The Transformational Journey of Leadership | Peter Awad

Peter: Well, so I've got the four that I picked. Um, so one is that I'm a bad husband and a father. Um, one is that it's never going to work out. Nothing is working. One is that I'm a fraud and a screw up. Um, I believe I'm someone I'm not, and one is that I'm, I'm scattered, impatient and lazy.

Matt: welcome to Push to Be More with me, your host, Matt Edmundson. This is a show that talks about the stuff that makes life work and to help us do just that. Today I'm chatting with Peter Awad, uh, about where he's had to push through what he does to recharge his batteries as well as. Well, what's more for Peter?

What's coming up now, the show notes and transcript from our conversation will be available on our website, which is pushtobemore.com. And whilst you're on our website, you can also sign up for our newsletter if you haven't done so already. And each week we will email you, uh, the links and the notes from the show automagically they go direct to your inbox, totally free.

So make sure you are signed up. For that now this episode is brought to you by Aurion Media, which helps entrepreneurs and business leaders set up and run their own successful podcast. You know what I have found running my own podcast to be insanely rewarding. It opens doors to amazing people like nothing else.

I've seen, I've built networks, made friends, had a platform to champion my customers, my team, and my supplies. And I think just about any entrepreneur or business leader genuinely should have their own podcast, should host their own podcast just because it's had such a huge impact. On my own business, which of course sounds great in theory, doesn't it?

But in reality, there's the whole problem of setup, distribution strategies. I mean, the list goes on, you know, the list of potential problems you see. I love talking to people, but not all of that other stuff. So Aurion Media takes it off my plate, which is amazing. I get to do what I'm good at, which is chat to amazing people.

Like the fine looking gentleman sat in front of me, Peter, uh, and, uh, Aurion Media brilliantly take care of the rest. So, if you are wondering if podcasting is a good marketing strategy for your business, do connect with them@aurionmedia.com. That's a u r i o n media dot com and of course, If you go to the website, pushtobemore.com, there'll be a link to them as well.

Now that's the show sponsor. Let's talk about the show's guest. Now, Mr. Peter Awad is an executive coach to Christian Businessman. He is the co-founder of Mission Meets and founder of Import Audio, perform, uh, audio import auto Performance. He helps, uh, businessmen find their purpose, grow their business.

And live out their vision without compromising their values with specialties in coaching brand, in digital marketing, e-commerce, which as you know, I love social media training, consulting, and public speaking. Peter has been mentioned in Forbes, Inc. And well any decent publication really are now to top it all off, of course, he's on this podcast.

So yes, Peter, welcome to the show, man. Great to have you. How you doing?

Peter: You doing great, man. That's quite an intro. It's quite an intro. All right. This is the icing on the cake here is I'm on push. This is it. It's happening.

Matt: This is it. It doesn't get any better than this. I really hope that's not true for you, man.

I really do. That's not truth. Yeah. Welcome to the show mate. It's good to finally get this, uh, get this recorded. Cause we've been talking about doing this for a while now.

Peter: Yeah. Yeah. I'm stoked, man. Glad to have, glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Matt: No, no, it's great. It's great. Now let's go, let's jump straight into the podcast question because, uh, you used to do a podcast, um, you don't do a podcast at the moment.

Uh, but if you did start up your podcast again, right? If you could, anybody from the past or the present that's had a phenomenal influence on your life, who would you have on your show and why?

Peter: There's quite a few people on that list. I think the first person that comes to mind is Craig Groeschel. Okay. He runs Life Church.

He's the dude to launch the Bible app. He runs an incredible leadership podcast. Um, and I think my questions for him would be, you know, how's he running such an immense organization mm-hmm. With so many people. Still keeping us straight, still finding time to write books, still ti finding time to manage his family.

Um, and still keeping his head on, you know, uh, and, and going in the right direction. So I think I said head on twice. That's just that important. Um, and so I think to like, to me, I think to me like that he would be an incredible guest to have. He's such a dynamic speaker. Mm-hmm. Um, and I love his communication style cause he's very succinct.

Yeah. Like his podcast is only once a month and I think it's like 23 minutes or something crazy. And it's like he is meticulously handpicked every single word and he is very deliberate in what he says. And so, um, he's had an impact on my life. Cause I, I read, His book, Winning the War On Your Mind. Yeah.

Great book. And it's about replacing, you know, and, and you know, it, the, the, the rut or the lies we tell our, tell ourselves. Mm-hmm. Uh, with a, replacing that with a trench of truth. Um, and so for me it was so impactful that I actually have, and I'll show you here, for the people that are watching, not just listening, I have the four Lies and they're laminated.

Okay, so two on the front, two on the back, and the truth and the declaration. And so for me it's profound because we have these ruts and we have these lies that we've been telling ourselves and they just run constantly. It's like that monkey mind and the, and that is running constantly, these lies that you're telling yourself.

And I like to think of it as, um, the conversation you have when you're in the car by yourself. Like a crazy person. Yeah. And we all do it. That's very, it's crazy when you make a, yeah. When you make a mistake and you're like, Hey, dummy, right? Mm-hmm. Ah, you're always doing that, Peter. You're always doing that.

You're always driving poorly or you're never paying attention or whatever. That, whatever that is that we tell ourselves, those are the lies. Those are just little clues to the lies, um, and replacing that with truth. So that's, that's my answer.

Matt: Craig Groeschel. I, I really love his leadership podcast. It's a really powerful, uh, one, and he, he's recently taken over that big, what's that leadership conference that, um, he's taken the Global Leadership Summit, is that what it's called?

It's, I think that's what he's called, um, as well. So he's big into leadership and some of his, his skills and understanding in leadership are quite extraordinary. Like you say, how he manages to do what he does. He obviously works out. He obviously has a great family, but he obviously has a lot of people working with him, and he impacts, you know, hundreds of thousands of people and you're like, dude, I, you know, I, I'm with you.

I'd love to just sit down with him on the show and just go, right. Uh, Mr. Groeschel, let's, let's, uh, let's have a conversation about this. Yes. I'm curious though, what, um, If I can ask this question, um, the lies that you, that we tell ourselves, what's the, what's the predominant one that you have to watch out for in that crazy conversation with yourself in the car?

Peter: Hmm. Well, so I've got the four that I picked. Um, let me just read all four. Is that okay? Sure. Yeah. Um, so one is that I'm a bad husband and a father. Um, one is that it's never going to work out. Nothing is working. One is that I'm a fraud and a screw up. Um, I believe I'm someone I'm not, and one is that I'm, I'm scattered, impatient and lazy.

So those are the four lies, and if you had to pick one, um, it would be that I'm a bad husband and father and so Wow. I think for me and for a lot of other people listening, if you're a parent, um, it just takes one screw up. Mm-hmm. And it feels like it negates all the other things that you've done. Uh, and I know that, you know, my wife's uncle, I remember he had like a episode, he has two grown kids and something happened and it was public with, you know, in a gathering and he just like really screwed up.

Maybe, you know, kind of lost his patience and he was having this conversation with his son afterwards and, and you know, apologizing. And his dad's like, dude, you're a great dad. It's not gonna, it's not gonna take one, one thing like that mm-hmm. For it to negate everything you've done for me my entire life.

Like, you know, it's, it's okay. I appreciate and I, I accept your apology, but it wasn't that big a deal. Mm-hmm. But I think as a parent, it just takes one, one issue, one time where you lost your temperature temper, not your temperature, your temperature. Or you didn't like rise to the occasion. Mm-hmm. And it, it, it feels like that one thing negates all the good things that were done either that day, that week, that month, or that year.

And so, yeah. Um, that's, that's one I think to me, like one of the predominant lies, um, that I tell myself. And I think that a lot of other parents tell themselves as well.

Matt: Yeah. I I, I can totally testify in that sense because you're, you're right. It's one of those where,

And I think a lot of it comes down to how you were parented yourself. Um, you know, in, in, in a lot of ways. But you're the, the scariest thing I've ever done. This by far is, is parent kids because you're, you're just like, okay, if the company goes belly up, that's one thing. Do, you know what I mean? You can, you can bounce back from that, can't you?

If I lose the house, I'll lose, I'll go get another house. I'll just build it up again. It's not a problem. But the kids, it's, they, they don't bounce do they? In in a lot of ways. I mean, in some ways they do, but in some ways they don't. And, and, and I, I remember the first time. Um, sitting there in my front room, Josh had just been born and Sharon had gone to bed to get a few hours r and r, and I'm sat there with this tiny baby in my arms and my, my single Prayer is, God, I pray I don't screw this up right, because there's this, there's this little life in my hands.

And so I thought, well, the only thing I know what to do now is to get him to watch Star Wars. So the first thing we did on the, on his first night at home is sat and watched Star Wars together. Uh, the episode four, uh, is the, you know, the, the, the, the first original stalls. Yes. Um, and so, yeah, I, I, I totally concur.

You know, God help me not to screw this whole parenting thing outright.

Peter: Yeah. You know, I have a bad day and I, you know, we homeschool, we have four kids, and, uh, I'm complaining, my wife, she's like, oh, that's good. It's almost as hard as raising human beings. Okay. I'm like, okay, all right. Okay. All right. I get it.

All right. You know, and yeah, you feel like you've got one go. It's, it's like, you know, my Melissa was telling, my wife was telling me, uh, a little while back, people say like, oh man, the kids turned out so different. It's weird cuz they had the same parents and she's like, no they didn't. Because like with every kid, you're getting older, you're hopefully becoming wiser.

You've made mistakes with the first that maybe you don't make with the second, you're not the same parent. Yeah. And so like Josh coming home, like you said, day one, not the same. He's, he didn't experience the same parent that day watching episode four as he does today. Mm-hmm. You're different, right? Yeah.

You're, you're evolving and growing and changing and improving, hopefully. And so, um, best, I mean, the best we can do is just, you know, the best we can do.

Matt: Yeah. It is, it is. I think I, I came to the conclusion, I've said this to several men actually. Um, you know what, when it comes to being a dad, I. You are not gonna be perfect and you are gonna screw it up.

Um, but it's how you come back from that, that really matters. And the most, some of the most powerful things, words that you can say to your kids are, I'm sorry. Um, and I, it's a very humbling experience to, to do that. But I think it's such a restorative experience with your kids when you inevitably gonna mess it up, right?

Peter: That's right. And it's, it's leadership man. And so it's like, you know, we're here talking leadership and, um, typically when you hear leadership, I don't know, I think about business, think about leading teams and vendors and partners and customers down some sort of journey. But really like the ultimate leadership is becoming, a leader worth following at home.

Hmm. And part of that, I, you know, you didn't say the word apology, but basically apologizing and fessing up to the screw and understanding that you're leading at home. Um, a big part of that is knowing that whatever the screw ups are, they're your fault. Yeah. And it's a harsh way to say it. Uh, I was telling a friend this yesterday, he's like, oh, that's pretty harsh.

