226: Three Tips to Effectively Lead in a Post-Pandemic Era with Darrell “Coach D” Andrews

How you lead and how you SHOW UP as a leader makes or breaks your team?
Let’s face it: they either love working with you and for you, or they don’t. 

And as my guest today points out, the people you led before the pandemic are not the same people today. 

I'm joined by Darrell Andrews, better known as “Coach D” who is here to talk to us about how leaders need to lead in this post-pandemic era. Darrell shares three powerful strategies to help you lead more effectively and impactfully that will help you grow your leadership presence, build better working relationships with people on your team, and help you and your organization retain great talent. 

The conversation takes us through the necessity of realigning our core values and the power of emotional intelligence, sharing strategies that promise to enhance your leadership and deepen team connections.

We discuss the delicate art of personalized leadership—a cue taken from sports legends like John Wooden—emphasizing the value of understanding individual team members for cultivating loyalty and driving success. The dialogue traverses the evolution from organizational commitment to personal growth, highlighting the importance of crafting a leadership style that is as unique as the team you lead.

The episode concludes with a discussion on the subtle power of personal connections in fostering loyalty within teams, even as simple as virtual coffee chats about life beyond work. We share insights from influential thinkers, emphasizing the resilience found in a meaningful career path.

Connect with Darrell "Coach D" Andrews
Websites - Coach D Speaks | Self-Care
LinkedIn | Instagram 
Email Coach D - info@coachdspeaks.com

Transcript

John Neral: 0:00

As a mid-career professional, what's your leadership style? How you lead and how you show up as a leader makes or breaks your team. Look, let's face it they either love working with and for you or they don't. And, as my guest today points out, the people you led before the pandemic are not the same people today. Today you will meet Daryl Andrews, better known as Coach D, who is here to talk to us about how leaders need to lead in this post pandemic era Plus. Darrell shares three powerful strategies to help you lead more effectively and impactfully that will help you grow your leadership presence, build better working relationships with people on your team and help you and your organization retain great talent. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. I'm your host, john Nerrell. I help mid-career professionals find a job they love or love the job they have, using my proven four-step formula.

John Neral: 1:19

Daryl Andrews, widely known as Coach D and recognized as America's passion coach, serves as the president and chief passion officer of Daryl Andrews LLC and Associates, a prominent professional development, consulting and motivational speaking firm. Additionally, he leads Empowering Self-Care, a wellness motivation training firm, upholding a consistent organizational philosophy for nearly 22 years. Coach D emphasizes that true leadership lies not just in individual capabilities but in the positive impact it generates on others. I invited Coach D Coach D's expertise has been sought after by major corporations like Walmart, First Data, and Verizon, an organization spanning the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. the show because he has written several books, including the upcoming releases host pandemic leadership, the key to recruitment and retention, and the self-care movement. With a wealth of experience, he has delivered keynote addresses at over 350 national and state conferences across North America and beyond his professional achievements, coach D takes pride in his personal life, celebrating 29 years of marriage and cherishing his role as a devoted father to four remarkable children.

John Neral: 2:48

I truly enjoyed my conversation with Daryl and I'm sure you will have a lot of takeaways from it. You are going to want to take some notes, and so it is my pleasure to introduce you to Daryl Andrews. Daryl Andrews, welcome to the mid-career GPS podcast. I'm excited for our conversation today, john.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 3:09

I'm excited as well, man. I love your focus and hopefully we'll get the folks some information that could be helpful.

