1. Discover why grit AND grace are the secret sauce to lasting success.
2. Learn the single biggest difference between average and top-performing professionals.
3. Understand how to identify your performance gaps using Dr. Jeff’s free assessment.
4. Hear practical tools for navigating burnout in today’s post-COVID work culture.
5. Get two powerful (and free!) resources to elevate your personal and organizational performance.

Jeff's Valuable Free Resource (VFR):

https://jeffstandridge.com/

In just 7 minutes, Dr. Jeff D. Standridge reveals how combining mental toughness (grit) and emotional intelligence (grace) leads to sustainable performance. Learn his productivity framework—clarity, focus, execution—and access free tools to transform your leadership and results.

02:30 Ideal Client: CEOs and C-suite leaders of mid-to-large organizations looking for sustained top performance.
03:00 Problem Solved: Inconsistent results. Jeff helps leaders achieve measurable, lasting growth and innovation.
03:50 Valuable Free Action: Assess your balance of grit (results) and grace (relationships) to pinpoint where your leadership needs strengthening.
06:00 Valuable Productive Action: Use the "Clarity, Focus, Execution" model to eliminate distractions and drive consistent achievement.
07:45 Bonus Material
09:55 Valuable Free Resource: Access the Grit & Grace self-assessment via LinkedIn and download The Top Performer's Field Guide.

(Note, this was transcribed using transcription software and may not fully reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Welcome to the Goalbusters Expert Peak Productivity Tips podcast, where top business experts get just seven minutes to answer five rapid fire questions about what they do and how they stay productive.

Each episode is packed with actionable insights to help boost your efficiency and achieve your goals. Let's dive in and unlock the secrets to peak performance.

00:22 ROBIN

Well, hello everyone. My name is Robin J. Emdon, and I'm an accountability coach and author of GetResultsology® - The Science of Getting Stuff Done! I work with people who run their own business, no boss, distractions everywhere and never enough hours in the day.
Together, we cut through the noise, sharpen their focus and follow through on the big ideas that actually move the needle. 

That's what I call the Momentum Formula. 

Do it today, profit tomorrow and repeat! 

If that sounds like the kind of breakthrough that you're looking for, then you're in exactly the right place.

And speaking of being in exactly the right place, I am delighted to welcome our guest expert today, Dr. Jeff D. Standridge.

Dr. Jeff is a strategic growth advisor, innovation catalyst, bestselling author and investor.

Jeff helps leaders and organizations create meaningful, measurable and sustained growth. With a career spanning executive leadership, startup acceleration, economic development and healthcare. Jeff brings a powerful mix of global business acumen and local impact. His latest book, ‘Grit and Grace - How Pursuit of Mental Toughness and Emotional Intelligence Changes Everything’ was Amazon's number one hot new release in June. And with a title like that, I am not surprised.

Dr. Jeff, welcome to GoalBusters!

JEFF
Hey, Robin. It's great to be here. I appreciate you for having me today.

ROBIN
I appreciate you giving us the time and the benefit of your expert wisdom today. Whereabouts in the world are you, Jeff?

JEFF
I am in the heart of the United States, the heart of America. So Central Arkansas, on our eastern border is the Mississippi River, on our western border is Texas, Oklahoma. So we're right in the center.

South center, I should say.

ROBIN
South center. What a lovely way to describe it. ‘The heart of America’. I love that.

All right. Shall we do the questions? 

JEFF
Let's do it. 

ROBIN
All right. I'll get the clock up on the screen.

And there it goes. Dr. Jeff, could you tell me please, who is your ideal client?

02:35 JEFF – Ideal Client
I'm usually hired by boards of organizations or their executive team. So, I work specifically with CEOs and C suite executives of mid sized to large organizations.

ROBIN
All right. Thank you. That's very clear. And what exactly is the problem, or I suspect there's more than one, problems that you solve?

03:00 JEFF – Problem Solved
The main problem that I solve for organizations and their leaders is helping them to achieve sustained top performance. Now that can be top individual performance or it can be top sustained performance for their organizations in the areas of growth, innovation, customer satisfaction, or what have you, but it's sustained results over time.

ROBIN
Yeah, it's the over time thing that's the holy grail for any business, keeping it up, keeping things consistent.

JEFF
That's right. It's one thing to peak and valley your results and to hit high achievement marks occasionally, but what we're really looking for is that sustained performance, top performance.

ROBIN
Yeah, I hear you and completely agree. So what is one valuable free action that the audience can implement that will help them to solve that problem?

