Disclaimer: Below are the show notes and script that covers the podcast more or less. These notes will be more concise and tight as I find my narrative style and framework for the show. So bear with me.

Welcome to THE Heroik Hour Podcast and thank you so much for tuning in to episode Alpha. I’m your host Nicholas McGill, Chief Experience Officer for Heroik Media, and I’m going to share a little bit of technology, leadership and culture -Some Heroik TLC to help get you mission ready for life.

If you like what you hear in this and other episodes, Please subscribe to this podcast, share it with a friend, check out our website, like us on Facebook at getheroik.com and join us on the insider Group.

I mentioned that this is episode Alpha – so what the heck is that? Well, I thought it’s important to take some time to introduce myself and my credentials, and the goals of the show.

Let’s start with the beginning? Why  tech, leadership and culture? Why TLC?

First, these are the issues I know the most about. I was an IT consultant for 10 years and realized one important thing, it didn’t matter if the tech was the superior solution, or the best tool on the market. If you didn’t have the buy in of the leadership team, and if the solution didn’t fit the culture of the organization, any growth initiative would struggle, performance is often hindered, and projects and companies can die. At the center of TLC, is people.

It took me years to figure out that people were the linchpin in the equation. You can have all the finest tools, apps, and buttons you want, but if the culture of your team, and it’s leaders are not aligned and ready, you’re bound to struggle if you don’t outright fail. So, this is my specialty area, what Heroik knows how to do is give people, companies, and brand, a CAPE, character, culture, alignment, purpose and energy.

This isn’t like other podcasts out there. This show is not designed for mass appeal, or the lowest common denominator and wantrepreneur.  I won’t be lying to you about the secret, or the easy buttons. There’s real work to be done. This show is for the major leaguers out there, who bring their own bravery and are ready to do the hard work. This show is for the intermediates, the masters, the perpetual students, from the basement floor to the board room, looking for ways to help themselves elevate, connect and grow, as individuals, as professionals, in life work and beyond.

What makes this show different from other shows:

-This show is focused on the 360 degree view, the whole picture, in glorious ultra high definition and 3 dimensions of all the aspects of making growth happen in work and life. This includes the values, attitudes, mindsets, strategies, process, policies, practices and yes tools & frameworks to transform yourself into an engine of growth in your life and practice. I build growth engines for businesses using technology, leadership and culture.

If you’re not building habits around focusing on where you’re pouring your TEA, time, energy and attention, you’re under-performing . But – if you learn to really filter and practice mastery, abundance, discernment, and other fine traits, when you reach for a tool and apply yourself, you and your team will be far more effective.

The goal of the Heroik Hour, is to offer more holistic, substantive content than anything else you’ve heard. I hear a lot of mile-high strategy talk and app recommendations from people who’ve never built anything or done anything in their lives and I hate it.

-I have a real job. I am not a life coach. I don’t sit and call plays from the sidelines, I lead from the front. I started as an IT technician at 13 fixing computers and teaching adults how to use them.

In high school I came up with an idea, a method that could evaluate and recognize the key factors that affect the flow and value of information, and I coined the phrase digital liquidity. I used this as in insight and to build a method to help private investors identify key stocks in the tech center – I couldn’t get my mom to sign up for a custodial account and alas missed the IPO for google, and Apple’s big turn around, though I made money for others.  The methodology is at the core of Heroik today- but that’s a different story.  

On a personal note – at 17, I also moved on from my mountain dew and milky way lifestyle, and lost 100lbs. This is relevant to the story a) for the street cred when I talk about building a better lifestyle b) because of the confidence it instilled and doors it opened up in terms of social interaction.

I became a consultant at 17, worked for corporate officers and Execs for Bechtel, BioDiesel and beyond, became a media junkie, worked in innovation lab and haunted a room or two at Cisco and Google, and then shifted to building ideas, projects, from thought to profit.

I say all that, because while I consult and advise corporate boards, and build growth engines from scratch, of all the things I am – I’m also not a professional radio host – I’m a complete newbie when it comes to podcasting. I’m just an explorer. And I hope you forgive me for the initial screw-ups, of which there may or may not be many, and rabbit holes I meander down, as I experiment and try to find a format and framework for this podcast that is the most beneficial to you. Some of these will be too long, I doubt they’ll be too short, because I’m a long winded guy. I hope all of them will be helpful and inspirational to all the true hustlers out there, whether you’re trying to get started or grow what you’ve got, or be a better advisor in the boardroom.

On this podcast, I’m going to be talking about grown up shit here – in a realm in between comic books, self help, and Harvard Business Review. I’d like to bridge the gap and share stories from the innovative start-up as well as the wisdom from best practices in the board rooms, and post industrial model,  that is still valid in the Digital Age. Some of the topics will be boring to you, or sound over your head. and may not apply to your level of practice, feel free to fast-forward or email me about it, give feedback and help me make it better.

