your dreams beyond the brand. So that'll be fun. So realizing
our dreams beyond the brand. One dream, you just celebrated your
birthday with the best people in your life. Awesome. Two, you got
to go on the podcast with Brian Elam and talk to him and had a
fun time. So remind us is that is his show, get your
entrepreneurship together? Or has he rebranded by chance?
That's the be successful. He's not be successful. Okay, he's
rebranded a couple times. I've done okay. Okay. My life too.
Well, yeah, you would have gone before me because you know,
starts over the best and then it just goes downhill. But
I'm not sure where to take that one. But for now, let's I know
where to take it. The three resources you're the powerful
man, though you've got four resources that you're going to
be
I was rounding up that was all
I like it rounding up the resources or books to help
visionaries and entrepreneurs and leaders out there. What you
got?
Okay, so firstly, for me, I'm a Christian, so it's my Bible. And
I find that this is the best resource. So I will always go to
that no matter what I'm going through in life where I'm
struggling, where I'm trying to take vision and put it into
action, I'll go to my Bible. So that's my number one. My second
one would be my accounting qualification. Now, the reason
I'm saying that as a resource is that it opened doors, it gave me
a skill set. What is then my accounting qualification. So
it's
accounting qualifications. Yes, yes, sorry, I need to speak
slower.
Got that super sexy accent that sometimes I'm just lost in how
you say it.
So yeah, the accounting qualification, it was 20 years
ago, but it gave me a basis for what I was then going to go on
and do with around financial management, business management.
And I think that's really handy when you're coming into doing
sort of visionary type things, because you have a basis to
build off of. So that's my second one. I'm gonna go for a
third one, which will be a bit of a fun one. The movie Top Gun.
Yes.
And now the reason bit, you're kind of like, why? Yeah.
No, not me.
No. Okay.
Let's go.
I mean, I get it. Go ahead, though. Go ahead.
Well, you see, it was funny. So I've always loved the Top Gun
movies. And then when Maverick, Top Gun, Maverick came out, I
was like, man, it was just perfect. It brought tears to my
eye, because all these years down the line, and it was very
emotive. But I remember many years ago, doing some customer
client relationship training back where I used to live in
Guernsey. I was working for a private Swiss bank. As part of
our training, they showed a clip from Top Gun right at the
beginning. And it's really, really stuck in my mind, because
it was all about, okay, there may be this gung ho pilot who
launches off an aircraft carrier, and he does all these
amazing stunts. But to get him in the air to get him soaring,
took a whole team. Yeah. And it's all those people on the
aircraft carrier. And I was like, what a great lesson. And
it's just stuck in me over the years. And we might touch on
this a bit later on. But I've not always lived out to that.
But it's been in the back of my mind. So that was a really good
resource.
Fantastic.
And then there's my fourth one. And this is a gentleman, if
you've been watching the UK version, Dragons Den, you're
seeing Stephen Bartlett as one of the dragons. And he runs a
podcast, the Diary of a CEO.
It's a great podcast.
There you go. Exactly. It's a podcast that no driving around
here in San Antonio stuck on the 1604 for hours at a time,
especially at the weekends. It's been a brilliant podcast to
sit and listen to and just get a different perspective on things
as you go deeper. And the critical kind of questions he
asked, I found that a brilliant, brilliant resource. That's my
fourth. It is. And for those of you visionaries, entrepreneurs,
leaders listening in, I'm going to Russell Brunson you right
now, which means Russell Brunson is a champion of teaching
people to model. And when it comes to modeling, we're talking
about learning to become as great as those who are great at
what they do, not copying, you know, not just mimicking, but
realizing that their traits what they're doing might affect you.
The Diary of a CEO is one that we very much model. We look at
man, how do we get to there because his ability to dive into
depth and to represent the brand so well and create the story.
Like it is so hard not to listen to all of his episodes. Yeah,
it's a fantastic resource. Yeah, fantastic resource. Well said.
There's a difference between consuming something just to just
to do it and to learn from something. And you can learn so
much from stories. If a picture says a thousand words, how many
words is a story like Top Gun actually tell us if we're
listening. So shout out to Samantha Guajardo, who also said
hi in the comments to both of us. Hey, Sam, finer, and we're
grateful for her in our life. We'll be right back. We're going
to be talking about some sponsors. The water project
will dive into Keyin's vision of realizing your dreams beyond the
brand as well talking about balance and virtues. And by the
way, Keyin, I think you're the third leader out of 211 you were
almost episode 210. By the way, how cool is that for Santa? You're
211 that works out. So you're the number one after the 210. And
my last guest, literally the 210 guest said the Bible as well.
