David Novak 0:03 

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. And today's guest is Molly Fletcher, who CNN hailed as the female Jerry Maguire, for her work negotiating over $500 million in contracts as a sports agent. Now, if I were to ask you what you do for a living, my guess is you'd likely wouldn't respond with. I'm a negotiator. But when you think about it, you're in negotiations multiple times a day, as you collaborate with your team about a project deadline, as your leadership team debates, what the company should focus on. Heck, you're negotiating, even when you're trying to pick out which restaurant you want to go to. The great leaders I know, understand, they're constantly negotiating, and have learned to navigate these situations extremely well. And you're about to learn negotiation from someone who has done a lot of it. Here's my conversation with my new friend, and soon to be yours, Molly Fletcher.

I want to start back when you were in college, you're playing Division One tennis at Michigan State. If someone would have told you that one day, you'd become the female Jerry Maguire and close a half a billion dollars in contracts. As a sports agent. What would you thought if somebody told you that?

Molly Fletcher 1:44 

Man, you know, I am like David, like you. I'm grateful for the journey I've been on. I mean, it's been an unbelievable ride. I mean, I grew up in a home though, where I think if I would have said that at home, my parents would have gone. Great. What are you going to do next? Like what's next for you? So you know, like you I sort of chased this desire to get better every day? And yes, it's been a fun sort of analogy and metaphor at some level that people lean into and go, Okay, I get what you did. I see, I see you don't you know, I always laugh right? When people say, golly, you know, that was that movie reel? I mean, is it? It's like, hey, look, I mean, he had one client, we had 300. So get your head around that, you know.

David Novak 2:22 

Yeah, I want to talk to you about that. Well, how'd you get in the business in the first place?

Molly Fletcher 2:26 

Well, as you said, I played tennis. And then I wanted to get into the business of sports. But I didn't know David probably like a lot of us that 21 or 22, what that meant, what that wouldn't look like. And so I drove got the courage, I saved some money, I moved from Lansing to Atlanta, to try to get a job in sports. And, you know, I tell a story, often from the stage when I speak about, I negotiated a deal to teach tennis at an apartment complex in exchange for my rent. So that gave me a little bit more bandwidth to go out and get a job in sports where you make nothing out of the gates, right. I think my first job at the Super Bowl host committee, I answered the phones, I made 600 bucks a month. So this free rent deal gave me a little more bandwidth. But I networked, I navigated and tried to get in front of as many people as I could with this mindset and philosophy of how do I get them to like and respect me enough to want to help me or hire me. And if I could get them to like and respect me enough to do one of those things, maybe I can continue to to navigate and connect with other people who might be able to do the same. And sort of through that journey over about a year, year and a half, I got in with a small agency in Atlanta that had a few clients. And I was sort of off and running, getting endorsement deals and appearances for the athletes and coaches we have,

David Novak 3:36 

how did you really separate yourself in that environment? What did you do to really help grow the business? And that obviously led to your success? You had to do something right there?

Molly Fletcher 3:47 

Well, you know, I'm a big fan, like you, David have curiosity. And I think so often in life, we've got to say, you know, what's possible? What if and, you know, it was a day that I'll still remember I had just finished driving Lenny Wilkens around during the Olympics when he was the dream team coach, and a client and I was sort of his driver. That was kind of my first little gig. And I would drive him around what when I got back, I thought, how are we going to grow? I mean, how are we going to get more clients? We have a half a dozen coaches and one baseball player, but how are we gonna get more? And I walked into our leaders office and I said, what's our growth plan? And he goes, What do you mean? And I said, Well, how are we gonna get more clients because that's at the core what you want. That's how you make money. That's how you grow the business. And he said this all referrals, she said, it's been great. You know, Lenny Wilkens referred Chuck Daly and Chuck Daly referred Mike fratello. And I said, What if we got more aggressive? And he goes, Well, what do you mean and I was like, well, baseball, I mean, there's a lot of teams here you know, that Braves in the minor leagues and great college programs. And he said, Well, I you know how you're going to do that. And so as you can I just put a business plan together for you to show you how we could start with baseball. I think we could start with baseball and and go from there. And I did and about two weeks later I presented it. He blessed it. And I was kind of off and running. I was down at Georgia Tech on the weekend on a fence, David with scouts and coaches with chewing tobacco and bubblegum in their mouth, right. And recruiting guys, you know, it's sort of a fun journey that continued to evolve from there.

David Novak 5:14 

So you basically changed the business model moving from referrals into actually going out and recruiting people. Do you remember the first person you brought in that way?

