¶ 'Leadership Pain
Hey , leader , and welcome to another episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast , where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership . My name is Doug Smith and I am your host , and today's episode is brought to you by my friends at Beratung Advisors .
We also recorded this live from the new returncom studio . If you're new to the podcast , welcome . I'm so glad that you're here and I hope that you enjoy our content and become a subscriber . Know that you can also watch all of our episodes over on our YouTube channel , so make sure you're subscribed there as well .
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That really does help us to grow our audience and reach more leaders , so thank you in advance for that . Well , leader , it is August and every August I take a month off of podcasting and replay some of my favorite episodes .
And in today's Encore episode , you're going to hear my interview with Dr Sam Chand , and Sam is author of the book Leadership Pain , which made a huge impact on my life , and it was a great privilege and honor to get to interview him , and this is one of our most downloaded and most viewed lesson two episodes ever , and so I think it's going to add a ton of
value to you . But before we dive into that , just a few announcements . This episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Beratung Advisors . The financial advisors at Beratung Advisors help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions .
You can find out how Beratung Advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future by visiting their website at BeratungAdvisorscom . That's B-E-R-A-T-U-N-G-Advisors . c om Securities and investment products and services offered through LPL Financial member , finra and SIPC . Beratung Advisors , lpl Financial and L3 Leadership are separate entities .
I also want to thank our sponsor , henne Jewelers . They're a jeweler earned by my friend and mentor , John Henne . And my wife Laura and I got our engagement and wedding rings through Henne Jewelers and had an incredible experience . And not only do they have great jewelry , but they also invest in people .
In fact , for every couple that comes in engaged , they give them a book to help them prepare for marriage , and we just love that . So if you're in need of a good jeweler , check out HenneJewelerscom . And I also want to thank our new sponsor , reiturn . com and Leader . Let me just ask you this have you ever had an interest in investing in real estate ?
Well , now , for as little as $500 , you can become a commercial real estate investor . Just visit Reiturn . com to learn more . That's R-E-I-T-U-R-N . com . Investing involves risk . Please consult the return offering circular if you're interested in investing . And with all that being said , let's dive right in . Here's my conversation with Dr Sam Chand .
Well , Sam , thank you so much for being willing to do this interview . It's a great honor to get to spend time with you . I know I was telling you just prior to us jumping into the interview how much of an impact your book Leadership Pain has had on me and a lot of the leaders that we have influenced over here at L3 Leadership .
So thank you for your work . But for those who may not be familiar with you , can you just start us off by telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do ?
My name is Sam . I help people . That's basically it . I'm married . I've been married to Brenda for 31 years . We have two adult children , two grandchildren , one son-in-law . God's been good to us . I never thought that God would favor me the way . He has no reason for it , except the divine providence . And I'm an immigrant .
I came to the United States of America in 1973 , born and raised in India , so by now you can figure out . You know I'm not from your neighborhood , and so this has been a great journey . And so what do I do ? Official title is I am a leadership consultant . That's an official shingle , if you want to call it that .
But my life vision is helping others succeed , and so that's why I say yes . The reason I say yes is not to be on a podcast . The reason I write a book is not to write a book . The reason is to help others succeed , and so that's basically who I am and what I do .
Yeah , and you know for anyone who reads your resume you are . You've been named one of the top 30 leadership gurus on the planet . I know a lot of the leaders that you've been able to mentor and have influence with , and you know when people see where you are today .
I always like to ask leaders what do you wish people knew about your journey that they may not know ?
Well , they probably don't know my work ethic , they probably don't know how important every phone call , every email , every text message , how seriously I take it . Because sometimes people think you know , people put you in a category and think like , well , they'll blow us off .
And I don't do that because I've been blown off before and I know , I know how sincere I was and I didn't have name . Recognition and obscurity is where I was living . So I just never know who you , who you're helping , at what stage of their life , and also believe in the sovereignty of God .
I believe that this conversation we're having right now and everyone listening and watching right now is part of the sovereignty of God . So this is a divine appointment and that's so . I just take it that seriously .
I love that . I do want to dive a little bit into that because I'm curious . With the level of influence you have , I'm sure you have to say no once in a while . How do you determine who gets to spend time with you and who doesn't , or who gets a response who doesn't ? I'm just curious because leaders are busy .
So I have a very simple criteria for that . My office does that and that is simply I want to influence influencers , because if I can be in a room with 10 influencers who are influencing thousands and millions of people , that is a better use of whatever God has entrusted me with than being in her 10,000 people who may not have a whole lot of influence .
