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Alisha Leytem: Hello everyone. Welcome back to the show. We have a really fun and exciting episode for you guys today. I know I say that almost every time, but this really is. You're going to have to trust me. We have the story of a lifetime that you're going to want to tune into today.
I have two guests with me today and this is actually the first episode we’ve ever had two guests at the same time. One of them you will recognize, his name is Michael Leytem. He is my husband. He has been on a couple of different episodes. I think this is his first time on season 2.
You guys know him as my husband, sometime podcast co-host and we also do some business together. I talk about him quite a bit in a lot of episodes. As you know, I run Alisha Leytem Wellness and Michael is the Chief Leadership officer of my company. He runs his own company called Catching Leadership and I am his Chief Mindfulness Officer.
So we partner together quite a bit to combine our leadership, mindfulness, and well-being into our programs or trainings for companies and organizations. In fact we are doing a big one, coming up in January. In person which is very exciting.
The Story
Before introducing our third guest, we have to roll out the stage for you. As you guys know, if you have been a long time listener, you will know that we have a podcast editor on the team and her name is Ainsley. Shoutout to Ainsley. She has been with us since day one of the podcast and the podcast came out just about a year ago. It came out in January of 2022.
How I found Ainsley was I had been looking for an intern and I reached out to my mom who is a hairstylist. As you know, hairstylists know a lot of people. I asked my mom and said “hey mom, I am looking for a local intern who could help me get my podcast up and going. Let me know if you have any connections with someone who is a college student or what not.”
I think the next day or two later she told me she had this friend who works at NICC. She says that she has someone who would be really great. Her name is Ainsley. So I interviewed Ainsley not knowing her at all. I thought she’s great, love her, she’s in. This was a year ago now.
Long behold this has actually started an entire crazy stream of events. Earlier this year in 2022 after I hired Ainsley, her dad Ryan, who is also really into fishing, bought Michaels Book. As we know Catching Leadership is a consulting company that brings in elements of fishing. So he was really into the book. He then grabbed another copy because one of his good friends, Ryan Tucker, who lives down the street is also a fisherman and leader.
So he hands him this book one day and says “hey I think you would really like this book.” Ryan Tucker takes this book and he is looking at the back of it and he thinks wait a minute how do I know this person?
I feel like at this point of the story I am just going to hand it over to Ryan and Michael because they can tell it much better from here. So I am going to introduce you to Ryan Tucker.
Ryan Tucker: It’s great to be here. I get chills and goosebumps when I hear you go through the story because that is exactly what happened. I know Ainsley Heise very well and I know Ryan Heise very well and that’s exactly how it started.
I got a call from Ryan Heise who just happens to be a great friend of mine who happens to live down the road and I mean a couple miles down the road. He is my team partner on all the bass tournaments that we fish together. I have gotten to know Ryan basically from college and much better over the past 10 years. So I get a phone call from him, which isn’t unique, but he says “hey I bought a gift for you. When you are in my hood in the next couple of days text me and I will come out the truck and give it to you.”
This piqued my interest. He is what I call a “gadget guy” because he always has these random gadgets and he is brilliant. So I go by and he hands me an amazon package. So I said thanks and told him when I get home I will open it. It happens to be a book called “Catching Leadership” by Michael Leytem.
I had just transferred into a role as a director of sales of the west coast for Symplr. It was at a perfect time, first all just by reading it, it blends fishing and leadership. I am all on board. If anybody is listening to this that knows me, not a huge book reader, that’s just not how I consume stuff. I was all on board.
So I start reading it, but I keep looking at Michael’s last name. I’m like I know this name. I read his bio and realized he was from the same area that I was born. I knew I had to do some serious digging. So I called my mom, Margine Tucker, and I said “do you know of a Michael Leytem or the Leytem name?” She told me that my grandma Tucker was Letyem, that was her maiden name. So then my mom did some digging and she found out that Michael’s[a] grandfather was the brother of my grandma Tucker who was Millie Leytem. I’m thinking wow this is pretty crazy that we are cousins. I continue to read the book, I don’t want to be a complete stalker on LinkedIn yet, right?
I’m just going to continue reading the book and I loved it. I was in this period of leadership in sales and we will get into this I’m sure a little bit later, but it just kind of brought a sense of energy. I have a passion from a personal perspective around fishing and angling that really stemmed from my grandparents, and more importantly from Millie Leytem. She was a big fisher in my family.
