if you have some of the stories that you'd like
to share with the audience that inspired you
to do what you do. I'd love to hear those. Yeah,
sure. So I think when we talked about the why,
you know, one of the things was my motivation
to really help companies and entrepreneurs, you
know, really advance their vision and their vision
whole strategy and business model, I really get
a lot of satisfaction out of being able to do
that and give people, you know, the kind of advice
that is applicable and isn't just sort of like
general or so far out into the future that it's
very hard for them to like take action on it.
And, you know, for me, one of the key things
in my background that really taught me to kind
of think that way was really my first job out
of college where I was a strategic marketing
consultant. And we were doing these projects
for multinationals that were really thinking
about either rebranding or taking their brands
at the corporate level or at the market level
and trying to figure out how to uh change them
and make them either more innovative etc and
one of my first uh bosses um you know taught
me very early on that especially when it comes
to these large corporations who are thinking
about these big brands and like an example of
a big brand would have been you know like um
united airlines or something like that so like
a really big well -known brand And what I was
taught was, you know, the brand is a huge intangible
concept in these businesses. And when you're
explaining to them how you're going to help them
innovate it and change it, you need to be able
to bridge the big ideas back to things that are
practical and understandable. Because if you
make too big of a leap forward, you're going
to really lose your audience. And you're also
going to potentially not manage the message properly
and push them into a line of thinking that's
going to actually make them either resistant
or I should say unnecessarily resistant to the
process that you're trying to unfold in trying
to transform and elevate this brand. Now, obviously,
if you compare that to an entrepreneur who is
four years into a business and has a relatively
small brand, the leap is not as big and it's
easier to have that conversation. But in that
experience working for those large brands, I
really learned that you've got a process that
you go through to build a story and a message
to the audience that you're trying to engage
with in a way to get them to change things and
to be innovative and do things differently and
in order to do that you need to do it respectfully
in um kind of bite -sized chunks that when you
add them together get the whole point across
and then give them the opportunity to give you
really good feedback because they really understand
what they're going to be going through And then
you can really work together to try to solve
the problem that you're embarking on overall.
So how has that added to your why? Like why you
do what you do? Oh, yeah. I mean, it makes my
problem solving and my desire to help businesses.
their objectives, it makes it a very sort of
like a building block process. And it really
helps me feel very constructive in being able
to get them to move forward. Because... I recognize
that we're trying to achieve a big idea, but
we've got to reel it back into a really good
set of building blocks that they can then grab
onto and understand and make the changes. It
really helps support my desire to make these
businesses more successful. Because I think about
it as like these fundamental building blocks
of putting these messages and concepts together
that are understandable and then usable. I think
I frame it as a minimum necessary change for
maximum optimized output. That's a good way to
put it. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for sharing
that. My next question for you, Sal, it's a little
bit tricky. It has two parts to it. Okay. The
first part is, why do you think leaders hide
from funding their vision? And how can those
leaders then lean into funding that vision? When
you say funding the vision, do you mean like
actually putting money behind their vision? Is
it the overall capital of making an investment
in their vision? It could mean either or. Yeah.
It depends how you interpret it and how you want
to answer it. Yeah. I mean, for me, I really
think about it as a leader being committed and
taking the necessary steps to invest in their
vision, whether it's financial or taking time
away from their families. to be able to go execute
it. You know, what I found in my experience is
that it's a combination of just personal motivation
versus the hectic priorities of everyday life.
You know, I mean, I think if you're like a real
leader, you're probably going to be generally
disposed to taking action, right? But with that
said, you know, you have a lot of competing demands
on your time and you've got to really be thoughtful
about how you're going to make those investments
to go execute your vision because it's going
to take away from other things that, you know,
might be more demanding at that time. I mean,
and it could be anything. It could be like, you
know, kids need to, one of your kids needs to
go to like a special school or, you know, you've
got a parent that is aging and you're trying
to figure out how to, you know, have them live,
you know, more comfortably as they age. It could
be that, you know, you're not sure whether your,
you know, your current job or your long -term
vision for yourself are, you know, really at
odds with one another or one supports the other
and and it can create some confusion about how
directed you want to be but but ultimately you've
got to be self -motivated and push through and
make decisions about what your trade -offs are
going to be so that you can go ahead and then
pursue the vision yeah tell me more about that
how has your journey been in this regards when
it comes to funding your vision You know, I think
all along in my career, I've always been sort
of executing on the vision of being innovative,
delivering new fresh ideas that are actionable.
And that could be in my role as an executive
in a company. It could be on a board of directors
when I was doing investing. And then when I kind
of went off on my own, it just was a really a
natural extension. And I am generally like a
pretty self -motivated person. You know, I'm
up at five in the morning. I'm usually out of
the gym by seven in the morning. I'm getting
my day going. And, you know, when the house is
quiet. 9 .30 at night, I'm usually on my laptop
doing a bunch of stuff that I need to get prepared
for the next day or that's contributing to the
administration of my own business. I do a lot
of work on my blog articles and lead generation,
for example, at night. The motivation part has
never really been a big problem for me. I think
what is the key thing though, is that I push
forward because I want to try to do new things
and be innovative. And I kind of have a really
good balance of that because I get to be innovative
for my own business, but my business itself is
really about helping other entrepreneurs be successful.
And so then I get to do it all over again every
time I'm working with a new client or I'm working
with my team and we're talking about a new client
situation and how we're going to help them solve
different challenges that they have. Yeah. What
would you say your motivation factor? Is it internal?
Is it external? Is it habit? What is it? the
way you've kept going for however long you've
been doing this? Yeah, I think it's internal.
And then some things just become habitual. You
know, like, you know, making sure I hit the gym,
you know, five or six days a week, right? That
is part of just my self -motivated nature, but
it's also habitual, right? And I fall into a
pattern where I realize... hey, the best time
to get this done so that I feel good about kicking
off my day is I, you know, I want to be in the
gym around six and be done by seven, you know,
and I'm buzzing around the gym with like a preset
sort of workout, you know, that's either in my
head or I might be following some new, you know,
person on Instagram or something like that who's
got like a new workout that they're doing and
I'll try it out. But and that's one way to also
make the habitual entertaining. You know, you
get to mix it up a bit and not do the same things
over and over again. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you
for sharing that. You know, myself, I struggle
with that a little bit with with the habits.
So for you, how long did it take for you to get
in that that rhythm or way? Like now you probably
get out of bed every morning. Most I'm guessing
without fail for most days. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
I'm I'm not in bed, you know, past 6 a .m. ever,
really. So, you know, I'm usually out. I'm just
usually out of my bed by about 5, 5, 15. I've
gone through phases where I was I did the 430
thing, you know, and I was in and out of the
gym by like 6, 15 in the morning because at different
phases of my career that just worked better.
i have to admit like there's something about
waking up between you know 5 and 5 30 that is
way better than waking up between 4 and 4 30.
i i i always struggled with that when i did that
and i i probably did that for about a year and
a half with whatever was happening in my career
at that time it was like the best time for me
to get that done um But I think once you get
that into a routine, it sort of becomes like
second nature, you know, and then you can kind
of build your day from there. So what are you
doing before you go to bed then to make sure
you wake up at 5 a .m. every morning? Oh, I think
I don't require as much sleep maybe as other
people, but. I'm usually like, let's say I had
a full day. I'm home. I'm hanging out with my
wife from like 5 to 8 p .m. We're like, you know,
catching up on the day. We eat dinner together.
Kids are out of the house. They're all pretty
much grown. So we'll talk about what they're
doing, whatever plans we've got coming up on
the weekend, you know. you know she's kind of
a pretty early to bed person and so then that
opens up a couple hours for me to do some work
usually as i mentioned earlier i'll open up my
laptop i'll do some of my own marketing blog
writing what what have you um and then um i usually
just try to catch a little bit of news on tv
and then i'll i'll wind down I've got internet
TVs in my house. So my YouTube feed is pretty
good with nerdy and interesting things that I
like to watch. So it could be like some bread
maker in Italy or it could be, you know, somebody
talking about the curve of the universe or it
could be like, Hey, here's a, here's like an
AI hack for. you know i don't know like de -duping
your contacts or some something ridiculous like
that and you know i'll i'll watch a couple of
those and then i'm usually like ready for lights
out yeah um and i find those entertaining i you
know as i you know as a person who likes to fix
things and solve problems it's always cool to
watch other people who have a craft and they're
able to do certain things really well to see
how they do it and what are the things that they
think about um you know and then you know maybe
i'll make bread one day i don't know you know
yeah yeah probably won't but you know it's good
to good to have it in my mind that you know if
if i if i decided i wanted to do it one day i
know where i would go to relearn it. Thank you
for being here today. I'm really happy that you
tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward
to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to 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 your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.