Molly Fletcher 5:23 

Yeah, it was a couple guys. That was a first and a third round guy out of Georgia Tech, two great middle infield guys that I recruited and signed. And then you know what happened? David is like all of us, I mean, you know, those guys percolated through the minor league system, and then they would get to know guys, and then I would go visit them and take them to Applebee's for dinner and their little minor league towns and, and I've tried to take such good care of them that they'd want to bring their bodies to dinner. And then I'd get to know their bodies, who were other first round picks, who maybe weren't happy with their agent. And then I'd kind of bring those guys in. And then we got to a point where we had critical mass, and I needed help. And so that's when I started hiring other agents. And then I moved on to other sports like golf and college coaches, and just continued to sort of build the other verticals.

David Novak 6:07 

At the time, you were one of the only female sports agents in the world, you didn't have any women role models, you could really look towards that. I've written this book called take charge of you how self coaching can transform your life and career. If you look back, how did you coach yourself in that? What had to be a man's world?

Molly Fletcher 6:25 

Yeah. Oh, it totally was. I mean, I was often the only woman, you know, I'd be behind the plate at batting practice at BP. And managers would yell at the guys that were coming over to talk to me, and they're like, Dude, what are you doing on that chick, man, get over here and start getting knockouts with BP. And my guys would go, it's my agent, and the manager would go, Really, that's interesting. Or on the range of PGA tour events, I was always the only woman unless there was a woman manufacturer's rep. So you know, the How did I coach myself, I mean, to me, it was recognizing the opportunity to reframe the moment reframe the moment from maybe I don't belong here, like maybe this isn't going to work. Maybe this is just a good old boy space. And I can add value, I don't know. But to me, it was, wait a minute, I'm different. I think I can connect with these players in a way that's different. I think I can make their lives better in a way that's different. I think I can represent a whole family, not just the athlete if it was a male athlete. So I began to see that I needed to be exactly who I was, I needed to be authentic. And that that was enough. And it was an opportunity to drive connection in that way and add value.

David Novak 7:28 

That's terrific. And, you know, I don't know if this is true. It's kind of a crazy thing to even say. But I understand there's more agents than athletes raising, you know, you are in a very competitive world there. What was the role of competition in terms of how it played into how you approached your job?

Molly Fletcher 7:45 

Yeah, I mean, I think like all of us, we've got to have some level of awareness around what other people are doing. And we've got to be curious enough and maybe vulnerable enough to recognize if there's a gap that someone else is closing, and that it's an opportunity for us to up our game a little bit. But I didn't obsess over it. I mean, to me, it was about listening to my clients, it was about over delivering consistently. And it was about ensuring that, you know, I always had this mindset of how do I make sure that my athletes feel like they always owe me not that I owe them. In other words, I wanted to over deliver so much, because what would happen, David, it was interesting. I mean, if I go see my players on the road, which I would often do, if I had, you know, the Braves were playing the cubs in Chicago, I'd go because I could see my cubs guys, I could see my Atlanta guys. And I could, you know, kind of hang with all of them together, you'd come back from the ballpark after a game. And these guys would grab a drink in the hotel lobby bar, there's agents waiting in the lobby to pick them off and take them to dinner and take them out. And I needed to make sure that my guys respected me, appreciated me enough that they would not even dare want to go grab dinner with that competitor. Because they just felt man that she's pouring into me consistently. I can't do that. That wouldn't be right. Right. So that was an important sort of part of that journey for me for sure.

David Novak 9:04 

You know, you end up running a sports agency and you have a lot of people working for you. How did you instill that mindset of over delivering value for your team members?

Molly Fletcher 9:13 

You know, time like you David, I mean, I am a huge relationship person. I think relationships drive our business success all of us. And it takes time. I mean, it takes time to build relationships with the people that you lead, it takes time to get in their world and in their heads in their hearts and, and to connect, it takes time to know what they're really worried about what they're excited about what their aspirations are, you know, it takes time and it takes real listening and and truly caring. And so to me, that was an integral part of being able to lift them up and take them to a place where I wanted them to be the best version of themselves. And so it wasn't that My way was the only way or my way was in fact the right way it was What is your right way? And how can I share some of the experiences that I've had good and bad things I've done right things I've done wrong with them, to help them, then serve our clients in a way that was maybe even better than me. I mean, at the end of the day, that was the goal. And that was, you know, it's a business where relationships are so important. Scalability is really hard. So it means as a leader, you've got to teach them and let them evolve and grow to a place that they can manage the relationships, not just you otherwise you'll never grow.

David Novak 10:30 

You know, that's something that could be very intuitive. Or you could learn the importance of that the hard way. Tell us a story of how you got that insight, that aha moment that said, this is what I have to do to transform myself, not into just an individual contributor, but this is what I have to do to become a leader.

