oops, I’m the brilliant jerk. You know, are there so like, if we are really struggling, or maybe, like, you know What? What? Like, I’m having some challenges with with work relationships, with customers, maybe I do need to look internally. How can we look and, you know, how can that brilliant jerk, and, you know, maybe myself, like, how can we look at ourselves, really inside, and say, like, how do I make an abrupt change? So, you know, you’re, you’re offering some wonderful suggestions, but say, like, I really need some, like, deep therapy, like, I need to make a change.

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  42:39

Well, I think that if you have a sense that that might be you, it is following that spidey sense, and I think

Damon Pistulka  42:47

the asking for a friend, right? Yeah, asking for a friend

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  42:52

in all in all reality, we know when work’s not working for us, right? And we can make a choice to play the victim mode. We can be like, Oh, my team, they’re so irresponsible, or noone takes accountability, or, you know, they’re lazy, or so when we start to hear ourselves, and sometimes this is a good thing to bring in our significant others on of just as a mirror, like if we don’t have an external coach, this is a mirror, like, if, if we start to everything is in victim mode, and it’s not. We’re not. It’s not getting us anywhere. Because, quite honestly, every movie you’ve ever seen, the victim never grows. Like the victim doesn’t really get what they want, right, unless, like a victim of a crime, who becomes the hero of the film, but like when you’re in victim mode, you are helpless. And I personally don’t believe that any of us are ever helpless. I believe we have more control than we ever imagined, because we only control three things, what we say, what we do and what we think we always we never lose that control. We can opt to not use it and be the victim. So to your point, when you are hearing yourself, you’re always in victim mode. You’re always in like, Oh, what was me mode? And you’re tired of it. Then, then I think it’s the time to say, Okay, what’s the action I can take? What can I control? And that may be, do I need to say things differently? Do I need to, like, ask some questions of somebody else instead of, oh, this team never keeps their commitments. Can I actually ask the question and say, Help me understand? Here’s what I notice. I notice that when we commit, we agree on this, it doesn’t happen. Can you help me explain what’s happening here? You know, can you help me understand what’s happening there? Going into it with a different mindset and a different type of question? In. I mean, there are ways that we can change how we approach each other, and I this is a perfect time of year to even do that, because sometimes people say, Well, I’ve never asked a question like that, or I’ve never had a conversation like that. It’s going to feel weird to somebody else. I think it’s a good place to be able to say, you know, the beginning of the year, New Year was actually, I’ve been thinking about what’s working for me, and I realized there’s some things that I’d like to try to work on or change. So I’d like to have a different conversation about this thing. Are you up for that, you know, or and people, remarkably, respond to you asking for something different than what you’d had before. And it’s just such a powerful strategy to be able to get different information. But most importantly, for you to put the muscle to try to put on. You know, use that muscle of doing something differently. If you’re not getting the results or feeling the way you want to feel. You can always try something different.

Curt Anderson  46:03

Yeah, I love and what I’m what I’m hearing is like, really taking a step back and like, you know, get a healthy dose of humility. Number one. Number two, maybe just like, listen. And I was just listening to a podcast this morning, and it was like, you know, how could you really train yourself to ask better questions? And I feel that’s exactly what you’re saying. Is like, How can I ask the better question, if it’s, you know, definition of insanity, just, you know, doing the same thing over and over. Alright, this is phenomenal advice. I know I could keep you all day and again, like, this is just for me, Darcy, like you’re just coaching me. I like David, so let’s go here. If you know, based the scene is, if you pay, when people pay, they pay attention. If any of this, you know, struck a chord with you. Man, I encourage you. I invite you, welcome you. Reach out to Darcy and, you know, get a coach. You know, like, you know, I go to the gym every morning. Well, now all the new year’s resolution, people are there. And you know, it’s a great time. You know, maybe you’re doing things differently, eating healthier, newness with relationships, loved ones, what have you, but even a great opportunity Treat yourself to this, to be a better you, to change you and you know, and Darcy, just talk a little bit like, like a coaching relationship. If somebody like, you know, you kind of piqued my curiosity about that. I’ve never hired a coach. What does that look like?

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  47:19

Yeah, yeah. Well, first of all, I mean, a coaching conversation, a coaching relationship, is a very private, confidential, you know, for the for a trained professional coach like me, I have a code of ethics around confidentiality and around non judgmental this, if that’s a word, non judgmental this. But you know, so the the biggest thing that I find keeps people from coming to coaching sooner or they say, Oh, I wish I had done this before, is is not because they’re looking at other coaches, it’s they are judging themselves. I would say my competition is not my it is not another coach. It is the person who’s eventually going to, you know, invest in themselves through me, and then hire me to work with them. And so, you know, I think too, in a leader of leader level coaching, a higher level coaching engagement, we’re not, my job is not to be the expert in your business. You are going to be the expert in your business. And oftentimes I can remind you of that, that sometimes you forgot, that you know a whole lot more of what works and what doesn’t, then you give yourself credit for but my job is to help you become who you want to be, to get to where you want. So, you know, I don’t have an agenda in it. I don’t have a prescription of like, here are the five steps that you take. It is really customized. It’s very bespoke to what you want. And if you don’t know what you want, that’s great. You don’t need to know what you want. That’s part of the work. And so somebody who is feeling like I’d like to have some support, I don’t know exactly what it could look like, the first step is just to schedule a consultation. And people can go to my website@redcaperevolution.com, go to askdarcy.com and just schedule a consultation from there, and then we go from there. My job is to be the guide, and if I’m not a fit for you, you know, if it feels like I can’t help you, my ethics say I will let you know, or if like this a budget concern, I have classes and other things that are online, that are different budget friendly, but it’s really an investment in your future. And so often we invest in our business in so many ways, we don’t really invest in ourselves quite enough. And customized executive coaching can be a way that you can really invest now that pays off for years ongoing.

