Plan Your Way to Success | Rick Heyland

Today on the Josh Bolton Show we have Rick Heyland, discussing Plan Your Way to Success.


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Transcript

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Welcome, everybody. Today on the Josh Bolton show, we have Rick Hyland on a business and coach, also a writer and recently retired and very well experienced in the consulting industry. Here he is Rick Hyland. Hey, Josh, great to be with you today. It's a pleasure, Rick. So where are you from? First of all. So I was born and raised in a little, little place. I like to call LA, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, so not the LA, you were thinking of, yeah, I would say the 130 miles ahead of me. So I was raised in Canada did my MBA out east and then for the last 23 years, we've been in Salt Lake City, Utah, and we've raised our kids here. And now we you know, have six kids and 15 grandkids. And so it's a big, big event every time we get together, including in a couple of days for Easter. So, yeah, we've been in Salt Lake for 23 years. Wow. Are there any good food spots in Salt Lake that people don't know about? Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I'm a recent convert as in the last 15 years to sushi. And there's some amazing sushi spots. It's it's really surprising, because you know, we were just in Hawaii a few weeks ago. And of course, there's fresh, amazing sushi and fresh fish. And it's awesome, right. But for an inland place like salt lake, they actually really do have some really good sushi spots. So that's impressive. Yeah, I went to Texas two years ago. And everyone there's a pole that there's Chinese food, and like, Man, you guys are about to get the best food of your life. Now. The only thing that's missing is Thai food. And then you're in heaven. Yeah, I'm actually a big Thai food lover as well. So yeah, I say amen to that. Yeah. And it's just funny. They're old. Like they're they're encroaching on our our land. And when you don't own the head, stop saying our land kind of thing. But so you were mentioning before we hit the record button about your consulting. The you were working for a consulting firm that was small and became big. Can you tell me the up and coming story for that? Oh, well, I there's a couple angles, I could share on that that might be helpful to the listeners, I think, maybe one Josh is how I got into it. And then you know what happened to what we did. So I'll try to speed this story up. But it's really central to the book I wrote on called Live your purpose, a step by step guide to living your best life. And when I was 26 years old, I went to do an MBA and moved my family. Cheryl and I had two young kids Breton, Nicole at the time, I think they were four and two or something like that. And we moved across the country and away from friends. And I was the youngest person in MBA program. And so anyhow, I knew I had to work hard, and kind of learn fast on the go. And we got into a couple of months, or actually probably a month and a half and the first big test. And I got it back. And I was one of the lowest grades in the class. And I had worked hard. And I was pretty little mini crisis of faith in the hope and what did I done. And so I remember authors like Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People talking about this principle called begin with the end in mind and about mission statements. And I use the term purpose and mission statement interchangeably. But so I told Cheryl, that weekend after coming home and being devastated for the night, and waking up Saturday morning, I'm going to go to our unfinished basement, I'm going to just work I'm going to get a table and a chair down there. And I'm going to develop my mission saying I got to figure out what I want to do. And so I did, and articulated It was probably 30 the first version was 30 words, articulated who I wanted to be and what I think I was good at, and therefore kind of, you know, help me be and look for to be successful and happy. And I don't remember any bells flashing or you know, big revelations or anything, but I felt good about it. Got back on the horse Monday morning, and I wasn't anywhere near the valedictorian, but did better in the MBA program, but it came to the end of the MBA program. And this little consulting firm came called rlg International out of Vancouver, British Columbia. And but they were about 28 people I think it was and and it was really intriguing Joss because it was the, in their advertisement, it was the same words that I had written in my mission statement and it was things like you know, all about continuous improvement all about helping your clients get better how all about bottom line results all you know, and so it was this Wow, I went home and told Cheryl I applied for my job today. So anyhow, a couple days later, I get back. And I'm not even I didn't even make the interview list. So so that afternoon before I could throw a major pity party, I called the head recruiter and the head office in Vancouver and I said hey, I think you made a mistake, Nicole What? Tell me what your name is? Oh, it's Rick Island. Well, okay, let me look at your resume. Oh, Rick, you're, you're a little young, and you're little inexperienced, but I really like your enthusiasm. And so I had nothing to lose Josh, I called him about this purpose statement. And I thought, you know, this is exactly the type of job and the type of difference that I want to make. I'm all about continuous improvement. And they said, Okay, put your name and this is for the internet, right? So put your name on the list, your number 11, five o'clock in the afternoon, you're the last interview. So bottom line, I was the only one that got the job. And make a long story short, I had a marvelous 32 year career, we grew it to about 240 people worldwide. And I