From Tech Startup to Business Kung Fu Wisdom, with Craig Cooke

When Craig Cooke joined us for this conversation, we knew we were in for a treat. His entrepreneurial spirit, molded by the principles of his family's businesses, is a riveting tale of ingenuity and resilience. As the founder of RhythmNet.com, Craig's journey from the ground up, starting with a 14.4 modem, to navigating the digital marketing landscape, is not just a lesson in business growth but a testament to the transformative power of leadership.

Balancing the scales of success and wellbeing, Craig opens up about the personal costs that came with his company's ascent. Battling health challenges amidst prosperity, he shares the profound lifestyle adjustments he made to triumph over diabetes, reaffirming the essential role of self-care for any high achiever. His story is a stark reminder that personal health is a cornerstone of sustainable success, and that taking care of oneself should never be sidelined.

Finally, Craig turns the page to his latest passion, imparting wisdom through his new book "Business Kung Fu." His philosophy on the cyclical nature of learning and sharing is captivating, as he outlines the five elements of entrepreneurship that mirror ancient Chinese wisdom. Alongside his shift to business consulting and the pursuit of a doctorate in Chinese energy medicine, Craig's narrative is an inspiring echo for continuous growth, innovation, and the pursuit of knowledge that enriches both business and personal realms. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Hey, it's William and welcome to today's episode of the Catalytic Leadership podcast. Each week, we tackle a topic related to the field of leadership. My goal is to ensure that you have actionable steps you can take from each episode to grow in your own leadership. Growth doesn't just happen. My goal is to help you become intentional about it. Each week, we spotlight leaders from a variety of fields, organizations and locations. My goal is for you to see that leaders can be catalytic, no matter where they are or what they lead. I draw inspiration from the stories and journeys of these leaders and I hear from many of you that you do too. Let's jump into today's interview. I'm thrilled today to have Craig Cook on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Craig is a successful entrepreneur who had the foresight to start a digital first company utilizing the internet long before digital first, digital transformation and other buzzwords of today were created. With extremely limited resources of $1,300 and an Apple computer, he started RhythmNetcom with a couple of friends from college. Over the years of struggle, adaptation and repositioning, the brand, rhythm was sold to a world-class digital creative agency in 2019. Craig stayed with the company for just over three years, completing a 26-year marathon of running the company as CEO. Today, craig shares his business wisdom, experience and expertise in three key areas Product leadership, brand development and marketing communications. He's published his first book, business Kung Fu, which has attained best-seller status on Amazon. Also, he's studied and served as a practitioner of Chinese medical quaggong since 2015, bringing energy healing to hundreds of people. Currently, he's pursuing a doctorate of Chinese energy medicine from the Temple of Change and transformation. Craig, I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for being on the show.

Speaker 3: 2:25

Thank you, william. Thanks for that intro. That's great. I'm really happy to be here, excited to talk with you today. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:33

I would love to start with you sharing some of your story with our listeners, Craig, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did this all get started?

Speaker 3: 2:44

Well, I'll start with when I was very young. I actually was fortunate enough to grow up in an entrepreneurial family. My mother had a very small restaurant, just like 14 tables. My parents also had an automatic fire sprinkler construction company, which was small too, designed and installing, maintaining automatic fire sprinkler systems, and they did pretty well for a period of time. But then when the early 90s the recession at that time hit, it was a downward spiral. So it was interesting to kind of witness and be a part of a rise and fall family business.

Speaker 3: 3:30

And I actually started working when I was 10 years old and my mother's restaurant, washing dishes a couple nights a week. Nothing too terrible For me, I just liked to be around my mom and other people in there because otherwise I was by myself. So I didn't mind it, it was cool. And when I was 13, I continued to wash dishes until I was 13,. Then I became a busboy and then I continued that until I was 16, and then I became a waiter. And that was an interesting job with being a waiter. It teaches you so much Just working in a restaurant in general, but also in that role, learning efficiency, not wasting a trip, being organized, handling stress and pressure, because when it's super busy the restaurant environment is tough. And also teamwork, communication, salesmanship because when you're speaking with the customers you're telling them the nightly specials and all those things, and there's just so many lessons that were learned. So I was so fortunate to grow up in that environment and I went and traded for the world. There's a lot of hard work.