John Neral: 3:14

We're gonna do that, and I love your focus as well. So, before we get into all of that, tell us what was your mid-career moment that shaped where you are today?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 3:26

Well, my mid-career moment was actually an interesting shift.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 3:30

I worked for a Fortune 30 company at the time.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 3:33

It was a company by the name of Abbott Laboratories and I worked in their medical diagnostics division and I worked in their pharmaceutical division and I had a quite pretty successful career, was doing some great things sales marketing, went into training and developing development but I just had this thing inside of me that you know, is this what I'm gonna be doing for the rest of my life, or is what I am I gonna do something that's more meaningful for me?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 3:59

And then when I was at Abbott, I was really good at sales, training and motivating sales teams and inspiring and mentoring, and it just hit me at a certain point in my career that that's what I really wanted to do. Now I can stay there and do it in the corporation or I can do it on my own. So after a couple of years of contemplating and making sure I saved my money, I've made the dive into doing my own thing and now I've been doing that for 18 years. So that wasn't like I was at a bad company, it wasn't like I was with bad people, it just was something inside of me that wanted to do? You know my days focusing in on, you know, inspiring and engaging and motivating people. So that was my mid-career story.

John Neral: 4:41

If we were to go back and talk to yourself 18 years ago, would you see and know all the success and the impact you've had today.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 4:51

You know, I'll tell you something. The first couple of two or three years, no.

John Neral: 4:55

That.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 4:55

I've lost my money.

John Neral: 4:57

I'm right there with you. I'm thinking about it.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 5:01

Abbott, do you please call me back? Yeah, but I just had mentors in front of me. Many people know him, like Zig Ziglar and other folks out there who Jim Rohn, who just kind of blazed a trail, and I was able to interact with those people too through the National Speakers Association, so it kept my eyes on the prize. So today it's obviously we see some things and have accomplished some things, and I don't have any regrets. I will say there may be one slight regret. There was a I probably should have, if I think about it, talking to that younger Daryl Andrews, maybe baked in oven a little bit more to get more experience running like a division or something like that. I think there's some power in getting that kind of experience, but I just didn't do that. So that's probably the only thing I've probably been said man, hang in there another four or five years and get that experience, cause that will translate well into been doing your own thing.

John Neral: 5:56

Yeah, but your reach, as I shared in the introduction, is so broad and vast and also very specific. And one of the reasons why we connected and I wanted to have you on was there is a very large conversation going on about how we lead post pandemic and we are coming up on, really, the four year anniversary of when the world just shut down and we thought, oh, this'll be okay for a week. And then here we are, four years later and we've seen so many things change. You talk a lot about reinvention and how we reinvent ourselves. What does it mean for leaders in this post pandemic era to reinvent themselves?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 6:44

You know that's a really good question and I think a lot of people are going through that process right now for a number of reasons. I think the pandemic itself kind of unleash an inner drive to do things that are more meaningful. I have four kids and during the pandemic I was home with those four kids my wife and her four kids every single day for several months and, like for me, it made me realize that prior to the pandemic I was traveling a lot and it made me realize how much time I'd missed being with them. And so it really when you talk about reinvention I'll use myself as an example. It made me realize I wanna reinvent myself to do more virtual based work so that I can be home with my children and be home for my daughter.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 7:44

So I think for leaders today, when you start thinking about reinvention, it's great to think about it from a career maybe certain things I want to achieve, but you gotta. I think the big thing is to tie it into your personal piece as well. You have your professional and your personal, and is this reinvention going to kind of subsequently help both pieces of that? Because I'm a big believer in that you can go out here and have the greatest career, but your life is not just your career. You have a family, you have other connections. So when we talk about reinvention, I would say to that leader make it something that's meaningful to you, that makes sense, that you can wake up every day with a sense of this is. This is I'm enjoying doing this work, this is making a difference, but then also, at the same time, simultaneously balance it with your personal life, because if the two, any one of the two, are tilted, it can cause some serious inner turmoil, and we've already been through four years of inner turmoil.

