Igniting Impact: Leadership Lessons from Glenn

In this special bonus episode of IgniteCast, hosts Taylor Tutor and Judd Wilson sit down with renowned management expert and seminar leader Glenn Shepard. With over 30 years of experience helping professionals become better managers and leaders, Glenn shares powerful insights on servant leadership, employee engagement, and the real-world challenges of supervising teams.

From humorous anecdotes about his early career to thought-provoking advice on how to retain talent and foster a mission-driven workplace, Glenn offers practical wisdom for leaders at every level. Whether you're a seasoned executive or a first-time manager, this episode will inspire you to lead with purpose, communicate with clarity, and invest in your people.

Tune in for a candid and uplifting conversation that reminds us all: leadership isn’t about titles—it’s about service.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Transcript

Taylor Tutor: [00:00:00] Hey, Judd. 

Judd Wilson: Hey Taylor. 

Taylor Tutor: Do you know what's coming up? 

Judd Wilson: When? 

Taylor Tutor: On Thursday, January the 29th. 

Judd Wilson: The Ignite Leadership Conference. 

Taylor Tutor: That's right, Judd. And where is it? 

Judd Wilson: The Orchard. 

Taylor Tutor: That's right. Again. One more. Do you know where to get tickets? 

Judd Wilson: Ignite leadership.com. 

Taylor Tutor: And you're right. Again, for more information on Ignite, you can follow us on social media.

Judd Wilson: Look forward to seeing everybody at Ignite Ignite.

Taylor Tutor: Welcome to Ignite Cast, where Ideas Spark action brought to you by the Community Development Foundation, your Chamber of Commerce and economic development engine. For Tupelo in Lee County, thank you to our presenting [00:01:00] sponsor, iHeartMedia for powering this season of Ignite Cast. I'm Taylor. 

Speaker 3: I'm Judge 

Taylor Tutor: and welcome to Ignite Cast 

Judd Wilson: Taylor, another episode of Ignite Cast.

Judd Wilson: I always love. Sitting down here and just interviewing folks with you. Our last one, it was just you and I in the room together, but today we have another guest. 

Taylor Tutor: Woo-hoo. In person guest. Yes. 

Judd Wilson: It's always fun. Our guest is Glen Shepherd. You know what, Glen is no stranger to the folks here in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Judd Wilson: Really all over the state. Really all over the country. Glen, you go all over the place given seminars. And the reason we're recording this today, he's actually doing a seminar in Tupelo. Um, it'll already pass when you hear this episode, but on how to supervise people and manage and lead a team. So Glen, welcome.

Judd Wilson: Two at Nightcast. Thank you Judd. It's good to be here. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, as I mentioned, uh, Glenn is no stranger when he came into the CDF building, Glenn, you just ran into somebody that you've known for [00:02:00] years 'cause you've done a, a, a conference here. How long have you, have you been doing seminars? Uh.

Judd Wilson: Throughout this area. 30 years. Wow. 30 years. Do you start at like age four? Yeah. You look great. 

Taylor Tutor: That's what I was thinking too. Well, as Steve 

Glenn Shepard: Jobs said, if you do what you love, you'll never have a work a day in your life. So 

Taylor Tutor: That's right. 

Glenn Shepard: How did you end up in, in the, uh, in that business? Well, um, I gr well, I'm gonna put it this way.

Glenn Shepard: You went to Sanford in Birmingham, right? That's right. May I ask where you graduated in your class? 

Judd Wilson: In college. 

Glenn Shepard: In college, 

Judd Wilson: um, we probably, it wasn't towards the front Glen, it was towards the middle back Taylor. 

Taylor Tutor: I have no idea, but I can say that I did have a 3.9 GPA. 

Glenn Shepard: She beat me. Glen Taylor, you, your GPA was double mine.

Speaker 3: I find that hard [00:03:00] to believe. 

Glenn Shepard: I literally graduated last in my class at Georgia Tech and Atlanta up That's. And, uh, I majored in management. I love what I studied, but I was the first one in my co uh, family go to to college. It was a big deal. My parents didn't even know what A GPA was. They didn't care. So you were good.