I'm like, well, it's true. Like if you're the leader at home, Then all the scripts are yours. You own those. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, and whether that's the way you communicated or how you communicated, or you know, what you communicated, it's all your fault. Mm-hmm. Um, and so like I was teaching this leadership lesson on my son who's, you know, he's got this coin ring making business, which is very cool.

He just started and he had his little sister, and she's a kneeling, which is, you know, basically hitting this coin up on a torch. Yeah, we do that at home. We're like those people. That's cool. That's cool. And she, so she's quenching. She's supposed to quench this, which means to put it in water and get it cold.

And then he picks it up and he does some other process. Well, she didn't put it in the water very long and she set it down and he picked it up and he burned himself and he's, you know, yelling at her. And I said, listen, um, you're leading this team. He's only 13. He's only 13. You're leading this team, and if she didn't quench it long enough, that's your fault.

He's like, what do you mean? I, I told her how I was like, well, it wasn't explicit enough. Mm-hmm. Or the directions weren't clear enough. Mm-hmm. Or they weren't, they weren't stated in the way she needed to hear it. Or maybe she's not a, maybe she's not an auditory learner, maybe she's a visual learner, needed to be on paper and needed to be on a sheet in front of her.

And she knew she had to quench it for 3.2 seconds. Whatever it is, no matter what it is, you're leading this team and it's your fault. And he just looked at me like, got it. Yeah. And so he went back and he made it, and he made it very clear on how the process was supposed to go. Hmm. And so I think that apologizing, you know, and for him, in his case, he had to apologize that he yelled at her, even though he burned himself pretty bad badly.

You know? And for you, it's just like, and you, you know, you went, just going back a second, you said, it's about how we got brought up, like. In my childhood, I didn't hear, I'm sorry very much. Mm-hmm. And I think in that generation, you know, in our generation the parents were just like, right. And they were like, do, do as you as I say, um, yeah, do as you're told, not as I do.

Or whatever the heck that phrase was. And you didn't hear apologies very much like your parents were on this pedestal and they didn't do anything wrong. Mm-hmm. Um, at least that's how I was brought up. And so now like to try to learn from that and to. Just admit like, Hey, I communicated poorly. I'm sorry.

And I wasn't clear and I didn't, I didn't express the expectation. It was just like, you know, yeah. It was a nonverbal sort of thing. I thought, I assumed you'd understand and clearly you didn't, and it's my fault. Um, that goes a long way as a parent. And it's, it's not how you screw it up. It's how you fix it, like you said.

Matt: Yeah. No, it's totally true. It's totally powerful because I think your kids need to see you acknowledge the fact you're not perfect, right? Because your kids are gonna realize this. They're gonna, they're gonna come to the conclusion, aren't they? They're gonna go, yeah, they're not perfect, but that's okay and it's o and, but they're gonna learn how to handle situations and take responsibility, and it's such a powerful lesson.

Your son learned there with the ring. So powerful. In fact, I think most adults don't yet know that lesson Peter, cuz they're still blaming everybody else for problems which are going on in their life rather than taking, um, if not all of the responsibility. I release some of it, you know, and I tend to, as you were talking, I dunno if you've ever read the book, Extreme Ownership. Um, Jocko,

Peter: I'm reading it. Uh, yeah. Jocko Willink. I'm reading it right now. That's so, yeah. I, I was listening to part of it on my walk today, so I'm about halfway through. Yeah. Um, and it's an incredible book. What was, what did you find profound to you? Or,

Matt: or, um, just that overarching, I mean this, for those of you who haven't heard of this chap or haven't come across the book, he's ex Navy Seals, right.

And he, he talked about, um, leadership. Uh, from a Navy Seal point of view and how they do leadership, and he's written this book called Extreme Ownership. And in essence, the, the, the book is the lesson you taught your son, right? Where, where can you take ownership of this? Not necessarily push the blame onto other people, but where do you take ownership?

Where do you take ownership when the team doesn't work? If you are leading the team, And that whole, um, taking responsibility, which, you know, to trace it back to another book, Stephen Covey's book, the Seven Habits, you know, being responsible, the ability to choose your response, to take responsibility, um, is ju is, is undeniable.

Um, I think super powerful and super liberating. If you have, if you have the dare I say the balls to do it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Peter: So, um, if I may, I'll share a story from that book that I thought was really profound. Yeah. And he's, you know, so here's an ex-Navy Seal who takes all of these insights from, from, you know, from battle, from war, and, um, applies them to businesses and business principles.

And he is having a talk with. A gentleman in manufacturing who is responsible for his division and they're falling way behind. And so they've brought Jocko in to help them try to improve their, their efficiency, effectiveness, their productivity, all that stuff. And the whole time he is blaming the. The sister company who is upline from him.

And because they're not fulfilling their responsibility, he can't fulfill his. And so the whole time he's finger pointing and talking about how it's their fault that he's not being able to perform and he's, his hands are tied basically. And in this conversation he says, well, have you talked to them and have you tried to help them?

He's like, no, they're not my problem. They're not my problem. I've got my own people to deal with. They're. They're not my problem. And he pauses and he looks at 'em and he says, sounds like they are your problem. Yeah. Sounds like you should be collaborating with them. Sounds like you should be helping them and trying to figure it out because they've become your problem and because he's not performing, you're not performing.

And maybe you guys can help each other, both perform better. And then the other thing he says is, the enemy's not in here. They're part of the same company. They're not your enemy. Your enemy's out there. Mm-hmm. Here we're together. And so then he talks about this principle from military principle called Cover and Move.

And this whole idea like you can cover while they move and then when you move, they provide cover and you move back and forth and you can get down the line to safety. And so his whole idea was like, yeah, they're a sister company and you're not responsible for them, but you can cover while they move and they can move while you cover.

You guys can work together. And because of that, Principle, the story ends with them both going from industry dogs to industry leaders in their space because they decided to not be enemies and to work together and to cover and move.

Matt: Yeah, powerful story, powerful book too and strongly recommend, uh, people to read that book.

It's called Extreme Ownership. Uh, and definitely, definitely worth a read. So, Peter, here you are, right? You've read the book, uh, you've been the parent, you're dealing with, uh, the, the turmoils of being a parent and the, the, the insecurities that we all face. Uh, according to that, you've navigated quite successfully e-commerce.

You're now in, um, uh, executive coaching. What are some of the, I mean, apart from the parenting thing, what are some of the biggest challenges that you faced? Um, In, in sort of your business career and how have you, how have you sort of overcome those?

Peter: Yeah, I don't know that I've overcome, but definitely working through, I think, um, you know, getting into, uh, leadership coaching with executives and business owners, CEOs, et cetera.

Um, learning the content that I need to learn, developing the content that I need to develop in order to become the best leadership coach I can. Um, the cool byproduct is that you become a better leader yourself. Yeah. And the humbling part of that. Matt is that you realize how many times you've screwed up of like why certain relationships didn't work and some did.

Mm-hmm. Why some projects worked out and some did not. And the common thread looking back is that I was extremely naive and immature in my leadership. And you know, part of the things that we teach is called Five Voices. And it's learning your primary leadership voice and how you receive information.

How you give information and what your triggers are and what your weapon system is, and learning who your nemesis voice is and how they communicate and how they see the world and where they're gonna rub you wrong and where you're gonna rub them wrong. And, um, looking through all that, learning that.

I've just screwed it up so many times and there's specific personalities that I just don't jive with. Or that I may see as incompetent when they're actually not incompetent. They just process the information differently. They see the world differently. Um, they need to receive information differently.

Um, and seeing that as a asset versus a threat on your vision as, um, my primary voice is pioneer. And, it's helped me to, not repeat mistakes. Yeah. And have that, have that self-awareness and, um, to understand my tendencies and what my natural reaction is to certain situations. Um, and so for me it's been very, very powerful, um, this journey of self-awareness and learning.

And then, um, it's been such a beautiful thing to see light bulbs come on for other people. And now they're like, oh man, Matt, That's why Matt bought, drives me crazy. You know, and it's not that Matt's a bad person, it's like, oh, he likes to do this way. Mm-hmm. And he's future cal, he's a future vision, future vision sort of guy.

He's always looking at the future and I'm president oriented. Like, I like thinking about present and protecting what we have right now. Um, that's why Matt drives me nuts. He's not a bad guy. Hmm. And so, um, a lot of that stuff's been really interesting cuz you're watching these teams become much more effective and efficient.

Yeah. But what's really, really cool is that they're having more fun doing it. And, um, it's, it's a lot of the things that were on the table, you know, that, you know, a lot of the office politics and a lot of the inefficiencies, um, that had to do with. Personality conflicts, it's just great to see those go away.

Mm-hmm. And then they can extend, they instead have a shared vocabulary and just say, Hey, I need you to be more future-oriented on this one. I need you to really think about that, even though that's not your primary voice. Yeah. And to be able to point to that and, um, instead of having an hour long conversation, um, they can have two minutes of just a couple of statements that can help convey the message.

Matt: Yeah. No, that's super powerful. I'm listening to you talk, I've, I've got a few questions. What, what the first one is what are the Five Voices? But another book that you've reminded me of while you're talking is The Five Languages of Love or The Five Love Languages, or have the titles Five Love Languages.

Yeah. In, in Essence is the same thing. I communicate this way, my wife communicates that way. I need to understand how my wife receives love versus how I want to give it. And it's, I mean, it transformed our marriage. I'm not gonna lie. It's one of those things that means 25 years later, I'm still married. Um, So, yeah, the five Voices, what are they?

Peter: Yep. So, pioneer, connector, creative, guardian, and Nurturer. Okay. And everybody's got 'em. And they're all gonna be in different, in different orders. And, um, like through this assessment that we give, um, you'll, you learn the order and like I said, you learn the triggers and weapon systems. Right. Um, but most importantly to me is that unlike most assessments, a lot of assessments, like I think about the Enneagram and I'm an eight, and a lot of times you hear folks say, well, I'm an 8, so that just, this is how I am.

That's how it is. Mm-hmm. I don't get along with, you know, name a number. Um, it doesn't do that. Instead it's like, Hey, your nemesis, which is your weakest voice, which is that that person, if a person has a, has their primary voice, they're gonna be the most difficult for you to communicate with. They're 43% of the population.

That's what mine is, nurturer, which for me, it's like, oh, so almost half of the population I cannot effectively communicate with. I cannot effectively receive information from. That's probably a bad thing. I don't know. I'm not a mathematician. Sounds like a bad thing. Hmm. And this is how they see the world.

This is their worldview. This is their per perspective. This is how they receive information. This is why they talk the way they talk. Because they're soft spoken, because they're maybe a little bit more quiet. You need to let them speak first and you just shut up. As a pioneer, I'm only 7% of the population, which makes you feel special until you realize you're only 7% of the population, which means that you can only effectively communicate with 7% of the population. Bad as a leader. Yeah.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. That's really, mm-hmm. So you've been doing all this. Uh, why should, so you are learning this. Um, as, and this is the thing I find about coaching, I do a lot of e-com coaching, for example, and I don't know who learns more every coaching job I do. I mean, I, you, you know, I'm always learning whatever job I, and that's part of the reason why I love it really, um, is you get to see, I.

