Transcription
Bryan Paul Buckley 0:01
Episode 94 of the elite Road Warrior podcast. Welcome to the elite Road Warrior podcast where we believe you can leverage the road to transform your work, health and home life while on business travel, to ultimately master the business travel life. If you’re a road warrior, and a great chance you’re on the road right now then this podcast is for you.
Bryan Paul Buckley 0:33
Welcome to the elite Road Warrior podcast. I’m your host, Brian Paul Buckley, fellow road warrior, a husband of one, father of five, yeah, five, and on a mission to help business travelers eliminate burnout and exceed results. I’m also committed to each and every business trip to becoming and remaining an elite road warrior. I’d love nothing more than for you to join my master evil plan. And this worthwhile road trip.
Bryan Paul Buckley 0:58
A while back, I met our guest, David, I reached out to him had a lot of questions for him dealing with culture. And we just clicked I mean, we clicked in every aspect of life being a road. We’re a large family, from our faith to the size of the family to the exact number of kids we’ve got. Come on now. Also to the way we run business and values. I just knew this guy’s got to be on this podcast episode. What a unique gift he’s going to be for you today. So I want you to meet David McGLennan. David is a business growth guide, who helps leaders learn to play the infinite game of business. He shows those leaders how to integrate their desire for high performance, achievement and growth, while focusing on the things they value most. As an entrepreneur and family business owner for most of his life he’s made the mistakes and yet loves getting out of his comfort zone to learn and grow. He’s coached and trained leaders around the world as far north as the Arctic Circle, and to share the stage with john C. Maxwell while training leaders in Paraguay, South America. He’s been married for 31 years and the father of five children, mad kudos, man, living in the Pittsburgh region. David is recovering triathlete and lives an active and healthy lifestyle. In a moment, I’ll be asking him the following questions. What was life like in those early days for your wife? When you traveled and left your starting five back home? What were the rituals you had while you traveled heavily for a long period of time? How did you train for a half Ironman distance triathlon while on the road? And what would you say to the business travel leader to help their road warriors gain consistent results on the road? And there’s always so much more.
Bryan Paul Buckley 3:01
it’s go time.
Bryan Paul Buckley 3:15
Well, I am live with Dave McGlennan How are you? And where are you my friend?
David McGlennen 3:19
Haha. I am awesome. I am in the Pittsburgh region. So excited to be with you here today.
Bryan Paul Buckley 3:27
Well, I appreciate that. And I got a piece of sports trivia. Okay with Pittsburgh. Okay, if people are in sports, they may learn or may not know. Okay, it’s the one what is the one city with at least three pro teams. So it’s got to be either basketball, baseball, hockey, football, one of the three of the four. Then all three teams share the exact same team colors. It’s the Pittsburgh it’s Pittsburgh. It’s Pittsburgh. Steelers. penguins. Pirates, pirates. Yeah, very rare. But it’s a cool cool thing. It could be iI’m a sports guy as well. Yeah, there’s this piece of trivia but Brooklyn out there right to get this whole thing started.
David McGlennen 4:07
It might win something someday, you know exactly.
Bryan Paul Buckley 4:09
You know, maybe it’s one of those trivia things where someone’s gonna go I remember that day. McGlennan guy, Pittsburgh, and even though it’s the one city with three major sports you have that same sports guy. Anyway, we digress from the start here. So we also have something very unique in common David we noticed this right away we both have our own starting five lineup right basketball with five kids.
David McGlennen 4:30
Absolutely, man. Yeah, it’s amazing. I it’s it’s it’s hard to meet some people you know that have the I have that same five kids starting lineup for sure. True.
Bryan Paul Buckley 4:40
Now, how old are your kids now?
David McGlennen 4:42
Yeah, so my oldest is 28. I just married her off a little over a week ago. Are you sure right? Yeah, right. I said Good luck, buddy. Because you know what? The oldest, so yeah, so she’s 28. My next in line is 26 And then I’ve got a 24 year old, a 22 year old and a 19 year old, we had the two year thing going. And then the last last two, we spaced that out a little bit. But they’re all amazing kids as I know you, each one of them are so unique, and it’s really kind of cool to be able to see each one of their unique personalities
Bryan Paul Buckley 5:18
coming from the same DNA.
David McGlennen 5:20
Yes, right. It’s just It’s amazing.
Bryan Paul Buckley 5:22
It truly is like, How in the world did you enter into this family? But then you see like that crazy ugly, like, that’s your mother? I completely get right there where that came from? Oh
David McGlennen 5:34
Well, the hard part is when I see myself in them that I’m like, oh, Lord, have mercy.
Bryan Paul Buckley 5:40
In the words of my four year old my youngest that that no good. No, right. Right. My wife’s very, very clear to make sure that yeah, that’s that’s the Buckley side coming out right there since great anyway. Well, David, speaking of five kids, what was life like in the early days for your wife, when you were a business traveler and watch your starting five? home with that other coach, right?
David McGlennen 6:03
Let’s just say I married a saint because, you know, life was crazy. You can I mean, you know, it’s it’s, it’s it’s crazy when I’m there and so when I’m not there, she’s short handed. And you know, it’s always it’s funny, too, because she will always tell the story that whenever I was out of town, something would go wrong. There was the the refrigerator broke, there’s a gas leak, and we have to go out to the hotel and spend the night at a hotel. You know, that kind of crazy stuff. And it never happened when I was around. It always happened when I was on the road.
Bryan Paul Buckley 6:42
You know why? Because that guy Murphy shows up in your place.
David McGlennen 6:48
Oh, I know, I know, I hated calling home. Because it’s like, oh, how are you doing? And I can always tell, you know, always tell, well, we’ve had a little challenge. And, you know, it’s either, you know, something broke down. Somebody needed stitches it you know, with, I have three boys, two girls. And so one of the boys was always, you know, having to get stitches at some point. So, so it was, it was crazy. It really was, but yeah, she put up with me.
Bryan Paul Buckley 7:21
How long did it take for you to truly appreciate? I mean, obviously, you knew it. But like, how long did it take you to truly appreciate what what you were putting her through? In a way? Yeah. And we visit droughts. We know what that means.
David McGlennen 7:32
Yeah, and I think that it honestly, I think it took a little while I don’t know that I can, like put a timeframe on it. But it took me a little while because I was so focused, being on the road. And and, you know, being in hotel rooms and, and, you know, meeting with clients and things like that, that I don’t know that I really, like, absorbed it until I came home. And I think it took me maybe a couple of years even just to really understand like, what what she went through. And I guess actually, as I’m thinking about it, here’s here’s when it kind of really hit me. She went away for a retreat one time. And I was home with the kids. And and so that really is when it like hit me like, I really don’t want these kids. Right. Yeah. How does she How does she do it? She’s making she’s making meals. She’s making sure nobody dies? You know, all of that laundry and all of that kind of stuff and so forth.
Bryan Paul Buckley 8:29
Sports practices, everything. Yes.
David McGlennen 8:31
Yeah. And so it was really I think it was really that moment that it, it hit me like holy cow. She’s really, you know, she’s awesome.
Bryan Paul Buckley 8:40
And, and I think everyone who’s listening, David can even if we only have, you know, one kid, which obviously not the case in our situation, but you take that call, and of course it’s on a night when things are going great. You know, we got a great dinner planned or we’re going to some event. And that’s when you get you know that call
David McGlennen 8:58
Right? Right?
Bryan Paul Buckley 8:59
It’s hard because you want to be empathetic, but you are completely powerless. Right? And it’s hard to to brush that off when you’ve got to do your deal. Yep. And do road life.
David McGlennen 9:09
Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And you know, the thing is to it. It… having having that call is you know, you never it’s a little distracting sometimes, but you know, you got to do it. I mean, you just got it. Anytime my wife called me when I was on the road I always picked up I don’t care if I’m in a deal. I don’t care if I’m in the middle of a presentation. pick up. Yeah, absolutely. That’s one thing that that was one rule that I always had. Like, why for home calls I pick up.
Bryan Paul Buckley 9:41
That’s a great tip. That’s a great tip. And because your home life, David, I mean, one thing that I’ve always appreciated about you and getting to know you especially it’s just your strong rituals. Yeah. So what are the rituals that you had while you traveled heavily? And obviously, whether it was you know, one on the list of five kids or wherever it was with their At least your road life.
David McGlennen 10:01
Yeah,
Bryan Paul Buckley 10:02
what are those rituals? What did they look like. Unpack
David McGlennen 10:04
So the thing I think about when I think about rituals, when I, when I was on the road, is really the one main ritual is just working out, I would always work out and it varied on when I did it, when I’m home when I was home, I usually worked out like mid afternoon so that I could, you know, kind of have a little bit of a refresh or revive. But a lot of times it was at the end of a day. And and sometimes it was at the beginning of the day, I didn’t really like working out at the beginning of the day. But, um, I, you know, I worked out all the time on the road, because that was just part of, honestly, it’s part of who I am. And I was, you know, doing some crazy stuff with, you know, doing triathlons and things like that as I was, as I was traveling. And of course, you know, when you’re traveling, you know, and you’re trying to train for a triathlon, you usually don’t have a great pool, and you don’t have a bike. So really, the only thing that I did was run so I got a lot of running in. But but that’s one one ritual that I can I can talk about for sure. And, you know, then I think another ritual that I always think of too is when I was getting on an airplane, I’d get on the airplane, first thing I do is I pull out my my noise canceling headset, because when I got on the airplane, it was like, Okay, this is my downtime. And this is really, I just wanted to kind of like zone out a little bit. And so that was kind of like putting myself in my own space. I’m one of those guys that I I talk to people all day long. And so when I get on the airplane, I don’t want to talk to anybody else.
