[00:00:00.000] - Chris Nordyke
Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us.
[00:00:07.500] - Floodlight
Welcome back to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast.
[00:00:10.360] - Chris Nordyke
I'm Chris.
[00:00:11.200] - Brandon Reece
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.
[00:00:20.930] - Chris Nordyke
I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose.
[00:00:24.020] - Brandon Reece
No, I don't. I didn't, and I am not happy with it. You know what I'm realizing, dude? Well, part of it's probably my mustache. But as I get older, I'm starting to see more and more of my dad's face in my son. Do you recognize that? Yeah, as you get older. It's so funny. It's Christmas time, so you're seeing a bunch of family and friends. And more and more of my older family members are starting to look like the older members of the family that are no longer with us. It's just so funny. It's like almost everybody ends up looking the same by the end of it.
[00:00:53.810] - Chris Nordyke
Dude, it's really weird. It is so funny because I do see it in myself and I see it in my sister. I see it my kids. Oh, totally. I see more and more of my features and my wife's features and mannerisms. Yeah. And I catch myself, in particular with my dad, I catch myself saying things and even making sounds. Oh, yeah. Now we all have these guttural sounds, reactions to things. I catch myself. I'm like, oh, my God, my dad made that noise. I grew up 42 years with my dad making that noise.
[00:01:24.960] - Brandon Reece
My son, right now, it's hilarious because he's just really turning a corner in his maturity and development. He's like now all the time, he'll be like, Dad, you'll never guess what happened. He'll tell me the circumstances. He's like, Dude, that comment that you used to make with me when I was a kid, and I used to hate it. It was the first thing that came out of my mouth. It's funny. It's just deserve. But all right, my dude, I got a topic I've been wrestling with and I'm planning to stay focused on and committed to going into the new year. I wanted to share that with you just as a friend and business partner, accountability. Then I just want to share it the audience a little bit and see if anybody can relate to it. To say this year has created some frustrations and emotions would be the all-time understatement of the world. For those of you that may not know, we have several companies that we're a part of That we- Well, several, bro, is like...
[00:02:17.190] - Chris Nordyke
Okay, we have- But four to seven.
[00:02:18.820] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, well, maybe several is too many. Anyways, we have our hands full, just like everybody else that's listening, because it's entrepreneurship. All of them require a lot of solving problems, trying be strategic enough and intentional enough and focused enough that your business is growing and maturing over a period of time. We're laying the foundation, preparing for scale, things like that. Anyways, one of the things I've recognized in myself is I'm so emotionally charged that I literally, in a single day, I might go through four, five, six different very significant emotional patterns in terms of how I'm viewing the world, viewing one of the businesses, viewing my role, viewing the team on and on and on. It's exhausting. I remember I used to measure my emotional shifts in a week, and then it was a day. Then as we really started getting knees deep in entrepreneurship, ownership and owning a couple of companies and all those things, it's by the minute. You and I have joked about this. I've joked about this way and many people in my sphere of. Sometimes I feel straight up schizophrenic because in a single hour, I can go from the highest of highs, the lowest somewhere back in the middle, hit the bottom, and then somehow come out at the end of the day on a high.
[00:03:34.200] - Brandon Reece
It's unbelievable. Anyways, the challenge that I've seen where this shows up the most often, and I've caught myself now several times this year being frustrated when I take note of it, it's this idea of in our businesses, in our teams, whether you're an owner, a leader, a team lead, even owning your own career development. When we slow down to think about, to be strategic in nature, to really wrap our head around what the thing is I need to solve. Again, this could apply to your personal development even. When you've slowed down long enough to identify, okay, I'm experiencing this problem, this gap in my business, this thing that I don't want to experience any longer, and you determine a good course forward that's strategic in nature, that's going to go to the root cause and actually create a solution, a long-term solution. There's this really healthy thing, and then you feel extremely motivated by the fact that you withdrawn, you took the time to do this, and now you've got a good plan. It's like every conference you go to, every annual planning that you have inside your business. Then the very next day, within hours, sometimes within days, maybe if you're fortunate, the first fire has come and hit you in the face, and then you watch yourself degrade into reactionary status again.
