All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live with
Jackson Callum. I'm your show host. We'll be
doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building fantastic
visions out there. What's up, everybody? Welcome
in to another episode of Vision Pros Live. I'm
your show host, Jackson Callum, founder and CEO
of First Class Business. And I am really excited
to have Dr. Matthew. Coots on the show today.
He's got a book called Becoming Epic. He's also
all about leadership and helping us learn how
to lead. And this is one of those sacred topics
for me that really wasn't until my 30s where
I started to realize what a bad leader I actually
was. And that's not a process of like self -deprecating
or saying I'm a bad person. I just didn't know
how to lead. I didn't know how to inspire people
in the ways that they needed it. I had only kind
of learned like things that I wanted for my life.
And so if you're in your 20s and you're way ahead
of me on that, congratulations. My hope is that
we can inspire you to continue to lead better
and better. Speaking of great leaders, a couple
of really important resources for those of you
out there. I know most of us who listen to podcasts
understand the value of creating a great podcast
space. I'm down here in Ecuador on a humanitarian
mission. And so I don't worry so much about the
theatrics, but if you do care about having a
great studio with great lighting and all that,
I highly recommend Junaid Ahmed of Home Studio
Mastery. Check out what he's doing. He builds
$50 ,000 plus studios, but he also helps people
just get started with the process and understand
what microphone to have, how to set up your systems
for success. big part of the success of your
podcast is that people can see you well and they
can hear you well. It's super important to get
those elements in place and it's far more difficult
than it has to be when you try to go about it
alone. So June 8th is amazing. Then there's Dr.
Danny Brassell. Dr. Danny Brassell is one of
the world's leading educators, period. I've gotten
to know him over the past year. It has been awesome
to see what he does to help parents inspire their
children to learn. to gain a passion and love
for reading. It is so cool to see him teach.
The guy is on fire. If you have children who
could use a boost in terms of educational power
and know how to move their lives for them, by
all means, reach out. If you know other people
who have children who are struggling with that,
again, Danny's a great way to introduce him.
They call him the Jim Carrey of education. He's
super funny, super caring, super loving. He's
great at helping children with reading. He also
does a lot for... corporations. So definitely
reach out to Danny. He's one of my favorite people
on earth. And then there's the water project.
I'm not affiliated with the water project, but
we do donate to it on a monthly basis. I found
out that there are millions of people who don't
have access to clean drinking water. I have never
suffered with that. Maybe today. Maybe I've had
my first week of this experience. We won't go
there, but my stomach does hurt a little bit.
So when you're without the type of drinking water
that you need, though, you know, for even a little
bit, it's kind of a scary process. There are
people in Africa who don't have access to clean
drinking water. Their kids have to leave school.
The parents have to leave work. They have to
give up everything in the least that we could
do. And what I hope you will do is just talk
about this. You know, bring up the water project
to others and let people make their decision.
You never know how far the ripple effect will
go of your act of doing just that. You might
inspire somebody to invest in several of those.
And we're talking about a generational impact
that allows people to stabilize their life situations
so they can focus on things like proper education
and moving forward. And we can have generational
impacts in parts of the world that normally wouldn't
be able to reach. So we got 8 billion people
out there to help. If you know of a cause that
you'd rather see a support of somebody. burning,
you're like, man, why doesn't he talk about this?
Drop the link. Let me see the cons. Let me get
involved. That's also a request of mine is let
me see what's going on in the world and let's
support you on that. And if you're a visionary,
come and join us on the show as well. Back to
Dr. Matt, because we got to maximize his time
here. Matt, welcome to Vision Pros Live. Thanks,
Jackson. It's great. You've got some great things
going on. The Water Project, I'm actually familiar
with. I used to live in Rwanda. Oh, you did?
I did. I did. So yeah, I was a Fulbright scholar
there. Worked with some people there and did
some work with some NGOs and leadership development
stuff. So that's a great project. I love it.
Well, you know, I'll reveal a secret for the
whole show, for everybody who's listening in.
I just look for really cool, amazing, impactful
things. And then I hang on to it, you know, like
that's it. Who was it? Dr. Rob McClellan, I think
it was just yesterday, posted about how people
who are consistent and reliable. are often called
genius just because you show up and you get things
done. It's like, I also had another friend that
said a leader, a mentor when I was younger said,
if you want something to get done, ask a busy
person to do it. So with those little caveats,
Matt, thank you for your energy. What question
could I ask you that people kind of overlook
when it comes to leadership? Yeah. So how do
I make a good decision? And I think that comes
up a lot because I think that's the heart of
the issue, right? I completely 1000 % agree with
ask someone who's busy. You know, they've got
a track record of I've given that advice myself.
