Your Mindset Is Limiting Your Capacity

- It is amazing how much mindset matters. You know what I'm talking about? And your mindset as a leader, how you're approaching things mentally, emotionally has a ton to do with your perceived capacity. Let's talk about it. - This is the Lead In 30 podcast with Russ Hill. - You cannot be serious. - Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes. (upbeat music) - It's time to end the confusion. Get the new book by the founders of Lone Rock Leadership. See why executives at Lockheed Martin, Cigna, Teva, Chili's and so many other companies are praising Deliver. Why some leaders get results and most don't. You can download the first chapter right now and request two free copies shipped to you at lonerock.io. - Okay, well, let me be honest with you. At the time that many of you are listening to this episode, what she just said is gonna be true. That you can go to lonerock.io, you can download the first chapter of Deliver, our new book, and that you can request that two physical copies be shipped to you. I'll explain why too in a minute. But right now, like at the moment that this episode's going out, that's not up on the website yet. So just be patient. Sorry, we put that in the podcast sooner than we actually are able to deliver on it. We are, you all were in the final, we just did the last complete edits of Deliver. The very, well, it's not the last. You never finish fully editing 'cause you discover grammar mistakes or some typo on page 247 that nobody caught that AI didn't detect your AI proofread process too, that it didn't pick up. But pretty much the final edit is in, it's all getting to Amazon and the different book manual, all that stuff's happening, right? And so in the next few weeks, at the time this episode's being pushed out, just give us a week or two and we'll have that up and just go to lonerock.io and everything that she just said about you being able to download the first chapter and to get a couple of free copies, physical copies mailed to you, that will all be true. So just be patient with this. We are so excited. In fact, I'm gonna do this real quick. I'm gonna actually play for you like maybe a minute, just a minute or two, probably a minute, minute and a half of the audio book version of Deliver, our new book. I just wanna give you a small little sample and you all, this audio is gonna be slow and with pauses and at a different speed than I'm talking right now because that's how audio books are recorded, right? But we just locked down the person who's gonna be doing the audio book version of Deliver. I'm super excited about that too. So let me just play for you. And again, we're gonna go from 80 miles an hour in the way that I'm speaking right now to like 30 miles an hour, which is the way audio books are recorded. But I wanna give you just a flavor and then I wanna come back and talk about what I wanna talk about in this episode, which is all about your perceived capacity. But as a listener to the podcast, I gotta give you some insight behind the scenes, behind the scenes access to what we're doing. So this is the first few pages of the introduction of the book Deliver. Why some leaders get results and most don't, our new book. This is an effing waste of time, Ben declared, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade. I have zero confidence this is going to be worth a damn. I'm only here because I was told I had to show up. The meeting room on the 14th floor of the company's Philadelphia offices suddenly went completely still. No movement, no noise. 10 executives who collectively controlled billions in revenue sat frozen, watching their head of sales, a man closer to retirement than anyone else in the room, methodically destroy the other departments in the company. The problem isn't with my sales team, Ben continued, pointing at his colleagues. It's your departments that are the issue. Sorry, but the truth hurts. When Ben finished his brutal assessment and sat down, arms crossed and head down, we realized we were witnessing something profound. A leader so frustrated by his organization's inability to execute that he was willing to risk the repercussions of spewing unfiltered honesty, rather than sit through another pointless meeting. It wasn't the opening we anticipated to start that meeting, but it wasn't entirely surprising either. This was the world's 10th largest company as measured by revenue. And it was suffering from the same disease we had seen spreading everywhere. So good. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for all of you to be able to read this book that we spent the last four years on as the founders of Lone Rock Leadership. And this one is, it's the fourth book, the fourth book that my name will be on that I've been a part of writing. Each one is just, it requires a ton of work, you all. Like we threw out the, if you were to get into our files, there are folders and folders and folders of previous manuscripts and ghost writers that we fired and hired. And we tried this approach and that title and that cover and you just, you have to get it right. And it's never perfect. And there are so many things that I still want to change in the book and adjust this and that takes too long to say and shorten that down or put more meat on that or whatever. But at some point you just have to ship, right? The product's never totally complete. And Joel, who's the voice, Joel's the name of the guy that you just heard narrating that. He's just getting to work on recording the whole book. You can imagine how much time it takes to record 70,000 words. That's a huge project. But I think he's the perfect, he's got