[00:04:53.120] - Brandon Reece
Here you've taken the time to determine the root cause that will actually create a legacy solution for the thing that you're having a problem with. You then define a plan, create action steps, and set out the first step on that plan. Then the very first fire, it literally pulls you out of your plan. Your brain almost immediately goes back to this, you don't have a way to solve it. Hurry up, jump in, react, create chaos, add more fuel to the fire right now. What's insane is how I've looked over the last several years in different aspects of my performance, and I've seen where I've allowed almost entire years to go by where I started with a plan, and then almost immediately I get swept up into the chaos, and my commitment to the solution goes away, and I just spend nine more months in a constant state of reaction. The end of the year comes, I go, holy shit, I breathe a sigh of relief, and then I try to do it again the next year. Yeah.
[00:05:48.840] - Chris Nordyke
Then you take a retreat. Go to a business planning retreat, and then you do it all over again. Yeah, Sylvester Stallone or Mike Tyson that said, Everybody's got to plan until they get punched in the mouth.
[00:05:56.660] - Brandon Reece
That's right. Until they get punched in the mouth. Or everyone has a plan until the first bullet's fired. Anyways, I've recognized in the last six months where because of some of the decisions we've made and some of the partnerships and things, that stress, that dependability, all of those things are ramping up exponentially, and I'm finding myself really aware right now, and I'm thankful for that. I think sometimes what happens is maturity shows up in the form of more awareness, not necessarily that you just behave differently by default. I'm thankful because instead of me going an entire year in 2026 off course, I know I won't because I don't anymore. But anyways, over the last several months, I've watched our teams have these moments where we slow down, we create a plan, we identify the solution, we all need to unify behind, and then chaos hits and we start throwing darts and shit falls apart. One of the things I've just committed to is trying to be a much stable element in the machine. As a CEO, as as a leader, as an owner. I'm really trying to identify when my team or myself have begun to come off course with the strategy that we said that we were committed to, and we begin to react and emotionally give ourselves to the chaos and pull off the strategic plan that we said that we were committed to.
[00:07:20.400] - Brandon Reece
One of the reasons this happens is because there's delayed gratification from the effort, especially when you go down to solve the root cause. We We all get jacked when a problem comes in and we do the two or three things that we need to do in this moment to satisfy that, calm it down, get it off the plate. It feels good to overcome problems. Yeah, dopamine hit, we're fired up. But it sucks when you know a plan and you're disciplined is required to not deviate from the plan, but it might take 30, 60, 180 days for you to see the fruit of your effort. I think one of the hardest things about business development and entrepreneurship is that fight. It's the fight that when you want to to do something remarkable, you're going to have to commit to consistently providing the level of effort that's required. But understanding you may not see the fruit of that labor for an extended period of time, it doesn't mean you're failing. You have to stay the course. Some people talk about that as a form of stoicism. One of the things I'm just keyed in on is our industry, dude, it's nuts.
[00:08:24.800] - Brandon Reece
Maybe we've been in it now for so long that we forget how crazy other industries are. I don't know. It's normalized. It's nuts, dude. It's so easy to get lost and caught up in the emotion. Anyway, so I'll land the plane so we can actually have a conversation here. But what I'm intentionally trying to do as a leader is to get better at finding and seeing when us as a team, we are beginning to come off track with the plan and strategy, and we start to give too much to fighting the fire. When you're building and growing a business that's already underway, you can't ignore the I'm not saying that, and obviously, if it was that easy, nobody'd be crying about it. But there is a level of attention that's required to put out a fire, to get back on course with the strategy that will fix that long term. Often, we make the mistake of just hanging in that pattern where we're just constantly trying to put the short term fix on the thing, and then we ultimately fail. This year, going into 2026, I am really committed to being far more stoic in how I'm emotionally reacting to the fires that get presented to me or that I encounter as we're growing and building these businesses, because I think it's one of the most important skill sets that I can develop as a leader and as an individual.
