Happy 4th of July! Do you view your competitors as a threat or do you view them as potential collaborators? Do you view your competitors as enemies to take down or do you view them as an ally helping create awareness for your products or service?
Our guest today is Tony Martignetti, who shares with us his view on personal development and growth. He believes that amateurs compete and professionals create and points out to us that by competing, you might very well be climbing the wrong mountain.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
Amateurs compete and professionals create.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Tony Martignetti is a trusted advisor, leadership coach & facilitator, best-selling author, podcast host, and professional speaker. He brings together over 30 years of business and leadership experience, formal training, and extreme curiosity to elevate leaders and equip them with the tools to navigate through change and unlock their true potential.
Before becoming the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Inspired Purpose Coaching, he was a finance and strategy executive with experience working with some of the world’s leading life sciences companies. Along his journey, he also managed small businesses and ran a financial consulting company.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
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If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success Podcast where each week, we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And happy 4th of July week to all of you out there, especially those of you celebrating in the United States. This is one of my favorite holidays of the year. And I always just like to reflect back and give thanks to all of our founders and the founding sacrifices that were made to help create the country that we all live in. So just thought this would be a great time, as you celebrate, to also reflect back on that celebration.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:39):
And the opening question we have for us today is, do you view your competitors as a threat, or do you view them as a potential collaborator? Or do you view your competitors as enemies to take down, or do you view them as an ally helping create awareness for your service or products that you’re offering? And our guest today is Tony Martignetti, who shares with us his view on personal development and growth. And he believes that amateurs compete, and professionals create, and points out that by competing you might very well be climbing the wrong mountain. Now, Tony is a trusted advisor, leadership coach, and facilitator. He’s a best-selling author, podcast host, and professional speaker. He brings together over 30 years of business and leadership experience, formal training, and extreme curiosity to elevate leaders and equip them with the tools to navigate through change and unlock their true potential.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:38):
Before becoming the Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Inspired Purpose Coaching, he was a finance and strategy executive with experience working with some of the world’s leading life sciences companies. Along his journey, he also managed small business and ran a financial consulting company. And one housekeeping item… For some reason when we recorded this episode, my quality microphone was not recording. It picked up on my computer microphone, so the audio quality on my mic is not that great. The guest’s sounds wonderful, so just wanted to let you know. So let’s go ahead and jump right into my interview with Tony.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (02:16):
My name’s Tony Martignetti, and my company’s name is Inspired Purpose Coaching. And my title, although most people would say, “What is that?” Is the Chief Inspiration Officer, which I earn every day that title. It’s something that’s really near and dear to my heart.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:33):
Talk about that a little bit, I’d love to, because it’s going to spin right into what I’m hoping to talk with you about. So why the Chief Inspiration Officer?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (02:40):
Yeah, one of the things that has been showing up in my life, at least over the past seven or eight years, is the sense of how inspiration is at the core of all the things that are important to me. And not every day do I show up, and I’m all in high spirits, and like, “Yeah, let’s go do this.” But I know that when I want to live in fulfillment and live in a life that really is connected with who I am, I have to find the inspiration that gets me in alignment with who I am. And by doing so, I also have to be that person that helps other people find their inspiration. So it’s all about being a font of inspiration for myself and others. People often say, in order for a leader to inspire others, they have to inspire themselves. And so that’s really how I’m modeling the way. So like I said, I have to earn that title over and over again.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:41):
Right. And were talking, right before we hit record here, a little bit about this idea of connecting with people. And so, inspiring others is certainly going to help do that. So talk about this concept of improving human connection. Why does it matter? What’s going on today with all of that?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (04:01):
