Don Grier with Wellness Leadership LLC

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Wellness Leadership, LLC, Mr. Don Grier. How are you, man?

Don Grier: I’m doing great. Stone just got back from New York City visiting my son and and my daughter in law. And, um, I’m glad to be back and back at it.

Stone Payton: Well, it is a delight to have you on the show. I got a ton of questions, man. I know we probably won’t get to them all, but I’m thinking a good place to start probably is. If you would share with me in our in our listeners a broad stroke view mission, purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, man.

Don Grier: Okay, so after about, uh, 30 years of leading IT projects, I decided to start my own company, and we’ll get to my personal story about why this company started. But it’s called Wellness Leadership, LLC, and it’s designed to solve three problems. The first is we’re personal and executives, you know, lose their wellness over time. We’re all under stressful jobs. We’re working out. So I have the standard coaching training seminars to help people that maybe let their wellness go, and they’re looking to shore it up. The second part is, and I do this with my wife, who’s a registered nurse and a nutritionist. The second is the design and implementation of wellness programs for organizations. We come out there, we do an assessment of your organization and help you design wellness programs. Something I did at the consulting firm I used to work at. The third thing is, and this is probably our our strongest service is quality assurance, risk management and independent verification services for programs and projects with a with a twist. We, unlike just looking at everything from a project management institute or the normal risk factors, look at wellness, the wellness of your employees because anybody can drive a project and get it done and hit their goals, but they they sometimes lead their people in the lurch. And as soon as that project is done, half the people are tricked because they’re burned out. So that is something I feel very passionately. And I started a company to do just this.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like noble and rewarding work. Say more about the backstory, man. What? What led you here?

Don Grier: Okay, Stone, I, I’m a different person than I was back in 2015. So I, I was a former Army officer in West Pointer, so I always had my weight under control. I could pick up a rock and hit the weight limit. At that time in the Army was 185, so I was always fit. But then I joined a consulting firm, and for the first 25 years I gained some weight, but not too bad. But the promise of where I gained weight I got got up to about 220. I’m going to use weight as a factor of wellness. I know it’s not the only thing. Oh, it’s not exercising as much in the army. You’re paid to exercise the corporate world. You’re not. They may want you to, but it’s not a paid, uh, event. Second ad yo yo dieting. I’m a I gained some weight. I would do SlimFast protein only all those kind of diets. And I could exercise like a crazy man, but it wouldn’t happen. And the third thing, of course, like all of us, my metabolism was slow due to aging. I couldn’t eat the four Ding Dongs that I used to after working out, but instead, uh, I was still eating too, right? So then several things happened. Uh, I call it the hockey stick moment about 2014. The first is I took on way too much responsibility at work. We’re pushing a major project, building new software. I took on three roles simultaneously. Where grew our team from 60 people to 1000. The second I lost my parent and I did my last parent. And I decided during this all and I didn’t grieve. So let’s bring us to the day when I decide I had to change.

Don Grier: I was walking out of 3 a.m. out of the delivery center that we had built for this new software product. I was tired, I slipped, fell and knocked myself out. And when I came to I could not lift my 358 pounds now off the ground. So I crawled about 200ft, you know, first in, first out. Luckily my car was close by. Pulled myself up on the bumper and I said I had to change. Then another thing amazing happened. I received a discount from Weight Watchers from my company and I joined it. And in one year’s time I had lost and was back to near my army weight. Wow. And I. And after that, in celebration in November, on the Veterans Day, I established a walk or to raise money for vets. When I started off, I could only walk 50 yards or remember distinctly I was walking with our dog and, uh, boots and I was saying, it’s our last chance walk, walk. And we were both huffing and puffing. And then I walked 50 miles. It’s called the Kennedy walk. I was raising money for Mary’s, uh, program that helps vets and young Marines. Um, one year later. And during this time. During this time, I traveled every week. So I, I just learned I didn’t have any tricks. I didn’t do whatever the stomach staple. I didn’t use that, uh, medication they currently have. I just used total Change of Habits. And I did this while traveling and now I want to play. I started paying it forward when I was in my former company, and now I want to pay it forward even more to. And that’s why I established Wellness Leadership, LLC.