the perfect approach. These are all the things you have to worry about when putting a book out too, right? So he put the hard back out, which we handed out to all the executives that read our summit at Sundance Resort a few weeks ago. And then we went back and made some adjustments. They got kind of the advanced copy of it. And now we've got over 200 people who are getting the digital copy of it that signed up for that. They're gonna give us reviews on it. And so they've got the digital copy of the book over 200 people. And I've been posting on LinkedIn about that and having people sign up if they wanted to be part of it. And so their reviews are about to come in and then you get the audio book version and then now we're dealing with the shipping and all. Anyway, it's just tons of pieces and that's just a book, right? You've got all the rest of the things that you're working on. But so excited for that book to get out there, deliver why some leaders get results and most don't. And it's a game changer. I wish I had this book when I was 20 years old. I wish I had it when I was 30 years old. It would have profoundly affected my ability to get results of things that we've learned in the meantime. Okay, so, and by the way, deliver that book is all tied to the concepts in our 30 day course, Lead In 30, which I've been talking about. I mean, it's the name of this podcast, right? And many of you have been through it. Many of you put, you know, hundreds of leaders in your organizations through it. Some of you are just considering that. All the information on that's at lonerock.io. Okay, let's talk about what I wanna get into. Oh, I gotta actually officially welcome you and welcome into the Lead In 30 podcast in less than 30 minutes. We give you a framework, an audio file to listen to, an experience, a best practice, something to help you upgrade your ability to lead others. I make my living, my name's Russ Hill. I make my living coaching, consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's biggest companies. So awesome. I've been on the phone today, you all with some executives I haven't talked to in like three years and they're involved in, one of them is involved in a startup now that's coming out of India and they've got their headquarters in the US and Austin, Texas and they're just getting going and they just got series A funding and like that's a smaller organization that's just starting to, I mean, they grew 500% in 2025, which is amazing. You have that on one end and then on the other end we've got organizations with well over 100,000 people that in fact one organization we're talking to right now has got well over 30,000 leaders that they're trying to get some of this content. It's just amazing, all the diversity of experiences that we all have based on the industry we're in, the company we're in, the stage of life we're in, the types of leaders we work with, what we're trying to accomplish from a life purpose standpoint, just in case you can't tell, it just energizes me being in this leadership lab with people who are trying to produce results and leading a group of humans is sticking hard. It is hard doing it in your own home or doing it in a small organization or a big complex matrixed organization, whether you're making cars or fighter jets or burritos or bacon or you're doing healthcare services or insurance, whatever it is, there's just so much opportunity to gain wisdom and for those of us that are addicted to growth it's an amazing time to be alive. Okay, let's talk about what I set up in the intro to this podcast, which is about mindset. I'm gonna share a quick experience and then I'm gonna go to why this is on my mind and don't get lost in the simplicity of this experience 'cause the underlying principle that I'm gonna share in this episode that I really want you thinking about as it pertains to the way that you lead others. I'll explain how these two simple experiences tie to the principle of leading others and the principle that I want you to apply there. Okay, so I'm gonna drive through. I'm gonna drive through, I'm on a road trip, I'm on a business trip, I'm gonna drive through on an afternoon, I'm starving, it's actually getting to be evening time and I'm doing something that I rarely do right now, I'm going through a McDonald's drive through and 'cause it's the only thing open. One of the only things open and I really don't care, I'm at that point, you know when you get to that point of hunger where like, you just could eat cardboard, you're just not picky and you've got your schedule is super compressed and so you don't really have time to be picky and whatever else, I'm in this drive through, I order a couple of things, I'm the only car in there, it's a really not busy time and the experience is horrific. I'm not gonna get into all the details but they just basically forget about me, so I park and I'm in the drive through but I park and I have to go inside the restaurant and don't worry I wasn't that guy and I go in and people are on, the employees are on their phone, like nobody's making my food and I'm thinking, you forgot about me, how did my order get, somebody cleared my order from the board and yet I don't have any food and I'm dying and this was supposed to be really quick 'cause I'm racing to get to this particular venue where I've got to be and so I go in and I'm like, hey, you know, what's going on here? And the manager on duty was just the sort of person that you hire when nobody else on earth is available, if you know what I mean, just not good, not good at all and yeah, I'm doing all kinds of judgment in the moment because just because I'm human and I'm