John Neral: 8:48

I wanna go back to that. Yeah, absolutely. We don't need anymore of that, so as I'm listening to you and thinking about our conversation previously, we know that aligning our core values to how we work and how we lead is paramount. Yes, and in terms of what we do, how do you help leaders, especially mid-career leaders, who may be at mid-level or senior level? How do you help them align their core values more strategically that allows them to show up as better leaders Can?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 9:28

you give us an example.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 9:29

Yeah, you know what Great question again. And I'll say this that to me and I've been around a long period of time the most effective leaders out here are leaders that are driven by a set of specific core values. Now we have our organizational core values, company core values, things of that nature, and that should drive our actions too. But personally, we should have values that drive us in all of the decisions that we make. So, as you know, I've coached and trained and worked with quite a few people and I recall one particular leader that I was working with and this is interesting because it was a leader that the company was downsizing and they brought in people to help folks transition. So that's always tough work. There's a name for it. I can't quite remember the name, but it defines it. But this particular leader I was working with and he had been driving, driving, driving in his career for years and that's all he ever knew. You know what I mean.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 10:33

And then once we started the coaching session, I kind of threw him a I don't know something, I don't know a curve ball or something. I said, okay, what is it that you? What defines you? You know, don't talk about work. What do you value, and so he just outlined several, several values, things that you know, I said.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 10:55

My question to you is do you actually focus on these? Is it just something that's ingrained in your thinking, or do you sit down and actually analyze these? So to that mid-career leader if you're gonna succeed and your values drive in your decisions, you need to sit down and analyze them and compare what you're doing to those actual values, because it's one thing to say I have these values. The outcome of it, the success of it, is gonna be the implementation, where you actually see them, feel them, and other people can see them and feel them as well.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 11:26

So the big thing I would say is make your core values I should say integrate your core values into your personal strategic plan. You know, look at you know, this is my life, this is what I want to do and here's what I want to be in my career. But while I'm analyzing this however often I may do it, you know or for me in Costa, am I actually doing this or is it just a good thought in my mind and to me? If you don't put it in writing, it's a good thought in your mind. You can write this stuff down. It's just a really good thought.

John Neral: 12:01

It's a really good yeah.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 12:03

Yeah, man, put that stuff down. Like I have a and my values are in my journal, my goals are in my journal and I'm journaling every day, man, and it keeps me calibrated to that particular outcome. So the biggest advice I can give is write them down and analyze them, you know, because if you don't analyze them, what happens is they're just good ideas, Because the conflict of the day, the chaos of the day will consume and those will go by the wayside. And I think today, with all this going on, mentally and psychologically, and even folks dealing with high levels of depression, we need to have something to anchor us and I think those values can be that thing.

John Neral: 12:43

Absolutely and to your point, I'm not a huge journaler. There have been times in my life where I have been and I gotten away from it. But this year I set a goal for myself of like two minutes a day. Like, take two minutes, you're not that damn busy. You could take two minutes journal, whether I type it or I write in it, whatever it is. But I do agree with you that it's been a very anchoring type activity and it's getting me back in touch with those things that are important to me and my core values and such.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 13:16

So I wanna say but I say one quick thing John, do what I'm thinking about. I don't mean to interrupt, but that's what I'm saying. This is gonna be strange, man, but I hope you're okay with this. Talk to your future self. Otherwise, talk to John a year from now. Talk to John two years from now, in other words what is that John gonna be? What's gonna define that John? You know what's gonna make him what values, and so write down like a vision for that person. That's just weird, but that's one of the things I do that helped me and I've coached people through it, because when you speak to that future and you have a plan of action, then what happens is you can actually see yourself meeting yourself next year, achieving that goal, and so it's a strange sort of a technique, but it's a technique that works.

John Neral: 14:14

Oh, without a doubt, absolutely. And it's one of those things where, for example, when I'm working with people and we're interview coaching and we're prepping for an interview, it's great all the things that you've done but what are you gonna do?

