Lead In 30 Podcast

So Many of You Are Missing This Critical Step!

• Russ Hill

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Ever wonder why some leaders seem to always be a step ahead while others keep relearning the same hard lessons? The quiet difference is a system: capture the experience, process it into something useful, and ship it so others move faster. We use a simple Google Maps analogy to make this vivid—data is useless until it becomes direction—and then break down how to build your own engine for turning life and work into assets.

We reflect on the year as a practical frame for review, not a scoreboard for ego. What did the last twelve months teach you about clarity, alignment, and movement? We walk through the habits that make capture effortless, from a living “What Works” document to tagged notes and fast story collection. Then we show how to refine raw thoughts into checklists, prompts, playbooks, and short talks that people can actually use on Monday morning. This is how you grow influence without shouting: by building a body of work that others rely on.

Finally, we map distribution tiers—personal, organizational, and public—so your knowledge reaches the right audience at the right fidelity. You’ll hear how we turned years of consulting into courses, a book, and repeatable tools, and why the market consistently rewards clarity, speed, and usefulness. No fluff, no grandstanding—just a practical path to raising your impact and leaving a real legacy. If you’re ready to stop letting your best insights evaporate and start shipping value, this conversation is your starting line.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review so more leaders can find it. What’s one insight you’ll capture and ship this week?

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

Connect with me on LinkedIn or to send me a DM:
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:

Can you imagine if Google Maps, if the app Google Maps didn't capture all of the data that's coming at it from all the drivers, all the cameras, all the sensors, and the highways? Imagine if Google Maps didn't actually capture that data and didn't share it. How valuable would that app be? Like, that'd be ridiculous that it wouldn't do anything with all that data. And yet, so many of you are making this mistake. What am I talking about? Let me explain in this episode.

SPEAKER_02:

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

SPEAKER_00:

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:

