Want to be effective? Follow this 1 rule

About a month ago I started a new journey: I completely changed my professional career and joined another great company. I am going to write about a few of my learning’s throughout this process.

It needs to be noted that this change was significant:in size of company, responsibility, and culture…

We all read about change – We read that change fosters growth. Change is hard. Change is necessary. If you haven’t read about change, simply check out the Google results here:Change All this is great on paper, right? It is easy to simply read these articles and get pumped about “changing.” Then what happens? Nothing.

I asked myself something very inquisitive: Why?

I came up with this answer – any idea or change that you want to implement must follow this simple rule:

It must be complete on the theoretical level AND effective at the applied level.

What’s this mean to you? It means when you are evaluating a mental model or a new way of approaching a scenario – simply make sure it hits both of these criteria. Because theoretical ideas are great for brainstorming, they aren’t great at knocking to-do’s off the list. And because just knocking things off the to-do list will help get things done, but are they the right things?

Action Steps:

1. What’s the one thing if you completed right now, that in and of itself would make everything else easier or unnecessary?
2. Then do it.
3. Repeat

Be great, nothing else pays

#LiveFree

Have You Ever Gone Ollin?

No, I didn’t spell that incorrectly.

Pronounced ALL-in, it is an expression of immense depth that conveys intense and immediate movement. Stemming from the ancient Nahuatl language, Ollin is derived from “yollotl,”meaning heart, and “yolistli,” meaning life. Ollin means to move and act now with all your heart (Taken from Kevin Hall’s book Aspire).

Take inventory of your current situations, are you moving and acting with all your heart in your faith? Your relationships? Your career? Your finances? Your health?

If you are, great! But if you are like me, I know I could go Ollin in more than one of those categories. If you are just getting started taking control of your life, pick one. Pick the most important area to you, in my case it is my faith, and go Ollin. Start there, the others will follow suit.

“When we view our path with clarity, we move with clarity, we move with a full and committed heart.” -Kevin Hall

It’s all about progress – pro means forward and gress means to move. To progress is to move forward. It isn’t going to be easy, nothing worthwhile is. But don’t let FEAR stop you.

“FEAR is nothing more than False Emotions Appearing Real – fear of failure, and fear of success can be overcome by firmly placing one foot after another with unswerving position and steadfast resolution.” – Kevin Hall

Act as if it were impossible to fail: What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

• What calls to me? What energizes me? What makes me feel I’m at my best?

When we decide what it is we are willing to suffer for, and what we are equally willing to act on, the world opens up for us. Find out what you are willing to suffer for, then go OLLIN!

Be great, nothing else pays.

#LiveFree

How to Master Your “Inner Game”

I like to think one of my talents God provided me with is the ability to see trends. Trends that come from many different sources but are ultimately teaching the same concepts. For example, I will be reading a book and studying one of the concepts, then I will be listening to an audio in my car and hear a similar concept but put a completely different way, and finally I will be working with my Mastermind group or my Accountability partner when he says the same things! It’s as if the universe is smacking me in the head saying “Listen, this is something you need to focus on!”

With that being said, my overall theme this year has been focused on mastering my “inner game.” I have been studying books on emotional intelligence or EQ for short, social psychology, psycho cybernetics and neuro-linguistic programming. The realization that I have come to is that it is just as important to feed, nourish, and exercise our minds as it is our bodies. The brain is a muscle, and we must do our best to keep it healthy and grow it stronger.

I want to give you a brief overview of a new series of posts that I will be working on. One of my mentors and great authors Ron Willingham opened my eyes to what we will call the “inner game.”

Here is a diagram that illustrates what I understand to be emotional intelligence:

New Discoveries About Breakthroughs

1. We all have an inner belief boundary that defines who we are, what’s possible for us to achieve, and what life rewards we enjoy.
2. This boundary is based on your past perceptions, and not on actual fact or truth.
3. We live out these inner beliefs without questioning their authenticity.
4. We have a strong inner need to hold on to these old beliefs and experience difficulty releasing them.
5. Your achievements and life circumstances won’t significantly change until you release the need to hold on to these old beliefs and move past them to new goals.

Success is an inside game. Become the person that deserves the goals you want to achieve.

“Be great, nothing else pays.”

#LiveFree

 

The Road Not Taken

Dedicated to my role model, my best friend, my guidance, my motivation, my sister: Regs.

Regan has many unique, yet amazing characteristics about her. Regs is my older sister, but really she is more than that. Regan and I don’t have the normal sibling relationship in the sense that we are more friends than anything, but the friendship goes so much deeper, because we are blood. Probably because Regan and I have been through so much together, been able to relate to each other, and most importantly been able to grow into adults together. Regan also bought me a book of poems for Christmas and this one has always stood out to me. Love you sis, this is for you.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

What I really like to do with my writing is to take somebody else’s work and relate it to how I can implement it into my life. It reminds me of the age old question in school – “When will I use this in the real world?” In this sense, choosing the road not taken is somewhat of a cliche, right? I don’t mind cliches, in my mind they became well known because everyone kept repeating them. Everyone kept repeating them because they make sense.

Best selling author Rory Vaden said it best when he said “Success is not owned, success is only rented, and the rent is due everyday.” Time to relate this to the “real world.” I was at my first trade show this week with my new company and observed something very interesting. All of these companies are exhibiting their booths and potential customers come to see what the industry has to offer. There is a weird dynamic happening here because unless you stop the people walking by and actually talk to them, they just walk on by. So what do I do? I create a game with my colleague to not let any of the potential customers walk by without engaging them in some sort of conversation. This was not easy, and definitely not what the other exhibitors were doing. The companies next to us even sort of started rationalizing why they were NOT having a successful trade show. I heard all kinds of excuses – the weather caused the attendance to be low, my spot in the hall is not very good and on and on. They even started to comment on how “outlandish,” we were by reeling in all these people! I couldn’t and wouldn’t accept any of those excuses. We ended up making the best out of our situation and organically cultivated over 20 new customers for our business!

Key Takeaways – literally when everyone else is doing something one way and you see they are not achieving the results you would like to accomplish, simply do the opposite. Be so different that people HAVE to stop and talk with you.

Take the road not taken in every area of your life. This will not be easy and reminds me of an old grade school poster that said “What is easy is not always popular, but what is popular is not always easy.”

Get out there and be different!

LiveFree!

How a $350 Sale Was Lost Over A Bag of Ice

It’s WhateverItTakesTuesday here at the office and I have a surpise for you today!

I have been trying to get this guest poster on the LiveFree Blog for a while now, so it is an understatement to say I am excited to share some of his Business Wisdom with you today. When you read this incredible story really try and put yourself inside the story and think about similar encounters in your own life. Everyone has a similar instance they can relate to.

I know you enjoy this story from Ryan!

Below is a story about how Gomer’s Fine Wine and Spirits lost a $350 sale over one bag of ice. The purpose of the story is to explain why it is important to empower your team to make sure your customers have the best experience in your store or with your company.

I recently finished the book called, “Lunchmeat & Life Lesson” by Mary Lucas. In her book she talks about a theory called the ‘comeback sauce’. She says to, “Always remember to put the ‘comeback sauce’ on every person you came in contact with. If they ask for a pound of lunchmeat, you give them a few more slices and smile and tell them you gave them a little bit more – whatever it takes to connect to people. Whenever they walk out the door, ask yourself if you think that they left happy. Always, remember the comeback sauce and feel free to do whatever you need to do to make sure they leave with the feeling that they want to come back again soon.” I really loved this concept and I was thinking about ways to incorporate it into our business.

As the book was fresh on my mind, I helped a friend shop for alcohol and wine for his company’s Christmas party. We walked in and were immediately helped by an employee that was very knowledgeable and he spent around 45 minutes helping us find exactly what we needed for the party. We had a great experience and promptly paid at the register and started to carry the alcohol to the car in a way where the boxes were completely stacked on top of each other and the point of tipping over. We were able to load the car and as we were getting ready to back our car out of the parking lot, my friend (Keith) realized that he forgot to get a bag of ice before we checked out at Gomers. He got out of the car and ran in really quickly without realizing he left his wallet on the dash of the car. He grabs the bag of ice and head to the register. After the cashier rings up the bag of ice, she says, “That will be $1.23.” Keith reaches for his wallet and realizes that his wallet is in the dash of the car and he doesn’t have the $1.23 on him. As we are in a hurry, Keith asks if it’s okay if he can have this bag of ice since he is in a rush, forgot his wallet in the car, and just spent over $350 and 45 minutes in the store shopping for the alcohol he just purchased. She promptly says, “No, you need to pay for the bag. We don’t do business that way.”

Keith comes back empty handed and explained the whole story to me as we drive away. A few blocks down the road, the phrase, “We don’t do business that way,” kept nagging at me especially since I just finished a book about using the ‘comeback sauce’ on every customer. Keith and I both run companies and both help establish and oversee the culture at our respective companies. As we drove away I said, “You know what, we don’t do business that way either.” I explained the story of the ‘comeback sauce’ to Keith and I knew we both knew what we had to do. We promptly turned around and returned every bottle of alcohol and wine that we spent 45 minutes purchasing. Keith explained nicely that we actually don’t do business that way and since there are other options to purchase alcohol in Kansas City, we will take our business to another company who understands the value of a customer and empowers their employees to make the right decision for the customer every time.

This decision to return the alcohol wasn’t solving world hunger and even making a difference in the world; however, we felt great afterwards and we knew it was the right thing to do. We returned $350+ of alcohol (which has an average markup of 25%) over a $1.23 bag of ice. The employee either wasn’t empowered to make the right decision or didn’t have the ‘want’ to help a customer who was in a rush and just spent 45 minutes in the store. Because of this decision they lost 45 minutes of a knowledgeable employee’s time helping us pick out alcohol and they lost out on $87+ of profit because the employee didn’t realize the concept of the ‘comeback sauce’ or wasn’t empowered to give away a $1.23 bag of ice to save a $350 sale and create a customer for life.

No matter the level you are with your company, you can always be a leader in your job and make the right decision for the customer. Empower your team to make decisions that always help the customer. Remember the idea of the ‘comeback sauce’ and how a little bag of ice could create a unique experience for a customer and create a customer for life.

Be better everyday, so you can lead people to be better everyday.

Thanks For Sharing Ryan!

#LiveFree

Ryan Bennett is one of the founding team members of Idle Smart, which was named the 2014 KC Startup Brand of the year. He is also one of the Kansas City startup community leaders as president of KC Roundtable. Ryan can be reached online at: ryanabennett.com.

 

What Have I Been Doing?

I hope you all enjoyed the last post with the amazing Brent Vogel, and would really appreciate some more feedback on that type of post as well as how you are applying the concepts discussed in your own lives. We live in a world filled with information, and we are sometimes overloaded with information and it comes in one ear and out the other. The trick is to weed out the noise and really adopt certain principles, values, and goals into your own lives.

Moving on, Wanted to give an update of what I have been up to and some really interesting ideas that I would like to share in relation to wealth building and the term we all use so freely “financial freedom.”

First off, I recently finished stage 2 of my training as a business coach/franchise consultant with Jimmy John’s! It was an enlightening (and extremely cold) experience which taught me invaluable lessons in business and more importantly taught me about who I really am as a person (thankfully I am quite pleased with the findings).

My top Take Aways from the 10 week Apprenticeship I completed at 2 different stores in Ann Arbor Michigan:

1.) To be successful, a business needs rock solid systems and procedures.

2.) If you can measure it, you can manage it. Keep detailed records (even if it seems unimportant). Business is Ultimately a numbers Game.

3.) You Will only be as successful as the team you surround yourself with. Put the time and effort in to hire right, then nurture and build those relationships.

4.) Hustle Always

I am about to board a plane to Portland Oregon, been the craziest last 24 hours of travel I have ever been a part of, but you have to try and see the silver lining in every situation. Next post will be about the business I am starting, and hopefully will attract some like minded people who are interested in connecting.

Have a Great Day,

And Always,

LiveFree!