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How To Successfully Lead A City EP 5 | Growth Beyond Limits Podcast | Dr.Phil & Mayor Kevin Anderson
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Are you leading at a higher level—but still questioning if you’re doing it right as you go?
In Episode #05 of Growth Beyond Limits, Dr. Mercidieu “Phil” Phillips sits down with Mayor Kevin Anderson to explore what it truly takes to lead a city with vision, responsibility, and impact. This episode goes beyond surface-level leadership talk, diving into the real challenges, decision-making pressures, and mindset required to guide a community forward.
Whether you're a business owner, public servant, or aspiring leader, this conversation will expand your perspective on leadership and give you practical insights you can apply right now.
🔥 In this episode, you’ll learn:
• What it really takes to lead a city effectively
• The biggest challenges leaders face behind the scenes
• How to make decisions that impact entire communities
• Mindset shifts required for high-level leadership
• Strategies for leading with clarity, purpose, and resilience
This isn’t just about holding a leadership title—it’s about carrying responsibility, making meaningful impact, and leading in a way that lasts.
👉 Don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE for more episodes.
🎙️ New episodes drop every Monday at 8AM
Welcome to the Growth Beyond Limits Podcast, a dynamic podcast designed for spine entrepreneurs and early stage business owners aiming to reach their first million. Each episode features high impact conversations with business leaders, innovators, and personal development experts who share actionable insights to feel both professional and personal growth. Growth beyond limits. Go where you need to be. Hey, welcome to another great episode of the Growth Beyond Limits podcast. It's a podcast designed for inspiring entrepreneurs and early stage business owners, no matter where you are in your journey. And uh each episode features high-impact conversations with business leaders, community leaders, thought leaders, innovators, personal development experts who share actionable insights to fuel both professional and personal growth. And as I promised you, each episode we're gonna have the best and the brightest mind sharing information with you. And today, on this episode, I have the distinct privilege and pleasure of welcoming someone I consider a friend, but he's also a dynamic, dynamic civic leader, uh government official here in the city of Fort Myers. I am talking about none other than our great mayor, Mayor Kevin Anderson, who has graciously accepted to be part of our podcast today. Mayor Anderson, welcome to the Growth Beyond Limited Podcast. And man, it's so good to have you on.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you. It's uh I appreciate the opportunity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so a lot of time people hear the term mayor and you know city official, but we always like to uh start with getting our audience to know the person behind the title or the person without the title. So tell us a bit about you and um who is this amazing guy that's sitting here on this podcast that's about to share nuggets with millions and millions of people, but tell us a bit about who is this guy.
SPEAKER_02So, Dr. Phil, I'm um I'm the second youngest of six kids. Okay, grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the 60s and 70s. Um we lost our mother when I was four years old. Oh wow. Yeah, and my dad was an electrician. We lived in a 900 square foot house. Did you say 900 square foot? Yes. Okay, yes, very small. One bedroom, three bed, or three bedrooms and one bath. Um at one point um my dad built himself a room in the basement so that my older sister and her husband and two infants could get the the master bedroom and help raise us. And my three brothers and I shared a room. We had a set of two bunk beds. Wow. Uh and my other sister got a room to herself because my dad was very old school. Okay, so you weren't born in some political dynasty or okay, no. And um you we never went hungry. Oz had a roof over our heads, but we we weren't the type you we couldn't come home from school, open the refrigerator and grab a soda or a bag of chips or something. Uh it was Kool-Aid and powdered milk and whatever it took. Um, my dad had a limited income. Uh, and he worked very hard, and eventually uh he actually started digging ditches for an electrical company and wound up retiring as a vice president.
SPEAKER_00So your dad started digging as a ditch digger, so which was part of lower lower lower part of the entry level, and he retired as a what?
SPEAKER_02As the vice president of the company.
SPEAKER_00Wow. You heard about that? You hear that? So no matter where you are right now, do it well, do it with pride, be consistent because people are watching you, and your dad ended up as the vice president of the company.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and and so I always feel like you know, whatever you're doing, do it the best you can. Yeah, don't necessarily make it about chasing the dollars. Yes, make it about being as good as you can be at what you do, and the dollars are gonna chase you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so one of the things I always talk about when I when I talk to leaders and um young entrepreneurs, whoever, I said, add excellence to your intention. Because sometimes you intend to get well, you intend to make it, but then you leave excellence behind. And then you show up with an intent, but people are not observing intent. They observe the quality of what you bring. And so walk us from that situation where you grew up in a one-bedroom house, six of you, 900 square feet, to your career as a as an adult, as a professional, um, and then get us to where you are now.
SPEAKER_02So um, as I mentioned, growing up in Bridgeport and went to uh inner city middle school. Okay, very, very tough school. Uh eighth grade, I had the opportunity to go to suburban junior high. Okay it was probably one of the worst academic years of my life. In the suburbs? Yes. Okay. Um got in fights, got suspended, poor grades, um, just didn't mix well. And at the end of the year, they suggested to my father that I find alternative school next year. So I wound up back in the inner city at a vocational technical high school. And at that time I was interested in being a uh culinary artist. Oh wow. Except one thing is I don't have a real good sense of taste. Thank God you didn't make it to uh to to the kitchen. Yeah, I I probably could have survived uh as a short-order cook by being an actual chef. So uh college was not really an opportunity for us. Uh so I went in the army right out of high school. Okay. At this point, I had been introduced to law enforcement. Okay. Even though I grew up anti-authority and did not respect the police growing up. Right. All of a sudden, here you are. Yeah. And so I go in the army for three years as a military policeman, and come down to Fort Myers and join the police department. Well, and spent just over 24 years there, almost made police chief. Retired as a number two guy. And I I credit not just my father who really showed good work ethic. What all of us need to realize throughout our lives, we encounter people who have an influence over us. We may not realize it at the time, we we may even resist it. Right. But I I've learned to be open-minded when I talk to people, listen to what they're saying, because I don't care what it is, you can learn something. That's right. And it might be not necessarily learning how to do something, it might be learning how not to do something.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. So, so, so you so the what you're saying here is you went from growing up with absolutely nothing, growing up with a father who was disciplined, was hardworking, college didn't work out for you, end up going to the military, end up in law enforcement, and you spend the next 24 years of your life um, you know, doing something that is very important, and um retired as a number two guy, almost made police chief. So talk to that person who is sitting right now listening to this podcast, who's probably stuck um in a season of life or in a stage of life where it seems like everything is not working out, and they're feeling that they've been dealt a bad hand, or they feel like nothing is going in my favor. So give me two things that kept you going in those moments where you didn't have the picturesque um lifestyle, you know, the the the story of well, I grew up with mom and dad who had everything. And how'd you how'd you end up being where you are now? Give us two things that got you here.
SPEAKER_02First and foremost, God. Yes, okay growing up without a mother, knowing we were different because of that, um, there was dark days, poor decisions, and it wasn't until I was older that I I thought I had walked through this darkness by myself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh and as I got older and more mature, I realized she was never alone. Yeah. There's a uh a poem out there, uh Footprints in the Sand, yes. Yep. Uh where the person thinks they're walking alone and the and the footprints are actually God who's carrying it. Right. Um so and and that you know, along with that work ethic that my dad had displayed to all of his kids, um I I think those things just motivated me. And the other thing too is I feel blessed that uh I've been blessed with a servant's heart. Right. And I truly enjoy serving. Yeah. Um, but it's not about the title or the position you hold, it's it's about how you conduct yourself and how you manage yourself. And and I'll tell you, it's challenging in in this position because everybody wants to put you up on the pedestal and worship you. Yeah. And I always remind myself when the king's cow dies, everybody comes to the funeral. When the king dies, nobody comes.
SPEAKER_00So I I I want to say here for me and for a lot of people that I get to interact with, you cannot separate success from your spiritual grounding. And for somebody who's listening to this, it may not be God, it may be some other spiritual grounding, but eventually that'll lead you to where you need to be. Um you need to have something outside of yourself to help you maintain yourself. And I find the people who are most successful, if you were to do a survey, the people who are most successful, if you investigate and you do an inquiry into their life, what produces their success is that they have a good sense of a spiritual compass, which now gives them a moral compass, right? Because you can't have a moral compass unless you're grounded spiritually.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And then having a model, for you it was your father's work ethic. And so I would say a person who wants to achieve success, you have to find someone that you want to emulate that gives you like that drive, that that that that incentive to go forward. So, May Anderson, I want to talk to you a little bit real quickly into our audience about the power of vision. Because I always believe everything great that you're going to do begins with vision. It begins with having a plan, with having um an end in mind, you design it in mind, right? So being a mayor of a city like Fort Myers, which is I think the third largest growing city in the US, if I'm not correct, if I'm correct. It's a fast-growing city, a fast-growing city. Um, and so having to manage growth, manage diversity, manage um just the elements of a city. So what how does how does vision play a role in your leadership?