John Neral: 14:27

for the company once you're there. Bingo, yeah, Absolutely no. I appreciate that. I'm glad you shared that you have done a wealth of research and what the post pandemic era looks like for leadership. How do we better equip leaders in this post pandemic era, not only for themselves, but for the people they're leading and the organizations they're working for?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 15:00

That's a great question. Now you know that's one of my passions right now. I'll tell you something. The research is both eye-opening and slightly scary. It says people are dealing with a lot today. John there, I think it's American Medical Association said that there's been a right now there's a 20% clinically diagnosed depression rate in the United States. That means let's put it this way, if you walked down the street, one out of every five people that you see probably are dealing with some type of depression or seeing a therapist. To some extent that's a lot of people. With millennials, it's 35% Younger people.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 15:45

I don't wanna go into that because they're dealing with a whole other set of circumstances, but I'm saying a lot to say to the leader in this generation that the people you led prior to the pandemic are not the same people you're leading today, and if you try to lead them that way, your organization will be a revolving door. People just don't have the bandwidth anymore for some of these older type leadership styles that work for many years. You know so like I always like to say it like this if you look at the definition of leadership prior to the pandemic is to guide, govern and influence, which is good. When you look at the bigger picture, that's a good model. But post pandemic is to listen, understand and engage. Listen, understand and engage.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 16:50

You need to know your people, you need to know what their motivations are, you need to know what inspires the best out of them and at times you just need to be an ear for them to be able to share what's happening in their work, what's happening in their life, because today that is commonplace in most conversations and so that leader today has to understand the old kind of strong arm tactics of leadership just don't work much with this population.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 17:23

And that doesn't mean I'm very careful with this. That doesn't mean that you have to be this push over leader. We're not saying that. No, what we're saying is rethink the way you're engaging people, because if you're doing that older style, I still hear a lot of people even with all these protocol job, there's still a lot of retention issues and people are saying, based upon the research I think this is the conference board that did this research that people would say they would rather be in a lower paying job with a better culture than a high paying job with a poor one. So times have changed and leaders need to learn some new skill sets to be able to engage this post pandemic workplace workforce.

John Neral: 18:07

How do you help somebody who isn't comfortable or I think the word how do you help somebody who isn't confident in their leadership abilities to hold space for somebody to listen and recognize that they're not gonna be a push over. They're gonna hold that space and listen and still get them to move forward. But it's that art of holding that space for them to listen. How do you help somebody do that?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 18:39

You know what I don't want to make it sound simple, but you know one particular area that we all kind of know about that has been a qualiest, copious amount of time trying to get leaders to embrace, and it's Dr Daniel Goldman's emotional intelligence. Because now there's other skills besides that. You know we look at the back core values and things like that we can break that down. But emotional intelligence is important because today the leader needs to be the contemplative kind of leader. Otherwise, listen first Don't necessarily like, and I mean when I mean listen, I'm talking about active listening, I'm not talking about I'm on my computer, you're in my office, you're kind of like in my way right now because I got 25 other things that I have to do. That's not leadership today.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 19:32

Okay, multi-task on another time you are like task number 22 today and they're looking like well, I'm not gonna be trashed too much longer, but I'm gonna put in some job applications so that leader needs to understand. Emotional intelligence is really it almost should be a required learning for anyone moving into leadership or in leadership, because emotional intelligence will answer most of the challenges that we face, because it's about EQ and emotional quotient, where we are now doing things like self-regulation, self-analysis and thinking about the impact of our words and actions on others. That's what emotional intelligence is really all about, and so I help a lot of leaders be a coaching and group like group as well as individual. Let's look at your leadership style. What has worked, let's dissect it. What has worked, what hasn't worked and when I say what has worked, I'm not talking about a particular outcome as far as oh, we've increased ourselves by 25 million. That, in theory, looks good, but did you increase it by 25 million and burn out three quarters of the people? Yeah, that's a different conversation.

John Neral: 20:48

Churn and burn. Churn and burn.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 20:50

You know, Kelly. So financially we are great, but personally we are wreck.

