Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Welcome to the G.E.M Series Powered by rocket level. On this podcast, we empower entrepreneurs to succeed by setting big goals, executing like a pro and having a fearless mindset. The series is all about investing in yourself. We're here to share the path to getting what you want out of life by sharing the stories of entrepreneurs who have done this themselves. Providing thorough research from our team on what careers and habits are yielding the best results, and discussing the mindset it takes to overcome the obstacles that all future entrepreneurs will face. Investing in yourself starts with putting in the work every single day, and this podcast is here to help you do exactly that. My name is Blake Chapman. I'm the vice president of the Ambassador program here at Rocket Level, and I am thrilled to be your host for the G.E.M Series.

Speaker 2 (00:00:47) - Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of the G.E.M Series. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have this guest on today. We have Bill Williams, also known as Electric Bill on our podcast today.

Speaker 2 (00:01:00) - So, Bill, we've already been getting to chat a little bit. How are you doing? How's today going?

Speaker 3 (00:01:05) - Blake I am flying high. I just came off of a five day conference with a client where I was extremely engaged and participated with everything and leading so many sessions that I'm still riding that high. So I'm incredible today. How you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:01:18) - Sounds like it went great. Yeah, I'm doing. I'm doing quite well. You know, we're I'm over in Atlanta and we're riding the most beautiful time here, Right? Right. In October when fall's just starting to happen. So, you know, I have a little extra spring in my step in this season. I that I just I'm just grateful for. So but I want to talk more about you for our listeners that don't know you. Would you mind just sharing just a tiny bit about yourself?

Speaker 3 (00:01:43) - Yeah. Wow. A tiny bit about myself. And since you're from Atlanta and you drop that note of where you are and putting the pin on the map.

Speaker 3 (00:01:50) - So my mother always wanted to call me Billy, and a dear friend of hers said, You can't call him Billy. He's going to be bald like his dad. And at 60 years old in 2023, it won't be appropriate to call a grown man. Billy. That was back in 1963. And so I know I would have loved to have been called Billy my whole life. And many of my friends do still call me Billy. Willie would have been cool, too. But interestingly, Blake, what they did was they actually didn't put Billy on the birth certificate as much as they always wanted to call me that. They did put William on the birth certificate. So I'm actually William Grant Williams, but my name gets worse. We're talking about this beautiful fall season, October. Here it is October 4th, 2023. And I was born in a town that's now called Thunder Bay, but it was actually the amalgamation of two different townships. Blake It was a port and a fort. The port was Port Arthur.

Speaker 3 (00:02:41) - The fort is Fort William. And so guess which side I was born on? Uh huh, yeah. I'm William Grant Williams from Fort William, Ontario. And up there, we have an incredible time happening right now with the turning of the leaves. So it's beautiful there. But, you know, as a kid growing up, the son of an electrician, I never thought I would be fussing with the same wiring that my dad did. But in actual fact, that is what I do. As a kid, I thought I wanted to be a banker. And so I started off on that track and went to school and studied and got into banking and realized I'm a lousy banker. I'm really bad with math. I don't like Excel spreadsheets. And so I got into travel and tourism and then moved into talent development is what we call it today, training and development for people in the work world, and did that for many, many years and absolutely loved it. But the challenge was that I was working for the big corporations and making them a lot of money and doing really well by them.

Speaker 3 (00:03:36) - But I wasn't being fulfilled for myself. So it's almost 20 years ago now that I started my own leadership development firm called the B4 Group. And, you know, my goals right now are pretty clear, pretty simple. I want to have a little bit more me time. I want to take care of myself. I also want to make sure that I am traveling the world and my clients are paying me to do that and that I'm also developing incredible people and helping leaders get better and better and better at what they do all the time. So that's a bit about me and my top three goals, if you will, as I move forward.

Speaker 2 (00:04:09) - That's lovely, Bill. And, you know, every time I hear a kind of a tale like what yours is, it always makes me wonder. I mean, what would you say? Were there any ingredients that you feel like added up in your maybe childhood or growing up that that led you here in your in your mind? Yeah. You know, well.

Speaker 3 (00:04:28) - Blake, it's interesting. I you know, I really have a focus on women. I also have a focus on mental health. And as a part of my keynote that I delivered this week, I did share with people that I am the child of a bipolar mother, and she lived with bipolar conditions my whole life. I remember as a child two occasions where she had attempted suicide. I remember coming home from school as a little kid, and, you know, I couldn't tell because it sounded the same if mom was crying and wailing or if Mom was laughing uproariously. And it would either be one of those two dichotomies. So, you know what I what I realized is that I grew up really fast because Blake, my father, chose to really focus on his work as an electrician. He worked shift works, you know, So 8 to 4, 4 to 12, 12 to 8. And that pattern went on and on. So I became an adult taking care of myself at a very young age.

Speaker 3 (00:05:18) - And, you know, I don't like to use the word normal as a comparative like your normal and my normal are very different. But that's what was normal to me. And so I think that as a young kid, at even the ages of five and six, I was realizing that, you know, I thought my life was the same as everybody else's. But it really wasn't. It was a different life. And so, yeah, I think that impacted me in a great way as a kid that, you know, I was dealing with mental health then and now today. I want to make it a focus so that people can end the stigma around mental health and really get okay with not being okay and finding ways to get support.

Speaker 2 (00:05:57) - I think that's incredibly empowering. To open up more about your your own story, to allow people to, you know, relate to it. Because even when you just said it, I have a mother that is bipolar as well. And, you know, it gave me chills hearing you talk about it because I was like, gosh, like, you know, it's it's so true that whenever you go through an experience like that, it it's not that you're sitting there looking and referencing other people's lives and saying, oh, my life is so different.

Speaker 2 (00:06:26) - It's that it's just it's your normal right. And and it changes kind of your threshold of what you can deal with. It also comes with a slew of, you know, coping mechanisms that some you have to unlearn and some you have to.

Speaker 3 (00:06:45) - Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:06:46) - Tweak and things like that. But no, that's I think that's that's really lovely that you're you're sharing that message with people and you, you know, you always kind of worked in the field. Is that what I saw in kind of initially And then did you reach sort of a breaking point where you were like, you know what think need to go out and do my own thing?

Speaker 3 (00:07:05) - Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, actually, my background started off, as I said, as a banker, but it really started in customer service. After my paper route, my very first job was at McDonald's and serving up the fries, making the Filet-O-Fish turn in the burgers. And then I got into banking and realized that, well, I thought it was that I loved banking.

Speaker 3 (00:07:26) - And in actual fact, like I just loved money, especially counting money. So it was really fun. It was never my money. It was always the bank's money. But I counted it. And, you know, I had an exchange with a leader there at one point in time that was really, really shaping for me. Blake It was back in the 80s, so everything was pretty much offline. We didn't have computers, we didn't have smartphones. We had what we would refer to then as dumb terminals, meaning they only did one function. And I recall at one point I was working a ton of overtime and not getting paid for it, and I was getting frustrated. And then I went to my boss and they did an analysis of my role and determined that it would take 18 hours a day to do what I was doing. No wonder I needed to work overtime. So I went to my manager and asked, you know, what should I cut out? And they said, Oh, Bill, cut out the customer service.

Speaker 3 (00:08:16) - And I'm like, Oh, that is a knife in my heart. Like, I am passionate about customer service. Another day I went to the branch manager and we were my part of my job was to return the non sufficient fund check so people that didn't have enough money to cover the checks that they were writing. Again, we didn't have all of the tapping and the automatic transfers and everything back in the 80s. And I asked her, Would you mind just doing these a couple of quick inquiries and then let me know which checks you wanted me to balance? And she said to me, No, Bill, that's your job. And she said, And I said, okay, well, you've got a terminal on your desk. Why don't you do the inquiries yourself? And she said, Because, Bill, my time is worth more than your time. And I was like, Whoa, really? Seriously? And think about it now, Blake. And, you know, if I look at their annual salary and my annual salary.

Speaker 3 (00:09:05) - Yes. To the, to the financials, her time was worth more than my time. But as a human being, I was like, No way, I can't do this. So I got out of banking and got into travel and tourism. And within that it was 1986, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada invited the world to exploit E6. But back in the 80s, mid 80s, Canada was very homogenous. There wasn't a lot of immigration that was being done here. So we need to train the citizens of B.C. and Canada how to interact with people from around the world. I got certified to deliver the super host program was what it was called, and that was the beginning. Right there. I got into training and development. Yes, human resources has always been the main thing and I loved it. I've got to say that, you know, that time even working for the corporations, I absolutely just flourished in developing the talent, the leadership. And for me, leadership is just about, you know, making things better all the time.

Speaker 3 (00:09:59) - Leadership is influencing other people. And what happened was that, you know, as I was mentioning, I was getting my quarterly bonuses. I had my corner office, everything was great. But I just really found that I was not making the money that I wanted to be making. So I took a risk. I went out on my own and I remember one of my clients, if you will, partners, and I'm actually having coffee with them again tomorrow morning after 20 years. And they said to me, Bill, you know, when you first went out, so many people went out on their own and put up their own single shingle and six months later, they're contacting me to say, hey, can you help me find a job? And for me, it's 20 years later I've been successful. And Blake, you know, I do almost no advertising. I have social media now since the book came out, but I have had repeat business and referrals from my clients over and over again. I think it comes back to my core, which is customer service.

Speaker 3 (00:10:52) - So. So that's why I got out of the corporate world and really started on my own. But yeah, HR and people development is what I'm really passionate about, helping people get better at what they do, helping them get happier and happier and really live their life, hence electric life.

Speaker 2 (00:11:07) - Absolutely. And, you know, I think that people don't whenever people think about HR, would you say that people stigmatize it to some degree?

Speaker 3 (00:11:16) - I don't think people know what does. I really don't think that they have understood the value of HR to many corporations. It's personnel. So that's where you're the police and people aren't following the policies or maybe the payroll department, if you will. And so that's that's about it. But human resources is so much more than that. And and even, you know, to to bring it down to that title is probably not the best title to give it. It's, you know, we are human beings, but you know, it makes us almost a commodity. Human resources, you know, it's really people is what we are and how to get the most out of people and really how to have an inclusive environment.

Speaker 3 (00:11:56) - That's super important to me. So, you know, the we refer to it in the business as Dei diversity, equity and inclusion. But for me it's really more about idea. So inclusion first, because that's a choice. Diversity is a fact. Show me the data. How diverse is your leadership team? Do you have a balance of of men and women? Do you have a balance of different backgrounds in regards to in Canada we call it bipoc black indigenous people of color. So do you have that diversity as well? Equity for everyone. And the A is actually for accessibility. Can everyone access everything that they need to within the organization? So I think, yeah, there's a stigma to HR and it's funny because if I'm even out with friends for dinner or whatever and somebody asks me what I do back in those days and I said, Human resources, they would just change the subject because they didn't know what to talk about. They didn't know what HR did.

Speaker 2 (00:12:48) - Well, that's the thing is that the more that I dive in and, you know, develop in my own career, I keep seeing the impact of both positive and negative of, you know, depending on how the culture of a business is actually is actually set up.

Speaker 2 (00:13:03) - So I don't know. In your experience, you've worked with so many different organizations. What are maybe a couple of ingredients that you've noticed can lead people to, you know, having a thriving work culture versus maybe like something that's less than thriving?

Speaker 3 (00:13:19) - What's the opposite of thriving, right, Less than thriving. So for me, it really comes down to the values of the organization. You know, I do a lot of work with senior executives and executive teams around strategic planning. I refer to it as creating performance by connecting people to purpose. And so to really have individuals thrive in the organization, especially now as we're moving forward with the newer generations, what's the purpose behind the organization? And many companies don't know what that is. So my processor recommendation to them, Blake, is to really figure out who's your most important customer, you know, who are the 20% of your customers that generate 80% of your revenue. The. 20% of your customers that generate 80% of the satisfaction, if you will, by working with you and then ask the question, what are they hire you to do? And it's an important question What do they hire you to do? And it's not what you think it is.

Speaker 3 (00:14:11) - So whatever your company does that, what isn't what they hire you for, it's usually something very different than that. The other thing that's important, Blake, is if they hire you, then they can fire you and you need to be really aware of that. But when you really get down to your why, what's your purpose, then? That's your, that is your, your purpose statement. I refer to purpose rather than mission statement. But the vision of the company needs to be the purpose when it's delivered with excellence. What is your purpose look like when that's delivered with excellence? So so that's the vision. From a leadership perspective, it's extremely difficult to measure leadership. Yes, anything that's measuring leadership is usually pretty subjective because you've come up with some kind of competency system that says this is what we measure of our leaders. But it's subjective. It's what is your boss think? How does your boss view that? And it's their opinion and it's only an opinion. However, what you can measure is followership.

Speaker 3 (00:15:07) - And so any time I'm talking to any leader, it's like, what's your leadership brand? And let me tell you right now, the very first question you need to be able to answer is who would follow you? And where are you taking them? So it's critical to have that vision about where you're going. But then the big thing for me to have people thriving in organizations, Blake, is to really be abundantly clear about what are your values and not only values as a word like, I mean, come on, so many corporations, even Enron, had integrity as a value. Like, seriously, people like, let's get over integrity. Truly, what are the things that you value? And the biggest part of values for me is that values are verbs. It's not a platitude on a website, it's not some poster on a wall behind the reception desk, or as you walk through the door to the business to say, These are our values. The big question that I want people to answer, if that's the value that you hold as demonstrated by what? How do I experience your value? And then for people to thrive in organizations, I would absolutely challenge them.

Speaker 3 (00:16:12) - Make sure that your values align. Whatever the corporation says they value, Make sure you value that too. You can train people for the skills that they need to do to operate a computer to deliver your standard of customer service. But if that individual doesn't have a value of being customer focused, I don't care how many steps you give them and how simple you make it, they probably don't understand the context behind why they're doing what they're doing. So so get those values. Make sure that they're clear. Make sure that people know what your vision is and where you're going and really be anchored in purposeful leadership. What's the purpose behind our business? And again, it's not what you think it is.

Speaker 2 (00:16:52) - That's so fascinating and and but just so true to, you know, it's there's so many cases where I feel that businesses you know, there I actually was listening to this podcast recently that I thought was really fascinating about how a lot of what a business relies on typically is left brain oriented, meaning that maybe there's less room for clarification or reflection on what is actually important.

Speaker 2 (00:17:19) - Right. And, you know, a lot of what you're saying, it seems like if we gave a moment for people to actually pause and extend that challenge that you're saying of what do you because I love the idea of values being a verb. It's not what are your values? What do you value? Right. And yeah, and I think that's I think that's just something that everybody could deeply, deeply benefit from. So going through I mean, it sounds like, you know a little bit about everything because, you know, talking to you, listening to your videos, I'm like, oh my gosh, I just want to ask you so many questions. I want to hear more about your your your Electric Life book. That's your most recent that's been out, too. Right. So what led you to that, to want to create that, you know?

Speaker 3 (00:18:05) - Oh, Blake, it was a challenge. I took the challenge on. It was actually many, many years ago, and I spent a day or two with an individual in Montreal on a business trip.