Stone Payton: So now that you’ve established this concern, you’ve been at it a little bit, uh, for a little while. What are you finding the most rewarding about this kind of work? What are you enjoying the most about it, man?

Don Grier: Well, the one thing I really love is connecting with people and hearing their stories. And in trying to understand through active listening, what are their specific problems and how do they need to change? The other thing I enjoy a lot is going to a project and doing an initial delivery assessment, and they think they have it all nailed. They’ve got all the rest. So I look at them, they’re doing pretty good from I used to be an elite QA for a top consulting company. That means you go and check out and make sure the delivery is set up right. For all the extremely large projects we had, some of them were half $1 billion projects. You had to go out there and make sure. But I always am able to point out one or 2 or 3 things that they’re not thinking about in terms of wellness that can sink the project. And so it’s rewarding when the light bulbs come on, they they change it. I call it change well, and the project hits with success, but they don’t lose all their people or half their people afterward because they ran them into the ground.

Stone Payton: I got to believe that you feel every day when you’re doing the work, and leadership in these organizations feel that this kind of pursuit is right and true and just and all that. But there’s also my impression is there’s a very real Greene green dollar, bottom line value to getting this these kinds of ducks in a row. Getting this stuff in check in there.

Don Grier: Yeah, they’re they’re totally, um, a bottom line thing. There was a study. It was, uh, Gapan Institute. And you can find out on the website it I think it was done by one, um, a West Coast university. And he found that companies with highly effective health and wellness programs have 11% higher revenue per employee, 1.8 fewer days absent per employee per year, and 28% greater shareholder returns. And I think that is maybe understating it. And here’s why. The top three reasons why. First, by focusing on wellness and improves decision making, we know when you have no sleep, you’re stressed out. You’re fatigued, you do not make good decisions in a simple 20 minute walk will provide a few minutes to clear your mind and focus on the problem. I can’t tell you how many things I solve while sleeping. And I didn’t sleep too much, but I. My song will. Hopefully you’re at the end. Um. I was working 18 hour days. That’s what I used to do. And then once I changed it, I was more productive. The second thing, it builds camaraderie. The, you know, the greatest thing that I lost a little bit after leaving the Army was the camaraderie. And so we can’t have morning tea, but you can have employee resource groups that bring people together and they know them.

Don Grier: They know about things outside of the workplace that they can relate to. One thing I remember is we did this Fitbit walk with a group that I had in my company, and we were all trying to hide, like how many steps we did to see who would win on a on a Saturday weekend. And it was funny. We were doing banter on there, like busting on each other to see who would win the the Fitbit walk over the weekend. The last thing we brought about this is it reduces sick days and days when people say they’re sick and they’re not sick, they just tired of you, right? Um, I noticed from personal experience before I lost the weight, I, I got bronchitis at least 3 or 4 times, and several times I had to take a few days off. And most, most of the time I didn’t take it off because of walking pneumonia. And since I’ve lost weight and focused on wellness, I haven’t. I haven’t been sick at all. I haven’t missed a day. So those are just three things.

Stone Payton: So the transition from working for one of these large organizations and then going out on your own, I mean, now you’re a you’re a business guy too, so you have to be a master at your craft, but you also have to to run a business. Speak to that a little bit. What has that been like making that transition?

