What's up, Champion?

This is your host, Neal, and I want to welcome you and thank you for joining us for today's podcast as we grow together.

Today, I have a topic for you that is very near and dear to my heart.

It's what I consider to be one of the most valuable things I've ever learned in leadership.

In fact, I'm going to tell you, it's so valuable, it's probably easily within my top three.

Man.

Today I'm going to share a topic with you that has radically changed my leadership and leadership style and has radically changed my teams and the organizations I represent and work for.

And I believe it can radically change your life as well as you embrace it and employ it on a daily basis.

Guys, I'm fired up for today and I hope you are too.

Get ready.

This is your captain speaking.

We want to let you know we've been cleared for takeoff.

We have clear skies today with no winds, so we are expecting a smooth and highly enjoyable flight.

However, should you experience some personal turbulence, don't worry as you've chosen the right airline.

As we are trained in navigating unexpected bumps, our destination today is high performance and success.

Sit back, relax, get hyped, or do whatever you do.

As we too are pumped for today's flight, we understand you have options when you fly, and we are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us today.

We recognize by choosing to fly nil Reyes, you are committed to growing personal development and reaching higher than you ever have before.

Enjoy today's flight, be blessed, and remember, the best is yet to come.

What's up, Champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and.

I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective.

For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living?

Why?

Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing.

I am an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership and technology.

I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm.

My number one passion is people, and I receive significant gratitude in life from sowing into others and encouraging them as they grow to achieve their fullest potential.

If you're a high performance individual like me, or you're simply ready to take your business, leadership or inner potential to the next level, then strap in because I'm locked in and all in.

This is the Executive Perspective.

What's up, Champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you back to the Executive Perspective.

Man, we have a dynamite show lined up for you today.

Today I'm going to be talking with you about a phrase that I coined years ago within leadership, and I've taught over and over to my teams, but also to other companies and other departments.

And it has been one of the single most effective strategies I've ever employed in leadership.

And it's called breadcrumbing.

Man, I'm telling you, this is strong.

You may have not heard this term before, but it's very catchy.

So I'm starting to hear it more and more now, especially in the people or circles I hang around with, but it's the idea of breadcrumbing.

Well, I'm going to walk you through what this is today and how I leverage it and why it is so effective and it helps so much.

So if you think of breadcrumbing, you know, if you were to pick up some breadcrumbs and kind of spread it around, consider like that guy Salt bae.

But anyways, it's like breadcrumbing.

In other words, think of back in the day where you had someone who is in a maze and they got to go through this maze or maybe it's a forest, but they're concerned about getting lost.

And so what they do is they take a bunch of bread or some breadcrumbs, and along their way, they're marking their path with breadcrumbs and by breadcrumbs and some breadcrumbs.

The reason why they do that is one is to help them remember how to get out and how to find their exit.

But the other thing it does, and this is the more important thing, whenever someone's going through a maze or going through a forest, their intention is not to have to exit where they came in, but to find their way out through the other side.

So when you breadcrumb, the breadcrumbs are less for you and more for the people who you need to follow you.

Man, I'm telling you, that is golden right there.

If you listen to that and if you can paint that picture in your mind.

And as I'm painting this picture with my words for you, picture yourself getting ready to go through a maze or a labyrinth.

And maybe this is something within your business environment or even just in life, but specifically within a business environment where you lead.

Or maybe you're trying to rise up in leadership, man, I'm telling you right now, if I were coaching you today on how to rise as an executive leader or how to rise up into the executive ranks, this is a core principle I would teach you.

This will help you rise higher than where you are right now, it'll help you have more effective raises, I guarantee that.

But it'll help people take stock or notice of you.

So picture that you're getting ready that your organization or the leadership team you lead are getting ready to enter a labyrinth or a maze.

But they're not familiar.

This is uncharted territory for them.

However, you hold the expertise, whether if it's in wisdom, knowledge, training, education, or just flat out experience, which is the most effective.

But you hold the expertise on how to guide this team or this company or this division through the obstacle, the maze, or the labyrinth.

But in order for them to follow you, you must first lead.

And sometimes knowing where the exit is on the other side is not always obvious, but you've been equipped to know how to navigate the turns, the pitfalls, the treachery, the unknown that's within there.

You're the one who knows how to navigate them through that, much like I navigate you through this podcast and the subjects I teach on this podcast, as a reminder, focuses on three main areas.

It's leadership, business strategy, and personal development.

And those can be applied to just about any area in life.

But when you show up to help your mindset grow, this show will help you tremendously.

And that's what we're talking about today.

You know, I talk about on the side how I'm an advanced mindset coach, which simply means that I help people how to think in advanced ways and develop advanced mindsets to help them in whatever situation they're in.

So let's go back to the breadcrumbs.

We're in the labyrinth, we're in the maze, and you're getting ready to lead this team through obstacles.

Well, this team is going to need a way to follow you because they're not right on your heels.

In fact, I'm going to tell you when you're making real and effectual change within an organization or an environment, even if it's just within a department, sometimes they have to see you lead for a bit before they're willing to follow, which means that sometimes you have to go out front ahead of the others to lead so that they can follow you.

But for them to follow you, you've got to give them clues on how to get there.

And that's where the breadcrumbs come in.

So picture that you're going through this labyrinth or this maze, and you're the one with the expertise on how to guide them through it.

Maybe there's some unknowns for you in there, but you're equipped to handle it.

How do I know?

Because remember, I told you over and over on our previous podcast, I believe in you, striver.

I believe in you, champion.

I know you have the stuff inside of you to step up and rise up and help those around you.

So you're walking through this labyrinth, and you're walking through this maze, and you've got a whole bunch of bread crumbs or a whole lot of bread with you, and every few feet you're breaking a piece of bread off and you're dropping it, and you're walking forward and dropping some more and dropping some more.

Now, the person who had the thought, what if I run out of bread crumbs?

You didn't.

Because remember, you're equipped for this.

So you got to change your mindset.

If in your mind, crap, I'm going to run out of bread, but I'm not going to be able to help them get there only halfway through.

It's time for you to grow your mind.

It's time for you to stretch your mind.

You have to recognize that maybe you have a bucket with you that just magically fills itself, or you've got a backpack with several cans of breadcrumbs, or you got a whole sack full of several loaves of bread, and you're going to be able to do this the whole way.

In other words, you're already equipped with what you need.

Even if you don't recognize it, that stuff's inside of you.

You just got to pull it out.

However, for some of you, and that's okay, because this is actually many people.

If you want to be able to lead people effectively, then you got to spend time putting the things inside of you that you will need to be able to pull out later.

That comes through getting in and doing the deep work, listening to podcasts just like this, doing the courses that you need to.

Maybe it's further education, but it doesn't have to be through college.

It can be through courses like the kinds that we produce.

Or maybe it's through getting in masterminds or networking and getting in the right rooms with the right people and the right minds who can help you unlock the things you need to do.

Sometimes it's finding the right mentor or right mentorship program to connect with.

We have one coming out in just a couple months.

I haven't really been announcing it.

I guess I kind of breadcrumbed it out there now, but we have one getting ready to come up where people will be able to connect with Us, we have two things that are coming up by later this year.

One's a membership, and the other one's a mentorship.

And I won't go into that now, but the mentorship is much deeper than the membership.

The mentorship is much deeper than the membership.

But they're both highly effective to help you grow.

But they're built for different things they're built for based on how much you're willing to invest in yourself.

Well, that being said, let's keep going.

You're in this labyrinth or this maze, and you're dropping these breadcrumbs.

And as you navigate your way out of that and through that thing, you hear footsteps behind you because the people are following the breadcrumbs you left.

In other words, they didn't have to go figure it out on their own.

They were able to follow your breadcrumbs.

Now, here's why this is so important, man.

I'm telling you, this is so powerful today.

The breadcrumbing has multiple things.

It does, but the number one thing it does is it lets you lead others to the conclusion that you need them to help you with.

In other words, it's a way of helping others to help you.

As an executive leader, I use this all the time, and I have effectively taught my people how to use it.

In fact, it's so effective that even if I stopped doing the breadcrumbs today, I would still be just as effective because I've taught my people how to breadcrumb and because they're able to do it now.

I have the effort not just of one person being me, but I have the effort of many people.

And as you spread that across your organization, you'll grow in radical ways.

But here's what I will tell you.

Because I do employ it every day, I'm extremely efficient and effective.

And here's why it's so beneficial.

Because the tables that I'm at and the rooms that I'm in and the conversations that I'm part of, the decisions that I make for the organization I run, they're different than the decisions that my team makes for the organization.

My team makes very big decisions, and based on where they're at in the leadership structure, some decisions are much bigger than others.

But if you listen to our podcast that came out yesterday, one of the things about that podcast, as I talked about the Ladder of Ascension and I talked about that the closer you are to the ground, the wider the step is and the more people who are there, because it's the entry level but the higher you rise up that ladder, it starts to shape like a triangle, meaning it's wider at the bottom than it is at the top.

And the higher you go to the top, the different rooms you're in, the different conversations you're part of, the bigger decisions you're responsible for, the more accountability you have and responsibility you have on you.

But as a striver, as the champion in you, that champion leader in you, you desire to be in those rooms.

Well, what I will tell you is by learning this principle of breadcrumbing, it's highly effective because it's how you shift cultures within an organization.

You can take the people you report to and you can start to breadcrumb with them.

And as you build trust with them in their eyes, and they see that you know what you're talking about and that you're good at what you do, and you couple that with strong work ethic and strong values.

When you do that, man, I'm going to tell you that those things open up doors for you, but they also open up doors for the people you work for, because they're doors of trust that they can put in you.

You know, one of the most difficult things for leaders to do, for whatever reason, is they have a hard time trusting people.

And sometimes because they have a hard time trusting, they have a hard time delegating or allowing other leaders to grow.

That's why in so many environments, people sometimes feel like they're stifled or like they're suffocated or sometimes micromanaged.

And oftentimes the term micromanage is misplaced or mistagged on.

When they just simply feel like they work for an environment or a supervisor that doesn't allow them to be the expert in their area or doesn't allow them to present ideas or doesn't allow them to do what they're passionate about doing.

And sometimes there is micromanagement involved in those situations.

I'm not discounting that.

But I will tell you that I have enough experience to know that sometimes people label or tag something as micromanagement when it's actually not micromanagement at all.

But what it is is it's a failure to trust and an inability to delegate from the leader above them.

And so because of that, it comes across as micromanaging.

But really, you'd really boil it down or break it down to limiting beliefs.

And limiting beliefs create small leaders.

Oh, I'm going to say that again.

Limiting beliefs create small leaders.

And that will absolutely choke out innovation of an environment.

It'll choke out healthy environments because now toxicity can come in and unhealthy competition can come in and cutthroatness and things of that nature.

And I'm telling you, it's a nasty cycle to get involved in.

But when you learn how to breadcrumb, you can help lead.

Those leaders who struggle with those things I'm mentioning, you can help lead them out of it because they recognize that you're someone they can trust and over time you're someone that they can help delegate things to.

But even if they don't delegate things to you, they see you're a go getter and you'll take on things anyways that need done and present it back to them.

Because you're not trying to do their job, but you're simply trying to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

And I'm telling you guys, this is a heavy podcast.

The things we're talking about have a very, very significant value.

The other thing I will tell you though is if you have a great leader above you and they do know how to trust and they do know how to delegate and they do know how to push you to have some top shelf items and stretch, we've taught on that in previous podcasts before too, about top shelf items.