Speaker 3 (00:18:14) - And they said, You scare me. You know, I see you at 7:00 in the morning and you've got this energy and I watch you facilitate all day long and you've got this energy. We went for dinner, then you facilitated a not for profit organization that night, and you still have the same energy. How do you do it? And I was like, Oh, that's a really good question. I don't know. It's just it's just who I am. This is my normal And connecting it back to our earlier conversation. Blake It probably comes from my customer service focus and my very first customer, sadly, as a little boy, was my mom. My goal and my vision then was if I can just keep Mom happy, Mom won't be attempting to commit suicide. And if Mom's happy, Dad won't be at work. So I was doing everything from washing dishes to making sure the house was clean and, you know, being just a good little boy way stuff that a little boy shouldn't necessarily be needing to do.

Speaker 3 (00:19:09) - So, you know, when Electric life came out and I was challenged to write the book, the individual said, and don't write like a, you know, a huge book. Like Keep it Simple. So one of my favorite paraphrases is of Mark Twain. I know you asked me to write you a short story, three pages, but I didn't have time, so I wrote you a novel, 350 pages. And that's a real huge paraphrase of that quote. But, you know, so my goal here was my mission. My purpose in writing this book was to have people leave work with more energy than they arrived with. Because what I know for sure, Blake, is we all only have 24 hours in a day. It doesn't matter how rich you are, how poor you are, what position you have within an organization, what you choose to do with your life. We only have 24 hours in a day. When we pay attention to our doctors, they tell us we should get eight hours of sleep.

Speaker 3 (00:19:59) - And I'm a big proponent of getting good rest, getting good sleep. Our boss tells us we're only supposed to work for eight hours a day. Good luck. That's that's just working hours. Never mind commuting to and from work. When you do the math, that only leaves you eight hours left to live your life. Yes. And if you're so exhausted by the time you get home, all you want to do is flop on the couch or, you know, watch TV, maybe crack a beer or do something else, I just want to know why are you doing what you're doing? And I also believe, Blake, that that if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. That plot, that on a graph. It's going to be a flat line. If I take you to the general hospital, you got a flat line, you're dead. So I wanted to help people find new and better ways of doing what they've always done. But I really wanted it to be simple, and I really didn't want it to be too theoretical, if you will.

Speaker 3 (00:20:52) - So. So the book is backed with with research. It's backed by research and stories and a lot of my own reflection. So when I really got the work down and was working with the editors we really saw. That it was in three parts. Pay attention to your emotional intelligence if you will be brilliant around. How do you get more energy throughout the day? Or how can I protect the energy you have? How can I give you some different mindsets so you can look at things in different ways than you ever did before? Sure. And then how do you go deep, which is the third part of the book, which is really, you know, demonstrating that you you do want to show me the whole of you, if you will allow me to see the back row and to really cross the river, which are the last three micro steps in the book. So. So, yeah, it's electric life. You know how to be brilliant. Sorry, how to pay attention, be brilliant and go deep.

Speaker 3 (00:21:46) - And it's just 12 micro steps so that they're tiny little morsels. The entire book is only 154 pages. You could read it in 90 minutes. So. So it's not like war and peace. It's not going to take you a week to get through. I wanted it to be really applicable.

Speaker 2 (00:22:02) - Now that's that's lovely. And I'm sure whenever you were writing this, um, were there any kind of revelations that came to you just did you get to learn more about yourself doing this? Like, Well, okay.

Speaker 3 (00:22:16) - Yeah. So it started off as six steps, if you will. And then in partnering with my editor and writing partner in it, we really, you know, we went for three days in a row for three hours each day and recorded. And then we looked back at what do we what do we have here? When we really shook it all up, what do we have? So there were a number of revelations. I would say again, though, Blake, you know, not in a comparative way, because I don't like to use that word normal comparing people, but I do refer to it in my own what's normal for me.

Speaker 3 (00:22:48) - So all of this stuff was normal. My energy is normal. And yet at the same point in time, it's not what other people have. And so often people want what they don't have. So I thought, how can I share it with the world? And that's how Electric Life came out. Yeah, it's it's been an incredible journey and my mission now, my goal now is to travel the world and share, you know, a keynote, talk about electric life and really help people to pick even just the one micro step that works for them and really make a difference in other people's lives.

Speaker 2 (00:23:18) - That's that's so incredible. And what a what a journey you've you've been on. You know, I mean, it's it's it's kind of a dream to to get to the point where you can, you know, actually help somebody and align with your your your bigger mission. Have you been able to hear some feedback from people that were like, gosh, it's because the way I'm interpreting the book so far is it's all literal, literally improving, having more energy, getting to that that stage.

Speaker 2 (00:23:47) - So have you had people reach out to you and be like, Oh my gosh, this is some of the testimonials you've been hearing from people? Or Yeah, what's been their experience? So a number of you have probably seen the words rocket level thrown around a little bit here and there. And I wanted to take a moment just to explain what that is. So the G.E.M Series comes from rocket level. Who is somebody that I work with directly, and Rocket Level is a marketing technology company that specializes in meeting the unique needs of small and medium sized businesses. So over the years, through strategic collaborations with national brands, franchise groups and local partners, rocket level has become a trusted ally for SMBs operating in the market. And right now, rocket level's primary focus is to provide a comprehensive range of marketing solutions for SMBs, including website development, SEO, paid ads, email marketing, social media management and just about anything you can think of by offering a done for you approach. Rocket level takes care of all aspects of digital marketing, allowing SMBs to focus on their core business operations.

Speaker 2 (00:24:55) - I know that everybody talks about this all the time. It's so hard to focus on the fulfillment side of things and been an absolute honor getting to partner with rocket level throughout the years and be able to see them provide a solution for people that maybe don't have the talent right now, maybe don't have the time and maybe don't have the playbook or the tools available. It truly is buttoned up in such a way that you can give somebody your high level objectives and get this stuff knocked out. So if you're curious, you should definitely, definitely give us a shout, because the way I'm interpreting the book so far is it's all literal, literally improving, having more energy, getting to that, that stage. So have you had people reach out to you and be like, Oh my gosh, this is some of the testimonials you've been hearing from people or Yeah, what's been their experience?

Speaker 3 (00:25:43) - Yeah, I'm, I'm thrilled with the endorsements that I received from my my peers in the writing world and in the leadership world.

Speaker 3 (00:25:49) - They gave some great endorsements and that's lovely. But I think the best one was the most recent one. I got Blake and somebody was at this conference that I was speaking at just in this last week, and she had read the book on the way to the conference. And she was just like every. Every single page. There was something that was applicable to me, like every page I could take something away from. So great. That is the highest honor, right? I mean, I live my life with respect. I didn't realize until 45 years old that I was raised in a very disrespectful way. I was raised by the Golden Rule, Blake, which is do unto others as you'd have done unto yourself. Yes. And many of our listeners or watchers today might go, Well, hold on. No, that's very respectful. That's that's how I was raised to by the Golden Rule. But the golden rule is abundantly disrespectful because it assumes that everybody wants to be treated the way you want to be treated.

Speaker 3 (00:26:38) - Yeah, absolutely. So I've elevated to the platinum rule, which is do unto others as they would have done to them. And what that means is that I need to get to know you. I need to understand you a little bit better. And that's really some of the micro steps, like under Be Brilliant in in that part of the book I talk about practice positivity, but it's not POS, it's PaaS positivity. Press the pause button and rewind that situation and replay it again. My dear friend, Dr. Tasha Urich, she wrote a great book called Insights and Bankable Leadership is her first book. But in Insight, she shares with us that 85% of ourselves, 85% of people are lying to ourselves about lying to ourselves. We think we're self-aware, but in actual fact we're self absorbed. So when people press that pause button and rewind it, you know, the first time you heard that, the first time you have that experience, you were probably self-absorbed thinking from a me perspective. But once you've rewound it and replay that circumstance, that situation, look at it from the other person's perspective.

Speaker 3 (00:27:44) - They probably weren't trying to tick you off. They weren't probably weren't intentionally trying to give you a miserable day that may have happened if you give them the power to do that. But I invite people to pause and reflect, look at it from another perspective and see do you really want to give your power away? Yeah. And I don't know if you want to talk about giving your power away or not.

Speaker 2 (00:28:07) - Oh, of course I want to talk about giving your power away, you know? I mean, that's the thing, right? Some people are it's. It's something that I know is, is everybody has varying degrees of what they what they feel comfortable with. But I think we've all probably worked with worked with somebody that maybe you're like, why are they why are they safeguarding, you know, this their their process so much so that nobody can do it with them. Right. Or any other number of there's a litany of scenarios for that that applies. But tell me. Yeah. What? Yeah, tell me more about that.

Speaker 3 (00:28:41) - So for me it's it's the 12th micro step, which is cross the river. And the micro step is really, as I share with you, it's research based and story based and some of my own personal stories. But but this Cross the River is an ancient fable about two monks that were climbing up to a monastery in the mountains. And these two monks had a solemn pact with each other that they would never touch a member of the opposite sex, that they took this oath of chastity and fidelity, and they would never even just touch a member of the opposite sex. And as they were climbing the mountain, they got to this really turbulent river. And there was a little old lady that was on the riverbank and she was trying to get across and trying to get across, and she just couldn't make it across the river. So she finally turned to the older monk and said, Sir, would you help me get across the river? Without hesitation, he bent down, put her over his shoulder and carried her across the river, put her down on the other side.

Speaker 3 (00:29:33) - And, you know, he and the younger monk continued on their trek up to the monastery. And so it was a minute, two minutes, three minutes later, and an hour or two hours, three hours later, and all of a sudden, the second monk was just enraged and he turned to the older monk and he said, How dare you break our solemn pack of never touching another member of the opposite sex? How dare you carry that woman across the river? And the older monk turned to the younger monk and he said, I put her down on the other side. You've been carrying her for three hours. Wow. So the tip is don't give your power away to other people. You know, even if somebody does, you know, well, nobody makes you angry. Nobody makes you happy. You choose to select your own feelings. We have that power when we work on, again, paying attention to ourselves. The first part of the book, we can choose our own emotions. And so take a moment to pause.