We are starting to get some of the reviews, actually. Um they're starting to flow in for our newest book, Deliver. Some of them are coming in on Amazon. We've done a soft launch of the book, and so they'll be steadily coming in over the next few weeks at the time I'm recording this. But here's what Ivy said. Uh this is, I don't know, Ivy. I've never met her. I don't know where she is. Oh, she lives in the U.S. This is what she wrote. Deliver is one of the most compelling leadership books I've read in years. From the very first chapter, it's clear this isn't another fluffy, feel-good leadership manual or a the uh theoretical textbook written in a vacuum. She goes on and on to talk about it. Thank you so much, Ivy. Here's what Earl said. Um, Earl said, Deliver is a refreshingly practical leadership book that replaces outdated command and control or consensus-driven approaches with a simple proven operating system for results. Hill Jones and Corbridge introduced Leader OS, a framework built on clarity, alignment, and movement, and bring it to life through compelling stories, neuroscience insights, and immediately applicable tools. Earl lives in the U.S. as well, gave the book five stars. Anyway, those are just a few of the random reviews. Um we expect that there will be dozens and dozens and dozens of those flowing in over the next few weeks. And um anyway, thanks so much, Ivy, if you're listening. Earl, if you're listening, thank you so much. Um, and if you haven't yet checked out our new book, there's a there's a whole section of our website devoted to it. You can dig into it. Lone Rock.io is where you'll find out more. Lone Rock Leadership's the name of the company. My name is Russ Hill. I make my living coaching consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's most amazing companies. It's funny, our um for for graduation uh from college as a gift to um our oldest son and to his um wife and to our fairly new uh son-in-law, all three graduated from the same university um earlier this year. And as our graduation gift, we gave each one of them a uh a certain amount of money to in and but they had to pick to invest it in a stock. So we wanted to have this competition, and we thought this would be a fun graduation gift. So we gave them a certain amount of cash and we said, you have to, everybody, all three of you, have to invest this amount of money, your graduation gift from us, in a stock. You have to pick the stock. It can't be a fund, it has to be a certain company. And so they went out and researched it and they had to all do it uh secretly, and then after, so we picked a day, and this is the day that they're all gonna make the purchase. This happened recently. We finally got around to them actually investing the money, and uh, and so they picked the stock, and then after they all had made their purchase, then in our family group chat, our family um uh message uh text thread, they uh they revealed which stock they picked. And one of them, in fact, it was uh it was our daughter-in-law. She picked a company that's a client of ours. They're they're they're a consulting client, the the company's CEO and their executive team. We work with them. In fact, they've done some acquisitions in the last year, and we've been a part of that and and helping them integrate the these uh these new parts of their organization. It's a company that's based in the southeast United States. And so I'm like, okay, you won. You you won the competition even before uh before the the uh the next year is the performance uh comes in. You pick the Lone Rock client. So it's kind of fun because she had no clue because I've never talked about this particular company in our in any of our family interactions. Um and so they had no idea that this is an organization that that we work with. So that that was a uh that was a lot of fun. So anyway, that's what that's what I do for a living. And uh this is the Lead in 30 podcast in less than 30 minutes. You get uh you get something to think about, a framework, a model, a best practice, a story, um, something that uh that I want you to think about implementing in the way that you lead others. This podcast is dedicated, devoted. Our whole objective is to upgrade your ability, ability to lead others. That profoundly affects so many aspects of your life. And uh and we've got a course that goes along with the name of this this uh this podcast, Lead in 30. We've got adapt in 30, decide in 30, power in 30. You can find out all about those 30-day cohort leadership training experiences at LoneRock.io. Okay, let's dive into this uh particular episode, what I want to talk about. This is a little bit different of a topic, and I think my mind is on it. I hope you'll forgive me because I'm gonna I'm gonna go kind of personal with you for the next few minutes. And uh and what's driving me to do this, I think, multiple things. Um, number one, at the time I'm recording this, we're in the last few weeks of the calendar year. And so that impacts kind of your mindset, right? Because the year is fairly arbitrary, and yet it has significance, certainly for organizations. It has significance for sports teams, it has significance for um many of us as individuals. I mean, it doesn't really matter because a month is a month, right? Why do we really care about a calendar year? And yet it gives us this element of time or this framework to analyze our lives or our organizations or our teams or our performance or our careers or whatever it might be in blocks of comparable time. And so, how do these 12 months compare to the previous 12 months? And what's our plan for the coming 12 months? And uh, it is fairly arbitrary when you step back and look at it. I think organizations and we as individuals put too much stock in January through December or beginning of the year to the end of the year, but we need some kind of element of measurement, and uh, and so it's useful. Or if there's another way to do it, um that that that that can be useful as well. I do I do think we as leaders need to be careful. And I I wish that investors, I wish that boards of directors, I wish that executive teams, some of which you you who are listening lead, I wish we didn't put quite as much stock into the calendar year. Does that make sense to you? Like sometimes we over-index on it. Private equity firms and investors, they put way too much stock into quarters and into months, but it is the reality we live in, and so we've got to operate and win and and thrive and succeed within the the context or the rules or the framework that we've been