Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Authority Playbook. I'm Jeff Brandeis and today we're talking about the strategies to help you stand out, be seen and be heard. You're watching now Media Television.
Hey, everyone. Welcome. Before I actually introduce our first guest today, I want to explain to the audience why I created the Authority Playbook.
It's because I watched so many people, capable people, intelligent people, get overlooked because they lack expertise.
Not because they lack the expertise, but because of how they showed up. Moments that mattered. I've been in leadership rooms, boardrooms, classrooms, and virtual stages. But the difference between being heard and being ignored had nothing to do with credentials and everything to do with delivery.
Over time, it became clear to me that our authority isn't about position.
It's about presence, communication, and the decisions you make under pressure. This show exists to break that down, to surface the real moments where authority is earned, lost and rebuilt so people who do good work are actually recognized for it.
And that's exactly what we're going to do today.
My first guest today is Bill Adams, founder of targetech. Bill, welcome to to the Authority Playbook.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Hey, Jeff, thanks a lot for having me. I appreciate it and it's nice to be one of your firsthand viewer guest.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: So, Bill, you operate in an environment where authority isn't necessarily theoretical.
It's tested through decisions, leadership and accountability at scale. So in our conversation, we're going to explore what it takes to sustain credibility, lead through complexity, and maintain authority as responsibility grows.
Bill, I've known you for many years. You spent decades helping leaders and organizations elevate performance and influence.
What's the one mindset shift that you believe that would separate those that lead with authority versus those who merely manage people or processes?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Well, listen, in my book, I'll focus, I explain it. My first chapter is really about on the fly leadership. Where we're going with leadership today, things are, I mean, I have a phrase, my book that says truly, leadership today ain't what it used to be. And it ain't what it used to be.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: That's for sure.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: The secret to good leadership is collaboration.
How? And this requires the three pillars of change to work together. People, process, and technology.
Those three things today are critical for any organization to actually create an environment of collaboration.
The more a leader creates an environment in the segment of their business that they control and or the the enterprise itself, theoretically. In my book, I talk about the fact those are going to be the future leaders that are going to be the winners.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: So let's go back for a second. Bill, you Said there was three things. There was people, process, and what was that third one?
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Technology.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Technology.
So that's really key to focus in on really for our audience to kind of think about the three keys for leadership that Bill just talked about. Let's dive a little deeper into that one for, for a little bit. And if you don't mind, Bill, as you said, technology and the leadership today is not what it used to be. So how has those three things changed how leaders lead?
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Well, I mean, look, you and I have known each other for a while, Mark, you understand that I look at the, what I call the six P's when I'm looking at people.
People is just one of the six P's.
So in my book I explained that the only assets that can bring value to a customer that a leader should be focused on are people, products, procedures, policy, property, intellectual, real and price. If one would understand that, they would understand this is the basics of driving value.
Now save the fact that someone gets funded for $30 million or a major corporation does an acquisition doubles their size. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the inherent things that you could do within an operation.
This is it.
And if you look at the people contribution, it is number one on the six Ps list for a reason.
If people do not have a true belief in the culture and the standing of the company within the market, that begins to. That's the first, if you will crack in the dike to show that there is something wrong. I mean my whole career was built, my consulting career was built on helping leaders solve business performance challenges.
Underneath all those challenges, there is usually an organizational problem that deals with culture and a leadership problems that deals with their ability to, to hyper collaborate to stay ahead of competition.
So if you look at the P's dealing with the people, if the leadership is not made up of the right people, that begins the domino effect right there. The second is the process.
If you're not putting in place processes that are, that are hyper collaborative, then you are falling behind the competitions that are. And lastly, if you're not leveraging modern technology. What is modern technology?
Well, it's only recently that AI has really been a reality.
Now I talked about it, my book that was released In June of 22, the importance of AI and Agentix coming down the road. But, but it's now really part of our lexicon, it's part of our organization.
And those leaders who take advantage of that technology, they will eventually become the leaders within the market.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: So Bill, I'd like To go back a little bit of what you talked about, which is culture. And nowadays we're seeing a lot of leadership changes happen.
Couple years, leaders in a couple year, you know that they stay there, they do the job and then they're replaced. So more leaders are coming into a culture that necessarily they need to cultivate their own. What kind of challenges or how does a leader actually deal with that type of culture to get it to be theirs as opposed to the former leaders?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, we live in a flip culture. I call the organization today the flip culture.
Unfortunately, even if you take a look, I mean, I follow McKinsey reports,
[00:07:17] Speaker A: a
[00:07:17] Speaker B: quarter of a quarter.
And if you take a look at the McKinsey following of where this is all going with leaders, the fact is that CEOs now are only staying in their jobs four to six years.
Just going back a decade ago, that was six to seven years. So fundamentally, a fish stinks from the head. So if you take the CEO of a corporation, I really don't care whether it's a Fortune one, a mid size or an SMB, the leader, if the leader shifts every four to six years, they bring in their own culture, they bring in their own people, processes and technology.
Fundamentally, therein lies the rub.
Years ago, for the most part, if you go back 20, 30 years ago, the norm was that a CEO is in that office for 20, 30 years.
Since then has changed fundamentally.
The workforce in general has to be prepared and armed all the time to figure out what, okay, what's going to be the next move? And now we got a new CEO. How is that going to affect my work?
