[00:00:00.240] - Brandon
Wow.
[00:00:00.590] - Chris
How many of you have listened to the head, Heart, and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that react how much that means to us. Welcome back to the head, heart and Boots podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:00:11.330] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours.
[00:00:21.050] - Chris
I'm noticing that, and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose.
[00:00:24.070] - Brandon
No, I don't. I didn't, and I am not happy with it. Hey, all, thanks so much for listening to the show. Hey, if you're not already following, please do so. And ultimately share. Right. Like, the coolest currency that we have in terms of supporting this is share it with a friend, share it with somebody, a colleague, a peer, one of your downline team members. Let them be able to take advantage of the information you're already leveraging in your favor. And finally, guys, if you hear a show that really moves you, that really moves the needle, will you please leave us a review? Those five star reviews help us a ton.
[00:00:58.300] - Chris
Right on. And listen, if you're trying to grow your business, you might consider checking out Floodlight's business opportunity audit. It's free. We provided at no charge. It's actually what we use to assess new clients as they come in. It's a 110 point assessment for your business, and we've now decided to give access to the general public for it. So go and take our business opportunity [email protected]. dot it's going to help you identify the biggest gaps and opportunities in your business right now. And at the end, it'll assign you a health score to let you know exactly where your business stands right now. So go check it out. Floodlight grp.com audit. And take the boa. It's a great way to get a pulse on your business. Hey, so how's it going, man? Good morning. I love taking control.
[00:01:41.690] - Brandon
I'm good. I'm really good, actually. Well, yeah, I'm good enough. Today's actually. It's a good enough day. I'm doing the whole you control your attitude, right? Or at least you should.
[00:01:52.320] - Chris
You choose your response.
[00:01:53.320] - Brandon
You choose your response. I'm hanging in that pocket. Overall, things are good. It's all first world problems, of course.
[00:01:58.260] - Chris
But that question of how you doing? Like, this time in my life, this season of my life, it's. I bristle to it. I know, like, it really just kind of like, I know why people ask that question. Because I ask it you know, sometimes I run into people I know, hey, how's it going, man? And it's like, it's such a superficial question. And I think often we're just expecting the standard superficial answer, I'm good. I'm great. Right?
[00:02:21.410] - Brandon
Because mostly I'm not prepared to dive into.
[00:02:23.760] - Chris
No. But I think there's also this part of me that's been growing over the last several years where it's like I actually want to have interactions that are meaningful and less bullshit in my life and more like meaningful connection. And as you start to have those things where people are honest with you and you learn what's going on in their life, and then you're able to feel comfortable sharing what's actually happening in your life, it's meaningful. And you realize, especially as people start dying, you get into your forties. That starts happening more often.
[00:02:53.740] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:02:54.040] - Chris
And then you realize the missed time. It's like all the bullshit conversations you had with somebody when you could have actually been learning more about them and being a part of their life, and you start to have those kind of regrets, and you're like, God, okay, I'm done with bullshitting.
[00:03:05.980] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:03:06.380] - Chris
Anyway. Yeah, boy, we just wrote we dove right in the deep end.
[00:03:09.040] - Brandon
Yeah, there we go. That's probably a whole. That would be a whole episode.
[00:03:12.740] - Chris
But, you know, it plays into what I wanted to talk about today, actually, because I think we live a lot of our lives, actually. We're building businesses, talking mostly about superficial things and never really getting into the meaning. I wrote an article recently. It's going to. I don't know when it'll come out, probably somewhere around the time of this podcast. But I wrote an article about this topic called the freedom point. And this is an idea that our whole team has kind of been coalescing around with regard to, like, retirement, with the end game. But it's really a part of a deeper question of, why the hell are you doing this? And I think you can apply. I mean, the freedom point really centers around somebody's business, their career. It's like when we ask people sometimes, what's your goal? Or people will come to us with, hey, in three years, I want to sell my business. Or, hey, I can tell I'm reaching the end. I want to retire at some point, and they've got some sort of initial plan or concept around that.
[00:04:10.220] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:04:10.860] - Chris
And often when we start digging in with them, there's just kind of this generalized, like, the why behind it is so poorly defined. It's just like, I'm tired I'm tired of the business. I'm burnout, I'm frustrated. Or I want more time with my, or it gets to the point where it's like, I want more time with my family. I just. My kids and I don't see them enough. I'm not getting enough time with my wife or my spouse or whatever. And that's all good. But I think there's, we've learned to talk a lot about the why behind things, but I think we haven't spent enough time thinking about or talking about or strategizing around the real why. Like I think there's this why that we tell other people, oh, I want to help people. I want to serve my community. I want to, I want to build up, I want to build a team. I want to create opportunities for other people. We have these external facing whys, you know, it's my faith in God. And I want to create an environment where I can sow that into. Like we have these things we say are our why.
[00:05:09.910] - Chris
I want to create a better future for my kid, you know, all this kind of stuff. And I'm not saying that stuff isn't real, but I think all of us too, when I reflect on this, we have a more self interested why.
[00:05:22.230] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:05:22.870] - Chris
That sits beneath all of that. We have a certain dream or desire inside ourselves that sometimes is actually built off a negative. Right. It's something about our family culture or something about our wounding. We were younger where it's like, okay, my part of my why is I never want to, to experience x. I never want to be poor again. Or I don't want my kids to be poor or be scared of money things the way I was growing up because we always had laughs. So sometimes that real why that sits underneath everything is I never, ever, ever want to go back to that experience or have my kids, my grandkids, whatever, have that. And then other things are, if we're really honest. For some of us it's always wanted to have a Porsche 911 twin turbo.
[00:06:12.980] - Brandon
Yeah. And I know for you that's a real thing.
[00:06:16.320] - Chris
Like I remember. So. It's just so funny to that point. Like my buddy and I, when we were like twelve, we'd sit in Winco foods. For those of you on the west west coasters, we'd sit in Winco foods in the magazine aisle. Back when they had a magazine aisle and we'd read the car magazines. We literally sit on the edge of the shelf in the aisle.
[00:06:31.410] - Brandon
Yeah. While mom's shopping.
[00:06:32.700] - Chris
And we'd read all of those six, seven dollar car magazines. We'd rifle through all of them. BMW M three s and Portland Porsche 911 twin turbos, for whatever reason was my sting. Every single month, I'd be waiting for the new models coming out and new concept car, and it's like, oh, my gosh, whatever. And then when I was 20 years old, my boss had a 911 turbo, and he took me for a ride in it, and I just stoked it even more.
[00:06:56.340] - Brandon
Oh, yeah.
[00:06:57.070] - Chris
Actually, I was 19 when that happened. But anyways. But my point is, is all of us have these things, and some of them, we feel embarrassed. It's like, that's not part of the why that we share with, say, our team, right?
[00:07:06.760] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:07:07.150] - Chris
Or we have this dream of taking our spouse on an anniversary trip to that place in Bali where they're on stilts up above the water, and it's like fricking $10,000 a night or some crazy shit like that. Right? Yeah, but that might be part of your. Why? Like, I want to do that thing. I want to have the financial resource and the time to do that thing. And I just. Part of what we've been talking about as a team is that is the stuff that if we get in touch with those things, we identify them. We do some of the napkin math around that stuff. If we build our goals and objectives and our dreams around, like, we really build that out, what kind of life am I trying to build or create for myself, my family, my friends, et cetera? And actually put some definition to that, that dream that why is so much more motivating in the dark times when we're experiencing the speed bumps and the hurdles and the desperation and the trough of sorrow than just this generalized public why that we're often aligning our teams around of, we want to be the best, not the biggest.
[00:08:15.000] - Chris
We want to help people at their most vulnerable time. Like, that stuff is real, but what's really driving you?
[00:08:22.220] - Brandon
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Well, and I think another way to look at it, or certainly part of the internal dialog with our team and some of our strategic partners, is this concept, like you said, of freedom point. And the idea is for us to get more intentional about what is it that were building our business to accomplish? Because I think we all kind of start with this thing of, well, we were talking to a very successful business owner a few weeks back, and he made the comment about its kind of like this idea of building a business that supports you. What are you trying to do with this thing? Instead of it just being, I got to be in this forward motion. If Im not growing, Im dying, which all that is very accurate. It's true, because there's these postures that you take when you're not pushing for growth. Like it's. You do begin to go backwards because you let certain guards down. You stop being as strategic. There's things that happen. But I think the point is that we're so excited, for instance, leaning harder into this concept of freedom point and helping business owners figure it out because then it becomes the real North Star and it starts driving more of your decision making.
[00:09:29.480] - Brandon
It starts giving you a way to prioritize where you're going, where your time's being spent, like what kind of decisions do you want to make in the business. I think it even comes back and starts relating to where do I spend time, energy and resources. Because it's not like you're not trying to solve that equation or make that determination because it's going to be more revenue or it's going to just be more bragging rights or whatever, but it's like, no, that when I spend my time on that, it gets me one step closer to this thing I call freedom point. And for me, freedom point is this. Right? It's this thing, this place, this outcome.
[00:10:06.370] - Chris
Yeah. And I think of it as simply as what is the kind of life and circumstances.
[00:10:11.370] - Brandon
Yes.
[00:10:12.120] - Chris
That I want to be in.
[00:10:13.680] - Brandon
Yep. Exactly.
[00:10:14.780] - Chris
Like how do I want to live?
[00:10:16.820] - Brandon
Yep.
[00:10:17.420] - Chris
And it's going to look different for everybody. I mean, I really think this is true. Like, for some people that's living in a three bedroom, two bath ranch house and traveling the world in a bohemian fashion out of a backpack. And that that is how they want to spend their life, eating out at interesting places and interacting with different cultures, meeting up with their friends around the world. And maybe that lifestyle requires a completely different number and set of resources than somebody who wants to hit a Ritz Carlton on every continent in the world, and that's their style, that's their modality. Or to buy a million dollar rv and travel around all the NASCAR events, whatever. But I got. I just think it's so much more meaningful because, yes. Do all of us have ambition that includes how we're creating opportunity for others?
[00:11:15.410] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:11:16.270] - Chris
Sort of the legacy we leave behind, how we're impacting our community, the life that we can help provide or provide a platform for our people and our.
[00:11:24.820] - Brandon
Of course. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:26.700] - Chris
And I think. I think there's a lot of pressure in our culture, especially in certain spiritual or religious cultures, that anything that is for you.
[00:11:36.250] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:11:36.890] - Chris
Or your family runs the risk of being selfish.
[00:11:40.890] - Brandon
Yeah. Or materialistic.
[00:11:42.670] - Chris
Or material. Overly materialistic. And yet the reality is still those desires are inside. You have things that you want for you, that you want to experience, that you want to give to your wife, to your husband, to your spec, to your kids, to your extended family. Perhaps that is a unique desire that lies inside you. And I think as long as we sort of push those things down or we miss the motivation that comes of saying, no, I want that. I was in a hot. I met some buddies for a hot tub sesh last night. My friend Tim and Jared. Jared's a GC, and Tim's a really successful real estate guy here in Oregon. Shout out. Discover Oregon real estate. And, you know, Tim is one of those guys, man. He is chasing a vision for himself. And he was just commenting, the hot tub. He's like, you know, a lot of people are like, hey, balance. Hey, you can't have it all. And he's like, you know what? Screw that. I do want it all.
[00:12:40.330] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:12:40.800] - Chris
He said having it all. Like, I want. I want dynamic relationships with my friends, my loved ones, my kids, my spouse. I want high achievement in business, and I want the fruit that comes of that. Right. And I want control over my time. He's like, I want it all. And the only thing between me having it all is my discipline and how I prioritize and utilize my time. And I. When he said that, I'm like, pardon me? Fuck, yes. Like, I believe that. I believe that's true. The only thing between now, of course, there's luck. There is no. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it, right. To get to have it all, quote unquote right. None of us are guaranteed the time to do that.
[00:13:21.760] - Brandon
Sure.
[00:13:22.330] - Chris
None of us are guaranteed anything. But I think that in terms of the recipe, yeah, it's all discipline. It's like, do I have a clear enough vision and have I been honest enough with myself about my desire and what I really want in order to find the motivation to apply the discipline to do it?
[00:13:42.430] - Brandon
Well, I think that's huge. And I think you've kind of started to turn a corner here that I know gets me kind of fired up because it's been part of this conversation internally that I've been kind of keyed in on or wrestling with. And it's this idea. It's like, okay, what do we do with that? Part of me recently has really began to lean into. So I've got a little bit of religious stuff in my past, where it does this thing. And again, I'm not. I'm not anti religion, I'm not anti Christianity, any of those things. I'm a believer personally, my world. But. But what I'm saying is, is this false sense of humility where you can't talk about the stuff that you're chasing because you're materialistic, or again, it's self centered, or you're of the world. All these different things, pockets of reasoning and meaning. And here's. Here's where I'm at. I have a vision that when no one's around, if I'm just dreaming, the subconscious things that influence how I look at the future of my family, my role in it, what I want to experience. Like, right now, we're getting ready to prep for grandkids.
[00:14:39.260] - Brandon
Now, let me be clear. I don't have any coming yet, but that's the endeavor.
[00:14:42.640] - Chris
You're not trying to accelerate that.
[00:14:44.400] - Brandon
We're not trying to move that up. If my kids are listening, you just hang in the pocket, guys. You know, there's no. There's no formality around that, but we just. I have a 25 year old and a 24 year old. Maybe it's 24, 23. Guys, I'm missing the mark here. That's an inevitable next part of the evolution of our family is that Jana and I will soon be grandparents. That's the next phase. And so when I start to think about that, I start thinking about all the things that I wasn't able to have as a kid or I didn't quite make it, being able to do it with my kids or whatever. And I'm thinking to myself, what is the world that I want to create with my hands, with my priorities, with the way that I spend my time and energy, what I invest in, what kind of world do I want to create? And you and I talk about this a lot. You know, that, like, part of Jan and I's dream is a lake front property with. Okay, I'm going to say it, a nautic g 23 paragon parked out front. Or maybe we go Pavadi.
[00:15:42.460] - Brandon
Ski boat. Surfboat. Okay. Not free. These are not free things.
[00:15:45.950] - Chris
You've got some of our listeners salivating that actually know what those words mean.
[00:15:49.500] - Brandon
We're very specific in our visioneering. Right? Like, I want that world, though. Like, I will. You will find me sometime looking at images online, trying to identify visually the house that, for me, summarizes the way I'm dreaming. And I do that, man. Because when it's hard. I need to know why I'm doing the shit I'm doing. And me to say that it's from legacy and all these things. Is it true? It is. It is. But you know what? Let's just face it. I need some other stuff that's more real, tangible, that I can feel with my hands, that I can smell, that give me motivation to do what I'm doing and make sure I'm prioritizing my time. So when I look out on the horizon, my freedom point is taking into consideration. Okay? So for me, it's like, I want to do what I want to do for the reasons that I want to do them. And I want to do those things with the people that I want to do those things with. And there is. It doesn't matter who you are, what shape, size, or where you're from, that takes monetary assets to make that decision and to create that place in time.
[00:16:55.670] - Brandon
For you and I, we're business owners. So one of our biggest investments of time and energy to create the opportunity for me to live that out is how we build our business. And then what do I do in my business with my time to make sure I'm getting closer. Right?
[00:17:10.180] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:17:10.600] - Brandon
So we establish our freedom point based on at some point in the future of our endeavors, we will sell companies. And when we do that, what kind of monetary assets do we need to pull from that experience to live out the doing what we want with who we want for the reasons we want to do them? And that has made me recently get all nerded out on how I use my calendar as an example. Right. And you and I have been joking about this, but I literally went on a freaking rant with most of my clients recently on the. Guys, you got to look at this, dude.
[00:17:45.430] - Chris
Are you going to talk about. I want to wage per hour?
[00:17:47.740] - Brandon
Are you cool if I do?
[00:17:48.610] - Chris
I do. Please.
[00:17:49.680] - Brandon
Okay. So. And again, I think this formula, there's different ways, different contexts, but the point of it is very eye opener.
[00:17:57.000] - Chris
Yeah. The principle is. It's the principle.
[00:17:58.710] - Brandon
Right. Okay. So for us, here's how this has worked. Okay? Is. So we look out on the horizon, freedom point. Again, if we just boil it down to, it's like when you exit your business, what's the number you got to have so that you can live the way you want, doing the things you.
[00:18:13.930] - Chris
Want for the rest of your life? Yeah.
[00:18:15.940] - Brandon
What does that require? You and I have a number. We know. We know what that's going to require. So then we take that thing. Okay. And so let's. I'm just going to use some round numbers for shits and giggles. Okay? Let's say. And hopefully all your dreams are much larger than this number, but let's say I need $10 million in the bank doing XYZ in order for me to live that out. Okay, great. 10 million.
[00:18:38.470] - Chris
Yeah, only ten.
[00:18:39.240] - Brandon
Yeah, only ten. So I look out on the horizon, I go, okay, today we're at, let's call it three. I need to be at ten. There's $7 million in opportunity that I need to create with my time.
[00:18:49.680] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:18:50.000] - Brandon
So listen, this is funny. So then I divide that number by 2080. You know what 2080 is?
[00:18:55.230] - Chris
The number of hours in a. In a year that somebody.
[00:18:57.850] - Brandon
The average number of work hours.
[00:18:59.350] - Chris
Yeah. Okay.
[00:19:00.080] - Brandon
Of course, if you're doing 100 hours a week, this doesn't count in a year.
[00:19:03.810] - Chris
Yep.
[00:19:04.230] - Brandon
Okay. That is my hourly wage. That's what my time is worth if I'm chasing my vision.
[00:19:11.580] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:19:12.140] - Brandon
So think about that. I take $7 million and I divide it by 2080. And let's just say the number is not $70.
[00:19:20.200] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:19:20.910] - Brandon
And then what I do. Okay. And again, hang in the pocket here. It's the principle, right, of this. We could break it down by.
[00:19:26.960] - Chris
What is that? It's really. I think that's like $3,500.
[00:19:29.570] - Brandon
Oh, and it's probably substantially higher than that. Let's do. Let's do it really quick. So $7 million. And I'm going to divide that by 2080. That puts me right on target. 3365 an hour. Ok.
[00:19:42.920] - Chris
Liftify.com. bloodlight. You've heard Brandon and I talk a bunch of times about the importance of Google reviews. Maybe you even heard our episode with Zach Garrett, the CEO and founder. Recency, consistency, two of the most important things when it comes to maximizing the benefit from your Google reviews. Why not use an outside partner? Liftify is targeting 20% to 25% conversion, right? So if you do a thousand jobs a year, you ought to be adding right now 200 to 250 reviews a year every single year. If you're not doing that, you owe it to yourself to get a free demo from Liftify.com, see their system, see how it works, see how affordable it is. I promise you, you'll thank us. Liftify.com. forward slash blood light.
[00:20:26.750] - Brandon
You know, we spend a lot of money and a lot of attention trying to get that first call. And one of the things that we do once it happens is sometimes we leave it to chance, right? Who picks up the phone? How do they respond. How do they walk that client into a relationship with us? Well, one of the benefits of partnering with a team like Answerforce.com is we can systemize that. We can make it more consistent. We can also have backup for when our teams need that help. Right? Somebody goes on medication, somebody's out sick, you know, we get a storm surge, we get cat event. All sorts of things can have an impact on how we receive that client. But the most important thing is they need to know that they've chosen the right team. And so answerforce.com can support you. Be a bolt on partner to help you consistently produce an awesome onboarding experience with that first call with your client. So answerforce.com blood bite. That's great.
[00:21:19.220] - Chris
CnR Magazine we're friends with all the folks at Cnr. Michelle and her team. They do a great job of keeping their ear to the ground and reporting all the important information from our industry. Right? You want to stay up on all the m and a activity and what the latest best practices are for selling your company successfully, right? She's got that great articles about all the four quadrants of our business, right? CNR is constantly pushing out great material and leveraging great writers and subject matter experts in our industry. It is the water cooler of our industry. So if you're not subscribed, go to cnrmagazine.com. follow them on LinkedIn. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn. Trust us, if you're trying to stay on top of everything happening in the industry, your best destination is cnrmagazine.com.
[00:22:02.160] - Brandon
Dot you guys, many of you have already heard about actionable insights and the training and the technical expertise that they bring to the industry. But how many of you are already leveraging the actionable insights profile for xactimate? That's the game changer. It's essentially an AI tool that's walking alongside of you as you write your estimate, bringing things to your attention that should be added that could be considered. All of them. Items that increase our profitability, increase the effectiveness and the consistency of that scope. And it can do anything from helping a new team member assimilate some estimating best practices. And it also helps the grizzled vets add back that few percent that we've just forgot over time. So, actionable insights. Get insights.org floodlight and take a look at what the actionable insights xactimate profile could be doing for you and your team. $3,365 an hour is what my time has to be worth in order for me to go out on my timeline and create that value for myself. And that's a non negotiable. I'm going to create that because that will give me the things I need to live out my freedom point being with who I want, doing what I want for the reason that I want to do them.
[00:23:19.680] - Brandon
Okay. So then I look at my day, my week, the things I'm spending time on, and I ask myself, is that a $3,365 an hour opportunity or time that I'm spending, or is that worth $20, $18, $70? Because I'm doing something that one of my team members should do, a stuffed hire somebody should do. Right, or I should just really shrink that time spend or tightly wrap it.
[00:23:49.540] - Chris
Because it ain't gonna create value. Rapid.
[00:23:51.960] - Brandon
Okay, so then I can't show a visual on here, but so then, okay, we use.
[00:23:56.670] - Chris
None of us are ever gonna be able to watch Netflix again, bro.
[00:23:58.880] - Brandon
I know, I know. So you still. You gotta build in some time for all of us. We gotta still Netflix and chill. Yeah, well, all right, so one thing. So then what I did is I was like, okay, this is cool in theory. Like, I love the idea. I love this idea that I'm creating a real numerical value to the time that I spend on things. The value of that. And then what I decided to do, and somebody showed us this is. There's an analytics feature in Google, in Google calendar, okay. I think it's trends or something. Anyways, look on the left column of your Google calendar. You're going to see this thing under a colored bar that's showing you roughly where your time's going. If you open that up, you can actually go in then, and all those little individual default colors, you can give them a title. Okay. And so what I did is I titled all of those based on what that bucket of time is.
[00:24:49.580] - Chris
That category.
[00:24:50.400] - Brandon
Yeah. Physical fitness, personal time, strategic time on the business. For me, sales and recruiting is a core function for me to live out that number. I identified those buckets of time where my time potentially goes. And then I started this analytics shows you in a week wheres all your time and energy going, man. So listen, this is what kicked my ass. So I established my freedom point. I then established what I believe my hourly rate is in terms of if im using my time, highest value, highest return. And then I looked at my calendar analytics and realized, you know, how much time I had scheduled, saved, protected, implemented for strategic time working on our business. Less than 8 hours in a week. Okay. Sales and recruiting, how much time did I have? Less than 8 hours in a week. I had a shit ton of internal meetings, and I had a shit ton of other stuff I was saying yes to. And on the surface, guys, it's not Netflix. On the surface, they seem like viable business things for me to be spending my time and energy on. But because I hadn't analyzed and had context of why I want to be spending time and energy in these buckets, I was wasting my time and energy.
[00:26:03.880] - Brandon
I was spending the vast conscious of it.
[00:26:06.730] - Chris
It was just weren't aware, moving along, doing important things.
[00:26:11.010] - Brandon
That's right. Yeah. And especially felt like in the moment, but it's like, this gave me a way for me to look at my calendar and have a wake up call. And, guys, I wasn't guilt and shame and beating myself over the forehead. It was just like, wow, this is very eye opening.
[00:26:26.800] - Chris
No, but you've been allowing it to change the way you behave.
[00:26:29.590] - Brandon
Very much so, like a couple days.
[00:26:31.790] - Chris
Ago, we have a strategic partner that we've been cultivating a relationship with and have a really key meeting with one of the c suites at this partner. And I reached out to you, and I said, hey, we're going to have a meet and greet with this new executive. I need to cut into your strategy time. I need 30 minutes of your strategy time. You're like, nope, you and Wayne do it. You're perfectly capable of representing the team. Just, you guys do it. I already gave up some of my strategic time for this other thing. I'm not doing it next week.
[00:26:59.300] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:26:59.940] - Chris
And I was like, all right, understood. You know, and I appreciate it, because I know why you're making that commitment.
[00:27:07.640] - Brandon
That's it.
[00:27:08.160] - Chris
Right. And it obviously is partners. Right. That you being committed to that focus and intention serves my interests as well. Right? And so. But at the same time, I have to tell you the very first time, because I've actually asked you twice about that time slot, I was scheduling these. These partner meetings, and you told me no, twice. You stuck to your guns. The first time, I was mildly irritated. I said, dude, this is a really important frickin meeting. This is a very important person. And you had actually taken that into account, but it still wasn't a third. Whatever, a $5,000 time, or, you know, and I get that. And that resonates. Resonates with me more and more as we kind of process this. This concept. But I think, well, here's the thing, though, dude.
[00:27:52.600] - Brandon
The beauty of it is, is that, okay, by the second time, you kind of tried to tap into that, and I stood my ground. You even said it. It's like then you move into this place of, wow, I can trust that. And I respect that. And I think that's what we're saying here. This empowers us as business owners and key leaders, because this is true for key leaders, too, is this allows you to have a very good reason and clear context for why you say yes when you say yes and why you say no. And when you say no. And then there's this really cool thing that begins to happen where you don't do mental gymnastics when somebody says, hey, can you do something here? Because in the past, I just. I was always reiterating my calendar and just saying yes and just filling things in because people asked us, because there is value. But once I established clear differences in the value and what the value proposition of my time was, now all of a sudden it's like I get my own confidence, too. It's like, no, I say no to that. And I'm totally standing my ground and I'm comfortable with it.
[00:29:02.770] - Chris
Jeff? Well, and I think for me, too, it forces my head into the right place. Seeing that commitment on your part, I was going to bring in my role as president of the company. I have a very particular focus. I engage in certain kinds of conversations with our external partners, our clients, our prospects and so forth, and our team. And then you have a particular perspective and voice as the CEO. And so I think when you say no, you cover that meeting. It orients me around. Okay. Are there aspects of Brandon's voice or focus or priority that I need to be intentional about bringing into that conversation? Brandon doesn't need to be here. But are there aspects, are there topics or items that I know would be important to Brandon? And I can be that proxy. I can bring those things to the table and be intentional about building that in, which frees you up to not.
[00:29:58.960] - Brandon
Be there on a person.
[00:29:59.950] - Chris
Right. You know, we talk a lot about extreme ownership, and I think every single time we get new clarity and commitment around something, it allows somebody else on the team greater clarity and commitment to what they're doing for that. You know what I mean?
[00:30:16.240] - Brandon
Oh, dude, you're spot on. And here's kind of like a. An element to piggyback onto that is it actually forces then owners and key leaders to solve problem versus put out fires. Because when I begin to look at where my time and energy goes and then my intentional focus is on, I want as many hours in the working week to go to the high dollar per hour value things, then all of a sudden something that you would have inevitably kept putting your time and energy because in the moment it asked of you and it was fine. You answered the problem, you fixed the thing in the moment. You don't want to go back to that bucket every week. You don't want to be faced with another opportunity that something pulled you out of those high dollar things. And so it forces you to be more focused on intentionally creating solutions. Right. Example being like in that meeting. That meeting example that you're talking about. Well, now, since you and I are both clear why I want to be in certain buckets at what time, it forces you and I to create a process then to where before you engage certain partners in your role, if there is something of substance that I either need to understand or contribute, we will be forced to be more proactive to cover that base.
[00:31:28.660] - Brandon
Because instead of us living out the ad lib, the whatever, the adapt and overcome and the firefighting bullshit, we're not going to do that. And so it just changes our behavior. It makes us more proactive in our orientation. And I just think so many of our business owners that we work with, and we're no different. We're just as susceptible to anybody we work with. It's always easier to help somebody with their business than it is to implement your own. But what it forces us to do is even help them to have a better reason why they want to spend their time and energy in the shit that in the moment feels like the way long way around. Because they're like, oh, well, then that means I don't have to spend a $70 hours next week. Yeah, I can have a $3,000 hours instead. Right.
[00:32:13.190] - Chris
And I think if you really go through the process of getting honest with yourself, this is all about honesty. It's all about what do I really want? Yes. Really?
[00:32:23.120] - Brandon
Yes.
[00:32:23.690] - Chris
Not because I feel some social obligation that I should want, but like really tapping into what is my desire. What's my desire? And honoring it.
[00:32:34.800] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:32:35.140] - Chris
And saying, okay, I want this thing. And in order for me to have this thing or do these things or live this experience, share this thing with my spouse, my kids, my friends, my whatever, I'm going to need to build this a certain way to be able to provide the resource and or time, that's it. To live this way that I desire, regardless of what everybody else thinks I should do, what my parents did, what my brothers and sisters are doing or not doing. I think when you get that clarity, it's so much easier to get through the troughs of sorrow than inevitably you're going to pass through.
[00:33:12.720] - Brandon
No, it's so true. Here's the other thing, too, Mandy. Like, okay, those of you listening right now, ask yourself this question. How many times in the last handful of years have you started the year with this intention of where you want to be at the end of it? Maybe you did some financial planning. Maybe you were looking at your revenue. Maybe you were looking at what kind of roles you want to have hired in the business so that you get a little bit more time back. Whatever. The thing is, how many times have you started with the intention, with clarity around what you want, but then the reality that you experience was a 90 degree turn from that or 180 degree experience, meaning it didn't happen. And I think one of the things that this is really helping me is that when I want to do something for the right reason, when I prioritize this behavior, I either do it or I get really damn close, meaning the outcome is a far different experience than I've had in the past. And so in and of it, that itself, it's so worth it. Here's another thing that I've been kind of processing with this, is I got rid of a to do list, and it was all part of this maintenance of where I'm spending my time, because this is what I kept running into, man, is that I would go all day long, 10 hours, 12 hours sometimes, of everything from formal to miscellaneous engagement.
[00:34:35.300] - Brandon
And my to do list didn't get shorter. Then I go into the next day all day long, start to finish. Nothing on the to do list got hit. And often what was on my to do list was things like the hard shit. It's why you didn't throw it on your calendar right away. It's things like documentation I need to build for contracts, service contracts, new consultant service agreements, like this strategic stuff that helps me scale, grow, and sell. My business is on my to do list, and my calendar is taken up of meetings and shit all day long. And my to do list never goes anywhere. So then I'm like, I'm at 60 hours a week, and the to do list hasn't gone anywhere, but I'm still saying yes to people because there's a blank spot on my calendar. So then what I started doing, and we had a dear friend that kind of bitch slapped me with this right pitch slap. He said, don't use a to do list. If you say you're going to do something immediately, put it somewhere on the calendar where it fits. Now. So what I try to do is I will update agenda items inside.
[00:35:33.330] - Brandon
Let's say if I have a strategic block next Tuesday for 2 hours, whatever, and I get off a call with somebody, and I need to do something to implement a system, a process, a strategy, I'm going to book it in that two hour block on my agenda. I've got it saved for strategic time. Here's the two things I plan to do during that window. But here's the beauty of it. Another example, a webinar. You're going to do a content piece of content training. Well, it's not just the training that should be on your calendar. Where's the several hours of time doing research, creating your outlines, building your slide deck, preparing the resources, meeting with the people. Where is all that at? And often what I see is it's not on my calendar, but I've got 4 hours that I have to commit before I do this 1 hour webinar on next Friday. Where is it? Well, now, dude, there is no such thing as a to do list. You and I get off the phone.
[00:36:24.850] - Chris
There'S a due date and there's a due date.
[00:36:26.680] - Brandon
There's a due date and a due date. That's right. What do you have to do to be ready? And then there's the due date of when you're gonna do it, right. And that shit is all on my calendar. And what that's allowed me to do also is, bro, I just say no because there's no time on the calendar to do it. So instead of the mental gymnastics of I say yes because the blocks open and then I punt those mission critical have tos in my to do list, it's like, no, I can't do that next week because I'm fully booked already. Love to talk to you about it two weeks from now because I've got an open time on XYZ date. But until then, I got do and do, and it's. Dude, it's been some of the most freeing experiences I've had. And although my workload's not changing, my life's not getting easier. I just can see by the analytics.
[00:37:17.090] - Chris
More important things done.
[00:37:18.040] - Brandon
I'm getting more important things done. And, dude, I got to tell you, when I go home at night, I feel rad. When I know I got the real shit done, it feels like garbage. When day after day, I go home and my to do list is just right behind my skull. And yet I spent all day giving, doing, and being caught up in stuff that felt right in the moment, but it just didn't move. The needle, man, it just didn't move the needle. So, anyways, all of this, I'm just preaching from what I'm fumbling in right now. Like, I am just learning firsthand the value of this, which is kind of embarrassing to say to a certain extent, but it's just real. Like, it's just real, you know?
[00:37:57.020] - Chris
It is real, man.
[00:37:58.050] - Brandon
But the motivation, man, it's like, yeah, dude, I think we all can get swept up in YouTube, but, you know, sometimes now on a Saturday morning, yeah. I pull up YouTube videos of pavati boats on demo at Lake Powell, and I'm dreaming, baby.
[00:38:11.460] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:38:11.850] - Brandon
I'm like, I'm charging up the wide afterburners. I'm going, that's an expensive boat. But my grandkids look really sweet in that. And I can't wait to have that back facing camera recording my grandkids having their first surf. Like, I like that dream, dude. And I will put in the work to buy that boat if that's what it requires. And if somebody else doesn't agree with that, great, you go. Do you?
[00:38:33.460] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:38:33.780] - Brandon
You're not running my companies or owning the shit I own. This is my dream.
[00:38:38.190] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:38:38.510] - Brandon
You know what I mean?
[00:38:39.110] - Chris
Yeah. All about the pavadi, baby.
[00:38:40.840] - Brandon
It's all.
[00:38:42.070] - Chris
This has been good, man. Well, let's. Should we land the plane?
[00:38:45.600] - Brandon
We should. Yeah. Otherwise we'll just proverbial plane.
[00:38:48.030] - Chris
I'd like a plane someday.
[00:38:49.480] - Brandon
That's yours. That's in your wheelhouse.
[00:38:50.840] - Chris
It is. I got a tattoo on my. On my arm of a little private plane, and. And for me, it sparked off when a buddy took me. Remember when the tsunami hit Japan?
[00:39:01.490] - Brandon
Yes.
[00:39:02.220] - Chris
Right?
[00:39:02.670] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:39:03.240] - Chris
Well, there was. They thought that there was going to be a pretty substantial wave that was going to hit the Oregon coast.
[00:39:08.370] - Brandon
Yeah, that's right.
[00:39:09.000] - Chris
And it was like, sky is falling kind of thing.
[00:39:11.330] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:39:11.780] - Chris
Well, my buddy, who owns a Cirrus SR 22, really awesome sport.
[00:39:17.690] - Brandon
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:39:19.080] - Chris
Like turboprop. Really fun, sporty plane. Actually has a full cabin canopy parachute system. It's one of the few planes, in fact, I think it's patented. I think they're the only plane that has that. Anyways, very cool. And has these joystick controllers, single pistol grip controllers on either side of the cabin, and it's really fun. And anyway, he called me up, and I was in a team meeting with my state farm team, and hes like, hey, dude, do you want to go fly over and watch the tsunami come in?
[00:39:45.040] - Brandon
And youre like, hell, yeah.
[00:39:46.290] - Chris
So hes like, meet me at the Corvallis airport in 15. So I ended my meeting a little bit early. I drove out there, hopped in his plane. He was taxiing on the Runway, and we fly to Newport. 30 minutes were there, and its, like, just incredible. And were flying across the surf and watching these ripples of waves. It turned out to be a total knock. Yeah.
[00:40:02.850] - Brandon
Nothing. Yeah.
[00:40:03.780] - Chris
He let me fly with the joystick, and it was just. I was hooked. So, anyways, that's part of my dream.
[00:40:09.130] - Brandon
So what's the travel like? You kind of like the bohemian.
[00:40:12.170] - Chris
I love changes of scenery. I just. I love that between you and I, I probably love our business travel more. I have more of an affinity for it. I'm tired of it quite as fast.
[00:40:22.830] - Brandon
Yeah, it's not probably.
[00:40:23.850] - Chris
Yeah, it definitely. I feel like I'm picking you up off the ground sometimes when we come.
[00:40:28.910] - Brandon
Home, like, oh, God, it's Friday. Thank you.
[00:40:30.960] - Chris
Yeah, bro. But, you know, we can. People. People watch anyway, so, yeah, let's land the plane. We talked. We talked about this idea of the freedom point. You know, I think it's all about we're going to inevitably talk more about this, and you'll see stuff on LinkedIn and whatever that we're putting out, because I think it's such an important concept to help construct. Okay, what is the math? Think about what are your true desires? And start to put some napkin math to those things. Make it real. Because if you make it real, then all of a sudden, we can start to reverse engineer and say, okay, well, what kind of enterprise value do we need to create in our business in order to cash flow the amount of resources we need and keep our business into perpetuity, or what kind of enterprise value do we need to generate to maximize the value of an exit, of a sale, right. And then all of a sudden, you have a. Can create a very vivid roadmap. Okay, then what levers do I need to pull in my business? Where do I need to focus my investment, my time, my effort, my life force into the business to build that with a lot more intentionality and focus, and I think, potentially accelerate your pathway to get there.
[00:41:38.160] - Chris
Right.
[00:41:38.620] - Brandon
For 100%. Yeah.
[00:41:40.340] - Chris
So anyway, that's what we're talking about. Freedom point. Think about yours. And then, like, we always mention, if this stuff holds value, take a next step. If you've been thinking about kind of kicking the tires with the idea of hiring a consulting company, having a coach, having an outside third party that can help create roadmaps for you and hold you accountable, help you equip your team boards. Yeah. Measure, right. If you're looking for that kind of partner, the best place to start is go to floodlight GRP audit and take our health and value assessment. It is awesome. We've been preparing to roll out this new health and value assessment. And listen, I'm a little self conscious when I say this because everybody and their brother has a freaking free assessment. But you know what?
[00:42:23.590] - Brandon
Just check it out.
[00:42:24.520] - Chris
But you gotta check it out. You know, you're gonna end up. It's gonna kick out a 25 page report that's just rich. And it's gonna give you a really interesting picture not only of your current enterprise value, but also a health score that's bonafide. Like it's this is data and research based that's going to help you identify where are the real gaps in my business now and what is the possibility if I shore up those gaps? What is the potential enterprise value that exists? Kind of the stored energy that's in my business now, that if I make some tweaks, if I pull on the right levers, this is what it's going to be. I can accelerate towards that. That new enterprise value. It's a very, very cool thing we've been working on for some time. So anyways, www.floodlightgrp.com audit.
[00:43:12.160] - Brandon
Check it out.
[00:43:12.520] - Chris
It'll take you about 15 minutes. And then our team will offer you a free advisory session to go through that and identify and essentially start roadmapping and game planning. How do I get there? And then if you want to partner, well, you can choose. We'll tell you how much costs all that stuff.
[00:43:26.330] - Brandon
Yep.
[00:43:27.100] - Chris
Okay.
[00:43:27.860] - Brandon
Love it. Think about it, establish it. See you next time.
[00:43:31.360] - Chris
Goodbye.
[00:43:34.560] - Brandon
All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of head, heart and boots.
[00:43:39.040] - Chris
And if you're enjoying the show or you love this episode, please hit follow. Formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.
