Special Guest Expert - Saurel Quettan: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Saurel Quettan: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
How many times have you said to yourself, I'm going to succeed? And yet you keep coming up short? You probably noticed that high achievers with heart do things differently, but you just can't put your finger on it. You're curious about why high achievers accomplish more and have more satisfying relationships. It's because success is the result of your mindset and the consistent actions you take. This show is designed with your success in mind by revealing these powerful patterns of our dynamic individuals and guest experts, you can model what they do and apply to your future success now. Let's roll up our sleeves and get started. My name is Brigitta Hoeferle and this is the Success Patterns Show. And it's not just any success pattern show today. It is a very special success pattern show because it is my birthday. Happy birthday to me and thank you for celebrating with me for tuning in to the Success Pattern Show as we bring you golden nuggets. Because success patterns are way more valuable than ideas. Let me explain that thought. Ideas, while very powerful, require trial and error. A lot of time to put into action. Just think about manufacturing. First you have an idea, then proof of concept, then working prototype, then small production batches, and then finally full scale production. This can take months, maybe even years. And you may have met some people that are collector of ideas, but they do little else. You're not looking for ideas. Forget everything that you ever heard about, ideas you are looking for success patterns because success patterns are different and success patterns are better. Why? Well, they're proven. Have a logical sequence of steps to follow, have an action imperative and deliver consistent results. In today's show, you're going to learn valuable success patterns from a leadership coach and consultant that actually doesn't teach leadership. I know it sounds intriguing. He helps leaders and organizations to create an environment of inclusion and innovation by training their teams on effective leadership and communication practices while undoing cultural dysfunctions. We're going to dive deeper into that. My guest expert today is Sorin Curtain, and he is a human behavior and transformation expert. He's the creator of launching you, accessing to being a leader that is most respected. He's held entrepreneurs, CEOs, founders, owners of small to medium sized businesses to improve their effectiveness, grow their business, and therefore enhance their lives. And as a leadership coach with over 20 years in the field of human growth and development, Sorrell doesn't teach leadership, as I said earlier. Instead, he helps clients to focus on the distinctions between achievement and success assisting as they create and embrace something much, much greater than themselves. In the process, they become the leader that is most respected. So with a warm welcome and happy birthday to me that is on the show. Thank you for being here.

Saurel Quettan:
I'm ringing the bell. I am singing Happy Birthday to my very best of friends brigades. Thank you so much for having me here with you. It's such an honor to be on success patterns.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
It's so wonderful to have you on. And and I want to start our success patterns show with the end today. And let me explain. So and I have just recently been in the same environment, although we didn't see each other, we've been in the same space. That's the state farm arena here in Atlanta to see Lionel Richie. Which was an amazing concert. And you'll never guess. Well, also you'll guess easily. But the other listeners and viewers. The opening act was Earth, Wind and Fire, and they did an entire concert all by themselves. Opening up.

Saurel Quettan:
Oh, my. That day. That day. You know, you're beginning with the end and there's something that's showing up for me as you juxtapose Earth, Wind and Fire and Lionel Richie in concert. And I'm thinking of success patterns. And when I look at them, when I listen to them, the success patterns that are present for me are one. Do whatever the heck you love to do. And pour everything you are and everything you've got in it. It's like the bass player from Earth, Wind and Fire. It's got to be in his late 70s. And three original members are still there and been at it for 50 years. 50? You're not at it for 50 years because you don't love it. Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And you could see. It was in their entire being that showed Yeah. They loved being on that stage and sweating bullets.

Saurel Quettan:
Oh my God. And there were sweating bullets. I swear I was in row t on the second fret. I swear sweat beat hit me in my forehead.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
You were in row t. I was in row P so we weren't even that far from each other.

