Cody Dakota Wooten, C.B.C. is the founder of The Leadership Guide where he helps Entrepreneurs, C-Suite Executives, and Business Owners unlock their Heroic Potential, Evolve into Legendary Leaders, Forge Ahead and Flourish! He does this through his Legendary Leadership Coaching, Speaking, TV Show, and Top 1% Podcast!
Cody studied the Leadership Development world and discovered something – It doesn’t work! That’s why Cody no longer does it. Leadership Development only has a 20% success rate, and with the world falling more and more into a leadership crisis, Cody knew he had to do something different.
This led to Cody developing his Award-Winning category of “Legendary Leadership”. It looks not only at the skills of a leader but also at the Psychophysiology and the Core of Leadership. Cody has trained and gotten certified with the greatest minds in Leadership and different aspects of Psychophysiology, including Flow Psychology, Neurocardiology, Kinesiology, Eudaimonology, Nutrition, Respiration, and more!
Cody is a devout Christian and lives happily with his wife in Austin, TX working with clients both in-person and online.
For more details, visit their website here.
Here we sit down with Cody, to know a bit more about his journey as a leadership coach.
Q. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Cody: When I looked out at the world, I saw something that troubled me. I saw people who were in leadership positions that were doing terrible things, in every domain of life. It didn’t matter if you were looking at business, politics, religion, or even the home life – our leaders were failing us. I also saw people who wanted to step up into leadership but didn’t know how, while others wanted to let go of the reins but couldn’t figure out how to do it properly. I saw the problem and didn’t see solutions, so I decided that I would be the solution.
Q. How did you get started?
Cody: I was doing extremely well in the corporate world, I was making progress in the financial side of the business, quickly getting noticed by the leaders around me having received multiple promotions in my short time there. Then it happened – our company was merged with another, and the other company was given complete control over everything. I watched as years of work on developing people, a positive environment, and helping to get the company gets out of some really bad situations, almost overnight became a nightmare zone.
Over a third of the company was immediately laid off with essentially no notice – after having been told how “great” the merger would be for everyone – and over the next few months around 80% of the company was gone without ever seeing the new CEO walk into the building to meet anyone that was there. I also watched new people take over different processes with values that didn’t match my own, and I watched a lot of customers look for other solutions because they didn’t like how things were being handled. That whole experience left a really terrible taste in my mouth, and eventually, I was let go during the final round of layoffs. In a way I was lucky because I was told at the beginning of the merge that my entire department would be let go after a number of months and our only job was to train the team that was taking our work from us – though that process was not pretty.
After all of that, I asked myself, “Is this really what I want? Am I alright with the world being like this?”
I decided I wasn’t alright with it, and so I needed to figure out what I could do to change it.
It was also around this time that I was first introduced to the “Personal Development” world, and I found the work of John Maxwell. His work on Leadership really inspired me to look at the world and not just see the challenges, but have an understanding of why things were going wrong in so many areas. It was about that time I knew, I had to do something about leadership.
I later discovered that Leadership Development only has a 20% effective rate, and I couldn’t accept that. So I began to design my award-winning system on “Legendary Leadership” and it’s been a lot of fun looking not just at the skills of leadership, but also at the Psychophysiology of what makes leaders effective!
Q. What was your biggest startup challenge? What steps did you take to overcome it? What did you learn?
Cody: The best challenge I had at the start of my journey was proving that I had something to contribute. I started my business when I was 22 years old, and I had people triple my age asking me what I knew about leadership – I actually still get asked this question often because I’m not even 30 yet!
It didn’t matter to them that I had held leadership positions in every job that I held since the age of 12, that I had helped businesses expand to multiple locations before the age of 18, or that I had helped corporate organizations recover hundreds of millions of dollars of what had been thought to be lost revenue, and helped build business relationships that led to hundreds of millions more in sales – I was judged simply because I was young. I needed to figure out how to stand out from the crowd to make myself an obvious choice regardless of “age”.
