TLP474: Four Barriers that Stop Leaders with Anne Marie Anderson

Anne Marie Anderson is a three-time Emmy winner with 36 years in sports television, including a decade as a producer at ESPN working with elite athletes and executives. She's the author of "Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win" and has navigated multiple career pivots throughout her professional life.  In this episode, Anne Marie reveals that audacity isn't reserved for the naturally fearless but can be developed as a learnable skill. Anne Marie explains that true audacity requires getting comfortable with failure, surviving it, and trying again. She identifies four barriers that stop leaders: fear, time, money, and that inner critic. Elite performers don't silence their inner critic but examine its messages with neutral curiosity. Anne Marie teaches her catastrophize your life technique for evaluating risks by imagining the worst possible outcomes. This helps distinguish between legitimate concerns and irrational fears that paralyze decision-making. She emphasizes that the cost of inaction is always higher than the price of failure. Anne Marie introduces the concept of your front row, the people who challenge you and tell you the truth. She advocates for shape shifting leadership and shares how vulnerability became key to her transformation. If you're ready to stop letting fear control your biggest decisions, this episode is essential listening. You can find episode 474 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube |   Key Takeaways [02:42] Anne Marie reveals what's not publicly known about her: she did adventure travel before kids, rafting dangerous rivers, climbing to Everest base camp, and trekking gorillas in the Congo. [03:39] She explains that audacity requires practice with failing and getting comfortable with failure because "if you're not failing, you're really not pushing yourself to be audacious." [04:32] Anne Marie advises understanding why you want to make a change first, then evaluating what you're willing to risk to get there. [06:18] She identifies that elite athletes control their inner critic by recognizing it and examining messages with neutral curiosity rather than trying to silence it. Anne Marie defines audacity as "optimism that you're going to survive no matter how they work out." [08:26] Anne Marie intentionally shares her failures with her children, showing them rejections she gets to normalize failure as information. [11:36] She shares what to do differently to confront the fear and recommends catastrophizing situations to their ridiculous extreme. [17:06] She explains that your "front row" should be people who challenge and push you, not necessarily your best friends who want to keep you safe. [22:48] Anne Marie describes leaders as "shape shifters" who tailor their approach to each person's individual motivation and needs. [26:00] She distinguishes that urgent tasks are usually responses to others' requests while important tasks move you closer to your values and goals. [28:17] Anne Marie shares how her relationship with vulnerability has changed through the series of transformations she had in her lifetime and career.  [31:03] She describes actively seeking rejection to desensitize herself, advising people to "fail first, go fail a lot." [32:54] Anne Marie's closing advice is for leaders to share their vulnerabilities and be "shape shifting leaders" who find the best in everyone. [34:16] And remember...“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” - Dale Carnegie   Quotable Quotes "It requires practice, and it requires practice with failing and getting comfortable failing." "If you're not failing, you're really not pushing yourself to be audacious." "Audacity at the base, right, is about optimism. And it's not optimism that things are going to work out the way you want it to. It's optimism that you're going to survive no matter how they work out." "If the price is too high to do the work, to create the change, then wait till you get the bill for regret, because that is super steep." "I would far rather have a list of failures than have a list of regrets." "You're going to get information as to how to take your next step. If you don't take that first step, how do you know where to go?" "Elite performers on that last one, inner critic, have great control of their inner critic power. They don't silence it. You can't silence your inner critic, but you can recognize it for what it is." "Your front row needs to be those people who will challenge you, who will push you, who will tell you the truth." "A great leader is somebody who's going to be able to say, obviously, I have all of these incredibly urgent matters. I'm carving out specific times to work toward our goals, our future." "Things that are urgent are usually in response to a request... Things that are important move us closer to our values, vision, goals, who we want to be." "I tell people, fail first, go fail a lot. Whatever the thing is you're most afraid of, do that one first. When you start actively seeking it out, it becomes easier." "To really understand human behavior, I think you have to understand what people fear."   These are the books mentioned in this episode   Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Anne Marie Anderson Website | Anne Marie Anderson LinkedIn | Anne Marie Anderson Instagram | Sign up for Anne Marie Anderson book updates: