Professionally Offensive

Chris Williams, Founder & Owner of Williams Knife Company (Williams) believes that if you live a life doing what you love, you will never work a day in your life.  This second-generation knife maker says that even though he was educated in business, he was meant to make knives.  After a career working as an investment banker and managing people’s wealth, he realized that even though he was having a good time and making a great living, something was missing.  As he would retire to his knife shop on the weekends, he realized that his calling was to build great knives.  Chris shares how taking off the suit and going door to door to sell knives was a humbling experience, but a necessary one to get traction in a business he believed in.  After years of knocking on doors, a popular outdoor magazine recognized the quality and unique craftsmanship in one of Chris’ knives, The Edisto Oyster Knife.  After winning the top award, this put Chris and his company on a rocket ship.  He shares that the journey of a founder and how “letting go” and knowing that his Team will take care of the baby, was the thing that helped his company grow.  It's not an easy thing to release control over something with your namesake on it (literally) but finding the right people who share the dream can help create the impossible.  As Chris and his Team continue to grow, they make sure they never forget where they came from.  Advice from his father taught Williams to make sure you prioritize the customers you have, not just find new ones.  Loyalty & Quality are a two-way street and the Williams Team continues to uphold that promise. Follow Chris and The Williams Team at www.williamsknife.com and @williamsknifeco Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders at www.cabreratoro.com Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) LinkedIn: CabreraToro

Mark Richards, former Army Aviation Commander, Iraq & Afghanistan War Leader and Leadership & Development Pro, shares lessons learned from a life spent in the service of others.  Mark has used much of what he has learned in the military and has applied it to helping Fortune 100 companies create the best Leadership & Development programs, to extract the best from their people.  Mark believes that Leaders who spend time creating a "Commander's Intent" are less likely to create cultures of disengagement and rock chasing.  A good Commander’s Intent articulates what success should look like without being a tyrant on how a Team accomplishes the task at hand.  Mark shares that spending time clearly articulating the purpose, key tasks and end-state can help a Team accomplish difficult objectives in the most creative ways.  In this episode we also cover the power of listening and how many of us never learn this skill.  We are taught to speak, read and present but not to actively listen.  Leaders Listen.  Mark dives into his personal journey with mental health and the simple ways Leaders can help engage their Team’s wellness while executing the mission.  First step is to recognize that you are working with people who are not always going to have a perfect day before coming to work.  Simply acknowledging that, humanizes work and allows you to really understand where your people are.  Incorporating "human and personal" check ins creates genuine conversations and trust with your Team.   Everyone will deal with their mental wellness differently, but your job as a Leader is to give space for your Team to be seen and heard. Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders at www.cabreratoro.com Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) LinkedIn: CabreraToro

Reference Points can serve as a powerful tool, moment and method to approach difficult situations with confidence.  Everyone has Reference Points, but the key is being able to reflect on them, appreciate them and utilize them to ground you.  These moments originate from success and failures- wins and trauma.  These moments show you what you're able to endure and still come out stronger for it.  Join Joseph as he discusses the meaning of Reference Points, where they come from, how to build more and how to utilize them as a Leader.  Reference Points: A moment you can return to that gives you courage and confidence for what’s in front of you. Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders at www.cabreratoro.com Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) LinkedIn: CabreraToro

We interact with this concept almost every single day, but often don't understand and appreciate the weight of it.  Management, performance metrics and processes are used interchangeably with Leadership, but this would be incorrect.  Leadership is a craft, way of life and art that Leaders practice to inspire greatness in others.  This craft is enduring and necessary to effectively Lead Teams and move people through difficult situations. As we kick off another year of inspiring wisdom and raw insights, establishing a foundation for Leadership seems appropriate.  During this episode, Joseph reviews various definitions of Leadership, his personal perspective and how this craft is necessary for the responsibilities and positions we hold. Welcome to 2023. Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders @ www.cabreratoro.com Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) LinkedIn: CabreraToro

