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Speech Transcript

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L. Scott Ferguson: [00:00:00] Hey, I’m Time To Shine Today, podcast varsity squad. It is Scott Ferguson here, and I am so blessed to be able to bring you an awesome conversation with somebody that I immensely respect, Ron Macklin from Macklin Connect. And he’s a coach that I look up to, that I learn from, and if you’re really looking to, if you’re stuck somewhere, or you’re looking to level up your life, To get to where that that you can get to you’re just not sure of the path or you need a guide Please listen to this break out your notebook sit back relax because ron basically maps it out in our 30 minute conversation so If you like this Please hit the like and subscribe.

It really helps the sponsors and affiliates or if somebody that needs to hear it Please share it with them. They the value in this conversation is above reproach. So without further ado Here’s my really good friend Ron Macklin from Macklin Connect. Let’s level up

Time to shine today. Podcast Mercy Squad. This is Scott Ferguson and I [00:01:00] have a interview that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and you wait till you hear this guy’s voice. It’s like we’re the exact yin and yang and opposites where he’s really chill. And so well spoken with the perfect podcast voice and then you know me.

I’m the boomer but he is a fantastic podcast It’s ranked in the top 10 make sure you listen to it. I’ll put it in the show notes, but don’t go there right now It’s called the story in your head. Just really fun Knowledge nuggets educational that’s just out there and he just kicks butt on on the mic he not only that he’s from the page to the stage to the mic my guy ron here He’s is just fantastic.

And I am talking about Ron Macklin from the Macklin Connection. He’s a husband, father, son, recovering engineer, student, leader, guide, entrepreneur, investor, human, minus self, and passionate about life. And all that we, in awe, as an AE, AWE, That we are living in and wonder for how life works and he reminds us that as humans We are not meant to survive on our own This is true in all aspects of life, [00:02:00] especially in business by changing your company culture through communication and connection Your company can begin to thrive And ron, thank you so much for coming on.

Please introduce yourself the time to shine today podcast varsity squad But first What’s your favorite color and why?

Ron Macklin: Thanks Scott. And thank you for the show and everything that you do. I’m a big fan. So my favorite color is probably blue. That’s not probably, it is blue. Let’s be committal here, right?

Commit to this thing. Yeah. There you go.

L. Scott Ferguson: Just, well, this weekend it’s gotta be that ocean of red, right? Cause my manager lives in Kansas.

Ron Macklin: My favorite color doesn’t mean it’s my favorite team. Chiefs, beat the diners

L. Scott Ferguson: please. I love it. I love it. So Ron, I see that you kind of, you’re a recovered engineer.

Ron Macklin: Recovering engineer. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Let’s get to the roots, man. Talk to me a little bit.

Ron Macklin: So like when I started out my father was an engineer. So I grew up with a world, like I was going to become an engineer. Right. And then I kept hanging out with my, my grandfather on the farm. And I love farming. I love being on the woods and [00:03:00] being in the trees and working on stuff, right?

And then I studied farming in agriculture for one semester and I go, Ooh, I don’t wanna do that. Right? No, no, that’s not my game. So I go, well fall back to engineering. And then I went and learned all the engineering, got a degree in engineering, but I was able to recover. ’cause engineers, like they’re in a world of like, these things are things and things are real and things are fixed and permanent and I’m more of a language guy.

Like, like we make up stories. In fact. We can bring languages generative. My favorite line is like, and on the third day, God said, let there be light. He didn’t say, oh, and there’s the light. Right. He goes, no, he said, let there be light. And I hold language as generative and it’s kind of different than engineering.

So I always called myself a recovering engineer because what is important to me is not the piece of equipment. Outside of us, right? That’s the stories we have in our head. I why the podcast is called that and how we can relate [00:04:00] to each other and be open and trusting and really authentic with each other, which authentic is like you’re authoring your life.

You’re responsible and creating and authoring your life. And now we can do that with another person like we’re going to do here today.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: And, and what you produce is amazing.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, what we’re going to put out here is it’s going to be just straight fire. So the engineer, I got kind of funny stories with engineers because I was a real estate broker for 20 years and with all due respect, engineers would be the worst clients to have.

I mean, they always had perfect credit. They always got the best rates. They always found a house quickly, right? But it was the contract dude. They would read every word. We’re in it and that I learned to get along with some of my greatest clients were engineers. Some of my best coaching clients are engineers.

So it was just a lot of, I just had to throw that little humor out there, brother.

Ron Macklin: No, I, I get it. I, I was surrounded and been around engineers my entire life. [00:05:00] Coached many of them, managed many of them, led many of them. And it’s They, they can struggle with the whole space of, it’s just stories, man.

Right. Technology is the story in your head that enables you to do something. Yes. And they go, Whoa,

L. Scott Ferguson: love that

Ron Macklin: thought of that man. Like I was shocked them. I go, yeah. So as if you leave a company, you take the technology that you have in your head with you. Yes,

L. Scott Ferguson: absolutely. And that’s

Ron Macklin: the stories that are in your head.

I

L. Scott Ferguson: love it. I love it. So many people. Listen to themselves, right? Instead of kind of talking to themselves And a lot of my clients they kind of get stuck with that and I love Like you actually did one a while back about kind of something like that in one of your shows And I just really picked up on that and it’s something that I learned from my friend john gordon wrote the energy bus and stuff like that, but that was just amazing So what are you a consultant coach coach sultan?

Like what is kind of your role in that [00:06:00] coach?

Ron Macklin: Coach Sultans. Yeah. Well, I’m a coach. It’s like, yeah, I am a coach. Now, sometimes I call myself a guide because it’s a little different distinction between coaching guide, but I am, I am a guide. So I normally business owners group owners, executives, this is my, my space that I coach.

But I also, because it’s like just to coach the one person in the top of the organization, Can be limiting. So we have our programs that we have in Macklin Connection enable like middle and like people to at the first level in, right. They can begin to learn those stories in a way that the whole organization can flip, but it takes the, like the top person has to say, we’re going to do this.

Yeah. Right. But you also have to have something for the other people. And it’s the hardest to move in that world is the ones in the middle. Yes. Yeah. Right. Because they’re going like, like, they’re the, I don’t know, they’re the most at risk they, they [00:07:00] tell themselves. Right. Right. But if you have it all three levels, like the top end, the middle and the beginning level.

Sure. Then the culture can begin to take off and flip itself really quick. Love that you said that because like I was on the plane the other night flying back to Palm Beach and I was going through, , I like to do like deep dives on stuff and I was like, He’s developing entrepreneurs, right? It’s like, they’re actually, they don’t own the business, but they own their business within the business.

L. Scott Ferguson: Did I get that right when I read that?

Ron Macklin: They own their part of the business. They own it. It’s theirs. It’s their to create. And that’s what’s, I mean, if you had to say, what is the fifth business revolution going on right now, and that is people are beginning to take ownership of their area, their own, and they create it, right?

It happened. You can read about team of teams, right? That’s a book out from the war in Middle East, but you can also read it like in reinventing organizations. People are really beginning to get to the place where people can. Let [00:08:00] people create their own worlds inside of a group that takes care of their concerns.

So then it becomes real important for whoever’s on top to be the visionary.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Ron Macklin: To just like to say, we’re going to go this direction. We’re going to be this, we’re going to do that. And then that’s a whole different world than telling people what to do.

L. Scott Ferguson: 100 percent true, Ron. And I love also that you said guide.

Instead of coach because when I have I’m blessed to have in person, coaching here in south florida I put them in their car put them in the driver’s seat And I want I want to see how their car looks on the inside because you can tell a little bit as you’re going To get to know each other how someone keeps their car And , I say listen this rearview mirror right here.

This is small for a reason It’s a great place to visit and learn from but that’s therapy I can’t help you there. , this windshield is huge. It’s big. It’s scary. And since 2011 ish, or maybe before they, they had every car has installed this thing called the GPS. That’s me. I’m guiding. Okay. But I cannot take responsibility to buckle your seat belt.

If you so [00:09:00] choose to start the car and drive, but I love that you said guide, because that’s all that GPS is, is a guide.

Ron Macklin: It’s a guy. And we can be, we can’t. Like I won’t make and I won’t do it for them. I won’t tell them what to do. The GPS doesn’t say turn your car and go this way. Right? Yeah, it’s a space where they have to make their own decisions.

And I’m real picky about that because I want it to be theirs. Yes, because whether it works or it doesn’t work is depends not on what the choice is, but how committed you are to it. So now, so now, like, when they say, okay, I choose this, okay, your choice, right? And then it’ll get done.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes. Thank you for saying that, brother, because everybody knows what they want.

They just don’t know how to talk themselves into it. Right. That’s where they bring people like you and I in and , all the challenges that are reside in that heart. The answer’s there too. We’re just there to guide them.

Ron Macklin: And if you and

L. Scott Ferguson: I were to say, go do it this way, we started consulting them and it doesn’t work, they’ll come back and say, Ferb, you suck.

