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4 Ways to Shift Mindset to Better Excel at Work with V. Krishna Lakkineni, Mindset Monk: Show Notes & Transcript

Post | Jul 18, 2023

Welcome back to Marketing Smarts! From brand-building and marketing veterans Anne Candido and April Martini (that’s us) comes a podcast committed to cutting through all the confusing marketing BS so you can actually understand how to take action and change your business today. We deep-dive into topics most would gloss-over, infusing real-world examples from our combined 35+ years of corporate and agency experience. We tell it how it is so whether you are just starting out or have been in business awhile, you have the Marketing Smarts to immediately impact your business.

In this episode, we’re talking how to shift mindset to better excel at work with V. Krishna Lakkineni. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and your other favorite podcast spots – follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re exercising your Marketing Smarts!

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Marketing Smarts: 4 Ways to Shift Mindset to Better Excel at Work with V. Krishna Lakkineni, Mindset Monk

So many workplace struggles can be alleviated by starting with mindset. What is your current set of beliefs and expectations? How is this impacting your ability to feel content and excel? Shift your mindset to better excel at work by believing it to see it, focusing on MY career, MY responsibility, realizing you can lead at any level, and managing your energy. We wanted you to learn from the Mindset Monk himself, so we welcomed on V. Krishna Lakkineni. He’s the CEO of ROI Media Works, an Investor, TEDx speaker, and Author of 3 Amazon Best Sellers. This episode covers everything from mindset to energy. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

  • How do you shift mindset to better excel at work?
  • What does “Believe it to see it” mean?
  • Why is your career your responsibility?
  • Can you lead at any level?
  • How do you manage your energy?
  • Can vision boarding help your career?
  • How do you move up the corporate ladder?
  • Why is EQ so important?

And as always, if you need help in building your Marketing Smarts, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: ForthRight-People.com.

Check out the episode, show notes, and transcript below:

Show Notes

What is Marketing Smarts?

From brand-building and marketing veterans Anne Candido and April Martini comes a podcast committed to cutting through all the confusing marketing BS so you can actually understand how to take action and change your business today. They deep-dive into topics most would gloss-over, infusing real-world examples from their combined 35+ years of corporate and agency experience. They tell it how it is so whether you are just starting out or have been in business awhile, you have the Marketing Smarts to immediately impact your business.

How do I exercise my Marketing Smarts?

Thanks for listening to Marketing Smarts. Get in touch here to become a savvier marketer. 

Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Anne Candido 0:02
This is Marketing Smarts – a podcast committed to helping you become a savvier marketing leader, no matter your level. In each episode, we will dive into a relevant topic or challenge that marketing leaders are currently facing. We will also give you practical tools and applications that will help you put what you learn into practice today. And if you missed anything, don’t worry, we put worksheets on our website that summarize the key points. Now, let’s get to it. Welcome to Marketing Smarts! I am Anne Candido and I am April Martini. And today we’re gonna tackle a difficult topic and that’s mindset in the workplace. Now there seems to be a lot of workplace struggles right now with our a lot of our coaching clients, we’re hearing a lot of things everything from pressure to return to the office and then actually getting to the office and re acclimating to the office to wanting to pivot, but not feeling really confident to do so to not feel like you have a career path to when you move up or feeling a bit of imposter syndrome. And the list goes on and on and on. It’s just seems to be a lot. So where we always start in our coaching is with mindset. And this is your current set of beliefs and expectations that are guiding your behaviors and actions. And we want everybody to really think about how these are impacting their ability to feel fulfilled and Excel. Now when we coach them through this, we coach them to get them see different lenses or filters or a perspective by which to see a situation in order to open up new possibilities or states of being. So just to kind of get them to kind of shift the way that they’re thinking about things. Now, I will be the first to say we aren’t therapists. That’s right. But we have been there. And we are coaching a lot of people through this right now. So we thought it would be good to share our perspective here in the hopes that you may also find relief that this is also you

April Martini 1:50
Yes. And it can be really easy to go down a rabbit hole with any of those examples that Ian gave. And that’s why we’re passionate about stopping yourself and what we call the quote unquote swirl, if you will. And that starts getting you into the mindset where you can be productive and then counteract any of that negative self talk or the why nots, which we all had been there. And we all tell ourselves so there you go. Yeah. And today, we have a very special guest to join us. And he talks a lot about this topic on his podcast Live2Inspire byMindset Monk and his book The Golden Rules of Success. And that’s V. Krishna Lakkineni. Krishna, how are you doing? Would you like to introduce yourself?

V. Krishna Lakkineni 2:29
I’m just kind of blown away by what you guys do. And you know, even though you go through LinkedIn and whatnot, but hearing firsthand from you guys, but to do it’s amazing. My name is V. Krishna Lakkineni of Mindset Monk. Basically, I help entrepreneurs to succeed in their business and lives, usually entrepreneurs going through their midlife crisis, okay? Now what, right? So I helped them to get back on to the new reality, basically, why they start their business and what they’re in it for. And bring those reality usually helps them to rediscover some of the parts of them that they haven’t touched. Usually, it’s trauma based, and some of those inner child wounds. And I personally believe we all here experiencing life and our careers, being an entrepreneur or working for somebody else is just a part of our life. But how do you complete that fulfilled life? So that’s what I teach to everybody that comes across my life.

Anne Candido 3:36
I love it, this is gonna be a fantastic discussion is fantastic to have you on. And so let’s jump into the four ways to shift mindset to better excel at work. So the first one is to believe it to see it. Now when the world starts feeling like it’s against you, it can be really hard to see your way through it. This brings on lots of feelings like discouragement, disappointment, fear, all these creep in and you kind of send to have like a really bleak outlook on life. And then this always brings out more of the pessimistic side of everyone, even for eternal optimist, which I happen to be an eternal optimist. But it is very true. Yes. But even when I’m starting to feel like I’m in that place, I even start feeling very pessimistic. So what happens is, this always has us like hunkering down and we start preparing for the worst. And when people tried to give us a little like vote, or that little boost of optimism, saying Oh, we’ll get a better we always say, I believe it when I see it, right. So the mindset shift here is all about perception. When we say I’ll believe it, when I see it, what we’re really counting on, we’re counting on reality, changing or shifting in some way that allows us to believe something different about the world is constant disappointment when we’re in that place where we feel like just everything’s against us and like whistled likelihood that we’re all of a sudden going to feel better about something that’s happening in the world around us, it just doesn’t happen that much, because we’re already in that attitude. Instead, what we want people to do and what we coach people to do is to flip that narrative a little bit, and say, Well, if you can just get into the context, or the mindset of, I believe it, so then for I can see it, then Tim, something new starts to emerge for people there starts to feel like maybe some glimmers of hope, or starts to feel like a glimmer of mission, or something very action oriented. But most of all, they feel like they can kind of control their reality a little bit more stressed to put it back into their center of control. And this was something just so immensely powerful by a belief and the ability of belief to open up things that maybe we haven’t seen before, or things that are been blocking us. And that’s what leads us to really starting to feel this opportunity emerge. And I can share a personal example, whilst there are actually two ones. Me and April’s personal story of when we started ForthRight People during COVID. Me initially we got some clients, and it started off really well. Because when COVID was happening, everybody since they couldn’t do they were thinking yes, but then when they started seeing the world around them, and they started getting this very pessimistic view of everything that was going on. They started hunkering down and they stopped spending. And so as me and April, were sitting there going, well, how are we going to be in this space? You know, we could wait to believe it when we see it. Because I wouldn’t when the world shift or the world turns back around. But instead, we’re like, No, we’re going to believe it so that we can see it. And so we just say what can we do? What can we do to offer value at this moment in time when everybody else is kind of in this dis space. And that’s actually what led to the podcast, because the podcasts give us the opportunity to build credibility, get biggest opportunity to build reputation, but continue to add value and be in a place of service, when people were just in a very different place. So that now is led to an opportunity to continue to meet new people to be able to build this community as well as it becomes the basis for how we actually now RFP work. So it’s now taken on a different mindset. But it started in that believing it to see it. Also, this also happens when were coaching a lot of people when they’re feeling hesitant to go after position they want Yep, you know, they’re like, we’re waiting or like, well, I just don’t feel like I’m qualified and waiting for somebody to tell me I’m qualified and waiting for someone to be able to check all the boxes. So I can feel confident in order to go and take this role. But when you’re sitting there and you’re waiting for people to tell you, you are qualified, and you don’t believe it yourself, it’s just, it’s just hard for it to ever happen. Because people are going to sense that about you. And if you’re not believing it, in order to see it, people are not going to believe it in you as well. Right. So that’s kind of been our experience with this one, but became, I’ve loved to understand a little bit more about what you have seen, especially in all the coaching and all the training that you have done.

V. Krishna Lakkineni 8:01
People always fall for that trap, like, you know, I really want to see, right, like, I want to see the science, so I will take action. Right? You know, you just kind of stopped believing, you know, and I think the worse the situation, the worse the pain is, the desire becomes more and more. So I want to get myself out of this. And personally for myself, I grew up in India, and when I was 15, I had that exact trial amount, like you know, it’s my entire life is going to be like this. And even though yes, it’s like, you know, a lot of my family, I didn’t like that aspect of life. So there was a pain. And I was trying to find ways to come out of that. I don’t know the how or when or what I should be doing. But just focused on one thing, you know, I need to acquire the knowledge that’s needed to make that decisions. So I’m not even thinking about the outcome or goals. I just need to acquire knowledge so that I start believing so that I can take actions to see that thing materializing. I can save easily now. But being a 15-year-old those days, do you have no clue. And this is where the mentors come in place. And you know, the hand holding. And as long as you’re following somebody’s blueprint that’s already successful, made things made a life for themselves, it becomes easier. And let’s not forget that the pain is different for everybody. When we say you know you must believe it. The believes has to stem from the inner core and mostly out of love, like why am I doing this? And it has to be out of love. It never raised I want to make more money and we want to be successful. I want to make a huge difference, you’re doing it out of necessity for yourself, that’s where it starts. And then the self love evolves. And once you’re at that level, then you feel the confidence to believe that things are happening. Okay, I feel good about myself, I wish I can help more people in a similar way. And that’s the fundamental sub everything that can be applied in a workplace that can be applied for an entrepreneur. But it all begins with that self healing and the self belief about Yes, I can do more. And then these are the pain points that identified and this is how I’m acquiring knowledge to shift the focus to where I want to go.

April Martini 10:39
Yeah, I think that that’s so right on. I mean, one of the things that came to mind as you were talking and as and as you were talking about our coaching clients, especially, a lot of times what we tried to say to change the narrative is why not you. And so when we’re helping people to get over that sense of inadequacy, or the belief that they can’t do it, or the, you know, a lot of times when I’ll say something like, Well, why why can’t you be the next CEO? It’s like deer in headlights, right? Like, me, I’m like, Well, why not? You? Why would you say that? It can’t be right. And then that starts that conversation. And I think what you said Krishna is, so spot on around, you have to have the belief within yourself before you can ever go and help anybody else. We talk a lot about the reference of the air mask on the airplane, right? They say put yours on first before you help somebody else with theirs. And I think it is so true. It’s really hard. If you can’t get over that inner dialogue, or that doubt or that disbelief, and really embrace what it is you believe you are meant to go and do to actually have anything manifest itself for you. Because you’re too stuck in that to actually take action, let alone succeed in whatever that is.

V. Krishna Lakkineni 11:55
Yeah, it’s the fear, right? Like, I’m so afraid, and what if, right, and I use this in my coaching, rather than saying, What if something goes wrong, something bad happens for what if I’m not successful? Use that in a reverse way? What if I’m tremendously successful? What if I’m super wealthy? What if I’m driving a Tesla and living in a mansion, right? So the brain start thinking in a different way, because you’re already trying to manifest that. And with those, I use those vision boards, basically, you have to visualize it, to see yourself and feel it. So you’re changing your vibration in a way that you’re already there. And once that happens, everything just start changing subconsciously. And it really helps people to move forward. And it’s important question why why not? Who, right? Like, I think we all should ask, why not? You know, you and what I should be doing.

Anne Candido 12:56
And I love what you said too, about, sometimes you don’t even know what it is yet, you just start working towards something. So you’re building the skills, you’re building the aptitude, or you’re kind of flowing with the energy or the opportunity, or what’s being put in front of you until it does emerge. And I think that’s where a lot of people get stuck to is like, I don’t know what it is. So therefore, I am not going to risk whatever it is what I have now or the complacency of what I have now. And it’s the fear that you mentioned, Krishna, which is I feel good where I’m at. So therefore, you know, why put that at risk. And so yeah, and so I think there is a lot to, to overcome their, but the belief that I can have something different, or I can be somebody different, or I can achieve whatever that these goals are starts putting in place something that’s more oriented towards action in the brain and just gets the brain motivated to follow suit with whatever that vision looks like, which I mean, we love vision boarding too, because it does help to get some clarity around the manifestation that you’re trying to achieve. So I love them. All right, so a second way to shift mindset to better sell at work is my career, my responsibility. Okay, it’s a big one. So when we talk about a time because one of the biggest sources of suffering is to feel like things are out of our control. Now, we’re told to acknowledge that when things are truly out of our control, that we just need to accept them. And those are things like the weather or pending recession, which we can’t do a lot about, or AI is quest to take over the world. So these are the things that like people are really, really concerned about, and that’s fine to be concerned about them, but there’s not really a lot we can do about them in the moment. So when I’m talking about here is I’m talking about the self inflicted suffering that comes from the flexing responsibility and blaming others for our position in life. Yes. Now that’s a very hefty statement, especially amidst a podcast called Marketing Smarts. But it does have a role to play in the way that we take on our career. years. So when we accept responsibility for our own careers, the big thing that happens, and I’ve mentioned this before, is we take back control. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can dictate every role and every promotion, but you could put yourself in better position to direct your future versus waiting for someone to decide it for you. So, what we start to get stuck in and this happened at p&g all the time is that there is a quote unquote career path, right? Especially for Marketo. I’m just gonna pick on marketers for a second is that you come in, you’re an ABM, your ABM for two years, you do two different roles. As I was a junior, when I was a senior in two different categories, then you get promoted brand manager, and we ever band manager needed to get global responsibilities need to do some sort of sales, exposure you have to do. So there’s like, it’s all kind of planned out for you. And so what people start doing is they start to defer to that path thinking that their that that is their, quote, unquote, career path. But then when something starts going awry, or you know, something comes up and says, Oh, I kind of want to try this, or I want to focus more on my personal life, or I want to have kids or something came down. And now my whole path has been exploded because somebody who has been direct me and my path is no longer there. All these things happen. And then it just kind of sets us off our course. Because then we’re like, now what am I supposed to go do? So here’s a couple of tips for how to get better perspective on your careers. So you can take that some of that control back. First is to set a vision for your career. This is not about setting a vision for your job and getting stuck in your job. This is about setting a vision for what you want to achieve. Why not you kind of thinking right? Next is Reflect on your personal brand, and what behaviors and actions are needed in order to build your reputation towards that vision. A lot of times we get stuck in the process. And we don’t know why the process isn’t fulfilling what we want it to be. But we don’t stop to think about how we are being or acting in that process in order to try to manifest what we want. Next, if you need to build your network of advisers and supporters, and you mentioned this to Krishna is that it’s about the mentorship. It’s about having these people around you who are going to guide you through your blind spots. And they’re also by the way, as we always say, you can’t achieve your goals and dreams on your own right, you need other people. You also need to make it known what roles or positions you want. And ask those who make those decisions, or will be key influencers in the decision what it takes to get there, know what the game is know how to play the game, need to set milestones to gauge progress, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to hit every milestone, but allows you to kind of see where you are on your path. And then you also need to focus on yourself. And this was the biggest thing for me. Because when we start getting into this competitive nature, in our careers, even as an entrepreneur in our corporate world and agency where it doesn’t matter where you are, when we start feeling like people are getting what we deserve, we start judging those people based on what we are missing out on, right. So it’s, this was a big thing for me, it’s like I do a better job than that person, I had better contributions. I’ve done this, and I’ve done that, and that person hasn’t done anything. And so what that ends up doing is it starts to undermine one their success, but start making you look bad in the process and start putting that narrative out there. So all of this is really meant to help you define your action plan. It’s that again, that believe it to see it mindset shift, it allows you to start putting things into action, and it helps you also have a guideline or a filter by which to make choices as things come up in your career. So, Krishna, what is your perspective here?