So I reported back to my mom, but little did I know she was doing some fact checking herself. She calls me maybe a week later and she’s like, I am going to blow your mind. She goes, you know that you’re related to Michael Leytem and you’re reading his book, that’s all really cool. I hadn’t reached out to him yet and I was going to, but then she told me to wait a second. She found even more information.
I have now told this story a lot of times because it is so important to me. So this is going to get a little wild for our listeners and it gets a little confusing, but I am going to do the best that I can. So my Grandma Tucker in 1993 was down visiting me with Grandpa Tucker and watching a basketball game. Unfortunately she became sick when she was in Des Moines and was in the hospital. She still listened to all my basketball games, but she passed away in Des Moines and never went home. That left Grandpa Tucker as a widower.
He is alone, but he had so many friends and family in the area and was truly loved. Just an awesome guy. He ends up meeting a woman named Madonna Otting. He knew her because he was very good friends with her husband, who unfortunately passed away in his 50’s. So she had been a widow in Cascade for a long time. They meet and eventually get married and like I said earlier, her last name happened to be Otting.
Alisha Leytem: My middle name is Otting everyone, I actually changed my maiden name to my middle name. Madonna Otting is my grandma.
Ryan Tucker: So, my mom tells me not only am I blood related to Michael Leytem, I also have a relationship with the entire Otting family through grandpa Tucker marrying Madonna Otting. Alisha and I were both at their wedding and then unfortunately also at their funeral. It was one of the most amazing funerals because of the amount of people that showed up and supported that was unreal. Just two spectacular people. Really I want to speak about three spectacular people who had so much influence on me. Overall, the dynamic and the fact that we are both connected, I mean I could not ignore this.
This was just this moment where my head kind of exploded a little bit. That’s when I decided to reach out over LinkedIn to Michael and introduce myself. I wanted to make that connection because I thought it was so important. I felt like we shared so many values. As it came into my maturity of leadership this just made so much sense. So I reached out to Michael thinking like this guy is going to either think I am a nutball or he is going to get back to me.
It was not long before Michael got back to me. I don’t think it was minutes, but it definitely wasn’t days. I am pretty sure it was that same day that you reached out to me. I was so excited to hear back and Michael asked if there was any opportunity to connect. I gave him my cell phone number like let’s talk. I think Michael has the time stamp on that, so I am going to hand it over to Michael and then I can talk about what I went through in the remaining time before we got connected.
Michael Leytem: Such an awesome story. It goes from a really close friend to a fishing buddy who hands you a book, to being connected to both sides. It’s really just remarkable.
So on May 24th, right before memorial day weekend, we can talk a little bit about that too. It was at 12:13 CST and you sent a message basically giving a synopsis of what you just talked about. A little bit of your background and then your crazy connection. You put your cellphone on there and it was at 1:37 CST, a little under 90 minutes when I got back to you and said this is wild. Are you free for a phone call?
You responded with “it’s nuts, call anytime, I am free now.” So I pretty much picked up the phone right away and called you after you sent that message and the rest is history. We will get into some of those next steps, but that was really special.
When I got that message first, I saw Ryan Tucker and I thought “who is this guy?” It’s a pretty common last name, but I guess we can connect. It didn’t cross my mind at all that it would be the Tucker from Cascade, Iowa.
We got chatting and we started talking about fishing and Leadership and you told me this story that you just shared and then we actually went on a family trip down to Table Rock over Memorial Day Weekend. You went above and beyond and you were giving me graphs of different spots to fish, different lures to throw, it was just incredible how we hit it right off the bat.
I’ll pause there because the nature of this relationship continues to grow and leads to a really cool place where we're at now in the present reality. I was blown away by it too. I knew in my gut that I got to continue fostering this relationship and figure out what we're going to do next with it.
Alisha Leytem: So at this point in the story we get it, right? We see that there's this crazy connection that Michael, Ryan and I actually are all related in some way. We have never really met each other. Well apparently Ryan and I were at the same wedding and funeral 25 years ago. Which we didn't know about until very recently. So you guys connect in May of 2022 and you continue to connect throughout the summer.
Ryan Tucker: I think if people understand me, I am very invested in people I know. I am not going to let that relationship that was just created be brushed under the rug. I am going to be pretty loud about it, so sending the pictures of the graphs and sending pictures to help Michael was something I needed to do. Selfishly, I wanted to give that to Michael so I could build on the relationship that was just started.
Over that time we just consistently touched base. Simple things like “what’s going on?” “Here’s a picture of a fish”, “How’s business?” Those types of small things. We would just ping different things to each other and just talk every once in a while.
We kept that door of communication fluid and it wasn’t everyday, but it was consistent a couple of times a week. It was really nice to just chat.
Michael Leytem: You know what else is cool and I think we need to share the memories that you have, Ryan, of Alisha’s father, Russ. Growing up you saw him play football.
Ryan Tucker: He was an idol to me when I was a young boy in Fort Dodge, Iowa. My dad would take me up to watch his football games. I thought that he was just this monster of a man. I remember thinking sometime I would be on that field looking like Russ Otting. These memories I had of being cold, getting hot chocolate, and seeing Russ in his uniform were all these moments I had to remember Alisha’s dad.
Alisha Leytem: This is crazy that they were just in the same town. If you guys are a little confused, Michael and I are not related. Our families are just from the same small town. Michael and I actually met in college. My dad’s family is from this small town and there’s just a lot of connections of my dad playing football in high school, and Ryan’s family is also from that town so he would end up being there too. There’s all these major connections from this same small town.
Michael Leytem: Even on that note. Ryan and I, when we were hitting things off, we would talk about fishing the river in downtown Cascade, Iowa. There was this piece of time where we shared this memory of this awesome, beautiful, little fishery in North Fork Maquoketa River. Being able to be in the same spot and having the same mental framework of having fun and catching fish as little kids, you just don’t get that same connection with business acquaintances that you are trying to make connections with. It’s just special to have this shared memory as kids. It was to me at least.
Ryan Tucker: It’s incredibly special. I think folks that are listening have these little moments of connection, but it goes so much deeper between you and I. When we talked about it, we fished the same spot, walked up those same stairs, and went along that same river. Folks that are listening might know these names, but when you think of Rene Leytem, your grandfather's sister. We have all these connections even though we never met. We are probably 10 years apart and I am older, but you appreciated all the same things that I went through as a child just 10 years prior in the same area.
When you put all that together, you cannot ignore it. That’s the thing I always say to the people I tell this story to. Bringing all these things together is amazing. My grandma Tucker was my biggest supporter and she loved everything I did. She loved basketball because I played it, she loved fishing because I enjoyed it, she loved to make me pancakes for days. She just loved on me. I feel like she is somewhere saying “do not ignore this connection because I connected you on purpose.”
She connected us through a person that I respect and admire, through Ryan Heise and his family. He is a great friend, and a tournament partner of mine. There’s a reason she selected him and it’s because he is a good man. For that to come through that channel of Ainsley Heise and Ryan Heise is just something you can’t ignore.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it from the time we had our last discussion to before getting into the whole Catching Leadership part of it. I won’t go into that now because I might be getting into it a little early.
Alisha Leytem: I think you do need to get into it now because we haven’t even really told the big news and what the outcome of this is. You guys continue to talk and connect over the summer, so tell us what was going on in your life at the time.
Tucker’s Journey to Catching Leadership
Ryan Tucker: I was the director of sales for Symplr. An incredibly dynamic company that was growing significantly, in fact it was going through a lot of mergers and acquisitions. I was the director of the west division of account executives if you will. I had a great team, I loved them all.
I was in that period of life where I was looking to potentially make more of an impact in something that I had more of a passion and love around. That was in the outdoors and the fishing industry. That passion and this connection all started to mold together. In my mind I couldn’t stop thinking about it and go explore this.
One day Michael had texted me about how he has a focus around retreats and he had a trout fishing aspect. But you didn’t want to forget or leave out the bass fishing industry. You had some ideas around an old team partner at the University of Iowa’s bass club team, Bob Downing. Who is an elite series angler. You wanted to approach him to do some things for Catching Leadership.
At that moment I said “you know what, I think you need to hire me.” I don’t know what his reaction was because we were on the phone together, but it was that moment where I had to say what I was feeling. I wanted to come aboard Catching Leadership. There’s all these kinds of things that we need to iron out, but I’m either going to go after this career from a fishing standpoint with you or alone.
I wanted to do something really special. In my mind I knew we were going to do this in the best way we possibly could. I don’t care about the money, I knew we would figure all these things out. I fully believe in what Catching Leadership is doing, I fully believe in what Alisha is doing and, I believe that this is the career path I want to take at this point. I want to go and get after it. I am 46 years old, this is all coming together, and it's absolutely blowing my mind.
Michael Leytem: I do remember you saying that you wanted to come work for me. I wasn’t sure if you were serious or not, but it was very heartfelt when you said that. Back to the origin of all of this, when I wrote Catching Leadership it was still very much from a bass fishing lens. I was on the inverse final bass fishing team, I got connected to Bob Downing, and I loved it. I loved bass fishing with my brother, my dad, and still do today.I can’t wait to actually go out on your boat, Tucker, and make some memories, talk strategy, talk sales, and all things Catching Leadership.
Over the evolution of my own development if you will, I kind of used that leadership development parallel. It wasn’t that I wasn’t enjoying bass fishing because I was, but I was getting called in some other directions when we were in California.
There was a local fly fishing guy out there who, again follow the signs, follow the omens, the individual who Farmers Market vegetables each week. He’s like you got to check out this guy locally, he is a really cool guy and I think you guys could help one another out.
This was exactly about two years ago when we just had our daughter Melrose. I remember being up late at night when you're rocking a small child and I'm just a junkie for YouTube videos on fly fishing because in some way there's a lot of parallels because it is still fishing. In some ways your complete novice again and that curiosity just got me so hungry.
So I ended up just kind of going all in. Fly fishing is my new passion and if that's where I really want to go with some of these experiences because I think it kind of puts people in a level playing field, you have to be so much more observant, you go to some really cool, and beautiful places. Not that you don’t with bass fishing, it’s just a different monster. So I go and pursue that, but in the back of my mind I am also thinking don’t just close the door on the bass fishing industry.
Remember where you came from and all the fun times you had. There's a lot of money, there's a lot of products, there's a lot of sponsorships, there's a lot of relationships and connections. As we continue to build out Catching Leadership, I can still focus on the fly-fishing component and maybe Tucker can be the bass fishing guru.
As we do future events and as we talk to different audiences this just helps us grow in brand new ways. I am still determined to get you out with a fly rod too, so we will have to do a little 50/50. I’ll come out and do some bass fishing with you and you can come out and do some fly fishing with me.
Ryan Tucker: For the listeners, I am not against fly fishing. I have just spent way too much money on the bass fishing stuff and I know how much money it costs to get into fly fishing. It’s more fear that I will love it and have to go spend all that money over there too. So if I can use your gear I am in.
Michael Leytem: Done Deal.
Alisha Leytem: I want you to tell me what happened after Ryan said “you should hire me.” What happened next?
Michael Leytem: I am thinking as an entrepreneur, how do you make this work? Do I bring him on as a bass fishing guide/executive coach? He could kind of work in a different area. Maybe over the course of a couple years I can save up some money and bring him on at the capacity where I can be parallel to where he’s at right now.
We still are a small organization that’s doing really well. We are continuing to do even better now with the resources that we have. With that being said, just because you like someone or just because you have a connection doesn’t mean you can go make promises that you can’t cash the check for.
I was trying to give it some honest thought because it was kind of one of those things where if an opportunity arises maybe we can work something out. We were just sending texts back and forth about fishing lures, spots for tournaments and such. I am looking at it from two ways actually. One way is looking at the profession that Ryan is in and the connection that he has. He’s a wonderful guy and he will never say it because he is too humble, but he’s got awesome relationships with people, he’s got a big heart.
I am thinking if this guy can make a couple introductions for Catching Leadership with some of his fishing buddies especially in the Kansas City market, which I don’t have a ton of relationships in. This would be golden. Maybe there could be some referral bonus or something that we could start there.
Then things got really interesting when he said “well what if it’s in a slightly different capacity and I really come to work for you?” Then let’s talk about what that might actually look like and what not. Then all of these stories that had built up to this point and it being about something bigger, having the faith in this, and knowing it’s really right in our heart, mind, body, and soul. We are going to figure this out and build a plane as we fly it. Of course Tucker is going to be paid for his work, it’s not like he’s doing this pro-bono.
He is also in this position in his career where he wants to do something that is so purposeful that it speaks to his soul in volumes. He thinks that he has found it here at Catching Leadership and I know that he has. I want him to experience it and I am excited for us to grow organically in whatever way it takes. I am incredibly grateful and it’s only been a month and a half right now since he joined the team. Then we have to loop back to the story when we all met in person for the first time. Tucker I’ll let you add anything you want to say.
Ryan Tucker: You nailed it. I will say this to kind of tee up the next part of this. I said “I need to meet both of you.” I was willing to drive to Dubuque, Iowa from Kansas City and do our deal and you were gracious enough to be me in a beautiful bed and breakfast.
Alisha Leytem: I think it was October that all of a sudden that Michael was starting to tell me that he and Ryan are talking about potentially bringing him on for Catching Leadership and what this could look like. We were kind of talking it through and then one day Michael turned to me and said “so Ryan just put in his two weeks and he is going to come work for us now.” I thought yeah we do need to meet him. He threw out a date that was a week later.
We found this cute, little bed and breakfast and put Ryan up in it, so we could go out and meet him. How do we explain this the best we can?
Michael Leytem: So if you know Alisha and I on a personable level we’re not really into going to a cookie cutter hotel. We want an experience and this is all about experiences. Some experiences are better than others, but when you’re going on a trip it’s important that its’ memorable, nice, and unique. We wanted to provide that to Ryan. We got a recommendation of a place, locally.
It is a beautiful place, it’s actually Four Mounds. It’s a place in Dubuque and we look forward to doing some future events there from a Catching Leadership standpoint. It just so happened that his place is a bed and breakfast. If you haven't been to a bed and breakfast they are a little bit different than checking into a hotel. So it is tucked away in a beautiful area called the driftless, which is an eastern part of Iowa. There’s rolling hills and it’s right on the Mississippi River, big valley and nice overlook.
It's later in the evening, so it’s getting dark because the days are getting shorter. There’s a little tiny lane that you turn into. So you’ve got your GPS telling you to turn in and Tucker of course is driving a Truck. He’s trying to pull in here on this little tiny lane with his big Truck and it’s got all kinds of twists and turns with a creepy shed off to the side when you’re going up there.
He gets up and it's this beautiful, old mansion from the late 1800’s. It’s just this breathtaking building. So Tucker gets out of his truck and is walking in and tell us about your experience before we even walk in and meet you.
Ryan Tucker: One I had never stayed at a bed and breakfast before, ever. So I pulled up this lane and it was one of those days where the clouds were rolling in, it’s dark. I am kind of into the haunted movies and this place is completely on it, in a good way. This place is so nice. So I come around and I see this beautiful mansion. I am anticipating this front room where you check in, nope.
For all the people who have stayed at bed and breakfasts know that’s not how it works. So I am sitting there saying “hello?” A woman working there who was really sweet showed me to my room and it was beautiful. The whole experience was absolutely great and I would do it over again in a heartbeat.
I had never experienced it, so it was all completely new to me. Then Alisha and Michael are on their way and of course I had never met them. I had these nervous butterflies. I’m thinking how is this going to go down? It ended up great and it worked out perfectly.
Michael Leytem: So we pull up and this is actually our first time there too. We had heard good things, we were trying to get him the master suite, and make his first day/first impression with Catching Leadership and Alisha Leytem Wellness a really good one.
So we rolled up and noticed there’s no other cars there. Oh man. We saw his Kansas City plates on his truck and knew he was for sure there, so we walked in and no one was there. So this huge mansion with all this vintage stuff in it…
Alisha Leytem: It overlooks the Mississippi too. There’s a lot of land, weddings are hosted there, my last retreat that you’ve heard me talk about on the podcast was almost there, but we weren't able to because of timing. All these beautiful events are there, but it was pitch black because it was November and we couldn't see those things. It was all of our first times there and all we see is a house and no one is there except Ryan Tucker. Waiting for us to meet him.
Michael Leytem: We texted each other and he came out shook hands, gave hugs, introductions, and whatnot. Selfishly I wanted to go in and see the space because if we were ever going to host a retreat or event there we wanted to see what common areas they had. We had scoped around. Of course when you are alone in a huge mansion and it’s dark you definitely get those eerie vibes a little bit, but in a good way.
So we decided to go into the commons room with a big piano, and we sat down and had a really good heart to heart, transparent talk. If you know Alisha and I and you know the way we are trying to grow and run our businesses, we just really value authenticity. We want to make sure we’re not just talking a big game, but that we can back it up. Plus we can get behind the same vision and we might not know exactly how this is going to pan out, but if we know in our heart, soul, minds are all aligned in what we are trying to do and the impact that we are going to have we can figure out the small stuff. We can figure out the tactical stuff we just wanted to make sure there was great alignment.
We started sharing stories, and started talking about the financial aspects of it and the growth stuff. It was such a great conversation to have and I am so grateful Tucker was the one who recommended to meet in person. Alisha, I know you talk about this on your show and I know that I talk about it from a leadership standpoint, but that social connection piece.
Sure, we could have had a zoom call, we could have done it a different time. I knew that you were serious, Tucker, when you recommended that. You wanted to meet in person and we wanted to just really forge this bond as a unit. We had a great conversation there, but we wanted to wine and dine him and take him to a nice restaurant in downtown Dubuque.
Alisha Leytem: I remember Tucker said something during that conversation that really still sticks with me, that gives me goosebumps with all these connections that we are talking about. Like Michael said we were sharing stories and that's when Ryan and I realized that we were both at the wedding and the funeral. I don’t know if we mentioned this, but my Grandma (Madonna Otting) was married to R.L. Tucker, who is Ryan’s Grandpa. They got married in their 70’s and then 5 years later they died in a car accident together.
It was very sudden and sad. We were at their funeral together and so we are really understanding these crazy connections and Ryan just looked at me and Michael and said “I genuinely believe that I was sent here to help you guys and I think you can help me find my passion too.” Moments like that where it's just complete synchronicity and you cannot deny the universal signs or divine guidance that’s being intervened.
We looked around and thought Madonna and R.L were there right now. We then went out and got some food. At one point I said “Ryan I just can’t wait for you to meet my dad.” My dad just loved R.L who was his step dad. Of course he misses and mom and I felt when he could meet Ryan he would feel this connection to his mom and his step dad again. I just couldn’t wait for them to meet and I had mentioned that before we had gone out to dinner.
So we head off to dinner and we end up having to wait for a table for about an hour. We are sitting there having a happy hour drink waiting for a table. All of a sudden the host brings us back to go sit down. I am walking back, and it’s the first time we are at this restaurant and I turn the corner and there’s this long table in the back. I do a double take because at the end of the table I see my dad.
I thought is that my dad eating at this restaurant right now? So I go up there and it is my dad eating there with his friends and mom is there too. Ryan and my dad got to meet right then, and I get chills again right now. R.L, Madonna we get it! Thank you for the confirmation. It couldn’t be any more clear.
Michael Leytem: We were talking about at one point we’ll connect with Russ and go fishing or what not and to have it happen at this restaurant is crazy. Going back to what Alisha said “follow the omens.” You know when they are just glaring in your face it's hard to ignore. There’s some people who will say “oh it's just a bunch of coincidences”, but if you ask any of us three if it's a coincidence we are like “nope.”
We know what this is, we know we have to enact it, and have faith in it because it is so special and unique.
Ryan Tucker: It’s really incredible. I would say throughout my life I probably steer from those signs a little bit and just be a little more cautious, but this was too strong for that. I want to go back a quick second because as I was going through my leadership role within my past company, I loved my team and I really enjoyed what I did. Symplr is going to go on and do great things without me and there's no question about that. I was really fortunate and grateful over that time and previous experiences to be surrounded by really dynamic leaders that I learned from.
This is something that I absolutely couldn't ignore and I knew that going back to that Memorial day weekend I knew in the back of my mind I had to pursue this. My curiosity began to grow, and grow. I was not going to let an opportunity pass me by or pass us by without actually taking the shot and asking you and Alisha to go do something.
If it wasn’t going to work out that’s fine, but in my mind if I don’t make that ask and make that jump then what am I doing? When I called you and said “hey Michael, I resigned” it was because my head was somewhere else.
I couldn’t do that to the 4 people that I directed because I had too much respect for them and candidly I had too much respect for myself and just mail this in and try and go find something else. This all made sense to me. So I had confidence in the fact that this was going to work, but I am not going to mail it in, especially when we are going into the last quarter. I am going to keep in great contact with all the folks over there, but let’s go do something special.
I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that. It was just so natural for me and I had so much confidence in that. Some people are fearful in taking risks and are a bit more conservative. I would maybe put myself in that class, but for some reason I didn’t feel that because I was drawn to it emotionally and spiritually through all these connections. There is no wrong move here for me. It just feels too good.
Michael Leytem: Well I applaud you for having the courage to do that in your career because a lot of people will wait until it’s too late. Alisha talks about it all the time when she talks about stress and burnout, they are just stuck. They need something new and it’s nothing bad about the company or people, its just that you need something new. Sometimes you have to ask those reflective questions and an opportunity comes knocking that you will have to jump on.
Another thing I want to touch on is, Tucker, as much as this transition is and this opportunity for you to grow and be a part of the team while helping Alisha and myself out with our businesses. It’s forcing us to grow too. It’s forcing me to grow as a leader. I have plenty of room for growth as a leader and I will be the first to tell you that. You don’t just write a leadership book and become an expert, you always have to grow yourself.
So as I was thinking about the business and trying to grow it in this incremental, stepwise fashion, bringing a person like you on who I respect a lot and I know has great passion, great tenure, and a great skill set. Who’s going to hold the team accountable, and myself accountable. Plus grow this thing, it can be scary in a good way.
What if we do actually start growing really rapidly? Are you ready for this Michael? Are you ready to lead a dynamic, diverse team where you might not have as much control? That starts with having faith in yourself in the process and not needing to control every little area of your life. Just by saying “I am going for it” and “let’s do it man.” Let’s have fun, grow and go both make some mistakes. There’s no doubt that we will make mistakes.
We are going to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it and we are going to help people as we do it. Someday we'll look back 20 years from now on a fishing boat together and we will laugh about this call. “Remember that first podcast we did where Alisha had us share this crazy story?” It’s just so cool to make these memories with both of you really.
Alisha Leytem: I love this story so much because of taking that leap of faith. I second what Michael said, I commend you Tucker for doing that because that is one of the biggest fears that most people have in life. It’s following your dreams and taking that “leap of faith” because it’s diving into the unknown and you don’t really know what's going to happen.
I personally think that you never really know what’s going to happen in any position or role that you are in. There’s something called a false sense of security, right? We still feel that that is the “safe” thing to do. I think the most unsafe thing you can do is not follow your heart because if you don’t do that that is when your soul starts to shrivel. That’s when you begin to burnout because you begin to push and force yourself into doing something you’re not in alignment with anymore.
When you can snap yourself out of that and put yourself on a path that transition can be difficult and scary, but your heart feels alive and your soul feels on fire, that’s the path you need to be going down. That’s when you have endless energy to do the thing because you’re not forcing it behind it. You’re behind it because that’s what you are.
I love that this is part of the Catching Leadership story and we get to be a part of it at Alisha Leytem Wellness. It just shows the power of following your dreams and doing it scared.
Michael Leytem: My mind runs wild with all the ways we can implement things and what we are going to do and I don’t have the answers. I don’t know exactly what we are doing in 2023, 2024, or 2025 and how we will build this thing and grow. I am going to listen more when it comes to listening to you, Tucker. Listening to your experiences and the team too. I know we have kind of made it around us three, but we have some awesome people around us.
Ryan Tucker: Incredibly talented. My first month with the team I have been able to notice how driven, talented, and passionate the team is and that they want to strive for success. We’re a small team, but our goals all point in the same direction of success.
We all understand that as long as we communicate appropriately we will be so far above and beyond where some large organizations get. You’ve seen this within your experience, Alisha, on how they get built and stacked in these leadership models. Also in how the communication starts to break down.
We are just at a really good place right now based on our size where we can communicate in an appropriate way and be open and say what works or doesn’t work. There’s no hurt feelings. We are trying to build something that makes sense for Catching Leadership. If you build really fast you’re bound to miss some steps. We are going to do it how Michael Leytem, Alisha Leytem and the team all come together and say this is the best way to do it. If we communicate about that, it will be successful.
Michael Leytem: Alisha and I have this talk all the time because as entrepreneurs you do want to keep your pedal to the metal. You always want to push yourself to go farther. You do have to work hard and be scrappy and all those things. It doesn’t motivate me to grow just from a monetary standpoint. I get inspired to grow personally and professionally and grow my skill sets, my awareness, and my perspective.
We’re not racing to go public and sell this company. We want to have a wrong runway and grow in a sustainable way that we get to do very impactful work. To do that I would rather go a little slower perhaps, or even say “no” to some things. Rather than 10 years from now looking back with a boatload of money, but just replicate what you said was wrong out there with everything. We don’t want to do that.
