The EO Visionary Voices Podcast

Brent Peterson (00:01.442)
Welcome to this episode of EO Visions. Today I have Dr. Randy Pierce. He is the president and CEO of Future Insight. Randy, go ahead, do an introduction for yourself. Tell us your day-to-day role and one of your passions.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (00:16.535)
Sure, well good morning and thank you for that. You know, my role day to day is one, take care of the team, building a culture that's healthy and promotes people having the skills and support to do the work of vision rehabilitation around our whole state of New Hampshire. That's my first role.

And the second and probably more important in some ways but less important to me is making the ambassadorial connections to all the folks that enable us to do our mission, all the stakeholders, regardless of where they may be. And you know that day-to-day role is a lot of email, a lot of phone calls, a lot of meetings, you know what do they say in meetings? You waste hours and take minutes, so

Brent Peterson (00:52.684)
Yeah, that's a good one. Waste hours take minutes. I love that one. What about passions outside of what you're doing for work?

DrDr. Randy Pierce (01:00.087)
So I'm a very avid runner and there's lots of reasons for that but running of all types long distance You know, I've done 17 marathons, which is small compared to some but significant in my world and I partner that with hiking because hiking is what brought me into running

Brent Peterson (01:16.62)
That's great. Randy, before we get started, you have volunteered to be part of the Free Joke Project, and I'm just going to tell you a joke. You give me a rating 8 through 13. So here we go. Why do scuba divers fall backwards out of the boat? Because if they fell forwards, they'd still be in the boat.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (01:35.575)
I'm gonna give it 11 on that. That's pretty good.

Brent Peterson (01:40.29)
Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, Randy, so we got connected I think around running and and and We had in the green room we had talked about your running and and some of the things you're doing and movement and how important that is and So and give us a little bit of background on that and I should also say that you're you're visually impaired So that that is me it puts a challenge on on your running right? Tell us give us some background on that and

DrDr. Randy Pierce (02:09.729)
Sure, you know, I'm totally blind actually, right? Cause 92 % of people who are visually impaired have some usable sight, want them to use the best. I made that journey. I was fully sighted, legally blind, now totally blind. And of course that affects it. In the most helpful way for me is that it means running becomes a team sport for me. If I'm not on a treadmill, which I hope is often as possible, I'm running with a guide and we partner together.

partner together to make that possible. And the reality of that is, you know, running was a little bit of an escape and a little bit of celebration. The condition that makes me blind put me in a wheelchair. And when you lose something, you really learn to appreciate what that gift is. When I lost the ability to walk, I learned what a gift it is. And running is just celebrating that at an even higher level. Never mind the endurance lessons we learn along the way. Never mind the benefits of fitness as well.

Brent Peterson (03:03.02)
Yeah, you you talked a little bit about some of your learning journey in our green room and you gave the example of the website you built for the Patriots back in the, or your fan site you built originally. Tell us a little bit, you had some good insights on what it means to learn and maybe even what a lot of entrepreneurs miss out on when they're in the journey of just doing business. They forget that there's more to it than just working at a business.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (03:32.14)
Yeah.

You know, I'm a big fan of the GPA and when I say that I don't mean the grade point average, though that has its value. It's the notion of building a goal, making a plan, and then the most important step that gets missed so often is taking action. Because otherwise nothing happens. And that's in little things and that's in big things. And for me, as a blind user of a computer, I wanted to see if I could use a screen reader to build a website. You know, I chose a hobby and a passion of mine as the first start and that led to amazing

things and I share that because I think there's three and a half great reasons why we set goals. One, I think goals are like positive adversity, right? And by that I mean if it's something we're trying to reach it's positive and it's going to take work so that's the adversity. We're more likely to get things that we want, those positives, if we try to reach them.

Two, in doing that, practice makes progress. We develop the skills that help us be better. We develop the tools that enhance our ability to achieve positive things. So, I'll take that as reason two. And three, we get confidence, which allows us to make the choice to reach for goals and maybe some harder goals. What's the half? In doing that base goal, we'll get surprises we never expected. You know, I and my guide Doug are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. That's a result of that.

website over a long course of time, but I would have never imagined that. And the number of times a reward for the doing that I never expected is so high. And I think that's true of most entrepreneurs.

