
S13 E38 Two Roads Diverged with Gayle Turner & Shelli Jost Brady & Brent Farmer
- S13E38
- 12:58
- August 3rd 2023
In this episode of Stories Matter! Helping Leaders Transform Lives, our hosts Shelli Jost Brady and Gayle Turner are joined by guest, Brent Farmer.
Brent shares a powerful story from his past involving a project with executives and a sudden change in direction. The conversation delves into the challenges of managing expectations and the struggle between perfection and flexibility in leadership.
Brent opens up about his own experiences with failure and the importance of surrounding yourself with talented individuals.
They also discuss the value of teaching children about failure and the concept of failing forward.
Join us as we explore the transformative power of stories and how they can shape leaders' lives. Let's dive in!
Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Channel, Inc. https://storytellerschannel.com/ For close to five decades he has used the power of story to initiate and sustain change while growing leaders and building productive corporate and community cultures. Check out his LinkedIn profile to learn the rest of the story. https://www.linkedin.com/in/wgayleturner/
Shelli Jost Brady is Founder & Catalyst at Alchemy Consulting and Chief Operating Officer at The Storytellers Channel, Inc. Check out her LinkedIn profile to learn the rest of the story. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelli-jost-brady-94b44835/
Brent Farmer, Principal Emeritus at Baskervill Architects, is a seasoned professional with over 40 years experience in architecture since graduating from Virginia Tech. A registered architect in 25 states, he has provided architectural services in all phases of design, production and supervision of new buildings and adaptive reuse of existing structures, with special emphasis on initial concept and design phases.
Brent has been an active member of the community throughout his career, serving on the board of the Greater Richmond Association of Commercial Real Estate, and participating in organizations such as the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and the Virginia Economic Developers Association.
An architect, husband, father, father-in-law, sailor, whiskey collector, carpenter and above all a lover of everything sweet that can be found in his path (he is always ready for dessert and not much for vegetables).
At 70 years young, Brent looks forward to days on his boat and enjoying creative pursuits in his wood shop.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-farmer-09b25610/
Subscribe to The Storytellers Channel’s newsletter by downloading a FREE checklist of how to craft intentional stories to inspire results. https://storytellerschannel.com/inspire
Keywords
Brent Farmer, Lego project, executives, change direction, scrapping division, anger, acknowledge work, personal connection, trade track, business track, college track, manual typewriter, computing, slide rule, managing expectations, message, failures, leadership, perfection, flexibility, building empire, diverse partnership, multiple partners, easily distracted, new ideas, creativity, failure, failing forward, bringing in smart people, advancing knowledge, focusing on one area, enigma, force to be reckoned with, Swiss Italian background.
Stories Matter! - Helping Leaders Transform Lives
Listen to accomplished leaders share how they have transformed lives.
Leaders essentially only do three things.
- Initiate change,
- Sustain change
- Grow Leaders.
Initiating and sustaining change are fairly straight forward activities, but growing leaders seems complicated. It's the process of instilling values.
That activity, too, can be broken into three elements.
- Clear direction - where you explain what you want done and how performance will be evaluated.
- Modeling the behavior - where leaders demonstrate integrity, by behaving in alignment with their stated values.
- Tell stories that demonstrate the values.
Join Gayle Turner and Shelli Jost Brady as they explains how and why stories amplify steps 1 , 2 & 3. Listen as they encourage their guests, accomplished leaders all, to share stories they have used to grow the leaders under their care.
If you'd like to talk with Gayle about how you can use stories to inspire your people to achieve greater results click here to schedule a conversation: https://storytellerschannel.com/stories/talk/gayle/

Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Channel, Inc. https://storytellerschannel.com/ For close to five decades he has used the power of story to initiate and sustain change while growing leaders and building productive corporate and community cultures. Check out his LinkedIn profile to learn the rest of the story. https://www.linkedin.com/in/wgayleturner/
Subscribe to The Storytellers Channel’s newsletter by downloading a FREE checklist for crafting Intentional Stories that Influence Behavior and Inspire Results. https://storytellerschannel.com/inspire