Adam Barney Transcript

Welcome to Dear Business Coach, the podcast. My name's Elizabeth. Find one thing to move your business forward
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forward today.
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Yeah. Almost.
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Okay. Yeah, there we are recording. Okay. Adam Barney, thank you so much for
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coming to the Dear Business Coach podcast today. How are you doing? It's great to be here, Elizabeth. It's
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great to uh to join and and I can't wait to to dig into the conversation here.
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Yay. Thank you. You know, I have I we were just talking about uh all kinds of things, spring and and transitioning and
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events, things like this. I didn't really uh know too much about your uh
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speaking career until recently. So before I ask you a little bit about your
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uh background though, how do you introduce yourself, Adam? So uh Elizabeth, I love to introduce
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myself. Um I I'm an energy coach, right? I help emerging and executive leaders
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take all of the natural energy rhythms that we have inside of ourselves, the energy boosts and the in the drains and
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optimize that to higher efficiency. And ultimately, I love to be the person who's the battery pack or the
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cheerleader in their back pocket. So that's um that's where I come from
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though and what I love to do in the world. I I my first book was published last year. It's called Make Your Own
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Glass Half Full: The Empowered Path to Optimism and Autonomy. And those tools
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are hugely impactful in terms of not just executive leaders, but the next
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generation of emerging leaders that are coming up in the world and going to to
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make the world a more just, positive, equitable place.
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Hey listeners, don't forget to subscribe to email if you haven't already. Do this
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at dearbusinesscoachpodcast.com. And if you are a new subscriber, look
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for the magazine coming up. You can get a free download as a new subscriber.
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That's dearbuscoachpodcast.com. Thanks so much and I hope you're having a fantastic day. Remember, you are a
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superstar. Yeah. Well, you know, energy coach is a
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good title. And was that something that you came up with right away in your business or how did that title evolve?
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No, that title actually took quite quite a journey and I think as as coaches and entrepreneurs, we all know you have to
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iterate over time. So um my background though goes into an over 20 year
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nonlinear corporate marketing career. I worked everywhere from venture capitalbacked startups to global scale
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companies. I managed teams of 20 people through that worked with clients of
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upwards of 20 $30 million a year in terms of marketing budget that I was managing. And what this goes back to is
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something that I always believed in early in my transition of going from being an independent contributor to a
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manager and a leader of teams was my my role is to not just help my employees
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succeed in their day-to-day job. My perspective was always I want to help you get to the next role and then the
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role after that. So my perspective has always been let's lift other people up
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in the world and let them use the potential and the vision that they have inside themselves and keep them
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energized and accountable towards actually going after that vision and and move in that direction. But I left the
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corporate world intentionally. I used a tool called the regret minimization framework to make that decision. And in
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the first two years of business, I called myself a growth coach. And I always felt a little bit
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misconstrued with that. I think growth can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Uh two years into
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business, I realized what I've always led with my clients and the teams that I've managed is energy. Energy. So, I've
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seen it time and time again digging into my superpower of networking with conversations with hundreds of people
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around the globe, even across tools like Zoom. When we first start the
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conversation, the energy level can be down here at the bottom. And by a third
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or halfway through the conversation, you start to see that light switch flip in terms of energy. So I had to do some
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learning though to to understand that was actually what I deliver through my coaching. And there's there are other
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people out in the world who call themselves energy coaches. Um I've actually I'm deeply wound in the the
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climate change community as well. So I've had people even go, "Oh, so you're a coach in solar and wind energy,
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right?" And I'm like, "No, no, no, no. This is all about personal energy and how to get more benefit from the
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positive energy, the uplifting energy that's inside of each of ourselves. And then obviously the deeper impact is the
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ripples that it that it leads to across the world when when you lead in that upward upward perspective.
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When when you when you're bringing energy to your leadership, you have that
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ripple effect. That's that's impact. That is impact.
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Exactly. Yeah. So, it's been a it's been a journey though just like Well, wow. So, what do you mean by that?
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You know, your journey you mean personally coming to that uh coming to that uh framework for yourself?
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Yeah. I I I think I'm I'm a big fan of nonlinearity, right? In my own clients journeys and my my journey has been
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nonlinear as well where I've in my corporate career, I was laid off twice
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and I pulled up my bootstraps and I knew it was going to be okay. I tell stories in in my book about my own journey, but
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it also pulls in some of the positive psychology in the world that stems back from Martin Celigman and distills it
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down to a usable level as well as weaving in the stories of thousands of
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years of human history where people faced challenges and used optimism and autonomy to lift out of it. I didn't
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realize that's where I was 20 years ago. You know, in early in my corporate career through the 2008 financial
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crisis, I was working in the global ad agency world and working with clients
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like, you know, Bank of America who are a hugely impactful company and I was
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helping them get, you know, bigger and and stronger in the world and going home
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at night and saying that's not moving things in a positive direction. So that's an internal learning journey that
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I've that I've always been on through not just my you know moving into a coaching position for business
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but I've evolved through my my perspective and actually one of my favorite visualizations in the world.
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It's the only visualization that I have in my book. I got approval from Tim Urban who runs a blog named Wait but
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why? And it's this concept that I continually go back to of uh your life
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on a on a chart. You've got um time basically with today in the middle.
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You're born is well you're more backwards, right? So you're over here.
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There's one green line that leads to today and a bunch of tentacled black lines of other paths you could have gone
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down. Then you've got today and you look past today and it's it's about a dozen
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tentacled winding lines. So that nonlinearity when you lean into that and
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sit in the center of what drives you and I like to use with my coaching clients two tools. One is ikagai the Japanese
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concept for a reason for being that ties together what you're good at what you love what the world needs what you can
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get paid for. And then I tie that with a what's called an odyssey plan that looks 5 to 10 years in the future. When you
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sit in the center of that vision and look to the future that that's something
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when you stay resilient towards that you can you can make a deep impact on the
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world and also in terms of your own self-satisfaction and self-efficacy.
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You know the word odyssey is fitting isn't it? If I think of an odyssey in
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literature I immediately think of trials and tribulations along the way.
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Exactly. Well, what about your um what about your
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you know experience in in marketing and being able to as a leader
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share with people that you are interested in their promotion in their self-development.
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Um, was that something that you were that was something that you were bringing to your leadership on your own
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valition or was that were were you a part of a company or a team that you
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were lucky enough to learn some of that from? I I got to see both sides of that coin.
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Honestly, Elizabeth, I I worked in organizations and on teams that had fantastic leaders that had that
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perspective of leveling the team up and that concept of all boats raise the
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ocean in place. But I also had those those much more difficult less effective
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leaders who didn't operate in that and they were micromanagers or they didn't provide transp transparency and
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communication and they would they would push a team down right the team on a downward cycle. So I
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feel like my leadership perspective which always came from this this concept of using optimism and autonomy for my
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team you know hiring people that you know basically trusting my gut early
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in that hiring process. I knew even in those early leadership days
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bringing in junior or mid-level employees that I was going to bring onto my team. I knew in the first five minutes of the interview whether they
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were going to be the right hire or the wrong hire. M and it goes back to my leadership and
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the way that I lead, but it was always understanding you've got the details on
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a resume with the background. It's also because marketing, you know,
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it's not like we're we're neurosurgeons, right? Okay. For engineers,
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you can learn this as you go. So if you're hungry, you're energized, and
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you're moldable, those were the people that I that I brought into my teams because I feel felt like I could always
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enable them with communication and transparency and that upward perspective. I could that would
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influence them to be able to achieve more and then get to not just the job I hired them for, as I mentioned earlier,
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but the next role and then the role after that. and you know dig into that nonlinearity and knowing that what we do
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now influences where we go in the future was always critical to to the way that I
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led teams and the way that I've evolved in the world. Yeah. Well, now what if you are someone
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who is uh making a move and you don't think that it looks um
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maybe uh you think that maybe I think that linear is uh you know when I gradu
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when I grad when I finish 9th grade I go to 10th grade when I finish 10th grade I go to 11th grade and in a in a career
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path whether it's yours or inside of an organiz organization, meaning whether you are the the owner of a company or
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you're working with somebody else or in for somebody else, then what happens is you could be faced with some choices
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that are um either look like a clear promotion or you feel like you're going
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laterally. And so, so when you say in a nonlinear
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way, I wonder if that also could mean what if I take an opportunity or a
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different position that looks on paper like I'm just going laterally and do you
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see people facing that as like a more a a personal growth dilemma?
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I I actually do view that as a personal growth dilemma. You know, one of the one of the things
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that I think we hear so much about in the world, and I don't like to talk too much about it, is the idea of imposttor
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syndrome, growth versus growth mindset, right? So, it's not so much even just imposttor
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syndrome as it is about self-limiting belief, right? You know, it's it's about I've done what I can do.