Speaker 3: 4:42

And then when I was 16, I also started working in the fire sprinkler shop cutting and fabricating. And then once I went on the field but most of my time was in the shop and steel pipe super heavy, you know, in summertime it's 110 out. That pipe is super hot, burning through the gloves, and yeah, it was manual, tough work, but it was good for me. It was good for me so. And then when I was in college, I was very shy, actually when I was younger, in high school and so forth. When I went to college I definitely forced myself to get more involved and took on some leadership positions and various organizations on campus and that was kind of the start of that. And then when I started my company you know you're a leader from day one and that evolved over time as far as with the company growing and lessons learned and so forth, which you know. We can talk about all that, but that's kind of the summary of it. Started when I was small and continued up into this day actually.

Speaker 2: 5:47

You know it's so interesting. I often say that there's no such thing as a wasted experience and I love how so many different parts of your story you know led to you becoming the leader that you are today and I would imagine had a pretty significant impact on how you led rhythm.

Speaker 3: 6:06

Yeah, absolutely. You know, growing up in that environment, understanding the hard work, the work ethic, strong work ethic, and really instilled that ethic in me to where I could lead by example, you know that was one of the biggest things that as a leader, I thought was very important was leading by example, just not asking people to do things that I wasn't willing to do myself and as like including to stay late. You know, a lot of times that, hey, we got to stay late tonight. Oh, hey, I stayed with them. You know, working with you know hands on, doing things, trying to help get the project executed and finished and wrapped up.

Speaker 3: 6:49

So that's one thing in the communication aspect is huge. And dealing with stress and pressure, because being a busboy, dishwasher, busboy, wait at all those positions and watching how the breakdown inside the kitchen, how things can come break down when there's stress and pressure and the communication is lost and temper to get the best of people and mistakes get made, and just how things can kind of break down in those moments it doesn't help. So it's interesting to witness that and I was always very observant of people and behavior and it was always like filing Okay, note to self, note to self, you know.

Speaker 2: 7:29

It's so interesting how, you know, family origins play so much into our story. You know, my grandfather started a children's clothing store, started his own business with children's clothing store right, and my dad started his own business. He started a traditional advertising agency back in the 70s and ran that until he retired. You started a digital marketing company in 1996. Yes, long before most people were thinking about digital marketing.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Yes, yes, that's right.

Speaker 2: 8:02

What brought you to that decision point?

Speaker 3: 8:06

Yeah. So I know I joke when I tell people yeah, I started a digital first company in the 20th century.

Speaker 2: 8:14

That's right, that's great.

Speaker 3: 8:17

Yeah, so at the time right around 1995, I was getting online a lot through America Online.

Speaker 2: 8:29

Yeah, oh yeah. I used to get the CDs. I get it.

Speaker 3: 8:33

Yeah, the CDs, all that stuff. And so I was learning about the internet. It's like wow, fascinating. And actually when I was in college my first exposure I worked for another job I had when I was young, I think, when I was around 21, I had this one on campus job. I worked for this teacher and she had access, she had an email, right, so I worked for her and she would be flying all over the country and she emailed me this blah, blah, blah. So I was like, wow, man, this is like instant communication, this is incredible, right.

Speaker 3: 9:07

And then, and then, shortly after graduation, the World Wide Web came into play, you know as far as like rising and popularity, and so I started learning and reading about that. And I was getting together with one of my friends. We had passion for music and we were getting together writing songs and so forth. And one day, coming back from the beach yeah, from the beach, one day I stopped at this computer store and at the time in the magazine rack there was a bunch of CD-Raw magazines, so this one was called MusicNet, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, musicnet took it home and you put in the CD and there's all these bands that I never heard of before and you go to watch their videos and listen to it and I was like, wow, this is cool. And I was like, wow, this would be neat to get music online. You know, because of the internet stuff that I was talking about and then conversations with my friend, one thing led to another about like hey, it'd be a cool thing to do for other musicians. So that's the genesis of the idea where we started RhythmNetcom. So there's three of us myself and two friends and it's really creating a platform to fight against the established music industry, right To get the opportunity for all these independent artists that were super talented. It's where people could discover them, read about them, listen to song samples and buy their CDs online through a secure server.