Just recently , every year I do invitation only round table somewhere outside the country , and I did one year before last just use that . For example , in Panama City , panama , there were 24 people in the room , 24 mega leaders in the room , and they all represented 14.5 million people . So that's my criteria .
My criteria is simply to say yes to where I can influence influencers . So I'd much rather be in a room of 10 than a room of 10,000 because of that .
And I don't know if this is related , but I've read this in your book and it stood out for me for some reason . On the communication . So you said whatever level someone communicates , whatever medium someone communicates to you with , go a level higher . So if someone sends you an email , maybe you should give them a phone call .
Can you talk about that principle and how you apply that to your life ? I just thought that was interesting .
Because people always start safe . People want to start at a level that they feel like they're not going to be offensive or they will not feel obtrusive or they will not be invasive . They're trying to be nice , they're trying to be polite , they're trying to be courteous , and I get that .
But I also know , behind all that courtesy and politeness , there is a little edge to say this is where we want to start , but can we go higher ? And so , instead of waiting through all the drama , I just try to take the conversation higher .
Of course they are built on assumptions I get that and sometimes assumptions by instincts are right , sometimes they're wrong , but regardless I try to push the the envelope a little bit higher . That gives them permission to take it higher . And then we keep stepping it up .
That's so good . I do want to dive into leadership pain , as I mentioned already , most impactful book that I read in 2019 . Every leader I've talked to that's read it said this resonated so much and you've actually been surprised by the audience . You said everywhere you go .
Everywhere People are relating to this book and the thesis of the book , which I love , is you'll only grow to the threshold of your pain . And Can you just give us a little bit about why did you write this book and and what do you mean by that thesis that you'll only go to the threshold of your pain ?
So one of the things I do is I told you earlier , my leadership consultant and I deliver my consultancy in different formats . You know , all the way from one on one with a CEO of a company or Mega church pastor or executive director for nonprofit , like you are . So all the way from there to writing book , podcast or videos and so on .
And one of them is speaking on platforms . And when I would speak on platforms , I realized there were certain questions that matter what part of the world I was in , that kept coming up again and again , different variations of the same question .
But the same question kept coming up again and again , and one of the questions was in different variations was so what's the difference between a large church pastor and a smaller church pastor , or a large corporate leader or a smaller corporate leader , or large nonprofit leader or a smaller nonprofit leader ?
And Because that question kept coming up again and again , I started Looking at it more carefully because it seemed like people wanted to know , but I did not know . So I started eliminating the what I thought were common denominators .
So I figured out it's not administration , it's really not even leadership , it's not vision , it's not your team , it's not your location . It's not your money . It really comes down to a very personal thing about the leader how much pain you can handle .
And I started realizing as I got closer because of my work I can get very personal , very close very quickly with high-level leaders and I started noticing they carry a lot of pain but they don't talk about that pain , the the only reason they talk about that pain is to encourage others . That I made it , you can too .
But when I started delving further , I came up with the one distinctive factor that was common in all leaders that differentiated them was their ability to handle more pain , their ability to handle .
Now when I talk about pain , I'm talking about internal pain , external pain , organizational pain , financial pain , relational pain , time management pain , just you know , growth pain , all kinds of different pains and of course that ended up writing that book leadership in .
But the whole notion was the thesis of the book and the whole book is built on one sentence , which is you will grow only to the threshold of your pain .
Higher you go , the more pain , and that is why a lot for leaders subconsciously and unconsciously put a pause button or Sometimes even a stop button in their lives , and I'm not willing to endure any more pain and that is the end of their leadership , right ? That does not mean they're not effective as leaders where they are .
They are still effective leaders where they are at , but some that thing inside of them that wants them to go higher and bigger and faster I mean very quickly . So that's that's why I wrote the book , just realizing that people needed to know . The one differentiating factor is pain .
Yeah , and can you just , can you just speak into ? How can you actually grow your threshold of pain ? You said that it holds so many leaders back in the book . You talk about how so many visions have been squandered as a result of people's unwillingness to grow through pain .
If a leader's listening to this and they're at that threshold of just saying I don't know if I can take any more . I don't , but I have this dream in my heart , what would your encouragement to them be ?
So I've been at that place many , many times in my life , many , many times in my life , in which I said I'm done . I mean , this is it . You know . Thanks for trusting me with all of this , but I just I don't know if I can go any any further with this , and the thing that I think has helped me , which might help others , are a few things .
