Randy Cantrell

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NOTE: As of February 1, 2022 I’ve made an adjustment based on feedback from prospective clients. “I’m interested in starting this program, but a March start is better for me. Can I apply?” Go here for an update to this post and my pivot. 

Matt owned and operated a small manufacturing company (annual revenue $45M+). Stuck by supply issues, exacerbated by a primary domestic supplier who was struggling to meet production deadlines, Matt was an experienced engineer and business person, but he’d been struggling for four months, with no end in sight. He realized he needed somebody safe with whom he could sort through the challenges. 

Eileen was a new city manager with 7 direct reports, all of them directors of important departments inside the municipality. Savvy, experienced, and highly educated, Eileen had been struggling for over 6 months to improve what she described as a “broken culture.” She’d been hard at work to get the right people in place, but was dissatisfied with the slow pace of growth and improvement. Eileen craved somebody with whom she could be completely honest and open, without fear of any negative consequence. 

Leadership is lonely. For good reason. We can’t always shell it down with just anybody. Our employees are beholden to us. Suppliers and vendors, too. Peers are often quick to tell us what we “should” do. We don’t want people anxious to tell us what we ought to do – especially people who aren’t voting with their own money, time, and career interests on the line!

For the past dozen years, I’ve coached many leaders in business and city government. Most of these engagements last 10 to 24 months (some longer). Most of the time, these engagements are based on monthly retainers of a few thousand dollars. That’s beyond the reach of some, but the work is intensely personal, confidential, and always customized to meet each client right where they are. No two engagements are the same. That’s by design. For every hour of one-on-one engagement with a client, there are many other hours invested by both me and each client. But make no mistake, the clients do the work! I’m here to help them figure it out and provide the support they desperately need to move forward. Their success is my success.

Around Labor Day 2021 I began to construct a “program” that would take people on a leadership journey to help them accelerate their growth. I was (and am) determined to meet every client right where they are. One size does not fit all. However, I knew if I could systematize things a bit, then using that system – and applying it to where clients are – that I could compress the investment in both time and money. 

Timing is everything. I knew I simply didn’t have the time to devote to this new endeavor until January 2022. Well, here we are…on the cusp of the New Year. I’m making this offer to you, or anybody you know who may be interested. 

Who is this for?

Honestly, it’s for anybody who has direct reports. Size and scale don’t matter. That is, it doesn’t matter if you have 1 direct report or 20. It doesn’t matter if you’re in business or the public sector. It doesn’t matter what space (industry) you occupy.

This is about YOUR growth, improvement, and leadership. It incorporates how to make better decisions…and faster. How to elevate the performance of your team. How to create a high-performance culture. For business owners, it’s about helping you hit the trifecta of business building: getting new customers, serving existing customers better and not going crazy in the process. 

Some Important Details

• I’m only accepting 6 people for January through June and 6 for July through December (2022). You can go ahead and apply for either session: first half or second half of 2022. 
• Executives and other leaders who are NOT business owners can apply here.
• Business owners can apply here.
• Every session is conducted on Zoom. Convenience and efficiency are key. 
• We meet every week for 90 minutes. Anybody unwilling or unable to devote this much time should not apply. We’ll schedule meetings in advance so we can make it as convenient as possible for you.
• The program lasts 6 months at a cost of just $1,000 a month (paid monthly at the beginning of each month). This is a savings of almost 70% which is why I’m limiting it to just 6 individuals at a time. 
• The program will include digital sessions you can consume on your own timetable. 
• The program will include personalized digital content aimed at helping each individual client.
• The program includes unlimited (that’s right) email and phone support. In 12 years I’ve never had a single client take unfair advantage of that offer so I make it with confidence. I want to be available. I don’t promise I’ll be able to answer every call, but I promise I’ll respond quickly (usually with just a few hours). 

Questions? Call my cell phone at (214) 682-2467. I’m happy to help. If you’re ready to apply, then click the appropriate link listed above. Feel free to refer others who may be interested in this unique program. 

Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family have a safe and peaceful holiday season. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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My work continues all the way deep into Christmas week. I guess it’s the hazards of operating retail companies for so many years. I struggle to wind things down and do my best to serve clients up to and for as long as they need my help. The week between Christmas and New Year’s – that’s a different story. Partly because on January 2nd my wife and I have our anniversary. This coming January 2nd will be number 44 for us. 

This week and next are a hard push toward the finish line, but I wanted to take a few minutes to say “thank you.”

First, thank you to all my clients and the people who have entrusted me to help them figure things out. Make no mistake, the clients do the work. They put in the effort – and the courage, which is really humility – to look inside themselves and challenge themselves to get better. Without their personal commitment to personal and professional excellence, nothing happens. Thank you for allowing me to serve your growth.

Next, thank you to my podcast listeners. This podcast has morphed over the past 20 years and many of you have stuck with me throughout that entire time. The objective of this podcast remains as it began – to help you feel, think and do. Your time and attention are valuable. I appreciate you giving me chunks of both and I have high hopes to keep improving. Please let me know what I can do to make the podcast more valuable to you.

The holidays are joyous for some but challenging for others. We likely know some who are enduring some tough times right now. In recent weeks I’ve encountered some who have lost family members to a tragic death. Some endure ongoing health difficulties. Others are grinding through some professional challenges. Life’s problems are boundless – and I’d like to take just a second to acknowledge that none of us are living true Instagram moments. Our lives are roller coasters. It’s up to us to navigate it and to lean on the people who can best help us do that. Don’t get discouraged by comparing your circumstance with others. We’re all going through something. Things aren’t always as they seem. Push forward. Grind it out. Mostly, figure it out.

I wish all of you happier days than not during the holiday season – and every other season of your life. The struggles help define us – more accurately, our positive response to our struggles define us. As we wind down 2021 let’s commit ourselves to put in the work to overcome the problems we can and to endure the ones we can’t overcome. Let’s elevate our expectations with optimism that we can do our part to make our lives better tomorrow – better than ever before. 

Gratitude is the path forward. A focus on what we have, rather than a focus on what we lack. I appreciate you. I appreciate being a small part of your life and trying to make you stronger for the lift necessary to tackle your challenges. 

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy hurriedly picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?” The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” The man laughed to himself and said, “Don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make any difference!” After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “I made a difference to that one.”

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Those of us in the helping business – as our friends in the UK refer to it – are defined by our clients. That’s why we seek out high-performing clients who demand our best. They want us to push and challenge them to get better – which means we have to get better ourselves. Birds of a feather flock together and all that. 

Big clients can be terrific, but big doesn’t define best. Or qualify as great. Not in the sense of helping define us and our work. Quantity isn’t quality.

Today the focus is on the value of great clients. And greatness isn’t defined by the size of the client’s organization, the high-profile status of the client, the list of the client’s accomplishments, the size of the purchase order or jaw-dropping reaction prompted when people hear about the client – “You’re working with THEM?”

The clients who more accurately define us are those who require our best. The ones most driven to excel themselves. 

Since I don’t plan to record again before Thanksgiving 2021, I’m taking this opportunity to say, “Thank You!” to my clients who have demanded my best. And to further explain how this all works – especially for those of you who may have never experienced executive or leadership coaching before. I hope you’ll listen carefully and click the link for a free conversation so we can investigate your needs. Just go to BulaNetwork.com/free.

A dozen years ago when this whole coaching thing started for me, I was hoping to help a few people. Nothing resonated with me more deeply than that little parable about the little boy saving starfish washed ashore.

Early on I was criticized by business buddies as pursuing something that would never scale. They were right of course. And I told them I didn’t care. Scale wasn’t important to me then. It’s even less important to me now. If that’s possible. 😉 

I argued, “How can you scale impact? It’s like trying to place the ROI (return on investment) on your wife.” Yep, sometimes they’d chuckle about that because not all of them had great marriages. Sadly, not all of them were as in love with their wives as I was – and still am – with mine! 

When you start out you’re looking for anybody willing to say, “Yes.” You quickly learn that not every engagement is ideal because not every client is as willing as you might hope. Some are more reluctant than others. Some aren’t as capable as others. We don’t have the highest leadership potential, even though all of us can improve! Mostly, what dawned on me very early on is what I had discovered years earlier in hiring employees. Not everybody has a high degree of willingness. Those most willing were always the most successful. Whether they were employees I hired or clients I accepted.

Gratitude. We’re coming up on a time of the year when people focus more on being thankful than they normally do. Giving thanks should likely be a daily habit, but for most of us, it’s not. We’re so busy chasing our dreams, dealing with our struggles and trying to figure out what to do next — we often neglect being thankful. 

Today, I’m thankful for the clients who make me better. The ones who most define who and what I want to be. The clients who pressure me in all the best ways to be my very best. I’m learning better to seek you out. It’s been a hard thing to figure out. I’ve not always succeeded. 

Frequently during coaching sessions with clients, we talk about saying “no” to some things so we can say “yes” to more important things. Discriminating like that can be hard though. Many high achievers enjoy saying “yes” as often as possible. In my experience, more so than the average person. Where many people fixate on what might go wrong, so they steer clear – the high achievers tend to see possibilities, so they say “yes” more quickly. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. High achievers don’t dwell very long on losses. Instead, they maintain optimism that the next “yes” will work better. 

I’ve learned through the years that some clients aren’t willing to put in the work. They’re searching for easy answers. I don’t have easy answers. Some are simple, but none are easy. Truth is, this is hard work. Arduous work. Extraordinarily worthwhile, but hard. 

Some clients are jerks. They lack humility. Hubris isn’t a highly prized trait for leadership. And while it’s rare, I have had occasion to be hired so a boss could have a new person with whom to show off. A new audience member for their brilliance. Even so, I’ve gone on record that I’ve been so fortunate that I’ve only had one (1) client in a dozen years who I simply was unable to serve in a meaningful way. And it wrecked me because empathy runs high for me, and it’s among the most difficult things I have to do – manage my empathy. 

Clients have pushed me to figure out a path forward – a way to serve even the most difficult people. Clients have made me better. Without them, my growth and improvement would be vastly lower. And those times I’ve failed have taught me the most. It’s not even close. 

Coaches, like clients, aren’t perfect. We sometimes mess up. My approach has always been the same, born from when as a young man I was running retail companies. When you know you’re mind is made up to do the right thing – to make it right – then there’s no reason to worry. 

I made up my mind as a young man, in whatever endeavor I pursued, that my business philosophy would always be in play. It hasn’t been without a few stumbles though. Being competent and giving more is often a bigger challenge than being honest and making it right. But honesty and making it right sure help overcome those times when I fail. 

One of the toughest lessons I had to learn is to let clients get stuck. Watching people struggle as they work through figuring things out isn’t tough for me, but watching somebody remain stuck is. Experience taught me that some clients have to endure a period of being stuck before they can move forward though. I’m such a proactive personality, sitting back and letting a client remain stuck for weeks, is really hard. Thankfully, over time I’ve learned the high value of leaving well enough alone though. 

The growth all happens when we’re uncomfortable. As I work to bring new energy into a person’s life and career, it’s not smooth, nice work. Kindness is always in play, but sometimes I can’t play nice – meaning, I can always tell clients what they most want to hear. It’s part of that always be honest approach, too. 

During the first minutes of every engagement, I now find myself sharing with clients exactly what’s going to happen. Never mind that they almost never fully understand what I’m telling them because most have never experienced it before. And when they do, rarely do they love it. What they always do love though, is the outcome. Their ideal outcome! 

I’m going to help you paint yourself into a corner. I’m not going to paint you into the corner, but I’m going to help you paint yourself into it. Because that’s where all the excuses go away. Together, we’ll suck all the oxygen out of the room so your excuses have no life left. The corner represents that place where you’ll accept responsibility for everything in your life. That doesn’t mean you’re to blame for everything, but it means you’re going to at long last hold up a mirror knowing that the face in the mirror is the only thing you control. And that control is plenty to make enormous steps forward once you’re willing to make up your mind.

Clients who have pursued and realized their ideal outcome have – to a man and woman – more fully embraced that process. Not always with a smile, but always with a willingness to avoid running and hiding. That’s always an impulse. To avoid the corner. 

I work very hard to persuade clients that the magic happens in the corner. The faster our willingness to do there, and the faster our willingness to hold up the mirror, the faster we start moving toward our ideal outcome – that thing we most want. 

Today, and every day, I’m most thankful for clients brave enough to accept that challenge and allow me the enormous privilege of serving them to have a high impact influence in their work and their lives. It’s no small thing when clients trust me enough to let me do for them what they can’t do for themselves. So here’s to all the great clients I’ve had – and currently have – who have helped me grow great!

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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The question assumes you were once there – wherever there may be. 

I’m a hockey fan. Through the years I’ve watched countless NHL players battle injuries to get back into the lineup. Each year after one team lifts the Stanley Cup you then hear about all the off-season surgeries. Players sometimes play in every game of a playoff run with injuries that would prevent many of us from reporting to a desk job. Surgery is followed by extensive physical therapy to regain the strength necessary to be a successful professional athlete. 

Physically, I clearly can’t relate. Relating to being a professional athlete is impossible for me. 😉 However, I can relate to getting back to something. I’ve had a few orthopedic surgeries (all upper body, as they’d say in hockey). Shoulders. Elbows. The physical therapy we ordinary humans endure can be hard. Doable, but difficult. I can’t imagine the rigors of being a professional athlete trying to fight his way onto an NHL roster. 

But there are mental and emotional states, too. Getting back to an improved place – a state that you once experienced, but somehow lost – can be much harder than any physical challenge. Talent and skill won’t exclusively serve you to get unstuck, to grow, to improve, or to find your way back. Experience won’t either. It requires something more. But what?

That’s for you to figure out. And finding your way back…which might more appropriately be, the way forward…can look different for each of us, and our specific circumstances. 

It was years ago, but it doesn’t seem so long ago. I’m in a locker room with a team I loved – the truth is, I’ve loved all the teams I’ve ever coached, but this team was different. Special. A bunch of college guys playing roller hockey for the University of Texas at Arlington. We’ve been together for four years. Experienced far more success than failure. But at an annual national championship tournament, a tourney we’ve qualified for each year, we come up against teams who are simply better than we are. Our talent is excellent, but just not quite enough to be elite. Reality stings when it hits you in the face as defeat. 

Sports psychology dates back to at least the 1920s (some date it back to the late 1800s). It wasn’t until the late 1970s that sports psychology began to morph into a professional science-based practice. In 1974 W. Timothy Gallwey, one-time captain of the Harvard tennis team published The Inner Game of Tennis. The book was an outgrowth of Gallwey’s experience learning about meditation and how it helped him concentrate more on his tennis performances. For many of us in the mainstream, it was our introduction to sports psychology.

Sports psychology is a proficiency that uses psychological knowledge and skills to address optimal performance and well-being of athletes, developmental and social aspects of sports participation, and systemic issues associated with sports settings and organizations.

In short, it’s the art and science of helping athletes figure out how to move forward to improve their performance. 

That’s exactly what executive coaching is all about, too. Helping executives figure out how to move forward to improve their performance. Sometimes it’s helping an executive figure out how to forge new paths forwards, but other times it’s about helping a seasoned executive figure out how to get back to a prior level of high performance! It’s all the same – to help improve existing performance to something higher and better! 

There are a few things that can help us find our way back – or forward – to improved performance.

One, we have to face ourselves, knowing that we are simultaneously the problem and the solution. 

We’re all vexed with bouts of doubt, fear, and anxiety. It doesn’t matter that we work hard to never show it. Privately, we all have a variety of demons that plague us. Most of them are self-generated. We might argue all day long how logical they are, or why we know they’re valid concerns, but most often the reality is we’re in our own head.  Our mental vision, which once may have been our strength, is now our weakness. 

One of the most common occurrences in my coaching is the day the client confesses they now see something they didn’t see before. Sometimes they remark having never seen it this way before. Others will tell me they’ve recaptured seeing it clearly after having been blind to it for a while. In either case, it’s a light bulb moment where almost everything changes. There’s no predictable pattern really to when these moments might arrive. For some, they happen sooner than others. But for clients willing to put in the work, they always happen!

We respond in one of two ways to the reality that we’re accountable for our own outcomes. Lots of people hide. The flee or fight response turns mostly into fleeing. Just as fast as they can! To hide from accepting any responsibility for anything. Fearful of looking inside at themselves, they find more comfort in being a victim so they can avoid feeling blame for their own lives. 

Hockey, like most sports (and other endeavors in life), has a degree of luck. That is, sometimes the puck takes an unfortunate bounce for your team, while it takes a fortunate bounce for your opponent. Every player and coach has experienced it. Low-performing or mediocre teams (and players) tend to look at such things as beyond their control. “We just need a bit of a break, a lucky bounce here or there,” they’ll say. The top-level players and highest-performing teams will always talk about what they need to do more, or better. “We have to work harder,” they may say. Or, “We have to be willing to battle near the goal,” they might say. Rather than focus on the bad luck, they focus on what they can do to improve their opportunities for greater success. Losers hide. Winners don’t. 

Facing oneself is the scariest, but most profitable thing. It’s where rare people willingly go because it’s where most of us would rather not go. It’s easier to avoid it, run away and hide – all the while believing our failures aren’t because of anything we’re doing (or neglecting to do). Nothing is our fault. That’s how the masses prefer to live opting for short-term good feelings over long-term improvement. 

Two, we have to forget who and what and focus on, “Now what?”

I’ll explain. Victims concentrate on who has wronged them and what circumstances have happened. Winners jettison such thoughts in favor of trying to figure out their very next step. Whenever we ask, “Now what?” it focuses us on the next thing WE can do to move forward, even if moving forward means getting back to things we may now be neglecting – the basics of things we may have abandoned over time. 

I was in my late 20s when a seasoned business person – a person I respected immensely for his business acumen – said to me, “You’re a very strategic thinker.” Not quite sure what that meant, I asked him to explain it to me. He went on to tell me how rare it was for somebody my age, based on his experience, to think ahead the way I did. Assuring him it wasn’t something I consciously did, I told him it felt mostly how viewed things. We talked a lot about consequences, something I told him I always considered by mostly asking, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” and “What’s the best thing that can happen?” He encouraged me to continue the practice because in his estimation, “It’s an enormous competitive edge.” 

As we talked about business strategy and thinking ahead he was curious why I wasn’t paralyzed by vetting every conceivable option. It was the first time I remember saying aloud that I really only focus on the very next step. I wanted (and still do) to get the very next step as right as I possibly can. Then replicate it with the next step until I reach the goal. 

It would be terrific if we knew every step ahead of time, but anybody courageous enough to try anything knows that’s impossible. It might work. It might fail. Until we do the very next thing…we’ll never know! 

Three, we have to figure out for ourselves when to keep going, and when to quit.

Among the many reasons my coaching rarely involves advice-giving is that it’s not my life, but my client’s. One of the toughest challenges we all face is knowing when we’ve given it enough of an effort…and when we need to keep pushing forward. 

The Clash sang about it. “Should I stay or should I go?”

Only you can decide. Others can help you figure it out, but go back to that first point – you have to be willing to face yourself and accept responsibility for everything! 

Some questions can help.

If you quit now, will you regret it? 

If you don’t quit now, are you willing to invest whatever resources are necessary to keep going?

What signs do you have that this isn’t likely going to ever work?

What signs do you have that this just might work if you keep going?

The Bottom Line: Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Many years ago while sitting across from another CEO who was struggling with a particular marketing challenge I suddenly asked him, mostly out of curiosity, “Have you tried anything that worked better than anything else?”

He thought for just a second or two and said, “Yes, we did (X, Y and Z – he told me what they had tried in the past with some success).” 

“And what worked better than anything else?” I asked.

“Yes, it was working fairly well,” he replied.

“What happened?” I inquired.

He went on to tell me how the team kept looking for something that might work even better. On further inquiry, it turned out the team executed the strategy that worked better than anything else for just 6 weeks. Six weeks! Those of you familiar with marketing know 6 weeks isn’t long at all. Truth is, in many circles 6 weeks hardly qualifies as a good “test,” much less a well-executed strategy! 

My fellow CEO was a peer, not a client. At that moment I jokingly – but quite seriously – encouraged him, “Do more of what worked and stop doing all the things that aren’t working.”

I wasn’t being snarky, which I am wont to do. I was being dead serious knowing how blindingly obvious the statement was – and is. These many years later I can tell you I’ve seen it play out over and over again. People pursuing some new better answer only to realize they may have had the answer before. It may be time to get back to what once worked better than anything else. Sometimes we have to find our way back to success.

Back. Forward. By now you understand they’re the same thing. They represent growth, improvement, progress – the art of getting better!

Be well. Do good. Grow great!