[00:09:43.320] - Brandon Reece
I don't know where that's come up with you or if it has, but I know for me, it's almost been crippling before in the past. Oh, yeah, without question. And then you drag your people in with you. It's unbelievably negative, I think.
[00:09:57.640] - Chris Nordyke
This reminds me of we mentioned Alex Hormozi
[00:10:00.000] - Chris Nordyke
I see a lot. I like most of what he says. I think it's really great. He said something to the effect of not a superpower, but an attribute of really successful people is that they find reasons to have a positive attitude in the midst of really negative circumstances. I think this correlates to what you're saying. I've actually felt this because for the last few months, I've been working with a sales team to reorient them, and it's difficult making change. It doesn't matter what environment. It's like, if you're trying to make change at home with your kids, really difficult because it requires a lot of honesty about what's broken. It requires being really transparent with people about, Hey, you're really great at this. You're not so great at this yet. Those are tough conversations for people to receive in addition to change, which everybody bristles at. I've felt the burden of it. There's this combination, I think every owner can relate to this, this combination of frustration because it never goes as fast as you want it to. In some cases, disappointment, where somebody's not on board with the change and there's just no way forward and you have to cut a cord.
[00:11:08.380] - Chris Nordyke
It's like, oh, God, that sucks. Or you're also battling your own incompetency, where maybe I feel like all of us at some level are always pushing up against our level of knowledge or experience. For sure. Especially if you're always trying to grow. If you're in a high growth environment, there's that component with change, too, is that you're leading the change, but you don't know what the fuck you're doing. You only so much. It's like, well, I talked to ChatGPT about this and I called a couple of buddies. I listened to a podcast, and so I know what I'm doing here, but then you're second-guessing yourself. So all of that can feel really negative.
[00:11:40.060] - Brandon Reece
Certainly doesn't bolden confidence, right?
[00:11:42.380] - Chris Nordyke
Right. And so I think you can start as you get bogged down and like, how do we do this? And how do I lead it? How do I get everybody else on board? You can slip very easily into a real negative headspace. And I caught myself, actually, even just the last few months, I'd come home and my wife's like, hey, how was your day? Like, well, that's a complicated question. Let me think about that. Which version do you want? You can just catch yourself in this. I was actually literally writing notes on journaling about this last night. You can catch yourself having a super complicated answer to how are you doing because you're in a negative head space. You're trying not to be. There's plenty of things to be positive about, but you're caught up in the negative things that are happening. I liked that comment from him. I'm not sure that I've fully mastered how to do that, but I think it's real And I think the leaders that I've long admired are ones that somehow manage to grab hold of, maybe it's gratitude, maybe it's just periodically zooming out. I know for me, Sometimes if I can get myself in the moment when I'm feeling really negative to just recognize the negativity and be like, okay, hold on, not everything's broke here.
[00:12:53.420] - Chris Nordyke
What's moving in the right direction? And can I rally around that positivity as I work to get this stuff caught up?
[00:13:00.920] - Brandon Reece
I think one of the ways I've been thinking about this, because I'm like, I don't want to just have a sesh where we just bitch and moan.
[00:13:07.500] - Chris Nordyke
Oh, is that what you thought I was doing?
[00:13:08.940] - Brandon Reece
No, I was doing it. I want to definitely just think structurally, maybe what I'm trying to do to really become much better at this. Then I think just share some examples of how this makes sense in the entire org chart. It's not just if you're in C-suite or if you own it or whatever the case may be. These are skill sets. I was even thinking about this from the perspective of a BD and thinking about how often they're put in a situation where they're trying to earn the trust of this prospect, this new relationship. It's very intimate and innerving, and you're really putting yourself out there. You've talked about that a lot. How inevitably, there are going to be times where we step on ourselves when it comes time to deliver service. Or, which is probably more common than not, there's just some misperception or communication that's happened where we're starting to create a story that something's failing, the client is. In reality, we probably just need to have an open dialog and we can all get squared away. We can communicate through it. We can communicate through it. I just want to be very honest about the fact that this is a skill set that is required for successful living period, not just if you're at the upper echelon in an early chart.