[00:08:39] Speaker A: So when we see these type of changes, what kind of critical leadership behavior do you see the leaders often overlook that will build authority faster than any strategy or any framework that they would put in place.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: I have a very simple rule with that, one that you can probably relate to.
Lead by example. It's that simple.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: That's a great point. Lead by example. Folks, a mic drop right here.
I want us to really think about that is you're the leader, you lead.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: And the fact of the matter is, I make the analogy. I was fortunate enough to be in the Marines. And in the Marines, you really learned about leadership as an officer and you learn what, what it takes to lead on a battlefield. An organization is no different. I don't care what industry you're in. The bottom line is this. People will follow those who believe they serve.
If a true, if a leader truly believes he's there to Serve, he will get the following every single time. If the general workhorse and the subordinates to the leader honestly believe that they are there to live off of the spoils, it'll. You'll never be able to convert those around you that you are a true leader.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Can you, can you help. Help me understand the audience really what you mean by, by serve?
[00:10:12] Speaker B: That's a good question. Actually, I just did a speech not too long ago for someone organization.
Look, serving is not about being a slave.
I mean, it kind of some of the questions tended that way. It's not about that. It's about having an attitude that you constantly are aware that you're in a position only be as good as those that serve. You can serve that position.
Therefore, you should always be thinking about them first and us second, or, you know, them being the general workforce and the other leaders first and you second.
If you literally can get that attitude right, you'll be in a position that every time something comes up. For an example, you CEO of a company, you go through a very traumatic situation. The number one thing you should be worried about is your shareholders and your stakeholders. If I do right by them, I'm doing right. And eventually that will come up. That will come back to me in spades. Right.
If on the other hand, you're going to do whatever serves you the best, that will also come back to you in spades eventually because you are there really to serve the shareholder and a stakeholder as a CEO of the company.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Very true.
Bill, we talked about pe, you know, new leaders coming in, changing things. Is there a time frame that you kind of recommend leaders to kind of maybe just kind of sit back, watch a little bit before they actually do something to change the environment or, or begin to change the culture?
[00:11:52] Speaker B: I have advised several leaders on this. I call it the imprint.
You have to be a conscious enough leader to understand there is a cultural imprint that is already in the organization.
If you truly are a good leader, you will first study the imprint of the existing organization.
Everything that you want to bring in will not fit the current imprint, no matter what the situation.
So that imprint cycle really depends on the size of company, whether you're running the enterprise, you're running a division, but I always recommend to, when I'm coaching executives, consider how long you're going to study the imprint of the culture. Now, there are subsets to what the imprint means. I won't go into it, but there is already a cultural imprint there when you walk in.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Definitely. Is there a time frame that we kind of recommend before you actually begin to change that imprint.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: It's certainly a matter of months.
I wouldn't say any more than a year now. There are emergency situations where companies are in dire trouble. Yeah, I have only I've been in those situations. In those situations where a company is in dire trouble, especially the CEO, where they're in dire trouble with the board and that, you know, often happens, then the imprint needs to be shortened. You have to make some gut decisions about how you're going to do it versus being able to track the input, getting to know what I call the cultural variance. There are variants in every culture. If you study the variants for a long time, you have a better chance of making the change.
However, if you're going into a situation that we're talking about desperation, remember, there's only three reasons people do anything there. It's either necessity, avoidance, or opportunity.
If you're walking into a situation where you literally have to make change right away out of necessity, you don't have the time to sit and study the imprint of the culture. You've got to make decisions. You got to go with your gut, your experience base. Those are. They're real situations, but it's a different dynamic.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Well, that's a great point. We'll circle back. Let's take a little short break here, Bill. And we'll be back in a moment, folks.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: We'll be right back with more insights and frameworks to help you elevate your brand and your influence. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jeff Brandeis and this is the Authority Playbook on NOW Media Television. Let's dive deeper.
Hey, welcome back. I'm with Bill Adams, CEO and founder of togetek. Bill, welcome back to our conversation. I'm enjoying it, really. So far. I've learned a lot. A couple mic drops already.
These technologies, people, clarity, all good things. So thank you for that.
In today's environment, you know, the workplace is changing. Talent expectations are changing significantly. And obviously you touched upon a little bit before earlier. Technology is rapidly changing as well.
Can you kind of put your crystal ball out there and kind of define what the next generation of or is going to look like from an authoritative leader perspective?
[00:15:34] Speaker B: The next generation is going to be collaborative, simple as that.
If the next generation leader doesn't understand the importance of being able to truly hyper collaborate with their leadership team, I don't think they have a chance going forward. I honestly believe there's going to be changes made. Leaps and bounds. When we, when we get to the Eight Right now in the AI age, we have the opportunity to do AI.
There's a generation coming right behind it, not too far away and that would be AGI. That's where the gentrix really comes in, where we're going to have our challenges as leaders. No matter big, small, no matter what, what industry.
How are you going to handle the challenge that potentially gentics could outthink you? How are you going to handle that? What is going to be the posture of the organization?
And it is, it's real, it's on the horizon.
I don't think in the near term, say the next decade or two, I don't think we're going to get to the point where, where we can replace the human. But the point is going to be if I've got two humans doing one job and I can program the gentics to supplement, combining two jobs into one job and the, the gentic is handling the other part of it, that becomes a real, a real challenge for how we're going to manage the organization in the future and where leaders are going to be able to gravitate and be able to morph, if you will, how they view leadership.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: So just to circle back there, Bill, you use the term magenta. Can you kind of explain a little bit more in case some of our listeners are unclear what that actually term means?
