Joanne Lockwood: Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary
Joanne Lockwood: for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood,
Joanne Lockwood: your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion,
Joanne Lockwood: belonging, and societal transformation. Ever
Joanne Lockwood: wondered what it truly takes to create a world where everyone not
Joanne Lockwood: only belongs but thrives? You're not
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Joanne Lockwood: So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to
Joanne Lockwood: ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites.
Joanne Lockwood: Today is episode 158 with
Joanne Lockwood: the title confidence, balance, and success.
Joanne Lockwood: And I have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome James R
Joanne Lockwood: Elliott. Hello. James is a transformational coach,
Joanne Lockwood: an international speaker with over twenty four years of
Joanne Lockwood: helping business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals build thriving
Joanne Lockwood: businesses whilst maintaining freedom and
Joanne Lockwood: their personal fulfillment. When I asked James to describe his superpower,
Joanne Lockwood: he said it is empowering people to unlock their
Joanne Lockwood: potential and take action towards a confident,
Joanne Lockwood: balanced, and successful life. So, James, welcome
Joanne Lockwood: to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Joanne. Appreciate it. That's a
Joanne Lockwood: pleasure. We'll chat just now. And, you're, I believe, in
Joanne Lockwood: from Toronto in Canada? Yes. I am. Yep. Born and raised here.
James R. Elliott: Traveled to the world, but born and raised right here at home. Yeah.
Joanne Lockwood: You're across the border behind the Northern Wall. Yeah. Of,
James R. Elliott: Exactly. The Northern Trump Wall. The United States Of Trump at the moment. Yeah.
James R. Elliott: We we are. We're behind you that Northern Trump the invisible perhaps Trump wall,
James R. Elliott: but it's there. So, James, it's great to have you
Joanne Lockwood: on. I'm I'm pleased you've given up your time today. Your work
Joanne Lockwood: revolves around, confidence is a balance and helping others,
Joanne Lockwood: because you wanna help them create their life they love. So what inspired you?
Joanne Lockwood: What got you into this? What's your experience? My life, a life of
James R. Elliott: a lot of lessons and learning. You may not wish for my life, but but
James R. Elliott: it I love it. And it's been great ups and downs, failures. And
James R. Elliott: I no longer believe in failure. It's just only growth and learnings and feedback. You
James R. Elliott: win or you learn really is, is, is my thoughts. So depending how far back
James R. Elliott: you want me to go. Long story. Well, I'll start with the start with the
James R. Elliott: corporate world. And then we come back to the childhood too, but the, the corporate
James R. Elliott: world learned, learned a lot there working for companies like IBM,
James R. Elliott: Novell, which is the Microsoft, the 1980s and, and Lenovo, the
James R. Elliott: computer company. Working for years and years there as well. A variety of roles, all
James R. Elliott: dealing with people, all touching people, all helping people. In fact a lot of my
James R. Elliott: career it was my role to support and empower our
James R. Elliott: resellers our business partners to do well. In variety of
James R. Elliott: ways and when they did well they sold more of our products Thus, we did
James R. Elliott: well in myself. You know, I was compensated on how well they did. So
James R. Elliott: it was in my best interest to make sure that a lot of our business
James R. Elliott: partners, some very, very small mom and pop shops, multi, multi,
James R. Elliott: multimillion dollar. Like I said, some of the $50.60, dollars 60, dollars 70 million
James R. Elliott: quarters, some quarters, depending where I was working with. And I, I always had a
James R. Elliott: combination of mom and pop shops who were very proud to when he hit his
James R. Elliott: first million, this one gentleman very, and I was proud of him too. Very proud.
James R. Elliott: I've had, like I said, companies with $30.35, dollars 40,000,000
James R. Elliott: quotas that we're working on. Coming from there, learning a
James R. Elliott: lot, learning a great deal, but also learning, you know, how I don't wanna
James R. Elliott: run my business. Learning great leaders, not so great leaders,
James R. Elliott: great cultures, not so great cultures. It it was a fantastic lesson that way
James R. Elliott: when I started my own business eleven years ago, helping people.
James R. Elliott: A business is small and large. It's been an incredible journey again, up
James R. Elliott: and down and all around like much of life is and helps us learn high
James R. Elliott: highs and low lows, just like life, just like leadership, just like entrepreneurship, right?
James R. Elliott: Life has a lot of great stuff. And, and we focus on that. We feel
James R. Elliott: pretty great. Life has a lot of not so great stuff and we focus on
James R. Elliott: the not so great stuff. We're going to feel not so great. So I've learned
James R. Elliott: related to, to become highly resilient and perseverant. One
James R. Elliott: of the things I speak on, one of the things I love to teach is
James R. Elliott: perseverance and, and really how to get through immense
James R. Elliott: challenges, tough times, adversity, during great times of challenge and change
James R. Elliott: and how leaders can help themselves and their teams do that too. Because that was
James R. Elliott: me. It's a very authentic thing that was me persevering through
James R. Elliott: all the things that, and I'm happy to happy to chat about those. We can
James R. Elliott: get at them too. But that's really how I got into what I, what I,
James R. Elliott: what I do. I I've always been a, I love teaching, always love helping people.
James R. Elliott: I love supporting people. I'm making an impact and really helping
James R. Elliott: people who want to help people. I always love to do that. And so it
James R. Elliott: became a fairly natural thing for me, first of the coach and then very, very
James R. Elliott: quickly transitioned to being speaker teacher. Cause I, I just love giving love teaching love
James R. Elliott: big audiences. That that's in a nutshell, how, at
James R. Elliott: least recently, how I got in things, oh, oh, laid off in the height of
James R. Elliott: my corporate career, not once, but twice. So, and I, I didn't
James R. Elliott: listen to the universe or whoever, whatever the first time. And it was, it was
James R. Elliott: interesting, like winning. Not to toot my own horn, but says, add as example,
James R. Elliott: that's going to happen to anyone IBM employee of the year. And then a couple
James R. Elliott: of years later, laid off corporate downsizing or moving jobs or moving them back
James R. Elliott: here or doing this. We're shutting in your division, took a year off the
James R. Elliott: summer of James traveled the world, lived the summer of the cottage, and then, went
James R. Elliott: back to the corporate world. And almost four years later, you know, calling me,
James R. Elliott: congratulations, James, you've won the awards club. You've won president's club.
James R. Elliott: Amazing work. You blew your numbers away. You did this and that. This is your
James R. Elliott: great work. And I said, great. Well, when is it? Well, they said, well, we're
James R. Elliott: actually, we're going to give you money instead of letting you come to the awards
James R. Elliott: events. I said, why? Why would, why I wanna go
James R. Elliott: down, like, have some fun. See my colleagues. He's like, well, because actually today
James R. Elliott: is your last day here with us. So I was like, what? Say
James R. Elliott: congratulations and goodbye. It was it was almost comical. I'm like,
James R. Elliott: are you being serious? He's like, yeah. I am. I'm like, okay. I mean, great.
James R. Elliott: And it was like I won the lottery almost, Joanne, because I I wasn't happy.
James R. Elliott: I wanted out of there. I made great money, but I was I was depressed.
James R. Elliott: I was anxious. I wasn't happy with my life. Fortunately, I think that's a lot
James R. Elliott: of people these days. Yeah. So how's work? Oh, it sucks, but it pays the
James R. Elliott: bills or works work or it's there and works okay. Or I live for the
James R. Elliott: weekends or some permutation of that, which breaks my heart. So
James R. Elliott: that's, that's, you know, I thought after the second layoff, I started to pay attention
James R. Elliott: to the nudges from the universe. I'm like, okay. Okay. It's it's a sign.
James R. Elliott: So then started my own business. I always knew I love to help people. Started
James R. Elliott: doing a few things and now found my way here to what I really love
James R. Elliott: doing to to empowering people, teaching, speaking, and leading. That is that's
Joanne Lockwood: a fascinating story. I so much of that resonates with me,
Joanne Lockwood: in that find that epiphany moment where you, you
Joanne Lockwood: realize what this core machine is all about. It's never about you, is it? That's
Joanne Lockwood: that's the problem. You think you're the the key
Joanne Lockwood: pillar. You think you're the driving strategy. You're right in there.
Joanne Lockwood: And then in a blink, you're irrelevant. And it's like, hang on a minute. That
Joanne Lockwood: was first of the year. It's exact. And it's a shame that I
James R. Elliott: suppose that's one thing I love to help organizations with because when people feel like
James R. Elliott: numbers, they're gonna be disengaged. They're gonna be on this thing all day or, or
James R. Elliott: social media or, or actively dis distracted when they feel like numbers, they feel like
James R. Elliott: not they're valuable. They're just there to push buttons. They can be replaced at any
James R. Elliott: time. They may they may just will be. When people feel that way, it harms
James R. Elliott: corporate culture. It harms everything. When people feel like nothing,
James R. Elliott: disposable, worthless, just a number, they can get can go in a blink of an
James R. Elliott: eye, you know, and it's it's ironic. Our parents always say, you'll find a stable
James R. Elliott: job, get a good, reliable job. There is, I don't that exists these
James R. Elliott: days, unless you have your own business. I don't think that exists in, in, in
James R. Elliott: life anymore. As I learned and you learned in the blink of an eye and
James R. Elliott: that's why I I do love, you know, with taught teaching leaders just how
James R. Elliott: to have people feel like people because they'll do
James R. Elliott: so much better. They'll go so much further. They'll go way above and beyond when
James R. Elliott: you're an awesome leader and you treat people like people and, and really take care
James R. Elliott: of them. Yes. It takes a little extra time air quotes. However,
James R. Elliott: it actually, the long run saves you immense time because people aren't leaving, you don't
James R. Elliott: have to retrain people. People get greater, greater results, greater
James R. Elliott: satisfaction, absenteeism, greater performance on the job, greater
James R. Elliott: productivity. So actually saves money, saves time in the long, in the long
James R. Elliott: run by spending a little more time, making sure people, your people are great and
James R. Elliott: give them what they need. Yeah. I do a lot of work with
Joanne Lockwood: the, middle managers, senior managers. I wouldn't say
Joanne Lockwood: board level, but those people are aspiring. And too often I'm on these
Joanne Lockwood: calls listening to what they're saying. And I feel that they they they drunk the
Joanne Lockwood: corporate call aid or whatever the phrase is where they believe
Joanne Lockwood: if they keep trying, keep their head down, keep pushing, keep pushing, they'll be recognized
Joanne Lockwood: as they're spotted. And then there's a change of management. And then
Joanne Lockwood: suddenly they find that they've gotta start again. They gotta re re
Joanne Lockwood: brown those whatever words you wanna use. They gotta Yeah. Exactly. Or someone brings in
James R. Elliott: their best friend. Exactly. You're you're right. It happened. I've seen it happen many times.