Speaker 3: 10:37

Hey, back in 1996, we had all that set up but, as you know, there was no broadband. We started with 14.4 modem connections when I went to 28.8. We were like, yeah, and then 56.8. Right, yeah and yeah. Oh my gosh, those days, and there was only 30 million people worldwide online at the time, no MP3s and everyone was afraid to buy stuff using their credit card online at the time. So it was an idea before it's time in a sense. But that's okay, we adapted and because we were struggling with that, we all put in $1,300 a piece and I had a computer and that's what we started with. Wow, very limited resources and none of us had money, so it was just grinding, grinding, grinding.

Speaker 3: 11:32

After a couple of years we started to fill out a lot of requests for websites for companies. Like people, you know, there's internet stuff. Can you do a website for a company? Oh, yeah, sure, why not? And then, after filling a bunch of those requests, like, ah, we can actually make good money for our time doing this.

Speaker 3: 11:49

So we switched gears, put the music thing on the side, kept maintaining it, and then changed our name to Rhythmnet Design Group or adopted another name, and then started focusing on web design for companies and then, over time, started acquiring additional capabilities, because I saw a vision of the future, of an integrated approach to marketing you know, with offline and online and just worked over time to build up those capabilities, like email marketing, search marketing. We learned a lot of print. Actually, we did a lot of CD-ROM manufacturing and package design and printing, brokerage and printing, which led to CD-ROM projects for big pharmaceutical companies. I worked with almost all of the big pharma companies doing runs of these CD-ROM applications that were patient education, multimedia experiences, and we would do 50,000, 100,000, half a million, one million unit runs of these really pretty cool applications. It was cool stuff, those were neat days. But yeah, we just adapted and evolved over time to become this integrated digital agency.

Speaker 2: 13:01

And then a 26 year run as the CEO of that. I mean that's pretty unique. You don't see a lot of people making a 26 year run with the same organization.

Speaker 3: 13:13

Yeah, I'm a marathon runner. I equate each year to a mile.

Speaker 2: 13:16

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3: 13:20

Yeah, I ran a marathon and, believe me, when I finished I really needed to decompress and take a break. I mean, it's a great journey, great run, but I really need to rock. So, yeah, you're right, a lot of people they bounce around or they stick with someone like five years or maybe 10 years or whatever, but yeah, 26 years. The day the business was officially sold was January 2nd 2019. And we had officially started our business on January 2nd 1996. So it was the anniversary to the day our 23 year anniversary of when the company officially sold. So that was kind of cool.

Speaker 2: 13:59

That is cool. I would imagine that kind of run and that kind of success had a cost.

Speaker 3: 14:08

Yes, it did. Yes. Now, everything has a cost. Nothing's free. Everything has a cost. Even if you think it's free, it's not, because at the bare minimum, it's time and time. It's money. Time, even if you don't think of it that way, it's money. We only have so much time in our life, so every second you spend how about you say the same? How do you spend your time? You're spending your time. There's a cost to everything.

Speaker 3: 14:37

So for me, one of my biggest costs was my health. I was in such great shape when I was 25 when I started my company, because I'd been studying martial arts intensively for eight years, from 17 to 25. And I did a lot of strength training too, and I was just in really tip-top shape and that carried me through good, solid five years at least. I was just so all into the company and nothing else, and working crazy hours, hardly getting any sleep three to five hours of sleep a night, and that catches up with you.

Speaker 3: 15:14

So by the time I got into my mid-30s, suddenly my health turned around, like I was just overweight, just out of shape completely, and continuing that in my early 40s. I was like man. I didn't need to do something about this Because I was just always tired, crashing, get home at night and eat dinner and then after dinner I'd crash on the couch, not wanting to. It would just happen, and that was never me. I was like, wow, what's going on? The kids would want to play and stuff, and that was a challenging time and I ended up going to a doctor a natural path doctor she's still my doctor today, and so this is about seven years ago or so and I got a blood panel and discovered that I had a challenge with diabetes.

Speaker 3: 16:02

I was diagnosed with diabetes and I like to say a challenge to its mindset. I don't claim it, it's more, I have a challenge with it. So that hit me like a baseball bat, like, wow, I'm only like 40, 40, or 45 at the time, 45, 46. Yeah, and I was like, wow, it's too early. Well, this sucks All right. Well, I got to do something about it.

Speaker 3: 16:33

So I talked to her like, hey, I want to change this and I didn't want to take any pharmaceutical meds. I worked enough for the pharma companies, not a fan. How could I beat this naturally? And she'd say you could do it. You know it's lifestyle change. So I said, all right, let's do that, help me out. So I went on this journey of transforming myself and today I've reversed it 100% naturally. So that was a thank you. That was a big cost, though. Like wow, what a lesson.

Speaker 3: 17:08

So definitely something I like to share to people Like you got to take care of yourself, make time for yourself, even if you don't think you have the time. I know, believe me, I understand, because I was so all in Like I have time for nothing else, get it done. But if you don't take the time, you end up, even if you don't feel like you're burned out mentally from the work, you're just physically tired. Like I said, I would crash on the couch. I would never do that. I would just go, go, go, go. So I was physically not even able to continue to be as productive as I used to be. So if you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to be able to be of service to others. So in my book I have this statement be of service to self so you can be of service to others for a lifetime.

Speaker 2: 18:01

I love that. Let's talk about your book. What inspired you to put words on paper?

Speaker 3: 18:08

Well, actually, my very first passion in life was books. As soon as I was able to read, I always had a book in my face. I was always reading, constantly reading, and before then I'd always be asking my mom to read to me. And as soon as I could read, always a book in my face for the longest time. And it was really my very first passion, and I remember being around 17, 18 or so thinking one day.

Speaker 3: 18:36

I'd really love to write a book. So it's just a thought, a desire in my mind that just got filed away and of course I didn't know on what that would be. But yeah, because I just love books so much, and then, around 2011, because it took me 12 years to get this done, it's time for me to write that book, because I have a great story to tell and I came up with the concept of business kung fu. So I was thinking what's the story I can tell and share with people? But I'm glad it took me 12 years to get it done, because if I wrote it back then it wouldn't be as valuable as it is today with the lessons and the journey that I've had up until today.

Speaker 2: 19:23

I'll often talk about how the experiences in our lives are never wasted, but they're also not just for us, and we have an opportunity. We can either be a reservoir of all the experiences and the learnings, the things that we gain, or we can be a conduit of that and we can share those with those around us, so that our experiences, then, are not just for us, they're also for the benefit of those around us, and I love that. That's how you see sharing through your book. So tell me business kung fu, tell me, what kind of audience is this book most suited for? Who did you write to?

Speaker 3: 19:57

Yes and real quick. 100%, I agree with that statement that you just made.

Speaker 3: 20:03

I mean, that's one of the big things. After I rested from the marathon and I started thinking about the next chapter, so I thought, wow, how about this experience? How selfish would it be of me not to share that? Yeah, all right. So I said I need to share this so big aspect of doing what I'm doing today which we could get into. But so the book is a component of the sharing and it's really geared for entrepreneurs. That's the context. You know it's been my journey. Now any sort of business professional could benefit, any professional field. Actually they could benefit from some of the underlying principles.

Speaker 3: 20:46

And it's interesting some of the reviews that I've been getting on Amazon. There's been comments where some people have stated not only is it good roadmap for business and entrepreneurs, but it's a good roadmap for life, and I was like, wow, that's really cool. Yeah, it wasn't the intent, it's really geared towards entrepreneurs, but it is correct. It's kind of neat when you can kind of take those lessons and extrapolate it into other aspects of life, because there's definitely some universal principles that can apply to anything. Really, at the bottom line. The end of the day, the book is a mindset book and it's geared for entrepreneurs. Because of the context of the story.

