[00:00] Katie: Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness, and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:36] Katie: It's a great joy to have Rob Napoli on the show today. Rob is the current head of brand for Omniboost, the hospitality tech company, and is an accomplished trainer, speaker, entrepreneur, podcast host, and Amazon bestseller list author. Also a huge Harry Potter fan just like me. Welcome to the show, Rob. It's fantastic to have you here.
[00:57] Rob: Thank you, Katie. I'm excited to be here. I know you just got back from Holiday as we're recording this, so hopefully you had a wonderful holiday back and ready to rock. I'm excited to be a part of that re energizing of welcome Back.
[01:10] Katie: Yes, it's true. It's my second day back since Holiday Friday. Bit catch up Monday for the recording. Of course, this will come out a couple of weeks from now, but yes, it's wonderful to start off the week with a new podcast interview. And we were talking a bit off air right now, and I find a topic really fascinating that I often discuss and often comes up, especially in the coaching field, which is the topic of ownership and accountability. So we started to talk a bit about it off air. What would you say are some of the fundamental pillars to have this ownership in your life, in your business, and to actually, like you say, walk the talk?
[01:47] Rob: Yeah, it's a great question because I think it starts with personal accountability. I think a lot of times, especially business owners, I see a lot more with business owners, with managers, et cetera, is that there's always this thought that they can hold their teams accountable and all these things, the ownership part will just come in that. And I think that the best leaders know that accountability starts every day. And it's how you show up, right? Because if you don't walk your talk, how can you expect your team to walk your talk? How do you expect those around you to walk your talk? So I think it really starts from this idea of looking in the mirror every day and saying, what do I want to accomplish? And so accountability starts. And this is kind of something that my wife actually got me into, and she's really big on the power of manifestation, right? And so we kind of get up every morning, we talk about intention, and that's kind of turned into this thing where I started kind of looking in the mirror and saying the intention and saying, okay, what are the things? And I look at my schedule and here's how I do it from a personal standpoint, right I recently joined a company as the head of Global brand on one side. So I lead all of our brand and marketing, but I'm also our commercial lead for all of the US. So I lead all of our US growth partnerships. So I have two sides of the business that I manage. One global and then one from the country. So I have a million tasks like all of us do, right? I don't care what level of person you have a million tasks. So I sit down, I just take a look, and I think about if I got one thing done today, just one. What was the one thing I need to get done to call a success? And then I frame that and I tell myself that. And doing that allows me to get past the bullshit. Because usually the one thing that will make today a success is the hardest effing thing on my list. And as humans, we naturally tend to do all the easy stuff first and push the hard stuff off till later. And then we're exhausted and we push it off and we push it off and we procrastinate, and it gives us high level anxiety. As somebody who is ADHD and OCD, this can cause extreme debilitation for me as a business owner, business manager. So when I attack the hardest thing head on in the morning, and I'm definitely a morning person over an afternoon person. My wife is the night owl. I am very much an early bird. My zone of creativity is morning. Then I go into the hard stuff and it actually makes the whole much day much more manageable, easier. And sometimes the hard **** is scary, but it holds me accountable. And I do that every day. And every day feels nine times out of ten, right? There are some days I don't feel like a success, like we're human. But for the most part, I feel like every day I'm always getting something done, I'm moving in the right direction every day. I never feel like I'm taking steps back because I'm setting that intention in the morning and then attacking that first thing.
[04:38] Katie: Yeah, I love that. And it's also the same principle that I apply the whole eat that frog, as Brian Tracy calls it. And it really, really does work. It set up the day in a productive way. It also means you have to look at your own excuses, look at what you're prioritizing, catch yourself if you realize that you're putting as your most important task something that's easier or more fun or that, you know, you'll get done anyway. So instead of choosing which is the one that you really want to do, that will move the needle forward. And sometimes, I mean, correct me if it's different for you, but sometimes the task is short, but it's difficult.
[05:14] Rob: Absolutely.
[05:15] Katie: One punchy email that takes ten minutes. But it's like writing that email is tough.
[05:20] Rob: Sometimes yeah. And sometimes it is one of the things that I also love, and I'm a big proponent, especially because you mentioned this and this is one of those things that a lot of people struggle with. It's usually communication. It's I need to have a hard conversation with somebody or I need to write a tough email. And as humans, we have a hard time doing that. And I've been a big proponent of chat GPT and allowing that to help provide structure. So it might be something like if I have to respond to Katie, she's a potential client or she is a client, it needs to have this tone of voice. I could say, please write a professional email with this tone of voice, doing XYZ with this context. And what I do is then I rewrite it. I usually don't take it and please don't use chat GPT and copy paste. People can tell when it's a chat GPT generated content, but for us, that find that hard, what it actually does is it provides the framework and structure. Or if it's, I need to have a really tough conversation with Katie today about the fact that I messed up, right, and I got to go and take accountability. How would know put that in there. How would you have a conversation? And what it just does is primes framework for you to give you more confidence going into that conversation. And I think so many of us are afraid or don't know how to use tools like that. But for me, some of those hardest tasks like that have actually become easier because I know how to use chat GBT to provide structure so that my brain can actually take that and loosen that anxiety and create a really cool process around it.
[06:53] Katie: Yes. And it doesn't just provide structure, it also provides that first baby step, because it's always that first initial step that is the hardest and that's always where we struggle to gain the momentum. And so it already boom. If you know that, you can ask Chad GPT, just write it down. I did the same to brainstorm topics for Future conference and so mine goes blank. Give me ideas, give me ideas. And then suddenly the brain is fuzzing and it sort of sets it going and then you don't need to copy any of it or some of it, but it's that initial hurdle, that initial bit where you feel stuck. So what are some other things that you do? So this is fantastic. Starting with your most important task, setting the intention for the day. I love that. What are other things that you feel are important in terms of ownership and accountability to, again, really walk the talk, because I love that expression. I think it's so important.
[07:44] Rob: Yeah, this next one is going to kind of sound counterintuitive, right? And I believe in this concept of servant leadership. I really like this. I don't believe in leading by fear. I don't believe in leading by power. There are certain decisions you have to make of like, hey, I'm the boss. This is my decision. But at the end of the day, I believe in true empowerment of others. Everyone rising tides, lifts, all ship. And so one of the things that has been tough but a true leadership conversation is removing ego, right? And how do I do that every day? And that is a really hard thing for me to do. I'm very competitive. I grew up a twin. So when you grow up a twin, you compete literally from the moment you're born on anything and everything, even so much as just like, who eats most at dinner and who eats fast enough to get the extra French fries or whatever it is, right? And so for me, it's taken me a long time in my journey to do this exercise, but it's, how do I wake up and remove the ego? So some of that is just an exercise where I think about, okay, what does it mean to be a servant leader? What does it mean to drive these things? And so how do I do that day in? And so what decisions do I know? Where I have to be the one to make the decision? What does Rob have to be the manager or the leader in this? And then, where do I need to engage others? Right? And there's a great book, it was called Who, Not How. Right? It's all about power of delegating. And I think as leaders, one of a great way to remove your ego is to really think about how to delegate and engage your employees at all different levels or engage the team around you and giving them things. That they would be good at and delegating tasks to them so that they have a much bigger piece in the decision making process which allows you to remove your ego from it because it's a team decision versus yours. Usually where our ego hits is when we are taking all the decisions on ourselves because we're trying to hold all that power. And then we get really high anxiety because every decision we make feels intensified. So I always tell leaders, and one thing I try to work on is checking my ego at the door and looking at all the things that I have to make decisions on coming up in the next day, week, month, and then who do I need to engage to bounce ideas off of? And it kind of goes back to that hardest thing. First of, just a lot of times we need to get the **** out of our head from spinning and bounce it out and off so that it becomes more clear. And so for a lot of people, it's checking your ego at the door every morning. And how I do that is just looking at what I have, looking who I need to talk to and allowing sometimes my OCD to let go and give other people the ability to be a part of that decision by doing a certain task or doing a certain research or bouncing ideas off of. And it's really helped me check my ego for somebody who knows that they have a bit of an ego very open about. And that's one thing that I think a lot of people struggle with, and it's not easy. And this is something I will say. This is one of those things that doesn't happen overnight. Anyone out there listening? And like, oh, he makes it sound easy. It's taken me a couple of years in working with a business coach on this thing specifically to remove that ego.