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Sure. Agentics really is just creating agents, agents that do work.
Now if I am a leader all day long I am making decisions. So I'm in a decision making process and I have to make a decision whether to go with option A, B or C.
I have and with target tech we are, we have built a leadership platform.
We are coming out with a new platform that has AI and agentics built into it. And this platform's coming out in the second half of the year, be done, be launched somewhere around August 1st. We are already looking at planning now where we can use agents to do the work of leaders that before would be considered, if you will, low value.
But there's, there's another eclipse coming beyond that and that is where we can program the agent to actually know what decisions are available and make the best decision for the leader.
Now the question becomes is the leader leading or is the leader just someone who actually activates what the agentic recommends?
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's also goes into the, the culture aspect of leadership, if you would, where a lot of employees in today's world believe they're going to be replaced by AI and that's a dealing that culture as a leader is one that's paramount.
How would you actually want to address that or talk to your A team about the aspects of AI and the future of their own jobs?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Yeah, the two things that leaders the sooner they grapple with it, the better and the sooner they as a leadership teams talk about it, bring in people that are really smart in this area and be able to actually lay the facts on the table and have the leadership team understand, guys, this whole game is changing. In fact, I, I am looking at doing a podcast series called Leadership Today Ain't what It Used To Be. All right. Because we are going through this real, real, not, not supposed transformation of what is a leader? What is leadership going to look like a decade from now?
It certainly isn't going to look like it is today.
Leaders will be expected to do different functions than they do today. What are they? Well, if you're someone who's been a leader, say 25 years and you use volumes of books to run your business, I can tell you that within a decade you'll be out. You will not be in business.
It is all going to be superimposed by what AI and Agentix can actually accomplish.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: How much should a leader actually rely upon AI versus their, their instincts or other managers that work below him?
[00:20:50] Speaker B: That's a great question, Jeff.
I don't have an absolute answer on that, to be honest with you. I mean, I think it through. I'm writing another book about, about leadership meant for sales and marketing executives.
I mean, the sales and marketing executives are going to experience an enormous change.
I mean, you know, we're going to be questioning if I could deliver all the information with, for an example, AI to that client in a large language model. So I just simply go to Siri, Google, whatever and I'm asking the question, this is my situation.
I'm looking for products. Which products would you recommend? And it gives you the top three products. So why would I want to see a salespeople? If this is, if you will, correct according to the large language model, that's.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. I'm sure there's no real answer on that one part of its gut. At the end of the day, I think it also goes back to your what you're talking about before is learning the existing culture of what's there to implementing some of that culture is a rubber band.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Understand I, I teach this all the time. Culture is a rubber band.
If you stress that rubber band too, too much, what happens?
It breaks or it snaps back at you.
You have to, you have to be the kind of leader who has that sensibility to understand where you can stretch it to the max and then where you've got to put some relief on it so you don't, so you don't snap it.
So we don't know exactly what the future is going to be dealing with leadership. We do know that the underlying dynamics of leadership is going to change dramatically. And if you're not on the forefront, then you're gone.
Simple as that. You've got to be on the forefront of what's going on around you.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: So we talk about leadership and AI. What do you, how do you think AI has actually in the past year or even two years shifted leadership mindset?
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Well again, leaders, leaders like the workforce, the general workforce has some apprehension that, wait a minute, if AI can go as far as I'm reading about, then maybe I'm obsolete.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: So again the question becomes when we did this with robots and manufacturing, thousands of people lost their job, right? Because the robots were doing the job of pick a number, half dozen people.
Now however, it created many jobs. Not as many as they lost, but they were higher paying jobs because it was more intellectual work to run the whole operation, the robots, etc. I think we're heading for the same thing with leadership.
There may not be as many leaders in the future, but they're going to be required to do a whole different set of, of functionality.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: I think that's, that's so true. I think also when you think about the past, you know, when the Internet came about, everybody was wondering, oh there, I'm going to lose my job. That actually created a tremendous amount of jobs as well.
AI also has the opportunities for people to create new jobs, new roles and even add more talent to, to their own repertoire to make them more valuable to their company as well.
I think leaders need to also send that message. Would you agree with that too?
[00:24:47] Speaker B: It's, it's absolutely true. What you're saying is a dynamic, a phenomenon that has been going on since business was invented.
Right. I mean the industrial revolution was like, oh my God, you know, no more cotton gins. And, and things changed and so we, we're going through that.
But one of the interesting things about the dynamics is it deals with leaders themselves, those who leverage technology the best for collaboration.
I honestly still believe, and that's a theory in my series I'm writing for Forbes book books. I actually believe they're going to be in the long run the winners because if they have two things in their mind, first I serve. I'm here to help my team do what I need done.
And second, I'm going to optimize the collaborative process.
You can't beat those two kinds of sensibilities about yourself as a leader, for sure.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: So Bill, for listeners who want to expand their authority in their career and other organization this year, what's the first leadership discipline that you think they must master and why does it matter more now than ever?
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Well, look, if any of my listeners or any of your listeners feel that the workplace is a more simpler place to work today than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago, you, you may not be ready for the future.