One is I have some very good friends , maybe five , you know . I know thousands upon thousands of people , but probably I got five such friends whom I call pain partners . There's a whole chapter in the book called pain partners , whom I call pain partners .
And pain partners are people with whom I don't I'm not whining , I'm not complaining , I am not saying woe is me and poor me I am . These are people with whom I can transparently saying man , I'm done , you know I don't need this pain anymore . You know I can make more money and not have to deal with this .
Why do I want to lead an organization when I can just get me a job ? Because when I'm leading an organization , I'm never off . I could be on a vacation somewhere or on a cruise somewhere , but this thing , because I'm leading the organization . I used to be a university president . You know it just kind of lives in your head . I used to be a senior pastor .
You know you're never off . You know I can tell you . Many times I've said to my wife . Brenda said I tell you what . I'm just gonna get me a job . I Will make less money . I get that . I will not have any invitations . I . But you know , after five o'clock in the afternoon I'm done .
I can turn my phone off , I can turn my email off and when we are on a holiday with invocation , I don't care who dies , I don't care whose house burns down , I don't care . You know I , I can actually shut my life down and actually have a full-fledged holiday .
¶ Pain, Dreams, and Leadership
So pain partners have really been helpful in which I can just talk to them and them and they're not trying to fix it either . That's an important thing about pain partners . These are not answer people . They are not people saying you can do it . Come on , sam , you can . Now there's not raw , raw place . They are just like the , the , the dumpster .
You know I just dump on them I . Just dump on them and after a while , said thanks for listening , and so that's one thing . The second thing that has really helped me is God's history in my life .
God's history in my life and God's history in my life has been that that before I go to any whatever you want to call next level of influence or anything , I Been through a dark night . That's been God's pattern and God's history in my life .
So , because that has been God's pattern of working in my life , it is a Easier for me to say , okay , I'm hurting right now , but looks like he's up to something good , so let me Not waste this crisis , let me . Let me kind of hang in there and see what he's got on the other side .
That's so good , and can you just maybe dive a little deeper in that , specifically to young leaders you talk a lot about in the book . You know , when people start the leadership journey they have these aspirations and they idolize what leadership is , but then when you actually get into the arena , you realize it's nothing like that .
And there's consistent statements throughout the book and I think Craig Rochelle said it . You said it in so many words that before God uses you greatly , he's going to break you . And Not the most encouraging statement ever , but I think there's a reality to that .
So can you just speak to the , the 20-somethings , those in the early 30s starting out their leadership journey ? What advice would you give to them when it comes to this whole subject of leadership pain ?
So , first of all , coming from an old man , wish I wish that was a young person's dilemma . I deal with that at 67 , almost 68 right now . So I don't think you . It's not the ideal you think about idealism . Idealism is a gift from God because if we didn't have ideals we would curl up and die even before we started the journey .
Idealism says , hey , you can do this , let's go after it . And then you start getting your buddies together saying , hey , I want to do this , you want to be part of this , I want to start a podcast , can you help me with that ? And you know I'm going to do this , I'm going to do that , and so anybody can reign on your parade .
But then you know , I think it is an idealism that gets you into the arena and the idealism that I can do . This is what is needed , because if we were not idealistic , if we were all realistic , none of us would do anything . You know , I'm an immigrant . I know what it is to eat out of dumpsters .
I know what it is to go dumpster diving before it was fashionable . I know what it is to live on peanut butter jelly sandwiches half in the afternoon , half in the evening . Listen , so realism would have said you're just an immigrant , you know , nobody really wants you . You speak with an accent . Half the people don't understand you .
You don't look like them , you don't behave like them . So reality is reality . I get that , but I need somebody in my life who will say who cares what reality is ? Let's go fly . Reality says gravity is going to pull you down . But there were a couple of brothers in North Carolina , kitty Hawk , who decided to defy gravity . And here we are .
So all I'm saying is idealism is good . And listen , can I talk to some of my older comrades right now ? If you are in your other category you consider older to be , don't be tamping down on somebody's idealistic dream . It may be crazy to you . People call me the dream releaser . I have a coaching program called dream releaser coaching .
What we do is release people's dreams . Why do I want to become the heavy guy with all the wisdom and the knowledge and experience and lifetime ? Say to you hey , don't do that , that's not good . Do something else . Why do I want to do that ? I don't know what God has for you .
Beat the wind beneath somebody's wings and say go after it and don't use the word realistic or idealistic . It is somebody's dream , is their dream , and who are you to pass judgment on somebody else's dream ? Let people dream , and I think that is where I would say to everybody stay idealistic , you can do it .
Everybody who did anything at any time in their life did something that at one time was considered impossible . So keep doing it .
Can you dive a little bit deeper into that , since you coach people to release their dreams ? So step one , it sounds like , is don't drain your dream , go after it . But what practical steps do you coach people in pursuing their dreams once they have it ?
So if I had a dream to open a hamburger joint so I have to become a student of hamburgers and hamburger making I'd probably get me a job at McDonald's and I may start as a cashier , I might start as a burger flipper , I might start as the drive-thru or order taker , but if I'm going to start a hamburger joint , I've got to be a student of how hamburger
joints are run . So if you have a dream , the first thing you got to do is to ask yourself who else is doing this and study them , study the person , study the product , study the process , study the whole situation there and then beef up your knowledge and your wisdom and your experience from that .
So I think you have to reach into your history before you reach into your horizons , and I think that is the tension that people keep running towards the horizons but they have not .
And , for example , if you want to write a book , then you read books but also figure out how our book is written and what does the publishing industry look like , and those kind of things . I would just say to people become a student of whatever your dream is .
That's so good . I wanted to have a little tactical leadership and a question . I always love asking leaders , and part of this you may have already talked about but what price did you have to ? What are some of the prices that you've had to pay throughout your journey to get to where you are ?
Oh boy , that almost sounds like I'm some kind of martyr . It's like whoa , I paid this high price to be where I am to do what I do . Okay , I think living a disciplined life . I'm not OCD Some people might say that but I live a fairly disciplined life .
For example , there is not a single person on this planet who can say that I sent Sam Chan a message and he did not respond . So that's part of the price . That's part of the price . We may say no , but we will still respond . We may say another time , but we will still respond . So that is part of the price of making sure .
Another price that I think I have paid is not holding any grudges . There's not a single person in my life that I hold anything against . There's nobody in this world that is holding me down , carrying no extra baggage as far as I know . I love everybody and everybody loves me . If you don't love me , just keep that to yourself . I'm good .
I don't need to know that . I don't need to know that . Really , really , I don't need to know that . So the whole notion of how we call personal disciplines that don't necessarily make a list the price of making sure that I don't say yes because it's a large opportunity .
I have said yes to a smaller opportunity smaller , however you want to quantify that and then a larger opportunity came around and my carnal self wanted to cancel the smaller opportunity for the larger opportunity , but my integrity says no . You've already made that commitment . You can feel the disappointment . Don't deny the disappointment , saying wish I had not .
I wish I had waited . You can go through all of that , but keep your word . I think those are what are called personal disciplines . They're not the glamorous list that you can make or personal prices , but those are the kind of things that happen with daily living , daily decision making .
But I don't know if I mean I've paid a lot of prices , but that time they looked really large . Looking back on it , that's part of the pay that you do to get ahead .
Yeah , talk about getting ahead . I guess you have any advice for leaders looking to get ahead , or ? You know Jack Welch always says get out of the pile . What advice would you have for young leaders looking to get out of the pile and stand out ?
I think , boy , that's a great question . I remember I was at this church conference one time and a very , very senior leader At that time he was 60 or some years of old age and he seemed ancient to me . You know , not like him you know he seemed ancient to me and I was 26 at that time . Yeah , I was 26 at that time .
Yeah , he put his arm around me and this is what he said to me and it has been gold for me . He said , brother Sam , in those days everyone called you brother and sister . Yeah , those are wonderful days
¶ Developing Character and Building Relationships
. So he said , brother Sam , live long and live clean , live long , live clean . Well , at that time it didn't make a whole lot of sense for me . But I have found that , yeah , the race does not belong to sprinters , the race belongs to plodders . Just plod away , just one step in front of the other . It is a marathon that keeps plodding away .
And so live long . That simply means the longer you live and you live clean . Live clean means keep your family first . Don't mess around , you know . Keep your zipper up , just do the right things . Make good choices . Eye to people , don't try to make a fast buck . Stay married , be a person of integrity . Keep your word . That's what he meant .
Now it all makes sense to me . That was 30-some years ago , but I still remember him saying Brother Sam , live long , live clean . And can I tell you what prompted him to say that ? So you know , I'm 26 and I'm one of those guys asking questions . I walk up to him .