Speaker 3 (00:30:29) - Reflect What emotion do you choose to feel right now? And if you want to give your energy away to somebody else and you want to choose to be angry, be angry. Let me know how that works for you. I think it's going to drain your energy. By the end of the day, you're going to get home and you're going to carry that anger. What can you do to surrender and release that energy, release that anger, stay focused on yourself and generating more positive energy for you so you can get home and you can play with your kids. If you choose to have kids, play with your fur babies. If you choose to have pets, you know, just enjoy yourself doing what you want to do and having the energy to do it.

Speaker 2 (00:31:04) - That's that's also so so hitting home for me right now. You know, I can't tell you how good it felt whenever I started, you know, I started getting into meditation in a season of life and trying to ground myself. And I've always been prone to.

Speaker 2 (00:31:25) - Being getting a little lost in the present sometimes or feeling like, oh, and it feels and it always feels really great, but wanted to study that a little bit more because I've realized that being present minded means accepting that, you know. You can only control yourself. You're coexisting with the world. And there's no sense trying to, you know, expend all this energy on somebody that's ultimately just completely out of your control anyways. You know, it's going to it's going to get to a point where, I mean, that's a major drain. That is a major drain, you know. Um, and I, you know, think about your background and, you know, growing up with like a mother that was bipolar to mean it is interesting how like that I don't know if you relate for me, I guess what I ran into is I ran into people pleasing tendencies that turned into that. I had to study and tweak to where I realized what the strengths were inside of that. So I guess I was curious how you, you know, navigated through through that and turn that into a superpower, because that's almost like what it seems like you've been able to been able to I don't want to, you know, completely label it for you or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (00:32:43) - Hey, I already have, man. I've already I got a really nice label to stick on that box and put it up on the shelf. It's really pretty up there. So no, I mean, yes, my mother had mental health issues and she wasn't healthy mentally. She did live with bipolar. And my father's way of addressing that was to become a workaholic. And so, you know, as soon as you hear that term aholic, you know that there is a dependency there. That was his go to. So as a child and a people pleaser, there was a time in my life, Blake, where I had to surrender and accept the fact that I was codependent. My happiness was dependent on other people being happy. And I would do all kinds of things to make other people happy. But was that working for me and was I happy doing what I was doing? And so that's when I had to become much more self-aware. What does make me happy? What is it I want to do and really move forward in that way? So without getting too deep in and around it.

Speaker 3 (00:33:36) - But it is you know, it's a it's a 12 step program. Codependency. Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous. Al-Anon for those people that are living with alcoholics. Yes. And you know, my mother, Alice Margaret Foster Williams, a brilliant woman, even in her mental health. She said, Billy, don't be selfish. That's rude, but always be self full. And what she meant was that was you know, it's the old flight attendant adage of put on your own oxygen mask before you help the passenger sitting next to you. If they're not able to put on their oxygen mask and you pass out, they clearly can't help you. So it is critical that we take care of ourselves first and do what makes us happy. You know, how many of your friends would want you to come out with them if they knew that you weren't happy being out with them? Like, if you don't want to come, don't come. Yeah, but don't come along and be a wet blanket. Like, don't, don't douse out our burning flame, you know? And it's Albert Schweitzer.

Speaker 3 (00:34:26) - One of his quotes is, you know, at some point in our lives, all of us will have our inner flame, you know, go out, but in a sense burst into flames by an interaction with another human being. And we should all be grateful for that human being. So if I can do that for other people, that's amazing. If the book does, that's the legacy that I want to leave behind.

Speaker 2 (00:34:46) - Absolutely. And what would you say you are working on right now? What's your is there anything. Yeah, guess I know we talked about some of your goals right now, but is there something that you'd want to share with everybody about what your your main focus has been recently?

Speaker 3 (00:35:01) - So, so my main focus is always self care. It is always about being self ful and just making sure that I've got the energy to do what I want to do. And so that biggest part, as you mentioned just now, was, was being in the present. Now some of the challenges of that though, is sometimes I forget the past.

Speaker 3 (00:35:19) - If I'm so focused in the present, it's like, who wrote that book? Who said that? What did I even write in my own book? I forget what I wrote in my own book sometimes because I'm just being in this now present moment and that's the only thing I can do anything about. You know, I even I did a workshop this last week as well at the conference around really effective candor. And, you know, I don't believe in feedback because I can't change five minutes ago, five hours ago, five days. I can't change the past, but I can change the future. So I challenge people to practice what I call feed forward. The next time. Blake, I do a podcast with you. What could I do to make it even better? That's what I'm going to want to know because I can't. Well, in this moment you can tell me what I could do to make it better. But. But, you know, once it's recorded and you put it out there, I can't change it.

Speaker 3 (00:36:05) - That's what's out there in the world. So I'm looking to be in the present and I don't want to project even into the future too far because that is a projection. And and that's not now. But I do have goals because without those goals and I go back to the Jim Collins days of good to great and what your big hairy audacious goal he called them your beehives and yeah you know so I have those and again you know it is really that self care that me time I wanted to do a lot of work in this last year on developing my brand so my new website is about to be released. We're under soft launch right now, Bill. Williams is moved from being that of a selling books to promoting me as a speaker to come and help people learn on the topics that I talk about. So I do have that goal. And then the third goal was to be recognized as an international speaker, which is phenomenal. And I'm very excited that one of my next gigs is going to be traveling to Baku, Azerbaijan and hosting a two day conference there on Innovation.