Speaker 2: 21:30

One of the things that I really appreciated about it was how authentic you are. You don't try to paint over mistakes. You don't try to minimize what you had, your contributions to things that didn't go right or as planned. You were very open about that. You're very honest about that. That's not always the case.

Speaker 3: 21:51

Yeah, you're right, none of us are perfect. There's always bumps in the road. We're human. I'm very good at what I do, but the only reason why is because I made a ton of mistakes. When you make those mistakes sometimes that's really just the best way to learn, because the impact that it has on you wow, I'm not going to do that again. You don't do it again. If you repeat it, then you acknowledge that you've made a mistake in the first place and didn't learn from it. That's just silly. If you want to be successful, you need to be honest and objective, be the observer and be like oh yeah, I was in the wrong there, or I made this mistake, or wow, I didn't pay attention to that detail, oh man, I got to make sure I follow this process, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's what you have to do in order to be successful. Yeah, that's just a part of sharing. Thank you for sharing that with me, because they are very, very purposeful. You've got to have to be open and authentic.

Speaker 2: 22:53

No doubt I'd love for you to share some of the content from the book, some of the lessons or the concepts that you share, so that our listeners can get a flavor of it.

Speaker 3: 23:05

Okay, yeah, I'd like to start with, let's say, chapter one. When I started studying Chinese kung-fu, it starts with building a foundation. Just like you build a foundation for a home or a skyscraper, or you need that foundation in order to be structurally sound, so the same thing with Chinese martial arts. You get your foundation, which is a combination of stances and stepping and punches and kicks and guards and blocking, but it's a limited set and it was practicing that for months upon months and going through a lot of pain and through the effort and really building a solid foundation, so then I could get things that were more evolved, more sophisticated, et cetera, et cetera. And the same thing comes with starting a company. You have to have a foundation as to why are you in business to begin with, what are you going to offer as a product or service or both, and how is that going to create value for people?

Speaker 3: 24:12

And there's an aspect of what I call the five elements of entrepreneurship which is really important to develop and balance as an entrepreneur in order to be successful.

Speaker 3: 24:24

And the five elements is based on classic Chinese five element theory. That five element theory applies to martial arts, applies to traditional Chinese medicine and also spiritual systems from the Chinese culture. Those five elements happen to be fire, earth, water, metal, wood. Now, in my book, inspired by that model, I identified five elements of entrepreneurship, where that starts with passion, which then leads to discipline, which leads to expertise meaning expert skills which leads to confidence, which then leads to faith, and it's a generative cycle that builds, increases capacity of these elements and then you want to maintain that balance. There there's also a destructive cycle where it could go the other direction and all those elements can start to diminish Actually, your mindset isn't correct. And then there's interrelationships between the elements too, that there can be positive and negative influences depending upon the state of mind and the modes of thinking and so forth. So it's very important as an entrepreneur, to have those elements developed and balanced in order to be successful.

Speaker 2: 25:42

From my experience, it's so practical what you share in the book, because I think every, any leader, any entrepreneur who's reading this can find themselves in the story. They can find themselves in this thing. Oh, that element, oh that's. Yeah, I've kind of doubled down on that one. This one I really haven't spent a lot of time on, do you?

Speaker 3: 26:05

see that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. Yes, absolutely, the entrepreneurial journey is just a universal truth. It's like the hero's journey I alluded to that in the book and it's universal. So I'm just another guy, just another normal dude, and I'm not special and I built something great. But there was a process and trials and tribulations and, of course, the teacher that shows up and helps along the way, and overcoming and coming back with the rewards. You know, it's that whole classic hero's journey and all the entrepreneurs. We all go through it and it's all universal. So thank you for making that statement. It's cool how you see that.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Yeah, I would recommend this book Anybody who's in entrepreneurship, in any vein of that, or truly leadership of any kind, because I think you're going to find so much gold in here that you can pull out and use that's practical and learn from the wisdom of somebody who's gone before you know. Too many people are trying to figure it out. They're trying to build a plane while they're flying it and they're making mistake after mistake after mistake. I'm of the opinion I'm not going to live long enough to make all the mistakes myself. I'd rather learn from somebody who's made some mistakes, so I don't have to make those. I'm going to make plenty of my own and I do.

Speaker 3: 27:36

That's right. Yeah, 100%. And yeah, why make mistakes you can avoid? Yeah, so you can be more efficient in your journey. And thank you for recognizing that. Not only entrepreneurs but any sort of business professionals, I agree. Anyone can really get something out of it and apply it to their particular situational context. And yeah, it's just so many aspects to run in a company and, as you said, making mistakes we're all gonna make mistakes, many of them. But yeah, if you can learn from someone and cut off the past some, that could be really burdensome, yeah, it could save you time, et cetera. It's about not being only effective, but being efficient in your journey. You know, if you can save five years of pain because you listened to someone, that's totally okay and it should be open to that.

Speaker 2: 28:36

Actually, Absolutely so. You mentioned earlier that the book is one component of your next chapter. What else did you do in these days?

Speaker 3: 28:46

At the beginning of last year, I decided to start the next chapter, and so I announced to you know, my networks of people. Okay, here's what I'm doing, and which is two main things One easy transition to doing business, consulting and advisory work, and the three areas that being focused on marketing communications, with the emphasis on digital experiences, based on, of course, some kind of digital agency, right, no brainer. And then brand development, because we actually had a lot of experience with brand development and I enjoy that, actually. And then a third pillar, leadership development. Just based on my track record, what I've achieved, you know, each 5,000 lists five years in a row, best places to work four years in a row, et cetera, et cetera. You know things that I can share with people. So you know it's about that sharing, right? So that's one aspect.

Speaker 3: 29:42

And then also, which people can read up a little bit on my site, is what I refer to as energetic practices, and it's energetic practices. What does that mean? It means working with energy, and I'm a practitioner on what's called Chinese medical qigong. It's energy spill. Qigong means energy skill, literally, and I started that in 2014. You know, it's a game changer for me and running my company. So ever since then I really took a deep dive into that and have been working on developing that skill and I've done conducted over 800 sessions, energy sessions with clients, and I have a lot of professional people that come to see me actually, and so that's a whole other silo.

Speaker 3: 30:34

But what I'm working on doing is kind of bringing those together, just like I did way back in 1996, combine two passions One for technology and one for music to create something new, doing the same thing.

Speaker 3: 30:45

You know, this passion for what I've done all these years, and then also this passion for qigong or Chinese energy medicine, and bringing this together, these two worlds together, for a number of reasons. One, it's just something that I'm passionate about too Everyone to benefit from it. Three, I just feel that's needed out there in the world, not only in the personal but professional world as well. I really led my company with a much more heart centered approach as opposed by an old fashioned lead by fear approach. So qigong can help you maintain that For me. I was naturally wired that way, but I would lose it at times and I got off centered, out of balance, and qigong really helped me return to center. So that's something I want to share with people and there's a lot to it. Actually, I'm even enrolled in a doctorate program for Chinese energy medicine. I'm really finished up later this year in August.

Speaker 2: 31:51

So you're pretty busy, I am.

Speaker 3: 31:55

I just heard the book that just came out. Yes, Exactly.

Speaker 2: 31:58

So you know you are continually learning and growing, and this is just one facet of that, right, but you know you're gonna need to be a better leader five years from now than you are today, just like you're a better leader now than you were five years ago. Right, what do you do to stay on top of your game? What do you do to level up your leadership skills so that you never settle for just where you are?