Saurel Quettan:
In that funny. So but you know you you talk about the end. Yeah. And something about unexpected endings that really touches me right now. So I'm from Haiti. I am black. And one of the patterns that comes with me as a black man is that I'm conscious that I'm black and I'm conscious of what it means historically to be black. So when I enter a room. That enters and I actually have to create my own little success pattern that goes something like this. I am not my skin color. I am who I say I am. Now. I don't have to do it consciously anymore, but I want people to be present to that. That in the context of the ending of the concert, something miraculous happened. Lionel Richie chose to end or at least semi end the concert with We Are the World acknowledged Michael Jackson for his contribution to that. And began singing the song. And spontaneously, my wife, Susan, stood up. And grabbed the hand of the lady in the back row. And the lady did a double take. I did a double take because she grabbed my hand too. And I looked at the lady. I said, Don't worry, we're just going to sing together. Right. And because it was a pattern interruption and yet it was the perfect ending to the concert, because the very essence of the song We Are the World was not just present, but being demonstrated and being lived. By the eight or so people who were complete strangers and who chose to hold hands for the entire song together, weaving, bobbing, singing all off key. And then? And then in the end. Complete strangers hugging one another, not saying a thing, but leaving with. I think, for me was leaving with the conviction that the world truly is a friendly place because I say it is. And I walk inside of my say.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
That's pure integrity right there. And there's so much more to that. And it's such a beautiful gesture.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
The song itself says it's time to lend a hand to life. The greatest gift of all.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
We can't go on pretending day by day that somewhere some someone somewhere soon will make a change.

Saurel Quettan:
I.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And the change starts with me.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah. And man. That could be the success pattern. I say that to say that every other success pattern that you and I could mouth for the rest of eternity would be a derivative of that.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
As you're as I'm remembering and in my memory, the which was only a few days ago, it was almost like saying ourselves in a trance and he had us repeat. It's a choice we're making. It is a choice we're making. And it's a so. If we have a choice and we do have a choice to make a change. Then why the heck is it so hard? So hard? And how is it easier?

Saurel Quettan:
I love it. I love this question. Why is it so hard to choose? Being the change I want, I'll speak for myself. It's really hard for me as a human being to be the change I want because my first tendency is always to pledge allegiance to the human being. I've become, you know, the human being that is wedded to his education. I am the human who's wedded to the people who around me. I'm the human being who's wedded to my wife's beauty, beauty, her beautiful hair, her smile. Right. I walk around proud that I am that human being. So wherever I go for the change I seek appears as a threat to the existence of that human being I've become and my natural tendencies to protect that. So it is it is hard for me to be the change I seek. It is hard for me to choose. And yet in the moment I actually relate to the human being I've become as what it is. Just that it's a combination of my education, a combination of my upbringing as a Haitian man, a combination of my. The environment. I'm in a combination of what corporate America taught me. A combination of what? Historically, being black taught me right. And then in this moment where I can say to myself, whether silently or out loud. I am a human being. And my name is Saul Keeton. I create the emergence of this success pattern, which is me disabusing myself. From. The human being I've become. And I have that choice in any moment. But that choice isn't something I want people to know, that the choice isn't something that you get to the point where it's natural to choose to be the change you want. It's never natural. What's there first is I want to protect the human being I've become. I want to stay that way. And it is. Noticing that that actually opens the door to the success pattern called disabusing oneself, disabusing myself from identifying with the human being I've become. And then. Mouth the words I am the way I say I am, and then give my word dominion over all of this.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
So there's awareness in that. There's awareness of of every moment. If we want to, we have a choice to be aware of it or not.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah. Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Because I think, you know. What's bliss? Uh, just lost the word When you're ignoring it is bliss.

Saurel Quettan:
Ignorance is bliss. Ignorance, ignorance, ignorance.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Ignorance is bliss. So we have a choice to be aware of it, to acknowledge it, to do something with it, or just to ignore it. Where does ego come into play in all of this?

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah, well, you know, when I mentioned earlier that I'm attached to the human being I've become. You could say that the human being has become is the ego that which seeks to survive at all cost and that which seeks to convince me that it's me. And yet in a moment of awareness, right, where I can say I am a human being. I have an ego, and that's not me. I am how I say I am and who I say I am. The words themselves trigger the separation. And it's not. Try it on. It's not once you say the words, it actually does happen because my brain hears the words that that's not me. And then something else is available in that moment. One thing that that that I love, Brigitta, is this. Our brains are so marvelous and yet so malleable. Mm. See, my brain cannot distinguish from the me that I've become from the me. Say I am. And when I say I am Akst, my brain just runs with it. There's nothing to follow, no question whatsoever. And, you know, and if it questions, guess what I do. I say it again. Mhm. Mhm. So the success pattern of noticing. My ego. I love to call it my individuality. The success pattern of noticing my individuality over and over. And recognizing and acknowledging it just for what it is. Another success pattern, Brigida, is that the automatic behaviors, patterns of being, patterns of thoughts that come with the package called the human being have become. Aren't that. That's just what comes with the package.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Bad. Bad is a judgment just as judgment. Right. So why judge it?

