Exponential Growth Begins Within

Finding clarity about what kind of transformation I was seeking in my career path was a major game-changer. Finally, I could see a clear path forward; I knew where I wanted to go, and I knew I was passionate enough about my goal to put in the work and make it happen. 

Over the next two years, my team and I invested our time, money, passion, and creative efforts into an extensive research project. This research became our Digital Growth Blueprint, and in fact, the foundation for the entirety of Banking on Digital Growth. 

Very quickly, this work began to pick up steam. Once I felt confident in the models and methods of this blueprint, I started sharing it with others—working with financial brands around the world and coaching their marketing, sales, and leadership teams. 

Exponential Growth Requires Action

In the beginning, my team and I stuck to hosting workshops locally in Houston, bringing our models and methods to conferences and executive retreats in the area. But it didn’t take long before we got requests from attendees asking us to bring our insights to their banks and credit unions.

Before long, we were immersed in supporting these financial institutions, incorporating bespoke research and recommendations into our coaching sessions and tailoring our advice to each organization’s unique situation. 

This was great news for us—but there was a bump in the road: Only 15-20 percent of these financial brands were actually applying what they had learned from our carefully customized work. 

We were leading each organization up to its Apex of Awareness.

We were helping them find clarity around future growth opportunities. 

We were opening their eyes to fresh possibilities. 

So why wasn’t this work translating into real change?

After years (no literally, years) of observation, surveys, interviews, and discussions with financial leaders, it hit me: We were missing the steps needed to help these brands move forward with their journey beyond the status quo and toward exponential growth. 

I learned that there are four steps—that is, four determining factors for whether or not these brands realize their potential growth—and we were missing the final step.

Step One: See

Over the years, plenty of organizations have sought out new perspectives. These often look like outside consultants and diagnostic studies. Truth be told, I did this for years—for hundreds upon hundreds of banks and credit unions. 

These financial institutions would call up my team and share a particular problem or pain point. Next, we would perform some kind of diagnostic testing and share our insights and recommendations. 

Step Two: Think

After sharing our findings with marketing, sales, and leadership teams, key decision-makers would consider their next steps. All too often, this is where I would notice a troubling pattern emerge. 

While we stood by the quality of our advice, these insights would actually increase confusion and questioning. Only years later did I realize why: Because we didn’t work to be fully understood by our audiences. This created a digital growth knowledge gap; these higher-ups didn’t know what they didn’t know. The digital world was transforming so quickly—much like with AI-powered technology today, and it was hard for folks to keep up. 

Step 3: Act

Let me be clear: It’s not that everyone failed to understand our insights. Some knew what steps to take, and these brands found incremental progress. 

But the problem? 80 percent of their peers were still totally lost. Rather than speaking up, these brands opted to stay quiet, smile, and nod in agreement. This meant that some of our biggest transformational recommendations—the ones with the most potential for creating exponential value—never got off the ground.

We were missing a crucial step. 

The Missing Step

This is the most important, most transformational step; the step that determines whether or not exponential growth is actually realized. 

What was missing from this transformational model of seeing, thinking, and acting?

We were missing feeling.

Here's what the four steps should really look like.

• See: It all starts with education—ascending the Apex of Awareness to bridge internal knowledge gaps through tools like articles, courses, podcasts, and workshops. 

• Think: Next, you must apply your new contextual perspective to allow your way of thinking to transform. You think differently about future goals as well as the obstacles that might get in the way, taking ownership of what needs to happen to turn these roadblocks into opportunities.

• Feel: Just as important as knowing what your objectives and obstacles are is to focus on feeling. In other words, it means sensing what you really need to bridge the gap between thought and action. You must allow your emotions to fuel your growth; to transform your actions. These feelings of transformation have to be stronger than your desire to remain the same if they are going to power your exponential growth.

• Act: Once the feelings of everyone on your team reach a tipping point, that’s the time to commit to taking action. You must wait until the feeling, desire, or discipline to transform actions to create the future is undeniable and far greater than any desire to remain the same in the present. Only then can you move forward on all the important recommendations that, through education, you’ve now internalized and are committed to. You are closer than ever to the transformation you seek.

Transformation Starts Within

Finally, I had discovered the difference between those organizations that succeeded in their quest for achieving exponential growth and those that stalled out, only to retreat to the Cave of Complacency—and I could share this discovery with my clients. 

Want to know the secret?

True transformation of any kind begins within.

I like to say that transformation starts in the HEART, not the head. It hinges on feelings. That’s why transformation that’s led by the organization struggles the most—it makes people resistant to change and leads to conflict.

However, when you flip your approach and embrace the idea that true transformation begins with, you have a much better chance of getting your team on board and aligned—and a much better chance of achieving exponential growth. Transformation starts in the HEART of every individual within an organization. It’s about developing a new mindset that starts within a single individual and spreads to the entire team. 

But none of this is possible without that element of feeling—essential to transformation and can only be found in the HEART—which stands for: Honesty, Empathy, Adaptability, Responsiveness, and Time. 

Honesty

Transformation of any kind, personal or professional, requires honesty. Lack of trust—and honesty—is pervasive throughout the financial industry, often regarding how much (or rather, how little) financial leaders know about emerging technologies. As leaders, we have to lead with the truth; we must be honest about potential knowledge gaps and embrace them as an opportunity for exponential growth. 

Transformation happens when individuals have space for open and honest conversations without fear. Among all the financial brands we’ve guided, the ones who have proactively provided this kind of forum, and done so at least once every 90 days, are also the ones who’ve made the greatest progress along their transformational journeys. 

Empathy

Empathy can be incredibly powerful—and healing—in its message that we are not alone. It empowers us to make real, meaningful connections—and there is tremendous growth opportunity for community financial brands to build a sense of community bringing together those that may be struggling financially.

There is a strong connection between empathy and honesty. Less empathy leads to a less open and honest conversation, while more empathy creates more of an opening for honest dialogue and discussion between internal team members along with external account holders. When it comes to exponential growth, empathy is all about connecting with, acknowledging, and respecting how others are dealing with and processing the transformation at hand—their feelings and emotions.

Adaptability

Adaptability is the newest competitive advantage. In the Age of AI, adaptability is mainly about the ability to unlearn old beliefs, behaviors, and habits, and then to learn new ones. This was true for Luke Skywalker who was taught by Yoda: “You must unlearn what you have learned.” And it is true in business, where, as Michael Goldsmith famously noted, “What got you here won’t get you there.”  Adaptability drives innovation and evolution—and we must acknowledge that periods of extreme change call for extreme adaptation. Adaptability is closely aligned with grit and resilience; in other words, the ability to bounce back from challenges, struggles, and even failure. Grit is the biggest predictor of who will accomplish challenging goals.

Responsiveness

Here’s the truth: You can react to change, or you can respond to change. Leaders who react struggle to deal with massive change, but those who respond take control of the situation—even when there’s no playbook to follow. They act with courage and confidence, which in turn spreads throughout their organization. 

In the Age of AI, responding—rather than reacting—to change happens slowly, giving you time for informed, measured decision-making. Instead of panicking, you pause, process, plan, and then proceed to move forward with courage and confidence. When it comes to reacting vs. responding, one of the most dangerous places to be in the Age of AI is getting stuck doing the work and never creating space and time on a regular and consistent basis to pause, review, and reflect. You’ll find yourself falling back into default behaviors, instead of responding with courage and confidence to changes as they happen. 

Time

How we choose to invest our time determines how likely it is that we achieve exponential growth in the Age of AI, where automation technologies become time multipliers. There is a tremendous opportunity in learning how to use AI and automation to your competitive advantage by multiplying time for yourself, your teams, and your organizations.

But to leverage the power of these tools as time multipliers, we must shift our entire mindset about time. The scarcity of time is a matter of perception not reality. But it’s there. And we feel the stress it creates. But the more we focus our attention on the limited time we have, the more limited our time feels. No matter how much we want to, we can’t stop time or slow it down. But we do have control over how we invest our time. When we change our perspective on time and focus on 90-day strategic windows instead of the traditional annual ones, we pay attention to what really matters, each and every day. It makes you more adaptable to make changes as needed. Time becomes your friend.

What's next?

Exponential growth starts in the HEART of every individual on your team. But the mind also plays a very powerful role. 

In the Age of AI, where exponential change seems to bring with it ever more confusion, complexity, and conflict, your mind is the one thing that can calm the chaos. It's the one thing you can control.

And you can do it—control your mind—by becoming what I call a “Digital Stoic.”