[00:14:24.130] - Chris Nordyke
No question, right?
[00:14:25.360] - Brandon Reece
In that case with a BD as an example, one of the most powerful One of the things we can do is instead of getting swept up in the emotion of it, falling on swords, starting to sell each other out, get on the same side as this person or individual. Man, saying that out loud is very eye-opening for myself right now. Anyways, instead of doing that, we slow down, and we're that voice of reason that just says, Okay, I recognize what you're saying. Can I just ask you some questions to help me get some clarification so I know how to participate in this in a meaningful way? Get you the help you need, get my team what they need. And so instead of getting all swept up in it because you're uncomfortable, you're the voice that says, Well, let's slow down. How about I be the voice of stability so that you become less anxiety filled? Because instead of me ramping up to meet you, I'm just going to get you to slow down for a moment and have a conversation with me. And by the end, we might be able to solve this together. And so you start asking questions like, okay, what gave you that impression?
[00:15:25.260] - Brandon Reece
Well, I didn't know XYZ. Okay, excellent. Let me ask a couple of questions. Did you get the 24-hour report? Well, I don't know. Okay, well, normally we send those out at XYZ time in the day. Were you able to take a look at your email yet? Well, no, I haven't. Okay, well, while we're here talking, why don't you just pull that up? Let's just see if it's there. Maybe we missed it, but it could be there, and this might actually answer a lot of your questions. You see what I'm saying? I think everybody listening, if they're in this home service space or when the client calls a CSR or a coordinator and wants to just start barfing about how everything's haywire and it's on fire and it's all shit. If we can just slow down, take some of the fire out of the air, and ask really good questions. Never defer, never belittle, never act as if it's not as important as they're making it out to be, but just slowing down and asking questions and taking some of the angst out of the environment. It's unbelievably powerful. What I see people do more often than not is they're so uncomfortable in the situation that it's easier to become friends with that person.
[00:16:32.420] - Brandon Reece
We do dumb things to make that happen. We say things we shouldn't say, we agree to things we shouldn't agree to, we make assumptions, we start firing things back at our team, accusations, all the stuff Often to find out we were just fucking wrong and we just needed to ask some good questions. Anyways, when I think about leadership teams, it's the same idea. Inevitably in our business, we have leaders that have different responsibilities, different lanes they're responsible for. Inevitably, they They see crossover, they see warning signs, they might have working history. They have these things that are going to cause them to fire up emotionally. Often what I can make the mistake of doing is just getting swept up in it myself. I'm wanting to side with the individual and, Well, let me add them, and I'm going to put a boot in this person's ass, and we're going to fix it. The reality of it is what I needed to be was the leader that said, Okay, I hear you. Sounds legitimate. Let's slow down for a minute, though, and ask some questions. Haven't we already implemented a plan where this thing gets inspected at this particular moment in time?
[00:17:35.600] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, we have. Okay, great. The work that started since that was implemented, can we guarantee that that exercise is being done then at that right particular point in time in the project life cycle? Yes, we can. Then didn't we already solve the problem? Yeah, technically, we probably did. Yes, we did. We just need to hold this pattern to see the net result of that commitment and that activity. It's so hard hard to do. I think what I'm identifying, man, is at least in my world, this is one of the biggest mistakes I've made as a leader, is that I don't stand that emotional stable ground. Because I get swept up in the emotion, I allow the entire team to come off track. Again, it's like with maturity, with consistency, you get better at slowing down and catching it before it's too late. But as a leader, when you have a downline team member, a department head, come to you, fearful, full of anxiety. They saw this thing. It's a warning sign. They've been there before. They've seen this thing a million times before. They know what it means and what it's going to turn into.
[00:18:41.820] - Brandon Reece
Can you just slow down and ask a couple questions and identify, is this just still a version of immaturity in a solution we've already implemented? Did we miss something? Did we not get deep enough to cut into the root cause? We can identify by just slowing down and asking questions to help ourselves and that team member identify what then is really required from us before we act or react. Because the other thing that happens, and I think that this is what I've done over and over and over again, is I wear my leaders out, dude. I am just thinking to all these tumultuous moments. I'm going all the way back to the first companies we were a part of. Where I would just start that day in such confidence and two or three meetings in. I've lost all confidence and now I'm just in full reaction mode and I'm breathing fire on everyone around me. The reality of it is, is I just pulled my entire leadership team through this fucking emotional cycle right along with me. When I get out on the other side, there's a strong chance that the only net result that I effectively deployed was I said something about a topic that bothered me.
[00:20:00.000] - Brandon Reece
That does not mean I created any behavioral change. It does not mean I got an actual product or byproduct of something that actually was measurably beneficial.
[00:20:10.940] - Chris Nordyke
It doesn't mean you refocused your team.
[00:20:12.700] - Brandon Reece
If anything, I might have done the actual opposite. If anything, I've blown them fucking out. If I'm lucky, they're going to come back tomorrow with some form of reset so that I don't lose a week. It's amazing to me how many times I will return to that even knowing, even in the current level of awareness I have. Anyways, it came up this week. In the last two weeks, besides the holidays, besides running a few companies, we're in the middle of an insurance loss because I had a limb come down and spike my roof. Somebody rear-end in my truck. I'm working with my daughter to help her replace a motor. I just found out this morning on my way into work that our HVAC system took a crap on us and it was 28 degrees last night. My point is, all that was going on, and Wayne just made a comment to me like, Dude, I don't know what you're on, but talk about being stoic, brother. He was just complimenting me. I haven't been running around like a fucking chicken with my head cut off, losing my shit about everything. I'm not sure how, to be honest.
[00:21:13.200] - Brandon Reece
It was just such a great solidifier for me of that's a valuable compliment to receive. I guess what I'm trying to convey here, I'm just babbling, is it was so meaningful for me to hear that that I was like, yes, that's why it's important. But because it It creates trust, confidence, and faith that we're going to be okay.
[00:21:35.080] - Chris Nordyke
It creates more safety and comfort for the people around you.
[00:21:39.440] - Brandon Reece
And I think ultimately what I can wrestle with is that I want to give myself the excuse that I can ultimately just act however the hell I want. Because I know at the end of the day, once I'm done doing my thing, I'm going to get on track and we're going to get back to work and we're going to do the thing, blah, blah, blah. But our people don't know that. That's built over time. But the reality of it is a lot A lot of times in those moments, I've done whatever damage I'm going to do. I've depleted some energy reserves from a person. I've made it harder for them to commit to the change or the consistency or whatever, because I'm drawing this energy out of them in a way that doesn't help me solve the problem long term. And by leaning into this idea of not ignoring, not being blind, not shoving your head in the sand, but just stoicism. Calm down, level out, ask questions. Let's identify what we need to do and create this sense of calm and stability with our reflection and our interaction. I just think it has a ton of potential to really change the inside of our companies and quite honestly, just make our lives more stable.
[00:22:44.140] - Floodlight
Are you a businessman It's under 5 million in sales, and you're just now getting ready to try and scale your company up and hit some of those targets you've always wanted to hit. But now you've got to build a sales team, or maybe you just hired your first sales rep, but you don't really know how to manage them. How do you manage, lead, train, develop a sales Sales Rep, Floodlight has a solution for you now. So we can actually assign your sales rep a turnkey VP of sales that will help them create a sales blueprint, their own personal sales plan for your market. They'll have weekly one-on-ones with that sales rep to coach, mentor them, hold them accountable to the plan. And they'll also have a monthly owners meeting where they'll meet with you or your general manager and review the progress of that sales rep, their plan to actual results, what performance improvement they're working on with them. Also let them know, Hey, you might, they're doing really well. Maybe we should think of hiring a second sales rep. They're going to have that one-to-one advice for you as an owner or senior leader on the team as well.
[00:23:37.880] - Floodlight
How great would that be to have a bolt-on sales manager for your one sales rep, and it's only 2,500 bucks a month? If you're interested in talking more about that, reach out. Let's grab some time and let's talk shop.
[00:23:50.000] - Chris Nordyke
Our floodlight clients this last year in 2024 generated over 250 million in revenue, supported by, advised by an industry expert who's owned and operated a business just Just like you. So take action. Don't kick the can down the road. Start with our business health and value assessment, and let's unlock the next chapter of your success story. Okay, you didn't exactly articulate how you're doing.
[00:24:14.130] - Brandon Reece
Okay.
[00:24:14.760] - Chris Nordyke
What I mean by that is this reminds me a little bit of what my coach, Seth, taught me a few years ago. He stopped me because I was complaining about a circumstance, a thing that was happening in my life. And I was like, oh, God, I'm so frustrated with this. He said, whoa, part of you is frustrated.
[00:24:31.170] - Brandon Reece
Oh, yes.
[00:24:31.740] - Chris Nordyke
Can you look inside yourself and find a part of you that's perfectly okay, at ease, unbothered? I was like, Oh, I think I can. Then it's like I was able to zoom out and look at that bothered part.
[00:24:42.680] - Brandon Reece
Yeah.
[00:24:43.340] - Chris Nordyke
Separate it. It's like, is there a good reason for me to be bothered? Yeah. I can look at it with a little bit of distance from my emotions. Then a lot of times, the thing that was bothering me just starts to dissipate. It's not controlling my emotion anymore. It's just like, okay, boy, wow, I'm really bothered by this. Why? Is it appropriate for me to be bothered by this? You can process the emotion that initially hit you and then act differently than you might have otherwise. Is that part of it or what's happening for you as you've been Mr. Stoic.
[00:25:16.160] - Brandon Reece
I think this is part of where you and I differ a little bit in terms of techniques that we deploy. I mean, obviously, there's a ton of overlap, right?
[00:25:25.160] - Chris Nordyke
You pulled the whiskey out of the drawer.
[00:25:26.600] - Brandon Reece
I just freaking slammed a couple shots and smoked a A pack of cigarettes. No. What I find myself doing is really becoming aggressive about tracking what we said we're going to do, why we're going to do that thing, being really concrete on who's supposed to be doing what, who's responsible for it, when is it due? Because, and this is going to sound like many of you listening are going, Well, that sounds like annual business planning. Okay, well, I'm going to push right back and say, Yeah, but how many of you do it? When you do fucking do it, how many of you actually use it as your playbook? Smart asses?
[00:26:00.700] - Chris Nordyke
We're back to the same fucking a lot, man. I know, I'm sorry.
[00:26:02.860] - Brandon Reece
We need to clean it up for this next year, bro. Well, I'm getting all mine in before the new year.
[00:26:06.720] - Chris Nordyke
Before stage time.
[00:26:07.780] - Brandon Reece
Before stage time, yeah. Anyways, I think what I'm trying to say here is I am leaning in to living out and doing and remaining committed to doing the hard preparatory work so that I can be confident and slow the team down and ask hard questions because I know I have something concrete I can point to that says, Team, we're going to do X, Y, Z. We agreed to this. We understand why it's working. Stay the course.
[00:26:37.600] - Chris Nordyke
This is good, dude. It's actually making me think just about the roles that I'm in charge of. What I hear you saying is there's something very useful about anchoring yourself to the plan. The plan is not emotional. The plan doesn't care how you feel. The plan is just the thing that we all agree to. Yeah. And so it's like...
[00:26:58.400] - Brandon Reece
And there's a reason for it.
[00:27:00.000] - Chris Nordyke
There's a reason. There's a why behind it. There was intentionality behind it. And so that's really interesting to use the plan as the anchor that you hold to. It's like, okay, this thing happened, but what's our plan? This thing happened, but what's the plan? It takes all of the reactivity out of it. And instead, it's like, okay, what am I going to choose to do in the interest of the plan? I hear you saying that.
[00:27:26.080] - Brandon Reece
I think that's the challenge, right? Is that we talk We talk about being busy. We talk about, I wish I had more time to work on my business. I've lived all of it. I'm living all of it. I get it. And it is all bullshit because until you commit to developing a plan and then leveraging that as your backbone for confidence, it's very difficult then to remain stoic and not light yourself on fire because what are you using as the basis for your confidence? Here's an example. We said that we would be fairly transparent what's going on with FP as an example. Well, Wayne this morning in our executive meeting, we highlight our wins and fires for the week, and then we have essentially not much different than an L10 type agenda that we follow. Anyways, we're going through it, and Wayne's comment, I want to use this specifically. I've got a reason, so hang in the pocket. He basically says, Look, I can't point to the one thing that tells me this is true, guys. He's like table setting. But and I am very confident that the changes that we've been moving through on the operational side are providing results.
[00:28:37.860] - Brandon Reece
Here's why. What I'm seeing as an example is that this month's billing was very close to target, and we're a thousand % confident we are not overbilled on a single project. What that means is we are producing work in an efficient enough way that our invoicing, 100% 100% accurate is enough to meet our goal. For some of you that heard me say that, they run the scale. Some of you are going like, Yeah, bro, that's low-level stuff. Then some of you are going, Well, I'm not even fully sure I understand what that means. My point is, he couldn't show me yet the thing that was the 100% undeniable fact that we know our changes are working. But there's a combination of two things. One, a concrete plan that was put into place, very diligently thought through in in terms of why and how it will help us win. We then started to execute that plan. Now, not just gut, we're seeing fruit from that endeavor. The two things in combination, even though it's not this thing very specifically that we can point to, it's that, we can have a whole lot of confidence so that when a fire starts next week, because it will, the team can slow down and say, Guys, wait a minute, wait a minute.
[00:29:56.100] - Brandon Reece
We have a plan. We're executing the plan. We know that plan will solve this problem long term. Do we need to get wrapped up in the chaos of that moment? We can say, No, we don't actually. Keep plugging along. It's changing. We will see the fruit. It's starting to come together. My encouragement to myself is to lean in to being that guy, the guy that helps ensure that your team creates and is constantly operating from a bonafide plan. Then be the guy that helps your team remember, I know this is hard, I know this is emotionally taxing, and yes, that is a problem that you're experiencing, but we've already started down the road of creating a solution to that. Hold the course. It's powerful.
[00:30:40.800] - Chris Nordyke
Well, dude, honestly, it's inspiring me because between you and I, everybody that's been a long time listener knows, right? You're on the spectrum, more discipline and process oriented. I know in somewhat, you've communicated me at times. It's all degrees. It's all degrees, but it's also like I made the same comment to Wayne, and Wayne's like, No, dude. It's purely out of necessity that I prioritize these things. That's great. But as you say that, I'm going through finalizing our annual planning for floodlight this next year and our growth plan and all that stuff. And I'm like, hearing you say that is very interesting because I probably tend, and I think probably most sales-oriented owners and leaders are similar. We tend to be a little bit more driven by our emotions. It's part of the thing that helps us with people. Sure. It's part of what helps us attract people and build rapport and all these things. And the dark side of it is that we can tend to have wild emotional swings when things aren't going to plan. I love this idea, dude. It feels like a discipline that I could grow in this next year of a week doesn't go well, a sales meeting doesn't happen the way I think it's going to, whatever.
[00:31:52.480] - Chris Nordyke
We have some challenge with our consulting team or our recruiting or some other facet of the business to just come back to the plan and be like, okay, based on the plan, what's the next right move? Whereas I might typically default to my brain gets scrambled for the rest of the day. When this fire happens or this thing doesn't work the way I want it to, I love that.
[00:32:16.080] - Brandon Reece
Well, here's another way it plays out, and I'm just thinking for sales teams, right? Because it's just a hard gig. I think one of the ways this plays out in that role is this idea of if we're clear on what our average closing or conversion rate is as an example, we know we don't hit them all. We just know that. If we're diligent about identifying what our standard is, our goal that's achievable in our current state or whatever the case may be, and we're really clear on what are the activities that matter, you can be more emboldened to get all your nos out of the way.
[00:32:51.200] - Chris Nordyke
Just be aggressive.
[00:32:52.420] - Brandon Reece
Go get the nos, man, because you know 60% of your exchanges, whatever the number is, are going to be a freaking no. Just rack them up. Instead of getting depleted or disillusioned, I mean, this is a lot easier said than done. If you go back to the plan, you say, you know what, though? We knew that at floodlight, we have a certain closing %. It's like, hey, we know that. We can prove it. We've seen it. Our nos are not nos to the business. It's part of the percentage. We identified it's right there in the pro forma.
[00:33:23.720] - Chris Nordyke
It's just the math.
[00:33:24.740] - Brandon Reece
It's the math. I know that's hard for those of us that live more openly in emotional state by default, but there's power in recognizing when the math ain't math-in. Just going back to the basics for that and taking some of the emotion out of it. But that's where I'm leaning this year, man. I feel like that's the Mission critical thing for me to develop professionally this year, and I'm going to be very aggressive, just like I'm trying to be super aggressive with our teams is we don't have a lot in front of us at a time. There's a couple of things, handful of the most critical, the highest leveraged, the highest ROI, and I'm just going to be really sincere and dedicated to that. This is one of them. I want to pull more and more of the emotional response that I bring. It's good, dude. All right. Well, maybe a few of you, that sounded like something that you can connect with. If so, good luck. Hit me up if you want to battle, buddy.
[00:34:18.860] - Chris Nordyke
We haven't said this for a while, dude. I've gotten a little bit lazy on our podcast outtakes. Yeah, you have. A lot of you, you're going into this new year, and maybe you have, maybe you haven't done really robust business planning for the coming year, but there's a gut driving you that you're like, We need to grow. We should grow. For some of you, you're coming out of a really difficult year and you've got some ground to make up. Maybe there's some question marks in the midst of things of how we best go about that. I would venture to say all of the most successful companies operating at scale in our industry, meaning, let's just say $10 million and up that are profitable and successful. You know what a common denominator amongst them is? Nearly all of them work with a coach, consultant or advisor, period. I would challenge anybody to show me somebody who doesn't or wasn't recently engaged or isn't routinely engaged with a consultant throughout the whole life of their business. If you're looking for an ops partner or a sales partner to come in and really help you either, one, fix some things that you've allowed to become a mess or you've just failed to address in your business yet, help you put those things in place, or help you optimize a business that's already growing to help you prepare for scale and develop your downline team.
[00:35:35.500] - Chris Nordyke
Reach out to Floodlight. We've got solutions for you, and they're cost-effective. That's our wheelhouse, is helping come alongside companies and accelerate their results. Whether it's a profitability and systems and process issue and you need an ops partner to come walk alongside you, or you need a sales partner that can help supercharge, help you build out a sales team, help you provide the right mentorship and management accountability to your sales team that you're not able to which most owners can't or don't, reach out to us and let's talk shop. Go to floodlightgrp. Com.
[00:36:06.560] - Brandon Reece
Different results require different actions.
[00:36:10.240] - Chris Nordyke
That's right. We got you here. Probably will not get you to where you're trying to go. Anyway, Happy New Year all. I guess you're probably hearing this in the new year. Here's to a great 2026.
[00:36:19.680] - Brandon Reece
That's right. Cheers. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots.
[00:36:27.820] - Floodlight
If you're enjoying the show, if you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend.
[00:36:37.110] - Chris Nordyke
Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever.
[00:36:39.590] - Floodlight
It all helps.
[00:36:40.610] - Chris Nordyke
Thanks for listening.