2263 - Leadership, Learning, and Mastering Uncertainty with THAXA's Dr. Carla Fowler

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05with us right now it's dr carla fowler uh carla you are the managing director of faxa executive coaching of which you were the founder as well you're found on the web at faxa.com that's t-h-a-x-a dot com carla it's great to have you hey josh good morning great to see you yes yes well hey before we get going and talking about the work that you do, the impact, and I love, obviously, you know, I feel like we're always operating in uncertain times. I think just maybe sometimes they feel a lot more uncertain than others. Oh, yeah. I think there's a lot more feels about uncertainty happening right now.

1:45I feel like we've had way too much uncertainty over the past five, six years. I want boring. I want to get back to a very boring, nothing going on kind of life. We'll see. But before we get into that, what I always love kind of learning what guests have been into, been doing, hobbies, vacations, movies, music, TV shows, like whatever they're into. I guess, what have you been into lately is my question. Oh my gosh. I love this question. We most recently, so over about the past two or three years, my husband and I have been studying Portuguese. So doing language learning, which is so tough. And anyone who wants to be humbled, this is a great way to, you know, put your ego back in check.

2:31Learn a foreign language. Yes. Learn a foreign language for speaking. What platform are you using for that? So we have done a mix of things. Duolingo is one, although that's Brazilian Portuguese, so they don't yet have European Portuguese. Oh, I'm up to it. I'm up to day 183, by the way, of Spanish. Espanol. That is a great streak. So I also use Pimsleur, which is like that's like old school, but it's all audio. It's speaking and listening. I think of it as being a little like Suzuki learning, but for language. Like Suzuki is that learning method for music where you don't read notes. It's for really young kids and you just listen and play.

3:15Um, but, uh, we also have done immersion classroom learning in Portugal. So in Lisbon and, um, most recently we, uh, in the, in the fall, we spent two months working and doing language learning in, um, Lisbon. Uh, but more recently, uh, because we had no time for any vacation, like, uh, during the fall, we went back for two weeks, um, about a month ago and just had fun. So we like wandered all over Lisbon. We took a bike trip down to the Algarve with some friends. And so that combines things I love, like practicing my Portuguese, being in the sunshine and being on a bicycle or hiking or doing something like athletic outside.

4:02Well, Carla, you have a BA in human biology. You have a doctor, a PhD in immunology. You are also Dr. Medicine, MD from University of Washington. You are a learned woman, my friend. And if I could just get, I would love your opinion on this. When it comes to learning things, like you just talked about learning a foreign language. um and it's interesting like i you know i i live here in orlando so i do have some opportunity for immersion um but it's interesting where i you know i was just kind of telling people oh yeah you know i i'm learning the bass i've been you know just celebrating my two-year and learning music instrument i'm just having fun with it also with duolingo obviously it's just super fun is it the most effective way to learn probably not you know or the way that i learn a music instrument, but I'm enjoying the process.

4:53Can you maybe just share, I don't know if you have any insights on, you know, how important is it to be using the academically most rigorous, most effective way of learning versus, ah, your kids just go have fun learning Spanish or something like that. Any opinions on that? Yes, I have opinions. And this is great because it actually ties back to something we did want to talk about also, which was like uncertainty. Because one of the things I think people are really encountering when we encounter uncertainty is a gap between what we know right now and what we might need to know to be successful.

5:29And crossing that gap always involves learning. So you've just brought up like one of the key questions here. And when we're out of school, we don't like the learning isn't sort of paved out in front of us anymore. So in terms of, do you have to be the most rigorous? Do you have to, or is fun important? There's two different ways to look at this. And I think it's useful to look at it both ways. Number one, learning something that has a lot of depth to it, where like maybe 300 hours in and you're just getting into the game. And I think language learnings like this, I think fun and enjoyability is really important because what we're saying is you're on a marathon and it's going to require stacking up hours over days.

6:15And so if you don't want to be gritting it out for years, which generally speaking, like you see people kind of falling off that track of building things up, then you kind of want it to be fun. Now you need to put in enough time at it, but like it doesn't have to be the most rigorous. Now let's do a different situation. Let's say like you are the leader of a business and you are seeing AI is coming, right? It's already here and you have a bunch of uncertainty about that. What does it mean for your business? What does it mean for how you do things for your job? And one of the things is that many of us did not go to school for anything super techie.

7:01And so we have a learning journey in front of us. Now, if you're running a full-time business, you don't have a lot of time to not do something in kind of a rigorous way. And so I often ask the question, like, well, if you need to learn something and how it's going to impact your business, how you might use it or leverage it, I often like to say, what is the highest first impact hour you could put towards learning that thing? And sometimes that looks rigorous. rigorous. You could certainly take a certification on, you know, whatever, how is, um, let's just say AI impacting accounting, the accounting field.

7:39But a lot of times the highest first impact hour is something like, who do you know in your network? Who's an expert? Can you sit down with them and ask them like five great questions to get the lay of the land? Can you spend an hour asking chat GPT questions to understand like some basic stuff, maybe even before you go chat to that expert person, or now you can bring your more personalized questions to them. Sometimes it's read a book, but I often find there's a YouTube video that will like get you a lot of information in a shorter period of time. So sometimes we need something rigorous. Sometimes we need something really potent.