Bryan Paul Buckley 11:42
That is the international Do Not Disturb signal, exactly is the is the quintessential headphones. Exactly. Let’s unpack that a little bit, too. Obviously, it’s your own time, and you’ve been serving, giving to other people. So when you put those headphones on, it’s kind of like that go time. It’s my time. What did you do? like well, how did you for a ritual of being on a plane? How did you did you work? Did you read that? You do other things and mixture? What did that look like?
David McGlennen 12:06
Yeah, yeah, I did… it’s typically three things. So I listened to some music and and usually the music was you know, we were waiting for the the boarding process and and then you know taxiing out. And occasionally on the taxi, I would take a little nap. But usually once I got up in the air, I was awake. But then I’d listen to podcasts. And then I would also read so so those are kind of my two go to, I always had a book with me. And I always had usually like nuts with me so that I could I could eat like just like raw almonds as well I kind of my go to, so that if I missed a meal if I if I was in between flights and I I couldn’t, you know, couldn’t go eat, that I’d have something that would you know, be healthy. That’s the other thing too. I know is so hard on the road is to eat well. But I avoided you know, going to the Burger Kings and go into I you know tried to really focus in on like the, you know, subways and I love sushi. So any any place I could find sushi i was i was on it. And but but yeah, those are the kind of the things though that once I got on the on the plane, I’d put music on. A lot of times I’d listened to a podcast and in 95% of the time, I’d be reading the book too.
Bryan Paul Buckley 13:25
And that’s good to know. Because the reality is we all have rituals, it’s just a matter of whether A) we recognize them, right? Or B) if they’re serving us well.
David McGlennen 13:35
Yeah, that’s exactly right. Yeah. And sometimes you have to change those up too. You have to be able to look at it and ask yourself, Is this really serving me? And you know, a lot there were some times when I would just I would just sleep because I knew that I needed sleep. So that’s that’s important.
Bryan Paul Buckley 13:52
So for somebody listening to this and going, Yeah, I’m that guy who’s probably doesn’t have the best road rituals. Any suggestions for them?
David McGlennen 14:02
Yeah, so two things. Well, let me say three things if you can just work on your sleep, and you know, getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. I know it’s so tempting to be able to sit in a hotel room and answer emails and trust me I did that too. But but but making sure that you’re getting adequate sleep, working on your, your eating habits and recognizing where you where a better choice is. And, and then third, doing some kind of a workout getting some exercise because I know I know, that I’ve seen you know colleagues who they’re on the road and they’re eating, you know, bad times of the day, not so great food, and it really shows up in their health. And I think that that’s… those are probably the three things that I would recommend. Start with one don’t don’t try all three at the same time. But you know if it’s just like getting some exercise, go get on it. Most hotels have treadmills, go get on a treadmill, just walk or get outside and just walk around the hotel. Even if you’re not in a familiar area, it’s you know, it’s something that you can do.
Bryan Paul Buckley 15:11
And I love the suggestions because they are actually the three physical energy habits. Yeah, move, fuel, and rest. Love it. And to your point, it affects everything else. I mean, absolutely. I could have all the time though. I will argue to the death when when someone goes, Well, no ties more important energy. I said, Okay. How about if you have all the time in the world and you’re exhausted how much you get done, right? If you have a short amount of time, and you’ve got a large burst of energy, and you’re focused, how much can you get done, especially on the road, and to your point of immediately going to the email, which is the gift that keeps on giving? And it’s the well that never ends? Right?
David McGlennen 15:43
Right? Absolutely.
Bryan Paul Buckley 15:45
And so, as a result of that, if we can take care of ourselves, it’s going to make a tremendous difference on the road, especially with our rituals. So I want to go back to something you mentioned. Okay. training for a triathalon.
David McGlennen 15:57
Yeah.
Bryan Paul Buckley 15:59
On the road! It’s not like okay, well, okay. Well, I decided to, to run from Pittsburgh to Philly, instead of drive or fly. So I mean, I know you kind of rushed it, although it sounds like you’re gonna get it gonna get the laps in, you needed to Hilton Garden and pool. So, like, when you’re in the training phases, like, here’s the date, October, whatever, you’re going for the, you know, for the training of that, and you’ve got your training time? What is your on the road training look like? And then obviously, how did you offset off road?
David McGlennen 16:28
Yeah, so. So when I was on the road, I would, I would always run, I had my shoes with me that was required, I had, you know, shoes and running running gear. And, and I also would do some strength training as well, because one of the things that that you know helped me is to be able to, to, to strength train my arms, my shoulders, so that when I did get in the water, I wasn’t like totally starting from from scratch. So that helped an awful lot.
