Mastering Conscious Leadership: The Morpheus Perspective

Ian Hatton: 0:00

We're the same. Nobody is all good or nobody's all bad. We have a common humanity, and that is what connects us.

Porter: 0:12

Alrighty, folks, welcome back to Transacting Value, where we're encouraging dialogue from different perspectives to unite over shared values. Our theme for season four is intrinsic values, so what your character is doing when you look yourself in the mirror. Now, if you're new to the podcast, welcome, and if you're a continuing listener, welcome back. Today we're talking our July core values of independence, freedom and initiative with the founder of a leadership development company called Totally Morpheus, out of South Africa. His name is Ian Hatton and we'll get to him in just a second. But, folks, first let me just start off by saying I really appreciate this opportunity to talk to you guys about some of these values, bringing core values to the forefront and, essentially, realigning humanity with humanity. So, without further ado, i'm Porter, i'm your host and this is Transacting Value. Ian, how are you? Yeah, very good, good to be with you. Yeah, i appreciate you taking time out of your day too. I understand you're a few hours ahead of me now, so maybe it's in your evening if I'm matting it out right. Yeah, early evening, yeah, early evening, okay. Well, i hope your day went well, then, and I appreciate you capping off the day with this conversation. So that's always cool too. But, ian, let me ask you this man you've had such, i think, a wild career. That is almost opposing in itself and I think, given today, where there's this sort of merger of humanity and tech, you're positioned almost perfectly to help facilitate some of that. Right, can we just get a little bit about your background before we start moving into a conversation?

Ian Hatton: 1:41

Yeah, absolutely. So you could divide my career primarily into two halves 19 years in tech and then 21 years in leadership development. So that's kind of been the transition, and it was a very interesting transition to make. A lot of people ask me. They kind of go wow, how did you go? You went from hard skills to soft skills And I said no, no, i went from hard skills to harder skills because people's skills are difficult And yet for me it was a move as well from the temperamentality of technology, unpredictability of technology, to the unpredictability of people, which just had a lot more heart to it.

Porter: 2:22

Well, that's got to be a mental shift too, though. I mean from something you can almost build a routine off of and you understand, if this, then this, and it's defined and quantified and pretty, all things considered, exacting, and then it's not.

Ian Hatton: 2:36

Yeah, well it was. at least it was a transition. It wasn't as harsh as I just made it sound, because even within my tech career I had gone from very technical operational roles to leadership roles and then marketing roles, and in the marketing roles a lot of people work product launches, being on stages, that kind of thing dealing with journalists. So the shift had actually already happened to a large extent.

Porter: 3:02

Oh, i see, Okay, all right, and then. So now, leadership development means what in terms of application? What does that look like to you?

Ian Hatton: 3:09

Yeah, i've now worked with leaders from nearly 100 countries. in BlastCount was 98 countries. I've worked with leaders from there. sort of thousands of events, tens of thousands of leaders. It's been quite a journey and a lot of it has been leadership development, training, you know, working with big corporates and that kind of thing. But I also have a journey of working very one-on-one with leaders and I have sort of a two-year program that I'll take people on with coaching and a much more intimate kind of program as well. So, yeah, it's been from training to coaching And then, of course, i do a fair amount of keynote speaking as well.

Porter: 3:46

I saw actually online you are, or maybe you were, a virtual president right Public speakers association in South Africa. Is that still?

Ian Hatton: 3:53

current. That is correct. Yes, i was for two years running the president of the virtual chapter of professional speakers of Southern Africa.

Porter: 4:01

Well, congratulations. I guess to add that title to your list of applicants. Thank you, yeah, that's exciting, thank, you.

Ian Hatton: 4:08

The niche that excites me is something which I call conscious leadership. I kind of left the corporate world thinking I'm going to change the world, because we'd heard of this thing called authentic leadership And I kind of thought, well, i'm going to go and change the world, but of course I hadn't done that in a consciousness journey myself, and so once that happened and I became more awakened to the full reality of who I am and the mess that I am at times and the glorious genius that I am at times, and the whole thing that consciousness led to me understanding a whole new form of leadership, and that, i guess, is what we focus on a totally more fierce I guess I'm a little confused.

