Inspired Purpose with Tony Martignetti

angela_howard (00:02.462)

Hello Tony, welcome to Humanly Possible. Thanks so much for joining us today.

tony_martignetti (00:08.61)

Well, thank you. I'm so thrilled to be here and looking forward to digging in.

angela_howard (00:12.978)

Awesome, awesome. Well Tony, tell everybody who you are and what makes you human.

tony_martignetti (00:19.214)

Perfect. So first of all, Tony Martinetti. I'm the chief inspiration officer at Inspired Purpose Coaching. And I work with accomplished leaders who feel stuck or unfulfilled in their path to creating what they want. I talk a lot about climbing mountains and I feel like there's an element of, you know, our navigation of our path in life and in our careers.

is like climbing a mountain. And sometimes we need somebody to kind of help us along that path. And so that's what I do. I try to help people think about what's next, how to unlock that next level for themselves. That's what I do. And what makes me human? And I love that question. Because sometimes we need to like check in with ourselves and not be that robot that just continues to stay on this path of the patterns we get stuck in. What makes me human is...

angela_howard (01:09.447)

Mm.

tony_martignetti (01:11.746)

This desire to experience all the experiences, the feelings that we have, and to really get uncomfortable in the moments when we're called to just stay in those patterns, to break the patterns of what I get stuck in. That's what makes me human.

angela_howard (01:29.194)

Hmm. I love that answer. Well, thank you for sharing that. And Tony, you know, would love to hear. I know you just recently launched a book called Climbing the Right Mountain. And I think it speaks to your analogy here, which I love the analogy. So can you tell us a little bit about the premise of the book? What what got you to a point where you're like, you got to get this on paper and share it with the world?

tony_martignetti (01:54.794)

Yeah, I had heard from so many people in the process of, you know, the clients and people I had been talking to about navigating their path to this place where they're like, I've given up all of my energy, all my time with family. And then when I got to the top of what my quote unquote mountain is, I didn't like the view. I didn't like who I became. It looked like what I thought was success, but it wasn't

really a great feeling. I didn't feel fulfilled. And the more I heard that story, you know, I was working with them to find different ways to navigate, I had this feeling that maybe it was time for me to write something to help others, to give them the taste of what it could look like, a different way to navigate. And that can open them up to exploring deeper. And so that's what the book is really about, is giving them, you know, a map to get started.

give guide posts I call them.

angela_howard (02:55.51)

Awesome. Yeah, and it's, you know, I think the analogy of the mountain is great. And I think that, you know, I think about leadership in particular, you don't really arrive. You know, you maybe probably go to one mountain and then you might climb down and then go to another mountain. And it's not like you get to Mount Everest and come to the top and say, all right, I'm done. I've arrived. So what is your philosophy on leadership? And, you know, this podcast, of course, as you know, is focused on

tony_martignetti (03:19.063)

Yeah.

angela_howard (03:26.27)

building more human-centric workplaces. So in that same theme, what is your philosophy on leadership?

tony_martignetti (03:34.762)

Yeah, I mean, I'm just going to start by saying my philosophy and leadership is that everyone has to lead themselves first. And it's not a title. It's actually a mindset that we have to engage in, where we have to see ourselves as how are we operating, how are we going to be ourselves, and how are we going to ensure that when we are ourselves, are we going to engage the people around us in feeling the impact of that leadership?

You know, it's not about doing it for the reasons of like, you know, enforcing, um, uh, you know, an impact on people that is, you know, feel my power. It's more about feel my, um, what I really want for you to feel in terms of my, who I am. You know, I often talk about this, um, this thought about the impact we want to have the ripple effect. That what we put out is what we get back. So as a leader, if you really want.

to have people show up fully, to feel inspired, to be motivated, then we have to be inspired and motivated and show people that we really care deeply for them. And in return, they do the same for us. And I'm just gonna model that in one example. So I recently had a coaching client come to me and say, like, oh, it's so funny the other day, like I shared this little story about what I did outside of work.

to one of my employees. And it's funny when I shared that I donated my time at a homeless shelter, which I'd never shared with anyone at work, the person who came back to me, they said, my God, I don't think you knew this, but I was homeless once. And it deepened our connection. It deepened our relationship.

angela_howard (05:06.215)

Mm-hmm.

angela_howard (05:22.015)

Mmm.

tony_martignetti (05:28.074)

and it made them see each other on a deeper level. And I think that's exactly why we need to do that in the workplace. It seems humbling, but at the same time, if you hold that back, then we're not actually being fully human at work.

angela_howard (05:45.114)

Right, and that's, I mean, the vulnerability element of that, I think, is it's such a paradigm shift. I work with, I also work with leaders and executive teams, and I just see it being permeated throughout the way that we're supposed to act as leaders. I think there's a traditional perspective on being assertive, kind of like these masculine type

tony_martignetti (06:14.968)

Yeah.

angela_howard (06:15.794)

roles, right, and constructs that I think have shifted more towards, you know, kind of a modern view that actually you can be courageous and vulnerable and still be effective. And you can be people-centric and kind, but also be clear. These are things you can do, you could do all at the same time and be even more effective.

tony_martignetti (06:40.97)

Yeah, I love that. This is a, I often talk about the context is important, you know, you know, and knowing, building the muscle of knowing what's required in particular context is what leaders really play with a lot in this process of becoming who they are. And the more they become comfortable with who they are at the core, that allows them to show up in their true power. Um, so when you, you know,

angela_howard (06:46.504)

Okay.

angela_howard (06:53.267)

Mmm.

tony_martignetti (07:09.81)

this is a situation that requires me to practice compassion versus this is a situation that requires me to hold people accountable. And there's periods where I have to be both at the same time. And that knowing, it comes from a place of practicing your muscle of leadership, which sometimes, you know, we don't have it growing up. It's not immediately innate. So we have to start building it.

And I think that also comes from building intuition, which is a very, you know, out there topic for a lot of people when they think intuition in business, what? It's true.

angela_howard (07:50.71)

Yeah, absolutely. And you're working with people, right? You're working with humans. And so I think you have to be able to, I mean, intuition is a good word, but it's also, and you heard of emotional intelligence, you've heard, you know, these, all these buzzwords that really come down to, can I take myself out of my biases and my beliefs and, you know, my experiences and put myself into someone else's, which is, is very hard to do. It takes work.

tony_martignetti (08:17.29)

Yeah, yeah, and I think that's why it's important to rely on, you know, some of the innate feelings that you've built through your own experiences, but also taking out of your own experiences and saying, what else is going on here? What am I missing? And that's why the context is also so important to look at, like in this situation, if I step away from it, and look at it from a different angle, what is it that I might not be seeing that I need to see?

And so it brings me something I just want to share super quick. And I think this is a, an element of a lot of the coaching that I do with people, but also in the book, there's, um, one of the things I share about self leadership is expanding your vision and narrowing your focus. Cause oftentimes we get stuck in this place where we're only seeing what's in front of us and, um, it's not the full view of what's possible and what is. So stepping away.

angela_howard (09:02.847)

Mmm.

tony_martignetti (09:16.562)

expanding your vision to see more than just what's in front of you. And then once you have that clarity, move forward and execute on what is your narrowed focus kind of filtering.

angela_howard (09:31.482)

I love that because I think sometimes as leaders we get caught up caught in the sauce or whatever that term is you know you're so caught up and you know emotionally from a business perspective you are going down a path of I think not taking a step back and seeing the trees or the forest or you know the high level like what is actually happening here what are we what are we aiming for?

tony_martignetti (09:44.031)

Mmm.

angela_howard (09:57.754)

And you talk about something called flashpoints. And you could explain it much better than I can, but I think to signify these kind of critical events as a part of the journey. So can you tell us a little bit about what a flashpoint is, and then maybe some examples of flashpoints in your leadership journey that you've experienced.

tony_martignetti (10:00.898)

Yes.

tony_martignetti (10:12.897)

Yes.

tony_martignetti (10:17.666)

I'd be thrilled to thank you. So the reason why I talk about flash points is because I, um, about a year, well, a little over a year ago, I started a podcast called, um, the virtual campfire. You know, the reason why I chose the word, you know, the, the concept of a campfire is because it's so important to connect to how we used to tell stories by the campfire since the beginning of time. And it's funny when I think about how.

We need to come back together somehow in person and create those campfire experiences where stories are deeper, more profound, more transformational. And I think for me, this was the best I could do to create an ambiance of getting people to come around and share their stories of transformation through these things called flashpoints. Flashpoints are moments where your gifts were revealed, or illuminated.

ignited through these moments in your life. And what I've found is as people hear that concept and they say, wow, I'm gonna tell my story through these flashpoints, it's a great thing because at that moment, it might be something like a slow train coming and then all of a sudden it becomes like a snap of a finger and it happens. But.

You know, I think when I let me give you an example and it'll kind of bring it to life. So I had the moment that was most profound for me was when I had realized that I had to move on from being in the corporate world. And I was sitting in a boardroom in a biotech company and I was looking around and I saw a lot of people had checked out. They were just like everyone's look at their cell phones and there were these two leaders.

I noticed that they were serving themselves. They were kind of very much trying to protect their own image of, they want to be right. They wanted to make sure that what they were saying was, you know, going to be seen as the truth. And reality, none of what they were saying really mattered. And in truth, everyone around them had checked out because they kind of realized that it didn't really matter. All they were doing is protecting their own image.

angela_howard (12:19.506)

Mm.

tony_martignetti (12:42.27)

And I said to myself, I said, I think that this is why, you know, we don't, we're not feeling inspired in this room. We're in a company in an industry that is meant to be saving people's lives. And here we are wasting our lives just sitting around. And so I had this moment where I said, I think I need to leave. I need to do something different with my life. I don't want to waste my hours any longer doing this. And so I decided to leave the room so I could change the room.

angela_howard (12:58.014)

Yeah.

tony_martignetti (13:10.626)

The only way I could make that change was to literally remove myself from the environment that I had been exposing myself to for so many years. You know, I really am a strong believer that in the wrong environment, we adapt to the wrong environment. Toxic environments, they have a tendency to have us, because we're, humans are amazing, right? We adapt to the environment that we live in. Good or bad?

angela_howard (13:35.37)

Yes.

tony_martignetti (13:38.462)

And so I decided at that moment that I needed to leave so that I could get out of that, look at it from the outside, and then think of ways to change the environment from the outside. And that's what I did. I was scared as all heck because I had no plan.

angela_howard (13:55.21)

That is, wow, what an amazing flashpoint. And I love the connection to the campfire. And when I think about flashpoint, I think about like that flicker, something that happens in the fire that just, it ignites you. And that is, I think, a brilliant way to think about our career journey. And especially as leaders.

tony_martignetti (14:15.041)

Yeah.

angela_howard (14:23.75)

which is kind of a higher calling, and what we want to do for the world, the legacy that we want to leave, leave and lead. And I think the story that you've mentioned illustrates it perfectly. And I think even, not everyone's story is leaving the corporate world, but there's a lot of stories of intrapreneurship, people who are within companies and who have flashpoints and see an opportunity for change.

tony_martignetti (14:50.018)

that.

I love that you say that, because that's one of the things that, when I share that story, I'm always like, I want to caveat by saying, this is not for the faint of heart, it's not for everybody, and I definitely don't want everyone who comes to me to think, oh, this guy's gonna get me to leave my company. No, I mean, I want people to feel like the light is on inside of them, that they're coming to work feeling something. And sometimes it means that they just have to see their work in a different way than they have in the past.

angela_howard (15:00.147)

Yeah.

tony_martignetti (15:22.49)

And that happens, sometimes you lose the passion for what we do because we don't see it in the way we initially saw it. And so starts by really kind of thinking differently about the work. And that might be all you need to do is just put the light back on.

angela_howard (15:30.45)

Mmm.

angela_howard (15:38.494)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, or you know, I think having a realization that maybe the toxicity or the whatever situation you're in, you've adapted to it and it's not normal. So that's why I think leadership development, getting a coach like yourself is so important because it provides the outside perspective, the objective view of what else is going on in the world and what you can be experiencing. I think sometimes we

We stay in jobs, we stay in relationships, we stay in roles that are not right for us. And to your point, work does not have to be the thing you dread and then come home to when you're a completely different person. It can be integrated together.

tony_martignetti (16:20.522)

Yeah, this question I often get asked and I'll just share it inside here. People often ask me like, how do I know when I'm on the wrong mountain? And the most classic answer to that I often give is that like, well, you know, you're in the wrong mountain if like next week you have nothing that you look forward to, if there's nothing in your calendar that like in the, you know, that you've planned for next week has you lit up at all? Well, that's problematic.

angela_howard (16:28.928)

Hmm.

angela_howard (16:39.881)

Yeah.

angela_howard (16:51.882)

Yeah. So Tony, just to kind of wrap things up, I mean, I think we talked a lot about a lot of things. I mean, a lot of deep self-reflective topics like self-leadership and how you can, you know, create or identify these flashpoints and these moments that, you know, change the course of your path.

Is there anything else just that you want to mention as far as your leadership journey or things that you've gathered along the way that would benefit the rest of the audience?

tony_martignetti (17:28.126)

Yeah, you know, one of the things that I experienced before, before coming to that moment where I left the corporate world, that there were a lot of periods where I put myself in a box and define myself based on the title, based on the role that I had. And I wish I had like come to the realization earlier about like, we shouldn't define ourselves by what we do. There's so many things that you can, you can create, you can be without

the titles without the, you know, like I was in finance. I was doing finance and strategy roles in an amazing industry. And ultimately when I would say, Oh, I'm in finance. I would sometimes like, no, it deep down, like, I'm not really meant to be doing this, but this is what I do. And so immediately I have to think about like, what does a finance person do? Oh, you know, how should a finance person act? And then like, how should I show up and, oh, I should be more analytical and this and that thing. So all these things start to.

angela_howard (18:13.971)

Mm.

tony_martignetti (18:27.47)

come into my view about like, how should I fit myself into the box of a finance professional? And I think that is where a lot of people go wrong. It's like, no, be you, like be who you wanna be. And no matter how that might manifest, like it's great to really allow yourself to be free to be authentically you. And even if that means that in your world of being in finance or being a lawyer or being whatever it is,

that you don't fit in, that's fine, totally fine. Maybe it's telling you something.

angela_howard (19:04.718)

Yeah, I love that. Authenticity is such an important piece of leadership, I believe. And you know, authenticity in the sense of having authenticity but also empathy. Because you know, being, you can't be, you know, I hear a lot of people, a lot of leaders say, well, that's just my, that's my, that's my style. That's how I do things. And I'm, that's authentic. But are you also being empathetic towards other people, which is the key part of leadership? It's an important point.

tony_martignetti (19:31.722)

Yeah, I love that you brought that up because that's, you know, that's, yeah, it's one thing to say to be you and to be authentic, but also it can't be at the detriment of like, you know, uh, causing havoc on other people's lives or putting other people in disposition or making other people feel, you know, it has to be, there has to be an edge of kindness and compassion to others. Yeah. Um, yes, exactly. There's no asshole rule here.

angela_howard (19:53.914)

Yes. Just don't be an asshole. That's it.

angela_howard (19:59.553)

Yes, yes, definitely.

tony_martignetti (20:01.704)

Yeah, absolutely.

angela_howard (20:03.278)

Well, Tony, I am so appreciative of you joining us and sharing your insight and a little sneak peek into your leadership journey. I know you do this with other leaders, so we will be sure to include in the show notes the name of your book, Climbing the Right Mountain and your podcast, the virtual campfire, and then also all your links. So if folks want to get in contact with you and develop their own leadership, they can do that.

tony_martignetti (20:30.562)

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Angela. This was fantastic. Really had a fun time.

angela_howard (20:35.242)

Thank you, Tony. Appreciate it.

tony_martignetti (20:36.942)

Thank you.