He's successful in what he's doing , and I say to him his name was brother Chester Miller and I said to him Brother Miller , if you could give me one piece of advice , what would that be ? You know I'm looking for , you know , that question . What is the one piece of advice you can give me that will take me to the next level ?
And he put his arm around me . And that's when he said to me Brother Sam , live long , live clean .
That's so good . One of our values here at L3 is character development . We think character development is the most important development and I'm just curious , as you've worked with leaders , how do leaders grow and develop their character ?
You know , you just mentioned a bunch of phrases that sound great and obviously would build up a life of character , but how can we actually build character in others ? I'm just curious how you view that .
That's very difficult to do . If that was easy , we wouldn't have any wrecks to read about .
Yeah , yeah , and you know I have , over the years I've had lots of my friends who messed up , who messed up in the financial dealings , who messed up with trying to make a fast buck , who messed up in their marriages , had affairs , who medicated their pain with alcohol and drugs and illicit activities , gambling and so on and so forth .
And these are good people , these are godly people , and some of them pastors of large churches , some of them husbands and fathers and grandfathers that you would have thought are brilliant people . How could they throw it all away with us one night stand ?
How could they do that , were they not people of character and to me character is , but that's a huge question . So let me give me a minute to answer that . So let me just tell you how character destroyed , character destroyed in three steps .
And we find that in Psalm , chapter one , verse one , where the Psalmist says to us blessed is the man who walketh , not . Number two is standard , not number three is sit it not I'm doing from the King James version , because it is , it is just I'm a King James guy , but no , no , I'm NIV and message and living Bible .
I'm all that so , but in this quotation , blessed is the man who walketh . Walking is your first step towards sin . That's the anatomy of sin . Standing is the second step . Sitting is the third step . Nobody starts off by sitting .
So that means if you , if you ended up having an affair , for example I'm throwing stones at anybody I was saying , if you ended up having an affair , it didn't happen just like that that you and your wife had a fight , so you ran down the road and picked up somebody and had sex with them . That's not how it happens . It started on a slippery slope .
You were walking by , you were watching things you shouldn't be watching . You were , you were looking at stuff on your phone that you shouldn't have . You were reading stuff that you shouldn't have .
You were going through time , you were just walking , but in your peripheral vision you could see stuff , and then you stood there long enough to be enticed by it , being attracted by it , being seduced by it , and then you end up sitting down Erector development . I've got to .
I've got to deconstruct this whole notion and say to myself who am I walking with , who am I standing with and who am I sitting with and that is where it is very important for you to have truth tellers truth tellers in your life and he will say things like Sam , everything okay between you and Brenda , and notice that you guys have been short with each other ,
sam , the way you replied to her . Everything okay there . Sam , you used to respond to my emails and my text messages , but now you used to do it every day . I mean , if I send you a message , you respond the same day , but now it takes you three , four days . Are you okay ?
Somebody just needs to raise a question and ask a question and I can tell you , most of us are afraid of hurting other people's lives , and we are not . We don't love them enough to risk our relationship to raise the issue and ask the question . So over the last 35 , almost 40 years , I'm known for raising the issue and asking the question .
I'd much rather lose you as a friend and I'd much rather hurt your feelings . I'm not going to do that on purpose . I'm going to be very respectful . I'm not going to be like a bowl in a china shop . I'm not going to come accusing . I'm not going to be throwing stones at you , but I will ask you that question . I will say Sam , are you dry now ?
Are you still drinking , sam ? How are things at home , sam ? Are you still watching that stuff ? Sam , who is monitoring that stuff ? Sam , have you broken that relationship off , sam ? Have you paid that money back ? Sam , are you still gambling ? I ?
I asked those questions because I found out how more people are , are what look to or work towards keeping the relationship , then keeping that friend from the ditch , that's much rather Build a fence at the top of the hill and build a hospital at the bottom . I'm just one of those that I'm wired like that . My wife will tell you .
I have knocked on people's doors at 11 o'clock at night saying you should be home . Are you home ? That's so . I'm known to do that because I love you enough To not let you slip into a ditch .
That's , that's at least what I do , so I love that . On the front end , can you ? Can you talk to leaders who may be listening to this and they might say , man , I wish I would have had a friend like that six months ago . But , man , I've fallen and you talked about , you've had many friends fail .
What is the other side of having a fail look like and what's your encouragement ? The leaders who may have found themselves in a situation they they didn't want to be in , but found themselves in so let me start by asking a very Insensitive question and then I will answer that question .
