The Colonel’s Daughter: A Lifetime of Leadership, Lessons, and Legacy

Brad Burrow00:01Welcome to In A World With Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts, get inspired, then go live your story. It’s in a world with real media. Thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you. We’ve been working on this for a while. I know. I’m so glad to have you here.

Lauren Schieffer00:33Makes me happy that we finally made it work.

Brad Burrow00:35Yeah. So on this podcast, I like to talk about how people get to where they are and kind of … So I want to get into that with you a little bit. Just tell me about growing up. I’m sure you have an amazing story.

Lauren Schieffer00:48Everyone has an amazing story growing up. My father was a career Air Force officer and we moved every 18 months to three years. Until I went away to college, I had never lived anywhere longer than three years.

Brad Burrow01:05Okay. Wow.

Lauren Schieffer01:07So what did that teach me? That taught me how to pack my life into a shoebox when told to do so because military children live their lives like chips on the stream. Yeah. Going where the military tells them to go, when they’re told to go and we do it with a brave little soldier face on. Yeah. So we learned how to pack up quick and move when we were told. I also learned how to adapt to new environments. Every new station, every new city, every new school that I was thrust into, I needed to adapt to. Yeah. I learned how to make friends very, very quickly and adapt my communication style to meet wherever I was. So it could have been construed a hardship, but it was a great growing experience for me.

Brad Burrow02:00So you think that set you up for what you’re doing today? I mean, you can probably walk in and meet somebody with no problem at all.

Lauren Schieffer02:07Yeah. My husband says there are no strangers to me. And that’s not always a good or a safe thing, but yes, I can pretty much make friends anywhere.

Brad Burrow02:16But that’s a great skill to have. My parents, not to make this too much about me, but my parents were divorced when I was young and I kind of ended up going back and forth. I had that same similar thing where I had to go into a new place and meet people. And I think that served me well. I mean, not what you would choose, but you look back on it, it’s like it did give you some skills.

Lauren Schieffer02:38Yeah. And I didn’t recognize those to be really valuable skills until after really after I’d started speaking. I didn’t tap into that these are real skills that not everybody has.

Brad Burrow02:55Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer02:56So yeah.

Brad Burrow02:57So I kind of did a little research here and went back and looked through your history. There’s some interesting things. So your work history, and I want to talk about growing up, your relationship with the Colonel. Maybe let’s talk about that first and then we’ll go through some of the other things I have questions about.

Lauren Schieffer03:12But

Brad Burrow03:12Tell me what that was like. I mean, you grew up seeing leadership front and center.

Lauren Schieffer03:19Yeah. Dad’s relationship with the Air Force was a little bit different than many people ask. When I wrote the first Colonels of Wisdom Book, I handed it to a speaker friend of mine who was a retired Lieutenant Colonel and he said, “I couldn’t possibly endorse this until I know more about your father and his history and why is there no combat in here?” And it was the first time I’d ever considered it because dad wasn’t in combat. The contribution that my father gave to the Air Force was in leadership and engineering. So when I was a little girl in his early career, he was in facility survivability and ordinance effectiveness, which is a big thing for a nine-year-old to get her mouth around. Basically, my father led teams that built ordinances, bombs,

Lauren Schieffer04:25That had the maximum effect on the target with minimal collateral damage. And then he built, he and his teams designed structures that could be taken in quickly, put up quickly to protect our people from the bombs we were dropping. The second half of his career he designed aircraft and he and his team, he was the division chief for the flight dynamics laboratory in Wright Patterson, Dayton, Ohio. And he and his team designed the advanced composite materials that absorb radar that the B2 bomber and the F series fighter jets are … So his team did that. Wow. So his contributions to the Air Force meant that our boys, he called them, our boys were safer when they were over there and able to come back home to their families.

Brad Burrow05:28Still to this day, that technology’s still pretty cutting edge, isn’t

Lauren Schieffer05:32It? Yeah.

Brad Burrow05:33I mean, I remember we did a video for an air show and they had one of the, I think it was one of the, maybe it was the B2 bomber and we could look at it, but we couldn’t go up and couldn’t touch it or anything like that. It was like even in that situation, I’m surprised they even had it there, honestly, but you couldn’t-

Lauren Schieffer05:53Well, because everyone is still so intrigued. Even decades later, everyone is still so intrigued by the concept and it looks so cool in the air. I mean, you can’t get past the … It just looks so cool in the air.

Brad Burrow06:07Yeah. It’s really cool that they’re so close to the Kansas City too. Even on the latest things that have been happening, it’s like they take off from Kansas City and go halfway around the world.That’s amazing.

Lauren Schieffer06:20Military

Brad Burrow06:20Is amazing. All right. So what was it like as … Do you remember as a little girl like, okay, dad came home today, we’re moving to another place where we … Do you remember what that was like emotionally? And that had to be tough.

Lauren Schieffer06:36Yeah. I don’t remember being really … I measure my life based on what grade I was in, not by the years. Lots of people go, “Oh, it was 1963.” I don’t even remember how old I was because I was younger in most grades than most people, but we did Albuquerque. No, we did Tempe, Albuquerque, Tempe, Albuquerque, Dayton, Albuquerque. I don’t remember being sad anytime that we were leaving Albuquerque. When we were in Dayton, that was junior high-ish. Now you’re really making friends. Friends, yeah. And before that, we were always living on Air Force bases. So we knew that the friendships were transient and people were leaving while we were living there and that wasn’t such a big deal. But when we were in Ohio, that was junior high school and making that move, that one was … I remember that one being really tough for me and I remember saying my mother saying, “Young lady home is where you hang your heart.” That’s always been that way.

Lauren Schieffer07:59It always will be that way so long as we’re in the military, so buck up and pack.

Brad Burrow08:04Yeah. Part of the

Lauren Schieffer08:06Deal, huh? Yeah.

Brad Burrow08:07And she was good with that too.

Lauren Schieffer08:12Well,

Brad Burrow08:12She went along with it, I guess.

