Though a gratifying position, being a leader demands a lot of prices to pay to achieve success. And because of weariness and loneliness at the top, many lose their leadership focus and give up before reaching the end. Dr. Tracey Jones discusses some ways to overcome this challenge with Ann McNeill, the President and CEO of MCO Construction. Ann talks about the importance of journaling to separate ideas from opportunities and gain a clear focus on your goals. She also shares how reading books with other people helps better team building and design properly targeted goals for both your business and family.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Ann McNeill – Leaders On Leadership
Our guest is the one and the only tremendous Ann McNeill. You're not going to want to miss Ann's perspective on what it takes to pay the price of leadership.
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I am excited to have the tremendous Ann McNeill as our guest. Ann McNeil has had success as a speaker, a coach, and an author. All that stems from her ability to create a blueprint of success in accumulating the right materials to use in order to lay a firm foundation to help people build upon their strength. She's going to talk to us all about her businesses but Ann is the President and CEO of one of South Florida's few African-American female-owned construction companies.
MCO Construction was founded years ago and is still one of the leading minority forms in South Florida in the area of construction management and project control. She's worked on a ton of flagship projects in South Florida such as the Miami Airlines Arena, the Marlins Ballpark, the Miami International Airport, the Science Museum, the Children's Courthouse, and many more. I could not be more excited to have a leader of your caliber talking with us. Thank you for being our guest.
My pleasure. It’s awesome.
Ann, can you tell us about how you first came into the sphere of all things tremendous. We are new in our connection but you go way back, don't you?
I’ll tell you the first time I met Charlie Tremendous Jones. I had taken my daughter who had become a professional speaker. She'd granted herself as The Baby Billionaire, that's another show for another day, she learned how to invest early, and learn how to analyze stocks. That's another show for us to talk about. Her coach Dr. Tina Dupree, who is also known as the Chicken Lady said, “You've got to take her to the National Speakers Association.” The only problem was she didn't drive. We live in Miami. We could drive to Orlando so I had to drive her.
Prior to this, I always was the person who was going to the conference being a business owner and all of that. To drive my young daughter to a conference of adults and I said Disney so I took my grandson. As we walked into the hotel, this is the World Marriott in Orlando for the National Speakers Association Conference, I saw this man with a bear hug of another man and all I could see were feet dangling. This is my introduction to Charlie Tremendous Jones.
We walk into the hotel, and I see this man. I'm five feet even and this man looked like he was seven feet tall. He was tall. He's holding another man, he’s got a bear hug, and he says swinging back and forth. Later on, I found that the man that was in the grip was Simon T. Bailey and the man who was swinging him was Charlie Tremendous Jones but I did not know that. I thought this was a weird place and I did not know if it was the place I wanted to have my daughter.
Let me tell you this. I went to Disney with my grandson and his friend. I paired my daughter up with Dr. Tina Dupree and the other attendees. On the last day, I decided to buy all of the audio recordings of the guests because I didn't participate in the conference. I want you to know, the following day, I'm at my desk, and my phone rings in the office. I picked up the phone, I'm a small business during that time. I'm the President, the Secretary, the maid, clean up, and everything. I picked up the phone, I said, “Good morning, thank you for calling MCO Construction.” The man on the other end of the line said, “This is Charlie Tremendous Jones, may I speak to Ionnie, please.” Exactly, your dad was calling my daughter.
Are you kidding me?
I am so serious. I never told you that story but you asked me to give you my Charlie Tremendous Jones introduction.
That’s incredible.
Think And Grow Rich
I want you to know that my daughter ended up becoming number one in the United States by the time she was seventeen years old in an award called Girls Going Places. Out of 5,000 girls, she ranked number one for her business called The Baby Billionaire where she speaks on how to analyze stocks and how to invest. Your dad was a part of that success. I never told you that story but he was part of it.
That’s absolutely beautiful.
She never missed another National Speakers Association Conference from that. That was my introduction to Charlie and I mentioned to you before this program started that at one point, I'm going back many years ago, this was before we knew Nido as Dr. Nido Qubein. He introduced me to Nido and he shared with me because I was starting the International Mastermind Association from the book Thinking and Grow Rich. Your dad said, “Ann, Nido is the best person for you to talk to about how to organize the association because he's helping us with NSA.” He sat down with me and Nido and we've laid out what it should look like.
He’s a phenomenal man. I went on the site, executive books, and I'm going way back. It took me years to read them, I’m still reading them. I ordered every single book because one of the things that dad always talked about was leaders are leaders. He shared about how he would give books to his salesman and his customers. I started doing that and the difference it makes in relationships with clients. As a result of that, I implemented a process at my company that said, “Every employee must-read.” There were three books and Think and Grow Rich was one of them. One of them I did get from your dad and it was, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling.
It’s a classic.
I realized that Frank Becker was the person that the foundation of NSA was founded on because of his final days. You know that story.
Absolutely. What's the third book?
The third one is A Message to Garcia.
We sell hundreds of thousands of that a year. It takes ten minutes to read. I love Frank Becker's book too.
I don't have to reach far. It required reading here. We purchased the books and we handed them out to the employees so there's no excuse. When we talk about leadership in The Price of Leadership, the weakest link in our chain of small businesses. Normally, it’s somebody who is not reading and they're not growing. When you're a small business like we are, Tracey, we need to have our chains strengthened by encouraging our team members to partners to also have a commitment to personal growth and development. That’s what we do here. Every Monday at 7 AM Eastern Time, we invest in each other by having everyone that comes on a short call.
You get one minute to share what you've read as employees. There are about 20 or 30 of us. We don't get 100% but sometimes we can get as much as 80% and sometimes 90%. Everybody is reading something different or we could be in the same book, and in a different place in that book, we're adding value to each other because we could read the same page and get something different. It's been a phenomenal opportunity for growth. When you talk about The Price Of Leadership, that's an investment.
Did you say you do that? Is that a weekly thing?
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling
We do that at the company every single Monday.
You learn to do that and you have that infusion in you but that is so critical for companies. It's the lifeblood of small business because unlike bigger bureaucracies, we can't afford disengagement or weak links. I love that you give the books and they call in for a minute and say what they're learning.
Exactly.
That is profound. I’ve got to find a way to mirror that. I don't have a ton of people but there are some that are willing to tribe that we could.
We only started with 2 or 3 people. I was a small firm.
That’s great for our solopreneurs.
My office manager, she's here and she can hear me talking about her. She likes to tell the story that on the first day that she interviewed with me, I asked her if she had read Think and Grow Rich. She said, “Yes. When I was a teenager, my mom made me read it.” This is the first-day interview. this is to show you how small I was back then. I gave her the keys to the office, told her how to answer the phone, and I left. I knew that any person who walked into my employment if you came here and you've already read Think and Grow Rich, you're so far ahead of the crowd. These success books and I could talk about it like your dad. We were talking about the price. I like to encourage if you don't mind, I can shift that word price to the investment of leadership.
I love that because that's what it is. It's like your 401(k). You get out of it, the price of retiring and living well is the investment you put in all the way.
We also have a 401(k) and teach investing. We do a lot of things inside the organization, the mastermind group concept we have inside the company because we invest in our people. Even though it was a small firm, a long time ago, I said, “I can't afford to pay more for the employees. I can't afford the 401(k).” At the end of the day, we cannot afford not to do it. It has been phenomenal. That’s my Charlie Tremendous Jones story.
Talk about an investment pouring into our young people. I can remember when I was a little girl, “Read this. Read Life is Tremendous, As a Man Thinketh, and How to Win Friends and Influence People.” The younger you get them, the sooner they see that this is what life's about. The beauty is even if you're 40, 50, or 60 reading, it's never too late. It’s a lot more fun when you're younger.
We have youth mastermind groups and they read Think and Grow Rich every Sunday for about 30 minutes as a group of kids. We're doing it for years and now the kids have kids.
I love that legacy learning. You mentioned my dad's Price of Leadership. He was motivational but he was also down to earth and real. You said it earlier, he could knock you down and yank you right back up. It was like life, “I'm going to give it to you hard because I love you and I want to cuddle you but I'm going to exhort and build you up.” He would sometimes smack your side, hug you, or shake you and be like, “Come on.”