Glenn Shepard: They were happy. You I graduated high school and got college. They were happy, but I was shocked when I got out with a degree in management and got a job with a good company called Cintas Uniform Company based in Cincinnati. And I thought I was God's gift to management. I had a college degree. I made it through, I had a degree in management by the job as a management trainee, and I quickly learned that about 90% of what I studied in college was useless in the real world and by an absolute fluke.

Glenn Shepard: One day I went to a, I believe it was a career track, maybe Fred Pryor seminar, but I learned more in one day at that seminar that I learned in many semesters in college, and I thought, this is the best deal in the world. And that was back when college was affordable too. Yeah. So you know now what the people paying six figures and I'm thinking seminars are still the [00:04:00] best bargain out there in the education field.

Glenn Shepard: I love what I do and that's how I got into it. 

Judd Wilson: That's neat. That's neat. 

Taylor Tutor: Yeah. So Glen, um, on every episode we ask people what's the best leadership tip you've ever been given? 

Glenn Shepard: Uh, very good question. And to be clear on this, what I teach is management, so it's a very specific application leadership, and we have a saying that people don't quit their job.

Glenn Shepard: They quit their boss. And Gallup, I believe it was, did a poll. And they found that over half of the people who left their job last year said there's something their boss could have done to keep them there. And the number one thing was talk to them and ask them. Nobody ever asked these folks who leave.

Glenn Shepard: And of course we went through the great resignation and all of that in the past few years. Is, are you happy here? What do you like about working here? What do you not not like about working here? It's that simple. 

Taylor Tutor: Yeah. I've always said I could do any job you give me, as long as I like the people I work with.

Taylor Tutor: It makes the job so much better, if you like, who you [00:05:00] work with. 

Glenn Shepard: Well, you know, and, and having said that, um, people think that they, they can't, like nonprofits can't pay enough money to track the talent, so Not true. You know, that you work in a nonprofit and over and over again, I meet people in the seminar who tell me.

Glenn Shepard: That they have employees who had offers for a whole lot more money, but they like not only doing what they do, not just the mission of the organization, but their boss and their coworkers. People will work for less money if they're passionate about what they do. 

Taylor Tutor: I agree with that. 

Glenn Shepard: Taylor, can I ask you a personal question?

Glenn Shepard: Of 

Taylor Tutor: course. 

Glenn Shepard: Are you a millennial or a gen zr? 

Taylor Tutor: I'm right on the edge. So I'm, I was born in 96, so I'm a millennial, but only for a year. 

Glenn Shepard: I wasn't gonna ask you on air how old you are, but since you threw that She did. She did. 

Taylor Tutor: I would say I 

Speaker 3: identify more with a millennial, but I kind of fall into the Gen Z category by when I was born.

Glenn Shepard: Well, one, one of the things that both of those generations are known for that Gen X and baby boomers weren't is you're so mission driven. You care about [00:06:00] things bigger than yourself. Yes. I grew up in the eighties, if you remember the movie, wall Street and Michael Douglas, greed is good. And you know, you would sell your mother down the river just to make money.

Glenn Shepard: So that is that much more important now because the younger folks like you, I think millennials now are the, I know they are, they're the biggest, uh, make up the biggest percentage of the American workforce right now. 

Judd Wilson: So Glen, and I know you'll touch this, touch on this in the seminar, but you kind of mentioned it, that people, you know, they don't leave the job 'cause they don't like the job, but they could leave the people and, and a lot of times.

Judd Wilson: There's a lack of communication at, at, uh, different companies. Why is that? Is it people are scared of conflict? What, what are some of the reasons you think are the barrier for, for lack of communication within the workplace? 

Glenn Shepard: I can answer that one very easily. Most people don't. Let me back up. I studied management in college.

Glenn Shepard: I, I was fascinated with it. I loved it. Most people don't aspire to go into management. They get thrown into management in a sink or swim position. And, and here's what happens. [00:07:00] Joe is a good plumber and he is been with this company for 10 years and he always comes to work on time and he, he has great customer feedback.

Glenn Shepard: So Joe gets promoted to a supervisory position and he's a horrible, horrible manager. And the thing is that somebody who's a good plumber is not necessarily a good supervisor of other plumbers. They're two different skills, and Joe never got any training on how to do that. 

Judd Wilson: Right. It's just lack of training.

Glenn Shepard: Yeah. So many managers get thrown into it. It's just a, you have baptism by fire, which is, let me put it this way, if I may. So Taylor, I'm gonna ask you another question since you have revealed your age to us, since the rest of us here in the studio are of a slightly different generation and old enough 

Judd Wilson: to be your father, actually.

Glenn Shepard: Okay. You do that out there? Yeah. So do you own a house yet, Taylor? 

Taylor Tutor: Yes. 

Glenn Shepard: Okay. What year did you buy, if you don't mind me asking? 

Taylor Tutor: Um, we bought our first house in 21. 

Glenn Shepard: Okay, so you got in there right before things went absolutely crazy, right? Yes. Um, I talked to so [00:08:00] many young people your age and younger who, who I ask them, do you.

Glenn Shepard: Wonder if you're gonna be able to buy a house. And they say every day, it's the conversation young folks have. They don't think that American dream is within their reach. One day it will level out and it'll get better. But the way I always explain this is, the greatest expense for the average American will be their house.

Glenn Shepard: And right now they average house is about $400,000 from the country, even though that is insane, that high price, and it's still strange to say that. The good part about that is no matter how much you pay for a house today, if you buy in a decent area, whether it's Mississippi or California, or Tennessee, where I live, eventually that house is gonna be worth many times more than you paid for it.

Glenn Shepard: It will continue to appreciate little by little and you'll get a return on that investment. For companies, their biggest single that spent is payroll. If that payroll, if their employees are an expense and not an investment, they won't last. They have to get a return on that investment and they have to look at it that way.

Judd Wilson: Mm-hmm. [00:09:00] Right, right. Leadership, podcasts. So, you know, a lot of times we think, oh, the leaders, the CEO. But a leader can be everybody. Glen, I walk in every morning, there's a poster hanging up on the chamber side of, of CD, F when I walk in, and it's, it's one of your posters. We love your posters, Glen. Um, but it talks about servant leadership.

Judd Wilson: That's sort of a buzzword, but it's, but it's true. And I think the quote goes like this. Um. You don't have to be a leader to serve somebody, but if you're gonna serve some, if you're gonna be a leader, you need to serve somebody. Talk a little bit about that and why that's important. 

Glenn Shepard: Oh, and I am a big, big, big advocate of serving leadership and the quote, uh, you don't have to be a leader to serve, but you have to serve to be a leader.

Glenn Shepard: Yeah. And I have to give attribution for that. That was kind of inspired by Dr. John C. Maxwell. Mm-hmm. Uh, probably the most prolific author alive today on the subject of leadership and his, by far best book ever, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Uh, he has one of the principles in there that the person.

Glenn Shepard: Who has the title doesn't necessarily have the [00:10:00] power. And he tells a story when he was a young pastor of trying to get a new church built. And he thought, well, I'm the pastor. I'm the guy in charge here. I'm the, you know, the big wig here. And he couldn't get all the deacons on board. And then he learned there was this older deacon in the church who didn't have a real position of power, but he had the influence.

Glenn Shepard: And once he got that guy on his side, he got it through. Well, the same is true in any organization. There are people who have influence, who don't have titles. Because maybe it's just the person who's been there the longest or people just trusting him around this person, but that individual has a huge impact, even if they are not technically or officially in a leadership role.

Glenn Shepard: Right. 

Judd Wilson: Um, so. How does somebody become a servant leadership? Or, let me ask the question this way too. 'cause people say, or is there born leaders or do you learn to be a leader? I kind of think it's the latter. It is 

Glenn Shepard: absolutely the latter. Uh, nobody is born with the name tag or tax on their necklace as future CEO.

Glenn Shepard: Right. And so do you think service kind of helps make a better CEO? Well, I'll tell you [00:11:00] this. You asked me before we were on air, how long I'd done this or maybe we're on air, I don't remember. 30 years. Yeah, that's my answer. Um. I ask in every seminar, how many of you like to help people? Never in 30 years of doing the management seminar have I not had every single hand go up.

Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

Glenn Shepard: But having said that, as Dave Ramsey says, the problem with enablers are that they have a heart of goal and they want to help people. Their definition of helping is kind of screwed up. And one of the things we teach in the, in the management seminar, and again going back to leadership is that. You don't help somebody by allowing them to stay in a job, you know they're never gonna succeed at The worst thing in the world to do when you're in a management position is to fire somebody.

Glenn Shepard: But as we always say, managers don't fire employees. Employees fire themselves. And the best part about that. I always ask people, and there's always a few hands that go up, especially in a smaller community, is when you fire somebody and you live in a small town, you're always thinking, I'm gonna see 'em at church or at the grocery store, and it's [00:12:00] gonna be an awkward thing.

Glenn Shepard: And what if they come up and talk to me? But I'll have managers who have fired an employee months, years ago, and that former employee sees them out in public and they come up to 'em and the manager's thinking, oh, this is gonna be terrible. And the employee says, thank you. Hmm. For doing what needed to be done.

Glenn Shepard: 'cause I needed to grow up or I needed to be in a different position. And thank you for giving me a chance to succeed. But you have to be, you have to care about people enough to do what needs to be done, not what you want to do. 

Judd Wilson: Is that 'cause that person in the better position is gonna succeed more.

Judd Wilson: Anyway. 

Glenn Shepard: That's it. Yeah. Taylor, go. 

Taylor Tutor: I was just gonna say absolutely. I agree with that. Yeah. 

Glenn Shepard: I think it was in the Wall Street Journal. I saw that you're not supposed to say you're firing people anymore. You're supposed to now say that you're freeing them up for other opportunities. 

Taylor Tutor: Sounds so millennial of you, Glen.

Glenn Shepard: Well, it's funny is that, is the, it is technically true. Yeah. If you're not gonna succeed where you're at, you need to move on to the final place where you will succeed. And unfortunately, sometimes people won't [00:13:00] leave of their own accord. Sometimes it takes a tough love manager to do that. 

Judd Wilson: Right. I mean, I'm, I'm.

Judd Wilson: You know, Glenn, I've known you, I've been here for 13 years, known you for all 13 of those years, and I was not in the chamber world. I was in the pharmaceutical world. Um, I was laid off, uh, massive, uh, layoffs back then, and I never thought I would be in this industry. So it did take that to bring me to this industry.

Judd Wilson: And now I'm thinking, I mean, I, I'm, I guess you could say I was quote fired, but I mean, I was laid off with. Several thousand people across the, lemme 

Glenn Shepard: interrupt you there. No, you were not fired. Okay. L layoff is when you lose your job. Yeah. Through 

Judd Wilson: no 

Glenn Shepard: fault 

Judd Wilson: of your own. So that was definitely not a fire.

Judd Wilson: True. But it did. I mean, it's sort of the same thing. I'm now in a position that I absolutely love. Not that I didn't like, I didn't know how much, I didn't like what I did. I mean, I did. You know what I'm saying? It took changing and realizing, okay, this is where I'm supposed to be. 

Glenn Shepard: Sometimes when life is good enough, you don't leave to pursue what's better.

Judd Wilson: Right. Right. That's, that's true. That's true. 

Taylor Tutor: [00:14:00] Put that on a sticky note. 

Glenn Shepard: He could probably has that on a poster on a 

Taylor Tutor: t-shirt. Well, again, I gotta 

Glenn Shepard: get, so Tony Robbins has a saying, the Great Motivation speaker. Yeah. And he says that, uh, don't get so busy getting by that you never take time to get ahead. And that is exactly what most people do.

Glenn Shepard: And going back to my favorite self-improvement book of all times, the Seven Habits of Highly Affected People by the Late Great Dr. Stephen Covey. Habit number one was being proactive instead of reactive. Most people are not proactive enough to say, Hey, I don't love my job. I've got a family. I'm supporting.

Glenn Shepard: I got debt, I got a house payment. I'm gonna go find a new job. Well, no, you can't do that. You're locked down. So they stay where they're mediocre or just happy enough to keep doing the job. 

Judd Wilson: Yeah, 

Glenn Shepard: yeah. 

Taylor Tutor: I hope I never get there. I never wanna be stagnant. 

Glenn Shepard: That's right. Well, Taylor, I have a question for you.

Glenn Shepard: Okay. So one thing that your generation was raised to believe, but while both millennials engines is to find something you are passionate about, we talked about this being mission driven. So what do you find? Working here at the Chamber that [00:15:00] you enjoy so much? 