Porter: 4:48

You say the journey of what you call self-awareness and what you sort of bring to the table.

Ian Hatton: 4:53

Yeah, so let me explain a little bit. I thought I was going to go and change the world with this. You know, be more authentic in your leadership But of course I hadn't really connected with myself and even a facet of myself, which I eventually came to call my monster And what the consciousness was. Becoming aware of that monster and then going on a journey of actually engaging with that, dealing with that, realizing that a lot of my reactions to people were actually mine to own, it wasn't about their behavior at all, and that consciousness grew to this place of if I don't invest in me, it's a limiting my ability to lead others. And that's what consciousness is. It's making myself my number one job every day so that I have capacity for others.

Porter: 5:38

I love it. I love it. You know, in the media company that I have, sdyt Media, we call it self-literacy, where you sort of comprehend how you communicate effectively, right, but it ultimately sounds very similar as a concept, exactly that There's a musician maybe you're familiar or any of our listeners, maybe you're familiar By now. He goes by jelly roll And in I can't remember which song. Somebody may hear this and call me an idiot for not knowing it. I don't know, but one of the lyrics goes my angels and my demons both know me well, and I think it's so poetically phrased and so well put that it almost also encapsulates the point you just made where you have to take whatever your experiences are in life that maybe at some points you decide to run from or ignore because you're not ready to process and then process them. I think we're sort of this mutable persona And so whatever influences us as we grow whether we notice it, consciously, pay attention to it or not becomes a part of us and how we react to things in our biases and our perspectives, and are those all things that you focus on as well? Actualization.

Ian Hatton: 6:43

Yeah, absolutely Exactly. I mean, let me give you a simple example. I had a triple crisis. It involved the ending of a marriage, the ending of a business partnership and the ending of an involvement with a particular community spiritual community And all of this happened in the space of a few months. It was a very dramatic period And I moved. I went relocated to the coastal city And while I was there I kind of had this awakening that I needed to make myself my number one job every day And I hadn't ever done that before for a variety of reasons and pressures and social norms and parental influences and various things. But the first impact that I noticed was I was still doing the same work And the first impact I noticed is I was having a bigger impact without changing any techniques, because as I connected more deeply with myself and took care of myself, somehow that resonated with the people I was leading and guiding. And suddenly I was hearing stories of hey, you know that thing that you taught me? it actually changed my marriage and changed the way I parented And it and I was getting stories back that I'd never had before. And I think there's something about when we go in the inner journey and become aware of who we really are. There's something that draws others at a deeper level than when we just dealing with the theoretical aspects.

Porter: 8:07

Okay, i'll bite for a second there. I think developing an ability to breed or create deeper, meaningful relationships with people is a skill set. I don't want to call it a hard, it's a difficult skill set, right, but it's a soft skill of as far as considerations go, and I think being able to do that the only difference, in my opinion, between that and those levels and depths of relationship and let's call them more superficial relationships, your everyday encounters with people is the facade is gone, because there's more trust and more rapport And that, i think, just naturally breeds more authenticity. So you know what this is a perfect opportunity. Let's do this. This is a segment of the show called developing, character developing character. We're talking about authenticity. I think a lot of that gets rooted into our personal value systems And, like we discussed earlier, there's opportunities for things that may be, wittingly, unwittingly, you go through, that you wouldn't care to go through again for any number of reasons, but there's things obviously you'd care to repeat and maybe learn something new. And both of those, though. I think it was Buckminster Fuller, if anybody's familiar with him. He was an engineer, but he had this principle that said unity is plural, but at minimum two, because you have to be balanced, you have to accept a bit of everything that you encounter in process And that ultimately helps to curate our value system. And so what? we're talking about authenticity, and we're talking about making yourself your number one priority every day. Who are you in? Let's start with this segment. Here's two questions. All right, as vulnerable and as willing as you want to answer this first question, what were some of your personal values growing up?

Ian Hatton: 9:50

Yeah, so there was a lot of humility. Being nice was very much the aspiration and the example my parents would always point to look at that person, look how nice they are. Look at that person, look how nice they are. So there was a lot of that sort of encouragement to really be nice, but aligned almost. The flip side of that is don't love yourself, don't love yourself too much. Look at that person, they love themselves too much. Look at that person, they love it. So there was this constant sort of be nice and don't love yourself. Well, not too much, anyway. Don't speak too much and use the word I, you know, because now you love yourself too much, you know. And so these this to me was the constant pattern growing up And it was quite an awakening to realize that actually they are false in a way. They come from an era which I understand and and the I can understand the intention could be quite positive, but the result was that I went through a period of loathing myself. I went through periods where I was obese. I really loathe myself and all my attempts to be nice was actually suppressing something of a direct side of me And that would every now and then burst out And then I would feel, oh, i failed, i'm not nice, and so it just ended up in this negative cycle.

Porter: 11:10

That's tricky because they are almost opposing right. Like you can be nice to other people, you can be nice to yourself, be nice to whoever, but ultimately then the more you focus on you, the more sort of distracted or disgusted maybe you could end up in that process wild. Okay, well, let's, let's move forward a little bit. Then I'm curious to see where this goes. So my second question then I assume some of that's changed What are some of your personal values now?

Ian Hatton: 11:33

Well, i'm going to start with this the realization that I had that if we're talking, you know, don't love yourself too much. If love is the true love love that is includes, you know, sometimes tough love and you know where we do, where we get courage and all these kinds of things then reality is it's impossible to love yourself too much Because that would no longer be love. You know, that idea that you loving yourself so much that you become all self centered and selfish, that wouldn't be love. And that awakening started to open my world. And as I started to love myself, i also had a realization that what I really value is people. I value conversations, i value humor, i value love, i value connection. And so I kind of woke up to this. I've been through this transition from my childhood values to, you know, good values from society or religion or whatever. And I now went but what am I actually? And the feedback I get from everybody is and you're a people, person, you're a connector. And so connection is my number one value And it's it's lived, it's it's intuitive, it's it's relational. It doesn't mean I don't need time on my own, it doesn't mean I'm so much of an extrovert that I want to be with people 24 seven. But it's this thing of I have an ability to connect with myself and have ability to connect with others, and those two seem to relate. The better I'm connected with myself, the better I connect with others. Whether that's a coaching session, whether that's standing on a stage and reading people's faces, whether that is in a classroom and understanding the question behind the question that they're asking, there's something about the connection that, for me, i regard it as a gift. I can't claim a lot of credit for it, but it is naturally who I really am And it is absolutely my number one value, and it is lived. You know, some of my other values, i think, still have an aspirational element And of course it can always grow, but that one, it is me, and everybody who knows me says, yeah, that's you.

Porter: 13:37

All right, folks, stay tight. We'll be right back on Transacting Value. Did you know that children who do chores to earn their allowance have more respect for finance and more of a drive for financial independence? Did you know that families who complete tasks together have stronger bonds? Did you know that cognition, sense of self and anxiety all improve if people have regular interactions with nature? Imagine what instilling self-esteem, resilience, family teamwork and an authorized sense of self could do for the growth of each generation. No matter the temptation At Hoofen-Kluck or Farm, that's just another Tuesday. Want to learn how to homestead or just more effectively develop your character for an unknown future? Follow our direct message on Instagram at hoofen-kluck or farm. Watch it happen in real time. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. A foolish man learns from his own.

Ian Hatton: 14:33

You know some of my other values, i think still have an aspirational element And of course, it can always grow. Yeah, and it is me, and everybody who knows me says, yeah, that's you.

Porter: 14:43

Well, congratulations. I don't know that that's something a lot of people can say or anybody I don't know But that's still quite the accomplishment when you start to find something you're good at and you're able to capitalize on it. So for no other reason, it's a huge accomplishment, right? But I guess now I'm thinking that well, like in my case, for example, if I find something I'm good at and it can be anything, it can be folding socks, making pancakes, podcasting, whatever, right? Not that I'm good at those or not good at those, but as examples, right? So if I'm finding something I'm good at, eventually I'm naturally going to take pride in the quality of those things because I recognize I can do them well and I want to continue doing them well or better, right. And what is your threshold for managing your pride or balancing out humility in that process? How do you rectify and reconcile that balance Now that you're finding, oh, this is the gift, this is what I've got, this is what I'm giving people. how do you do it? What do you do about it?