Bryan Paul Buckley 16:59
So that’s a really good tip. Because what it is, is thinking about, okay, well, you know, well, if I can’t, you know, if I can’t do a certain thing, then what’s the point? As opposed to saying what’s secondary, that could at least make that better? So when I do get in the pool or whatever, I’ve got some strength. I don’t want to I didn’t want to bypass that. That’s a really good point.
David McGlennen 17:19
Well, it is. And the other thing too, that I would do if if I if I normally when I went to a hotel, they would have some kind of workout equipment. And in general it would have weights but if I knew that they didn’t, if it was a place that I’ve been to before I would bring the the bands, you know, I had bands, so I could put them over a door, you know, and just do some strength training, do some simulated pull ups. Yeah, exactly anything to keep my shoulders going, keep my lats and that kind of helped keep me you know, strength strengthen. And so, but the biking was the part that suffered, you know, mostly. And the last one that I did, I was training. I mean, I was traveling quite a bit. So my my time’s suffered. But at the end of the day, the last one that I did, I didn’t really care about my times, I really just wanted to complete it. It was one of those things that I had been doing them for a long enough period of time that I didn’t care about the time, it was really about the people I was with and who I was doing it with. So that really didn’t matter. Yeah,
Bryan Paul Buckley 18:21
well, and I did learn that it’s really tough to pack a pelleton. It is yes, in a carry on. It is with that and if there is like, you know, let’s say in a courtyard Marriott, and there happens to be the bike that’s there. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this guy, David. He’s always no matter where I go to. He’s always on there. And he is on his phone. Yeah. And he’s managing actually to go backwards. He’s going so slow. he’s going Yeah that slow. And I’m like, dude, dude. Really? Yeah. He got to be a guy come on, man. Don’t be that guy to do that. So your point even there, it’s not like you’re gonna log log enough miles there to make it matter on there. But you’re getting you’re running. Yeah, but I mean, it speaks to just the the ability that you can still pull that off. Yeah, you can still pull off a triathalon when you’re on the road, when most people say I don’t have time to go for a walk Yeah. And here you are training for a triathlon. What do you say to that?
David McGlennen 19:13
Yeah, I say that it’s really something you said earlier. And it’s really all in your rituals. And it’s, it’s in your rituals and your your discipline. And it’s, it’s, I say, it’s like, What do you want? I mean, do you want to? what’s the end result? Think about, you know, what, begin with the end in mind. If I want a triathlon or if I want a 10 K or 5K or whatever, um, start, start with something and begin just creating that ritual. And honestly, you have to, you have to think about it like, Who am I? Am I am I a person who takes care of my body? Am I a person who takes care of myself, for my family, for my kids, whatever. But it’s, it’s all about the rituals, man. And I gotta tell you, I mean, there are a lot of days when I mean, I didn’t want to go out and I didn’t want to run because I was tired. And I have to finally, yeah, exactly. But I did it. I did it anyway, because I already paid my registration fee, and I wasn’t gonna, you know, just not show up. And so I get a charitable donation. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So it’s really all about the rituals.
Bryan Paul Buckley 19:18
And I love what you said to have, like, what am I going to get out of this? Or who am I going to become? So if you just think about, okay, if I’m going to decide, I’m going to go for a walk for just 20 minutes, let’s use the example you gave David, whether it’s in the treadmill in the fitness center, or just walking around the complex, I mean, a lot of times, you’re in a hotel, hotel complex, and there’s two or three other hotels or whatever. And you get a chance to walk around woods or walk around business park or whatever. And I love the idea of going okay, if my goal is for 20 minutes, what do I want the end of that?
Bryan Paul Buckley 20:47
Now, obviously, it’s probably not going to be while and hopefully I’m not dripping sweat, right? Because I’m that out of shape. If anything, I’m going to work through a problem, or I’m going to listen to a podcast, yours or mine? Yep. Maybe it’s going to be I just need to clear my head. Exactly. Yeah. And sometimes I don’t even know where like, I got to make a tough call. And I’m gonna use this 30 minutes here to walk just to get my head into the right spot, to be able to make that tough call or to go into this meeting or to prepare to speak that evening. If I’ve got a plan for. I absolutely love that. Talk just for another minute. Because I think this is really good about who I want to become or who do I not want to become with my rituals, and how are they interrelated?