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah, exactly. It requires no judgment. So another success pattern is to not fall in the trap of changing that. So there's an acceptance. Notice it and choose to honor something else. Because, see, I can spend a lifetime. Trying to change my own individuality or trying to change the human being I've become, which is really difficult. I swear brigade. I'm from Haiti and if you play Haitian music, I will break into dance right now. Now, now, compare that brain pattern. To. The brain pattern that makes me unproductive at work or unproductive in life or unproductive in relationships. It's one and the same to work hard to change. The human being has become as futile. But to notice it is very helpful because in the moment I notice it, then I can take full advantage of what this is. Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
You have a choice, like you said.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah. Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And there's an acceptance rather than fighting because a lot of people are. They're like in it with themselves. They're fighting themselves.

Saurel Quettan:
I love to say. When my mother and father met. And in a moment in time, they decided to conceive a baby. The universe picked the sperm. That would be the one. And that sperm and the. The connection it made with that egg produced the most perfect human being that that encounter could have produced. Like the universe mustered up everything. That it needed to muster up to produce. And I didn't say perfect, right. But the most perfect it could given the raw material given. So in that vein. Another success pattern is the. Acknowledgment that as I am. And perhaps as you are or as everyone is, where each whole perfect and complete, just the way we are and just the way we're not. And therefore there's nothing to change, nothing to fix, nothing to add, nothing to take away. And in that space, you are right. I can just be with it. And choose.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
That means that when someone is has a has a full awareness of themself and accepts who they are with all of the resources and the resourcefulness. They can become, and I quote you, the leader.

Saurel Quettan:
The leader they most respect.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
So it's there. They become the leader that they most respect.

Saurel Quettan:
Exactly right.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Respect?

Saurel Quettan:
No, no. Not others. Who cares about others, Right. Because, you know, it's funny. Uh, I remember that question was posed to me like, who's the leader you most respect? And I come up with all kinds of great names Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, one of my idols for a long time, Ambassador Andrew Young. You know, you name it. But my name never came out of my mouth. And. There was this moment. It wasn't a moment of being disempowered or anything, but there was this moment of giving myself the permission, of being connected to what I've come to call the collective and realizing that. If that sperm and that egg produce the most perfect. Instance of a human being. It could then am Mahatma Gandhi. I am Martin Luther King. I am Ambassador Andrew Young. I am Jimmy Carter. I am. You know, and I get I, I, I am the leader I most respect. Not because I have studied long amassed knowledge, amassed, amassed wealth, or think I'm deserving. Like maybe Birgitta being the leader of most respect is my birthright. A birthright that I get to claim. And what I'm discovering is that the moment I claim that I'm in deep trouble because I can't be sorelle anymore.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
That means that there's no competition.

Saurel Quettan:
There's no.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Competition.

Saurel Quettan:
There's no.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
There's no comparison.

Saurel Quettan:
Because. It is.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
You are. I am. The way that I am.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Created, like created through sperm and egg with the resources that were available. And. And. It being I being created.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And through that I am.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
So. How do you become how does RL become such a deep thinker and and and and advocate of humanity in such a unique and deep and rich way.

Saurel Quettan:
I don't want. I don't want to take credit for that. And I want to say it this way. I'm saying I don't want to take credit for that because Saul would be taking credit for it as opposed to who I say I am. So if I juxtapose the two. Having said in a moment that. I am a human being and my name is Saul and I am the leader I most respect. And that moment I create this. Separation where I'm. Not identifying myself anymore with the individuality that would. Relish a compliment. That would relish having become a deep thinker. Yet. I'm not. I'm not. Not that I am a human being. Yeah. So? So I can say thank you, Brigitta. I get the acknowledgment and in the same moment, to be present and aware enough that the thank you is really honoring you for seeing that. And that what's real is that being a deep thinker is my birthright. Because remember, the sperm and the egg came and created the most perfect instance of being a deep thinker. And as a human being, I had to surrender to that over time. So there is reading the people I loved, like reading the people who I said before, I said it was me. Were the leaders I most respected? So I did read Mahatma Gandhi and I did sit and think with him. I never met him, but I did sit and think with him. And I did put myself in courses. Whether in high school or in college. And I did put myself in environments where the conversations. We were having required the human being have become to think differently. And. Inside of a commitment. I had to be a contribution to the world as a thinker. I had to commit what I call loosely identified. It's the gradual. Uh, doing away with my own individuality and my own identity tied to my body, my appearances, my, my, that. Right. So in that space, I the, the me that I refer to when I say I am the leader, I most respect subjugates. The individual. And requires deep thinking of that individual. So you do.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Corporate trainings, you go into organizations, probably HR specialists hire you to come and do your magic in their in their teams when you go so deep. With with your insights. Are they all able to follow you?

Saurel Quettan:
I have the I have I have the gift of having a business partner named Giovanni Gonzalez.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
I know. He's a great guy.

Saurel Quettan:
You know Gio, right? So I. I want to give Gio his props and say that together we make a perfect pair when we go to our clients. There is in corporate America the code, so to speak. Don't go. Don't go deep. Keep it channel. Give them tips. Give them tools and techniques.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Exactly. That's why.

Saurel Quettan:
I'm asking. Don't require a transformation. Right. There's that code. And together with vow to do the following to respect that code. Meaning meeting people where they are, but also to challenge the code by demanding that people exercise intellectual effort to actually go beyond the tips, beyond the tools and techniques to the source of ineffectiveness and the source of high performance, and to go to the source of high performance. You kind of have to look, right? So we've created a body of work that takes the complexities of human behaviors and reduce them in various succinct. Easy to digest leadership principles. Yeah. Um, one of the leadership principles. I'll just share one with you, please. It says this. People follow people. That's it. It's that simple. And when we say people follow people, we stop the action. And now we have a conversation where human beings sitting around a corporate board table discuss their views and their opinions of people, follow people, and they discover that before people follow processes and procedures, before people follow a written mission or vision, they'll follow you. Now, are you for yourself? Someone you'd follow.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Right? Behaviors modeled.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Well behaviors modeled for those that are not. On the inside. Where you are on that deep of the level, right? Because if they truly embrace who they are. They don't necessarily need to follow anyone else.

Saurel Quettan:
Yeah, And if you give me a maybe 2 or 3 minutes, I want to I want to paint a picture for the journey that we love taking people through. Now, the journey begins with this fact that when you wake up in the morning. And you meet another human. You speak. You talk. You use words. And in using your words, you actually are impacting this other human being. So at any level, you are in a corporation, if you speak to another human being, you actually leading because it is through speaking that one impacts another's life, that one impacts another's performance. So we're fond of saying if you're living, if you're breathing, you're a leader. Now, if you impact yourself and others through your speaking, then if you want to impact performance, what would you pay attention to? A talk about what they talk about. And finally, someone will turn to the conclusion of saying not even the conclusion. I call it the insight or the revelation or the discovery that, oh my God, if I want to impact the performance of others. I have to impact what they're saying and what I'm saying. So this notion called a world comes into play. People get that the speaking that they speak actually creates a world. And inside of that world, in the same way as people are fond of saying, you know, it's like water, fish. That world actually dictates how you behave, how you speak, how you interact with one another. So very quickly, when people get that, they start to buy into the business of creating a different world. First by acknowledging the world that the current speaking is giving. So when they get that, they go, Oh, so you mean that the way it is now is something that I made up through the speaking I've been speaking. Yeah. Yeah, I know.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
What a concept.

Saurel Quettan:
You mean. If I speak differently. Uh, we end up creating a different world. And if the world is different, then the world itself dictates the speaking, the acting, the interaction, the performance and the results. Yeah. So let's get about. Let's get about the business of creating a different world. And the magical thing about this, Brigida, is that it works at the individual level as well, at the team level, as well as the organizational level, as well as the institutional level at the level, at the level of nations and at the level of the world. Literally our speaking gives us the world we live in. So people go. So if that's the case, how do we now speak?

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Great question.

Saurel Quettan:
So they get together and they invent the new words they're going to say together. And so everyone's familiar with the creation of a vision mission and guiding principles. Right? While they adorn the walls of corporate America all over the place. Very few organizations spend the time to connect to these words emotionally and to actually have these words be promises they make that they intend to keep. So we work with our teams, with the teams of that we serve to make that emotional connection to what they create, to actually give life and infuse life into a set of guiding principles. That they weren't in such a way that the guiding principles, just by reading them, coaches them on the fly.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Would you say that's a piece of manifestation?

Saurel Quettan:
Huh?

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Would you say that.

Saurel Quettan:
It is. In a way, right? Because you as you manifest and create your own guiding principle, which is the equivalent for corporations and teams of saying. We are the accounting department of this company. Like we are human. We are human beings, right? Yeah, We're the accounting department of this company. And who we say we are, are these guiding principles. And we now give these guiding principles dominion over everything. The way we speak, the way we interact with each other. And then some magic happens and the magic that people get to discover brigade is that when you say I am, that that now gets to create the future. And that can create any future.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
So it's not change management. But yet there's a change. There's there's let me scratch the word change. There's a transformation.

Saurel Quettan:
There is a transformation. But it's not like a flash in the pan, Right? Something magical that happens to a human being. It is that choice you speak of. And. It is human beings making that choice deliberately where the leader of the organization. Transforms. But here's the key. It's not an individual that transforms. It is that the leader ceases to be an individual. The leader becomes the words themselves. And. Everyone in the organization. Submits to that leader, not a person with a personality with physical characteristics that I can like or dislike, approve or disapprove of, but a set of tenets that we pronounce upon ourselves as who we say we are. And corporations do that. And when they do that and they speak something into existence like an initiative, they may speak, Hey, we're creating the next new widget. That changes the world. But that next new widget isn't being created. Just to serve the shareholders or to serve the bottom line. It's being created as something brand new in the world, and that's something exists in this moment. As the space inside of which each and every team member practices, giving dominion to the guiding principles over them. And in that space, each is for themselves the leader they most respect.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
It's the parts that make a crater. That's a value judgment. It's the parts. That create.

Saurel Quettan:
The whole. Yeah, it's. Oh, I love what you're saying. And allow me to just stand on your shoulders. It's the parts that disappear. So that the whole can emerge. So that the whole can act. So that the whole can be because see. You know, we hear it all the time. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Right. Right. And I want to truncate it right now because that's what's coming to me. The whole is greater period. It's not even the sum of the parts. It is the whole and that's the that's the transformational aspect of the whole thing that individuals give. Themselves to permission to disappear. In favor of the whole. Triumphing. We have a choice. Yeah, this is.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
A beautiful conversation. And I know that our listeners and our viewers want to continue this conversation with you. How do they do that?

Saurel Quettan:
Well, you can continue this conversation with me in many ways. Giovanni and I have created a gift to the world we call the Daily Huddle. We have partners and co-hosts and friends from Money Matters to health and wellness to communications and relationships to spiritual matters, to the business and leadership that in a way, given that we are together as that gift to you. You can connect with us at the Daily Huddle Zone on Facebook, which is the home of the Daily Huddle or on YouTube at at the Daily Huddle. And you can connect with me directly. One of the things I love to do is conversations with people just like you. And if you think this conversation is crazy and weird, forgive me. This is what you get when you're when you're with me and you may contact me directly for one hour of free coaching and don't really call it coaching. I guess I'm calling it the privilege and honor to have a conversation with you. And should we choose to do something beyond that, then I'll be that. But for me it is that privilege and this link that appears on the screen, you can copy it, click on it. Or go to LinkedIn, find me at Cheryl Keeton and send me a message. I'm looking forward to speaking with you.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Yeah. Thank you so much for this. So I want to reiterate the link to schedule a time with its schedule, my appointment with Cheryl Keeton that is.com/working-meeting. I'm going to put it in the show notes as well. So schedule my appointment with that ass dot slash working dash meeting. Make sure. And you get with Sorrel. It's s a u r. That's his first name. And last name is. Q u e t t a n.

Saurel Quettan:
So forward to speaking with you. Brigida, thank you so much for the privilege of being in conversation with you. It's it's always transforming for me. It is. So I want you to know that none of the words I've said tonight, I've said before, and I want to acknowledge the listening that you are. That actually makes. This human being speaking that way possible. Thank you.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
I honor you for the words. Thank you. I thank you for being on. And I'm going to I'm going to end today with these words. We are the ones who make a brighter day. So let's start giving. There's a choice we're making. We're saving our lives. It's true. We'll make a better day. Just you.

Saurel Quettan:
Just you and. Me.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Thank you for being on.

Saurel Quettan:
And me. Thank you, Birgitta.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And for everyone else, make sure that you get with soul, that you get in touch with him, that you find him on LinkedIn, that you schedule a time with him. And I will see you all again next Tuesday, same time, same place with Success Pattern Show. Until then.

Saurel Quettan:
You can't see it, Birgitta. But I have a little cake with a candle on it. Blow it and make a wish. I love you.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
I love you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in. And you will notice opportunities to apply success patterns daily while eagerly anticipating next week's content rich success patterns.

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