InnovaBuzz Episode #40 – Jem Fuller: Leaders in Life
Jem Fuller of Leaders in Life on How to Lead with a Servant’s Heart
In this episode number 40 of the InnovaBuzz podcast, Jem Fuller, the founder of Leaders in Life tells us about his life-defining leadership programs, and how he does that in a very innovative and unique way, teaching leaders how to lead with a servant’s heart and focus on people before profit.
Listen to the Podcast
Do something that you’re deeply passionate about…., that will give you the juice that you need to get through the times when it’s hard.
Jem Fuller
Show Highlights
Some of the highlights of this episode include:
- Ask how can we make it really about what we can give and how can we contribute, rather than making it about ourselves and what can we get out of any sort of leadership role.
- Anything new, any new ideas or any new growth that we have as an individual, happens when we are out of our comfort zone.
- Being innovative requires true leadership and that means getting over your ego and getting out of your own way. Ask how do I serve, how do I form deep relationships with people very quickly.
- True leadership is being at the pointy end of change – leading change can be scary, challenging, and at the same time immensly rewarding and lead to personal growth.
- True leadership is not just about how can I make money. When leaders get that and they really start to move into their true power of that, funnily enough the money starts to show up.
- If you’re doing something that you’re deeply passionate about and you feel that it’s a calling for you, and you feel that it’s a mission, that you’re desperate to do this thing, that will give you the energy, drive and desire that you need to get through the times when it’s hard, especially at the start, because in a ten-year overnight success, you’ve got to be prepared to keep going at it.
If you’ve got something that’s cutting edge and people don’t know about it, you’ve got to be prepared to be at the pointy end of change. You’ve got to be prepared to stand up on top of that mountain, naked and you’ve got to be prepared to make a fool of yourself and get over yourself and just keep going.
Jem Fuller
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Jem’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Watch the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Don’t ask an expert for advice, because experts protect the definition of expert by pretending they know everything there is to know already, so you won’t get innovation from an expert. Ask someone who is the least likely person in the world to know what they’re talking about.
- Best thing for new ideas – Get some perspective. Get out into nature. I find my best ideas come when I’m away from computers, mobile phones, cars, buildings, you know, manmade stuff.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Meditation. By that I mean that the daily practice of mindfulness, and training your brain to focus,
- Keep project / client on track – I personally use technology to hold myself accountable, things like reminders on smart devices.
- Differentiate – Be you because you’re the only you. Stop trying to be someone else. Trust that by being yourself, you’re doing a perfect job of being you, and nobody else can do that, and trust that by being you there’s going to be unique offering that you have.
To Be a Leader
Do some work or some reading, some education, around ego. Really start to understand yourself as a human and understand your behavior. The higher your awareness of self, the greater your ability to be able to get out of your own way and lead from the heart and serve your mission.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Jem via his Email: info@leadersinlife.com.au or Facebook
Suggested Guest
Jem suggested I interview Dr. Peter Diamandis, author of the book Getting Abundance and a world leader in terms of funding, supporting, driving innovation – on a future InnovaBuzz podcast. So Peter, if you happen to be listening to this, look out for an invitation from me to the Innovabuzz Podcast, courtesy of Jem Fuller.
Links
- Leaders in Life Website
- Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
- Abundance the Book by Peter Diamandis
Full Transcript
Click to Read…
Intro:
Hi, I’m Jürgen Strauss from Innovabiz. Welcome to Episode No 40 of the InnovaBuzz Podcast – designed to help smart businesses with an interest in innovation become even more innovative.
In this episode, my guest is Jem Fuller of Leaders in Life. Jem provides life defining leadership programs and does it in a very innovative and unique way so I’m really looking forward to interviewing him on today’s podcast. This is another outstanding interview with plenty of great information and lessons for everyone.
Let’s get into the Innovation Hive and get the Buzz from Jem Fuller.
Interview
Hi, I’m Jürgen Strauss from Innovabiz, and I’m really excited to have here with me on today’s episode of the Innovabuzz Podcast, all the way from just down the road here, Geelong, Australia, Jem Fuller, the founder of Leaders for Life. Welcome, Jem. It’s a privilege to have you on the Podcast.
Jem:
Thanks very much, Jürgen.
Jürgen:
Now, Leaders in Life provides life-defining leadership programs, and does that in a very innovative and unique way, basically teaching leaders how to lead with a servant’s heart and focused on people. So, that’s why I’m looking forward to this interview so we can learn more about that. And this is in fact the second take for this interview. We had a few technology problems the last time around. Alright. So, Jem, before we start talking about leadership and training and innovation and all those kind of things, let’s find out a little bit about your background. When you were a young child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Jem:
Young child … I don’t think there was anything specifically that I wanted to be, but then as an older child, through my teenage years, all I wanted to do was be an actor.
Jürgen:
That’s fascinating. So, did you pursue acting?
Jem:
Yeah, I did. I was heavily involved in the drama stuff at school, and then as soon as I got out of school, I got an agent and started to tread the boards and get a bit of work in Melbourne. Then took off overseas and traveled for a year. Came back, got into NIDA, which is the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Spent a year there, got kicked out of there. Came back down to Melbourne, back to my agent, and worked again. You know, enough work to be kind of dangling a carrot of belief that I could make it big, and back in the day that’s what it was all about. You know, young actors just wanting to kind of make it big. And then my love for travel crept back into my life, and I took off again traveling, and then almost became addicted to traveling, and got over the acting thing, and realized that I’d been banging my head against a brick wall for long enough with the acting thing and just kind of got over it and kept traveling.
Jürgen:
Okay. And so the traveling – was that work wise or just to get out?
Jem:
No, purely just to get as far off the beaten track as I could and to immerse myself in foreign cultures and, yeah, just that really. A big part of my passion was through Asia, so lots of time in Southeast Asia and India and Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Tibet, lots of time in India. Yeah, and when I wasn’t in the countries where I was getting off the beaten track, I was in another country earning money to get back into the country and remain there.
Jürgen:
Not Australia, I take it?
Jem:
Yeah, in dribs and drabs. Yep, I’d come back to Oz and come back, visit family and friends, or come back and do a stint of work and take off again. But it was easy enough to earn money in other places around the world, so … Yeah, just a mish mash of all of it.
Jürgen:
And so where did you start off with Leaders In Life, how did that come about?
Jem:
Oh, look, I guess if you go way back … The premium program that we run, I work here in Australia, with clients here in Australia, and I coach individuals globally as well. But the international programs that I run, there’s one in Himalaya in northwest India and one in Bali, which I’ll get to later. But 18 years ago, I was living in a village in northwest India, up in the Himalaya mountains with a family, and I spent about six months living with this family and formed a really close bond with them. For all intents and purposes, they’re my second family over there. And at the time I had a feeling I was going to take people there. I said to my brother over there, “Look, I’ve got this feeling I’m going to bring people here.” And he said, “Well, let’s take them trekking,” he’s a trekking guide and a conservationist, and he said, “Well, let’s take them ecco trekking and we’ll pick up rubbish and we’ll fund the money into not-for-profit causes” and, you know, he in the meantime has built some sanctuaries there to rescue local flora and fauna and bits and pieces. So that was an idea 18 years ago, and I kind of parked the idea, didn’t really think about it. And then a few years ago I was crewing in a Neuro Linguistic Programming training, of which I’m already an accredited practitioner, and I was helping out for one of the trainings at the back of the room and I had one of those stereotypical light bulb moments, and it really did hit me. And within five minutes I had downloaded everything about the company. I knew the name, Leaders in Life; In a matter of minutes I downloaded the program – that designed where we were going, how it was going to look, feel. It all kind of came to me in that five-minute moment. And I left that room determined to take people to the Himalayan mountains. And so I did.
Jürgen:
Yeah, that’s great. And how many programs have you run there now?
Jem:
So, I’ve run four programs now to northwest India, and we’ve got the fifth one happening in October. Yeah, that’s the one to the Himalaya. And the whole concept around Leaders in Life came about because what I’m passionate about is being a leader, not just in business, but being a leader in life, being a leader in the way that we partner and parent, and we are in our community and we are as brothers or sisters or siblings or kids or … whatever aspect of life that you’re in, how you’re showing up as a leader and having the courage to do that, and how can we get better at doing that and how can we, like you said in the intro, how can we lead with a servant’s heart, how can we make it really about what we can give and how can we contribute, rather than making it about ourselves and what can we get out of any sort of leadership role.
Jürgen:
NLP transformations can be quite remarkable, can’t they?
Jem:
Absolutely.
Jürgen:
So, what’s involved in the programs?
Jem:
Well, there’s two quite different programs internationally – and there’s the India Himalaya program and then there’s the Bali program, which is for women only and that’s more retreat style. The India Himalaya program is designed to take people out of their comfort zone, and we take people out of their comfort zone in a few different ways. Culturally, especially for people who haven’t been to India, culturally it’s very uncomfortable. Physically, when, out of the twelve-day programs, seven of those days we are remote, remote trekking with pack horses, sherpas, guides. We’re camping in tents, sleeping on sleeping mats. Sometimes we’re above the snow line. It gets very cold at night. It’s stunningly beautiful, but it’s really remote. We’ve got a sat-nav phone, but apart from that satellite phone, everyone’s on zero communication for seven days. And mentally also uncomfortable because the conversations that we have around existence, around what is it to be, and how do we choose to be, how do we choose to show up in our lives and in our relationships, predominantly with ourselves, but also with other people, are quite uncomfortable and challenging conversations. So, it’s designed to get people out of their comfortable zone, and the reason for this is that all growth and personal innovation, so anything new, any new ideas or any new growth that we have as an individual, happens when we are uncomfortable. By definition of the fact that if you’re comfortable, you already know it.
Jürgen:
That’s right.
Jem:
So, yeah. That’s how that’s designed. And the clients arrive in Delhi; from the moment they arrive in Delhi to when they leave Delhi, their hands are held per se. They get met at the airport and taken into care. We have a couple of days in Delhi of conferencing. Then we move up to the mountains and we have two days of yoga and conversation around the content, which is the conceptual stuff around content, which is leadership themed, but it’s much more high level; it’s not really about how to run a meeting or how to run a one-on-one. It’s more about how do I get my ego out of the way, how do I serve, how do I recognize behavioral styles, how do I build rapport and communicate and form deep relationships with people very quickly, how do I serve the mission. That kind of stuff. So, we do a couple of days of that. Then we walk for seven days, and through the walking, the clients then are guided through moving mindfulness process work that I’ve designed, which enables them to take those conceptual classroom learnings and embody them. So, over the seven days of walking, there’s a lot of time when you’re just on your own, walking, and you’re not just walking down the street, you’re walking at 4,000+ meters in stunning, stunning nature. And the mountains over there, if you haven’t been, you just can’t describe them with words. They are absolutely magnificent, and they’re so big that it puts everything in perspective. And you really, the clients really do get an opportunity to look back at their life from a distance and from a great height, very literally, and a great perspective. And things become a lot clearer up there. And the classroom learnings then become embodied and people create some real sustainable change.
Jürgen:
It definitely sounds exciting and different.
Jem:
Yes, it’s different. And then after the walking, we come back to one more day in the classroom. The classroom, by the way, is a yoga studio at 3,000 meters surrounded by Himalayan snow-capped mountains. And we come back into the classroom on that last day for a future design day, and it’s a day where they can assimilate the learnings and draw up a strategy, draw up a plan of when they get home, what are they going to do different, how are they going to implement the learnings into their day-to-day businesses and lives. And then there’s an accountability program when we get back home that the clients become part of an alumni, and we meet up again periodically back in Australia for them to hold each other accountable to what they said they were going to do.
Jürgen:
Okay, I was just going to ask about follow-up and action.
Jem:
So there’s that accountability part of the course, and then also the bonds that are formed over there are really quite strong. The clients who have spent this twelve-day program together become quite close. And so naturally when they come home, some of the relationships become ongoing and they support each other through moving forward and moving into their potential as individuals and as leaders.
Jürgen:
That’s great. And I think I asked this last time, but are your clients from Australia?
Jem:
They were, but it’s growing now. So on this trip coming up, we’ve got a Formula 1 design engineer from Europe coming. To a women’s program, we’ve got a global keynote speaker from America coming to that program. And I’ve got clients from each different state in Australia. So, we are starting to spread our wings, which is good.
Jürgen:
That’s good. And you also mentioned the last time about a program that you’re running in Australia for people from overseas.
Jem:
Ah, now this one …. We haven’t launched this yet. It’s still in design phase. But my intention is to bring leaders from overseas and run the program in reverse up in the Kimberley, and I have access to some indigenous leaders up there and to some land up there. So, we’ll run the same program, but in reverse up in the Kimberley in Northwest Australia.
Jürgen:
Which is a, for those people who don’t know, a very remote area but apparently very beautiful, from photos that I’ve seen.
Jem:
Yeah, very stunning. And one of the other things I love about these international programs is the cross-cultural communication. So, having people sitting around a fire who may be a wealthy business owner from the west, sitting around a fire with the shepherd, the local shepherd from up in the mountains who’s got his flock of sheep and goats behind us. And everyone’s equal up there, you know; everyone is equal. And you’re sitting around a fire, sharing a cup of tea and, through translation, having conversations about what it is to be and talking about the commonalities between all of us humans, rather than the differences. I love that.
Jürgen:
That’s great. We need a lot more of that. Okay, so in terms of the business end, what do you see as the biggest challenges in developing a business like this that’s on the cutting edge and doing some pioneering work?
Jem:
Look, I mean the space that I work in in terms of mindful, let’s call it mindful leadership, even though there are now bodies of evidence coming out from longitudinal studies proving the benefits in terms of peak performance for individuals and leaders through the practice of mindfulness and self-awareness. It is still something that’s really hard to measure. And business people want to see return on investment and a lot of corporates and business owners, especially larger organizations, want to be able to prove the return on their spend before the spend. So, look, that’s a challenge for me. It’s hard to quantify in a dollars sense these life-defining programs because it’s not really about making more money, it’s about enriching your life, it’s about discovering ways to experience deeper happiness more frequently. So, it’s not about money. So, yeah, the challenge is the bigger organizations justifying the spend and having the time away. But the people who’ve been coming are actually small to medium-size business owners who have got to a certain level of success where they can step out of their business for two weeks. That’s for the India program. And for the Bali program, for one week. And also they value the investment in themselves and their experience of life. So, that’s the clients who I’m taking. But to be honest – I didn’t come up with this business idea as a way of making profit. That’s not what this is about for me. This part of what I do is really a passion for me, and if I take ten people a year to the Himalaya, I’m fine with that. Really, the money-making end of my business is here in Australia with the leadership programs I run domestically in companies here.
Jürgen:
So, tell us a little bit about that then. What kind of programs do you run and how do you tackle those?
Jem:
Every program is tailor-made for the client that I’m serving. But essentially the basic framework for it is getting the senior leaders together to design the culture, the desired culture for the organization. And by culture I mean basically the mission, why we’re doing this. The vision, where are we going, and the values. So, what are our non-negotiables, what are our behavioral ground rules in terms of how we behave as an organization. So, designing that is the easy part, with the senior leaders. Implementing that will be hard all the way through the organization is the bit where we really need to roll up our sleeves. It is a slog, and it’s a repetitive process over a period of time. So, organizations who get the value of culture will do a 12-month program with me, so that I’m in there holding them accountable to the strategies that we’ve designed around implementing that culture. And then in the meantime, there’s also the individual leadership development that I do through monthly executive coaching. I run extended behavioral profiles for all of them at the start. I’m an accredited extended DISC behavioral profiler. So we run a profile for them. They get to understand their behavioral style intimately, and then they also learn about other people’s behavioral styles who are not like them. And then that coaching is also on a needs basis as we move through the coaching process. The areas of opportunity for these leaders in terms of their own personal development; how can they get out of their own way and how can they understand other people better and how to lead better becomes apparent as I’m coaching them. So that’s on a needs basis as well.
Jürgen:
So, that’s the more traditional model, although I’m sure with your NLP background, you’re probably approaching that in a more unique way than typical corporate trainers might go about it.
Jem:
Yeah, it’s definitely not a typical corporate training, that’s for sure.
Jürgen:
So, in terms of the … Because you mentioned doing a course for overseas coming into Australia in the Kimberleys, are you looking to grow the … what’s the right word for that part of your business, the … take them out of their comfort zone model.
Jem:
Yeah, it will definitely be that. It’ll be them experiencing something they’ve never experienced before. And because of the design of the content and the process work that I’ve designed, people end up having life-defining experiences. They just do. And I’m confident enough to say that now, after having run the program that many times. And we’ve had a 100% strike rate of people having that experience where at the end of it they’re just coming up to me and saying, “Jem, money can’t buy that experience.” You just can’t, you can’t buy that. You have to come on a program like this to really experience that, to get that clarity around their own version of existence and their own version of how they want to contribute and how they’re going to make a difference and really live a life where they’re feeling day to day, where they’re feeling that they’re in their potential and making a positive difference. So, it really becomes less about how can I make money. And when these leaders get that and they really start to move into their true power of that, funnily enough the money starts to show up. But that’s not the focus.
Jürgen:
That’s right. Well, it’s kind of a paradox, isn’t it, when you’re serving the right people and you’re doing it with a servant’s heart and with passion and with conviction, then the money kind of follows, doesn’t it?
Jem:
Yeah, that’s right.
Jürgen:
Whereas if you’re focused on the money, then quite often you forget the other stuff, if your focus is the money.
Jem:
Yeah. And another thing too that comes out of these programs is, so for example with the Himalaya program, because we’re working with a family that I’ve got an 18-year relationship with, everybody I take there gets welcomed into the heart of this family. And this family lives a half an hour’s walk up the mountain outside of an already remote little village in an already remote state of northwestern Himalaya, India. And no matter what tourist program or trekking program you go on and pay through a normal trekking company, or tourist company, you just can’t get straight into the heart of a community like this and be accepted and sitting on the floor with them and eating with them and be welcomed as family. And that only comes off the relationship that I’ve got with them. And so similarly with the … getting invited into the communities up in northwest Australia with the Aboriginal communities, that’s only coming off the back of one of my closest friends who again has got a 15-year relationship with these communities, and they trust him. So, by going in with him, our clients get to experience a cultural connection that is otherwise unavailable.
Jürgen:
That’s quite important, isn’t it, because actually experiencing a culture like that from that family environment, from the inclusiveness of that little community, that little micro-community, if you like, and basically being accepted as part of your family, when you’re visiting in the Himalayas, I can imagine that’s quite invaluable.
Jem:
Yeah, it is, and so much so that I protect it. I screen the applicants to the Himalayan program. And I’ve actually turned away people who I didn’t think were appropriate. And I have the right to be subjective with that. You know, it’s do I want to introduce you into this family who’ve got three young daughters and lots of little cousins running around, and it’s quite a precious micro-community that I’m very fond of. And so, yeah, I don’t just take anybody in there. And I’m not looking to have 100 people a year go there. I’m quite happy, like I said before, I’m quite happy for it to be just 10.
Jürgen:
And therein lies the value of it in some ways.
Jem:
Yeah, that’s right.
Jürgen:
Alright. That’s really great to learn more about that. So in terms of setting up those kind of experiences and replicating that from one program to another, how do you go about that?