John Neral: 20:56

Hey there, we'll get back to the episode in a moment, but I wanna give you something game-changing, a golden ticket. That is like having a roadmap to take you from career confusion to clarity in minutes, introducing the mid-career job seekers checklist. It is your secret weapon in your job search and if you feel like navigating your job search right now is like navigating a maze blindfolded, don't worry, my friend, I got your back. This checklist is a powerhouse of organization and preparation, crafted to make you say goodbye to feeling overwhelmed and hello to a career transition made easy. I want you to head on over to https://johnneral. com to snag your free copy of the mid-career job seekers checklist. It's not just a checklist, it is a career compass to help you find that job you're going to love. Now let's dive back into the episode.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 21:56

And so people got a lot of money but they have a lot of headache, heartaches and ulcers and everything else. So the leader today can still do that 25 million, 30 million, whatever they're trying to do. They just have to be a little bit more introspective in the way they go about it. And I have a great story I wanna share with you about a coach that really mastered this art. Whenever, if we can bring the baby.

John Neral: 22:14

Yeah, please tell us.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 22:14

Yeah, I'll dive right into it. So I like to study leaders, and so one of the leaders that I really like to study was from years ago was John Wooden. And John Wooden was the coach of the UCLA Bruins basketball team, and a little guy man, he's something. You look at this guy. He's like I don't know five feet five inches or something like six inches, and he's coaching these giants. You know he wasn't that tall, but he was a powerhouse and so he created this thing called you may wanna take a look at this if you're listening to the show called the Pyramid of Success. It's really powerful and he has these different principles that he has in the Pyramid.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 22:49

But he said something during the interview that just intrigued me to know. In, the interviewer was asking him how did you win seven NCAA championships in a row? No one has ever come close and 10 overall, 10. He said well, one. You gotta have good talent. You don't doubt about that, he said.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 23:14

But the most important thing is that my coaches and I have embraced a philosophy called customized motivation. Customized motivation, and this is what he said. I don't coach all my players the same way, and neither do my assistant coaches. We find out what's the needs of those players, and we coach to that, because some of our players are gonna want data. Coach, show me the numbers, show me the statistics. What do I need to do here? Show me the plate, we'll break it down.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 23:45

Another player may need a hug. You can do this guy. I feel you. You know you get out there and give it your best. Another player may need to talk Demonstrative. You know. Just, coach, let's talk. And once we understood what fueled our individual players, we gave them that fuel every day and they always performed at top optimum level. So that is what I mean by a coach that understands leadership. Leadership is not one dimensional where everybody's gonna get off. This is where all you're gonna get. Leadership is. Let me understand the individuals that I'm leading and how do I get the best out of them personally, great leaders when you talk about good to great, that's a great leader and I want to share that story because I think that was a great example.

John Neral: 24:35

Oh, it's a phenomenal example and for people who are listening and you think about the people whom you are leading day in and day out. What I want to ask them here is are you customizing your approach with them? How well do you know the people on your team? Do you know what's gonna motivate or incentivize them? Do you know really what they need in terms of support and tying back in all this?

John Neral: 25:06

We talk about retention, and I was having a conversation just before our recording today with a dear colleague of mine and we were talking about how, 30 years ago, the focus was you have to be organizationally loyal. An organizational loyalty is almost a rarity in a lot of ways today, because we see people moving jobs for a variety of reasons and we see companies letting go of talent for a variety of reasons, be it performance, downsizing, acquisitions, whatever they may be. When you think about helping leaders retain talent, how often do you get them to close their circle in, to focus on exactly what they're doing day in and day out, to retain the talent, the people whom they're leading, as opposed to shifting the focus, or the blame, if you will, to the organization as a whole? How do you help them with that, you know what? And I'm gonna say this to you.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 26:07

This is just as the old athlete coming out of me. I used to play college football and I was captain of my team and I was a linebacker and I jokingly say I hit people pretty hard. Yes, I don't think I've ever been an athlete and say they weren't good. I mean, even if you were terrible, you're gonna say you were good Right, leadership is about.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 26:32

