Shep Gordon is known in the entertainment industry as having an eye for talent and an innate understanding of what people find entertaining.  After graduating from SUNY Buffalo, Shep moved to LA and in 1969 co-founded Alive Enterprises.  Over the years, Gordon has been responsible for managing the careers of Alice Cooper, Groucho Marx, Raquel Welch, Luther Vandross, Kenny Loggins, and countless others.  He’s also credited as creating the celebrity chef,  which revolutionized the food industry and turned the culinary arts into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.  His clients that include culinary legends, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse, Nobu, Daniel Boulud and many more.  In addition to the impact he’s had on the music, film and food industries, he’s also highly regarded for his philanthropic endeavors.  Shep was named one of the 100 most influential people in Rolling Stone magazine.  He was the subject of Mike Myers 2013 documentary - Supermensch The Legend of Shep Gordon.  He's also written a best-selling book called They Call Me Supermensch A Backstage Pass To The Amazing World Of Film, Food, and Rock ’N’ Roll.

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The Learning Leader Show

On meeting with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama -- "When he walked in the room, it felt like I had taken the greatest shower of my life." -- Shep Gordon

Show Notes:

• The value that Jayson Gaignard added to his life
  • "He came to Hawaii and helped me launch my book and it was a best-seller"
  • "You should always bring value first"
• A 1968 graduate of college -- great divide in our country at the time - Vietnam War, "I was raised a liberal Jew"
• "I was a long haired acid dealer"
• The Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix story -- How it got him his start as a manager in Hollywood
• Fame -- Media is a manipulation - "It consumes people and can be very damaging"
  • "My job was to push the artist. Fame was fools gold."
  • People who wanted fame needed attention... When they stopped getting it, bad things happened
• Shep had a visionary eye for what would be successful in the future, the ultimate talent scout.  He also understand how to earn PR for his artists to help make them famous
  • "Create things that parents hated... Which led to kids loving it." --> Alice Cooper played a show naked
  • Going from Alice Cooper to Ann Murray... Shep did great work for them and it kept leading to his next client --> Groucho Marx, Raquel Welch
• Commonality among great entertainers? "They have that moment right before they go on stage... They are scared, neurotic, full of fear.  This fuels them to be great."
• Commonality of those who sustain excellence?
  • "They never did it on their own.  All the best were surrounded by great teams."
• Meeting with The Dalai Lama?
  • "When he walked in the room, it felt like I'd taken the best shower of my life."
• How to throw a world class dinner party?
  • Great food, customized for your guests
  • Eat at a round table and always leave an extra seat (for the host to sit at and move from table to table)
  • The food needs to be buffet style
  • Send quality invitations -- "It's all about the WHO" --> You must get that part right, it's most important
  • Don't talk business
  • Think -- "What could I do to really make their night great?"
• Life lessons -- "The failures are more important than the successes"
  • "To me, failure is not trying"
  • "If your team can't fail, you can't win"
• Success to Shep = "A life of service to others"
  • Serving others will make you happy
  • Use you wealth to help other people (ex: "If you own a private plane, find people who will never fly on a private plane and offer them a ride.")
    • "Use your resources in service to other people."
• Always think about how you can add value to the lives of others.

"Success for Shep = "A life of service to others" --> Helping other people will make you happy

Social Media:

• Follow Shep on Twitter: @SupermenschShep
• Read: They Call Me SUPERMENSCH
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

More Learning:

Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon

Episode 216: Jim Collins -- How To Go From Good To Great

Episode 179: How To Sustain Excellence - The Best Answers From 178 Questions

Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why

This was recorded in front of a LIVE audience in Columbus, Ohio.  My teammates at Brixey & Meyer had the original idea for a live event and collectively we put together an amazing evening with more than 100 invited guests.  It was incredible!   The room was full on engaged leaders.  I loved the energy! I'm already looking forward to the next one.

James Clear studies successful people across a wide range of disciplines — entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and more — to uncover the habits and routines that make these people the best at what they do. Then, I share what I learn in my popular email newsletter.

His work has been covered by dozens of major media outlets including The New York Times, CBS, Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, TIME Magazine, and more.

The Learning Leader Show

"A constant dose of uncertainty will help you grow your comfort zone."

Show Notes:

• The aggregation of marginal gains - “The 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.”  If you improve every area related to your life by just 1 percent, then those small gains will add up to remarkable improvement.
• When you google “goal setting,” JamesClear.com comes up within the top 3 answers.  James goal setting process.
  • The difference between systems and goals. Goals are useful for setting the direction. Systems are great for actually making progress.
• If we are serious about achieving our goals, however, we should start with a much different question. Rather than considering what kind of success we want, we should ask, “What kind of pain do I want?
• First Principles: Elon Musk on the Power of Thinking for Yourself.
  • First principles thinking is the act of boiling a process down to the fundamental parts that you know are true and building up from there.
  • Mindset shifts --> Reframing
• Love of Travel -- Why do it? Perspective? Voluntary hardship.  "You don’t know what you’re capable of if your body has never been forced to do it." (David Goggins)
  • "You don't know your capabilities until you're forced to do it."  Put yourself in situations that forces you to do "hard things." --? Travel to Vietnam where few people speak English... Getting lost and being forced to ask for help
  • “A constant dose of uncertainty will help you grow your comfort zone.”
  • Voluntary Hardship = until you are tested, you can't develop the ability to be mentally tough or develop new skills.  Put yourself in these situations regularly to grow
• Successful People Start Before They Are Ready - Richard Branson story…
  •  "Start before you're quite ready, and trust yourself to figure it out as you go." "Motivation is overvalued, environment is undervalued. Willpower doesn’t work, think about choice architecture."
  • “Trust the ability that you have what it takes to figure it out”
• The "Goldilocks" rule - "Human beings love challenges, but only if they are within the optimal zone of difficulty."
  • Why you should stretch and "level up," but not too much.  "It's not helpful to seriously play tennis against Roger Federer."  You will be demoralized.
• How to stop procrastination using the 2 minute rule -- "There is that 2 minutes around 5:30 every day where my wife and I decide... Will we go to the gym or will we sit on the couch and watch The Office all night?" -- The 2–Minute Rule works for big goals as well as small goals because of the inertia of life. Once you start doing something, it’s easier to continue doing it. I love the 2–Minute Rule because it embraces the idea that all sorts of good things happen once you get started.
• “Decrease the number of steps between you and the good behaviors and increase the steps between you and the bad behaviors”
• The James Clear "garden hose" analogy
• Why it might be a good idea to put your TV in the closet...
• Smaller habits require smaller activation energies and that makes them more sustainable. The bigger the activation energy is for your habit, the more difficult it will be to remain consistent over the long-run.
• “Resistance is proportionate to the size and speed of the change, not to whether the change is a favorable or unfavorable one.”
• By contrast, when you accumulate small wins and focus on one percent improvements, you nudge equilibrium forward. It is like building muscle. If the weight is too light, your muscles will atrophy. If the weight is too heavy, you'll end up injured. But if the weight is just a touch beyond your normal, then your muscles will adapt to the new stimulus and equilibrium will take a small step forward.

"Decrease the number of steps between you and the good behaviors and increase the steps between you and the bad behaviors." 

Social Media:

• Follow James on Twitter: @james_clear
• Read Lance Salyers Forbes story about the event:  3 Surprising Insights From An Evening With Ryan Hawk And James Clear
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12