Don Grier: I got to say, I’m going to be blunt here. It’s been a little more difficult than I thought it was. Right? Because I ran I held almost every position you could think of in this in my prior consultant’s firm. And it’s it’s the I don’t know if I can say the consulting firm. It’s the one of the it is the largest consulting firm in the world. Right. So I was a solution architect. So on the front end, planning the projects, some of the largest ones. I delivered the projects. I was in their outsourcing realm. I knew about contracts and such. But now, when I made my own organization and I didn’t really have a lot of capital or I, I, I was a little egotistical and thought I could do it all on my own. I’m here making my own website, which, you know, I need to take, drink some of my own Kool-Aid and not make my own website. But it’s like you’ve got to do your contracts. It’s different. You have to learn about the simple thing about how to pay yourself through an LLC is tricky. So and then you can get wrapped up in that. And then my wellness could go away. And then I wouldn’t be a good spokesmodel for, um, my wellness practice. Right. So it has been a transition. I’m I’m caught wind now. I think I’ve got it going. Well, um, but there’s quite a transition.

Stone Payton: Well, you just brought up a great point in your line of work, particularly. You really have to eat your own cooking. I mean, you can’t show up to one of these initial assessments or any other aspect of your work being way out of shape and not healthy yourself. Right?

Don Grier: Right, right. You can’t be touting wellness. And and so it’s kind of a fraud not to go back to my old habits and, and and it you know, it was a little tricky, I gotta say. I did gain a little weight back with. And I think a lot of us did with the Covid. Right. You know, nobody could you couldn’t get down as much. But now I’m back on track. But it it is important to keep that wellness aspect to it because I always have my project management skills to fall back on, but I, I really, really am passionate about the wellness aspects and I’ve got to keep it up. Yeah. All right.

Stone Payton: So the corporate work, let’s walk through this, dive into that a little bit. It typically begins with some sort of audit assessment and then unfolds into whatever strategies tactics programs make sense.

Don Grier: Yeah. Yeah. So what we would do let let’s say you go with us for our third service that we do the, the Well-led project assessment. Um, I would come out there for three days. I would go through a standard quality assurance checklist to make sure that the project from a project management set up is set up correctly. Um, by the way, I just gave a presentation to the Austin Project Management Institute for a lunch and learn about this Well-led framework. So I go down and I, I review your project from the typical aspects of risk and standard quality assurance for our project, but I have come up with 15 different well LED guidelines that makes me dive into the project more to say, okay, how are we going to ensure project success and take care of your people? So you don’t want you don’t want to finish a project, and that’s the only project you got, right? Especially for these new companies that maybe they built a product and they’re implementing it for the first time on a client. And you want to succeed again and again in the best way to succeed is to retain the people you’ve trained. Right. So that’s the that’s the way. So after we do the three day assessment, you’ll get a report with recommendations of what you need to. What I suggest you do on your project from both angles. And then if you want, I can come on and be a consultant on your project. Or I can do fractional um co or delivery organization. So bottom line that’s one aspect. That’s the well-led delivery assessment. I also give a seminar called the Well-led project, which I can do that if you’re a medium or even a large organization and you want to know how to not only have projects success, but take care of your people, there’s a, um, there’s a one day seminar on that.

Stone Payton: So how does the whole. Well, now that you’re not part of the largest consulting organization in the world, that just puts you on a plane and sends you somewhere. I’m kind of curious. How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy? Like, like, how are you getting the business in the first place?

Don Grier: Well, the way I get business is several aspects. First, I have my own website. I have a weekly blog that’s on my website too. I have done some LinkedIn advertising. Three I have the change well podcast and four and this is the way it really works is I have done networking with my extensive network from prior clients and such to look at opportunities, um, with them. So there’s there is the normal way that anyone does it through social media, through blogs, through podcasts, but also the second way to everyone does it through networking and establish and meeting with people that I know, and having them direct me to people that may not know but they think would like my services.

Stone Payton: And I’m sure you knew this going in, and I’m sure you get it validated every, every day. There’s just no sales and marketing tool as good as doing good work, right?

Don Grier: Right. That is that is the number one thing, um, to that point. Um, for the first ten years of my career, I did serial projects with one client, and they would hire me for anything that potentially was it. It may not even be related to my total wheelhouse and I. And it was built on a client relationship. Um, one of the clients was a project manager. We call it two in a box. You have two people, the client and the consultant running the same project. Her name was Donna. My name was Don. And I said, between Donna and Don, there’s only two letters n a not applicable. So that’s the way you have to build a reputation based on the ability to deliver.