A Message to Garcia
It was beautiful. One of the first things he talks about, he didn't mince words about leadership. He lets you know how tough it was. It's glorious but it is tough as nails. The first price he talks about is loneliness. Can you unpack that for me as a leader, when we experienced loneliness, when you've gone through it, and what got you through it? What words of advice or counsel you would give to leaders that are reading that may be in a season of loneliness now?
I can speak for myself. Going back to the book, Think and Grow Rich that talked about having a desire and knowing how much money you want. As leaders, loneliness is often driven by many different areas of our business and our life. First, starting with the lack of vision because if we don't have a vision as a leader, the loneliness sets in because we're not clear on why we strive, why are you putting in the hours, and why are you away from your family. There's nothing worse than being at work and you wish that you were home. Being home and you wish you’re at work. You find yourself maybe traveling in between the two but not being in one place.
One of the prices of leadership in loneliness, we can come up out of that by being clear about goals that are word driven goals and goals that are family-driven goals, having an affirmation for work and family. I could show one example. For family, loneliness is the price of leadership. Oftentimes, we leave our children, we leave our spouse, and what I'm learning from personal experience is we make appointments at work for our business with different people. One of my other favorite books is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. That's about a 550-page book that Steven Covey wrote and it's one of the best.
We always talk about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People but in my opinion, humbly, one of his best works in my life and my family was 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families because it teaches you how to write and implement a family mission statement. We're talking about loneliness and The Price Of Leadership. If you can make an investment at home and if you have a significant other, do you have a date night? If you have more than one child, let’s say you have three, do you have a date with each child once a month because every one of your children wants their parent. It’s like, “Yes, I have siblings, but this is my mom, this is my dad.”
That particular book helped me understand. We’re still talking about The Price Of Leadership or an investment that you make. If you want to turn that loneliness into an investment, one of the suggestions could possibly be is having an affirmation for your business, that's a given, but also having an affirmation statement for your family where everybody participates in the writing. As a strategy, have a date, even if it's once a quarter. It may not be once a week or once a month but if you have three kids and they each know once a quarter, I have a date with my parents, nothing is going to come before that and it's written in ink, it can be in the evening or the weekend. I used to do that with my youngest daughter. We had a 5 AM appointment for breakfast once a week. School sports and before I can get up, she's dressed and ready. We're talking about elementary school, junior high school through high school. I would suggest to all of you readers that one of the ways to overcome that is to have specific plans on what's most important and why you work.
The next thing he talked about was weariness. Dad would say, “There's miserable miserable and there's happy miserable because life is tough for everybody. Don't think it's not.” In life, there's going to be times where you wonder, “Why am I the only one pulling the oars here? Who's with me? How do I stay refreshed?” It's easy even if you're fighting the good fight and having that definiteness of purpose. We're still human. Can you share with me how you handle weariness and how you stay refreshed as a leader?
I'll go back to goal setting because I set goals in every area of my life. Weariness sets in for literal lack of rest. We can't burn that candle at both ends if you will. One of the things I had to learn and I would say a good 6 out of the 7 days out of the week to overcome weariness, I go to bed early. I'm talking about 9:00 but I am one of those 3:00 or 4:00 risers. I have a list to keep me from being weary. I have what I call a daily date with myself and I wrote a book on this, it's a journal. It opens up with nothing, just blank pages. You asked me a question. I'm answering you with a question so I'm going to ask you this question, Tracey. What's one of the first things you do when you wake up every morning?
I come over and I open my devotions.
No, she does not.
I get up out of bed. I roll my eyes open.
She probably goes to relieve herself.
That's true.
Leadership Focus: When things don't go the way you think they should, it's ego, and the internal growth is in abandonment and letting it go.
She assumed I’m not going to say it on air but I’m going to say it. Imagine this, what if you could not go tomorrow? What if you could not go on the third day? We won't even go into the 4th or 5th day. I want to come to weariness. Weariness speaks to the mind, the body, and the spirit because we're heavy. It’s the price of leadership. What I do as a part of overcoming that in my daily date with myself is. When we relieve our body, we should also relieve our mind and our spirit on the page in a journal. First, the body, the mind, the spirit, and then read something that's going to be uplifting and encouraging whether it's a proverb, a song, whatever it is that works for you.
To listen to something that's also encouraging whether it's meditating or whatever it is because the vibrations in the subconscious mind connect to recharge the day. Also, exercise. I do yoga in the morning, in addition to these things. The weariness that settles, I'm able to keep all of it moving. For me, the mind, body, and spirit, to keep it from being as weary. One of the things that I do in the morning in my journal, I encourage my mind through the subconscious to give me ten ideas and opportunities every single day. Weariness comes from the mental and it settles in the spirit and in the body. That’s what makes us oftentimes by the end of the day feels us. Sometimes, people can feel tired and weary when they wake up. I suggest that it is more mental than physical if you do some exercises on the page and relieve whatever is on your mind on the page. Those would be some thoughts.
I never would have thought about that. Your body gets up and you're putting that to bed. Your comment about keeping it moving. Lena Horne has one of my favorite quotes, she says, “It's not that weight that wears you down or the burden, it's the way you carry it.” Life has challenges even in our greatest year. It's still tough but when you shift that and get let go, I love that. The ten ideas or opportunities of the day, what is that? Are there specific things you want to get done? Tell me what that is.
I separate them. In my journal, I separate ideas from opportunities. I have five different businesses. What I will do is I'll take one business and I say, “I need ten opportunities to work on for the day.” Think about this, regardless of what business your readers are in, you already have everything you need inside of you. You think about people you know, industries that you're in, your client, your client’s client, and you can also think about your client’s client’s client. What I do is, I would write to my client, either 1 through 10. I'm in the construction industry so let's say my client is the contractor. I'll write my client’s client, because I view opportunities, I add value to my client by having a relationship with my client’s client.
I have a better relationship with my client’s client’s client and therefore I am ensuring that all levels I am connected in relationship to my client because I'm adding such great value and benefits that he would not think of using anybody other than me. I do that every day from 1 to 10 and sometimes I get to 7 or 8. I sit and I say,” No, I'm not moving,” I'm talking to myself and the spirit, whoever you worship, in other words, it can anybody, but I'm talking to the infinite Intelligence. I'm saying, “You've got to give me one more.” If an idea comes, it’s not necessarily an opportunity that I put it with the ideas. I keep them separate.
That's incredible. Loneliness, weariness, and the next one is abandonment. My father always said that we need to stop thinking about what we like and want to think about or like or want to hear from people in favor of what we ought and need to be focusing on. I look at abandonment as focusing on what you need to and parceling off of the rest so you can get hyper-focused on that. What is abandonment? You are highly regulated and structured. How do you stay on the market because you cannot be doing what you're doing if you don't stay tightly delineated?
We're all human and we do have our weaknesses if you will. Sometimes, it can be something as a post, something on social media, or something on the news but I made a commitment to myself to invest 1 to 2 hours and oftentimes it's in travel with something on my head to keep me focused but laser-focused. I'm one of those people that almost every 30 minutes to an hour, I've scheduled. The downside of that, in terms of abandonment, is learning how to say no and letting go. When things don't go the way we think they should, it's ego and the internal growth is in abandonment and letting it go. If it's for you, it comes back, whether that's a person or an opportunity. It takes practice, at the beginning is hard but the more we do it, the easier it becomes.
It is our own selfish desires. We're here for something bigger than ourselves and it's humbling. Abandonment is also pruning because if you're going to get that explosive growth, you have to get rid of all these suckers and all these other things that are draining your resources and whack it back so that can all get channeled into the new growth.
Sometimes, it also comes with the spirit of service.
As well as humility. We are our own best clients and our own worst enemies. I love how you've got to watch that. The last price my father talked about was vision. My dad was not one of those formally educated, but as far as wise, and you know it. He was such a visionary as you are. Sometimes, people are like, “Visionary? I'm not gifted like that.” He would say, “Everybody is a gifted visionary because vision is simply seeing what needs to be done and doing it.” You're not theoretical and talk about it. Message to Garcia he said it and did it. Can you explain to me how you grow in vision, clarity, and how you cast that? You got all these businesses. How do you keep people set on the vision?
Interestingly, when you said that, I went all the way to the back of the book in my mind. I remember as your dad was passing, and you and I may have had this conversation. It was about the fact that he did not want to see or talk with anybody unless he was leading them to the afterlife. Starting with the end in mind, it's easier to have a vision of what’s possible. What I did to help me with my vision, and this process is going back to 1979 and 1980, I wrote my obituary. In writing my obituary and reviewing it every year as a part of my annual assessment, it helps keep me focused on what's most important. In doing that, it helps me to connect everything I do like Nido Qubein says, it’s intentionally congruent. I'll give you an example.
The International Mastermind Association came out of the book Think and Grow Rich on how to start and form mastermind groups. From the mastermind concept, I started MCO Construction. I'm a licensed general contractor for many years. From the construction company, I started a consulting company. My consulting company consults Fortune 500 companies that are in the construction industry that are private companies that work on public land.
Leadership Focus: Somewhere along the way, leaders lose sight of the vision and dream while paying the price of leadership.
From helping in the consulting, I started constructively speaking. In the process of all of that, I'm the Founder of the National Association of Black Women in Construction. All of those are connected to one vision. It's not five different things, it’s one focus that is repurposed in 5 or 6 different ways. At the end of the day, I say it's all in the spirit of service and that Zig Ziglar may have said it best, and your dad lived it best in terms of a visual. Zig said, “We're going to be dead a lot longer than we're going to live. Do we have a plan for that?”
I have never heard it said like that. That puts it in perspective, too. We've covered the four Prices Of Leadership. You have given me such great insights and your encouragement. You're a real blessing to me. What else would you like to share with our leaders that we may not have touched on through your leadership journey that you would like to share with them?
I will say two things, if I may. Number one, you must have a dream to have a dream come true. Somewhere along the way, as leaders, when we're paying the price, we lose sight of the vision and the dream. Oftentimes, we can be on that treadmill called business that yet we left a family at home. The second thing that I would say and share is if anyone had told me, when I started my business years ago, and this is a leader whether you're internal inside of an organization or if you're external as an entrepreneur, I would say invest. Invest in yourself but also invest in financial empowerment information and learn. If somebody told me when I started, the power of a $20 bill compound it once a month over 40 years would equate to an excess of six figures, I would have never believed it.
Not once a day or once a week, once a month, a $20 bill in the power of compounding. When we have investment education and when we are financially empowered with the information, I learned that late in life. I did that later but now, I am so focused on helping others to learn and have a desire to learn about investing in yourself but also invest in your financial empowerment, not financial literacy. This is not that conversation. This is about financial education.
If I may, I'm a volunteer with an organization called BetterInvesting. It’s a nonprofit. We don't sell any products or services. That's not what we do. We help people understand how to analyze stocks and how to invest. That's how my daughter ended up becoming The Baby Billionaire because I would drag her along with me to these classes instead of getting a sitter. None of us knew she was the only person understanding the information. I’m proud to say that. You must have a dream to have a dream come true in every single area of your life, and also invest. Those will be my two.
You have encouraged people. How can they stay in touch with you, find out what you're doing and connect with you?
I'm on all social media. My website is AnnMcNeill.com. I love giving my phone number out because sometimes it's easier to connect. I live on text. My number is (786) 546-0184. Thank you.
Ann, thank you so much. I thank you for this timing to get together. I look forward to collaborating and working together with you on many tremendous things to come.
It's been a tremendous event, thank you.
Thank you. Thanks so much to our readers out there. Thank you for our tremendous team. We hope this encourages you to pay the price of leadership. Have a tremendous day.
Also, make the investment of leadership.
You’ve got that right.
Important Links:
Dr. Tina Dupree - LinkedIn
Journal - A Date with Myself: A Daily Journal
About Ann McNeill
Ann McNeill is the President of MCO Construction and Services Inc., MCO Consulting, Inc., Constructively Speaking, Inc., Franchise Owner of Colbert/Ball Tax, Founder of Speak 2 Share, Inc., on the Board of Directors for Better Investing, and Founder of the National Association of Black Women in Construction (NABWIC).
Ann McNeill is also the Founder and President/CEO of the International Mastermind Association, an organization that helps people create work/life balance through goal setting and financial empowerment. The group has produced several authors, such as Dr. Mia Y. Merritt, and a host of other successful entrepreneurs.
Today, Ann is a dynamic speaker that has been featured in many newspapers and magazines, including Success Magazine and the Miami Herald, and was also the cover story for USA Today, Black Enterprise, ABC World News, and was featured on Channel 10.