The bottom line is this technology promised going back 40 years ago. They were going to make it a simpler place. It's quite the opposite. It is more difficult to manage all the technology, platforms, apps and everything we've got out there than ever. All right, so this, if you will, this creates an enormous pressure on leaders to figure out a way to hone their skills to focus on the things that matter, when they matter.
See my book, you read all about it. That's a challenge today. If you think 20 years ago, you and I, 30 years ago, Jeff, you and I were leaders then. We were in the market, we had martini lunches, we had a lot of time to think. Kibits talk.
Those days are gone.
Today you really have to be in the forefront of how am I going to hone my leadership skills so I can focus in on the things that matter, when they matter.
Because if leaders allow noise to dictate their day, those leaders are in trouble. They have to figure out how to get, swim through the noise, get to the things that matter. In fact, I'll, I'll, I won't quote, but I'll paraphrase what Stephen Jobs told a very prominent person that I won't mention. He said nothing else matters but the next 18 hours. How much work can I get in the next 18 hours to, to focus?
And that's how he ran his life. And that's what he did. He worked 18 hours a day, got in as much as he could, focused on the critical issues.
So a lot of times when we talk about strategic thinking. Right, that's all fine, Mel, and good. Then you get caught in the mundane, which is your day to day operation. But somehow leaders in the future have got to be able to hone their skills. There's skills. If you go into the behavioral sciences sciences, there are skills they need to adopt to understand how to address this issue. Because it's getting worse, not better.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Bill, thank you so much for being on the authority Playbook. Today, I truly enjoyed our conversation. Learned some more about you, which is always awesome to dig a little deeper into your past and your mind to learn more about the leadership ideas that you share. So thank you so much for joining us.
We'll be right back with more insights and frameworks to help you elevate your brand and your influence. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jeff Brandeis, and this is the Authority Playbook on NOW Media Television. Let's dive deeper.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back. My next guest is Kane Minkus, founder of industry Rockstar. Cain has built visibility and influence or in a competitive, crowded marketplace. But what matters most isn't attention. It's how he's translated that visibility into credibility.
In this conversation, we're going to be unpacking how authority is earned through presence, delivery, and the decisions you make when people are watching you. Cain, welcome to the Authority Playbook.
[00:30:03] Speaker C: Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it. Glad to be here and excited to talk about this topic. It's a wonderful topic.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Awesome. So happy to have you. I'm super excited to that you joined the show. So thank you.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:30:14] Speaker C: So we're going to dive in.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Yeah, let's dive in. So, Kane, when you think back on your journey from early entrepreneurship to building industry Rockstar, which has turned into a mega platform for you, what do you believe truly that separated you from people who had similar ambitions or but didn't do the same work, the same level to attain what you have today from an impact perspective.
Let me separate you.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:30:44] Speaker C: It's a great question.
So one of the things I'll, I'll speak to because I think your audience would probably be particularly curious about this. So I started, I mean, I'm 47 now. I started my first business at 19. I've always run my own companies. I've had 40 of them. We've done half a billion dollars. We're going to, you know, 30 awards, blah, blah, blah. But the point is, like, started at a time when things were just so different and now it's just so different for how you do things. But I think that the core mechanics have been the same and I think that people have forgotten or they have gotten drowned and distracted into volume over quality in our current social media world. And, you know, people are always saying, build your brands and social media. I'm all for exposure and I think that it's important to be top of mind. And I think that people have confused volume with quality.
And so what we have always focused on because I was never Really a very big social media fan. Even today, I don't have a very big social media. We have a huge email list. We have, you know, almost a million and a half people on our email list. For our size of company, It's. It's quite big.
Most of our, you know, colleagues or competitors would have 1000-002000-00300,000, something like that. So we've always focused on the quality of being able to bring in somebody into our audience, capture their attention, their hearts, their data, and then engage with them and provide them massively valuable and depthful stuff. And not the, you know, quick kind of stuff or just volume, voluminous amount of, you know, exposure to stuff, but deeper, richer stuff.
And so, you know, although someone else might have a, you know, different market or a different opinion, our market and our clientele respond to that connection of depth and quality for authority and brand connection.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: That's awesome. So was there a point in time that. Or something that happened in your life that said, this is my moment, this is what I need to do, and I need to do it now before someone else does it?
[00:32:38] Speaker C: I have those moments daily.
There's an old saying, when do you tell your wife you love her? And the answer is before someone else does, or your girlfriend or your fiance, whatever.
And so, yeah, I mean, I, you know, there were many moments, but, you know, I. My, my. I grew up in a family where it was a very traditional family. My father was an accountant by trade. He became a CFO for companies and, you know, you know, very loving, you know, father, but, you know, very traditional. And he used to say to us, you go to school, you get good grades. You know, if you want to be a success, you get, you know, you go to college, you get your degrees, you go get your advanced degrees. And I think that, you know, up till, I don't know, maybe a couple of years ago, when AI has now distributed intelligence and has become a commodity for the first time in history, that was kind of the narrative for everything. You went and you got, you know, you know, an education. The smarter you were, the more successful you like to be, and you became. My family was either a doctor or lawyer or whatever. You just some. Something along those lines. And there was a moment where I thought, that's not a narrative that seems to make people feel fulfilled. And I was really young, and I couldn't have put it in these words now, you know, being almost 50. But at that time, I said, I just want to do something that feels every day fulfilling. I noticed that we Would go on. We lived, I grew up in Chicago. We'd be in the winter in these, you know, cold, horrible, you know, weather months for six or seven months. And I noticed my mom had, at that time a little bit what's called sad seasonal effect disorder. She'd get very sad or depressed over those times. And then the summer would come and everybody would light up and we'd love it. It's amazing. We'd have a great time for like a month. And then it would get really humid and you could be sticky outside. And. And we, you know, we go in the winters down to Florida to visit my grandparents, and we'd all have a blast on the beach and all that. And then we come back to the horrid weather and. And I just thought, why do those moments of joy and excitement and wonderfulness, why are they existing in this paradigm as a vacation, as something to get away to, instead of that being the construct and the infrastructure of your. Your life?