V. Krishna Lakkineni 18:29
You know, I totally agree there, there are so many great points there. And I think it all comes down to the vision and then having the growth mindset overall. Yep, you know, you’re working at one job or other job, you always move between the jobs. But why are you doing this, and most of us, it’s the financial stability and security for ourselves and for our families. You know, like, you know, the taxes we still had to pay, we still had to pay the bill. So you had to acquire income. But if I take a step back and ask our audience say, Why am I in this role? What it’s something I love about this, right? And it can be many things, you know, you know, the job allows me to explore my creative side, or allows me to challenge myself to excel better. Or I’m working with a better team, I feel more safe at work than on because I’m by myself. So there can be a lot of variables there. But I think once they are clear about their growth mindset and where their vision is, you set goals and you create a timeline so you’re kind of focusing on where you’re going. But also don’t forget to enjoy the journey. You know, it’s never is yeah, I’ll have a cocktail end of the tunnel never is like that. Take breaks and how that work life balance, but be resilient and this is where you want to be If we’re off, you know, it’s not like you go to work like 1014 hours a day, I have done that myself. But I learned it differently and changed some of these work habits. So not forgetting what you want and staying clear of everything and stay focused and keep going. And one important thing a lot of people forget is they get comfortable. Yeah, I’m here as the main person for 10 years. Yeah, I’m making $200k/year. And really, you know, that’s all I want. But that’s okay for some people. But is that really what you want? You know, is there something that you haven’t explored? And I think as humans, we all want to excel. And like you were explaining, like, I did everything, and I’m better than somebody else, the competitiveness always comes in. So don’t, you know, subdue that and say, like, I’m okay. But just try to put it out. But at the same time, try to find the mentors that can really help you with that vision. Maybe you have that baby don’t have that. But talking to a mentor really clears that path for you.

April Martini 21:06
You know, you’ve used the word blueprint. And, you know, take the next thing and what I my words, paraphrasing is don’t let yourself stagnate, right. And I think all of those are really good points. I mean, one of the things we talk about a lot is I think people put a ton of pressure on themselves, because it is their career, it is their responsibility. But when we start trying to go to this huge place of like, I want to get there, that’s where I think some of the overwhelm can set in. And so I like what you said about kind of do the next thing, take the next step. But also remember where you are in the moment and find presence and joy within those moments as well to celebrate your success. Because I think if you’re stepping through it, and it’s pragmatic, but you’re also aware and present what you’re doing, then all of a sudden, you show up, and you’re and you’re there, right? It’s not this whole, like paralysis of, okay, it’s my career, it’s my responsibility. What do I go? And do I want to be that, but how do I get from here to there? And so I think some of the ways you said about who’s been there before you and who can you kind of use as a guidepost, or and you mentioned, like, within the career parameters. I mean, those career parameters are set up with positive intent. They can be restrictive, of course. But you have to use the tools that are at your disposal. And that’s both the job you’re in the people you’re around, and then what you ultimately think you’re trying to achieve. And then I think also on the more you know, we hate the word balance, because we feel like you never truly get to balance. And I won’t get on my soapbox about that whole thing.

V. Krishna Lakkineni 22:45
Or equally but yes.

April Martini 22:49
Yes, yes. But I think your point there about Don’t forget about life in total. I mean, Anna and I were just having a conversation with some people earlier today about, you know, you put your head down, you work 60, 70, 80 hours/week, you wake up five years later, and you’re like, shoot, what the heck am I doing here? Right. And so yeah, so just making sure that you’re, you’re being choice able and pragmatic and present. But then on the other side of that, taking some time to enjoy your success and enjoy life and explore things that you want to do just because you want to go and do that. And I think all of that is part of this point around your career, your responsibility. It’s about being realistic to with yourself about what you want out of the job and what you want out of life. Yeah, totally.

