Kevin Stafford 0:00
Hello again, everyone and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast and another part two. I’m your host, Kevin, and I’m back chatting with Ty Hammond. Thai if you caught his previous episode was a delight. And I’m happy to report that he remains a delight to chat with tied to get you to kind of catch you back up a little bit about him. He’s an executive team and leadership coach, the founder of one mountain leadership and creator of the true leadership approach. He works with people who are committed to their growth as both a leader and as a human being, to learn how to consistently transform what holds them back into the confidence, capacity and presence of true leadership. 123 I love it. Ty, welcome back to the podcast. It’s just good to see you again. Welcome back period. Happy 40th belated 40th By the way, and I’m 45. So nothing, nothing nowhere to go. But up. Yeah.
Ty Hammond 0:53
Great. Oh, thank you so much for having me back. Kevin, of course, in our, you know, little conversation in the quasi green room there. I was saying even if you forgot to press record on this, I was just happy to put some time on the calendar and be able to chat with you again.
Kevin Stafford 1:06
Awesome. Oh, sweet. And yeah, um, I can already tell them, it’s gonna be like, in a couple months, I’m gonna like maybe sooner I’m gonna be like, I wonder what ties up to me. Let me see. Thank you guys calendar.
Ty Hammond 1:17
We can always do that.
Kevin Stafford 1:19
Yeah, let’s let’s start out by and we’ll probably follow the conversation wherever it goes. We’ll start out by talking about your true leadership foundations mastermind. You mentioned that earlier, and I want to know, know more about it. What is it? What’s going on? When’s it happening? Who’s invited?
Ty Hammond 1:33
Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, thanks for that question. Well, you know, the last time that we talked, you know, I gave you a little bit of a, a bit of my journey of how I came into coaching. And I’ve really been involved in leadership development, coaching, consulting, training for the, for the breadth of my career, it really took me a while I actually was working with groups and with teams Well, before I started working with individuals. And I don’t know, you know, I think part of that is just a deep sense of responsibility that comes in that in that conversation with individuals. And so this true leadership foundations mastermind program that I’ve developed, as is really a culmination of the past six years of work that I’ve been doing with individuals essentially, pulling together a program that is informed by my own individual work with my teachers and mentors, my ongoing, you know, learning and education in the field of leadership development and coaching. And really, you know, just as a sort of tagline the introduction said, helping people to do what I what I consider to be like the deep inner work, right? I’m not, I would say I have over if not overcoming, right, our, I like to make this distinction between overcoming and actually transforming, right? So, yeah, difference between overcoming something, which is to say sort of step over it, but it’s still there in the background, versus actually utilizing the challenges that come up in life as a catalyst for inner growth, right, to utilize the things that feel challenging that hold us back, and actually learn how to work with those things in a way that transform those energies that hold us back into deeper capacity, confidence and presence. So I’ve been formulating this approach, the what I call the true leadership approach over the past, you know, five or six years in my individual work with people and of course, you know, one of my dreams is to make this work more available and more accessible to people. One of the ways to do that, of course, is to instead of the one to one as the one to many, it was the one to many sort of method, right? So putting it together, putting together a mastermind is the thing that has made that possible. So the way that the mastermind essentially works at this point as individual online sessions that people can go through at their own pace, right, that are complete with educational, you know, like information that are needed conceptually, in order to understand the deeper workings in the process, exercises. And then really, it’s a very practice focused approach, but practices that you know, rather than sort of taking two or three hours out of your day, there are things that you learn how to practice in your daily life. So So you have, so you have that component, right? And then you have the other component, which is what I would say as is the prime is the other motivate other than just making it available to more people. The other motivation for having a Mastermind course is this. You know, some people call it a mastermind, really what it is with the true leadership approach is it’s a community of practice. So it’s a bunch of people that are engaged in collectively doing the inner work together, and we’ve all got our own stuff, but really, there’s so much commonality for the stuff that we come up against and you know, it’s it’s amazing because I note on The calls that I have with the folks that I’m working with all the time that but even if there wasn’t, even if there wasn’t a methodology or an approach or framework through which we were working, even if all that we did on these group calls, was get together and just sort of share the commonality of the challenges that we’re experiencing, that in and of itself would be so transformational, and it is, so to have that, in addition to, you know, a common vernacular language, right. And, and deep, what I would say, like learning from each other’s experiences, right, and learning from hearing someone else’s experience based on what they’re going through, not just in that one on one conversation, but in that sort of cross collaborative approach is, is the primary thing. So and then that just the third piece is that there’s a resource section of this approach. So there’s the sort of online modules, there’s a community of practice. And then there’s a whole resource, which is like guided meditations in this whole methodology, which is, essentially, the hope of this program is teaching people how to do the deep inner work no matter what comes up. And so my dream with this program is that people have that real fundamental Toolkit, which is sort of encapsulated in something that I call the STAR method. And so it’s those three components that really sort of make up the true leadership foundations mastermind. Yeah, that is,
Kevin Stafford 6:29
the word that comes immediately to mind for me is a robust, that is robust, in all the ways it should be. And I love that you basically have the fact that the word foundation is in the name of it, I have that jumped out at me. And I’m glad you spoke right to that, because that first step is establishing that foundation. So that you can communicate on those commonalities. That’s something I find, I find to be true of a lot of coaches in theatres podcast, but also just most people, there’s a tendency, not even a tendency, but just like a pitfall, to begin to feel like you are alone in what you’re struggling with, even if you intellectually in some way, shape or form, understand that you can’t be the only person going through a particular thing, it can feel that way. And that can have a very isolating effect. And also a very slowing effect on your progress, which is one of the many services that coaches are just designed to provide is to kind of break you out of that I’m all alone, I don’t know what to do, I don’t have the tools, kind of mentality and more than a mentality a state of being, and then get toward something more like what this mastermind seems to completely embody is that there are people out there who not only are similar to you, while still being unique in themselves, but are struggling with similar issues in similar ways as you are and or have the similar kinds of goals or destinations in mind, that they are working towards that they’re struggling or striving might be a better word towards one way or another. And having both a place that’s and again, robust, keeps coming back to mind because you get that foundational language. So you can communicate on that commonality and understand each other, you have those resources you can tap into, that you can take with you wherever you go. So it’s not just a, you know, take a three hour course or some sort of mountain top long weekend experience. And you’re like, Oh, that’s great. And then you’re just left with whatever you’re left with the feeling that you had, as opposed to the tools and the abilities and the skills and the network, the community to keep that journey going to have it be the beginning of and not the destination. It just it really is everything that I everything that I know, I would want. I think everything that anyone would want a mastermind like this to be so yeah, robust, and quite frankly, well designed, it feels it feels sturdy to I don’t know, I’m coming up with like physical like engineering words and like, oh, yeah, I’m like, kind of bending my knees feeling the ground. But anything when you’re when you’re talking about it,
Ty Hammond 8:47
I’m so I’m so glad that I’m so glad that that comes through because I think the word foundation is very intentional for choosing it. And just I wanted to point out, one thing that you said is that even if even if we do conceptually, conceptually understand that we’re not alone, it doesn’t matter. We need to we have to connect through our direct experience. We’re human beings, we’re social beings. We’re we’re meant to experience life, in community with other people in relationship sharing these things. So even if we got that conceptually, that we’re not alone in what we’re feeling. And we totally believe that at an intellectual level, it’s still so important to have these deep meaningful experiences in which we’re sharing in this deeper conversation of the human life. Right. And all of that entails all the joys and the sorrows and the grief and the gratitude and all of those things to share. So So that’s just one piece. And then, you know, there’s a couple there’s a couple things. First of all, I’m really happy if just in my quick summation of this program that you do get the sense of, of foundation because that’s really what this is, and this the word Foundation and the purpose of that really gets at The reason why I wanted to birth this program and this foundation into being and I’ll sort of give an anecdotal story, right to sort of explain what I have seen over my years as a work, especially as you know, with other leadership development organizations, as a trainer, as a consultant, as someone doing team development. So let me just give you this example, is that I see that in organizations, especially with all of the, you know, there’s literally billions of dollars pumped into the economy every year to train people to train, leadership, development, all of these kinds of things. I’m so grateful, first of all, for any resources that are put towards that. So let me just first and foremost, say, you know, any intentional effort towards the growth and development of human beings is something that I totally stand behind. But something that I’ve seen is, is that it you know, in my own experience, a sense that we’re, that we’re constantly teaching people something that they’re often not ready to learn, right. And so that’s the, you know, tell little anecdotal story, just as an example, to sort of bring this home. So for example, you know, I can’t tell you how many trainings I’ve done, for example, on giving and receiving effective feedback. And there are incredible models that are super helpful for doing this, right. And it’s the sort of like what to do, right? Here’s what to do, here’s this incredible model, there are models that I use in my life all the time, they’re super helpful, I utilize them, I practice them, I come back. And if you use them, they’re there. They’re really valuable. My experience has been, for example, going into organizations, right? Teaching people, these models, having everybody pretty much in the training, let’s say of like 100, people have new managers or leaders, for example, saying, Oh, my God, this was so good. I’m so happy to have this incredible model. If I only had known this sooner, right? And then you come back, maybe two, three months later, and you sort of ask, who’s giving effective feedback? Who’s practicing this model? And the answer is pretty much nobody. And so that sort of begs the question, you’re like, What am I doing here? What is what are we? What are we teaching this stuff for? And, you know, consistently, as I have these deeper conversations with people you understand, well, the reason that people haven’t been, you know, giving or receiving effective feedback, right isn’t necessarily because they haven’t had a model to do. So it’s because potentially, in this example, there, there is a fear of conflict.