Brent Peterson (05:05.631)
And I think you said that you had gone to the White House with the Vikings when they won that Super Bowl. Sorry, the Vikings don't have any Super Bowls with the Patriots. So, you know, some of those things that you're talking about are very relevant in your life, right?

DrDr. Randy Pierce (05:10.418)
Hahaha.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (05:18.871)
Yeah. You absolutely are right. Right. That led to a lot of connections. I did a lot of national TV shows and a lot of radio shows, which helped build a community that I use to support all the rest of the work that I'm doing because connections like this podcast are ultimately essential in how many of us do our best work.

Brent Peterson (05:37.902)
I always try to connect some kind of movement with business. And I think especially in the marathon, connecting what you said about creating that goal and doing it and then executing it and then finishing it, right? That's such a big thing. For me, like I hear so many runners that say, if I didn't sign up for a marathon, I probably wouldn't run a marathon, right? Because you have weeks or so or 12 weeks, whatever your training cycle is.

there's that point of deciding you're going to do it and then you're committed. And I think in the marathon, it's such a longer span. It's not like I'm going to do it next week. This is going to be months away. Connect some of those dots with what you were talking about in that goal creation and how important that is in running, but in life and in business.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (06:17.879)
right.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (06:30.327)
Sure. You know, I think the first thing on the goal, Goals are dreams, they're wishes, they're whatever you want to term for that, because semantics matter. Some people get daunted by the notion. But it's the what are you trying to accomplish?

And obviously, know, the John Wooten or Ben Franklin, depending on the variation, but we don't plan to fail. We fail to plan. It's the P is how do we do that in a better way? And you see that in the training plan that's essential, but we see that in the business plan and all of the steps of how you're going to accomplish that. And then, you know, the endurance in actually running a marathon. Certainly you've built that up over time, but the endurance is really the process throughout to make it through that level of training plan.

And I would say that, you know, the moment of the marathon, moment, you know, three hours, four hours, two hours, if you're really good, whatever that may be, that moment is not why you do all that training. That's the reward. Maybe the payoff at the end, pretty hard work for the payoff. But if you're not finding a way to enjoy that process, that goal is unlikely to ultimately work for you, at least not in a repeatable way. And it's, the journey as the destination a little bit. You better build that plan.

You better have the reward of that goal be such that you find ways to enjoy it. My training runs, I absolutely enjoyed. All of them? Of course not. Well, it's the same with my job. I tell people I love 90 % of my job, 90 % of the time. That's a pretty good ratio. I'm very fortunate. But we should be building that ratio into our job and making the adjustments because that's when we're going to get the best work out of us and that's when we're going to make it rewarding for those around us.

Brent Peterson (08:07.553)
Yeah, that's so true. always say when I'm on a long run and I'm with a bunch of people, always say that running is 90 % mental and the other 15 % is in your head. And it depends on which part of the run you're in. They have to do the math and figure out what I'm talking about.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (08:18.091)
Ha

DrDr. Randy Pierce (08:24.523)
You know, absolutely true. And the thing I'd add that I think is really powerful, when you're on an endurance run, there are times that in your head, as you said, there's going to be a voice of negativity. You know, you should quit. This is too hard. It's too hot. You know, insert all the things that we tell us in our voice. And one of the best bits of insight I ever received is that when you are listening to that voice in the head, that's what you're doing.

You're not the voice, you're the listener. And listening is passive. And just like GPA stresses A, action, so do I in that become the voice in your head reminding yourself. It's how you erase imposter syndrome, which most people I know feel that. How did I become president and CEO of this organization? Or why am I in charge of this project? There are foundations of reasons you have to remind yourself when your head wants to give you that imposter syndrome question.

Brent Peterson (09:16.013)
One of the things we talked about in the last couple of weeks was the idea of having somebody with you in the journey. In your marathons, you have somebody with you as a guide. You had given the example of your guide saying, I'm not sure if I can make this, the pace, or I'm not feeling quite up to it. Then when they finished, they did do it, right? Because you forget about that voice that's telling you, and you kind of go externally instead of internally. Tell us a little bit.

about that.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (09:47.032)
So when somebody's guiding me and I'm so fortunate for my guides, right? you want to give somebody a gift and really whenever we give a gift to someone else, it's a gift to ourselves because we feel good about it. But find a way to help them get motion if they need it. my guides have to look out for the course. I'm six foot four, so I'm a big guy, which means they're watching for height obstacles at times. But the reality is they're so focused on how to see the course in a way that matters to me, communicate that in a way that's effective.

that they're out of their head, as you said, right? They're externally focused on sharing and interacting. And what often happens is at the end of a run, a guide hasn't realized that they've run stronger, further, or faster because they didn't take time to realize that their body is generally stronger than the mind lets us think.

Brent Peterson (10:37.13)
Yeah, I can say that I've often looked back at my pacing and I've seen when mentally I turn off, my head says, no, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to start walking now. And my pace doesn't actually go down for a couple more miles because it's your head that's telling you and your body's still going. But for whatever that mental reason is, you've decided to check out. And I think in business that happens to a lot of entrepreneurs, especially on the longer journey, on the longer projects. How do you

How do you recommend or what do you tell entrepreneurs that are trying to break through that wall that they have in their business journey to try to get to the next level?

DrDr. Randy Pierce (11:19.383)
You know, I'm always eager to share my perspectives, not my advice, because people have to find what resonates for them because each of our situations are so different. But I think the first thing speaks to the connection. Build a good team. Because a team helps you work through those things and we all need it at times. And, you know, there's a simple acronym for team. Together everyone achieves more, which I buy into. Now, the second part that I think is more important is that a team is comprised of many things.

T, who are you trusted and true that you can tell anything to? That's the frustration moments, right? I just want to be earnest. E, who's the eager, enthusiastic encouragers, right? We all have times we need a little motivation and we have connections, hopefully, that help give us that. And then A, who are your accountability partners? The ones who will be candid with you, tell you when you're doing what you shouldn't or when you're not doing what you should, right? We need that honesty and that clarity, hopefully still compassionately, but radically candid. And then

Who are your mentors? Who are your teachers? Who your coaches? We all need those because they help us grow the fastest. Now, there's more than that. But if we could all find those core four and maybe multiple people, I think that makes us all more successful.

Brent Peterson (12:31.5)
Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned the advice thing. I'm in entrepreneur's organization. We don't give advice. We don't should. We say we don't should on people. You know, one thing I do struggle with though as a coach, you have to give advice. You have to kind of tell people what they're doing. But I think that fits into that accountability portion of it where I did some training earlier in the year. And a of times I talked about

DrDr. Randy Pierce (12:39.543)
You

Brent Peterson (12:57.258)
The advice giving, if you take that advice, you are now sort of giving away that accountability for yourself, right? If you're a coach, you're telling somebody what to do, well now the coach is accountable for what they've told you to do. In business, if you take that advice, you can't really, I can't make Randy accountable for my business decision. I have to make myself accountable. How do you square with that when you're working in business?

DrDr. Randy Pierce (13:24.769)
So, that's a hard challenge, right? Because it depends who you're dealing with. If you're dealing with your direct reports, there are times we're giving them directives which are different than advice. I think when in the moment of advice, I want to ask questions that they may have a bias, but I try, there's a difference, clarifying questions are our first stage when we're learning, that has no bias. But then I'll ask questions once we've clarified that are hoping that they'll find the path to the advice themselves. It should be clear.

But directives are different than advice on that front. So understanding that is important. And then perhaps the most important thing to me is that accountability is so often delivered as a punitive measure. Right? If you don't do this, this is the negative result or however it's framed. And I like to turn things around, right? Understand, avoid the negatives for sure, but promote the positive. And accountability is the reward we get.

for being responsible and giving ourselves direction in our own ways. As a blind traveler, my guide dogs are frequently leading the way for me. But I have an accountability in that relationship. I don't just say, know, hey, take me somewhere because I'd be at the dog park every day. I'm responsible for the journey even as I utilize the tools and the guides to help me navigate in some ways.