SPEAKER_02So, first of all, vision without planning is nothing more than the daydream.
SPEAKER_00Okay. You guys heard that? Vision without planning is nothing more than a daydream, okay?
SPEAKER_02And planning without vision is usually a nightmare. Planning without vision is a nightmare. I like that. So you you've got to have vision, but you also have to have the the ability to plan to fulfill that vision. And knowing that the vision is it's it's a moving target, too. Okay. You know, things change. Uh-huh. While you know, you may say, hey, I want to see this project happen, and then all of a sudden a year later, the environment's a little bit different, and that project is now different. Exactly. So you got you got to be flexible as well. Uh but you know, any organization, what really drives their success is the people. But for the people to drive that success, they have to have a good leadership.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I always say vision casters need vision carriers. Yes. So if you're a great leader and you're casting vision and you have no one to carry it, it just remains where you cast it, right?
SPEAKER_02And I'll tell you, you know, one of the hardest in the first major decision I made as mayor, I got sworn in at 4:30 on Monday, 7:30, Tuesday morning. I asked the city manager for his resignation.
SPEAKER_00So so you wait a minute, you so you wait a minute. You got hired, then you fired. Okay, so explain to me what prompted that decision. Um, and I'm sure it wasn't a popular decision.
SPEAKER_02It it was not a popular decision, but it was a right decision. Um, you know, in government, there's a thing called the Peter Principle. Okay. You get promoted to your level of incompetency. Wow. So you're doing good here, we're gonna put you up. And if you do good there, you go up. And then once you start doing good, that's where you get stuck. Right. So now you have people in positions they can't really handle. Right. And um, I I had the I had worked with the city manager for two years while I was on the city council. Right. So I had intimate knowledge of his abilities and and his performance. Uh and you have to have, you know, the city manager is the person who runs the city. Right. And so you have to have confidence in them. Yeah. And while I have the vision, our city manager is the one that who makes it happen. Right.
SPEAKER_00And so I think what I'm hearing, and I always say this: great leaders have the courage to make decisions that are not popular, but are necessary to accomplish the vision. So vision without courage makes you a weak leader. Yes. And so if you're going to be a great business owner, a great entrepreneur, you have to have courage. Now, courageous leadership is not being a dictator. It's not, you know, putting the hammer down, it's actually moving people in the direction of where you want to go. So talk to me about um the other thing I want to talk about is in order for someone to succeed in whatever they're doing, you have to have a team. Um, because a team is what brings the vision to life, what makes it accomplishment. If you look at any great company, you look at Apple, you look at Starbucks, you look at, you know, now the tech companies, the visionary has implementers. They have people who can actually implement. So if you're a business owner, you're an organization leader, you're an entrepreneur who's getting ready to start a business, or you're running a business, or you want to get to that next level, it's important that you look at a high capacity team. What was it look like? What is it what did it look like for you to build a team coming in as a mayor of the city of Fort Myers?
SPEAKER_02Government's a little bit more challenging than the private sector because government workers have a lot of protection. Right. So it it takes time, but you got to be persistent. You know, I uh I always like to say gentle pressure, relentlessly applied. So you gentle pressure, relentlessly applied. And just because you face a no doesn't mean it has to be no. Okay. You can still find ways to do it. Uh-huh. Um, example, when I was working on getting a homeless out of uh Lion's Park, the council rejected my plan four to three. I found a way to do it that didn't require council approval, and we were able to get a majority of the homeless into transitional housing and to reclaim that park for what it should be for families and children. Yeah. Um so you can't just because you hit a wall, doesn't mean you stop. Okay. You gotta just you gotta step back. You know, every every once in a while you gotta take inventory and say, okay, what part do I play in this? Yeah. It's very easy to to point the finger and say, well, that's why I can't do it, or that's why I'm failing. You gotta accept responsibility. If the failure occurs, it may not be totally yours, but you still own it. Right. So don't let it control you. You control it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's so good. Um something that I want people to understand is how do you balance collaboration with um the idea of getting people to work together? Because I always say cooperation is not collaboration. Because cooperation is you're doing it because you were asked to do it. Collaboration is you're doing it because you want to do it. And there's a fine line when you're gonna lead a team, whether it's a team of two, whether it's a team of three, whether it's a team of 50 employees or team members, what you want to do is you want to have a culture of collaboration and not a culture of um cooperation. Because cooperation is driven by a paycheck, collaboration is driven by I want this to grow. How are you able to achieve collaboration with political opponents, um, people who probably don't want to see you succeed, but you have to work with them for the length of your term. How are you able to do that creatively? And talk to the leader about how do you bring creativity into that?
