Lead In 30 Podcast

Your Mindset Is Limiting Your Capacity

• Russ Hill

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If you’ve ever felt like you’ve hit your ceiling, this conversation is your nudge to test it. We connect three simple moments—a chaotic drive-thru, a standout service interaction, and a gym set that pushed our limits—to the deeper truth that teams mirror their leaders and capacity grows where mindset allows it. You’ll hear how one bad customer experience reveals weak standards at the top, why a single friendly voice can signal a strong system, and how small, consistent stretches rewire what you and your team believe is possible.

We also pull back the curtain on Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results and Most Don’t, including an audiobook sneak peek and what it really takes to ship a book that reflects years of field work with executive teams. From edits and early readers to narration and launch, we share how the same principles we coach—clarity, pace, and tolerance for imperfection—show up in the creative process. That behind-the-scenes look sets up the episode’s core theme: stop treating capacity as fixed, and start treating it as a function of standards, coaching, and the example you set every day.

You’ll leave with practical shifts you can use immediately: hire for mindset and train for skill, remove tolerances that quietly drain performance, and set visible stretch goals that raise belief without burning people out. Think of it as a reset on how to lead with energy, ship before perfect, and build a culture that leans into challenge. If you’re ready to expand your impact and help your team do the same, press play, then tell us the one place you’ll add weight—at work or in life.

Enjoyed this conversation? Follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review so more leaders can find it. Your feedback helps us keep raising the bar.

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Visit the Lone Rock Leadership Website:
https://www.lonerock.io

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/russleads/

Tap here to check out my first book, Decide to Lead, on Amazon. Thank you so much to the thousands of you who have already purchased it for yourself or your company!

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About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



SPEAKER_01:

It is amazing how much mindset matters. You know what I'm talking about? And your mindset as a leader, how you're approaching things mentally, emotionally has a ton to do with your perceived capacity. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_03:

This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell. You cannot be serious! Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_02:

It's time to end the confusion. Get the new book by the founders of Lone Rock Leadership. See why executives at Lockheed Martin, Cigna, Teva, Chili's, and so many other companies are praising Deliver. Why some leaders get results and most don't. You can download the first chapter right now and request two free copies shipped to you at LoneRock.io.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, well, let me let me uh be honest with you. At the time that many of you are listening to this episode, what she just said is gonna be true. That you can go to LoneRock.io, you can download the first chapter of Deliver our new book, and that you can request that two physical copies be shipped to you. I'll explain why two in a minute. But right now, like at the moment that this episode's going out, that's not up on the website yet. So just be patient. Sorry, we put that in the podcast sooner than than we actually are able to deliver on it. We we are, you all were in the final. We just did the the last complete edits of deliver. The very, well, it's not the last. You never finish fully editing because you discover grammar mistakes or some typo on page uh 247 that nobody caught, um, that AI didn't uh detect, you know, your AI proofread uh process to that it didn't pick up. So, but the pretty much the final edit is in, it's all getting to Amazon and the different book menu, all that stuff's happening, right? And so in the next few weeks, at the time this episode's being pushed out, just give us a week or two and we'll have that up and just go to lone rock.io and everything that she just said about you being able to download the first chapter and to get a couple of uh free copies, physical copies mailed to you, um, that will all be true. So just be patient with this. I we are so excited. In fact, I'm gonna do this real quick. I'm gonna actually play for you like maybe a minute, just a minute or two, probably a minute, minute and a half of the audiobook version of Deliver, our new book. I just want to give you a small little sample. And you all, this audio's gonna be slow and with pauses and at a different speed than I'm talking right now, because that's how audiobooks are recorded, right? But we just locked down the person who's gonna be doing the audiobook version of Deliver. I'm super excited about that too. So let me just play for you. And again, the we're gonna go from 80 miles an hour in the way that I'm speaking right now to like 30 miles an hour, which is the way audiobooks are recorded. But I want to give you just a flavor, and then I want to come back and talk about what I want to talk about in this episode, which is all about your perceived capacity. But as a listener to the podcast, I gotta give you some insight behind the scene access behind the scenes access to what we're doing. So this is the first few pages of the introduction of the book Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results and Most Don't. Our new book.