Speaker 3 (00:37:04) - So pretty pumped about that. That's amazing. And I've got some other things in the works around the Philippines. I've done some virtual international travel, if you will, working with Signify, which is the number two lighting source in the world. The number one lighting source is the sun. So this was Philips light bulbs. And so I've had those opportunities to speak internationally, and that's my third goal. So I'm working towards those all the time. That's incredible. All the time. So those are the big, hairy, audacious goals. But then there's always what are the little steps that I need to take in order to get to that big, hairy, audacious goal. So. So I'm always paying attention every week. What are the most important relationships I'm living this week? That of a brother, that of a leader, a mentor, a coach, a speaker? And what am I doing to achieve the goals that I have on a weekly basis? So yeah, there's a bit of my sort of time management is another talk that I give as well, because you can't manage time, you can only manage what you do with time.

Speaker 2 (00:38:03) - Absolutely. No, I really I really appreciate you sharing your perspective on how you approach goals, because that's something I'm always curious about too. You know, I also wanted to ask about your relationship with with failure. If you have any insights about Oh, that's a big one too.

Speaker 3 (00:38:21) - But okay, I'm thinking you probably read the book because one of my things around being brilliant, Blake, is to celebrate what I call Miss Hyphen takes. I love, you know, playing with words, positivity, not toxic positivity, but positivity. The other one is Celebrate. Miss Hyphen takes. And so I often ask people, you know what, what do you think my my smartphone is? What what do you see as my smartphone? And they almost always say to me, Oh, Bill, you're on an iPhone. And I'm like, Yeah, no, I am on an iPhone. Okay. I'm a little embarrassed to say this to the younger listeners and those that are more tech savvy than me. I'm on an iPhone 11.

Speaker 3 (00:39:00) - There's an iPhone 15 that just came out, the titanium. Could you imagine if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and Apple didn't release an iPhone until it was perfect at an iPhone 15? You know, they created the touch class, the touch screen. So there's so much that we now enjoy because of it. So so what I say about failure is like, don't give it a stigma. Don't don't be afraid of failure. Celebrate your failures. However, the only way to celebrate them is to learn from them. You know, one of the oldest and I love quoting Einstein, I quote him a ton of times, but you know, his definition of insanity again, back to a mental health perspective is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. So. So don't try something different. Doesn't have to be a huge difference. But just take a look at what did you do? What worked, what didn't work. Okay, that didn't work. How can I do that differently the next time around so that I hopefully will get a better result.

Speaker 3 (00:39:54) - So I get excited when there's a safe culture and environment within corporations for people to actually try things, see if it works, learn from it. One of my clients was actually a cellular phone company, a Canadian based cellular phone company, and I always remember driving into the parking lot one day and I saw this team of people. One person was on the top of a ladder and guess what they were doing? Like, right? They were dropping their cell phones onto the concrete floor of the parking lot. And I'm like, what are you like, My gosh, I feel so bad whenever I drop my my cell phone, even if it's on my bed or on a pillow, it's like, no, what did I do? They were intentionally dropping them to see what the failure rate would be. How high could they drop the cellular phone from before the glass would crack and break? So that's a great example of people intentionally pushing the failure rates. How far can you go? Think I don't know if you work out Blake or not, but you know, even just doing crunches, you know, abdominal crunches.

Speaker 3 (00:40:53) - Yes. How many can I do until I get to the failure point? Okay. So let me count that number today. But then tomorrow, how many can I do? Sometimes I'll compare the numbers, but other times it doesn't matter. It's just I pushed myself to failure and I could no longer do another ab crunch, another bicep curl, whatever it is. Now I know my failure point. I want to push that all the time. Does that make sense for you?

Speaker 2 (00:41:16) - Perfect sense. Yeah. Okay. You know, I think that there's that mindset has helped me multiple times in life to just just being able to take a moment and kind of, like you said, to pause and, and reflect on the fact that through this experience, I, you know, my skill set is widened. You know, my knowledge has has grown. Also. I know one more thing that maybe doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (00:41:45) - Yeah. You know, I mean, they talk about who invented the light bulb again. Edison.

Speaker 3 (00:41:49) - Was it Edison?

Speaker 4 (00:41:50) - Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:41:51) - Okay. Thanks. See, I'm in the present. I don't remember who invented the light bulb. And, you know, they ask, you know, sort of how many ways did he discover to not make a light bulb? And there were thousands of those. He only needed the one way to invent the light bulb. So. But fail as often as you can. The biggest thing, though, is, again, remember, you can choose your emotion and you can get excited about that failure. And then now what did I learn? What am I going to try differently next time and just keep going? But you got to be able to pick yourself back up again.

Speaker 2 (00:42:19) - I think that's something important about because I've always thought about the, you know, the Edison example, too. And I'm like, well, what people also don't talk about is what you mentioned, which is you got to learn while you're doing it, too, right? Because these are just total shot in the dark chances either where it's like, oh, I'm failing because I, you know, today I rubbed a marshmallow on a potato near my light bulb.

