Behind The Mic: The Courage of a Leader with Amy Riley

Michelle Abraham: 00:00:03

This is amplify you the podcast about you discovering your message and broadcasting to the world. If you're a coach, author or speaker, you'll want to tune in. If you're looking for the best return on your time investment, to get your message out to the world in a bigger way, we're giving you full access behind the scenes look of how we're running our podcasts, how our clients have found success, and what you can do to launch your podcast today. The world needs your message. I'm Michelle Abraham, the host. Join my family as we unleash your unique genius and find the connections you need to launch your adventure today. Join us and let's get amplify. Hello, hello amplify you Michelle Abraham your hosts here today. Today you guys were in for a treat. We're doing a behind the mic interview with Amy Riley from courage of leader. And we are so excited to have Amy here. She's just newly launched her podcast. Let me say hi to me first. And I'll tell you a little bit more about the courage of the leader.

Amy Riley: 00:01:05

Hi, Michelle, thank you for having me on the podcast.

Michelle Abraham: 00:01:08

Hey, Amy, thanks for joining us. It's been great having you. And oh my gosh, how are you feeling with your new podcast?

Amy Riley: 00:01:15

Ah, it's been exciting. It's been exciting. It's been really rewarding to see it, hear it, watch it, come out and be launched. It's been a lot of work to get here. But I'm proud of it. I'm super excited about the guests that I've had on the podcast. Great insights, inspiring stories to share. So it's just been really nice to see it come to fruition.

Michelle Abraham: 00:01:47

Yes. Awesome. And now I bet it's really exciting to see everyone's reaction to it.

Amy Riley: 00:01:54

Yes, it has been the feedback, seeing people post reviews. It's really great. And it's great to see that others are just as impressed and inspired by the leaders that I've interviewed and had on the show as I was,

Michelle Abraham: 00:02:10

Oh, that's so awesome. And I was going to look you on LinkedIn lo was going to go comment on some things on LinkedIn with you. And I was looking for it on LinkedIn. And all of a sudden, I was like, bombarded my whole search page was full of people that were posting about your podcast.

Amy Riley: 00:02:29

Yes, the network came through. Yeah, many were not only writing their own reviews, but sharing it out so that it got to more listeners.

Michelle Abraham: 00:02:39

That's awesome. Well, guys, I have we've dove right into Amy's excitement of having a newly launched podcast. But let me just tell you a little bit more about at you guys. So Amy is an internationally renowned speaker, author and consultant, she has over two decades of experience developing leaders at all levels. So her some of her notable clients have been Cisco Systems, Deloitte and Google Drive, as among many, many others. And so Amy's podcast is called the courage of a leader. And so what's really great about Amy's podcast is that she's having these amazing conversations with CEOs and experts in in their in their businesses. And it's such a cool, I would say is a different take on podcasts, kind of then like the typical interview that you see on a lot of shows. And so in your background is in like organizational development, and training and development. And you're a behavioral analyst and certified in all sorts of other like Myers Briggs type things, and Tara, co International Coach, so if so much experience in there, and I think that's really great, the way that you're bringing together these interviews, not to mention that your book is also the number one best selling bestseller, and it's called the courage of a leader as well. But it's the courage of a leader how to inspire, engage and get extraordinary results. So I love that you kind of mirrored that in the podcast, too. So just so cool to see like how you brought your experience and your work together into your podcast. So can you share with us a journey? Like what inspired you to start your podcast in the first place?

Amy Riley: 00:04:12

Yeah, yeah. So like you said, I've been doing this job of leadership development consultant and coach for over two decades now. And I would say in the last several years, I wanted to find a way to reach more leaders more than just, you know, CEOs one on one more than just the hundreds of leaders that I was interacting with in the leadership development programs that I was leading. And that led me to first write the book. And I wanted to talk about the courage that it takes to be an effective leader. And I was gonna say these days but it's it's always been true. Every time that I have been impressed or inspired by a leader, Michelle, I saw that they were demonstrating true personal courage, doing the work inside of themselves in order to create something extraordinary out in our world. So I wanted to share the messages about that and reach millions of people, not just hundreds of people annually. So first was the book. And then came the courage of a leader podcast, I just want to share those inspiring stories, that pragmatic advice. Being a leader is not an easy job. And I want to support leaders in doing that job.

Michelle Abraham: 00:05:48

I love that. So do you think that having courage is a mandatory trait to become a great leader?