I've only had three people on the show do that two of them
today. There's a message to us all right now. Let's let's tune
in and listen. All right, welcome in to vision pros live
with Jackson Calame. I'm your show host, we'll be doing
interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders
who are building fantastic visions out there. Hey, what's
up, everybody? Welcome into another episode of vision pros
live. I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO
first class business. And I'm really excited to have a CFO
consultant on the show. We've gotten to know it a couple of
local events in San Antonio. His name is Kyan frith. He's got a
fantastic episode. He's got a fantastic accent, you would never
know that he's here in Texas with me. And he's got this. He's
got this view of the world of multiple cultures and what can
be done to help in in different countries. Again, we're going to
talk about that it might, it might open some some tear ducts
up in the process. But I'm really impressed with them
because most financial people that I meet, they're just so
absorbed in the financial world that they don't they kind of
forget the human aspect of life. And I find that people who are
great at what they do are also great at life. And I've seen
that with Kyan. So I'll bring him on in just a minute. But to
give a few more resources for you. We're going to start with
Melissa gray of the law spot. Melissa was also on the show.
She was a fantastic guest. I literally almost canceled her
last minute I was like, you know, back when we hosted her, we
didn't have that many listeners. So it wouldn't hurt to just not
do this one. Why because she's a lawyer and I don't like most
lawyers to be honest. They're pretentious, they condescend that
you you don't really feel comfortable with anything but
that is true with Melissa Melissa comes in as a nurture.
She understands our businesses and she knows how to simplify
it. We've become such good friends over the last four
months that we're now strategic partners with our different
brands. And if you have not created a relationship with a
CLO, I call her the C low, not the J lo she's the C lo, then
you definitely want to consider putting her in your lineup
because business does get difficult and there are people
out there who can attack your brand. I went through a $20,000
trademark lawsuit that we won. But did we $20,000 later, it
certainly didn't feel like it. It would have been nice to have
the protection upfront in advance. So if you have the
opportunity, I would definitely consider talking to her about
how to protect your own brand as you continue to build. Then
there's Andrew Sosin from recovery unplugged, my fingers
are all off today. If you're listening, you're like, what is
he talking about? recovery unplugged is a program for
those who suffer with addictions. We all know somebody out there
who suffers with it. Usually that when you ask them how you
doing, they say, I'm fine. That I can almost guarantee you they
got an addiction to something. You know, if they say, you know,
oh, you know, what are they what are they thinking? How's it
going? It's going. You know, those people that aren't really
like in touch with their feelings, they need some help. They
need to there's an opportunity to help them feel wonderful
things in life. Andrew Sosin has been to Tony Robbins program 22
years in a row, he has over 400 employees, he has over five
states where they have locations and COVID forced them online,
which is a huge benefit to all of us. Because now they have the
ability to provide their treatment programs online. Now,
you may not have any association with addictions whatsoever, but
you might know somebody who is maybe it's a child of yours.
Maybe it's a friend, a cousin, a nephew or niece that needs some
help. Well, call the hotline, ask them what do you do to help
that person end up wanting to seek advice. This is about
inspiring people to maximize life, not getting awkward about
trying to pretend we're all therapists. I'm not. That's why
I like resources like this. I'm like, okay, here's a resource I
can turn to when I have a loved one in need. So I hope this
helps at least one person tuning in. In addition to that, we're
going to talk about the water project just a little bit before
we dive into Keyin's vision. The water projects something that
is not near and dear to my heart because I've never been without
water in my entire life. I've always had access to it. My
water bottles empty right now. It's kind of frustrating, but I
don't have to walk five miles just to find a source of water
not be might not be clean. There's millions of people who
do right now in this world. We have an opportunity to give back
to those communities super impressed with the water project
and what they've done. It's set up like a Kickstarter campaign
or a crowdfunding. You actually get to pick the community that
you're giving back to and whether you give $5 you get
$500 million. I hope you're that person, you know, but you get to
see the impact that before and after of what happens and these
kids, they're celebrating water like my kids celebrate Christmas
Day and man, there's just all the feels when you can we can
help in that scenario. So and then take some time to meditate
and ponder, you know, like what might happen to that community
now that you were able to help facilitate water for them. That
said, if there's another cause that you guys see supported,
then drop that link in the comments because we're not
opposed to helping multiple causes. I might bring that on
the show as well next time and if you're in a position where
you can't give it back, our prayers are with you, our
thoughts are with you. We hope that you get what you need.
Speaking of, I'm hoping that my next guest is one of those
needs as a CFO consultant and business strategist who also
represents a podcast and helps in the podcasting world here in
San Antonio. You're actually in great hands when you get the
chance to meet with Keon. So Keon Frith, thank you for being
on Vision Pros Live, man. This is awesome. Awesome. I
appreciate it. I appreciate it. See, I've got a big smile on my
face, but I was just listening to you a second ago and you're
talking about when you when sometimes you ask someone how
they're doing and they say fine and it's really interesting
if you don't mind me just diving into that just a second.
Let's do it. Is that alright? Because in England, it happens
all the time. Someone says to you, oh, how are you doing?
Oh, I'm absolutely fine. But they're standing there. They've
got their arm in plaster, maybe a leg in plaster. Everything's
fine. And I remember for years, people saying to me, how are
you doing, Keon? I go, oh yeah, I'm fine. But actually, I knew
in my my head, I didn't have necessarily an addiction, but I
was struggling. I was battling. And so quite often, people would
ask me that and I'd be like, do you want the British answer or
do you want the real answer? I gave people the option. That's
great, man. That's such a great way to to open that dialogue for
people to, you know, and and you know, I'm I'm pretty loose
with the term because I a lot of people, they refer to
addictions that are not addictions and then other
people have addictions, but they won't call it that, right?
There's like a cash 22 and it's like, well, if anything's
pulling us out of the abundance of life and the ability to just
appreciate and feel and be present in the here and now,
then I tend to consider it an addictive tendency or behavior
because it's robbing me of being able to really live this
moment. So, we're gonna shift gears and maybe we tie this in.
What is your vision for those that you serve? Oh, man. Well,
hey, this this is really quite a simple one. So, we have a
strapline within our business that is about helping business
owners realize their dreams and that's my vision. I I find
that there's too many people that in business to do business
to maybe make some money at the end of that particular year,
but they don't have any vision. They don't have a dream or
they do, but they've never thought about it and they've
never aligned it to what they're doing in life and so
perhaps they have a dream, perhaps they have a vision, but
they've never ever kind of like try to work out how to align
it and for me, that that's my greatest pleasure. I want to
see people start realizing their dreams. I wanna see
people realizing vision and it will make the world such a
better place at the same time and they'll be very thankful
that I help them in some tiny little way in that journey. So,
my vision is literally about helping people realize their
vision, their dream and it could be that it's got nothing
to do with the business. Perhaps it's we wanna take two
years off to travel the world because you know, perhaps it's
you know, a husband that goes, my wife has supported me for
1020 years doing business. I wanna give back to her now. So,
we're gonna do a round the world trip for two years. But to
do that, I need a bit of funding. Great. So, at least we
know where you need to get to now and you're gonna take time
out of the business because you're gonna let someone else
run it for you. Great. So, let's now strategically plan for
that but I find that living here in San Antonio, people
maybe aren't quite as strategically thinking as I
would like. Correct and I wanted to hit that because you
you have a gift. You have a genius about you. You you're
able to maintain the vision and the mission in spite of not
always coming across people who wanna talk directly about
that. It goes back to the gifts you talked about. Do you want
the British answer or do you want the real answer, right? Do
you want the business answer? Um you know, or do you want the
the full truth of what's there and if we if we force people
to have conversations about vision and dreaming when
they're stuck in the mud and they're like, no, I want the
mud knocked off my shoes. You know, no, I I don't. I I want
to not feel bitter. Um you know, about my situation. Then,
we aren't necessarily doing a great service of helping those
individuals. This show is unique in that people who
listen to it care about visions but there's lots of people in
the world that I don't go around saying, hey, I'm the
podcast host of Vision Pros Life like, huh? Like what? Like
that's weird. Um there's other people who need to know me from
a different angle and you've I've seen you practice that in
the way that you network. So, let's dive deeper in vision for
now though. What's your vision for you, Keon? This blew me
away. I think it's I hope it's gonna be similar to what you
told me earlier. Well, you have multiple. Well, hey, I I I
hope, kind of hope so. So, vision for me, this is really
interesting. Uh funnily enough, I had lunch with a brilliant
gentleman uh today and we started talking about vision and
I had to say to him, uh I separated from from my first
wife back in 2018. For the next sort of three years, I had no
vision. I wasn't dreaming. I was just struggling and
battling. It had gone completely and I met my my now
wife, Victoria at the end of 2019 and she's full of vision.
She's got this amazing vision board and she's kind of ticking
things off. She's seeing things happen and it's just
incredible and she'll be talking passionate about
things and I'm like, I'm I'm just not on the same wavelength
as you right now and so we went through a year or so where I
was just struggling and like I can't see anything here.
There's just nothing coming onto my radar and and it was
actually quite hard because I had been quite a visionary uh
and a dreamer, probably particularly a dreamer
much earlier in my my life. Wow. But I I was going to this tiny
little church, little sorry, little. I'm
pronouncing correctly. Tiny little church
in in England, about thirty people and we had a guy came
over uh from Eastern Europe and he was just sharing about
what was going on in that particular country and
I was just blown away. I was absolutely floored by what I
heard and it started to just eat at me and work at me
and I remember just a few weeks later and it was just laid so
heavy on my heart. This vision of okay, the reason that you
are working is not about you. It's about them and it's about
other people like them throughout the world. You are to
work so you can fund things and so what's been laid on my
heart and my massive vision is to be able to have the the
funds whether it's from our business from other supporters
to go and build a hospital to go and build an orphanage and
just go. Yeah, let me just write the check. We still write
checks in America, don't we? Let's just go and crazy. Don't
start me um but to be able to go and literally write that
check and go here, take this gift. Let's go make this
happen or let's go find a team and bring them together that
can enable us to go and navigate the government to go
and get the planning sorted. Find a team that's gonna go and
do this building and that's what's been laid in my heart so
that the business that I'm doing is a means to an end to
go and fulfill something absolutely enormous. Multi
multi millions of dollars which I definitely do not have and
my wife will testify to the fact that I do not have but the
vision says well, dream outside your current status. Dream
outside of what you're currently doing and achieving and
go chase it and I have a faith that says uh my god can do all
things and nothing is impossible and so it's it's an
enormous audacious dream and it starts in Armenia and I think
it the intention is it spreads like wildfire and uh that's my
vision. That's my vision. I love it. I love it. The first
time you shared it too and you know talking about Armenia and
these orphanages and the opportunity that exists there.
It's just it's massive and it's important. It's vital
that we care about doing things like that. When you see the
pictures, it just pours on your heart. Yeah. You can't believe
that some people go through what they go through. There was
a picture of this lovely old woman. She has nothing. She
lives in a concrete locked room. There's no fire as such. She
has some some wood delivered for her that they then build a
fire. It'll be her heating. There's no insulation on the
walls. She has no regular income. Doesn't have regular
food and you go, this is crazy and yet we live in now. I'm
living here in in the United States. Now, we're living in a
land of abundance. We're living in a world where there is
plenty of resources and yet you got people suffering like that
that woman. You got children who are struggling for education
and they haven't got access to education. So actually, the
summer Bible camp means the absolute world to them where
for a one week, they have activities. They have food. They
have camaraderie. They laugh. Wow. I mean, how is that not
putting your heartstrings to me? Well, we gotta see it. That's
the we've got to see it in order to know that we can take
action and we gotta bring that to the forefront for people and
so I appreciate you doing that and talking about those
specific stories. It was a Romanian orphanages documentary
that I saw for the first time around the same concept and I
was I was honestly just going to the class because it was my
girlfriend's class and I wanted to spend time with her and hold
her hand. You know, I had no business being in the class and
it it was a life changing impact to see that documentary.
It's like, oh my gosh. Like this really exists. There's six
kids in a crib together that and it's locked in like that
because they've got so many kids. It's basically prison.
You know, because they don't have enough people to take
care and I was oh my goodness like it and again it it we can
take those opportunities and we can add it to our suffering
and you know and and our own bitterness or we can take those
opportunities and we can say, you know what? I can take action
today and and do things with this. What can I do? Who can I
get involved with? Well, Keyin's one LinkedIn message away from
figuring out how to get involved. So, we're going to
dive into a darker personal subject for those business
owners out there. Help them overcome some darkness. What's
the worst leadership experience that you've ever had?
Do you know, I'm I'm happy to talk personally because I want
to try and encourage maybe some people out there who aren't
leading very well. I remember a number of years ago, I was
working. This is a shout out to Mark Ebinger on the Let's
Talk Business podcast. Let's Talk Business podcast. He
he always laughs at this because I always say how I used
to to live and work in Guernsey which is a tax jurisdiction
off the coast of France and Mark would sit there then in the
podcast. Oh, listen to him. He used to work in the offshore
world off the coast of France. So, thank you, Mark. But when
I was working there in Guernsey, I was working for a
fiduciary services group, financial services and I was
head of finance. I had a decent team under me and other
people that were reporting to me and I went off on vacation.
Obviously, in England, we call it a holiday but we'll we'll do
it Americanized today and I went off on vacation. I came
back and I was invited to a meeting with the MD and the COO
which is quite ominous. The way it was done because that's
not how we used to generally talk. You know, I was I was a
finance lead and it was all very relaxed. So, I'm like,
okay, something's up. Just back from vacation. At which point,
I was told, Keir, what should you be in a way? We've had
members of your team have come to us and said that you're not
leading and they feel that you're aloof. Your ego is way
too big. You're not managing them. You're not supporting
them. You seem to only be in it for your own interest.
I was flawed. I was really flawed by it. I was like, wow,
I have failed abysmally. I never intended to but I failed and
the the MD clearly was trying to push for me to just resign.
But I didn't and the COO, wonderful, wonderful lady,
really became my my mentor, my first coach without me really
realizing it and many years on the line, I contacted to say
thank you but I said, I don't wanna quit. I wanna face up to
this and deal with this and I want to learn to be a better
leader and so that was my worst possible leadership experience
but from that came something fantastic because I learned the
arts and the beauty of collaboration and so from that
really bad situation, I learned and I was willing to learn and
turn it around because I had a young family that had to supply
and provide for and had a business that at the moment, in
that moment, thought that I was just useless and pathetic but
within me is always been a resilience. I have a story from
childhood about getting knocked down, get up again, get
knocked down, you get up again and it's a story of resilience
and just keep on pursuing and this is one of those examples
but it was a brutal lesson and it was my worst ever
leadership experience, my my personal. Well, you have now
just committed yourself to recording that that childhood
experience so that we can benefit from it, link to it and
allow people to to hear that. We're gonna dive into your best
leadership experience first but again, I hope that you take
the challenge to record that offline so we can put in the
action steps. So, what is the best leadership experience
that you've ever had?
For me personally or that I've been that I've benefited from.
This is your vision. You're welcome to do either one of
those. So, Sharon McMillan, she was the COO where I was
working at that time. As a leader, no matter what I was
going through, she sat and she listened and that kind of
leadership I think is incredible. When someone who is
under pressure is in a very crucial leadership role takes
the time, mentors, coaches is way beyond her really
official remit, I think but that demonstrated exceptional
leadership and it actually set me up to be a much better
leader going forward and to dream and have vision. I took
time out in my my schedule to blue sky think. I was head of
finance but I took time out because I and she was
encouraging that. Now, isn't that awesome? I'm what I would
love if there was more business leaders, more business owners
who took the time to listen and to gently guide. That's my
best. That's my best leadership experience without a doubt and
and she she was she really was awesome and so yeah, I just
hope people can learn. I hope people hear this. It's a big
one. It's a it's a it's one that most people don't know and
and we think we do. You know, we think we know how to listen
but I was I was in therapy for my first marriage and I ended
in divorce. Learned a lot of lessons along the way. I was a
terrible leader. I had to learn that and my therapist, we had
hired one of the best in the country because I was wanting
to make sure that we got the help we needed and in it, he
he started talking to Jackson. Okay, he said, you know, we he
said animals react, you know, reactions is how most people
respond in a conversation and there's instinct to that. He
said and then you can you can respond to people and I'm like,
yeah, I learned this. You know, I already I already know, you
know, how I'm supposed to and he said and or you can listen to
understand the third level and I was like, I hadn't heard of
that before. You know, I I didn't understand even what he
was saying. I wanted to respond immediately and I realized,
okay, animals react, you know, cavemen go, what'd you say to
me and and club, you know, respond, you know, or you can
listen to understand which means asking more questions,
really diving deeper and you're right. We, you know, until
somebody sets that framework up for you, you know, until we
take interest and learning more, it's very, very hard to
really get it but it leads to faster results than trying to
force the result itself. You got another thought boiling. I
can see it. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, you're
talking about the leadership there in the family. I mean, if
we're going to talk outside of business, my absolute worst was
leaving in with my three children in my first marriage and
I I failed at Bismarie. I let them down and it was it was
horrendous. Yeah, really, really, really bad and what I
didn't I I didn't listen. I I didn't listen to anybody and
I've learned that the hard way. I really have Jackson and it's
been really, really tough. And now you're a better leader
because of it and it's it's hard. We don't we don't dismiss
the reality of what exists and the consequences that
associate with and you've chosen to step up. You've chosen
to say, you know what? I don't wanna go through that again.
I mean, I I want new results moving forward and there's so
many people out there who could hear this that if they would
take that upon themselves to feel the same like look, we
know you screwed up. We know that that that you did mess up
but there's a present and a future that you can work
towards without without a doubt without a doubt and what ended
up happening is so you know, I'm listed as a CFO consultant
but I'm a consultant coach and again, this is conversation.
I've been having people recently. They go. Well, how
can you do both? Well, I went through a Bible went through
Bible College. I went through a divorce. I went through
counseling for 18 months which I desperately needed. Wonderful
Christian guy took me through psychotherapy and unpacked
things and help me to to then start to learn to listen and I
mean, you you can't beat these kind of things of learning and
then going, okay, how do I then apply that? So now, I apply
as a a business coach listening. I ask probing
questions. Some people in the past have accused me you could
have been an interrogator because you can just ask
questions and dive deep into things but I do it in a way now
that I'm trying to extract the information to help us
understand the position and then I have my consultant utility
belt on and then we start to put out the tools that we need
to help whoever it is that I'm talking to within that business
and owner and executive whatever to or some another
stakeholder to then find a solution using the toolkit and
so I'm starting to combine both things and it's an absolute
privilege. Absolutely and it's a it's a superpower. I'm in that
movie Frozen with Elsa and the glove she wore, right? She
gotta learn to control that power. You did too. You know,
you can go sing the song. We got a karaoke. You can sing the
song. I'll watch. Oh, it's okay. Thank you. So, if this were
if this were the last opportunity ever to share a
powerful lesson, what powerful lesson can other visionaries
learn from your experience?
I think that the key one is to a vision without action is just
a thought and I'm I'm taking action. I'm I'm working on my
business now to get to a point where I I take that that that
vision and actually make something happen.
I think there's maybe some other visionaries out there
that it's it's just gonna sit there until such a time as I
go. Am I ready now? Am I comfortable? Well, if you're
gonna have that kind of mindset, you probably won't ever
realize it. So, I think there's another powerful lesson here is
mindset. I touched on it earlier about resilience of just
going, do you know what? No matter what anyone thinks of me,
no matter if I get knocked down and no matter if I ask a
hundred times, a thousand times other people to help me and I
keep getting knocked back. Just be resilient. Bounce back up
and just keep going because someone on the line here, it
will happen. You just gotta keep pursuing it. So, that'd be
my my lesson here. You can you can mic drop on that one. You
can just you can walk off the stage. Thank you. Oh, man.
That's right. Oh my goodness. Okay. So, we're gonna I gotta
double down on that because it was said here first. So, in
fifty years, when people are sharing this meme, millions of
people are saying, oh, that, you know, Ken Frith, like, oh my
gosh, he said this. Yes, he did. Oh my god. Whatever. You're
too kind. I'm taking action. That's that's amazing. Um and
it's, well, it's it's so critical for people. I mean,
it, you, you, I just asked you for a powerful lesson and you
just blew it up out of the water. Like, that was awesome
and it's so important because as a guy who runs a podcast
called Vision Pros Live, one of the things that we're
constantly sorting out is one, how do we put the people on the
stage that are like actually genuine? Um and two, how do we
help people realize they have a pipe dream, not a vision? Um
you know, without crushing their soul. Um you know, and how
do we help people step from daydreaming into action taking?
You know, it's it's a constant challenge and so you coming out
and saying, you know, a vision without action is just a
thought really helps emphasize the reality of why our show
even exists and I'm taking action. Like, here's what I'm
doing with it. I love the way you delivered that. I was like,
cool. This is a great, powerful moment and I, you know, again,
I hope we continue to expound upon it. You through your own
microphone as well. Um to where it becomes one of those like
Denzel Washington-esque inspiration on YouTube. I'll be
doing voiceovers. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. You got that too.
Um so, with that said, alright, Keon. Now, we're gonna dive in
even deeper now. Uh we got some extra time and the point of this
time is to dive into how do you go about realizing your dreams
as an entrepreneur beyond the brand and you know, when you're
when you're a I'll speak from the heart a little bit. I've
seen a lot of entrepreneurs that get stuck in. You know,
they they have that saying. This is the reason the saying
exists. The saying is, uh you never see anybody riding their
tombstone. I wish I had worked more. Right? People feel that
because they are working themselves to death and they're
missing out on what matters most in life and then you got
awesome people like Tim Ferris, you know, comes out with a four
hour work week and challenges everything about what we believe
in now and and says, hey, the new rich is about life
experience. It's about not taking your bucket list to your
grave but making sure you make that a priority and live life.
Do the things that matter most. Um and the world has had a big
shift ever since this book came out. Tim Ferris is getting old
just like me. Um so, what what are you doing to to help these
entrepreneurs think beyond the brand and live the dream? What
do they gotta get over so that they can do that? I mean, one of
the things that I'm personally doing is where I take action.
Uh anybody who knows me, I I love to grab grab a coffee. I
I love to sit down and talk and just by talking, most people
will realize also that a half an hour meeting is generally not
half an hour. Uh it's gonna be a lot longer than that because
there's stories to share. There's probably me asking way
too many questions and allowing some some probing to go on
because I'm trying to enable people and encourage people to
let the penny drop in their own life. If I'm going, I need to
go and do something. I need to think differently. Maybe this
guy can help me in that journey as well. So, um just talking
about it. Actually starting to get these things going. Um
that that's one of the crucial things I say. You gotta talk. I
agree. I love that you highlight the the 30 minute myth um as
well. I'll call it and that that myth meaning I'm a huge
fan of this book. I count on my hand the amount of
entrepreneurs that I've met who have read this book and I
have met thousands of entrepreneurs and the effective
executive. Why is it? Why does it matter? Why does the book
matter? Because there's a fantastic, well, it's just, I'm
just gonna ruin the book for you. Those who wanna read it.
It says, if you want to work with an effective executive,
then you're going to need to have meetings with them for two
to three hours per week and measure their results not based
on the day or the week or the month but based on the quarter.
We gotta actually take the time to get to know people and to
help people get to know our visions and beyond and so. Yeah.
Thank you for standing, you know, for the 30 minute plus
meeting. Well, it's interesting. So, uh before Christmas, uh
last year, I was looking to to pivot a little bit in the way
that I was approaching business and um starting to make use of
some software, some tools in helping me become a coach and
what I discovered there and I probably had known for a while
but it was just really hit home to me was that uh coaches,
they want to sell a twelve month program. Uh you only want
to meet with a client once uh maybe once a week for half an
hour or maybe once a month for an app for two hours and you
wanna be dashboard driven but you wanna be able to charge the
fee and I'm like there's not a chance that's gonna work
cuz I'm meet with a client and it's always gonna be longer.
And so when I've said to people, well, I actually meet
with a client for probably two hours a week. Like for real.
Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Because they they're gonna need the help.
They need the guidance and I need to listen. I need to
understand where they're at. You cannot get to depth without
that. You cannot. No. I was there there are maybe some
other engagements where uh it is shorter but there are others
where there's real depth and it's invaluable. It's
invaluable for me to learn about them, to understand them
and where they're heading and it's beneficial for them
because I'm imparting. Absolutely. It's it's huge.
It's uh you know, business is a lot more like a hospital in
that you might have somebody who you know has to go through a
heart surgery and you can't do that in 30 minute segments,
right? You have to get that done. Oh, Mike, when it happens
and then there's gonna be the recuperation process, the
therapy process that you have to go through to get somebody
physical therapy back on their feet and there's all sorts of
elements and sometimes we oversimplify the businesses
because why? Uh I think most people oversimplify business
because it's easy to sell um and so you know it's it's a more
lucrative process to continue to say well we can make it
easier for you um and sure we always want to go for easier
but we still have to do the right things necessary in order
to connect the dots and and bring you know. Yeah, it's easy
to run a taco stand um you know but at the end of the day,
you still have a lot of moving parts. The food has to come out
at the right temperature. You have to count for how many
people you're cooking for substitutions and etcetera and
if a taco stand is that complicated, you know, then most
business models to beyond that are just as complicated even
though you know you don't get the alright. I'll leave the
analogy behind uh Keon go ahead but but it's interesting. So
that guy running the taco stand or old lady, whoever's
running that that they're stressed in their own way. A
person who's running uh a million dollar business is
stressed in their way. A person running a fifty million dollar
business is stressed in their own way and a lot of the time,
you have no idea until you start scratching the surface
until you start digging deeper and asking the questions and
probing because I think what you'll find is that the majority
of business owners, leaders, executives are hurting in some
way and they need help and guidance. That's for them
personally and also them for the benefit of their business.
So actually listening and understanding these things,
unpicking it and then going where's your vision? Now, I'm
not a life coach or anything like that but I'm not just
unpicking it to help these people go. Okay, you're hurting
and you're in pain. We the help I can give you here is to
help you see the vision and the dream and help you put the
strategies in place to get to that next point, you know, you
know in a structured manner, you know, and that's 96% of
businesses are losing within 10 years. It's not an opinion.
It's a stat. Um and it's a stat that's existed for more than
50 years and 4% if you start talking to them, if you talk to
an entrepreneur on the surface, they're excited. They're
they're winning like everything's going great. Why?
Cuz you're not gonna buy from them if they're crying about
everything at all times, right? So, they've learned to be
resilient in the process but if you do get to the depths of
being able to listen and understand, it becomes quite
apparent that that person is struggling to continue to keep
the doors open. There's a there's a small percentage of
those who do make the 10-year mark who are actually crushing
it and so you become an extremely valuable consultant,
a good friend and there's life coaching involved. There's
business coaching involved. There's depths that that that
needs to be explored in order to pull it off. It's not to say
the talk at taco stand is easy to do. No, no. In fact, the
opposite is what I'm saying. Yeah, I can do. All business is
difficult and you gotta learn how to cook the tacos. You gotta
learn how to fix the truck. You gotta learn how to market it
and how to advertise. There's so many about to do PR, how to
make time for networking events, how to be a people
person, you know, there's so many elements that it can be
very overwhelming and look at the end of the day, life is
overwhelming. It doesn't matter whether you're 400 pounds or
you're 2% body fat. You're going to have a hard life. It's
hard both ways but which way do you want life to be? A lot of
times, we have the ability to make impact on that. So,
definitely and I think and I think tied to that if I may,
there's too many business owners go, I come into business
and I sell this widget and and I'm gonna sell widget but I
don't know how to do HR, finance, operations,
technology but they muddle along doing it. Maybe until
they're one, two million dollar business and they're swamped.
They're struggling. Why? Cuz they don't put their hand up and
ask for help and there's nobody looking in asking the
questions going, are you okay? Yeah. So, a vision there would
be that actually there's more people draw alongside each
other. So, here we go. Nailed it. Emyth, right? The Emyth of
Michael Gerbert, one of the greatest books to talk all
about that and he actually takes it up one notch which is
usage somebody. His theory is you bring that person in, you
rely on them too heavily, next thing you know, they leave or
they die and now all of your procedures, resources, and
templates are not possible to access and use because you did
not build your team out the right way and so we have to
learn to delegate without abdication, delegate
responsibly in order to create something sustainable and this
this depth would be one of the greatest lessons will be one of
the greatest lessons for people who listen to this process. So,
we're gonna have action steps below the the the page on
VisionProsLive.com so you can follow Keon on his social media
platforms. Also, whatever resources Keon is gonna
recommend you do next, we'll have those on there too. We
have one more call to action on that page for those of you
listening and that's in the top right corner. It says, be our
guest. If you want to be on this show and share the vision
of how you're going about and helping others, it doesn't
matter if you're Mark Cuban or you're John Doe, whichever one
like you don't have to be a billionaire to be on the show.
You have to care about others. That's really what this is
about. You have to be willing to serve at the same time, Mark
Cuban, if you heard that man because you know, I know you're
busy right now. Come on the show dude. We'd love to have
you. Um but everybody have a fantastic rest of your day.
Keon, thanks for being here. This was amazing. Thank you so
much. We'll see everybody on the next show. Take care
everybody. Bye bye. Thank you for being here today. I'm really
happy that you tuned in to VisionProsLive. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll
invite people to participate in the show and thank you for
giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent
time building out.