Speaker 3: 32:25

Yeah, that's a great question and that's something that I'm gonna be actively doing as I move forward in this next chapter. Right, yeah, when I was writing my company it was, I was in it every day and, as a continual learning process, and just through the nature of being in it, through that experience, it was a daily evolution. It's interesting where I'm at now because, you know, I took a break, started last year, but I'm at a much more, let's say even killed pace, yeah, and not to mention, it's not like being in an office. I'm independent, right, so I'm not involved with the team yet. Maybe I'll change my mind and suddenly, hey, I wanna create something with a bunch of people. Yeah, but at the right now I'm very comfortable doing my thing.

Speaker 3: 33:22

But what it's gonna really, I think, affect my leadership to take it up to another level is working with other leaders in that whole leadership development category that I mentioned earlier, and working with those people, because there's one thing when you teach others, you're also learning at the same time. I used to teach martial arts also, and when I was teaching martial arts, I was learning at the same time to be a better martial artist when I was running my company and I was teaching my staff how to do certain things. I was learning to become a better leader also as I was developing them. That's right, yeah. So I think now, with this new context of me being an independent consultant advisor, it's gonna be different experience for me and I'm gonna be learning in a different manner. That's gonna, I believe, elevate my capabilities and wisdom to another level.

Speaker 2: 34:25

Yeah, thank you. You know I see a number of books on the shelves behind you. Obviously you love to read, like I do, and like you, you read from a very early age on, and then I've never stopped. Is there a book that you would recommend that has made a big difference in your journey, that you say, hey, if you're in leadership, this is a book that really impacted my life, and that you encourage everybody listed to put on their to read list?

Speaker 3: 34:50

There's so many books right, but as far like leadership and running a company, one book I found really impactful was Good to Great by Jim Collins. Love that book, yeah, yeah, just fantastic. I just love the methodology, how that approach that he went with determining good companies from great companies and what he identified as the common traits. And I took those principles, like the hedgehog concept, for example, right and applied it to my company like, okay, what could we be the best in the world at, or at least best in this area? I did some modifications of my own right, of course, based on our situational context. What was our metrics, our operating metrics? What are you passionate about? You know those hedgehog concepts.

Speaker 3: 35:45

That was a big one. So that book was definitely impactful. You know, there's a lot of good things in that book, actually, even the aspect of being humble. I believe he mentioned something about how the best leaders are really much more modest and, you know, not really out there being flamboyant attention-seeking. You know, et cetera, et cetera, from his studies, his experience of what he knows, time after time after time after time, the nature of the effective leader.

Speaker 2: 36:21

Often, people are going to walk away from a conversation like this, craig, with one big idea. If you were able to define what, you want people to walk away with, one big idea what would that be?

Speaker 3: 36:34

That's a great question. I know it's going to say one thing, but you know I need to go back to that five elements of entrepreneurship because it is unique, because it's not something that is out there, it's something I created and okay, maybe I'm being biased here, but I do feel it's very important that one pays attention to these five elements and they work to develop that and balance it. It's critical for success. I feel it could be extremely helpful on one's journey. So that's a concept that I would like to get across for people to understand and to take it and run with it.

Speaker 2: 37:13

I know folks are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn from you and check out your book. What is the best way for people to do that?

Speaker 3: 37:21

Well to get my book Business Confood, which is what it looks like. So if you go on Amazon and search for it, that's the cover and it's available in paperback, hardcover Kindle Format On Amazon only right now, but I'm planning on distributing it in other means, hopefully in audiobooks as well, but for the moment on Amazon. And then, as far as getting in touch with me or learning more about me, people can visit my website at csquaredproio the letter C and then squared spelled out proio, and there's a contact form on there. I don't list my number or email just because you get all these crazy lists and get spam like crazy. So to minimize that, I have a form, but I actively monitor that. So if someone fills out the form, I will receive it and be sure to respond.

Speaker 3: 38:14

Also, linkedin is a great spot to get in touch with me. So LinkedIn, slash in slash, craig Cook so that's Craig, not Greg, but Craig C-R-A-I-G and then Cook C-O-O-K-E, so Cook with an E at the end. And I'm on other channels too, craig Cook like Twitter and Instagram, but LinkedIn and my website are the two best spots.

Speaker 2: 38:35

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Speaker 2: 39:11

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. If you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.