And so I think it was in those moments early on, whereas I didn't know exactly how I was going to do it. I was young as a kid, I didn't understand anything. But I just said, if I let my.
My life be guided by the value of that, by having a majority of your moments feeling extraordinary and beautiful and warm and wonderful and heartfelt and fulfilling. And then a minority of those moments, we just gotta get stuff done. You know, every moment's like rainbows and ponies. And not every moment's amazing. Sometimes things go wrong and it's anxiety and all that. But a majority of the moments are extraordinary, where it seemed like everybody around me was the opposite. Majority of the moments were stressful and anxious and frustrating and responsible, restricting and limiting and not their choices. And then those minorities were the getaway, the weekend, or the vacation. And I wanted to flip that script.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: Was there a point in thing, something in your mind that said, I want to be lead, I want to be a leader, I want to have my own company. I want to kind of take this bull by the horn and drive it.
[00:35:24] Speaker C: Well, I, I loved music. I was a music. I was a musician. And in my family, you did not become a musician.
So I think that, that there was this. There were lots of.
In first year, you know, and there was a moment where I said, I'm going to be a musician. And the, the. There was actually a moment. There was a moment. So I went to school. I ended up growing up, going to college as an engineer, went to University of Illinois as a, you know, electrical engineer. In computer science, which was a great program that I didn't appreciate at the time.
And you know, I ended up doing years and years of that. Just decide that again. That was like one more choice. That was really almost more of my, my dad's influence. And at some point I, I remember being on the phone with my dad saying, I'm either gonna kill myself or I'm gonna go do something else.
And my dad, you know, answered me, he said, okay, don't, don't, don't do the first one. What do you want to do? And at that time, my older brother, who I was very close with was also, he was a, he's now a surgeon, he was in medical school, but he was a drummer and I was a keyboard player and singer. And he said, look, I found a school in Boston. It's called Berkeley College of Music. I think you'd really love it. It's a really, you know, top notch music school. And we kind of convinced my dad to let me leave engineering school and go there. And I think it was in those moments that I kind of realized that life was either going to, life was going to be a real choice. You were either going to choose to go after your dreams and passions or you were going to choose to continue to live inside of somebody else's designed paradigm for you. And I remember being on a call with my dad saying, this is that definitive moment I'm even going to. You know, I don't know that I would kill myself, but it just felt like that I was like, it's like either that desperation or I'm going to go do something I love to do. And that was a defining moment. And I went off to Berkeley and I absolutely loved it. And I realized that there's a whole life in a world and careers and people and communities where you can really love the people you're around and feel like you got your tribe and do things productively and really open your brain to creativity. And like you want to be there every day versus constantly feeling the anxiety of responsibility or the weight of expectation.
And that was probably the moment that I realized that's how the rest of my life will be.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: I think that's so valid in so many people's lives. You get to a point where you gotta make a decision of am I going to continue to do what I'm doing today or I want to try something different and just go with the flow, see what transpires and can I be happier in doing something different? I mean, transition, change is really part of our everyday life right now. So making that, this choice of some point in time, early in life we all go through, we've all transitioned jobs or careers at times. So it, it's interesting how some people become true leaders and while others are kind of, you know, they want to be leadership but they, but they lack. What do you think is one of those non negotiable traits of being a true leader?
[00:38:14] Speaker C: Well, I think that leadership has changed dramatically. I actually just came out of before this. I was actually teing a, teaching a, a AI leadership and cultural change class to consultants and leaders and executives and CEOs. So it's funny you asked me that question because I, I just spent an hour and a half teaching the evolution of leadership.
I'm hot and ready to talk about that topic.
I think that leadership has changed dramatically and I guess instead of kind of tracing the history of it, I'll talk about where we're, where we're heading. That's more interesting. Which is leadership is evolving and where leadership used to be based upon how much you knew or how much control you had.
That, that narrative is changing and AI is changing all of it.
It's decentralizing intelligence. It's causing leaders to not have to be the ones that people go to and they have to be people now that are good in a couple of things. One is they have to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.
That's part of the world now. And.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Great mic drop line.
[00:39:09] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, chaos and volatility has historically been seen as a, is a risk, as a threat.
I think leaders and how I see it is as an opportunity. I see chaos as a feature of success.
And so leaders who are comfortable or evolving to that comfort level because it's not like everybody has to be there.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Now.
[00:39:33] Speaker C: Leadership is something you can develop. It's a skill you develop. Right. It's a set of values or characteristics that anyone can develop into. Which is why you know, leader. New leaders emerge and great, great new leaders come along. I mean that's one area they have to be comfortable in. Volatility. That's a, that's a given. Now things are evolving so fast and they will continue to evolve so fast that you cannot be looking for the certainty you be. Need to be looking for. How can you be taking advantage of the chaos? The second one is they have to be comfortable orchestrating intelligence and orchestrating instead of being the s. The central point of answers, leaders who define themselves and their identity is how much I know or how much I can do or how Important I am is important for the system. That's, that's going away.
And finally they have to actually encourage their audience, their teams, their people to have collective, collective learning and collective intelligence. It's, it's no longer you come to one group. I mean we have an extraordinary audience. We have, I train 10,000 entrepreneurs a week right now and how to leverage AI technologies from implementation, strategy, leadership, things like that. And I love that because I gave up that importance, you know, 20 years ago when I worked with my advisor and they said if you want to be a great leader, it's not about you anymore. It's about how much you can be empowering, enabling and supporting and serving the staff and the people that are creating great things. Your staff is more intelligent than you collectively. You can't do all their creative abilities and jobs and everything. So don't try. It's not worth it. And so that philosophy entered in my world. That servant leadership that, you know, giving that, that started 20 years ago, but now it's, now it is a infrastructure conversation. It's not a nice to have. It's not like a conscious leader. Oh that one. So, okay, that person's evolved and work. It's now every leader needs to be working like that. And so when our students come to us, it's like I'm, I'm here to guide you through a conversation and deep thinking and give you tools and ideas and strategies. But it's not because I'm the smartest person here. It's because I have a way of doing it and I want to give this to you and then I want you to bang on the hood and challenge it and create it and then bring it back to the community and we're gonna create the synergistic intelligence together that's creating world class communities.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Now I love that Kane, that, that's awesome. And I love the line of the power enablement of a leader is to enable your people. And I think our listeners if at this point, if you take nothing away from this conversation that you ought to go back and re listen to this section here of, of enabling your people. And that's really what drives your authority at the end of the day. So that was awesome. So thank you for sharing that. When I know you're, and you just mentioned that you're training 10,000 people online, you go through and I've attended your sessions as our listeners should know.
How do you help the people find their own authority voice to become their own leader in your training classes? Can you share that?
[00:42:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And you know, that's on a normal week. In January alone, we had 170,000 people come through our events virtually. Of course, we run everything online all over the world.
And how do we empower them to find their own authority?
So I think first of all, if we look at what authority is and we kept it very simple, simple conversation, maybe influence, maybe we coded as authority as influence or credibility or something, perspectives like that, I think that people have a lot of it already and they just. I actually think it's less about doing something and more about trusting, more about trusting oneself, getting out of one's own way and actually allowing who you are to be seen.
I think people spend a lot of time trying to be something or understand what they should do or what they. A lot of the shoulds, like I should do this, I should be. That I should be like this. I should say this instead of actually just being who they are and letting a North star of contribution just guide them like Jeff, how can you contribute? You know, this is, this is great. You doing these interviews is contributing to your audience and listeners. And that is enough for me to say, this guy's an authority. And whatever it is, I think some, somewhere along the line we, we redesign the word authority to be like more important or smarter than everyone else, but that's not really what it is.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: You want to go a little deeper into that one before?
[00:43:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, to me authority is so. I mean, I, I work with people and I've been influenced by people that have no awards, best selling books, credibility in the, in the sense. And I've been around people that have all of that and I've been very unimpressed.
Last night, actually, we were at a, we were invited to a friend's, you know, they were unveiling for private jets for their company and I couldn't have been bored enough at the party and all the, the BS and all the aw and. And in fact, I've been, you know, when I was going to school in Boston, I was doing work with, with homeless people. I was fascinated with how to help homeless people, you know, be able to have different lives. And I was royally impressed with those that had been on the street living and experiencing a life and what they could share in their lessons. And to me, that was great influence and authority around life lessons, appreciation for what we have and understanding the human culture and human nature.
Far more authority than someone who's got a bunch of awards or best selling books because they played a certain game or they paid a bunch of Money for them. So to me, authority is really more about what is really influencing people. And I think authenticity is one of the most important.
And it's to me, it's funny because authenticity should be a, it should be a natural inclination, should be a natural right. Every human being should has the right to be authentic. You have the right to be you, Jeff, you know, right. Everybody's got the right to be you. Everybody's got the right to be themselves, I should say. And so funny enough, that's one of the things that people find to be the most challenging, the most difficult, is to bring that authenticity to their life, their work and their expression.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: Thank you, Kane. Actually, let's take a short break here because I like to circle back on this with some follow up question. So listeners will be right back to you. Thank you. We'll be right back with more insights and frameworks to help you elevate your brand and your influence. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jeff Brandeis and this is the Authority Playbook on NOW Media Television. Let's dive deeper.
Welcome back. I'm with Kay Minkus Cain again. Thank you for joining us on the Authority Playbook.
So, Kane, I think we were just talking about people realizing whether or not their authentic voice themselves.
What if I don't really know or don't really believe I do have that authority or that leadership skill yet how does one develop it or how does one learn it is an instinct is a train.
Where does it come from?
[00:46:29] Speaker C: I usually ask those who say they want to have more authority, why, why do you have, when I have more authority, why is it important to you?
You know, and I, I'm very curious about their answers because, you know, if, if their answer is, you know, and many times people say I don't know. And I think that's a very important starting place if you want to have more authority. I think it's very, very important to understand.
