The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff
The Learning to Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff
Helping Good Leaders Become Great—One Practical Insight at a Time
You’re busy. The demands are real. But your desire to grow as a leader hasn’t gone anywhere.
That’s why The Learning to Lead Show is designed for leaders like you—driven, growth-minded, and always on the go. Hosted by Executive Leadership Coach Mark J. Cundiff, this podcast delivers practical leadership insights you can use today, not someday.
Each week, you’ll get:
- Short, focused teaching episodes packed with real-world lessons from decades of leadership experience, bestselling books, and proven frameworks.
- Authentic interviews with front-line leaders who share how they’re navigating challenges, building teams, and leading with purpose, right where they are.
Whether you’re commuting, working out, or grabbing a few quiet minutes between meetings, this show helps you invest in your leadership without adding to your already busy schedule.
Because great leadership isn’t about having more time—it’s about using the time you have to lead on purpose.
This show is for growth-minded professionals who want more than titles and tactics. It’s for those who want to lead with purpose, develop a legacy, and make their future bigger than their past.
So whether you're leading a team, a business, or yourself—tune in, take notes, and let’s grow together.
The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff
#51 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jeff Brown
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Host Mark Cundiff welcomes listeners to episode 51 of Learning to Lead, sharing key leadership insights from his conversation with Jeff Brown of the Read to Lead podcast and co-author of the book Read to Lead.
Mark highlights Jeff’s background as an early leadership podcaster with nearly 600 episodes, his career reinvention after losing a 26-year broadcasting job, and his story of going nearly 12 years without reading before it transformed his confidence, leadership, and life trajectory.
The episode emphasizes that growth is intentional—requiring protected time, habits, focused learning, and consistent action—and that reading provides a competitive advantage by expanding thinking, accelerating careers, and improving leadership. Other takeaways include that implementation drives change, that great leaders demonstrate self-awareness and generosity, and that small daily habits like reading 10 pages a day compound over time.
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🔎 About LeaderNotes
LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.
Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com
Hello, welcome to the Learning to Lead show. I'm your host, Mark Cundiff, and this is episode number 51, where I discuss my leadership insights from a conversation from Jeff Brown. Episode 50, where I interviewed Jeff Brown, was a highlight of my podcasting experience so far. Jeff is a hero of mine. He has been the godfather of leadership podcasting, in my opinion. He started back in 2013 when leadership podcasting and podcasting in general was not near as big a thing as it is today. During his career, he's interviewed people like Seth Godin, John Maxwell, Simon Sinek, Liz Wiseman, Dr. Henry Cloud, Stephen M.R. Covey, and many more. He's the founder of the Read to Lead podcast, where he interviews great authors who have written great books and discusses their books. If you listen to the nearly 600 episodes that he has produced, you will get an MBA in leadership just from the content that he has put out there. He also wrote the book Read to Lead with a co-author, and this book gives you details about the importance of reading to grow your leadership, your personal growth. He also gets into detailing some great books to lead in a number of different areas. So I recommend both the Read to Lead podcast and the Read to Lead book for your leadership growth journey. Jeff, during this episode, he openly shares how he went nearly 12 years without reading a single book, and that's just wasn't an astounding fact for me, for someone who has a podcast titled Read to Lead and wrote a book, Read to Lead. But in his 20s, he went nearly 12 years without reading a book at all. Not one single book. He talks about how losing a 26-year broadcasting career forced a major reinvention, and he also talks about how reading transformed his confidence, his leadership, and his life trajectory. At the center of this episode is the leadership truth every growth-minded leader needs to hear. Growth does not happen accidentally. It happens intentionally. This conversation is packed with practical wisdom on building a lifelong learning habit, turning knowledge into implementation, protecting time for growth, becoming more intentional as a leader, and using reading as a competitive advantage in today's distracted world this episode is for leaders who want to continue to grow professionally and personally, build intentional habits, improve focus and implementation, develop leadership through lifelong learning, and lead with greater self-awareness and impact We talk about Jeff Brown's transition from radio broadcasting to entrepreneurship in the podcast world, how he reinvented himself after a career disruption, why leaders are readers, how reading accelerated Jeff's leadership growth, the relationship between mindset, habits, and relationships, intentionality versus implementation, why most leaders stop learning after formal education, and building systems for growth and learning. We also discussed leadership lessons from interviewing world-class authors. Now I wanna jump into the five big takeaways that I got from my conversation with Jeff Brown. Growth requires intentionality. Jeff made it clear growth is not something that just happens. It requires four things: protected time, number two, intentional habits, number three, focused learning, number four, consistent action. Leaders who continue growing are leaders who intentionally create space for growth. The leadership lesson here is if growth matters to you, your calendar should reflect it. Number two, reading is a leadership competitive advantage. One of the strongest themes for this conversation, great leaders never stop learning. Jeff explained four benefits of reading for him. It increased his confidence, it expanded his thinking, it accelerated his career, and it improved his leadership. After interviewing hundreds of successful leaders, he noticed a common pattern the best leaders are lifelong learners. Get that again. After interviewing hundreds of successful leaders, he noticed a common pattern. The best leaders are lifelong learners. Leadership insight, books allow you to borrow decades of wisdom in just a few hours. If there's nothing else that you take from that conversation that I had with Jeff, is that if you want the competitive advantage that great leaders have, it's that they are lifelong learners. They're always seeking a way to learn more. They're curious, they're humble. They're striving to learn more, how they can increase their influence, how they can increase their personal effectiveness, how they can increase their knowledge about the subject that they need to know in order to do their job effectively. The best leaders, the great leaders are lifelong learners, and that comes from hundreds of interviews with some of the most successful authors and leaders in the world. Number three, intentions don't create change, implementation does. Jeff shared a powerful distinction between wanting to grow versus actually doing the work to grow. Most people admire growth. Few consistently participate in it. Leadership transformation happens when learning turns into action. The leadership lesson here is knowledge without implementation creates frustration, not growth. Get that again. Knowledge without implementation creates frustration, not growth. Number four, self-awareness is a defining trait of great leaders. After years of interviewing world-class leaders, Jeff observed two recurring traits: self-awareness and generosity. Four things he describes great leaders by Great leaders know their strengths. Great leaders understand their blind spots. Number three, great leaders admit what they don't know. Number four, great leaders create environments where others thrive. Leadership is less about having all the answers and more about creating conditions for others to contribute their best. Leadership insight, the strongest leaders are secure enough to surround themselves with people who are smarter than them. Number five, small daily habits compound over time. Jeff broke down how reading just ten pages a day can help you finish twelve books a year. Over time, that creates a massive personal and professional transformation. Small disciplines create long-term growth. The leadership lesson here for us is never underestimate the compound effect of consistent learning. If you have not listened to episode 50 with my conversation with Jeff Brown, I highly encourage you to go back and sit down and listen, take some notes, download the leader notes so that you can get a good comprehensive overview of all the points that we covered, the resources that he laid out. He recommends a lot of different books during this conversation, probably more than 10. The leader notes will give you a listing of those and links to get those if you like. Also, if you got value out of today's conversation or any of the conversations that you've heard on the Learning to Lead show, make sure that you share that with a friend. Make sure you go give us a rating on your favorite podcast app and also subscribe so that you get each new episode in your feed once we publish it. Make sure that you go out this week and learn, grow, and lead and take your organization to the next level.