Ep 162: Will Travis - In 15

Edited highlights of our full conversation.

Will Travis is the Founder of Elevation Barn. They describe themselves as a global network united to elevate each other’s clarity of purpose for personal, business and philanthropic goals.

Businesses talk a lot about purpose. Most do very little about it. They pre-sell or post rationalize. But very few change the way they spend money as a result of their purpose.

What the best businesses do have in common is that they are intentioned. They’re clear about where they’re trying to get to and the journey that will get them there.

In my experience, that’s often enough to achieve significant competitive advantage and serious success.

There are a lot of highly effective leaders who have discovered the same thing about their own lives. Declare your intention for your business, define the journey it will take to get there, and you can often attract the kind of talent and funding that you’ll need.

The only limitation is that it leaves an important bit out of the equation. You. What matters to you? Who do you want to be?

Will’s work at the Elevation Barn really resonates with me.

Like Will, I meet leaders who have become incredibly good at fitting square pegs into round holes. Often, they are the square peg.

They have adapted themselves to the needs of the business. They conform to a set of expectations created by someone else for someone else in some other moment.

They do what they think they should, conscious of a growing sense of disconnection, but never stopping to ask themselves, what matters to me? Who do I want to be?

Life is short. Nothing is guaranteed. Let us hope the lasting lessons of the last 16 months are at least that.

What do you want to do with your time here? What legacy do you want to leave behind?

Leadership is an opportunity to unlock the potential of people and to shape the world in the process.

One of those people whose potential you unlock, can be you.