Jem:
I look at the content that I’ve been taught and that I’ve learnt through years and years of travel, and all ways that we glean information and ideas, and then have percolated that through my own practice of mindfulness over a long period of time and everything else that I’ve done. The content in itself is fantastic, it’s really great content. It’s challenging, it’s enlightening, everybody leaves with a high level of awareness of their behavior and of human behavior generally. So, the content itself is great. And that’s the transferrable part. And I’ve developed some IP around connected leadership, and it’s themed over the days of the classroom learning, there’s themes that we go through and conversations that we have. So that content itself is transferrable through all of the programs. That’s kind of the glue that makes Leaders in Life programs what they are. And then the settings are very different. So the Bali one, for example, came about because a female client said, “You know, look, I’d love to go on this program and have a life-defining experience, but I don’t want to camp at 4,000 meters in the snow,” and she said, “Could you do a five-star version with a bit of yoga and massage and spa treatments in a five-star villa in Bali,” and I said, “That sounds like a great idea; let’s do that.” So, we did that. And that’s been a great success. And the people who’ve come on that program have absolutely loved it. So, yeah, it’s a similar sort of content, different setting.
Jürgen:
Alright. What do you see as the biggest trap that innovators encounter when they’re trying to sell ideas like that – that are a little bit out there and a little bit on the edge?
Jem:
Look, I guess there’s a few traps. If, I think, the first trap or the first mistake could be coming with up with idea, like looking for a way to make money and going, “How am I going to make money?” and then coming up with a way to try and get rich, and then going and selling that. Now there are some people who do that really well, and will assess a marketplace and identify a need and go and do it, make the money, and move on. And that’s fine; there’s a place for that. But if you, for most of us, setting up a business as an entrepreneur, there’s a slog, as you know. It’s that old ten-year overnight success story. And if you’re doing something that you’re not passionate about, you’ll get a year into it, and if the slog’s hard and you haven’t, it’s financially not viable still, you’ll chuck it in because you’re not passionate about it, you don’t care about it. It was only ever a making money-type kind of thing. But if it’s something that you’re deeply passionate about and you feel that it’s a calling for you, and you feel that it’s a mission, that you’re desperate to do this thing, that will give you the juice that you need to get through the times when it’s hard, especially at the start, because in a ten-year overnight success, you’ve got to be prepared to keep going at it.
Jürgen:
Yes. Perseverance is a big thing.
Jem:
So, I guess that’s a bit of a trap. Also, the other thing, if you’ve got something that’s cutting edge and people don’t know about it, you’ve got to be prepared to be at the pointy end of change. And being at the pointy end of the change is lonely because there’s not many of you doing it. You get misunderstood a lot. People think you’re crazy. People don’t believe in you. They think that what you’re doing, because it’s not well-known and well-founded and well-understood, they think that it’s not going to work. So, yeah, you take a lot of self-belief in your innovation, and you’ve got to be prepared to stand up on top of that mountain naked, so to speak, because you’re up there for everyone to look at and you’ve got to be prepared to make a fool of yourself, I guess, and get over yourself and just keep going.
Jürgen:
Well, there’s a good message there around perseverance and being at the pointy end of leadership. And I’m reminded because I’m writing a speech at the moment, and I pulled out Steve Job’s quote about people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that will.
Jem:
Yeah, that’s right. And also with innovation, Dr. Peter Diamandis, who I highly recommend reading his stuff, he’s an incredible innovative leader and funder of innovation, and he says that every genius’s idea was crazy until it worked.
Jürgen:
That’s right.
Jem:
And then it worked, everyone calls it genius. But before it worked, it wasn’t genius, it was just crazy.
Jürgen:
It’s funny, isn’t it! Alright, so it’s time to move onto the Buzz, which is our innovation round, which is designed to help our audience who are primarily innovators and leaders in their field with some tips from your experience. So, hopefully they’ve already learned a lot, but I’ll ask you five questions, and hopefully we’ll get some really insightful answers that will inspire everyone and help them do something awesome and take action.
So, what’s the #1 thing anyone needs to do to be more innovative?
Jem:
The #1 thing to be more innovative… Don’t ask an expert for advice, because experts protect the definition of expert by pretending they know everything there is to know already, so you won’t get innovation from an expert. Ask someone who is the least likely person in the world to know what they’re talking about. There’s innovation there. Yeah, let’s just go with that.
Jürgen:
Okay. That’s great. That’s actually quite an innovative answer, but as I said, I was writing this speech before and I came across a few that were along those lines. So, particularly when you think about all the inventions that have happened that were by accident, looking for something else.
What’s the best thing you’ve done to develop new ideas?
Jem:
Get some perspective. Get out into nature. I find my best ideas come when I’m away from computers, mobile phones, cars, buildings, you know, manmade stuff. So, when I’m surfing or when I’m trekking in the mountains, that’s where the best ideas come.
Jürgen:
Yes, it’s good, isn’t it, when you sort of get away and the mind can actually explore the unconscious and not be cluttered by mundane things going on around you.
Jem:
Yeah, create some space.
Jürgen:
That’s right.
What’s your favorite tool or system for improving productivity and allowing you to be more innovative?
Jem:
Meditation. By that I mean that the daily practice of mindfulness, whether it’s through meditation or integrative mindfulness, is brain training, and as you train your brain to focus, you just become a hell of a lot more productive.
Jürgen:
Okay, that’s great.
What’s the best way to keep a project or a client on track?
Jem:
The best way to keep a project or a client on track, look, this isn’t a very innovative idea, but I personally use technology to hold myself accountable. So, reminders basically on whatever smart device you use. I have reminders – keeping clients on track, my clients have to become accountable for themselves, and I’m there to keep them accountable, so whenever they, some of my clients, for example, need daily accountability on the change that they’re creating in the way that they run their businesses or their lives, and we’ll set up a daily accountability program where they’ll message me and I’ll message them back. So, if you can set up something that is daily or weekly or monthly, and it’s the same time each day or the same time each week, and it becomes part of your routine around accountability, then that can help.
Jürgen:
That’s good advice. And it kind of comes back to communication, doesn’t it. And I like the reminders idea because it’s around building systems and processes where you can automate things that takes clutter away from your mind again and actually think about bigger stuff.
What’s the #1 thing anyone can do to differentiate themselves?
Jem:
Be you, because you’re the only you. Stop trying to be someone else. You know, don’t look at someone else’s success and go and try and replicate it. Really trust that by being yourself, you’re doing a perfect job of being you, and nobody else can do that, and trust that by being you there’s going to be unique offering that you have, whether it’s in the way you deliver something or whether it’s in your ideas or your connections, your communications … Yeah, just be you.
Jürgen:
That’s great advice. And a lot of the people I interview actually come up with a variant of that kind of thing, but it’s amazing that people model themselves off somebody and then they kind of cross the boundary of losing their individuality. And you think, well, that doesn’t work anymore.
Jem:
Yeah. I mean it’s great to model things that work. If someone’s invented the wheel, use the wheel. But use the wheel the way you want to.
Jürgen:
Exactly right. Work it to your or from your perspective. So, one of the business coaches I have says take it, tweak it, make it your own. Customize it. Alright, now what’s the future for you and for Leader for Life?
Jem:
The future for me and for Leaders in Life … We are building the business to the point where I will need coaches delivering in the three departments of the business. So we have the in-house domestic work here, the business corporate work. We are doing work in the education system, so teaching mindfulness to kids in schools, and I’ll have someone doing that piece. And then we have the international programs, which we’re growing. For me personally, it’s more and more becoming about keynote speaking and getting in front of a room full of people and being able to have a positive impact to larger numbers of people all at once. Yeah, so that’s where we’re going. And the not-for-profit part, the Leaders in Life Foundation is coming along really well. The charity work that we’re doing is growing. That’s a real personal passion for me. So that will continue to grow as well.
Jürgen:
Okay, so tell us a bit about that charity work.
Jem:
At the moment it’s being primarily focused in India because that’s personal for me. We’ve put in a rubbish collection and education program up there, rubbish in the mountains, like in lots of places in the world, has been an issue. So, we’ve raised the money to get rubbish bins put in and a rubbish collection system, and now an education program to educate the locals, the trekking guides, the shepherds, and the tourists around rubbish and how it’s not okay to just leave it up there. And we’re also employing local women to weave local baskets that get those put along the trekking routes for rubbish to go into and then a collection program for that as well. So, we’ve put that into place, and we have now just finished all of the groundwork to set an internet co-op, which will be a social enterprise, not for profit initiative over there in the mountains, and I’ve just successfully secured the funding to launch that this year when we head over. So that will be an opportunity for kids in the village up there at school to have a supervised environment where they can get access to the internet. These kids, they know there’s a big, wide world out there. They know that there’s the internet and Google and all this, but they don’t have access to it. And so I would love to make it possible for these kids to join the worldwide conversation, and you never know, we might have another Nobel Peace Prize winner coming out of a village somewhere that wouldn’t have otherwise been able to share their innovation with the world. So, that project, I’m really excited is going to happen this year, and we’ve got the funding, and we’re going to launch that in October.
Jürgen:
That’s exciting. So a couple of really useful initiatives there that are well worth supporting, I’m sure.
Jem:
Yeah.
Jürgen:
Alright, so what’s the #1 piece of advice you’d give to any business owner who wants to be a leader in their field?
Jem:
Do some work or some reading, some education, around ego. Really start to understand yourself as a human and understand your behavior. The higher your awareness of self, the greater your ability to be able to get out of your way. So, a good place to start would be to start reading up on ego and what it is and how it works so that you can understand when your thinking and your behaviors and your actions as a leader are coming from a place of defensive ego as opposed to being able to lead from the heart and get out of your own way and serve the mission.
Jürgen:
That’s really good advice. So, have you got any recommended reading there?
Jem:
Eckhart Tolle, I guess; go straight to the top. That’s his story; that’s what he’s on about. So The Power of Now, A New Earth, are a couple of really great books that talk about that. Get in touch with me, if you want. I’m happy to talk about it. It’s a favorite topic of mine. So, if you provide people with contact details for me, I’m more than happy to chat, Facebook or messenger or phone, or face to face.
Jürgen:
So, those are obviously the places where people can reach out to you, so we’ll have links to that in the show notes. Alright then, well finally who would you like to see me interview or hear me interview on the Innovabuzz Podcast and why?
Jem:
Oh wow. Well, let’s go right to the very top. If you could interview Dr. Peter Diamandis. That should be your dream, dream interview. He’s remarkable. I’m not sure if you’ve read his book Getting Abundance, but he’s a world leader in terms of funding, supporting, driving innovation. He’s at the top of his game. So, I’ll say no more to all of your readers or listeners. If you haven’t heard of him, definitely read his stuff – and Jürgen, if you can interview him….
Jürgen:
Alright. We’ll see what we can do. So Peter, if you happen to be listening to this, look out for an invitation from me to the Innovabuzz Podcast, courtesy of Jem Fuller. So, I interviewed somebody this morning who was actually the second person in a short space of time that suggested I should interview Seth Godin. So I’m going to be chasing some rather well-known people.
Jem:
Yeah. Seth’s pretty worthwhile as well, I reckon.
Jürgen:
Alright. Well, this has really been great. Thanks so much for sharing your time with us today, Jem, and also your insights with us on the podcast. I’ve enjoyed this immensely, and I’m glad it worked out today, even though we had it drop out in the middle, but I think the recording is safe. So, I wish you all the best for the future of Leaders in Life, and for the forthcoming trip to the Himalayas. I’m sure we’ll be seeing one another quite often before that, but thanks a lot for your time today.
Jem:
You’re welcome, Jürgen. Thank you.
Wrap Up:
That certainly was a fun interview and I hope you enjoyed meeting Jem as much as I enjoyed this. He is certainly very passionate about what he does and has a big vision for changing people’s lives.
All the show notes for this episode will be at innovabiz.com.au/jemfuller, that is J-E-M-F-U-L-L-E-R, all lowercase, all one word, innovabiz.com.au/jemfuller, for all of the links and everything we spoke about in this episode .
Jem suggested I interview Dr Peter Diamandis, author of the book Getting Abundance and a world leader in terms of funding and supporting innovation, on a future InnovaBuzz podcast. So Peter, keep an eye on your Inbox for an invitation from me, for the Innovabuzz Podcast, courtesy of Jem Fuller!
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Remember, if you don’t innovate, you stagnate, so think big, be adventurous and keep innovating!