Damon Pistulka  49:46

Yeah, yeah, because that’s the thing about personal development work. It pays forever. Every time you learn something new, it can pay off from then on,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  49:56

so And no matter what happens to any economy. To any marketplace, to any country, to any political system, no one can take away from you the things that you’ve invested in yourself, that you’ve learned that you can apply, you know, because all we have is, you know, our human brains and what we can bring to the world. So those are investments that pay off a long time. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  50:20

Another drop the mic, right there. Darcy, so Alright, we’re going to wind down. This was, I just, I don’t want this to end. Darcy, so Alright, we mentioned red cape revolution. Strongly encouraged guys, you know, grab Darcy’s book. It is a powerhouse book. She’s all over the place. You’re doing some lives, periodically. You’re on LinkedIn, super active, any other, any anywhere else that people need to find you, where you’re hanging out,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  50:47

yeah, if you, if you pick up the book, red cape, rescue, save your career without leaving your job. And actually, I think through this weekend, the ebook is on sale for kind of a New Year’s sale. It’s like 99 cents, so it’s a great deal. And if you have it, then also there, you know, there are some other bonus resources that you can sign up for in it. And I also have a weekly newsletter that I send out to my insider community, and that’s free for anybody at red cape revolution com, slash insider. And so you can sign up there. And that’s every week I share little stories and ideas and strategies that I don’t share on social or any other place.

Curt Anderson  51:26

Awesome and and Darcy, are you comfortable? I have your guide pulled up. Can I take a Can I show everybody your guide

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  51:33

Absolutely. Let’s take a peek real quick. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  51:37

And how about can you guys see that right there? Uh,

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  51:40

the guy confident, yep. So

Curt Anderson  51:43

alright, Darcy, just Sure. And so again, if you go to red cape revolution right at the top, it’s going to say, Click here for free guide. Just talk a little bit about the guide here. I love this. What’s your way to build confidence? What do we have here? Yeah.

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  51:55

So a lot of times we we are feeling like we want other people to be more confident in us. We want to feel more confident. We don’t know how to start. So one of the things this guy does is give you language. It gives you scripts. It’s like in this situation, say this. So for example, we’re talking about the situation where I might want to try something different or have a different conversation with somebody. I give you the words to get that started and so and again, having the right words to launch into a conversation can often help us feel confident and not come across and feeling like we don’t know what we’re doing, or sometimes that we don’t know what we’re doing the way that we say it helps people feel comfortable that the what the conversation is going to be. So, yeah, so that’s a tool that’s available for free@redcaprevolution.com and, yeah, I think right now we’ve got it at the top of the website. There’s also another tool that we have. It’s a year end wrap up tool. And so any of those and someone can message me on LinkedIn, our year end. Look back, anybody can message me, and we can also send those to you. And that’s really more of a self reflection. We were talking about being able to just reflect on our own. That’s a tool to kind of take you through, what do you what went well last year, and where do you want to be going forward? Yeah, I think,

Curt Anderson  53:21

yeah, I think investing, as you said, Darcy, investing in yourself. You know, I took that for granted. I guess if I could do things, you know, when you get a certain age, always like, Oh, if I could go back and, do, you know? Like, I think investing in yourself. And, like I said, when people pay you, pay attention. So it’s, it’s easy, like, Oh, I’m going to do this, or I think I’m going to do it. But when you invest in it, and you’ve got skin in the game. That’s when you can really start seeing results. And again, Iron sharpens. Iron hang out with amazing, incredible, wonderful people. Darcy, last parting thoughts, words of wisdom for people to go out and crush it in 2025 What do you got for us?

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  53:56

Remember that somebody out there need you, so don’t hide.

Curt Anderson  54:02

Man. Perfect. Going to savor that one remember. Man, is that the truth or what you just never know of a right that you can change with a LinkedIn post, a social media post, a blog post, a conversation, a text, a tweet or whatever, reach out

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  54:20

an invitation to just talk to have a phone call, have a breakfast, have a zoom call. Yeah, it’s, it’s your move, right? So somebody needs you.

Curt Anderson  54:32

So, alright, so for Darcy, throw on your red cape, go out and just absolutely smash 2025. Damon, how about we give just a great time? You know, if you’ve been hanging out, man, we’ve been here for 55 minutes, almost. Great opportunity. If you want to stand up, give a little stretch and how about a big, big round of applause to our dear friend Darcy Eikenberg for just kicking off our new year. Anything that you missed? Boy, go back. Hit the little replay button. If you’re catching this over the weekend, you’re. Out walking a dog, having a great time, spending time in nature, whatever you’re doing, it’s a great opportunity to just, kind of like, invest in yourself with the tips and advice that Darcy shared with us. Damon, your closing thoughts for today.

Damon Pistulka  55:11

Oh, I’m just thanks so much for being here today. Darcy is tons of fun. I think it’s great way to kick off the year to really just get ourselves moving in the right the right direction. You

Darcy Eikenberg, PCC  55:23

guys rock. I love you much. I you know what you’re doing is terrific, and I know you inspire so many every single time that you show up on screen.

Curt Anderson  55:32

Well, thank you. God bless you. We love you. Hang out with us for one second. Guys, go out and just you know, Damon, what we’d love to say, go out and be someone’s inspiration, just like our dear friend Darcy was, and you’re going to make the world a better place. So Darcy, hang out with us one second. You guys have a amazing, incredible, wonderful weekend, and we will see you guys next week.

Damon Pistulka  55:51

All right, everyone, you.