Lauren Schieffer08:14Well, there was one station that I missed. Dad got tapped to teach engineering at the Air Force Academy. Well, that’s in Colorado

Brad Burrow08:25Springs and

Lauren Schieffer08:26We thought we’re going to Colorado Springs and he’s going to teach. He’s going to have tenure. We’re going to be there for a long time. In Colorado, my favorite state in the world, oh my heavens. That lasted six months and then he got tapped for the flight dynamics laboratory and we used to say that mom dug irrigation ditches with her heels all the way from Colorado to Ohio, but I don’t know how okay she was with it. I mean, they divorced eventually, but anyway. Yeah,

Brad Burrow08:59That would be tough. That’d be a tough life. So one of the things I was doing a little research and one of the quotes that you had about the Colonel is how failure is not necessarily a bad thing. I wanted to get your thoughts on that. We’ve been in business since 97.

Lauren Schieffer09:19Yeah, you.

Brad Burrow09:20We failed a lot. But

Lauren Schieffer09:23You’re still here.

Brad Burrow09:24We’re still here and I think the key is, and maybe you can kind of talk about this a little bit and maybe you can learn this from your dad. It’s like failure, I mean, I’m sure they failed a lot when they’re figuring out how to make materials and

Lauren Schieffer09:37Runs and all this

Brad Burrow09:38Stuff, but the failure is what propels you to success.

Lauren Schieffer09:42It’s the

Brad Burrow09:42Same in life and business. Do you agree with that?

Lauren Schieffer09:45Oh, absolutely. And yeah, that quote did come from dad and it’s so easy to say that, but being the Colonel’s daughter, it comes with some expectations and it took me a long time to realize that failure was not fatal and every time something went wrong from when I was a kid to … Mother was the retribution aside. Dad was always like, “Okay, kid, what’d you learn? What have we learned from this? ” So if you can always take the lessons and he would say, “Failure is not fatal. It’s how we learn.” So if you’re always learning and taking the lessons and not making the same mistakes twice, then failure is an expected part of your success.

Brad Burrow10:49Yeah. And you just roll with it, learn from it, move on.

Lauren Schieffer10:54Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.

Brad Burrow10:56Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer10:56But it’s not fatal.

Brad Burrow10:57Yeah. We’ve had lots of things we could talk about over 30 years in real media, but in business, I think … Why do you think there’s so much emphasis on you can’t fail? It almost is something that maybe is good in some instances. That sounds bad to say that almost.

Lauren Schieffer11:18Well, that’s a really general question about in business, because every business is different. I think in business there’s more money involved, especially if you’ve invested your own money or someone else’s money in your business and it’s a loss, that’s a harder failure to just say, “Oh, what have I learned?” And move on,

Lauren Schieffer11:49But it’s necessary. There is a company that shall remain nameless because I don’t have permission to talk about them, but they’re a tech company and they dropped a whole lot of time and money in developing their own smartphone. And at the time, the Apple phones were like two years and Blackberries were still very common and you had Motorola doing … Everybody was getting into the smartphone market and there was a good year and a half of research and time and development and money and they got in and realized that there’s no way they could be competitive with it. Was their smartphone better? They thought so, but they couldn’t be competitive because Apple was making the improvements every blink of an eye. And so they took the time, the effort and the money that they had put into it and let it go and took it as a lesson.

Lauren Schieffer13:08Now I was not in the boardroom during these discussions, right? Yeah. But from the efforts that they put in after that, they took it to really focus on what they’re competitive on.

Brad Burrow13:24So they had some takeaways for the business

Lauren Schieffer13:26From

Brad Burrow13:26That,

Lauren Schieffer13:27That

Brad Burrow13:27They

Lauren Schieffer13:27Probably learned some

Brad Burrow13:28Things. I remember this is a long time ago, probably 20, 25 years ago, I was part of a group that had this great new idea. It’s like, “We’re going to build this thing that’s a phone and you’re going to be able to take notes on it. You’re going to be able to have all your contacts on it. ” And this was like, everybody’s like, “Oh, there’s just no way.” And this was just a local group of guys that had this idea and I look back on that, I was like, “Wow, look at where we are now.” And at the time that was like, there was nothing like that. I was driving around with the phone in my car and so it was a mobile phone, but

Lauren Schieffer14:08I had to be

Brad Burrow14:08In my car to

Lauren Schieffer14:09Actually

Brad Burrow14:09Take a call.

Lauren Schieffer14:10My first one was a brick.

Brad Burrow14:11Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer14:12I mean quite literally the brick with the antenna and stuff. Yeah.

Brad Burrow14:16It’s interesting. I want to talk a little bit about your history. I mean, I was looking, it’s really interesting. So you were a sales director for Mary Kay.

Lauren Schieffer14:27Yeah, it’s a really diverse history. Yeah. I mean, you really had to dig into the LinkedIn profile to find that. Yeah. I spent 12 years with Mary Kay and worked my way to be the top 2% of the company.

Brad Burrow14:40Amazing.

Lauren Schieffer14:41And I loved it when I loved it. And then one day and with any network marketing company, for that company to be successful and I think I believe Mary Kay is the best there is to be successful there has to be a little bit of brainwashing involved and I was brainwashed with the best of them and I said things like, “There’s a Mary Kay hole in every woman’s heart. We just have to find it.

Lauren Schieffer15:18And this is all I’m going to do for the rest of my life. My blood runs pink.” And I believed those when I said it. And we live in this little pink bubble and we believe that every woman needs to be in the pink bubble. I woke up one morning and I was outside of the pink bubble emotionally and what I discovered was there’s air out here too and I denied it for a good six months because when a director stops working, her unit stops working and that was a bad thing. And so I kept plowing at it and what I discovered was why did I want to be a sales director? Number one, it was because what everybody told me I was supposed to do, right? Move up the career path. That’s what I was supposed to do. And secondly, it’s amazing that I’m wearing pink right now.

Brad Burrow16:15I

Lauren Schieffer16:15Know.

Brad Burrow16:16I was thinking the same thing. I’m like, wow.

Lauren Schieffer16:19And secondly, because the directors were the ones in the front of the room teaching, trading, motivating, and inspiring. That’s what I wanted to do. And what I didn’t like about being a director was selling lipstick. I mean, I don’t even like wearing it, honestly. And so I decided that that was not sufficient to keep me going in Mary Kay and I handed my unit over to my senior director and went down to being just a personal use consultant. Is

Brad Burrow16:54That right? How did you feel after that? Did

Lauren Schieffer16:56You feel

Brad Burrow16:57Like a good or was it weight lifted or was it like …

Lauren Schieffer17:02I don’t know. There’s a little bit of brainwashing involved. I would duck and cover anytime I saw anyone that I knew from Mary Kay and there was some guilt, but I put 12 years in. In hindsight, I put 12 years in. I didn’t just quit and I still use the product. I think it’s an amazing product, but at the time

Brad Burrow17:27There

Lauren Schieffer17:27Was some guilt involved.

Brad Burrow17:29So do you feel like your experience with Mary Kay has helped you in what you’re doing right now?

Lauren Schieffer17:34Totally.

Brad Burrow17:35Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer17:35Absolutely. I learned how to recognize people, I want to say women, women’s emotions in a particular situation, whether sales, you can read someone’s face and know whether you’ve got her or not got her and in recruiting, I learned how to tap into the basic drives. I taught personality styling for Mary Kay for years. So I learned a lot and I also- When you say

Brad Burrow18:17Personality styling, what do you mean like reading somebody’s personality? Okay.

Lauren Schieffer18:23I got certified in the DISC DISC training, which in any network marketing environment

Lauren Schieffer18:33Is crucial for recruiting new team members because you need to know, you need to be able to recognize where they’re sitting on the spectrum of so you know what to tell them. For instance, if they’re a driver dominant personality, you’re going to tell them how much money they can make and how fast they can move up the ladder. If they’re a socializer or an influencer initiator, you’re going to tell them how much fun it can be and what all the prizes are going to be. If they’re a relator or a security focused personality, you’re going to tell them what they can do to help their family, how much more time it’s going to give them with their family if they’re working for themselves. And if they’re a compliance personality like the analyzers, you’re going to tell them, “This is a proven career path that has been marched and all of the wrinkles have been worked out before you start.

Lauren Schieffer19:35It’s a proven career path. You will know what’s expected of you and there’s no politics involved in moving up the labor.”

Brad Burrow19:45Interesting.

Lauren Schieffer19:49It’s helped me a lot.

Brad Burrow19:51Was there anybody in the disc profile that you knew was not going to be successful doing that?

Lauren Schieffer19:55No.

Brad Burrow19:56Everybody, everybody- Everyone is

Lauren Schieffer19:57Successful.

Brad Burrow19:57Okay.

Lauren Schieffer19:58Interesting. All of them approach it differently.

Brad Burrow20:02Okay. And then you were a presenter for Skillpath, is that right?

Lauren Schieffer20:07I was a road warrior for SkillPath for seven years.

Brad Burrow20:11I don’t know if that’s still the case with Skillpath, but back in the day they were like, you would travel around and teach classes.

Lauren Schieffer20:18I traveled three weeks out of every month.

Brad Burrow20:19Is that right?

Lauren Schieffer20:20I did. I would fly out on Sunday night and pick up a rental car and then drive from city to city to city to city in whatever route they’d routed. So you’d have a

Brad Burrow20:34Different place each day?

Lauren Schieffer20:35Different city every day and fly home on Friday night.

Brad Burrow20:38Wow.

Lauren Schieffer20:39Hopefully I’d get home on Friday night. But if not, I’d get home on Saturday morning, wash my clothes and fly out on Sunday night.

Brad Burrow20:46Oh my gosh.

Lauren Schieffer20:47Yeah. It’s hard work. Anyone working for the seminar companies, kudos. It’s hard work. For very little pain.

Brad Burrow20:55Leadership?

Lauren Schieffer20:57I had 57 tracks that I taught for Skillpath.

Brad Burrow21:00Is that

Lauren Schieffer21:00Right? Oh yeah.

Brad Burrow21:02Wow.

Lauren Schieffer21:02Oh yeah. But the ones that I was best at were communication, conflict management and leadership.

Brad Burrow21:11Okay. Yeah. Man, did you just get worn out?

Lauren Schieffer21:16Oh yeah.

Brad Burrow21:16I mean, I don’t know how somebody could do that for

Lauren Schieffer21:20A couple

Brad Burrow21:20Years without just completely losing their mind.

Lauren Schieffer21:23So for the last four years that I was there, based on the numbers that they track and send out in an email every month, these are the top people in … Sorry.

Brad Burrow21:36You’re good.

Lauren Schieffer21:36These are the top people in here. So based on the numbers that they track for consistency, I was the number one trainer for four years. I was the only person that was in the top 10 of all six categories that they track for four years running. That tells me I stayed four years too long. But after a while, yeah, you did get worn out and compared to what I earn now, it’s pennies because the seminar companies serve a very important purpose, but they’re for- profit companiesg so they’re not spending more on their trainers or their trainer’s travel or their trainer’s resources than they absolutely have to.

Brad Burrow22:34Right.

Lauren Schieffer22:35And who can fault them? Their capitalism, they’re a for- profit company.

Brad Burrow22:39Right. So you’re not staying in the greatest places and probably not great expenses and all that stuff.

Lauren Schieffer22:46Oh, heavens no. Yeah,

Brad Burrow22:47That’d be tough.

Lauren Schieffer22:48Yeah.

Brad Burrow22:48That would be tough. But again, looking where you are now, you learned some skills probably that

Lauren Schieffer22:54You’re

Brad Burrow22:54Using big time right

Lauren Schieffer22:55Now. Absolutely. Yeah. I learned how to put together a well structured comprehensive training program. I learned how to zig when my audience zags.

Brad Burrow23:11Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer23:12So you could

Brad Burrow23:13Learn how to read the

Lauren Schieffer23:14Audience. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I learned a lot. Yes, good skills.

Brad Burrow23:18Yeah. Which is serving you well probably as

Lauren Schieffer23:21A

Brad Burrow23:21Speaker right now,

Lauren Schieffer23:21Huh? Serving me well. Yeah. Do you see

Brad Burrow23:23Those things happening when you’re speaking to a

Lauren Schieffer23:25Crowd? Absolutely. Oh,

Brad Burrow23:26I need to go this direction.

Lauren Schieffer23:26Absolutely. And I’ve made so many mistakes, every mistake. And we learn from those. One of the things that I teach, the speakers that I coach is to avoid being offensive. And I say, “That may sound like a no brainer.”

Brad Burrow23:50Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer23:51Right? Yeah,

Brad Burrow23:51It does.

