Special Guest - Dave Herpy

0:04 Thank you for joining us on the Winning and Selling Podcast. I'm Bill Hellkamp of Reach Development Systems, and with me is Professor Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute. Are you leading with purpose or just going through the motions? What's the difference between intentional leadership and reactive management? How can you create a collaborative culture by design and not by default? Whose fault is that? I'm going to be too important, engaging conversation about leading the way to your personal and professional goals as Bill and I walk the speaker and author Dave Herpy to discuss leading with purpose and others suggest the snippets of Episode 672 of the Winning and Selling Podcast.

0:47 Well, this should be very interesting. I'm looking forward to meeting Dave and having our audience meet Dave. Just a reminder, no book club this week because Dave is on and we want to give him the full half hour. But we are in sales perspective by Jimmy Z and this is chapters eight and nine that we'll be doing next week. So take it away, Scott. Looking forward to that. Our guest today, Dave Herpy, serves as the Extension Organizational Development Coordinator at North Carolina State University where he leads statewide initiatives to empower over a thousand employees to reach their full potential.

1:21 He is the author of Leading with Purpose, Achieving Your Highs Potential in Work and Life, a book that blends personal insights and professional strategies for living and leading with intention. A certified fish philosophy facilitator and dynamic speaker, Dave inspires individuals and teams to foster positive workplace cultures grounded in trust, purpose and engagement. Outside of work, he's a devoted husband, father of four and competitive triathlete.

1:49 Dave, welcome to the Winning and Selling Podcast. Thanks so much, Scott and Bill for the invitation and opportunity to be here. Looking forward to our conversation. Every time I think about running a triathlon or a marathon or a 10 key Dave, I just lay down and I let the urge pass. And eventually I'm back to normal without challenging my body too much. So I'm really impressed that that is something that you've committed to, those triathletes.

2:13 I can't even believe triathlons. They can run a mile. Any stories you want to share Dave about running a triathlon or what's it like? Yeah, absolutely. So I started running actually in fourth grade, running track, ran track through 12th grade through my senior year, ran cross country and high school as well. And then I took about 12 years off after high school and gained a whole bunch of weight. And after the birth of our oldest son or first child Jacob back in 2010 that I decided to get back into running because I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle and I wanted to have the energy to be a good father and be there for him and live a long life.

2:55 So I got back into running, like I said, back in 2010 and it was quite a journey. When I first got back in I ended up with a stress fracture in my right tibia because I did not ease myself back into it. I just went all in like I had never stopped running. So I certainly learned from that experience and it helped teach resilience and overcoming adversity with that injury. And so after I went through physical therapy I started, well first of all I lost a bunch of weight.

3:27 I did Weight Watchers for about six months and lost over 50 pounds and then did it with my wife Corinne and I slowly eased back into it. I did an eight week training program to run my first 5k in over 12 years. And so I've been running ever since. I've been hooked and it's my outlet outside of work and home and keeps me motivated, keeps me energized. And yeah, it lost some of my best ideas come during my runs early in the run.

3:59 Yeah, that's great. I admire you for being able to do that. Thank you. Yeah, and it sounds like you've got a tremendous amount of commitments. That's my first chapter of my book is commitment and I love commitment in action. And you just finished writing a book leading with purpose. What inspired inspired you to write that or what does that mean and how can you transfer some of the things that you've had in your life and pass it on to people through your book?

4:23 Sure. Yeah, so the inspiration really came from my own leadership journey both professionally and personally. And the mentors, colleagues and life lessons that shaped me along the way. I really see a need for more intentional leadership in both the public and private sectors and too often people fall into patterns of reacting instead of leading proactively. And so leading with purpose is about aligning your values, actions and mindset to live and lead with intention.

4:54 And so purposeful leadership means recognizing your influence and using it to serve others to build trust and to create a meaningful impact whether you lead a team, a business or your family. You know, one of the things that we talk about in sales obviously is developing trust quickly. What are some of the techniques that we can use from your book from from leading with purpose to develop trust with the people around us and also in a sales, a long term sales process, where we're getting to know people.