[11:05] Katie: Yes. And we all have an ego. So you're saying I have a bit of an ego. We all do. And it helps us sometimes, helps us to move forward and to set goals and move forward. Sometimes it holds us back, and it's fear driven, and it's controlling, and so it's about embracing okay. The positive sides. Right. It gives us that extra motivation to do certain things, but also when it gets a little more toxic or a little more controlling or a little more fear based, I think it's great to remember, okay, this is just the ego. This is not all of me. It's not my soul. It's not what's really important. It's just the fear driven instinctual. And then we can look at it from a neurological perspective, too. But I think it can help in those moments to remember this isn't us, because we tend to merge with the ego. And I like to think of the ego as it's another hand. Right. It's just we've got two hands, and we have an ego. We have eyes, but we are not our eyes. Right. We're not our hands. Right. So we're not our ego. So I like to look at it that way because I went through a phase where I wanted to get rid of all ego. After reading The Power of Now, I thought it was evil. I guess the enemy is the ego or the ego is the enemy. I didn't read that by Ryan Holiday. But that concept I had, and then I realized I was speaking with my coach, who actually had been a monk. Right. Spiritual coach. I was like, Right, he's got this. He's going to help me to get rid of my ego. And he said, no, we all have an ego, and we need it. Oh, right. Okay. Maybe good to approach it differently.
[12:35] Rob: Yeah. Your ego can be powerful too. Right. Having a bit of an ego, and a lot of times it's that confidence that you bring into a room. It's the fact that you've been there and done that. It's your ability to know that you can thrive. I will say where I have a big ego is you can drop me into almost any group of people having a conversation about any topic. And I will find a way to engage well in that conversation, whether I either one, have a **** ton of useless knowledge because of my ADHD, so that I always know at least something enough to be in there or the other side of it. I'm just really good at asking questions. And I can engage others and ask great questions that I don't just sit there and listen. I'm like, hey, excuse me, boom. Even if I know the answer to that question, you know what questions to ask to get people engaged, that I can always be a part of that. And I know I can do that. You can't put me in a position that I can't do that. That's my ego. But it doesn't mean that I don't have extreme anxiety doing like I always have a little bit of that. All right, Rob, breathe. Big breath. Get into that zone flow state. Move. So ego is also super is. I was going to share this because this is where I think a lot of people look at me kind of funny. I'm a big fan of keeping receipts. And this feeds the ego. But when done right, it's not to feed the ego in a negative way. It's to remind myself that I am powerful, that I am strong, that I am sharp, I am good. Right. And what I mean by this is so whenever you do something that you feel great about, it gives you joy. Right? And I don't look at joy as like this thing that makes me happy. Right? Joy is something that makes you feel that connected, that something good happened in some way, shape, or form. Right? Because sometimes joy comes out of sadness. Right? Sometimes great relationships happen over a bad thing. And so joy can come from different places. And so I tell people, keep receipts. Because so many of us, we live in an age of this, especially feeding our egos, this loud social environment where everyone's banging their chest, I did this. Here's my twelve step guide to this. Here's how I made a million dollars. Here's how you become successful. This is your wake up at 05:00 A.m.. I do these things. It's really easy to be like, everyone's doing better than me. So have a receipts folder. Write down the things that you're successful. Write down when something gives you joy. And what you'll realize is whenever you're having a down day, go look at that folder and look how far you've come. And you have those things timelined, so you can see success over time. And it's not meant to inflate the ego of like boom, boom, boom. It's meant to, hey, I have receipts that I am worthy, I'm doing good things in life. I am growing personally, maybe not as fast as everybody else. That's their journey. This is my journey. And so I love keeping a receipts folder where I do that and I coach that and I talk to founders about it all the time. And it's something that also really helps me because I get Imposter Syndrome a lot. And so that's the other thing that I always like to share. I think it's a great tactic when done right. It is one of the most powerful things that allow me to continue to wake up every day and be like, I got to keep going. I got to keep walking my talk, right? And it also motivates me more than it does. Makes me feel like I'm good, I can sit back today. No, it makes me want to do more.
[16:01] Katie: What you're essentially covering is having that right balance of feeling that worthiness feeling that inner confidence, and at the same time being humble. And it's an ongoing balance because there is a possibility, of course, if you constantly write, always writing your achievement, blah, blah, that it can go to your head or to one's head, and the loss of humility can happen. But there's also the chance that if we're constantly humble and we never think about our achievement and we never celebrate, then Impostor Syndrome kicks in, then doubts kick in, then we lack confidence. So it's all about how can you maintain which is beautifully shared, the way you just shared it, how you maintain that sort of inner trust, I guess, is one way of talking about it all while at the same time every morning checking the ego at the door, remembering that other people on the team can also do the work and staying humble. And I think once you're used to that balance, it's like any balance you can feel if you're going a bit one way you can feel if Impostor Syndrome is kicking a bit or if power, whatever, is going a bit to your head because you can notice the shift in energy and thoughts and emotions. You'd be like, wait a minute, that was a bit ego driven. Let me chill. Everyone's human and why is this coming to my head? Or you can feel the Impostor Syndrome kicking in and be like, hey, remember we did all of this. This is good, we can do it. And so it's keeping that balance which is so important, especially when you have your own business. But I mean, in general, for everyone.
[17:25] Rob: Yeah, it's something that I think just as humans, we want to continue. Not everyone wants to be a leader, right? But everyone wants to grow and everyone wants to be able to show that what they're doing matters. And the impact and the receipts also help you realize the impact you have daily, that can be daily, that could be weekly, that can be monthly, that can be personal versus professional. I actually have personal receipts versus professional receipts as well. And this is something I started doing recently, so I wrote a book that came out in 2022 called Social Soul. It's all about how to build a brand. And it was talking about the different things, and I really talked about, we don't need more creators, we need more engagers. We need less people to be content creators and more people engaged in the communities they serve. And in that process of writing the book, I was so much creating so much content for all the platforms and testing them and doing all these things. By the end of it, when the book came out, I was like, ****, I am done. I took six months off, almost four months off from Social, from posting, because I was so exhausted from the whole build up, doing all the research and seeing all of it, that the Imposter Syndrome hit right as my book came out, right? And it was kind of crazy. And so what I had to do is like, Rob, you wrote a book, you made the top ten list on five different categories, and you have people talking about it, you're speaking on it, you're doing these things, you've done this, you've done that. But it took me so long and needing a mental reset to like, okay, what did I achieve? What was all that for? What's the next step? What do I build off of that? How do I take that and turn that into the next part of my journey? And that's when I did this receipt folder, and I started looking at it all. And then things started to fall into place about where I wanted to go next and what I wanted to do with my career next. But that was a really bit of a tough lesson to learn.
[19:21] Katie: Yes, it's interesting how these moments happen most unexpectedly. And I know what you talked about. My book came out a few months ago, the Magic of Focus. And it's a journey. It's an inner journey.
[19:34] Rob: It is a journey, especially that moment that you hit publish, right? Like, that moment is just, my name is on this. This is me. And you put so much into it. There is that bit of just like, what if somebody doesn't like it? And that goes in this other thought of leadership, of just when you stand for something, you're going to make someone mad. Like, you can't be a people pleaser to everyone. And so understand that the things that you do, the decisions you make, are for those that are part of your community, that you're trying to serve in that direction, and that you are, no matter what you do, any decision we make as a leader, especially as a leader, you're probably going to **** somebody off. And you have to be okay with that. You have to know that you're standing for something and be okay. That not everything you do, everyone's going to like. And that, I think, is really hard for a lot of our ego and honestly, for us to be able to walk our talk, because that scares us. We get paralyzed by that fear. And so, so many people talk and never actually do. And this is that final action moment, is like realizing that it's okay to be afraid of making a decision. And sometimes you got to have faith that you've done your research to make the right one.
[20:49] Katie: Yes. And you do the decision that's right for you. And some people will love it, and they'll help some people, and the ones who don't resonate will move on. And it's true that my greatest fear moment when the book came out wasn't when I had published, wasn't when I got my proof copy, wasn't at the book launch. It was when someone said, I'm really looking forward to reading it. I'll tell you what I think about it. And I thought, oh, God, people actually go read this. It was only at that moment I thought, yeah, Casey, you wrote a book. People are going to read it. Oh, wow. And so I think all along, till then, it just felt like fun and an accomplishment in the same way as, I don't know, like, if you get an award or something, it's all good, right? It looks apart. It's nice, it's satisfying. It's a creative project. It's fun, it's done. And then people read it, and it's like, wow, I thought I'd gone through the worst just getting it to be finished right? Just finish writing it and finishing getting it published. But actually, the fear of what people would think and who would resonate and who and yeah, that's a whole other thing. But I think what helped me a lot, several things, but the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was really, really good. And then just the idea that, hey, it's a creative project. It's not me. There'll be more books. There'll be other creative projects. I also paint. I also do music. Some people will hate some of it. Some people will love it. Moving on. It's a creative project. And so not putting my whole ego and all of my soul into just one thing I did, I don't do this with my blog articles or my podcast. Why should I do it with my book, right?
[22:22] Rob: You're hitting on something that literally just happened to me. Was it in June? July? So another creative project I did after I wrote that first book, I knew that I always wanted to write a kids companion book. And so I did this creative process of doing Bear Builds a Brand, and the idea behind it was to teach kids that when you're on the schoolyard, it's for kids five to ten, five to eleven. When you're on the schoolyard, we're not doing things at recess or presenting a book report. You're building a brand. And the idea is that it talks about where's a cyberbully, all these things. And the idea is for parents and teachers to then translate the conversation to the online brand. I was probably more afraid of this creative project than anything else because I was like, oh, ****, kids are going to read this. And I was like, what are they going to think? Is this going to hit home? Is this going to be something they vibe with? Are the characters something they're going to resonate with? And I remember that moment of just like but then when I finally just posted it and got it out and saw a bunch of kids, like family and friends and just kids I didn't even know, people tagging me on social. I was just like, nothing else. Just to see the fact that there's a kid out there that can read it and learn something from it was like the most empowering thing for me. And it was like, why was I so afraid? What about that was so scary that I held on to that anxiety for that long. And it was just like, this is a cool creative project. It's going to make some kids happy. It's going to probably help some parents have conversations they might never be willing to have. And other than that, it's something really cool that I did. And whether it sells a million copies or 50, it was a fun project. And I already know that I helped one person. That means everything, right? Just when you start getting out of your own brain of all the things that could happen and think about what is your intention with the project, what is your intention with the decision, what is your intention with the day you want to have? This is where that accountability and that ownership really comes in. Because when you set that intention and you go about doing it, it becomes easier. It's not that it's easy, right? It just becomes easier to walk your talk and make hard decisions and have hard conversations and do things that scare you because you're following your path. And that can change at any time. And you don't have to have it being like, step one, step two. Nonlinear paths to me, are the most fun to talk to. They're the most interesting people, and everyone walks their own journey. And I always say that everyone's journey is unique because it's yours. You're the only one walking in your shoes, right? And that is something so special. So everyone out there has to remember, set your intentions and enjoy life. Like, you only get one. Your path is happening as you define it. And you have to be willing to rise to the occasion. You have to be willing to have those conversations and make those decisions. But if you set your intentions, if you can put ego aside, if you can really drive with intention about where you want to go, those things become habits. They become part of who you are. And even if they scare you, you lean into them. And that's why I think it's super. Fun about or super empowering about the idea of intentionality when it comes to being a leader and holding yourself accountable day in and day out.
[25:36] Katie: Yes, absolutely. And it feels to me like, yes, I can totally resonate with that fear with the book coming out. And I think it's because of the vulnerability. And I feel that most creative projects are vulnerable. So having that vulnerability is something that we're just not used to practicing as much. And like you said, we focus on the fact that if it helps one person and that really helped me to publish my book was one of my close friends, timmy, if you listen to this episode, read this book and gave me excellent feedback. So I thought, okay, it's helped one person. And she's wonderful. I rank her very high, not just because she's a friend, but just yeah, anyway, I won't do a whole episode talking about how great Timmy is. So I could so she's wonderful. So I really value her feedback. And so that really helped me because she literally gave me back a PDF of my whole book, highlighting the bit she loved most and why she loved it, and putting comments in of my entire book. And I thought, wow. And I think without that, I would have struggled a lot more to publish it. So it's like you said, just knowing that that one kid read it, then is happy and being tagged and seeing the photos, that makes such a difference. And coming back to the original topic here around ownership and accountability, so we've spoken why it's hard, and in many ways it's linked to that vulnerability and to walk that path and have that accountability. What do you feel are some key steps that people, maybe they're inspired, they're listening to you and they think, well, I want to do this more. Right? I want to be more intentional. I want to be more accountable to my intentions. I want to have more ownership and more intentionality in my life. What do you feel are some core steps they can take to help them get there?
[27:18] Rob: Yeah, a lot of people will say journaling. I'm not big on journaling. I've started journals a thousand times. Speak your intentions out loud. Talk about it. So I think a lot of times the biggest step to take is just start talking about it. And we're all like, oh, what if they don't like it? Or what if somebody steals it? Who the **** cares? It's in your brain and it's something you want to do or something that scares you or something that is compelling, you start talking about it. You should have everyone out there. And if you don't have this here's even better. For a start, get yourself a personal board of advisors. I have a handful of people that some of them those personal board of advisors, guys like Stoyan who introduced us, katie, who I've actually never met in person. But I've developed a relationship over two years that I've called them about things or said, hey, can I pick your brain for 15 minutes? Because I had a thing that was really I was really stuck on. I was like, who do I think would be in my network? And his face popped up on a video and it was like speaking to me. I was like, hey, I just need to call him, right? I've got five or six people that I can call at any time and just bounce ideas off of. So get yourself a personal board of advisors instead of, hey, Katie, I want you to be my personal know, hopefully reciprocated, but I look to you for your expertise in XYZ. And whenever I'm stuck on something, I want to be able to just pick up the phone and call you and pick your brain. Are you willing to be on my personal great, that's your first step. And the second step is utilizing that board to have those conversations, sending a text, sending a voice message, sending a video message, calling them, just saying, hey, I was thinking about this. I just want to word vomit something out to you. What do you think? And when you start doing those two things, your brain starts rewiring to think about setting intentions. And because you're talking about those things that you're passionate about, you're talking about those ideas you have and you're putting them into an intention, into the universe, and that energy is going to carry back to you. And that actually allows you to really think about how to set intentions. Many of us are like, well, want to set intentions, but I don't know where to start. First, get a personal board. Two, start talking about it. Those two things will change, I promise. You will change the way you start thinking about it, and you will naturally start setting your own intentions daily. And then all those other things become much easier. But that's where I would start. Get that personal board.
[29:28] Katie: Yes, I love that. And thinking about it, I realized that I semi consciously sort of did that, but without as clear a process as you just said, which I love. So I had a couple of people I talked to about the creative writing or the writing process who also wrote a lot. Then I had people I talked with a bit about marketing and business and blah, blah, blah. But I like the idea of being more clear in your mind, sort of more clear with them too. So just like, I'd love to have you on my personal board, where we make sure that we're quickly reachable ish within 24 hours of checking in and you can reach out to me about XYZ and I reach out. And that more spontaneous nature I quite like because I think I used to be quite planning and schedule the call and then two weeks from there, maybe then two weeks from there you have a nice catch up. But maybe it's not as relevant as if it's on the moment. And the idea that if both people can't fit it in, that it can be a short call or that it could be just through vocal messages, that can be really good. And it's true. Now I think about it, one of the people I did this with, the writing, she would actually ask me about business things and like pricing and stuff like that and she left me a vocal message and I answered her with a vocal message. So yeah, it doesn't always even have to be a call, but being very intentional and clear and it's being asked both ways, that's very smart because I always have a coach, but a coach. But then you need about a million things in business, branding, ideas and this.