Lauren Schieffer23:53But there are so many layers to that. No gossip, even if it’s just gossip about sports or celebrities or the safe … Don’t, just don’t. No profanity at all. None. No badmouthing. You don’t badmouth other speakers, you don’t badmouth meeting professionals, don’t badmouth. The AV team don’t. No bad mouthing. Yeah. And no comments that could be racially, sexually motivated any group of people, even if you’re a member of that group of people. And here’s the example that I like to use and this happened to me and just as a … What’s the word I’m looking for? I’m a speaker and I can’t find the word. Backstory.

Brad Burrow25:01Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer25:03My grandmother was full blood Hopi Indian. So technically I am a member of the Hopi Nation. I was speaking in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which could be construed as my hometown. I went to high school there.

Brad Burrow25:17The place that you were happy to leave though, if I remember

Lauren Schieffer25:19You saying- Well, only when I was litle, only when I was little. So I was speaking in Albuquerque and I don’t remember specifically what the track that I was teaching was, but I remember what I said and I said, “Were it not for someone with the initiative of a driver or dominant personality? We may never have crossed the Mississippi and forged a nation all the way to California.” And without missing a beat, one of the audience members said, “Well, that would have been okay for the Native nations they invaded.” Whoa. Okay. The fact that I am a member of the Hopi Nation, I don’t claim it. I don’t claim the benefits or anything like that, but not that there are benefits, but anyway, I don’t claim it. I had misread, I hadn’t taken into account where I was standing. So

Brad Burrow26:21That comment coming because you’re in Albuquerque is

Lauren Schieffer26:25Basically what

Brad Burrow26:25You’re saying.

Lauren Schieffer26:26Yeah. There are so many native nations in the state of New Mexico and Arizona all across the country. Oklahoma, all across country. But I took a beat and I said, “You know what? You are absolutely correct in that. ” And I apologized for being insensitive and I moved on, but I had lost the credibility in the room at that point.

Brad Burrow26:53But you handled it really well. I don’t know if

Lauren Schieffer26:57People would have handled

Brad Burrow26:57It very well in that situation. So what’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you speaking in front of a group of people? Any funny stories like that? That one wasn’t funny, but you’ve had to seen a lot of different things, I would imagine, especially in training.

Lauren Schieffer27:16I’ve seen a lot of things. I

Brad Burrow27:21Kind of threw this on you last minute.

Lauren Schieffer27:23Yes. I was speaking in Las Vegas once and it was a ballroom, but it wasn’t a huge ballroom. So it was part of the main ballroom and I think the room held maybe 150, right? And in the middle of my keynote, I had someone wander into the ballroom who had forgotten to put on their pants.

Brad Burrow28:00Oh my gosh, seriously.

Lauren Schieffer28:02And I saw him and because we were in rounds, I know lots of the audience saw him and I tried to move on and then security saw him and escorted him out and I had to stop and say, “For me to just continue with my keynote without acknowledging our visitor would be weird. That was weird, right?” And they’re all like, “Yeah.” I said, “Okay, we’ve acknowledged the moment. Where was I? ” And then somebody said- Everybody laughed? Yeah. I was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when the levee broke and the city started flooding. Wow. It was training. It was not a keynote and someone came into the room and said, “We need to evacuate. The city is flooding.” And I said, “Have you all gotten value out of this session?” And they’re like … I said, “Go home.” So you just have to learn how to zi when they zag.

Brad Burrow29:29Yeah. Just anything that happens, just roll with it, I guess, huh?

Lauren Schieffer29:33Yeah.

Brad Burrow29:33You can make people laugh. I’ve always thought that one of the things I’ve said is if we can make people laugh that they’re open to ideas more. Do you agree with

Lauren Schieffer29:44That? I do. I think humor can diffuse tension in almost every situation, almost, but the type of humor is important. I don’t believe that it’s ever okay to make fun of someone else. The only person I make fun of is me. I can make fun of me. I can be self-deprecating and that can be humorous. We can laugh at a situation, but I don’t think it’s okay to laugh at people. But humor can diffuse.

Brad Burrow30:25Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So in SA after that, so you’ve been the president of NSA just recently, right?

Lauren Schieffer30:33Not at a national

Brad Burrow30:35Level. But on the Kansas

Lauren Schieffer30:36City

Brad Burrow30:37Chapter.

Lauren Schieffer30:37I was the president of the Kansas City chapter. Yes. Yes, I was. And I have sat on a couple of national committees and chaired one of those national committees, but I have never been on the board of directors at a national level.

Brad Burrow30:48Okay. So what was that experience like?

Lauren Schieffer30:52Which experience?

Brad Burrow30:53Well, okay. So yeah, I’d be a little more specific on that, but just kind of the Kansas City area. I know Marquita Miller

Lauren Schieffer31:01Really

Brad Burrow31:01Well.

Lauren Schieffer31:02Miller Joshua.

Brad Burrow31:02Oh, that’s correct. Yeah, that’s right. Actually, when her husband passed away, I

Lauren Schieffer31:07Knew them

Brad Burrow31:07Before that and I did a video for his funeral.

Lauren Schieffer31:11You did that video?

Brad Burrow31:14Yeah. Marquita, not to get too far on this rabbit trail, but she’s just such an awesome person.

Lauren Schieffer31:20She’s amazing.

Brad Burrow31:21Yeah. And she’s always helped us. Anytime she asks for help, I’m like, okay, yes, just tell me what you need.

Lauren Schieffer31:30I have often said that someday I aspire to be half the human being that she is.

Brad Burrow31:36Yeah, she is. So she did a little speaking thing here where we had about an audience of about 50 people and she went trying to build her reel back up and she’s like fire. Oh my gosh.

Lauren Schieffer31:50She’s so dynamite. And I have often said she is capable of having more plates spinning at one time without any of them dropping and everything that she commits to gets done and she has a multimillion dollar tax business and she tours with Reverend T.D. Jakes and she’s on the board of directors at a national level for national speakers. I have no idea.

Brad Burrow32:25She’s on the national board, right?

Lauren Schieffer32:26She’s on the national board, yes.

Brad Burrow32:28Yeah. Amazing.

Lauren Schieffer32:29Yeah. Like I said, thinking about everything she gets done exhausts me. Yeah. Okay. So president of the- What was that

Brad Burrow32:39Like? I mean, I know this chapter’s trying, they’re trying to build a chapter up and-

Lauren Schieffer32:43When I was president, we were at that point also.

Brad Burrow32:47Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer32:47We had had a president or two that had not led well. Yeah. I’ll leave it at that. Our numbers were low and the chapter was struggling. And when I stepped in and I decided, and this was not a good decision in hindsight, I decided that I was going to build it back. It was going to be me. I was going to do it. Yeah. And so I worked my little fanny off doing everything for a year, which is not leadership. Leadership is not accomplishment. I mean, accomplishment is not always leadership. Marquita stepped in behind me and she said, “You were the only president that I’d experienced and I thought that that’s what the president does and I couldn’t do that. ” So she started doing what leaders do, delegating. And by the time … So we had doubled our numbers when I handed over to Mark …

Brad Burrow34:03Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer34:04Marquita Miller Joshua Fanclub.

Brad Burrow34:06Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer34:06Yeah,

Brad Burrow34:06Exactly.

Lauren Schieffer34:08Send this to her. She was slated to take the gavel from me. I think it was a week after Tommy died. We were supposed to make that transition. I said, “Key, I got this. Don’t worry about it. I’ll hang on as president until you’re ready. We’ll be fine. I’ll do it. ” And to her credit, a month later, she’s like, “I’m ready.” Wow. And she stepped in and two months after that, she was on the main stage at the National Conference Influence as the number one referral person, referring people to National Speakers Association and telling a little bit about her story.

Brad Burrow35:08Wow.

Lauren Schieffer35:09Amazing. So we had doubled during my presidency and then Marquita doubled that.

Brad Burrow35:22So you started it on the trajectory?

Lauren Schieffer35:24But the lesson that I had to remind myself, it’s not like I didn’t know it. It was an ego trip on my part to say, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to fix the chapter.” That was ridiculous, but that was a lesson I had to remind myself after I handed the gavel over. Yeah, that wasn’t leadership That was ego.

Brad Burrow35:46So I want to come back to when you decided to start speaking and kind of where you are right now, but I wanted to ask you, like NSA is, I see a lot of people in NSA right now that really don’t have experience yet speaking,

Lauren Schieffer36:04But

Brad Burrow36:04Have joined to maybe

Lauren Schieffer36:06Learn. You see a lot of them in the Kansas City chapter.

Brad Burrow36:09Okay. Kansas City chapter, correct. Is that a result of like COVID or something like that? Or why are people deciding, “Hey, I want to be a speaker now.”

Lauren Schieffer36:22Having done this for a hot minute, 20 years, it seems to be a trend when the economy goes south and people lose their jobs, they decide they’re going to be a speaker or be a consultant. I think that the plethora that we have right now is probably a result of COVID and the economy that is in truth, still struggling from it in many different areas. There are areas that are booming and there are areas that are still struggling and I think that has a lot to do with it. We saw that same push in 2008 when the housing bubble burst. We saw during the Great Recession I think it’s a byproduct of people losing their jobs.

Brad Burrow37:28Yeah. I think you’re right. What advice do you give to … I’m sure you’re talking to people and I know you’re doing coaching now for speakers, but what do you advice you give somebody that says, “Okay, I want to be a speaker.” What do you say to them? Because not everybody can get up and … I mean, we had the event here the other night.

Lauren Schieffer37:47Yeah, the last story standing? Yeah.

Brad Burrow37:49It was fun to see, but you could tell the people that really were not going to be great at that

Lauren Schieffer37:58Versus

Brad Burrow37:58The people that were really polished and not everybody has the ability to get up in front of a crowd and motivate them. Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer38:05Right away. Can that be learned,

Brad Burrow38:07I guess? I guess it

Lauren Schieffer38:08Can. Yeah. So you said, what’s the first thing I would tell them? Yeah. Don’t quit your job.

Brad Burrow38:13Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer38:14Because if you need the income, if you’re just starting out as a speaker, it’s not going to come right away. I know a couple of speakers that have shot to the top financially in 18 months, but they’re one tenth of one tenth of 1%. Yeah. So the second piece of advice is to really dig into … So shameful plug. I’m doing a webinar later on this month on the 27th for emerging speakers. So this is going to be in the webinar. Part of

Brad Burrow38:59Your coaching.

Lauren Schieffer39:00Part of my coaching. Yeah. So this is going to be in the webinar, but there are three things that you really need to know about yourself as you’re putting together what your message is and perhaps what your brand is. And the first is know what your experience and expertise is because you need to start there. For instance, my degree is in nonprofit public relations through the fine arts department. So it’s a fluffy degree,

Brad Burrow39:40Right?

Lauren Schieffer39:41Right out of college, I needed a job to pay the bills.

Brad Burrow39:46So

Lauren Schieffer39:46I got a job. It was just a job until I started my career, which actually never happened, but it was with a moving and storage company. Six and a half years later when I left the van line, I was the customer service manager for the 11 Western States region. Is that

Brad Burrow40:09Right? Wow.

Lauren Schieffer40:10I was the first woman to ever hold that job. So I can speak all things trucking. Yeah. So that’s who I started speaking to was a trucking industry. Yeah. That led to someone referring me to someone in construction. So then I’m speaking construction and that led to someone referring me to someone in the trades, which so I started with, what is my expertise? Yeah. I have a very, very dear friend who started as a dental hygienist and then she was a practice manager. She knows everything dental. So for her to step into trucking wouldn’t be organically authentic. So know what your experience and your expertise is first. Secondly, know what your natural engagement or speaking style is. It is very normal and natural for people who are stepping into speaking to watch the people that they admire on the stage and start to emulate them without even knowing they’re doing it.

Lauren Schieffer41:27You have to know what your natural style is. I am humorous. I have a dry wit. People have often equated me to Rita Rudner. I’ll just drop a little something and then move on and people get it like two beats later. I’m not rolling on the floor funny. I’m just not. Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer41:50So I don’t try to be a standup comedian I’m humorous. Also, my speaking style is very empathetic and I could never stomp the … And I don’t mean that in a negative way. I could never stomp the stage like a revival preacher. It’s not who I am. So it would come off as disingenuous. So know your natural engagement style and the third one’s the most important one. Know the specific results that you’re going to bring. And the best way to do that is to play a game that I hate, but it’s important. It’s called the so what game. Have you ever heard of this?

Brad Burrow42:44No.

Lauren Schieffer42:49You have to get so answer the so what five times down. Okay. So what do you speak on?

Brad Burrow42:59So what? So what?

Lauren Schieffer43:01Why does that matter to me? Well, because … Oh, okay. So what? You have to get to the so what so that you know specifically what problem you’re solving, what pain you’re helping eliminate or get through, what your specific results are. Because when you start marketing yourself on a subject that undoubtedly tens of thousands of other speakers are also speaking on, you need to know why you. So it’s those three things that they have to get very clear on before they can expect to be successful as a speaker.

Brad Burrow43:38So that’s a really good transition to one of my questions for you because I was reading it in so that there’s the nine essentials for leadership, but it’s not just leadership, it’s significant leadership and the word significant. Talk about that a little bit because that’s a big differentiator. I mean, you can be a good leader, but are you significant leader?

Lauren Schieffer43:59Well, let’s talk first about the difference between significance and success.

Brad Burrow44:03Yes.

Lauren Schieffer44:04Most of us are programmed to chase success. Success is about me. It’s about how much money I make and what my title is, where my parking spot is, what my accolades are, what trophies I have on my shelves. It’s all about me. I’m very successful. Significance is different. Significance has nothing whatsoever to do with any of that. Significance is about we. It’s about how many lives I touch and the manner in which I choose to impact them because how you impact others is a choice. And so the Colonel used to say, kid, anyone can be successful. Making money, losing it, making it back, that’s easy. Choose to be significant. So significant leadership puts people over profit and focuses on helping others grow first. Now, when you focus on that, part of my marketing for the nine essentials is when all of the day-to-day deliverables of leadership, increased profitability, increased productivity, increased market share, customer satisfaction, employee retention, all of those will fall into line naturally if the leader focuses all of their efforts through the lens of the nine essentials of significant leadership.

Lauren Schieffer45:57And when that happens, they Help Others Grow First. That’s the entire focus. I coined the phrase myself. I don’t know if there’s anybody else out there using it. Significant leadership takes servant leadership

Lauren Schieffer46:18One step further.

Brad Burrow46:19I just wrote that down. Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer46:21One step further. Servant leadership is an admirable model. Servant leadership asks nothing in return for what I am breathing into you as a leader. Significant leadership, on the other hand, expects that that which I’m breathing into you, you will breathe into someone else and create ripples of significant leaders. That’s how we help others

Brad Burrow46:51Grow.That’s awesome. That’s great. So it’s taking it another step, but it’s like passing it on,

Lauren Schieffer46:58Passing

Brad Burrow46:58It on. So you pass it on, you pass it on,

Lauren Schieffer47:00And

Brad Burrow47:01That’s how we impact.

Lauren Schieffer47:03Essential number nine of the nine essentials is work for your replacement.

Brad Burrow47:10Boy, that’s so against our me mentality is like, you want me to help this person that’s going to replace

Lauren Schieffer47:17Me? Our number one job as leaders is to replace ourselves as many times as we can.

Brad Burrow47:23So it reminds me of a story. My dad was director of HR for Ewing Kaufman.

Lauren Schieffer47:29Oh, okay.

Brad Burrow47:30And I remember him telling me a story one time of a guy that he hired and he had to help this guy get better who was eventually going to take his job. And that’s a scary thought for somebody. I mean, he was director of HR. He worked with Mr. Kay, not every day, but a lot. And to have this guy come in that now your job is to help him really take your job.

Lauren Schieffer48:01And if you’re a significant leader, you’re going to do everything that you can to make sure that he is more successful in that job than you were.

Brad Burrow48:08Yeah. And think of the fear of overcoming the fear of like, “Oh, I might lose my job over this deal for somebody like that. ”

Lauren Schieffer48:17But

Brad Burrow48:17I just thought that was interesting. So you probably hear those objections sometimes I

Lauren Schieffer48:21Bet. Oh, all the time.

Brad Burrow48:22Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer48:22All the time. I have one client that I worked with and his department had developed over time and we had been working together for some time. It’s not because of me, I just watched it happen. His department had the highest rate of attrition of any department, but that’s because they kept working through him as a leader to take leadership positions in the company. So he was just spitting out leaders.

Brad Burrow49:03He was training

Lauren Schieffer49:04Them up. And bringing others in. Did the

Brad Burrow49:07Management realize that was happening?

Lauren Schieffer49:09Oh yeah. He’s very highly regarded in the company. Yeah.

Brad Burrow49:12That’s amazing. Did he know that was happening? Did he realize what was

Lauren Schieffer49:17Happening? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So that was part

Brad Burrow49:18Of his MO then.

Lauren Schieffer49:20He’s one of the easiest people I’ve ever coached because he has that giving mentality already.

Brad Burrow49:31So it’s natural.

Lauren Schieffer49:32Yeah. It’s a lot harder to convince someone with a me mentality that they need to give it up for a we mentality.

Brad Burrow49:38Yes.

Lauren Schieffer49:39And that’s one reason I focus on emerging leaders because I believe it’s my belief. Other people believe differently and that’s their right. I believe that the C-suite right now pretty universally is lost. I think they’re lost to greed and position and power and fear and convenience and they’re definitely lost to my message of helping others grow first.

Brad Burrow50:05Yeah. Interesting. So

Lauren Schieffer50:06You’ve

Brad Burrow50:07Got to get them when they’re-

Lauren Schieffer50:08Got to get them before they have bad habits.

Brad Burrow50:10Yeah, exactly. Sounds like a baseball coach. So one of the questions I had, and I have just a few more questions. Oh,

Lauren Schieffer50:16Sure.

Brad Burrow50:17Colonel’s daughter.

Lauren Schieffer50:18Yeah.

Brad Burrow50:19So when did you like, “Oh, this is the idea right here.”

Lauren Schieffer50:24Okay. So when I started speaking, when I stepped away from the seminar company and stepped out on my own platform I saw all of colleagues coming up with brands that I thought were just stupid, Mr. Lifestyle

Brad Burrow50:47That

Lauren Schieffer50:48Was

Brad Burrow50:48Humorous by the way.

Lauren Schieffer50:50So I created one that I thought was serious and it was high road solutions and people kept going, “What is high road solutions?” And then I’d have to explain it to them and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And then unbeknownst to me, there was another speaker in NSA, but we didn’t know each other that had the High Road Institute and unbeknownst to me, he trademarked the term high road.

Brad Burrow51:35Okay.

Lauren Schieffer51:36Now I had asked about it and my lawyer had said, “You’ll never get a trademark through on it because it’s too common a phrase.”

Brad Burrow51:42Right.

Lauren Schieffer51:43Well, he had a better lawyer than I did and we were speaking side by side. Well, not sideby. We were both speaking at the same conference. We didn’t know each other and the session that I was teaching was called Before It Comes to Blows: Managing Conflict from the High Road I came home to a cease and desist letter from his lawyer. Is

Brad Burrow52:05That

Lauren Schieffer52:06Right? Saying that I could no longer use the term high road in any of my marketing, my print material, my website, anything. My first thought was, well, that wasn’t very high road of him, was it?

Brad Burrow52:16Exactly.

Lauren Schieffer52:17But he was 100% within his rights. He had trademarked the term. So then I curled up in a corner and I sucked my thumb for three days because I was certain my speaking career was over. And then the Colonel always said, “Use what you’ve got, kid, and just show up. All right, let’s salvage what I’ve got. What do I have? Do I have to change my message?” No, I have to change how I word it. So instead of taking the high road, we now take higher ground.

Brad Burrow52:53Awesome.

Lauren Schieffer52:56That turned in- Fits in

Brad Burrow52:56With the Colonel’s message too, doesn’t it?

Lauren Schieffer52:59But I had to rebrand.

Brad Burrow53:00Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer53:01I needed a brand new brand. So I had a friend who was creative and she’d done some brands for some other people, offered to help me with this free of charge. She was incredibly gracious. And when we got together, she said, “So I’ve read your book.” Now this was the very first book that I’d ever written. I don’t even sell it today. It’s called Road Signs on the High Road of Life. And it was my father’s eulogy in book form. She said, “So I read your book. I actually read it four times.” And I said, “Becky, I wrote it. I haven’t read it four times.” She goes, “No.” So you talk about respectful communication. Yeah. Where’d you get that? I said, “Oh, dad always said, you don’t have to respect everyone, young lady. You have no right to disrespect anyone, Lauren Ann.” She says, “Oh, so you got that from your dad?” “You talk on conflict management.

Lauren Schieffer54:08Where’d that come from? “I said,” Well, if you ever met the Colonel, he was six feet, six and a half inches and 285 pounds on his very leanest day. When he lost his temper, people got hurt. So he had to find a different way to manage conflict and he taught that to his daughters and that’s what I teach.

Lauren Schieffer54:25“Okay. There are 14 chapters in your book, 11 of which you attribute to your father. What are you not seeing? I said,” I don’t know. “You didn’t

Brad Burrow54:38See it at that

Lauren Schieffer54:38Time? No. I said,” I don’t know. What am I not seeing? “She goes,” Lauren, you’re the Colonel’s daughter. “I said,” Well, yes, I am the Colonel’s daughter, but …

Brad Burrow54:47“Ding, ding, ding.

Lauren Schieffer54:48I am the Colonel’s daughter. She goes,” Now that’s a sticky brand. “And it is.

Brad Burrow54:54Yeah. I

Lauren Schieffer54:54Agree. I designed the logo myself

Lauren Schieffer54:58And interesting about that. I don’t know if … Did I send it to you? Well, it’s a silhouette of an Air Force officer in full salute and within his body is a silhouette of a little girl. That silhouette of a little girl is actually me. Back in the 60s, parents used to do silhouettes of their kids and hang them over the couch or whatever. That is the silhouette of me. And so I designed the logo and of course the colors, the brand colors came easily. It’s Air Force blue and gold. Those are the two official colors of the Air Force. The whole thing came together in a week. Six months later, my business had tripled. And the reason is because it was the first time that the message, the brand and the human being were 100% in alignment.

Brad Burrow55:58Powerful.

Lauren Schieffer55:58So I am the Colonel’s daughter.

Brad Burrow56:00Yeah. That’s amazing. That’s a great story. So you have a couple of books. Tell me about … And maybe you have more than a couple books. Tell me about what would

Lauren Schieffer56:08You have? I have four total.

Brad Burrow56:10Okay.

Lauren Schieffer56:11One is not in print. I mean, I can order them if I want to. That was road signs. And that

Brad Burrow56:18Has high road in it too. You probably can’t even …

Lauren Schieffer56:20Oh yeah. No. If it’s a book title, it doesn’t matter.

Brad Burrow56:23Oh, okay. All right.

Lauren Schieffer56:29But I have three that are currently on the market and that I sell. Two of them are volume one and volume two. Okay. They’re quotes from my dad and I call them Colonels of Wisdom. I don’t know if you know, but every day on social media I post Colonel of Wisdom for the day and it’s spelled like Air Force Colonel.

Brad Burrow56:52Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer56:54That’s

Brad Burrow56:54Where I saw the failure quote.

Lauren Schieffer56:56Oh yeah. So volume one, Kernels of Wisdom is a daughter’s reflection on leadership and in both of them there are 52 quotes. It’s dad’s quote and then I flesh it out. What’s the story behind the quote? When did it happen? What did it mean to me at the time? What might it mean to you? And I chose 52 for each book so that you could, if you chose, use it one week as a book study.

Brad Burrow57:33Okay.

Lauren Schieffer57:35One year you’ve got the book covered. Volume two is a daughter’s reflection on significance. I’ve got my two primaries there.

Brad Burrow57:43Okay.

Lauren Schieffer57:45Somewhere in my head is a volume three, a daughter’s reflection on personal ownership and accountability. That’s less of a warm and fuzzy subject. I have it in outline form. We’ll see. And then my third book that I have out is basically the nine essentials in a book form. And that is the title is Help Others Grow First: How Smart Leaders Attract and Retain Great Employees.

Brad Burrow58:13Yeah, that’s awesome. So are you going to build that into like a curriculum at some point, do you think?

Lauren Schieffer58:17It’s your

Brad Burrow58:18Coaching?

Lauren Schieffer58:18I do have a leadership curriculum. Yeah, I have it. It’s online right now.

Brad Burrow58:22I mean, who would be better at that than you? I mean, I can’t imagine anybody having more experience doing that than you.

Lauren Schieffer58:27Yeah. So I do have an online curriculum. It’s available and it’s set up so that you can pick one of the essentials and just study that essential or you can do a package that’s all nine of them and that one comes with a copy of the book. Do you feel like

Brad Burrow58:48Going through that?

Lauren Schieffer58:50Not yet. Well, it’s

Brad Burrow58:52Coming.

Lauren Schieffer58:53Yes. Well, as I mentioned, I just came off of a one year sabbatical and during that sabbatical, in addition to taking daily care of my brand new grandson.

Brad Burrow59:05I know, that’s awesome.

Lauren Schieffer59:06I know. He’s so amazing.

Brad Burrow59:07We have a grand baby coming June 1st.

Lauren Schieffer59:09Oh, congratulations. So we’re very excited. Oh, you love it so much. Especially when they start doing something. You know when they’re in the brand new potato phase, but when they actually start looking at you and googling it, oh my goodness. Anyway, he’s 15 months right now. During that year is when I wrote that course and worked with an organization to get it up and online and her clients also have access to it. So she’s got a couple of people going through it and then we have a profit share on it.

Brad Burrow59:53Awesome.

Lauren Schieffer59:55So yeah, it’s there and it’s good. I’m very proud of it. So

Brad Burrow59:58Is there going to be a Colonel’s Is daughter certification coming soon?

Lauren Schieffer1:00:03I don’t know. Like I said, as I approach the end of the game, speaking wise, not live. We all are approaching the end of that game, but I’m still trying to figure out what that legacy is going to be. I certainly could certify the material.

Brad Burrow1:00:27Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer1:00:29Again,

Brad Burrow1:00:30You would know it better than anybody.

Lauren Schieffer1:00:33Yeah. My fear, my challenge is will I be watching those who certify closely enough to know that it doesn’t change?

Brad Burrow1:00:45Doing it right.

Lauren Schieffer1:00:46Yeah. As it comes out of their mouth.

Brad Burrow1:00:48Yeah. Yeah,

Lauren Schieffer1:00:49That

Brad Burrow1:00:49Makes sense. It’s like you have it in your mind and how this needs to happen.

Lauren Schieffer1:00:53You’re not the first person that’s asked me about that and I’m putting off that decision.

Brad Burrow1:01:00So how would somebody get ahold of you? Well, who are you looking for to help with coaching? What would your target audience be?

Lauren Schieffer1:01:07So are we talking leadership or speakers?

Brad Burrow1:01:09Well, probably both actually, but I was probably thinking more on the speaker side because

Lauren Schieffer1:01:16You’d mentioned

Brad Burrow1:01:17That that’s something you’re starting to do more of.

Lauren Schieffer1:01:19Yeah. So I’ve been speaking professionally for coming on 20 years and certainly over the last decade. I can’t tell you how many emerging speakers have asked to buy me a cup of coffee and pick my brain. Sometimes we get tired of that term, but it’s all well-meaning. And my thought has always been, I will always sit down for a cup of coffee. Yeah. And I have a couple of emerging speakers that I am mentoring coaching right now, one of which I practically rewrote a keynote. Is that right? All the material was there. It just wasn’t in the right order and there were some things that were superfluous and I wanted her to flesh a couple other things out. But anyway, I’ve decided that this brings me great joy and it could pay a bill or two. Most emerging speakers cannot afford the 10 to $20,000 packages that are floating around NSA.

Brad Burrow1:02:35Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer1:02:38So I put together a six hour intensive. It’s two hours on three consecutive Monday nights. It’s called Find Your Voice Command the Room. And it’s an intensive. And in addition to those six hours as a group, and I’m limiting it to 10 spots so I can really-

Brad Burrow1:03:03Work with people. Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer1:03:05In addition to that, they’ll get an hour and a half one-on-one session with me, but it’s all at one time, not 30 minutes, an hour and a half. I believe I’m really coming in very reasonable at 14.97. So it’s approachable for emerging speakers, right? Yeah,

Brad Burrow1:03:30Right.

Lauren Schieffer1:03:32I am focusing all of my efforts on the performance side. No marketing, no branding. There are people who can help you better than I can with that.

Brad Burrow1:03:48Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer1:03:50But I’m pretty good at coaching you on stage.

Brad Burrow1:03:53If you can’t speak on stage, that other stuff doesn’t matter, right?

Lauren Schieffer1:03:56And your very best marketing tool is being outstanding on stage.

Brad Burrow1:04:01Yes.

Lauren Schieffer1:04:01Because if you’re not outstanding on stage, you’re not going to get asked back or referred to anyone. And if you can get those two things going for you, then it all starts to click.

Brad Burrow1:04:11Yeah.

Lauren Schieffer1:04:12Yeah. And I’m willing to work with people on an hourly basis also, and I have rates for that.

Brad Burrow1:04:19So tell me where we would find you online, website, LinkedIn. How would you like people to connect with you?

Lauren Schieffer1:04:25The website is Laurenschiefer.com. That’s real easy.

Brad Burrow1:04:28Okay.

Lauren Schieffer1:04:29The email is Lauren@LaurenScheffer.com. Okay. Also very easy. You can find me on LinkedIn. It’s Lauren Scheifer, the Colonel’s daughter.

Brad Burrow1:04:42Okay.

Lauren Schieffer1:04:43I’m the only Colonel’s daughter on LinkedIn, I think. I also have a presence on Facebook and Instagram. Okay. So I’m not hard to find. If they know how to spell the last name, S-C-H-I-E-F-F-E-R.

Brad Burrow1:05:03Yeah. Yeah. You nailed it because I wrote it down. I’m like, “I’m going to get this right.” You’ve had to do that a few times.

Lauren Schieffer1:05:11Yeah.

Brad Burrow1:05:12Well, this is awesome. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. We’ve been talking about doing this for so long and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you and I love having people here and in the space and stuff and helping the speakers that are so doing things. So I really appreciate you doing this.

Lauren Schieffer1:05:29Well, thank you for inviting me and thank you for being patient as we tried to work through our true schedules to get here and this and all sincerity. This has been the most fun podcast I’ve ever spoken on.

Brad Burrow1:05:43Oh, awesome. Awesome.

Lauren Schieffer1:05:45I’ll

Brad Burrow1:05:45Take that as an endorsement then.

Lauren Schieffer1:05:47Yes, absolutely.

Brad Burrow1:05:48Well, thank you very much and everybody, thank you for joining us on the podcast. Be sure to share this. You got somebody that wants to become a speaker or wants leadership training or anything like that. Share this podcast. This is really cool and be sure to go to Lauren’s website and if you’re interested in doing this, go to the website, tell other people about what we’re doing here. We really appreciate you watching and we’ll see you on the next In a World with Real Media. This has been In A World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us and be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow Real Media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn so you never miss an episode.