retired as the CEO of us, opera America, the American operation, so US, Canada, etc. So anyhow, part of the reason for that was because I was crystal clear, in that purpose statement on what I wanted, and who I want it to be. So but yeah, it was a lot of fun. That consulting we did was on site performance improvement. So we would go on in big industry, and help them in their plants and their manufacturing sites all over the world, help different clients, go on work with the team and help them improve performance by really basic and simple principles of goal setting, action plan, teamwork, engagement, and some of the foundational kind of teamwork and leadership principles that an organization should be doing. But sometimes they get so busy, that they don't always so that's kind of the story of how I got into it, and how I finished up. That's awesome. So actually, I've been curious, I've always wanted to ask the CEO or a former CEO, what's the difference of a CEO? And you're okay, so basically, operating officer, I reported to the CEO was over the whole company. And I was over operations, meaning he, the finance guy reported to the CEO, the admin people, but the operations people reported through me. So the other functions, were still reporting to the CEO, Chief Executive Officer. So you were more like you were the final filter, if like a factory is caught on fire, you try to put out the fire. But ultimately, if it's too much, you have to tell the big guy and be like, so shit hit the fan kind of thing. Yeah, I guess. But anything, like in a consulting you, what you're doing is you're engaging with the all your clients worldwide. And so you've promised when you sold the business to them, to make a four to one return on investment on working in this plant. And so you got to assign the people. And so that's all operations in the consulting side. So then, you had, I believe, from what I remember from the hierarchy structure, you had multiple district managers and managers beneath you, you were in charge of, kind of thing. Yeah. So they were called business unit leaders in my case, and then they reporting to them with team leaders. So yeah, you you're basically delivering on all selling and delivering on your work promises. That's impressive. And I would assume it's a mildly stressful job. That's correct. Yeah, in fact, my personal journey, you know, as I talked about, the first part of the book is how to develop purpose. And not just that, it's important I cite all the research and then how, and then the second part is how to connect goals to that purpose, which organizations and or individuals need to do. And then the last part of the book is really about how to handle setbacks, how to handle stress, how to handle when expectations aren't met, like, there's a lot of people that have very high expectations, and are super hard to work with, or are very unhappy, because they don't know how to handle the stress. So I'm a bit of a novice in that area. I've studied a lot and read a lot the last 15 to 20 years. But I think what I've tried to do in this book, Josh is, you know, there's a lot of authors out there that say, have high expectations have big goals, big hairy, audacious goal, be hag, go out there and dream big call, push it. And then what I'm going to call the eastern philosophies of, you know, excuse me accept what is Be mindful, you know, stay present to the present moment, rather than always wanting something differently, which can drive you crazy. And so in the book that I try to do is bring those two pieces together and say, This is how so there's two if you ask me the question, what's of all the business and self help books that's written what's different about this book? And I would answer it two ways. One, I've articulated the how of purpose. And I don't think you'll find that anywhere else seven questions over seven days. That takes approximately seven hours. Drupal seven process that YouTube can have your clear purpose to live by articulate it. And then the second part is it connects the ideas of big goals, big ambitions, kind of the Western ideals. And then it connects the stress management principles or the mindfulness principles on. Okay, yeah, I've set this big goal. But then what happens if I only hit 50%? of that? six out of that, you know, how do I still stay happy, stay focused. I mean, Josh depression, you know, not just COVID, but in our country is rapid and discouragement and people giving up on their passions and dreams and goals. And so how do we help people do both in business and in life, both dream big, and actually accomplish it. And to accomplish it, you need some of these stress management principles in your toolkit, in order to stay happy and successful. You touched on so much that I was just thinking of eventually getting you to say, so this is gonna be an interesting interview. So your first one you're talking about is the Eastern, think of the now the present, and then the western. So I forgot the author's name is to 10x rule. Which part 10x is the another book where it's like, set your goal, whatever it is, if you want to go to moon 10x, if you're going to Mars kind of thing. Right? That ideal is out there. JACK Canfield writes about it, Tony Robbins writes about it. I don't know if that's exactly who you're talking about. But yeah, there's a lot of people that say, set their goals as 10x and are very unhappy, or the weight or they destroy people in their wake to get to 10x. So how do we be both happy, enjoyable to work with, and successful, that's the goal. That's that is really the goal, because everyone thinks if you want to be successful, you got to step on everyone to take everyone's money. But then it's like, if you step on everyone who are you can take your money from them. Yeah, I mean, we talked about this before the show, but the book that Clayton Christensen wrote, he's a