SPEAKER_00:

This is an effing waste of time, Ben declared, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade. I have zero confidence this is going to be worth a dam. I'm only here because I was told I had to show up. The meeting room on the 14th floor of the company's Philadelphia offices suddenly went completely still. No movement, no noise. Ten executives who collectively controlled billions in revenue sat frozen, watching their head of sales, a man closer to retirement than anyone else in the room, methodically destroy the other departments in the company. The problem isn't with my sales team, Ben continued, pointing at his colleagues. It's your departments that are the issue. Sorry, but the truth hurts. When Ben finished his brutal assessment and sat down, arms crossed and head down, we realized we were witnessing something profound. A leader so frustrated by his organization's inability to execute that he was willing to risk the repercussions of spewing unfiltered honesty rather than sit through another pointless meeting. It wasn't the opening we anticipated to start that meeting, but it wasn't entirely surprising either. This was the world's tenth largest company as measured by revenue, and it was suffering from the same disease we had seen spreading everywhere.

SPEAKER_01:

So good. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for all of you to be able to read this book that we spent the last four years on as the founders of Lone Rock Leadership. And uh this one, this one is it it's the uh fourth book, the fourth book that my name will be on that I've been a part of writing. Each one is just uh just uh it requires a ton of work, you all. Like we threw out the I we if you were to get into our files, there are folders and folders and folders of previous manuscripts and ghostwriters that we fired and hired, and we we tried this approach and that title and that cover, and and and you just it you have to get it right, and it's never perfect, and there are so many things that I still want to change in the book and adjust this, and that takes too long to say and shorten that down or put more meat on that or whatever, but at some point you just have to ship, right? The product's never totally complete. And Joel, who's the voice, Joel, Joel's the name of the guy that you just heard narrating that he's just getting to work on uh recording the whole book. You can imagine how much time it takes to record 70,000 words. That's a that's a that's a huge project, but I I think he's the perfect, um, he's got the perfect approach. These are all the things you have to worry about when putting a book out, too, right? So you put the hardback out, which we we we we we handed out to all the executives that were at our summit at Sundance Resort a few weeks ago. And then we went back and made some adjustments. They got kind of the uh the the advanced copy of it, and now we've got over 200 people who are getting the digital copy of it that signed up for that. They're gonna give us reviews on it, and so they've got the digital copy of the book, over 200 people. And um I I've been posting on LinkedIn about that, having people sign up if they wanted to be part of it, and uh, and so their reviews are about to come in, and then you get the audiobook version, and then now we're dealing with the shipping and all anyway. It's just tons of tons of pieces, and that's just a book, right? You've got all the rest of the things that you're working on, but so excited for that book to get out there, deliver why some leaders get results and most don't. And um it's it's a game changer. I I wish I had this book when I was 20 years old. I wish I had it when I was 30 years old. It would have profoundly affected my ability to get results, the things that we've learned in the meantime. Okay, so uh, and by the way, deliver deliver, that book is all tied to the concepts in our in our 30-day course, Leadin'30, which I've been talking about. I mean, it's the name of this podcast, right? And many of you have been through it. Many of you put you, you know, hundreds of leaders in your organizations through it. Some of you are just considering that. Um, all the information on that's at lone rock.io. Okay, let's talk about what I want to get into. Uh well, I gotta actually officially welcome you in. Welcome into the Leadin30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you a framework, uh, an audio file to listen to, um, a uh an experience, a best practice, something to help you upgrade your ability to lead others. I make my living. My name's Russ Hill. I make my living coaching consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's biggest companies. So awesome. I've been on the phone today, you all, with um some executives I haven't talked to in a coup in like three years, and they're they're involved in one of them is involved in a startup now that's coming out of India, and and they've got their headquarters in in uh uh in the U.S. and Austin, Texas, and they're just getting going, and they just got Series A funding, and like that's a smaller organization that's just starting to, I mean, they grew um 500% in 2025, which is amazing. You have that on one end, and then on the other end, we've got organizations with well over a hundred thousand people that uh, in