This is not seem so simplistic, but it's so on point, leadership is about leading man and if you're gonna lead, you need to be, you need to take the time to understand what you're doing. You know, leadership is not any position and well, and to some extent, everyone has their own kind of sort of form of leadership, no matter what your job position. But leaders have to understand today that you need to lead, which means, just like that sports coach is trying to build a winning team to win championships, we need to be focusing on what's the strategy to build a winning team so we can have organizational success, be it, you know, sales, be it if it's a nonprofit, whatever they're trying to do, or government, whatever they're trying. So this is not just business, whatever it is. Could you imagine, imagine a coach of a team that decides I don't need to play book, I don't need to coach these players, let's meet on Sunday and go play football. What's the place, coach? We don't have any Good luck.

John Neral: 27:49

You know, there you get your best.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 27:51

Right, I said what is this like street sand lot? That's what he's doing the sand lot back in the day.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 27:56

You know, you go here, you go there you know you need, as a leader, to have a playbook. You need to know what those positions need to succeed and guess what? You need to be able to share that strategy with that particular position. It shouldn't be hire me, then go get them Tiger. Oh, fuck God, please. That's like a team that pays an athlete money and then go play Right. They coach them, they coach them up, they stretch and you notice those coaches are over there. Sometimes they're a little aggressive, but sometimes they're patting them on the back. Man, you got this. That's what that leader needs If you want to retain people. If you want to retain people, people are going to want to know that you are. They are a priority to you.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 28:53

I told leaders all the time. You know, we started to say something that was really helpful to John during the pandemic. We had leaders because nobody was together, everybody was hybrid. I said. They said I don't know I'm going to meet with the people. I said you are it's called virtual. Do a virtual cup of coffee. Yeah, I said do a virtual cup of coffee. What do you mean by that Virtual? You just like we're sitting here. Get you a cup of coffee, have them get a cup of coffee and don't talk about work, talk about family. How's your family doing, how's your kids doing?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 29:21

I had an organization out on the West Coast who was a hospital chain. Leaders were scrambling because everything was crazy. And all of that I said listen, right now everybody's in a disorder. It's ugly right now. Just let your people know you care about them. And, man, they started doing these virtual cups. And man, tears go to war. People were crying. Oh my God, my director of operations is talking to me as a person. The VP of this is actually having a conversation. He's with me and they're asking me about my numbers. Man, you talk about loyalty. That's when loyalty kicks in.

John Neral: 29:55

You are so you are so right in that. And to your point earlier it's simple. It's simple, it doesn't take a lot of time, yeah it doesn't.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 30:07

It's just about making it a priority. And, john, can I say this once again? Sure, absolutely. You don't write it down, it's not a priority. You know it's not a goal. See what we're sharing right now. If people are listening, they should take notes and create strategies from this, because we're giving them a layup. See, because if I don't write it down, it's not a goal. You know I always tell people this it's impossible to hit a target that you don't have.

John Neral: 30:34

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 30:38

And so yeah.

John Neral: 30:39

No, we invite people to go back and take some notes on this. Obviously, if you're driving, don't take notes while you're driving, please. Yeah, I always feel the need to say that there's enough distracted drivers that are out there right now. Darrell, look, I have so enjoyed this conversation. I know my listeners have as well. We're gonna start wrapping up here, though, and what advice would you give someone to help them build their mid-career GPS?

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 31:08

I'll say it this way I'm an author of some books and one of them is how to find your passion and make a living at it, and they have a book entitled Reinvention the Pathway to Job Search Success. In both of those books I talk a lot about whenever you start in the transition and shift down new directions. Find the thing that's in your heart to do. Man, don't, you know, find that career and I mentioned it a little bit earlier but that career that when you wake up you're ready to get out that bed and go do it I've had. Now this doesn't mean that everything has to be like you go from a corporate to a nonprofit. Now you're helping the communities and things like that. It could be going from corporate to corporate, but maybe I'm going from this particular position to another position. You know that I find you know, makes is more meaningful to me. So the big thing is find something that's meaningful because there's power and meaning.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 32:02

There's a book by a guy, a man's search for meaning, by Dr Victor Frankel, and he talks about when he was in the Holocaust. All right that he, they pull him away from his family, and for nine years he survived because he thought one day he would see his family again, and when the Russians came in and rescued them, he went. They got back to Austria and he found that his family, they were all just, unfortunately, their lives were gone right after, immediately. But then he came up with a thing called Lowell's Therapy, where he said that if a person has a meaning, they can press through anything, they can make great things happen with their life, and it was that experience that made him really world renowned as a in his space helping people find meaning. So that's what I'm saying make it meaningful.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 32:53

Obviously we want to make money too. Come on, we all do. I'll show you. I want me. When I have four kids, I gotta make college, kids, marriages coming up, man, anybody, I may have to go get another job. I don't know. Am I hiring out there? I need a little help.

John Neral: 33:09

No, but it's a whole lot easier to make money when you do something that's meaningful and makes your days much more fulfilled. Yeah, you are known as Coach D and you have proven that to us so well today. So, my friend, I want to turn the mic over to you. Tell us all of the places and the things where people can find you, connect with you, learn more about you, mike Scherz.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 33:31

Appreciate that man. And while you can always go to my LinkedIn page, darrell Coach D Andrews, that's where we do a lot of activity on LinkedIn, very active. I do videos, I do conversations and we put things up podcasts, interviews on there, and this will be on there once you release it to me so folks can see it. Darrell Coach D Andrews, then you can go. I have two websites. One is called coachdspeakscom coachdspeakscom.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 33:57

I'm gonna preface that by saying there's this other Coach D out there that's doing some political stuff. That's not me. So don't in any way mistake me for this kid, because he's really stirring up the political pot. And I'm like. People are like are you that Coach D? I'm like no, that's not me, trust me, he's like 25 years younger than me. Look at him, he has hair. I don't, so anyway. And so I'm Coach D Speaks, trainer, coach, consultant. That's coachdspeakscom.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 34:21

And then we're also we've been doing a lot around self-care. So we have self-careinpowercom, because part of the conversation too is just wellness in the workplace, and so we've been doing quite a bit of work in consulting and coaching organizations on building wellness systems via self-care. And we coach, we train career leadership. You know, if you're interested in having a conversation where we could potentially provide some coaching. Sometimes it's ongoing, sometimes it gets you to be a one-time coaching session. You can always go to coachdspeakscom and request a time. That's no cost and we can sit down and see if we'll be a good fit for you. So I love what I do, man, to me, I tell people I pinch myself. Every day I get a chance to inspire and engage and change lives like this man. This is my meaning right here and I'm so honored I get a chance to do it on a day-to-day basis. So thank you, john, for appreciating this.

John Neral: 35:14

You are most welcome. It is apparent, multiplied 10 times over, how much you love what you do and how you're serving the people you work with every single day. So, darryl, coach D Andrews, thank you so much for being a wonderful guest on the Mid-Career GPS podcast.

Darrell "Coach D" Andrews: 35:31

Thank you, John, and I love this podcast man. A great topic, great focus.

John Neral: 35:35

Thank you very, very much. All right, my friends, if there's a big takeaway from my conversation with Darryl today, it is this If you are in a leadership role, you are not leading the same way today that you were leading before the pandemic started four years ago. Your people are different. You are different. You have all evolved in different ways, and Coach D shared these three things listen, understand, engage, implement them as part of your leadership style and make that part of your playbook. He emphasized that so well today that you need a playbook and, for God's sakes, write it down. Get yourself a goal, write it down, do something that is filling your heart each and every day. And, most importantly, if you are managing people, if you are leading people within an organization, that is your service right. You are leading those people because you believe you are the best person to lead them to whatever is next. So, my friends, remember this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day.

John Neral: 36:54

Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple podcasts. Visit https://johnneral. com for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you in your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at JohnNarrowCoaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters.