Damon Lembi shares powerful insights on how great leaders prioritize continuous learning, foster curiosity, and create environments where failure becomes a stepping stone to success. He emphasizes the critical role of empowering teams, allowing space for mistakes, and modeling the behaviors leaders expect from their teams.

The conversation delves into the thin margins that separate good leaders from great ones, highlighting the mental resilience and humility required to stay ahead in today’s rapidly changing world. Damon shares practical advice for building learning organizations and explains why investing in employee development delivers unparalleled ROI. His journey and anecdotes demonstrate how great leaders build cultures of trust, accountability, and purpose.

Damon’s approach challenges the status quo, urging leaders to embrace curiosity, make bold decisions, and cultivate an organizational mindset of adaptability and growth.

Want to learn more about Damon Lembi's work? Check out their website at https://Learnit.com.

Connect with Damon Lembi on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damonlembi/.

Key Points with Time Stamps:

• [00:00:51] Guest Spotlight: Damon Lembi's background as CEO, bestselling author, and advocate for continuous learning.
• [00:06:09] The Mental Game: Damon emphasizes the role of mindset in leadership and success.
• [00:09:00] Empowering Teams: Discussion on allowing employees to fail and grow.
• [00:12:01] Learning Organizations: How to structure teams to foster real-time learning and adaptability.
• [00:17:20] Decision-Making and Scaling: Damon shares how removing bottlenecks improves leadership and organizational growth.
• [00:25:00] Leadership in Tough Times: Investing in training during economic uncertainty and its long-term benefits.
• [00:30:33] People-First Organizations: Damon advocates for prioritizing employees to ensure business success.
• [00:33:00] Leadership Takeaways: The importance of humility, integrity, and connection in modern leadership.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;16;27
Craig Andrews
Today I will welcome Damon Lembi. He is a two times bestselling author. He is the host of the Learn It All podcast host and the CEO of Learn It, a live learning platform that has upskilled over 2 million people. And he's passionate about how great leaders learn and why learn at all. Companies outpace their competition every time.

00;01;16;27 - 00;01;17;27
Craig Andrews
Something else interesting.

00;01;18;03 - 00;01;33;22
Craig Andrews
We were talking we were comparing notes about famous baseball players. And Damon is actually a really, really competitive baseball player. But that's a competitive field. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that as well. Damon, welcome.

00;01;33;24 - 00;01;36;14
Damon Lembi
Craig. It's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

00;01;36;16 - 00;01;41;14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So you said you were. You knew Barry Bonds.

00;01;41;16 - 00;01;42;21
Damon Lembi
Yeah, I knew Barry.

00;01;42;21 - 00;01;54;09
Damon Lembi
Back in the the around the time he broke a home run record. His best friend was head of my dad's security at a real estate company. And long story short, we all went to Vegas,

00;01;54;09 - 00;02;03;14
Damon Lembi
one time with my dad. Met Barry there, and for about a year, got to travel around and watch him break the home run record.

00;02;03;16 - 00;02;06;14
Craig Andrews
Wow. Wow. So, was he juicing?

00;02;06;16 - 00;02;11;18
Damon Lembi
I that conversation never came up, so I don't know.

00;02;11;20 - 00;02;18;18
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, I live in Austin. Good question though. I mean, I live in Austin. Yeah, Lance Armstrong's here, and,

00;02;18;18 - 00;02;28;14
Craig Andrews
I think Lance is great. Is failing. It's not that he was the only one juicing. It's just he was such a jerk. They pissed off enough people that one of them, you know, a couple blew the whistle on them.

00;02;28;17 - 00;02;29;04
Craig Andrews
And,

00;02;29;04 - 00;02;53;16
Craig Andrews
but the whole industry, you know, the whole, you know, all competitive cyclist juice. Yeah, it's it's tough and it's, you know, it's and there are certain areas and I think baseball is definitely one of those that the, the margin between great and fired is like incredibly small.

00;02;53;18 - 00;03;02;20
Damon Lembi
I agree and I have no idea one way or other about Barry, but I'm 52 years old, so I my baseball career in college ended,

00;03;02;20 - 00;03;03;09
Damon Lembi
right when the,

00;03;03;09 - 00;03;13;29
Damon Lembi
steroid era is picking up. And I have a lot of friends who played in the big leagues, and they would tell you that a lot of players reducing. And it was because,

00;03;13;29 - 00;03;18;15
Damon Lembi
you if you didn't, you you lost your competitive edge.

00;03;18;17 - 00;03;31;24
Damon Lembi
And I think everybody in Major League Baseball, from the general managers on down, knew what was going on. So whenever I get asked that question, I think that all those guys should be in the Hall of Fame regardless. You know, Roger Clemens, Barry,

00;03;31;24 - 00;03;39;22
Damon Lembi
whoever else, a couple of those other guys. So I think it was what was happening during that era, and I think they deserved to be in a Hall of Fame.

00;03;39;25 - 00;03;58;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, something I heard also, you know, not far south of us in Silicon Valley, I heard that a lot of executives in Silicon Valley would microdose LSD for the same reason. They felt like they needed that little extra edge just to be competitive in that environment.

00;03;58;15 - 00;04;10;21
Damon Lembi
I've heard that, too. I've never I've never really got into that kind of stuff. But now it's the the other thing that people are doing. What is it called? I dosa or ketamine. And so there's a lot of experimentation to help,

00;04;10;21 - 00;04;18;07
Damon Lembi
with innovation and creativity. I kind of stayed away from it because I have kind of an addictive personality anyways, so I'd probably go down the wrong path.

00;04;18;14 - 00;04;22;06
Damon Lembi
I quit drinking, I don't know, nine years ago, which I'm

00;04;22;06 - 00;04;32;12
Damon Lembi
super proud of. Not because I had some terrible problem, but like I said, I'm a pretty addictive person, so I kind of stayed away from the LSD, steroids, and anything that could get me in even more trouble.

00;04;32;15 - 00;04;36;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah, well, you know, one of the analogies I love using,

00;04;36;19 - 00;04;39;28
Craig Andrews
and just truth be told, them not much of a baseball guy. So,

00;04;39;28 - 00;04;43;13
Craig Andrews
if you push the grounds, you'll you'll find my ignorance quickly. But,

00;04;43;13 - 00;04;54;28
Craig Andrews
I, I'm fascinated by batting averages, and so I, you know, I I'll ask people. I'd say there's 750 batters in major leagues.

00;04;55;01 - 00;05;15;28
Craig Andrews
And I was like, how many do you think bat over 300. And you'd be amazed the number of answers I get. And when I tell them it's like less than ten, less than ten or batting over 300, you're just like a legend. If you're batting over 300 and then ask how many bat below 200 and you know they.

00;05;16;00 - 00;05;42;14
Craig Andrews
And again, I get a wide range of answers. And most seasons I notice that's basically nobody bats below 200. I think last season there were two that batted below 200 and just told me that, you know, like the margin of greatness is for every ten times at bat. You get on base one more time and that moves you from being fired to being a legend.

00;05;42;16 - 00;06;09;05
Damon Lembi
I also think if you look at baseball, I mean the amount of failure you have to to deal with, right? I mean, you're failing seven, seven and a half out of ten times. You got to have the right kind of mindset where, hey, dust yourself off and get back up there. So yeah, the margins are slim. And a lot of times I think the difference between somebody who's a Hall of Famer or at least an All-Star than somebody who maybe never makes it to the big leagues is their mentality.

00;06;09;06 - 00;06;25;08
Damon Lembi
You know, they talk about the million dollar body and the ten cent head. So a lot of it starts up in up in your head of how you believe in yourself or limiting beliefs that you have can make all the difference. Talents. Very similar physical talent. I think a lot of times is very similar.

00;06;25;10 - 00;06;28;29
Craig Andrews
Really? You think it's more of a mental.

00;06;29;02 - 00;06;37;00
Damon Lembi
I mean, I'm talking about when you get to that level. I mean, obviously that even at the level I made it to, to,

00;06;37;00 - 00;06;41;16
Damon Lembi
college, we're all pretty good. But once you get into the professionals,

00;06;41;16 - 00;06;50;00
Damon Lembi
and in the minor leagues, the talent isn't that far apart. It's really. What what is your work ethic? What's your mental attitude towards that?

00;06;50;00 - 00;07;06;13
Damon Lembi
You know, how much can you deal with, you know, perseverance and, you know, and all of that. So I think when you get to that level. But for the everyday person who is sitting in the crowd, Craig and, and, you know, making fun of a guy for striking out who never made it past Little League, there's a big difference in the,

00;07;06;13 - 00;07;10;12
Damon Lembi
physical ability from them to the people who make it to the minor leagues.

00;07;10;14 - 00;07;32;29
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting when, you know, three years ago, when I was learning how to walk again, I was very thankful for my time in the Marine Corps because it was mostly a mental battle, you know, getting, you know, getting through the various hurdles I had to get through was more of a mental struggle. That was a physical struggle.

00;07;33;01 - 00;07;48;02
Damon Lembi
That you're it's amazing what you've been able to to accomplish. I'm sure that there's you I'm sure you know better than I do, but there's probably a lot of people in your situation who are never able to walk again, because maybe they didn't have the mental aptitude that you did to keep, you know, persevering.

00;07;48;04 - 00;07;59;06
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah, it's well, and I, I mean, you know, for me, there are very few of me walking around. Most, you know, almost everybody that went on the ventilator died.

00;07;59;06 - 00;08;09;16
Craig Andrews
But I've heard some stories of people that survived. And from what I've heard, the my quality of life is significantly higher than theirs. And I think it was just I think it was recovery.

00;08;09;16 - 00;08;13;01
Craig Andrews
I think it was the mental game, you know, in the recovery.

00;08;13;04 - 00;08;22;05
Damon Lembi
Well, how much was it between just that and, and also you having, let's say a good support system to people who helped support you during that time?

00;08;22;08 - 00;08;26;02
Craig Andrews
Well, I mean, my wife was like over the top in your business, right?

00;08;26;02 - 00;08;28;12
Damon Lembi
Your coworkers and stuff.

00;08;28;14 - 00;08;33;03
Craig Andrews
Well, my team, yeah. I mean, they ran they they ran the company.

00;08;33;03 - 00;08;41;26
Craig Andrews
But, I mean, for a lot of, you know, there was a certain period of time where I was just not aware of what they were doing.

00;08;41;26 - 00;08;50;20
Craig Andrews
You know, just because, you know, comas do bad things to your brain, and, but the,

00;08;50;20 - 00;08;52;19
Craig Andrews
once I became aware.

00;08;52;19 - 00;08;56;06
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I mean, they were. Yeah, they were absolutely incredible.

00;08;56;06 - 00;09;00;16
Craig Andrews
They still, you know, blows me away, but,

00;09;00;16 - 00;09;19;07
Craig Andrews
I mean, I guess part of the reason why I go in there is, you know, I was thinking about, you know, what you do the the. Yeah. You said how great leaders, you know, just constantly learning and you know, out, you know, outpacing their competition.

00;09;19;09 - 00;09;37;05
Craig Andrews
You know, the. It's made me wonder. And I'm interested in your take on this. You know, when we look at the margin, you know, that extra, you know, moving from batting average of 200 to 300, you know, being sent down to the minor leagues versus, you know, being a Hall of Famer.

00;09;37;05 - 00;09;38;19
Craig Andrews
I often wonder with,

00;09;38;19 - 00;09;47;02
Craig Andrews
with leaders because there's a lot of, you know, highly qualified people is what the role is.

00;09;47;02 - 00;09;52;10
Craig Andrews
And just continually learning, which seems to be your passion.

00;09;52;12 - 00;10;01;29
Damon Lembi
Well, I would say continuously learning is important. And when we when I say that, it doesn't mean just keep learning, learning, learning and not executing.

00;10;01;29 - 00;10;10;18
Damon Lembi
A great saying. I heard somebody on my show, David can't say one time is that learning without doing is treason. So you got to put into practice what you're doing.

00;10;10;18 - 00;10;17;01
Damon Lembi
But I think great leaders have different traits, like humility, you know, to to so that they don't have all the answers.

00;10;17;01 - 00;10;35;22
Damon Lembi
So they know how to surround themselves with a great team and learn from others. You got to have integrity. And then you also have to have, you know, curiosity. I think great leaders are always curious, especially in this day and age. Craig, where everything is changing and you got I and the rapid pace of change and you just got to be curious and think like, how else can we do something?

00;10;35;22 - 00;10;41;27
Damon Lembi
How can we do this better or different? And if you don't have those kind of traits and then the courage to make bold decisions

00;10;41;27 - 00;10;53;11
Damon Lembi
and you're always just stuck in your way, you know, and you're no at all, I think that you're going to be, you know, outpaced every time. That's why I think learning plays into all of that and making great leaders.

00;10;55;28 - 00;10;56;17
Craig Andrews
What's,

00;10;56;17 - 00;11;19;15
Craig Andrews
and it's really interesting how, how you broke it down because when I listened to what you just said, you know, there's multiple you listed multiple ways of learning, you know, and I think I was stuck in the mindset of and this is just part of I guess part of who I am is learning. It's about me digging in and figuring things out and setting the leadership.

00;11;19;15 - 00;11;20;15
Craig Andrews
But,

00;11;20;15 - 00;11;27;06
Craig Andrews
you know, you just talked about leaning into other people, which obviously you always want be hiring people that are smarter than you.

00;11;27;06 - 00;11;39;04
Craig Andrews
But what I mean, if you were to if you were to categorize different ways of, of learning and different channels of knowledge, you know, what categories would you assign it? Well, what.

00;11;39;04 - 00;12;01;15
Damon Lembi
I would say, especially if you're a business owner, whether you're a small business owner or running a large organization. You know, what I found is that they have some type. They're they're a learning organization. And being a learning organization means setting people up for opportunities to try things, make mistakes, give and receive feedback so you could learn from those mistakes.

00;12;01;20 - 00;12;25;08
Damon Lembi
So that is one category of learning right? There is, you know, on the job real, real. In the time learning. Then there's obviously coaching and mentoring. And it it comes down to as well. People learn in different ways. You know some people like reading books. Some people like taking live classes. Some people want to listen to podcasts. So for a leader and what I mean by a leader, we're all leaders.

00;12;25;08 - 00;12;43;24
Damon Lembi
We can all be leaders in our own way. You know, whether you're a parent, whether you are a coach of a sports team, you don't have to manage 100 people or anything like that. Finally, find something that interests you and and move forward with that, you know, and then continuously look to how to make yourself better and then your team better.

00;12;43;27 - 00;12;53;05
Damon Lembi
Because I think if you want your team to grow and evolve, you got to kind of model the behavior that you're expecting them to do.

00;12;53;07 - 00;13;12;16
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, one of the things that you just said I will say was critical and the ability of my team to run my business, when I went and checked out my coma, you said you talked about allowing them to fail and then kind coaching them through it.

00;13;12;16 - 00;13;22;21
Craig Andrews
The person who ran my business when I, when I was in my coma, we had gone through a few years where, you know, I'd see her headed for failure.

00;13;22;21 - 00;13;24;25
Craig Andrews
And and it's always hard,

00;13;24;25 - 00;13;44;22
Craig Andrews
when to step in and kind of stop it. But I was willing to, you know, as long as it wasn't something, you know, because a lot of the things, most mistakes we can recover from. Right? And as long as it was a recoverable mistake, a lot of times I would,

00;13;44;22 - 00;13;47;14
Craig Andrews
you know, let her go down that path.

00;13;47;19 - 00;13;51;29
Craig Andrews
I mean, generally, I'd already set the direction. Hey, here's the way we should go.

00;13;51;29 - 00;13;58;07
Craig Andrews
But, you know, people forget and what have you. And I realized, you know, she needs to experience,

00;13;58;07 - 00;14;21;02
Craig Andrews
this failure. And then when she did, I was like, okay, well, let's talk about how to kind of rebuild this and so on. And often, I mean, one of the examples I would give is there were some times she miscommunicated things with, with clients, and my rule was, okay, if you made the miscommunication and you're the one that has to fix it, it's not my job to come in and, you know, clean up the communication.

00;14;21;04 - 00;14;23;04
Craig Andrews
And it was terrifying for,

00;14;23;04 - 00;14;35;09
Craig Andrews
but, you know, I had to say, it's going to be fine. It's going to work out. You know, nobody's perfect. Here's here's the way to kind of lay it out. Well, when things came around,

00;14;35;09 - 00;14;39;20
Craig Andrews
when I was in my coma, she had to go talk to all of our clients and say,

00;14;39;20 - 00;14;45;08
Craig Andrews
hey, our founder is in a coma, and they're expecting him to die in the next few weeks.

00;14;45;10 - 00;14;54;09
Craig Andrews
And so she had some of the most difficult client conversations you could ever have. And through all of that, we only lost one client.

00;14;54;11 - 00;15;16;07
Damon Lembi
I think what you started with when you said that one of the reasons why they were able to run your organization so, so well was prior to going into the coma. These situations that we're talking about right here, you know, you gave them the opportunity. You weren't the hero where you jump in and just do the work for them by giving them the opportunity to go out and make mistakes.

00;15;16;09 - 00;15;34;25
Damon Lembi
And, you know, I know you had you had their back. I mean, they had to go she had to go out and have the communication. But by allowing her to do that, it set her up for an opportunity. When you weren't around. Right. To be able to, you have to have the confidence and the wherewithal to be able to go forward and lead like that.

00;15;34;28 - 00;15;35;10
Damon Lembi
I,

00;15;35;10 - 00;15;53;06
Damon Lembi
I have a very similar when I interview people, I always tell them, hey, look, if we we brought you on board, if you don't make any mistakes, I don't want you here because I don't want somebody who's got, like, blinders on, and they just stay on a railroad track all the time. What I don't want you to do is to make the same mistake over and over.

00;15;53;06 - 00;16;09;29
Damon Lembi
I want you to learn from those mistakes and make different mistakes. So get out of your comfort zone and like you said, Craig, most of the mistakes you make isn't going to blow up anything, right? You know, it's just kind of they're all recoverable for the most part. And so give people an opportunity to learn from the mistakes.

00;16;09;29 - 00;16;16;16
Damon Lembi
Don't jump in and give them the answers. I had a very similar situation. One of our clients was with us for 25 years.

00;16;16;16 - 00;16;28;05
Damon Lembi
One of the first sales calls I went on with this new rep and she's great. Our names Evans and I can't even describe what she was in her presentation. It was completely off. Right. And,

00;16;28;05 - 00;16;31;11
Damon Lembi
but instead of jumping in, I kind of let her go.

00;16;31;14 - 00;16;41;12
Damon Lembi
The client connected with her. They liked her. But then after our meeting, I just sat down with her, and I said, hey, what do you think went well? What? What could you have done differently? By the way, it's not windows

00;16;41;12 - 00;16;45;12
Damon Lembi
96, it's windows 98 or whatever it is we're selling them. And,

00;16;45;12 - 00;16;50;29
Damon Lembi
by doing that, it gives them an opportunity to learn and feel like that they have your support,

00;16;50;29 - 00;16;52;21
Damon Lembi
as they go out and try things.

00;16;52;23 - 00;17;20;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and I think that's so critical. I mean, if you're going to have a if you're gonna have an organization that scales, you need people that have the confidence to make decisions, even if they're questioning the decisions. You know, and I mean, I don't know, anybody can make all, all their decisions without some level of second doubt, you know, on certain things.

00;17;20;15 - 00;17;29;16
Craig Andrews
But they have to have that confidence to make the decision. If they make the wrong decision, it's not going to be the end of their their job. It's, you know, they're not going to be drawn and quartered.

00;17;29;16 - 00;17;35;28
Craig Andrews
I mean, obviously if you go spit in the client's face, that's probably not going to turn out well. But, you know.

00;17;36;00 - 00;17;37;00
Damon Lembi
That's not going to work.

00;17;37;02 - 00;17;52;18
Craig Andrews
Yeah. But, you know, something at least was intended well and didn't work out. You want them to be able to do that and, and have the latitude to not get it right 100% of the time.

00;17;52;20 - 00;18;11;29
Damon Lembi
What are the key things you said? Right. There was as an organization, we had a hard time scaling learn it early on because I felt like as a CEO, I'm the one who needs to make all the decisions. I need to be involved in everything. And what did I do? I created a bottleneck. I was the bottleneck because everybody would sit around saying, okay, we need to get an answer from Damon.

00;18;12;01 - 00;18;16;06
Damon Lembi
Once I finally realized that, hey, you know what? I don't have all the answers.

00;18;16;06 - 00;18;24;08
Damon Lembi
And I surrounded myself with great talent. It accelerated the decision making because people knew kind of what the outcomes they were looking for.

00;18;24;08 - 00;18;29;17
Damon Lembi
You know, I gave them maybe the resources and tools that they needed, and then it just went forward with the decision making.

00;18;29;17 - 00;18;42;24
Damon Lembi
And did it work out every single time? No, but it it's a heck of a lot better. Our operations are a heck of a lot better now than they were ten years ago when I was trying to get involved with all the decision making.

00;18;42;26 - 00;18;57;13
Craig Andrews
Have you had it happen where somebody went off and did something and we're and you're watching them do it and you're like, that's not how I would do it. But you just kind of held back and then when they were done, you're like, oh, that's actually better.

00;18;57;15 - 00;19;17;01
Damon Lembi
All a lot of times. And I've also even caught myself where somebody will come to me with an idea. And the very first thought in my mind is, that's not going to work, you know, and the Damon of ten years ago would have jumped in and said, nope, I don't want to hear it. But now, over time, I've gotten more curious and I'll just let them finish it out.

00;19;17;01 - 00;19;37;01
Damon Lembi
And exactly like you just said, Craig, sometimes I'm like, actually, that could work or that did work. And so that's where it goes back to. There's always different ways to do things, and if people feel comfortable enough that they work in an organization where they can try things, where they can give feedback, then you'd be, I think you'll be surprised.

00;19;37;01 - 00;19;44;04
Damon Lembi
And all these different ideas and opportunities will bubble up by giving people an opportunity to go out and try things again.

00;19;44;06 - 00;19;46;24
Craig Andrews
Do you know who John Spoelstra is?

00;19;46;26 - 00;19;47;22
Damon Lembi
No.

00;19;47;24 - 00;19;51;04
Craig Andrews
His, his son is the coach of the Miami Heat.

00;19;51;09 - 00;19;52;06
Damon Lembi
Okay.

00;19;52;09 - 00;19;54;28
Craig Andrews
But John, right now, he's he's involved in a lot of,

00;19;54;28 - 00;19;59;10
Craig Andrews
minor league teams. But he when he was president of the,

00;19;59;10 - 00;20;00;00
Craig Andrews
Portland,

00;20;00;00 - 00;20;02;14
Craig Andrews
trailblazers,

00;20;02;14 - 00;20;02;26
Craig Andrews
he,

00;20;02;26 - 00;20;15;29
Craig Andrews
he, he would do these retreats with his marketing team and solicit ideas. And this was like, way back in the 80s before Paul Allen bought them. And he asked them, you know, they were coming up with ideas.

00;20;15;29 - 00;20;37;24
Craig Andrews
And one guy said, hey, maybe we should buy a satellite. And on the surface, that seemed like a stupid idea and it would be so easy to criticize it. And as they kind of teased it out, instead of criticizing it, he teased it out. And that was the genesis of him thinking about, hey, maybe we can syndicate our games and make money off syndication.

00;20;37;27 - 00;20;42;09
Craig Andrews
We're not going to buy a satellite, but we'll rent some time on one.

00;20;42;12 - 00;20;49;29
Damon Lembi
There you go. I mean, think about what would have happened otherwise if he would have said, this is a stupid idea and just we're not going to do it.

00;20;50;02 - 00;20;56;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, tell me a little bit about your plan,

00;20;56;12 - 00;20;57;05
Craig Andrews
platform, the,

00;20;57;05 - 00;20;59;25
Craig Andrews
the platform. Yeah.

00;20;59;27 - 00;21;04;22
Damon Lembi
So we're a live learning platform. Essentially. We do live instructor led training and,

00;21;04;22 - 00;21;20;13
Damon Lembi
all B2B and customers come to us when they are looking to improve communication. Or maybe people are getting promoted from individual contributors and they're turning into managers, as we all know that there's a much different skill set between being an individual contributor and a leader.

00;21;20;20 - 00;21;38;29
Damon Lembi
So we help upskill them and and give them, again, the resources and tools that they need to be successful in their new roles and help them, but just build learning cultures. And so we work with typically HR departments or business units. We design programs that are aligned with our content that we have aligned with their,

00;21;38;29 - 00;21;42;14
Damon Lembi
their business goals and outcomes that they have.

00;21;42;16 - 00;21;46;14
Craig Andrews
You know, I.

00;21;46;17 - 00;22;06;02
Craig Andrews
I think one of the biggest failings of, of companies is they promote people, but they don't give them the skills. And they, you know, you you move from an individual contributor role to a management role and they're just kind of like, okay, go figure it out. Now if you're if you're lucky, you have a really good mentor.

00;22;06;02 - 00;22;14;10
Craig Andrews
But I just I just think a lot of companies that just say, all right, you're you're now the boss.

00;22;14;12 - 00;22;17;00
Craig Andrews
I think they're setting these guys up for failure.

00;22;17;02 - 00;22;35;13
Damon Lembi
Well, I'll take it even one step back further than that is, I think a lot of times people just automatically promote top producers because they think that that's the next thing to do. And not everybody wants to lead or is a leader. And that's okay. You know, I think that,

00;22;35;13 - 00;22;48;25
Damon Lembi
some people, and especially when it comes to sales, I can't even tell you how many times I've had individual contributors come to me and tell me that I've mentored, oh, my boss is going to promote me into becoming a sales manager.

00;22;48;27 - 00;22;55;04
Damon Lembi
And I would say to them, hey, you know what? Don't do it. And they'd say, why not? And I said, because I know what your strengths are.

00;22;55;04 - 00;23;04;10
Damon Lembi
What is it about leading that that even interests you? Oh, it looks good on my resume. It's more powerful. Whatever. Six months down the line, Craig, they're like, oh, man, I'm miserable.

00;23;04;10 - 00;23;13;09
Damon Lembi
I just want to I don't understand. I don't have the empathy for the people. I don't understand why they can't do things. The way I did it. And I just want to go back into selling or,

00;23;13;09 - 00;23;16;07
Damon Lembi
being an individual contributor. So, absolutely,

00;23;16;07 - 00;23;23;22
Damon Lembi
you know, whether people have the skills or not, have the skills, the right mindset. I think investing in your team,

00;23;23;22 - 00;23;29;11
Damon Lembi
both financially and giving them the time for personal development, is far greater,

00;23;29;11 - 00;23;35;18
Damon Lembi
ROI than it is losing top talent as well and having to replace them.

00;23;35;20 - 00;23;38;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. And I

00;23;38;13 - 00;23;40;19
Craig Andrews
mean years ago when I worked for someone else,

00;23;40;19 - 00;23;54;10
Craig Andrews
fortunately we had a guy in HR that was kind of a coach to the managers and I had somebody I was underperforming and I was just going to get rid of them. And he he sat down and he was somebody had transferred into my department.

00;23;54;10 - 00;24;10;13
Craig Andrews
He said, you know, Craig, they have a history of being a good worker. I'm looking at all their reviews. They've been good worker. And they said maybe it's something else. And he helped coach me to turn this guy around. The end up turnaround ended up becoming great.

00;24;10;13 - 00;24;18;22
Craig Andrews
But I was getting ready to get rid of them. I just didn't have I didn't have the tools and I didn't have the recognition, what I needed to do to make them great.

00;24;18;24 - 00;24;22;03
Craig Andrews
Fortunately, I had that resource in the air that helped me.

00;24;22;06 - 00;24;38;13
Damon Lembi
I mean, that's that's spot on. I mean, we see that all the time. Where I was out to lunch with a client a couple of weeks ago, a nonprofit client, and I asked him, what's been the biggest impact of working with learn it over the last five years? And he said, before we started working with you, we'd lose a lot of good talent.

00;24;38;13 - 00;24;55;11
Damon Lembi
And when people were on their exit interviews, they would say they got frustrated and they didn't feel like their manager supported him or helped them grow professionally. So they would go and leave. Now that we've been working with Learn it, our managers feel more confident and equipped, do what they do and our retention rate is better.

00;24;55;14 - 00;25;02;11
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So how does it work? I mean, so what size companies do you typically work with on this platform?

00;25;02;11 - 00;25;08;03
Damon Lembi
I mean, we work across the board, across the board. But our target companies I would say are,

00;25;08;03 - 00;25;12;14
Damon Lembi
about 500 to 1500 employees. And,

00;25;12;14 - 00;25;21;16
Damon Lembi
you know, as far as the industry, we're pretty agnostic when it comes to industry. It's it's just typically working with organizations where the leadership,

00;25;21;16 - 00;25;28;18
Damon Lembi
believes in investing in their people. You know, a lot of times or companies or CEOs will say, yeah, you know, we got we got this retreat coming up.

00;25;28;20 - 00;25;50;24
Damon Lembi
We want to bring you out there for 90 minutes and do a class on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, trying to cram everything into one session that's not going to work. So we just like try to find organizations that believe in investing in their people, will partner with us to design programs that work for them. And then we'll do either virtual like on zoom or in person.

00;25;50;27 - 00;26;00;23
Damon Lembi
Usually group classes of about 12, 14 people and are typically, you know, every once a week for, you know, 4 or 5 weeks.

00;26;00;25 - 00;26;07;20
Craig Andrews
And I would bet that when the economy head south, they start cutting the training.

