Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Good day, wonderful people, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. Those who have left us will always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten. Today we're going to be discussing unlocking your impact potential. And I'm so thrilled to have as a guest today Ari De Groat. Ari, welcome to the show. I am so honored to have you on here today.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having me.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: You're very welcome. Ari, how are things going with you? What's new in your world? Give us the tea, the deets, give us it all. What's going on?
[00:00:47] Speaker C: You know, all the things I like to move away from being busy to being full. It's a full and rich experience right now from, you know, running the company, doing this podcast and actually some others to yesterday there were tornado sirens to.
And everyone's good around here, to hitting. Hitting the road tomorrow with my. My family, two young kiddos for a little road trip to see family and friends. So, yeah, just all. All the pieces of life jumbled up into one right now. It's great.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Well, glad to hear that. That and it's always nice to get away. It's always nice to. To hop in a car, hitting an adventure. You don't know what you're going to see. You're going to see family, but you don't know what you're going to see along the way. You might make a few pit stops along the way if you see something that's interesting. So it's always cool to do that. I really enjoy doing that myself.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Well, I'm glad to hear things are going well. Before we begin, I always have a fun, thought provoking question to ask my guest to get things going. Are you ready for yours today, Ari?
[00:01:53] Speaker C: I'm ready.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: So your question is what is your favorite color and how does it represent who you are?
[00:02:00] Speaker C: I love it. So my favorite color is green. I love the. The. The life that is implied, like the richness, the nature, the connectivity of all the things. I love spring for that reason. I see like all the green coming out and I think there's something about possibility baked into there and, and new, all the layers, which will make a lot more sense as we go forward.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Well, listen, I love that you had fun with me. I love that. That answer. It is so true that green is a. Is that fulfilling Especially if you live in an area where you have winter where it's winter could be so cold you have the white stuff and then all of a sudden the green stuff starts coming through and you're absolutely right. Possibilities of it's warmer weather. What could we be doing or what fun things could we do when it starts to get nicer out? So I do love that answer. That's awesome. So why don't we get started here with you telling us a little bit about yourself and of course I want.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: To hear about your why Absolutely yes. So to everyone here, my name is Ay Ay degree I I'm a curious human exploring interconnections between the individual and the collective. As far as like how do we live our best lives? Human potential optimization. I love the word optimization and I hate it at the same time because I think there's, there's a way of quantified self and all the things that are measuring and metrics based. My angle is there's a much more real human element to where I'm coming from. So when I look at the interconnections it's really anchored to meaning and result an impact. I am the founder and impact catalyst of Upward and inward or you and I and and I have a deep background in organizational leadership, innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystems and change management. But really when I zoom out it's like through all my roles and I can explain a little bit about where I what my journey beyond road trips, what my journey has been but and all the surprises right along the way. A through line for me is I've. I'm endlessly fascinated with our ability to change. I'm fascinated with human potential and flourishing and it's not just definitely it's on the individual level and I'm curious about behavior change and what's within our own agency and capacity but also on the collective level. And so from there I really over time have built up a capacity and curiosity and love of like human centered sense systems thinking, organizational change and how we work together collaboratively. So my journey, you know professionally started out I I had about eight years leading change like the human side of change. I was under the HR umbrella to do this but hired because of the change opportunity and it was within a Fortune 500 company. It was manufacturing and I moved around with that company at least three times going through some change that felt really expansive and other change quite FR that felt more like contraction contracting and so it's interesting right like so while that was happening. I moved to where I am now in Kansas City and started poking around and learned of the startup community and immediately I was like, oh wow, these are my people. Like they, they, they have this vision of a future that's not quite true or real yet and they go out and find ways to create it with curiosity and drive and passion. So for about the last 12 years I spent my time supporting founders and innovators across the entrepreneurial ecosystem. A portion of that was with UP Global which was experiential learning for those who wanted to become entrepreneurs. And I was overseeing 21 states and anyone who ran our programs. The volunteers were also entrepreneurs. I worked with them and behind the scenes, I wouldn't have called it this then I was coaching, I was coaching them around like what it means to be an ecosystem builder. It's like how do we work together to create something greater than the sum of our parts, so to speak. So, so that was the first part and then the last nine years within the, the entrepreneurial innovation part was with the Sprint and now T mobile accelerator. It's a corporate accelerator program. Within that I saw a need to work with the founders who, so they had a place to go where they weren't just about that they could be whole humans. I actually got certified to be a human potential coach overlapping with that time. And I created a pretty comprehensive leadership growth program where I offered, you know, disc assessments and different things that were really just the low hanging fruit and I like to call the Trojan horse to expose, to let us go deeper into like what is going on? Where are you stuck? How can we help and provide support but also help them reconnect with their own resourcefulness, if that makes sense.
And so around that time, you know, I was with the accelerator and had my LLC for upward and inward back in 2018 but I was just doing coaching nights and weekends because I had this full time role somewhere along that, you know, Covid happened, I became a parent, all these things and I let that go a bit dormant. And so then I was looking around at the world and felt this unease, uneasy feeling of this like growing disconnection, I will call it within individuals, disconnection from themselves, disconnection from each other. And so I really wanted to go out with a more expanded version of upward and inward to work with impact leaders and reignite and reconnect those individuals wherever they sit in the organization and the community. Fill in the blank. And so yeah, it's been about a year actually. Yesterday was my one year going full time.
This Work has been a long time before that, kind of like an iceberg, everything below the surface. But it's been really exciting. And I work with, with teams, I work with, you know, high potential employees, leaders and next level leaders. And then I do also have a lane where I work with individual impact leaders through coaching. But I have a whole year long program and things like that. But I will say, just to kind of sum it up, like kind of about me and where I'm coming from, like my approach is human centered and it's rooted in influence over authority. I want to empower leaders to inspire, collaborate and drive positive change from any position and find that leadership capacity within yourself from wherever you sit.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: So many mind blowing things that you'd said there that that totally tipped the scale. But the one thing that popped out at me is your ability to change. That's kind of. When you said that, that just stuck out at me because having a background in leadership and HR and I'm noticing that there's so much change.
And especially in the last, like in the last two years, but especially even in the last six to eight months, there's been lots of change and people are changing and individuals are changing. And I'd say the conversations that I'm having are changing because the topics are different than what they were six, eight months ago. So it's ever changing. And what I really admire is the ability of leaders to work with that change and work through that chaos and manage and lead our teams through those situations because it's, it's essential. If we can't do that, then who are they looking to in order to progress and to grow?
[00:09:51] Speaker C: Absolutely. Well, you know, you brought up the color green and growth and change and I think bringing it back to nature is what I'm thinking of right here. I just brought this up yesterday, but if you look at nature, there's so much to be learned. And nature typically is whether it's creation and destruction, there's not a whole lot of room for maintenance.
Right. And so there's, I mean the only truth is change and the human psyche. It feels safe to want to retract back to what we know, what is certain, what is stable, what's in our control.
And so much of that is actually an illusion. So how do we work within what is that, that evolution, that ongoing change. There's true power in that. Once we can get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Oh for sure. Absolutely.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: Right. And leading from that place not having all the answers.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. So that's a great segue to our to our conversation. What I wanted to ask you is what is the, what is the multi demon diamond?
[00:10:52] Speaker C: Absolutely, yes, I referenced this. But my, I have a year long program for teams. It's the D4 dimensional impact leadership program. And so for me, multidimensional leadership. Well, well, let's flip it, right? Like I think all of us in our gut, in our, in our minds and maybe nightmares, we know what one dimensional leadership looks and feels like. It's very transactional. It does not take others into consideration. It looks at singular quick fix solutions that are not very effective. And so I've noticed this throughout, well, my life and certainly my work world and watching communities and ecosystem development and connection. So to me multi dimensional leadership is, is about leading from multiple layers of connection. And that's one of my frameworks and I can get into that a little bit. The basics of it. The layers of connection are connection. There are four picture circles or spheres overlapping.
