Host Intro And Guest Bio

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Well, welcome to the Hammet Podcast, where we give you the tips, tools, and strategies you need to be successful. My name is Brian, and I'll be your host today. Today we have a very special guest joining us. His name is Anthony Tony Brock, CEO and head coach of Compass Leadership Partners LLC. Anthony Tony Brock is a retired Navy commander, former intelligence operations officer, and an executive leadership coach who has spent his career building and leading high-performance teams in some of the most complex and high-stakes environment in the world. Often described as a spy-turned executive coach, Tony supported U.S. Navy SEALs and Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before transitioning into business leadership and executive coaching. Today, he's the CEO and head coach at Compass Leadership Partners, where he helps executive leaders gain a competitive advantage in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. He's a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and a certified executive coach and a founding executive director of the Griffin Leadership Institute at the National Medal Honor Museum Foundation. Tony, welcome to the show. But before we get into the show, let's say thank you to our sponsors. Today's episode is sponsored by NouveauxDesk Co-Working, the home of Arlington's most accessible production ready podcast studio. Whether you're launching your first show or leveling up your content game, Nouveau Desk gives you a professional studio environment where you can walk in, hit record, and create. But Nouveau Desk is more than just a podcast room. It's fully equipped business hub with private offices, conference rooms, and workshop and event spaces designed to help you host, collaborate, and grow. If you're ready to elevate your brand, your business, or your voice, book your next recording or your next tour at nuvodesk.com. Create here, work here, build here. Today's episode is brought to you by Nuvio, the all-in-one business platform designed to help you build, manage, and scale with confidence. With Nuvio, you can build your own website in minutes, manage all of your leads and customers through a powerful CRM. And if you're in the restaurant industry, you can run your entire operations using Nuvio's modern point-of-sale system. Whether you're a startup, a service provider, or a full-scale restaurant, Nuvio gives you everything you need in one place. Simple, connected, and built to grow with you. Discover why entrepreneurs are switching to Nubio. Visit Nuvio.com and run your entire business on one platform. Well, everybody, welcome back to the Atma podcast. And like I said, we have a special guest today. His name is Anthony Tony Brock, and he is going to bless us with some knowledge about leadership and how to be a better executive. And so we're we're excited to have him. And this podcast, uh Tony, is about helping businesses build, launch, grow, and scale. And you have a lot of experience with executives.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, thanks, Brian. Appreciate the opportunity to be here first. And um I think if you put it in a nutshell, he probably could say that we've all worked for challenging leaders at one stage or another, right? So if you think back to that boss who was sometimes a challenge to work with, um uh or you found yourself kind of drifting out of alignment as the boss, and what's this role all about? How do I uh how do I lead and manage most effectively? Then that frustration and anxiety, uh kind of misalignment that comes from that experience, yeah, that's the target that we're going after. And so, you know, it's it's about helping leaders get back in alignment and be successful.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Awesome, awesome. And love it, love it. And as leaders, we we too forget that we need a little bit of accountability sometimes, right? And I think that's uh sometimes uh we forget, right? We're in the we're kind of in the the mode of running a business and we're like, hey, you're actually a leader and you you have to lead the team, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, it it is its own discipline. So in the same sense that you're working on your technical proficiencies, whatever that is in the workplace, um recognizing that leadership itself is a skill set, it's a learned behavior, uh I think is is an important aspect. And it it also provides some encouragement that, hey, we can all get better.

Special Operations Lessons For Business

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Awesome, awesome. And and you not just have business experience, you know, you have military experience, right? And so you've worked with military leaders, you worked with Navy SEALs, uh special operations, right? And so how do you take that experience and bring it into um helping leaders today?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Aaron Powell Yeah, I was really fortunate to have served as an intelligence officer at a SEAL team um on several occasions, and then uh in in my third tour with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with that team, and I and I I think the same lessons that apply to a SEAL team, apply to any high performance team, really in any industry, whether it's banking, finance, um, etc., I see the same trends over and over again that executive leaders want to do well. They want the team to perform at a high level and recognizing when they they get out of sync, you know, when they get out of uh uh alignment with the the performance standards that they have, um they often don't even feel it. You know, they're just starting to shift a little bit. And then but the performance always follows. And so I I think for me the lessons I got out of those experiences were that um being on a high performance team means focusing first on being a high performance player. You know, what can I do personally to up my own game so that I'm in a better position to support the other members of the team?

Battling Imposter Syndrome And Building A Personal Board

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Sure, sure. And and you know, as you become a better leader, you're always gonna be dealt with obstacles, right? With self-doubt. You know, uh and so how do you overcome that voice that's saying, you know, who are you? You're to help others lead, right? And and how do you overcome those obstacles?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Yeah, I I think first is just recognition that we all have that gremlin on our shoulder, right? Of self-doubt, the imposter syndrome, um, that at any moment everybody's gonna figure out that I don't actually know what the heck I'm talking about. Right? Um and uh that's a normal human uh protection system that we have sort of built in. And so recognizing that uh it's a common human trait that um, you know, but you didn't just land here. Right. You have some, if you reflect back, some competence in your education and training and experience that did bring you to this point. Uh and then you have a whole host of resources, whether that's with an executive coach or you have uh individuals within your circle. Um you are the CEO of your own life. And so you have the opportunity to set up sort of this like board of directors. Who are the people around you that you can lean on uh to gain some additional competence, to gain some additional confidence in skills, especially if they're things that you're unfamiliar with. Right. Uh finance, law, accounting, like whatever it is in your circle that you need uh to be more effective in your job, you can surround yourself with people uh in your life that can help shore you up a little bit. So, you know, none of us make it alone.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah, I find the best leaders are those who um are open to saying, hey, I don't know everything. Right? Uh and uh it was funny because Jeff Williams uh was just on the show, talked about that a little bit about um uniting people and uh um that are different because everybody has different strengths and weaknesses. I find myself that at times too as well, it's like, hey, listen, um I know a lot, but I don't know everything. Right? Um and so i it it's it's important for us it to kind of lean into that weaknesses and be like, okay, you know, um there's a reason why I have a videographer and a photographer, there's a reason why we have a web designer, a web development. They are good at that job, and we want to lean on those expertise and then have them advise us on, you know, uh what's best sometimes with what they see, right?

Delegation, Trust, And Leading At Scale

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Um especially as you start to lead at scale, right? You can be promoted because you're technically proficient at doing a task. But as you start to scale, um first you're gonna be in charge of a team that's very likely doing what you were doing. And then you're gonna be in charge of teams of teams, many of those are not doing the thing that you are a subject matter expert in on the way up. And so, yeah, you're absolutely right. You need to learn quickly to be able to uh uh be able to extend that trust and and delegate effectively in areas where you don't have the technical competence.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah. And um and so there comes a time though uh where things start to break down. You're building this machine, right? And I I always tell people businesses is a machine, everybody's a different gear, but sometimes, just like our cars, right? Sometimes it starts to break down and and and we start to drift. And when pressure starts to oddly enough, there was a message the Sunday in my church about pressure and how pressure changes who we are sometimes, right? It can change the uh we use the metaphor of like a balloon, and as the pressure was it started to deform the balloon, right? And it was just like it's not the the original state that it was. At what point you're like, hey, we're drifting as a leader, right? And so we have to check ourselves because this isn't how we started, right? And so uh tell us a little bit about like internal communication of like how to get overcome that.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah, I think first is the recognition that that's the operating environment for business executives. Um there's always gonna be this pull between alignment, who's the what's the person you're trying to be, the leader that you're trying to be, the vision for your organization. That's your North Star. That's that sense, that sense of commitment towards something. Um and recognizing the villain of the story. Right. Uh because otherwise we would just do it and everything would work out. So the villain of the story is entropy. The villain of the story is that drift, the natural, like relentless degradation away from the standard. Um, and so it's not to be negative, but it's like to wake up every day and recognize, hey, I gotta get after it.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Yeah.

Recognizing Drift And Building Dashboards

SPEAKER_00 10:21

I have to get after it in my personal life, I have to continue to exercise and and hone my leadership skills for my team, and I need to stay aligned with whatever that North Star is for your vision and mission of your business, um, because there's a force degrading and pulling you, drifting away from it. So um you know, you talked about your car, it's the same idea. Generating a dashboard on your car uh for yourself and for your business. Hey, what does right look like? What would be some of the indications and warning lights when things are out of alignment and there's a standard of excellence, doesn't have to be perfect, but there's sort of the zone of excellence, and when I get out of that zone, hey, now I'm starting to hit a tipping point where it it could go horribly wrong.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

And so how do I set myself up um to uh have that dashboard?

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Sure. And it's funny, we we talk about the the foundation and build, right? Um so here at Adventury, Bill Launch Grow Scale. Yeah. When we talk about Bill, we're building the foundation of the of whatever we're going to be utilizing to launch into the market. And in this case, you're building the foundation, which is you, the leader, right? And then as you launch though, you quickly realize that it's your name, right? And it's your it's your brand at the end of the day. And so how do you own that? How do you own that? And how do you advise executives and saying, hey, you have to own the your name? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah, I think the big three that leaders and executive leaders, as you start to scale, are going to come into is that, you know, a philosophy that you lead people and manage stuff. So in leading people, it's recognizing that we're all these uh we're all this wide range of emotion. Uh you know, a lot of times manufacturing plants or a car or AI or any of these other areas, it's easier because it's mechanics. When we get into leading people, the challenge is that emotional range. And so I I think for a lot of executive leaders, it's knowing first and what we do in executive coaching. How can I become more emotionally self-aware? Right. How do I really know myself first? Get your, you know, put your own mask on first, philosophy. And then how can I be more emotionally expressive in a positive and productive way with my team? And so those are kind of the first uh two that we focus on.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Awesome, awesome. And and um when you're launching, because uh obviously you launched uh you know uh Compass Leadership Partners, and um you've yourself had to do this, right? And and so when you're launching though, you took a different approach. You're like, hey, we shouldn't focus on marketing and sales, we should be focused on clients first and client needs. So tell tell us a little bit about that that philosophy.

Owning Your Name And Brand As A Leader

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Yeah, the the journey really, the short version, the journey really started in 2017. And so um what is today Compass Leadership Partners was originally uh Anthony Brock group. And and naming it for myself was less about ego and more about ownership. It kind of forced me by putting my name on it to own and be accountable for what the heck is this thing. Um and I was doing uh executive coaching and some peer support, um, some work with young professionals and 40 under 40 and that sort of zone um without realizing there was a discipline to that.

unknown 13:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

So I was just taking my military experience and providing support to people around me. And uh some folks from HR uh for the organization I was with at the time, HR contacted me and said, Hey, would you be interested in doing executive coaching? And so that put me on the track to get the skills and training I needed through the Georgetown program to become an executive coach. Uh and I think you know, to your point, when you when you boil down what is the products a product or service that you provide? What's a problem that you're trying to solve for someone and who's your ideal client? When I really got tight on that and realized that I have a lot of respect for executive leaders, I got a lot of respect for them getting in the arena and trying to accomplish more with a team than they could alone. Right. And so what's that all about? How do I support that individual? Um that became the driver. And the more specifically I focused on improving that experience for them, then the better things got. It was so it wasn't naturally until later when brand and marketing and sales and and all the other components, uh the requirement for those started to manifest.

Client-First Growth And Narrowing The Ideal Client

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Awesome, awesome. Yeah. And and I think that a lot of people um you know they they get so focused on um getting the numbers, generating revenue, and they forget the reason why they started their company, right? And uh to your point, um uh we've done a lot of marketing. And um one thing I've I have some horror stories myself of of customers that we did marketing for, and unfortunately, you can't outmarket bad customer service. Right. And you can't outmarket uh bad product or service. And and if your product or service isn't, you know, um, if it isn't solving a problem, um if it isn't a a value, then you're quickly gonna start to feel that and your business is gonna regress, right? And so um you've net you've said that naming something gives you uh power over it. Uh how does clearly defining purpose and values prevent drift during the early stages of building something new?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, I think you hit on a couple things in there. And in coaching and executive coaching will say if you can name it, you can claim it. And so one of the first important steps is to sort of take uh the blinders off. Um we use uh EQI emotional assessment as one of the tools in coaching to give executives some visibility on who am I as a person. Um and so by taking those blinders off and having a little bit of sense of who you are is is an important first step uh in that process. And and when you figure out your strengths and superpowers, that allows you then to look for well, who has that problem? And if I can solve that problem and I can focus on making that a great experience for the other person, um then the revenue will follow. Right. To your point, you can't outmarket a bad service. Um and so I think for business leaders out there, just continue to focus on what is the value that you provide. You know, and and for us, as we started to more narrowly focus on on executive business leaders, whether the profit or nonprofit, versus all leadership everywhere. Yeah and when we started to specifically focus on well what's the what's the problem? Is this a is this a dysfunction you're trying to write? And it it really became more about these are already exceptional leaders who are doing well. However, they may not have realized they've kind of drifted off course a little bit and they want to get to the next level. And so they're starting to get frustrated, they're starting to feel a little bit overwhelmed. And so before it gets into the zone of derailment um uh you know, and some of the bigger problems, let's just focus on like how do we how do we get really good people to get to a better level? How do we get this better level folks to really become exceptional? Yeah. And so that the more and more we focused on that um in the early stages, that it's helped accelerate the business.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Yeah, awesome. Well, as we get into the grow phase here, a lot of people um when they think growing and they're like, oh, it's growing, everything is fine and right. Uh but there are such a thing as called growth, you know, pains, right? And we all make mistakes as we grow, right? Sometimes growth doesn't look, you know, as natural as people think. Uh and so what mistakes uh taught you the most? And how did you overcome self-doubt shaped you as a as a coach uh for others today?

Scaling Through Tech, Teams, And Service Quality

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, I think primarily um we were really fortunate in the growth phase. I took a uh contract um right at COVID uh overseas in Doha Cutter around the last World Cup uh match. And so while I was over there for two years, it put me eight hours ahead of my US East Coast clients. And so I was able to continue the contract work overseas, but still maintain the business. There were a lot of additional coaches coming into the space, so we were able to scale some bench, and we were also able to uh utilize technology. Zoom suddenly became a standard. Yes. Um and so people were less uh afraid or concerned um about the impersonalization of being on screen. Um and so those things all really lined up in order for us to continue to deliver a product via the internet um at a time that met people's needs and we were able to scale. Um I think for a lot of leaders that it does come and starts and stops.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

And when your focus naturally gets drawn off into some of the pieces that are outside of your main mission, uh that's where you start to get into challenges of scaling. And and so if we just continue to stay focused on what's in the best service to the client, if I'm bringing in um additional scheduling tools, for example, um, I'm doing that in service to the client. If I'm bringing in additional coaches, I'm doing that in service to the client. And so when you're getting a demand signal from the client that the experience is anything less than stellar, that's your signal and and again solve the problem for the client and and the scaling will happen automatically rather than sort of reverse engineering it and trying to, you know, uh bolt on something. It's like a Frankenstein model of just bolting on growth uh in order to to make the experience happen.

Choosing Tools That Reinforce Alignment

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Absolutely, absolutely. And and and to your point, like, and I've seen this all the time uh where where people will start to add technology because they're like, it's growing, it's growing, I've I got I got figured this out. Um and technology will help me, right? Um and a lot of people are going towards AI, you know this. Um they're going towards AI. Um, but how do you ensure um that when they're growing and they have growth problems, because they will, and they're looking for tools and technology to ensure that it's reinforcing alignment rather than accelerating drift? Like how do you go about that?

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Um well I think you can scale the scaling, right? You can do some tests with uh known well-established customers um and just be honest and transparent. Hey, we're trying this new thing, here's our intention behind it, would you be interested to participate? Um, and then do your surveys afterwards, checking in with whether that was value added to the client or not. Right. And if they say, Oh, this was really helpful, then you might unleash a little more of the awesomeness. Um if uh if not, then it probably still needs a little bit more tweaking, right? And and and check in with yourself too. I think if you're um uh you know, sometimes I get excited about uh innovation and new technologies and new ways of doing business, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily applicable to my work as an executive coach. And so just because something's cool, uh you know it's a really cool tool, but it may not apply in your business. And so you don't need to bolt on everything just because that's the fad right now.

Focus Over Ambition And Smart Automation

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Yeah. Well it's funny though, because we we do get to the scale phase and um and uh a lot of similarities of what we teach at Advent Trinity and what you teach, because in the scale phase, um I use an analogy and it's the conveyor belt, right? And everybody loves the conveyor belt. We went to General Motors and uh we went to go see their entire uh facility. It's crazy, wonderful facility, right? Um they've got bots and all cool kinds of cool stuff. Um but uh what I have to remind people is that when you are Automating, right? I mean, uh, you know, Ford he he he had a first focus on making sure the product came out great, came out well. You can't just create a conveyor belt just to create conveyor belt because you can automate bad products as well. Yeah. Right? And so um you've said that focus, not ambitious, and I think that this is a a big thing because when people lose focus and they're too ambitious, right? Um they start to make those calls and they start to automate bad products and bad services.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

It's easy.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

And so why is narrow down the alignment often the hardest but most important step in this stage?

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Yeah, I think you you nailed it when you talked about ambition. Um and it's not a bad thing as a human being to be ambitious and to try to to take on something uh greater and and serve in a greater role. Like that's a natural part of our humanity. But it's um you know it's equally uh important to to balance out that ambition with aspiration.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Yeah.

Letting Go Of Control To Lead

SPEAKER_00 23:03

What what's the person that you're trying to become? What's the team leader that you're trying to become? What's the business that you're trying to become? And again, it just keeps it's a forcing function, right? It just keeps bringing us back to being in alignment to serve the customer. And so if you're trying to automate the things that don't matter most to your client, um they're important, but they're not the main effort, right? It's back to like Stephen Covey's uh vision of the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And so for our delivery of content uh in executive coaching, one-on-one engagement with the client and having as close as we can to a real human interaction. For some that's physically meeting. For some, because of their busy schedules, it's a Zoom call uh or it's an email, it's a text, it's we can leverage technology to get it close to human interaction and delivery of the product as we can, but for everything else, that's a candidate for automation. It's the same for delegation. As an executive leader, I would say uh we have to each do what only we can do. Yeah. Do the things that only you can do. Everything else is a candidate for delegation. Right. And so it's the same way with automation. Do the things that only you can do. Um, you know, if you're the hot dog vendor and you just want to look the person in the eye and give them the hot hot dog and you know, and have that face-to-face interaction, then that's most important. But everything else that's going on in your business is at least a candidate for consideration for automation.

Where To Find Tony And Free EQI Guide

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, and a lot of people they um it is extremely, and this is what I've seen too, it's extremely hard for um leaders and entrepreneurs and business owners to um let go of the control of controlling everything, right? You you you're only one person. You're only one person, and if you try to control, and I've learned this, you know, it's like, hey, I can't. You know, and yeah, I have to identify what do I I just I just can't do because even though I know I'm good at it, doesn't mean that I can't teach somebody else to be good at it and let it go because I got other important things to do, right? And so um but yeah, it it's been great. Tony having you on this uh this podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about where we can find you? Um website, social media, where can we find you in case we're interested in some executive.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Thanks, Brian. And again, I appreciate the opportunity to be on. Uh yeah, I think if it if any of this lands for folks, you know, if you're an executive leader who's overwhelmed or frustrated or feeling kind of misaligned, you can be highly successful. You don't have to wait till it hits burnout. Um you can be highly successful, but you're trying to tighten things up so you can get it to the next level, then executive coaching uh can be a way to bring an experienced partner into your into your court. And so the easiest ways for folks to connect with us uh would be first on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Um a huge proponent of that platform is a way for us to all network and connect and share ideas. Um we're happy to share everything that we have. Uh and then the second is our uh website um which is uh compassleadership.com. And there's a a range of uh programs and services that are available to folks that they can do that. The most important of which probably is uh the ability to download our uh EQI, which is the emotional intelligence assessment for executive leaders, and they can download that guide for free right off the website.

Closing Thoughts On Build Launch Grow Scale

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Awesome, awesome. Well, there you guys have it. We have Anthony Tony Brock, and he was just a pleasure. He shared his insights and experience with us. And like I said, Bill Launch Growth Scale looks different in different industries. Um, you know, he does executive leadership, but you can take that philosophy and really help your business, Bill Launch Grow and Scale. So we hope that this information was insightful and that it helped you uh in your business journey. And so once again, my name is Brian. I'm the CEO and co-founder of the Atma Podcast, and we will see you next time.