thinking, you know, there are all kinds of things going on in his personal life that's affecting how he's showing up and work and how he's leading this team or actually he's not leading the team but it's just a disaster. So I finally just say, you know what, you guys, let's just make this super simple. I'll go away, just give me my money back and it was just like $6 or $7, like nothing, right? Like meaningless amount of money but it was the principle of you don't deserve my cash and so I wasn't angry about it, I was super chill about it and I'm just like, well, you haven't even really started making my food and you don't really want my business and so it's cool, just give me my money back, they give it to me, I leave and now I'm leaving this McDonald's experience that's just horrific, like textbook bad, like viral if I had the video and posted it, just that bad and so I leave and yet I haven't solved my problem, which is I'm starving but I'm so principle based and something like that but I just could not in good faith give them money 'cause they didn't deserve any revenue from that hour and neither did the owner, the franchisee who hired that team and so I drive down and I'm like, I gotta get something, like I'm not gonna survive, I don't get something so I pull into a Wendy's drive-through and I don't know when the last time I was in Wendy's and the experience was always completely different, like the gal comes on the speaker, there's nobody in any of the drive, there's nobody out, the hour of the day, the day of the week, all of that, nobody's out, these places are just empty and so I go through the Wendy's drive-through, the voice comes on the speaker, it could not be more pleasant, more human, more warm, like oh wow, I'm not used to that kind of a human on a drive-through speaker so I order my little basic meal, I pull up to the window, this 20-something, 22, 24-hour-old she was, with a couple of piercings and whatever else and hair dyed a different color, she could not have been more personable, more friendly, more pleasant to deal with and it's just a completely different experience and so I told her that, I gave her feedback so after the transaction, I'm like, can I just give you some feedback? You are amazing, like this restaurant is so, I said this, this restaurant is so lucky to have you in this window doing that and she smiled real big, she's like, oh my gosh, thank you so much, I'm like, no for real, thank you so much for the way you approach that interaction and I know it's super simple and but I just have to give you that feedback and she looked like someone had just handed her the Employee of the Month trophy at some major corporation, it was meaningful to her, which I appreciated too and so then I drive away, right? And I'm thinking about mindset, thinking about lots of things, the customer experience, I'm thinking about who you hire matters, I'm thinking about frontline, I'm thinking about how much the supervisors of frontline employees matter, I'm thinking about all of this, I'm thinking about the general managers of those restaurants and how one is clearly very involved in the type of people that they hire 'cause yeah, you have a few outliers and you get lucky sometimes, but my guess is if I was to look at the general manager and these restaurants, these little locations were like a mile, two miles apart, I'm thinking the general manager, I already know what I'm gonna see, I already know the experience I'm gonna have if I were to have lunch or sit down in a meeting with the general manager of the Wendy's versus the general manager of the McDonald's. They're gonna be two totally different approaches. They are as the, because teams are reflections of leaders, period, it's just a fact. Your team is a reflection of you. They have your level of energy, they have your level of commitment, they have your level of excuse making, they have your level of strategic, like they are, now they're not, you have outliers and you have some different challenges and whatever else, but it's all about what you tolerate, it's all about what you pursue, it's all about what you're willing to, what you're looking for in people. How important it is for you to get the people that think this way or execute that way or have this sort of a mindset. And so the employee on the front line is a reflection, their mindset is a reflection of the mindset of their supervisor, who is a reflection of the mindset of their manager, who's a reflection of the VP. You got it, how it cascades? Again, they're outliers, but if you're thinking to yourself right now, Russ, that's not true, 'cause when I look at my team, like I got this person, I got that person and they're nothing like me and they're totally problem child or children or they have issues and well, you're tolerating it. Like they're still on your team, you promoted them, you hired them, you're not doing anything about it. And I know you have a million reasons, but the facts are the facts. And so I'm thinking about this mindset. And then let me combine all these things and put it into kind of a mixing bowl and then explain what I'm trying to bake here. Then I'm at the gym. You guys, the gym for me, how many episodes have I, over the 400 or close to 400 episodes have I mentioned something about the gym? You have these places that you go and these habits that you have where you think. And some of you, that's the shower, others of you, it's in the car, driving during your commute, others of you, it's on the plane, others of you, it's on the back porch, sipping a cup of coffee, others of you, it's in the mornings or at night when you're journaling or when you're reading a book on the living room couch or you're cut, whatever. But one of those places for me for thought is the gym. And because of the time of day that I go and because of time between sets when you're working out or whatever and just because of the effect that exercise and movement has on your brain activity and so all of that combines. And so I often think about, or every once in a while, think about capacity in the gym. That's really what separates us. And so I often think, well, I have the capacity to lift the, we're just gonna use examples, right? I have capacity to do a curl, a bicep curl, those of you that know what that is, that's pretty basic, right? I have capacity to do a 20 pound dumbbell bicep curl. Let's just say that's where I'm at. And so that's what I pick and that's what I go with and I do so many reps and then I look at somebody else and in fact, this happened to me this week. This is what got me thinking about it. I was on this machine, it's basically like a back row if you know what that is. So I'm doing an exercise for my back and it's kind of a row exercise. And there's a guy who comes, I'm on a call and yeah, I was kind of being that guy on a call at the gym kind of taking too long, whatever. I was doing the reps, but I was taking longer between the sets than I should have been 'cause I'm deep in this phone call. So this guy walks up to me and he's like, how many, how many, and he's pleasant, but he's like, how many more sets do you have? And my answer almost always when somebody asks that question is one, it just becomes one more set. 'Cause if you want this machine, I'm not gonna get in the way, I'm not gonna be that guy. So I said, one more and he gives me this look like, okay, cool, but get on with it. And this guy is half my age, which is not difficult these days. And he's pleasant and I finish up the set and I move away and he's like, don't worry about it, don't clear the weights, I'm good. And then he puts on, and I'm looking at this dude, it's not like, I'm certainly not some bronzed bodybuilder by any stretch, never will be, that's not my goal, nor do I think I have that, well, kind of gets the capacity mindset, so I shouldn't say what I was gonna say, 'cause it violated everything I'm talking about. Well, except that my mindset is, that's not who I wanna be, right? And I just wanna be active. And this guy's trying to build size and whatever else, but he's not there yet, he's a decent size, but it doesn't look like he's massively stronger than I am. And so you got some ego going here and he loads up like more than double the weight I was doing. And I'm watching him, now I'm at a different machine a little ways away, and occasionally I'm strong, this business call, I'm kinda looking over, seeing what he's doing, and I'm watching this, and I'm like, wow, how is he doing that much weight? And so I wanted to get back on the machine, because I thought, well, Russ, maybe you could probably do more than you had loaded on there. And you were in the mindset of being more focused on the business call anyway than the weight, and so I'm just going to capacity. And so often I have the experience when exercising that I can go further, I can go heavier than I thought I could. And there's an obstacle, like mentally, I start feeling some pain, or I start losing my breath, or whatever it is, and so I go, okay, well, I can only go a tenth of a mile more. Or I think I could put on another five pounds on this, but not anymore than that, 'cause I'm facing some resistance. And when that obstacle presents itself, then I hedge. And it has to do with capacity. And so let me give another quick story, and then we're gonna go right into the principle, and my thought, my invitation to you. So the neighbors down the street, right, that they don't live there anymore, but they lived in this big house down the street for most, maybe four or five houses, and they were there when we moved in, and some of their kids, their oldest, were the ages of our oldest, and they became friends, and they still are friends, and even though they're all married, that they're older kids now, and those couples have become friends. And anyway, we have four kids, they had eight, yeah, eight, and so you think, you know where I'm going, right? So you have one kid, and you're like, wow, this baby is so, like, life changed in a massive way. How does anybody have a kid? Like, your respect level for somebody who's a parent goes way off the charts. And then maybe you have, well, you think, how could anyone ever have two? Two of these things, right, like, how do they survive? And then maybe you take the plunge, and you have a second, and you're like, whoa, this is so much harder than having one. We thought one was hard, but two, like, whoa. And then maybe you have a third or a fourth, some of us do, and you're like, okay, I think we're gonna, that's good, like, love this group. This is my squad, we're gonna kind of level it out here. And you think life's just crazy busy, and you got so much going on. And then you look down the street, and you're like, but they seem to be doing pretty good, and they've got double the herd that we've got. How mindset, capacity. And so capacity, I talked to my kids, my kids could tell you this lecture, this sermon I've given them, capacity's not fixed. And capacity has to do with your mindset. And so why am I talking about this? Because for many of you, right now, your greatest obstacle to growth is your mindset about your capacity. And one of the game changers in my life, in my career, has been having people around me who periodically reminded me, or told me, or persuaded me, or convinced me that I had greater capacity than I thought I did. What a huge gift those people have been in my life. And I don't have time in this episode to go through and tell you all those stories, but strategically at certain moments of my life, I view it as divine involvement in my life. That's how I view it. I actually think there's somebody playing chess, moving some pieces around up there. I just, that's my belief. You could think I'm crazy, and that's fine. You may describe it differently in your life, but that's the approach, that's just what I believe at the age I'm at, based on what I've experienced, is that not sure how all that plays out, but we'd have a pretty good, not debate, but a pretty good, healthy discussion where I don't think I'd be too movable on this topic. And so I look at that, I'm just so grateful that that happened, that people who crossed my path, or who spoke up in moments, and there were enough of them at specific moments in my life to where I actually paid attention and was open to what they were saying that you've got greater, they didn't say it exactly this way, but the message the takeaway was, you've got greater capacity than you think you do. When we first started our firm, Lone Rock Leadership, and we'd been working with executives for a long time, and we had the consulting business, and we had clients and people that we had built relationships with over time, and they would talk to other people and talk to other people. And so the three of us that founded the firm, we were kind of like, you know, look at the lifestyle we've got, look at the income we're generating, look at the clients we get to work with, look at where we're at in life, like, this is awesome, this is amazing. And we contemplated for a moment, we considered just kind of leaving it there. We talked about setting a limit with the number of consulting clients we'd have, and not traveling that much, and keeping our schedules like 50% busy with work, or whatever, because of the stage we were at in life, and where we, whatever. And then there came this moment in our discussion that we actually had greater capacity, and that we didn't want to waste it, and we wanted to develop it. And so maybe we should expand the group, and maybe we should build a leadership training company based off of what the executives we were working with wanted, and what they were asking for, and the additional services, and whatever else, and so we, there was this ultimate time, this ultimate moment where we decided, let's actually stretch, let's actually dig into this, like, let's push ourselves more. That's what I'm talking about. And so my question to you right now, and some of you are listening to this going, man, I'm at that point on the treadmill where I gotta hit, like, slow down, like, rest, you know what I mean, or stop, because I don't have any more capacity. Or there's something going on in an extenuating circumstance, or there's a cloud over you at this period of your life, or, and so this doesn't really apply in the moment. And you get a pass for right now, like, we've all been there, and we all will be there at certain times of life. I'm not really speaking to you in this moment. I'm speaking to you in a present, in a future moment. Others of you, no, you're at a place where you kind of, you're on the lazy river, and it doesn't really feel that way. It's not totally an accurate description, but you're comfortable. And maybe what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to be that dude on the machine that actually is doing double the weight you're doing. And it's not like I'm putting it in your face and saying, see how much I'm lifting, I'm just, what I'm doing, and what he did that day for me was cause me to think, I bet you could do more. And that's what the neighbors down the street did with the herd of eight. It wasn't, oh, we need to have more kids. No, that ship had sailed, but it was, oh, you can do more. And so it's a decision, it's a mindset. And so I want to approach growth. I want to approach learning. I want to approach the opportunity to gain additional wisdom with the attitude of the gal in the Wendy's drive-through. Let's do this. Like this is with that kind of a mindset for growth. And so when I look at my challenges and I look at the work that's out there and I look at the grind and I look at all that, I want her mindset. I don't want the mindset of those, that crew that I was trying to get a couple of snack wraps from, you know? And that are just on their cell phones, just chilling in the back as orders are coming through, just 'cause their comfort, their entertainment is more important than really doing the work. Does that all make sense? Is that coming through for you? So I just want you thinking. I want you thinking about your mindset toward your capacity and what's possible. And this is a great time of year. At the time we're putting this episode out, we're going into, you know, we've got the holiday season coming up in a few weeks, wrapping up, we're thinking about the new year, what we're gonna try to accomplish as an organization, as a team, as individuals. If we're starting to get into that period where you ought to be thinking about that, and I'll talk more about that in upcoming episodes like I do every year at this time, because it's a fantastic opportunity to look back and to look forward and to make some adjustments. And so capacity, mindset, that's what's on my mind in this episode of The Lead in 30 Podcast. ♪ Lead in 30 ♪ - Share this episode with a colleague, your team, or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to The Lead in 30 Podcast with Russ Hill. ♪ Your sentence to lead in 30 ♪