5:23 And it's not just a transactional process. For sure. Yeah, the core principles, clarity, consistency, connection and commitment applied directly to sales and leadership sales professionals are leaders in how they build relationships with clients and leadership is relational. It's not positional. It's all about relationships that you build with your team members, with your clients, your customers. Leading with purpose helps you sell with authenticity and not just tactics.

5:53 So really the personal skills, the interpersonal skills, soft skills, as you know, we call them. When you're aligned with your values, you're more confident and more resilient, which shows up in your conversations and your customer interactions. Fulfillment comes from serving something bigger than yourself, whether that's helping clients succeed or growing a team. And that mindset is shift is really a game changer. Can you give us some examples of different situations that people have applied this intentional leadership in their personal or professional lives?

6:26 Yeah. So, you know, we see a lot in the work that I do. My full time role here at NC State University with our directors, you know, those that have really high performing teams. It's all about the relationships that they build with their team members. And you can tell a difference. And, you know, again, building those relationships and being intentional. I just came back from a training yesterday working with one of our teams and, you know, really stressed the importance of making time to build relationships throughout the workday.

7:02 You know, we're all so busy and just checking boxes and to-do lists and, you know, replying to emails and getting our task list complete. But when you, when you're intentional about building authentic relationships and getting to know your team members on a human level and in sales, really getting to know your customers on a human level, it really makes a big difference. And that's where you build trust, again, authenticity and being genuine and building those relationships really makes a huge difference in everything.

7:33 What is the mindset change that a sales person needs to have to not be just thinking about making the sale, but instead thinking about this purposeful relationship? Sure. So again, you think about leadership being relational and not transactional or positional. So again, connecting on a human level and understanding the needs of your customers and how your product or service can help fulfill those needs. Again, that's really being purposeful in your approach to selling and to leading.

8:12 So Scott and I were talking last week about trying to develop these relationships with customers. And I've found or I've heard that unlike the East Coast, the West Coast, it's a bit more difficult. People are more reluctant to have this casual conversation about family or fishing or whatever it is. Here in the Midwest, Scott and I are in Minneapolis, it seems to be a little bit more expected to try to have that personal conversation.

8:41 How do we deal with people who don't want to open up? That's a great question. Everybody's different. Everybody has different personalities and some folks are introverted, some are more extroverted. It begins with asking deep, powerful questions, I think. I've been asking questions and see how they respond. I listened to your episode from last week. Again, talked about fishing, being there in the Midwest and originally from the Midwest as well.

9:09 Northeast Ohio grew up on Lake Erie. You see photos of someone, their personal photos in the office. Earlier, we were talking about running and triathlon. So just finding ways to connect with it, whether it's customers or team members on a personal level and talking about family. Getting to know your customers, your team members, families, milestones, those sorts of things are really important. I really believe in a holistic approach to the workplace.

9:40 Work is just one domain of our lives. We've got all these different domains and so really getting to know the individual on a holistic level, I think, really makes a big difference. One of the things that seems like people have a challenge with this change and when you're applying different philosophies or different practices, you're asking them to do something different. Have you run into that and what are some of the suggestions that you can give to our listeners on how to work with somebody that you're leading change to get better results?

10:16 For sure. Everything begins with awareness. However, you're able to make your customers or your team members aware. I'm a huge fan of personal assessments, whether we use CliftonStrengths here at NC State University. That's our common theme or common assessment that we use, the common experience here at NC State. Our students use it when they come in as freshmen, our faculty and staff in the hiring process. That's what we use to really, it's rooted in positive psychology.

10:51 But, again, it begins with awareness. So personal assessments can be very effective in bringing about that awareness. But we also have to be intrinsically motivated to want to learn and have an open mind, be open mind. One of the things I talk about in my book, in part one, leading yourself is, you can't lead others effectively until you're able to lead yourself first. One of the things I talk about is having a growth mindset, adopting a growth mindset.

