CEO and athlete Willy Walker discusses balance, overcoming injury, and managing expectations
Apr 7, 2021
auto_awesome
Willy Walker, CEO of Walker & Dunlop and a dedicated athlete, shares his journey of transforming a family business into a thriving enterprise. He candidly discusses the critical balance between personal and professional life while highlighting the importance of mental well-being. Topics include overcoming injuries, the impact of alcohol, and the valuable lessons learned in accountability. With insights on running and resilience, Willy emphasizes gratitude and teamwork as essential elements in both business and fitness.
Willy Walker emphasizes the importance of separating personal and professional life to enhance mental well-being and productivity.
He shares how overcoming injuries and monitoring fitness data significantly influenced his mental resilience and overall approach to well-being.
Deep dives
Transformational Leadership and Business Growth
Willie Walker discusses the significant growth he achieved at Walker & Dunlop, turning a company valued at $25 million into a $3.5 billion public enterprise. His success hinged on tenacity and a strategic vision when he rejoined the family business, focusing on brand development and capital raising. He emphasizes the role of building a talented team to drive the company's growth against larger competitors. Through this journey, he also navigated self-doubt and the pressures associated with expectations tied to performance.
Mental Strategies for Managing Stress
Willie illustrates the critical importance of separating personal and professional life to maintain mental well-being. He candidly shares his approach to managing the stress of stock volatility by choosing to stop monitoring the stock price regularly, which significantly improved his mental health. This shift allowed him to focus on long-term strategies instead of daily fluctuations. He links this mental clarity to higher productivity and a more stable leadership approach.
The Role of Fitness and Recovery
Walker reflects on his athletic journey, particularly his experience with the Boston Marathon and later with triathlons, showcasing how these challenges sharpened his discipline. He highlights the importance of data in understanding his fitness, particularly through using the Whoop device to monitor health metrics. A notable experience was when an injury severely impacted his recovery scores, demonstrating the significant effect of surgery on his physique and training regimen. This deep connection between physical fitness and mental resilience shapes his overall approach to well-being.
Emotional Intelligence and Personal Growth
Willie shares his transformation concerning anger management, attributing it to better expectation management in both personal and professional realms. He describes a journey where he shifted from reacting emotionally to understanding that his expectations often led to frustration. By adjusting his mindset, especially in situations like traveling, he significantly improved interpersonal relationships and his overall happiness. This change in perspective has not only benefited his personal life but also his leadership style, encouraging him to foster a more supportive work environment.
Willy Walker turned his company, Walker & Dunlop, into a force in the commercial real estate world. When he took the family business over in 2003, it was valued at $25 million. Now, Walker & Dunlop is worth well over $3 billion and has been public for over a decade. He joins the WHOOP Podcast to share his thoughts on balance, gratitude, and mental well-being. Willy is candid about his experiences and what he’s learned along the way to become the best version of himself. Willy discusses, growing his business (2:44), separating your personal life from your professional life (7:34), using WHOOP (15:20), running marathons (17:21), injuries and the toll they take on your body (22:38), measuring the impact of alcohol (27:30), the importance of family (38:33), understanding anger (40:30), accountability (43:03).