Here’s a fear of, you know, being seen as someone who’s complaining, for example, if I give feedback, or there’s, you know, there’s different sort of internal, yeah, fears that come up, and all these things. So you can give somebody the best, you know, tool to give effective feedback in the world. But unless you’re really working with that foundational piece, right? The foundational things that the fears that are getting in the way of me even wanting to approach the conversation in the first place, then it doesn’t really make sense, right? So this, this word Foundation, that’s really what this is about. As we’re all essentially on our own inner journey, we’ve all got our own inner stuff coming up. But if there is a foundation to learn how to do the deep inner work, so that to some extent, and especially in community with a community of practice, we can work on these things that are holding us back, right? transform them into a deeper capacity, well, then, learning something like an effective feedback model, or any other educational tool or methodology or approach becomes a lot, a lot more simple to actually just put into play. Right? That’s where those things become real valuable. That’s why I call the inner workpiece. Really the foundation.
Kevin Stafford 14:00
And it’s also I think, about a lot of times I think about habit, and certain like, especially when it comes to change and transformation, and habit. It’s not it’s not one to one, but it’s a good example of like, say, I’ve been doing something for 10 years, and it’s like it’s a habit, I’m looking to change whatever happens to be able to be generic about it. I’m not gonna once I identify that once I realized, like, you know what, this is kind of a bad habit. I don’t know if it’s serving me anymore, at least maybe not as well as it used to. I want to change this habit. Some people will decide, actually, most of us will get that feeling of decision, and it will so buoy us will feel like well, we’ve, we’ve we’ve begun the transformation. And then that’s it. Or, you know, we come back around to oh, I don’t know, maybe a New Year’s resolution. Maybe it’s January one you’re like, Oh yeah, the mean of 10 change that for a long time. There’s some work involved, of course, but really, there’s a time commitment there. That’s one of the things I didn’t identify with your mastermind here that I love. It’s like is it is work. It’s relatively simple, especially when To identify it, and it’s, it’s gonna take some time, and you’re gonna have to get some practice, you’re gonna have to get some reps, you’re gonna have to develop new muscles. And I often think when it comes to like something that’s a habit or some new thing I want to transform from one into the other, it’s gonna take, maybe as long as it took for me to get that bad habit in the first place, or it’s going to take to get where I want to go, it might take just as long or longer as it took me to get to where I am right now that I identify this desire for transformation, and go to seek it out and engage with it. And it’s, I mean, maybe it’s just a little bit of that instant gratification feeling. You know, it’s like, once you once you decide you want something you think you can have it all at once or as fast as possible. And there’s, and I don’t know, there’s this this work involved, I’m probably making it sound like it’s more burdensome than that it is, it actually truly is a delight, once you engage in it. And again, once you get a taste for what effective feedback can be like, not just for the way that it feels new and again, not overcoming the fear, but really experiencing the value for yourself for the person you’re giving that feedback to and for everybody around you, everybody who sees an experience that going in a an effective way, and realizing that oh, we actually can be this way. And if this if this can happen in front of me, granted, you know, I saw it happen on stage, or I read it in a book, or we talked about it in a mastermind, or my coach told me about it. But now I’m watching it happen over here, and I’m watching it happen again over there. And there’s just this momentum, this this beautiful snowball effect that gathers like, Okay, I’m seeing it in practice, I’m practicing it. I’m being held accountable, both by what’s happening around me and also by my ongoing relationship with people who are just like me trying to gain these new skills become go through this transformation process. Maybe you have a coach like yourself, or many coaches who are servicing they’re like, you know, Hey, how’s that effective feedback, going? To some of the question in three months where you have like this scheduled check, and I’m just kind of like, again, doing hypotheticals here, where it’s just like this longer process that really it does build on itself. But you do have to stick to it for a little while, and do that work and get that practice? And so I guess that’s why I’m I’m just extolling the virtues of this of this mastermind you put together, which sounds to me, like it addresses all of that more, so I can’t stop talking and let you talk for a while?
Ty Hammond 17:10
No, no, I’m glad you brought that up. And, you know, I’m gonna, it sort of brings up something to me, I’d like to, I’m happy to have this opportunity to sort of speak out and even see if this really lands for you. Because I think it’s a real distinction between the true leadership approach and other leadership development approaches out there. So I sort of look at, let’s say, behavior and belief, as leaves or branches on the tree of being, right. So being as, as a deep experiential, it’s what gives rise like our experience of being gives rise to belief, and to behavior. And so there’s different I would say, you know, approaches to leadership development, some might be focused more on shifting your habit of behavior. And there’s other folks that are working really at the level of mindset, which is working at the level of belief, and it’s changing your mindset. And the true leadership approach is actually about working deeper than that to the level of being right, that actually gives rise. So rather than shifting or changing your behavior, I think about a sort of like getting to the source of a river, right, if you get to the source of a river, and you make a change up there, then everything’s going to naturally change downstream. So if you sort of buy into that, that, that belief and behavior are downstream from the source of being, right, then if you make changes farther downstream, but you haven’t changed up at the source, and eventually, you’re always going to be efforting in some way. Right to change back the thing to however you think it needs to be. So, you know, an example is, you know, the, I would say that the, the effort to oh, you know, it’s like, well think about what what, what do you really want to experience? Well, I want to experience confidence, right? If you look at that from the level of behavior, you might say, Okay, if I was just doing this, then I’d be confident in my experience, hearing from plenty of people that are very, very successful and look like they’re very confident at doing what they’re doing. If you actually listen to them, they’ll say, you know, public speakers, for example, and they get up there and they’re doing the thing every single time and every single time they’re working against a massive amount of fear internally. So they haven’t gotten to the source of being so working or shifting that thing at the level of behavior hasn’t actually got them the thing that they felt like that change in behavior would would offer them and it’s a similar thing at the level of belief or like, Okay, well, what would I need to believe, right, in order to feel this in order to have this experience of confidence? And that’s my sense, as well there is you know, we can change our beliefs at the level of belief, but it’s, you know, again, if you’re, if you’re Changing a belief and not actually transforming the underlying ones at the source that, you know, are sort of like it’s a foot on the brake at the same time as eyes on the gas. Great analogy. You’re right, you’re right. And then it’s like you can create these new I live in one way, I’d like to say it is like, you can’t think new thoughts or create new beliefs on top of old ones and call it transformation. That’s a reformation, a reformation. It’s a new way to see things. Right? And changing the way that you see things will help you. Right. But allowing yourself to feel or experience things as they are, will free you. And that’s what this work is really about. Right is experiencing reality as it is. And just like you hear this, I’ll just say there was one thing that this common quip that you that I that I hear it’s like if you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change. I totally I just disagree with that. I think that if you change the way you look at things, your perception of things changes. And that’s powerful. Yes, but the true leadership approach, you hear the word in there true is about truth. So it’s not about changing the way that you look at things, per se, we still do that, right? We still have a choice to do that. But it’s about it’s about actually capacity to see things as they are.
Kevin Stafford 21:22
That nothing at no notice. I think I think you’ve expressed that so succinctly and perfectly. And it’s immediately understandable, because the moment you begin to use that analogy, I can almost hear the river. And I’m just it’s where the sources, I know how water works. It’s so foundational, sorry, pardon the pun intended, but I stand by to help understand how things work. And I love also especially that you acknowledge that they’re changing things, working on things at different points on the river. And belief and behavior do have tremendously tremendous effects, powerful effects. And this is about going to the source. Yeah, this is about going all the way to where it begins, and seeing how it flows all the way down, and making changes up there. And that transformations up there. And I I say up there, I don’t know if it’s up or down necessarily like maybe I break the metaphor, but it feels I’m going I’m going up when I when I say
Ty Hammond 22:17
this is it’s such an important because this is not about saying that we’re working on changing behavior, right, or, or working at the level of mindset or belief is not powerful or important it is. It’s simply saying that if you’re doing those things in order to change yourself, or transform yourself at the level of being, it’s not going to likely work because the river doesn’t flow backwards in that way. That’s right. So, you know, it’s, it’s more of if we can, in my experience, if I can transform at the level of my being right. Now that conversation of what’s the mindset that I choose here, or, you know, the behavior that I choose here are options that become available out of freedom of choice, as opposed to something that I think that I need to do in order to experience something different. It’s the foundation of feeling freedom. So if I all these things become options that I can do, but not something that I have to do in order to, for example, be happy.
Kevin Stafford 23:28
I want to it’s it’s funny, because I’m both I want to sit and think with this for a while. But we’re on a podcast. So we have talked, but we have also, I cannot believe we’ve already been talking for 30 minutes. Like I just I just looked at the clock as a semi responsible podcast host and realize how long we’ve been talking this is. I don’t think I’m blowing smoke here. This is profound stuff. This is again, I’m gonna keep saying the word because the word keeps being the right word. This is foundational stuff. And I’m so glad that you’ve transmuted and transformed your true leadership approach into this mastermind you’ve manifested into this because you really It feels like the next evolution of all the work you’ve been doing in your in your coaching. Practice. I love it. I want to talk to you again about how it goes, how it’s going. Is it already launched? Is it launched this? Yeah,
Ty Hammond 24:10
yeah. So it’s our it’s already launched. I’ve got a first group of folks in there. It’s not a cohort model, which means that and that’s in so it means that people don’t because folks are going to go through this at their own pace. And I like having different people in there at different places along the journey. That’s part of the learning experience as well. It’s it’s a benefit for new people to come in and and hear folks that have been doing it for a while and it’s beneficial the other way around as well. So, yeah, so it is currently going it is currently open enrollment as well.
Kevin Stafford 24:44
All right, and where can people best find out more about it? Like obviously they can connect with me on LinkedIn and go to your website, but where’s the place to go to learn specifically about this new this new mastermind, this? Absolutely. So
Ty Hammond 24:55
best place to go right now is to my website, one out on leadership.com. And then you can there’s a tab or just slash mastermind that you can visit there. And then, you know, the best way really is to start a conversation with me on LinkedIn. At this point, I’ve really been enjoying, you know, connecting with people on LinkedIn starting that conversation. The last sort of thing that I want to say is, it’s just an acknowledgement or not that this work isn’t necessarily for any for everyone. Right? It is for anyone, it’s not necessarily for everyone. This is deeper inner work. This is not just about sort of changing or shifting things peripherally. And, and not everybody is at a place in their journey where they’re really ready for that sort of deep kind of commitment. It takes a lot of courage, I would say, to go in and take a deep, honest look, and reckon with what’s true inside of ourselves so that we can, you know, be in reality in that way. So. So that’s the sort of one qualifier would say, you know, that, and that’s, and that’s something that I think is valuable, right, to just sort of acknowledge and to mention, and to say, like, sometimes we’re there, and then sometimes we’re not, and then maybe it’s, you know, later down the line, you know, something along those lines, but just a nod to that.
Kevin Stafford 26:14
Absolutely. I’m glad. I’m glad you pointed that out, too. It’s always it’s always the right time to learn about things like this. But it’s also important in learning about it to acknowledge whether or not you’re ready, and I really appreciate that you that that’s, again, it’s foundational to the whole thing is like you don’t want people to come and engage in this unless they’re ready. It’s like it has to be the right time. It got to be ready. So, but there’s no time like right now to find out more about time to find out about the true leadership foundations mastermind. Tie, it has been a delight, to the surprise of no one to talk to you again. I’m already plotting a part three, I’ll have you back. And we’ll just we’ll, we’ll refund more things. I’d love to hear more about how this mastermind develops, how this grows, how you grow. Once again, Happy Happy 40 Happy 40. And thank you so much. 40, maybe two more 40s more,
Ty Hammond 27:00
if we get lucky. I’m in
Kevin Stafford 27:04
high, thank you so much. And to the audience. I mean, you knew this already, you know this even more now. Pat is great. Find them on LinkedIn, check out the website, talk to him, get to know him. He’ll make you feel better about who you are, and he’ll make you get excited about where you’re going. It’s that simple. So anyway, enjoy, and we’ll talk to you again soon.
