Welcome to another episode of Hello Chaos, the podcast that delves into the messy and chaotic lives of founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators. I'm your host, Jennifer Sutton, also known as JJ. This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Joshua Trout, a healthcare executive, leader, author, and fellow podcaster. Key Highlights: Joshua's Journey Joshua shared his fascinating career journey, starting with 13 years in public safety as a firefighter EMT before transitioning into healthcare. He quickly realized the prevalence of poor leadership and decided to pursue degrees in hospital operations and business development. At the age of 35, he became the CEO of his first hospital, navigating the complexities of leadership and the unexpected challenge of a pandemic. Leadership Insights Joshua emphasized the importance of building trust and a strong, healthy culture within an organization. He shared his experiences of dealing with past poor leadership and how he aimed to change that narrative by being transparent, vulnerable, and genuinely caring for his employees. He also discussed the significance of servant leadership and the need for leaders to understand that "it's not about you." Building vs. Fixing Transitioning from fixing a hospital to building a new one from the ground up, Joshua highlighted the differences and challenges in both scenarios. He stressed the importance of setting the tone from day one, hiring the right people based on personality and core values, and maintaining a culture of empathy and trust. Personal and Professional Growth Joshua shared his personal strategies for managing stress and maintaining mental health, including holistic approaches like cold plunges, cryotherapy, and infrared saunas. He also talked about the value of having mentors and being open to constructive feedback. Upcoming Book Joshua has a book coming out later this year titled Transformative Leadership, which focuses on identifying personal core values, servant leadership, and leading through vulnerability to build a strong and healthy organizational culture. Connect with Joshua LinkedIn: @joshua-p-trout Instagram: @joshua.p.trout_speaker Website: www.theviewpointco.com Closing Remarks Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Hello Chaos. Don't forget to subscribe, like, comment, and share this podcast to help us grow a more connected entrepreneurial community. If you're a founder and would like to be a guest on our podcast, send us an email at hello@orangewip.com. See you next week!
Jennifer Sutton: Welcome to Hello Chaos, a weekly podcast exploring the messy and chaotic minds and lives of founders, entrepreneurs and innovators. Every week, we talk to founders and leaders from different industries at different companies. companies, levels, stages of all shapes and sizes. We hear the real, the raw, and the unbiased stories. It's why our mantra is where aha meets oh shit. We drop new episodes every Sunday so people can listen, tune in to us for tips, insights, and strategies on how to grow and scale a business or how to become better owners and leaders for our company. Hello Chaos is one of the many resources brought to you by OrangeWIP. That's OrangeWIP, W-I-P for work in progress. OrangeWIP is a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs and leaders in affiliate cities. We've designed hyper-local media platforms to inform, inspire, and create connections to help people succeed. Our hyper-local media platforms are an all-in-one content hub with fresh and engaging stories, curated local calendars, local dynamic roadmaps, really just a one-stop place for people to navigate their local entrepreneurial ecosystem. We've done all the hard work for them, so you just go to one trusted place to find all the information you need. My name is Jennifer Sutton. My friends and family call me JJ. I'm the founder of OrangeWIP and will be your host today. I'm excited to have Joshua Trout as a guest on our podcast. He is a healthcare executive, leader, author, and fellow podcaster. Welcome, Joshua. Welcome to the cast.
Joshua Trout: Awesome. Thank you, Jennifer. So happy to be here.
Jennifer Sutton: Thank you. Um, so how about that? So you're, you're a healthcare leader. You talk a lot about leadership, um, culture. Uh, how did you just get us started? Like, how did you get, uh, involved in your career journey, your, your, um, leadership journey?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I had 13 years of working in public safety as a firefighter EMT. After doing that, I knew that there was more out there for me. It took me down the track of health care. But I realized very quickly that there's a lot of bad leaders out there. I felt like I had a passion and a gift for leadership. So I decided to go ahead and get my degrees. And I entered into hospital operations on the business development side. So I love people. I love networking. I love seeing others succeed. So it was really exciting to get into business development, have a very strong team that can go out there and drive business. And through that, through a lot of success by my team, because obviously they're ones that are out there doing it. I really started to find my stride. And I really, I love business development. Again, I felt like there was more to offer. It confirmed the fact that I love leadership. Leadership was a passion that I feel was God given. And it was something that I wanted to make sure that I really went with. So at the age of 35, I was blessed with the opportunity to become a CEO of my first hospital. And it was a whirlwind. It was an absolute, And that's really where I got my feet wet in leadership. And I started to learn that there's so many different styles of leadership out there, so many different ways to connect with your employees. Biggest piece of that is, is obviously building a strong and healthy culture. That was, that's kind of my, my 32nd run of That's your thing.
