The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk Podcast

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver.

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Katie Gatti Tassin is the author of the "Money with Katie" newsletter and podcast, both acquired by Morning Brew in 2022. Katie provides fresh personal finance advice with a unique outlook, coupled with deep, self-taught knowledge. Before founding Money with Katie in 2020, she worked professionally in marketing and user experience design for Southwest Airlines, Dell Technologies, and Meta. Shes the author of Rich Girl Nation: Taking Charge of Our Financial Futures.

Notes:

• If youre not curious about it, youre not going to give it your all. But if you are, you can become relentless. Chase your curiosity and obsessions with great rigor. That passion and love for whatever the thing is can lead to big opportunities in your life.
• Do you want 100% of a grape or 25% of a watermelon? Advice Katie got when she was considering accepting the offer to be acquired by Morning Brew.
• The importance of having a coach. Katie talked about the life-changing impact her coach, Elizabeth, has had on her. Ambitious, motivated people who have high standards need help, too. In fact, maybe as much as anyone. Its worth it to invest in yourself and find a person to talk with 1 on 1.
• Parents - High expectations, straight A's or bust. Driven, hard to turn it off.
• The Morning Brew acquisition - Money with Katie. Worked at Meta and did Money with Katie at the same time. Left for the acquisition. Austin Rief (CEO) DM'd her on Twitter and made an offer during their first 30-minute conversation.
  • Big lesson - Your IP is everything.
• Book Dedication - To the anonymous guy who 'works in finance' that used to relentlessly comment on my nascent website in 2018, urging me to quit writing about money and 'keep it to myself. I hope youre well."
• Acknowledgments - Mom, for all those quiet days spent sitting on the floor of the Lents branch library or wandering the stacks at Barnes & Noble. Dad, for spending your time after work at the kitchen table with me every time my homework involved numbers, and for being my number one fan.
• How much money do you need to be financially free? Katie breaks down the 4% rule, why it works, and how it can be personalized and optimized for each persons retirement needs.
• High Standards Can Be a Double-Edged Sword "I am an incredibly driven person because of the people who raised me... But I also have a really hard time with turning it off. I can become very narrow-minded and obsessive about the things that I'm doing."
• Turn Critics Into Fuel Katie dedicated her book to an anonymous finance professional who told her to "quit writing about money" and "keep it to herself." Sometimes the best fuel comes from those who doubt you.
• Money Transparency in Families Creates Advantages Katie's parents openly discussed finances, including sharing their income. "I never really thought of it as something that was taboo... made it a lot easier for me now as an adult."
• The Power of Life Coaching for Entrepreneurs After initial skepticism, Katie found a life coach who told her, "You are way too in your head. You are way too concerned with the minutia. You don't even know where you wanna go yet."
• Intellectual Property is Everything in Negotiations "Your intellectual property is the most valuable thing that you are negotiating over... The primary value of the thing that I'm spending 60 hours a week working on needs to be accruing to me."
• The 25x Rule for Financial Freedom Based on the 4% withdrawal rule: "Once you have accumulated 25 times your annual spending... You should theoretically be able to use 4% of that amount every year, withdraw it, and live on it."
• Marriage Changes Everything Financially "Marriage is the most legally significant thing you will do in your life other than die, and you don't get so much as a leaflet about how your rights have just changed."
• Prenups Aren't About Distrust They're about legal protection, especially for anyone who might leave the workforce. "If you spend decades out of the workforce... You need to ensure that if your partnership ends someday... You will have a certain amount of income."
  
• Desire Drives Excellence "If you're not curious about it, you are not going to give it your all... There is such a difference in outcomes. If I am really into something that I'm working on, it's gonna be second to none."

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver.

www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader

Kirk Herbstreit is the voice of college football. A former Centerville High School and Ohio State University Quarterback, Kirk has been the lead Analyst for ESPN’s College Gameday since 1996. He calls the biggest games in college football on Saturday nights, and he broadcasts the college National Championship. Beyond college football, Kirk is also the lead analyst for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video. Kirk has been nominated for 19 Sports Emmy Awards and has won 5 times. This conversation was recorded in front of about 300 people in Centerville, Ohio. Kirk’s dog Peter was with us on stage when he wasn’t wandering around in the audience.

• Kirk's emotional moment after Ohio State's national championship was about his authentic connection to Coach Day, his son (who was on the team), and all the players. "I try so hard to be impartial. I try so hard to be just objective and fair. It's almost like the culmination of just a release."
  • Showing authentic emotion and humanity makes leaders more relatable and trustworthy, not weaker.
• Bob Gregg and Ron Ullery's impact: "They didn't tear your knees out, but they just made sure as a 16, 17, 18-year-old that you knew this ain't about you. It's about us." This foundation created a work ethic that translates across all of life.
• The most prepared broadcaster in the world - "When I started in 1996 on college game day, unless you were a Big 10 fan, you had no idea who I was. So my idea of trying to build my brand was they're gonna know me from my work ethic."
• "They're gonna know me from my work ethic. They're gonna know me like, damn, I don't know who that dude is, but he seems to know what he's talking about."
  • "I prepare a hundred percent, and I use 20% for all three shows." Over-preparation creates confidence and the ability to handle any direction conversations might go.
  • When you're not the most naturally gifted, becoming the most prepared person in the room creates a competitive advantage.
• High School Football Builds Life Skills – "I'm such an advocate for high school football because of my own experience... It's about what these guys are doing... simple old school values, like hard work and perseverance and facing adversity."
• "I could choose to be embarrassed of who I was on national TV, or choose to have a bit of a chip on my shoulder. And I was kind of a chip on my shoulder guy my whole life."
  • Feeling underestimated can fuel extraordinary preparation and performance when channeled constructively.
• Deal with Imposter Syndrome when he started broadcasting NFL games for Amazon on Thursday nights: "I didn't even go to an NFL camp, and here I am calling NFL Games as the expert game analyst. And so, and I'm working with freaking Al Michaels."
  • "I don't deserve your respect in my brain until I earn it."
• College Football's Current Crisis – "The players went from our era. You had no say to now they have all to say... It's like the world is upside down right now when it comes to that aspect of it."
• "Who fixes it? The NCAA doesn't fix it... No one's worried about the global view of the sport. They're worried about their region... who's in charge? No one's the boss."
  • "They're great players, but they're a dime a dozen. Like you're on a conveyor belt as a player. There's other players coming right behind you."
• Kirk supports true name, image, likeness marketing but opposes pay-for-play: "I am a fan of, if Jeremiah Smith becomes Jeremiah Smith after he gets there... if he can make money in marketing... But not, a guy is over at Bowling Green... and LSU needs a left guard and they're just like, Hey, how much does it take?"
• "These coaches are a little bit hesitant on how hard they're gonna be on these guys because they don't wanna believe. Imagine being a coach and you're worried about, is this guy gonna leave if I really do what I want to do with him?"
• Mental Health Through Faith – "For me, it's my faith... daily devotional prayer and really trying to connect helps me... having very honest conversation with family and friends and opening up."
• The Value of Chosen Hardship – My perspective: "I think you gotta keep doing that stuff... choose to do really hard things every day to prove to myself that I can keep doing hard things so that when adversity strikes, I'm prepared."
• Generational Empathy – "This generation, I can't imagine going through what they go through, whether it's Snapchat and middle school... just everybody being in your business and everything online."
• The Lee Corso Legacy – "He was hot takes before we knew what Hot Takes were... our relationship really changed was off air... he was a really good listener... like Yoda or like Don Corleone."
  • The best mentoring relationships evolve from one-directional learning to mutual care and support.
• The Lunatic Fringe - "There's 90% of Ohio State fans that whether they win or they lose, they're proud of 'em... every fan base has that 10% that we're all embarrassed of."

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver.

www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader

Tom Ryan is the head wrestling coach at Ohio State University. In college, he wrestled for perhaps the greatest wrestling coach of all time, Dan Gable, at Iowa, where he was a two-time Big Ten champion and a two-time NCAA All-American. As a coach at Ohio State, he’s won numerous national coach of the year honors, has coached more than 75 All-Americans, and led the Buckeyes to a national championship in 2015. We filmed this in his office in Columbus, OH, after spending the morning watching some of his championship wrestlers practice. It was one of the coolest days I’ve had in a long time.