James R. Elliott: And I've been I cut you off, but you're right. You know, someone's next in
James R. Elliott: line. They're just about there. You don't get promoted, but then they they get sick
James R. Elliott: or someone dies, someone leaves, someone gets hired out or retires or whatever and
James R. Elliott: or downsides. And then you're right. Then the new, the new, new, the new exec
James R. Elliott: brings all his own people, her own people in their own people in.
James R. Elliott: And there where you were at literally almost they walk at the tip of the
James R. Elliott: mountain. Well, you gotta climb all the way back up that mountain to to like,
James R. Elliott: is it brown nose your way up or lead your way up or prove your
James R. Elliott: way up? Yeah. Yeah. But that's the learned behavior, isn't it? It it's
Joanne Lockwood: if you get knocked back down six levels, you you go back to your learned
Joanne Lockwood: behavior, which is how to climb back. I often say to these people, what do
Joanne Lockwood: you think is gonna be different this time? Fair. Fair. And they go I said,
Joanne Lockwood: well, isn't it time to just admit that you need a new strategy? You
Joanne Lockwood: need to attack this from a different way. You need to change jobs, change companies,
Joanne Lockwood: go on your own, or be more strategic internally because and then I've
Joanne Lockwood: I've mentored these people over years and they come back and it happened again. I
Joanne Lockwood: said, okay. So what have we learned this time? What exactly did we learn? Last
Joanne Lockwood: time. And the alert behavior is get back on the same runs and do the
Joanne Lockwood: same again and keep trying. I guess you better work harder, work later, show more,
James R. Elliott: brown knows the same versus you're right changing your strategy there changing.
James R. Elliott: There was a saying I don't know who came up with it might have been
James R. Elliott: me but if you wanna raise, you know, get one to raise a promotion go
James R. Elliott: get a new go go for it for a new company, versus you know begging
James R. Elliott: for a little small little raise at a current company. Go work for new companies,
James R. Elliott: say I'm amazing. This is my experience. If you want me, this is, this is
James R. Elliott: what are the, my, my prices to, to have me versus begging and
James R. Elliott: clamoring at a current company. And been there, done that for, for
James R. Elliott: a small raise when you're doing so much. You know? It's getting I mean,
Joanne Lockwood: we've seen examples of of very famous people who've
Joanne Lockwood: started out as the janitor and ended up as the CEO or whatever. We see
Joanne Lockwood: that, but there are there are only a handful of these people in the world,
Joanne Lockwood: and they've got and they write the books and they tell the story. Well, exactly.
Joanne Lockwood: The answer is for most people, it's not yeah. As you say,
Joanne Lockwood: you're better off thinking a different tactic because I
Joanne Lockwood: always find that you get anchored to your starting point. You're always
Joanne Lockwood: seen as an apprentice, always seen as an intern, always seen as a
Joanne Lockwood: junior. And the people around you keep growing around you, and
Joanne Lockwood: they always see you five levels below. So you've gotta come in at a higher
Joanne Lockwood: level and people perceive you differently. And that's a that's a real challenge for people
Joanne Lockwood: to escape their mindset. I think, Ray, especially when when peers, and I've seen it,
James R. Elliott: two peers, one gets promoted and they're now the leader, the manager, the supervisor, and
James R. Elliott: and their body or or just their peers are like, well, I'm not listening to
James R. Elliott: you. You're you're just one of me. I'm not listening to any causes a lot
James R. Elliott: of issues and then often that leader fails unless they find a way to make
James R. Elliott: it work or unless they're moved to a totally different team or again, if they
James R. Elliott: go to a totally different company as a leader that can work better. But you're
James R. Elliott: right. If they just promoted to a leader of their peers, it's like, oh, it's
James R. Elliott: just it's just John. It's just it's just Jane, whatever. They don't really see
James R. Elliott: them as as absolute authority. So it's it's super, super interesting to see
James R. Elliott: that as well unless they are moved to a dramatically new team or company.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. I I got out of the corporate life in the nineties. I used to
Joanne Lockwood: work for a private bank in the city of London. Oh, cool.
Joanne Lockwood: Global global private bank. And, I remember I had this a fantastic job. I was
Joanne Lockwood: in IT, computer at the time. I used to be head of
Joanne Lockwood: global systems. So I used to deploy PCs and servers, Nobel
Joanne Lockwood: network, actually, as it happened. There we go. Yeah. Around the
Joanne Lockwood: world. They did a big reorg, and then they gave me this new job, which
Joanne Lockwood: was responsible for year 2,000 compliance
Joanne Lockwood: in, the DECVAC systems, the VACVMS
Joanne Lockwood: systems, the Navell, well, the PC. So I was now and I got a letter
Joanne Lockwood: from the IT director saying, basically, if you mess up,
Joanne Lockwood: your bonus is on the line. And I read this, I thought,
Joanne Lockwood: one, I don't want the job. Didn't want I was quite I loved my old
Joanne Lockwood: job. The the job I applied for was the one I had. I loved that
Joanne Lockwood: job. I really loved it, and I wanted to keep doing it. And
Joanne Lockwood: secondly, I don't wanna be spoken that way. I don't wanna be
Joanne Lockwood: so you and I went I I remember handing my notice in the the the
Joanne Lockwood: HR director took me in. And I sort of sat there. You could see he
Joanne Lockwood: was fuming and angry because it to work for a bank, there's a lot of
Joanne Lockwood: due diligence. It probably took them six months worth of due diligence to hire me.
Joanne Lockwood: And that I'd only been there, like, eighteen months or something. So it was fast
Joanne Lockwood: there because I just thought I had their life. And I just went, I'm sorry.
Joanne Lockwood: I'm out. I'm gonna start my own business. I don't need this anymore. And
Joanne Lockwood: I never looked back. Yeah. At the time, I had a good salary and I
Joanne Lockwood: thought, wow, what am I doing here? And so when I say to people, sometimes
Joanne Lockwood: you gotta make that choice and it I know it's a privilege. Yeah. It's a
Joanne Lockwood: privilege to be able to have that choice. Not everybody has that, but
Joanne Lockwood: you can always you can always hide behind it and say, I can't. I can't.
James R. Elliott: And sometimes you just my family, my money, my this, my that. It's I don't
James R. Elliott: know how I agreed. Agreed. I, you know, it it's it's it's really
James R. Elliott: interesting to see. And I've seen with people too, they're that they're at a they're
James R. Elliott: a great, let's say, great sales rep, great leader, but a horrible company. And I'm
James R. Elliott: like, Leaf, go to a new company. But but I guess, unfortunately,
James R. Elliott: they they pay them quite well because they know they treat them poorly. They pay
James R. Elliott: them quite well at these companies I've seen just enough to keep them there because
James R. Elliott: they're like, well, if I go anywhere else, I wouldn't make as much, which I
James R. Elliott: think is is a limiting belief. It's a bit true because, yeah, they do pay
James R. Elliott: them well so they can abuse them so they don't leave. But also, like, she
James R. Elliott: said, well, this is what I do. I sell this right. I lead this type
James R. Elliott: of company. Well, could you not sell that or lead that type of company? And
James R. Elliott: they, their thoughts are, well, no, this is all I know how to sell. This
James R. Elliott: is all no leadership skills, sales skills are people
James R. Elliott: skills, relationships, skills, they're cross. It could work for you could sell bread or
James R. Elliott: spaceships. It's people skills. It's asking questions of talking to people, leading it,
James R. Elliott: understanding people, making people people feel human and engaging people. Those
James R. Elliott: beliefs are excuses. Like you said, I can't because blank
James R. Elliott: is is Yeah. Been there. I can't get married. I can't start a family. I
Joanne Lockwood: can't buy a house. I can't. I can't. I can't. Because, because, because.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. And the other thing this bank did was that they their bonus
Joanne Lockwood: culture, they paid a really good bank as bonus as most banks do in other
Joanne Lockwood: companies, is that you got the bonus, but it you got
Joanne Lockwood: awarded it, but you didn't get it for another three or four months afterwards. So
Joanne Lockwood: therefore, you're always earning the next bonus before you got the
Joanne Lockwood: last bonus. So you're always in arrears. So you always had three or four months
Joanne Lockwood: that you left. If you leave, you lose, basically. That's really interesting.
Joanne Lockwood: You've already started investing in the next year. You you you you
Joanne Lockwood: put I'm not sure whether you lost the entire bonus for what you had, but
Joanne Lockwood: there was this kind of like, well, I've already invested another four months before I
Joanne Lockwood: had it. So I think it's like again, it sucks you in. Deliberate. Very
Joanne Lockwood: deliberate. But I remember those days. You you mentioned that, you know, you started back
Joanne Lockwood: in the ML network, Microsoft. And I I go back
Joanne Lockwood: to, I suppose, my first IT job was 1984. IBM
Joanne Lockwood: PCs, HP Vectras at the time, floppy disk, first
Joanne Lockwood: Apple Mac, a little tiny portable Apple Mac thing.