Stone Payton: Okay. You know, we got to talk about this change. Well, podcast I’m not letting that go. Tell us about that. What compelled you to do it and walk us through what you do on the podcast and and how you operate that show.

Don Grier: Okay, so I am new to podcasts and I know one thing I have to do and that’s why I’m on with you, stone is get a guest that goes back and forth. But what I do now is weekly. I call it a Wellness Wednesdays. I present a podcast on all different wellness topics. It’s not just how to lose weight, but my my most recent recent one was about the importance of civility and kindness on mental wellness and the soul of this nation. So I go and tell stories. I also am a wannabe poet, so I have poems in there. I have songs in there. I wrote the original song for change. Well, and and what I’m trying to do is relay information, much like I. Um, hear from Weight Watchers and others. But I want to bring all the lessons that I’ve learned over my 30 years, and the one intense year of losing weight, of how to become well in all aspects spiritual, mental, physical. And so that’s what it’s based on.

Stone Payton: Well, I got to tell you, my experience has been that this can be a marvelous platform for capturing and sharing thought leadership. And and it’s easy enough. It’s getting easier now. There are so many tools that make it easy to get it to a lot of people and allow them to access it kind of on demand when they’re ready for that kind of content. So I applaud your efforts for doing that, and I sure hope you keep it up. And now that I know about it, I’m going to I’m going to tap into that work and and be and be listening. But and yeah, for whatever my opinion is is worth, I do think if you choose to expand the the scope of that work to, from time to time interview some other folks, uh, in the space or anybody with an interest in the those topics. I think you’ll find that really rewarding as well. I certainly do it. I love getting on the, uh, on the on the air with people like yourself. You just learn a ton and you build some marvelous relationships.

Don Grier: And and you do a great job on it. So put me right out my ease here.

Stone Payton: Well, good. All right. So so what’s next? We’re going to continue to grow the business. Are we looking at some point into replicating your uh, I guess I, I’m going to use the word methodology because that’s from a, because I kind of came from the training consulting world as well. Would you expand it and have other practitioners help you get this to even more people? What’s next for you? What’s on the horizon 12, 18 months out?

Don Grier: Yeah. I’m currently working and I’m with the Austin Writers League, currently working on this, um, working on a book called The Well-led organization. And it takes all the knowledge I have the various blogs pulls them all together into a guideline I’ve already written a small chap book on this, but it’s going to expand it out. I want to take that as a launchpad, not only to talk at seminars and wellness seminars, but also to launch further my consulting practice. And then, and this is down the road to franchise it or bring in people that would be trained in this well-led methodology, especially in terms of project management and assessment, and bring it to others. Well, I am.

Stone Payton: I’m so glad I asked, and I’m thrilled for you that you’re going to build that infrastructure. I just think you’ll you’ll find that you that you’re able to serve even more people. And I have had many authors share with me that they felt like their book had had done the things that they wanted it to do. It helped them command more speaking engagements, higher speaking fees. It was good for authority, credibility and all that. And almost to a person, they have said that even had it not done all of that, just investing the time and energy to commit those ideas to paper and try to articulate them in a way that would be clear and concise and actionable. It actually, they felt like it made them a better practitioner, like solidified and crystallized language and ideas in their mind where it made them better in the field.

Don Grier: Yeah, I’m finding that, and it really does help. So hopefully it’ll be out in the next six months. So okay, I’m working feverishly on it. Well.

Stone Payton: Well then I’m going to ask for another date. Then when when you release this thing and we get it out there, will you come back and visit with us?

Don Grier: Sure will. Stone, I really appreciate this, uh, this podcast and and business radio. So I definitely will.

Stone Payton: Well, great. Well, I’ll look forward to that. I don’t know when or how you’d find the time because you got you got a lot of irons in the fire, Don. But I’m going to ask anyway, uh, outside the scope of the work, um, interests, hobbies, passions that you pursue. A lot of our listeners for this particular show. Uh High Velocity Radio. They know that I like to, uh, hunt, fish and travel. How about you? Anything you nerd out about besides the work?

Don Grier: Oh, I love, I love writing, I love singing, I love karaoke, I do a mean Elvis impression. Um, I also am highly involved both in veteran organizations and our church organization. I just came back from a mission trip with about 140, uh, teens. Uh, we went out and fixed some homes on the border of Texas for about nine families. So those are the and of course, the most important thing is my family, my my wife of 37 years and our four not kids anymore, but four young adults. So that that’s a little bit of my passion outside.

Stone Payton: Yeah, now I understand. I read it somewhere and I didn’t ask you about this before we came on air, so it’s okay if you’re not prepared, but I understand you’ve got a little bit of a gift for. And you you touched on a little while ago. Uh, poems, rhymes. And you’ve developed a couple, I don’t know, stanzas, the right name, but a couple of things around this, uh, business of leading projects. You got anything along those lines you want to share with us?

Don Grier: Yeah, I want to do. I’m going to do my, uh, theme song real quick here. Okay. Uh, I don’t have the background music, so I’ll do it. Acapella. All right. Hopefully it won’t blow your ears out. Here we go. I was working 18 hour day, I slept in, I failed when it up and hit me. I had a change. Well, there’s no way to sustain it. You’ll crash and burn. We’ll not be able to work and no way to earn change. Well, and then you can leave change well and your kids? You can feed a turn your life around for the final bell. It’s now or never. You have to change. Well, it’s now or never. You must change. Well.

Stone Payton: Wow, that was awesome. I’m so glad I asked. That is fantastic. Oh my gracious. Oh! That’s neat. Okay, before we wrap, I’d love to leave our listeners and I guess, you know, including people who are running organizations that might want to, um, engage you at some point or at least have a conversation with you, but also just individuals, just 1 or 2 actionable pro tips. Maybe it’s something you know that they could be reading, thinking about, you know, doing or not doing. But let’s leave them with a couple of actionable pro tips on this business of changing. Well.

Don Grier: Hey, the first thing I think is look at the habits of your organization and of yourself and figure out what what is working and what needs to change. And I would suggest two books on this topic, and one is fundamentally changed my life. The first one is called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. The second one a lot of other people have heard about is called The Atomic Habit. The second thing you have to do is prior to prioritize your life and your work. And the best book that I found on that is called the 12 Week year. And basically the proposition on this is you should be able to get all your work done in 12 weeks and make your revenue targets in 12 weeks if you focus on the essential. So those are two. And the last blog is if you’re trying to lose weight, make sure you join up in a community that has your back. Uh, we have a community. The, uh, one I will always recommend is, uh, Weight Watchers. Um, but you have to do it with someone else. Yeah, you could try it yourself, but you’ll fall back on on your old habits. So those are just some pro tips right there.

Stone Payton: Yeah, it sounds like marvelous counsel. And I have heard of the one book, The Atomic Habits. I was not familiar with the other, but I’ll definitely look into that. All right. What’s the best way for us to tap into your work, stay connected with you, maybe even set up a conversation with you or somebody on your on your team?

Don Grier: Well, the best way is to go to our website. It’s, uh, wellness elder.com. So, um, another way is I have my own personal blog that’s been established for a long time and it’s called Weight Loss Leadership. Com all one word. I’m also out there on LinkedIn. We have Wellness Leadership LLC. You can search on it and LinkedIn and connect that way. Um we have a if you do it that way, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. So those are three very quick ways to get in touch with us.

Stone Payton: Well, Don, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your knowledge, your enthusiasm and your gift for rhyme. You have an awful lot to offer people. You’re doing important work and we sure appreciate you, man.

Don Grier: I appreciate you, Stone, and I hope you have a good trip. Um, I heard you had a trip coming up. I hope it’s, uh, fun and everything goes well.

Stone Payton: Well, it has been my pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Don Greer with Wellness Leadership, LLC and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.