Brent Peterson (14:44.042)
Yeah, we have a Jack Russell, so we would just be going back and forth with the ball every day. We wouldn't go anywhere. We would be on a return journey constantly. Yeah, absolutely. So, you one of the things you would, I know that you do mountain climbing as well, Is there a difference between that journey and the running journey? Is it just slower, but it's more technical? I mean, it's got to be, give us a little bit insight on that.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (14:52.983)
But you do it tirelessly.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (15:13.333)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I love the metaphor, you know, in business that I take away from both, right? I want us to all reach our peak potential, literally and figuratively, and I want us to have the endurance to see it through the end. You know, in mountains, the journey is not the summit. You've to get your way back down, right? So having that full endurance. But the difference is absolutely technical. It's much slower, but there's so much more detail, especially here in New Hampshire in the White Mountains. It is very rocky, rooty, twisty footing.

you know, and straight up the mountain. don't, you switch backs nearly enough. So the focus involved is enormous. And that's what led me to running, is that I needed my mental focus to be sharp. So I needed to get my body in better shape that the physicality wasn't what's taking my energy. It was the mental energy. And I would say that the communication is more intense, but less time sensitive. When you're running, you know, there's a pothole. You have an instantaneous decision and reaction.

or I'm rolling an ankle, or I'm tripping over a manhole cover. On the mountains you can take all the time you need, reasonably, to work through it, but it's much more complex. So it's a more in-depth communication, like some of our work projects. Sometimes we've got to make some agile decisions. Sometimes we need to dig into the details.

Brent Peterson (16:32.684)
What do you, if you had, if you could give some advice or actually if you had some insight for this, what's coming now for business in these next quarter, following this coming quarter, this coming year, what are your predictions? What do you think is gonna happen in business in terms of are we gonna be up or down or do you have any insight on that?

DrDr. Randy Pierce (16:56.855)
Well, mean, we'll be all of those things depending on who you are and how you approach things, right? But the thing I would focus on right now is it kind of ties into your accountability, right? AI is changing the landscape dramatically, you know, for me personally and professionally. And I think like any tool, understanding whether the tool is right for you, whether it's right for the situation is important and not using a tool has a risk of its own, but realizing that no matter how you use any tool,

Brent Peterson (16:59.276)
That's true. Very good.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (17:26.679)
you're accountable to the results that you're getting out of that in a variety of ways. So, it doesn't mean don't use it. It means explore it, be educated. But I think as businesses, we're going to have to integrate this in some fashion into the work we do. And we're have to give our teams the guidance to do that because otherwise we're going to fall behind people who are using it.

Brent Peterson (17:47.767)
Do you think that there's entrepreneurs out there who are so hyper-focused on AI that they're getting rid of their team and they think they can do it all by themselves and they lose the idea of team? Because you can deploy agents to do all kinds of work in your company.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (18:01.959)
Yeah, I mean I'm reading reports that every day that it is happening and some of the negative consequences are already clear and you know I started everything by saying connections and I think people matter most. That doesn't mean that they can't have tools that will help and build efficiencies and change some of the structure but you know I want to do that thoughtfully. You know the quick joke I heard is that you we thought we'd develop computers so they do all the menial work and

and we could have time for art and music and poetry and the reverse is what's happening. I don't actually buy in that the reverse is what's happening, but I get that. It's an implied misuse is happening so that they're not serving humanity in all the ways we want. Sometimes they're disservice. And that we want to guard against and plan against.

Brent Peterson (18:49.45)
Yeah, yeah, implied misuse. like that phrase. Randy, we have a few minutes left. As I close out the podcast, I give everybody a chance to do a shameless plug about anything they'd like. What would you like to plug today?

DrDr. Randy Pierce (19:01.563)
I appreciate that. Well, I'm here in my office of Future Insight, right? And there's 28,000 people in New Hampshire who, like me, are on a journey of sight loss. And that's a higher number than most people realize. And all I just want to share, right? I love our mission. We find ways to transform lives. And I get to read the testimonials. But we only do it by building community and by having more people know. We used to be the New Hampshire Association for the Blind. We are now Future Insight because we're trying to help people build a better future in the site they can use and plan.

So thanks for the opportunity to speak with you. Thanks to my organization for granting me that time.

Brent Peterson (19:35.648)
Yeah, that's super. Dr. Randy Pierce is the CEO of Future Insight. Thank you so much for being here today.

DrDr. Randy Pierce (19:42.529)
Thank you, Brett.