So the layers of connection are within that's the individual connection to others, connection through systems and connection beyond legacy. And so to me it's it, it's not just about personal achievement or managing teams. It's not about all the extrinsic pieces. It's really about how does the inner work that we do integrate with the outer work. It's integrating self awareness, interpersonal skills, systems, think, thinking and being a steward. It's the future stewardship into a cohesive approach. And so within this the model recognizes that effective leaders, especially now like you already mentioned, things are shifting so rapidly. Effective leaders must be adaptable and we must meet this moment and the next moment right. Like we've got to be nimble in that way.
And in order to feel safe enough to do that, there's always risk involved in leading. We have to cultivate introspection and have clarity of purpose. We need to build trust, empathy and collaboration. That's all connection to others. We need to then expanding outward, right? Like we need to then be able to navigate and influence complex systems for collective impact and then not just have a short term view, but have a legacy view. What do our, you know, future generations, what will these decisions, how will that impact them? What do our stakeholders, stakeholders care about? How do we think about that? And so it's really anchoring to that point and then bringing it back to the present and acting from there.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: It's all about growth too because I feel you said that we adapt, but I think we also, I think we need to adapt because I've spoken to leaders and there's some that are continuously growing and want to continuously grow. And then there are those leaders who feel like they've hit the summit and they feel like they don't. They no longer have to learn because they have learned it all. And I say the moment that you've decide that you've learned it all, that is when things start to fall apart for you. Because things, like I said, are ever changing.
[00:14:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Not just on a monthly basis, on a weekly basis in some cases. And you have to be able to manage and function throughout every situation, whether it's chaotic or whether it's normal situations, whether it's something that has to deal with an individual or teams or a function or processes, you have to be able to manage that. And if you can't, then there's an issue. Or if you don't want to because you say, well, don't worry about it. We've done that before. And everything seems to kind of manage or circle back to the good things. That's when we start to run into trouble.
[00:14:48] Speaker C: Absolutely.
Highlight underlying bold. Yes, it's.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: It's something that we have to think about for sure. So what is the key to unlocking our full potential?
[00:15:01] Speaker C: Yes. Well, let me. I mean this is so personal, right. It's so individualized to each person. But I do think there are some general ways to approach it.
Let me zoom out for a minute. Like to answer this. I lately, and actually for a long time, but I've been thinking a lot about merging. How do we merge the awareness with the action? Right? Like, how do we merge, like, what's that like inner and outer work at the same time always. And showing up from that place like we are, we are the piece that chooses. We are that interface, so to speak. And, and you can be hyper aware and not do anything about it, or people can act and get quick results and not be aware of the layers of impact, good or bad. Right. And so how do we do both? I think of it too, like I mentioned, I'm a parent. I have, I have two kiddos. And to me, I think about like, which is a great exercise in leadership.
Pieces of being a parent that can be like put into leadership lessons. But I think as parents, you know, one of the best things I'll speak for me, one of the best things I can do is create a sense of belonging in a safe haven so that they feel confident to go out in the world and try things, to expand, to fail. Right. To take smart risks. And as humans, as leaders, we all need that. Even at the top, it can be very isolating and lonely at the top. When I was coaching, I've coached hundreds of founders and entrepreneurs. It's a very isolating place to be at times. And so like having that sense of, I'll call it like sense of security. Sometimes safety doesn't allow for risk. So security, I think it's important. So where our full potential is like how do we blend in and out? And for me some of the keys to this merging the awareness with the action is developing a high flow lifestyle. Flow science is really interesting. I'm actually that's one of my coaching certifications is peak performance Flow coach. And flow is simply when you act, when you perform and feel your best, it's when you're in the zone, it's when you're like so clicked in and time starts to fade away a little bit and it can either expand or contract or that voice in your head that's judging, that goes away. So when you're in flow. So if you can develop a high flow lifestyle that allows for being fully present, being really engaged, being high performing, but then building in time to recover, recover, recuperate and all of those things you build in those cycles, I think that's a true unlock for individuals and teams.
