Every Leader Has a Responsibility to Create

The purpose of today’s episode is explain why I believe leaders must create, have to create, it’s an obligation. It’s part of their job to create.

What’s up guys?

Coming at you here from what is probably a fairly echoey room at the Troy Innovation Garage in Troy, New York.

One of my favorite places to come and work, get away from the office, have some time to just plow into what needs to be done, and record cool videos like this one.

Now doing these videos, I’ve been asked a lot of questions.

We’re a few episodes into this vlog and I’ve been asked, “Why are you creating? You’re the CEO of a company. Don’t you have other things to do?”

And the answer is yes, I have plenty to do as we grow Metabolic and bring in new franchisees and expand across the country and eventually the world.

Yes, that takes lots of work, but I have awesome people that work for me and I delegate many of the tasks, the day to day tasks of getting that work done to them, and part of your job as a leader, I believe, is to create.

And I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “Ryan, you’re a CEO now. Like should you still be doing vlogs? Like shouldn’t, shouldn’t you be doing other things?

Don’t you have more important things to do?

Is there anything more important than telling the company story, than talking about what happens here, than helping people better understand who we are as a company, our culture, our belief structure, our why?

Is there anything more important than that? And furthermore, as a philosophical belief, I don’t just think it’s the task of telling the story of a company is relegated to the marketing department or the PR and comms team or a sales professional.

It’s the job of every single person in the company, including the CEO, including the founder, including directors and vice presidents and anyone else who’s involved in the company.

It’s everyone’s job to tell the story of the company.

And for my part, this is what it is, is sitting down with you and talking about these things that really the business aspects, our philosophical business beliefs.

I am not the person that’s going to teach you how to do an RDL or why you should pack your shoulders when you’re doing whatever using the term rhomboids, which I didn’t even know where they are, but I just love it when our trainers talk about them.

So that’s what this is. It’s me, the CEO creating, helping, helping add one more piece to the puzzle of who we are, one more way for someone out there like you to connect with our company, Metabolic, and understand what we’re trying to do and who we are as people and I just believe so strongly that it is every individual’s obligation to add to that story in different ways.

And for me, coming from a Chief Marketing Officer role to a CEO role, creating comes fairly naturally.

And I do that in two ways. I do these vlogs, which I love doing. They come out once a week basically, and then just about every day, I’d say six days a week, I usually take Sundays off, I’m creating, I guess, short-form in the classic sense, but long-form for the platform, essays on Instagram and if you want to get at me on Instagram, you can do that right here.

I also post quotes and stuff that I like. It’s super easy to do and it allows me to share like what’s on my brain.

It’s very cathartic, but it also helps for me craft the message, the core construct and belief system of who we are.

That’s what I’m doing, little drips over and over again.

This is who we are, right? Strength, community.

These things are important to us. Growth, whatever that means to you, right? Personal, physical, moving forward, having a supportive community around you, finding that inner strength, that personal strength that you need to be whatever it is that you want to be.

That’s what Metabolic is all about. It’s not just getting in shape, that’s part of it, but it’s so much more than that and those short-form essays and this vlog is how I try to add to that piece of the puzzle.

The Rub

I believe it’s every leader’s obligation to create.

So that’s why I do these videos. I hope if you’re a leader of an organization or you want to be a leader of an organization that you add to the story, add to the message, share why your where you are, what you believe, what you believe the why of that company is, and you’ll find people that connect with it and help grow your organization.

Maybe not just monetarily, but just in the depth of relationships that your organization has with the people who operate in your ecosystem.

And that’s incredibly important. So I’d love to know how you create, hit me up in the comments below this, wherever you’re watching it, and let me know how do you create, where do you create, what’s your method?

For me, it’s waking up at 4:30 every morning and putting together a long-form essay on Instagram. I love it.

It just, it’s my, one of my favorite things or one of these vlogs, but I want to know how do you create, and if you are a leader, how do you find time to do that?

For me, it’s well before the standard workday, well before the standard workday begins. It’s my 5:00 AM club time.

That’s where I get most of my creation done, but I want to know how you get yours done.

Yours in strength,

Hanley

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Ryan Hanley

Ryan Hanley is the founder and chief strategist at Hanley Media, a boutique communications and marketing strategy firm helping organizations match ideas to the audience they inspire.

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