Amy Riley: 00:05:58

I do. I do. Yeah, if you want to be an extraordinary leader that's really making VA results that you want and need happen in the world, then we've got to be willing to be authentically ourselves, we've got to be willing to say what needs to be said, we need to take risks, we often need to do work on our own thoughts, intentions processing, so that we can show up powerfully share clear messages, and be bold, and get the extraordinary results. Yeah,

Michelle Abraham: 00:06:41

that's so awesome. What is the one thing that you hope that comes from these conversations for your listeners?

Amy Riley: 00:06:47

Ah, I want listeners to walk away from every podcast with that is a piece of advice that I can take. And I can apply immediately. And that we're sharing examples that are detailed and rich enough that you could see, this is how it would apply. In my world, I could do that with this project, I could do that with this relationship, that you walk away from every episode with tangible stuff that you can take and go do as a result of listening.

Michelle Abraham: 00:07:27

I love that I remember when we're in the planning stages of this with you that that was really, really important to you that if people just come and listen and got information, that they got something that they could implement and actually make a difference in something they're doing and apply it to their their work right away. So yeah, I love that because that's so intentional, then that you put you're putting the work in that that's gonna they're gonna extract something from there that is super valuable. And I think that's been a definitely a contribution to your show success so far is that people feel like they're, they're getting some really great, not just information, but really great strategies and things that they can apply right away.

Amy Riley: 00:08:11

Right. Yeah, that is definitely the intention. And you're right, I need to be thinking about that throughout this process, right. And making sure that during the podcast recordings, I'm asking the questions so that we get to the piece of advice, the example the technique, the insight that the leaders listening can take forward.

Michelle Abraham: 00:08:36

That's amazing. And if we can just share with our audience for a second Amy, your podcast came out of the woodwork with gangbusters on you launch the top 100 of a very, very, very competitive category. Careers at in like five or six different countries. So congratulations. Huge. You Yeah, that's huge. everyone strives to be a top 200 podcasts. Yours is lining in the top 100. And this is just something to really celebrate. And congratulations on that.

Amy Riley: 00:09:07

Yeah, yeah. People heard the cry for support right? We can get this out to more leaders we can we need courageous leaders in our world. And if we share about this, and this podcast becomes a top ranked podcast, then we reach more leaders more people get the support that they need.

Michelle Abraham: 00:09:34

And boy Don't we need some courageous leaders right now. And if you guys haven't listened to as like as yet you have to go and listen for the amazing content but also in the intro if I might say you have a very unique lion roar. And I just love five because the first time I heard it, I was like, Oh my gosh, what was that? Oh is the lion roaring like feels like you Get like empowered and that like Yes.

Amy Riley: 00:10:04

I'm glad you said I do I love the lion roar. Go,

Michelle Abraham: 00:10:10

right. Yeah. And I think that's just like, it's kind of like, okay team, like, let's do this, like, let's see, let's, let's be courageous leaders and I think you're really creating a movement of courageous leaders that can, you know, need courageous leaders more than anything and in in helping people find that courage within themselves. By listening, I think it's gonna just make a huge impact in the world.

Amy Riley: 00:10:36

Yes, let's ignite the courage of a leader, everyone.

Michelle Abraham: 00:10:41

Yes, I love it. So any, what's one piece of advice that you can share with our audience that's really helped you in getting this podcast up and going for one and then to also like, in your business, in your success in your career so far?

Amy Riley: 00:10:55

Excellent. Um, yeah, this might not sound too exciting, but it's exciting when it's in place. And that's process. When I first started my business, my leadership development programs, the experiences that I create, it's all custom. So at first I thought, you know, I'm going to interact with every client differently. This is this is no two programs are alike. Yet, I realized that there are processes you want to have in place, there is something that you want to do with clients near the beginning of every engagement, something you want to do it in the middle, something that you want to do annually. And I have one of my clients, I have been working with them since the very beginning, I have 22 folders in my computer, working with this client. And I would say, I would contribute that to some of the processes that I do with my clients annually, to stay in touch to make sure I'm up to date on their goals, their strategies, you know, Mike, contacts at that client have changed a handful of times, but the relationship continues because of process. And boy, oh, boy, is it process to launch and keep track of a podcast? No,

Michelle Abraham: 00:12:30

what do you mean, you don't just put it up there?

Amy Riley: 00:12:34

You know, yeah, just any any thought like, you know, I have a tool, this is this will be great. There'll be helping me out with this. And they are, and it is great. But there's there's a lot of communication, and back and forth. And what works. And we tried it that way. Now let's do it this way to make sure that each podcast guest is getting the experience that we want them to have all along the way from considering scheduling a recording, to following up a court, you know, three months later, what's happened since we recorded the episode. Any updates for the listeners?

Michelle Abraham: 00:13:16

Yeah, and I think it's really brilliant, what you're taking the time to build the process to nurture the relationship. And I think I had a conversation with someone the weeks ago that I had on my podcast, and she's like, you know, I've been on so many podcasts, and I've had so many podcasts, it's unbelievable. How many people like you know, this is the beginning of a relationship. It's not like the influence so the lack of follow up on a lot of podcasters out there now is becoming a bit of a thing. As you know, we don't want to get ourselves a bad reputation here for not following up with our guests and continuing that relationship because it really is the first maybe the first are a continuation of a relationship but I love that you're putting the emphasis on that process in your podcast.

Amy Riley: 00:14:01

Yes, yes. Thank you yeah and thank you for as my podcast production partner for the the ideas and some of the templates for doing so.

Michelle Abraham: 00:14:13

Yeah, well you're welcome it's been so much fun working with you but also we've learned a lot from working with you too because your background because of your background and your your ability to put processes in place it's been really great to you know, work with you in seeing some of the things that we are like so we probably have a better process some some blind spots for us, which has been really great as well and which is awesome. So we're always striving for better and you know more efficiency and in also making sure our clients are feeling supported throughout the whole way. So I love how you're taking that from your podcasting guests and also nurturing that relationship and you know, who knows potential business could come from that as well. And that's something that I think a lot of people don't really think about when you're going into starting a podcast is about the platform and the content. But actually, one of the things that we've been very successful at in our podcasting experiences, is actually taking that podcast and using it as an amazing tool to help grow your business through the relationships that you're making on the podcast itself.

Amy Riley: 00:15:20

Exactly. I mean, quite frankly, I am having some impressive, highly successful executives on as guests on the podcast, and I would love to work with them in a variety of ways going forward.

Michelle Abraham: 00:15:39

Yeah. How are you finding the guests for your show? Because you're looking for certain qualities in them? Or is it through your already existing network? Or is that are you reaching out in some other way?

Amy Riley: 00:15:50

Yeah, right. Now, it's been mostly for my existing network. I did some work when I was in the process of writing the courage of a leader book, in connecting with executives that were outside of my network, and I interviewed over 35 executives for the book. So many of them have been invited to be guests on the podcast, and then you start asking those amazing leaders who else should be on the podcast, and then the circle widens from there.

Michelle Abraham: 00:16:33

Amazing. One of the things I love about podcasting is that networking ability, because you have this platform now is very appealing for people to become to come on. And now who else do you know, that should be on this podcast that I can come you know, celebrate them and, you know, showcase them to the world? So what a cool way of also looking at it, but a tool I think that's very much underutilized in the podcasting space is you as an as a door as an invitation to open doors and reach out to new people in your network?

Amy Riley: 00:17:04

Yes, exactly. And I'm excited now that there are listeners out there, right, and they and they see the kinds of guests and conversations that we're having on the podcast, diving into an aspect of leadership, that we'll be able to ask listeners who, who do you Who do you want to hear from in this format?

Michelle Abraham: 00:17:34

I love it. I love it. So Amy, what? What is one thing you wish you knew before you started a podcast?

Amy Riley: 00:17:47

To two things, the first thing that came to mind was how much work it is. That doesn't seem very fun and inspiring to share, but I mean, listen, it was it was work I wanted to dive into, because I really wanted this to be a high quality, take tangible takeaways away without having to sift through 50 minutes, 45 minutes of content right after we keep this as concise and powerfully packed as possible. So yeah, be Yeah, be prepared to do the work and know what you what your end product. Look what you want it to look like.

Michelle Abraham: 00:18:38

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a really good point. Because I think people hear they need to podcast. So they go and put it together real quick. And then those are the people that are gone before. 20 episodes heads. So I really admire the amount of thought and consideration that went into the pre production and in creation of your show, that just shows us that that's why it's successful now. It's why it's launched so well in the charts and why people are going to be listening to it for a long time. I think that is a big piece that goes into that sometimes missed.

Amy Riley: 00:19:15

Well, I'm glad you're saying that because I know. There's a lot of work that we did together when I was like, Okay, I'm thinking this, what about this? Why this? Would we do it this way? So no, we were exploring and considering different approaches together.

Michelle Abraham: 00:19:33

Yeah, one of the things that I think is great, what you did choose, you actually plan this pretty far out, instead of just like 30 days or you know, three weeks to go and let's do this. It was several months of operation and thinking about it and curating the ideas and the relationships and things like that. So I think that was really well done too. I like that how you took your time and he really was really thoughtful and intentional about the career Have it.

Amy Riley: 00:20:01

Thank you. Yes, that was the intent. I'm not good at the last minute flurry. So I did not want to set myself up for that.

Michelle Abraham: 00:20:10

Right, you definitely set yourself up for success. Great job. That's awesome. So Amy, I want to ask what books are what book? Are you reading? Currently?

Amy Riley: 00:20:19

Yeah. Yeah. So currently, I'm in between books. Yes, I have been podcast launch focused. But I actually would love to tell you and I have it here. The book, I recently finished reading a world without email. I've heard of that. i Yeah, reimagining work, and an age of communication overload. This is a fascinating book by Cal Newport. And I think it's really interesting to read right now, of where we're at, with our journey with the pandemic, so much about how we work, where we work, what we want to work on, and why has been turned on its head. And cow is also questioning like, why do we rely on email so much? I mean, Michelle, I am talking to leaders all day. And you know, being pinged in their various inboxes is the bane of some people's existence. And some work is not designed for email, or making those decisions. You know, you use different tools amplify you to work with your podcast hosts, right. And we assure ourselves through the steps in the podcast creation process by using different folders in Dropbox. Right. And you know, when I upload something there, then you're ready for your next step. And then you push out an episode and an audio Graham to me, and then my social media folks have access to that. And then they take and do their next step. And we don't have to be emailing and creating different interrupting, pings. write emails, great. It's a lot better than taking these papers and putting them in an interoffice. envelope, right? Which wouldn't work today at all, because you know, the person you want to send it to might not be in the office. But it Yeah, just it's an interesting opportunity to think about how we work where we work, how its structured. I'm, I'm, I'm writing an ebook, How To Build a happy and successful hybrid team and become 10 times more productive.

Michelle Abraham: 00:22:43

I like it. I will look forward to reading that when you when you have that.

Amy Riley: 00:22:48

And then this is the next book. I haven't cracked it open yet. But somebody recommended it. And you know, my passion for courage. So this is finding inner courage. Mark neepco Awesome. That's what's happening next.

Michelle Abraham: 00:23:01

Ooh, that sounds that looks like a juicy one. So for those of you that, literally that are listening in can see there's oranges on the cover. There's that that's how I started like, juicy. That's the first.

Amy Riley: 00:23:14

Literally and figuratively Yes,

Michelle Abraham: 00:23:16

yeah. Ooh, that sounds good. I wonder what kind of courageous things will come out of come out of that book. So I love, love. Thank you for sharing. I always love to hear about what new books and books people are reading. And then also, you know, with the email, interesting, interesting, interesting, and I specifically did not want to communicate on email with our clients when we hit over like, 10 clients, because I was like, if I have 100 clients, I'll email you know, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna go crazy. And it's interesting. Now, I think the average person has like three or four email addresses I heard like, so it's not just one you're looking at. You're looking at a whole bunch of crazy. Yeah. I try to get to my inbox as much as possible.

Amy Riley: 00:24:00

Well, yes. And just how many ways that the send it out reply all doesn't work. And it's interrupting folks in the middle of other work. And they're, yeah, they're different tools or Trello boards, discussion threads, you know, where it doesn't have to be Reply All.

Michelle Abraham: 00:24:20

All. We're talking about this, because just before I came on to this interview with you, I was looking at my inbox, and I had opened a few emails, but it wasn't able to reply right away. And I was just it the thought went through my head. Why am I looking at this right now? And I know I can't reply. And forget about these things. By the time I'm done. I'm gonna have to go back and so it was interrupting my flow. It's like I'm going to put in a reminder or like a notice on my email and only looking at it once or twice a day, I think moving forward because yeah, it was interesting that I just went through my head not that long ago today. Oh, gosh, all these

Amy Riley: 00:24:59

well. All the interruptions that we have, and we try to do this task, and then we switch to this task, and then we switch to that one. It's not great for our brains. Our brains are not that great at doing that it, it needs a moment to on file and reopen files for what you're doing now and over time that diminishes our mental capability. I'm definitely seeing them in the marina moment, right? Or focus isn't as great as it could

Michelle Abraham: 00:25:37

be. Yeah, that's so interesting. Notice, even like, I'll be in the middle of writing an email, and I'll switch to go do something. What am I doing? And I had to, like literally pull myself extranets email. Focus is hard is leaders. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness. Well, Amy, this has been so fun getting to know a little bit more behind the mic of your podcast, seeing your success in your launch? What do you hope with your podcast, as it's going out into the world? And we talked about this a little bit already. But what is your hope? In inspiring people, motivating people? What would you want them to do?

Amy Riley: 00:26:16

Yes. I want them to be inspired to step into the full power of their leadership. I call it a leadership legacy. Michelle will? Yeah, talk about it in an early episodes, I

Michelle Abraham: 00:26:35

heard that episode, I was just gonna say like you have to listen to I think it's episode two or three, that you talk about that in there. And it's good, because you have some really great nuggets in that episode.

Amy Riley: 00:26:45

Yes. And I tried to provide some real examples of leadership legacies that have come to life with a defined purpose for your leadership, and everyone has one, we just need to uncover what that is. Right. And our leadership legacy is something that takes advantage of our strengths, and our passions. Right, it's something that we can live into and start leaving behind immediately. And when we are allowing our decisions, our behaviors, our actions, day to day be guided by a commitment that's bigger than ourselves, then we are called to be bigger. i We look to that leadership legacy for guidance. And then it has us doing some of the bold stuff, right? Some of the big stuff, cuz we're, we're guided by something that's bigger than our ego or any normal human considerations. So clarify, define that leadership legacy. And and step into it. Whoo, I

Michelle Abraham: 00:27:55

love that. And so, so powerful Lee thinking about the legacy that you're going to leave and leading with that so amazing. So incredible, amiable, it's been so great chatting with you. Is there anything last? Any last words you want to leave with our audience today?

Amy Riley: 00:28:13

Hmm. This is This is top of mind because I saw it in a number of the reviews that were coming through on the podcast, there's a quote, that I'm working to make famous. So we've all probably heard Peter Drucker's quote, culture eats strategy for breakfast. And if we haven't heard it, we get what it means. Right? Culture eats strategy for breakfast. The quote I want to make famous is belief eats behavior for breakfast, because powerful leadership is not about getting some set of behaviors. Exactly right. It's much more about our beliefs, our intentions, our perspectives on someone or something or the work, what we're trying to accomplish, right? Are those beliefs empowering? Are they self fulfilling, right? Are they gonna come? Are they gonna propel us forward? So believe it's behavior for breakfast, and there were a number of people who call that out. After listening to me share that in one of the episodes, like, Yes, I believe that do.

Michelle Abraham: 00:29:28

Well, you heard it here second on amplify you guys. Eats behavior for breakfast by Amy Riley. So that's right for that. I love that. Amy, that is awesome. It's so visual. And I think, you know, the beliefs when do you have the belief the behavior changes, right. So yes, none gone, right. Yeah.

Amy Riley: 00:29:49

So we do the belief work. Yeah. We don't have to worry about the behavior work.

Michelle Abraham: 00:29:54

It's gone. It's been eaten for breakfast. That's right. I love Well, thank you so, so much, Amy. And now you can find Amy's podcasts on obviously every podcasting platform there is out there. But also go check out courage of a leader.com. That's where Amy's website is. You can find out more about her how you can work with her, collaborate with her and see more about her podcasts and listen to more episodes there as well, anywhere else you'd like to send them, Amy.

Amy Riley: 00:30:24

No, that's, that is perfect. Michelle, thank you for this conversation today. And thank you for your partnership in producing this podcast all along the way.

Michelle Abraham: 00:30:36

You are so welcome. We're excited to see your success. Again, can't wait to have you back again in a year from now and hear all the wonderful stories of incredible leaders and lives you change. So thank you so much, Amy, for being here today. And we'll talk to you soon.

Amy Riley: 00:30:50

My pleasure. Thank you. Bye.