fact, one organization we're talking to right now has got well over thirty thousand leaders that uh that that that that they're trying to get some of this content. It's just amazing. All the diversity of experiences that we all have based on the industry we're in, the company we're in, the stage of life we're in, the the types of leaders we work with, what we're trying to accomplish from a life purpose standpoint, just it it in case you can't tell, it just energizes me being in this leadership lab with people who are trying to produce results and leading a group of humans is stinking hard. It is hard. Doing it in your own home or doing it in a small organization or a big, complex, matrixed organization, um, whether you're making cars or fighter jets or burritos or um bacon or you're you're making um you know you're you're you're doing health care services or insurance, whatever it is, um there's just so much opportunity to gain wisdom. And for those of us that are addicted to growth, it's it's an amazing time to be alive. Okay, let's talk about what I set up in the uh in the intro to this podcast, which is about mindset. I'm gonna share a quick experience and then um and then I'm gonna go to why this is on my mind. And and don't get lost in the simplicity of this experience, because the the underlying principle that I'm gonna share in this episode that I really want you thinking about as it pertains to the way that you lead others. Um I'll explain how these two simple experiences tie to the principle of leading others and the principle uh that that I want you to apply there. Okay, so I'm gonna drive through. I'm gonna drive through. I'm on a road trip, I'm on a business trip, I'm gonna drive through on an afternoon. I'm starving. It's actually getting to be evening time, and I'm doing something that I rarely do right now. I'm going through a McDonald's drive-thru because it's the only thing open, one of the only things open, and I really don't care. I'm at that point, you know, when you get to that point of hunger where like you just could eat cardboard, like you're just not picky, and you've got your schedule is super compressed, and so you don't really have time to be picky and whatever else. I'm in this drive-thru. I order a couple of things. I'm the only car in there. It's a really not busy time, and the experience is horrific. I'm not going to get into all the details, but they they just basically forget about me. I so I park and I and I'm in the drive-thru, but I park and I have to go inside the restaurant, and don't worry, I wasn't that guy. Um and I go in and and people are on the employees are on their phone. Like, nobody's making my food. And and I'm thinking, you've lost, you forgot about me. How did my order get somebody cleared my order from the board and and uh and yet I don't have any food and I'm dying, and this was supposed to be really quick because I'm racing to get to this particular venue where I've got to be. And so I I go in, I'm like, hey, you know, um what's going on here? And the the manager on duty was just the sort of person that um that you hire when nobody else on earth is available, if you know what I mean. Just uh just not good. Not good at all. And yeah, I'm doing all kinds of judgment in the moment because just because I'm human and I'm thinking, you know, there are all kinds of things going on in his personal life that's affecting how he's showing up in work and and how he's leading this team, or actually he's not leading the team, but you you get a it's just a disaster. So I finally just say, you know what, you guys, let's just make this super simple. I'll go away, just give me my money back. And and and it was just like six dollars or seven, like nothing, right? Like meaningless amount of money, and but it was the principle of you don't deserve my cash. And so I wasn't angry about it, I was super chill about it. And I'm just like, well, you haven't even really started making my food, and you don't really want my business, and so it's cool, just give me my money back, they give it to me. I leave, and I I'm now and now I'm leaving this McDonald's, this experience that's just horrific. Like textbook bad, like viral if I had the video and and posted it, just that bad. And and and and so I leave, and yet I haven't solved my problem, which is I'm starving, but I'm so principal-based and something like that, that I just could not, in good faith, give them money because they didn't deserve any revenue um from that hour. And and and neither did the owner, the franchisee who um hired that team. And and and so I I drive down and I'm like, I gotta get something. Like, I I I'm not gonna survive if I don't get something. So I pull into a Wendy's drive-thru, and I don't know when the last time I was in Wendy's, and the experience you all was completely different. Like the gal comes on the speaker, there's nobody in any of the drive, there's nobody out. The hour of the day, the the day of the week, all of that, nobody's out. These places are just empty. And so I go through the Wendy's drive-thru, the voice comes on the speaker. It could not be more pleasant, more human, more warm. Like, oh wow, I'm not used to that kind of a human on a on a drive-thru speaker. So I order my little basic meal. I pull up to the window, this