Anne Candido 23:36
Yeah, I think a really good story on that one. This actually just happened last week was my daughter, Curran. She’s 15 She runs track and field and over the winter, they won that four by two indoor state championship or division two, division three, so state champs, right. She said last week, she goes, Well, you know, got on the podium and it was really awesome to get on the podium and be first place and have your name, you know, recognize this stuff. And she goes, but then it was just over. I thought it was gonna last longer. Right. And she goes, I thought that like the feeling and all the you know, all of that was just going to last longer, but it didn’t and I thought that was like a really true testament to the point that you made Krishna which is like it’s about the journey like you if you can’t enjoy the journey, then you’re gonna really struggle because those quote unquote milestones of achievement are very fleeting. Yes. And they’re very few and far between especially if you have that continued growth mindset as you mentioned, if you continue to grow or learner I mean we’re never going to retire so it’s not like we’re like we’re working to retire or some sort of like glamorous point in time we could sit around and do nothing. It does like spark a need for something else that keep you lit up and that is I think what you mentioned the journey so I thought that story was a good one that that was like oh, that’s a really stifle like oh man for 15-year-old

V. Krishna Lakkineni 24:59
you know, wait We’re living in a world where everything is glorified, you have to be number one, you have to be comparative. And I think we need to start appreciating the journey, okay? It’s never is about whether you’re in the top 10, or anything like that, as long as you put your efforts and you tried your best, given your abilities, we should appreciate and celebrate those people as well. And I think the more and more we do that, they will build their confidence, and they will start seeing themselves differently. And you know, it’s just not the sports like no matter where you go, it’s all glorified. I mean, I’m talking about my personal experience growing up in India, you had to be in the 99th percentile to get into engineering college, because you know, small population, whatnot. So it was just kind of avoiding some of those things, and even looking at ourselves and say, This is my goal, compared to yesterday, like, like, you know, let’s say a lot of run 100 meters in like, five minutes. So whatever that time, but you didn’t for today. So that’s an improvement. That’s a progress. And you know, it’s kind of building that self confidence and believing ourselves, and whatever the world thinks. It doesn’t matter at that point.

Anne Candido 26:17
Yeah, I think that’s a really good point, and especially about goal setting. And, you know, just about being a little bit better today than I was yesterday, I think there’s a lot to be said for that, and the achievement associated with that. So that leads us nicely into our next point on four ways to shift mindset to better excel at work. And that’s you can lead at any level and Amen. Yep. And I think this is kind of really going to what you were just saying, Krishna, is that it’s not about necessarily a destination, it’s about what you’re doing on the journey. And we could have said this very differently in that, you know, you don’t need to be in a leadership position in order to be a leader. So that could have been a title of the section two, which I think goes exactly to the point where we’re just discussing so much of our careers we spend waiting for that time when we get to quote unquote, be the leader or sit in the C-suite, or be part of the executive team or be whatever we’ve like, set in our minds that we want to achieve. And all these aspirations are phenomenal to have. They’re great to have in what we would what we started with that believe it to see a piece if you want to be a CEO, you go for I mean, we’re 100% there to support you. But when we ask coaching clients, why this is such a big deal to them, we get a very similar answer, we might say it a little bit differently, but really what it comes down to is power and money. Right? Those are the basic commodities of leadership and being able to, to aspire to these these positions. Now, as I mentioned, like the money thing could be pretty real. When you go up the ladder, you make more money, there’s just it’s usually that the way that that progresses. But the power thing is really an illusion. And this is, I think, really important for people to get. And I think this creates a huge mindset shift. Because the reality is the only people in control or who have the quote, unquote power are the people who are generating revenue for your business. And that’s it is your clients, your customers or consumers. Those are the people that have the power. And that’s why a PNG we’re always famous for saying is that the consumers boss, that’s what we always fundamentally kept in our vision, because that was who was paying our paycheck, they didn’t buy our product, we did not make money, we do not get paid. Now, the close second to this is I want to make the decisions, or I want to have a bigger, more influential voice in decision making. But here’s what most people miss in this is that having the decision making influence or being able to make it the decision comes from reputation and credibility, that’s where the power resides. And if you don’t believe me, the next time you’re in a meeting, just watch the meeting dynamics. Now, there’s usually a quote unquote, leader of the meeting. But really, that’s just the facilitator, that being if you really had a good look at how the meetings are structured, what that facilitator is looking for is the most credible, reputable person in the room, who’s going to help them make the decision that has the least amount of risk, and the most amount of impact. Yep, that’s really what all meetings are about. So if you look at who’s actually being listened to, it’s not necessarily the person with the highest ranking level, it’s not necessarily the person who’s been there the longest. It’s not like all those like general things that we get in our head about why we want to have more years why we want to go up the corporate ladder. It’s the people who have the most credibility with a conversation that is happening. And that’s the people that have the influence in those conversations. And that’s what helps direct decision making. So if you can embrace that, you will then see yourself and your opportunity to be a credible influencer, not just a quote unquote, leader or an a position in the organization. So this means that you need to be skilled at what you do. That’s very, very obvious, but it also means about instilling a sense of understanding that you get it, you get something about the business that helps you to actually see it in a different way. So this means becoming a student of the business, understanding the way the business works, how’s the business make money, what keeps people up at night that are sitting there having to answer for the business, right? It’s also about networking to understand everyone’s function, their goals and how they get rewarded. This is what I did when I was in PR. So PR, a very small slice of marketing and branding, right, and sometimes not as seen as we would like it to be. But the opportunity was, for me to go and understand how I could help and be a value to everybody else in the organization. Because if I can be a value, I all of a sudden become valuable. Next is providing perspective and solutions that benefit the team as a whole, not just you, this is about seeing the bigger objective, the bigger goal that the business is trying to achieve, not just what you personally are trying to achieve for your own personal gain or benefit. And then also being thoughtful in your engagement by providing appropriate context and rationale to drive understanding, or in other words, being a teacher. So a lot of times, we’ll sit there, and we’ll say, based on my own personal expertise, and you should just acknowledge my personal expertise. And I shouldn’t have to explain why I think this or why I want to go this certain way, or why this is going to totally be a whole huge disaster, right. But if you can actually explain the context of where you’re coming from, explain what the point of view is based out of all of that starts to build credibility, because people start seeing you think about it in a different way. Krishna, what do you think about this?