David McGlennen 21:27
Yeah, so one of the things that I so my dad and I were close, we were business partners for almost 20 years. And one of the things I knew is I did not want to become him in this aspect of physical fitness, because he was not physical fit. He, he actually passed away at the age of 65 of a heart attack, massive heart attack, his idea of exercise was walking from the golf cart to his ball back to the golf cart again. And, and I knew I didn’t want to be that because he was overweight, he was out of shape. And he really couldn’t play with his grandkids. And so I decided, and I didn’t really decide this till I was about 32 years old. But I decided that I didn’t want to be that. And so I wanted to be someone who really took my physical fitness seriously. And I mean, you know, and it really took discipline. And I will also tell you, it took accountability because I had an accountability partner, or actually a workout partner. And he also happened to be a cop. So you know, I wasn’t going to mess around. Because he’d come after me. But, but yeah, it’s it’s, you have to think about it at the identity level, like Who am I, I am a traveler, but I’m also a fit traveler, I loved seeing the guys who like, you know, you can tell when they’re walking down the aisle of the of the plane, you go, Okay, he’s a runner. She’s a runner, you know, and and you just knew that they were disciplined with that. And so it’s really a mindset of understanding, look, I’m going to be fit. And I’m a person who is fit or becoming fit. And I’m also a traveler, I’m also a road warrior.
Bryan Paul Buckley 23:05
I love it. And hence elite road warrior when you think about it. Anybody who’s elite in whatever they do, whether it is an elite athlete, whether they are an elite performing musician, whatever their habits and to use your to your word, their rituals, you know, don’t look like the next guy, and nor do they care that nobody else knows and nobody else is checking in. Or even if they do, it’s the one person in your example, that does care. But they’re going to do it because they want to become a leader and that is their aspiration. I love it. Exactly part of your business. So right now, David is helping companies to develop their values. Yeah. Why would that be important, let’s say to a team of business travelers, whether you’re talking to an actual business traveler, or whether let’s say you’re talking to the leader of business travelers?
David McGlennen 23:49
Yeah, yeah, I think it’s so important, because one of the things I talk, I do a lot of work within culture and culture. And a lot of times, companies will set their values and they will come up with this list of values. And I like to take it to another level. So coming up with values is great. Values are like nouns, though. They’re, they’re, they’re notions that, you know, “respect, integrity”. If, you know, let’s say, you know, “respect” If I grew up in, you know, Japan, my idea of respect is different than if you grew up in the Bronx. And so there’s two different ideas there. So I like to say, taking taking values and creating what I call fundamentals or taking them to behaviors, how do we live those values out? So for any leader who is you know, has a sales force or a traveling force, that, you know, this is super important because you got to come up with the behaviors, like, you know, get clear on expectations. That’s that’s a behavior that one of my clients puts in place. In and getting clear on expectations is, what do we expect? Do we expect our road warriors to to be emailing at 11 o’clock at night? Or do we actually say no, don’t push send on that on that email after nine o’clock at night, whatever those expectations are, get clear on those expectations, that’s a behavior, I can see it, I can coach it, I can teach it, I can give feedback on it. And so I think it’s super important to be able to take your values and really create behaviors from them. And when you do that, then you’re going to set up the parameters for your team, and you’re going to help them to be elite, you can, if you get clear on expectations and say, hey, look, we expect you to take care of yourself, that’s an expectation. And when you do that, they’re the people will live to that. And and, and if you’re talking about it, talking about rituals, part of my practice, then is not just defining those those behaviors, but actually creating rituals around them, so that you can actually see them and you can live them out. And you can ask what’s been getting in the way it’s coaching. And so I really feel like for any, you know, any company that has travelers, it’s super important to be able to create this aspect, even if it’s just your division, even if it’s a if it’s so I’ve worked with a division of a fortune 200 company that had 15,000 employees, but this one division had like, like 200, I think, and so we worked on just their behaviors, their their fundamentals, and so that that’s what I see is super important is because then you can you can help your your travelers to know, how do we behave? How do we behave on the road?
Bryan Paul Buckley 26:53
So let’s zoom out. And that was really zoom in with what you just said, The zooming out is we can have these nebulous values, which sound great. But the end of the day, they’re just nouns to use your example of that. Yeah, so we’re needing to take those values and make them into tangible behaviors that we can track and we could coach, but within those behaviors in order for them to happen on a consistent basis, we need to create rituals, yeah, that are going to work our way to establish that behavior, which allows us to accomplish that set value. Is that correct?
David McGlennen 27:21
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Bryan Paul Buckley 27:23
So let’s just talk to the chairs for a minute. And generalization. And for a company who has business travelers, people on the road, you alluded to two of them a little bit one is a little bit of emailing with work. So let’s get a few more examples. If somebody is listening to this, and they are a leader of business travelers, or they’re on a team, they’re like, I aspire to be that guy, or I want to find a company who’s going to be that’s going to be my boss is somebody who’s going to allow me to get to that level to do that. So can we just kind of talk through some of the ones that you’re using on a consistent basis with your own clientele, some that could get really specific and fits to somebody who’s listening to this as a business person.