uh 20-something, 22, 24, however old she was, you know, with a couple of piercings and whatever else, and hair dyed a different color. She could not have been more personable, more friendly, more pleasant to deal with, um, and just a completely different experience. And so I and I told her that. I gave her feedback. So after the transaction, I'm like, can I just give you some feedback? You are amazing. Like, this restaurant is so I said this, this restaurant is so lucky to have you in this window doing that. And she smiled real big. She's like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. I'm like, no, for real. Thank you so much for the way you approached that interaction. I know it's super simple and and but I just have to give you that feedback. And she looked like someone had just handed her the employee of the month um trophy at some major corporation. It was meaningful to her, which I appreciated too. And um, and so then I drive away, right? And and I'm thinking about mindset. Thinking about lots of things. The customer experience. I'm thinking about who you hire matters. I'm thinking about frontline, I'm thinking about how much the the supervisors of frontline employees matter. I'm thinking about all of this. I'm thinking about the general managers of those restaurants and how one is clearly very uh involved in the type of people that they hire. Because yeah, you have a few outliers and you get lucky sometimes, but my guess is if I was to look at the general manager and these these restaurants, these little locations were like a mile, two miles apart. I'm thinking the general manager, I already know what I'm gonna see. I already know the experience I'm gonna have if I were to have lunch or sit down in a meeting with the general manager of the Wendy's versus the general manager of the McDonald's. They're gonna be two totally different approaches. They are, as the because teams are reflections of leaders. Period. It's just a fact. Your team is a reflection of you. They have your level of energy, they have your level of commitment, they have your level of excuse making, they have your level of strategic, like they they are that now they're not, you have outliers and you have some different challenges and whatever else, but it's all about what you tolerate. It's all about what you pursue, it's all about what you're willing to, what you're looking for in people, how important it is for you to get the people that think this way or execute that way or have a have this sort of a mindset. And so the employee on the front line is a reflection, their mindset is a reflection of the mindset of their supervisor, who is a reflection of the mindset of their manager, who's a reflection of the VP. You got it? How it cascades. Again, they're outliers, but if you're thinking to me to yourself right now, Russ, that's not true. Because when I look at my team, they like I got this person, I got that person, and they're nothing like me, and they they're totally problem child or children, or that they they have issues, and well, you're tolerating it, like they're still on your team. You promoted them, you hired them, you're not doing anything about it. And I know you have a million reasons, but the facts are the facts. And and so I'm thinking about this mindset. And then I'm let me combine all these things and put it into kind of a mixing bowl and and and and then explain uh what I'm trying to bake here. Um then I'm at the gym. You guys, I the gym for me. I how many how many episodes have I uh over the 400 or close to 400 episodes have I mentioned something about the gym? You have these places that you go and these habits that you have um where you think. And some of you that's the shower, others of you it's in the car driving during your commute, others of you, it's on the plane, others of you, it's on the back porch, sipping a cup of coffee, others of you, it's in the mornings or at night when you're journaling or when you're reading a book on the living room couch or you're cut wherever. But one of those places for me for thought is the gym. And um, and it because of the time of day that I go and because of time between sets when you're we're working out or whatever, and just because of of the effect that exercise and movement has on your brain activity and and and so all of that combines. And so I'm I I I often think about or every once in a while think about capacity in the gym. That's really what separates us. And and and and so I I often think, well, I have the capacity to lift the fifth, we're just gonna use examples, right? We're uh I've I have capacity to to do a a curl, a bicep curl. Those of you that know what that is, that's pretty basic, right? I have capacity to do a 20-pound dumbbell bicep curl. Let's just say that's where I'm at. And so I I I that's what I that's what I pick, and that's what I go with, and I do so many reps, and and then I look at somebody else, and in fact, this happened to me this week. This is what got me thinking about it. I was on this machine, it's it's um basically like a back row, if you know what I if you know what that is. So I'm doing uh an exercise for my back, and it's kind of a row exercise. And there's a guy who comes, I'm I'm on a call, and I yeah, I was kind of being that guy um on a phone, on a call at the gym, kind of taking too long, whatever. I was I was doing the reps, but I was taking longer between the sets than than than I should have been, because I'm deep in this phone call. So this guy walks up to me and he's like, hey, how many, how many, and and he was pleasant, but he's like, How many more sets do you have? And and my answer almost always when somebody asks that question is one. It just becomes one more set because if you want this machine, I'm not gonna get in the way, I'm not gonna be that guy. So I said, one more. And he gives me this look like, okay, cool, um, but get get on with it. And and this guy is half my age, which is not difficult these days. And uh, and he's pleasant, and I it's I finish up the set and I move away, and he's like, Don't worry about it, don't, don't, don't clear the weights, I'm good. And then he puts on, and I'm looking at this dude, it's not like, you know, I'm certainly not some bronzed bodybuilder by any stretch, never will be. That's not my goal, nor do I think I have that, well, kind of gets the capacity mindset, so I shouldn't say what I was gonna say, because it'd violate everything I'm talking about. Well, except that my mindset is that's not who I want to be, right? And I just want to be active. And this guy is trying to build size and whatever else, but he's not there yet. He's a decent size, but you know, it doesn't look like he's massively stronger than I am, and and uh, and so you got some ego going here, and he loads up like more than double the weight I was doing. And I'm watching him now. I'm at a different machine a little ways away, and occasionally I'm still on this business call. I'm kind of looking over, seeing what he's doing, and and I'm watching this, and I'm like, wow, how is he doing that much weight? And so I wanted to get back on the machine because I thought, well, Russ, maybe you you could probably do more than you had loaded on there, and and you were in the mindset of being more focused on the business call anyway than the weight, and so I'm just going to capacity. And and I it's so off so often I have the experience when exercising that I can go further, I can go heavier than I thought I could. And there's there's an obstacle like mentally, I start feeling some pain, or I start um losing my breath, or whatever it is. And so I go, okay, well, I can only go a tenth of a mile more. Or I I I think I could put on uh another five pounds on this, but not any more than that, because I'm facing some resistance. And when that obstacle presents itself, then I I I I hedge. And it has to do with capacity. And so let me give another quick story and then and then we're gonna go right into the principle and and my thought, my invitation to you. So the neighbors down the street, right, that they don't live there anymore, but they lived in this this big house um down the street from us, maybe four or five houses, and they were there when we moved in, and they're fr some of their kids, their oldest, were the ages of our oldest, and they became friends, and they still are friends, and um and even though they're they're they're all married, that the older kids now, and uh, and those couples have become friends. And anyway, um you know, we have we have four kids, they had eight. Yeah, eight. And and and so you think you you you you know where I'm going, right? So you have one kid and you're like, wow, this baby is so like life changed in a massive way. How does anybody have a kid? Like your respect level for somebody who's a parent goes way off the charts. And and and then maybe you have and well, you think, how could anyone ever have two? Two of these things, right? Like, how do they survive? And then maybe you take the plunge and you have a second, and you're like, whoa, this is so much harder than having one. We thought one was hard, two, like, whoa. And then maybe you have a third or a fourth, some of us do, and you're like, okay, I think we're gonna, that's good. Like, love this group. This is my squad. We're gonna, we're gonna kind of level it out here. And and you think life's just crazy busy, and you got so much going on. And then you look down the street and you're like, but they seem to be doing pretty good, and they've got double the herd that we've got. How? Mindset, capacity, and so capacity. I talked to my kids, my kids can tell you this lecture, this sermon I've given them, capacity is not fixed, and capacity has to do with your mindset, and so why am I talking about this? Because for many of you, right now, your greatest obstacle to growth is your mindset about your capacity. And one of the game changers in my life, in my career, has been having people around me who periodically reminded me, or told me, or persuaded me, or convinced me that I had greater capacity than I thought I did. What a huge gift those people have been in my life. And and I don't have time in this episode to go through and tell you all those stories, but strategically at certain moments of my life, I view it as uh as divine um involvement in my life. That's how I view it. I I actually think there's somebody playing chess, moving some pieces around up there. I just that's my belief. You could you could think I'm crazy and that's fine. You may you may describe it differently in your life, but