For example, when I got asked this question as well by a very prominent leader I was mentoring with, he said, why do you want to have more authority? And I said, well, I would like to better more people's lives with my messages and my visions. He says, okay. Not that he was judging and he was just, okay, great, so cool. So that's why. So that becomes your, your driving force. And if that's question is why do you want more authority? And you know, there's all sorts of different reasons. Some people want authority because they want to be able to control or makes them feel, you know, more important or savior others. People would like to have that authority because they'd like to have the listening. They'd like to have people's attention. Maybe it's attention. Maybe you want attention. Why do you want that attention? So I actually think it's very important to discover why you want that attention. I think that why will help you then identify who you want to become or who you need to become to be able to increase the power of that authority or the reach of that authority. You know, I mean, authority essentially assumes influence over others or systems.
And so if that's what one wants, the question is why? And then when they find why, it's like, how do I authentically increase so much value in that relationship or in that system that people want me to be there suggesting and guiding and influencing.
[00:48:11] Speaker A: Very, very, very true. You mentioned earlier that, you know, you're teaching AI and leadership classes. What do you see as entrepreneurs or leaders, their biggest mistake when it comes to using AI in their leadership role or they're authentic?
[00:48:26] Speaker C: Well, so I think entrepreneurs and leaders are in a slightly different.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: I said you're laughing.
[00:48:32] Speaker C: Well, yeah, I'm laughing because there's, there's so many.
The question is which one to start with.
So I think that entrepreneur. I look at entrepreneur, although entrepreneurs are leaders and there's. I see them as leaders in sometimes a slightly different way. And if we're talking about solopreneurs or talking about entrepreneurs with, you know, teams or. So I look at it, you know, sort of some slight different areas. But if we said an entrepreneur almost like a solopreneur, I think like a starting a brand new entrepreneur, they're maybe getting started for the first time. I think the biggest mistake they're making is playing with tools instead of building an AI operating system. And I think if I just said in general leaders, one of their biggest mistakes is that they're looking at, at AI like a new technology or a new set of tools. They're trying to figure out which tool to use and who should they give the tool to on their team and what they should be doing. And that's not really what AI is. AI is an infrastructure intelligence is an infrastructure intelligence we use in everything we're doing.
The fact that it's been couched into an image generator, a video generator, or a large language model is different than how do I start to understand and approach my life now with an infinite amount of intelligence.
And so this is, I think, the biggest mistake that people are in general are making. It doesn't matter whether professionals, entrepreneurs, Leaders, business owners, whatever, governments or whatever, they're, they're still looking at it like a tool instead of looking at like an infrastructure and understanding how could I redesign my life, my work and the things I do if I now had infinite scalable intelligence, what would I do differently?
That's a question I encourage everybody to ask. If I had an infinite amount of capability and intelligence, what would I do differently? If I started over, what would I do differently with an infinite amount of creativity, capability and intelligence?
[00:50:08] Speaker A: Great question. I think I should ask that to myself at some sometime as well.
It's a quick question I think we all should ask ourselves from a leadership perspective. Do you think or are you seeing too many leaders rely too much on AI and that becomes their voice as opposed to thinking out of the box?
[00:50:30] Speaker C: That's a great question too. So I have three kids, a 16 year old, 11 year old and a 6 year old and obviously I'm become a world leader in AI intelligence for, you know, business professionals, leaders. So I certainly teach them and expose them to a. I think it's great and the idea of becoming reliant upon it, I think is an interesting conversation. So we rely on this and this is part of the infrastructure conversation. I don't think there's any problem with becoming reliant upon something. I rely upon my wife, if she suddenly disappeared, hopefully never, that would be a huge change my life. I rely on electricity. We wouldn't be doing this without electricity. I rely on this microphone to broadcast my voice. So do I feel suddenly disabled as a, as a, as a leader because I'm reliant upon my microphone or my electricity or my computer?
[00:51:11] Speaker B: No.
[00:51:12] Speaker C: So I don't think leaders can become too reliant upon anything that's in infrastructure. But I do encourage people to become collaborative with it and that is something that I think is very important in that a lot of people are missing. So my original world was music and actually became a record producer. I was working, you know, with Sony and major labels and then I started my own first media business in my early 20s and my first company was in animation and media.
And one of the things that you learn as a record producer and as a musician and you play my original music was jazz. So it was a jazz trained, you know, jazz performer and pianist. So when you play in a jazz quartet or something. Right.
Um, and I didn't do jazz, you know, for the record, I ended up in pop and R and B in a whole different world. But as a jazz trained musician, when you are playing with Musicians, you play together, you rely on each other to create a final sonic form, and that's very normal. And you vibe off of each other. You. You do something, and then the saxophone player does something, then the bass player does something, and then the drummer plays something. And if you got a vocalist, the vocalist does something, and you're kind of vibing off each other, which is very fun because this whole world of vibe coding, right, has kind of come out around that kind of thing. And so to me, it's actually a very natural thing for humans to vibe and collaborate with other intelligence and to have maybe agents or have large language models or to have creative tools, and they're. They're kind of vibing off of them. And I think, to me, that's the most fun. I'd love to see more people get creative with the tools while they continue to develop their own intelligences, their own capabilities, and really create new things with all that.
[00:52:46] Speaker A: Yeah, there's so many new tools out there as well. This is a question of what do I do first?
[00:52:52] Speaker C: 90,000 new AI companies are in the last 18 months, somewhere around 47,000 reportable tools and 160,000 plus GPTs. So we got about 200,000 new options. Right? So it's an infinite world of options and an infinite world of intelligence.