David McGlennen 28:02
Yeah, one that comes to my mind is look ahead and anticipate. I know that it was it’s a it’s a behavior that for me, when I was on the road a lot, I had to look ahead, I had to anticipate, and I know that, you know, elite road warriors are really good at doing this. Because let’s say you have a weather situation, and you know, you’re going to miss your flight. So looking ahead, and anticipating and saying, Okay, look, I know that the weather is going to be bad in Philly. So I need to reroute. So look ahead and anticipate is just one way for it to be able to, to create a vast array of behavior from a value. And so the other thing too, that I would another one that comes to my mind is assume positive intent. So, so many times I at least I’ve seen anyway, companies who, when their when their people are out on the road, they perhaps like assume that they’re, you know, doing stuff that they maybe they shouldn’t be doing? Well, let’s let’s come from a different perspective, let’s assume positive intent. So just because you you know, you see an expense item that you know, maybe doesn’t… you’re questioning or whatever, let’s assume positive intent, that’s a that’s another behavior that would actually help us to be able to make sure that we’re living out our values and and and, you know, that may not be the right one for everybody, but it kind of just came to my mind.
Bryan Paul Buckley 29:30
But it’s a strong example because you think about it. I mean, just think about how many road warriors just and of themselves are kind of the you know, the negative Norman, you know, it’s automatically they go dark all I expected this to happen. And then all of a sudden, within seconds, David, we’ve got five of those people around us who are just all enjoying that morsel of negativity, you know, um, but also to assume that your best your boss has your best intentions or that there’s a positive. I really like that because that could come in a number of different ways. Yeah. Absolutely love that. It also can mean that for me with, okay, well, if a client is late, or is making a change or something like that, what could the good be found in that just assuming the positive? And just because it’s bad right now doesn’t mean it’s going to get worse. It doesn’t mean it’s going to stay bad. Right.
David McGlennen 30:15
Right. Absolutely
Bryan Paul Buckley 30:16
It could turnaround. So I think that’s a really strong, absolutely. Anyone else? Any other any other ones that come?
David McGlennen 30:20
Yeah, you know, I think one that I love, especially for road warriors is practice the human touch, you know, the people that we encounter on the road, the person behind the desk, at the, at the hotel, the person behind the desk, you know, at a at the airport, practicing the human touch with their hands, they could be having a bad day, too, you know, and we never really know how people you know, what’s going on in people’s lives. And so I think just practicing that humaneness to be able to understand that look, they might have a lot of a lot more things going on, than meets the eye, and just a little smile and, and being kind to people, I found that, you know, my dad taught me You can attract more flies with with honey than you can with vinegar. And I gotta tell you, more times than not, I’ve gotten an upgrade, just by being nice to the person behind the desk, and, you know, upgrade to a nice room just by being kind. And I think that we forget that sometimes we’re all in our own little world. And, you know, we’re hustling.
Bryan Paul Buckley 31:27
They serve me. When I’m on the road it’s about me.
David McGlennen 31:29
Exactly. Yeah. So I mean, that’s another one. I think that’s that would be super important.
Bryan Paul Buckley 31:36
Because you think about it. If you’re at the flight attendant, and, or the you know, right there at the desk, and something’s gone wrong. You already know they’ve spoken to 40 to that other guy. Yeah. And where did that go? Right. And I’m on my desk, and the same thing is going son, you never get anywhere by yelling at somebody who can help you.
David McGlennen 31:57
Exactly. Yeah
Bryan Paul Buckley 31:58
They have the ability of making things worse. You think they’re bad now son,I
David McGlennen 32:02
It could be a whole lot worse. Exactly.
Bryan Paul Buckley 32:04
But what if you went the other direction on their worst case scenario is it doesn’t get worse, right best case scenario to your point, there’s an upgrade this there, or even maybe just made their day. Right and I know. Sometimes it’s so difficult, but even just to pause, that just jumping right in, it’s just how are you? Exactly? How’s this going? Man, that last guy was rude. I don’t know how you handled that. You kept yourself together. Man, that was that was pretty impressive. Once you know that, I saw that. And that was pretty, pretty awesome. You’re… that is so true. That human touch, especially on the road, especially when more than one’s always given on there. Any other examples? Maybe on the productivity results side of things?
David McGlennen 32:43
Yeah, I’m trying to think, you know, probably, I mean, one is, I think, probably is find a way, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s really about taking and owning personal responsibility and taking, you know, just finding that way being being persistent. There’s so many applications, I can think of just just being able to find a way but but you know, just taking responsibility for making things happen. I think it could apply to to road warriors as well.
Bryan Paul Buckley 33:15
Perfect. I love it. What would you say? Maybe David said, the business travel leader who’s looking to get more consistent results within their business travelers, it may be a combination of a handful of things that you’ve said maybe something different. But if you’re talking to that guy, the travel leader, leader, and he goes, You know, I just I just need consistent results.