Notes:

• “My first workout after driving from Syracuse to Iowa was a soul-cleanser. I collapsed in my car outside the arena. I couldn’t stop crying.”
  • "It was a line in the sand moment for me. Where are you going or staying? Because I could have turned around, I could have went right back. But it was this sense of knowing that you were in the right place."
  • It’s amazing that Tom decided to leave Syracuse with no guarantee of even making the team at Iowa, let alone a scholarship. He shows up on day 1, and Coach Gable didn’t even know who he was! Crazy. And then he goes on to earn his spot and become an All-American.
• Competitive Spirit from Early Age: "There's certainly an element of competitive spirit... even in second grade, we were on the playground... if you lose, you're fighting somebody. You just wanna win, you wanna win everything you do."
• Why go to Iowa?
  • The Will to Be Great – "I wanted to be elite at something. And by trial and error, it was almost trial and error... I wasn't gonna end my career with not knowing how high I could climb."
• Key Learnings from Dan Gable:
  • Emotional Control – "He wasn't a yeller. He wasn't a screamer... The reason why he didn't need to yell was his competence."
  • Focus on Situation, Not Person – "It was never personal... He would focus on the situation and not you as a person. You never felt attacked. It was just bluntly, your single leg needs improvement."
  • Balance of Freedom and Accountability – "Too much freedom. Not good... You can drive someone crazy with discipline and rituals and rules... It's just this happy medium."
• One of the most emotional moments in my 10+ years of recording this podcast, Tom shared the story of the day his 5-year-old son, Teague, had a heart attack and tragically passed away. The room went silent. And Tom went deep into the impact that it has had on him and his family. This is something I cannot imagine happening. I am grateful that Tom was willing to share and be so vulnerable. I love Tom Ryan, and I am lucky to have been in Columbus with him.
• The interview with Ohio State: "I wasn't their first choice... But ultimately, I was a leader that had learned. I learned under the best." He prepared extensively, attacked his weaknesses proactively, and wasn't afraid to discuss his faith.
• Chosen vs. Unchosen Suffering – The concept of "chosen suffering" came after experiencing unchosen suffering (losing Teague). "Wrestling has never brought me to my knees... I never got there in wrestling... but when I lost Teague in 2004, that I referred to as unchosen suffering."
• Chosen Suffering = Deep Love – "Chosen suffering is a fancy word for love because you will suffer the most for the things you love the most." The willingness to endure difficulty stems from profound love for what you're pursuing.
• Traits of Elite Performers:
  • Ungodly Effort – "In all studies ever performed on elite behavior... one is an ungodly effort. And I think effort stems from... effort over time is a byproduct of deep love."
  • High Capacity to Learn – Elite athletes have exceptional skill development abilities
  • Living in Truth – "The capacity to live in truth. To really be honest with yourself and be okay with it... really strong self-assessment."
  • Daily Discipline – "The discipline to do it daily... to work on your shortcomings and really be good enough to look in the mirror and say, I love you, but you got some problems."
• Being Coachable – "Most people wanna be coached until they're getting coached." Great performers actively seek feedback, while good ones want to be left alone.
• Three-Pronged Leadership Philosophy:
  • Example – Walk the walk and display the behaviors you want to see
  • Truth in Love – "Too much truth can demoralize someone... too much love, you're patronizing me. Stop it. Gimme the truth."
  • Embracing Pain and Suffering – "We're gonna make decisions that weren't right... and we're gonna accept them and we're gonna grow from them."
• The 3 Success Pillars:
  1. Your Mind - Internal you. Where your thoughts originate.
  2. Your Relationships - Who you allow to influence your decisions.
  3. Your Environment - The setting that will build you or break you.
• The world doesn’t care what we’re after, nor does it care about our principles. It doesn’t care about you or me, nor will it change for us. It doesn’t owe us anything. The world is heading in a direction, spinning on its axis, and there’s little we can do to change that. What we can change, however, is what we do. We can control our direction. We must continuously develop our core and worldview to help us navigate the temptations of the world.
• What happened on the morning of April 23, 2024? Coach Ryan had been on his way to OSU for an early morning workout with colleagues when his SUV, traveling at about 65 miles per hour, struck the semitrailer.
  • Physical Trauma vs. Emotional Trauma – "When we lost Teague, I was healthy, I was physically healthy, I was mentally healthy... when I hit this tractor trailer at full speed... the physical trauma that occurred was surreal. And I wasn't ready."
  • "I went into a terrible depression... I was sad when I lost my son, but I wasn't depressed... But in this, I was suicidal for a little bit." Coach Ryan openly shared his mental health struggles with family and got help.
• The #1 indicator of sustained success is emotional control.
• Two-word mantra — keep working.
• Physical Suffering as Mental Training – "Every single time I bike, there comes a moment in the bike ride where I realize I'm a sissy... there's a humbling, there's humility piece that you get from suffering."
• Choose the Hard Thing  - "I can always come up with an excuse why I'm not gonna do squats... And then I have to pause and say, dude. Get under the bar... getting under the bar... builds confidence for everything else in life." (that was from me)
• Discipline as a Superpower – "Discipline is a superpower. It's available to everybody." The transferable skill of choosing difficulty when you don't want to.
•  