given, right? And uh it doesn't really matter if you were on fire in the fourth quarter of a uh of a sports competition if you didn't complete the win, the victory, by the time the whistle blew. That's that's the framework. That's the that's the those are the boundaries that we set. And so you might have been coming on strong in the fourth quarter, becoming dominant, but you didn't quite get that field goal in or make that basket within the buzzer, and uh, and so you lose. And um, and I do I do think the same context, just the same moral or or principle applies in that, well, okay, so you lost that game. Don't get too worked up in it. And certainly we as fans, again, it's the it's the core word of the word fanatic, and we as fans often over uh overreact. We so often overreact to the outcome of a particular game or really season when we ought to look at the trajectory of of the team. But anyway, that that's that's kind of a broader conversation. Um, so at the end of this calendar year, perhaps that's influencing why this topic that I want to talk about is on my mind. Another reason why it's on my mind is because um we are wrapping up a year. Speaking of a year, um, and I'm wrapping up a year, it actually makes me emotional. Where um we as an organization, the company, the firm that I'm a part of, that I happen to be one of the founders and owners of, uh, and and and and and so that matters in this context a little bit, um, but part of this is very personal for me. I'm wrapping up, our firm is wrapping up a year uh where we have done a remarkable job um in our in in our own way um of creating content, of generating um assets that capture what we have learned. I've never had a year like this where I've been a part of a team that has generated as many assets, has put on the record, has created um enduring, um tangible resources um at the volume and the rate that we have in this calendar year. And I'm freaking proud of it because it's been a goal, it's been an objective, it's been something I've a desire for so long, dating back years and years at the previous firm that I was an employee of. I really tried to get that firm to get good at creating more assets, at generating more things that people could purchase instead of just services, but things that they could read, things that they could watch, things that they could hold and refer to and distribute and hand out. Why? Why does that matter? And and that's the that's the core of this episode, and it it's what I want to talk to you about. And it and the reason this is so important to me is because I think I'm going back to the way I started this episode with Google Maps. Google Maps has all of this data. I'm just using one particular app because I think it's applicable and it illustrates the point that I want to make with you and that what I want you to think about. And and that is so Google Maps has all this data. Think about where it's coming from. I don't even have a clue where all of it's coming from. It's coming from writers that are submitting data. It's coming from tracking, it's kind of scary all the data, right? If you really think about it. Um it Google is tracking the movement of your cell phone. So it can see that you're on um I-95 or Interstate 10 or that you're on um uh uh State Street or Main Street or First Avenue or whatever you're on. It can see that you're on that road and that you're moving at a certain speed. And it's recording that data along with half of the drivers, if not 90% of the drivers. I don't even know what the what the number is. It's crazy to think about, right? Uh it's it's it's taking the data from all those cell phones in the cars around you. The cars and the trains and the buses and the Ubers and all of that. It's taking all of that data in. And it's um processing it. Isn't that crazy? Plus, it's looking at the cameras that the various departments of transportation have. It's looking at data from um police and all all of the stoplights, all of this data it's taking in. It's processing. And then where the real value, the value of Google Maps is not in the fact that it has the data. The value in Google Maps is that it distributes that data in a very easy to consume method for you. And it's getting so if it got all that data and it did nothing with it, the app would be almost like it'd be worthless. It's not if it didn't ship the data. And if it took a long time, can you imagine if Google Maps got all that data and then it took it 30 minutes or about an hour and a half to process it and get it back to you, it would be worthless. Absolutely worthless. So, what in the world does that have to do with you? Here's my point. You've got a lot of data coming at you. Tons of data. You're having experiences every minute, every hour of the day. And you weren't born today. You were born a long time ago. At a minimum, if you listen to this podcast, I mean, I know I've got some teenagers that listen to this, um, a few, uh, because I've gotten messages from them in all parts of the world. I know I've got some 20-somethings, college students, people that are in their first job. I know I've got other people who are mid-level managers, they're 30 somethings. I know I've got senior executives. I work with some of you, some of you I've met in various events over the last um year, and you've come up to me or you've said something to me about, hey Russ, I'm a big fan of the podcast. I had no clue that you living in this part of the world, in this organization, as a senior executive of whatever, were listening. So now I've got you as well. So I've got a whole range of you, but you've all been around for at least 16, 14, 18, 20 years at a minimum. And many of you have been working, you've been adults for that though that many years or more. And you've had experience after experience after experience as an employee, as a team member, as a manager, as a supervisor, as an executive, as a son, a daughter, a sibling, a parent, a mom, or a dad, a neighbor, a friend, whatever it is, all these different hats that you wear, all these different roles that you have, you've been having, you are having countless experiences. And in those experiences, stay with me, track with me. In all of those experiences, you're gathering data. It's the amazing thing about this human condition. The data never stops flowing. There is no point that you get at, no age that you arrive at where you have stopped gathering data, having experiences. And it's so different at age 20 than it was at 10, at age 30, then it was at 20, at 40, then it was at 30. At 50, then it was at you with me? You couldn't see what was coming. Like this life is designed in such a masterful way. It's part of the reason why I'm religious or spiritual is because I believe that the how in the world is this by accident? If you believe that, that's awesome. Good for you. I I like we need to chat sometime because I don't get it. And like, boom, it just wasn't like oh no. Like, anyway, doesn't matter. Um but it just appears to be a very masterful design if the point is or the objective is learning and growth and gaining intelligence and knowledge and wisdom. Like, whoa, whoever designed this thing, this experience we're all having, because it's so different. There are so many variables that are constantly changing that cause every day to look different, every year to feel different. You never go through a year and go, yeah, that was actually almost identical. A carbon copy of the previous year. It doesn't happen because of all of the variables, and so you have all this data coming at you, and here is what my question is Are you capturing it and what is your plan to distribute it? You understand? And I don't care what your career is, what your role is, where you are in life, what I it doesn't matter to me what that looks like. My belief is you need to capture the data, the wisdom, the experience, the learning, the growth that you're experiencing, that you that's that's happening. Why? Well, a couple different reasons. Number one, those that come after you would really like access to that. Trust me. Trust me. They may not act like they want it now. And they may, you may have those around you that don't appear to have much interest in it. Your wisdom, your learning, your growth, your insights. But my belief is that most of them, there'll be an outlier here or there potentially, but most of them do want that wisdom. I'm talking about your personal life. The same is true professionally. In fact, I think it's part of what in fact, I don't think I know. It's part of what creates value and what separates those who get elevated, promoted, more opportunity, their market value goes up. They're capturing and distributing the wisdom, the experience, the growth, the insight that they're gaining. You see it in them. It comes out when they speak. It's in it, they're they're really good at it. That's why I focus so much on communication in these podcast episodes, because you got to build that ability in order for your market value to go up as a leader in any aspect of life. I'm I I don't really find a lot of interest. I don't have a lot of interest in people who speak, write, distribute, talk, whatever venue or avenue that is, medium that is, who are just giving out stuff, like saying things. I find tremendous value, interest. I'm captivated by people who stand out of. A podium, a microphone, a keyboard, and are sharing insights and wisdom and information that they have um assembled or created uh because they've looked at the data that's coming into them and then they've processed it, they've thought about it, they've worked to simplify it, to put it in a very digestible way, and then t and then publish the tweet or write the book or create the article or record the podcast or assemble the PowerPoint deck or stand in front of the meeting, whether it's twenty seconds, ten characters, or an hour-long whatever, I find a ton of value. I find that the market places a ton of value, not just me, but the market, on people who do that. Hence Google Maps. Do you see? Are you tracking with me? Are you getting my point? And so the challenge I have for you, the ask I have for you, is to really analyze whether or not you're doing a good job of gathering the data, synthesizing it, simplifying it, processing it, and putting it out. What does that look like? It looks like what a parent says to their kids. Like there's all that dribble, right? There's that stream of consciousness of us just saying stuff to kids, to employees, to team members, to friends. But then there's also a different method of communication where we've given some thought to something that we want to sit down and share with kids, or type in a group text, or to share in a one-on-one setting, or to teach in a lesson, or in a family gathering, or in a business meeting, or whatever. You with me? And so how do you do that? So again, going back to why I'm so proud of this year, and in one of these next few episodes, I'm going to share with you something that I've been working on behind the scenes privately, individually, personally, to distribute wisdom and insight, learning that I've gained in a format that I never even dreamed I would distribute. I've been working on it quietly. And I'm so stinking excited to share it with you. And you may go, Russ, this sucks. I don't really care because it's a new method of distribution that I've been working on, a new way, a creative way to share insight, hard-fought, hard-earned wisdom that I've gained in my life. Uh, from some of the darkest, some of the loneliest, some of the most triumphant, some of the some all these different moments and aspects of my life from the the earliest days of my life to now. And I've I've been working uh in the last few months on capturing it and assembling it in a way that I can distribute it. So that's gonna be fun to share in the next few weeks. And and but in the meantime, you know, we've got this book that we started the podcast talking about, deliver. Like there's tons. That took us four years to write. I've been working on that a ton. And I'm proud of it. And it's wisdom captured on pages. It's story after story after story that you're you're gonna, if you've read it or I don't even care. I mean, whatever, but we put that out in the market. And I'm so proud of the fact that we gathered all that data, we assembled all the collective wisdom that we've been gaining over these last 20 years, we simplified it, we attached stories to it, and we distribute it. We actually published. We got somebody we're paying right now. I talked about in a previous episode, who's putting the audiobook together. We're working on the paperback that will eventually come out, the Kindle or electronic versions out. We're putting it out on multiple avenues. I've this is it this is close to, we don't have the exact numbers system down, but this is close to the the 400th, the 400th episode of this podcast that I've recorded from all over the world. I'm proud of that. I'm gathering data. I'm putting it together, I'm getting it out. We have created three new courses. Put them out. This is incredible insight that we've gained, looking at what problems organizations are experiencing and assembling it in a way and then going out to the market and writing it on flip charts and putting it in a PowerPoint decks, not for a few months, but for the last 15 years. And now we've packaged it together. We hired a team and did whatever and said, put this in a format that people can just pay per manager and buy access to this. And then we we we we simplified it. So, oh, it's only the stuff about decision making, only the stuff about showing up powerfully and taking accountability and ownership in your life, only the stuff around how to lead through change because there's all this disruption and change. Only that stuff. What if they only wanted to buy that? Oh, here, they can just buy that and then put it in the form of a 125-page participant guide and a PowerPoint deck, and then let's record 40 videos about that particular topic with all these other, with all these various people and whatever, whatever, whatever. I'm proud of that. It's gathering data, gathering wisdom, insight, and I'm doing the same thing. I mean, you you all, something could happen in my life tomorrow. Let's hope nothing does. I want to be around for a long time. But I've captured a lot of wisdom. Not saying I'm smart, I've just been I've been gathering the data, the wisdom from other people. And then I'm thinking about it. I'm writing it down. You should look at my Apple Notes app. Like I've got thousands of notes. It's so rare that I leave the gym, a workout, without at least one new note because thoughts are coming to me and I'm capturing them. My notebook, handwritten notes. You know, just tons, my my chat GPT, my Gemini, my my um Claude, all these AI. I mean, you should see the number of chats in there. Just thinking about entering it in, asking questions, whatever. I'm not holding myself up as the uh you know what the ideal state here. I'm just it I just I only know what I know, right? What have I I've experienced. And I'm so proud of that. And so I want to challenge you to do the same because you're no different than I am. We're the same. You're having lots of experiences as a dad, as a mom, as a friend, as a sibling, as a boss, as a manager, as an employee, as a customer, as a participant in life. And I just don't know if you're capturing it. I don't know if you've whatever avenue that is, a journal, um, a diary, uh, a notes, what I don't care what it is, whatever it is for you, and then are you assembling it? What have you learned in your 30 years, your 25 years so far, your your 65 years? What have you learned? What are you like start gathering that? And then let's figure out a way to publish it. And it might be to 10 people. It might be just to your spouse, it might be just to a friend, it might be to the market overall. It doesn't matter if anyone reads the book. I could care less how many copies of the book deliver are bot. I mean, I care, but I don't care, right? We didn't write that. It's funny. We met with so many people along the process. You talk to these different agents, you talk to these different folks that have these different firms, and they all come in. Just try to inflate your ego. Oh my gosh, they try to inflate your ego, make you feel like, you know, you're the smartest or most experienced or successful person that's ever lived. And and we could have this on social media and you could do that, and we're gonna promote you as this, and all you got to do is pay us fifty thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars, whatever it is. We could make and and then when we tell them, it's so funny when in all of these meetings in person or over Zoom or whatever it is, and we tell them, you know what, this isn't really an ego project for us. It's not about us. We don't really care if anyone buys it. We just want it out there, we want to ship it, we want it to be the best it could possibly be. Because it's just part of the legacy. And because I I I just know myself as a 25-year-old manager. If someone had given me that, if someone had bought me one of those courses, put me through it, can you watch that would have unlocked like 30 years ago? 20 years ago, 10 years ago? Oh my gosh. And so we're just committed to creating that stuff. It's gonna keep happening. I'm committed to capturing so much of it along the journey. I'm gathering the data like Google Maps, I'm capturing it, I'm thinking about it, I'm simplifying it, I'm putting it into a digestible way, and I'm sharing it verbally with those around me, tangibly, like handing it to them, printing it. You should see our Slack channel, uh, our Slack channels in our organization. Constant content creation. We tell our leadership team we are not a training company, we are not a consulting company, we are a content company. We create content, assets, we collect, process, simplify, distribute data, wisdom, learning. And the market one of the things I've discovered is that on a personal level as well as a professional level, the market values that. And um the the the the smartest, the most successful among us, the healthiest among us in all aspects, financially, emotionally, spiritually, physically, are the most curious amongst us. So they're gonna be looking for that. I want you to capture it. That's part of your legacy. I uh I don't know if I said that real well in this episode, um, but it's what's on my mind. It's what's one of the things I've been thinking about, and one of the things that I wanted to share with you and challenge you on at the end, as I'm recording this at the time I'm recording this, at the end of this year. Can you put that process in place and start small? Atomic habits, right? Start small, just little tiny habits, and just start developing those. Open up the note, capture it, get out the notebook, write it down, put it into three things, give it a name. And and whether it's spiritual knowledge or wisdom you've gained, whether it's parenting knowledge or wisdom you've gained, whether it's and and you just put it out there in the market. You don't go tell everybody this is the only way. Nah, the market doesn't have an appetite for that. But this is just what we've learned, what I've learned. Some of the things that I've experienced. Here you go. Trust me, there will be an appetite for. Maybe not right now, maybe not as big as you want there to be. Doesn't matter. Just publish, ship, create. That is what I'm thinking about. And what I wanted to share with you in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team, or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 Podcast with Russell.