Molly Fletcher 10:50 

You know, a moment that comes up for me is when Matt kucha who was a PGA Tour player that I represented for a long time, Matt came up to the office, and he sat down and I had a young golf agent that worked with me, and he was good. He was strong, he had played at Carolina, and he was really solid. But he was young, he was good enough to be point with Matt, I believe. And so we're sitting in the meeting, and all I did was bragging about this agent, Jeremy is his name, I would just constantly talk about just how terrific he is. He's at tournaments, about deals that he'd done about rep relationships that he had, I wanted Matt in that moment to feel like he was better off calling my guy than me. Because I can't scale it. If the if the athlete feels like I'm the one that they need to be in contact with. So it was an opportunity in that boardroom to sort of just brag about my agent to a point that Matt really thought, well, he's better than her. He's who I need to call not her. Because what I love doing was recruiting players. And so I needed them to be able to be comfortable with other people in the office to help manage the relationships,

David Novak 11:53 

it's really interesting, it becomes so important to celebrate the success of others more than you. And that sounds like you got into that very early on. So you're an agent for over two decades, you represented over 300 clients. How do you juggle just the competing priorities? You've got all these celebrities? They've all got a one a piece of you, they want your attention? How did you deal with that?

Molly Fletcher 12:16 

You know, I think for all of us in life, right? Managing expectations is really important. And early in my career, David, I didn't do a great job of that, right, I wanted to get in and I wanted to continue to improve, I wanted to sign players, I was probably not as good at it early. But then as I began to recognize the importance of that, and that, in fact, when you do that you set yourself up for a successful relationship with alignment and clarity. To me, the expectation conversation was really important. I mean, if I had a ball guy that I was getting ready to sign, so let's say I'm signing up, or let's just say I'm signing a first round draft pick, I needed to make sure that he understood that if I got two lines blowing up and one's John Smoltz and wants him, I'm probably taking small tees call, right. Or if you've got a first round guy that's looking at you expecting to have a national commercial with Gillette, and hundreds of 1000s of dollars of off the field money, you had to help them understand that, hey, look, we haven't hit a ball on the big leagues, we got a hot minute before we're there. So managing those expectations was really important. But in the age in business, touching your clients consistently is key. And I created really pretty intense systems to ensure that I was touching my clients enough that that connection was there. And one of the things that I did every day, David was I would stand in my office and I would be each one of my clients for like two minutes I would get in their head and get in their heart, or what are they worried about? What are they excited about? So that I could anticipate gaps in their lives before they'd see him themselves and find ways to add value to drive that deeper connection and to serve them better, which was our role?

David Novak 13:52 

So you really put process and discipline around what really matters, so that you could scale yourself?

Molly Fletcher 13:59 

Exactly. I mean, you know, this is a business where relationships matter so much. And so, you know, I remember a time sitting in my office thinking about one of my players, and I thought Wait, based on the pitching rotation, he's not going to be pitching. When he gets to San Diego, he loves to play golf. I'm calling Torrey Pines and getting them on the golf course they are getting them a tee time. And I picked up the phone and I call them and you know, he was sort of blown away. Well, those things help offset the worry around competition when you're consistently over delivering, right and you're anticipating and you're touching them, and you're in their world. I mean, at the end of the day, you got to be in their world. And I think that goes for the people that we lead to,

David Novak 14:34 

you know, by tell me about the culture of your agency because it is a very, at least on the surface. It looks like a extremely competitive industry and, you know, being in that competitive world that can come with a dark side to if you're not careful. So what were the things that you really tried to make sure that everybody knew this is the way how we do business.

Molly Fletcher 14:56 

You know, to me, transparency is really important and I think often times, as leaders, it's scary, right? It's scary to lean into that. But to me, that's when you can build really powerful connections, really powerful relations and really powerful teams. And I think, you know, at some level too, as a leader, we've got to recognize that the way in which our employees are compensated playing at a level of teamwork that occurs, right. And so sometimes when I hear leaders talk about how people aren't supporting each other people aren't pulling in other people on the team to help them on deals, well, how are they compensated, because at the end of the day, that probably is a bit of a deterrent, or a, you know, enticing them to pull people in, that can help make the relationship with a client or serve the customer even better. So I tried to create an environment where it wasn't about us, it was about the athletes and the coaches that we served. And it wasn't about you, it was about the team and the collective purpose and the journey that we were on, to ensure that we brought in the right kinds of clients, the kinds of clients that on a Saturday afternoon, when you're pushing your daughter in a swing, you're excited to see their name, and you want to take that call. So we needed to make sure that we were intentional there. There's lots of there's 750 baseball players in the big leagues. There's lots of guys to go get right. So pick the guys that you enjoy being around and that you like and that you care about. Because as an agent, you know, your job is to ensure that everything in the world is handled, so that they can step up to that plate and focus. They can step out on the mound as a pitcher and focus or if it's a golfer that they can step out on Thursday to start a tournament. And they know that everything else is being handled or maximized. And that takes time that takes energy that takes a team and we had a good one for sure.

David Novak 16:45 

When you're looking back, you know, what's been the biggest change you had to undergo leaving your agency and what did you learn from it?