It also, it comes from a place of being intrinsically motivated. Not, you know, you can get raises and money, but those things fade very quickly, right? If you, you reach that next peak and it's like, well now this is normal. But when it's intrinsic motivation, when you love the growth, the learning, the engagement, the connection, fill in the blank for you, right? That is something we want to continue doing. And to me that is the key, like finding those unlocks for yourself. So the method is true for everyone, but the exact recipe is unique to you. And then your ability to transition seamlessly between self reflection, collaboration and systemic influence, to me that is full potential.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Two things that jumped out at me, I mean there's so many things that jumped out at me that you said there they're all golden nuggets. But the two things that jumped out at me is, he said merging the awareness with the action.
So it made me automatically think of we're building a home. We decide, okay, we have this large area and we're going to build this new home.
And so the awareness is building the home, the action is all the different elements that could happen when building the home and how do we react to those elements. I watch a lot of shows with my wife on HGTV and it makes me think of that a lot about what the process is and how people deal with the process. And sometimes it surprises me how they. Their thought process because they have to know what they were getting into when they were going through the process. So whether you're building your home or you're even renovating your home, there's a process.
So you're aware of it. But how do you. The action, how do you act and how do you. How do you focus on the chaos? The other thing that you mentioned me is you mentioned a parent. I talk about this all the time is parent leadership. And I think parents are leaders. Parents develop and they build and they grow their children up to be people that they want to be when they grow up. And it is definitely something that is so valuable. Because you talked about having a safe haven. We want to have a organization where it is a safe work environment where we. We don't want to have people thinking on Sunday night, oh my God, I gotta go back to that place again tomorrow. We don't want to have that. We want to have that safe environment where they are excited to go back to the office on a Monday. I gotta meet with so and so I have this meeting with. With. With Arie. I got this project that I'm working on with Arian. We're working on this conference that we're doing with all the people in the company and with another company and our. One of our clients. And I'm so excited about that. And I have a phone call with every first thing on Monday and I'm looking forward to all that planning. That's the excitement that we want to have. And if we don't have that, then it's not a safe haven.
[00:20:55] Speaker C: Yes. And I find it interesting. I think this is probably true for a lot of people, but it's the work, but it's the people, it's the connections, the community we build and there's that level of belonging that allow. I think the belonging piece is what allows folks to feel safe, to then take risks, to innovate, to say the thing. Because, you know, you won't be kicked out of the. You won't be ostracized, you won't, you know, and that's appreciated. And actually not only appreciated and allowed, it's welcomed, it's encouraged. Because you need those perspectives to come up with better solutions. Absolutely.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: And to be open to them as well. Right.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: To.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: To. To. To be able. Not everybody thing you're going to agree with, but the openness to create an atmosphere where creativity and innovation is welcomed. Man, I don't, I, I'm sure you agree I would be, I would be all over that. I'd be fire on anything like that for sure.
[00:21:52] Speaker C: Yeah. And I, I want to highlight something you just said because I think about this a lot, the openness.
I think there's a lot of pressure from society and the systems and the way we're brought up in schools to have the right answer, to know the thing. But the thing to remember is we've, we haven't been here before and that's always true. And I think that can be true from, I mean going back to the previous question about potential and individuals. Like that's true for us too. We can't, we need to be anchored in deep self awareness and know our values. But you can't hold too tightly or be too rigid to your exact identity. You need to leave some flexibility for growth. And I think that's true of teams as well. Like in, in leaders. Like, you cannot, it is not ideal. You can, but it is not ideal to go into a situation like I know the, the way and this is it and like force that, like leaving that room. That openness is really rich, fertile ground for a more collaborative and co creative, co created solution that serves the whole.
Yeah.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: So how does multi dimensional leadership encompass inclusive leadership and diversity?
[00:23:06] Speaker C: I mean it, it's just built in. Right. To me it's in. Multidimensional leadership is inherently inclusive. It recognizes diverse perspectives and backgrounds and experiences. They're essential for navigating complexity and driving innovation. It's a forcing function too. I mentioned the individual component, but it's a forcing function to recognize all parts of yourself to start, you know, even the icky parts. That's a level of diversity. Right. Like we're all very complex. We have multiple layers of identities, some that we don't even take on consciously. So it's important to kind of do an inventory check every now and then. Like which ones do I want to take forward? Right. But as a team, it's, it's built in and it's expanding our circle of awareness. So as you move out from the individual to the interpersonal to the systems and then legacy, it's like you put your head up high and are able to scan the horizon outside of your own world to see what others might be experiencing and then leaving space and inviting them into a brave space to share that. And how amazing is that? Right? Like you can learn from somebody else's lived experience that enhances your experience, that makes a more rich moment and solutions. Yeah. By focusing on connection to others and through systems, it emphasizes empathy, active listening. I've mentioned co creation and you ensure that every voice is heard and valued. I could go on and on. I will pause.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: I am smiling at everything you're saying. And you mentioned built in.
I love the fact that more and more leaders are talking about what you're talking about, what you're saying, that it's built in and we need to have diverse perspectives and we need to have different ways of looking at that or diversity of thought. I think we have a ways to go on that. I do believe that there's a lot of leaders that don't think that way. And I don't put any blame on anybody.
The only thing I would say is that the training needs to be there. So good organizations like the things that you do, going in and teaching organizations and leaders how to do these things and how to learn. Because you mentioned being a parent earlier and this is a prime example. When we grow up, we have our parents and we're brought up by our parents and we see how they bring us up. And then when we become a parent, we learned from that. So our automatic thing to do would be to parent the same way that we were parented, right?
[00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: So when you become a leader and a. Specifically somebody who is an individual contributor who takes on a leadership role for the first time, their automatic thing would be, okay, what do I.
What do I know? What do I learn? Well, I was a parent and this is how I acted and this is how I reacted. So that's how I gotta be. That's their first initial thought and it's not the right one because as our. During our conversation, we. Everybody's different. Everybody in each individual is different. Everybody comes from different backgrounds. Now we're so diverse. Everybody comes in different countries. So you can have.
[00:26:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Different people from different countries and you're sitting at a table in a meeting and we have to have those different perspectives. Because of that, I think we have to lead differently than we did years ago or as a parent.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: So in closing, what is one takeaway that you'd like our audience to get from this episode?
[00:26:57] Speaker C: For the audience, I think the biggest takeaway is that from wherever you stand right now, you are a leader, even if that's of your own life. Right.
And your impact as a leader is not defined by title, but by your ability to connect within yourself with others through systems toward a legacy that matters. It's about meaning and mattering. And I think anytime we can bring in the challenge of like, how do we merge right? Like how do we merge the awareness with action? Even the name upward and inward, the ampersand, the and is really important. It's about yes, and you are the interface and it's about how you show up and merge that awareness with action and keep expanding as you go and bringing others along with you. That's the big takeaway.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Love everything that you said there. If I was to have a call to action today, I would definitely say, like, Share Follow this Episode There are some real good golden nuggets in this episode here, and I definitely think that all the listeners can grab some value in this conversation and the things that Ari had mentioned today. I wanted to take the time to thank you for coming on today, Ari. Thank you. I just admire your engaging attitude, your ability to communicate, and your dynamic work ethic. I just think you have an energetic personality and I truly think you are a true gem and I've enjoyed all of our conversations and I've truly enjoyed this one today. So thank you so much for that.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: Amazing thank you. And to you being just so warm and masterful and your connection, you're a great connector and it really is. The connection piece is so needed.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: I appreciate that. I appreciate your kind words. On behalf of myself and my guest today, Arie, I'd like to thank you all for listening today and until next time, be safe. And remember everyone that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything you.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Have been listening to. Let's Be Diverse with Andrew Stout to stay up to date with future content, Hit Subscribe.