How this functions in a slightly different company, or a slightly different industry, or a slightly different part of the world. Uh, and there's, there's always that sort of opportunity for growth and learning. So, and it sounds to me like that's what you're doing. You've, you've got this executive coaching now.

You've sort of, you, you've come through e-com and all that sort of stuff. You're doing this coaching, um, and you're learning a lot on the way whilst you're doing it, right? Yeah.

Peter: Yeah. And the thing for me is like, my second voice is connector. And so I like pioneering and I like. Envisioning the future and what's possible, but I also love people.

Mm-hmm. And so I love communicating with people and understanding how they tick. And um, and this all really came about like I was getting coached myself cuz there's a couple years ago. I'm like, man, What is it that I'm supposed to be doing? Like I, yeah, I feel like a square peg here. Like I'm doing what I'm good at, but not what I'm great at.

And working with a coach myself, it exposed to me like the power of coaching. Mm-hmm. Um, but for me specifically, I wanted to know, I wanted to know the answer to three questions. And this is, um, a statement that my buddy Zach, who was head of product at Zappos here in the, in the United States, um, when they were in their heyday of, you know, selling shoes on the internet.

He, he posed these three questions to me, which are, what are your superpowers? What do you want the work to look like? What do you want the incentives to be? And if you can answer those three questions he tells me, then you can be on your path to purpose.

Matt: Okay. So just repeat those questions.

Peter: Yes. What are your superpowers? What do you want the work to look like, and what do you want the incentives to be? Which is really, it's a journey of figuring out. What are you good at? Like why did God put you on this earth? What type of work do you like to do? You wanna be working with people or solo, you wanna be in-person, you wanna be online, you want it to be via content or video, or like figuring out what is that ideal pocket of work you wanna be doing and what are the incentives?

And it's not just financial. Right. Do you wanna be living in a different part of the world? Do you wanna be living in your van full-time? Do you wanna be flying all over the, all over the country? Like, what do you want that work to look like? And if you can answer those three questions, you can be on your path to purpose.

So for me, going through the coaching myself, um, and figuring out like, oh, I, I have a voracious sort of insatiable curiosity. I, for some reason can connect with people very quickly and very deeply. Mm-hmm. And, um, I can see the path from A to B, A to B very quickly as well. And so uncovering that led me to coaching.

Now in between discovering coaching for myself and uncovering or answering these, uh, an answering that first question on the superpowers. Uh, I was depressed for a couple of weeks or month, and the coach was like, what, what, uh, what's the problem? Like, you should be happy. This is, you checked off the superpowers question and that was a, you know, a six month journey.

And I said to him, I said, well, these aren't marketable skills. Yeah. Like this is not a job. Like what is this? What do I do with these three things? They're not like they're acute, but this is not gonna pay the bills, you know? And that it took me a while. And so what he said to me was, Hey, just have 'em in your back pocket.

It's like deciding that you want to buy a red Jeep, and then all of a sudden you see red Jeeps everywhere, and you think that all of a sudden everybody bought red Jeeps, but they didn't. They've been there the whole time. You just didn't notice them. And so once you uncover the attributes of your superpowers, you'll start to see opportunities to exercise those superpowers.

And you start to answer the other questions, which is, what do you want the work to look like? Mm-hmm. And I start realizing like, oh, coaching fits those three superpowers very, very, very well. Yeah. And now I'm just figuring out the incentives. Like do I wanna do, you know, uh, one-on-ones or groups and we're doing group coaching right now and it's going really, really well.

So I think group is probably part of that sort of incentive plan. Like I'm gonna be doing group and that's gonna be the great way to exercise it. It's also answering the question, what do I want the work to look like? Hmm.

Matt: That's really powerful stuff. Really powerful stuff. So how, how long have you, um, you said it took you six months to figure out your superpowers.

Um, wh why did it take so long? Why could, why? Because I'm, I'm just imagining people listening to the show going, surely you can figure this out in five minutes, but it, it seems like it was something that you wrestled with, right?

Peter: Yeah. You know what it is about, and this is true, I think universally, like for everybody, maybe it's not.

Maybe it's just me. The things that we know and the things that we're good at, they naturally come easy to you. We, it's what we call your unconscious, uh, competence. It's what you can do in your sleep. Just come natural to you. It's, you've always been good at it. However, because it's comes easy to you, you think everybody knows it.

Yeah. And that it's, it's not of value. You come across this all the time, Matt, I guarantee you we're. Somebody asks you a question and you're like, oh, well that's like very, very simple, like entry level stuff. How can they not know this? Hmm. And then you realize like, oh, it's not actually simple entry level stuff.

You've just been doing it for so long to you. Yeah, it's very, very simple. Second nature, entry level, common sense sort of stuff, but it's not for everybody. And so your common sense is not so common. And so I think it takes a long time to un uncover. The things that you're good at, because to you, they just seem like everybody's good at these things.

Surely, you know, making friends everywhere, like everybody knows how to do that. That's that simple. And then you realize that, you know, for me, I've got a friend problem, like there's just too many friends and not enough time, and I wanna hang out with all of them, right? And then I realize like, oh, the majority of the population's actually pretty lonely.

Hmm. Meaning they're not that good at making friends and it's not that easy. And that's actually a skill set that you can teach people. And so I think that's one of the reasons why it took me so long and why it would it take most people a long time? Because yeah, especially as you get older, you're like, oh, well this is just, this is old hat.

Like, I've been doing this forever and this is not even, there's no value there. Who's gonna want to listen to this stuff? Yeah.

Matt: No, that's powerful, man. That's powerful. So it sounds like an immense journey to go on. Um, and I think you're right. I think. My experience is if you're not wrestling with it for a little while, it's prob you're probably not deep enough.

Um, mm-hmm. And you've just come up with a surface level land so quick. Cause you just want it off your books. Do, you know what I mean, you just wanna check it off your to-do list or something like that. But actually wrestling with it for a little while is, is, uh, is definitely not a bad thing. So what are you, I'm curious, uh, Peter, what the day-to-day looks like for you.

So you, I mean, you've got all of this, um, stuff going on. You're doing the group coaching, you know, you. So your parenting, um, life's good, how do you, how do you sort of stay charged up? How do you, how do you keep the, the batteries full?

Peter: Yeah, I mean, we're still running mission meats too, and so, um, there's, there's definitely a lot going on.

Um, for me, it all starts in the morning, and this is like cliche morning routine sort of stuff, but I think it's incredibly important. Mm-hmm. Um, and I, I think that. As a sidebar to go a little deeper, I think that you have to be paying attention to the clues. And so for me, it became very, very clear. The days where I hit the ground running, they never end well, never.

The days where I get up and it's 5 45 and the house is quiet and I can get up and I can go about my morning routine. And I'll go through that real quickly, what that is, and I can, but I can do it at my pace. Yeah. It's just a much, much better day. Not every day's great. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But much more frequently.

And so I think that, um, some of us are going through life with our eyes closed, and we're running into walls, and we're wondering why our, our forehead's bloodied. Mm-hmm. And we're just not paying attention. We're not paying attention. Like, what, what are the common threats? What's, what makes a good day? A good day?

What makes a bad day, a bad day? Let's try to have a little bit more good and a little bit, little bit less bad. How do we do that? There's gonna be some commonalities on those good days and commonalities on the bad days. And so for me, I get up 5 45, I'm, you know, I'm doing, you know, your usually usual morning, uh, duties.

Um, I am reading my Bible. I am journaling. Um, I'm reading through these, you know, these four lies and reminding myself of the truth. I'm having my special coffee drink, which has, I don't know, 17 ingredients or something stupid. Um, So, uh, and I'm like, I'm doing those sorts of things. Um, if I can get on a, you know, a quick walk with my wife before all the kids wake up, I'll do that.

Mm-hmm. And then I'll jump in, you know, and I'll jump into the things that are gonna be, uh, what my buddy used to call the small hinges that swing big doors. Mm-hmm. You know, the one thing that I can knock out that'll make the day feel like a success even if the rest of the day goes sideways. Yeah. Um, if I can do, if I can do that, um, I can keep my head on straight and we can get some, you know, uh, we can get some things done.

Matt: So how do you determine what the one thing is? Do you do that at the start of every day in your, when you're journaling or if you, do you plan it out the night before? How, how do you, how do you determine that?

Peter: Yeah, so for me, um, I'll show you guys. Um, I use this thing called the Legend Planner and um, I start a new one, um, every year.

I'm on my third one now, but um, outside of the week to week, I've got, What's listed out as, um, what brings me joy in good feelings? Uh, what is most important in my life? What does successful life look like for me? What's a perfect day look like for me? There's dreams and life goals in here. Right? And so that sets the stage for your, your one year goals.

Mm-hmm. Which back into your quarterly goals, which back into your monthly goals, which then help you populate the, the goals for the week. And, um, I will, I review every, every once a week I review the whole thing. Um, but every day I look at quarterly, monthly, and weekly. And that helps me populate my work to-do list.

I use a sauna for project management and you can use whatever you like, but, um, I use that to help kind of power and fuel, like what's most important for the week. Yeah. Um, and then one hokey, hokey thing that I do, and I don't remember when I started this, but right before I fall asleep, lie in bed, and I'll think about what the perfect morning looks like and how I want to start the day and what I really, really want to accomplish tomorrow.

Hmm. And I'll just sit and think about it. And the, for me, when I wake up in the morning, there's no question what needs to be done. Mm-hmm. Like I don't wake up and I'm not, I'm not wondering what I'm gonna wear cause I set my clothes out and I'm not wondering what I'm gonna do cause I already know. Cause I thought about it the night before.

Um, and so that for me has helped. Um, To, it helps me to move through the day in confidence cause I already know what I'm doing. Yeah. Um, so I don't know if that answered your question, Matt. Maybe it's a little bit more fluffy and a little bit more high level, but. Um, that's, that's how I think about it.

Matt: No, it's good. Super powerful stuff, man. Because I think, you know, with a lot of these things, you can, I've done it myself, you know, and I catch myself doing it. There are seasons that you go through that you just sort of meandered through that you, and, and sometimes. That might be the right thing to do. You just sort of muddle your way through it.

And then there are seasons where you are very deliberate and intentional. You sort of design that season and what's gonna happen to the best. I mean, obviously stuff happens outside of your control. Mm-hmm. Um, but I was listening to somebody talk, I can't remember who said it the other day. Um, He, he said, you know, write a list of everything that's going on in your life, good, bad, whatever it is.

And then he said, cross out everything that's outside of your control and that leaves you a list of things that you can control. Work on those things. And I just thought it was a real simple, and, and there are times when actually I, I, you know, look for the clues. I know when I, when I take those five minutes to write in the journal, um, uh, life is just better.