Molly Fletcher 16:52 

Social media, I remember Erin Andrews was a client at you know, a TV commentator, and I remember Aaron, I said, Hey, there's this thing called Twitter. And I need to get Erin Andrews, that guy like we need to own your name, like we got to get your name on. Well, what is it? You're not explaining it? Well, what what the heck would you use that for? That's weird. And you know, now she's got 4 million followers and you know, constant advertising on it and all those things. So it was recognizing the power in it. And recognizing that number one, I had to have everybody's passwords, because when they'd had a couple of too many cocktails, I needed to be able to delete things pretty fast, you know what I mean. But that was probably one of the biggest changes that navigated Now, the thing I loved about it was, I felt like it gave good people an opportunity to rise to the top, I felt like it gave authentic people an opportunity for people to see who they really were. And that was really powerful. Ernie Johnson was a client, who is the most incredible human being you can imagine. And, and it was an opportunity for the world to see who EJ really is, which is a remarkable husband, a remarkable man, an incredible father. He's incredible at the work that he does, but he's even a better person. And then for our coaches, you know, college coaches all hate social media, right because of their players. And so for coaches, it was an adjustment with them. And it was an opportunity for us to support them to support their teams, their athletic department, however we could, because social media for coaches is difficult to navigate.

David Novak 18:21 

You know, you've had a front row seat to athletes who are intentional about peaking at the right moments. What's that process? Like?

Molly Fletcher 18:30 

Absolutely. You know, to me, David, I wrote a book called The Energy clock, because the one of the biggest things that I've seen with the best athletes and coaches in the world is they look at their lives through the lens of energy, not time. Business people, they'll look at their life through the lens of time and their schedule, not energy. Right. In other words, Tom Brady, he's not obsessed about his calendar, he's obsessed about the kinds of behaviors that align to the performance and the outcomes he wants most. So he is incredibly intentional about where he puts his energy, so that he can show up for the big moments. I mean, when I would play on a PGA Tour players schedule with him, we'd sit November, December, and we'd look at their schedule, you'd say, Okay, here's what all the majors are. Here's the tournaments that you've made the cut. And here's the tournaments where you've made top 10. How do we ensure that we manage your energy, so you peak and can perform in these courses or these tournaments where they matter most, but yet off, and I think business people, accept meetings, accept various obligations, and then they get inside of these moments? And they go, what the heck am I even doing here? So I would encourage people to say, what are the things that matter most and ensure you align your energy with those things? Look at your calendar through the lens of energy, not necessarily time.

David Novak 19:47 

So do you think business leaders say yes to too many things and that gets in the way of their performance?

Molly Fletcher 19:52 

Absolutely. No question about it. And they say yes, yes, yes. Yes. And then they get to the really big one. The thing in that Week, that moment or that conversation that matters most, and they don't have the energy or the focus or the or they haven't prepared enough for that moment. So, as aspiring leaders as leaders, we've got to have the courage to stay focused and say no, to the things that don't matter.

David Novak 20:18 

You know, I mentioned earlier that you've negotiated over $500 million in contracts. Why do you think that negotiation is an important skill for all leaders?

Molly Fletcher 20:27 

Well, I would encourage people to think about negotiation. You know, often people say, Why don't sell like I don't really need to know how to negotiate or I'm not an HR or I don't need to know how to negotiate. You know, to me, negotiation is all over the place. It's negotiating our time it's negotiated our energy, it's negotiating what we say yes and no to its negotiating, how we manage, you know, conversate. So to me, it's not just deals and money, I have ever met a leader who can't negotiate, right, because as a leader, we've got to negotiate we've got to negotiate whether it be with vendors, with our employees, with our clients from time to time. It is a incredibly important skill to have. But I would encourage people to recognize that it isn't just dollars and cents,

David Novak 21:11 

how do you negotiate or engage in negotiation the right way? What's the process? What tricks up your sleeve? Do you have?

Molly Fletcher 21:19 

You know, one of the things that I spend a lot of time on is saying an understanding and preparing a ton. What is the person that I'm walking in the room to negotiate with? What matters most to them? What are they worried about? If I was negotiating a baseball player's contract with a team, I wanted to know, where were they at from a payroll perspective? Where are they normally at? Who's on the free agent market? Who's in the minor league system? Who could they trade for? We want to get in their world? I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when they negotiate is they spend a lot of time and energy on what they want, what matters most of them, what would success look like for me, where we're not getting in the world of the person, because sometimes the things that matter, most of the people that we're negotiating with, might be very different than we think. And I think like all of us in life, the way people show up, we teach negotiation and have a full program around it. And one of the big parts of it is saying, Who are you negotiating with? Are they wired financially? Are they relational? Are they logistical? Are they strategic? And then you want to approach the conversation and meet them where they are based on what matters to them, and bring the kinds of information forward that's going to drive that, you know, I think that negotiation is also about shifting from defensiveness to curiosity, you know, because negotiation, right, David, you've negotiated a ton in your incredibly successful career. And, to me, it's just a conversation. That's what negotiation is, right? It's a conversation. And so we've got to be curious and ask the right questions to keep the conversation going to take us to a place hopefully, where we can add value to the other side and reach an agreement.

David Novak 22:53 

What was the most fun negotiation you ever took part of

Molly Fletcher 22:57 

the most fun? One of them was when we took one of our guys who needed another 21 days in the big leagues to get his pension for the rest of his life. We got a team to put them on a roster for 22 days so that he got his pension. We didn't make any money on that deal. But boy, was it powerful because we changed his life forever, right. So those were really fun ones, I would say one of the most interesting one was out a guy who is arbitration eligible, which means that if we can't come to terms with the team, then we have to go sit and our player does to in front of three perfect strangers who are then going to assess whether they're going to pay them what we want, what we're asking for what the team is asking for. And I always felt like I failed if I had to put my player in that situation. And you know, it was sort of apples and oranges. The spread was generally large. So it was the night before we were leaving for Phoenix for the arbitration hearing, and I'm laying in bed and I'm gone to sleep, we're getting up, we're taking a flight. And at 11 o'clock at night, the general manager calls me and he says, Look, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but I just talked to my buddy. He said, you're on that flight, you're going to Phoenix, I can't believe you're doing this. You're taking us to arbitrate. This is incredible. And he couldn't believe it. And he said, So you're staying firm. Hmm. And I said we are. And I just paused and I'm laying in bed. My husband is like laying there and you know, a minute and a half on the phone with somebody not saying anything is a long time. And I remember after about a minute my husband goes, Is he still there? And I was like, yes. And literally a minute and a half later. Finally it goes unbelievable. He goes, You got a deal. So the other thing I think is important is having the courage to pause inside in negotiations. Right. And I think often we think we got to keep talking. We got to keep selling, we got to keep positioning. Sometimes we've done all that in advance just as epic. Right pause.

David Novak 24:38 

That is a great insight. You know, I think I read somewhere that you manage Billy Donovan, tell us about the experience and the learning you got for him when he was offered the Orlando Magic job.

Molly Fletcher 24:49 

While David I mean, this was an interesting one, right? And this is why I'm a big believer that we've got to be relational, not transactional. So we do a deal Billy says to me, Look, man, I want to go to the NBA. I'm tired. I've you know, he's won two national championships in Florida at the time. And it was like, Okay, well, cool. You're a stud. I mean, we don't take any NBA job, we got to take the right job. And so time goes by the Orlando Magic job opens up, Billy says, let's go. Start talking about a Sunday, we go back and forth, and we negotiate a contract with a magic and the terms were terrific. record setting contract, highest paid NBA coach at the time. But from Sunday to Thursday, we're just going back and forth with his wife and Billy on the base and the bonuses. And I mean, we grabbed all kinds of extra stuff. I mean, it was a record that you know, it's on the ticker, which is an agent loves that, right? It's on the ticker on ESPN, highest paid guy in the NBA. So we fly to Florida, we do a press conference, Billy nails, it does a great job. 730, the next morning, Saturday morning, he says, here's the deal. I can't do it. I don't want that job. I can't do it. I can't leave Florida. And any you know, the lesson I learned was I didn't ask him the difficult questions. I didn't ask him any of the like real questions. And I think as leaders, we all know this, like sometimes we find ourselves walking out of a room or a meeting or we hang up the phone and we go beautiful. Like they didn't bring it off. They didn't ask that one question that thing that everybody else seems to wonder about an athlete, they didn't do it, this is great. I always say if you want a problem to get good, just park it in a petri dish, you know what I mean? And it'll get amazing. So you had to unwind that deal. And that was difficult in the magic word, absolutely a class act. And that, you know, they didn't want a guy that didn't want the job. But it was also, you know, difficult, and it took several days to unwind it and to deal with the media and all those things. But it was tough. And that's why I believe that we have to have the courage to ask the tough questions to really connect, not just communicate.

David Novak 26:55 

We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Molly Fletcher in just a moment, to be an effective negotiator, you have to be a great communicator. In my episode with Tom Brady. He teaches us a simple communication framework called the CCC model that he's used to build strong bonds with his teammates and coaches,

Tom Brady 27:14 

I can hold you accountable if I told you, Hey, do this, or I'm expecting this to happen. If you don't do that situation, or what I've said, we're gonna have a talk. But if I don't ever tell you what I want, then how can I hold you accountable for that?

David Novak 27:29 

So if you want to learn how to be an even more effective communicator, listen to this episode, with the one and only Tom Brady, Episode 53 here on how leaders lead. You know, Molly, just getting to know you a little bit here. You know, a very few people I've met that have a stronger leadership presence in you a command and control presence, you know, a confidence was that something that you always had, and how important is just confidence in in the negotiation process and the way how you present yourself?

Molly Fletcher 28:04 

Well, you're kind and you're an incredible leader. So that means a lot to hear that from someone like you, truthfully, so thank you for that. But I think competence doesn't come from our comfort zone. Right. In other words, I think competence comes from getting uncomfortable a lot, and strengthening that muscle and seeing ourselves whether through it, and that the person that comes out the other side of maybe tough moments, becomes a better leader becomes a better person that's leading their people that they serve, leaving their clients leaving their customers. But it doesn't come from your comfort zone. I think what it requires for us as leaders is to consistently get uncomfortable, navigate through those moments, learn from those moments, and come out the other side a little bit better. And I think that comes from, you know, my parents were are incredible people that I learned a lot from, I mean, tennis taught me the power of stepping into change and discomfort and, and then the opportunity to work and have a front row seat to peak performance for 20 years, I consistently saw the best athletes and coaches in the world, step into discomfort. And they'd come out the other side a little bit stronger, a little bit better. And the byproduct of that is a little bit more confidence in our ability to navigate those moments moving forward.

David Novak 29:20 

You know, you mentioned your upbringing. Tell us a story from your childhood that really helped form the kind of leader you are today.

Molly Fletcher 29:26 

My dad was a pharmaceutical sales rep. And so he has an incredibly high EQ. He anticipated always really well. He was very relational in his approach. He put in the extra work. So I watched that and I also though, I think, watched a man who he didn't love what he did, he really didn't, but he did it because that was his job. And back then you worked for 40 years for the same company and you got your retirement and that was that but it also taught me You know, I want to love my work. I want to make a difference. I don't want to just get up and go and do for money. I want to make sure that it's something that aligns with my vision and my purpose. So like all of us, we learn good and bad at some level. And so I learned from my dad in a really authentic way, things I wanted, and maybe things I didn't want. And then my mom was a school teacher, for special needs kids, who is one of the most giving, kind, loving, unselfish human beings I have ever known. I think I learned EQ and sort of sales and some of those things from my dad. And then I learned a lot of leadership, and making it about the people that you lead and serve from my mom, who was always grabbing my old winter coats and bringing them to school to the kids that she taught that didn't have a warm coat. And then I learned from my mom, I mean, she would, you know, we'd go to the grocery store, David, and she'd have like, 15 coupons in her hand, right? And she'd be like, Oh, that sounds special. We're getting that. And that's on special. We're getting that. And we'd get up to the front of the line. And the checkout person would say, Well, you know, this is expired, this coupon is expired, and she would work her. Like there was no other. And that lady would take the coupon. That's where you got it. Yeah. So I watched him not say they didn't accept no, ever. No, it was just sort of feedback to them. And I believe that too, I think, no, it was just sort of feedback. You know, my parents, I said, You taught me everything I know. And they're like, Well, you took it to another level. And I'm like, No, but I did. I learned so much from them. I still do.

David Novak 31:24 

And you've learned from all these key athletes and elite athletes and coaches. And, you know, one that comes to mind is another one of your Michigan friends is Tom Izzo, he seems to be a really intense guy, what have you learned about how a person and a coach like a Tom Izzo pushes himself every year because he's had a lot of success, but he seems to never ever get satisfied.

Molly Fletcher 31:48 

All the best coaches and athletes that I've worked with have this I've never arrived mindset, right, they never really are. They're on a journey to continue to get better. They're not chasing achievement. Rather, they're sort of chasing fulfillment. They're chasing impacting lives. And for time, I think at the core, what has always stopped us from taking an NBA job is this desire to pour into young guys, young kids to be a part of a place where he can really make change and make an impact. And one of the things that strikes me about Tom in particular is, he's a guy who if you watch him on the sidelines, it's like, his head's gonna explode when he's lightness players up when they come off to the bench, right? I mean, if you've seen him, he gets hot. And I remember asking him once, because the other thing that's interesting about time is his players love him. I mean, they love him. They can't wait, when they get drafted in the NBA to write checks back to the program. They can't wait to take a call and go recruit a kid that Tom is trying to sign and get in. They love him. And I remember saying to him wants Tom and you go ballistic on your guys, and they love you. How in the world? Do you do that? I mean, you hold them so deeply accountable. And they love you. It's fascinating. It's fantastic. And so he does this thing gave it it's really cool. He takes his guys at the beginning of every season. And he puts them in the film room, and he gives them a three by five card. And he says, You don't just write on that three by five card. What would success look like for you this season? What is I want you right now on that card, write everything go. And they right win a national championship, you know, graduated all American graduate with above a 3.5 win the big 10 championship win Player of the Year. And then he takes all of his guys one by one in his office with their three by five cards. He said, Okay, tell me what's on your list? And they say, Well, I want to graduate with above a 3.5. And time goes, Okay, cool. So as your coach, what would my role in helping you do that? Because I want to help you do that. That's one of your goals. And they say, Well, what do you mean, coach? Well, if I get a call that you're skipping class from a professor, you know, most people they graduate with above a 3.5. Go to class. So would you want me to hold you accountable? Well, yeah, coach, of course, I'd be great. Okay, cool. And you want to win big 10 Player of the Year. So when we're up by three with a minute left, and your dog had to get back on defense, you want me to kind of hold you accountable on that? Because big time players, you know, that's not what they do. Well, yeah, coach me great, for sure. So he gets them to identify what they want. And then he creates an opportunity to connect with them one on one, and gets their buy in and support to hold them accountable for what they in fact want. And so he makes them better. And they see that he makes them better. And they see his investment. One of my greatest joys of time is they played a game the team lost it was a team they should have beaten and Tom was, you know, they were upset. The team was upset. But there was one of the guys on the team that really just didn't show up. He was one of his leaders. He didn't get it done. He didn't play well. And so the kid just felt devastated. He felt like he let Tom down. He felt like you let the team down. And so Tom watched him leave the locker room and he knew he was down and the team was upset. And so about 30 minutes later, Tom calls the player he says, Hey, man, what are you doing? And the kid was like, Dude, I'm in my dorm room. Just Sitting here, I can't believe what I did what I didn't do. I mean, I'm just subbed coach, I totally failed and I man, and tangos. Hey, I'm in front of your doorman. Come on. Now let's go for a ride. This is like 11 o'clock at night the kid gets in times car Tom says my we drove around campus for two hours and just talked, just shared. And I listen. You know, he did things like that and does things like that all the time. And that's why he is an incredible coach and incredible lead or somebody that people want to follow and people want to play for. That was

David Novak 35:29 

fantastic. I love that three by five card. You mentioned John Smoltz a little bit earlier. Now here's a guy. He went from starter to close her back to starter he and he seemed to thrive and every change that he made as an athlete, what did you learn watching him and how he navigated those different paths.

Molly Fletcher 35:47 

John's a guy that loves a challenge, he totally welcomes discomfort. He loves that I'm not sure if this guy can do this 10 years into his career go from a starter to a closer and then maybe back to a starter. But it's also one of the things I love about John is that it's not about John and the team needed him in that role. And those 24 other guys needed him and the fans and the community and the general manager and Bobby Cox. And so John said shirt, because it's not about me, it's about you guys, and it's about this team. And so sure, I'll try it, I'll step into it. He loves discomfort. And he knows that's where he grows. He's a workhorse. You know, one of the other things that always blew my mind about John and continues to, and I think we see this with great leaders, their capacity is high. In other words, John would call me on his way to the ballpark. And I would hear all the things going on his life, with his family, with his kids with his parents, all these things coming at him from left and right constantly. And then I would watch him step on the mound that night and throw 80 pitches through eight innings and sit guys down one after another. And I thought if the world knew what was going on in his life, that he couldn't hold the fastball right because he had cut his finger that morning with a knife. And now he's got a hold his fastball a little bit different that his arm is hurting him a smidge. So we slightly tweaked his arm slot for a slider. I mean, if the world knew and could see that it would always blew my mind. And so his capacity is enormous.

David Novak 37:23 

Molly, it's interesting. You know, another one of your clients is Matt Kucha, who, who I know and he's a terrific guy, and he's been a superstar on the PGA for over 20 years. And you know, he's stayed in the game mentally and physically for a long time competing at the highest level and you're doing the same thing. What did you pick up from him that's allowing you to sustain your success.

Molly Fletcher 37:45 

You don't matter as a consummate professional. And he always has been I mean, when he came out of Georgia Tech, and he is he approaches his career, no different than a CEO approaches, the way they run their business. And he looks at what are all the things that need to be in place for me to step on to the tee box on a Thursday for me to stand over a pot on a Sunday and execute. And he is incredibly intentional. He's incredibly disciplined. He has a fantastic family and wife, he's a man who values that deeply. But he has sustained success, I would say in part because of his discipline and his professional approach to his career,

David Novak 38:24 

you know, so Molly, here you are now what are you up to these days? You know, in terms of helping others unlock their potential? How do you see your purpose now?

Molly Fletcher 38:34 

Yeah, you know, my purpose now is to lead others to inspire others to connect with others and to do it with courage with curiosity with optimism and, and so I speak David about 80 days a year and open and close a lot of conferences, sales teams, all women's events, company meetings. And then we have a training program as well training company, Game Changer training where we deliver training, primarily on performance, be at negotiation, be at energy, be at you know, high potential high impact programs, to help other people at some level up their game, whether it's from a performance perspective, from a negotiation perspective, or you've got leaders that you want to help get a little bit better. You want to keep them we're inside of this great resignation. How do we pour into and help the people that we lead up their game a bit so they can pour into the people they lead even better? So pouring into my team to help us continue to grow in these two sort of verticals, if you will, is is where I am and working on another book. And I have a podcast to game changers. David, that's super fun.

David Novak 39:40 

I bet it is. This has been so much fun for me speaking of fun, and I'd like to have a little bit more fun with you with some rapid fire questions here. Are you ready for this?

Molly Fletcher 39:48 

I'm ready. Let's go fire.

David Novak 39:50 

Hi, what are three words that best describe you?

Molly Fletcher 39:53 

Inspire, connect, discipline.

David Novak 39:57 

If you could be one person for a day besides your Self who would it be and why?

Molly Fletcher 40:02 

You know, I might want to be Elon Musk for a minute. I mean getting inside of that noggin to his would probably be kind of an interesting journey.

David Novak 40:10 

What's your biggest pet peeve?

Molly Fletcher 40:12 

Excuses people with excuses.

David Novak 40:14 

What's your favorite major league ballpark?

Molly Fletcher 40:17 

Cubs Wrigley, I love that place. I mean, it's just, it's just, it's awesome.

David Novak 40:22 

It's hard not to toughest General Manager to negotiate with

Molly Fletcher 40:26 

John Schierholtz, the GM of the Braves. And he's a great friend. I love him. I see him from time to time. We belong in the same country club. But he's Tom,

David Novak 40:34 

the biggest deal you ever closed?

Molly Fletcher 40:37 

Probably a 20 some million dollar contract for one of our baseball guys. You know, I got out of the business 10 years ago, David. So now they're 160 million. I'm not sure if I timed that. Right. But anyway,

David Novak 40:51 

what's something about you that few people would know?

Molly Fletcher 40:53 

I don't love fiction. I don't read fiction. I don't really watch fiction, I pretty much have no interest in infection. And that's probably a gap for me, I could probably improve but fiction is is out the door with me.

David Novak 41:05 

You know, I understand you're a big fan of Zig Ziglar. Could you tell us you know your your experience with Zig Ziglar? And what that taught you,

Molly Fletcher 41:14 

David, you know, your preparation is paramount man. I love it. So yet well, my dad I said was a pharmaceutical sales rep. So I'd go down to his office and he have these Zig books by Ziggler. And I've read them a lot. Long story short, when I approached graduation, I said I got to meet him. I mean, I got to meet Zig Ziglar. I mean, I want to do what he does, I think one day, and so I saved up my money. I sent him letters and postcards and called his office 100 times. And finally he said, I'll give you 20 minutes, I'll give you 20 minutes, which was so nice of him. I mean, I'm 21 years old, he's given me 20 minutes. And so I fly to Dallas, I walk in to meet him and which I couldn't believe it was so kind of him and and we sit down and we're chatting. And I'm asking him for advice. And I'm curious and all those things. And I said, You know what I want to do what you do. I really think that's what I want to do. And by the way, David, I say all I had to show for myself was I was second to be our high school commencement speaker when I walked into Ziggs office. So of course, I didn't really have anything to show for myself as a speaker, right? I said, I want to do what you do. And he said, Well, that's great. And he was so nice, I can still see him. And he leaned forward. And he said, Well, Molly, here's the deal. Why don't you go out into the world and actually do something, and then you can go out and talk about it. And he was right. So I boarded my flight and flew back to Michigan and pursued my other passion of sports.

David Novak 42:26 

He certainly did a lot. And what's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to improve as a leader

Molly Fletcher 42:33 

serve their heart, not their talent. In other words, pour into their heart, not because of what they can do for you, but because of who they are.

David Novak 42:42 

And you know, Molly, it's obvious you picked up something from all these leaders, and you're making it happen in your own career and have for a long time, and I want to congratulate you on your success, and I can't wait to read your next book. What's the title? Do you have a working title? Or do you have a title? Is it you know, can you give us a little preview?

Molly Fletcher 42:58 

We don't Yeah, man. We don't. So I don't want to throw something out that isn't gonna stick. You know how that title game works with books. But I hope it's our best one. Yeah.

David Novak 43:06 

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Molly, thanks for being on the show. Absolutely, Dave, it's

Molly Fletcher 43:10 

an honor. Thanks for having me.

David Novak 43:20 

I really love getting to know Molly and this podcast was so much fun for me. Molly has some incredible stories that I hope inspired you on your journey to become a better leader. And now it's time for my favorite part of these episodes, where I give you a little coaching this week as a part of your weekly personal development plan. Here's what I want you to do. The next time you find yourself in the midst of a negotiation, say less. It's so tempting to fill any open space with words isn't. I only pause for like three seconds just now and you probably thought it felt like an eternity. Let me tell you something. I sure did. But what if you learn to use silence as a weapon? Because silence and pausing can be one of the greatest weapons you can ever use. As you heard in my conversation with Molly, it's a tactic that worked for her. And I know that if you start using silence properly, it will help you in your negotiations too. So do you want to know how leaders lead what we learned today as the great leaders have learned to be effective negotiators. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. I'll see you next week.