Ian Hatton: 15:42

Well, i don't know if it's unique to the specific value of connection, but for me it's self-regulating, because the connection that I am so good at leads me to connect with other human beings at such a deep level that we have a vulnerability between us. There's no sort of I'm superior. In fact, what I'm exploring is their humanity whilst revealing my own, and I have a very natural vulnerability. In fact, i think my vulnerability is what increases my connection. So I'm I mean you heard me talking earlier on about this triple crisis that I encountered 12 years ago and how it changed my life. That kind of language is just so natural to me that I don't even think I'm elevating myself at all. I think the connection value and maybe we can call it a genius as well, but the connection value is an equalizer in itself, in that there's nobody I connect to who will tell me a terrible thing that they've been contemplating or a terrible thing they've gone through or a terrible thing they've done. That makes me look down on them, because I'm very aware of my own humanity. And likewise, when I discover their goal, their genius, their thing that they bring to the world, i get so excited because he has another one. So we kind of matching on the genius and we kind of matching on the mistakes. To me it's just so self regulating. I I don't think I've ever will get arrogant with it at all And maybe that in itself should be a warning sign. I don't know, but I think my experience of it so far is we're the same. You know, nobody is all good or nobody's all bad. We, we, we have a common humanity and that is what connects us.

Porter: 17:29

I totally agree with you. I think there's aspects obviously of our own perceptions and experiences as we go through life that are going to change and sway and influence and you know whatever how we recognize and align with certain experiences right. But aside from that and more sort of materialistic, superficial things, i yeah, i think on a deeper level there is sort of this common undercurrent, this undertone that still applies and collectively holds everybody together pretty similarly and pretty well, in my opinion. You said connection, to call it a value, but that you could also call it a genius. What do you mean? What do you mean?

Ian Hatton: 18:07

Yeah, One of the things that I work with people is is that everybody has genius in them and for different people it might be different things, and for some people it's being a linguist, for some people it's. It might be technical or mathematical or whatever it is. But what I am uncovering is I'll work with people, especially on my longer term program is where they discover exactly what that genius is that they bring, and it's not always something comfortable. I'll give you one example I've got a leader that I'm working with at the moment and she has realized that where she's really good is in situations where everybody else is uncomfortable, and so the genius that she brings is, with empathy, holding a space for people to deal with uncomfortable things, specifically around inclusivity, for example, that kind of thing where people are realizing and confronting their own prejudices or preferences or whatever it might be. And she's really good at non-judgmentally holding that space And I think of it and I'm horrified because it's one of the uncomfortable spaces for me And I think that is that kind of space And this is it. I believe everybody has a genius, So we all have talents and we can grow talents into strengths, but there's a, there's almost a level above that which is something almost supernatural. I have an assistant who has an almost supernatural ability to put a concise message out to my clients. I remember one struggling with a particular message and I you know what I need to give this to Cindy to do and I contacted Cindy. I said this is the story And within five minutes this message went out. And I looked at the message and I thought if I'd worked on that a week it wouldn't have been as good as the message she sent out in five minutes. Yeah, that's a genius, that's it's almost like a supernatural or a. Yeah, it's a. It's a natural ability that is unique and that makes it almost supernatural, if that makes any sense.

Porter: 20:04

It definitely does. But now I'm going to sort of flip the script a little bit, or whatever analogy you want to use there, the opposing viewpoint, i guess. Well, so, for example, generically speaking, your clients over these I think you said 98 countries, which you're really close. I'm pulling for you, you know, hopefully you're breaking three digits soon. But the trend, i guess, of the clients that you work with, i'm assuming, is that they want to work with you, they want to identify these. What's plural of genius? Is that plural? Their levels, you know? Yeah, and what about? what about the other people in the world? that, i mean, it sounds cool, it's sort of ethereal, it's this sort of fluffy concept of softer skills, right. That I think we can sort of align with as being a little bit more uphill of a marketing attempt, right? All right, folks, stay tight And we'll be right back on Transacting Value. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to George Washington in 1787 that agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will, in the end, contribute most to wealth, good morals and happiness. Did you know that, even at a nearly $1 billion valuation, farmers markets nationwide still authentically serve their local markets as direct to consumer, armed fresh models of freedom, self-reliance and teamwork. At the Keystone Farmers Market in Odessa, florida, those same ideals also cultivate an agritourism experience preserving the old ways of wholesome, family-oriented, sustainable growth of produce and people For premium quality produce at affordable prices, opportunities for the kiddos to feed the baby cows or to simply wander the garden and watch your future meals grow. Visit Keystone Farmers Market on Facebook or come by in person to 12615 Tarbon Springs Road, keystone Farmers Market, the place with the boiled peanuts. What about the other people in the world that? I mean, it sounds cool, it's sort of ethereal. It's this sort of fluffy concept of softer skills that I think we can sort of align with as being a little bit more uphill of a marketing attempt. But softer skills, self-awareness, self-actualization even Maslow said, hey, that's the last thing you need to worry about. So how do you explain the benefit, the importance behind identifying these levels of genius for people or for your individual self, to somebody who says, well, i mean that's great, but right now I just got to go to work, like I'm a blue collar worker. I got to go to McDonald's, post office garbage man. Like I just got to pay bills, like that's great, but I don't have time for that in my life. Do they? What's your opinion?

Ian Hatton: 22:51

Yeah. Well, i believe everybody has something great to bring and I want to handle this from three different angles. The first is that the leaders I work with, i encourage them to find that genius in their people. Okay, and that it's so to me it's. I can only reach so many people, but you know, if leaders can, it can be a multi-generational impact and they can start searching for that, that treasure, that gold, in their people. So I think that's the first thing. The second thing is that I truly believe everybody has it and that it has a tangible value. So let me give you a very simple example. I worked with a leader who had a salesperson on their team who, every single month, delivered 10 times the revenue of the average of all the other sales sales people on the team. 10 times, yeah, okay. In fact, this person in their commissions earned more than the CEO earned. Oh, wow, because they were so good. Do you want to take that person and try and make them I don't know more well rounded or turn them into a manager? No, you want. There's a tangible value when somebody discovers they're genius and they love what they do, because they absolutely love their job and their clients love them and they just couldn't help. There's a tangible value when we can operate in our genius. But I want to tell you a story. You mentioned blue collar and I look. I'm not an expert on blue collar but I have done some work in various blue collar industries And I believe everybody has something that they bring. Sometimes it's. I have a lot of cleaners in the environment where I live and I always greet them and some of them just have this radiance that lights up anybody's day and that could be their genius. It doesn't have to be something particularly technical, but one of my best examples is in 2004,. I was in San Diego, actually Escondido and I was on a five day training course with the Ken Blanchard companies well, now called Blanchard And I arrived on the first day and there was this label at the reception and it was a title, and the title was director of first impressions. And, as it turned out, i heard Ken Blanchard himself tell the story later that for him a receptionist is a director of first impressions. And the crazy thing is, you know that is 19 years ago. I still remember her name. Her name was Elizabeth And Elizabeth truly was a brilliant director of first impressions. I walked in and she had this twinkle in her eye and she said I bet you're here for the training. And I said, yes, i am. And she said well, where are you from? Because she heard my accent and we started this discussion and she told me where I could find coffee and she helped me get everything. And my brother, who was living in Houston at the time, called to leave me a message and he spoke to her and she said yeah, no, i met him. You know, i know who you're talking about, i know who your brother is, and she had this genius way of just she could connect everybody. Then, when I called my brother back, he said who was that person? She was brilliant, best receptionist I've ever spoken to in all my life, because she just had this connection. Everybody has a genius. It doesn't have to be something scientific or you know. It's a value add. You are the right person in the right role, adding value to the organization in ways that just because you're a receptionist doesn't mean you don't matter. In fact, maybe you're one of the most important people when people are calling into the organization.

Porter: 26:25

Yeah, yeah. It's easy to get lost in the noise of whatever you're setting, your life is involved in or what sort of wrapped up in, and I think it's with that amount of distraction relative to the environment, the area where you're at, your surroundings, your sphere of influence, with that amount of distraction it almost puts new clarity to I can't hear myself think you know that, saying you can't really identify what you're processing because there's a lot of other distractions. What do you recommend, or how do you recommend filtering through some of those things to be able to focus on you?