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Um I was I was even this is tangentially related at the end of last year. I was
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at an event in a room with a group of female founders and it was a panel on
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how female founders can enter the conversation about getting
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investment getting venture capital investment put behind them. But one of the interesting things that came back through that that event was this idea of
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how men present in a promotional mindset and women operate in a prevention
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mindset. And that's a broadstrokes way to think about things, but not even from a male versus female
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mindset or or you know a gender standpoint, right? I think that if you sit in the center of
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what drives you ultimately that can lead you on that path to
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something that's going to drive to greater satisfaction for you, right? And so that's that. Thank Yes. I
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thank you. I was just curious about your perspective if I um you know I've seen
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I've experienced that myself of course where I'm like oh okay I need to make a choice here about doing something different going forward. Does going
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forward mean um that it might seem that I'm ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ching something lateral and that
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may not be the case. It's just it's a it's a decision for you a choice. Exactly. It's a choice. It's a decision
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to make and it depends on the season of life that you're in as well. Right. You know, I've actually coached a lot of
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seasoned leaders over the last couple years who have led big teams and that's
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not where they want to be right now. They actually want to simplify a little bit and take the take the
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take that have a different weight on their shoulders to not necessarily be independent contributors, but be more
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strategic leaders who don't have the weight of a large team that they're managing to make a bigger impact in the
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world. And I think that that speaks to the nonlinearity that we all we all are
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up against as well because, you know, if I'm leading a team of 20 people, I
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that's not where I want to be right now. You know what I mean? There's different flavors at different times that that
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that lead to the changes we need to make in our our paths and our careers.
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Yes. Good. Well said. Well said. So that brings me back to your um the phrase the
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word autonomy because I'm now thinking uh that you uh
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well let me let me also preface with another p another uh personal ex thought
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is that I in a sales role which is where I spent a lot of time the autonomy is
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what I liked about it now that would be hard it's hard for me to imagine
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teaching autonomy when you are in fact a part of the team. How do you do that?
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I you know I there are ways that you can manage up in the world and there are
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ways that you can manage down to the team that you have. Um autonomy though is something that we all have with
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inside of ourselves and it's that belief in ourselves that that we lead into. I'm
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personally I'm someone who's never been driven by outside competition. I've always been driven by my own
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internal self-determination and self-efficacy more than anything else. So when I think about autonomy, it's not
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just being able to to to act independently. It's about being able to take that
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independent action within the framework of what you're trying to achieve, no matter what the role might be. And sales
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is a great example, Elizabeth, right? because you're operating in roles that you're not going to step in with as high
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of a a salary off off the g, you know, off off the starting point. You have to work off of a commission
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basis or, you know, build that quota. And that's all that self-led determination of
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how do you how do you number one believe in what you're selling and sell it appropriately but um you know also get
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into uh the the that that autonomy piece like
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that's your own path to carve. you know, if you if you don't act
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towards carving it, you're not going to have that income stream that you hope to to hope to have as a salesperson,
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right? And so I I that's a kind of a uh my my question there was a little bit of
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a a base question and and I may and I may have misinterpreted or or forced you
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into a conversation about autonomy that wasn't quite the way that you present it. So I'm curious.
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That's okay. No, autonomy. Autonomy is about, you know, just just knowing that
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you're working on a path of something and you can get it done. That's how I define a autonomy at the most most basic
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basic level. Um, and no no apology needed because there are different
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interpretations of how that that autonomy works in so many ways.
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Yeah. And and it's worth studying too as far as internal motivation. What is your motivation? It's funny that you said um
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that it's funny that you uh specified that you uh work that you personally are
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rewarded for from inside internal motivation, not necessarily by outside competition. And I feel the same way. I
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also was like not interested in beating the next guy. I was interested in
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beating myself. So I mean there's a lot of reward in
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that. to get back though into that into that more more probably acutely as I've just had a couple minutes Elizabeth to
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think about it. You know, autonomy from my perspective isn't about working alone. It's about working aligned.
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Um knowing where your energy flows best and having the confidence to choose your own path and but building the systems
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that support that vision and not have it necessarily not not be someone else's
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version of success. And you know, it's not pushing toward independence for the sake of it. It's
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designing a place where you're free to decide. You're equipped and equipped to
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thrive. And that autonomy means having, you know, tools, habits, and clarity to lead
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with that purpose and not that outside pressure. Right? So, so much of the world, I've lived on both
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sides of it. You know, burnout and high performing environments, that deep recharge that we get in terms
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of energy comes from regaining your own agency. That's the autonomy that comes into play. And even more acutely, I see
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autonomy as the engine of optimism, right? And then when you pair it with resilience, that's when leaders truly do
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start to move the needle, not just in their career, but communities, lives, and the wider world around us.
