Seek More Trouble

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[00:02:18] Without further ado, my friends, we are going to go ahead and dive right in.

[00:02:28] Mr. Blakeman.

[00:02:30] That's my dad.

[00:02:36] You can call me Chuck.

[00:02:37] What's going on, man?

[00:02:38] How are you?

[00:02:39] Doing well, Connor.

[00:02:40] How are you?

[00:02:41] Doing awesome.

[00:02:42] It's a beautiful day.

[00:02:44] I've got a webinar coming up tomorrow that I've been scrambling and getting excited

[00:02:49] about all at the same time and all the good stuff.

[00:02:52] How about you?

[00:02:53] Yeah, very same.

[00:02:54] I've got the same weather.

[00:02:55] I'm just in South Denver.

[00:02:57] Highlands Ranch.

[00:02:59] What you guys considered New Mexico?

[00:03:02] Considered New Mexico?

[00:03:03] I don't know, maybe that far.

[00:03:05] Maybe more Castle Rock or Pueblo might be more New Mexico.

[00:03:09] Yeah, that's true.

[00:03:11] That's true.

[00:03:12] But yeah, having fun moving hard and moving fast.

[00:03:16] Just join the ride.

[00:03:18] Trying to make as much trouble as we can.

[00:03:21] Yeah.

[00:03:22] Making trouble is the only way to go.

[00:03:23] Life's too short to do anything otherwise, right?

[00:03:26] Yeah, people are afraid of trouble.

[00:03:30] They're always looking for trouble coming at them and that's the wrong response.

[00:03:33] We need to just go find trouble.

[00:03:35] Yeah.

[00:03:36] Seek more trouble.

[00:03:37] That's it.

[00:03:38] We're good.

[00:03:39] Yeah, trouble.

[00:03:40] You might as well design your own.

[00:03:42] Rap.

[00:03:43] I think that was our podcast right there.

[00:03:44] There it is.

[00:03:45] Do you have anything fun for the weekend?

[00:03:49] Yeah, I did a bunch of...

[00:03:52] I built a deck.

[00:03:53] I built a second floor deck for off of our bedroom because who doesn't do that on a weekend?

[00:03:58] Yeah, no kidding.

[00:04:00] Did you... was that fun or was that a task?

[00:04:02] Oh yeah, no, that's fun.

[00:04:04] For me, that's therapy.

[00:04:05] Just get out there and get all sweaty and get sawdust on me and measure stuff and design

[00:04:10] stuff and yeah, it's a lot of fun.

[00:04:13] Did you do any like barbecuing or anything this weekend?

[00:04:16] Nothing.

[00:04:17] We were flat out on the deck and bought food from restaurants to support them and that was

[00:04:23] about all we did.

[00:04:24] Then we watched all the neighbors try and burn their houses down with fireworks.

[00:04:27] It was a lot of fun.

[00:04:28] Yeah, it was crazy.

[00:04:29] I was up north, up pretty north up in Wellington, Colorado if you've been up there with

[00:04:34] my family and downtown Denver sounded like it was crazy down here.

[00:04:40] I couldn't see it but it sounded like it was more fireworks than ever before

[00:04:44] and even more so weeks leading up to it.

[00:04:47] I mean there are fireworks going off every single night leading up to the Fourth of

[00:04:50] Dye.

[00:04:51] I think people have a lot of pent-up energy right now.

[00:04:53] Yeah, yeah, same thing when we live in Highlands Ranch, we live on the green belt so we can

[00:04:56] see lots of houses, dozens if not 150 houses and the whole place is just lit up in a

[00:05:03] way that hasn't been in 10 years.

[00:05:05] Yeah, yeah, interesting.

[00:05:07] Strange times we're living in but you're no stranger to odd economies and strange

[00:05:12] times in business.

[00:05:13] We tend to be more comfortable in those kinds of vague environments.

[00:05:19] What does it that makes you comfortable about it?

[00:05:21] Well, because I have a fundamental belief that we need to be living in stress.

[00:05:28] Stress is good.

[00:05:30] If you want to build your muscles, you're stressing them.

[00:05:32] If you want to build your mind, you go to school and you stress your mind.

[00:05:36] Stress is good, it's just too much stress.

[00:05:38] You don't want to try and lift too much weight, you'll die.

[00:05:42] But stress is good and the idea of stress for me is putting myself in a position where

[00:05:49] I don't quite get it on a regular basis.

[00:05:52] Whatever it is I can do, I didn't know what I was doing with the deck.

[00:05:55] I didn't know what I was doing.

[00:05:56] I redesigned the kitchen and redid the bathrooms and put in a steam shower.

[00:06:00] How'd you learn all this stuff?

[00:06:02] Who said I've learned anything?

[00:06:03] I don't know anything about this stuff.

[00:06:04] I'm making this up as I go along.

[00:06:05] So that's just a fundamental view of life that I have that adults don't learn

[00:06:11] unless we're disoriented.

[00:06:13] And stress is good.

[00:06:15] Yeah, so learning people, your opinion is people really do learn more so from pain and

[00:06:22] challenge than just like learning.

[00:06:24] Yeah, it doesn't even have to be pain but it has to be unknown which can feel painful

[00:06:30] at times fear based but I just have to be disoriented.

[00:06:35] I have to be in a position where I'm regularly saying, man, I do not know what I'm doing.

[00:06:41] I think that's a, I don't know if that can be learned and maybe we can talk on that.

[00:06:45] I've always felt I always get the most anxious and anguish when I'm not doing something.

[00:06:52] If I'm not doing something that's scary or new then I get anxious like if I'm not working

[00:06:58] and building even building like working and building are a little bit different or grinding

[00:07:03] so to say.

[00:07:04] So I wonder if that's a unique characteristic of people like you and me or maybe.

[00:07:09] For 60 plus years of life, I'm not a determinist and I'm not a, I'm not someone who's just a

[00:07:15] behaviorless.

[00:07:16] I think it's a combination.

[00:07:17] I think I was born with the DNA from my mother that risk is fun and somebody else would

[00:07:23] be born with DNA that says, oh my God, don't put me anywhere near risk.

[00:07:27] And then both of us can stretch ourselves.

[00:07:29] So I think there's every one of us should still take it on what would, what would

[00:07:34] be scary for me today or just disorienting for me might be too much for the next

[00:07:39] guy or too little for the next guy.

[00:07:41] And so we all just need to be disoriented and let's just keep going from there.

[00:07:44] And you decide what disorient you, but nobody should be comfortable.

[00:07:48] Let's put it that way.

[00:07:49] So walk us through a, what led you to where you're at in your life today?

[00:07:54] Walk us through that.

[00:07:55] Well, I guess because I was uncomfortable.

[00:07:58] Yeah.

[00:07:59] Yeah, I had things in grade school and high school that they didn't know

[00:08:04] back then I was ADHD, a little bit ADHD, a little, quite a bit dyslexic and left handed

[00:08:12] and the only one of those three that they understood was left handed and they didn't

[00:08:16] like that either back then.

[00:08:18] You know, they tried to make you right handed.

[00:08:19] So I graduated at the bottom of my class in high school.

[00:08:23] They had me in the Princewall office the day of graduation discussing in front of

[00:08:27] me like I wasn't there whether they should let me graduate.

[00:08:30] It was that bad.

[00:08:32] So I came out as high school thinking that I'll never get a job.

[00:08:35] I'm the dumbest kid in high school.

[00:08:37] And it turns out I was ADHD dyslexic, left handed, right brain, all that, but they didn't

[00:08:42] teach for that.

[00:08:43] So I just thought I was stupid.

[00:08:45] And so I came out disoriented.

[00:08:47] You know, it's like, I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:08:49] I'm just making it up as I go along.

[00:08:50] I did get a full scholarship to a music school, but they made me go to summer

[00:08:54] schools and prove that I could actually do the academics.

[00:08:57] That's how dumb they thought I was.

[00:08:58] And I thought I wasn't.

[00:09:00] I struggled through that for a couple of years and then joined the army because I was

[00:09:03] pretty sure they're the only ones who would give me a job as dumb as I was.

[00:09:07] And I had a high school degree and went through two years of college and got into

[00:09:11] there.

[00:09:12] And then I started, and I built this little tiny business while I was in the army.

[00:09:15] And then I built another one.

[00:09:16] And then I thought, well, maybe I got something to offer.

[00:09:19] And I just sort of took off with that.

[00:09:21] And by the time I got out of the army, I'd started a couple things.

[00:09:25] And fast forward 30 years later, I've built 12 businesses and eight industries

[00:09:30] on four continents and written best sellers, not just Amazon best sellers,

[00:09:36] but the number one business rated business book of 2010 and the number 10 book in

[00:09:40] 2014.

[00:09:41] And so I guess I'm not stupid.

[00:09:43] There's a lot to break down there.

[00:09:46] What were some of your first initial businesses that you're building?

[00:09:50] Oh, I did a landscaping business.

[00:09:53] I did a website design business when that was too early.

[00:09:57] It was like 1992.

[00:09:58] It was like, what are you thinking?

[00:09:59] Nobody does websites.

[00:10:00] What is that?

[00:10:03] And other things like I did a leadership thing when I was a fan.

[00:10:07] There's just a fad websites or just a fad day, right?

[00:10:09] Yeah. Well, I did find that my futuristic brain tends to get me into things

[00:10:14] long before they're relevant.

[00:10:16] So I kind of have to slow down and wait for the world to kind of grow

[00:10:21] into the things that I'm seeing coming.

[00:10:23] And I didn't do that well when I was younger.

[00:10:26] Then we did the call center, direct mail printing,

[00:10:32] fulfillment logistics sort of Amazon dot com stuff.

[00:10:35] Again, back in the early 90s when it wasn't fashionable,

[00:10:38] nobody knew what it was ahead of our time once again.

[00:10:42] So far I had that we weren't relevant.

[00:10:45] So yeah, we built a multiple business people said,

[00:10:48] well, did any of them ever grow big?

[00:10:50] I never had any interest in any of them growing big because they

[00:10:52] weren't actually that interesting to me after I figured them out.

[00:10:56] My life statement is my life question is why do what others can and will do

[00:11:00] when there's so much to be done that others can't or won't do.

[00:11:03] So that's an entrepreneurial view of the world.

[00:11:06] If there's a hole that somebody says, well, that can't be done or you can't do that.

[00:11:09] Well, that's an immediate look.

[00:11:10] You know, that's a that's a dog whistle for me to say, well, oh, really?

[00:11:14] Well, let me try that.

[00:11:15] So most of the things I've done, I had no no background in whatsoever.

[00:11:19] And then once I got them figured out, I got bored because again,

[00:11:22] the ADHD, the dyslexic, all that stuff kicks in.

[00:11:26] And so I didn't grow any of them big.

[00:11:27] And we had one that went from two million to nine million in three years

[00:11:30] and we sold it 120 people sold it off to the largest company

[00:11:34] in the fulfillment space back in the early, early 2000s.

[00:11:37] And that was probably the biggest one.

[00:11:39] And now we're we're working on some other things today

[00:11:42] that could be five hundred million dollar companies.

[00:11:44] But and I'm doing things today that will probably hold me the rest of my life.

[00:11:49] Hold you by keeping you interested.

[00:11:51] Yeah, keep me interested.

[00:11:52] I'm working with I'm working with business owners and as a business advisor to CEOs.

[00:11:58] And I started that in 2006 of my best friend, the world was in Belfast, Ireland.

[00:12:02] He challenged me to help other business owners grow their businesses.

[00:12:06] And I didn't I mean, I didn't go to business school.

[00:12:08] I went to music school.

[00:12:09] Why? But he really felt like I had something to offer and so I got involved.

[00:12:15] And it's just been fun because I can basically go through.

[00:12:19] I can live.

[00:12:20] I can live a new business through everyone else's business by just learning.

[00:12:23] Every time I work with a CEO or a small business owner,

[00:12:27] I have to relearn that industry because I don't know anything about it.

[00:12:31] And so your parents entrepreneurs or you just my mother was entrepreneurial in nature.

[00:12:36] She was clearly entrepreneurial, but she she was born 40 years too early.

[00:12:41] Back in the 60s, they asked her to run for the

[00:12:44] as a senator from Ohio and we weren't a rich family by any means.

[00:12:49] But they just saw great leadership in her and she said no,

[00:12:52] because she thought a woman's place was in the home.

[00:12:56] So she had she did a lot of things.

[00:12:58] She started she helped start a community college.

[00:13:01] She was the president of the board of education for 20 years.

[00:13:04] She she did the League of Women Women Voters.

[00:13:06] She did whatever she could and she ran a rehabilitation center,

[00:13:11] which women didn't do in the 70s or 80s or 90s as well.

[00:13:14] So that's my that's where I get.

[00:13:17] And then from her grandfather, her dad, my grandfather could see coming through there as well.

[00:13:21] Yeah. How do you how do you navigate that?

[00:13:24] The I feel like so many who are

[00:13:27] maybe listening to this entrepreneurs, that shiny object syndrome is one of the biggest roadblocks.

[00:13:33] I feel like for people building successful businesses.

[00:13:35] How have you navigated that?

[00:13:37] Well, yeah, everything I learned I learned by doing it wrong.

[00:13:41] So that's the best way.

[00:13:42] That's not the best way, but it's the most permanent way to learn things.

[00:13:45] Most painful permanent way.

[00:13:47] And one of the things I learned from doing this was you can't afford to get bored.

[00:13:53] And I mean, there's so many good examples of this, but

[00:13:57] your customer is experiencing you for the first time.

[00:14:01] And you have to respond to them as if this is the first time

[00:14:05] you've ever done what you're going to do for them, either a service or product or whatever it is.

[00:14:09] You got to do it as if you've never done it before.

[00:14:12] And every single time you do it, you have to do that.

[00:14:15] We have this statement we use with our small business owners.

[00:14:18] It worked so well, what you're telling me is it worked so well, you stopped doing it.

[00:14:24] You know, why'd you stop doing that?

[00:14:25] Why don't you know?

[00:14:26] Well, did it work? Yeah, it worked great.

[00:14:27] Well, so it was working and you stopped.

[00:14:30] Yeah, I guess so.

[00:14:33] We do it all the time and it's from user ourselves.

[00:14:36] Boredom is sort of a byproduct of boredom?

[00:14:38] Yeah, it's a byproduct of boredom.

[00:14:40] It's just, well, let me change it up.

[00:14:41] And I think it'll be more interesting for my clients when in fact

[00:14:44] it's just me trying to make it more interesting for myself.

[00:14:47] We have a business development course we've been doing for 15 years now,

[00:14:51] 11 week course we do it twice a year.

[00:14:53] And we've had thousands of people go through this.

[00:14:55] They say it's the best business development course they've ever taken.

[00:14:59] And I'm very intentional in doing that thing every single week

[00:15:04] exactly like it's the first time I've ever done it.

[00:15:07] And then at the end of the course, I share that with them

[00:15:10] because it's one of the things they're going to have to do

[00:15:12] when they start selling their chair or selling their product or whatever it is.

[00:15:15] Or, you know, we just can't afford to do it any other way.

[00:15:20] So so it's a discipline for someone who's ADHD, dyslexic, all that stuff.

[00:15:24] But for all of us, we just can't afford to get bored.

[00:15:27] Get somebody else to do some of the sometimes you find other people

[00:15:30] who can do bits and pieces of it.

[00:15:32] And that's the best way is find somebody else who's more systems oriented

[00:15:35] who just doesn't get bored.

[00:15:37] They all they do is just they keep refining.

[00:15:39] They just make it better.

[00:15:41] Yeah, I think we face what's interesting about your message,

[00:15:45] especially in the world we're living is we're in that hustle culture.

[00:15:49] I think that hustle culture is a bit like got to work, work your face off,

[00:15:53] work, you know, work 20, 20 hours a day, don't sleep, do everything.

[00:15:58] And I think you've probably taken that path and in May.

[00:16:03] I did that wrong too.

[00:16:04] Yeah, maybe even contributes to what you talk about now.

[00:16:07] So how do people make more money with less time?

[00:16:11] What's the process behind that?

[00:16:13] Yeah, and that was that was the product of my first my first book,

[00:16:16] Making Money is Killing Your Business.

[00:16:17] I wrote the first seven chapters in seven days

[00:16:19] and I wrote the Lex three and three more days a month later.

[00:16:23] And what in reality is it took me 20 years to write that book.

[00:16:26] I just took seven days to write it down.

[00:16:29] And in that book, I talk about my own journey

[00:16:33] that in my fifth or sixth business, I'm a slow learner.

[00:16:36] In my fifth or sixth business, I just was tired of building a business.

[00:16:40] Every time we build a successful business, my treadmill went faster.

[00:16:44] The more money, more revenue, my treadmill just went faster.

[00:16:47] My life got worse.

[00:16:50] And my wife's life and my kids' life, everybody else got better.

[00:16:53] They all they all got the toys and all the fun stuff to enjoy

[00:16:56] while I was busy feeling burdened by my business.

[00:16:59] So in my sixth business, I just I came to the end of myself.

[00:17:02] I just called.

[00:17:02] We have to do this.

[00:17:03] We have to come to the end of ourselves.

[00:17:04] And I just said, I don't know how I'm going to do this.

[00:17:07] But this time I'm going to figure out how to make a business that serves me.

[00:17:12] And one quick sec.

[00:17:14] When you say worse, worse in what way?

[00:17:17] Well, I'm sorry, worse.

[00:17:19] When you said it was worse for you when you're the more

[00:17:21] successful your business got the worst.

[00:17:23] Yeah, the worst because we bought the industrial age alive.

[00:17:27] The industrial age lie is if you make a butt load of money,

[00:17:30] you will somehow be happy.

[00:17:32] Couldn't be farther from the truth.

[00:17:33] And I will just try to out thousands of people.

[00:17:36] I know personally in thousands and go away, but it just doesn't work that way.

[00:17:40] You have to design yourself into the business on the back of my book.

[00:17:44] I don't normally have my book on the on the table.

[00:17:46] But on the back of my book, it says my first book, use your business

[00:17:52] to build your ideal lifestyle.

[00:17:53] I actually felt guilty putting that on the book when I first put it there.

[00:17:57] I mean, I'm going to use my that just feel I feel bad about that.

[00:18:01] It's been it's an industrial age mindset that comes all the way back

[00:18:05] from the Protestant ethic that says a good man or woman works hard.

[00:18:09] While the fourth tenant of the Protestant ethic says, if a good man

[00:18:14] and woman works hard, they will be in control of their destiny.

[00:18:17] I was not in control of my destiny.

[00:18:18] The bigger my businesses got, the more they owned me.

[00:18:21] The more I became a hostage to my businesses, business will give you

[00:18:25] the more generally the more money it gives you, the more time it will take.

[00:18:29] And we taught we learned that in the factories.

[00:18:31] If you want to make more money, you did over time.

[00:18:33] You put in time, you got money, you traded time for money

[00:18:37] and we bring that mindset into building our own business.

[00:18:39] I'm going to build a really successful business.

[00:18:42] It's going to take a lot of time.

[00:18:43] Richard Branson lives on an island of the four hundred and sixty plus businesses.

[00:18:47] And he doesn't spend a lot of time with any of them.

[00:18:49] He's learned how to be a business owner, not an income producer.

[00:18:52] So it's a mindset and that's how it was worse for me.

[00:18:56] And it's worse for everybody.

[00:18:57] I know a woman here in Highlands Rancher makes almost a million dollars a month.

[00:19:01] And I guarantee I can call her office on Saturday afternoons

[00:19:04] and she's going to be there.

[00:19:05] And she told me if I'm not here, I get 20 plus people.

[00:19:07] If I'm not here, this thing's going to start to fall apart.

[00:19:10] She's not a business owner.

[00:19:11] She's an income producer.

[00:19:13] And that's normal.

[00:19:14] There is it's not normal, but it's normative.

[00:19:16] It's the it's the norm.

[00:19:18] It shouldn't be considered normal.

[00:19:20] What should be considered normal is as you grow your business,

[00:19:23] it makes more money and also it provides more time.

[00:19:26] So that was what I did in my sixth business.

[00:19:29] I just said, I don't know how I'm going to do this.

[00:19:31] But this time I'm going to figure out how to build a business

[00:19:34] that produces both time and money.

[00:19:37] It doesn't rob me of one to give me the other.

[00:19:39] No clue how to do it.

[00:19:40] And that was my journey, my sixth business.

[00:19:42] And that ended up being this book, Making Money is Killing Your Business

[00:19:45] that taught people the four building blocks of how to build a business

[00:19:49] that serves them where they can actually make more money in less time.

[00:19:53] And the testimonials on that.

[00:19:54] Now we've got our thing, we've got this thing called three to five clubs

[00:19:57] that we started as a result of this for small business owners.

[00:19:59] And one woman said just last month, a couple of months ago,

[00:20:04] I had an eighty five thousand dollar year hobby business.

[00:20:07] And a year after figuring out I could actually make more money in less time.

[00:20:11] It's a million dollar business and next year it'll be a two million dollar business.

[00:20:14] And oh, by the way, we just spent the last four months

[00:20:16] on the road with our four kids in a Winnebago running our business from the from the road.

[00:20:22] That's a business that makes more money in less time.

[00:20:25] That's the that's a business owner's mindset.

[00:20:28] It's surprising even so all the digital tools, the age people still build

[00:20:32] themselves as a slave in the business.

[00:20:34] Yeah, they build themselves right in.

[00:20:36] Yep, right into it.

[00:20:37] They sell right into the fabric of the cloth.

[00:20:39] Right. And I've gone back and you know, I co-own a company with my dad

[00:20:43] and we've gone back and forth on this too is is, you know,

[00:20:46] oh, we were we're so unique.

[00:20:49] No one else can sell what we sell.

[00:20:51] And all this good stuff.

[00:20:52] And it's it's a constant back and forth on that.

[00:20:54] It's like we can't be the only person to manage that side of the business.

[00:20:58] And I think it's either that or it's the production or one armor, the other.

[00:21:03] So you mentioned four pillars.

[00:21:05] What are those four pillars?

[00:21:06] What what is the missing link?

[00:21:07] Yeah, people being able to build a company that serves them like that.

[00:21:11] Yeah, if you go to business school, you talk to business gurus,

[00:21:13] you hear things like, oh, you got it.

[00:21:15] The real pillars of a great business are great product, great financing,

[00:21:20] great people on the bus, the right market, the right, you know,

[00:21:24] none of that stuff is actually the four building blocks.

[00:21:26] You need those things.

[00:21:28] But the four building blocks are things again, we stumbled onto by just

[00:21:31] working with our own lives and hundreds of business owners.

[00:21:34] Number one is a big why.

[00:21:37] A lifetime goal, something you can use your business to build.

[00:21:42] What are you doing this for?

[00:21:44] What are you doing this for?

[00:21:45] I have a friend who who has a 20 million dollar year of business

[00:21:48] takes home a couple of million dollars, three million dollars a year

[00:21:51] and asking that bit that that that question.

[00:21:54] And he actually sat there for four or five seconds and then he said this word.

[00:21:59] Crickets. He said out loud.

[00:22:04] He said the word crickets. He said, I got no answer.

[00:22:07] You know, we're just listening to crickets right now.

[00:22:10] What are you doing this for?

[00:22:12] So that's number one.

[00:22:13] If you don't have a big why and that's the essence of this book,

[00:22:16] making money is killing your business.

[00:22:18] People who try to make money generally don't make a lot of it

[00:22:21] because it's not motivating enough.

[00:22:23] People who have something bigger to do than make money

[00:22:26] generally make a bucket load of money.

[00:22:28] So as Robert Hurjavec, one of the sharks says,

[00:22:31] don't go into business to make money.

[00:22:32] Go into business to solve a problem,

[00:22:34] to add value to the world around you.

[00:22:36] But even bigger than that, why are you in business?

[00:22:38] Well, how are you going to use that to get you what you want?

[00:22:42] And it's not just you.

[00:22:43] It's everybody who works with you.

[00:22:44] We we have our in our company, everybody who works here.

[00:22:47] We design this company so they can find their own personal destiny.

[00:22:50] And we believe that that will make us a greater company

[00:22:53] and we'll make more money as a result.

[00:22:54] So it's it's a mindset that we have to flip.

[00:22:58] So that number one is is a big why.

[00:23:00] I think just to pause on, I think a lot of people with the with the why,

[00:23:04] the why is oh, I want to help people.

[00:23:06] So and I hear a lot of coaches like you, educators like you,

[00:23:11] saying develop that big why.

[00:23:14] Yeah. How do you uniquely help people discover that big why?

[00:23:17] How do they identify that big why?

[00:23:18] Yeah, well, we spent a lot of time on that.

[00:23:20] That was the first workshop we ever developed 15 years ago.

[00:23:23] Yeah.

[00:23:23] And I gave it for free once a month for a year just to work it out.

[00:23:27] And now it's an online course as well.

[00:23:29] And and so we we do a lot of work on that in three and a half hours.

[00:23:33] We can help you uncover your big why you've already got one.

[00:23:35] We don't need to help you find it.

[00:23:36] We just need to help you peel back the layers and get and stop

[00:23:39] feeling guilty and let it come out.

[00:23:42] So we do a lot of work on that.

[00:23:44] It's fundamental and we and we drive tour with it with businesses.

[00:23:47] It's that true north sort of thing.

[00:23:49] If you don't have a big why, you're going the wrong direction.

[00:23:52] So example would be one one friend of mine.

[00:23:54] Now he was an acquaintance.

[00:23:56] We talked to him about this big why he was already a very successful

[00:24:00] mortgage broker here in Denver for 20 plus years.

[00:24:03] And he we walked through the big why stuff for a few weeks

[00:24:07] and he came back and he says, I got my big why.

[00:24:10] I said, great.

[00:24:11] How do you know you have your big why?

[00:24:13] And he looked at me with steely eyes and says, because it has me.

[00:24:17] Now, well, that's a clever answer.

[00:24:19] Let's test that.

[00:24:19] How do you know it has you?

[00:24:21] And he said really simply because now I can't help myself every

[00:24:25] question I have in business and in life.

[00:24:27] I can't help myself.

[00:24:28] I have to pass it through that test and say, does this help

[00:24:30] me fulfill my big why?

[00:24:32] So it's got me whether I buy a copier or start a new business.

[00:24:36] He ended up retiring quickly from the mortgage business and built

[00:24:40] five assisted living centers because his big why was to help

[00:24:44] people get from where they are to where they need to be.

[00:24:46] And he came across a guy in a coffee shop who had lost his job

[00:24:50] in a, uh, an assisted living center.

[00:24:52] He'd been managing small 16 personal assisted living

[00:24:55] centers for a long time.

[00:24:56] And he said, well, how much is it cost to get one of those

[00:24:58] started and let's get one up and running.

[00:25:00] And now that's all he does.

[00:25:02] He's got five of them and it's all based on his big why.

[00:25:04] That's, that's the power of a big why.

[00:25:07] Definitely.

[00:25:08] So you encourage people to build big businesses and make lots of money

[00:25:12] or is making lots of money.

[00:25:13] I encourage them to figure out what their big why is and then

[00:25:16] build whatever they need to, to get that done.

[00:25:19] The business we're building three to five clubs that can be,

[00:25:22] we want a three to five club in every city in the world.

[00:25:24] It could be a 500 million to a billion dollar business.

[00:25:27] So what it's not about the money, it's about the impact

[00:25:30] and bigger your impact.

[00:25:32] Capitalism interestingly enough, I'm trying to write a book on

[00:25:35] this.

[00:25:35] There's difference between capitalism and industrialism.

[00:25:38] People don't hate capitalism.

[00:25:40] They just think they do.

[00:25:41] They hate industrialism.

[00:25:43] Capitalism always adds value.

[00:25:46] It never not adds value.

[00:25:48] You get paid because you, you blessed somebody with something.

[00:25:52] Industrialism makes money and even it'll even add value if it has to.

[00:25:56] So a lot of Wall Street is industrialism.

[00:25:59] A lot of what we do with giant corporations, they're just in it

[00:26:01] to make money and they'll add value if they have to, but that's

[00:26:04] not what they're in for.

[00:26:05] So I want to get everybody back to capitalism because I think

[00:26:07] that's the game.

[00:26:09] And you look at the greatest of companies, I believe early on for

[00:26:12] the first 20 plus years, Microsoft was industrialist.

[00:26:15] They wanted to make money and Apple was a capitalist.

[00:26:18] They wanted to add value and capital and Apple ended up being

[00:26:22] the biggest or the highest capitalized business in the world.

[00:26:28] So that's not what a big why people look at that negatively.

[00:26:31] A lot of you, I mean, there's a huge cultural war around all this right

[00:26:34] now. Oh, sure. Sure.

[00:26:35] It's a very controversial statement for sure.

[00:26:38] Yep. Yeah it is.

[00:26:40] But yeah, you can I think I think I can hold my own with that idea

[00:26:44] that industrialism is really the issue that we're dealing with

[00:26:48] when industrialism takes money from the local to somewhere else.

[00:26:52] Capitalism gets the money to run around locally.

[00:26:55] So candlestick maker sells to the baker who sells to the

[00:26:59] shoemaker who sells back to the candlestick maker and that

[00:27:02] same dollar just runs around in the community and the faster it

[00:27:05] goes, the better off everybody is.

[00:27:07] It's called the velocity of the dollar.

[00:27:09] That's the fundamentals of capitalism.

[00:27:11] Well, giant corporation incorporated comes in puts a store

[00:27:14] in place, gets all the money and takes it out of there and

[00:27:17] takes it to say Atlanta or wherever and takes it away.

[00:27:21] That's not capitalism.

[00:27:22] That's industrialism.

[00:27:24] So there's and that's what people don't like and that's

[00:27:26] what they see and they think it's capitalism.

[00:27:28] It's not we got it.

[00:27:29] We got it.

[00:27:30] It's so far removed from capitalism.

[00:27:31] We can't call it that.

[00:27:32] It's a vestige of the industrial age when the Rockefellers and

[00:27:36] those guys were driven completely and solely by making money.

[00:27:40] Rockefeller knew nothing about oil.

[00:27:42] Carnegie knew nothing about steel.

[00:27:45] Vanderbilt knew nothing about railroads.

[00:27:47] I mean, on and on Morgan knew nothing about electricity.

[00:27:50] They just saw an opportunity to make money and make as much

[00:27:53] of it as they could as ruthlessly as they could.

[00:27:56] And that's the roots of industrialism and most

[00:27:58] corporations today are still running with that mindset.

[00:28:01] But the smart ones have figured out they're going to make a lot

[00:28:04] more money if they do it another way.

[00:28:06] So that's big why number is the first building block of strategic

[00:28:09] plan is the second one, which is very different than the

[00:28:11] business plan.

[00:28:12] Don't believe in business plans, but you need a plan for where

[00:28:14] you're going.

[00:28:15] The third one is what we call freedom mapping, which is

[00:28:17] mapping your way off the process off the out of the

[00:28:20] process.

[00:28:21] This is where you go from being an income producer to a

[00:28:23] business owner by mapping yourself out of the fabric of

[00:28:26] the business.

[00:28:27] And then the fourth building block is outside eyes.

[00:28:30] People like me or you or other people or just friends who have

[00:28:34] no dog in the hunt, who can accelerate the first three

[00:28:36] things, first three learnings.

[00:28:38] If you have those first three things, you're going to be

[00:28:41] great if you have those.

[00:28:42] If you don't have those and you got all the other

[00:28:43] traditional great product stuff, you're going to be in

[00:28:46] trouble.

[00:28:48] So how did those apply now with everything happening?

[00:28:51] I mean, we're in a we're in a weird time.

[00:28:53] We're in a pandemic unprecedented for all business

[00:28:56] owners.

[00:28:57] How do you recommend people navigate the territory?

[00:29:01] Yeah, well again, it's for me, it's another area of

[00:29:05] uncertainty.

[00:29:06] So I get excited.

[00:29:08] And I think we all need to hide my mindset that I that I

[00:29:12] want every business owner to have and really every human

[00:29:14] being on earth is we're all startups.

[00:29:17] We're all startups again.

[00:29:17] Remember when you were a startup, you didn't know

[00:29:19] what you were doing.

[00:29:20] You didn't know what your price should be.

[00:29:22] You didn't know who your market should be.

[00:29:23] You weren't sure about your product.

[00:29:24] You weren't sure about anything and somehow you were

[00:29:25] excited.

[00:29:27] All that got you excited instead of depressed.

[00:29:29] Well, you're welcome to being a startup.

[00:29:31] So the mindset here is the economy is like roller

[00:29:36] coasters.

[00:29:36] It goes up and comes down.

[00:29:38] And on the first on the first down slope of a

[00:29:41] roller coaster, what's everybody doing?

[00:29:43] They're screaming like crazy.

[00:29:45] They're all living in fear and screaming like crazy.

[00:29:48] But it's that downward momentum that will

[00:29:50] actually give you the momentum to go through

[00:29:51] the rest of the ride.

[00:29:52] So let's ride this thing down as fast as we can,

[00:29:55] learn as much as we can, figure out how to use the

[00:29:58] momentum coming at us for our benefit.

[00:30:04] What's the martial art that Kaisa...

[00:30:09] I can't remember the name of it.

[00:30:10] Somebody gave it to me, but basically it's a

[00:30:12] martial art that uses the energy coming at

[00:30:14] you for your own benefits.

[00:30:16] You don't see it as good or bad.

[00:30:17] You just see it while...

[00:30:18] How can I use that?

[00:30:20] And that's what we need to be doing with this

[00:30:22] pandemic.

[00:30:23] Some people will be completely reinventing their

[00:30:26] businesses and others will be just pushing hard

[00:30:30] to stay alive.

[00:30:32] But let's all figure out how to use the

[00:30:35] momentum coming at us for our own benefit.

[00:30:38] Stop whining.

[00:30:39] I get it.

[00:30:40] I grieve to use 10% of your time to grieve

[00:30:43] what was and then use 90% to get excited

[00:30:45] about where you're going.

[00:30:47] What do you think is going to be some of

[00:30:49] the biggest business changes out of this?

[00:30:53] Yeah, it's a great question.

[00:30:54] Some of them are really exciting.

[00:30:55] Some of them I fear.

[00:30:58] The best survival is the strongest instinct.

[00:31:01] And so when we get into these kinds of

[00:31:03] environments, this is when we get creative.

[00:31:05] I've heard more creative ideas in the last

[00:31:07] three months and I had probably five years

[00:31:09] before that.

[00:31:11] The best...

[00:31:12] Some of the many of the best corporations,

[00:31:16] giant corporations were started in

[00:31:17] recessions.

[00:31:18] 80 plus percent of all patents are by

[00:31:21] companies that are under two years old.

[00:31:23] They're in survival mode.

[00:31:25] So there's a lot of opportunity here,

[00:31:27] just untold opportunity for us to grab

[00:31:30] something around.

[00:31:31] We started two new companies as a direct

[00:31:33] result of this pandemic.

[00:31:37] We don't know if they'll pan out.

[00:31:38] They might be the tail that wags the dog

[00:31:40] too.

[00:31:40] But things we would have never thought of.

[00:31:43] Such a great expression.

[00:31:45] Yeah, but we...

[00:31:46] They may be the thing that blows everything else up.

[00:31:50] We don't know, but we would have never thought of

[00:31:52] them if it wasn't for this opportunity.

[00:31:53] So do you see any particular industry or

[00:31:56] sector that's going to explode?

[00:31:58] Some that are going to completely go away?

[00:32:00] Yeah, I think technology already was...

[00:32:04] These kinds of things accelerate where we

[00:32:07] were going anywhere.

[00:32:09] If the wall is fragile, when an earthquake

[00:32:12] comes along, it falls down.

[00:32:14] It was already fragile.

[00:32:15] And we're going to see a continuation of

[00:32:18] those kinds of things.

[00:32:19] The strong...

[00:32:20] It's just going to accelerate a lot of movement

[00:32:22] toward online and toward digital and

[00:32:24] toward technology.

[00:32:26] So I think there'll be the big winners in this,

[00:32:28] but it's not like it was unfair.

[00:32:30] It just happened quicker.

[00:32:32] You know, it's kind of...

[00:32:33] It was happening anyways, but this

[00:32:35] shoved a lot of companies.

[00:32:36] Yeah, we're probably going to get the next

[00:32:37] 10 years worth of transition in the next year.

[00:32:40] So it would have happened anyway.

[00:32:42] And then some of it that will be...

[00:32:44] That I fear, I try not to be pessimistic

[00:32:48] about anything, but I am concerned that

[00:32:51] small business owners will get tired and

[00:32:53] quit and giant corporations will move

[00:32:55] into their space.

[00:32:56] And we'll have fewer for a while,

[00:32:59] quite a bit, potentially quite a bit

[00:33:01] fewer small businesses and more giant

[00:33:03] corporations.

[00:33:04] And we don't need either one of those

[00:33:05] situations.

[00:33:07] We don't need less small businesses

[00:33:10] and more giant corporations.

[00:33:12] But that's a possibility that the

[00:33:14] local restaurant will will just not be

[00:33:16] able to make it or just can't, you know,

[00:33:18] they just get tired and quit because

[00:33:19] they don't have the momentum.

[00:33:21] And some giant corporation will move

[00:33:23] their restaurant into their space.

[00:33:25] Yeah.

[00:33:26] Have you have you gone to any

[00:33:27] restaurants yet since they've opened

[00:33:28] back up?

[00:33:29] It's because I went to a really

[00:33:31] popular one down here in downtown

[00:33:32] their own by a huge restaurant group

[00:33:34] and I'm they're packed in normal

[00:33:37] times, air quotes, normal times.

[00:33:39] Yeah.

[00:33:39] And I'm looking, I'm sitting there

[00:33:41] in the turnover and everything

[00:33:43] that's happening the way they're

[00:33:45] turning tables.

[00:33:46] I'm like, this is a huge the way

[00:33:48] they're normally packed.

[00:33:49] They're open and they're able to

[00:33:51] open back up.

[00:33:52] There's no way they're going to

[00:33:53] make it.

[00:33:54] There's no way these restaurants are

[00:33:55] going to make it.

[00:33:56] Yeah, it's they're going to

[00:33:58] reinvent themselves and we're

[00:33:59] going to have to we got to stop

[00:34:03] selling fear.

[00:34:03] That's the first problem with

[00:34:04] what we're doing.

[00:34:06] There's there's no balance in

[00:34:07] the reporting that's going on.

[00:34:08] The CNN has that vulgar stock

[00:34:11] ticker of death thing they put on

[00:34:12] that's just irresponsible and

[00:34:15] completely inaccurate.

[00:34:16] Yeah, in so many ways, but

[00:34:18] there's just you just turn on the

[00:34:20] news for 30 seconds and it's all

[00:34:21] about fear.

[00:34:23] There's so many opportunities to

[00:34:25] look at this differently and see

[00:34:26] it in very different ways, but

[00:34:28] they've scared some people away

[00:34:30] from going to a restaurant for

[00:34:31] the next five years.

[00:34:33] They just have.

[00:34:34] And you you you personally feel

[00:34:35] the fear is fairly unfounded.

[00:34:38] I personally fear feel that we

[00:34:39] should be scientifically based

[00:34:42] and most of the fear is not

[00:34:43] scientifically based.

[00:34:45] 50 50 percent of the people who

[00:34:47] die from this are over 80 half

[00:34:51] 40 some percent of the rest of the

[00:34:53] people who die are over 70.

[00:34:56] I'm 66.

[00:34:57] So I'm I'm in that cohort.

[00:35:00] 43 if you're under 45

[00:35:04] 3 percent of all the deaths

[00:35:06] from COVID are under 45 years of

[00:35:08] age. If you're under 20 0.0

[00:35:10] percent I think there's been one

[00:35:11] person that they can document.

[00:35:14] Those are statistics we should

[00:35:15] know because now we know how to

[00:35:16] actually protect people.

[00:35:17] This isn't discard the old

[00:35:19] people talk. This is let's figure

[00:35:20] out who actually needs to

[00:35:21] protect it build a fortress

[00:35:22] around them.

[00:35:24] But what do we do? We're taking

[00:35:25] healthy people with where we're

[00:35:26] taking them offline when in

[00:35:28] fact they you know there's just

[00:35:30] so many other ways to do this

[00:35:31] making them less healthy.

[00:35:32] Yeah. How do you I mean

[00:35:34] Colorado speaking Colorado

[00:35:36] specifically this is my high

[00:35:37] mentors. How do you I have my

[00:35:39] perspective on it and I agree

[00:35:41] we go on the science.

[00:35:43] There's a force mandate on

[00:35:44] wearing face masks outside

[00:35:46] even if your people aren't

[00:35:48] obliging to it. But technically

[00:35:50] you could be fine by being

[00:35:51] outside of your house

[00:35:53] and not have a face mask right

[00:35:54] now.

[00:35:56] Yeah. I mean I would much

[00:35:58] prefer that people wear

[00:36:00] their masks because they are

[00:36:02] concerned about people around

[00:36:03] them.

[00:36:04] I get concerned when we

[00:36:06] start mandating things that

[00:36:09] should happen because then

[00:36:11] people start resisting them.

[00:36:12] It's an odd response in

[00:36:14] human history but it happens

[00:36:16] all the time.

[00:36:17] I would much rather have great

[00:36:19] education as to why that would

[00:36:20] be a good thing to do.

[00:36:22] And then you know we can all

[00:36:23] we can all help the person who

[00:36:25] doesn't figure it out help them

[00:36:26] figure it out. But but if we

[00:36:27] have to go that route the

[00:36:28] data says

[00:36:30] that if we wear masks in

[00:36:31] public for now we're going

[00:36:32] to be better off.

[00:36:34] Yeah. So I wear a mask in

[00:36:36] public. I don't like them.

[00:36:37] They make me hot and all kinds

[00:36:39] of other things but I wear a

[00:36:41] mask in public because the data

[00:36:42] says that's a smart thing to

[00:36:44] do. Yeah. So I think we should

[00:36:46] be data based and there

[00:36:48] will come a time very quickly

[00:36:49] here. There's two kinds of fear

[00:36:50] Connor.

[00:36:51] One is the fear of the

[00:36:52] possible and the other is the

[00:36:53] fear of the probable.

[00:36:56] And we are fearing right now

[00:36:58] too much. We're growing into

[00:36:59] a fear of the possible.

[00:37:01] It was probable there for

[00:37:03] a while that if you got this

[00:37:04] thing you would die. It was

[00:37:05] like three.

[00:37:06] At one point it was one out of

[00:37:07] three. It was 33 percent.

[00:37:09] Then it was 3.4 percent for a

[00:37:10] long time. Then it was 2 percent

[00:37:12] then it was 1 percent.

[00:37:13] It's going down and we're

[00:37:14] pretty close to where it's

[00:37:16] not it's not anywhere near the

[00:37:17] flu yet but we're getting

[00:37:19] there.

[00:37:20] And when we get to where we're

[00:37:21] pretty close to the flu

[00:37:24] responding the way we are might

[00:37:26] be considered fear of the

[00:37:27] possible. So the example

[00:37:29] there would be I'm never

[00:37:30] going hiking again because

[00:37:32] it's possible that there's

[00:37:33] a bear in the woods just

[00:37:36] never going to go again.

[00:37:38] And a lot of people live their

[00:37:39] lives fearing the possible that

[00:37:40] the airplane might fall out of

[00:37:42] the sky. So I'm never going to

[00:37:43] fly on one again when in fact

[00:37:44] we all know it's safer than

[00:37:45] driving fear of the probable

[00:37:47] is you want you're on a hike

[00:37:49] and you and you you come

[00:37:50] around a corner and there's a

[00:37:51] bear hundred yards in front of

[00:37:53] you. Okay. Probably fear of

[00:37:55] the pop probable says if you

[00:37:56] keep going something bad will

[00:37:58] happen.

[00:37:59] So fear of the probable is a

[00:38:00] really healthy instinct.

[00:38:02] You should go the other way.

[00:38:04] There is a good healthy fear then

[00:38:05] there's paralyzing fear that

[00:38:07] will keep us from moving

[00:38:08] forward and we're selling

[00:38:11] a lot of fear of the possible

[00:38:12] we're beginning to ignore the

[00:38:13] data.

[00:38:14] When we went into lockdown and

[00:38:16] we did it for great reasons

[00:38:17] and that was to not overwhelm

[00:38:18] our facilities while there's

[00:38:20] one state right now that is

[00:38:21] near to do that they better

[00:38:22] do something about it.

[00:38:23] But no other state actually

[00:38:26] needed to do that. We never

[00:38:27] got close in fact New York

[00:38:28] never overwhelmed their system.

[00:38:30] The Javits Center Hospital

[00:38:32] was empty most of April and

[00:38:33] the ship went home empty and

[00:38:35] we never overwhelmed anything.

[00:38:37] We kept healthy people off the

[00:38:38] streets without good data.

[00:38:40] The prime minister of Norway

[00:38:42] 10 days ago said she admitted

[00:38:45] we have made all our decisions

[00:38:46] based on fear not on data.

[00:38:49] We've locked down we've done

[00:38:50] everything we did based on

[00:38:52] fear of the possible.

[00:38:53] So I get it that's you know

[00:38:55] we want we want to be sure

[00:38:56] but at some point you're so

[00:38:58] sure that you're no longer

[00:38:59] living right.

[00:39:01] And it's it's a part of at what

[00:39:02] point.

[00:39:04] Let's take Colorado even do

[00:39:06] we push back on some of the

[00:39:09] you know your business

[00:39:11] needs to close back down.

[00:39:12] They close you know Texas they

[00:39:13] totally close back down and

[00:39:15] they're they're still doing

[00:39:16] elective surgeries in Texas.

[00:39:18] But if you look at the media

[00:39:20] they're talking about all these

[00:39:21] increase and deaths and all

[00:39:23] that stuff. So it's

[00:39:24] it's hard man it's hard to

[00:39:25] navigate especially as a

[00:39:27] as a young person who has

[00:39:28] never been through economic

[00:39:30] downturns and experiences

[00:39:32] type encounter. I think that's

[00:39:33] really important for me to say

[00:39:35] that I'm not promoting

[00:39:37] a an economic

[00:39:39] versus death discussion

[00:39:42] because I think that's one of

[00:39:42] the problems that people in

[00:39:44] in particular on one side of

[00:39:45] the argument politically are

[00:39:47] are all about hey we can't

[00:39:49] sacrifice the economy for

[00:39:50] deaths. I think that's a

[00:39:51] mood argument it's a dumb

[00:39:53] argument. Yeah. My argument is

[00:39:55] we should not sacrifice life

[00:39:56] for death.

[00:39:58] We should not sacrifice more

[00:39:59] deaths for death. This is a

[00:40:01] death versus death argument.

[00:40:03] The UN says 130

[00:40:06] 130 to 150 million more

[00:40:08] people will be thrown into

[00:40:09] abject poverty and we know

[00:40:11] statistically what that does

[00:40:13] to people's deaths somewhere

[00:40:14] around 30 million children are

[00:40:16] predicted to die as a direct

[00:40:19] result of lockdown worldwide.

[00:40:22] Well we've had how many people

[00:40:23] died you know to 11000 or

[00:40:25] whatever hundred or I'm sorry

[00:40:27] 200 and some thousand die

[00:40:28] from this thing.

[00:40:30] Directly 30 million children

[00:40:31] alone 120,000 deaths of

[00:40:34] despair predicted for the U.S.

[00:40:35] alone. Those need to be in the

[00:40:38] equation as well.

[00:40:38] Fareed Zakaria or somebody

[00:40:42] else.

[00:40:42] I'm an economic

[00:40:43] discuss that's not an

[00:40:44] economic discussion.

[00:40:46] That's a wellness.

[00:40:48] It's a well and it's a

[00:40:50] compassion versus emotion.

[00:40:51] Frankly what we're doing is

[00:40:53] we're responding emotionally to

[00:40:54] a very visible death when

[00:40:57] compassion says we need to

[00:40:58] take into account the deaths we

[00:41:01] cannot yet see that are already

[00:41:02] happening around us.

[00:41:04] I know of eight people who

[00:41:05] have committed suicide in the

[00:41:07] airline industry and the

[00:41:08] dental industry don't know

[00:41:09] them personally but I know

[00:41:10] them.

[00:41:11] I know people who know them

[00:41:13] and alcoholism and then

[00:41:16] the poverty deaths that will

[00:41:19] happen as a result of this

[00:41:21] lockdown those kinds of

[00:41:22] things.

[00:41:23] We need to take it all into

[00:41:24] effect and say what's the

[00:41:26] best decision.

[00:41:26] The question we haven't

[00:41:28] had, we haven't taken into

[00:41:30] account in this entire thing is

[00:41:32] this.

[00:41:32] How do we ensure the fewest

[00:41:34] people die from all causes?

[00:41:37] If we were taking that tack we

[00:41:38] would do things differently but

[00:41:39] we're only listening to one

[00:41:41] very narrow slice of

[00:41:44] scientists who understandably

[00:41:45] have a very myopic view of

[00:41:47] life and all they see is

[00:41:48] COVID, directly COVID-19

[00:41:50] deaths and so our country is

[00:41:52] being run by a very few

[00:41:54] scientific pieces of data and

[00:41:57] I think it was what's his name

[00:42:00] Smirkanish on CNN he said we

[00:42:03] cannot and should not

[00:42:05] prioritize one death over

[00:42:07] another and that's what we've

[00:42:09] been doing.

[00:42:10] So this is not an economy

[00:42:12] versus death argument.

[00:42:13] That is not you're going to

[00:42:15] lose that argument.

[00:42:16] This is a death versus death.

[00:42:18] How do we ensure the fewest

[00:42:19] people die from all causes?

[00:42:20] If we actually took that

[00:42:21] question on we get

[00:42:23] economists we get

[00:42:24] sociologists, psychologists we

[00:42:26] get all kinds of people

[00:42:26] involved in this discussion.

[00:42:28] Like Japan has done just

[00:42:30] recently they have a whole

[00:42:31] group of people and yes

[00:42:33] epidemiologists are one of

[00:42:35] those people at the table.

[00:42:38] So if you were running every

[00:42:40] if you're president I mean

[00:42:41] what would you do?

[00:42:42] What would you do?

[00:42:43] Well the first thing I would

[00:42:44] convene a panel of the

[00:42:46] smartest brains that would

[00:42:48] would be related to all

[00:42:49] possible deaths.

[00:42:50] Each economic deaths and

[00:42:52] deaths of despair,

[00:42:53] sociologists and

[00:42:55] psychological deaths.

[00:42:57] And I'd get people who

[00:42:59] know all these things.

[00:43:00] There's data on this.

[00:43:01] Insurance companies have a

[00:43:03] formula for how much money

[00:43:04] you make related to how soon

[00:43:07] you will die.

[00:43:07] There's a direct correlation

[00:43:09] between poverty and money.

[00:43:11] And so get those people to

[00:43:12] table too and say okay so for

[00:43:14] every thing we lock down

[00:43:16] and every notch we take the

[00:43:18] economy down we're going to

[00:43:19] suffer another 200,000

[00:43:22] economic deaths.

[00:43:23] Well it's not to cut you off.

[00:43:25] I want to hear what's

[00:43:26] to what's interesting too is

[00:43:27] how do you how do you

[00:43:30] put the price on a life?

[00:43:32] You know how you but but

[00:43:34] ironically enough we do it

[00:43:36] a lot in the insurance game

[00:43:38] and these other industries

[00:43:40] is literally putting a price

[00:43:41] on a life.

[00:43:41] So this kind of this is

[00:43:43] where the emotionism versus

[00:43:44] compassion comes in.

[00:43:45] I believe we price lives

[00:43:47] based on their visibility.

[00:43:50] More than anything,

[00:43:52] the the Volger stock ticker

[00:43:54] of death thing on on CNN that

[00:43:56] shows you covid deaths

[00:43:58] every day doesn't show you

[00:44:00] that the all the other deaths

[00:44:02] that are happening as a

[00:44:03] direct result of this thing.

[00:44:04] We don't see those out of

[00:44:05] sight out of mind.

[00:44:07] How dare you say

[00:44:10] that somebody should not be

[00:44:12] protected from covid?

[00:44:13] Well how dare you condemn

[00:44:15] 30 million children in the

[00:44:17] world to die because you

[00:44:18] locked healthy people down?

[00:44:20] You want to justify that

[00:44:21] against 250 or 300,000 other

[00:44:23] deaths?

[00:44:24] You know, like we can't

[00:44:25] prioritize deaths over deaths.

[00:44:26] But I get it.

[00:44:27] We do it.

[00:44:28] If we do it emotionally,

[00:44:29] we think we're being

[00:44:30] compassionate.

[00:44:31] A mode of compassion takes

[00:44:33] everybody into account.

[00:44:33] Emotion takes in what I can

[00:44:35] see.

[00:44:35] Yeah, I think I think humans

[00:44:37] are good by nature.

[00:44:38] And I think we try to do

[00:44:40] this good thing.

[00:44:40] I think I think maybe

[00:44:42] ignorance outweighs malice

[00:44:46] and tense.

[00:44:46] Oh, this is not malicious at

[00:44:48] all.

[00:44:48] It's just when I can see

[00:44:49] somebody dying in front of me

[00:44:50] and I can't see the guy.

[00:44:52] The analogy would be if you

[00:44:54] pull this person out of the

[00:44:55] sand, seven other people

[00:44:57] will die.

[00:44:58] You won't see him.

[00:45:00] You'll just see this one die.

[00:45:02] What would you do?

[00:45:03] That's a tough question.

[00:45:06] And the obvious

[00:45:07] compassionate answer is you

[00:45:08] save them from the most

[00:45:09] people.

[00:45:11] But the emotional answer is

[00:45:12] I don't want to watch this

[00:45:13] guy die.

[00:45:14] And of course you do the best

[00:45:15] you to keep all eight of

[00:45:17] them.

[00:45:17] That's the best answer is

[00:45:18] well, let's see how we can keep

[00:45:19] all eight of them from dying.

[00:45:20] So yeah, but yeah, I get it.

[00:45:23] I'm glad I'm great.

[00:45:24] We can we live in a country

[00:45:25] we can have these discussions

[00:45:26] have these conversations.

[00:45:27] And so for that, I'm super

[00:45:29] grateful and for you sharing

[00:45:30] on that.

[00:45:31] And also to anything else

[00:45:34] business, I mean anything

[00:45:36] whatsoever that's really top

[00:45:37] of mind for you that you

[00:45:39] think would be really

[00:45:40] important to touch on.

[00:45:42] Yeah, I appreciate that kind

[00:45:43] of what my my next book is

[00:45:44] coming out September 24th.

[00:45:48] It's called Rehumanizing the

[00:45:49] Workplace.

[00:45:49] I just got the first advanced

[00:45:50] copy of it.

[00:45:51] It's a just a mockup copy.

[00:45:54] But that book, I wrote it

[00:45:57] before the pandemic.

[00:45:59] And it's about getting it's

[00:46:00] about the subtitle is how to

[00:46:02] give everybody their brain back

[00:46:03] at work.

[00:46:05] In the the art, it's the

[00:46:07] art and science of distributed

[00:46:08] decision making.

[00:46:09] How do we get decisions done

[00:46:12] where we don't have managers

[00:46:13] in place?

[00:46:14] Well, gee, what a surprise.

[00:46:15] Now we've got this thing

[00:46:16] called working remote.

[00:46:18] And I think this could be the

[00:46:19] number one book on how to work

[00:46:21] remote.

[00:46:22] So I'm really excited about

[00:46:24] helping people understand that

[00:46:25] they don't need to be in

[00:46:27] offices to be managed.

[00:46:28] The whole idea of management

[00:46:30] is a it comes from slavery

[00:46:31] through surf them through the

[00:46:32] military into business.

[00:46:34] It doesn't even it does.

[00:46:36] It's not effective.

[00:46:38] That's probably the things

[00:46:39] most top of mind for me is

[00:46:40] that managing people actually

[00:46:42] does not make them more

[00:46:43] productive.

[00:46:45] The data has been there for 10,

[00:46:47] 15 years now that people who

[00:46:49] work from home are more

[00:46:50] productive.

[00:46:52] Interesting.

[00:46:53] All this is this is this also

[00:46:55] falls under the category of

[00:46:56] what you've spoken quite a bit

[00:46:57] about for a number of years

[00:46:58] now the participation

[00:47:00] participation age.

[00:47:02] Right?

[00:47:02] Yeah.

[00:47:03] Yeah.

[00:47:04] This is my second book on the

[00:47:05] participation age.

[00:47:06] Why employees were always a

[00:47:07] bad idea as the first one.

[00:47:09] And that was the who, what,

[00:47:10] when, where and why of the

[00:47:12] participation age.

[00:47:13] This book is the how

[00:47:14] rehumanizing the workplace by

[00:47:16] giving everybody their brain

[00:47:17] back.

[00:47:17] There's 12 tools of

[00:47:19] distributed decision making

[00:47:20] that we've identified not in

[00:47:22] an ivory tower, but by doing

[00:47:23] them by helping companies get

[00:47:25] there.

[00:47:25] We just finished with a

[00:47:26] $300 million company in

[00:47:28] Colorado and California that

[00:47:30] went from a completely top down

[00:47:32] hierarchical structure to

[00:47:34] to an organizational

[00:47:35] distributed what we call

[00:47:36] distributed decision making

[00:47:38] team structure with no

[00:47:40] managers.

[00:47:41] The leaders, the future of

[00:47:42] companies is communities,

[00:47:45] future of companies are

[00:47:46] communities.

[00:47:46] Oh, absolutely.

[00:47:48] Yeah.

[00:47:48] And that's one of the chapters

[00:47:49] in this book.

[00:47:50] Funny funny as you said, I

[00:47:51] say in this book on community

[00:47:53] that I believe the concept

[00:47:54] and the the the whole concept

[00:47:57] of community is probably the

[00:47:59] next big topic in business.

[00:48:02] How do we actually become

[00:48:03] community?

[00:48:04] Because we separated work in

[00:48:06] 1850 was the first time more

[00:48:08] people went to work than

[00:48:09] actually just went downstairs to

[00:48:10] work.

[00:48:11] We went to factories.

[00:48:13] And ever since we've actually

[00:48:14] gone to work.

[00:48:15] It's this very weird thing in

[00:48:16] history of man, we go to

[00:48:18] work, which means we separate

[00:48:20] work and personal life.

[00:48:22] And we got to get those

[00:48:22] things reintegrated in a

[00:48:25] way that's healthy.

[00:48:26] You know, we don't want to

[00:48:26] overrun their personal life,

[00:48:28] but work should not be the

[00:48:29] purpose of this book is to

[00:48:30] help people understand work

[00:48:31] should not be an unwelcome

[00:48:33] interruption in an

[00:48:34] otherwise really great day.

[00:48:37] It's integrated into what I'm

[00:48:38] doing.

[00:48:38] It's part of my day.

[00:48:39] I get out of bed and maybe I

[00:48:41] get out of my pajamas because

[00:48:42] they work at home.

[00:48:43] But I just, you know, I flow

[00:48:45] into my work and I work with

[00:48:46] other people and it's part

[00:48:48] of who I am.

[00:48:49] It's not an interruption.

[00:48:50] And my mother taught me

[00:48:51] they're really not separated

[00:48:52] anymore.

[00:48:53] They are one in the same

[00:48:54] work.

[00:48:55] And yeah, my mother taught me

[00:48:56] she came out of the Great

[00:48:58] Depression.

[00:48:58] She said, you don't go to

[00:49:00] work to make friends and be

[00:49:02] happy.

[00:49:02] You go to work to make money.

[00:49:03] You can make friends and be

[00:49:04] happy at home.

[00:49:08] That's not attractive.

[00:49:10] Not so much.

[00:49:11] I think I think it's important

[00:49:12] because I think a lot of

[00:49:13] companies talk about community.

[00:49:15] Yeah, I'm interested to hear how

[00:49:17] you break it down as a CEO is

[00:49:19] saying we were a family.

[00:49:20] We're a community.

[00:49:21] No, that's in pose.

[00:49:23] That's not the actual exactly

[00:49:24] culture.

[00:49:25] It's not an actual community.

[00:49:26] I'm in a nutshell.

[00:49:27] I can give away the whole book.

[00:49:29] Most books can be given away in

[00:49:30] a few sentences.

[00:49:31] But the whole mindset here is

[00:49:33] that that managers

[00:49:36] tell leaders ask

[00:49:38] and leaders leaders get other

[00:49:40] people to own what they want

[00:49:42] them to own.

[00:49:43] They don't manipulate them to

[00:49:44] get them to own it.

[00:49:45] They postulate, they theorize

[00:49:47] and say, hey, what if we did

[00:49:49] this?

[00:49:50] And then they get everybody

[00:49:51] else involved in it.

[00:49:52] The mantra here is people

[00:49:53] commit to what they create.

[00:49:56] Or another way to say it is

[00:49:57] input equals ownership.

[00:49:59] So yeah, you come up with

[00:50:00] a great idea from on high

[00:50:01] about community and you march

[00:50:03] that out and you tell

[00:50:04] everybody we're going to be

[00:50:05] a great community.

[00:50:06] They don't own that.

[00:50:08] But if you went to them as

[00:50:09] as an open space leader and

[00:50:11] said, OK, I've got this idea.

[00:50:13] What if we became a community?

[00:50:15] Who wants to get involved in

[00:50:16] that idea?

[00:50:16] Who wants to help march

[00:50:19] that out?

[00:50:19] And how do we how do we get

[00:50:20] everybody involved in that?

[00:50:21] Let's see if that's a good

[00:50:22] idea.

[00:50:23] Let's say people commit to

[00:50:24] what they create.

[00:50:25] And that's the whole idea of

[00:50:26] distributed decision making.

[00:50:28] Stop making decisions from a

[00:50:29] top down basis and start

[00:50:31] figuring out how do people

[00:50:32] make decisions that they

[00:50:34] have to live out?

[00:50:35] Any decision I have to live

[00:50:36] out, I should be making.

[00:50:38] And we do that as a team.

[00:50:41] So when can people get their

[00:50:43] hands on the book?

[00:50:44] September 24th is when it's

[00:50:45] going to come out.

[00:50:46] We'll probably have prelaunch

[00:50:47] stuff going on before that.

[00:50:49] But September 24th is called

[00:50:51] rehumanizing the workplace by

[00:50:52] giving everybody their brain

[00:50:54] back the 12 tools of the

[00:50:56] art and science of distributed

[00:50:57] decision making.

[00:50:58] Beautiful.

[00:50:59] Well, Chuck, I can't thank

[00:51:00] you enough for taking the time

[00:51:01] and coming and mentoring all of

[00:51:03] us today.

[00:51:03] And what's the best way for

[00:51:05] people to find you, follow

[00:51:07] you, get into contact with you?

[00:51:08] That real simple.

[00:51:09] We keep trying to keep things

[00:51:10] simple.

[00:51:10] Chuck Blakeman dot com.

[00:51:12] Chuck Blakeman dot com.

[00:51:14] You find everything else we do

[00:51:14] from there.

[00:51:15] Chuck Blakeman dot com.

[00:51:17] Cool. Make sure you go hit

[00:51:18] that. Those of you listening

[00:51:20] appreciate you.

[00:51:20] Make sure you subscribe, leave

[00:51:22] a review.

[00:51:22] We'll see you next time

[00:51:23] podcast listening people plug

[00:51:43] agency production.

[00:51:45] This is Sarah Hubbard, host

[00:51:47] of you and me kid, a podcast

[00:51:49] about starting and raising a

[00:51:50] family on your own.

[00:51:51] We just launched season two

[00:51:53] and I'm speaking with single

[00:51:54] moms, those still considering

[00:51:55] an expert in relevant fields

[00:51:57] to give you a real sense of

[00:51:58] what the day to day experience

[00:52:00] of solo parenting looks and

[00:52:01] feels like.

[00:52:02] Plus this season I've partnered

[00:52:04] with California Cryo Bank,

[00:52:05] the number one Spurnbaker in

[00:52:06] the U.S.

[00:52:07] So wherever you are in the

[00:52:08] process, this podcast

[00:52:10] provides some support, humor

[00:52:11] and helpful information.

[00:52:13] Listen to you and me kid

[00:52:14] wherever you get your podcasts.