They've proven a track record to get things done.
That's why they're busy. So you do that and you
bring in all these other things like you talked
about. But I also think that what's critical
about. leaders who stand apart versus leaders
who don't, if I can use it that way, is the leaders
who stand apart understand how they think. We
use this a fancy word, metacognition. We throw
that word around and they think about their thinking
while they're thinking in order to change their
thinking. And I think that that's really what
we need to be focusing on is how am I thinking?
What needs to be adjusted in my thinking? And
how quickly can I initiate that adjustment? And
so I think to get there, we've got to ask ourselves
the question, how do I make decisions? And what
is in there that I'm not aware of that feeds
that? And that's what I think is so critical.
Yeah, I'm sure you've read, I'm sure your listeners
are read and familiar with, you know, Daniel
Kahneman and a lot of his work, Thinking Fast,
Thinking Slow. He talks quite a bit about cognitive
biases and logical fallacies and all those things
that really prevent us from seeing the world
accurately or the way that it really is instead
of how we. actually see it, which is how we want
it to be. And we need to make that adjustment.
And I think I start with asking the question
again, how do I make decisions and what's the
process that I use? I like to introduce a model
to people that has been helpful. People have
told me it's been helpful. I wrote a book on
it a few years ago called Contextual Intelligence,
how 3D thinking enhances or solves the problem
of uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. And
we just released the second edition of that book
in September. But in that book, I talk about
the 3D thinking process. And the 3Ds are the
three dimensions of time, hindsight, insight,
and foresight, and our past, present, and future.
And I think that's an incredible way to get people
to start to think about how they think. I use
it in my coaching and my leadership development
courses. as a way to introduce metacognition
directly in the real moment time. So I ask people,
you know, hindsight, how has hindsight, how has
your experiences affected how you see the world
right now? And I ask what experiences are biasing
your response to the opportunity you're facing
right now? And I think that's an incredibly important
question. And when I ask that right off the bat,
people are like. well a i've never considered
that but you have to realize that any resistance
any opposition any any you know unwillingness
to to take a risk comes from somewhere so i like
to ask but what experience are you referencing
when you say i don't know about this or i don't
know that we should And then it forces them to
go back and remember the past differently because
then it's a great opportunity to point out, well,
you interpreted whatever event it was this way
that's shaping how you're acting now. But what
if I told you I would never have interpreted
it that way? I would have looked at it this way
or that way. And all of a sudden they have a
major change. So we start with hindsight and
we've got to have hindsight. Then we've got to
have insight. And insight is awareness of what's
actually going on right now in real time. And
what's so profound about insight is, you know,
we tend to say things like we've tried that before
and it didn't work. Well, the assumption. behind
i've tried it before and i didn't work is that
well the conditions that were in play then are
the same conditions that are in play now so it's
because it didn't work then it won't work again
now and that's a major fault in our in our thinking
huge understand the conditions now are different
You know, we all have experiences where we tried
something a long time ago. We tried it again.
It's like, why did it work this time? Well, it's
because you're a different person. The person
at this, let's just keep it. There's different.
There's all sorts of, there's so many things
that are different. You're not hungry right now
while you're having the argument. Exactly. A
hundred percent. So, so those are things. So
insight, but it's really, really important. And
then finally foresight. And this is my favorite
one of the three. time orientations is understanding
how to actually perceive the future accurately.
And so I make a big difference between foresight
and fantasy. And I think too many of us deal
in the realm of fantasy and avoid the reality
of foresight. And one way that I talk about how
to distinguish the two is what I call the I can't
because clause. So let's say you have a future
in mind, a dream, an aspiration, a vision in
mind that's going to take you a couple of years
to get there. I want to finish my PhD. I want
to write my novel. I want to. you know, and I
want to give clean water to Africa, you know,
whatever it might be. And you have this vision
out there and it's a noble, worthwhile vision
to pursue. But then you come up and you tell
it's self -talk. You tell yourself, I can't because
I would like to finish my doctoral degree, but
I can't because I would like to have a great
relationship with my spouse, but I can't because.
And it's the I can't because clause that indicates
you're dealing in the realm of fantasy when you're
thinking about whatever that is you want to have
or be. Whereas a person who's operating in foresight
recognizes the challenge and the obstacle. Yes,
I would like to finish my novel or have a great
relationship with my spouse. And I realize that
there's challenges there, but this is how I'm
planning to inch toward that every day. And they
set. Anything. I mean, it can be minuscule, but
they set some sort of strategy to move them in
that direction. And that's really how we move
away from fantasy into foresight. And the third
piece of all that is all three of those pieces
need to be connecting, connected. You need to
be operating. equally in all three time orientations.
And what we tend to do as humans is emphasize
one time orientation over another. I've got thousands
of data points in my research on this. And statistically
speaking, most people default to hindsight. Most
decisions are made based on what happened before
or last time. And they don't realize Like we
said, the situation and context is different
now. It's a survival instinct as well. It makes
a lot of sense. So, Matt, I want to make sure
to be aware of your time. Do you have a hard
stop at the top of the hour? I don't. Okay, well,
we'll still try to be respectful on that because
I don't want to just team roll you with another
30 minutes of dialogue. But I do want to bring
it back because we've talked about one question.
You've already given us a whole bunch of different
things that we can utilize. And I want to unpack
some of this because there's a couple of different
ways to look at this. So the hindsight, insight,
and foresight reminds me so much of the book,
The E -Myth by Michael Gerber. few books that
i regret not reading the moment it came across
my desk visionaries and those of us who are visionaries
we we tend to be stuck in the future we tend
to see things based on the future we don't tend
to see things based on the past people who are
great managers they tend to organize the past
quite well and so So technicians, as he points
out, tend to be more insightful. They tend to
be more aware of, oh, I want to work on this
right here and now and get things rolling. So
I highly recommend visionaries that you take
a look at that book and you consider again, how
do these concepts that Matt is talking about
relate to what it is we're bringing to fruition
for our life as leaders and as visionaries? In
addition to that, I want to go back to this question
of how do I make a good decision? I want to call
out. my own brand on this in relation to this
episode recording, Matt, because there are many
leaders who, if they had gone through what you
went through with the constant cancellations,
we had system issues that led to understandings
about time or that we would be here. It would
have been a perfectly normal thing to say. you
know what? This podcast is amateur. They're not
well prepared. There's problems going on. I'm
wasting my time. I'm just going to move on. So
you had to go through some of these and I would
love to know authentically what, what, what,
what gave you that sense of awareness to say,
you know what? I'm going to take a shot anyway.
I'm going to show up for this interview. What
was your process like for that? That's a great
question because that's a real thing. My next
message, I already texted, sorry, just cancel
it. I had that ready to go. That was going to
be the next communication, whatever happened.
But the reason why I stuck with it is, I hate
to say it this way, but it's a gut intuition.
It really was. And I did. I read your website.
I went through the different things. I looked
your stuff up. And I really just thought to myself,
I think these people are like -minded people.
And that's really why. So your gut was influenced
by a lot of external factors there. And you just
took a minute to do it. But, yeah, we've got
a brand that stands for itself. We've got a list
of leaders that you can see. And so subconsciously,
visionaries, sometimes these aspects can influence
us. when we have these types of comprehension
skills that Matt's talking about. And that's
exactly what I wanted to allude to is I knew
Matt did not come based on a lottery. Right.
And you're smarter than that. You're more successful
than that. So it's like he didn't just like,
well, I'm just going to show up because I have
nothing better to do with my time. You had a
series of of past experiences, a catalog of things
that influence your decision making. And I think
you made the right decision. In addition to that,
I had the same thing happen yesterday. I have
a new therapist that I work. By the way, shout
out to Coach Fletcher Ellison. We had a great
conversation about you before we talked today.
But I have a new therapist down here in Ecuador,
too. And yesterday when I went to the office
in the morning, I rescheduled for an hour earlier.
I guess I didn't give him the memo. And then
when I got there, they didn't inform him. But
they didn't tell me that. So I went upstairs
and I waited for, you know, by the time I got
to about 15 minutes, I was getting a little bit
frustrated. And I was thinking a few weeks ago,
maybe a few months ago, probably I would have
been like. All right, I'm just leaving. I'm just
going to cancel. I'm a little bit upset. But
that would have had a ramification on my relationship
with him going into future sessions, too. And
this guy is a champion. He is awesome. And so
I didn't want to plant a negative seed that could
burden our. calls, especially calls that I pay
for. I'm just going to use my time wisely and
you do stuff on my phone while I wait. And it
got to about 25 minutes after I'd gone downstairs
twice and asked where he was. And I was trying
to be, you know, polite about and all that. And
so, okay, fine. All right. It's we're in Ecuador
times, time sensitivity is not the same in different
countries, you know, maybe that's it. And so
he, as I'm walking down the stairs to, I guess,
leave and like, say, I'll just do this next week
and I'll be fine. I'm not gonna be upset about
it. He comes in and it turns out. They did not
inform him of his appointment. And he's kind
of in like a clinic, hospital style clinic thing
where it's not his staff that does these things
either. And so all these discoveries led to me
and Dr. Oscar having a phenomenal conversation.