Jennifer Sutton: So, OK, I'm going to ask you, you had bad leadership. In order to figure out what good leadership is, what were those, what were those things that you were like, This is, this is not good. Like, this is not healthy. Talk to us about that experience.
Joshua Trout: It's a great, that's a great question. You know, I think the biggest thing is selfishness, the level of selfishness some leaders have. I think the biggest thing that I talk to other leaders, those that I mentor, those that I lead, and when I go out and do my speaking engagements, the very first thing I say to people is, Listen, I'm going to give you the secret sauce of leadership. But it gets all excited. And I say, It's not about you. And I think that was one of the biggest things that I learned is that there was a lot of selfishness with some of my past leaders that it was obvious that it was about meeting their agenda, their goals, making themselves look better and not really focus on those people they were leading. And you miss the opportunity of capturing some amazing people, some amazing feedback that if you step aside and realize it's not about you, you know, and you pull everybody into it, you all are going to succeed. So that was one of the biggest things that I noticed that, you know, I didn't really have a voice. I didn't feel like the care and the love was there for me as an employee, that the genuine care that a leader should have for their employees were there. And I was determined that that was something that I was going to change. Even just a small little piece, I can change that stigma and bring a new type of modern leadership.
Jennifer Sutton: That's been, yeah, I cannot agree with you more. One of the, the best companies I worked for, they always talked about the inverted triangle of like the hierarchy of, it shouldn't be the CEO at the top, and then work down. It really should be the leadership, the CEO, and the leaders really at the bottom and serving as the foundation for, for the employees. So here you are, you're 35 years old, you enter in this, this position, um, CEO and like, what was, what was that like? And, and, um, what was some of the first kind of, I guess, changes that you made, uh, to create a healthy, like, what was, what was that process that you went through to go, I'm going to do something different.
Joshua Trout: Yeah, absolutely. It's a great question. I'm kind of laughing because what's interesting about that is I'm 35. I've become a CEO. I'm only in it for two months. And this thing called a pandemic hit. So not only did I have to learn… In a hospital. Yes, in a hospital. You know, with a disease that as a nation, we had no clue how to handle. So, you know, it was, I was learning how to lead. I was learning how to be a young leader. But then I also had to learn how to navigate the stresses of a pandemic. It was, it was unique. You know, so, you know, to answer your question more directly, you know, I think the biggest thing that I learned was building trust. You know, the thing I had to do was get in front of all these people. There's a couple different things. No. 1, I'm a new CEO.
Jennifer Sutton: Right.
Joshua Trout: they're already going to have their, their, uh, walls up because they had a couple of CEOs that made through that hospital before that were unsuccessful. Um, so, you know, the lack of trust was there then obviously the fact that I was young, you know, so, uh, and, and I was one of those CEOs that ran towards that, not away from it. Um, I understood that there was going to be, uh, maybe the lack of, of trust or, you know, just people can't hear you. Yeah. Yeah. So where did you hear me last?
Jennifer Sutton: You talked about the entering in, the CEO, that you were young, and the fact that you just didn't run away from it. You recognize that people might have a lack of trust, and that's where we left it.
Joshua Trout: All right, so I'll start off from there. You ready? I'm ready. OK, sorry about that. The lack of trust that I was going to assume was going to be there, I knew I had to hit that head on. Something that I did was I met with not only my leaders, but I met with every employee one-to-one. That was hard. That would take a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of long hours, coming in on midnights, coming on during the evenings. But I knew that if I was going to have them trust me from day one for us to be able to implement what our mission was, I had to let them see me real and raw. And I was very happy with the outcome of that because I was able to get their buy-in very quickly because they knew that this guy was taking the time and effort and a lot of long time, a lot of long hours to be with us. be serious. So that was something that I that I decided to do right off the get-go. On top of that, I had a couple, you know, wanting to know what they want to know from me and learn a little bit about what they are looking in the leader. I also talked about, you know, what are your, what's your greatest fears with this pandemic? we're going to go through this together. I'm scared just like you are. And it's okay to admit that. So how do we support and love one another through this? Um, not only at the hospital itself, but obviously they had families known as well. So just really trying to get on that, that vulnerable level from there.
Jennifer Sutton: And so did you, did you notice the, um, I know that took some time to do that. How did you know that you started to build trust? What were those signals?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, absolutely. And that's a great question. The fact that they were coming to me and engaging with me more about my personal life, what I mean by that, you know, when I, when I opened up the door about my own personal struggles, my fears even coming in as a young CEO, my fears of the pandemic, you know, when they were able to come and feel comfortable with me to sit there and say, Hey, you know what, something resonated with, with me with what you talked about. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and how you're handling that? That, that was showing me that there was a level of trust there, that we could be vulnerable with one another. And that was really exciting to see.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. So you, so you come into this position, you're, you're listening, and I'm sure you got a lot of good feedback.
Joshua Trout: Oh, yes, a lot.
Jennifer Sutton: Pages worth. Were there things that you that you had to take a step back to go, okay, we've got, you know, a lot because we worked a lot of companies and stuff and marketing and branding and it's like, leaders take a step back to go, whoa, we, not everybody has, is on the same page and we don't really have a defined culture. What were your big ahas as you kind of looked to your pages of notes to go, what was like the first thing that you knew, that you knew you needed to do?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, absolutely. I, the first thing I realized was what there were, there was poor leadership prior to me, not only one time, but two times. CEOs that did not last very long. And the fact that there was a lack of trust related to not only the CEO, but the senior leadership was, was, was evident. I knew that it was there. It was, I mean, when I looked on the paper, it was climbing out and hit me right in the face. I knew right away that we had to have a strong message, a strong vision, but not only did we have to have the words, we had to have the actions to back that up. So what I said, I did. What I, what I didn't know, I admitted to it and said, I don't know, but I will find out. You know, just full transparency was the first thing that I had to do. And it was very quickly, you saw the level of trust rise because of that. Now, the other thing that was difficult was that was me, right? I could do it myself. But how do I take my other senior leaders?
Jennifer Sutton: That's what I was going to ask you. Like, how did you ride the ship?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, absolutely. You know, again, I had to sit with one-on-one. I had to coach them through it. I had to make sure they understood the vision and make sure they were on page with what my vision was. But let them know, straight up, Listen, if this isn't your vision, I respect that. And I'll do everything in my power to help you find that next role for yourself. whether it's within the company or without. For us to be successful as a hospital, for us to drive the business plan, to drive the mission, we have to live knowing our core values. But we also got to all be completely in line as a leadership team.
Jennifer Sutton: Not
Joshua Trout: blessed to have every leader say, This is refreshing. This is what we want. So it was something that, you know, that also was, was huge for me to really get things rolling quickly. But I also had to hold them accountable. I said, You know, we're going to speak things out of our mouth. I need you to back them up with actions. And if you don't, I will have to address that head on, because the tiniest little bump is going to go and derail us.
Jennifer Sutton: And we just can't. Did you, and so you retained all of your leadership? 100%. Oh, my goodness. Bravo! Bravo! What, so when you came out of that, too, were your, was the vision defined and core values? Or did your leadership team to go, We need to take a step back to go, This is who we are as an organization? Or was it just, we liked it, but it wasn't, we weren't living it?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, absolutely. The core values were set, right? The core values were the company's core values, but they were not living those core values. But then there was also my vision, right? I am one of those leaders that it's not about me, right? So I want everybody to have buy-in. So what I did is I said, here's my vision for the hospital. How are we collectively going to make that happen? So I allowed them to have a voice. And you know what's really neat about it is some of the stuff right off the get-go, I was like, that's not how I do it. But I stepped outside of myself and I said, all right, let's entertain that. And some of the best things that we implemented as hospital wasn't even my ideas, but something that I was able to be there and allow them to have that autonomy and trust them in that moment that what they were looking to do was for the veteran of the hospital. And it all worked out.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh my goodness. You should get a little pat on the back for that because that's, that's very, very hard. Um, I cannot stress enough how hard that is. Well, um, what were your biggest, like, what were the top three lessons learned through that whole process?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is, you know, vulnerability. And that's something I believe in is vulnerable leadership. With vulnerability, most people love that. And they, they, they react to it very positively. But sometimes you got some bad apples, right. And those people will take that vulnerability as weakness. So I had to learn that through vulnerable leadership, I had to also very quickly identify those people that were not on board, that weren't going to jump on the train with what we were doing. And they were looking at me and a sense of weakness not strength from how I learned and I had to learn how to navigate that right and took a couple to realize that all right this person isn't looking me in the way they should look at me and Respecting me for my authority. And again when I say that not in a God complex, but just for the role of a CEO just be respectful of the role you got it respectful of the role and I had to learn how to work through that and address that and identify that earlier than later. So that took some time, but I was able to do that.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, that's like the heart was the rule of thumb of higher slow, fire fast, you know, because you're not gonna, you're not gonna please everybody.
Joshua Trout: No, no. That's the next. I learned that you can't please everybody. You know, I'm a, um, you know, I started off in business development, so I love making people happy. I loved hearing that they had something, they had a need or they had a problem and I wanted to be the man to fix it. Sometimes you just can't be that man. You just can't person to fix it. Um, and I had to, I had to learn to let that go. Um, not take it so personally.
Jennifer Sutton: And then, so, so here you are, you've, you've kind of, I mean, you're now what, 4 years in to this, 5 years into this position?
Joshua Trout: So, yeah, so actually, I was there for actually 3 years. And then the current role that I'm in now is actually with a completely different healthcare system. Yeah. And what was neat about this rule is it was for a de novo. So when I moved down this Greenville, South Carolina, it was actually to come down here and build the physical hospital and entire team. So I went from fixing a hospital to building.
Jennifer Sutton: Okay, so let's talk about that, that journey. What were, so okay, you went to fix-it mode. You're bringing these lessons learned to the build-it mode. What things were your aha moments in the building mode that were different than the fixing?
Joshua Trout: The aha is it's not the same thing as fixing a hospital. You know, there's a lot. I had to really learn the construction side of things, you know, from building the hospital from ground up. You know, we had a design and construction team that was phenomenal, but I had to oversee those day-to-day, you know, the processes of that builder. And then I had to build a leadership team. And then from building the leadership team, I had to hire 200 employees and get things up and running. So the biggest aha moment for me was, okay, take the good and the bad from what I had to do in the other place and implement them here from day one. You know, so it really actually helped me to get ahead of the problems than coming in and trying to fix the problems down the road.
Jennifer Sutton: Right. So here you, because now you had to like hire your leadership. So you had to then figure out, What are the core values of this new entity? What is the culture going to be? And what, what is the type of leaders that we want? Did you have kind of that in the back, like, these are the people the traits, were they, were they different than in the Fix-It, or were these like, you know, they are the universal traits of like, this is what I need as a leadership team, or did you kind of create something for, for this entity?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, so that's a really good question. I think that there's a lot of commonalities there, but I think things are a little bit different. When you're in a Fix-It hospital, you have to kind of handle things with kid gloves, right? Because they're past wounds. That's right. You know, or this was brand new. It was going to be fresh. It was going to be shiny. It was going to be beautiful. People coming in. So it was really exciting because we got to set the tone from day one and setting the tone from day one. OK, here is the company's vision. Here's the company's core values. Here's how I want to lead this hospital. Here's the expectation that I have for the culture. And I now had the opportunity to interview many, many people. not tell them what my vision is, but let them tell me about themselves. What are their core values? What was it that makes them, what excited them? What made them not so excited about going to work or the current role? And really learn more about them on a personal level, not so much professional level, because I believe that the culture that I wanted to drive in this hospital really isn't so much about a skill set, but it's about a personality.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah.
Joshua Trout: focus on hiring the right person because I could help teach the skill set. So that was something that was a lot different that I really enjoyed because I was able to really build a team around the culture that I envisioned for the hospital.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, we keep hearing that as a trend over the last, like, several years of, of hire for the person, hire for the attitude. Skills can be trained and taught, but you can't teach, like, you can't teach somebody to be kind.
Joshua Trout: No, not at all. We lack empathy as a society, right? So that is one thing that I talked about with every single person that I hired was we lack empathy as a society. And in our hospital, we will not lack empathy. So I need to understand what your vision of empathy is and how are you going to drive the core value of empathy of those that you're going to lead. Because it's not just one level that has to do this. It has to be every level that's going to bring a different approach to how we're going to lead this hospital to have not only positive patient outcomes and patient experience but ultimately employee satisfaction, keeping them working for us and making them feel like a safe place to work and that they have a voice and that they actually matter.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, no, I 100% agree. You talked about, earlier, you talked about there's different leadership styles. And, and, you know, people can exhibit, can exhibit those styles. What do you think is your leadership style? I mean, I know you talk, is it, is it vulnerable, vulnerability? Or, or is there another, like, what's other, what are other styles that are out there that people can go, How do I, how do I step into my natural strength? How would you advise that?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, that's a great question. I think, you know, before you get into the different styles of leadership, I think it's important for you to identify your core values. You know, I have a book that's coming out at the end of this year. And the book is really around transformative leadership, but really identifying what your core values are. Right? There's so many people, I'm sure you've heard of really good top-level employees that you promote, and they fail. Well, because, just because they're a very good employee doesn't mean they have the traits to be a leader, right? They're just really good at what they do. So I look at that as an example of, you know, when you're trying to figure out what kind of leader you want to be, you need to identify what your personal core values are. When you have a true understanding of what your core values are and what makes you tick, you can align those core values with those organizations that you're trying to get a job with. once you're able to do that, you, you're going to realize that you have a good connection between your core values, the organization's core values. And then that's really going to start to take you down a path of what kind of leader you are. So when I looked at my core values, you know, I, my core values are vulnerability. authenticity, empathy, grace, humility. Those were my core values that I identified. And when I did that, I realized that being a servant leadership, a servant leader is so important. That's, that's a, that's a trendy word, right? That's a trend in today's world. That's good. And that's the, that's the base of what I lead by. But then I realized my core values, I'm vulnerable in the fact of that I love to be able to connect with every employee at the level of their and my personal stories and experiences and wounds at the table to grow that trust, to be able to lead them correctly and make them feel like they can be comfortable and be vulnerable in return. That's how I navigated that. That's how I asked my leaders to navigate their leadership approach as well. And I would say, don't try to mimic somebody. Those leaders that are out there trying, that are currently leaders, are those that are trying to become a leader. Do yourself a favor and be genuine. Be authentic.
Jennifer Sutton: That, yeah, I mean, we talked to a lot of founders and CEOs that, like I said, they're trying to step into this role and the importance of personal brand. Like, you have your company brand, and like you said, you kind of, you know, how do you step into these roles and really help elevate these companies and the values of the company, but you've got to know who you are. and what your brand stands for and what are those kind of like, you know, whether it's three defining traits or, you know, five characteristics or whatever, but, but you're right. It has to be genuine. It has to be authentic. And then how do you align that? Those personal, those personal things with your company.
Joshua Trout: Yeah. And it's, it's, it's always been important to do that, but it's so much more important in today's world than, than ever. So many different generations, right? So the younger generations and the ones that are coming, they want buy-in. They want to feel like they have a voice. They want to feel like you actually care about them as employees, not just a number. That takes time and effort. That's going to make sure, you're going to have to make sure that you can align Yourself with what those those next generations are. I think that's where leaders fail That it's you know, my way or the highway. Yeah I think that again to answer your question directly I think identifying your core values is a one great way of identifying your style of leadership The one thing that I think no matter what person you are what leader you are what core value you have you need to start to be successful as a leader with the fact of it's not about you.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. That's a hard thing. Terrible.
Joshua Trout: That's a hard thing for people! It is. As a human being, we're selfish. You know what I mean? Because we always think about ourselves first. And you're right, you know, Jennifer, that's one of the hardest things that people I've mentored, people that I spoke to at, you know, keynotes, speeches that I've done, they come up. How do you do that? It takes time and effort.
Jennifer Sutton: What, are there, are there strategies to like shift the mindset? Or is it really that person's got to just have it in the, just have it in their mindset of, I've got to make the shift? How do you coach people through that?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, so both are, are yes. You know, I would say yes to both of those things. I think No. 1, there's got to be something within you, right? There's got to be a part. within you that's willing to step aside, identify your weaknesses, identify some of the areas that you need to grow in and make the changes. On the other side of that, though, too, it's very important for you to identify some positive mentors. Positive mentors that you can trust, that are going to be very raw with you, that are going to help identify some of those things they see within you that are not good traits. You have to be OK with that. And you have to be able to listen and make the changes. If I can give you a quick example of, and it was difficult for me, you know, before I got into leadership, I had a leader that was with us for about 3 months. And after being with her for about 3 months, she met with each one of us just to kind of connect. You know, here's what I've observed so far. Here's what I like about what you do. Here's what I don't like. you know, and it was also a time for us to give feedback to her. She said to me, she goes, Josh, you know, I can tell that you want to be a leader. I can tell that you have the skill set to be a really good leader. I think you're going to be successful. However, that being said, if we don't make one change, you're never going to be successful. And she said, you're too black and white. I remember in that moment She kept talking to me, but all I heard was you're too black and white and I cut her out and I was mad Who were you to tell me that I'm too black and white and as she's sitting there talking to me It's like the whole TV thing. You're out of body, right?
Jennifer Sutton: It's the Snoopy right there I finally as I'm sitting there I started to
Joshua Trout: to think. And I was like, Oh my God, she's right. And you know, it was so neat. About three months after that, I went back to her and I sat on that and I chewed on it and I realized, and I did a deep dive, I realized that she was correct. I was way too black and white, that there is gray, specifically when you're a leader. And I decided, I made the choice to change how I viewed things, and I owe her so much of my success. Because if she wasn't real with me, and she wasn't the mentor I needed, and I didn't step outside of my own selfishness and being like, Oh, who's this person to tell me? right now. So I highly recommend people getting mentors that you can trust and listen.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, and I also say, too, just to add on, I agree just a thousand percent. And I think as we, you know, for the listeners out there, whether, you know, if you've got somebody that's managing you or if you're managing somebody, you know, sometimes it's hard to deliver the that, that, right, as a manager, as a coach, as a leader within an organization, because you, you don't want to hurt somebody, right. And, and we don't, we never like delivering constructive, constructive news, nor do we like to hear it, obviously, like your case, it was like, oh, Shutting you down. But, but, you know, I've read somewhere, I don't, I have no idea where I read this, but it was, it kind of was like a little aha moment. And I've tried to tell my managers and leaders here of, you know, we're coaches, we're not managers. you know we're not we're not um it's not a hierarchy on a on a chart right where we all are helping somebody through to make to make them better at whatever role they are or to realize their dream their personal brand And that's how we have to view it. We're just coaching. And if somebody doesn't want to listen to it, then it's not the coach's fault. It's not the boss's fault or the manager's fault that you're not hitting your goals. It's because you weren't ready to hear the information. Then you're not ready. You're not ready to realize your next dream. Uh, and I think that's, you know, whether you're on the receiving end or the giving end, I think if it's just, it's feedback, it's inputs, it is, you know, that back and forth of, I'm here to make you successful. I want you to succeed. I'm trying to coach you through it, but you've got to be my, you know, ready to hear it and go and not, and like you said, not to, um, turn the TV off. Right. Got to have your receptors on to be willing to to listen to it because they're just trying to help you. Yeah They're just trying to further your make your dreams come true.
Joshua Trout: I Would say if I can add to that, you know, if you have people that are mentors, right? We'll call the mentors in your life that aren't giving you Constructive feedback. They're not a mentor. That's right because you're not perfect Yeah flaws. And a true mentor is going to truly mentor you and give you that both positive and negative feedback. And you need to be OK with that.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. We call them, like, you need to have cheerleaders in your life, and you need to recognize those who are your cheerleaders, because you do need to have people cheering you on and giving you that. But to your point, you need to have a true mentor, a coach, that somebody is helping you work through those issues, the weaknesses, whether it is a attitude, right, like a, you know, soft skills, or if it's truly like hard skills that we are trying to help you better in your performance. But, but you need both of those people in your life.
Joshua Trout: You do. And, you know, one thing that, that is, I've learned about leadership is it's lonely at the top.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh, my goodness.
Joshua Trout: So lonely. You strive to pour yourself into your employees all day, every day. also then getting it from the uppers, right, even the people that are above you, whether that's board of directors, stakeholders, whatever, that are pushing you to drive a business plan for success. And you sit there and you're, OK, this side, I'm giving all of me. This side's telling me to do, do, do, do. And then you go home and you go, Well, what about me? What about What about my struggles?" So that's where I've identified that mentors, and even those cheerleaders, that's where you really need to fall back on them. Because let them love into you, or pour love into you. And sometimes that is in not always warm and fuzzy, but that's OK.
Jennifer Sutton: That's OK. It is. So I was going to ask you that, too, of like, man, you were in a, in a stress fix, fix-it mode. Now you're in a stress build-it mode. What do you do to, to just relieve the stress? Or, you know, do you have any kind of tricks or strategies that you have, have said, Look, I've got to do this. This is, otherwise I'll go mad.
Joshua Trout: That's a great Again, this is going to be just a vulnerable comment is, you know, mental health is tough, right? Mental health for everybody. And, you know, as a man, that's tough. And us guys, we're not so warm and fuzzy. You know, and I have learned that I had to do that. I had to find those people and I just had to be raw and say, listen, this is how I'm feeling. Here's where I'm at. Here's some stress that I'm doing. You know, I have no problems, you know, seeing counselors every once in a while. I think everybody should have a counselor. You know, people that look at that as a negative thing, wrong. That's right. Somebody to go talk to and let some of that stress off. Some other things that I personally do now are a little bit more of a holistic approach to my health. You know, so I do, cold punch. I do cryotherapy. I do infrared sauna. I have learned that those things just taking 35 minutes out of my day to do one of those and just close my eyes and just let it work through my body and de-stress has been huge for me. It's been a game changer.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah.
Joshua Trout: You know, that's right now where I'm at. I can tell you that I'm not very good at it and I'm still
Jennifer Sutton: I think we, we all, I mean, I've started, like, that's one of my, that's, those are one of my challenges for me. I mean, like, I'm, I'm doing better, but I started doing the limbatic exercises, the somatic. I do sound baths with a, with a group of female leaders. And just, yeah, just to let the relief. But as my doctor would tell you, he's like, you just walk outside. You need 30 minutes of vitamin D. Like, go just sit. Go take a walk. You need to walk. I'm like, I know. He's like, it's 15 minutes. Jennifer, just do it. I'm like, I know. I'm terrible. I'm terrible at it.
Joshua Trout: And as we like that, I think, Jennifer, that's, that's just, it's in our DNA. I know. But we have, we can't allow that to be an excuse.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. I've been, I've been telling myself that over the last year. And I feel, I mean, I can completely tell a difference in my physical health, even though, for my weight management, you know, can't see it yet, yet is the big emphasis. I'm on the path, but mentally it has been, I've noticed like my mind is sharper. I've got energy that I didn't have, I can tap into that and then I've told this story too of just kind of like, I don't know if you have anything like this, but I have a Before I before I go to sleep at night. I do a Journal three things and a little notebook in it. I caught the daily three I write down. What was a moment of joy? Just kind of a brief statement of like, you know in some days it's hard to read like I bad days occur, but I try to really think they're like, there's always, even if it's small, there's always a moment of joy, I have found. And then the second is like, what was the, what has caused like the most anxiety, whether it's something I have to do the next day, or something that has occurred, like I just, I handled something, you know, maybe a conversation with an employee. Or, I didn't handle myself in a presentation the way, just like, just a moment, you know, what was an anxious moment? And it's just, and when I write it down, I get it out of my head. And then I don't reflect on it anymore. And then the third is, what am I most looking forward to tomorrow? And And it's just real simple. I know a lot of people like journal, journal, journal. I'm like, I don't have time for that. But I do these three things every night. And it has caught my, I sleep better. And then it's just when I go back and reflect on that, the things that used to cause me anxiety, I'm like, that's silly. Because I'm used to getting the uncomfortable, just like, almost like a therapist, right? You just get it out of your system. And, and then you can reflect on it. But those are, those are like, those were my little tips of just helping me with my mental, with my mental energy. Yeah, still those. That's right. Now, so you have a book coming out later this year. What is, what is the book on?
Joshua Trout: Yeah, so pretty much everything we talked about. So it's called Transformative Leadership. And it's about identifying your personal core values. it, it talks a little bit about servant leadership, but also talks about vulnerable leadership. So leading through vulnerability, and how putting those all together can help build a strong and healthy leadership approach, and then obviously, can be pushed through that organization to build a strong and healthy culture. You know, I talk about the important things of leadership, right? I think that In the book, we focus on outcomes. And outcomes are so important, whether it's financial, whether it's, you know, satisfaction from your customer, your employees, your patients, whatever that may be. But I truly, truly believe, and you mentioned this earlier about the upside-down triangle. I feel like if you have a strong and healthy culture, and you keep silos away from your organization, that is actually will generate positive outcomes, positive experience. less turnover, right, your higher retention. That is where I believe all those things come from. A lot of organizations do it the opposite way, and they don't understand why it doesn't work. You're not going to have positive outcomes and have happy people if there's not a healthy culture, if you're not leading in a way that they deserve to be led. So that's really what the book all encompasses.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh, I can't, well, I can't wait to read it. What, what is the most, you know, what would be, what would our listeners, I think, what would they find surprising about you or, or something that's interesting that is not on your resume, that's not on LinkedIn? What do you think our listeners would be surprised to learn about you?
Joshua Trout: Oh, boy, that's a deep question. You know, I am, I am somebody that's very much into his faith. That's one thing. You know, from a hobby perspective, I love the deep sea fish and, you know, on the surf, you know, on the shore rather. And I have an obsession with aviation. I love aviation. I have plans on getting my pilot's license. Yeah, so that's a couple things that I like. And I'm a Sinatra fan. I love that's one way that I can relax is some jazz, some Sinatra, cigar, bourbon.
Jennifer Sutton: You're ready to go. Puts you on a beach somewhere with your phone. Don't tease me. Say you'll be set for life. Well, we are completely out of time and I just I'm amazed how fast these things go. Before we go, though, how do you want people to connect with you? Find information about the book that's coming out. Yeah. How do we how do we share you with with everyone?
Joshua Trout: Well, thank you. So I do a lot on LinkedIn. So you can definitely check out my LinkedIn page. I have one that's a personal page. I have one that is my author speaker page. And also I have a business that kind of over, you know, encompasses my speaking and all that's called Viewpoint Leadership, LLC. So there's also a page for that. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook for all three things. And then obviously our website. So our website is theviewpointco.com. So theviewpointcompany.com. I know you're going to post some things down below, but you can reach out to me in any one of those. I am responsive. I love to talk to people. I love to hear feedback. But yeah, that's the best way to get ahold of me.
Jennifer Sutton: Well, that's fantastic. Well, everybody, check it out, will we? We will share links. And definitely keep, keep following Joshua because he's got some good stuff, especially for all of us out there that are trying to run, run businesses, step into these, you know, leadership roles. It's one of the hardest aspects of, of scaling and growing a business and a team. And we need that, that advice and those strategies. So thank you for hanging out with us today, Joshua. I appreciate it.
Joshua Trout: Thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate it. This is the best.
Jennifer Sutton: All right. And for our listeners out there, we will be publishing this podcast this coming Sunday. We'll be available on your favorite podcast platform. So subscribe to Hello Chaos, like, comment and share this great content and help us grow a more connected entrepreneurial community. HelloCasts is one of the many resources brought to you by OrangeWIP. That's OrangeWIP, W-I-P, for work in progress. We are a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs and leaders in affiliate cities. We are 100% free, so just come and check us out. We are currently in three areas of South Carolina, the upstate, midlands, and low country, with goals to expand to be in 30 markets in five years. So come check us out. We'd love to also have you as a guest on our podcast. If you're a founder out there, just send us an email to hello at orange whip.com. Y'all thank you for tuning in to Hello Cast. It is where I made so shit. I'm your host, Jennifer Sutton, AKA JJ, and we will see you again next week.