This episode is action packed with some impactful highlights from conversation with our 2022 guests.  As you prepare for 2023, this collection of clips are designed to deliver reflection and momentum for the year ahead.  The right mindset as a Leader is paramount in moving your Team the direction you need them to go, values are critical to ensuring your service to others is unwavering and People are at the center of all of it.  As you listen to these curated segments, we recommend that if something really resonates, to go back to the episode and listen through it for additional context and insights.  Here's to the solid work completed in 2022 and an exciting year ahead.  Key Takeaways By Episode - EP. 46 John Merris (CEO, Solo Brands): Leader of Leaders, Talent vs Skill and Leading By Example - EP. 33 Pascal Finette (Chief Jester & Co-Founder, "be radical" Group): Know Yourself and Stop Romanticizing Big CEO Jobs - EP.  50 Jason McCann (CEO, Vari): Scaling Values, Chief People Officers and Building Culture When Small - EP.  17 Kate Saber (Executive Coach, Kate Saber Coaching): Don't Delegate The Qualitative, Thriving Teams, Looking In the Mirror, Finding A Coach - EP. 62 Travis McAshan (CEO, Glide): Uncovering Values, Not Creating and Delivering Faithfully - EP. 27 Steve Stoll (Frm. Special Forces Officer): Making Others Successful, Building Rapport, Being Creative - EP. 61 Graham Weston (Founder, Fmr. CEO & Chairman Rackspace): Focused Leadership, Specializing, Knowing When To Transition As A Leader. Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders @ www.cabreratoro.com Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) LinkedIn: CabreraToro

Part 2 of Simplify and Perfect walks you through the tactics for establishing one's true priorities and how someone begins to perfect them.  Simplifying one's life is the key to continued success and using the unique gifts you have to make a difference.  Simplifying requires you to take an inventory of all the things you do and put them into 3 buckets: Unique Gifts/Drives You, Delegate & Eliminate.  Sorting through these buckets can be challenging, but will allow you to clearly delineate the tasks and commitments in your life that prevent you from reaching the best version of yourself.  Joseph shares a very simple method for laying all of your commitments out, categorizing them and clearly executing the actions needed to stay the course.  After you simplify,  then and only then, can you begin to perfect.  This is a lifelong process and one that involves action, mentorship and discipline.  Are you ready to reach a flow state and the top 1% of your potential? Join Joseph on this 2-part series where he dives into the "Simplify & Perfect" concept and the tactics to get you moving in that direction. Follow @cabreratoro_explore (Instagram) Check out other ways Joseph and Team are serving other Leaders @ www.cabreratoro.com

Part 1 of Simplify and Perfect dives into the concept of focusing your efforts on a few critical objectives that bring energy and drive you.  Joseph shares that simplifying one's life is the key to continued success and using the unique gifts you have to make a difference.  Simplifying is not easy, but 100% worth it.  Most of us have created complexity in our lives (in many cases, unintentionally) and are trying to keep everything organized and moving forward.  What is really happening, is that we are not moving the needle at all and focusing our energy in areas that bring us little to no joy.  Simplifying is about taking an inventory of all the things you do and putting them into 3 buckets, the most important bucket being the things that you're uniquely gifted with, that provide value to others and generates sustaining energy.  The items in that bucket usually have a theme that can further inform how you eliminate and delegate the other things, in your life.  Once you've simplified, you can then begin to perfect.  Perfecting is an enduring task and one that is never complete.  Honing your craft, seeking mentorship and refining your skills are all ways to extract the most out of your gifts.  But only perfect after you simplify, otherwise you'll be back to where you started.  Join Joseph on this 2-part series where he dives into the "Simplify & Perfect" concept and the tactics to get you moving in that direction.

Travis McAshan, Founder & CEO of Glide Design, has been building stunning websites for nearly 20 years. From F1 to Yeti, Travis and his Team have been involved in transforming the way people serve their customers and represent their purpose.  He started as a record breaking track & field athlete that competed with some of the fastest and most talented runners in the world. During that time he also pursued his passion for design and functional beauty.  After working in graphic design at a few start-ups, he decided to plant the seed for Glide and the rest was history.  Travis is quite the student of culture & values and believes that a true investment in their company “Why” is the primary reason Glide has been so successful.  Travis shares that values are “uncovered”, not created.  Each company has an organic lean to the things they care about and believe in.  Values are something you already are, not necessarily something you want to become.  Travis also shares that many companies have a hard time putting momentum behind their values, because they have a laundry list of them.  3-4 values is all you need to move mountains.  Values should also be something that not only makes you better at work, but makes you a better person... period.  In the early days of any business, it can be difficult to find the right mentors and advice- Travis leaned on and continues to lean on books.  He says that if you think about any book, it is usually a lifetime of work that went into writing it and you get to absorb that in 7-10 hours.  Overall, Travis believes that finding your authentic self and living that in everything you do is critical to happiness.  One does this by executing their mission on their own terms.  If you don't, you can find yourself also pursuing your purpose at your detriment which is not sustainable.  Whether it is creating an environment for your employees to uniquely deliver their passion (even at some cost to the company) or saying "no" to a client that who doesn’t fit within your values (even if the price tag looks great), happiness is about living out your “why” and pursuing it with focus.  Travis and his Team are on a mission to help those, who help other and be around great people while they do it. Learn more about Travis and his Team at: www.glidedesign.com

Graham Weston, Former CEO & Chairman of Rackspace (NYSE: RXT), founder of Geekdom, Weston Ventures, Weston Urban and the 80/20 Foundation (to name a few) talks about the power of “thinking small” and how the tactics inform the strategy, not the other way around.  Much of finding success is about executing something simple, very aggressively.  Graham believes that one of the greatest contributions he made, in the early days at Rackspace, was reducing all the other services they had and focusing on just hosting.  Doing one thing well, allows companies to have an advantage over established organizations.  Graham also shares that the devil is who gets you to diversify, meaning, stick to what is working for a while before you decide to invest elsewhere.  Any entrepreneurial endeavor also requires burning the ships and fully committing if you want to have a shot at finding success.  Graham believes that many ideas and dreams are never realized because of fear.  The fear of not having a stable job and being able to maintain a certain standard of living, is the very thing that can hold back the best ideas from coming to life.  Being self-aware is also critical and understanding that sometimes you are better off being employee 7, instead of employee 1.  It’s about creating value and doing it the best way you know how.  Self-awareness also applies when it comes to how long one stays the course.  Tenacity in accomplishing a goal is commendable, but not if timing, product-market fit and lack of Team is not on your side.  Nothing wrong with acknowledging that certain conditions are not present and moving onto something else.  Sacrifice is also a crucial mindset, especially in the early days of any business.  Not personal sacrifice (although that is part of it), but business sacrifice.  It is easy to get lured into "Doing It All", but you will almost guarantee failure if you do.  Graham’s induction as a Legend, into the Texas Business Hall of Fame was for his contributions to Texas business and encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurs.  From the 80/20 Foundation to ventures like Geekdom, Graham continues to help companies and Teams across Texas reach their potential.   You can follow Graham at www.grahamweston.com This episode was in partnership with the Texas Business Hall Of Fame. You can learn more about TBHF and their mission by visiting www.texasbusiness.org

During this season of Thanksgiving, we have gifts, events and traditions top of mind.  While it is admirable to aim for the incredible gestures to show folks we care, it is often the small acts of kindness that mean the most.  Joseph shares his gratitude for the community that has been built via the podcast as well as thanking all those who have shared anything, from these episodes, with others in need of a boost or check in.  Joseph also shares a story from a time very early in his professional career and how that has dynamically influenced how he Leads and treats others.  A simple act of kindness during Ranger Training set the tone for years to come.  Whether in the workplace, Team room or at home- Don't underestimate the power of a small and random acts of kindness.  It is these acts that are often the most helpful to someone and can go the distance.