The insensitive question would be so how come you didn't have any real friends ? What was it about you ? What was it about you ? It kept people and you called them friends , but they're really mere acquaintances . They are , they were well-known acquaintances .
So what was it about you that did not invite people into your life to be the kind of people that you needed in that moment ?
Having said that , that's an intrusive question , but that has to be a question is asked somewhere in the front end to become introspective about our enabling behavior that Keeps people at arm's length and does not allow them to come in . The second thing I would ask them so what lesson have you learned ? Are you still trying to do life alone or are you ?
Have you changed that behavior ? Who is speaking into your life ? Who and I'm ? The question is not who are your mentors or your guides , who is you know ? Who is your consultant ? Who's your coach ? I think all those are fair questions , but that's not the question . The real question is who have you given permission to To speak into your life ?
So I have five such people in my life . They have permission to ask me any question I want to ask me without any disclaimers , no offense taken . Ask me anything you want to ask me . In fact , there are times I'll call them and say is there anything you want to say to me ? Is there any question in your mind ? Is there anything you are seeing in my life ?
That is , you think you're wanting to say and you just don't know how to bring up the topic . Let me bring up the topic you talk to me , because I'd much rather deal with that myself and put myself in a position that it places others at risk and my relationship at risk .
So I think most people do not learn from the behaviors that got them into it to begin with . Remember I talked about walking , standing , sitting . So who are you walking with ? Who are you standing with ? Who are you sitting with ?
Sam , that is unbelievable . Thank you so much for sharing that insight .
¶ Leadership Services and COVID Offer
I do want to dive into the lighting round , but before we do , you know , for those listening to this interview , you have many services that you offer to leaders . Can you just talk about a few of the services that you offer , how people connect with you , and I believe you also have a special offer specifically during this time , during COVID-19 .
So yeah , thank you for for bringing that up . I'm very frustrated right now and my frustration is People are home , might have a little more time to increase their leadership , but cash is low or they've been careful with their cash .
So I have a leadership program called Sam Chan Leadership Institute and for years and years we have been marketing that all over the world , with thousands of people subscribed to that and they paid 2000 US dollars 2000 years dollars a year to get the 12 month program . So what do you get ?
For 12 months you get one of my books every month or 12 books that I've written . Every month , you get four videos a month that support that book and at the end of the 12 months you get a certificate of completion . We are saying to ourselves how can we help people and not worry about the money part ?
So we're calling this the COVID offer or whatever you want to name your price offer . This is what you will do If you go to a website . Let me give the website now . It is SamChand leadershipcom slash COVID C-O-B-I-D . I'll give that to you again in just a moment . What happens there is it'll ask you two questions .
One is what's your contact information so we can start sending you material . And the second question is how much do you want to pay ? You put in whatever you hear me now whatever you want to pay in there , no questions asked , no negotiating , no backing forth . No one's going to say that is too low or unacceptable . Whatever you say , you get in the program .
Imagine for a moment you go to a restaurant and you sit down , you look at the menu and there are all the menu items and no prices . And you call your server over . You say sir , so there are no prices here , what are we gonna pay ? And he says enjoy your meal .
And whatever you want to pay , whatever you want to pay on the way out , whatever you want to pay , just pay . That that's the deal here . So you will get 12 books . It's everything's online , everything's digitized 12 books , all of them written by me .
You get four videos a month that'll support each book that month and a certificate of completion for whatever you want to name . So here's the website again samchandleadershipcom . Slash COVID . All the listeners can do this . You wanna pass it on to your entire companies . I know right now of the entire churches are doing this , entire leaderships are doing this .
Entire companies are doing it because there's no money out of your church , there's no money out of your company . It is up to the people . All they need to know is we want to increase . So thank you so much for allowing me to just lessen my frustration during this time of how do I get people raise the leadership ?
Sure , and leaders . If you're listening to this , we'll include links to all of that in the show notes and throw it in L3 emails as well . So look for that , and I encourage you to sign up and pay what you can pay . So thank you for adding value to leaders in that way .
Sam , as we start to close out , I always love taking leaders through my lightning round questions , and so let's just dive right in . My first question is what is the best advice you've ever received , and who gave it to you ?
It was Brother Chester Miller . Live long , live clean .
Love it , love it . It may be the same answer . If you could put a quote on a billboard for everyone to read , what would it say ?
I would put one word . Others Say more about that Live . I wish somebody had told me in my earlier years it's not about you . I think Rick Warren said it best in his purpose-driven life it's not about you Wasn't around writing those books at that time . He was around but not writing books at that time like that . So I just want it's about others .
If you live your life for others , you'll be fine .
What's the best purchase you've made in the last year for $100 or less ?
Oh , I got me a jacket at Nordstrom Rack . It was in my size , it was hiding it is . I just love it . It is like crinkly blue with a black collar , white buttons . I mean it just pops . So it you know . Past time , past time . Some cool jeans , white shirt and that jacket on a platform . It just looks great on a screen .
So yeah , yeah , I'm way in like that .
I love it . What books have you read in the last year that have made a great impact on you that you'd recommend ?
I tell you , I'd like to recommend a book that I read about 40 years ago , maybe 30 years ago , that I can't get away from and I've recommended that book than any other book , apart from the Bible that has influenced my life and how I live my life , and that is a book by Seth Gordon and it is called Purple Cow .
It's purple as in color , cow as in animal Affected my thinking , how I make decisions , much of what I do is done to the grid . It's just a little book . You will probably end up reading it in less than two hours , less than two hours , but it was a life changer for me and still remains that way .
So I thought I would give that because it has affected me that deeply after all those years .
What are you passionate about right now ?
Influencing influencers and creating content . I want to keep thinking , creating content , and I want to influence influencers , and God has allowed me to do both of those at a level I never thought I would , and so I'm very aware of his providence in my life and I'm very much aware of the weight of stewardship of that in my life as well .
So yeah , being content , influencing influencers .
What's your greatest challenge right now ?
My greatest challenge is how do I get out so much ? That's on paper ? I got stacks of notes and I'm working on literally 13 books right now at the same time . Yeah , fated guy , I am very frustrated . It's like having 13 children , and which one are you gonna feed first ? You know so . It's just like that . So I've done two books this year already .
One is already out , called the Sequence to Success . The other one will be out in September , called Tensions , the Power of Tension . And then there's another book that is due to my publishers in April . I have no idea which one of the 13 is gonna end up then . That's awesome .
Do you have a favorite failure in your life that ended up leading to success or a great lesson ?
Yeah , when I applied for a job that I thought I was suited for and I did not even get a response back , I carried that for a long time and I could not get ahead . And the reason I could not get ahead is because that became shackles around my feet . I had to let go of that rejection .
And , more than the rejection was , nobody even respected me enough to say , no , that's got ignored . So yeah , that's it .
¶ Insights From Conversation With a Leader
Do you get to spend time with a lot of great leaders ? I'm just curious Do you have any go-to questions that you always ask when you get a meeting with a leader ?
Yeah , yeah , yeah . So by now you know how I'm wired . So this is what I would say . I would say , doug , how are you doing ? You'll tell me . I'll say , no , really , how are you doing ? You'll tell me that's it . Please don't mind me asking that question again . How are you really doing ? Well , you know I'm doing well .
I've got a few things I'm working through , so you're here to talk about those things , and so , yeah , that's my question . I'm in a place in my life I'd much rather lose you as a friend and keep you out of the ditch .
Aside from your family , what is your most worthwhile investment over your time and money ?
At this given time . You , I live in the moment , I dance in the moment , so I'm not looking for you know , right now I've got a bunch of calls lined up , as you do , and everybody tells right now , but right now I'm giving you a hundred percent of what I've got . I'm totally nothing back . I'm not looking at my watch , I'm not looking at anything .
So I have learned to dance in the moment . Give it a hundred percent of who I am right then . So right now you are it .
Thank you . Do you have any unusual habits and enable you to be successful ?
Yeah , got a bunch of them , all the way from unusual to weird , but let me give you one of them . I live by what I call the Ohio principle . Oh H , I , o . My wife taught that to me years ago in the 80s , someone in the mid 80s . And this is what it is . It's a . It stands for Ohio Only handle it once .
That means if I get a text message from you , I will just answer it right , then I only handle it once . So I have nothing that's waiting to be done . And if you send me a long email with a lot of stuff in it , I will still respond to you and say , hey , got your email .
I'll be back with you , but , oh yeah , that habit has kept me , kept me focused .
Do you have a morning routine and if so , what is it ?
Yeah , I wake up in the morning . That's a good thing . There would be no routine if you didn't wake up . Then I calm down for a moment in the in the way of just getting my thoughts and call it meditation . No , whatever you want , just a small time of just being myself .