V. Krishna Lakkineni 31:27
I have seen many examples of it. And I think it’s being strategic to produce the best possible outcomes for everybody. You know, at the end of the day, for companies, it’s generating more revenues. But we see that all the time, right, like in the sports like, you know, a quarterback or a goalie, they have their rules defined based on their skill set. But incorporate, we usually see there is one person that’s really good at running meetings, or really good at organizing projects, somebody, there’s, they’re really good at, like ajl type of work, they can adapt to changes really quickly. And I think as CEO, you shouldn’t be able to identify these people and skill sets and put them in those spots. You know, it’s not like, you know, you can’t, you can’t make a fish climb a tree, right? So realizing those traits and position them accordingly. And at the same time, understanding their basic needs as well, because there are underlying motives for all of them, right? Like, okay, you know, I must in manager and I want to be in the branch manager. So that’s the motive. So if you want to get to that place, these are the things you have to prove yourself. And I think this is where that the corporate playbook comes in place, like, you know, where everybody’s positioned as leaders. But I always compare this to a chessboard, right? Okay, there’s a king, but King can go only one step anywhere. The most important piece is the queen. So why is it that way is one question, but also, what can you learn from it, because, you know, even the least important on the board, I mean, every piece is important on its own, but even their route, or even the horse, like even the surgeon, like they all have different roles defined, and as long as they’re excelling their leaders in their positions, as a team, we move forward. And, you know, on top of that, as humans, we have the diversity and inclusion, and then how do you practice that in workplaces, while modeling some of those, you know, EQ and their emotional intelligence aspect of it and position them accordingly. You know, let’s say BP just blew up a gas pipeline somewhere, and then it’s just all kind of spreading like wildfire. It’s not the CEO who is coming and talking is usually the PR person, not even the CMO, because they have a person predefined to address those issues. And they’re skilled at that level. So it’s about knowing and identifying leaders within the organization and position them according to their their skill set. And we all have those emotions attached to at the end of the day. And this is where there’s conflict resolution, whatnot, who should be doing it or I’m better than better than him or her but it’s just always comes down to popularity, sometimes, you know, you’ll be in eloquent presenter, but if you don’t have the charisma to, you know, face a press conference, you can’t do that job. So it again, is just kind of a preset reality we all live in is in a corporate world.

April Martini 34:42
Yeah, I mean, I think you both spoke to well, different angles of this point about leading at any level. It is so interesting, because when we put ourselves in the mindset of who we ultimately want to be and we look at that CEO, for example, like you just said, then we’re like, Well, that’s what I want to be. So I’m going to wait to do it until I get there, then we’re not building the necessary skills and experience in order to ever be able to do that job. And then I think on the other side of that, it’s, you know, recognizing within the organization, what role each person plays and when they lead and when maybe they don’t, right. So we’re always big fans of talking about thinking about, you know, goals and projects and processes, where every single person has to participate to the top of their ability in order to achieve whatever that is, it’s not about just me out for me, it’s all of us together, moving the organization forward. And so as I was listening to both of you talk, I was just thinking about how leadership can be such a loaded word, right? Because it does immediately signify power and level and who has the most seniority or who makes the most money or whatever. But really, we have to define it within ourselves and through the lens of the role we play in the organization, in order to succeed and then bringing forth some of the other things we’ve talked about in the episode. That’s what allows us to take the next step, and then the next step, and then the next step with intention. And then we can, quote, unquote, achieve that leadership position, eventually, whatever it is for us, but it’s about building the skills and the credibility and the just exposure along the way in order to be a leader in whatever capacity it makes sense for each of us today.

V. Krishna Lakkineni 36:29
Yeah, totally. I have seen a lot of leaders, leading with pure ego. Yep. Oh, yeah. You know, letting that go and ditch never should be, like, egocentric. And I think that leaves the doors open, I should be the one doing this versus Yeah, like, you know, he’s better than me, I get that. And this is all I have. That’s wrong. The other person has a let them lead, right, like opening the doors for other people. And I think that really builds that team spirit and makes things happen.

Anne Candido 37:06
Yeah, I think that’s a very well said, and well needed to be said, point about ego. Because that’s a lot of what we’re feeding in in some of these scenarios, as well. And if we actually just step back and looked at it from the perspective of what we really want, what really makes us feel fulfilled, and the fact that a lot of those things are obtainable now, not just something that we have to wait yes, for a certain position or the anointing in order to to have, we can actually have and create more impact in the places that we are. And I like what you had to say to people, because sometimes, you know, leadership is a practice, it’s a constant evolution, of understanding and learning and experience, and testing and learning all those different things in order to be able to create the dynamic that’s needed in order to move people forward in order to move organizations forward. And that starts at a basic, very fundamental level of just being able to do something really, really well. So if you get into your mind, and leadership is a practice that starts to become something that is always there, it’s always something that is always a top of mind is always a way of being versus something that you achieve at the end of the day. So I love everything that you guys had to say about that. All right, our final way to shift mindset to better sell at work, or at least to find a way for this episode, is to manage your energy. Now, there have been so many hacks, tips, you name it, on how to manage and save and create time. We hear these all the time. But the path to true high level performance is really about managing your energy because it doesn’t really matter what time it is, or how much time we have, you’re going to wake up at four o’clock in the morning, in order to get all the stuff done and have three days instead of one day, we’ve heard them all if your energy level isn’t in tune with the effort and that you need in order to exert accomplish a planned task at that moment, it’s just not going to work for you. And so BK would love if you could talk a little bit about energy and energy flow and and how do you really harness this in order to reach your fullest like highest potential, the best

V. Krishna Lakkineni 39:13
you know, energy is a big word and I often use like energy time and money at the same level. One thing whether we have prove it scientifically or not, there is a universal flow for everything, which we are part of. And the universal flow happens irrespective of what we do whether we exist in this place or not. So, you know, the rivers flowing to the oceans, the seeds turn into trees, in that same way in a similar fashion. As humans, we have a responsibility to experience life here. And the career the job that we’re in is part of that journey. So when you took that piece of like the workplace You want to know what your priorities are and what is really affecting your energy and taking your time away from the things that you want to fulfill in this lifetime. So this simple way to portrays everybody that comes across in our lives, the teaching us something there healing a part of ourselves that we haven’t explored or touched. So, as we are experiencing life already, we know where we need to invest our energy, but also set boundaries in place, or let’s say, you know, your, your desk is piling up with different types of files. But how do you prioritize? And also how do you tell people, you know, that’s not my responsibility, but you should be the one addressing this, right? Like, we often see, like the senior managers passing on to the juniors, like, hey, take care of this, right? So how do you set boundaries in a healthy way? And I often say, like, you know, quarantine them. And you know, you want to define his circles of influence in terms of your circle, you know, the close friends, acquaintances, and then workplace colleagues. And then what kind of leverage and trust you’re building with these people. So yeah, the senior manager is my best friend. So he has something else to do, I’ll take care of it, right? It happens naturally. But it all comes down to the personal level. And how do I manage or expense, my time and energy in, even though we all want to work 24/7 to hustle because we are entrepreneur, we want to prove everything. But we don’t want to burn the candles on both sides, and at the expense of losing our family time or friends time and get sick, because it causes stress and stress is the cause of every health issue out there. So it’s important to be aware of and set boundaries and manage your energy efficiently. Just Just be smart about it. Like you know, and I often use Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits in one of those four quadrants who like, where you put the tasks so that you know what you’re addressing. So, you know, you always want to be in the quadrant to not in the fire right now where it says, you know, it can be done. So do it when it needs to be and don’t leave it until the last minute. It’s interesting how that can be applied in many scenarios, and also use your energy in a similar way. I’m putting most of my energy that needs to be done in the next day or two days. Right? So it’s not important. Yeah, it’s not quite yet, but you’re just expensing most of your energy there. But when it comes to the virus, like do you use your energy? Or do you use an expert so that it can be put up really quick? So it’s all about the awareness and experience comes place to help? And I think it’s, there’s abundance of energy as a whole, whether it’s money time, it all comes down to who do we want to spend that time with?

April Martini 43:03
It’s funny, you know, we’ve talked about entrepreneurship. So that angle is stuck in my head. But and and I have been asked many times, you know, how do you turn it off? When it’s your business? When it’s solely your responsibility? How do you find ways to do that, because if it were me, I feel like I would go crazy thinking about it, you know, every which way, all day long. And a lot of what we talk about, and some of the points you made is around making sure that you’re doing the things that quote unquote, fill your cup, in addition to expending the energy where it’s needed. And sometimes it’s finding someone else to do things like you said, you know, paying someone to do things to take them off your plate. Sometimes it’s finding ways and things that occupy your mind and your attention so that you’re not constantly toiling away and burning the candle at both ends. And, and then also surrounding yourself by people and experiences that help keep your energy up. And you know, we all have those people that it’s like when I go and spend time with whoever that is, it’s like, I come away happy and energized and excited for what’s next. We also know that people on the other side of that, right, and so I think this is another place where you have to be really actively engaged all the time. And I am sure that sounds exhausting, as I say that, but it’s with the idea that you’re present and what you’re doing. So you’re identifying places where your energy is sucked. You’re identifying places where your energy is up, and then you’re looking for active ways to make sure that each day you’re finding that quote unquote, balance that we talked about, which is never balanced before, but so that you can continue to do all the things you need to do but without it being so taxing that you feel like you’re zapped at the end of each day. Yeah, I

Anne Candido 44:59
Think what you guys said is really powerful. And the one point I was going to make, in addition to what you guys said was that we have to have self discipline when it comes to this as well. Because what we see a lot of people doing is they like the connotation of always being busy. Yep. Right, if for some reason, they wear it as a badge of honor, it makes them feel important. It makes them feel valuable, it makes them feel like they’re in it, you know, and people need them and all those sorts of things. But when you really look at what they’re doing a lot of time is spent expending energy on things that they shouldn’t be doing. Or they are feeling self satisfying the fact that they’re getting something done, but it’s not really what something that is supporting their career or reporting their growth is something that allows them to check a box off a post it note, and you know, me and April are big checker offers. And so it’s just a matter of like what you put on those things. So the biggest transition that we see in from an energy depletion standpoint, is when people come go from doers to managers, yes. Right. And so that becomes a really hard time for a lot of folks in managing their energy, because they’re spending a lot of energy trying to do both, but not quite sure about how to shift into that energy space of being a manager versus a doer. And really, it comes down to strategy versus the tactics. And so they become a person of both. And then they don’t get to do this the strategy part because they’re so busy doing the doing, but that gives them the most satisfaction, because that’s what they’re good at. So I skip all those examples just to say sometimes, if you’re feeling yourself by quote unquote, being busy, or you’re feeling like you don’t have the energy at the end of the day, or you don’t have this, this time to invest in other things, think about what you’re really doing and take a look at your your calendar, your schedule, and see how much time you’re spending doing things that maybe you shouldn’t be doing. Yes,

V. Krishna Lakkineni 46:55
you don’t have to do it all. You know, that’s my quote for anybody in this just being aware of it. And I think with the evaluation, we came from, like all the Industrial Revolution, where we needed work hard, work hard, right. And then moved into technology evolution, where we are still working hard, and stuff, utilizing the tools that are already there. So you know, decide and delegate more. And then we’re going going into the AI evolution now and where we will have all the time that we will find because I’m one of those people like I just like to get the task done. And I need my plate for all the time, like, you know, spinning multiple wheels, even though it’s delegated. Okay, what’s going on there, right? I mean, even all these years, but that just fills my cup, like a kid that’s done like, like, is happy the team dealt with that. So like, how do you bring yourself back and say calm down? Krishna? Right.

Anne Candido 48:03
That’d be our other episode on vigilant leadership. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, our next time is we usually will be talking about a brand that’s either following their marketing smarts or not. But obviously, when we have a guest, we know that they are we wouldn’t have him on here. So because this is where we’d like to just give you a moment to kind of bring us all home. Is there anything that we missed that you would like to expand upon or any additional points you want to make? And obviously, let everybody know where they can find you.

V. Krishna Lakkineni 48:32
You know, this is where a good conversation on I think we can just talk for hours and we can kiss don’t keep going. The important thing I think we all need to start treating people as people, irrespective of what the position is power raised, well, this, and then that brings up best in all of us. And I talk about all these mindset tips on my Instagram @VKLakkineni or through my course MindsetMonk.Ca. So people can check it out and even reach out if they have any questions.

Anne Candido 49:05
Awesome. Alright, so just to recap four ways to shift mindset to better excel at work. Believe it to see it, there is something immensely powerful about beliefs, ability to open up opportunity and help us to see what was initially blocking us. Second is my career my responsibility. When we accept responsibility for our own careers, we take back control. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can dictate every role promotion, but you could put yourself in better position to direct your future versus waiting for someone to decide it for you. Third is you can lead at any level having decision making influence or power comes from reputation and credibility focus on getting that. And finally, manager energy. The path to high level performance is really about managing your energy. And with that, we’ll say go and exercise your Marketing Smarts!

April Martini 49:52
Still need help in growing your Marketing Smarts? Contact us through our website: ForthRight-People.com. We can help you become a savvier marketer through coaching or training you and your team or doing the work on your behalf. Please also help us grow the podcast by rating and reviewing on your player of choice and sharing with at least one person. Now, go show off your Marketing Smarts!