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listen up. Your business won't grow until you do. When you lead better, your people perform better and your business will win bigger. That's why you've gotta come to our next Entree Leadership Summit. It's the premier event for leaders who are serious about growth. You're going to spend four days getting insights from world class leadership experts including Will Guidera, the New York Times bestselling author of Unreasonable Hospitality Vanessa Van Edwards, the national bestselling author of Captivate the Science of Succeeding with People Brian Buffini, founder of North America's largest real estate coaching company and one of our favorite Irishmen, Duncan Wardle, the former head of innovation and creativity at Disney and many more. Best part is, all of this happens at Disney's Colorado Springs resort and in Orlando. To join us May 17 through 20 in 2026, visit entreeleadership.comsummit or click the link in the show Notes Question of the Day comes from Hudson in Dover, Delaware. Dave I got a rock star performer who I'd love to promote, but they've made it clear they don't want to manage people. Do you push them towards leadership or build a different growth path? You build a different growth path, they you need to give them rewards for becoming a better version of themselves. I don't know what area they're in, but I've had salespeople that the worst thing we ever did with them is make them a sales manager because they were fabulous at sales and they hated managing people and we destroyed a good salesperson and made them into a lousy manager. So we've done that too many times. They have said I don't want to manage people. Don't make them, make them a better version. A senior salesperson or a senior I've had designers that are in the creative side and they don't want to manage a bunch of creatives. They want to be a creative. I've had people that are writing code and they don't want to manage people. They want to write code and they escalate all the way up to being one of the best writers of code in the entire building and they get paid accordingly. But they don't want to lead all the people that write code, all the software engineers, it's not what they want to do. And one of the biggest mistakes I made, and I made it early, was I thought it was a great idea. I thought I was doing them a favor to promote them into a leadership role. The very first person I ever hired was a guy named Russ Carroll. Russ worked here for almost 20 years, and he retired here. And I hired him to be a coach, a counselor, a financial counselor, helping people who were struggling with money or who had money questions coming in one on one counseling. And he was really, really good at it. He did a little bit of speaking for us in the early days before there were Ramsey personalities. He would go to a local church and talk about what God says about money, like I did this week. That kind of thing happens. Okay, he did a little bit of that. But we started growing and growing and growing. And our counseling department now had five or six people that were doing one on one counseling. And Russ was the first guy here, and he was the senior counselor. I'm like, okay, Russ, I want to put you in charge. We're going to make this a department, a counseling department, and put you in charge of it. And you're going to have the opportunity to make a lot more money and be in charge. You've earned the right to be in charge. And he's like, no. He goes, you mean I would have to hire and fire people? You mean I would have to be responsible for the profit and loss statement and for the budget? You mean I'd have to be responsible for the marketing of this? He said, no, I want to do coaching. I want to do counseling. And his quote, I'll never forget it because it was so poignant. He said, that would be leukemia to my spirit. Whoa. He said, I don't want to do that. It would kill me. And I'm like, okay. And he worked here the rest of his career as a counselor, and he was our senior guy, and he was always sat in a seat of honor. And he made more money than most of the other coaches and counselors, and he worked really hard, but he never took on leadership responsibility other than just being the senior guy in the area. And I never forgot that. And we've replicated that decision several times where we will present it to someone, but when they say they've made it clear, I'm quoting you, Hudson. They don't want to manage people. That sounds like it's more than one discussion. This wasn't a passing thing at, you know, sitting over the lunchroom table one day. I don't think I want to lead people. No, that wasn't what this is. They've made it clear this would be leukemia to my spirit. So, no, they don't need to be doing that. And it's not a blessing to them. So, you know, they made it clear that whatever they're a rock star performer in is what they. That's when they're in their zone. That's when they feel like they're in control. Like, I feel God's breath when I'm doing this and I feel God's smile when I'm doing this and I don't feel it when I'm doing this other stuff. So, yeah, I think you find a way there to create a growth plan within that. And we've done that. Our developers, our software engineers, we've done that with our creatives. We've done that with a lot of people in those areas because they love the actual discipline, but they don't want to run the department that has the where they have to manage their peers, lead their peers in this situation. And that's what they get into sometimes. Honestly, developing that growth path is tougher for those of us that gravitate towards leadership, but it's worth exploring and figuring out a way to do creatively. Hudson and it's cool that you ask this question. It's clear you've got a good open line of communication with this person. Every breakthrough in your business starts with a breakthrough in you. That's why you need to come to Entree Leadership Summit. You'll get insights from top thought leaders in the leadership and business space, like Will Guidera, Vanessa Van Edwards, Brian Buffini, and more. And the best place it all happens at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando. To join us May 17 through 20, visit entreeleadership.comsummit or click the link in the show notes. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. If you like what you're hearing, please click the Follow button, the subscribe button. Leave a nice review, share the show with someone, tell them about it, or click the link and send it out and say, hey, guys, listen to this. We would appreciate you hanging out with us and always. You can go to entreleadership.com ask and leave your question and we'll try to get it answered for you here. It's what we do. Jackson is with us in San Antonio. Hi, Jackson. How are you?