Just to name drop a bit about the team, Caitlyn Alford, you go above and beyond. Brooke Barber, you’ve been doing an incredible job as well as an intern and Monica Ragsdale too. Thank you to all 3 of you for stepping up and doing what you do. Honestly, it does take a village as we continue to grow. We will continue to expand the Catching Leadership boat. Bringing Tucker on board as another captain of this ship will help us strive to do that.
Alisha Leytem: I think that this is hopefully inspiring people in many different aspects of the story. Whether it’s being inspired from Ryan’s leap of faith and recognizing his heart wasn’t in his current role anymore and it was time to move on and actually do something about it. Whether it’s seeing the signs that the universe is guiding you on and accepting those signs and not pushing them aside and saying “it's a coincidence.” I think this story can attest to that for us all.
Also for other entrepreneurs. Hearing the behind the signs and what it takes to be doing this type of work. I really want to commend Michael for saying “what are we growing, what are we doing, and why?” This was actually a part of the conversation we had when all met for the first time was what’s our ultimate vision. One thing that Michael and I are really about is making sure that we still have time to do our passions and live the life that we want. Not just growing for the sake of growing rather than saying is this actually something we want to build.
We are really conscious of making sure we can build and help the people that we want to help, but also live the life we want to live. Isn’t that the ultimate definition of success? I think it is. I am excited to have you on board Ryan, it’s going to be awesome.
Ryan Tucker: I’m so excited to be here, I really am. This is fun talking about it. I get a little nervous that I am on a podcast even. I think it comes off naturally that I just love telling the story. Every time I tell it, it’s so fun. It’s also fun to see you Alisha because I see Michael all the time. I am excited for everyone to have a great holiday season to enjoy family and friends. I think it’s incredibly important to recharge the batteries and get after it in January. I look forward to doing great things in 2023 for Catching Leadership and making connections out there in the world.
Michael Tucker: Thank you Tucker for everything you have done up to this point. I am excited to work with both of you. We do have an event on January 11th where we are the facilitative team. It’s a healthcare client where Tucker has a lot of experience in. They want some mindfulness and well-being stuff where Alisha ties in. Then the overview is that it's for their leaders, so it's a leadership development program. This is perfect, right? We get to do the work that we love and to tell it in the way that we want to.
It’s still work and we have to go up and do a good job, and we will. It just feels different to me. I present it a lot in programs, but there is something special cooking here. I echo what you say, this year is going to be a lot of fun.
Alisha, thanks for having me on again. Hopefully we don’t have to wait as long next time. I was getting nervous there.
Ryan Tucker: What would be wild is if she had me back on before you.
Michael Leytem: I don’t know man. I am sure the downloads are going to go way up and people are going to think wow this Tucker guy. She’s going to bring him back on the show here next year around this time and invite you back.
Alisha Leytem: I remember in the first season I was like “please come on my show Michael” then we had to get you on. Now you’re just begging to come back on because we have so many new guests coming on.
Michael Leytem: I mean I always have a lot to say. Hopefully I can get back on soon and lead. This was great today, thank you everyone for tuning and listening to all the great work we are doing. Alisha, thank you for having the podcast and all the time and effort you put towards it. Ainsley, thank you for all you do with editing the podcast and continuing to promote it and get it up there. Thank you for taking the time to make this platform a place where we can share this story.
Alisha Leytem: It’s been really fun and a big learning lesson. One of my favorite parts of the week is getting to connect with other people, learn about their story, and inspire people through it.
With that I would like to share all of our information and links. We’ve been talking about LinkedIn, so go connect with us over there. We will have Ryan’s LinkedIn, Michaels LinkedIn, and mine. You can head to catchingleadership.com to learn more about what they are offering. Of course alishaleytem.com as well. Michaels book “Catching Leadership” is on Amazon and my book “The Six G.O.L.D Keys to Well-Being” is also available on Amazon. It’s 50% off through the month of December, so if you want to grab that before the end of the year to help you kick off 2023 with some strategy and ending the overwhelm in order to improve your overall well-being.
We are still open right now for our coaching and community program called Your Well-Being Promotion, which you can check out on my website at alishaleytem.com. Thank you guys so much for being here today, I am sure we will be back, and please feel free to follow along with our story. Reach out to us and schedule a call if you would like to learn anything more! Thanks so much for being here!
[a]@[email protected] this might help with the family tree organization