On the business front,  I’m a real bootstrapper and I have a confession. I know it’s not nice or kind to dump on people, but I really hate getting advice from unqualified people and hearing non bootstrappers advise others how to get started.

• There’s a dangerous aspect to how many business podcast hosts operate. Few of them have a gig beyond the podcast, so to make a buck they have to sell whatever they can – and most of them do not care how crappy it is. There aren’t content lemon laws out there to protect you from BS. Much of what’s said on many podcasts is either beginner-level, outright bumper sticker BS, that plays on your desire to believe that you can just think happy thoughts find the easy button and press it a couple million times. Or it’s nothing but recommendations on how to pose and be a wantrepreneur, the strategic business equivalent of buying and wearing a new pair of Air Jordans because you think it’s going to improve your game. This is fairytale garbage used to sell you something in the near term, use it but don’t fall for it.

And then there’s all the sage advice from the successful crowd. But who in that crowd do you listen to? Did they start in the same place you started with ? Have they faced the same problems you face? I doubt it. Let’s review

Better Know Your Bullshitter Guru 101

The following are saturated models built on top of other saturated and commoditized models.

-There’s the marketer’s marketer- This is popular guy or gal who only successfully markets to other marketers’

– The coach’s coach – same thing as the marketer’s marketer only this one coaches you how to better coach others, and you probably are aspiring/trying to do the same!

– 3rd, the Affiliate marketer- This person is a polished presenter with pristine websites, silky smooth one-liners, and recommendations out the wazoo for which 95% of the time they get a kickback from. If you a majority of your recommendations, earn you financial kickbacks, your advice is suspect none the less.

Even if any of these people are bootstrapping – they generally are there to make money, without adding value, they just want to stir the terd in the bowl a bit and pass on the worthless bumper-sticker knowledge -and you wonder why the economy stalls? The shitter is clogged with this kind of stuff. This isn’t who you want to be nor what you want to do. If it is, this isn’t the snake-oil podcast for you. Go somewhere else to sell your lemons. Go back to the drawing board and come up with a business that solves a problem or actually addresses a substantial need.

There’s a lot of guides out there who haven’t been anywhere, there are coaches and therapists, advisors and consultants who have done nothing beyond hiding behind their titles to avoid doing the same work they’d have you do. This to me is a fraud. There’s a lot of coaches out there when we need more serious players.

A good guru, guide, has had the experience and is a persistent learner. There is no short supply of things for the master to learn. The best teachers are those that have the mindset of the perpetual students. Most people want to declare themselves done, mastered, whole and complete the way they are – this isn’t reflecting wisdom at all, just fear.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are the truly successful, wicked smart professionals whose names you know.

• One guy who grew up in the Hamptons, educated in the Ivy League, had like 20k off the cuff, safety net of parents behind him, created a supplement company (that I question the merits of), and then used that to bankroll his efforts. He’s super smart but not a bootstrapper by any measure, but loves to give advice to bootstrappers on how to boot strap.
• Another guy inherited an established family business and blew it up, wrote about it and rolled it into his platform. No I’m not talking about Donald Trump. This guy loves to tell you to work around the clock, in fact his answer for everything is more hard work, not better, focused work.  He loves to swear. He loves to call you out for worrying about followers, as he panders for more followers.

Of course I’m talking about Tim Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuck – These two models encompass some of the most listened to thought leaders of our time. And while in various circumstances, they have a lot of valuable things to say and to offer, if you can relate to the circumstances and conditions they’ve faced.

BUT  -THE REALITY IS – I’ve noticed a huge wave of bootstrappers, who didn’t win the sperm lottery, have a safety net or seed money, and have to hustle starting with 0. The mindset, the challenges, tasks, and initial projects are different for the bootstrapper. You have to create a path to resources, to get the building materials to then and only then build up to the thing you want. This can involve creating multiple businesses at once or over time, to grow into the one you want. This journey is different than the abra cadabra start that a lucky few have had.

Asking non-bootstrappers how to bootstrap – is bad form, and I think Tim and Gary would agree. Any advice they can give, can only go so far and may not connect to your true conditions. I think when you’re established you can learn more and more to keep going. You need to find a muse, a clown, a failure, that you can pay attention to and see what he’s getting right, what he’s getting wrong, what you can take with you and apply to your efforts.

So I want to test the Internet’s appetite for really getting shit done, by raising the bar and providing a little bit more substance, more deep dives, less celebrity and app dependency. I feel that most people and businesses are searching for clear paths to growth

I want to add the discerning and Heroik voice to the web and be real, be open, brave and vulnerable about my failures and successes. And real strategies that work. And I honestly need your help to even do a decent job of that. Send me an email, contact me, be a collaborator and an accountability partner, call me out on my own inconsistencies if and as you catch them.  Help me make this awesome. The easiest way to do this is to join the Heroik Insider Group . Check out Get Heroik.com that’s heroik with a K not a C. I’spell it for ya it’s GET HEROIK. Com I hope this has set the tone and expectations for the show, I hope you subscribe, I hope this finds you well and I hope you enjoy the music…