Taylor Tutor: I like how much we give back to the community.

Taylor Tutor: So there's the millennial in me. Um, just the work that we do impacts so many people, whether they know it's c, d, F behind it or not. And that's, it's not the point that they know it's c, d, F, but when we go to bed at night, we know the good that we're doing in this community, the jobs we're creating for people and.

Taylor Tutor: Just making Tupelo and Lee County a better place for people to live. And that's the community that I wanna pour into, that I wanna live in. And so that's what our work does, and we do that for people day in and day out. Even something as small as this podcast can make a difference for somebody. 

Glenn Shepard: Well, speaking of this podcast, for those folks who are listening to us and can't see us, did you happen to notice Judd herd body language?

Glenn Shepard: She literally put her hand over her heart when she talked about giving back to the community. She did. 

Taylor Tutor: I've only been with CDF for a short time, but I do love it here and I've always believed in CDF and the work that they do 

Judd Wilson: and that, that's neat. Taylor. 'cause I mean, the good thing with Taylor was. She was, uh, in work, used to work at [00:16:00] ICC.

Judd Wilson: Mm-hmm. And then worked, what is ICC at Woba Community College. I was worried, I couldn't say ow waba that quick, but I was able to do it. You had me nervous, Glenn. But, um, and so at, uh, IC C's very involved in what we do here at CDF. And then she was with an accounting firm, uh, the nail McKinney. And so the neat thing is Taylor, you sort of knew a little bit about CDF, right?

Judd Wilson: Mm-hmm. 

Taylor Tutor: I knew you for sure. 

Judd Wilson: Well, thank you. I'm guessing everybody knows Judd. 

Taylor Tutor: Everybody knows Judd, 

Judd Wilson: but it, it is neat to kind of see some of these younger people come in and see what we do that has value and wanna be a part of that. So that, that's a, that's a good thing for, 

Taylor Tutor: for my age. Um, people and probably younger and maybe even older too, we.

Taylor Tutor: Do the, we are doing the things that people think just happen and they don't really question or wonder who's behind it, and that's what we do. And so I, I'm, I just get tickled over getting to be a part of something like that. And I do, I wake up every day and I am just so thankful that I get to come to work here [00:17:00] every single day.

Taylor Tutor: So I hope I always stay that way. And I'm sure, you know, with every job there's downsides and bad days, but at least the people that I work with, they're gonna notice if I have a bad day and they're gonna encourage me in it. 

Glenn Shepard: Lemme tell you, as the oldest guy at the table here, I, you, you have an old soul teyl.

Glenn Shepard: You sound like all these years of wisdom in you. As you say that, that's a compliment too, by the way. 

Speaker 3: Thank, thank you. Thank you. I do have an old soul. I like antiques too. 

Judd Wilson: So, Glen, sometimes when we're sitting here with folks, they're, they're very involved in what we do here at CD. But I think I can ask you the same question 'cause it's not that we try to give a a, uh, a shameless plug, but you do a lot management, you do a lot with different chambers across the country.

Judd Wilson: Why do you think it's important for a small business owner or a business owner to be involved in a chamber and, and, and get involved sort of in the community? I know that you speak on management, but why do you think that's important for, for a leader or a business owner? 

Glenn Shepard: Well, in, in general especially, 'cause about 75, 80% of chamber of membership [00:18:00] nationwide are small businesses.

Glenn Shepard: There is no place to go to learn how to run a small business and be successful. And there's no coincidence that over half of small businesses fail the chamber is the only thing most small business owners have. And again, going back to a great bargain, what a tiny price they pay to get access to so much.

Judd Wilson: Right, right. Well, thank you for what you do, um, across the country, but really even here at CDF 'cause and you've been coming to CDF for, I mean, you said you've been doing this for 30 years. You've been coming here a while, hadn't you? It's been a few years. Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, thank you so much, Glen. We always enjoy having you, uh, here in Tupelo.

Judd Wilson: We enjoy having you here to, uh, to do your seminars. It's always a positive thing, so thank you so much. My pleasure. Absolutely.

Taylor Tutor: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Cast, presented by iHeartMedia. For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit [00:19:00] subscribe. And if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review and remember, go for and do good things.