Turning Ordinary to Extraordinary, with Mark Sanborn – Episode 1 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Best-selling author, leadership speaker, and entrepreneur Mark Sanborn talks about the many Freds in his life, and covers topics like internalizing responsibility, making a “signature difference”, the tips to delivering an “elevated experience”, practicing A.B.C.D., and how you can be seen as an absolute ARTIST, no matter what your job is.

About Mark:

“Few of us can be famous, but every one of us can be great.” This mantra is at the core of Mark Sanborn’s keynotes and leadership training programs, and one that resonates with organizations around the world who want to create workplace cultures that stand out.

As President of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., Mark has spent 30+ years cultivating extraordinary leaders.

He is an international bestselling author and an award-winning leadership keynote speaker who has written eight books, including the New York Times and International Bestseller, The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary, which has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. His latest book is The Intention Imperative: Three Essential Changes That Will Make You a Successful Leader Today.

Mark is also a Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University. Students are invigorated by his strategic and actionable principles that empower them to tap into their unique assets to achieve their best, but also to feel fulfilled.

Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was honored with the Cavett Award, the highest honor the NSA bestows on its members, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the speaking profession.

Mark’s ideas are taught in 90 counties by Crestcom Leadership Training and his list of more than 3,000 clients includes Costco, FedEx, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, KPMG, New York Life, RE/MAX, ServiceMaster, ESPN, GM, IBM, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Sandvik and John Deere.

Mark Sanborn gave his first speech at the age of 10 in a 4-H safety speaking contest. He did so poorly and lost so badly that he decided to try again. After that he was hooked. Public speaking became his passion and eventually his vocation.

A graduate of The Ohio State University, Mark worked his way through college as an After Dinner Speaker. After graduation, he was an Account Executive, Regional Manager and Associate Publisher in the magazine publishing industry.

Mark Sanborn entered professional speaking full-time in 1986. 

Once asked what he would like as an epitaph, Mark explained, “Malcolm Forbes asked that his gravestone read, ‘While alive, he lived.’ I aim beyond that. As a result of my life, work and relationships, I would hope my headstone someday reads, “While alive, he lived. While he lived, he loved. Because he loved, he served. And when he served, he led.”

He resides in the greater Denver, Colorado area with his wife Darla and sons Hunter and Jackson. Mark is also an avid downhill skier, scuba diver and motorcyclist.

Learn more at MarkSanborn.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
You are in for an absolute treat, we have one of the world’s most brilliant and premier thought leaders as a guest on today’s show. Mark Sanborn is one of the world’s most sought after experts in leadership and customer service. Mark is in the professional speakers Hall of Fame. He’s an international best selling author of seven books, including The New York Times bestseller, The Fred factor, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. Mr. Mark Sanborn, thanks for being with us.

Mark Sanborn
Thank you, sir. appreciate the kind words.

Host
Yeah, so tell us for those people who don’t know who is Fred, and why does he matter to us?

Mark Sanborn
Fred is a real life postal carrier here in Denver, Colorado, who takes that ordinary job of putting mail in a box and makes it truly extraordinary. I mean, the guy is an artist at creating value for his postal route customers, or relationship building, and just kind of reinventing what most people would think would be a pretty dull or redundant or dead end job. And the point of the matter is, is that if Fred can reinvent delivering the mail, if he can take a very simple job and make it extraordinary, then you’re I have no excuse for taking whatever work we do and adding more to it and doing it differently so that it adds value to the lives of the people around us. The premise of this book is how do you keep that momentum going, you know, how do you sustain it, when, in reality, you don’t always get appreciated or recognized or rewarded for doing a great job. If we lived in a perfect world, maybe you would. But as I’ve talked to people over the years, occasionally, they’ll utter some of the saddest words you’ll ever hear. And those are the words I used to somebody will say, Well, you know, I used to do that. But then I got burnout, or I used to do that. But I got taken advantage of. And I think so often people end up putting the locus of responsibility outside themselves. But what I find is, is that people that do the extraordinary, they don’t do it necessarily for recognition or compensation. That usually follows it often does. But at the end of the day, you do it because A, it’s the right thing to do. Be because you can and see because it ultimately enriches your own life. And that’s really what the Fred factor is about.

Host
One of the things that you you wrote about Mark, which I love is called your signature difference.

Mark Sanborn
Well, we all have an opportunity to make a positive difference every day. But the question is, are you able to add your own unique signature to that difference you make and what are the great examples is giving someone encouragement is a difference that we’re all pop, we’re all capable of making in the lives of those around us. But a man I met many years ago named Fred Stork is a world class gardener and he loves roses. So when he encourages somebody, he sends him one of his award winning roses. Or if someone’s facing a difficult time, they’ll send him a bouquet of his rose. And so he adds that unique factor. I’m a gardener, I love roses, but I also like to make a positive difference. So the question I always ask people is, what is your unique factor? Where are your talents and passions overlap with the job that you do? So that you can add kind of a flourish that makes it unique to you in the book, I talk about a restaurant owner, may Wiggins who in in the Deep South, who hugs her customers now, you know, not all of us could get away with hugging our customers. But she’s the kind of woman that just delights people with her warmth and hospitality. So that’s her signature difference.

Host
Sure, that is so powerful, just that uniqueness is nothing other than where your talents and your passions overlap, where they where they intersect, that leads to an elevated experience. How do you know if you really hit the mark, of delivering an elevated experience for your customers?

Mark Sanborn
In the book I talked about four ingredients, but there’s one that’s key. And I say, first of all, you know, any experience has to deliver value. The second thing and elevated experience, AWS has an element of surprise. And it’s a good surprise, you know, it’s not an unpleasant surprise, like you expected, wait 10 minutes and waited an hour. But after you’ve figured out a way to pleasantly surprise people, the key is is that they leave happier. And I think in business, we often look at what we did, and how the person responded, but we missed the point. And that is an elevated experience elevates your moods. So the NBA is a little bit happier than you started the transaction or the interaction. And when people leave happier, the great thing is an elevated experience gets them to tell others and they don’t just say, you know, oh, here, here’s a place that you might consider when you need new tires. They say things like Man, you’ve got to go to Bob tire you wouldn’t believe what they do or in real life. A Les Schwab Tire you know, Les Schwab has been a client of mine. They know that one of their their signature differences is they run out to greet you hear car, I mean they literally run out to the parking lot and greet you before you get out.

Host
That is so cool. I mean, it’s such a simple idea but how, like how warm and inviting so simple, I love it. So for everyone listening What is one thing that you think that we could do today to start implementing the power of Fred?

Mark Sanborn
Well, here’s one simple idea, but it’s very powerful if you do it and that is when somebody makes a request of you today, whether it’s a colleague, or a customer or a client, or maybe even your spouse and this works, you know, at home because truth is transferable. Lots of people read the book who don’t have traditional marketplace jobs, they still get value because they use these principles with their their spouses and their their kids. That is practice ABCD. Ask yourself, What can I do to go above and beyond the call of duty? What’s that little bit extra? If somebody asks you for five minutes of your time, give him 10 minutes and go a little more in depth. Somebody asked you how to get somewhere, walk with him and show him.

Host
Mr. Mark Sanborn, thanks for being with us.

Mark Sanborn
Thank you, sir.