David McGlennen 33:35
Right
Bryan Paul Buckley 33:36
How does he get those?
David McGlennen 33:39
Yeah, I think, you know, the one thing that I think of right away is building trust. You know, I think of like Patrick lencioni, his work in the his book, The Advantage or Five Dysfunctions of a Team. And it all stems from trust. So it’s building that trust. And so I would say this to any leader is that if you, you want to get better results, you better build trust, because that trust is the basis for a whole lot of other things that are going to lead to the results, you got to be able to have, like in the Five Dysfunctions model, you’ve got to build trust, so that you can have healthy conflict. Once you have healthy conflict, then you can gain commitment. Once you gain commitment, then you’re going to have accountability and accountability will lead to results. So I always think of the lencioni Pyramid when I think of, you know, driving that analogy.
Bryan Paul Buckley 34:31
Perfect analogy. Yeah. And I think it also ties back a little bit, David, where you’re talking as far as what the values turn into behaviors and behaviors that are obviously rituals. If I know that my boss has these certain values, so I know what to expect. Right? But I knew it’s not nebulous, like you mentioned, you know, what, respect to one person is completely different to another. That can be my own family, let alone You know, in America versus, you know, oh, Canada versus like a completely different culture in the West. But if I know specifically what those behaviors are, and I know that can be measured, and they have my best interests at heart, right, there’s a phrase I say a lot. If you invest in me personally, I’ll invest into you more professionally. Exactly.
David McGlennen 35:13
Yes, exactly. I couldn’t say it even better yet. That’s absolutely true.
Bryan Paul Buckley 35:17
Any closing thoughts? Any suggestions kind of putting a bow around this conversation here from, from rituals to values to trust?
David McGlennen 35:26
Yeah, you know, I think I think the thing that just comes to my mind is to, I really feel like value or rituals are one of the biggest things for any road warrior, especially wanting to take it to the elite level, I’ve got this sign hanging behind me here, that says play like a champion today. And it to me playing like a champion is doing the hard things, doing the things that that will get you those results, and you got to create rituals to be able to do that in whatever area whether it’s physical, emotional, your, you know, your, your, your eating, you have to create those and so I would say that the biggest thing that any road warrior who wants to go to the elite level and really when I think it you know, when when at family when at work, you got to create some some healthy rituals. And so that’s maybe the last thing I could say.
Bryan Paul Buckley 36:19
Love it. And I love the last word of that song because I’m staring at it right now. You know, it’s we’re doing this via video, playing like a champion today
David McGlennen 36:25
Today.
Bryan Paul Buckley 36:26
Because yesterday doesn’t matter as a league guy. You know, there’s the guy who’s the one and done or the you know, he’s the one hit wonder. Made the all star game one time. Yep. But he’s not the perennial guy. You know, he’s not the elite, you know, to use our word on there. So I love love. Love that. So before I let you go, let’s go through the road warrior road life lightning round. Are you ready?
David McGlennen 36:50
Yep. I’m ready.
Bryan Paul Buckley 36:51
Your preferred airlines.
David McGlennen 36:53
I’m a Delta guy.
Bryan Paul Buckley 36:54
Window or aisle?
David McGlennen 36:56
I am an aisle guy.
Bryan Paul Buckley 36:58
Why?
David McGlennen 36:59
Well yeah. Yes. So I, I number one, I’d like to get out and get on my way. But then secondly, I’m always a right side aisle guy, because I’ve got a leg issue I had a on a long flight I had a blood clot and so I like to stretch my leg out and in that left leg on the right side is is like mandatory.
Bryan Paul Buckley 37:19
Love the specificity I am also a an aisle right side guy. And the reason is, I’m left handed.
David McGlennen 37:26
Oh, yeah, me too.
Bryan Paul Buckley 37:26
Oh, there you go. So the benefit of your of your blood clot issue obviously was post being born left hand but nonetheless. Yes. And that that chicken wing out there, especially if I’m having to write at all I’m not you know, especially in that middle seat guy right there, of course is usually the overweight guy. Right? I really don’t care to have my right elbow in the middle of his belly button. This is not about me right now. This is your lightning round. So I’ve totally made it about me. Oh, one thing you always do on a flight? You’ve already mentioned this one.
David McGlennen 37:53
Yeah, yeah. So I always I always listen to music and nine times out of 10 I’m always reading as well.
Bryan Paul Buckley 37:59
Preferred hotel chain?
David McGlennen 38:01
Marriott I love Marriott.
Bryan Paul Buckley 38:03
Any certain specific of the Marriott properties.
David McGlennen 38:07
I’m not necessarily now I do like the Courtyards. But But I just like the I just like the brand as a whole
Bryan Paul Buckley 38:16
Rental car or rideshare?