SPEAKER_02Well, first of all, we should always respect each other regardless of what we disagree upon.
SPEAKER_00Wait a minute. So you just hit a nerve for me here. And we're this this this podcast is meant to kind of stir the pot a little bit. You said respect. In our political discourse today, what we're seeing happen on both sides, all across, whether it be the highest level or the lowest level, we don't see respect as a driving value. Why is that so important that we respect differences?
SPEAKER_02Because as long as we can respect each other and respect the differences, right, there's still opportunity to come together and make things happen. Okay. But right now, the left has so much contempt for the right, the right has so much contempt for the left, they cannot talk.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And therefore, nothing's happening.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And and who suffers? The people. The people. Right. So, and that's what I like about this level is being nonpartisan. I'm a conservative. Right. But I what do you think I am? It wouldn't surprise me.
SPEAKER_00Let's start let's start a little fire here on the growth beyond the Republican. What do you think I am?
SPEAKER_02It it wouldn't surprise me if you were a conservative. Yes. Okay. Um, maybe more libertarian. What makes you say that? Um I'm just I'm just having a uh Yeah, yeah. Just because libertarians in my mind are are like, okay, less government. You know, government should do certain things and that's it. And we shouldn't, you know, it's not government's responsibility to feed, clothe, and house people. Yeah. Now, with that being said, doesn't mean government shouldn't play a part. Right. I mean, on the city level, we do. Right. Um, so but I I would say maybe a lot of conservatives are are are more libertarian than really.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm I'm a conservative. I'm not just this modern day conservative. Um, I I tend my values and my faith drives my political ideology, which is I am for the things that resonates with the heart of where my sacred space is. But I'm also on the other side as well. That when I look at the way we're supposed to do things, we can lead with empathy. Yes, we can lead it with respect, we can be firm and yet be respectful and treat people with dignity. So I'm a dignity-holding conservative. Back to what you were saying.
SPEAKER_02So you know, it's it's sometimes I have people say, Well, you don't really care about people, you don't care about housing, you don't care about this. Uh you know, what they don't know is while I'm not out there on the Diaz beating my chest. Right. Behind the scenes, I was the one who was pushing the city attorney's office in the CDD uh or community development um department to get that affordable housing. By the way, was it $20 million? I just saw that was Oh, yeah, yeah, from uh the CBDG DRL. Okay, good. Uh congratulations on that. Well, thanks. Um, but I was the one behind the scenes pushing hard, get this ordinance written so we can pass it. And you know, now we have a affordable housing trust fund where we help people in need, help them subsidize their rent. And it's designed not to be a hammock. Right. It's a safety net. Okay, but it also uh provides for um uh down payment assistance, right? And part of uh that project that just got that $20 million, we also use some of the uh affordable housing trust fund for utility that's so good to pay for yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's so good.
SPEAKER_02I I was uh also the one who brought forward our attainable housing program. That's good. Where I love this story. The first house cost the city $245,000 to construct. I believe it assessed at $317. A single mother qualified for the mortgage. Not we didn't do the financing, they had to get the mortgage on their own. She, because it's in a minority majority census track, she was entitled to 97% financing, $10,000 down payment assistance, and one point off the interest rate. And then the icing on the cake was she qualified through a uh Lee County program for another $75,000 toward the down payment.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02So her Her mortgage payment is $165,000 on a house that's valued at $317. Her mortgage payment is $600 less a month than her rent. Wow. Now tell me that's not a huge impact. That's huge. So, you know, I am doing these things. I don't have to be out there beat my chest saying, look at me, look what I'm doing. Right. We're making things happen when it comes to housing, when it comes to homelessness. You know, homelessness, it's really a mental health issue for the most part.
SPEAKER_00Right. So I I hear you saying, in order to get things done, you have to be a creative leader. And so a lot of times I think leaders and business owners and entrepreneurs get stuck because they're on a one-track trajectory. And understand that sometimes you have to bring creativity to the vision that you have because just because this didn't work out this way doesn't mean you have to give up on it. And I think one of the easiest things is to give up when you find resistance. Now, resistance is part of the mechanism that tests the validity of your vision. If you are doing something and you don't meet resistance, you have to question it, right? So talk to us real quickly about how do you, as a high capacity leader, manage resistance to something that you are convinced is right that you're doing.
SPEAKER_02So a couple things. Winston Churchill says success is not final. Okay, failure is not fatal. It's the courage to carry on that makes the difference. The courage to carry on. So you don't give up. Right. Like with the Lions Park situation. I could have just said, oh well, but I found a way to make it happen. Um the other thing is you have to question yourself sometimes and say, is that hill worth dying over? Right. All right. Sure, I would like to see this happen, but am I going to sacrifice all this to get that? And so you gotta be willing to compromise, to give in a little bit. Yeah, it's all about give and take.
SPEAKER_00Good. One of the things that I want to always talk about on this podcast is why integrity matters if you're gonna succeed, having the right character. Because you can have competence, but the lack of character causes you not to be able to experience the competence that you have. So many leaders have started off well, very well trained, very well versed, but a lack of integrity, a lack of personal alignment, a lack of having that moral compass. So in your line of work, you have to deal with a lot of different competing opportunities. I call them competing opportunities. So you have everybody wants you to please them on any given day. How vital is it for you as a leader to maintain a level of integrity that refuses the temptation to please other people? Because the the first thing that compromises our integrity is the temptation to please people. Talk to us about that.
SPEAKER_02That and sometimes a quest for power. A quest for power. Yeah. You know, some elected officials, it's it's about that next level. Right. How do I keep climbing that ladder? I when I got on the council, I had no desire to go any further than city council. Okay. I felt that was a good place to be to make a difference. Um little did I know the mayor would step down to run for Congress. And even then, I wasn't anxious to do it. But when I saw the candidates that were surfacing, I felt I had compelled.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And um but it it's integrity. Without integrity, what do you have? I mean, seriously. And I I try I try to make sure that when when when I lay my head down at night that I can sleep. Yeah. And that when I wake up in the morning, I can look myself in the mirror and and feel good about the day. Right. Um, but you know, I remember hearing uh Franklin Graham and and it just shocked me when he saying, Every day he starts off by praying, Lord, give me the guidance, the wisdom, the knowledge to be a good Christian. I'm like, you are a good Christian. And then he he went on to say that at the end of the day, he prays for forgiveness for falling short of being a good Christian. And and I'm I was struggling with that, saying, but you're you're Franklin Graham's, you're Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's kid.
SPEAKER_00You know? Um, for some of you probably don't know who Franklin Graham is, you probably don't have traffic in the church world, but he's talking about one of the evangelical leaders. So because not everybody on this podcast are believers, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so then he went on to say that he, like everyone else, is human and is tempted. Yeah. Every single minute of the day. And I've learned to believe that the greater your faith and the more you're in a power, uh position of power, the greater a target you are for Satan. Yeah. You know, for Satan to knock off an average person, no big deal. Yeah. But to knock off someone who's looked up to, right? That's a trophy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Let's end with this. Um, and I I want to pit, I want you guys to pay attention to this next uh segment here. I'm gonna talk about. I often talk about the difference between busyness and effectiveness. Um, it's easy to be busy because you just have to fill up your calendars with appointments or meetings, right? How, but being effective means you're doing the things that only you're that you're only supposed to be doing. And I think for some of us, we get confused between busyness and effectiveness. And I had to learn this early on in my leadership as I began to grow in my leadership, as I began to, you know, I do public speaking, I travel around the world, um, and you get a lot of invitations because people gravitate towards what you have to say, your speaking style, your charisma. I had to create a filter on what invitations I'm gonna take, whether it was speaking at a government entity or a nonprofit or whatever it was, I create filters, and some of those filters I'll talk about in another um podcast. How do you avoid being busy at the sacrifice of being effective? Because as a mayor, you get asked to be at every ribbon cutting, and you know, they want your face, they want the photo. Um how do you put boundaries in place to be effective and not busy?
SPEAKER_02Well, well, two things. First, I have a really good assistant. There's that team again. Um, I also look at time being the one currency that we spend without knowing the balance. Oh, goodness. I love that. Can you say one more time? Time. Time is the only currency that we spend without knowing the balance. Goodness. And so that means time is important and you need to manage it right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now, where I really struggle is I made a commitment right off the bat that I would be accessible, responsive, and transparent. Okay. And I take it very seriously.
SPEAKER_00I've heard you said every time.
SPEAKER_02And so if it's important enough for someone to invite me to go somewhere, then it should be important enough for me to make that appearance. Right. Now, with that being said, uh, I can't be in multiple places at the same time. Right. And you do have to prioritize and pick and choose. And you know, the thing I I dislike um most about this job is every day is you're campaigning. Right. You never stop campaigning. If you're if you're if you're a good uh uh elected official, you have to understand that uh to be able to do what you want to accomplish, you have to be able to stay in office. Right. Uh and so I see some elected officials who they do the things just to make people happy, and then others who do the right things. Right. And I really believe when you do the right things that people recognize it. They may not agree with it, um, but they they respect it and they appreciate it. I had a I had a lady come up to me one day and she very just looked at me and says, I don't like you. And I smiled. And I said, Well, ma'am, you're not alone in this line of work. You can't please everybody. And then she shocked me by saying, But I think you're doing a good job as mayor. Right. And that's what we need people to be able to do, separate things. You know, you may not like my opinion on something. Right. That doesn't make me a bad person. Right. That doesn't make me an ineffective leader, right? We just don't agree.
SPEAKER_00So separating the opinion from the person. Yes, man, what a riveting conversation. Um, I hope that you got something out of this because we talked about how do you have vision, how do you create a team, how do you lead with integrity, how do you deal with differences. And for those of you who are watching this podcast and you're having thoughts about how do I get to that level, um, if you follow just the simple advice that was given here today, understanding that getting to the top is not, you know, a sprint. It's you got you it's a marathon, and you have to be able to stick with it. Um, if you have a vision, don't give up on your vision. Uh, don't give up when you find opposition. You might say, hey, I want to build this business and it's not going fast enough. I'm not getting the, you know, my KPIs are not coming back the way I want them to be, and I'm not moving as fast as I want to move. Remember, you have to be steady, you have to be consistent, and you got to be persistent. So, in other words, you don't stop when you find a roadblock and you don't quit because people disagree with you. You manage those differences. So, Manderson, if there's a parting word that you'd like to give to our audience, that person who is on their way to making their first million or scaling to the next five million, or that person who's just trying to make their first 500,000, what would be that sage advice that this former law enforcement, this great, great military guy, and this amazing mayor would tell him?
SPEAKER_02If I had to sum it up in one word, I think perseverance comes to mind. And quick little story. A lot of people know who Sylvester Stallone is. Yep, one of my favorite actors. He he was broke, he sold his dog for 60 bucks to have the money for groceries. He wrote Rocky in three days, it was 90 pages. Well, someone wanted to buy it, he wouldn't sell it because they wouldn't let him star. They offered him 300 and some thousand for it. He turned it down. I think he wound up selling it for 10% of that, but he got to be the star. And in 1976, they gave him a budget of a million dollars. He used handheld cameras, friends and family. Right. He never gave up. Never gave up. And look where he is now. Wow. Rocky is probably one of the biggest movie franchises in the world.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so perseverance, refusing to take the bait because you're desperate. Hold on to what you believe and go for it. Hey, listen, you want to.
SPEAKER_02I was just gonna say the other thing, and this is how we're trying to operate as a city, is don't be quick to say no. Yeah. You know, it's easy to say we've never done it that way, it won't work, you know, don't reinvent the wheel, whatever the little saying is. But no is probably one of the most dangerous and powerful words in government. We try to take the attitude of, can we get to yes? Okay. And if we can, how do we get to yes?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I like that. I how can we get to yes? So if you've been told no several times, and you feel like, man, I just can't catch a break. I can't make a shot, I can't get the ball to go through the net. Remember, it's not about the no, it's how can I get a yes. So go back and look at it again until you get the yes.
SPEAKER_02And a group of kids from Canterbury also taught me this. I get to have an attitude of I get to. Not I have to, I get to. I don't have to do my homework. Right. I get to do my homework because there are kids in this world who don't get an education. Wow. I don't have to wash the dishes. I get to wash them because I had a meal when there are people in this world who have not had a meal. So it's it's just a great attitude. I get to do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so understand it's a privilege to have a challenge. Yes. It's a privilege to have a responsibility, it's not a burden. Listen, you've been on the Growth Beyond Limits uh podcast where our guest today was Mayor Kevin Anderson of the great city of Fort Myers. Um, for more information about this podcast, please follow us on all our social media platforms. You can uh get more of the show notes at levelupoutcomes.com, levelupoutcomes.com. And for more information about this podcast, please continue to follow us, and we look forward to seeing you on another exciting episode. Maybe thank you so much, and um, thank you. Continue to do great things. Thank you. Thank you for tuning to the Growth Beyond Limits podcast. To follow us for more episodes, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and all social media platforms. Also, to get downloadable PDFs, visit us at leveloppoutcomes.com. Levelufoutcomes.com. Growth Beyond Limits. Go where you need to be.