Speaker 2 (00:42:44) - And, you know, it didn't work. And I'm just going to totally do random things. It's it's at each step is it's gradual progress, you know. Yeah. It really Yeah. So I, I love that perspective. Bill, I always have to ask too, what is one piece of maybe resonating advice that you would share to our audience, something that's been recently on your heart or just something that you found is your kind of like. Tried and true piece of advice that you would extend to just about anybody?

Speaker 3 (00:43:15) - Well, you know, as much as I'm electric, Bill, and as much as everybody notices me for my energy and pushing that failure point, I, you know, have learned this lesson a long time ago. But I constantly have to remind myself and what's in my heart after being at this conference. I came home last night and I had all these great plans of the things I wanted to do in my very own comfort space here. And in the end, guess what? I too, just flopped on the couch and I just needed to recharge my own battery by just physically giving myself rest.

Speaker 3 (00:43:45) - You know, I my body at 60 years old can't keep the same promises that my 30 year old body was able to keep. And so, you know, it is acknowledging that that it's not, you know, nobody out there drained my energy. I gave everything I had and more. And coming home, what I needed to do was really take that time. I am an extrovert. I you know, your audience probably picks up on that really quickly. I'm an extrovert. And when you see me with people, yeah, I'm an extrovert, but as I'm maturing, I'm exploring more that introverted side of me. And I have to acknowledge and in my heart, I realize that I need to take the time to to sleep, to hydrate, to nourish my body well, and to put good things into my body so I can keep going. So so that is the thing that's been on my mind specifically because of last night where I had all these great ideas of what I wanted to do, but in the end I had to just unplug or actually re plug in to how am I going to have enough energy to do what I needed to do today.

Speaker 3 (00:44:43) - So one other tip that I would give people is the last thing that I do each night before I shut down my my devices is to take a look what's on my calendar for tomorrow and what I need to do to have the energy I need to to deliver on those commitments and promises that I made. And then the first thing I look at every morning, I don't look at my email. First thing, actually, the first thing that I look at is my Fitbit and what my sleep rate was the night before. At this point in my life, I also checked by another app that I have running every night, which is called Snore Lab. Let's see how bad my snoring was, how good was my actual rest that night? But more importantly than anything else, again, what's on my agenda? So I look at my calendar first, because as soon as I open up my email, there's potential for crisis to be there. Somebody didn't get something they wanted or somebody wants something that I didn't count on and I've got a full day.

Speaker 3 (00:45:32) - I don't know that I'm going to be able to deliver that. So I don't open email first, open the calendar first, and stick with that commitment to yourself. Self care, self care all the time.

Speaker 4 (00:45:42) - Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:45:43) - That is wonderful advice and I appreciate you extending a little balance out here. You know, just because, you know, I know we are in a grind set culture, it seems like where there's a lot of that happening which don't get me wrong, I really love finding passion inside of me and putting all my energy to it. But there is a point where, yeah, you'll hit a hit a wall.

Speaker 4 (00:46:07) - So you got absolutely.

Speaker 2 (00:46:09) - Absolutely do that. And then I also love being able to honor Your Honor, your commitments there. Is there anywhere that people can keep up with? You know, you mentioned the website. Yes. You know, like what should people where should people come check you out?

Speaker 3 (00:46:23) - Absolutely. Check out the website Bill Williams. Com. You probably get lots of of mail from your electric company already but if you want to get a new electric bill, you can sign up for my newsletter there as well.

Speaker 3 (00:46:35) - You can also check me out on LinkedIn and look for Bill G. Williams. The G is intentional simply because it just distinguishes me from so many other Bill Williams that are out there. But that website, Bill G. Williams, is a great place to be and I would love to hear from any of your listeners with any questions that they have to please reach out, send me an email and I'd be more than happy to respond and share with them any insights and tips that could help them again, leave work at the end of the day with more energy than they came with and and live their life absolutely to the fullest. That's the legacy I want for everybody to discover and reengage in their electric life so that they can show up and just live brilliantly.

Speaker 2 (00:47:13) - Lovely. Thank you so much, Bill. It's really been a pleasure. You energized another human in the world today. So thank you for awesome for joining me. Everybody, please do check out everything that Bill has out there. I've already been absolutely inspired.

Speaker 2 (00:47:30) - This has been another episode of the G.E.M Series. Stay tuned for more. Have a great day. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the G.E.M Series, where we're always here to share the goals, execution and mindset of thought leaders around the world. If you're listening to this, I'm sure that you have some pretty big goals for yourself, and I would absolutely love to hear them.

Speaker 1 (00:47:51) - Actually, here at Rocket.

Speaker 2 (00:47:53) - Level, we just launched our newest partnership program where the goal.

Speaker 1 (00:47:56) - Is to, well, build.

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Speaker 2 (00:48:31) - So if you're at all curious, check out the links attached and please reach out directly. I would love to meet you all. Remember, I'm always a email, text, phone call or DM away. Everybody remember to be awesome and do awesome things. A whole lot more coming soon. Take care.