David McGlennen 38:18
Rental car. I like Hertz because they make it super easy to be out, especially with their app. It’s it’s there’s just a lot of ease to that.
Bryan Paul Buckley 38:29
Least favorite airports?
David McGlennen 38:31
Oh, gosh, LaGuardia.
Bryan Paul Buckley 38:33
That seems to be the common answer. Just so you know.
David McGlennen 38:35
Is it really? okay
Bryan Paul Buckley 38:37
Yeah, they are to their credit they’re getting better. I had a Southwest flight that I had to take out of LaGuardia and I was used to use be able to do Newark and this whole section is starting to open up so they…
David McGlennen 38:47
And fun fact too. LaGuardia was really kind of the turning point in my in my life in my career, because it was the kind of it was kind of like the camel that broke the arrows the thing that broke the camel’s back because long story but but I was sitting in you know, a lineup of airplanes taxiing out because we had gotten delayed and I was going to miss one of my son’s concerts and so I was like, something’s got to change. So…
Bryan Paul Buckley 39:17
That makes sense. Definitely.
David McGlennen 39:18
LaGuardia.
Bryan Paul Buckley 39:19
That’s a good one. Yeah favorite city to frequent?
David McGlennen 39:23
I love Atlanta. I love Atlanta I know people hate the the traffic but man I love Atlanta. There’s just so much cool stuff there and it and I probably like it too just because I’ve gone there quite a bit in my travels and like it that’s that’s that that airport is probably the one that I can I can navigate with my eyes closed and then I’m asleep, but yeah, I love Atlanta.
Bryan Paul Buckley 39:47
See most people like the city they don’t like the airport. Last one, biggest road pet peave?
David McGlennen 39:52
Well, so we actually kind of talked around it earlier. I I just really don’t like it when people go up to an airport attendant and just like, berate them and and yell at them, or just get all fired up when it’s, there’s nothing that can be done. I just I laughed, but that’s a pet peeve of mine. I’m like, why are you doing that you’re wasting your breath.
Bryan Paul Buckley 40:19
Comic relief.
David McGlennen 40:20
That is my pet peeve.
Bryan Paul Buckley 40:21
I also feel so many emotions I feel so bad for the person is getting beat a little. How can we find out more about you?
David McGlennen 40:29
Yeah, so you can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m on that platform quite a bit. You can also check out my my website, DavidMcGlennen.com. And also, I’ve got a podcast that just launched called “In the Growth Space”. And so DavidMcGlennen.com/podcast and you can see that or anywhere, Spotify, you know, Stitcher, Apple, whatever. And you’re going to be on that here very soon as well,
Bryan Paul Buckley 40:59
which I’m looking forward to. And so I love this. I mean, you’re a resource guy. So I love that I’ll make sure that we list the books that were that were you that you referenced, obviously, your podcasts will be referenced on there, the LinkedIn link will be there as well. David, thank you so much for Thanks. Yeah, breathing into us as road warriors. And even though you’re not on the road as much, it was a huge part of your life. It was so to do at such a high level with five kids but then also too, training for a triathlon. This is a lot with there, so thanks for thanks for dropping the knowledge bombs too here today.
David McGlennen 41:31
You got it, man, thank you for having me on.
Bryan Paul Buckley 41:37
One of the best decisions I ever made on the road, was choosing just to take two minutes a day to write in a specific journal something to my wife, to let her know that she wasn’t forgotten while I was on the road. I wrote the location and the date at the top. Then I take just two minutes to write a memory and encouragement. How I was always thinking of her in the moment, or missed her. So one day, she would read this entry and know her husband was thinking of her when she received this journal. It was a game changer in our relationship, all because of two intentional minutes on the road to and this journal is now available, called the Not Forgotten Journal. Go to elite roadwarrior.com/store to purchase your own copy for your significant other.
Bryan Paul Buckley 42:33
Let’s land this plane.
Bryan Paul Buckley 42:37
I’d like to thank David McGlennen for his time, for his honesty, his challenges and his insights for us to become and remain elite road warriors so much there.
Bryan Paul Buckley 42:52
You can find the transcript and everything referenced in this interview in the show notes at eliteroadwarrior.com/094 along with the free resources for both the business traveler and the team leader of business travelers. And as always, I’d love to hear from you. And you can reach me on my primary social media sources. LinkedIn at Brian Paul Buckley, Instagram @eliteroadwarrior and on LinkedIn at the Elite Road Warrior company page. So wherever you are, do something anything, just not nothing to master the business travel life Leverage the concept from this interview from David to help you become and remain an elite road warrior today who eliminates burnout and exceeds results. You got this!
References
7 Early Warning Signs for Companies to Avoid Business Travel Burnout
Top Ten Business Travel Hacks Guide
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