03:50 JEFF – Valuable Free Action (VFA)
Well, you talked about the book Grit and Grace.

And so I describe grit as the drive for results and grace as being the pursuit of sustainable relationships.

Words that I'm using to describe mental toughness on the grit side and emotional intelligence on the grace side. Most authors today and consultants are talking either about grit or they're talking about emotional intelligence.

To be quite honest, no one can achieve sustained top performance over time without walking the tightrope of balance between driving for results and building sustainable long term relationships. If I focus on one over the other, I ultimately end up losing them both. I've said before that if I focus on results at the expense of relationships, I'll be wildly successful very quickly until I alienate everyone around me who helped me maintain those results. On the same hand, or on the other hand, rather, if I focus on relationships at the expense of results, people will love me for a while until they lose respect for me because I can't deliver consistent results. So really taking a moment to assess where you are relative to grit, mental toughness, and grace, sustained relationships and emotional intelligence, is a free action that I think everyone should do in order to determine where their tendencies are, if that makes sense.

ROBIN
Yeah. You can't see it because I'm only doing it mentally because otherwise I would affect the camera, but I'm actually leaning in there and listening very intently to what you're saying. That's a fascinating insight and terrific distinctions that you make there. So no wonder it's a bestselling book. I can see exactly why. All right. So now that we have a better understanding of what you do, let's dive briefly into GoalBusting, which is focusing on how to maximize productive time to achieve business goals.

So Dr. Jeff, could you share any tips or advice for someone looking to improve their productivity habits?

06:00 JEFF – Valuable Productive Action (VPA)
Yeah, you know, I subscribe to this concept of clarity, focus and execution. Three very simple terms that drive very powerful results on the back end. If we're not clear, if we don't have clarity about precisely where we're going and what we're trying to accomplish, what's the problem we're trying to solve, what's the result we're trying to get, what's the outcome we're trying to produce, then we find ourselves wasting considerable time.

And so getting very, very clear on what are the results that we're looking to accomplish, the problem we're trying to solve. The second one is then establishing focus time in order to bring about those results.

Not multitasking, not trying to do five things at the same time, focusing our efforts. And I tell this to salespeople, for instance. The only difference I've seen between top performing salespeople and average performing salespeople is the focus, the relentless focus that they put on prospecting. They set aside time on their calendar to prospect new clients every single week, sometimes every single day. 

And then finally, being willing to build execution mechanisms around that clarity and focus. We get clear, we establish focus time, and then we have some processes that we build that enable us to execute consistently as well.

ROBIN
Wow. All right. That's one of the most comprehensive and brilliant answers I've heard for a long time. We do get some brilliant answers on here, plenty, but I love that. That's brilliant. Thank you so much.

All right. So finally, and I'm interested to see what's going to come up here because it's genuinely interesting usually. What should I have asked you today, Dr. Jeff, that I didn't? And also, what's your answer to that, please?

07:45 JEFF – Bonus Material
You know, I would say what you probably should have asked me is why is grit and grace so important now? You know, the fact of the matter is, since COVID, there's been a tremendous amount of research on burnout and on people leaving the healthcare profession, people leaving other professions and what have you. And my experience is that we've kind of told the healthcare world that they need to be burned out. They see it in the news.

They see it in the media. And as a result of that, they're experiencing burnout to a greater degree than ever before. But not just in healthcare. We're seeing it the spectrum of industries.

And so it makes me wonder what are we doing, what have we been doing the last generation in terms of bringing up our kids and grandkids and what have you that has led to this mass focus on this concept of burnout. And so my experience is cultivating mental toughness with lasting relationships with whom we can interact and on which we can lean when we're experiencing difficulty is the answer to that.

ROBIN
Yeah, fascinating. And certainly, I mean, I don't know what the answers are personally, but I do know that my father's generation, burnout was just something you just didn't have time for.

Just had to get over it.

JEFF
You certainly never talked about it.

ROBIN
Sounds condescending and it sounds unrealistic, I understand, but maybe lacking in compassion, and I don't mean to. 

JEFF
For sure.

ROBIN
But I do remember my father was a real conqueror of adversity and he had a lot of adversity in his life.

He just had to get on with it.

JEFF
Exactly. I agree with you.

ROBIN
Yeah. All right. Thank you. That's brilliant. All right. So one final question. We've done the five questions in seven minutes beautifully.
It was a real masterclass. Thank you for that, Dr. Jeff. So one final question, which is a two-parter.

How can people reach you? Obviously, that's really important. And secondly, is there like a valuable free resource where they can connect with you more and get a little bit more of a taste of what you do before perhaps taking the plunge? 

09:55 JEFF – Valuable Free Resource (VFR)
Sure.

Actually two free resources, quite frankly. One is they can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn. Follow me and send me a message and ask for the Grit and Grace self-assessment. Be glad to send that to them. Number two, they can go to jeffstandridge.com, click on free resources, and they can download a copy of one of my former bestselling books called The Top Performer's Field Guide. Be glad to share that with them.

ROBIN
Wow, that's really kind. Thank you. And just tell us a little bit more about your bestselling book. That's only just come out hot off the press. I presume that's we know it's Amazon because I've said that, but if you want to take a moment to tell us more about it, I would love that.

JEFF
For sure. So, I spent my academic career researching this concept of top performance. I started off in the healthcare world, moved on to the data and technology world, and have had the opportunity to validate that research practically and invalidate some of it, quite frankly, on about five continents over the years. And so I used to talk incessantly about results and relationships.

Most recently, because of some of my observations post COVID and with burnout and what have you, began to observe that many authors, as I mentioned earlier, were writing about grit or they were writing about emotional intelligence, but no one was writing about the two.

And I adopted the term grit and the term grace and started really reflecting on a thirty year career in this space. And so the book generally, each chapter in the book generally begins with an anecdote or a story about a real life person who demonstrates whatever the concepts of that particular chapter are.

And then usually each chapter ends with some vignettes from other successful people demonstrating those things as well. So, it's meant to be something you can sit down, spend a lot of time with. It's got a grit assessment in it, grit and grace self-assessment in it.

And the idea of the book is meant to be very practical and things that people can employ in their own lives personally, professionally, in their teams' lives and in their organizations as well.

ROBIN
Yeah. I think it's just moved to the top of my must get books. Oh, there it is. Beautiful. Perfect.

JEFF
So you see the heart and the brain, 

ROBIN
Yes. 

JEFF
So that's meant to be an eye catcher there.

ROBIN
Yeah. Well, you've caught my attention. I've not heard of it before. I love the terminology. I can see me pinching it and getting into all sorts of trouble with you for doing that. I won't get into trouble with you, but I definitely love the way that I love your thinking and it resonates for me actually very much. 

JEFF
Thank you.

Appreciate that.

ROBIN
Very much indeed. Dr. Jeff, it's been an insightful experience. It's been a masterclass and it's been a true pleasure. Thank you so much for doing GoalBusters today.

JEFF
Robin, the pleasure has been all mine and thanks for the work that you're doing on helping people get results.

Thank you for that too. So everybody, thank you, Dr. Jeff. So everybody, remember, please keep GoalBusting and make your future self proud.

Bye bye.

OUTRO
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And if you're ready to boost your online profits, skyrocket your productivity, crush procrastination, and see a positive change in your bank balance all within just thirty days, this is your opportunity

Take my free five day challenge at skyrocketyourproductivitychallenge.com

Robin J. Emdon is the creator of GetResultsology®: The Science of Getting Stuff Done!, a research-backed system that helps solopreneurs beat procrastination, build momentum, and follow through on what matters most.

Robin was one of a small, invitation-only group selected for an intensive life-coach programme taught by Tony Robbins* and his faculty in 2001. The training was meant to prepare them for roles at his organisation in San Diego, but when that opportunity changed Robin stayed in the UK, launched his own life-coaching practice, and later stepped back to raise his two young sons.

Known to clients today as The Procrastination Slayer, Robin had a face-palm moment in 2019 when he realised it had taken him ten years to finish a six-year degree. That wake-up call launched his mission to master procrastination.

During the Covid lockdowns in 2020 he discovered that researchers had published more than 900 studies on procrastination in a single decade and pulled the most practical lessons from the strongest research and leading books to shape his momentum formula:

Do it today, Profit tomorrow, Repeat.

Peer-reviewed research from the Dominican University of California shows that working with an accountability partner can raise goal-achievement rates by up to 33 percent, a finding woven into every GetResultsology® plan.

Robin hosts The GoalBusters Podcast, now past 100 episodes, where he talks with fellow solopreneurs and uncovers the real-world productivity tactics behind their success.

From South Devon, England, he coaches clients worldwide, helping solopreneurs, creatives, and other no-boss professionals turn scattered effort into consistent progress and profit.

Want an engaging guest who sparks action or an accountability coach who keeps you on track? Book Robin for your show or request coaching details.

*Tony Robbins and Robbins Research International are not affiliated with, and do not endorse, GetResultsology® or its services.

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