[laughs]

And I'm gonna elaborate on some- or I want you to elaborate on something that I'm about to say, because I know that you talk about this, and I know that there's a framework around this in The Mattering Effect, which, by the way, will be a New York Times bestseller, by the way, and we'll, we'll talk about that book in a moment.

But here's a unplugged truth.

We've talked a lot in the last two to three years about making sure in the workplace people are seen.

I think that's step one, because hearing you and your story and understanding some of your frameworks, people don't just need to be seen, they also need to be valued, right? And I know that that is something that you talk about, so I would love for you to elaborate, because for the people that are watching that are leaders, that are founders of companies, I'm gonna say it's no longer good enough to just make your people feel seen.

That, that's actually pretty easy now, right? But how do you make them feel valued? And I think from a culture standpoint, it's the most important thing.

But I'd love for you to elaborate, brother.

So if there's anything that I hope to do with the rest of the days that I have on Earth, it's to help people not become the 76% who go on their deathbed looking back and wondering, "What the heck did I do with my life?"

Is that your experience too?

I see it every day.

And I used to see it in my companies.

And then I made a mandate about a year ago that...

You know, as AI was becoming much more prevalent, like I will never have or use AI to replace humans on my team.

Will I replace functions of your job that can be done easier with AI? Absolutely.

But you have to embrace AI to better yourself.

As far as the stick-to-itiveness or not cracking under pressure, I guess is maybe another way to say it.

Can you tell me about that story?

Yeah, man, it was, um, Christmas Eve, nineteen eighty-eight.

So the ten-year-old me was wanting to be outside when I heard all the kids outside.

I'm, I'm from the South, so we don't have snow, so it wasn't anything dramatic out there, right? But, but, you know, s- you're out of school, everything's going well.

But I wake up to sobs from my mom, a-and I knew exactly what those sobs meant.

You know, every day for the first ten years of my life, I witnessed my mom go through physical, emotional, financial abuse from my father, who lived in the same household.

And I decided at that point that enough was gonna be enough.

Or who were the sort of mentors of effective leadership when you were a child or a teenager?

What are you seeing shifting in the marketplace with these leaders and why are you being so intentional about really helping leaders lead in a more bold fashion? Yeah.

Yeah, man.

It's because we're coming to the end.

I think this year is the last wave of baby boomers that will have retired from corporate America, white collar, even blue collar positions, which means that there is a group of people that are now leaders or that are going to be leaders.

that quite frankly, haven't seen modern leadership, right? I mean, Steven, I don't know about you, but I grew up in a time where it was do as I say, not as I do.

And- I remember hearing that over and over as a kid.

Right, and there's no questioning to what I say.

than anything,

How did that leap happen?

So I've had a consulting business.

So when I sold my insurance agency, I've been doing consulting for 10 years.

And that's been not just folks in the insurance specter, but also Fortune 1000, Fortune 100 companies.

And I realized that every great entrepreneur that I know is also a great leader because it's never about the individual.

So I started studying what made great leaders greater, good leaders good.

And so that became the premise of what the book was about and why I started that journey.

Can you walk us through the Mick factor and why each pillar matters?

Take us there.

Ilana, it was not an unusual circumstance in my home growing up to see my mother being physically, emotionally, financially, sometimes even sexually abused by my father, who she was married to, who lived in the same household.

But I also knew that I couldn't make that feel normal.

I knew it wasn't right.

And at the age of ten, Christmas Eve morning, which should be the second happiest day of the year, right? My mom is sitting on my bed, and she's wailing, right? Not just crying, but wailing.

And I knew what that sound meant.

I knew what those tears meant, and without saying a lot of words, I just asked my mom to leave.

[laughing]