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Go to www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader

William von Hippel grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He’s the author of multiple books. A few months ago, he published The Social Paradox: Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find Happiness.

Notes

• Why do people who have comfortable lives filled with freedom and abundance still feel unhappy? Need two things… Connection and autonomy.
• Are leaders born or made? Yes. Like most things, it’s not a black and white answer. The key is to use your unique strengths to effectively inspire others to do the work that must be done to achieve the goals of the team or company.
• How happy is Bill? He scores high on the genetics polygene(?) score. Some people are more genetically wired to be happy than others.
• You can fight against your genes and win. It’s just harder for you than others with better genetics. What’s my path of genetic least resistance? If you have low willpower, get the potato chips out of the house. Know yourself.
• Be yourself plus 20%. Overconfidence can be a good thing. Especially earlier in your career.
• Fake it til you make it. It can be good a lot of the time. He was overconfident as a new assistant professor, and it helped him.
• How you receive feedback is critical.
• Be honest, be kind
• His dad moved the family to Alaska because he didn’t love being told what to do. He was a heart surgeon.
• Bill moved to Australia. A hard place to make friends because they don’t move around much. He made connections with others who had moved there from out of the country.
• Life/Career advice: Too many choices can be bad. What are the elements of a job that I enjoy? What are my strengths?
• Leaders - It’s lonely at the top. You need a group you can trust and enjoy their company. Google study - They do everything in teams. What’s needed? Psychological safety. You need to be able to disagree with each other. Give feedback. It’s on the leader to create healthy disagreement. And receive feedback in a way that encourages more of it.
• I was surprised by how much of our happiness, health, and strength were based purely on our genetics. Some people are just born happier, healthier, and stronger than you. It doesn’t mean you can’t be happy, healthy, or strong. It just means that you need to work harder to make it happen. That’s life!

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver.

Go to www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader

Rich Gotham is the President of the Boston Celtics. He is responsible for all aspects of the Celtics' business operations. In addition, he works closely with Celtics ownership, basketball operations staff, and the NBA on basketball-related matters, as well as team and league initiatives. He succeeds “Red” Auerbach as Celtics team President and serves on the NBA Board of Governors. Since joining the Celtics in 2003, he’s helped grow team revenues by over 300%, and they’ve won two NBA championships.

Notes:

• Must-haves when making hiring decisions for a leadership role: Work ethic, self-awareness, a catalyst for positive energy, purpose-driven, and care ("give a shit").
• At the time, the Celtics were run like a mom-and-pop shop. Rich was brought in to help them run like a professional business.
• Rich was recruited to the Celtics by new owner (at the time), Wyc Grousbeck. 3 different people told Wyc that he should talk to Rich. – Add value. Leave people better than you found them. They will refer you to others for big jobs without you even knowing it.
• Celtic pride - grew up there, made you proud to be from Boston.
  • "Different here." 18-time champs.
• Pressure from fans to win: It beats indifference.
• Making bets on potential - Hiring Brad Stevens.
• Danny Ainge did a great job selling it to Brad.
• Watching Payton Pritchard warm up. He cares.
• Working with the Bruins and Red Sox leaders – Lower the ego, put yourself in their shoes. Seek first to understand. And find a way to get it done. Rich went outside of the office to meet regularly with a leader of the Boston Bruins to get their lease squared away. That had been an issue for decades, and he helped get it figured out so both sides could win.
• Advice - You have to have self-belief, believe in your ability. Don't let that get chipped away. Why should they pick you? Be vulnerable.
• Leave others better than you found them.