It didn’t work. But they’ll, like [00:10:00] you just said, they’ll see it through more. With our kind of push a little bit to see it’s our,

Ron Macklin: our guidance, but to say, here’s the options and your choices and then let them sit in the responsibility because it’s that responsibility that goes like for me as an individual, the responsibilities that I hold or what shape how I take action.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love, I was, I, one of my questions for you is that, cause you mentioned the word responsibility a lot in your podcasts and your writings and stuff like that. So what is your, what’s your definition of responsibility?

Ron Macklin: Responsibility. It means I am the one who is going to, and like hold the consequences of getting something done.

Strong, right? And, and there’s a way that, like, you can say the responsibility, right? It’s also a way to go like, I get to have the responsibility of my life. And it’s a space where people are like, well, isn’t responsibility a burden and bad? No, [00:11:00] right. There are a lot of people in the world that would love to have the responsibility, create their own life.

L. Scott Ferguson: Boom.

Ron Macklin: Thank you. And we do. We get that, right? And we have that responsibility and, and it’s a joy. It’s fun. It’s a great place to be. And remember, we, we, we create language and it generates a world. And so I choose to love responsibility.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes. Love it. Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, what responsibility to me is the ability to respond.

It’s really rooted in that word. And it was taught to me by Rod Harrison, a coach that’s sat down with me. I love it years ago, , so then if you’re maybe in a, a chat with a, a. A client, or maybe they’re still just a prospect, maybe you’re discovering, you start talking through and what do you, is there any secret sauce you can share with us, Ron, that is maybe to help them shine the light on that blind spot that they have?

Ron Macklin: Yeah. So first I’m always looking at like, what are the stories they have [00:12:00] in their head? Like literally just let them tell their stories. Like, what is the story? What’s going on right there? Right. And then the secret sauce is and normally I have a name for it. I either go with the elderberry wand or magic wand space.

Right. And then I say, okay, I’ve got the elderberry one, which is the most powerful one from Harry Potter. Right. I handed it to him and I go, okay, if you had a magic wand. And you can make all of this happen. What would it look like? And then let them create something that’s like, they go, well, all those things that they’ve had their stories in their head about, I can’t do this.

I can’t do that. They won’t ever do this. They will never do that. They take those away and they create a vision of where they want to go and what they want to do. That is so

L. Scott Ferguson: strong.

Ron Macklin: That, that opens up a space where they go, I go, okay, now what, what, no, I said, give me the one back is now what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what is your barrier?

Like, what’s keeping you from doing that? Yeah. And then, and then we work on those things.

L. Scott Ferguson: Wow.

Ron Macklin: You [00:13:00] gotta have a vision.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Strong metaphor to use to realize that vision that they have. And then you as a coach can help guide them through that. That’s, that’s amazing. I’m going to, I’m not going to steal that, but I have to steal it, man.

Come on, brother. Cause sometimes I’ll get stuck. That’s my weakness sometimes. Yeah, I love it. So maybe if you’re in this discovery conversation, right. Is there any good question that you wish they, they would ask you, but never do.

Ron Macklin: One of my favorites and I do occasionally get it, but not normally, what are you afraid of?

Yeah. I love it. Cause we talk about fear. We talk about all this stuff. Right. And I go, what are you afraid of? Right. And, and what, what, what it shows up for me is they’ve gotten in their own heads and they’re thinking about their fears, and they look over there and they go, I don’t think he’s afraid of anything.

Right? And they go, so what are you afraid of? And then I, I share what, what, what it is I’m afraid of. Like, what are [00:14:00] my fears? Like, and I, and the’re real, and my ground is the more powerful person I’ve met equals also the person who’s most willing to talk about their fears.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. They do.

Ron Macklin: Yeah. And every time you meet somebody, you’re like, Oh, this, there, these people are really powerful.

I mean, I’m impressed. I’m blown away. Right. And pretty soon you realize, Oh my gosh, they’re talking about their fears, just like normal people like you and me and, and everybody else. I go, right. So then I don’t think it’s because they finally got successful. They can talk about their fears. They got successful because they can talk about their fears,

L. Scott Ferguson: right?

Ron Macklin: So being able to share your fears and speak them out loud, very, very powerful.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s huge. Yeah. Speaking the fears out loud.

Ron Macklin: When you describe it. You take away the power of it, right?

L. Scott Ferguson: Right? Yeah.

Ron Macklin: Yeah. Whatever you’re, whatever you’re afraid of, describe it out loud to everybody else and the power goes away.

Your fears are still there. The power’s gone.

L. Scott Ferguson: The power’s gone. Yeah. [00:15:00] And without power, it can’t really

Ron Macklin: motivate through, right? You can now go take what the actions you want to take. You can be responsible to take those actions because even though you’re still afraid, But you now that doesn’t have the power over you

L. Scott Ferguson: love it.

And so what do you feel that your, your strengths are in coaching that,

Ron Macklin: it I’m a very strong listener. Maybe one of the biggest aspects of like all my coaching is listening and listening is so there’s a, we have several metaphors we use, but it’s to get to nothing. Right. Which, which is a arian term, but is to, to get to nothing, which is like, we can’t ever do it.

But how do we get all those things out of our head as we can so we can actually listen to what they say Now, if we hold their story right, what, what they, what they care about, what they’re after, right? And then we really listen from nothing. We can notice things inside of what they’re doing that they can’t notice.

Like I can’t notice cause I’m too busy being me, right? But we can really be in that space to be a really powerful listener. And that’s one of my, well, that is by, well, [00:16:00] I say that, but also many, many of my clients have said, you’re an amazing listener.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. I also think you’re probably super curious as well.

, it’s true. Yeah, I can definitely see that. Yeah. Guilty. So how about weaknesses? What do you, what do you really work to level up in your coaching game? Oh, that’s a great question. That’s the line to say when you’re thinking about something, right? That’s a great question. I think why

is this idiot asking me this

Ron Macklin: space?

Right. Weaknesses are when I, like when I can’t get to zero, can’t get to nothing. Like I, I have my own stories inside, like we need to do this or we need to do that. And I just kind of consume it comes in through and I go, Oh, wait a minute. That’s my own stuff coming out. And it’s a real weakness, but I’m getting better.

Like, like, I’m really getting better at this. Right. It, it’s a space that when I’m doing that, I’m really adding no value to the world. Absolutely. But I absolutely, but I am in my own head. Right, right. Just busy way. And so building the skill to notice that, to do that. Yeah. And yeah, that’s where of [00:17:00] my weaknesses, watching those stories come in.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. That, that’s, thank you for being transparent with that. , and mine is.

really wanting to finish their sentence, , , not a guy, but more of like somebody that’s telling them sometimes I’ll, , I have to catch myself and, and I’ve been really getting a lot better with that. I remember this is 15 years ago and I was going through coaching school and they’re like, after you had to do it coaching in front of people, Then the teachers would be like, you are a great consultant, Scott, , and I was like, what does that mean?

, I’m just trying to help them. And I realized that that’s amazing. So right. Have you seen the movie back to the future? Oh yeah. Okay. So let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly, man. Let’s go back to the double deuce, the 22 year old. What kind of knowledge nuggets would you drop on? I’m not, I’m not asking you to change anything, but maybe help them shorten a learning curve.

Shorten a learning

Ron Macklin: curve when I was 22. So I was about [00:18:00] to graduate college, right? The, some of the truth bombs I would I would drop on them is figure out how to make your money work. Not just earn money, but have your money, your currency. Right. Not just put it in savings, not just invest it in 401k, all that kind of stuff, but make it really work.

I would say, figure that one out. Like, I’m not going to give them direction. I’m not going to go 22 and say, drop on and say here to go do this, go invest in that. Or, or here’s the play. No, what is it? The sports playbook from back to the future too, right? No, not that, not that, figure out how to make your money work.

Right. And then the second thing I would say. Is which it took me a lot of years after that before I figured it out. Everybody out there is just as afraid as you are. And there’s nothing wrong with you that you’re afraid. Yes. It’s normal.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes.

Ron Macklin: Cause for, for, for 15 years, between that 22 to the time I finally met and Dr.

Bowen white, [00:19:00] and actually had that story told to me, it was like I was hard on myself. Right. It was miserable.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. That’s super transparent. When you use an open book, this is beautiful. And , a lot of, , I’ll tell people that my good friend, Leah Woodford would say, , it’s okay to be afraid, but don’t let it stop you and get your asking gear.

She would say, get your asking gear, ask. Cause there’s people out there that just want to share, man. , which is, this is beautiful. So how does Ron Juanis Dash remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, life date and death date? Hopefully it’s way down the line, but how does Ron Juanis Dash remember?

Ron Macklin: I think you said at the beginning, right? Storyteller.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I hold it. It’s the only tool we as humans have.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: Storytelling.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: And I wanna, I’m working at it. I love doing it. Nothing can reshape a world faster than a really good story.

L. Scott Ferguson: Really good story. I mean, no matter [00:20:00] where it is, whether it’s a book, a movie, some, telling it on stage, what now?

You can lock them in and you can tell the people that, Are passionate about the storytelling part of things, , and adding the fables and, and, and whatnot. So that’s, that’s, that’s been fantastic. So Rod, if people were to really know you, if you say, if you were to really know me, you would know what,

Ron Macklin: so if they would like, they really got to know who I was.

Yeah. If they really knew

L. Scott Ferguson: Ron Mack

Ron Macklin: well, what they say, they’re most surprised about it, how much I care. Yeah. Like, like they, They meet me and I can be like I’m also, , six, four, 200. I was alive. I saw a picture of tall dude, man. Yeah, absolutely. So it’s like, I’m a big guy. Right. And, and also I have this crease in my forehead.

Right. So it can look like I’m really serious all the time. Right. Like, like really intense. Right. Right, right. And they go, no, you’re, you’re really, you care a lot.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: And that’s, that’s what I’m up to. I do. I want to, I want to make a difference and I’m willing to take the [00:21:00] time to go learn, to be able to make a difference for somebody.

And, but also knowing my, my favorite Abraham Lincoln quote, you can’t really help somebody for doing for them, what they should do for themselves, themselves. So B so being help doesn’t mean doing it for them. Means helping them figure out how to do it for themselves. And. But yeah, that’s, that’s what I love it.

I really care.

L. Scott Ferguson: You said that. Cause I would, I’m almost, I think you and I might get a little bit, cause I’m six one, I go about two 35 and pretty well put together a guy, but I’m also from the Midwest like yourself. And so when I come down here to Florida on the East Coast, where everyone from Brooklyn and, Boston and stuff like that come down here, I still go in for hugs.

Right? And they’d be like, dude, big guy. And, , so I’m like, I had to realize do a deep dive. I’m like, why don’t these people like, like me, , come on, Scott, like, , and it was because they all live on top of each other. You give them their space from the get from jump from start. Then like some of my best friends now are from like Brooklyn.

Like they take me home with them and like feed me and stuff. Just getting to learn [00:22:00] that. I think that you and I might get misunderstood because we’re bigger guys a little bit, , especially me. Cause of my booming voice. Like you calm people down from get from jump.

Ron Macklin: That’s once I speak, right. But I could be that guy standing there with a, with a stone face. Right. And the, the scale look, look, the crease right there. I get that. And they could go like Ooh, he’s serious.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. I enjoy Kava, which is a, it’s a root. I affectionately call it liquid Xanax and it is. I’ll sit there and it’s a very chill place.

It’s, it’s a bar, but it’s just, it’s South Florida. They’re everywhere. And I’ll be working on something. I have that. And the owner will be like, dude, you’re in a cava bar for, and I’m like, man, I’m doing it, so it’s awesome. So.

Ron Macklin: Worried about what my, like my kids, like the, the challenges that they’re into, I have three kids, right. And they’re working it right. All of them, but I’ve got to let them do

L. Scott Ferguson: that. [00:23:00] Yeah, they’re working it and you gotta

Ron Macklin: let them go out and make their mistakes and do all they do. But it’s also The world seems like a more complicated place than it did when I was growing up, right?

And it’s late twenties, early, right at 30.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Mine’s 29. So it’s like.

Ron Macklin: So they’re, they’re in this space or in the world, right. And, and college degrees, all that kind of stuff. Right. But, but they’re trying to figure out what do they want to do. And I think they’re also the models

L. Scott Ferguson: metaphorically. Yeah.

Ron Macklin: Yeah. The, they’re also gonna figure out like, is, is, is marriage. Yes. No. Is there kids? Yes. No. And they’re all those challenges. And it keeps me up to where like the stress that they must be feeling right now.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: Wow. And you put it

L. Scott Ferguson: on your big shoulders too. Yeah. And

Ron Macklin: then there’s also the other thing that keeps me up at night is Connie and I, my wife we still have four parents open.

Like they’re still up and living and they’re all in mid eighties. Yeah. And so there’s a space like, how do we be of help without trying to take away their freedom and their responsibility and there’s all that stuff and be there for them. Yeah. So it’s, it’s a, in fact, we [00:24:00] renamed it this morning. We shifted it from being, it’s a situation to it’s an adventure.

Cause that language shapes, shapes a whole new world for how to look at what your parents are going to go through. It’s an adventure and we’re here to help, but we’re also, we can’t do it for them.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. Yeah. Yeah. My dad literally, who is six, four mountain of a man and he just had an AFib issue this weekend and I’m freaking out.

Cause he’s my hero. He’s my rock. It’s like, nobody can beat your dad up. It’s like crazy, right? Yeah. Yeah, man. That’s crazy. So, Brandon, what is. I have a feeling I know what you’re going to say, but what is your definition of a life well lived?

Ron Macklin: I contributed to the world and made it a better place with the things that I’ve worked on and created to help my own self live a life.

And I made a difference for enough people that like I could say this was a life well lived.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s beautiful. And now it’s,

Ron Macklin: I’d like to live long as long as I can [00:25:00] contribute to the world. Right. Yeah. Right. So the, my, one of my favorite quotes, and I don’t know where I saw this, but it was a cartoon and this old woman, young woman walking down the street and the young woman asked the old woman, what was life’s greatest burden?

And the old woman says to have none. And I go, I don’t want to be in a place where I can’t carry a burden. I don’t want to be in a place. I want to be able to contribute to the world. I want to make a difference. And then when, when I can’t do that, I

L. Scott Ferguson: think I’m

Ron Macklin: done.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, I think you’re going to do that in your nineties, dude, just because that voice is going to, it’s in storytelling ability.

You’re going to be able to do it for a very long time. And so, so, so

Ron Macklin: will you,

L. Scott Ferguson: yes, we both will be booming

Ron Macklin: indoor nineties.

L. Scott Ferguson: . Time to shine today.

Podcast Varsity Squad, we are back and Ron, I’m definitely gonna, I am, I know that I’m speaking in Kansas this year, so I’m going to give you notice and love to meet up with you and maybe [00:26:00] grab some barbecue and probably talk about a few of these questions, , at length. But today through our lightning round, you get five seconds with no explanations and they, I promise they can all be answered that way.

Okay. Ready? Level up. Here we go. All right, Ron, what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

Ron Macklin: Go all in.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Ron Macklin: Keeping my body fit.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, there you go. Super critical. So see me kind of walking down the street and you’re like, man, Bergie looks like he’s in his doldrums a little bit.

Other than Everyone is Afraid, what book might you hand me to help me level up? Or one that maybe flipped a switch in your brain back in the day?

Ron Macklin: The Tree of Knowledge, man. That one there just, just, just rocked my

L. Scott Ferguson: world. Yes, absolutely. So, what’s your most commonly used emoji, if any, when you text?

Ron Macklin: Normally it’s thumbs up.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay,

Ron Macklin: very cool. That’s it, right, just thumbs up. [00:27:00] Occasionally it’s that that, that eyebrow up.

L. Scott Ferguson: That people’s eyebrow kind of thing?

Love it. So, nicknames growing up?

Ron Macklin: Big Mac, right. And muffin Man, .

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Love it. So any hidden talents or superpowers that you have that nobody knows about until now?

Ron Macklin: I, I, I crazy. I do love to, to crochet.

L. Scott Ferguson: Really? That’s amazing. I, I, I’m going to show you when we’re done. I literally got a crochet kit, bro.

Like, cause I want to learn. It slows me down. It’s almost meditative for me. Oh,

Ron Macklin: it is meditative. You just kind of keep going and make a hat or a pair of gloves or something else. Right. But it just keeps and it’s good for the fingers. Yeah, man.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes. Chest checkers are monopoly.

Ron Macklin: Neither go

L. Scott Ferguson: headline for your life.

Ron Macklin: Headline for my life. Ooh, that’s a, that’s a really tough one. Headline for my life is it [00:28:00] was a good ride.

L. Scott Ferguson: Good ride. I love that man. Go to ice cream flavor.

Ron Macklin: Vanilla.

L. Scott Ferguson: Me too, dude. Absolutely. There’s a sandwich called the big Mac muffin, man. Build that sandwich for me. And what’s on that sandwich, bro.

Ron Macklin: Oh, it’s going to have, it’s going to have lots of Italian sausages and Italian seasonings and stuff like that.

It’s got to have lettuce, got to have tomato. It’s got to have some oil and pepper on it. And I’d say not healthy, but bacon. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: You have to have man. Can you add that? If you didn’t, that’s awesome. Beautiful. Favorite charity and organization that you gave your time or money to.

Ron Macklin: Well, we’ve always done stuff for the Catholic social services stuff, and that’s a great question because I’ve given to several, and I’d say I don’t have really a favorite at this time.

No,

L. Scott Ferguson: very good. Very good. Last question. We can elaborate on this one, but what’s the best decade of music? 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s?

Ron Macklin: Well, I don’t know. I’d say the 70s.

L. Scott Ferguson: Seventies. What’s I, I graduated in nineties, so eighties was kind of a [00:29:00] thing. Right. And I, I love the eighties, but the seventies are storytellers.