It just is, you know, and just thinking about these things and being a bit proactive is, um, Is is brilliant. Um, let me ask cuz you mentioned it and I, I know I mentioned it in the bio, but I'm, I'm just for the listeners, explain what Mission meats is.

Peter: Yeah, so we're a shelf stable snack food company in the states. Um, we sell beef sticks and jerky, um, all grass fed, beef, free range, Turkey, that whole bit, no unpronounceables, no sugar, and, in most of our products. And so just a healthier for you sort of portable option. Mm-hmm. Um, a lot of families, a lot of people on diets, um, just trying to get healthier. It's really great for just folks that are busy, right?

Cause you can keep 'em in your car, you can keep 'em in your purse, you can keep 'em in your office. And so, um, that company is coming up on its eighth anniversary. Wow. And, um, we're direct to consumer, so we're not in any stores or anything like that. We sell direct to consumer. Um, it's just cuz I love e-commerce.

Matt: Yeah. What's there not to love about e-commerce? Right? What's there not to love? I know the most amazing thing, you go to bed and somebody during, I mean you wake, you lie in bed sitting. I wonder what the perfect morning looks like. Sometimes I lie in bed at night going. Who's gonna buy from my website whilst I'm asleep, who's gonna make me richer while I sleep?

What part of, I wonder what their story is. Do, you know what I mean? And I sort of imagine different people from different cultures who come onto the website and sort of buy the products. And I just, I don't know. I'm just, I'm, I'm engrossed by what their potential story is, you know? And I, I find the whole thing quite fascinating.

It is fascinating and yeah. Oh yeah, totally. What does the future look like? Uh, what's the next three to five years got for you?

Peter: Yeah. Um, I stepping in full-time leadership coaching, um, and that being my definitely my next chapter for the foreseeable future. Um, like I said, I went on that journey and so, um, for me it's just growing, uh, cohorts and so we, we roll out cohorts, so I'll have another one, um, starting probably June 1st.

Um, these groups going through year long, leadership coaching program and, um, I believe from there, growing that practice with other coaches, um, so that we can scale that programming, do a little bit more, you know, DIY sort of leadership coaching content so we can scale even faster. Um, but that's my foreseeable future.

And then just keeping these kids on the rails, man, you know, three to five years I'll have. Let's see, three to five years, I'll have one in college. One about to graduate high school and then two in high school. So that's just an incredible thing to think about. Yeah. Um, so that's, that's what it is for me.

Matt: Yeah, no, I'm, well, it's great. I'm a few years in front of you. My two sons are at uni. Um, so they've left home now and my daughter, who's my youngest child, is just about to graduate, um, what we call in the UK secondary school, which is, um, Is school. You graduate when you're 16. So now she has to go into college, which she'll do until she's eight.

The schooling system's different. But anyway, I fully empathize with what you're saying. Uh, and it's just, it's, it was, it was interesting when we took Josh to university, my eldest, uh, and so my first born is moving out to go to university and I'm like, I was okay. I was like, well take him up cuz he's about six hours away from where we are.

He is up in Scotland. And, um, excuse me. Um, so we took him up and I thought my wife would be in bits when we dropped him off, you know, and we just sort of left him there and drove back. It wasn't my wife, it was me. It was,

Peter: yeah. That's gonna be me.

Matt: Yeah. Complete role reversal. Fascinating.

Peter: Yeah.

Matt: Peter, question box time.

Okay. So this is my box of random questions. Ready? I'm gonna flip through said questions you're gonna tell me to stop and wherever we stop, that's the question we're gonna deep dive on. Okay. You ready?

Peter: Okay. Ready.

Matt: Stop. Right there. Okay.

Peter: Ah, this is fun.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love every question I've, I've really enjoyed actually.

And so, um, I just want you to know you chose this question. Okay. Okay. In fact, you were only one question away from choosing one that someone's already chosen, uh, which is correct. Give given the amount of questions we've got. Um, I'm just gonna write your name cause I, I like to write the name of the person that chose a question on the card.

So when it comes to it, okay. Does the price of a work of art ever reflect how good it is?

Peter: Does the price of a work of art ever reflect how good it is? Um, man, not a question I've ever thought about, don't you think? No, I've never thought of it either. It's a very, very good one. Um, it's in the eye of the beholder, right?

Mm-hmm. Hmm. And I always think about, um, price versus value. And so I think of, you know, as soon as I, as soon as I think of that question, I think of the artist. Who most frequently undervalues their art. Mm-hmm. Um, because it came easily to them per our previous conversation. And so it all depends on who's looking at it, what it means to them, and, um, their life history.

Right. So I think of a piece of art that we picked up in one of the national parks and, um, to me it was like such a steal. I'm like, this is, hmm. This is way cheap for this piece of art. I loved it and it meant a lot to me. Cause we bought it when we were on a road trip and it just like has a lot of sort of meaning to us.

And I thought I got a smoking deal on it. It was a lot cheaper than it should have been. And I know for a fact there's people that come through this house and they're like, what is that thing? I don't, I mean, you bought, you bought, you bought that, you paid for that. Did you pay for that? Did you find that a yard sale?

Like what is that? It's ugly, right? Yeah. So no, the answer's no.

Matt: No, it's funny, isn't it? And to be slightly contrarian, uh, Peter I may do it. One of the, if I take the word, um, art out of this, does the price of a service ever reflect how good it is? I think it, not all the time because I think people do undervalue themselves, but I think.

Um, sometimes the price of the product helps determine in people's mind how good it's gonna be. I'll give you an example. So, uh, a few years ago, my wife Sharon and I, we went down to the Savoy, which is very posh hotel in London. We were, uh, we went down to the Savoy. We were the guests of, um, one of our suppliers.

And, um, Chris and his beautiful wife, uh, took me Sharon, Jen and Andy, who are my then business partners in the beauty business. I wouldn't say. Uh, we went to the Savoy and we had, we were gonna have drinks and dinner, um, just to catch up, just to, you know, shoot, we all gone really well. And so we were looking forward to him.

We went down to the Savoy. And I'm, no, no, whatever. I'm sort of sat there and Chris said to me, right, Matt, what do you want to drink? Because the supplier was paying. So I'm like, in which case, I don't need to think about price because as soon as I open the menu, Um, the price of a gin and tonic was 16 pounds from memory.

It's like $25 for a gin and tonic. I'm like, that's, that's ridiculously expensive. Yeah. And I know that, that gin and tonic, I know that gin. I know that tonic. I know it's not worth 25 quid. Right. And I'm thinking, this is expensive. So I then turned the page over to the cocktail menu and they had cocktails on there for like 3, 4, 5, 6, 700 pounds.

I'm like, 700, oh my gosh. For a, a cocktail. This is ridiculous. How could I, and I'm going through this. That's just immoral, how can Do you know what I mean? This sort of internal argument in my head just starts to arise. And then I turned the page one more time and there was a cocktail for 12 thousand pounds, 12 grand.

And I said to the waitress, uh, once I picked my jaw from said floor, um, it had this very rare ruminate apparent, which is why it was so stupidly expensive. And there was a story that they pedaled. And I said to the waitress, I said, do me a favor. Can you answer me this question? Do people ever buy the 12,000 pound cocktail?

And she was like, You will be amazed how many of those we sell. And what happens is the bankers, you know, the bankers come in and they're like, they've just got their million pound bonus or whatever. And so they're, you know, they're all happy and ecstatic about life and they're like, well, I can afford a 12,000 pound cocktail, so I'm just gonna try it.

And so for them, the price dictates in summary or the exclusivity of the price. Maybe it dictates how good it's gonna be. But here's the bizarre thing. This is what happened in my mind, right? So, I went, I went from thinking that 16 pounds was stupid money for a gin and tonic to thinking 300 pounds was stupid money for a cocktail to seeing this 12,000 pounds

drink to then thinking, what, 250 quids, not too bad for a cocktail compared to 12 grand. And so once I put the, the, the, and I had a gin and tonic 16 quid, which before I was like, I'll just get me a glass of water. But it as one of those things, as soon as you see value compared to something else, or the price compared to something else, it, it's funny the psychology behind that, you know? And so, yes.

Peter: Yeah, you just reminded me really quickly of a study. I don't remember what book it was in. They had a people do a taste test, three different wines, bottles without any labels. Mm-hmm. They only had price tags and they asked them to rate them in order of best to worst. Mm-hmm. And almost universally, the taste testers rated the most expensive one the best. It's the cheapest one. The worst. Mm-hmm. Same one. Yeah. It was the same exact one. Yeah. So yes. I'm with you.

Matt: There's something about the psychology of pricing. Hey, listen Peter, I'm aware of time man, and I feel like we're just getting warmed up in our conversation. Uh, but if people wanna connect, if people wanna reach out to you, what's the best way for them

Peter: to do that?

Yeah. I actually put together a free download, if that's okay for your listeners. They can just go to peterawad.com. So it's peterawad.com/push. Um, and that'll take them to a leader guide. It's free. Um, and it's titled Five Ways to Becoming a Better Leader Overnight. And so just five quick tips, um, that they can take and apply to their leadership, whether that's at home or at work with teams or vendors or whatever.

So hopefully that's helpful.

Matt: Fantastic. No it's super kind. Super kind. Do check out Peter's download. Uh, so one more time, Peter, that url.

Peter: Peter Awad, so peterawad.com/push.

Matt: Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah. We will of course link to that in the show notes, which you can get for free along with the transcript, uh, at pushtobemore.com or direct your inbox if you've signed up for the newsletter.

Listen, Peter, super conversation man. Thanks for your, uh, honesty. Thanks for your openness and thanks for sharing some of the insights that you've learned. Man, really, really enjoyed it. It's been top banana, as my daughter would say.

Peter: Love it. Thanks Matt. Appreciate it.

Matt: Brilliant. So what a great conversation.

A huge thanks again to Peter for joining me today. Also, a big shout out to today's show sponsor Aurion Media. If you're wondering if podcasting is a good marketing strategy for your business, do connect with them at aurionmedia.com. That's A U R I O N media dot com. We will of course, link to them on the podcast website as well at pushtobemore.com as well as

to Peter's link. You can find all of that information there. Now be sure to follow the Push to Be More podcast wherever you get your podcast from because we've got yet more great conversations lined up and I don't want you to miss any of them. And in case no one has told you yet today, you are awesome.

Yes, you are awesome. It is just a burden you have to bear. We've been created. Awesome. It's a burden I have to bear. It's a burden Peter has to bear. It's a burden you've gotta bear as well. Just got to deal with it now, Push to Be More is produced by Aurion Media. You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app.

The team that makes this show possible is Sadaf Beynon, Estella Robin and Tanya Hutsuliak. Our theme song was written by Josh Edmundson, and as I mentioned, if you would like to read the transcript, all show notes, head over to the website, pushtobemore.com. That's it from me. That's it from Peter. Thank you so much for joining us.

Have a fantastic week wherever you are. I will see you next time. Bye for now.