Then I will get on my roar in my house and I will try to get a good cardio out of that . I'm not trying to be a weightlifter or anything like that , I just want to keep my , my ticker healthy . So I'll get myself a good cardio and I'll tell you what a roar will kick you kick you every part of your body . So I will do that .
Then I will clean up , then I'll have breakfast with my wife and we'll pray together and we will talk about what's happening in her life , what's happening in my life , what the day holds . We have a time of prayer for people we want to pray for at that time .
If there are any phone calls to be made that we need to make together , like this morning , I just called my sister in India . It is her birthday . So you know those kind of things we'll do personal things and then we will jump into what the day holds for us on the professional level .
But I do all my personal stuff , invest in myself , in my devotional life , in my personal life , in my physical life , in my relationship life , at the front end of it , and then go into the day .
Do you have anything left that ? What's one item left on your bucket list , if you have one ?
Yeah , I don't . I think I would like to write a book on . I cannot talk about the topic right now , but I'd like to write a book on that subject . I don't know if anyone will read it . I think it will be more cathartic , like I told you . And a book , but yeah , I think that's on my butt . I really want to make a list , name , names and do that .
I'm afraid of the release of that one . Yeah , no , I'll make more money on that book by not releasing it .
If you could go back and have coffee with 20 year old Sam , what would you tell him ?
I'll say it to him relax , you don't have to get it all done today . You don't have to get it done today . Let's do your best today . And I would say to my 20 year old Sam focus on today , not tomorrow , not yesterday today , because tomorrow will be more of whatever you do today . So what are you doing today that you can care into tomorrow ?
But tomorrow is not the issue today . I spent so much of my time worrying about yesterday and planning for tomorrow and somehow I missed today .
At the end of your life . What do you want to be remembered for ? What do you want your legacy to be ?
He was a good husband . He was a good father , he was a good grandfather . He loved his family .
Anything else you want to leave leaders with today .
Yeah , I want to thank you for what you're doing and the gift that you are to everybody that is following you . You haven't said much about L3 . And so can I just turn the tables and use that for a moment ? Sure , why .
L3? . Why the name ? Or why did we start that you start ?
yeah .
Yeah . So my life was a complete wreck before I was 17 . I lost my mom when I was 17 years old , a teen year of high school . Christ came into my life at that point in a significant way , and I had two mentors come into my life .
One was my he wasn't at the time , but my father-in-law and one was a youth pastor , and they both saw leadership potential in me and started to give me leadership resources .
Like John Maxwell , they introduced me to Gerald Brooks , who I know is a friend , and I just , for whatever reason , the way God wired me , he gave me this passion to learn , grow and develop and at the end of the day , I just said I want to do for other leaders what these two men have done for me .
And so we started a leadership development organization and we don't want any leaders to do life alone . That's one of our core values as community , and so we just want to connect and develop leaders and see what the Holy Spirit does , and we do that through five different things we do . We have this podcast , which comes out with new content every week .
We have a membership community , where people join the community and they have access to leadership resources . The community . We have mastermind groups where leaders meet together twice a month to grow and develop . We have a leadership program and we have a one day leadership conference here in Pittsburgh , and so that's why we started and that's what we do .
Well , bless everything that your heart is at , and may the Lord exceed every dream that you have and more leaders be blessed by you . Thank you for not letting your deficiencies in your earlier years hold you back , but you're giving back to what you did not have , and thank you so much for this time to be able to sit and chat with you .
Well , we thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Dr Sam Chand . I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did . You can find ways to connect with him and links to everything that we discussed in the show notes at L3 leadershiporg .
And , as always , leader , I want to challenge you that if you want a 10 extra growth this year , then you need to either launch or join an L3 leadership mastermind group .
Mastermind groups are simply groups of six to 12 leaders that meet together on a consistent basis for at least one year in order to help each other grow , to hold each other accountable and to do life together . For me personally , mastermind groups have been the greatest source of growth in my life over the last eight years .
So if you're interested in learning more about launching or joining a group , go to L3 leadership . org/ masterminds or email at Doug Smith@ L3 leadership . org . And as always , I'll leave every episode of the quote . I'll quote Gerald Brooks again today and he said this . He said leaders have to learn to say no .
No one expects a leader to do everything , but everyone expects a leader to do their thing . Wow , how's that fair Truth , bomb leaders . Well , leader know that my wife and I love you . We believe in you and I say it every episode . But don't quit , keep leading . The world desperately needs your leadership . We'll talk to you next episode .