Harvard MBA professor, called How to Measure your life. And he talked about case study after case study of executives coming back 20 years after Harvard, and being captains of industry and making lots of money, but not happy. The case he actually shared in the book was an individual on his third wife and estranged from his kids. So how do we live this balanced, sustainable approach to success and happiness? That's, that's what I'm trying. That's the message I'm trying to get out there. Yes. So then, let's go right into Eastern philosophy, because that's what I've actually I've recently been okay, embellishing in, strangely through really Have you heard of the book, the Gulag archipelago? No, very depressing, but it's very deep into the mindset and how far a human can go. During the terrible time of the red regime of Stalin and Lenin. Okay. This guy, apparently they did. He was explaining the whole thing. It's like literally 10 chapters explain the history, the nerd tend to explain his life, the nurten after that, and to say, but what he goes into is exactly set your expectations realistic. He said, The moment I realized I was being arrested, he said, I told myself, I am not whoever before, I am now the unit, I will do my time and I will leave kind of thing. And he said that is the only reason I even survived is because I realistically changed my mind kind of thing. Well, yeah, there's a great book about Auschwitz, and Viktor Frankl is the author. And he was a survivor of Auschwitz. And he talked about how during the brutal experiences of cold and hunger and deep privatization in these prisoner of war camps, that, you know, when somebody was giving up their life when they smoke their last cigarette, and you knew they they'd given up and that they were close to passing out passing away. And then he talked about how he survived this horrible experience. And he talked about having a vision, or purpose or mission, right, two things. One, he thought about being with his wife again. And second, he thought he saw himself in a warm, well lit, lecture theater, talking about the psychology of the concentration camps. And that's envisioning yourself in a different place in a different way. And that hope that vision allowed him to live and thrive. In fact, he counseled so many people in the concentration camps and then had a very successful career. Afterwards, but yeah, he's one of the famous examples of this idea of envisioning yourself in the future rather than getting stuck on the past or where you're at today. Yeah. And that's what I've been picking up from the one I'm reading he, he compiled over the 20 different survivors. So probably he was the Frank one was in there, too. But, uh, yeah, it's from that depressing situation is that he gives very subtle meta jokes, like, hints, like, just set realistic expectations, be happy with what you have, like he was he said something like, he was just happy to have a cot. Is this sleeping mask vote for and I'm thinking us if we got stuck, and I'd be like, Where's my mattress with the springs in his socks? Like, why are you happy with just a wooden cot kind of thing? Yeah, you know, there's, but there's some of us, that doesn't come to us very naturally, right? In our Western culture, we're all about, you know, gaining, accomplishing. And, and so it's helpful to have a couple tools in your tool belt, when you're trying to be more satisfied, happy, and progressing towards your goal, rather than an overnight success story, and one of those habits or practices, and many authors have talked about it, but it's just the practice of gratitude. If you just focus on what you have, versus what you have not, you will stay in a mental framework that's both happy and setting yourself up for success. Because think of the person that does not have gratitude in their heart. And they're always focusing on what they haven't, or what's missing, or where they're still going. They're chronically unhappy. But think of the person who still has dreams and ambitions and direction, but focuses every day on what they did do or what they did accomplish, or the connections they did make. And so to develop this idea of gratitude, for some of us is critical. My wife, for example, does it naturally she is naturally a positive person, that we can have be having a downer discussion, you'll say, well, it's raining all day, and it's a gloomy day, well, at least the flowers will grow, you know, so she always finding the positive, where somebody like me and many others, we need to develop that practice mentally. And so one of the suggestions I make to people to stay present to stay focused on progress, or what's going well, versus what's not going well, is just build a gratitude list every day, start first thing out of the gate, write down a gratitude list, write five things, three things, 10 things doesn't matter. Down in your journal. In fact, Josh on my website, I actually have and I want to talk about at the end, absolutely some giveaways, but to your listeners. But we just published a CI for life journal that has the first page is purpose. The second page is goals. The third page is action plans for those goals. And then every day after that the left hand side is gratitude and learning. And the right hand side is plan of the day. So it's got an each day. It's a 300 page journal. Each day on the left hand side is got your opportunity to before you plan your day, to start your day with gratitude to focus on what you did get done in your relationships, in your business, in your etc. It just completely changes your paradigm. By building this muscle, it's a little bit like exercise. It takes practice, you have to build and tone in order for you to really feel the benefit. The first time you exercise, you didn't feel amazing, right? You felt stiff. In fact, it was horrible. Yeah, football camp. But after a while you were