The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast is dead. Long live the podcast.

Richard Medcalf 00:00
After 200 episodes, I'm walking away from the Impact Multiplier CEO podcast. Now that might sound crazy, right? After all, that podcast has brought me visibility, credibility, a new audience, and frankly, hundreds of 1000s of dollars of cold hard cash. But it's time for a change. I'm giving this podcast a new name, a new format, and a new focus in my business, and I'm really excited about it. Now, why would I do this, and why might you want to let go of something that served you incredibly well over the years? Now, I'm Richard Medcalf. I work with pioneering leaders in one of two moments: either the next big leap isn't happening fast enough, or you've achieved more than you ever imagined and haven't yet recalibrated to now what's possible for you. And today, in this quick episode, you're going to learn why I'm making this change when you know the time is right to change something in your business, the trap that high-achieving leaders can easily fall into, and that I actually fell into too, as well as the new name for the show and what's coming next. So, if you've wondered whether it's time for you to reinvent something that served you well in your life and your business. This quick episode is for you. So let's rewind. I started the Impact Multiplier podcast back in 2020. Remember, it was COVID. It was a long time ago now, over six years at the time of recording this episode. And now, at that time, six years ago, I was different. I was a different version of myself. My business was very different, and the clients I served were also very different. Now, the podcast was a great project. Through those 200 episodes, I built relationships with extraordinary leaders, I created new clients, both from people who listen to the podcast and actually some of the guests as well who came on. And over the course of the podcast, I found so many great insights from extraordinary founders and CEOs that it's been my pleasure and my joy to pass on through these episodes, and it it really was an impressive set of of guests. I interviewed the fastest growing CEOs in U.S. and Europe, the ones who made the FT 1000 list. I interviewed leaders winning awards for their social impact and innovation, I brought on people running absolutely huge firms, such as C.P. Ganani of Tech Mahindra, who literally had hundreds of 1000s of people working for him, or famous influencers such as Marshall Goldsmith, perhaps one of the most recognised executive coaches on the planet, and an author of perhaps over 40 or 50 books at this point. So amazing guests and really fun episodes. But over the time, it became a little bit stale, if I'm honest. And to be honest, as you looked at the podcast market that was maturing. I realised, you know what? There are a lot of podcasts out there who ask successful leaders about their story and about their leadership tips. And frankly, after 200 episodes, you start to see the same responses come back time and again. So it got me wondering: is this really the right format for the next phase? But here's the thing: I'm not actually an interviewer. Interviewing is not my fundamental skill set, and interviewing is not fundamentally what lights me up. What does light me up? Well, I'm a consultant. I'm an advisor. I'm a executive coach to high achieving leaders, to founders and CEOs who are super competent, who've got a bright spark, who've achieved more than probably almost everybody around them, but they don't want to settle. They're committed to making their quantum leap, to going through what I call their 10x reckoning, and to decide not to settle, but to pursue the impact that they know they can truly make. That's the work I love doing: pushing people, stretching people. So, if I'm not actually an interviewer, why was I interviewing people? Well, I was doing it because it was actually good, but perhaps it wasn't great. What do I mean by that? Well, it was good. It was good for my business. It did generate audience growth, generated some revenue. It was good, but perhaps not great. Perhaps it could have been better. And the episodes themselves were good. There were great insights. There was a good flow with pretty much every guest.

Richard Medcalf 05:05
I stand by those episodes, but perhaps they could just be great. Perhaps they could be really distinctive and unique. So, as I said, what lights me up is, and what I do really well is pushing leaders to think differently, to get the clarity they need, to light the fire in their belly, make the bold moves they're capable of, and to have fun and enjoy the process, and not be consumed by grind and anxiety and stress. So, what if I did a podcast about that, about those bold moves? What if I actually pushed the leaders on air instead of simply interviewing them? Ah, now that might be remarkable. Now, this is my thought pattern, and you see, this is the classic trap of high-achieving leaders, because so often our identity is-you know-I'm a high performer; I always get results. It can be actually dangerous and easy to settle for something that's pragmatically working, that we're getting some numbers, we're getting some results, but it's not actually our best work. It's not actually the limit of our creativity. It's not really the remarkable thing that we know we can create. In other words, we settle for something that's good, but not the best we can create. And I think after 200 episodes, I was ready for change. I think it perhaps was a great thing when I started the podcast, but now I need to level up. So here's my question for you: What are you doing right now that's working to some extent, but frankly, it's just that little bit undifferentiated, not really remarkable enough to cut through the noise, and actually, secretly, you've lost interest in. It's not really at this point your best work. What is that thing? Take a second, and whatever it is that comes to mind, perhaps that's the thing that you might want to reinvent. Okay, so what's coming? Well, this podcast is going forward is becoming the defining move. Let me explain what the defining move is and what the podcast is going to be about. Well, you see, in my work, I find that leaders they know all the sensible moves, they have their plan, they have their optimization strategies, but they often shy away from the defining move that will take them to a new level. Now, a defining move is something that shifts you. It forces you to start to live with a different kind of leader that gets you to step up and operate on a different level. It comes from the future that you want to create, rather than the past and the way you've been operating in the past. It's also a little bit scary because it forces you to let go of a safety blanket or an escape hatch. It forces you to step up and take a risk in some way, and it shifts the way that the world relates to you. Let me give you an example. If you want to get fit? Just declaring, I'm going to sign up for the gym, or I'm going to try to do a bit more running, or I'm going to eat a bit healthier. That's not a defining move, all right? It's it's not going to fundamentally change who you are as a person. But if you were to say to all your friends, Hey, I've just signed up for a marathon and I'm running it for charity. Will you sponsor me? Now that's a defining move because now your world is different. On the other side of that declaration, you're now somebody who's committed, who's running a marathon. The stakes are raised, and actually, you've now almost overnight become somebody who's pretty much guaranteed to start training, to start getting in shape, to start to become a new kind of person capable of running that marathon. That's a defining move, and I find with my clients that when we find that move that scares them just a little bit, that pushes them out of their comfortable patterns and into their next level, then magic happens. So this is what we're going to do on the podcast. I'm going to be bringing on exceptional founders and CEOs, and I'm going to hand them a defining move in their business that they've not yet prepared for. It's a scenario. It's a bold decision that we get to imagine that they've just made in their business.

Richard Medcalf 09:36
This could be a big commitment or a structural shift that will force them to lead differently, and then we're going to explore what becomes possible in that scenario. How would they lead? How do they strategize? What are the risks? What needs to change? So they start to think through the implications. Of this move, and I'll be stretching them and sparking them to new insights as we go. So you'll get to see masterful leadership close up as these exceptional leaders wrestle with new challenges and unexpected constraints. Those leaders themselves will have their own perspectives stretched, because they'll be playing a game that they're not entirely used to, and they'll get to learn through the process. Hopefully, you'll see that, and then we'll wrap up each episode by distilling the learnings into something that you can take away for your own leadership and your own business, and put into practice the next day. So, what's next? Well, first of all, subscribe either on YouTube, where the episodes will be, or wherever you get your podcasts. They'll be there too in audio format. Secondly, if you know an accomplished CEO or founder, or perhaps you're one yourself, then reach out to me and nominate them to come on the show. They'll gain some visibility for them in their business, but more importantly, they'll gain new perspectives about themselves and their own next level that they couldn't get, frankly, any other way. So that's it. The very next episode in the podcast feed will be a brief trailer episode, just cleanly introducing the Defining Move podcast, and then we'll get right into those first few episodes. So sit back, enjoy those episodes, and I'll see you on the next one.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai