How do you build a culture of excellence? You begin with WE.

On this episode of the Circuit of Success Podcast, Brett Gilliland interviews best-selling author, inspirational speaker, and leadership expert Kyle McDowell. Together they break down McDowell's best seller Begin With WE and the top principles of creating and sustaining a culture of excellence. Kyle shares his experience of transitioning from a corporate career to starting his own business, and how he was able to make a positive change in his life by investing in himself and his passions. Kyle emphasizes the importance of leading by example, taking action, and focusing on outcomes rather than busyness to create a unified culture within an organization.

Are you looking to lead with excellence?

You don't wanna miss this...



FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE

 
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Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I'm your
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host, Brett Gilliland. Today, I've got Kyle McDowell
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with me, Kyle. What's up, buddy?
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Hey, Brett. I'm well. It's great to be
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with you today. I appreciate you, you having
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me.
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It's great to be with you as well,
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man. I'm excited. I I hope based on
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what I've seen about you and your energy,
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we're gonna have an awesome conversation today, man,
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so I'm fired up.
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Likewise. I hope so. I'm I'm just thrilled
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to be here. I anytime I get a
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chance to kind of spread the message and
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evangelize the work that I'm doing, especially on
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a podcast that's been around as long as
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yours, I jump at it. So, again, thank
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you. Awesome. Awesome. Well, you are a former
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fortune ten executive that turned to a Wall
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Street and USA Today best selling author.
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And speaker. You're traveling the world man on
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all sorts of stages, but before we dive
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it, man, you are today, man. There's a
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backstory in there. And something that makes Kyle
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tick, and I'd love to see if we
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can pull some of that out.
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Yeah. You thank you for that. I'd be
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remiss because I if I didn't just start
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early on.
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I I I was very fortunate to have,
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a mother who had an incredible work ethic,
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out she was a single parent mom for,
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the first several years of of my life
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until she met a wonderful man who became
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my stepdad. And, you know, they always instilled
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a sense of work ethic in me that
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I just don't think
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you can replicate. I don't I think it's
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hard to to teach it if it doesn't
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start at an early age.
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So I just learned the value of a
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dollar and the value of
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or the connection rather between
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hard work and outcomes. If you want something,
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you gotta go work for it. I'll never
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forget, man. Growing up every time a new
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pair of Air Jordans would hit the would
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hit the stores.
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And I wanted those things every single year,
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the new the new shoe would come out.
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I knew what I had to do. I
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had to put in weeks of yard work.
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It was always the recipe.
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So,
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I entered corporate America at seventeen,
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ironically, or of, believe it or not. I,
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I interviewed for a job at a local
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bank when I was seventeen years old.
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I rolled the dice that if I were
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to get an offer, the offer would come
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sometime after my eighteenth birthday because they wouldn't
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have hired me if they'd known I was
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a minor. Right. And it worked. So I
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interviewed in June of nineteen ninety three got
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the offer in July started in August,
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and, I've been a kind of a student
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of of leadership
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in in the dynamics that come with working
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inside of corporate America,
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for the last nearly thirty years. So that's
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I think that's That's what brings us here
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today, but I I have to share also,
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man. I,
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throughout that thirty year journey, and I'm sure
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you and and Certainly, many of your listeners
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might be able to relate.
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I found myself becoming more and more apathetic
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towards
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the whole thing. Towards the whole gig, man.
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And when I say gig, I mean, everything
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that comes with
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working inside the corporate world,
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the bureaucracy
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see the dysfunction, the toxicity, all of the
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things. And I'm the first to admit, by
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the way, man. I I perpetuated a lot
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of that. When you're leading big organizations,
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you're put in a position where lather rinse
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repeat what's always worked will continue to work.
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So you just kinda perpetuate that same toxicity
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and dysfunction.
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Yep. And I just I hit a boiling
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point late in my career probably around year
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twenty three where I I just said there
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has to be a better way.
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And that's when I came up with the
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concept that ultimately resulted in the book that
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you mentioned at the top. And,
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it's changed my life, actually. The the the
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realization I came to about you know, leading
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with a we mindset and getting to know
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your people and investing your time and energy
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into them. Just certainly, it changed my professional
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life, and that is I'm so happy to
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say it's transcended into my personal life as
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well and my relationships.
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Well, I think we you and I have
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a lot in common. I mean, it's
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a career decision that we made. I made
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mine at twelve and a half years in
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my professional career. You made yours. It sounds
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like at at at twenty two years, but
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I was the same way, man. And I
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say this is that as my success,
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you know, quote unquote success was going like
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that.
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My job satisfaction,
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my career satisfaction was going the other direction.
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And, you know, I I had a a
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nice firm and and a nice office and
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and things like that, but it it just
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didn't feel right. You know, and so now
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same to you. Like, my,
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you know, our firm now, our our mission,
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I mean, everything is around that future greater
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than your past. And it has been life
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changing. So I agree with you, but talk
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to the listener right now that's twenty two
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years in a career, twelve and a half
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years into a career. And they're scared as
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hell, man, to go make that jump. Bet
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on themselves. Walk away from, you know, the
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04:01 k plan, the health insurance, the nice
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