00;26;07;22 - 00;26;24;24
Damon Lembi
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that when the economy has, you know, because training, you know, you have to pay your rent, you have to pay your salaries. So training isn't, you know, top of top of mind a lot of times. And so that's been the challenge. I mean, it was even a challenge middle of

00;26;24;24 - 00;26;32;16
Damon Lembi
2024 when there's uncertainty about the market, you know, about the president's presidential race.

00;26;32;18 - 00;26;51;16
Damon Lembi
But I'll tell you one time when companies should invest in training is when they downsize, right? So if they do a riff and you go from a 500 employees down to 200, well, those responsibilities, they don't go away. They still need to be done. And you have these 200 people who are still left. They have to be more flexible.

00;26;51;16 - 00;27;07;21
Damon Lembi
They need to pick up more skills. And, you know, investing a little bit of money into their personal growth shows that even in a tough situation where all their friends, a lot of times were let go, the company still cares enough about them and helps motivate them to make it through tough times like that.

00;27;07;23 - 00;27;11;11
Craig Andrews
Yeah, you know, there's there's a quote by Henry Ford,

00;27;11;11 - 00;27;18;24
Craig Andrews
I'm a marketing guy. And so I'm, I'm thinking about this in my context because it's hard for me to think people cut in tough times. People cut marketing.

00;27;18;24 - 00;27;20;10
Craig Andrews
Henry Ford said those that would,

00;27;20;10 - 00;27;26;06
Craig Andrews
cut advertising to save money are like those who would stop their watch to save time.

00;27;26;08 - 00;27;45;08
Craig Andrews
And when I think about, you know, cutting the training, I think you make such an incredible point. If you're having to cut back, if things are tough, well, all the more reason you need the efficiencies and the productivity that comes from having a highly trained workforce.

00;27;45;10 - 00;28;06;00
Damon Lembi
100%. And I don't know, I mean, even if you have to spend 50 or $60,000, I mean, that's maybe one salary, you know, whatever kind of role you're at. I mean, give something, give the team something to feel good about, right? You know, and that will not only improve their efficiencies, but they'll also be more motivated to come to work every day during these challenging times.

00;28;06;03 - 00;28;07;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, there's,

00;28;07;27 - 00;28;09;27
Craig Andrews
there's a company in my hometown,

00;28;09;27 - 00;28;17;12
Craig Andrews
this called wire cloth. They made just wire mesh. And during the Great Depression,

00;28;17;12 - 00;28;20;10
Craig Andrews
you know, the, the founders of the company,

00;28;20;10 - 00;28;32;15
Craig Andrews
is a family run company, and they just worked really hard to make sure that they preserved as many jobs as they could. And and what they found was people just worked incredibly hard.

00;28;32;18 - 00;28;40;17
Craig Andrews
Now, they came out of the depression, they did very well, and they grew old and retired. And when their kids took over, the kids looked at the company as the,

00;28;40;17 - 00;28;49;20
Craig Andrews
funding mechanism for their country club lifestyle and. Yeah, well, and guess what? Productivity sunk.

00;28;49;22 - 00;29;17;12
Damon Lembi
People. Why do people want to work there? Right? I mean, people I think, you know, I have this conversation all the time. People want to work for an organization where they feel valued and that there's a purpose behind the organization. And if you're coming to work every day and you got bills to pay, of course. But if you feel like you're just funding the lifestyle of a bunch of entitled kids who don't care anymore, yeah, your productivity is going to go down and people are eventually going to find ways to leave and move on.

00;29;17;14 - 00;29;19;00
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know,

00;29;19;00 - 00;29;34;10
Craig Andrews
AMD the chip company competitor to Intel is headquartered here in Austin. I don't know if they're headquartered, but they have a huge facility. And back during the Great Recession they did pay cuts. But it was interesting how they tiered them.

00;29;34;10 - 00;29;39;16
Craig Andrews
Everybody in the company got a 10% pay cut. Managers got a 20% pay cut.

00;29;39;19 - 00;29;49;23
Craig Andrews
Executives got 30% pay cut. And when the economy turned around, they started restoring the raises. They restored,

00;29;49;23 - 00;30;24;27
Craig Andrews
you know, the individual contributors got their 10% back. Then the managers got their 20% back. And the executives for the last two me right now, of course, the executives, they load them up with stock. But the point is, if in tough times, if you're I think it can be a strategic advantage how you lead your teams, if you're investing in training, if you're sending that message, yes, times are tough, but we're going to invest in you because we we need even more out of you right now.

00;30;25;00 - 00;30;33;06
Damon Lembi
Absolutely. Investing and training. And I think that the most successful organizations these days, even in this AI world we live in, is the,

00;30;33;06 - 00;30;46;27
Damon Lembi
people first organizations where people actually care about their people and put them first. I mean, if you put your people first, your employees first, they'll take care of your customers. And if you take care of your customers and,

00;30;46;27 - 00;30;49;07
Damon Lembi
shareholders will be taken care of as well.

00;30;49;09 - 00;30;52;02
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. I think,

00;30;52;02 - 00;30;56;15
Craig Andrews
you know, Simon Sinek wrote a book, that was inspired by hanging out with,

00;30;56;15 - 00;30;57;15
Craig Andrews
some marine,

00;30;57;15 - 00;31;05;10
Craig Andrews
officers and the book was titled Leaders Eat Last. And it was a culture in the Marine Corps where,

00;31;05;10 - 00;31;15;28
Craig Andrews
periodically officers would go, man the chow line, and they would be the one sitting there throwing the food on the plate for for the troops coming through.

00;31;16;00 - 00;31;36;22
Craig Andrews
And I had I was talking to one colonel who lives here, and he said he said for me, I had to be able to look him in the eye. This is where I really learned what was going on. He was, you know, commanding troops in Afghanistan. And so this is where I really learned, you know, where was where were my Marines, you know, where they healthy mentally were they mentally healthy?

00;31;36;24 - 00;31;37;12
Craig Andrews
And,

00;31;37;12 - 00;31;40;00
Craig Andrews
yeah.

00;31;40;03 - 00;31;45;11
Damon Lembi
So I think those are the kind of leaders that people are inspired by, right? You get out there, you know,

00;31;45;11 - 00;31;55;21
Damon Lembi
a mutual guess. We both had oak McCulloch. He talked about, you know, don't ever miss the opportunity to get your own coffee, right? You know, your team and everybody else sees that of you. So,

00;31;55;21 - 00;32;02;13
Damon Lembi
you know, I don't think that sitting in the ivory tower and, you know, pointing directions and doing command and control,

00;32;02;13 - 00;32;04;09
Damon Lembi
in this day and age isn't the type of,

00;32;04;09 - 00;32;04;26
Damon Lembi
leadership,

00;32;04;26 - 00;32;07;14
Damon Lembi
style that's going to be successful.

00;32;07;16 - 00;32;11;10
Craig Andrews
Well, it's funny, another company in Silicon Valley,

00;32;11;10 - 00;32;16;06
Craig Andrews
Hewlett Packard had, you know, wandered way, way, way off from the,

00;32;16;06 - 00;32;29;20
Craig Andrews
the ideals. I mean, it was Steve Jobs. Didn't Steve Jobs like, call, Bill Hewlett, you know, this was that's part of Steve Jobs story is when he was, like some kid in high school, he called, called HP, and he ended up calling Bill Hewlett and,

00;32;29;20 - 00;32;31;14
Craig Andrews
said he needed some component.

00;32;31;14 - 00;32;40;05
Craig Andrews
And he sent it to me and said, do you want job? But that was how approachable they were. And by the time Meg Whitman took over HP,

00;32;40;05 - 00;32;53;09
Craig Andrews
they had an executive floor with an executive parking lot that was, you know, fenced off. The regular employees couldn't park in the executive parking lot, and she moved the entire C-suite to cubes and shut down the parking lot.

00;32;53;09 - 00;32;59;28
Craig Andrews
She's like, we've just lost all connection with who we are in our culture, and we're not leading well.

00;33;00;02 - 00;33;18;20
Damon Lembi
Yeah, I think it's really important. And that's why I think leaders and CEOs, they do. You got you got to be have some self-awareness. Right. And if you're losing the connection with your team, you know it's not going to turn out well for you. So especially again once these days you got to be connected. People need to feel like that.

00;33;18;20 - 00;33;25;00
Damon Lembi
They have a purpose, that they belong, that they have somebody they can turn to learn from and be listened to.

00;33;25;03 - 00;33;30;09
Craig Andrews
Yeah, well, Damian, I love what you do and I love that.

00;33;30;09 - 00;33;37;02
Craig Andrews
I love that platform. When I worked in corporate America, I wish I had more access to things like that.

00;33;37;02 - 00;33;40;02
Craig Andrews
How do how do people reach you?

00;33;40;04 - 00;33;44;05
Damon Lembi
So I'd say the best way to reach me is connect with me on LinkedIn. And,

00;33;44;05 - 00;33;45;16
Damon Lembi
Damian Levy on LinkedIn.

00;33;45;16 - 00;33;59;21
Damon Lembi
Check us out a lot at all podcast. And if you say that you saw me on this show, reach out to me and I'll give you a complimentary class, you know, 250 lower class on emotional intelligence or Excel or you know, how to have difficult conversations.

00;33;59;21 - 00;34;03;20
Damon Lembi
Whatever you see on the site, let me know and I'll hook you up.

00;34;03;22 - 00;34;06;06
Craig Andrews
Well that's awesome. Thanks, Damon. And,

00;34;06;06 - 00;34;08;05
Craig Andrews
thanks for coming on, Leaders and Legacies.

00;34;08;08 - 00;34;12;27
Damon Lembi
Craig. Thanks for having me, man.

00;34;12;27 - 00;34;39;21
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;34;39;21 - 00;34;41;16
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;34;41;18 - 00;35;05;00
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest, tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;35;05;02 - 00;35;13;07
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe your thumbs up! Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;35;13;07 - 00;37;15;12
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.