8:18Duolingo is not potent, but it is fun and it gets people going back to it day after day after day. So that's, I think it depends on your use case. How much time do you have? How long do you have to be learning about something? And that's how I make that decision. Awesome. Carla, we want to talk a little bit more about uncertainty. And it seems as though my, I guess my thesis here is that uncertainty is the norm. Like we're swimming in uncertainty. What is certain? Nothing is certain. So if we cannot necessarily ever truly have certainty, how do we adjust our expectations so that we stop expecting it and we kind of just as leaders kind of execute in the best way we can, given all the best available information?

9:19Mm-hmm. Well, I think one of the first things you said is right now is a wonderful time to create some perspective around, well, what really is certain ever? Why did things feel more certain to us before, let's say before the past five years? So one of the things is actually to remember that uncertainty is the feeling we have when something we care about is at stake, when we feel like there's a gap between what we know or what we can reasonably expect to have happen and it's not happening. It can also describe how we feel when we're reacting to a bunch of stuff as opposed to feeling like, oh no, we're ahead of the game, super proactive.

10:09One of the things, just perspective wise that I often remind people is that, uh, the whole reason, like we read a good book or we go to a movie is precisely because we don't know what's going to happen. We watch that. We watch a football game, right? Like that part of the excitement and the opportunity in life is all related to the fact that there is uncertainty. Um, now, depending on how much we think stuff we care about is at risk versus how much we feel like, Oh, there's something to be gained that often determines, are we feeling good about the uncertainty and are we perceiving it? Or are we feeling bad about that uncertainty?

10:45Um, but I am very applied. I'm an applied scientist. So I really like to go towards action and like, well, what do we do about that? Sometimes we're going to feel that uncertainty. Sometimes we're not, but what are practices that can really help that leaders can do and, um, kind of build into how are they leading? How are they living? Um, we already talked about one of them, which is you got to keep learning stuff. So it's worth figuring out how do you carve out a little bit of time to start learning about the things that are coming that you don't know about. Um, but the second two practices that I recommend, um, one is that we often have to deliberately think more and react less.

11:25And what I mean by that is, uh, we feel like we're thinking a lot because we have a lot of like thoughts and feelings that are kind of chattering in our mind, but we often actually need to slow that down because, um, our instinctual, uh, you know, reactions are probably what we learned or served us in the past, but in the face of what's new, um, sometimes our heuristics from the past are not useful to us. We're going to need to do something in a new way. Yeah. So time to update it, update the operating system. Yes, exactly. And not unlike your computer when you're like, Oh, spin your circle or like the little line going across takes time.

12:05We got to slow ourselves down. And so I recommend, um, to people that you start to practice having some moments where you deliberately say, I am going to stop doing other things and I'm going to think, and it can help sometimes to have some prompts. Like for example, what in my business or my leadership would be most valuable to be spending some time thinking about, right? You know, either like what feels most at risk or what feels like the biggest opportunity? You know, what do I not know a lot about that I could start thinking about to even figure out what I might learn about? So it kind of helps having some prompts.

12:46You know, what's taking up all my mindshare? What should be taking up all my mindshare? That's a nice pair of questions. But really it's just kind of like get out of your email, turn off your notifications, get a notepad or just an empty text window, and just do a little bit of thinking and writing. And the writing helps us convert brain swirl into actual words we can process. And that's why I recommend whether you type or you handwrite, put it into language and you will get a lot more clarity. Um, so, uh, and I think that's how you stop the external from driving you and you start that internal engine driving you again.

13:25Yeah. Well, and I wonder too, I know for myself, if I feel like I am being externally driven, like a lot in work, I'll be frank. I start to get resentful and that's probably not too uncommon. Well, and none of us do our best leading when we are like feeling resentful or like we're, we're on a treadmill that we're not controlling. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Not fun. So we just have a couple minutes left, Carla. Tell me about how you work with your clients. What do you do? You've been in business, by the way, congratulations on 12 and a half years. Thank you. You're quite good at what you do. Carla, do you mind maybe describing a little bit about that?

14:10I am very happy to. So I am an executive coach and I work with leaders, um, typically who are at the level, like director level and above. Um, but mostly it's about like, we're really responsible for driving, um, kind of what happens. And, um, so that can look different for different people, but, um, and really my goal in setting out was in the coaching world was to bring some performance science into it. So to say, Hey, we have a lot of great ideas. There is good literature out there. We're continually testing and refining it. And, um, I, as an applied scientist was like, leaders have a tough job, but a really important job.

14:49And, um, it is possible to thrive while you're doing it, but wouldn't it be great to have all that information kind of distilled and, um, and a thought partner to work with them and help them, um, source and use the best ideas in science that's out there for the goals they're trying to achieve, the results they're trying to produce, and the teams they're trying to lead. So that's what I've been doing for the past 12 years. And it has a ton of depth. I continue to learn just how to think about performance. How do we break it down so it's usable for people and so they can use it to solve their challenges and go after their opportunities.

15:30I love it. Carla, your website is fax.com. Somebody listening to our conversation, they want to learn a little bit more about the work you do, or I don't know if you have resources you'd recommend, uh, what's next for them? Uh, so definitely my website is a great place to go. There's a good FAQ there. Um, it's also one place you can find lots of different conversations I've had with wonderful people about performance science. So I've got a list of different podcast interviews that I've done. Um, I am also on LinkedIn and that is a great place to follow along if people are interested in just learning more.

16:07I'm trying to produce content there, just bite-sized ideas or thoughts on performance and leadership, just to be helpful to everyone who's taken up that mantle. I love it. Carla Fowler, again, your website, faxa.com. Carla, thank you so much for the conversation. Thank you for the work you do. Awesome. Thanks, Josh.

16:35Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

17:16I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required, where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

17:58I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening. And thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.