But when you have great leaders ahead of you and you breadcrumb, your help to those people has now exponentially grown and their trust in you will grow exponentially.

Now here's another very effective way to breadcrumb within an environment.

So I can give you a specific picture.

This is not the only picture, but this is a very specific picture.

So oftentimes when I come into an environment, especially as a cio, a Chief Information Officer, and if you're not fully familiar with that is basically I'm the C level executive who controls all the technology for the organization.

I make the decisions.

I guide the vision for the organization.

Now maybe there's someone who guides overall vision, but I guide the technology vision.

It's kind of like I've always treated it like the Field of Dreams movie.

If you build it, they will come.

Well, it's kind of like that in it when you stay ahead of the curve of where technologies are going and emerging trends in technology and you learn to put those in place ahead of time.

If you build it, they will use it and sometimes they'll use it in the ways that you saw them using it.

But oftentimes if you put great technology in the hands of great people, they'll figure out innovative ways to Use it to its maximum and use it in ways you never even thought of.

That's the beauty of emerging technologies.

And when you place it in the right hands.

Well, what I will tell you is when I'm leading organizations in technology, I can walk in an organization and see a roadmap right off the bat of what they have, what they should have, where they need to be, what they need to have and when they need to have it.

That's just one of the giftings I have on my life, but it's also backed up with a lot of experience.

Well, that being said, when I walk into an environment, let's say, for example, I see that they have a lot of old equipment within their data center.

Now, if you're not familiar with the data center, I'm going to keep this very high level for you.

And if you are a technology person, then maybe you're nerding out and you want me to take it deeper.

But we're not going to nerd out today too much.

But from a high level, a data center is the main room where most companies keep all of their servers and all of their equipment for like switches or storage or things of that nature.

I'm keeping it very high level.

Maybe phone systems, things of that nature.

Well, in this data center, if what you recognize is that you have aging servers, that's a big deal for an organization.

Because while you have computers or work terminals or stations that a lot of other people use out at their desk, they're all communicating in one way or another, either with those servers in the data center or they're communicating through those servers in the data center.

Well, one of the things I help companies with is understanding when those need to replace and why and how much it's going to cost.

I'm keeping this real simple for you today.

Well, what I will tell you is if companies don't keep an eye on those things, those are big ticket items.

In other words, those things can cost a lot of money.

And if you don't pay attention to those and you have to do it all at once, that's what we refer to, or what I refer to in technology as forklifting an environment.

It's like literally having to bring a forklift into that room and picking up all the equipment and moving it out and grabbing another set of equipment, new equipment, and bringing it in and setting it down.

And forklifting is always the most expensive way for a business to operate.

But if you turn around and learn how to foresee things ahead of time, then you can Begin to breadcrumb.

Hey, I want to call a quick meeting today.

You get together and you say, hey, I just want to give you a roadmap for the future.

Don't need any decisions today.

Just want to let you know that in our environment, And I'm going to keep it simple.

Okay, but maybe you say you have 20 servers in your environment.

Physical servers, not virtual.

20 servers in your environment.

And just to let you know, the 20 servers in your environment, half of them are five years old and the other are four years old and you need to replace them.

So it's coming up Now.

I used 5 and 4, but I will tell you, I use different numbers for how I rotate equipment.

Not going to share that in this episode.

But let's just say you're telling them, hey, the ones that are five years old, we don't need to replace them today.

And maybe, you know, Today, maybe it's Q1 of the year you're in, but you're saying, but by Q4 of next year, we're going to need to replace those.

And so I'm just letting you know, just high level, not asking for anything today, just letting you know that we're going to need to replace them.

And then in a couple months you come back and you're like, hey, I just wanted to make just breadcrumb in front of you that next year we're going to need to replace some servers.

Oh, yeah, I remember saying that.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

I just want to remind you, we're going to replace some servers.

Remember, we have 20 servers.

Half of them are going to replace next year.

The other half will need to replace the following year.

But I've got you covered on that.

We're good to go.

But just let you know, we're going to need to replace those.

And then a couple months come by and then you come back again.

And I'm not saying several months, a couple months.

And you're like, hey, just want to remind you, those servers, I was looking into them and some good technologies out there.

We think we're going to need 10 next year.

And this is roughly what the price point is.

Just letting you know, I don't need that money today.

Don't need you to make a decision.

Just letting you know, well, you do that enough times, but then you start talking with the right people, you start talking with the finance part of your company or the accounting part of your company, and you're letting them know as well.

Because that way, when you get to Q4 the following year, they're not having to come up with a whole bunch of money.

It doesn't even impact your budget real heavy because you've been breadcrumbing it.

And maybe they can start setting some money aside little by little.

You know, even if they're able to set ten grand aside a month, depending on the operational budget of that company, that might be a lot, that might be a little.

But if you set $10,000 a month, every single month for some servers, when you get to that point, maybe you still have to pay more than that for the servers, but it's a whole lot less than you would have because you were saving along the way.

In other words, you're breadcrumbing the idea, your help leading them to what you need to help run that organization to help them be effective.

And as you do that, and I'm moving through this pretty quick, I maybe should take more time to break this out in a series or something because this is such an effective strategy.

But that being said, when you breadcrumb like that, you help them understand.

And when you help them understand, when the time comes to make the purchase or when the budgets come, when you're doing your budget for the following year, you know, typically within business you have two different types of budget.

You have your capex and you have your opex.

And your opex is what you're operating on on a monthly basis.

But your capex are the big ticket items, the company setting money aside to make big purchases.

Well, I can show you how to make that purchase for the servers both ways and make it very effective.

But you still need a budget for it.

But when you do that, you're basically softening the blow for the organization so that when they go to do the purchase, it's not hitting them out of left field as an unexpected expense.

Now, here's the other thing, though.

Let's say you get to Q4 the following year and you go to make that expense and you're purchasing the servers.

Well, in your mind, you should already know that that's not a forever solution.

Whatever that thing is you're picking up, whether if it's it or something else, you know that's not a forever solution.

You know that's going to need to be replaced in a certain number of years.

But you need to have the expertise to understand how long that's going to be.

And the best thing you can do is start breadcrumbing from that day forward.

You start telling the person you work for.

You start telling the CEO or the owner of the company or you start telling the accounting department or the CFO or somebody, but you let them know, hey, thank you for helping me with this purchase.

This is what it gets us.

But just so you know, in five years, we're going to be back in the situation because of the cost of the market and just inflation and just other marketing changes.

I estimate the cost is going to go up by X number amount.

But if we can start putting that money aside now, and we have five years to plan now, we may only need to put a couple thousand dollars a month aside or something of that nature.

But if we can do that, when we get to that point, we may already have all the money we need and it won't be a hindrance for the organization when you start thinking like that, man, I'm telling you, I'm teaching you some advanced executive mindset right now.

And I'm going to tell you that I know a lot of executives.

Excuse me, I'll get a drink of my tea.

Sorry, I need some green tea to clear my throat.

Apologize.

Here's what I'm going to tell you.

I know a lot of executives and I know that most of them don't think like what I'm just telling you.

You know, when I named this show the Executive Perspective, I prayed about what the Lord wanted me to name it.

And he told me the Executive Perspective when I named it, that it's because I'm giving you a perspective from the things I've done and led.

And I will tell you that I know that.

I know that.

I know that I'm an outstanding leader.

Now, some people might say, oh, he's cocky or he's arrogant.

No, but I am confident.

And sometimes people who are confident, confidence can come across as threatening to individuals.

But it's not conceit, it's not arrogance, but it's confidence.

And because while you may not be looking at my resume or my track record, I know the record and track record.

I know the track record and resume that's behind me.

I know the things I've done and how I've been able to help people.

And it is all of the Lord.

It's his favor on my life.

It is all of the Lord and none of me.

And if someone's there thinking, saying, well, that's God's favor on your life.

I don't have that on mine.

That's not true.

Because that favor that's on my life I'm sharing with you through this podcast so you can get it all over yours as well.

So you can learn from the things that I've done.

Sometimes those are going to be mistakes and things I've learned, but other times it's going to be things that were successes that I learned.

But it's always all of him and none of me.

Well, I'm telling you that if you grab on to what I'm telling you today, this is an advanced executive mindset.

I'm going to say that again.

It's an advanced executive mindset.

And for all my executives who are listening, they know that it is because it's either confirming what they already know or they're having light bulbs go off.

Not one or two, but light bulbs, plural, light bulbs go off in their head and it's shifting the way they think.

And when you can do these things, what I will tell you, making large purchases becomes so simple, it becomes rhythmatic.

In other words, there's a rhythm to it, a healthy rhythm.

And when you have organizations, even if they're tight or they're struggling with their finances, this concept of breadcrumbing will help you even more in those situations.

If your thought is that you can only do that in a company that has enough money.

No.

This concept that the Lord taught me was me working in an organization or for organizations that were struggling that he was calling me into to help.

Some of them I worked for, but others I consulted with.

But it was a concept that he gave me to help them.

And I will tell you that if you're struggling in your finances, this concept alone can help you tremendously.

Now, what I will share with you is this.

If you feel you need help in this area, I was not planning on doing this.

It's not in my show notes.

But I'm recognizing that as I'm dropping some deep things.

You may have people that need help out there.

One of the things I do is executive consulting and executive coaching.

If you feel you need some help in this area or your executive team can use some help in this area, then don't hesitate to reach out.

You can get ahold of me by emailing infoealreyes.com again, that's infoeilreyes.com that's n e r e y e s infoeilreyes.com and if you do that, I'll respond to you.

And if there's some way I can help you or your team, I will absolutely help you or your team.

Why take years to try to learn something that someone else can help fast track you with overnight?

Now, that being said, breadcrumbing.

If you learn the concept of breadcrumbing.

This is invaluable.

And the further out that you start to breadcrumb, the easier it is.

Now, you don't want to go too, too far out.

Sometimes it depends on what it is.

But the further out you breadcrumb, the easier it is.

Go back to that labyrinth or that maze picture that I drew for you earlier.

With my words, if you go halfway through the maze or halfway through that labyrinth and then decide to breadcrumb, you're not helping a whole lot of people because they don't even know how to get to that point.

But you have to start from the beginning.

And if you learn to see the end from the beginning, you know, biblically, I've taught it in other podcasts.

I've done that.

When you learn to pray for wisdom, to see the end from the beginning, your leadership comes up to a whole different level, and you become much, much more effectual in the things you do.

Man, I am enjoying this topic so much today.

But we've come to the end of our podcast for today, for the time that I have for you.

That being said, before you jump off, please stay with me for a second while I help you with some things.

The first thing I want to tell you is something you hear me say every show, but I'm saying it again.

I believe in you, striver.

I believe in your ability to do something amazing within this world.

And sometimes we don't hear that enough from the people who are around us.

But if nothing else, I want you to hear from me.

And if this is the only thing you hear from today's podcast, I at least want you to hear this.

I believe in you.

I think you have greatness inside of you, and I'm encouraging you to bring that on the outside so the rest of the world can see it, too.

I believe in you.

Now, I want to invite you to go by our website@neal Reyes.com where you can find all of our teaching resources, which is a bunch.

And in addition to that, if you're enjoying this podcast, I'm going to ask you to do something.

I want to ask you to help me by following it and leaving a review and sharing it with someone who you think might benefit from it, too.

My purpose of this podcast is to give, not to get.

I'm trying to get things that I know to people so I can help them connect with their very best life.

Guys, as always, thank you for stopping by to learn and grow with us today.

Have a blessed day.