So I did two things – I looked at what was wrong with the “Leadership Development” world and created an entirely new category that included the Psychophysiology of leaders which I call “Legendary Leadership”, and I learned from the top experts in a variety of scientific fields at the highest levels possible with them. Reading a book or interviewing the experts on a topic wasn’t enough, anyone could do that. I needed to prove that I knew what I was talking about, prove that I was a master of every aspect of what makes leaders “Legendary”. Due to the amount of work I’ve put into this, I now hold top-level certifications in a variety of fields and am generally the top coach in a very large area for all of those fields (Some spanning most of the country). I am also one of the few people that really understand the fullness of how psychophysiology impacts not only a leader directly, but how also impacts teams and organizations directly.
If I hadn’t been challenged by so many people, I wouldn’t have had the drive to really set myself apart as I have, and now I’m getting awards for my work in an industry where most people never receive any form of award for the work they do. It’s really a blessing in so many ways – “Obstacles make us stronger”.
Q. What is the Most Memorable Thing You’ve Done Since you Started your Business?
Cody: I got married! That was one of the best days of my life! But you’re probably looking for something business-related.
In my work, I have a couple that came to me with no business, and only the beginnings of an idea for a business, and they now do marketing for Hollywood movies! Even critics, whose job is to be harsh on movies, are actually excited to see the movies they are working on months before they release in theatres!
Being on the journey with them and helping them through the challenges they’ve had has been really rewarding. If you need help with marketing, I highly recommend looking them up – Balcon 217 (https://balcon217.com/) – their work is amazing!
Q. What is one book you recommend, and why?
Cody: If I had to recommend ONE book, it would be “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. Most people read the book and think, “Oh, this is a nice idea”, and then put it away never to really understand the genius behind it. I’ve completely run my business off of that mindset, and I help my clients run their businesses off of that mindset. In the book, they talk about how you can completely change your life in 5 years, and I am a testament to how true that is!
Q. What are your top 3 favourite online apps, tools, or resources and what do you love about them?
Cody: All of the following I have Affiliate deals with, but I only recommend them because I fully believe in these products and constantly use them myself – If I don’t use them myself or didn’t believe in their value I wouldn’t recommend it.
1) I would recommend the “Heroic” App:
https://leadershipguide–heroicenterprises.thrivecart.com/heroic-founding-member/
I am an investor with Heroic because I believe in their products and services so highly! They have been working on solving the “Social Dilemma” by creating an App that actually helps you live your best life – and it actually works! Brian Johnson, the founder of the organization, is an amazing individual and I have been through his coaching programs, I am one of the few Level 3 coaches under him, and his work has helped so many people!
2) I’d have to include the “Brain.FM” App:
https://www.brain.fm?fp_ref=leadershipguide
I utilize this app to help me focus and to help me sleep. I’m generally an extremely light sleeper, and I’m “Borderline ADD/ADHD” which just means I missed the deadline before doctors started heavily medicating for it. In general, these have always been issues for me, but the Brain.FM app has helped me with both focus and sleeps dramatically! Can’t recommend it enough!
3) For really looking at your Physiology, I’d recommend the WHOOP Band and App:
https://join.whoop.com/A767BA
This is one of the best products that are currently on the market for tracking strain, sleep, and recovery – which is essential if you want to work with your physiology instead of against it as a leader. It’s something that I push all of my clients to utilize because it gives them insights into their health and well-being that they often never really understood the importance of until using it, and I have the ability to connect with their stats to see how they are doing which allows me to be a better coach.
Q. In terms of legacy, what is the mark you’d like to leave on the world?
Cody: I want to be Legendary, and I want to inspire others and help them become even more legendary than myself. We often don’t realize how great our potential truly is – and if I could help even just one more person reach that potential, that is the legacy I’m looking to achieve.
Q. In one sentence, what’s the best advice you’d give to someone just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey?
Cody: You cannot do it on your own, so get help – There’s a reason that 50% of businesses fail in their first 5 years, and 90% fail in their first 10 years. Don’t be a part of the statistics, get the help you need.
To keep up to date with Cody and his journey, connect with him on LinkedIn, and Instagram.