Yeah, let’s be honest, especially over the past few years, there’s been a real desire to reconnect not only with ourselves, with what we want and what’s important, but also with other people and really having this starving need to see how do we communicate and connect with others. We’re all feeling very lonely and isolated. Even when we’re with people, sometimes we feel lonely and isolated, like we don’t relate well. And so there’s a sense that we need to have better conversations that go a little deeper to understand more about who are you, what are the things that matter to you, and take it a little bit further.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (04:42):
And one of the things I’ve discovered through my work is that when people understand each other better, what happens is it breaks down the barriers that we often put up, the biases. We start to see, wait a minute… This person feels like I do. They are not as different as I thought they were, than I am. Although we do have differences and I can celebrate those, I also can see these differences as something that I can really appreciate. So the connection is what brings us together.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (05:15):
I have a personal life statement or mission that I live by because it’s my purpose. It’s something I have coupled with our organization, which is to inspire and foster greatness. You talk about a bias. My mind has a bias to, when I hear the word inspire and foster, it immediately pulls that out. And so, one of the things you had mentioned is about how do you foster this sense of belonging, this sense of connection? What are some things that you can do? And as a leader who might be tuning in to this, why does it matter for their team and what they’re doing?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (05:49):
Yeah, let’s be honest, I came from a world of finance and strategy. And so, I understand the ROI and what is the return that we really get from the investments we put into the business. And I think it’s important to really think about what do we get when we connect on a deeper level? There’s a huge, huge return on getting people to feel trusted and belong in an environment. The return is more innovation, more production, more of a feeling of engagement for employees. And all of that really comes from just opening yourself up as… Leading by example. By opening yourself up to say, what is something about me that I’ve never shared or have wanted to share but never really felt comfortable or thought people would care?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (06:42):
I often say, what makes us weird is what makes us interesting. And we need more of that. It doesn’t have to be this ground-breaking thing. Like, “Oh my gosh, I grew up poor. I had to rise from the ashes,” or what have you. It could be simple things like, “Hey. On the weekends, I play the ukulele.” And people knowing that about you could make them smile and say, “Hey, that’s so interesting. I’d love to hear you play sometime.” And that opening up just breaks down barriers. And then someone else shares and says, “Hey, here’s something about me that you don’t know.”
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (07:19):
I think it’s interesting you chose I play the ukulele on the weekends. I do play the ukulele on the weekends with my kids, and that is pretty funny. One of the things, as a transition here, you have a new book coming out here. So let’s talk a little bit about your initial book here that’s available currently. And the thing that I really like is the first part of it. It says Climbing the Right Mountain: Navigating the Journey to an Inspired Life. And I really like that concept of climbing the right mountain. So someone hasn’t read it yet or they’re just looking for a general overview, how would you describe what you cover in that?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (07:53):
Absolutely. I’m happy to share. This was a book that I… I didn’t know I was going to write a book until I started to have a lot of conversations with people, and I felt this sense of common feeling that they were climbing mountains that weren’t meant for them. The concept in the book is… It’s partly my story, but it’s also the story of many people who I was working with. This feeling of working really hard, giving it your all, to go up this mountain of your career, your life. And then feeling like, is this all there? Is this what I fought for? Is this what I gave all my time, effort, and in fact sacrificed so much for? And then feeling almost empty from it.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (08:34):
In the book, I talk about defining success on your own terms and redefining the path for yourself. And figuring out, it doesn’t have to be an easy climb. It can be full of lots of challenges, and that’s okay. But the idea is, who are you being on that path and how do you connect with that sense of fulfillment along the way? Fulfillment is not a destination. It is actually a mindset you have to connect with on your path of going on your journey in life. I think we talk about inspiration a lot here because of this sense of inspiration comes and goes. It’s this sense of connection to…
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (09:17):
And hopefully I don’t lose you here, but there’s a sense of connection to what your soul’s purpose is. When you hear of this word inspiration, it’s those little whispers of, “Hey, this is what you should be doing more of because this lights you up. It makes you come alive.” If you’re constantly going through your days and you’re feeling like, “Gosh, I can’t wait till I’m done with this,” or, “I can’t wait till I get to that place.” Then, you may be stuck in a rut that is not necessarily where you want to be.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:48):
Yeah, absolutely. And you have a podcast, The Virtual Campfire, and that has led to your next book that’s coming out, Campfire Lessons for Leaders. So talk a little bit about what you’re doing there.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (10:00):
There’s some consistent themes along all of this, and I’ll wrap it up in three words, inspiration, connection, and grounded-ness. And the reason why I use those three words is because as I started my podcast, The Virtual Campfire, I started to interview people who had been on a journey of how they got to this place where they’re making a huge impact in the world. And I wanted to understand what made them into this person. I called it flashpoints, the points in their journey that have ignited their gifts into the world. That intentional term, flashpoint, is all about lighting people up. And sometimes it’s a moment, sometimes it’s a long drag through a period of I fight, fight, fight. And all of a sudden, I’ve realized this is who I need to be.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (10:46):
But the interviews that I had with these people was really giving them a space to explore themselves, and then understand how did this make me into who I am today? And I’ve interviewed over 200 people on the podcast. And through this process, I’ve turned it into a book, but I’m sharing it in the context of 10 lessons that I’ve seen throughout all these people that have been common. And one example of this is, don’t go it alone. There’s a lot of people who see the person who represents success, and almost all the time, they always say, “I couldn’t have done it without X, Y, and Z,” or, “I couldn’t have done it without…” this. And there’s a certain value in being able to have the right people in your journey at the right time to validate and to believe in you.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:41):
I think that, for our listeners and prior to the book coming out here, we’ll be able to subscribe to the podcast. And we’ll make sure we link in the show notes here for people to click, and check out, and listen to some of these campfire stories-
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (11:55):
Nice.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:55):
… that are being shared. I love that visual of sitting around a campfire, and talking, and having that conversation. Well, Tony, this is a great time in the show where we make a transition. We ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we always like to ask is, have you had a miss or two in your career and journey? And something you learned from it.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (12:15):
I’ll start with one where… I remember when I was in corporate, I had this big decision to make where we were implementing a system into a financial system. I was butting heads with someone who’s more senior than I was. And what I realized is that I gave up my position of what I believed was true to someone who’s more senior than I was. And I realized the end, when it did fail, things didn’t go as well as could be, that I should have stuck to my guns. There’s a certain intuition that we have to know when is the fight worth fighting, when we really know the answer and we have to fight for that. And sometimes you just say, “It’s not important. It’s not worth fighting.” And so, this is one of those times when I wish I had not given in to the positional power.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:07):
Let’s look on the other side. How about a make or two that you’d like to share?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (13:13):
I’ve always believed in these things called curiosity conversations. It turns out, that actually is something that I’ve read in a book somewhere. Brian Grazer, from the movies, is a producer… Actually uses that term curiosity conversations, but it’s something I’ve been using all along. And one of the things that I did is, I had this curiosity conversation when I was in corporate that led me to a role that I would’ve never imagined myself to be sitting in. I had this conversation with a senior executive at an organization.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (13:43):
At the time, I was a young up-and-comer. And through this conversation, alls I did is I just said, “Hey, I’d love to find out more about your role. I’d like to know more about you and just what are the challenges you’re facing?” And by the end of the conversation, I was offered a job to lead up this new function of the company. And it was one of those ground-breaking opportunities that you never would’ve gotten if you didn’t ask. So for me, I see that as a huge make. And it’s also something that I advise other people to do is, sometimes it’s just going in with this curiosity and humbleness to say, “I want to learn about you,” and sharing a little about yourself. And in that process, you never know where that goes. And in this instance, it worked out pretty well.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:26):
Wow. What a story, what a story. Let’s talk about a multiplier that you’ve used to grow yourself personally or professionally.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (14:34):
There’s been a couple of multipliers in my life, but one of them particularly is giving… I’m going to put this in the context of a quote. When I first started my business, I had this feeling of, how am I going to get new clients? How am I going to build this business? And all the sudden, this quote came into mind and it was that amateurs compete and professionals create. Amateurs compete, professionals create. And it broke me through that ceiling that I was holding myself back from, which was at first, holding what I knew close to my chest and saying, “I can’t share with people in my industry. I can’t share with people who are doing the same work I’m doing. Because if I do, they’ll steal my secrets, or they’ll get to know my clients,” or what have you.
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (15:21):
When I got past that and I used that quote as my guiding light, what I did is I started to network with other people who were in the same space. I got to know who they are, what works for them. And it really got me to surpass what was possible because we created together. We started to collaborate. We started to see opportunities where, “Hey, this is what I specialize in. This is what you specialize in. What if we work together?” And that has been game changing for me.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:50):
I love that idea of creating, and the difference between an amateur and a professional. And that’s a great, great lesson. And let’s talk about the final question that we ask every guest before they go, which is what does success mean to you?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (16:06):
Yeah, it’s a great question. I have different answers at different times. But I would say for me, the question, the best way to that I answer it, is this feeling that I’ve made a difference in someone’s life through a conversation we’ve had and to see them grow. I’m a coach, so I spend time in conversation with people all the time. And when I see them open up to see new possibilities, it makes my day. It makes me feel as though I’m doing something to make that happen, to help them see differently. And that to me is success. I used to say that if I could put $1 on every single conversation that has made a difference, I’d be a billionaire. But the reality is that you can’t. Sometimes it’s just conversations you have in passing, this conversation for example. But the reality is, that’s… To me is valuable. It’s success.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:04):
Absolutely. Well, Tony, as we bring this to a close, is there anything you were hoping to share or maybe get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (17:12):
Well, it’s a great way to close. I think there’s an idea that… My tagline for my business is called Inspiration through Honest Conversation, and I think that’s a great way to wrap this all together. Which is to say, the first honest conversation you’re going to have is with yourself. And sometimes we have to be honest with ourselves. What are the things that we’re holding back, not telling ourselves, that we really want, that we do want to say? Sometimes we’re just not being honest with ourselves. And once we start there, then we can open the circle broader and see who else we need to be honest with.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:48):
Great advice. Well, Tony, what’s the best way for someone to get in touch with you, get a copy of your book, if someone’s interested in learning more?
Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching (17:55):
Fantastic. First of all, I want to thank you for having me on. This has been fantastic. The best place to find me is on my website, inspiredpurposecoach.com. And there, you can find all types of things, my book… You can find access to my… I have an assessment tool. You can sign up for my newsletter, all types of fun things, including my podcast. And for my book, you can find it on Amazon.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:18):
Tony, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. And let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is when Tony said, “In order for a leader to inspire others, they have to inspire themselves first.” And I thought that was a great takeaway. You have to be inspired to inspire. Takeaway number two is when he asked, “Are you climbing the right mountain for you?” And I thought that was a great question and a reference to his book, which the link is in the show notes as well here. But are you climbing the right mountain? Is it the right one to be climbing? And who knows? Maybe you started climbing a mountain, and you’re halfway up and realize that maybe it is the wrong one, and it’s time to come back down, and find a new one to climb. And takeaway number three is when he talked about curiosity and having curiosity conversations, to be curious when you’re speaking with people. And I think that really leads to active listening and showing someone that you’re interested in what they have to say.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:22):
Now, it’s time for today’s win-win. Today’s win-win is when Tony said the phrase, “Amateurs compete and professionals create.” He said he heard that early on and has really built his whole business and business philosophy around that concept. And I love the way that this sounds because amateurs do compete, and it really is fixed mindset that goes with that. And the idea of professionals create is really a growth mindset. And if you’re not familiar with that book by Carol Dweck, you should definitely check that out. But it’s really this idea that a rising tide lifts all boats.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:08):
And so having that professionals create mindset, and which way are you viewing the world? It’s a great win for you. It’s a win for the people you’re going to be collaborating with and working together with. And I just love that little nugget of a takeaway. That’s the episode, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and to give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone might be ready to franchise your business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.