How to Be a More Thoughtful Leader with Mindy Gibbins-Klein

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down how to be a more thoughtful leader. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Mindy Gibbons-Klein and to EO Fire Studios. Mindy supports entrepreneurs to write great books and become thoughtful leaders. Author of 15 books herself, she's delivered two TEDxTalks and coached 50 ,000 plus leaders in 18 countries. And today, we'll talk about what it means to be thoughtful, why should we as leaders care, the best tips about becoming thoughtful, and oh, so much more.

0:37And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mindy and our sponsors. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Mindy, say what's up to Fire Nation. and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. This is a fun one because I used to teach goal setting and I now say don't set goals, not don't set goals, but don't set rigid goals because things change so fast and we need to leave room for the unexpected, for the magical.

1:33And what most people do is they have the goal, They're focused on it. They're obsessed with it. And if they don't hit it, which is such a horrible phrase, then they feel they've missed it. And, you know, they're not really looking at something else which has come into their world. And, you know, I just, yeah, so I set goals, absolutely. But what I like to say to my peeps is leave them porous around the edges. Leave room for stuff to come in. Leave room for magic. I love that phrase. Well said. And we're talking today, Far Nation, about how to be a more thoughtful leader. And Mindy, thoughtful is a powerful word with a lot of potential meanings.

2:16What do you actually mean by the word thoughtful? I speak about it in two main senses of the word, John. It's a, you know, sense of being considerate, consideration and caring and also putting thought into things. And what I've realized is most people do have lots of thoughts, but they don't always spend time choosing the most quality among their thoughts. And, you know, quality thinking is available to all of us, but we need to care enough to do it. So really the two things are related. When it comes to thought leadership, which is where all of my ideas came from, you know, many people will want to share content, ideas, they want to write and speak, and they are focused on being a thought leader or thought leadership.

3:13But they don't always think about or care enough about the audience and the reader or the audience member. And then they may just put something together that they want to share. We've all seen this, right? We've been in talks where we think, oh, you're just ranting about something that you want to talk about, but caring enough to put something together that the other person cares about and that will resonate, that's something that is done intentionally. and it's really kind of funny when you see people writing and speaking and not being thoughtful obviously you can see people not being thoughtful in other ways you know things they say how they behave I'm specifically talking about messaging which is our world so let's talk about the main difference between a thought leader and a thoughtful leader I mean it may only be three letters, but it can be a pretty massive difference.

4:18I started out in the world of thought leadership. And as you know, my first book, 24 Karat Bold, was one of the first thought leadership books out there. But after a while, I saw a lot of people and heard a lot of people using the phrase thought leader, thought leadership, he's a thought leader, you know, and the worst of all, I'm a thought leader, which nobody should ever say. And I just began to wonder if it had lost its meaning. Because when people overuse or abuse a word or a term, it's kind of sad because it loses that punchiness. It loses all the energy that it started with. So I'm the kind of person who likes to push boundaries and raise the bar and, you know, being thoughtful.

5:07I just wondered, what else we could focus on. And so I call it Thought Leadership 2.0, or as we say in the UK, 2.0. And that means it's a form of thought leadership with more thought or better quality thought being put into it because somebody cares. The worst offense that people can commit, I think is putting rubbish or mediocre content out into the world and wasting people's time. So I'm opinionated about that. I put so much thought into everything I write and say. And, you know, even now, the way I speak, a lot of people notice, I take a lot of pauses. I've learned to think quite fast, but it's really important, I think.

6:01It does seem like it is quite important. And I will say the reality is this. You mentioned you don't like to waste people's time. And that is one thing that entrepreneurs don't have a lot of. We don't have a lot of time. You know, we're quote unquote busy. We're trying to be productive. You know, we have families, we have travel, we have X, we have Y, we have Z. You know, everybody has a reason not to care about something because we can only care about so much. So why, Mindy, should we as leaders care about this? You know, some people don't care, John, and that's okay. I think if thought leadership is a choice, thoughtful leadership is definitely a choice.

6:39But it's worth remembering that we don't like wasting our own time either. Like you say, there's only so many things we can do and care about. I found that just putting that extra thought into things means maybe we'll produce less on paper. So maybe we won't write as many articles or as many books or do as many podcasts, but the quality will be better. And we all know that phrase, quality versus quantity. And people say that, but then they produce a lot of quantity of mediocre stuff. That's why I care about it. But the real reason leaders should care about it is we're in this world where we're in a fishbowl.

7:25Every single leader is being observed. Everybody can be seen if they post online. You know, they're open to all kinds of comments and criticism, hopefully not nasty attacks, but that's also there. so putting the extra thought in means that you're less likely to have a negative response when you're interacting with people and finally this is i think one of the most important aspects it's that team members your employees and equally partners and even suppliers and your clients care and they will watch what you're saying and doing and um well they vote with their feet so it does matter. I know a lot of employees are looking at the companies that they work for, that they want to work for, and it's very much values-based decisions.

8:23And I know a lot of your guests have spoken about this. It's real and we can't ignore it. Fire Nation, it is real. People will vote in many different ways. And as you, as a leader of your tribe, of your organization, of your company, you have to be thoughtful about the way that you're doing that. And we're actually going to be giving you some of Mindy's best tips about becoming thoughtful and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories?

9:00See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month to month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Schedule your free personal 13-point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference. You will interact with Clay directly.

9:33See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at ThriveTimeShow.com slash EOFire. Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at ThriveTimeShow.com slash EOFire. So, Mindy, we're back. And I kind of teased before the break a little bit that you're going to share your best tips for becoming thoughtful.

10:06Take it away. I have so many. I'm going to try to keep it down to a few. And these are actionable tips. People can use these right away. I have implemented them in my own life with huge success. And anybody who wants to ask me about the specifics, we don't have time to go into the stories. But it's very, very helpful to stop and put time and space in your schedule, in your calendar to do some of the thinking that you need to do. And everybody's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I need thinking time. Is it actually in the calendar? And I'm working with people who are busy, busy, busy. and in fact they're my best clients because they are organized and they actually do ring fence time for thinking it is non-negotiable it's sacrosanct so that's the first thing give yourself the time and space to think about these important issues or to spend extra time writing an article or planning a talk or just strategizing because if you don't if you're rushing well people will see the result of that.

11:17They will feel that it's not your best thinking. So that's my first tip. Secondly, I speak about intention quite a lot. And I know we've had the chat previously about the importance of knowing why you're doing something. And it's, again, one of these, yeah, yeah, yeah, issues. But I really think if our intention is pure and our intention comes from a place of caring about the recipient of the message, just the person we're dealing with, that comes across as well. So to actually be clear about your intention, and that may mean reprioritizing some of the things that you're focused on. Because, you know, as leaders, we need to be focused on those things that have the most impact, that the stuff that only we can do.

12:08So that's my second tip. My third tip might sound a bit funny because I'm talking about all this strategic stuff, but put a smile on your face. You know, lighten up. I'm not talking to you, of course, talking to all of our listeners, but I'm talking to myself and you as well. You know, we can take ourselves so seriously. So true. Yeah. Thoughtful leaders have that ability to stop, take a step back, even in the moment and say, oh, come on. All right. Come on, Mindy. You know, I do it every day, several times. Now you founded the Thoughtful Giving Project. Tell us more about that. Yes, it's actually called giving1percent.com.

12:56with the number one in the URL. I'm sure we'll have that in the show notes. The purpose of it, well, it came to me because I realized that over my career, my income had seriously gone up, which is the right direction. But I had a feeling my giving hadn't kept up. And that was a sort of aha moment. And I did a calculation just on my phone. And I was really upset because we've all, most of us, I should say, have heard of tithing, zakat, tzedakah, all of these ideas about giving a portion of your income to charity or to good causes. I'd lost sight of it. I'd lost track of it. And I will share with the listeners, when I did the first calculation, I found that I was giving only half a percent of my net income to charity every month.

13:50So after I beat myself up a bit about that. I started speaking to people, including a web designer friend of mine. And the first thing we did was create a website where people could just think about this stuff and calculate it. And the 1%, many people ask me about that. They're like, oh, why are you saying they should only give 1 %? We're not. But we're asking, do you know your giving number, first of all? And you can calculate it right on our site. And then what percentage is right for you? Because I know a lot of people are struggling. However, most people could give at least 1 % of their income to the causes they care about.

14:29And we're talking about regular giving. So I've started working with quite a few charities because charities get one-off donations. What they really need is monthly amounts that they can count on. They know they can budget. So I was very blessed to do a TEDx talk about it a few months ago. And I think there's a bit of a zeitgeist about this. You know, the government will only do so much and charities are struggling and people want to feel good about themselves. So it's kind of a lovely intersection of all of those things that we can actually solve a lot of society's problems. If the average taxpayer had that going out of their bank, They wouldn't even notice 1%, 2%.

15:16Anyway, I'm always happy to chat about that, but that's the story of giving1%.com. Now, one thing that I wanted to touch upon is that you believe that people can actually learn to care. So number one, is that really true? And obviously your answer is yes. So can you give us an example? Yes. In all of my discussions about giving 1 % and lots of other things I'm doing with the thoughtful leader, I have noticed that most people weren't thinking about it before, but they're willing to put some time into it and just reflect. And that's the first step. So I think caring is a skill. Not everybody does.

16:01We'll very quickly label people, oh, she's a caring person, he's a caring person, she's not, he's not, whatever. But that's not really true because it's not part of our fixed personality. It relies on somebody being willing to stop what they're doing, focus on someone else or the bigger picture, and being willing to maybe consider a different way of being. So in my case, until I had that social impact project, I thought I was a caring person. I thought, well, you know, I'm a nice person. I'm quite a generous person. Then I had this thought, oh, actually, I'm not. And I cared enough to do something about it.

16:48Now, not everybody's going to set up a website and a social impact project. But there's many, many things that we can all be doing if we just stop and reflect. And that's part of the teaching that I do. It sounds quite strange to say I teach people to care, but I teach people who care enough to learn to care, if that makes sense. It makes sense to me. I mean, that is what you do literally and figuratively. So of all the things that we've talked about today, what's the one key takeaway, the one thing that you would really love for our audience to take away from our conversation? I'd like everybody listening right now to just go inside and ask a very simple question.

17:32Ask a question of yourself. Do I care enough to care? Do I care enough to focus on being more thoughtful? Because that is the root of everything. If people can get that, if people can work on their thoughtfulness and their caring, everything else will flow. So I'm happy to share that my businesses have exploded since I started putting time and attention to this. And I don't know if it's related. You could say it's the law of the universe. It's just I feel much more excited about life. I feel much better about myself. And that comes across. And huge opportunities, magical opportunities show up.

18:20and that's what I want for everybody. I hope people will give themselves that gift and just spend a bit of time reflecting and making an intention to be more thoughtful. Hey Mindy, if our listeners are really enjoying what you're putting down here, they're really taking in this content and they wanna find a way to connect with you more, what is your call to action for our listeners today? I have so many things that I'm doing. I have all these books. I have my book coaching business. I have the social product. I think the easiest thing for people to do is go to my personal website where I've tried to bring everything together.

19:01It's MindyGK.com. That's also the shortest URL. So people can't get it wrong. I don't think Mindy with a YGK.com. And from there, you know, they can explore what I'm up to. I have links to my stuff. but also I do have this kind of random porous approach to networking and to connecting and I'm always open to connections on any of the media that I'm part of I tend to do LinkedIn Facebook a bit of Instagram and they can search to their heart's content and look at all my stuff and we can have a chat because it's one of my favorite things to do chatting like this well I love it too, Mindy. It's great to have this conversation.

19:46And Fire Nation is aware that they're the average of the five people they spend the most time with. And they've been hanging out with MGK and JLD today. So keep up the heat, Fire Nation. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Mindy, M-I-N-D-Y in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Mindy, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, We salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Mindy for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world?

20:27If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. To learn more about entrepreneurs on fire and becoming a guest, visit EOFire.com slash guest. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son Eric Trump at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire.