1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,120 with a teacher and they were each allowed to ask me one question. 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:10,720 So they were 14 year olds and it was amazing the kind of questions. 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:14,560 It's basically like seeing inside a 14 year old's mind, you know, kind of questions were like, 4 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:16,880 does it ever get easy in life to get out of bed? 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,920 If you're on your own business, does that mean you can just play PlayStation and eat pizza all day? 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:23,800 Have you ever been bullied? 7 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:25,280 If so, how did you deal with the bullies? 8 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:27,600 In my head, I'm like, OK, that kid's getting bullied. 9 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:28,320 He needs some help. 10 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:30,840 So, but, you know, those are not your typical questions. 11 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,320 And I actually stop and think and like, you know, you're actually helping some kids here 12 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:38,800 who are making not necessarily immediate decisions, but really thinking about what is it? 13 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,040 What is it like being an adult? Help me out here. 14 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:42,720 Oh, that's amazing. 15 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:48,320 So how do you how do you find more more shows like that? 16 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:50,240 Shows with with helping the youth. 17 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:50,760 That's really cool. 18 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:54,080 So I use a couple of platforms. 19 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:54,560 All right. 20 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,120 Welcome in to Vision Pros Live. 21 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,200 With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host. 22 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,680 We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building 23 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:05,200 fantastic visions out there. 24 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:16,360 And welcome in to Vision Pros Live. 25 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,840 I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of First Class Business. 26 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:24,600 I'm super excited to be bringing on board today Faris Aranki. 27 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:28,120 He is an IQ, EQ and FQ strategist. 28 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,040 We're going to talk about those acronyms, what they mean in just a minute. 29 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:34,880 Some of them you may be familiar with, but even if not, they have all the more reason 30 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:35,880 to write some notes. 31 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:42,840 We're talking about intelligence, emotional intelligence and focus. 32 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,120 And I thought it was financial intelligence. 33 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,200 But as I looked at that, I was like, wait a second. 34 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,320 All three of these have to do with raising your financial game. 35 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:56,240 So I can see why he added that focus intelligence at the end there too. 36 00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:00,800 And we'll find out if he coined that or if he's just a superstar professor of that. 37 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,200 But I've really, really enjoyed my time with him already and I look forward to 38 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:05,200 putting him on stage. 39 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:10,200 When we talk about enhancing company success, we're not just talking about 40 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:10,960 profits either. 41 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,680 We're going to be talking about success and we're going to be defining what Faris 42 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:16,200 sees as success as well. 43 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:18,920 Before we do that, I want to talk about these sponsors though. 44 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:22,880 These sponsors, two of them, both of them are super important to me. 45 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:24,440 One of them is ColdClick. 46 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:27,680 We actually use ColdClick for LinkedIn automation ourselves. 47 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:29,960 Art Hoffman launched this program. 48 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:36,400 Now we've used U-Link and we've used Buzz and he's got this, in fact, I shouldn't say 49 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:40,240 what he has behind the scenes, but I mean, he's cool like that. 50 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:45,400 He's got Octopus connected to U-Link and he helps us understand the direction that 51 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:46,640 the algorithm is going in. 52 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:49,680 For LinkedIn, so we don't get in trouble as we automate our messages. 53 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:52,920 I mean, if the president of the United States can automate his birthday cards and his 54 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:56,440 messages to get in front of people, then we should be able to leverage the same types 55 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,560 of systems to make sure that we're maximizing the people that we're reaching. 56 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:04,400 And what that does, it allows you to just move forward to the people who are best fit 57 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:06,760 to work with you right here and now. 58 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,920 It also, if you use it right, allows you to connect with complete strangers in 59 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:13,240 authentic ways. 60 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:14,800 Please don't automate your messages. 61 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:19,760 In authentic ways, please don't automate your business in ways that aren't authentic. 62 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:23,560 Like the famous message that says, Hey, it looks like we have mutual friends. 63 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:25,320 Don't automate that. 64 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:26,200 That's just trashy. 65 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:31,040 Now on the flip side, if you're starting out in business and you don't have a website, 66 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:36,240 I wish I had known about SimplyFastWebsites.com, because what Shane Michael has built is a 67 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,640 platform where for $179, you can get a website. 68 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,720 Now, if I were in your shoes, I would push Shane to that specific limit. 69 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,080 I spent thousands of dollars on my first couple of websites. 70 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:53,000 I also spent even more than thousands of dollars in my time trying to figure out Weebly, 71 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:57,640 trying, I'm dating myself there, trying to figure out Wix, trying to figure out Squarespace, 72 00:03:57,760 --> 00:03:59,240 playing with themes on WordPress. 73 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,480 I even hired somebody in Upwork for a couple hundred bucks. 74 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:04,640 It started out as a couple of dollars, by the way. 75 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:09,920 And then he got me connected with a hijacked version of a WordPress theme. 76 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,480 I loved the kid and wished him the best. 77 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:15,000 And my website did fine. 78 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:15,880 Nothing happened with it. 79 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,760 I just felt bad because I was like, this, I think is kind of illegal. 80 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:21,480 So I want to save you that hassle. 81 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,000 I would go with a company like SimplyFastWebsites.com. 82 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,320 Pick their brain the best you can, respectfully. 83 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:30,280 Know that you're not going to get a Nike.com, but you're getting started with somebody who 84 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:32,720 has a passion for both web design and web development. 85 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,840 And you end up saving yourself a whole lot of time and hassle. 86 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:37,920 So big fan of Shane and what he's built there. 87 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:42,600 I continue to wish him the best of success and the water project. 88 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:47,840 If you have access to this, which if you're listening to the podcast, you likely do. 89 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:52,000 There are people all over the world who do not have access to clean drinking water. 90 00:04:52,280 --> 00:04:56,080 And this is an opportunity to find those communities and actually give to a specific 91 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,600 community. Maybe you can't give financially right now. 92 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:04,120 Maybe you're like COVID economics has got you down and you can only share this. 93 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:06,640 Do that. Share it with somebody you never know. 94 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:11,400 Maybe that person that you connected to this is able to donate ten thousand dollars and 95 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,200 fund water wells for a couple of these communities. 96 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:19,200 The cool thing is once you do add some funding to one of these communities, you get to see 97 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:20,880 the actual results of what happens. 98 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:22,320 You get to learn about their story upfront. 99 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:24,960 You then get to see the transformation that takes place. 100 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,880 What you may not see, but I challenge you to think about is look at this picture of these 101 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:33,240 children right here. Imagine how this is going to affect them over the next 10 years of 102 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:34,920 their life. What it will do for their education. 103 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:36,280 What it will do for their health. 104 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:40,520 What that will do for the safety and sanctity of their families. 105 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,480 This is we're creating generational impact when we give to projects like this. 106 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:48,120 Now, if you've got a project and you're like, hey, Jackson, I think this project is way 107 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:49,160 more important than that one. 108 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:53,280 Just drop the link in the comments, please, because I would love to check it out and love 109 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:55,000 to see what we can do to support that as well. 110 00:05:55,280 --> 00:05:58,440 So thank you for always taking the time to give back. 111 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:00,840 We got eight billion people in this world who need a ton of help. 112 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:05,720 So without further ado, let me dive into Ferris's profile a little bit. 113 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,920 I've got to get better at the screen sharing technology, my friends. 114 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,200 Let's see here. Screen share is LinkedIn. 115 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:14,520 I always love for people to have the chance. 116 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:15,520 Hey, what's up, Scott? 117 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,520 I love for people to have the chance to take a look and see where people come from, whether 118 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:28,120 it's his opportunity to go to Durham University or his business, Shia Ghetto Consulting, 119 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,720 which stands for Sharpening Stone in Japanese. 120 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,080 I knew that prior to no, I didn't. 121 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:37,760 And I like this intelligence quotient, the ability to come up with the best solution, 122 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,960 emotional quotient, the ability to bring others with you. 123 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:42,080 That was brilliant. 124 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:46,320 I was like, oh, that's really no better way to define emotion than that understanding 125 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:48,880 that we utilize it to inspire others. 126 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:53,560 And then this focus quotient ability to focus and be efficient. 127 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,480 We're going to talk about focus and action and how they may be the same or differ as 128 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:58,480 well. 129 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:00,400 I'm going to scroll through real fast. 130 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:02,600 Skip past some of the recent activity. 131 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:03,200 You can check out that. 132 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:07,120 But one of the things that would challenge you to do is the leaders that you're working 133 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:11,240 with, that you're looking up to, go in and look and see their job backgrounds. 134 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:16,160 What is it that they've done to get to where they are and build what it is they're 135 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:17,160 building? 136 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:23,080 For instance, three years at Ernst & Young as a strategy advisory team, managing a 137 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:24,080 consulting member. 138 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:25,360 That's a big deal. 139 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:26,360 It's a big company. 140 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:27,600 There are ways they do things. 141 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:28,600 There's things you can do. 142 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:33,520 There are ways they do things, there's things you can learn about why Ferris has 143 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:38,240 adapted and adopted the type of personality that he has in relation to leadership. 144 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:42,400 Asking him about that experience, whether it was good, bad or ugly, allows you to get 145 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,000 to know him on a deeper level as well. 146 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:48,760 Just again, little tips and tricks to help you establish yourself with the leaders that 147 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:49,880 you're meeting and talking to. 148 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:53,560 So, Ferris, thank you so much for joining me on Vision Pros Live. 149 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:54,600 It's great to have you. 150 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:55,360 Thank you for having me. 151 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:56,280 Thank you. 152 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:57,080 Thank you, Jackson. 153 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:02,400 And you know what, that's the first time I've seen my profile sort of anatomically 154 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:05,160 dissected by somebody in front of me. 155 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:09,480 And I'm like, wow, there's nothing as humbling as hearing your CV or your LinkedIn 156 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:10,320 profile read to you. 157 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:12,240 You're like, damn it, I need to change that. 158 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:13,120 I need to move that. 159 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:14,320 But hey, I loved it. 160 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:15,320 It was a great intro. 161 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:18,080 First time for everything. 162 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:19,440 First time I've done that too. 163 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:21,400 So that was fun. 164 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:25,160 Not the first time I've read one, but the first time I've definitely done that live 165 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,520 for somebody and humbling or not, it is an impressive background. 166 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:35,160 And I'm excited for others to, again, ask you about those realities. 167 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:37,880 I hope to discover many more things about you as the years come. 168 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:42,280 So, Ferris, who should be listening today? 169 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:46,800 And the ultimate question of arrogance, no, just grounding. 170 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,760 Why should they be listening to you about these subjects? 171 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,280 OK, the answer is everyone should be listening. 172 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:53,880 But who should be listening? 173 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:55,960 Anyone who wants to be a bit more effective in life. 174 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:56,480 Right. 175 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:58,360 And that can mean anything to anyone, right? 176 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,160 Because we all have goals, not necessarily achieving them. 177 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:03,320 And that's both personal and professional. 178 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:05,560 Why should they listen to me? 179 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,440 Because quite frankly, I'm very entertaining. 180 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:09,720 I've got stories for everything. 181 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:15,600 But more importantly, as you unpack, I've got this equation, this patented methodology, 182 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:18,680 which actively helps companies unlock value. 183 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:19,240 Right. 184 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:22,040 You sort of alluded to it at the start. 185 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:24,440 Why did I call my company Shia Ghetto Consulting? 186 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:25,000 All right. 187 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:27,400 Shia Ghetto, the Japanese word for a sharpening stone. 188 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:28,120 There you go. 189 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:30,920 We even have a pillow with it written on. 190 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:32,920 I was like, that's not a sharpening stone. 191 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:34,120 You're not going to convince me. 192 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:35,240 The arrowhead is sharpening stone. 193 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:36,680 But why is it called a sharpening stone? 194 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:40,600 It's because we all, you know, like your knives, like your pair of scissors, 195 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:41,800 they go dull over time. 196 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:43,160 It's a bit like us. 197 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:44,440 It's a bit like our strategies. 198 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:45,560 They go a little bit dull. 199 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:46,680 We don't realize it. 200 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,040 OK, they lose five percent, 10 percent effectiveness. 201 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:50,840 Right. 202 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:53,480 It just means cutting through that piece of meat a bit harder, 203 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:56,360 getting stuff done in your company and your personal life gets a bit harder. 204 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,760 So if you can just sharpen and improve your effectiveness, 205 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,480 you unlock a whole lot of value in all aspects of your life. 206 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:05,160 So those are the people who should be listening today because I'm going to give some tips, tricks. 207 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,600 And this is the stuff I eat, sleep and breathe and absolutely love. 208 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:11,800 And it makes a material difference for companies and people. 209 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:17,960 I'm going to dive into an indirection here because of what you just nailed down. 210 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:23,640 So when you talked about people becoming dull, you know, or systems becoming dull, 211 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:29,080 their realities becoming dull, et cetera, I think a lot of us tend. 212 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:33,560 I found myself for a couple of years focused on sharpening my mindset. 213 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:34,680 Yeah. 214 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:39,560 And I didn't realize how little I was paying attention to sharpening my systems. 215 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:45,400 So I'm curious, do you know, do you compartmentalize that process of sharpening? 216 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:46,360 Are there different elements? 217 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,120 What does that look like to you? 218 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:48,920 100%. 219 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:52,120 That's why the equation comes up with IQ, EQ and FQ. 220 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:56,040 And, you know, I do this, me and my team, we do this, we go into companies. 221 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:59,080 And do you know what the number one thing we find, particularly with a lot of the big 222 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:01,400 corporates we work with, they've got a lot of IQ. 223 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:04,840 They've got a lot of smart people, you know, coming up with great ideas. 224 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:09,080 What they lack is the EQ and the FQ, the EQ, you know, smart person. 225 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:13,400 If they're not able to talk to other people and say, hey, this is my idea. 226 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:14,440 Are you excited by it? 227 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:16,040 Then it's just their idea. 228 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:17,240 It's just a piece of paper. 229 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:17,960 Right. 230 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,480 So just having IQ, high quantities is not enough. 231 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:25,240 So it's a bit like you working on your technical systems and the bit you said, you 232 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:27,320 know, your knowledge, your things, that's great. 233 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:28,920 But what do you do with that knowledge? 234 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:30,280 How do you get others inspired? 235 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:32,200 And then you talked about having systems. 236 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:33,800 That's where the FQ comes in for me. 237 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:34,760 Right. 238 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:39,560 Having great systems, not being able to do things more efficiently, not be 239 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:45,080 distracted, unlocks the likelihood that you're going to achieve whatever you said, i.e. 240 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:47,480 you're going to use that knowledge in an effective way. 241 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:51,640 Because that's so often, you know, there you go. 242 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:54,920 If you look at it, there's some, you know, I use some analogies on my website about 243 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,320 what does IQ, EQ and FQ mean? 244 00:11:57,320 --> 00:11:59,240 And let's imagine you want to scale amount it. 245 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:00,360 Right. 246 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,640 IQ is working out all the different ways you could scale the mountain. 247 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:07,240 EQ is making sure you've got the right team and they've got your back and there's 248 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:08,360 high levels of trust. 249 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:12,440 And FQ is making sure that you damn well go through with it and climb that mountain. 250 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:13,000 All right. 251 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:16,920 You can't achieve anything without those three components. 252 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:19,240 I was going to ask you about that with FQ. 253 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:24,920 So FQ, as I read your topic on focus and was kind of preparing for this, I thought 254 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:30,520 I should ask Ferris, what's the difference between focus and action? 255 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:34,760 So focus, focus starts with prioritization. 256 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:36,520 All right. 257 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:36,920 Okay. 258 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:41,640 So too many times in life you can be active, but you're not focused. 259 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:42,920 So what do I mean by that? 260 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,840 Let's just take personal habits. 261 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:49,000 We all do stuff day in, day out without really stopping and thinking, why am I doing that? 262 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:49,560 Yeah. 263 00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:49,960 Right. 264 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:52,680 Is it really getting me a step closer to my goal? 265 00:12:52,680 --> 00:12:56,760 We all have sat in a meeting that is probably not really delivering a lot of value. 266 00:12:56,760 --> 00:13:00,760 We've all eaten a couple of biscuits, even if eating biscuits wasn't our goal. 267 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:01,160 Right. 268 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:02,440 Just because they happen to be in front of us. 269 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:04,040 So that means we're doing action. 270 00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:04,920 Right. 271 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:07,240 It's just not necessarily in the direction it should be. 272 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:10,920 And so taking a moment to remind yourself, what is my goal? 273 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:12,440 What are the things that are going to get me there? 274 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:14,760 Therefore, what are the things are not going to get me there? 275 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,520 Like scrolling on my phone is not going to get me there, but I'm still doing it. 276 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:19,320 Right. 277 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:22,520 Just that simple check and balance can give you instant FQ. 278 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,720 It can give you an instant more focus and more likelihood of achieving success. 279 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:29,560 I love that. 280 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:35,000 You've probably heard the analogy of the two lumberjacks in the woods. 281 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:36,520 One's old, one's young. 282 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:38,440 The young guy loses the race. 283 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:41,400 The old guy beat him pretty badly and chopping these trees down. 284 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,200 The young guy says, hey, how the heck did you beat me? 285 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,000 I saw you taking lunch and breaks. 286 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,480 Old guy says, while you were chopping with a dull axe, I was sharpening mine. 287 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,000 And it allowed him to win the race. 288 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:59,640 And that's what led me to my own realization and that analogy of, huh, 289 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:03,960 I see a lot of people sharpening their mind, but I also see a lot of companies ignoring 290 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:05,960 their tools, not sharpening those. 291 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:08,120 And then you talked about it. 292 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:14,360 Even more prominent, I think most people, at least in America, I can't speak for other countries, 293 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:22,040 are seeing that the corporations are kind of putting the well-being of their workers 294 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:23,800 on the back burner. 295 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:25,800 And it's like, hey, have you gotten that report done? 296 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:26,840 By the way, how's your family? 297 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:35,720 If they even ask that, that's being a little bit generous. 298 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,320 So it's neat that you help with that. 299 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:43,800 And I like how you said focus starts with prioritizing your actions. 300 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:44,280 Right? 301 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:46,360 That's also really, really helpful. 302 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:48,280 So what's the vision for those that you serve? 303 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,600 What do you hope that on the other side, what does it look like, the clear destination, 304 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,880 the clear destination of awesome behind that? 305 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,760 Hey, it comes from them, right? 306 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:05,560 I work with companies ranging from Amazon in one scale to an educational charity startup, 307 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:06,600 you know, and the other. 308 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,000 And we always start with vision. 309 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,400 I say, look, you cannot be successful unless you are clear on what you want to achieve, 310 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:14,680 where you want to get to. 311 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:19,160 And I say to them, back in the days when I was a strategy consultant, I used to be my job 312 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:20,280 to help write that vision. 313 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:24,520 But now I say to them, I literally do not care what your vision is, as long as A, you have 314 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:28,600 one and B, as long as the second condition is that you all align on it. 315 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:30,040 Right? 316 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:35,080 Because I've been in companies where the four founders or the eight senior directors all 317 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:36,760 have a slightly different view of the vision. 318 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:37,800 And then what happens? 319 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:39,160 It just causes chaos to the company. 320 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:43,560 Even a 1% split means they're going out walking the floors, telling people slightly different 321 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:43,800 things. 322 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:46,040 So yeah, it's not my job to assess now. 323 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,520 At times I've heard visions that I've gone, oh, my God, that's shocking. 324 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:49,480 I wouldn't do that. 325 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:55,080 But if I can get them aligned and get them to have a clear direction, then that's the 326 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:56,360 vision I do for my clients. 327 00:15:57,160 --> 00:15:57,720 Interesting. 328 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:01,560 Do you ask them that vision individually or does that come out in a group discussion? 329 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:06,520 So I always do an activity to start off with where I say, right, in silence. 330 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,920 And when you alter write down the vision in 15 to 20 words in your own words, right? 331 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:16,520 We then reveal our post-its and we see how close or how far they are. 332 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:20,280 And I said, right, we are not leaving this room till when we repeat that exercise, you 333 00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:22,360 all have a 90% overlap. 334 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:23,800 Okay? 335 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,120 So we're going to discuss, we're going to have honest conversations. 336 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:26,920 And that's what I do. 337 00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:28,600 I create the environment and make it engaging. 338 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:30,600 I challenge to get that. 339 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:32,680 And it's really funny. 340 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:33,320 I'll tell you a story. 341 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:39,160 I once was in a room with a startup, an engineering firm, and they had a vision on their website. 342 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,680 It said, look, we want to save the world by doing environmental projects, maybe a bit 343 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:43,560 like the water project. 344 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:47,720 And I said to them, as preparation for the meeting, I said, can I have a look at all 345 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:49,400 the projects you've done in the last five years? 346 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,520 So I walked into the room and I said, look, something's wrong here. 347 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:58,200 Either you are shit salespeople because you're the five years worth of projects. 348 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,720 You've not done anything that is vaguely saving the environment. 349 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:04,040 Or you're lying about your vision. 350 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:05,000 So which one is it? 351 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:05,560 All right. 352 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:06,680 And there was silence in the room. 353 00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:10,200 Two minutes past, three minutes past, four minutes past. 354 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,480 Finally, one of the directors broke and said, you know, we're going to do this. 355 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:16,440 Yeah, I just want to make a bunch of money and retire by the time I'm 50. 356 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:17,400 I don't care how I do it. 357 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,480 And the second guy went, oh, such a relief because I also want to do that. 358 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:23,320 You know, I don't really care about the environment. 359 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:26,840 And it went around the room and in my head, I'm like, OK, that's that is what it is. 360 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:27,080 Right. 361 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:27,560 It's shocking. 362 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:31,400 But I said, guys, do not put on your website then that's what you're going to achieve. 363 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:31,640 Right. 364 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:33,560 OK, maybe don't write you want to retire by your 50. 365 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:35,720 But by writing that, you're lying to yourself. 366 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:37,240 You're lying to clients. 367 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:40,360 You're lying to your staff who've joined in for those reasons. 368 00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:46,120 And yeah, let's rewrite something that you all now believe in and will dedicate your day in, 369 00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:47,000 day out to achieve. 370 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:48,680 I love that. 371 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,440 And Ferris, I'd like to come in as the devil's advocate on that a little bit. 372 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,120 And talk about that from two different angles. 373 00:17:56,120 --> 00:18:00,920 One, I think the gut reaction of most people hearing a story like that would say, like, 374 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:05,000 well, why the heck would you help somebody who's that evil or that self-centered? 375 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:10,200 And on the flip side, I'd also add that I believe that most and take it 376 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:13,880 for what it is, guys, but most people have the intent to do good. 377 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,920 Even if we're dealing selfishly or we see things from a selfish perspective, 378 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:23,400 there's still an inherent good that's behind it 99 percent of the time. 379 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:27,640 So while that may have been their immediate motivation, we don't know if they were struggling 380 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:28,760 to provide for their families. 381 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:35,720 We don't know if there's a grand reason behind why they needed that financial advancement for 382 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:43,080 themselves. And we don't know by getting to that financial reality if there's a certain virtue 383 00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:45,320 or opportunity of service that exists beyond that. 384 00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:50,680 I'm curious how how how motivated how important was that for you to uncover as part of that 385 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,000 project or team or was that irrelevant? 386 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:55,080 I mean, completely. 387 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:57,240 And that's, you know, I'm not doing them a disservice. 388 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:02,120 They built a company, they were employing 40 people, so they were putting wages in people's 389 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:06,280 hands. They were still doing interesting work. It just wasn't aligned to what they said. 390 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:08,520 And that's what I really was challenging them. 391 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:12,600 You know, and then then the sort of marketer in me said, look, you can't write on a website. 392 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,440 Our vision is to retire by the time we're 50. 393 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:17,000 That that doesn't look that doesn't look great to us. 394 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:21,480 But yeah, it you know, where we reached was we want to do interesting projects with 395 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:26,280 interesting people, you know, which allowed them much more of an umbrella to go out and continue to 396 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:28,280 do the work that they did anyway. 397 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:29,160 I appreciate that. 398 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:30,520 And it just provided more clarity. 399 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:36,200 So, yeah, I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of circumstances and plenty more beyond a simple 400 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:36,920 statement like that. 401 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:38,200 It's funny. 402 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:42,200 I presented at South by Southwest for our first company in Austin. 403 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,880 And I was probably 23 at the time, I think. 404 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:50,760 And one of the investors that came by invested in environmental projects. 405 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:56,840 And I was pretty quick to respect his time and say, like, we don't do anything with the 406 00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:57,400 environment. 407 00:19:57,400 --> 00:19:58,920 I mean, I'm like, sorry. 408 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,680 And he said, he said, you know, don't be so quick to write yourself off. 409 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:08,520 We look for people who are helping human to human associations as well. 410 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,200 You're part of the environment. 411 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:11,800 We're not just talking about solar. 412 00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:16,600 And so I think one, he respected my humility and backing down. 413 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:22,200 But then he elevated my vision and helped me see that this isn't just about wind farms and and 414 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:29,480 solar. This is about anything that contributes to the greater good of humanity. 415 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,040 So I appreciate you bringing that up. 416 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:32,360 Go ahead. 417 00:20:32,360 --> 00:20:33,880 You have something else to say about that before we move on? 418 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:38,680 Yeah, I was just going to say that, you know, as I explained what I do in work, particularly 419 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:43,160 on the EQ side, right, which is about getting people working better together now, rightly 420 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:50,520 or wrongly, companies will not pay a big amount necessarily to make people feel better. 421 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:54,200 OK, they might in the wellness space, but then it's you know, they're not paying the sums 422 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:56,040 that they pay to a strategy consultant. 423 00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:59,960 So rightly or wrongly, I am paid to solve problems. 424 00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:03,480 It just so happens that often I use the people route to get there 425 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:05,400 and that people are happier as a result. 426 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:11,240 But if I didn't move the dial on sales or costs or some other metric within their business, 427 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,400 they wouldn't pay the fees that we asked them to pay. 428 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,160 So that's the reality of life. 429 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:16,200 It makes me a little bit sad. 430 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:20,360 I can I can certainly tell you about a couple of conversations with senior individuals who 431 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:23,080 to my face told me, look, I don't care enough about my team. 432 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,000 It's cheaper to pay you to care about my team. 433 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,760 Just made me a lot sadder about human beings. 434 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,200 But that, you know, at least they were being honest with me. 435 00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:33,800 Right. 436 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:37,000 Hey, and you have the opportunity to come in and bridge that gap. 437 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:38,280 So good for you. 438 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:40,600 Sometimes it's not easy to do the drill. 439 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:45,480 But again, we got to get out of our own heads a lot of times to perform our service. 440 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:47,720 What's your vision, Ferris, for you? 441 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,800 And you can go a thousand years. 442 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:50,840 You can go five minutes. 443 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:51,400 Your call. 444 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:53,000 Five minutes. 445 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:53,800 That's far too far. 446 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:55,640 Well, I mean, I mean, like, yeah, exactly. 447 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:56,200 You caught it. 448 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:57,800 I didn't mean five minutes timewise. 449 00:21:57,800 --> 00:21:59,080 You can go 20 minutes maybe. 450 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,320 But where does your vision take you? 451 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:03,560 My vision takes me. 452 00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:09,320 So I set up my business four years ago for the combination of boredom. 453 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:15,880 I wasn't I wasn't developing myself anymore and wanted to make more of an impact. 454 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:19,400 I'd started my career, funny enough, Jackson, as a high school teacher. 455 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:24,760 And there's there's if you talk to any high school teachers or any teachers out there, 456 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:28,040 you know, yeah, there's some frustrations, but why do they continue to do it? 457 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:29,880 There is a moment in every class. 458 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,360 It could be one student or multiple students where you something happens and you know, 459 00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:37,640 at that point, their life is going to be better because of something you did. 460 00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:39,720 I was missing that feeling. 461 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,560 And so I set up this business because I was like, we can bring that to business. 462 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:44,120 Right. 463 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:45,000 We can make an impact. 464 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,240 I can continue my own development and and sort of growth, but we can do that. 465 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:53,080 And I get that moment with boards, with senior people, with teams. 466 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,640 And it might, you know, it doesn't happen every day, but that's that's my vision. 467 00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:58,440 I want more of that. 468 00:22:58,440 --> 00:22:59,480 And a lot of that comes. 469 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:01,560 That's why I linked it to effectiveness. 470 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:06,120 A lot of it comes from unlocking things that have been just troubling teams, holding them 471 00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:09,800 back, that dullness, that lack of sharpness and just sharpening them up again. 472 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,960 You know, good stuff is going to happen for them, their team and their business beyond 473 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:14,280 that point. 474 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:15,320 So that's my vision. 475 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:16,200 I want more of that. 476 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,880 You know, it just so happens I'm doing it through a vehicle at the moment of this company. 477 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:21,400 So I want the company to grow. 478 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:23,400 We've got a team, but it will get bigger. 479 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:26,920 I want to work with more clients and just keep having fun. 480 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:31,160 You know, I tell you what, Jackson, that is the only metric we measure as a company every 481 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:31,560 week. 482 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,880 Every Friday afternoon, we say on a scale of one to ten, how much fun we had this week. 483 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:36,840 And do you know what? 484 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,000 The more fun we have, the more money seems to come in. 485 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:40,680 So I don't worry about the money side of things. 486 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,440 I know my accountant's listening and she'll be screaming at the screen. 487 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:46,600 But I mean, that a little bit tongue in cheek. 488 00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,600 Obviously, we have to do accounts and stuff. 489 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:49,080 But it's... 490 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:54,760 I'm sure you have other things you measure, but that's the one that you gravitate towards. 491 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:56,280 You never miss, I'm assuming. 492 00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:57,240 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 493 00:23:57,240 --> 00:23:57,720 You're right. 494 00:23:57,720 --> 00:23:57,960 You're right. 495 00:23:57,960 --> 00:23:59,960 That's the instance. 496 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:01,160 That's sort of like the pulse check. 497 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:06,760 That gives me a sense of, you know, are we going in the right direction? 498 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:11,320 And obviously, I then dig into other things more sporadically, but every week, that's 499 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:12,040 the main one. 500 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:12,920 Very good. 501 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:14,120 I got more fun. 502 00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:15,320 And that's awesome. 503 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:18,920 We aren't as dedicated to that as we should be. 504 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,360 But we do have a meeting on Fridays called Level Up Calm Down. 505 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:22,920 Okay. 506 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:23,720 I like that. 507 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:24,040 And we're not... 508 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:28,520 It's an hour and a half back office chatter because you don't get that in a remote company. 509 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:30,120 So we just take an hour and a half. 510 00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:32,360 We're not allowed to talk about any fires. 511 00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:34,680 We're not allowed to talk about any emergencies. 512 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,480 We are there for each other. 513 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:42,360 We'll do some level up stuff, but it's also time to calm down and appreciate each other. 514 00:24:42,360 --> 00:24:45,800 And next thing you know, we're doing karaoke in the whole language. 515 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,720 So it's definitely a fun aspect. 516 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:57,480 But I do like the idea of making sure we're looking at that KPI or that opportunity as 517 00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:58,680 kind of a KPI. 518 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:03,160 Yes, I nerded it up to where it may not be fun any longer, but I'll digress. 519 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,280 All right. 520 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,400 So let's go into darker territory. 521 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:08,600 What has been... 522 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:10,280 Let's see if you can shock us. 523 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,840 What's been your worst business experience ever? 524 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:14,760 Oh, God. 525 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:16,200 I got a whole catalog of them, right? 526 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:24,600 I don't think anyone who is doing all right in business or anyone in business hasn't had 527 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:25,800 a terrible experience. 528 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:28,840 It's funny when they say they don't have them. 529 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:32,280 I'm like, you don't have experience or you're not being honest. 530 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,040 Yeah, they're not being honest, right? 531 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:35,640 And you know what? 532 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,800 You find it sort of grows with you, right? 533 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:45,320 The things that were your worst experience when you first started your career, you couldn't 534 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,840 speak in front of an audience, you got something wrong in your analysis. 535 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:52,120 They obviously no longer... 536 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,840 They're sort of small fry when you're in things. 537 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,200 So the tide moves. 538 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,160 And obviously now I have a team and now I have to look after some of them. 539 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,600 Those are the things that make me feel about the worst experience. 540 00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:08,040 And I guess just bring it back a bit. 541 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,520 I started my company six months before COVID. 542 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:13,320 So a very, very challenging time. 543 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:13,880 The timing was... 544 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,160 Yeah, it was what it was, right? 545 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:22,760 As my dad said to me, if you can build a business during COVID, then just think how awesome 546 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,000 you'll be as a businessman outside of COVID, right? 547 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:27,560 So it's very true. 548 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:31,400 But the reality was seven months of no work. 549 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:37,160 Seven months of every day going, I can't even reach out to people anymore. 550 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:37,880 I've tried that. 551 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:39,160 They're all in a state of panic. 552 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:44,040 So how do I keep myself busy without going mental, without thinking I've got no money 553 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,640 coming in, but also just mentally occupied, right? 554 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:52,760 So that I don't just do nothing and then that will lead to never restarting the business. 555 00:26:52,760 --> 00:27:00,360 So that sort of resilience, mental fortitude, just taking it day by day and getting through 556 00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:02,360 it because we were all there. 557 00:27:02,360 --> 00:27:03,800 We didn't know how long it would last. 558 00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:08,360 For me and the business, it was seven months before we got some work in through the door 559 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:08,840 again. 560 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,960 And I laugh about it now and I did a lot of stuff during that time, but it was... 561 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:18,920 I go back to those days and it was one of the worst experiences that I can remember 562 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:19,880 in recent times. 563 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,880 Seven months of no clients, trying to contact people. 564 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:29,640 And if anybody who's been jobless for an extended period of time where you're actually 565 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:36,920 actively looking and getting told, no, thanks, hey, we went with somebody else, it is so 566 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:43,720 debilitating to be in that position of trying to remember your value when nobody else seems 567 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:45,400 to want to invest in it. 568 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:48,040 So well said. 569 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:49,000 That is difficult. 570 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,040 Let's move into... 571 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,040 We're going to leave people on the hook with that. 572 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,800 If anybody wants to reach out to Ferris and find out how he overcame that, then of course, 573 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:58,600 feel free to do so and what went on next. 574 00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,400 But what is your best experience in business? 575 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:02,920 What does that look like so far? 576 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:08,360 I mean, I think I've alluded to those. 577 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:09,960 These are going to be different moments. 578 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:12,680 There's loads of those. 579 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:13,160 Loads of those. 580 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:14,680 They come thick and fast. 581 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:15,240 Some great. 582 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,640 But I often talk about, you know, funny enough, we're talking about the pandemic and COVID. 583 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:29,160 One of the most exciting experiences in business was, go back 15 years ago now. 584 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:31,640 And it's 2008. 585 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:38,200 I'm working as a consultant on a project for the UK Department of Health where we are preparing 586 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,520 the UK in case there ever is a pandemic. 587 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:41,960 It's a three-year programme. 588 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:43,160 We're a team of 50. 589 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,720 And we're about halfway through the programme. 590 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:51,720 And suddenly there's a disease called swine flu coming out of Asia. 591 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:52,280 Right. 592 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:56,120 And at the time, the UK government thought that was the pandemic. 593 00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:57,880 So it's 2009. 594 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,920 We're halfway through building our preparation as a UK. 595 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:02,840 And we're just told to launch, launch, launch. 596 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:09,400 So it was super exciting because suddenly it was like having a pandemic, but it wasn't 597 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:10,680 actually the pandemic. 598 00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:13,400 So we got to do everything at a heightened step. 599 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:19,000 I got to join super senior government meetings on the periphery. 600 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,400 I got to design a war game, my first ever war game, which was let's play out how this 601 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,680 pandemic will go and how we win. 602 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,640 You know, all I'd ever done was read it in a textbook. 603 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:33,000 But I was told I had 24 hours to pull something together with another colleague. 604 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:38,280 So that's sort of adrenaline and seniority and something. 605 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:38,920 I don't know. 606 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,800 I was still quite junior back 15 years ago. 607 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:47,480 It was a super exciting experience and it gave me a lot of insight and a lot of skills. 608 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,760 And I still recreate war games nowadays about that. 609 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:58,760 You know, how can you create that urgency and experience in a safe environment for companies 610 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,280 so that they can really develop their IQ, in particular, their thinking? 611 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:07,480 Because often we get lazy and we only deliver our best thinking when something's on fire. 612 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:13,880 And so how can you bring that without actually setting it on fire? 613 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:15,400 Interesting. 614 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:21,080 And yeah, I would imagine there's a lot of companies that have never experienced a war 615 00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:27,880 game setup, that have never seen one outside of movie clips and what that looks like. 616 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:33,160 So do you actually bring the war game concept in and pre-prepare them for it? 617 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:34,760 Or what does that look like? 618 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:35,160 Yeah. 619 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,400 Yeah, so I run two or three war games a year nowadays with companies. 620 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:41,320 And they can be very light touch, right? 621 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:45,720 Just a desk exercise or they can be, you know, I've designed ones that are sort of four or 622 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:52,760 five months of preparation with actors, videos, you know, we get them all outfits. 623 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:53,960 And fundamentally, you're doing one or two. 624 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:54,600 You're laughing. 625 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:56,440 You are laughing, yeah. 626 00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:02,520 But in a business context, the CEO will not like the word laugh, but he loves a war game. 627 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:07,800 And what you really want is that experiential, either a competitive war game. 628 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,920 How do you beat your competitors in your same market? 629 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:11,160 Right. 630 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:16,680 And it could be your Walmart and you want to be Best Buy and you want to beat all the 631 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:17,560 other guys, right? 632 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:20,200 Or it could be a team preparation. 633 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,560 So there's something like COVID coming or a pandemic. 634 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:25,400 Let's test the plan you've already got in place. 635 00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:26,520 Let's find the holes in it. 636 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,000 So it's super fun, super engaging and the learnings that come out of it. 637 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:32,840 But here's the crucial thing. 638 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,520 If you go in without an inflexible mind, you don't learn anything. 639 00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,720 So every time I play a war game, always the first round is very dull. 640 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,000 We don't learn anything. 641 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:42,440 And I'll always say the same things. 642 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,200 Let's go and find a population who think differently to you. 643 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,480 So usually it's some graduates or it's a team from the shop floor. 644 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:51,000 And I bring them in and say, do you want to beat your bosses? 645 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:51,800 And they go, of course, they do. 646 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:52,920 Right. 647 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:54,840 And I say, right, this is the game. 648 00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:55,880 You can do whatever you like. 649 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:57,320 And they start thinking creatively. 650 00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:58,840 They start going, well, what about this? 651 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:00,760 And the bosses usually go, well, that's not fair. 652 00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,680 We, you know, because they're just used to only looking at things one way. 653 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,040 You need to mix up the gene pool. 654 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:07,320 You need to mix up the creativity. 655 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:08,920 And that's what great IQ is about. 656 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:14,600 And that's why inclusivity is super important because we sometimes just get a bit too casual 657 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:18,680 in who we allow to generate ideas when there are so many great ideas out there. 658 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:22,440 Man, you just sparked a rate one of me with that question that, 659 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,200 that do you want to beat your bosses? 660 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:25,080 Reminds me. 661 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:29,480 It makes me remember when you're young and you want to play your, 662 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:34,840 your coaches, you know, play against the coaches or play against the teachers and kickball. 663 00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,000 We did that in elementary school. 664 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:44,280 And there's just this massive rush of adrenaline and, and belonging that occurs when you get to 665 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:51,000 see those who are leading you compete in something at your level that you're possibly better at 666 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:51,800 than they are too. 667 00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,560 It's, it's a fantastic way to mesh and harmonize. 668 00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:57,640 So well said. 669 00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,480 We can definitely bring that in the work environments. 670 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,280 I wanted to, I want to shift gears a little bit too. 671 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:13,080 We've got, I think we have some time back to focus prioritization actions and, 672 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:16,920 and getting things done quickly. 673 00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:23,400 I have been overhauling our Facebook ads right now, like tremendously, which is weird because 674 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:24,600 I'm an, I'm an optimizer. 675 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,600 You don't throw things out the window and redo them. 676 00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:32,360 And, and as I've been doing this, thanks to AI and some things I've seen in the market, 677 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:38,440 I had a goal to get my ads, like my new ads launched for me and for some clients as of 678 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:48,360 last Thursday, I spent most of my weekend working on, on the ads, reestablishing the base. 679 00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:57,000 And I'm sitting here going, okay, Ferris, how do I get out of my way and launch today by tonight? 680 00:33:57,640 --> 00:33:58,200 Yeah. 681 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:02,840 And is it, are there times when we should stay laser focused on the goal and just hit 682 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:10,760 the goal because the deadline is the deadline is the deadline or am I being smart and making 683 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:15,960 sure I'm doing it right and saying, no, I'm launching tomorrow because I'm not going to 684 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:17,000 screw this up. 685 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:17,960 What are your thoughts on that? 686 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:25,000 Well, you know, the old saying, you know, perfection is the enemy of, of getting something 687 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:25,560 done, right? 688 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:28,280 Cause you can, we can all sit on something for ages. 689 00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:33,240 And I come from a world where, you know, strategy consulting, where perfection was demanded 690 00:34:33,240 --> 00:34:37,480 on every slide, every document, you know, everything, and you would start for three 691 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:37,960 in the morning. 692 00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,800 But when I run my business, I realize that most people don't care enough, as long as 693 00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:43,800 it's 80% good enough, right. 694 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:48,200 And you, you, it's not like it's a one way door, right? 695 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:50,360 You can still go back and change things and update them. 696 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:56,600 So, so then, you know, loosening your ideals around perfection is, I think is a better 697 00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:01,560 way because you will be just chasing this infinite thing that will constantly be in 698 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:02,200 the distance. 699 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,720 So that's, that's, that's one thing, but let's say you do have a deadline. 700 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:08,600 What is the reality when we have deadlines? 701 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,120 We turn up, we show up and we sit down in front of our laptop, which you probably did 702 00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:12,760 this weekend. 703 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,960 And you tell yourself, this is the most important thing I'm going to work on today. 704 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:18,520 So let's imagine you have a hundred points of focus. 705 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:20,120 You go, I'm going to give this all a hundred. 706 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:21,880 Then what happens? 707 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,160 I bet you, you're sitting down to your phone, probably buzzed. 708 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,000 You probably just checked it, right. 709 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,040 And even if you don't know, I put it in the other room, actually, put it in the other 710 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:30,280 room. 711 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:30,840 So you're good. 712 00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:35,000 I'm pretty damn relentless with focus. 713 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:36,200 You're doing relentless. 714 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,880 But okay, people who don't, even if they don't check your phone, they've already lost 10 715 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:41,320 points of focus. 716 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:43,400 Because their mind is like, Oh, I wonder what's on that phone. 717 00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:45,000 It's called context switching. 718 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:45,240 Right. 719 00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:47,560 And, and your brain doesn't count multitask. 720 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:48,840 But okay. 721 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:49,960 So you took your phone out of room. 722 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:50,520 Good man. 723 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:50,840 Right. 724 00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:52,600 But what happened is you got to the words lunchtime. 725 00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:53,400 Where did your brain go? 726 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:56,040 I didn't eat lunch. 727 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:57,160 You didn't eat lunch. 728 00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:57,640 Okay. 729 00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:58,280 All right. 730 00:35:58,280 --> 00:35:58,680 Is it okay? 731 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:01,320 But you, but you probably, your mind was going to, I'm hungry. 732 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:01,640 Right. 733 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:02,680 Uh, yeah. 734 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:04,680 No, you're just, I'm nuts, man. 735 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,560 When it comes to being real, like I was, I was locked in, but I get what you're going. 736 00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:08,120 I get what you're going. 737 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:09,880 But we're raising the bar here. 738 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:14,680 We're going to entrepreneurs who have no, no problem with focus whatsoever. 739 00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:15,800 There's they're locked in. 740 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:16,120 Go ahead. 741 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:16,680 Hit it. 742 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:17,800 So eliminate all those things. 743 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:23,880 Cause most people, things like, you know, phones, food, uh, temperature, these are 744 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,160 things that you might, an argument you had with your loved one, these are where your 745 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:27,800 mind goes. 746 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,160 So you're not actually focused. 747 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:29,800 Right. 748 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,560 So anticipate these, close these off, like hiding your phone in another room. 749 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:34,600 Right. 750 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,160 Then, um, assume it is the most important task. 751 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:37,800 Right. 752 00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,520 Okay. 753 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,800 Then it's about remove your, you know, the need for perfection. 754 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:50,280 And then it's as you yourself hinted, can you be a, be a bit smarter? 755 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:56,040 Can you already apply some of the pre decisions you've already made and the use of technology 756 00:36:56,040 --> 00:37:01,240 or smart tools like you're using AI, but, um, a lot of it is you're never starting from 757 00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:02,680 a blank piece of paper, right? 758 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:04,680 You've, you probably already had a lot of the content. 759 00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:06,840 You've really made a lot of the decisions along the way. 760 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,640 And that that's the joy of something like a war game, right? 761 00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,800 But make sure you document those so you can just embed them instead of having to rethink 762 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:15,640 about stuff from scratch each time. 763 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:16,680 Yes. 764 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:17,560 Love that. 765 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:22,920 And, and I love that you, you also outline that worst case scenario of, you know, because 766 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:24,280 you have to go through that drill. 767 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:27,320 If you're going to understand, am I postponing this indefinitely, right? 768 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:32,680 Where it's going to drag on forever or am I headed towards a new realistic destination 769 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:38,200 Thursday to Thursday to Tuesday, for instance, isn't an indefinite reality. 770 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:45,160 But it can be if you find yourself going from Thursday to next Thursday and then next Thursday 771 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:49,800 and then that now you're creating, uh, what you're talking about that, that, I don't know, 772 00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:54,520 that drag, that obstacle that means you're just, you are probably just trying to be a 773 00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:57,160 perfectionist, but there's something hidden in there that's probably blocking you. 774 00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:59,480 So, um, I appreciate you diving into that. 775 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:01,640 Um, if you were only to share one more lesson. 776 00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:02,200 Yeah. 777 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,120 The, and you didn't, you were never going to be able to share another lesson again with 778 00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:07,240 us or anybody else. 779 00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:07,800 Okay. 780 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,680 What powerful lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience? 781 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,680 I mean, most of the lessons I share tell senior executives, they already know them. 782 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:15,720 They're just not doing them. 783 00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:20,120 And the number one thing I tell them to do is ask more questions and listen better. 784 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:21,160 Okay. 785 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,040 Too much sits in people's heads. 786 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,240 So the first half of that too much of what we think just sits in our head. 787 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:31,560 So go out, ask people about it, share it, ask them what they think. 788 00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:32,360 Think about stuff. 789 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:33,880 It's amazing. 790 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:37,160 Literally everyone has an opinion and you will get such a richness back. 791 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:38,200 Don't, don't be a snob. 792 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:39,320 Don't be arrogant. 793 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:43,960 Think I can only ask senior people or academics ask everyone because you'll get some real 794 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:44,520 food. 795 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:46,920 And then the other half of the equation is you actually have to listen. 796 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:48,520 Most of us are terrible listeners. 797 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:51,400 We are really, really bad. 798 00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:51,560 Right. 799 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:56,680 And if we can only improve like 10% in that, we are going to unlock so many good things 800 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,480 for us, for others, and for the world around us. 801 00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:00,280 Well said. 802 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:01,400 I'm going to double down on that. 803 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:06,680 For the person who is guilty of, of not sitting in their head enough. 804 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:07,560 Yeah. 805 00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:09,560 Well, sitting in there too much. 806 00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,440 Maybe we, maybe we ask too many questions. 807 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,320 Maybe we make people very uncomfortable. 808 00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:15,960 What's that? 809 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,960 What's the powerful lesson that you'd share with the person who's on that extreme end 810 00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:22,600 of, of maybe you should have thought about that before you open your mind. 811 00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:27,000 Well, any, anyone who has any sort of behavior that might be like is, is the self-awareness 812 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:27,800 aspect. 813 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:29,800 Right. 814 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:38,280 Is ask, ask your three closest, you know, compatriots or people, what is the one thing 815 00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:41,400 you, they think you should rein in or change about yourself. 816 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:46,120 And, and it might be that, look, hey, you just fire off too many questions. 817 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:50,600 And I've worked with many a leader who don't necessarily fire off too many questions. 818 00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:52,280 The behavior is they shoot down. 819 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,520 They're too, they pounce on everything. 820 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:56,840 They've got to be the first person to speak and they've got to close everyone else's 821 00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:58,280 ideas down. 822 00:39:58,280 --> 00:39:58,600 Right. 823 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,640 And I always find with these leaders, the first thing to do is they have to acknowledge 824 00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:01,960 it. 825 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:04,360 So I often use technology nowadays. 826 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:08,680 I'll record a session and say, like, let's count, let's count together how many times 827 00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:12,600 you shot down somebody else's idea or let's use the transcript in teams. 828 00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:17,240 You know, that tells us exactly what percentage of the meeting you spoke versus the rest of 829 00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:18,040 your team. 830 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:20,600 So first of all, is getting them to accept it, show them the fact. 831 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:24,760 Then it's like, okay, what's a way that you can overcome this? 832 00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:29,720 And I often get them to sit on their hands, you know, slap an elastic band every time 833 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:31,080 they realize they're doing it. 834 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:33,720 First step might be just counting how many times they do it. 835 00:40:33,720 --> 00:40:33,960 Right. 836 00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,840 Everybody will have a different technique for stopping it, but it all starts with that 837 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:39,480 self-awareness. 838 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:41,160 Interesting. 839 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:42,920 There you go. 840 00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:44,920 Very good. 841 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:46,680 We're all wondering what you're trying to stop here now. 842 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:48,600 I appreciate that. 843 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:53,720 Well, it's that opportunity of, you know, like you said, it's funny. 844 00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:55,000 Your answer was still the same. 845 00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:57,160 It was just from a different paradigm, right? 846 00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:59,400 The person can be asking more questions. 847 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:05,800 Even the person who's maybe asking too many questions, ask yourself these questions, right? 848 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:06,600 Gain feedback. 849 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:11,960 And I think that, you know, I'm not going to say it as well as you did, but there's 850 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:19,960 an opportunity for us to ask tough questions about ourself to others and giving them the 851 00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:29,880 space to actually answer that honestly, openly, bluntly if necessary, and not reacting to 852 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:30,200 it. 853 00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:35,320 But listening to understand what's one of your favorite resources for people who struggle 854 00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:37,160 with the power of listening? 855 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:42,200 Well, like I said, data. 856 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:45,160 Just, yeah. 857 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:50,440 I was going to say, put something in their mouth. 858 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:55,560 But get them to shut up and listen. 859 00:41:55,560 --> 00:42:03,640 I think everybody has a different way that they need to be to break through, right? 860 00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,920 Because there are so many reasons we don't listen. 861 00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:09,640 So many different drivers of why we don't listen. 862 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:14,440 So there isn't, I'd love to say there's one tool that would get everyone to listen. 863 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:15,640 Get everyone to listen better. 864 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,360 You know, but there will be the 10% who are growth mindset. 865 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,840 You can give them some great tools, you know, some great reading to do and they'll be enlightened 866 00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:24,760 and say, oh, okay, I should listen. 867 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,760 But the other 90%, you know, because they're not great listeners, they won't listen. 868 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:34,200 So I have to tell the analogy about a team I worked with once, Jackson, where they weren't 869 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:35,000 talking to each other. 870 00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,680 Each of the team members were super alpha, super dominant. 871 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:40,520 They did not see the value of having a team. 872 00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:43,720 Now me turning around to them and saying, look, you need to be friends with your team 873 00:42:43,720 --> 00:42:44,120 members. 874 00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,280 You need to get rid of wouldn't have cut the mustard. 875 00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:51,800 But I realized they needed to get closer together and I realized that they were super competitive. 876 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:56,840 So the next time I had them all together, I said to them, we're going to play a game. 877 00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:58,280 You're all going to put in your own money. 878 00:42:58,280 --> 00:42:59,160 The winner takes all. 879 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:00,360 Suddenly they're all interested. 880 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:01,960 Okay, now you're talking my language. 881 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:05,400 So everybody put in $50 and they said, what's the game, Faris? 882 00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:09,480 And I said, well, you have to guess how many children we all have as a team. 883 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:11,400 Okay, so there's eight of us. 884 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:14,760 The first person went and goes, okay, on average, people have 2.1 children, right? 885 00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:16,040 That's going to be 17 kids. 886 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:19,240 The next person I said, you can't guess the same number. 887 00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:20,760 So they went around the guests, the guests. 888 00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,000 And then I said, okay, now let's find out. 889 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:26,040 So then, you know, turn to the first person said, Jackson, how many kids you got? 890 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:26,600 Right. 891 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:27,400 What are their names? 892 00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:28,440 How old are they? 893 00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:29,560 You know, where do they live? 894 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:30,120 We do that. 895 00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:31,240 It takes 20 minutes. 896 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:32,600 The next week we do pets. 897 00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:33,800 Next week we do holidays. 898 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:34,360 Next week. 899 00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:34,920 What happens? 900 00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,640 They start learning about each other, even though that wasn't the case. 901 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,680 They start learning about each other, even though that wasn't their intention. 902 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:41,800 Their intention was to win money. 903 00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:46,680 So there's lots of ways to get people, you know, the horse to the water without the horse realizing. 904 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:49,960 And the horse to drink it. 905 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:52,440 Well done. 906 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:53,560 That's awesome. 907 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,120 Faris, it's been an absolute blast to have you on. 908 00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,200 Vision Pros, I hope you took notes. 909 00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:01,160 You can, of course, go back and do so as needed. 910 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:07,320 You can implement a lot of these ideas for your own business without Faris, without myself. 911 00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,800 And drive some success. 912 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:11,720 We actually will never ever need Faris. 913 00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:12,280 No. 914 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:12,920 That's true. 915 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:17,160 If, well, and that's where healthy relationships begin too. 916 00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:23,320 Those of you who are listening, you know, if you're feeling like you need us, either one of us, 917 00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:27,400 you're already creating a toxic relationship. 918 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:28,920 Another lesson for another day. 919 00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:35,400 But if you see the opportunity to enhance your own company's success and grow to new levels 920 00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:40,920 with a strategist who can help cut right to the point and you want to reach out to him, 921 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:42,520 Faris is available on LinkedIn. 922 00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:48,440 We'll also have his links to his resources and his show notes on the landing page once we produce that. 923 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,400 And this was an awesome opportunity. 924 00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,640 So thanks for diving in with us, Faris. 925 00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:55,000 Thank you very much. 926 00:44:55,720 --> 00:44:56,200 Absolutely. 927 00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:59,640 Vision Pros, if you want to apply to be on the show, don't hesitate to do so. 928 00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:01,720 We would love to have your vision on the show. 929 00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:04,840 Comment with any questions that you have for either one of us. 930 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:08,760 And we'd love to see you like, subscribe and leave reviews to let us know who your favorite 931 00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,800 guest has been, what you've learned, what questions you have. 932 00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:13,320 We're always going to make this better for you. 933 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:14,360 Everybody have a wonderful day. 934 00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:16,520 Thank you for being here today. 935 00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,000 I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live. 936 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:23,880 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. 937 00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:25,640 This is going to get more and more fun. 938 00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:27,480 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 939 00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:29,640 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 940 00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:37,240 And thank you for giving us your time and attention.