Yes. All through the seventies. Right. From Croci to Ricky, like the Eagle, all the

Ron Macklin: Billy Joel, piano man, boom. All these are, these are great stories in those songs, right? Yeah. And, , Leonard Skynard, I just love that music. Kansas,

L. Scott Ferguson: Boston, Sticks, every one of them had stories in

Ron Macklin: it. Journey, everybody.

L. Scott Ferguson: , even John Denver, bro.

I mean, everybody had stories. Editing a podcast or when I’m building my show notes, I always have, , I heard some of these on, right. That’s my thing. Like, because it’s just one of my mom passed on a few years ago in like, she would always play the seventies and we’d always kind of danced around to the stuff, but that just kind of puts me in just a really cool chill bill vibe.

So

Ron Macklin: yeah, that’s. It’s great music. They’re all good, but that’s my thing. Yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: absolutely. How can we find you, my friend?

Ron Macklin: The best way to reach me is send me an email at ron at macklinconnection. com, right? Or you can always go to macklinconnection, [00:30:00] excuse me, macklinconnection. com, fill out a form there.

I’ll get in touch with you. Or you can go to our imaginalcommunity. mn. co and make an application and we’ll, we’ll let you into the community and you can find me there.

L. Scott Ferguson: Gotcha. And Donnie, please make sure you get that link for that. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Awesome. So let’s talk about your book a little bit here.

Everyone is afraid a fable of fear friendship and flourishing. Like it looks like it dropped around October last year.

Ron Macklin: Yeah. October 5th, I believe.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. So tell me a little bit about it. I read a little bit and I’m going to probably finish on my flight tonight. So, , so yeah.

Ron Macklin: So part of the, my, my stand in life is that everybody is afraid, right?

And we, we put the book title on there because we wanted people to build, look at the title and go, I don’t know, should I read this? I don’t know. Looking around a little bit, right? Because it takes a little courage to open up a book that’s called that. And that’s what we’re looking for, right? We’re looking for somebody who’s going to be committed into this.

And we created a story that’s basically set with people who are in their thirties.

L. Scott Ferguson: [00:31:00] Perfect.

Ron Macklin: Right. They’re in their 30s. They’ve been out of school. They’re probably married and may have some small kids. Maybe they don’t. Right. And, and all the stuff that they thought was working out was going to work out.

Hasn’t and the reasons that it hasn’t is because they thought they had to do it on their own.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: And it’s a place where people. Like one of them, not, not a spoiler, but one of them’s not in good shape, right? And in that space, now it’s about how everybody goes through and there’s six characters. One doesn’t make it and the rest of them discover like what, what has happened in, in their lives that like they lost touch with each other.

They, all those things that are happening and it really takes it to where it’s kept them from being successful. Because they haven’t connected with people. They haven’t, they haven’t realized how to open up and be in the world with folks. And that’s, and I wrote that book because that’s what made the biggest difference for me.[00:32:00]

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: I’ve had people ask me, so which character is you go, dude, they’re all me.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Ron Macklin: Every one of these people is me in a different version, different time.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. I love that. Cause one of my. My parable is basically a real estate broker who loses a huge deal and he’s going to quit the business. So he goes to his millennial broker and he thought the millennial is just going to write him off and said, like, he’d be like, wait a minute.

My dad told me if I was to ever want to quit to talk to these five people and all five of the lessons are me that I’ve learned. So he meets a Navy seal, , somebody that I served with in Iraq that I, In real life that I learned a ton of from, right. , meets a skater, , like one of those skaters that wrote out, , skateboarder, like, Hey, you have to stay present in the moment when you’re 20 feet above the pipe, stuff like that.

So it was like, just as there’s five in mind too, or you had six, but one passed on, you said in New York. So we’re thinking along the same way with that, just different lessons to be one of them is a community. , [00:33:00] it’s a huge community is. Absolutely critical for success in life to have true success to me.

I think it’s critical,

Ron Macklin: , that’s what well, part of what they discover is that it’s, it’s not just that they’re afraid is that they, when they talk to each other, the power of the fears go away and having a community to talk about all your stuff, put you in a place where you can take the actions and be responsible.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah. I’m glad that you wrote this, , on the tail end. I don’t know if you heard of coronavirus. ,

Ron Macklin: I’ve heard that a

L. Scott Ferguson: little bit. I’m glad that you wrote that. Did anything that happened during that time, like kind of really put it on steroids and put, move it forward for you to write this book?

Because a lot, obviously a lot of community was cut off for a little bit.

Ron Macklin: Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Or was it always in you? I

Ron Macklin: think it actually gave me the space.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. Yeah.

