Thank you for your interest and willingness to be a guest on the Leader Farming Podcast.

Please read the podcast prep information below to prepare for your interview; then click the big red button at the bottom of this page to schedule your interview.  Podcasts are limited to 30 minutes in length and recorded on Thursdays between 9:30am-2:00pm EST.

In my book, Leader Farming, I introduce the idea of a Seasonal Growth Mindset.  Many business leaders whom I have shared this concept with had difficulty relating to the idea of embracing a winter season (personally or in business), aside from the slow months (typically January and February for most in my industry).  The majority of businesses have been in a perpetual harvest season for quite some time, well over a decade (with the exception of the recent economic downturn due to hyper-inflation). However, the idea that every year, every quarter or every month has to be bigger and better than the previous is completely unsustainable. Most leaders only think about growth one way…when plotted on a graph as performance over time…a straight line, up and to the right.  However, in reality, it should look more like this….

Unfortunately, most people’s mindset on growth doesn’t take into account the concept of seasons that are a natural part of life, let alone the sudden changes in season brought about by a recession or pandemic. If you are like me, your life (or business) was thrust into a winter season that you never saw coming with COVID-19. You probably wish you had been better prepared. However, we can’t change the past, but now that many of us have experienced (or are currently experiencing) a winter season we must not believe the lie that tells us we aren’t growing if we aren’t producing anything.

My hope is that through telling stories on the Leader Farming Podcast, we can change our definition of a growth mindset. It is not always harvest season, or growth that is upward and outward, as it is in the spring and summer seasons. Growth includes the winter season that is inward and deeper.  It fact, we may discover that some things need pruning in our lives.  It’s character over kingdom. We may not see anything happening on the surface, but our roots are growing deeper.  As my friend Noble Gibbens always says, “Roots before fruits.” 

Many of us spent most of our days like a rock skipping across the top of pond—barely touching the surface, focused on going further as fast as possible. When winter season comes or we experience storms in other seasons, we find ourselves set back. Those of us who find our identity in our work or how much we can produce are likely struggling a great deal if we think we are “not growing.”

Having a Seasonal Growth Mindset shifts our focus to our inward growth, to the things that cannot be seen by others. Ultimately growing our character, shaping our core values; the things inside of us that make up who we are and don’t change from one season to the next.

“The most important thing about a man/woman is not what he/she does, but WHO he/she becomes.”  ~ Dallas Willard

Here are some thought-provoking questions that may help you prepare:

• Tell me about a winter season or a storm in your life. Looking back on this time, tell me how you have grown. 
• What were you doing before that you now realize wasn’t serving you well? Or, what did you need to stop doing? 
• What is it that you were not doing before that you wish you had done to prepare you for this time? 
• What used to matter to you but doesn’t any longer? 
• What didn’t matter to you but now does?