This week, we wrap up Season 2 with a significant milestone - our 100th episode! To celebrate, we&apos;re having fan favorite Mark Ross return to interview Winston about his entrepreneurial journey to creating, For Love of Team. “You know the term “For love of the Game”? I was on a walk one day, and somehow, it just came to my mind that for love of team was what I was missing as the CEO of a very successful multi-million dollar company. I had started a business because I had an idea of how I could help other people with a product and a service that I loved. When that was established, I moved to loving the client. I wanted to give them the ultimate experience that was just as good or not better than the product itself. I knew that if they had a great experience with what we were offering it would help us win more business.But I only kept my focus right there. Instead of looking at my team as the foundation of our success, I saw them as an impediment to being more creative and serving our clients. More often than I should have I took the side of the client. Even though our team had a good process, had good boundaries, and good guardrails, they were to blame if client expectations were not met. My team was looking for how we could protect the quality of the service, they were looking for ways to protect and scale how we could do it. And I would inevitably take the side of the client and I put our team under tremendous pressure. That works for maybe a short season, but if that&apos;s constantly the culture that you&apos;re creating - it&apos;s a toxic work culture. That was a reflection of me as a toxic leader back then. Now I see our work here at  ‘For Love of Team’ as a redemption story. Helping founders and leaders avoid the mistakes I made and instead multiplying their impact and income by…Doing work you love, in a business you love, with a team you love.”- Winston

Begin Again with Winston Faircloth

100: Team Love Redeems Founder

Amy Alexander is Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Refuge Center for Counseling in Franklin, Tennessee, where the Center serves more than 30,000 counseling sessions to over 4,000 clients annually. As a nonprofit, Amy is always wrestling with how to retain quality people on her team. And for her, it&apos;s the culture they create day-to-day that retains the best people.Amy encourages and supports culture through her ‘Three C’s approach’ of connection, character, and continuous growth within the organization.“Our team has to be the first priority and Client Services has to be the second priority. Because if we&apos;re not healthy, if we&apos;re not in a good place, if we&apos;re not taking care of ourselves and one another, then the quality of our work is not going to be what it should be. And our clients deserve us to be at our best.” - Amy AlexanderShe has a very unique way of framing leadership and culture and values within her organization by modeling a ‘servant first perspective’.Listen to our full episode to learn more about Amy’s Three C’s approach! Connect with AmyWebsite - https://refugecenter.org  Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-refuge-center-for-counseling Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/therefugecenter Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/refugecenterforcounseling YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxzP8YpKRKo Email - info@therefugecenter.org Connect with WinstonLinkedIn     https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonfaircloth    Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/forloveofteamInstagram   https://www.instagram.com/forloveofteam Twitter        https://twitter.com/forloveofteam

099: Three C’s of Culture at The Refuge Center with Amy Alexander

In this week’s episode, we&apos;re chatting with Dr. Kristy Goodwin who is on a mission to promote employee wellbeing and bolster workplace productivity. With the pandemic accelerating the work from home (WFH) movement, how we work online and how we disconnect while living in the same place is more important than ever.  “I&apos;ve never had a genius idea looking in my inbox or working in an Excel spreadsheet. I have most certainly had one when I&apos;ve been swimming or been for a run, or in the shower. And this is because our brain needs that mind-wandering mode. And we just don&apos;t get enough of that because we now feel every moment of whitespace with a digital device.”  - Dr. Kristy GoodwinPut simply, she helps people thrive online. We have all accepted that technology is an integral part of our professional and our personal lives to the point that it&apos;s impacting our physical and mental health. We also know that it&apos;s having a very significant and pronounced impact on our productivity. Kristy studies how our brain and body operate in this digital landscape. She takes research and science on this issue and translates it into practical realistic strategies that people can use to utilize technology in a way that aligns with our neurobiology. Listen to our full episode to see how Kristy works with companies to help teams with their digital well-being by implementing her peak performance strategies in this digital landscape.Connect with KristyWebsite - https://drkristygoodwin.com  Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kristy-goodwin  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/drkristygoodwinInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/drkristy  Connect with WinstonLinkedIn     https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonfaircloth Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/forloveofteamInstagram   https://www.instagram.com/forloveofteam Twitter        https://twitter.com/forloveofteam

098: Conquering Digital Distractions with Dr. Kristy Goodwin

In this week’s episode, we&apos;re continuing our series on how values drive success in business. We are chatting with industry experts to gain their insight on developing Core Values that create a winning team. We&apos;re bringing back one of our favorite guests Victoria Mininger, Founder of Bear Creek Outdoor Living. Victoria strives to see each one of her team members thrive, learn, and grow. She shares her journey on how this core value became such a centerpiece of her business.“We (my husband and I) once had employers that saw us for who we were, and not just what we brought to the table, they cared for us greatly. That left a definitive mark on our life. When we started this company, I said to myself, I want to treat people the way that I was treated during my career. We have learned over the years that when we care for people, the rest takes care of itself. And when we do that, we serve our clients even better. It&apos;s wanting to have a greater mission and reason for existing other than just getting to the next great project or bringing in revenue. All of those are great, but what I want to leave behind is the impact I&apos;ve had on people, because other people have impacted me in such a great way”. -- Victoria MiningerOur episode with Victoria does a deep dive into how when we care for our teams we empower them to find greatness in themselves, and how this leads to a business that can gain success beyond the bottom line. Connect with Victoria Website - https://www.victoriamininger.com/ Business Website - https://bearcreek.co/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/victoriamininger Episode 60 - https://www.forloveofteam.com/blog/060-building-your-people-victoria-miningerEpisode 59 - https://www.forloveofteam.com/blog/059-ba-daring-to-fight-with-victoria-mininger Connect with WinstonLinkedIn     https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonfaircloth/Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/forloveofteamInstagram   https://www.instagram.com/forloveofteam/Twitter        https://twitter.com/forloveofteam

097: Core Values with Victoria Mininger, Founder of Bear Creek Outdoor Living

In this week’s episode, we&apos;re continuing our series on how values drive success in business. We are chatting with industry experts to gain their insight on developing Core Values that create a winning team. We&apos;re bringing back one of our favorite guests Craig Wood, CEO of Premier International. Craig is a seasoned CEO and Board member who understands how to get the best out of a company and its employees. He is passionate about personal development for his team and the impact that culture has on a company, its growth and its eventual success.As leaders, you make the best decisions you can with imperfect data. And then you ask your team to commit to it. And that&apos;s what one team united is about. It&apos;s about agreeing. It&apos;s about committing. And it&apos;s about being aligned. And that&apos;s certainly what we have built here.Our episode with Craig a few months ago is what spurred this core value series and how drilling into how our corporate values drive day-to-day action, brings alignment to our team, and delivers an excellent client experience.Connect with CraigWebsite - http://www.premier-international.com Linkedin - ​​https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigmwood Twitter - @craigmwoodEpisode 78 - https://tinyurl.com/7djkrcpw Connect with WinstonLinkedIn     https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonfaircloth/Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/forloveofteamInstagram   https://www.instagram.com/forloveofteam/Twitter        https://twitter.com/forloveofteam

096: Core Values with Craig Wood, CEO of Premier International

On this week&apos;s podcast  we introduce a new interview series where we will be chatting with industry experts to gain their insight on developing Core Values that create a winning team. We kick off this interview series with Teresa McCloy -- a Certified Coach, Speaker, and Enneagram Professional.Teresa was once a workaholic who spent much of her time looking for affirmation through her productivity. After her family experienced a personal crisis, Teresa knew it was time to look inward and work through her need to always take on more. During this journey, she was able to find her REALSELF and is now helping others do the same through her REALIFE Process program. We talk to Teresa about core values and her own breaking points of when she realized she needed to depend on other people to achieve the success she was envisioning for herself. 

095: Core Values with Teresa McCloy, The REALIFE Process

On this week’s episode, we discuss how by building a business from a state of ‘love’ you will see your success grow exponentially. When you surround yourself with people working in their gifting and focused on a common mission, not only do you get to spend more time working where you&apos;re most gifted, but you also create this virtuous cycle where your clients are being loved and your product just keeps getting better. So, as a leader where can you show love in your business? Love of Product: Face it, most of us founders are “idea” people. We love to solve problems, seize opportunities, and create solutions. Yet, we often have more ideas than bandwidth. But there’s something about seeing a solution that others cannot see and bringing that to the marketplace.  Love of Clients: You finally get traction. Money is starting to flow and now your idea is serving others.  The focus begins to shift to creating a client experience as good as your original product idea or service. We know what a remarkable client experience feels like and we’re committed to delivering for our clients.  Love of Team: Your client experience will only rise to the level of your team’s satisfaction in your business. Your client can always feel it when they work with people that love what they do. You surround yourself with people working in their gifting, focused on a common mission, so you can spend more of your time working where you are most gifted.  A business you love, supported by a team you love. What could be better than that? Want to learn more? Listen to the full episode now! 

094: Who do YOU Love?

Hall of Fame. Shrines to outstanding achievement.  A place to remember and recognize legends in sports, business and arts.  Many of these accomplishments focus on individual accomplishments.  Others recognize a team effort.  Imagine for a moment, what it would be like to be on a HOF team. In this week’s episode, I’d like to focus on another use of the letters HOF.  It’s the opposite of Hall of Fame work.  Can you guess what this HOF stands for?  Hair on Fire. What does the “Hair On Fire” organization look like?  The urgent items of the day overtakes the important tasksWe have back to back to back Zoom meetings with little to no breaksIf internal emails are not responded to immediately, it’s a sign of disrespect The shiny new object bumps last week’s priorities Every situation seems to require a custom response There are multiple answers to the question what’s our missionLittle accountability for others deadlines Every person for themselves Often, the visionary leader is a significant contributor to a HOF team. Once I worked for a leader who loved “ideation”, he prided himself on being able to generate lots of solutions to issues.  He’d say, “I can always come up with 20 ideas, I throw them against the wall and hopefully one of them will stick”.  If you’ve ever worked with a leader like this, you know how exhausting it can be.  Last week, our priority for the quarter was hitting our sales goals.  This week, it is redoing the website and marketing plan.  The visionary always has more ideas than bandwidth. Many severely underestimate the time interval it takes to complete a task, so once delegated, they are moving onto the next visionary initiative.  Listen to the full episode now! 

093: How to Create an HOF Team!

In this week’s episode, we talk about a familiar expression that founders and leaders of businesses often face.  “It’s lonely at the top”.  Tim Cook, CEO of Apple famously said, “It’s sort of a lonely job. The adage that it’s lonely — the CEO job is lonely — is accurate in a lot of ways. I’m not looking for any sympathy. You have to recognize that you have blind spots. We all do.”As Cook notes, it’s in these blind spots where the feeling of loneliness can be most apparent. As a business grows, a founder can no longer keep up wearing all of the hats so a TEAM begins to form.Even with the most capable leadership team, there is only ONE person who has their mind on the team -- YOU the founder.  And in many established organizations, the founder/CEO is also the only person with a deep, historic understanding of all of the key performance indicators (KPIs) over time.  Many leadership team members know their part but they don’t see the entire picture in the same way you do -- blending an overall mastery of the individual trends with the context and history of the road that brings you to this moment in your business, which can leave you feeling isolated. There is a way to NOT be lonely at the top - We call it UNLOCK Innovation™UNLOCK Innovation™ starts by rounding up the data points which tell the story about your business over the past 3-5 years.  And over a two-day intensive workshop, we unpack those metrics, discovering trends and coming to a shared understanding about which ones are most important to the business.Want to learn more? Listen to the full episode now! 

092: NOT Lonely at the Top

In this week’s episode, I want to share a hard lesson from my time leading a team of 30 people distributed across four time zones.  A popular acronym from that time was MBWA (Management by Wandering Around). It was the practice of leaders wandering around the office, in an unstructured manner, at random, to check with employees, equipment, or on the status of ongoing work. One of the greatest benefits to the WFH (work from home) movement is that it has dramatically reduced the interruptions of MBWA by both leaders AND team members.  So, what’s happening instead?  A new flavor of OCD (Omni-Channel Demands).  We now sense this unwritten expectation to be always available in real time, nearly around the clock. Our ability to have focused time to work within our gifting and our purpose is competing with incessant notifications and unwritten expectations from everyone from the top to the bottom to reply immediately. Back when I managed that team of 30 people we worked together to define communication guidelines across the team that gave everyone space to breathe. Those same methods can be used in today&apos;s new WFH landscape.  Want to know how we executed this plan? Listening to our full episode! 

091: Establishing Collaboration Channels

Life has many Begin Again moments. During these times in business and in life, we each have a decision. If you quit, your outcome is certain. And when you continue, your possibilities are infinite. Begin Again podcast is about building the practice of perseverance: how to cultivate it and put it to use in your business and in life. How drawing upon earlier experiences inspires you to take new steps of faith. Whether you are changing careers or launching your new online business, Begin Again is for you. Winston Faircloth has been a strategic advisor/CEO of several multi-million dollar organizations over his thirty year career. And now, as he starts this podcast, he faces his next Begin Again moment: launching his third business venture by taking his biggest step of faith to date. #BeginAgain #Future7FigureCEO

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