So now is really every person's time. There's no excuses anymore to be able to, you know, leverage your creative thinking into something.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: So if you were one of our. Our listeners are thinking, hey, I have more to offer. But they haven't really stepped up yet into their authority just yet. What would their first move be to that they should do this week to gain that authority, to get that authority moving in the right direction?
[00:53:40] Speaker C: Well, again, I start to answer the questions, why? And, you know, what's. What's the purpose of that? And are they really directed in the. In the right place for themselves? If they feel like they are, and some people kind of go, yeah, I'm at that place. I'm clear about what I want to do, and I'm passionate about what I'm doing and I'm moving forward in it.
If that's the situation, then I think the very next step is to start to design the communication to the world, letting people know confidently and comfortably what you're up to. I think one of the first things that people underestimate, just communicating to people about what they're doing, is the first step in just letting people know, what are you doing? What are you up to? Many people are hiding or they're worried, oh, I'm not perfect enough or I haven't mastered enough or I need to go, you know, do something else. I mean, getting trained, learning, more, adapting, that's all great, but do that simultaneously while you're letting people know what you're doing. And that way you can not only be philosophically or educationally learning, but you can also be experientially learning. So you can get out there and be influencing and doing things that you want to be doing as an authority, whether you're creating things, selling things, leading people.
So I would say just let people know.
Give people the opportunity to determine how involved they want to be in your message, your life, and your world. That's sort of step one. And then let's give you one more step after that, which is step two, which is how can you infinitely provide massive value to the people that you're engaging?
So what is a massive amount of value you can be adding to them? And in the world of AI, that's becoming a new conversation. It's like, what can you do that an AI can't do? Right? Which is a good conversation. I love it because it challenges you and pushes you to think and create new areas of value in the world.
And I would start with those two questions. Am I getting myself out there to talk to people about it, share it online or offline? And am I understanding how I'm going to add massive value to their world in a new. A new technology world?
[00:55:22] Speaker A: I think that, that, that goes without question. Those are valuable questions. I think every person, every listening individual should.
Should think about and should answer on their own as well. Because I think it really comes down to a leader needs to be able to add value. That's really where the. Or his authentic voice comes from. That's where his leadership comes from. Right? You said it earlier. Not just because I won a bunch of awards, that makes me an authority in things. It's really, how do you actually convey some of that to others, to teach them, to train them, and to get other people to improve themselves? So I think that's awesome stuff.
As you look into the future, Kane, you put your crystal ball on and your hat on. AI leadership, authentic voice. What do you see what's happening in the next three to three years or so?
[00:56:14] Speaker C: You know, I think three months is a long time to predict anymore.
Three years.
[00:56:18] Speaker A: Three years, yeah.
[00:56:20] Speaker C: What are these gonna happen out in three years? Well, I think we're gonna see a movement into physical form. I think we'll start to see, you know, Robots getting released, and we'll start to be moving in that direction with intelligence.
I mean, every company is kind of pushing the boundaries of everything, but I think one of the next big shifts will be the release of robots, and then we'll start to understand what that means with a physical capability of AI.
And I think that we're gonna. We're all going through a redesign, a redefinition of our value contributions, understanding where things are headed. You know, not every company or professional has been dramatically impacted by AI yet, but they will be. And so I think the best thing everybody can do is learn as much as possible as fast as possible about. About what's going on with AI.
I mean, it's a very convenient narrative because that's what we do. But I do it because I think it's the most important thing to put your attention on right now. So, you know, I think that the most important thing one can do is understand as much as possible about these technologies so that you can understand. Where are you going to start to develop your skills? We're dealing with an infinite amount of intelligence now. So it's not something you pick up overnight and you start using it. It's something you're going to use and work with and learn and master over years, like your own, your own intelligence or raising children and helping them develop their intelligence, like developing systems and workflows and agents and everything. It's going to take time.
And so my suggestion is that everybody start now, because I think three years from now, you're going to see the whole world is leveraging technology like they're leveraging the Internet, like they're leveraging electricity, like we're leveraging running water, like, you know, we use it in our infrastructure. And if you're behind and you're not some part of your infrastructure, it will be a very difficult and different world for you.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Very true. Kay Minkus, thank you so much for joining the Authority playbook. I truly enjoyed having you on as, as a guest. If people wanted, our listeners wanted to find you, what's the best way for them to look you up and learn more about you?
[00:58:09] Speaker C: You can go to industryrockstorevents.com you can get on our newsletter, learn about when we're having events, when we're investing in different companies, what we, you know, what we're doing there, what new technologies we're releasing.
You know, we're up to 12 divisions, 100 plus staff.
We got all sorts of good launches for this year and next year. So, you know, you can just follow us along there. You can jump into our socials and Instagram things like that and see what we're up to there.
[00:58:36] Speaker A: Again, thank you for joining, Kane. It's been a pleasure. Always enjoy talking to you.
[00:58:41] Speaker C: Thanks, Jeffrey.
[00:58:42] Speaker A: Well, talk to you soon, sir. Thank you.
[00:58:44] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:58:45] Speaker C: Bye.
[00:58:45] Speaker A: Jeff Brandeis with the Authority playbook. Thank you, everyone.
Stay tuned till our next episode next week. Thank you. Have a great day, everyone. Bye.