We had a little bit shorter conversation. He
would have been a little bit longer. He tried
to explain what he was doing. And I said, look,
I said, Dr. Oscar, one, we're in this for the
long haul. Don't even worry about it. Two, with
Americans, at least American entrepreneurs, more
important than explaining yourself is ending
on time. I'm grateful for the last 20 minutes,
but next time if I tell you I need to leave by
a certain time, cut it off at that time. That's
part of my culture. And he respected that. We
had a great conversation about it. Visionaries,
your life's going to get disrupted over and over
as you try to bring your vision forward. And
if we can learn the art. of patience if we can
learn the art of leading by example uh making
room for mishaps we can discover opportunities
that are often far above and beyond whatever
our angst ends up taking us towards so matt i
just want to honor you for that because again
there was a lot of bumpy things over the course
of months to get us into this conversation today
and you showed up like a champion yeah well two
thoughts on that as you talk about disruption
as you're talking about that i actually have
on my other screen over here i've been working
all day that's why i was sitting at my computer
to even be able to interact back and forth is
i started a new writing project that i'm calling
curating disruption and how important it is for
us to not only use disruption and benefit from
it, but actually curate it ourselves so we can
benefit from it. So that's interesting. Story
of my life. I have pissed a lot of people off
curating disruption on purpose. Same here, same
here. It's been a ton of fun. Created a lot of
good movements too, though, right? Yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. And I wanted to come back to the
other point you made about perception and this
gut instinct thing. And I have a new book coming
out in December called Becoming Epic. And EPIC
is an acronym for being excellent, being perceptive,
being inspired and being compassionate. And I
spent a lot of time in the chapters on perception,
on how to develop that perceptive mindset, that
almost like a prophetic awareness of your environment
and situation and how we can cultivate that in
our lives. And of course, one of the things.
That I point to in that is learning to experience
life in those three dimensions of time. And,
you know, a classic example, Charles Dickens,
you know, nothing new under the sun kind of a
thing. But Charles Dickens, you know, wrote the
novella Christmas Carol, however long ago he
wrote. But he's basically talking about hindsight,
insight and foresight, how the ghosts of Christmas
past, Christmas present and Christmas yet to
come changed. Ebenezer Scrooge's life and the
way that he was known and recognized in his own
community. And I believe perception, when we
learn to develop that, has the same power for
us. And it's just an incredible thing. And a
lot goes into that. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a
great book on that, on the tipping point, when
he talked about thin slicing. and how we perceive,
how our experiences affect us and all those things.
And I think a lot of us miss those things because
it's not a mystical. you know, experience a supernatural
phenomenon. You may or may not believe in all
that stuff. That's fine. But it doesn't have
to be just that. It very much can be curated.
It very much can be cultivated. And for people
who have a visionary, a motivation, they definitely
need to pick up on the perception because like
you said, they can miss a lot of incredibly great
opportunities and they can also avoid some painful
ones as well. Huge, amazing opportunities. My
friends, let's lean into leadership. Let's lean
into vision. I love that excellence, perceptiveness,
inspiration, and compassion. Those go right along
with our core values at First Class Business,
the foundation of love. Patience, persistence,
consistency, and reliability are our pillars
for success. Super, super valuable to dive into
these values, virtues. Use ChatGPT to create
your own personal assessment on these topics
and see what can I be doing better to improve
on these realities. It's amazing the resources
that we have in our lives, disposable to us to
create abundance and wealth in our lives. Visionaries,
we wish you the best. In the top right corner,
it says, be our guest. Come and share your vision.
You don't have to be a leadership guru who's
been studying and became a doctor to do so. Like
Matt Coots, you can be starting out on your path
and come on the show and talk to us about how
you're going to make a difference in this world.
We want to support you in that. We want to help
you in the process. And Matt, final words, fortune
cookie for us before we leave. Fortune cookie,
be consistent. Be consistent. Part of the pillars.
I appreciate that. We'll see you guys on the
next episode of Vision Pros Live. Thank you,
everybody. 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.