[30:59] Rob: Is why it's important to have multiple people on that board because sometimes I might reach out to you, Katie, like, Well, I'm actually on holiday, I can't talk for two weeks. Well, this is pressing. I'm going to call the next person and then until I can maybe get somebody to have that conversation with, somebody who responds to that. And I do like that you're bringing up this really good point. The reason why I say it's really important to have that intention is then you never feel like you're bothering the other person or that there's that exchange of value and favors because we all know what it's like to feel like we all know that person that just asks and take all the time and they never give. The idea of a personal board is that there is going to be a reciprocated flow at some point. It could be heavier on one than the other, but it's always that reciprocated within your personal board. And I want to give everyone out there a challenge. If you would let me indulge for a second because this will really help with all of this. It's a lesson from my book, The Social Soul, and it's kind of a bit of brand building, but what it actually does for all of us is allows us to engage in the communities that we serve, which allows us, especially if we're thinking about this idea of accountability and ownership, is we need to be in the communities that we serve. To really do that well is every day, whatever platform you use as your number one platform or you want to grow on, put a 15 minutes block on your calendar and meaningfully engage with five posts a day doesn't mean like it means leave a comment. It can be an emoji, but meaningfully engage with your network, meaningfully engage with conversations and topics that spark you. Right. And when you start doing that, if you do that every day minus Saturdays and Sundays for those that don't want to do stuff on the weekends, if you do that every day for a month, you'll notice two things. One, your brand will start to grow, right, because you're an engager and you're giving back. It's all about giving value to the community. Two, the quality of conversations that you'll have with your network and the quality of ideas and intentions that will start coming back to you because of what you're putting out there will help you do the intention setting. Just the quality of that reciprocation of the way you engage with the platform will actually validate those things that are in your head and allow you to start being like, oh, ****, I should start doing more of this. And then you start developing intentions. And so I love this challenge because it does two things. One, it helps you validate yourself and your intentions, but two, it shows that you want to give value to the communities that you serve. So when people are asking why you're doing this, they can see that you care about that community and it becomes a really cool way to build that two way conversation. And then it helps you to really get into that mindset of, okay, these are the intentions. Here's how I do this, and then pull on those experiences. So, I love giving this challenge because it does such a big thing to your ability to have these quality conversations with quality people at the right time before you even knew it was needed.
[33:42] Katie: Amazing. And if it wasn't for social media, we probably wouldn't have met because we met through Styen and Styen, I originally met on LinkedIn, and I have met him in person since, which has been great, but I originally met him. You know the benefits of social media, too, right? Amazing. Well, on this challenge, Rob, this has been, like, super fast. Thank you so much. So much. Important golden nuggets that you shared. Love the personal accountability setting, the intention. Also the vulnerability part around the creative process and what you just shared now in terms of challenge and giving back to your community and so much more. I haven't summed up everything we said, but thank you so much.
[34:25] Rob: You bet. It was a lot of fun, and thanks for having me on. I know we covered a lot in a short amount of time, and it's something I'm so passionate and love getting to chat about. So I appreciate you giving the space and the place to have that conversation, so I appreciate you.
[34:39] Katie: Thank you. Where's the best place people can get in touch with you?
[34:42] Rob: What's your favorite? I'd say my website is Robnapoly.com. So it's Rob R-O-B napoli. N as in Nancy, a as in Apple, p as in Paul. O-L-I. It has connections. It has all my contact information, all my socials. So depending on where you want to follow, how you want to get in touch with me, has information on my books and my podcast and all the things robna.com one place you can find it, reach out to me. Don't be a stranger. Always love getting to have great conversations.
[35:09] Katie: Amazing. Thank you so much. Rob thank you.
[35:11] Rob: You betty, thank you.
[35:16] Katie: Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Be show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback, so let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.