11:22 That's something we talked a lot about in the leadership academy I went through four years ago for our organization, was the importance of a growth mindset. If you have a fixed mindset, you're not going to learn, you're not going to be open to change and be willing to change. So everything begins with awareness first and foremost. What are your five strengths, Dave, just since you kind of tease that topic, I'm sure a lot of our listeners are wondering.

11:46 Yeah, no, absolutely. So my top five are belief, maximizer, positivity, relater and woo. And so belief is, you know, I believe everything happens for a reason. Very strong belief. You know, I share in my book and I share shared many times, you know, lost my mind to cancer 20 years ago. I had a huge impact on my life. I was 25 at the time. And, you know, that really changed everything for me. But I believe that that experience shaped who I am and led me to where I am today.

12:21 Maximizer is really just using everything that you have, the resources, your team members and how can we work most effectively together to achieve the highest result. And so that's maximizer positivity. If you couldn't tell, that's something that I've always been since college since high school, probably always been very positive person. And I think having a positive attitude, you know, talk about choose your attitude and the fish philosophy.

12:47 That makes a huge difference in how you approach things and situations, relators, you know, being able to relate to others, again, on a human level. And then who is who stands for winning others over. So, yeah, which can be very important sales. So you mentioned the fish philosophy. So let's dive into that just a little bit and how that aligns with the purpose driven leadership book. How do these fit together? Sure. I think they're very, very much aligned and relatable. Again, you know, fish philosophy and very honored and proud to serve as a contract facilitator for and be certified as a trainer for the fish philosophy.

13:31 Those that aren't familiar, the fish philosophy is the most watched training video in the world. It's been used by over 80% of Fortune 500 companies and John Christensen. Great guy, filmmaker who founded the fish philosophy and, you know, you think about the four practices of be there, play, make their day and choose your attitude. And a lot of those same practices, you know, are kind of related in the book. You think about it, especially with leading yourself first. That's part one is leading yourself and how you approach your life, your work, how you interact with others, how you show up every day.

14:09 You need to be able to master that first before you can effectively lead others. And that's where we met Dave was through the fish philosophy and you're coming to train the trainer and you really stood out as one that really adopted the four philosophies and you practice them in everyday life and you share them with your students and your colleagues. And it's really great to be able to live those standards in your day to day life. And I could see an overlap between your leading with purpose initiative and emulating and incorporating the fish philosophy.

14:41 So that's that's really great. Is there any experiences that you can share when you've applied the fish philosophy in your work and what kind of outcome have you received? Yeah, so I shared fish philosophy at our early career conference a few weeks ago here on campus. So we hosted what we call our early career conference. We hosted every six months. It's really the onboarding or the in person part of our onboarding experience.

15:06 We do a lot of virtual emails and virtual trainings and stuff, but we bring all of our new employees together that have been hired over the last six months together to meet over three days. And so I shared the fish philosophy on our second day of training and I had that later that day an email from one of our new employees. It said, Hey, that was a really powerful training. Would you mind sharing that with our summer camp in one of our counties? And so I was already scheduled to go do archery and low ropes and canoeing training. And I said, Sure, I'd love to. So I brought Pete the perch with me and shared about fish philosophy and how it can apply to their summer camp program with the camp staff and how they can share that with their campers and have a real positive impact.

15:54 That's interesting that we probably don't talk enough with kids about the positive impact they can they can have in the world and trying to maintain an attitude. I think, you know, we're not always sure where kids come from, but we can be that sort of person in their lives that that is kind of that bright light. For sure. Yeah. Now my, I was, I shared this story over the last week. So last week I was working one night on my laptop and my son asked our oldest son. He said, he'll be a freshman in high school. He asked, he said, Hey, dad, how did you get into leadership? And so I thought for a moment. And I told him, you know, really started when I started working as a summer date camp counselor 28 years ago after graduating from high school.

16:38 And I saw, you know, the impact that we had on the kids and our families and our community. And that's what really set me on the career path and journey that I've been on. And one of my favorite quotes about leadership is that great leaders don't set out to be a leader. They set out to make a difference. And it's never about the role. It's always about the goal. And so for me and my career path, that's always been my goal. It's just to serve others and help make our community a better place.

17:06 How do you see people mixing up management and leadership? Sure. So we manage things. We lead people. And I think that's the big difference. So we manage budgets. We manage facilities. We manage risk. We manage operations. But we lead people. And I think there's a huge difference. And so, you know, again, leadership is, it's relational. It's about relationships. It's about encouraging and supporting and inspiring and coaching.

17:34 Those that we lead. And management is really about the processes and procedures and that side of the business. If that makes sense. Yeah. It's graphs and charts. That's right. Talking about the leading with purpose at home. What are some other examples of how somebody can adopt the principles in your book on their home life and raising a family or not raising a family but having an own individual career? Sure. Absolutely. So part three of the book is leading in life. And I really talk about the importance of making time for rest, reflection.

18:10 But, you know, one of the things I start with part three of the book is, you know, if you're successful in your career, but it comes at the expense of your health and your relationships, your family, then to me, that's not success. And again, that's my personal philosophy around leadership is, you know, we don't just lead at work. We lead at home. And, you know, and my number one value is family and family. And I shared that yesterday in my training.

18:40 I don't make any decisions personal or professional without thinking about the impact that's going to have my family positive or negative. My hobbies, for example, you know, triathlon. I don't cut into family time to train. You know, I get up early about the clock in the morning to train. I don't want to cut into family time. And, you know, I have a race this Saturday morning, but I'll be home. Good morning. By the time kids are probably just having breakfast. So, you know, being a good example for your family and your kids, I think, is, you know, and again, you know, being a role model is really important.

19:15 And I talk in part three of the book also about work life integration. So many people talk about work life balance. And there's really never a troop balance. You're never going to have 50, 50. Some days, some weeks, you might need to be focused more on your family. Things may be happening at home or illness or whatever struggling family member. And so you may need to give more attention to your family at times. And there's other times where work is demanding, you know, and I do a lot of traveling statewide with my role in providing trainings and whatnot.

19:49 Those weeks, some away from home. So it's how do you integrate and align your values with your decisions and how you, what your priorities as well, you know, what you prioritize and how you prioritize it. You know, I think it's most important to be able to lead yourself first. I had a friend who and a neighbor and he was going to, he wanted to become a success coach for other people. And when you go into his house, it's just a disaster area. And I can remember thinking, I wouldn't want you to lead me anywhere because you can't even keep your house clean. I think Jordan Peterson talks about being able to at least make your bed in the morning.

20:32 And have some discipline in your life. And so along with relationships, do you talk any about discipline at all and that that that need to really control yourself and where you're going? Yeah, I talk about, you know, the importance of consistency and talk about habits and goal setting and using the smarter goal framework. But you know, the consistency, you're not going to make, you don't want to make trying to make radical changes overnight.

20:58 You know, it's small incremental changes, you know, one degree changes that you can, those are compounding over time. So that make that first step. You make the decision to make that first step. You know, for example, getting back into running, it was making the decision to start running again. And then, you know, it's a journey. And so you just try to be 1% better every day. But that consistency, that's showing up. I talk about the importance of resilience in part 1 of the book as well, leading yourself, you know, leading, leading yourself first and the importance of resilience and overcoming adversity and, you know, it's again, your mindset has a lot to do with it.

21:37 And you keep on keep on going. We're always not going to not always going to have perfect days. You know, some days are going to be better than others, but it's how we approach those and what we learned from those experiences. Everything serves as a learning experience. And so what lessons can we learn from all of our experiences? I heard a great line the other day is that experience is a great teacher that does not discriminate.

22:00 Yes. And I think about some of the experiences that I've had. And if I look at them as learning opportunities, it's amazing the outcome that I get and the lesson that I learned based on that experience. It seems like in working with change and asking people to do something different and something better. Do you find that some of the limitations are more conceptual in their mind and in their mindset? Or do you think sometimes we're a little bit more physical? And I think about you adopting running again. And I think you had a strong commitment, conceptually, but physically it was challenging a little bit.

22:35 And you had to overcome some of those barriers on the behavior and being physical. Do you think some of the change in growth is limited to mindset or more behavior? I think it's a combination of both. So everything starts with mindset. As an endurance athlete, I like to say that distance running is 90% mental and 10% physical. And I think the same can be said for business. The same can be said about life. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond. And so having the right mindset first and foremost.

23:08 But the physical aspect as well, certainly. And there's a lot to be said. I talk about having an establishing a morning routine, the importance of that and starting your day in a proactive way as opposed to a reactive way. The kids waking you up. I like to get up early and exercise and do some reading and reflection and meditation before anyone else in the house is up and that really sets the tone for the day. But the physical side, again, that's a really enjoy journey of training more than anything. The finish line is really the icing on the cake, but it's about the joy and the journey of training that I really enjoy.

23:50 And having that long term goal four months out from training for a half marathon and really the journey and the milestones along the way. So when it comes to your book, do you think your book is written more for a professional leader or a personal leadership journey on achieving your own personal goals? Sure, I believe it's really both. And again, I talked earlier about a holistic approach to life and leadership and how they impact each other, personal life and professional life.

24:23 And I think in the workplace, not necessarily separating the two, but really capitalizing on both. Our home life impacts our work life and vice versa. So how can we use both of those to be the best version of ourselves? But for me, I share a lot about my personal life, maybe too much sometimes. But I think that authenticity, again, being genuine, being authentic and relatable is an important part of leadership. So there's one question that I ask our guests every time we have them on the show, David, and that is that what book or person has had the greatest impact on your life?

25:08 Sure, that's a great question. So I've had several. I have a mentor. His name's Jones Loughlin. That is a professional keynote speaker and coach and author as well. And he's really helped me in my professional journey. And so he's had a huge positive impact on my life. And so I really look up to him and admire him. And both as a professional and as a person, my father, his daughters grew up in 4-H here in North Carolina.

25:37 And so I've really learned a lot about, learned a lot from him. And so he's had a huge impact. Is there one lesson you can share with us that you took away from him? Yes, absolutely. So in the journey of self-publishing writing this book, he asked me what's next. And that was a really powerful question. I never really thought. I'm excited to self-publish it right and self-publish my first book. But I really didn't think about what's next, what comes after the book.

26:09 And so this is a great example. Being able to share this book and the principles from this book with your audience on the Winning and Selling podcast. I've got some speaking engagements lined up this fall related to the book as well. And so I really, and I've shared this in articles and on LinkedIn. I didn't write this book to become a bestseller to make a bunch of money. I did it to help other people and be a legacy for my family and my children.

26:36 But more importantly to help others in their journeys. I've learned a lot through my journey over the last 25 years and just want to be able to share that with others. Great. How can people connect with you or where can they find the book? Sure. Yeah. The book is available on Amazon directly. Just search the name leading with purpose with my name, Dave Herpy. And my mind LinkedIn, very active on LinkedIn, as you know. And I've got a personal website as well that has some of my work and clients that I've worked with over the years.

27:11 It's DaveHerpy.wordpress.com. Great. Thanks, Dave. Well, I was going to meet you. What a great book. Sounds like very exciting. I have to pick that up and take a read of it. Thank you both very much for the invitation. And I'm going to enjoy this conversation. Thanks, Dave. So we'll put Dave's website up on our on our show page. When we get to this show 672. Let's wrap up with our golden nugget. This is from the great Harvey McKay. He's got reminded me that he had just seen him at a conference and he's 93 93.

27:48 To me, job titles don't matter. Everyone is in sales. It's the only way we stay in business. And I think not enough companies think about that. How sales drives everything. You don't have sales. You certainly don't need a warehouse. That's very, very true. All right. Everything we talked about will be on our website at winning at selling.com. And you may have to put the three W's in front of that. Next week sales perspective by Jimmy Zuggsworth part two chapters eight and nine. And our topic will be the power of product differentiation.

28:23 Please subscribe and share the podcast with your colleagues and on your social media. And if you're so inclined, give us a five star review. This is episode 672. Go out and get better one skill at a time. Joyful selling.