that's the approach that that's just what I believe at the age I'm at based on what I've experienced is that not sure how all that plays out, but I'm you we'd have a pretty good, not debate, but a pretty good healthy discussion um where I don't think I'd be too movable on this topic. And so, so I I look at that, I'm just so grateful um that that that happened, that people that were who who crossed my path or who spoke up in moments, and there were enough of them at specific moments in my life to where I actually paid attention and was open to what they were saying, that you've got greater, they didn't say it exactly this way, but the message, the takeaway was you've got greater capacity than you think you do. When we first started our firm, Lone Rock Leadership, you know, and we'd been doing working with executives for a long time, and we had the consulting business, and we had clients and people that we had built relationships with over time, and they would talk to other people and talk to other people. And so the three of us that founded the firm, we were kind of like, you know, look at the lifestyle we've got, look at the income we're generating, look at the clients we get to work with, look at where we're at in life. Like, this is awesome, this is amazing. And and we we we contemplated for a moment, we considered just kind of leaving it there. We talked about setting a limit with the number of consulting clients we'd have and not traveling that much and keeping our schedules like 50% busy with work or whatever, because of the stage we were at in life and where we had whatever. And then and then there came this moment in our discussion that we actually had greater capacity and that we didn't want to waste it, and we wanted to develop it, and so maybe we should expand the group and maybe we should build a leadership training company based off of what the executives we were working with wanted and what they were asking for, and the additional services and whatever else. And so we we we made there was this ultimate time, this ultimate moment where we decided let's actually stretch. Let's actually dig into this. Like let's let's let's push ourselves more. That's what that's what I'm talking about. And so my question to you right now, and some of you are listening to this going, man, I I'm at that point on the treadmill where they're like, I gotta hit, like slow down, like rest, you know what I mean, or stop because I don't have any more capacity. Or there's something going on, an extenuating circumstance, or there's a cloud over you at this period of your life, or and and and so this doesn't really apply in the moment. And and you get a pass uh for right now. Like we we've all been there and we all will be there at certain times of life. I'm not really speaking to you in this moment, I'm speaking to you in a present in a future moment. Others of you, um, no, you're you're at a place where you you've kind of you're on the lazy river, and it doesn't really feel that way. It's not totally an accurate description, but but you're you're comfortable. And and maybe what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to be that dude on the machine that actually is doing double the weight you're doing. And I'm not, it's not like I'm putting it in your face and saying, see how much I'm lifting. I'm just what I'm doing, and what he did that day for me was cause me to think, I bet you could do more. And that's what the neighbors down the street did with the herd of eight. It wasn't, oh, we need to have more kids. No, that ship had sailed, but but it was, oh, you can do more. And and so it's a decision, it's a mindset. And so I want to approach growth, I want to approach learning, I want to approach um the opportunity to gain additional wisdom with the attitude of the gal in the Wendy's drive-thru. Let's do this. Like this is uh with with that kind of a mindset for growth. And so when I look at my challenges and I look at the work that's out there, and I look at the grind and I look at all that, I want her mindset. I don't want the mindset of those, that crew that I was trying to get a couple of snack wraps from, you know? And that are just, you know, on their cell phones, just chilling in the back as orders are coming through, just because their comfort, their entertainment is more important than um than really doing the work. Does that all make sense? Is that coming through for you? So um, I just want you thinking. I want you thinking about your mindset toward your capacity and what's possible. And this is a great time of year. Um I at the time we're putting this episode out, we're going into, you know, we got the holiday season coming up in a few weeks, wrapping up, we're thinking about the new year, what what what we're what what we're gonna try to accomplish as an organization, as a team, as individuals. If it we're starting to get into that period where you ought to be thinking about that. And I'll talk more about that in upcoming episodes, like I do every year at this time. Um because I it it's a fantastic opportunity to look back and to look forward and to make some adjustments. And so capacity, mindset. That's what's on my mind in this episode of the Lead in Thirty Podcast.

SPEAKER_03:

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