Ian Hatton: 27:02

I think you know, as I say, I use this motto I'm my number one job today is me, and that doesn't mean I'm my only job. I still need to serve my customers or my internal customers, or, you know, there's a lot of noise with my children. There could be a whole lot of things happening at the same time. So it's really for me about prioritizing self, And for some people it's first thing in the morning, some people it's last thing in the evening, some people it's during the day when there's a crisis and they realize that they've just been no longer centered and they just need to go, you know, get out, get onto a smoking balcony, even if they don't smoke, and just spend five minutes breathing. But it's that thing process of re centering and reconnecting with self And through that the awareness grows of actually this is the kind of scenario where I'm more vulnerable. This is the kind of scenario where I'm less vulnerable to these things and their growth of understanding of self starts to develop and the gap between the poor reaction and the corrective behavior gets smaller and smaller and smaller as I practice it, more and more Sure.

Porter: 28:09

Sure, i work with a lot of Marines now, where part of what I saw for anybody who's new to the show I spent the majority of my career in the infantry with the US Marine Corps. I'm still active duty, still still doing my thing, but my role now has since changed over the last decade and some years that I don't necessarily just go out and instant willing obedience to orders, don't question anything. Part of my job now is to not only be able to ask more appropriate, more right questions but also be able to have more appropriate and more right answers. All right, folks, stay tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value. Alrighty, folks, here at Transacting Value, we write and produce all the material for our podcast and house game perspective alongside you, our listeners, and exchange vulnerability and dialogue with our contributors every Monday morning. But for distribution, buzzsprout's a platform to use. You want to know how popular you are in Europe or how Apple is a preferred platform to stream your interviews? Buzzsprout can do that. You want to stream on multiple players through an RSS or custom feed, or even have references and resources to take your podcast's professionalism, authenticity and presence to a wider audience? Buzzsprout can do that too. Here's how Start with some gear that you already have in a quiet space. If you want to upgrade, buzzsprout has tons of guides to help you find the right equipment at the right price. Buzzsprout gets your show listed in every major podcast platform. You'll get a great looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes and more. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. The team at Buzzsprout is passionate about helping you succeed. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Plus, following the link in the show notes, lets Buzzsprout know we sent you, gets you a $20 credit if you sign up for a paid plan and helps support our show. You want more value for your values. Buzzsprout can do that too. Part of my job now is to not only be able to ask more appropriate and more right questions, but also be able to have more appropriate and more right answers. In that endeavor, i work with a lot of Marines of varying ages, but let's just say in their 20s and 30s, that it's difficult identifying or attempting to identify what some of their individual strengths are, because our focus obviously is on the collective to accomplish whatever the mission set is. It's a unit-driven function. It's not an individually-driven function but to accomplish any level and degree and scale of welfare for each one of the service members. in attempting to accomplish a mission, you have no choice but to be intrusive in your leadership style and help individuals build perspective, develop coping strategies, think through whatever issues there are that they need to process through personal life, stressors, professional issues, whatever applies. Have you found in well, i suppose now the last two decades of your focus around totally morphias to be more centered with people around professionally-driven intentions or personally-driven intentions.

Ian Hatton: 31:25

In many ways. for me, it's the marrying of the two That is the real place of the biggest change that we see is where people become very aware of their own things and they're aware of their people and what their people need. The whole thing of the collective versus the individual. the point of great teaming is not either or It's both. and There's a beautiful thing. Marcus Buckingham talks about this ancient cave painting that was discovered. It was a hunting party. It wasn't in Africa, i think, it was somewhere in Central Europe. It was this hunting party. Every single hunter was depicted uniquely. They all had a unique characterization, a uniqueness to them. It's that diversity of strength, but together on the hunt, that each one was applying something. You've talked a lot about the Marines, but if you took it a level deeper, say, for example, to the SEALs, a SEALs team has to know each person's exact strengths and weaknesses where they can rely on each other, where they can't. You can't just treat everybody exactly the same and expect I mean, there's certain basics you can expect from each person. Each one will have your back. a lot of around values, maybe, but around unique contributions. Each one will have a specific genius that they can bring.

