Adam Outland
speaker
678 appearances
26 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2024
last heard 13 Aug
Adam Outland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 9 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 5.
Appearances
If you grip sand too tightly in your hand, it tends to slip through your fingers. If you cradle it, it's the only way to actually hold it all. People and ideas are the same way. Only worrying about controlling what you can really control. Maybe we think something is really important in a given moment, but hold it loosely and don't get too obsessed with an idea. Number two, be like Switzerland.
Neutrality in the moment is fine. Ron says on certain issues, he has absolute principles and convictions he'd die for. But a lot of things are worth letting go. The ego often makes us think we have to be right, which means others have to be wrong. And someone just as wise across the aisle is saying the same thing about you. But oftentimes there can be truth on both sides. So listen first.
Don't be quick to judge or quick to speak, but slower to ask questions and try to understand. Point number three, Ron discusses diving into the data, but trusting your gut. Data, trends, analytics are all very important and a good start for decision-making, but the pendulum could swing both ways.
You could dig your grave with the amount of data there is to sift through and analyze and interpret that data and unpack it incorrectly. You could be paralyzed by it. So in the end, you still need to trust your gut. And as Ron says, trust your heart. For more on this interview, check out Action Catalyst episode 463 with Ron Alford.
Welcome back to the Action Catalyst. Today, we are joined by Ron Alford, a senior partner, VP of a free executive coach and speaker at Southwestern Consulting. It's awesome to have you back on the podcast. You've been on this before. I am excited to formally interview you because you're trapped and I could ask you all the embarrassing things publicly that I've always wanted to ask.
Thank you for having me, Adam. But in all honesty, one of the things that I've always respected about you and how you've lived your life outside of business is, I guess, first and foremost, how you run. My first experience learning about you, I remember, was when you talked about how you just run 35 miles one year for every year you've been alive because it was your 35th birthday.
I was both amazed and thought you were a masochist at the same time. But then when you unpacked, you know, why you did it, what it meant to you, I thought that was really cool. But talk to me about when did running start for you?
Where do you feel like how the psychology of how you do what you do? Because for listeners that don't know, how long is a typical ultra?
Yeah. I've noticed, I think that's a common trait in a lot of people who've found business success, is that a number of them, not all, but a number of them found their ability to manage controllable actions on a physical level.
Arnold Schwarzenegger going into the gym and knowing all the reps and see the results from the reps he put in, you control your body and the results are an extension of that.
In prior interviews, we focused on some of your earlier life and how you built into Southwestern Consulting and the impact that you've had there.
I'm wondering, I guess, more recently through COVID and in these last few years, what are some lessons that you've taken back and thought about the work that you wrote in Redefining Possible and new applications, new inspirations that you've had just over the last three or four years?
I've always seen you as a long-term thinker, but when you said recently there's been a reflection on legacy, go into that a little bit more. How have you kind of reset legacy for yourself? How have you started to reassess or refresh legacy and what's important to you?
Yeah. And I think you have this ability to hold things loosely. Maybe you even said this analogy years ago, and I probably heard it from you, but if you grip sand too tightly in your hand, it slips through your fingers. If you cradle it, it's the only way to hold that. I think that might've been you.
But I hear that almost in that story where it almost like that early reminds you to hold some of the things that maybe we think are important and hold it loosely instead, because it's not as important as that perspective.
Exactly. Yeah. Control what you can and don't try and control things that you can't. I love that. Another question would be of some of the principles that you bring up redefining possible. What's another one, I guess, that you're really have been focused on here over the last year or two.
Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of focus, writing a book takes a lot of focus. I mean, to get your ideas on paper and not even second guess yourself, it's really difficult. And so maybe there's a couple of questions around just writing and putting these ideas on paper. What was the best way for you to focus on writing that book?
Well, I always get in a place where I question whether I'll still think what I'm putting down is important five or six years later. You now have this perspective. I guess coming back and adding some highlights to the book, when you wrote it, I guess, how did you know that this was going to be something that you'd read again five years later and go, oh, yes, I still believe these things.
It's still important to me. Yeah.
A hundred percent. Yeah. I love that. You know, there are a lot of listeners that probably haven't had a chance to pick up the book yet. I know you said you wrote it with even your own kids in mind, like would they be proud of you? But in the world of business and the people that are listening in here, who did you write this book for?
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