Joanne Lockwood: And I remember those days it was very you know, we talk about
Joanne Lockwood: iOS versus Android today. This the battle of the platforms. In those days,
Joanne Lockwood: we had IBM, the big, the big monoliths, in Microsoft, the up
Joanne Lockwood: upstart coming in, then we had different versions of DOS. Then we had Windows, we
Joanne Lockwood: had OS two, We had Novell network. And at least people became very
Joanne Lockwood: you could see how people becoming really invested in their tech in their tech and
Joanne Lockwood: their specialists. And and it I look back on that and think, when we talk
Joanne Lockwood: about culture and inclusion and and diversity, or this sort of thing, people were
Joanne Lockwood: very prisoners to their tech side, didn't they? And wherever GoFound come to our
Joanne Lockwood: Nobel network died like everything else. Microsoft
Joanne Lockwood: phone died. IBM changed its model
Joanne Lockwood: completely. True. Completely. Exactly. Lots of services now, you know,
James R. Elliott: and, in software, less hardware, lots of service. It's interesting to I think when
James R. Elliott: things change, I because change is the only constant. And that's that's why I think
James R. Elliott: we need to learn that that that perseverance, that resilience
James R. Elliott: during, again, times of challenge change, adversity, because that's the only thing that we
James R. Elliott: can really rely on these days is that there will be change. Is that things
James R. Elliott: are gonna get shaken up? Is it tomorrow, with Trump tariffs? Is it two
James R. Elliott: years from now with another war? Is it whatever it is economy up and
James R. Elliott: down all around? But to your point, I think we need to also change people's
James R. Elliott: thinking and get rid of the I can't or we that's gonna cost too much
James R. Elliott: or that it'd be too hard or too long or too whatever or not enough
James R. Elliott: whatever. Because then nothing changes and then inevitably
James R. Elliott: like Kodak. Kodak invent they invented the digital camera but they
James R. Elliott: buried it at a vault because they're like, well, no. This is gonna cannibalize all
James R. Elliott: our film sales. This is a bad idea. So let's not do it. We'll hide
James R. Elliott: it. And then now Kodak said a business. Blockbuster is the same. Now let's not
James R. Elliott: do this online thing because then people are not gonna come out of our stores
James R. Elliott: and buy our things. That's gonna wreck it. But inevitably now blockbusters out of
James R. Elliott: bed and there's just millions of examples like that. The people that didn't adapt to
James R. Elliott: change or nope we're not changing and they stand firm and because change is
James R. Elliott: the only thing that's going to happen that you know is going to happen. And
James R. Elliott: I think that there was zillions and again, perseverance. Okay. Well, that
James R. Elliott: didn't work. Let's try that. This didn't work. Let's try that. And, and okay, this
James R. Elliott: is happening. Let's try this. Yeah. That's
James R. Elliott: why perseverance and inclusion can be such great and hot topics these days.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. Because I when I was my own IT business, we're just at cusp from
Joanne Lockwood: on premise servers to cloud, and we were a break
Joanne Lockwood: fix sort of service provider where we we wanted things to break. We wanted
Joanne Lockwood: hardware to go wrong. And then the world was moving very quickly into a cloud
Joanne Lockwood: based five nines, reliable, doesn't go
Joanne Lockwood: down. So trying to pivot the skill set and the business model to
Joanne Lockwood: being a managed service all in. And inevitably,
Joanne Lockwood: that's that's a kind of a cliff edge because you've got to invest for no
Joanne Lockwood: return and hope to grow that element. And and your customers aren't always ready for
Joanne Lockwood: it either, are they? Yep. Fair. Fair. And and take that risk like you said.
James R. Elliott: You know, you live on that edge. And and I think fate favors the
James R. Elliott: fearless. You you go all in intelligently, but you go all in. And
James R. Elliott: and I think fate can favor you versus we're gonna wait, we're gonna
James R. Elliott: hesitate, or we're gonna take this slow, we're not gonna do that, or
James R. Elliott: burying our our head and things, I think can be a very, very dangerous thing,
James R. Elliott: but for business, for success for growth, honestly, it's like,
James R. Elliott: well, how can we be changing? If things are changing, the world is changing, how
James R. Elliott: can we constantly be changing and evolving ourselves?
James R. Elliott: Which is what I suppose led me to be where I am now. I'm
James R. Elliott: constantly learning, constantly growing with courses, mentors, trainings, you name
James R. Elliott: it. I think that is for me anyways, it's something
James R. Elliott: that's been helped me become the man I am, the leader I am, but also
James R. Elliott: as fulfilling it is and creating the success going back to our our
James R. Elliott: title. It's creating that success, is by
James R. Elliott: planning to change, planning for change and and having a almost a almost
James R. Elliott: a change and growth roadmap for yourself and for your team.
James R. Elliott: Otherwise, because you're literally falling down the mountain versus climbing up the
James R. Elliott: mountain because someone's have a, someone's got a rocket pack and they're going to rocket
James R. Elliott: up the mountain ahead of you, or whatever metaphor you want to use. I think
James R. Elliott: it's a very important to have that, that authorized vision. And to be able to
James R. Elliott: handle the bumps in the road too, because there will be some and, and they
James R. Elliott: can be the greatest learnings and sometimes the brightest spots or
James R. Elliott: highlight the bumps in the road. I find can highlight your brightest stars in the
James R. Elliott: business, in the company too. Your brightest employees, the brightest spots, the best
James R. Elliott: people because if they stick around and stand strong and say what can I do?
James R. Elliott: How do you need me? And they they take responsibility for things. I think that
James R. Elliott: can that can reveal some of your best people you wanna keep around forever. That's
James R. Elliott: for sure. Yeah. In those times of stress and challenge, isn't it? That's
Joanne Lockwood: where the, as you say, the the spotlight, the shine, it's people who can
Joanne Lockwood: handle that adversity. It's growth mindset. It's
Joanne Lockwood: solution mindset rather than rather than learned behaviors, rather than
Joanne Lockwood: rigid structure. You tell me what to do. I need to be managed. I've got
Joanne Lockwood: yeah. I give up. Yeah. Exactly. I don't know what to do. Yeah. Yeah.
James R. Elliott: Right on. But business need a need a blend. I mean, going back to this
Joanne Lockwood: diversity of of personality type, it's if if everybody
Joanne Lockwood: was a a go getty idea person, you'd have you'd have to keep the show
Joanne Lockwood: on the road stuff. We'd have no operations. We'd be changing everything every
Joanne Lockwood: five seconds. And everyone's got a a better idea. Just trying to find that
Joanne Lockwood: blend, isn't it? I think you're right. It is. And having supporting everyone's
James R. Elliott: spark, I think. Because you're right. There's we need we need technical people, we need
James R. Elliott: visionary people, we need people, people, relationship people, all these kind of things.
James R. Elliott: Yeah. It's it's that making sure that that balance is
James R. Elliott: there. Cause you want, you want more than one type of person in your, in
James R. Elliott: your, on your team and people to compliment you as well, but also finding their
James R. Elliott: spark, finding what lights them up, supporting that, cause then they'll stay, they'll do
James R. Elliott: better. They'll be excited. You know, helping me, hey, maybe helping them find that spark
James R. Elliott: because some people don't want it is or they don't wanna let it out for
James R. Elliott: whatever reason and being seen or judged or heard or or
James R. Elliott: hated on or whatever. I think people there's this
James R. Elliott: internal conflict. People want to be seen and heard for their
James R. Elliott: their authentic, you know, value and and who they are, but also then the the
James R. Elliott: fears of what if what if I speak up and people don't like it or
James R. Elliott: they they fire me or I they think I'm stupid or or whatever.
James R. Elliott: Whatever it is, right, ruffle some feathers. And my biggest thing is be authentic.
James R. Elliott: And if you're authentic and being real and and and as not permission to be
James R. Elliott: an ass for, but it's it's, you know, being being raw and real and and
James R. Elliott: and yes, sharing your opinions, share your thoughts whether you're not been or whether you're
James R. Elliott: you're someone at a at a
James R. Elliott: kind person, then that's not that's not the firm for you. Or if you're afraid
James R. Elliott: that you're gonna get fired or think you get fired for being real and authentic.
James R. Elliott: Well, it's often just a limiting bully for a fear, an unfounded fear.
James R. Elliott: And again, like I said, if you do get laid off or fired, you're probably
James R. Elliott: not happy there anyways. I can almost bet my reputation on the fact that you're
James R. Elliott: not happy and fulfilled there anyways. If you can't be you and speak up or
James R. Elliott: speak out and contribute, or they're not letting you shine your light sounds a little
James R. Elliott: airy fairy, but they're not letting you, you show your bright spots and and
James R. Elliott: really what lights you up, what you're passionate about, because that's gonna make you the
James R. Elliott: most productive, you know, a leader, team member, mentor, friend, you name
James R. Elliott: it. You talked by the beginning around,
Joanne Lockwood: growing, making mistakes, failing quick, learning fast. And some of that goes back to what
Joanne Lockwood: you talked about this fear is is this concept of psychological safety, isn't it? You
Joanne Lockwood: know, making sure we can bring ourself into into
Joanne Lockwood: into the workplace. We can learn and grow, and we
Joanne Lockwood: can make mistakes because, as you said, how many children do
Joanne Lockwood: you know that learned to walk without falling over, without bumping the head, without
Joanne Lockwood: grazing their knee? Exactly. Exactly. Doesn't happen, does it? You have to
Joanne Lockwood: if you if you get it right every time, you don't know what the magic
Joanne Lockwood: sauce was to get it right. Exactly. It's only when you make a misstep that
Joanne Lockwood: you you suddenly learn, course correct, learned.
Joanne Lockwood: Don't do that again. It hurts if I do that. Well, and that's what you're
James R. Elliott: right. That's what sometimes people with just pure natural talent, coincidentally,
James R. Elliott: sometimes they're not very good teachers. Because they're like, well, you just do it do
James R. Elliott: it less. Like, do it do it like I do. And you're like, what? Like,
James R. Elliott: what are you talking about? So sometimes it's ironic that sometimes that that the true
James R. Elliott: natural talent, if it was easy for them, it's not easy for most people. So
James R. Elliott: they often don't make a great teacher. Now that's not that doesn't always hold hold
James R. Elliott: fast and to hold through, but they're like, because they didn't know what it was
James R. Elliott: like to fail and to fall and watch it for this or don't do that.
James R. Elliott: And when you're driving your bike, heaven forbid, don't do that with just getting wheel
James R. Elliott: because you're gonna fall versus someone that just jumped on a bike and naturally, well,
James R. Elliott: this is pretty easy. You know, have they allowed really good balance and it was
James R. Elliott: easy to them. You know, just get on and start riding. That's, that's all you
James R. Elliott: do when you're falling over. You're like, I don't, I don't understand this. I don't
James R. Elliott: get it. But, but no, you're coming back to your point. It is really interesting.
James R. Elliott: I like to throw rocks at culture, a corporate culture that that makes
James R. Elliott: it not okay to fail. Not okay to take risks, not okay to try, not
James R. Elliott: okay to, you know, contribute and and say something that that people like,
James R. Elliott: well, we don't we don't agree with that or we'll take that and pause that
James R. Elliott: or no. Yes, no, maybe. I think, you know, that the corporate culture that
James R. Elliott: punches failing and rewards the, the monotony
James R. Elliott: robot like employee, which is not gonna give you the highest
James R. Elliott: performance you want. And they're not gonna be happy either as humans are not
James R. Elliott: robots. I think that that can be a very dangerous culture that that
James R. Elliott: punishes or or just says failure is bad. Trying things is bad. Risk is
James R. Elliott: bad. But it's not. It's it's how I mean, if the Wright brothers didn't
James R. Elliott: risk falling, we would never have fly. They obviously crashed a lot of times. You
Joanne Lockwood: just don't see the footage. Exactly. They sure did. In fact, I
James R. Elliott: think I think it was Wilbur Wilbur Wright. About a year before they
James R. Elliott: got the first flying airplane, he said, man, I will not fly for thousands
James R. Elliott: of years because they were using traditional outdated thinking,
James R. Elliott: science, models, research. And they said, let's throw all that out. And let's,
James R. Elliott: let's do our own like research thinking, but let's, let's look at a fresh view
James R. Elliott: of, of this flight thing at a f and then again, a year later, they
James R. Elliott: had a flying airplane versus years of crashing and falling and not working because they
James R. Elliott: were using someone else's limitations, limiting beliefs, models, fears, worries.
James R. Elliott: This can happen. This can't happen. This is possible. This is not possible. All
James R. Elliott: that stuff. It's amazing. The the how thing I mean, one of the one of
James R. Elliott: the founders of IBM once said computers are just not that We may have a
James R. Elliott: few of them in the world, maybe at libraries and universities, but peep no one
James R. Elliott: needs a computer in their home. What what what are they gonna do with it?
James R. Elliott: I have, like, literally on my desk, four of them right now. One, two, three,
James R. Elliott: and then four. It's been exactly. Exactly. That's exactly. You have one on your arm.
James R. Elliott: You have a computer. Yeah. It's a thing. My ears. These things have
Joanne Lockwood: got sound processing up in my headphones. Exactly. It's it's it's
James R. Elliott: just a thing in my phone. The Apollo spaceships probably in my ears.
James R. Elliott: Correct. Exactly. Probably all the computing power in literally ease and
James R. Elliott: beyond is probably in my phone right now. The eighties, every computer back to, I
James R. Elliott: guess, what, fifties when Eniac and, the other one was invented probably sits in
James R. Elliott: my phone, all the computing power in the world, the sixties, seventies, and eighties.
James R. Elliott: So it's just it's just interesting. Yeah. That's some of this thinking,
Joanne Lockwood: our massive hole in the concept of the meritocracy, this belief in the BS
Joanne Lockwood: of meritocracy. Mhmm. I I can't remember what so I saw something on LinkedIn.
Joanne Lockwood: It was an article. I I don't remember what which what what it was, but
Joanne Lockwood: the concept was basically a grade students
Joanne Lockwood: don't make the best leaders and entrepreneurs because the c
Joanne Lockwood: grade students know what it's like to work hard and fail, work hard and
Joanne Lockwood: fail. They know the crap, but a grade students tend to
Joanne Lockwood: have an aptitude to get things right, and they focus on getting things right. Oh,
Joanne Lockwood: and they get really frustrated when they get it wrong, but but they believe they're
Joanne Lockwood: right. And the meritocracy is often geared up for the a graders, not
Joanne Lockwood: the school of hard knocks and the triers. Yeah. I don't
Joanne Lockwood: wanna quote the name, but Trump, he's messed up a lot in his life.
Joanne Lockwood: He's made a lot of mistakes. I dare say Musk has as well. And these
Joanne Lockwood: big people that you Agree. Credit. Let's talk about the meritocracy. The
Joanne Lockwood: meritocracy comes from a life of hard knocks and
Joanne Lockwood: the attrition, not just being snap
Joanne Lockwood: snapshot, that veneer of being great. True. True. And
James R. Elliott: there's the Dunning Kruger effect, which people that they think they're dash, if they think
James R. Elliott: they're people that have some skill think they're actually better than they are. And I
James R. Elliott: think to your point, that happens a lot with those, the, the A graders, if
James R. Elliott: you will. In fact, we had to, had to let someone go. We onboarded someone
James R. Elliott: recently, let her go in a few days, 131 IQ. Very nice
James R. Elliott: person, but just, it didn't work without putting her down. It just it
James R. Elliott: 130 cute, very smart person. But some, some of the basic stuff
James R. Elliott: it's like, what it's and there's been many times,
James R. Elliott: many of those people too. I've, I've been hired many bright people and it didn't
James R. Elliott: work out because it just many reasons either. You're right. Dunning Kruger effect. I think
James R. Elliott: they're better than what they are or just a no school hard knocks.
James R. Elliott: No. Well, what do I do if this happens? What do you do if this
James R. Elliott: breaks versus okay? Like, I can't do anything to last. James will. What would you
James R. Elliott: do? What what might you do? What could you do right now instead of waiting
James R. Elliott: till I'm gonna be able to ask me, okay, this broken, what do I do?
James R. Elliott: So it is really interesting, Joanne, to to to to see those, like I
James R. Elliott: said, and I hate how the current school system, and I have several problems with
James R. Elliott: it. I think it creates robots and it makes peep designs people to be
James R. Elliott: automatons in a, in a, in a, you know, industrial world, corporate world, I suppose.
James R. Elliott: But not even, not even successful corporate people because the corporate world still use great
James R. Elliott: thinkers, great innovators, people who go above and beyond and think outside the
James R. Elliott: box versus just do what you're told. Now there's obviously some people in the, in
James R. Elliott: the corporate world that do that, but there's a lot of people, you know, sit
James R. Elliott: down, raise their hand, ask permission. If you want a water or one of the
James R. Elliott: bathroom. Seriously, like, and just, and, and you're having little boys sit down
James R. Elliott: and behave, shut up when I don't think little three, four, five year old boys
James R. Elliott: should be made to sit down and shut up. That's not how they're designed. I
James R. Elliott: mean, it's, it's, it's anyways, I've several problems with the school systems these
James R. Elliott: days, but again, one of them is, is just that it doesn't really teach
James R. Elliott: people to be, you know, outside the box thinkers that and go above and
James R. Elliott: beyond and and just be super creative versus k. Two plus two is
James R. Elliott: four. Great. On a test, let's write two. But versus versus how can you be
James R. Elliott: creative? How can you solve problems and and look at things and think abstractly?
James R. Elliott: I I, unfortunately, I have a I loathe some of the some of the current
James R. Elliott: school systems and and how they teach because, just because of that and and what
James R. Elliott: you just said. Yeah. We gotta meet people where they're at
Joanne Lockwood: sometimes. In in today's world, we recognize people have different learning,
Joanne Lockwood: different thinking styles, neurotypical neurodivergent thinking
Joanne Lockwood: styles. And we go back to the school years when I was
Joanne Lockwood: 19, where you were put in the
Joanne Lockwood: class for, for people who were useless, for want of a better phrase of putting
Joanne Lockwood: it. You were you were written off and you got nothing. You were allowed to,
Joanne Lockwood: I don't know, play games and and draw with crayons. That was about that was
Joanne Lockwood: about you a lot at school. And now we're recognizing that by
Joanne Lockwood: by meeting people where they're at and their style,
Joanne Lockwood: people can thrive and fly. Huge. Huge. Huge. I'm
James R. Elliott: neurodiverse too on OCD and ADHD. And if I'm thank goodness I wasn't well,
James R. Elliott: in a way, thank goodness I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my last year
James R. Elliott: of university. Cause like, who knows what box I would have put in or what,
James R. Elliott: what sped group I would have been put in or God knows what, how I
James R. Elliott: would have been looked at. And because again, Pete, these notions would teach us, oh,
James R. Elliott: he's this, he's that she's this, she's that, or not this, not that It made
James R. Elliott: it hella hard for me to go through school and to get certain certain subjects.
James R. Elliott: I got great marks in because the ADHD can help you hyperfocus and be
James R. Elliott: just hyper super interested and excel in certain things that you
James R. Elliott: love and your interest. And then, of course, you may get extremely hard. Math is
James R. Elliott: one of mine to excel in something that you're you're you're no interest. You're boring
James R. Elliott: and and and you become not good at it. Luckily, in our in our in
James R. Elliott: most of our careers or our entrepreneur worlds, we can outsource and hire out and
James R. Elliott: we do we don't do we don't love. We do what we love as entrepreneurs.
James R. Elliott: So luckily, it's an amazing superpower. If there's any young people out
James R. Elliott: there or even people in the corporate world that have whatever neurodivergent you
James R. Elliott: are a OCD ADHD or whatever, whatever you are.
James R. Elliott: You know, go find, go find somewhere where you want, where you love working and
James R. Elliott: maybe go start your own business and doing things you love. If there's any kids
James R. Elliott: listening, avoid worrying. You'll, you'll find your
James R. Elliott: superpower and and go out and do that and avoid letting you know. And I'll
James R. Elliott: tell you, you can't because blank. You can't because
James R. Elliott: this. You can't because of that. I met a a gentleman, I guess,
James R. Elliott: homeless ish person. And, and I said, well, you know, what are you doing? What
James R. Elliott: do you how did you how did you become a homeless? He said, well, I
James R. Elliott: was in the military, and he's like, so and but I hurt my leg. And
James R. Elliott: he's like, so I can't work. And I'm like, there's like hours
James R. Elliott: or half days. I don't get off my ass in a given day that I
James R. Elliott: don't get off my butt. And and this, this, it was so
James R. Elliott: interesting to me and bizarre, but interesting that his belief, I can't work
James R. Elliott: because there's a million things he could do with, with having a bad
James R. Elliott: leg. But again, just, just not, it just in his realm of, and his,
James R. Elliott: of thinking outside the box and what he's been taught. It was, it was fascinating,
James R. Elliott: fascinating to me. And my broke my heart too. Anyone who's at school
Joanne Lockwood: today or in that sort of teenage college looking
Joanne Lockwood: to think about their career, they could've start thinking
Joanne Lockwood: ten years ahead because I think the the phrase is skate where the puck's going,
Joanne Lockwood: not where the not where the puck is going. Winguretsky. Good Canadian.
Joanne Lockwood: You wind the clock back, I don't know, let's say four four four or five
Joanne Lockwood: years. AI. AI. When anyone said, hang
Joanne Lockwood: on a minute. We wanna be investing in AI big time. Everybody needs to invest
Joanne Lockwood: in AI big time. Don't know what you're talking about. AI reason is exactly It's
Joanne Lockwood: science fiction. Don't need it. Like, try a good talk about the Terminator movie, you
James R. Elliott: know? Exactly. You know, when I was at at leaving school, nobody wanted to
Joanne Lockwood: be a social media expert in the nineteen eighties. Nobody wanted to be a LinkedIn
Joanne Lockwood: trainer, social selling person,
Joanne Lockwood: deliverer, food delivery person, or a just eat person.
Joanne Lockwood: These technologies didn't exist. You don't have to aspire to what
Joanne Lockwood: is the incumbent vogue, if you like. What's happening now?
Joanne Lockwood: It's looking where that puck's going and thinking to yourself, I see here.
Joanne Lockwood: Maybe I need to build a trajectory and get some skills, but you've
Joanne Lockwood: gotta be agile. You've gotta keep looking at their eyes. Agreed. And and and well,
James R. Elliott: let me wing Gretzky skate where the puck's going because you're right. What what what
James R. Elliott: is a trend? What are emerging trends? What could I get into versus,
James R. Elliott: you know, what is a what is a a business that may not be there?
James R. Elliott: What is a job type in the future that may not be there in the
James R. Elliott: future because of AI or automation or robots or or whatever? You know, I
James R. Elliott: think, look at, okay, what what could I do? What would I love to do?
James R. Elliott: What would light me up? Pretending that anything was possible because
James R. Elliott: it is, but let you know, for people that maybe that's not quite the realm
James R. Elliott: yet, pretending that ending is possible. What would you do? What could you do? What
James R. Elliott: would you love to do? And either maybe find someone like that, find a bunch
James R. Elliott: of people like that. I mean, that's what the creators of Google did. They like,
James R. Elliott: let's, hey, let's build this thing together or go create it yourself, or
James R. Elliott: find maybe find a company that that is doing that or or maybe getting into
James R. Elliott: that, and you can help them develop it too. And and then my goodness, that
James R. Elliott: would light me up as well. So I think would light people up too.
Joanne Lockwood: Alright. Let's let's take a a year ago, would anybody
Joanne Lockwood: have said that Google could be displaced as a search engine? Hit it on.
Joanne Lockwood: How's that possible? You know? OpenAI come out and say, right, you can now use
Joanne Lockwood: AI to to search. You don't need rankings and keywords. It
Joanne Lockwood: it won't even return your website perplexity. It'll do all this research for
Joanne Lockwood: you. Suddenly, search engines are becoming irrelevant
Joanne Lockwood: because they're it's all proportionate to the effort you put into the search.
Joanne Lockwood: Now you could just say, tell me how to make a cake. What sort of
Joanne Lockwood: cake do you want? I want this sort of cake. Oh, this is how you
Joanne Lockwood: do it. This is a recipe. Agree. Yeah. Exactly. And if you need new oven,
Joanne Lockwood: buy this one. It's and it's yeah. It's I just think we're I know
Joanne Lockwood: people are scared of this, but people are scared of the motor car. People are
Joanne Lockwood: scared of steam engines. People were and it's how we tame it without
Joanne Lockwood: without creating Skynet, I guess, is the key thing. Well, and and that's the other
James R. Elliott: thing too. Exactly. But but without, you know, with the creating Skynet, but also without
James R. Elliott: it's funny you say that. Without also thinking, I'm trying to remember remember a quote.
James R. Elliott: I can't remember who it was, but they're like, these these these car things, this
James R. Elliott: is just a fad. The the horse has always been there. The horse will the
James R. Elliott: horse and carriage will always be there. It's the way we do it. These these
James R. Elliott: cars are gonna be just a fad, and they're dangerous, and they're smelly, and they're
James R. Elliott: smoggy. And, I mean, that's probably true. But but but but and
James R. Elliott: then, you know, we we we our cars are dominant, transportation
James R. Elliott: now. It's so interesting that the thinking that happens and the
James R. Elliott: limited thinking, but but to your point exactly, I think you're absolutely right. And the
Joanne Lockwood: first cars were were electric, weren't they? They weren't petrol or or steam
Joanne Lockwood: operated. There was a a lot of electric ones. So, yeah, it it's we're coming
Joanne Lockwood: around again. Someone had a vested interest in fossil fuels to obviously sell
Joanne Lockwood: them to to make petrol. Sure. A lot of exactly. A lot of vested
James R. Elliott: interest. Yes. So we we talk about the entrepreneurial spirit and the mindset. You
Joanne Lockwood: know, we've introduced escape where the putts going, looking at
Joanne Lockwood: opportunities, looking around in your business, not stagnating or become the
Joanne Lockwood: blockbuster or no avail net way or something. As an entrepreneur,
Joanne Lockwood: you have to, a, run your business, b, think of the future,
Joanne Lockwood: lifelong learning, but you've gotta reserve some time for you, haven't you? How how do
Joanne Lockwood: you stop yourself burning out? There's we've talked about balance and freedom here. Yeah. How
Joanne Lockwood: to be balanced? It's it's hue and it's it's so important. I I burned up
James R. Elliott: many times in my corporate career. I've seen people burn out, employees and leaders.
James R. Elliott: I burnt out my entrepreneur business too. Because the and there's there's gotta be
James R. Elliott: balance. And when there's not, people don't perform well. Burnt out people are not high
James R. Elliott: performers. No wonder there's all so much absenteeism these days or depression or
James R. Elliott: sick leave or or stress leave or whatever people leave for.
James R. Elliott: I think here right people don't have boundaries with themselves and others
James R. Elliott: to make sure. And I used to do this to my oh, no. Yeah. I
James R. Elliott: can talk to you during my lunch hours. I'll just move this appointment book. I
James R. Elliott: said, I'll just delete my lunch. That doesn't happen anymore. No. My my lunch
James R. Elliott: is this time. My my my my free time flow time is no. No. You're
James R. Elliott: not. Nope. Nope. Nope. I I mean, if something's an emergency or or high I'm
James R. Elliott: sure I'll I'll shift that. But if it's a day that there's no other time
James R. Elliott: to to take a break, you're not getting in my lunch hour. You're not getting
James R. Elliott: in my nap time, you know? And and I think that's important as as as
James R. Elliott: almost our our culture, which I also throw rocks at the culture in North America.
James R. Elliott: Hopefully, definitely less in Europe and and South America. Maybe I'm not sure about The
James R. Elliott: UK but our culture is the the whole work, work, work, work, work, work, work,
James R. Elliott: and whoever works the most or the hardest wins which I think can
James R. Elliott: actually lead to failure. It's whoever works the most effectively, the most
James R. Elliott: efficiently, most creatively. And while they while they, you know, and
James R. Elliott: inspire others, empower others, lead others to success, those that's who wins, not just
James R. Elliott: work, work, work, work, work harder. That person in the earliest, the office and
James R. Elliott: out the latest and not had little people bragging about how little sleep they
James R. Elliott: have. How about we brag about success or how much you got done
James R. Elliott: and how little time versus, and I did this too. I was there. Oh, I
James R. Elliott: only slept, you know, five hours last night. Cause I w I worked like, you
James R. Elliott: know, eighteen hours last night and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All that
James R. Elliott: nonsense. No wonder there's so much burnout and depression and
James R. Elliott: suicide too. And again, been there, been there, done that suicidal thoughts, depression,
James R. Elliott: anxiety, all this stuff, which came from yes, intense, intense bullying,
James R. Elliott: and being picked on physically and mentally for years, but also just killing myself, burning
James R. Elliott: myself out, wanting to look good for others, wanting so hard for people to like
James R. Elliott: me being so inauthentic. It just fries us. So just tying into the
James R. Elliott: theme here of, of self care and, and burnout. Some of that is, is yes,
James R. Elliott: you're meditating reflection. What's working in your life. What's not working.
James R. Elliott: Because that'll make you reflect and, that'll make you excuse to help you grow when
James R. Elliott: you reflect and there's action and reflection. There's progress. No
James R. Elliott: reflection. No progress. You're just on that treadmill going, going, going, going
James R. Elliott: without realizing why are the trees not moving? Oh, I'm in a freaking
James R. Elliott: treadmill. Just running, running, running my hardest, but not going anywhere. That's why the
James R. Elliott: trees aren't moving by. I think people need to really take, take stock about, you
James R. Elliott: know, taking breaks and being okay, taking breaks, being okay, taking vacation. Not one of
James R. Elliott: these people that, oh, I don't take any vacation or I don't take breaks. So
James R. Elliott: I haven't taken vacation years. That's not helping you be a high
James R. Elliott: performer. That is not helping you think creatively. Immediate Einstein, Henry Ford,
James R. Elliott: Edison, all the greats have said, you know, even
James R. Elliott: Oprah Winfrey even, Huffington, Martha Stewart even. I know she's a
James R. Elliott: bit out of favor now, but they've all said that all, all the greats of
James R. Elliott: the, of the years have all said that my
James R. Elliott: greatest ahas and creativity and awareness moments and moments of
James R. Elliott: generating ideas and solutions came when I was resting or doing
James R. Elliott: something else or doing self care and doing something else, not when I was in
James R. Elliott: the middle of the thing. So and I, I experienced that daily
James R. Elliott: too, because I make darn sure this time for me to play, to meditate,
James R. Elliott: how whatever your meditation is, going for a walk, it could be thinking, it could
James R. Elliott: be not thinking whatever your practice is. Listen to music, just
James R. Elliott: chilling, whatever it is, whatever it is, enjoying, I don't know, sitting,
James R. Elliott: enjoying my thing often before I, I developed an allergy to
James R. Elliott: chocolate with just sitting and just, you know, letting bites of chocolate dissolve
James R. Elliott: in my mouth and just taking a few moments and just just like those
James R. Elliott: Bueno commercials or Aero commercials or whatever it is. I think we need that
James R. Elliott: time. Wait. I know we need that time. And I've seen myself and people that
James R. Elliott: don't take some whatever the time is, maybe it's to go for a run. It's
James R. Elliott: different for each. It's different for all of us. Don't have to go for a
James R. Elliott: run. Maybe it's just going for a walk or sitting and doing nothing or
James R. Elliott: dreaming or thinking or playing. Time to have
James R. Elliott: fun to never. And that's a whole nother thing. But at least time that time
James R. Elliott: to for for self care. Maybe it's a massage. Maybe it's
James R. Elliott: whatever it is. As an entrepreneur, I don't have health benefits because
James R. Elliott: I'm an entrepreneur, but I you're darn right. I pay for weekly massages. That's my
James R. Elliott: that's one of my biggest self cares. And sometimes it's twice a week because that's
James R. Elliott: my boy. Why does that ever charge me? Wow. Does it ever charge me?
James R. Elliott: I think we need to have that whatever that is, whatever you do, and that's
James R. Elliott: fine. If it's sitting and closing your eyes for half an hour or an hour
James R. Elliott: or twenty minutes, I used to take nap. I go to a small, and at
James R. Elliott: far edge of the floor, a breakout room and put my chair against the wall,
James R. Elliott: and I just wouldn't nap. For fifteen, twenty, I come back. I know totally
James R. Elliott: new man, totally new person. But, I think so many people are so
James R. Elliott: worried about getting so much, getting enough done that no lunches,
James R. Elliott: no breaks, and they actually don't realize that that causes them to work later
James R. Elliott: and and to be less effective as they work later because there's after thirty
James R. Elliott: five hours, there was a decline in performance after I think it's 45 or 46
James R. Elliott: or 50. I might be getting the studies wrong. It just, it it
James R. Elliott: just nosedives, productivity. And then after I think it's fifty hours, you're getting less done.
James R. Elliott: Actually, less done than you did if you worked less than fifty hours.
James R. Elliott: So, anyways, end of rant. Self care people, please. It's mandatory, not
James R. Elliott: optional. I I read another story somewhere. Again, I
Joanne Lockwood: I'm gonna give my version in of interpretation of it is, you know, if you
Joanne Lockwood: want if you want to create a process or change or get someone
Joanne Lockwood: to investigate something, give it to a lazy person. Because a lazy
Joanne Lockwood: person is more likely to find an optimal solution
Joanne Lockwood: rather than someone who is trying to overthink and overcommit and
Joanne Lockwood: create all these permutations. The lazy person will find the optimal least effort
Joanne Lockwood: solution, which is sometimes what you want. Very true. Yeah. I I I've heard I've
James R. Elliott: I've heard that. I've heard the other saying it's if you want something done quick,
James R. Elliott: give it to a busy person because I'll just they'll be on it, get it
James R. Elliott: done. And to your point, if you want something changed or a new way of
James R. Elliott: going, yes, give it to a lazy person because well, horses weren't fast enough.
James R. Elliott: What would be faster than horses? Oh, cars. Cars are faster. And then what would
James R. Elliott: be faster than cars? Maybe we'll be, we'll be rocketing through tubes or
James R. Elliott: something. You know, in the next five, ten, twenty, forty,
James R. Elliott: eighty years, what is rocket so tubes back and forth? But, but yeah, exactly.
James R. Elliott: Being lazy. How do we get there faster? How do you do this fast? How
James R. Elliott: do we do this easier? Well, let's have a fridge that opens itself and like,
James R. Elliott: I don't know, hands you up, soda or something or brings it to you in
James R. Elliott: the, in the living room. I kinda heard when I was in my IT days,
Joanne Lockwood: I kinda had this kind of mental subroutine that used to say to
Joanne Lockwood: me, am I gonna do this more than once? Am I gonna do this many
Joanne Lockwood: times? In which case, it's a subroutine. It's something that I need to create a
Joanne Lockwood: boilerplate. I need to create a template. I need to be able to pick a
Joanne Lockwood: package up and modify it, not do it not do it time and time and
Joanne Lockwood: time again. And as coders, as programmers, you have snippets and code
Joanne Lockwood: blocks you you you just paste in. Yeah. Yeah. I think people who haven't had
Joanne Lockwood: a maybe that sort of upbringing don't understand that, yeah, the
Joanne Lockwood: duplicate and and copy and and edit. Okay. Now now in today's
Joanne Lockwood: technology, right click duplicate, right click copy is is de facto, but it
Joanne Lockwood: wasn't in the old days. We have free free technology. It's
James R. Elliott: totally true. And and I think too, especially for for entrepreneurs or or even people
James R. Elliott: in in a corporate environment that that make a suggestion. Hey. I'm doing this multiple
James R. Elliott: times a day. How do we automate this? How do we outsource this? How do
James R. Elliott: we turn this into a process or a computer subroutine or AI ad or whatever?
James R. Elliott: Because we're just doing the doing. And I think people does a limiting belief that
James R. Elliott: it just takes you a few minutes. It's not a big deal, but you do
James R. Elliott: a few minutes a thousand times. You get several thousand hours,
James R. Elliott: which is several weeks worth of of lost productivity. I think I'm if I'm
James R. Elliott: if I'm calculating a person, you know, it's so until whether it's
James R. Elliott: entrepreneurs or leaders, look what your team is doing or look what you are doing
James R. Elliott: over and over again. Even if it's doesn't take that long, anything you touch
James R. Elliott: twice or do twice or thrice or, or a thousand times, yes, it'll
James R. Elliott: take a little more time to, to automate or outsource or whatever
James R. Elliott: change or whatever, get a system for that. But maybe it takes five, ten, 20
James R. Elliott: times the amount of time then to just do it yourself. But after that, the
James R. Elliott: next million repetitions are gonna save you hundreds or maybe thousands of
James R. Elliott: hours. So I like you said, Joanne, it's it's exactly the case. It's exactly. Yeah.
Joanne Lockwood: Push the button. Push the button and watch it happen. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
James R. Elliott: Exactly. That's why there's AI watching that there's no even but it just happens. There's
James R. Elliott: no even button put it. It happens eventually. You're right. And we're we're we're there
Joanne Lockwood: now. Extension. A Chrome extension will do that for you. Yeah. Exactly. Out there. Yep.
James R. Elliott: It's cheap or free and easy. And I think to give people more interesting,
James R. Elliott: more creative tasks as well as a, as a way to, to grow people, give
James R. Elliott: them more time to play. I mean, some of the best companies in the world
James R. Elliott: give their employees an hour an hour a day or a few hours a week
James R. Elliott: to, to play and, and make things and break things versus now you gotta be
James R. Elliott: pushing buttons all day long. And I think that that's a mistake. That's a big
James R. Elliott: mistake, I think, to do. I think I think the other side of that is
Joanne Lockwood: is there's also a personal fulfillment in
Joanne Lockwood: creativity. Yeah. That kind of thing you're talking about there is the
Joanne Lockwood: equivalent of a a blank sheet of paper and a crayon for a five year
Joanne Lockwood: old. Draw me a picture. Just scribbles, whatever it may
Joanne Lockwood: be. Your brain needs to go into scribble mode, doesn't it? And just play with
Joanne Lockwood: stuff. And that I think that's what we need to recognize for ourselves as
Joanne Lockwood: entrepreneurs. We need to scribble. My my problem is,
Joanne Lockwood: yeah, probably a bit like your brain, is I I've constantly got these shiny
Joanne Lockwood: things coming towards me. I wanna play with that. I wanna play with that. I
Joanne Lockwood: wanna do some e learning. I wanna develop my book. I wanna write this and
Joanne Lockwood: I wanna do that. I bought myself a I've got myself a drone for my
Joanne Lockwood: sixtieth birthday last last month. I've got this drone in the box. I think I
Joanne Lockwood: need to go out and fly that. Oh, I don't wanna do that. I don't
Joanne Lockwood: wanna do that. So I've got all these shiny objects around me, and it's trying
Joanne Lockwood: to find the the one that I can get to today. Fair.
Joanne Lockwood: Fair. Yeah. I'm always always learning, always trying to develop these skills. Look at my
Joanne Lockwood: YouTube, I I'll spend fifty hours on YouTube on a topic,
Joanne Lockwood: and I'll suck it to death. I'll absorb it all. It's a bit like,
Joanne Lockwood: is it what's that what's that spoof sci fi film where the the
Joanne Lockwood: the the brain monster sucks your brains out, doesn't it? The, was it
Joanne Lockwood: space thing? I know it's strange. Cowboys, was it,
Joanne Lockwood: or something like that? Space cowboys. You're right. Brain monster that But it is brain
Joanne Lockwood: monster. Brain monster. Brain. But, like, I'm I'm doing that. I'm sucking all this knowledge
Joanne Lockwood: out of YouTube. And then another shiny thing would go on. I'm gonna spend another
Joanne Lockwood: fifty hours sucking the information out of there. It's I mean, maybe it's more like
Joanne Lockwood: the matrix where you're plugging the Apache helicopter module into your neck and
Joanne Lockwood: downloading the pilot mode. Pilot. Your helicopter pilot. And it's
James R. Elliott: interesting too because all this goes back to to to, I guess, our theme
James R. Elliott: of of of perseverance, of resilience, of of growth,
James R. Elliott: of success as well. Because I think when we're learning and everyone
James R. Elliott: is gonna say, I don't have time, no time to read a book, don't have
James R. Elliott: time to learn. And I think gently I would invite people to call
James R. Elliott: themselves on that and call themselves out because if you're on this thing all day
James R. Elliott: or if you're scrolling at night for desk scrolling or if you're watching, I
James R. Elliott: don't watch TV, but if you're if you're watching any amount of TV a a
James R. Elliott: day, not to not to say don't play. Definitely have time, have play of fun,
James R. Elliott: whatever your thing is, but at least, you know, maybe take half an hour, forty
James R. Elliott: minutes a day, less TV or less doom scrolling or whatever and
James R. Elliott: invest whether it's YouTube, whether it's books, whether it's whatever invest. Now, YouTube, you can
James R. Elliott: go down rabbit holes. That's why some of these books are great and books will
James R. Elliott: help you sleep more than doom scrolling on YouTube at 1AM. But fine,
James R. Elliott: even it even twenty, ten minutes a day to read twenty minutes, whatever you want,
James R. Elliott: forty, whatever you want, an hour, five minutes, even turn a few pages because in
James R. Elliott: a year you're going to have one or three books done versus none. So I
James R. Elliott: think that that that all this we're talking about ties back in a theme of
James R. Elliott: perseverance and resilience, and growth and
James R. Elliott: success. Because I think when if people are growing ahead of
James R. Elliott: you or when not if, but when people are growing ahead of you and to
James R. Elliott: your point that that getting and getting that job, getting that C suite, getting promoted,
James R. Elliott: or if it's an entrepreneur, you know, getting the new customers or being seen as
James R. Elliott: different and unique, and why people buy people should buy you
James R. Elliott: versus people buying someone else. That education,
James R. Elliott: that research, nevermind just telling you people, Hey, you know, I read, you know, I
James R. Elliott: read 10 books a week type thing. It sounds pretty great. Or one book who
James R. Elliott: I read one book a week or whatever it is. It, it, you know, I'm
James R. Elliott: always learning whatever you, however you, you explain it to people. That,
James R. Elliott: that sounds great too. They I want to learn from someone who is always learning.
James R. Elliott: I don't want to learn from someone who never learns and never picks up a
James R. Elliott: book or research as a topic or a new topic or never plays, that's not
James R. Elliott: a that's someone I wanna learn from. I think that contributes to our success too
James R. Elliott: based on by going back to our theme. Yeah. I one of the things
Joanne Lockwood: that you I think you you said it's part of your what you do and
Joanne Lockwood: the word freedom was in there. Yes. And I often reflect on that
Joanne Lockwood: word. What does freedom mean to me? It means freedom of
Joanne Lockwood: choice, freedom of this, freedom of that. It means I'm not dependent on
Joanne Lockwood: some someone else, something else. Sustainable business, sustainable income,
Joanne Lockwood: sustainable food source, heating, lighting, housing. So we
Joanne Lockwood: take freedom for granted because when we get ill
Joanne Lockwood: or sick or poorly, we start to lose our agency, don't we? Because then
Joanne Lockwood: we're now what we thought was freedom was just short lived. And one thing I
Joanne Lockwood: realized five years ago probably, that I was approaching
Joanne Lockwood: my sixtieth and I thought, hang on a minute. I wanna be able to keep
Joanne Lockwood: going until I'm 75 Heck yeah. Really. I can't wait
Joanne Lockwood: until I'm 70 to make that choice. So I realized I was
Joanne Lockwood: investing in my business, marketing, branding, consulting,
Joanne Lockwood: computing, all this kind of stuff. But I wasn't investing in me and I was
Joanne Lockwood: the core cog in my business. So for me, when
Joanne Lockwood: I said about freedom, I need to make sure that my health and well-being
Joanne Lockwood: and fitness is part of that freedom model and not just money. It's
Joanne Lockwood: also the ability to enjoy that money. It's what and exactly. And I mean,
James R. Elliott: look so many, as you know, so many people are tired, you'll say, our parents
James R. Elliott: have save your money for retirement, getting a good stable job, save your money for
James R. Elliott: retirement. And in retirement, most people can't do anything depending on how old you retire.
James R. Elliott: Right. Or what you do or how how well or not you do, especially if
James R. Elliott: you haven't taken care of yourself. You she can't, you know, hike mountains and travel
James R. Elliott: the world if you haven't taken care of yourself in your retirement. But yeah, it's
James R. Elliott: your point. And I've been there. I've I still got the stretch marks right here
James R. Elliott: from when I was when I was clinically obese and and, you know, chronic
James R. Elliott: suffering from chronic fatigue and just exhaustion and burnout
James R. Elliott: and not being able to lose weight and all these things, brain fog, you
James R. Elliott: know, just cause it fatigue, cloudy, blinking. And then now
James R. Elliott: to living how I am now. Yes. I love food. Yes. I have treats as
James R. Elliott: well. But it's just that being healthy, exercising, living healthy. However, that looks
James R. Elliott: to someone. You don't have to go to the gym if you don't want to,
James R. Elliott: you don't have to do whatever. But I think that it's important to find whether
James R. Elliott: it's soccer or whether it's jumping a medallion or skipping or martial arts or
James R. Elliott: gym or running or walking. Walking is one of the best forms of exercise
James R. Elliott: actually burns a higher percentage of fat. It just takes a little longer. So if
James R. Elliott: you want to walk and walk for an hour, hour and twenty, not that a
James R. Elliott: half hour walk is not great for you, but in terms of walk for an
James R. Elliott: hour or run for twenty five, twenty, twenty five minutes, it's it's it's a choice.
James R. Elliott: But again, whatever people do, I think is is fine. They don't have to do,
James R. Elliott: you know, join a circuit training or a dance class or whatever
James R. Elliott: the the exercise and just and eat better. I've learned that
James R. Elliott: eating and and diet is is a huge, huge thing, even to the point
James R. Elliott: of where certain foods still will make me exhausted, will make me
James R. Elliott: depressed, anxious foods and will affect our mental
James R. Elliott: health. Huge. You know, when I eat properly, I eat well. Again, I snack
James R. Elliott: and treat once in a while. Of course, you know, I enjoy life like maybe
James R. Elliott: 90% healthy, 10%, you know, snacks. Even this day, I find
James R. Elliott: my productivity will nose dive my mood, my energy, my, my, my brain clutter
James R. Elliott: will nose dive when I'm having junk as well. And, people it's
James R. Elliott: it's, it's not just me. It happens to everyone. It's just sometimes people are so
James R. Elliott: stuck in that. I'll call it a rut of unhealthy eating. They don't realize what
James R. Elliott: they could be, how productive they got, how much better their brain can work, how
James R. Elliott: much more successful they could be, how much more money they can make with that
James R. Elliott: health, Joanne. And and and like you said, being able to enjoy your money later
James R. Elliott: and let alone dying young. I mean, the statistic has changed a bit during
James R. Elliott: the, you know, the the the, you know, '56, '40, '50, '60, '70. On
James R. Elliott: average, people died eight to twelve months after they retired. That's
James R. Elliott: horrible. Yeah. Horrible. Working your way and then but kinda that's
James R. Elliott: it. And that's what screwed up the social security in most countries is because that
Joanne Lockwood: was the case. Now people live twenty years after they retire, and the pensions and
Joanne Lockwood: the investments were never geared up for that longevity. And, people need to
Joanne Lockwood: retire later. I'm just not I'm agree. I'm not sure I'm ready to retire yet.
Joanne Lockwood: I I quite enjoy what I'm doing. If someone said, we I'm on my last
Joanne Lockwood: five years, I think. I've got so much left to give. I've I've started another
Joanne Lockwood: lease of life, another another another another crazy idea I wanna get on this.
James R. Elliott: Which is beautiful which is beautiful, Joanne. I mean, peep people is people only retire
James R. Elliott: from what they don't love and don't like doing anymore. And so if you don't
James R. Elliott: like it, do something else versus I mean, no wonder people either
James R. Elliott: die young or, or would they retire or get depressed or anxious or
James R. Elliott: suicidal? I would do if I just sat and watch TV all day or drank
James R. Elliott: or ate or smoke all day long. If I had nothing else, no other purpose
James R. Elliott: I would do. I would get depressed too. I would probably sit and eat, eat,
James R. Elliott: eat myself to, to death or eat my emotions because, wow, I
James R. Elliott: I couldn't sit and watch TV all day. I mean, sure, it sounds fun for
James R. Elliott: a few days. We've been in a few days, do nothing, but sure, why not?
James R. Elliott: But I think that gets very boring, very old after a while. Yeah. You
James R. Elliott: know? But like you said I don't know if it's just me. I mean, I
Joanne Lockwood: often you know, you know, in those moments of quiet, we think, oh, what if
Joanne Lockwood: I won the lottery and tens of millions suddenly appeared in my bank account? Would
Joanne Lockwood: I give up work? I think, well, I may stop what I do in the
Joanne Lockwood: way I do it, but then suddenly all these business ideas go, oh, I'd love
Joanne Lockwood: to set this up and I'd love to create that. And I've always wanted to
Joanne Lockwood: have a a YouTube studio that I could hire out to people and I could
Joanne Lockwood: really kit it out and think. So I said, well, there's capital. I could do
Joanne Lockwood: this. I could get investment. Now I know I could, but I'm just thinking, what
Joanne Lockwood: would I do with all that money? How I would invest it? I've got so
Joanne Lockwood: I've got all these crazy ideas, entrepreneurial ideas. I love it. I'd have to
Joanne Lockwood: try. Yeah. I think if you just say, oh, I'd love to put in a
Joanne Lockwood: million pounds so I can do nothing. Well, okay.
Joanne Lockwood: So what does nothing mean? Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna get very
Joanne Lockwood: bored sitting by the pool. You you ain't gonna go and buy gym gym
Joanne Lockwood: equipment. You're gonna hire a personal trainer. You're gonna start working out about whether you're
Joanne Lockwood: gonna go for holidays or runs. And even then, you gotta run out
Joanne Lockwood: of stuff to do nothing, aren't you? I agree. You know, if I won the
James R. Elliott: lottery somehow, you know, someone's like, here's, you know, several million dollars for fun. Like,
James R. Elliott: here, I feel like giving you several million dollars today, James. I mean, you're right.
James R. Elliott: Sometimes the way I would do it would change a bit. I would I would
James R. Elliott: hire even more people. I would I would shift how I did it, but I
James R. Elliott: would still always help people. Definitely, I would always help people, hiring all
James R. Elliott: kinds of people instantly instantly to do all the grind. And and I have a
James R. Elliott: team and just hiring a bigger team instantly to do all the grind work. And
James R. Elliott: all I do is teach and speak all day long. And and that would be
James R. Elliott: amazing, amazing, amazing. And and be at your point. I wouldn't I wouldn't stop.
James R. Elliott: You sure maybe take a few weeks or a month or three to sit on
James R. Elliott: a beach, but, no. After that, I wanna start you guys take the
James R. Elliott: money, invest in different businesses, ventures, and all these cool things that in helping environment.
James R. Elliott: All these cool things I'd love to do. I would do that. I'd probably start
James R. Elliott: an environmental company if I won a huge significant amount of money. It's some kind
James R. Elliott: of company to help the environment, some kind of company to help people. Wouldn't just
James R. Elliott: sit and do nothing for the rest of my life. Like 44.
James R. Elliott: Yeah. And and and, you know, getting a little older, but I'm I'm sure I'm
James R. Elliott: I've got at least a hundred in me, if not a 20. And I wow.
James R. Elliott: You know, that's like fifty five, sixty five, seventy five years doing doing
James R. Elliott: nothing. It sounds like it sucks. Like I'm gonna just have adventures with people and
James R. Elliott: learn and teach people and maybe continue what I doing. I was supposed
James R. Elliott: to say I would teach people that's interesting. I say, teach people how to work
James R. Elliott: remotely, how to travel while working and making a difference. Like, oh, wait, that's what
James R. Elliott: I already, that's what I do. That's the way I teach people how to have
James R. Elliott: more time, more fun, more fulfillment, more productivity while also working
James R. Elliott: less and getting more done. So I'm like, wait, that's what I do. So I
James R. Elliott: would continue doing that. It's interesting. So you're
Joanne Lockwood: 44. For me, that is equivalent of twenty
Joanne Lockwood: ten now. So sixteen years ago, give or take. Facebook wasn't a
Joanne Lockwood: thing. AI wasn't a thing. The iPhone really wasn't much
Joanne Lockwood: of a thing. Everything I have to have that I value I care
Joanne Lockwood: about literally, everything that's important to me, my business, what I
Joanne Lockwood: do, has come out of that that
Joanne Lockwood: time between your age and my age. So when I was 44,
Joanne Lockwood: who where I am today was not even on anyone's radar. So just think
Joanne Lockwood: about where you know, if you can reflect on this conversation in sixteen years' time,
Joanne Lockwood: if you just podcast your way way back to 2025, I think.
Joanne Lockwood: 2050, we've got all this shit going on now. Twenty twenty forty.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. I never envisaged that. So that's the potential that each one of
Joanne Lockwood: us has in ten or fifteen years worth of of thinking,
Joanne Lockwood: isn't it? It is. It's and and, like, really, my job didn't really
James R. Elliott: exist. So I'm sure there was public speakers four years ago too, but a lot
James R. Elliott: of what I do didn't exist or the problems I help people solve, you know,
James R. Elliott: massive perseverance, and helping your teams, you know, persevere and and and be
James R. Elliott: happy and stay engaged and motivate them to be engaged even more.
James R. Elliott: That wasn't a problem years ago. And all the
James R. Elliott: stuff that's causing them disengagement to your point wasn't really a problem when I was
James R. Elliott: when I was younger, even fifteen years ago, twenty years ago, all this stuff do
James R. Elliott: with scrolling and Facebook and pings and dings and distractions. It
James R. Elliott: wasn't there years ago. So it's fascinating the the solutions we come up with
James R. Elliott: to new and modern problems. If we just think outside the box and instead of
James R. Elliott: thinking, oh, I can't or I can't do this because, or I'm not able to,
James R. Elliott: or I can't do it now because whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're a
James R. Elliott: business leader or someone in in a business looking to grow into a leader,
James R. Elliott: I invite you to be very, very careful with with what you say and and
James R. Elliott: with what thoughts you allow to run your mind. You can't because I can't
James R. Elliott: because I mean, half our thoughts are not even ours. Half of the thoughts are
James R. Elliott: put there by the parents, culture, media, religion, society,
James R. Elliott: grandparents, teachers, you know, exactly. You name it. Exactly. Exactly. It's all that when we
James R. Elliott: were when we were young, especially, it just goes in and sticks and this is
James R. Elliott: good or this is bad or that's not possible or a good boy does this
James R. Elliott: or a bad girl or a good Jewish boy or a great Christian girl does
James R. Elliott: this or doesn't do this or that or this is not possible or you don't
James R. Elliott: do that. Or what would people say? You can't do that. Or you can't say
James R. Elliott: that you can't be that. What would people say? What would people think? You, you
James R. Elliott: may have faced that as well, you know, yourself as well. What would people think?
James R. Elliott: What would people say? Frickin cares. Do you want to be happy
James R. Elliott: or depressed and suicidal and miserable? I was there. Right. You want to be happy
James R. Elliott: and healthy and wealthy and fulfilled? Or do you want to be right? No,
James R. Elliott: I can't because blank my kids and my family and my age, I'm too old
James R. Elliott: or too young or too this or not enough this or. And it's amazing. It
James R. Elliott: breaks my heart. That's a lot of the work we do, the limiting beliefs and
James R. Elliott: fears looking at that as well. And people, why people don't do anything,
James R. Elliott: even though they, they want it so bad, they can taste it. But looking at
James R. Elliott: why people don't do things. And again, there's no judgment. I've been there many times.
James R. Elliott: I've, I've overanalyzed and fenced sad and procrastinated many times.
James R. Elliott: And got out of that, got past that and realized that sometimes when I, when
James R. Elliott: I jump and leap, you know, sometimes dare I say leap without thinking or leap
James R. Elliott: with leap following my heart and my gut, not just, okay, going to jump off.
James R. Elliott: Hopefully this water is deep enough. Let me just jump head first. It's nothing like
James R. Elliott: that, but it's like, okay, you know, my heart, my intuition telling me I need
James R. Elliott: to do something leaping, if you will. And then doing
James R. Elliott: it. I mean, even sir, Richard Branson says, let's jump off the cliff and build
James R. Elliott: the build the plane on the way down. And I I love that, you know,
James R. Elliott: take action mentality. Let's do it. Yeah. I've got a saying which is,
Joanne Lockwood: no great adventure ever starts with no. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Let's be
James R. Elliott: conservative or let's stay home today. My friends used to
Joanne Lockwood: used to complain that whenever they said they gave me two choices, I'd always say,
Joanne Lockwood: let's do both. What what's up? Let's do both. And they go, make a
Joanne Lockwood: decision. That's an interesting thing too. I I love to touch on that too, because
James R. Elliott: you're right. Most people, they say, well, you know, I can do this or I
James R. Elliott: can do that. I can have I work for a business or or I have
James R. Elliott: my own company. Why not both? You can do both. I've done both. I
James R. Elliott: teach people that have done both. I've led people that have done. It's so interesting
James R. Elliott: that so many people are there. They're thinking, or I can do this or
James R. Elliott: this. I can be married or have a business, or I can dedicate time to
James R. Elliott: grow my business, or I can have a relationship. Why can't you have both? It
James R. Elliott: is possible. There's many, many people that do it. You can be a great entrepreneur
James R. Elliott: and have great health, or you can be a mother and father and take care
James R. Elliott: of yourself or, or whatever. Like you, like you're saying, it's it's, we gotta start
James R. Elliott: being inclusive if you will, with our, and we can have this
James R. Elliott: and this. Yes, we can do this and we can do this versus well, we
James R. Elliott: can do either or I, I, I love the phrase, how can we, how can
James R. Elliott: I, how can we not? I can't, or I can only do this or I
James R. Elliott: can only do this if, or I can only do one. How can I? How
James R. Elliott: can I? There's a will. There's a way. So I I I love this beautiful
James R. Elliott: you touched upon because people think, well, I can do this or this. Why not
James R. Elliott: both? I love that you said that, Joanne. Why not both? And we should have
Joanne Lockwood: called the episode. Why not both? Why not both? Exactly. Why not both?
Joanne Lockwood: James, it's been absolutely fascinating. I I mean, I mean, we chat for about half
Joanne Lockwood: hour before we went live, but I could carry on chatting for another few hours.
James R. Elliott: Quite. This has been fun. Thank you. Yeah. We have to
Joanne Lockwood: draw things to close. So how do people get a hold of you? James R.
Joanne Lockwood: Elliott, how do we get a hold of you? Great question, my friend. Great question.
James R. Elliott: Like you said, LinkedIn, Facebook, James r Elliott with one t is a great
James R. Elliott: way to find me as well. You can also for entrepreneurs,
James R. Elliott: you can visit, limitless-entrepreneur.com. And for the
James R. Elliott: more corporate folks looking at more corporate speaking, corporate solutions, that one is
James R. Elliott: probably best to look at the unleashyourpower.com website.
James R. Elliott: But honestly, feel free if it's easier LinkedIn or
James R. Elliott: Facebook, feel free to reach out James R Elliot, E L L I O
James R. Elliott: T. You will, you'll be able to reach me as well.
James R. Elliott: You know, come hang out. Let's have a conversation. Love talking, love
James R. Elliott: brainstorming, love sharing solutions, and, really helping, you know,
James R. Elliott: businesses, small and large, find ways to persevere and and help their
James R. Elliott: teams persevere during the the craziness that goes on, whether it's
James R. Elliott: amazing quick growth because that can be just as troubling sometimes
James R. Elliott: as as, you know, you know, downfalls of companies or or or big
James R. Elliott: changes, changes to the market, change the economy, the environment,
James R. Elliott: tariffs, whatever it is, you know, massive growth or massive, you know, decline
James R. Elliott: times of challenge and change. Love, love, love being able to empower
James R. Elliott: leaders to empower and empowering the teams to to do that. So, love
James R. Elliott: to chat, love to hang out, brainstorm. Thanks for having me on today, Joanne.
James R. Elliott: Appreciate it. I had a lot of fun. Well, if you're listening now, track
Joanne Lockwood: James down, drop him a DM, drop him a message saying you heard it
Joanne Lockwood: here. And while you're at it, leave us a review. Give us a like, a
Joanne Lockwood: thumbs up, a follow, all the usual things you do on these things. Love to
Joanne Lockwood: hear more from you. James, thank you. A pleasure.
Joanne Lockwood: As we bring this conversation to a close, I want to express
Joanne Lockwood: my deepest gratitude to you, our listener, for lending
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