Porter: 32:48

To me it's not either or it's both, and I suppose that's the beauty of your model It's developing uniqueness as a common strategy for everybody, which I think is a strange sort of dichotomy, that And tying that uniqueness to the purpose.

Ian Hatton: 33:02

If we have a purpose, if we have a task, if we're a team of people in a business or whatever it might be and this is our objective or this is our purpose as a team it's how do we out bring each person's uniqueness to align with that purpose, and that's really what I spend a lot of time working with teams on.

Porter: 33:19

I imagine somebody has to. I mean to try to find let's just say you have a team of five To find each individual person's unique strengths let's call them unique genius for the sake of consistency here And in that, train the team and in that identify. You know a mid-range training plan or whatever applies, but your overall brand strategy or whatever you're involved in, that takes time And there's only so many hours in any given day. So how do you I guess this is really also one of my, one of my last few questions but how do you recommend for anybody or, in your case, the majority of business oriented clients that you've had, how do you recommend balancing the time investment, the sweat equity for teams to be able to identify these and, you know, focus on goal sets and whatever they have to accomplish?

Ian Hatton: 34:06

Well, i've got two points on this. The one is this is not as uncommon as we think, because we see it in sports all the time. I don't know football that well, but your quarterback knows where the receiver is going to be. There's something about the receiver has a strength, the quarterback. They have worked together so well on each strength that they just know. You know, in soccer we see the same. You know where these brilliant partnerships where you know these attacking fielders and this one kicks the ball, not to where this person is, but where they know that person is going to be. At that, you know, there's a partnership where we know each other's strength so well and there's an intuitive sort of connection. So I don't think it's that far in a concept. In terms of time investment, it's actually. My answer is really simple. Most great leadership is slow down to speed up. It's doing the things that take a little longer up front so that we can deliver quicker overall. And so you know, a lot of people want to jump in and say just go, go, go, go, go, but they don't put these basics in place of do we understand each other? Do we have values in common? Are we on the same page, and if we are, what does that value mean to you versus what it means to me? That sort of slowing down, not to spend all our days sitting around tables and doing nothing? No, a lot of this is evolutionary. It grows over time. But it's that slowing down to make sure we have that connection of we are on the same page. We do have developed the common values or the common purpose We have a sense of what we're busy with is bigger than us as individuals and we're aligned and we each bring then who we are to that. It's not actually that complex. It might not be easy, but it's really just a mindset change And the result is that we then perform better. It's like I mentioned to you, knowing that my assistant, cindy, can do certain things, that if I had to do them it would take me a week and she can do it in five minutes. That makes sense, that we discover that about each other and that she knows where she can rely on me and I know where I can rely on her, and that speeds things up. It doesn't actually slow things down.

Porter: 36:17

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Ian Hatton: 37:38

That makes sense, that we discover that about each other and that she knows where she can rely on me and I know where I can rely on her, and that speeds things up. It doesn't actually slow things down.

Porter: 37:48

Sure, well, like you said, it's value added Right, as long as you can recognize it anyways and effectively use it. It's value added. Yeah, exactly Well, i appreciate the opportunity to have this talk and I think there's a lot more that you have to contribute in your perspective and in your message that I didn't really catch on to when we started this conversation or even the last time we spoke, a couple of weeks ago. I think it took me what was it? Maybe about two weeks since we talked last. I think I think it took me at least that long to really start to think through it in my own head. Ian, what are you talking about? And then I started to piece it together and have a little bit more clarity. And I'll close with this Just last night there was a Marine I was having a conversation with and he's having some life stressors impacting his professional ambitions, and we talked for a little bit generically. He didn't really want to open up too much And after about an hour there was a bit more vulnerability than when we had started And one of the points that came out of our conversation was, of all of the positive and negative experiences in anybody's life, his end of point of our conversation. You choose what you want to take from those experiences, but you cannot choose not to deal with the experience. You can ignore it, you can delay it, you can even sidestep it for a while, but eventually life is pretty circular, and so by the time you're 70, 80, 90 years old, all you're thinking about is all the things you messed up when you were in your 20s, 30s, 40s or younger, or what messed you up as a kid, or abuse or trauma, or divorce or any other number of things as an adult as well. And so it really becomes this circular perspective, i think, and the sooner we can start to identify when we're ready to process, i suppose in our time, like your triple crisis, for example, and you start to identify okay, but I don't want to relive the experience. I don't even want to take all of it with me. I don't want that much baggage, but maybe I can make a travel kit and take it with me down the road, and I think what you're explaining and what you're doing with your clients is a lot more beneficial to a lot more people than maybe what it's lending credence to, namely in a business environment based solely on this conversation. Blue collar workers, families, relationships, marriages, a school yard, kids, unreal man, i really appreciate what you're doing.