Ron Macklin: It actually gave me the space to say, okay, now, like we can’t do these things, we can’t do that thing. And you’re sitting there looking at like, what do you want to do?

And you go, this is, this is it. This is the time. So many [00:34:00] Zooms. Yeah. You can’t get up. Right. I wasn’t a person who wanted to write a book. I didn’t grow up wanting to write a book. Right. Right. But when I, all of a sudden there came a point in my life when I go, these people need this story.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: And, and I held that.

I learned something when it came through a story not being told what it was.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right?

Ron Macklin: So I created a story for people to discover stuff.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love it. I, I love it. That’s what Fatal does. Thank you for writing it, Ron. ’cause people need this. They need it. And as a thank you to the listeners out there that.

Anybody that puts Mac Connect, Mac Connect, M A C K Connect. I don’t care if it’s Pinterest, Instagram, email it to us, text it to 561 440 3830. The first five people that said puts Mac Connect into anywhere. I’m going to get you a book mailed out to you on time to shine today’s dime. And so I, I just feel so, I, and again, with all due respect to, , Ron, I should have read this book [00:35:00] already.

I’ve just read the intro. The first little bit that was allowed on the Kindle sample. And it was, it moved me just from that. So, and I can’t wait to get out when I’m on the plane today, I’ll probably be texting back tonight saying, dude, this is awesome. I also book when I land, hopefully it’s not too late, but , no, seriously.

And Ron, if you could do me one last solid and leave me, leave the squad with one last knowledge nugget, we can take with us internalize and take action.

Ron Macklin: One, one, one last nugget, right?

We, we live in, we live in this language, right? This stuff. And if we have the space that the other person’s afraid that just as much as I’m afraid, who would you create them to be before you start to talk to them? So say this person is scared. He’s amazing. He’s creative. Yeah. He’s curious.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Ron Macklin: Say that story.

Now you can say it in your [00:36:00] own head or you can say it out loud. Either way. But don’t just drift into the conversation without creating the other person.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. I love it. And that’s, that comes straight from curiosity to, , you have to be strong, curious and squad. We just, I have three pages of notes out here.

I know that if you’re listening, you have been to, he’s a, he’s a guy that had no agro, no agriculture. He passed down that, , he wanted to really learn how to relate. And be authentic with other people. Like community is absolutely key. It’s huge throughout life, throughout anything, having that solid community where all cogs, like you said, can start working together.

Is absolutely critical to the human race. And I’m so glad I have somebody, we have somebody out here like Ron that’s really getting that out there and he’s doing it through teachable lessons through responsibility is knowing that you’re going to hold those consequences and that you get to hold those [00:37:00] consequences, , really accept that.

And Ron reminded us that a great coach is going to provide a safe space to let them tell their story. His magic wand metaphor. Was absolutely mind blowing and I’m gonna implement that into certain clients of mine that will, will actually need it, and ask your coach, , what are you afraid of?

What are their fears? So they’ll, it’ll put it, humanize them a little bit and know that they can really lean into knowing that they’re really leaning into. You being coached and I can just picture Ron coaching somebody listens, not only with his ears, but with his eyes It actually basically what I call listening with his neck I can just really see him leaning in slowing everything down in that safe space and getting them Into a solid transformation, , and everybody is afraid Everybody’s out there lean into your fears, , and like Leah Woodford would say, my good friend, Get your asking gear.

There are support systems like my good friend Ron here has his wife Connie He’s got his other [00:38:00] support system, , he’s out there planting trees this dude’s probably never gonna sit in the shade of and I love to surround myself with people like him because not only that he’s Doing it for the intention not the attention like he’s intentionable about helping people and that’s just Fantabulous, my word for the day, but , he’s going to be remembered as someone that slid across home plate, bumped and bruised, went through a lot of ups and downs, but he contributed to this world and he made it a better place.

And when you’re starting a conversation with them like really Know that person even before you lean into the conversation like be perceptive Really like andy andrews would say really lean in and be perceptive like really pick up on everything the whole vibe That’s what my good friend ron does and if you haven’t noticed he slowed me down Usually I am booming right now when I do the The, the end here and it’s something that I had so many teachable moments today.

And that’s what Ron does in spades. And he levels up his health. He levels up his wealth. He’s earned his varsity letter squad letter here at time. Shine a [00:39:00] day. He’s a handsome bugger and just, I can’t wait to hopefully collaborate and rock stage with him, Ron. Thank you so much for coming on brother.

Ron Macklin: Scott.

Thank you, man. It was a great, great conversation.

L. Scott Ferguson: Thank you. Bye now.

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