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Are you a LinkedIn user? If you are, you can join me for LinkedIn live audio with
20:33
Elizabeth. Every week, usually on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, I
20:39
will have a LinkedIn live audio where we talk about podcasting for executives who speak and podcasting for team leaders
20:46
who speak. These are the themes that are currently running. If that sounds like something you're interested, visit me,
20:52
Elizabeth Walker at work, on my LinkedIn profile. right now. So your en so as an energy
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coach or as an as someone who is talking to executives and leaders as as a as a
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framework for energizing yourself, energizing your organization, energizing your mission, if that's the word you
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want to use. I think you have a uh another interesting
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uh assumption maybe to overcome is that when I hear energy coach, I think, oh
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boy, are you going to teach me to be a really good motivational speaker? Is that what I have to do is go to work
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every day and be so what does it look like? So that's that's
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where it's just like it's digging into that autonomy that we have inside of ourselves. It's that agency of knowing
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where we want to go. I for for the last year, for instance, I could bring up a
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couple examples of people that I've coached. You know, I've got one one leader who's worked in the the the
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beauty and wellness space or one coaching client and she's trying to figure out how she moves from the
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behemothsiz beauty wellness space to something that's more nichebased. Right?
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So, that's that's a different flavor of um someone else that I've been coaching who is a sports broadcaster who's
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incredibly talented and they're trying to carve the path to not just being a local sports
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broadcaster, but build this portfolio that elevates the name of their brand so
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that they can reach a wider impact and step into it's a world that I'm not very
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familiar with, of course, but it's so built into building a cohesive network
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and then you have an incredible incredible amount of influence that you drive from a community standpoint and a
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voice standpoint when you have a broadcast voice that can reach more
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ears. Right? So those are two different flavors though. One is moving from a bigger organization to a smaller
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organization. The second example is someone who's moving from a small market to a big market and trying to increase
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the impact of their voice. But I mentioned those two examples, Elizabeth, because
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it's it's they're both of them are based on that personal journey of where they're looking to go next. You know, to dig back to that odyssey plan that looks
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5 to 10 years in the future that honestly lays out three options. The first option is everything that you're
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doing remains consistent. The second option is the first option just disappears completely. What's the
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alternative you build? And then the third is the no limitations, no constraints. And when you pair that with
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the vision work of the the ikagai uh uh piece with that odyssey plan, you get
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the center of the vision where people go, but then you get that perspective of where that path leads in the future. So
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that opens up that then we design the system that fits where they want to go from a vision and
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then that breaks down into the smaller more tangible goals over time. Okay, let me check. I was just thinking
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about something uh earlier and now it's coming back. I can't I'm not I don't want to keep you too much past time. So
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help don't let me do that because I will. Uh but the uh I heard this another
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by the way thank you. Those are two fantastic examples and yes they uh are
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juxtaposed so that I you know I can see two very different characters in two different roles and yeah those are
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really really good examples and I was thinking about something that I heard um
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long time ago now but uh this was related to um health and thinking about
24:40
retirement um I there's someone who um h has a practice where they talk to
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someone who let's Say you're um about to retire and uh you're building your uh
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this particular client had a uh a lakehouse and his whole goal for
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retirement is well I want to be able to walk, you know, my my I have this really
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nice property and from the back porch of my home I can walk down like a hundred
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steps or something to my kayak and I want to be able to physically
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get from, you know, enjoy every day, be able to get up, take the walk I want to take, get in my kayak, do that trip on
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on the lake, and come back and walk back up the stairs and be able to enjoy that
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on a day-to-day basis. What do I have to do physical in a phys to prepare for
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that now? And so the um the the uh health and fitness coach that I'm
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thinking of, he would he builds a regiment saying, "Okay, you're you're I'm 41 now, and your your goal is to be
25:52
able to not necessarily run marathons and be a bodybuilder in retirement, but what is the goal you need to achieve to
25:58
be able to enjoy the things you realistically have before you that you know you want to be doing every day?"
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And so I feel like that kind of a planning is like, okay, what is what is
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what is it that uh on a on a day-to-day basis we're going to be getting the most
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um actual the most actual tangible
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experience out of the goal. So and when you're looking at that in
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business, is it anything like that? It is like that. I like to to tell I I
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say this a lot to many people in the world, but imagine you're Michelangelo, the famous Italian sculptor. With
26:37
anything you're doing, and you have a two-tonon block of marble dropped in front of you, no matter where you're
26:42
trying to go, how many hundreds of thousands of chisel chisel marks is it does it take to turn that into a
26:48
beautiful statue? Those small steps really do lead to the bigger impact over time when you build
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those when you build those habits. Right. The other the other thing that I that that I like to think about in this
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realm though, you know, when we're driven by that internal selfdetermination, that that autonomy,
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if we face a challenge and we get knocked down, we don't just stay knocked down, right? Because when you stay
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knocked down, that's when you start to atrophy. You don't get back up again. I
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think that those of us who are driven with that autonomy and then when you've got that up that uplift of the
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optimistic perspective, you don't just get up, but you you work
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on building that muscle. And just like physical muscles in that example you mentioned, the mental muscles are
27:36
equally important. And we figure out those recharge rituals that help, right?
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I coach a lot of people and I say short breaks lead to big boosts in terms of energy. Whether it's deep breathing,
27:48
taking a walk, expressing gratitude, stretching, hydrating, or for me it's
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about music. Music is what recharges me. So, we each have different unique flavors. And then I've actually dove
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into some some research that that expresses leaders who recharge see an
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upwards of at least 25% in their engagement as leaders. And that's an
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incredible shift make by using those simple simple tools.
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Yeah, that's a hu that's a huge a huge in increase. You 25% you'd feel like a
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superstar. Well, and and 1% improvements compound,
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right? You know, 45% of our actions every day are habitual. So, build good
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ones. And then it's also one big piece that I like to talk about and I I
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actually love to be that accountability partner in my coaching. When you share your goals, it increases your it boosts
28:49
your success chances by upwards of 65%. But then even further, when you build a
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buddy system, 95% goal achievement that you can hit with regular check-ins. So it's about
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creating that accountability whether it's partners, mentors, or even doing a more public commitment which can feel
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like something that's scary. So it it can feel like a big thing to do.
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But when you choose that that courage over comfort or that growth over fear,
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that's deeply impactful. That's that's the muscle you're
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building, right? Exactly. Yeah. Oh, well, okay. So, let's make sure. Where do you want
29:33
me to get in touch with you? Sure. Um, I mean, you can find me at adamwarney.com.
29:39
Again, my my book behind me, Make Your Own Glass Half Full, The Empowered Path to Optimism and Autonomy, is available
29:44
everywhere. You can find it on Amazon. Um, and you know, if anyone wants to work together, find me on LinkedIn. Adam
29:50
W. Barney is where I can be found there. Um, there you'll you'll find additional
29:56
tools and resources about the coaching that I like to bring to the to the table. And um, I'm all about changing
30:02
the world. So, if you're a moldable leader who who needs a little bit of that energy and accountability in their back pocket to move toward the center of
30:08
that vision and drive change in the world, let's let's connect. Yeah. Let's Now, how do I know if I'm
30:14
moldable? That's something that I like to unlock. I like those. I I people are onions,
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right? When you start to peel back the layers of the onion, that's when true changes change happens.
30:27
We're all moldable. We just have different our mold. It's like trauma. Honestly, we've all experienced trauma.
30:35
The trauma that I feel inside myself feels like it's gigantic. But my trauma from an outward perspective compared to
30:41
what you've had in your life, Elizabeth, would be totally different scale. But the importance inside of ourselves with
30:48
trauma is is where it fits. It's the same thing with moldability. Some people inside are more moldable than other
30:54
people and you just have to uncover, peel back the layers of the onions to understand what that true
31:00
uncomfortableness is. But you start to see that also when you put together some of that ikagai and that odyssey plan
31:07
work. You can see how how comfortable people are with evolving and changing as
31:12
well. Oh well. Okay. So, I would I would like to be on the lookout for if I can
31:18
recognize that in myself a little bit. Awesome. Well, Adam, I think that this has been
31:24
fantastic. I certainly have enjoyed myself and got to learn some more from you and about you. So, I'm looking
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forward to this make your own glass half full and reading that. So, Adam Barney,
31:35
thank you so much for coming to the Dear Business Coach podcast and I will talk to you again very soon.
31:42
Sounds great. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. And I hope everyone makes it a great day no matter what day of the
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week it is today. That's right. Yes. Awesome. Talk to you soon.
31:52
All right. Cheers. Thank you. Cheers. Oh, no, no, no. I did not mean to do that.
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Let's stop recording. Okay, I'll have to remember. You've been listening to the Dear
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Business Coach podcast. My name is Elizabeth Walker, producer and host. Don't forget to subscribe to email.
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Thank you so much for being here and find one thing today to move your business forward.
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Contact me at dear business coach podcast atgmail.com.
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And as always, you are a superstar.