Ian Hatton: 40:20

And can I just jump in because I love what you're saying And I want to just bring it to my number two value, which is actually freedom. And what it is is the when we confront those things, when we do actually and sometimes it takes a couple of cycles of going round and round before we get to them But when we deal with them it's liberating liberating myself from my interpretation of the imposed values that I had as a child. Liberating myself to be and bring my genius. Liberating others to deal with their things and their transitions or out of all their sheds and aughts into who they really are, and liberating their genius. You know, all of this is freedom, but a connection has to be there first. You can't start without connecting with self and others, but then the liberty starts to emerge And that's more aspirational. For me It's an emerging thing And I know ties in with your themes as well, and I think what you've just described is exactly that that journey of liberty.

Porter: 41:17

Yeah, I agree. I agree For the sake of time, man, if people want to find out more about Totally Morpheus, maybe even some of your speeches or just you in general, where do people go? How do they do it?

Ian Hatton: 41:30

The two easy ways is TotallyMorphiuscom, very simple. Totallymorphiuscom is where you'll find the business and my whole team that operates from that in the leadership development that they do. And then me personally on LinkedIn is the best place by far. So LinkedIn forward slash. Ian Hatton, one word you'll find me, the number one, ian Hatton, on LinkedIn. There are a lot of Ian Hattons around the world, but I'm the number one one on LinkedIn, so you'll find me there as well. And we have a free assessment, a free, conscious leadership assessment called the egg, which you could take your team through if you've got a team, and we can help you with a debrief if you want it. But that you'll find on the website or on my LinkedIn profile.

Porter: 42:10

Genius. I love it. I love it. Ian, thank you for your time, thank you for this opportunity. Obviously, your vulnerability, sharing your perspective and your experiences, and also sharing experiences that took you some time to work through I mean, there's a fair amount of courage in that too, so I appreciate the opportunity, man. Let me just say that. So thank you very much, thank you for what a pleasure. Of course, and to everybody listening throughout the duration of this conversation. Or maybe you've just tuned in and you're just waiting till we close this so you can rewind and start from the beginning because it was so cool, but thank you for tuning in and listening to our conversation, but also our core values for July, where we talked about independence, we talked about freedom and also initiative. I want to thank Ian you had mentioned Marcus Beckham, you had mentioned your assistant, cindy, and in our last conversation, you mentioned your media strategist, marie, and I want to thank them too. I want to thank the rest of your team, your clients, the bad experiences you've had in life, the times you've decided to totally change and shift and gotten frustrated and wanted to quit, and the times that you've succeeded, and all the above, man, because this, this conversation, was deep on so many levels but it was relatable on equally as many others that you did a phenomenal job explaining it And without any of those influences, i don't think it would have been as cool as it was. So thanks to life, i guess, and thank you for your genius and interpreting it as well as you have to our show partners, keystone Farmers, market, hooven-cluckr Farms and, obviously, buzzsprout for your distribution. Thank you, guys as well. Folks, if you're interested in joining our conversation, you want to check out any of our merchandise? you want to check out any of our other conversations? feel free to check out our other interviews at our website, transactingvaluepodcastcom. Follow along on social media, where we continue to stream new interviews every Monday at 9 am Eastern Standard Time on all your favorite podcasting platforms And Ian for your links. Those will be in the show notes for this conversation as well. Folks, click, see More, click, show More on whatever your streaming platform is, and you'll be able to get to Ian's website and LinkedIn as well. But until next time, that was true Transacting Value.