building capacity and capability. And that's what this idea is, is if you know people that want to shoot for the moon and accomplish great things. Remember to still focus every day on what you do have, and you allow yourself to be more happy and present as you reach for the stars. I totally agree with that. There's, um, I believe there's a billionaire in Japan, actual US billion dollars worth. And that's what he does. But everyday he does 1000 things he's grateful for. Wow. Yeah, that would take all day. Seriously. I know. It's just sat there and I'm like, wow. First of all, like, do I have to be grateful that the sun's up? Do I have to be grateful that there's clean air and sitting there like a list of 100 things? I'm like, Oh, so even the smallest thing you're supposed to do kind of thing. Okay. You know, and how this shows up in leadership, Josh, is that if a if a conscious leader is focusing on what they have accomplished, both personally and maybe as a team or a business, they're going to be more easy to engage, easy to discuss easier. On their employees, not easier isn't the right word. But their employee they'll inspire. You go into your meeting and you're focusing on what happened well, yesterday versus just you missed the shipment or missed your goal. You're going to be a lot easier person to deal with. Yes, you eventually want to get to why did we? Why did we have quality yours yesterday, but if you start every meeting with what you and everybody is grateful for what happened? Well, yesterday, it opens up people to discuss the hard things, the the things that people don't always want to bring up in front of the boss. So to be vulnerable and approachable. And to have your employees you know, tell the truth. Start your meetings with gratitude, start your meetings with what went well, and not just you talking, but go around the table. And have everybody mentioned one thing from last week or yesterday that went well, you'll find the tone and the culture of the company will change. Absolutely, that's actually so you, you hit on something I wanted to tie back to his disappointment. So is that one of your many tactics that you have learned, but also talked about in your book? Yeah, so there's a couple of tactics in there. The first one is gratitude, focus on what went well focus on recognizing compassion for yourself and others. And so the example of doing it individually, but I'm also encouraging anybody and in a leadership position of whatever size business to use this practice in life. The second one that I'd like to just mention another tool in the toolkit. And this ties in the eastern philosophies of mindfulness is just getting really quiet. Let's call it 10 minutes of meditation in the morning. And there's some great apps there. So you could do it on your own, whatever your your fancy, but getting super quiet and listen carefully, and breathe deeply. In fact, if that's too much for you, try this thing. Next time you're going from meeting to meeting and harried or transitioning from work, to home and family, whatever it might be. Try 10 deep breaths, deep cleansing breaths, to reset your paradigm to reset your mind. I know what when I came home with a young family, that was a tactic I had to use, right from a busy stressful day 10 cleansing deep breaths to reset your mindset that now Okay, now I have to be for my family from my wife from so yeah, there. That's another tool. You could do that from meeting to meeting? What if you just had a very stressful quarterly review with your board or your investment group? And now you got to go? Do you want to just transfer that all on your employees? Or do you want to reset a little bit with 10 cleansing breaths. So that idea or that tactic of 10 minute meditation in the morning or evening, or just a 10 breath reset in between activities can really slow you down and get you to act out of your values versus act out of emotion? Right? Does that make sense? Yes, you want to when you're stressed your most, most times we're acting out of emotion? Where were our bosses laid into us now I'm going to go lay into the employees. No, that's not how it should be. That's not how we really want to show up. So these ideas of mindfulness and meditation and breathwork are very powerful to reset you and get you in the right framework, so that you can show up more consciously, you can show up with more presence to the given moment, instead of dragging in what happened at home or the last stressful meeting. You know, get get clear, get present and reset. Absolutely. That's one thing. So I was reading the book Thinking Fast and Slow. That's one thing he recommended. And I actually got to that chapter, ironically, through a series of unfortunate events. There's a co worker, we all have them. There's the one that she just absolutely just you she walks in the room, everything positive dies in the room, right. And that's her. And essentially, one at once I heard that chapter I did I just in front of her, I didn't care. I just start going. I kind of thing. And she just kept yapping away. And finally I just kind of look up and awkwardly sit out loud. I'm like, Well, what was I angry about? Again? You were listening to me. I'm like, What say? I don't remember. Great. She finally walked away. And that's right, just do one more time to fully reset them. It was just like, wow, that's like the key right there. kind of thing. Great example. It really is. It's just the truth is applicable to anyone. There's always that one person, guy or gal just comes in and ruins everything. Yeah, and then that's where it's really good. If you're the team leader or to ask your team leader to start every meeting with the boss. And force her into the culture of, but it's even more powerful, as you said, to be able to be in control of your own mindset. And don't let her carry your weather. Don't let her create the weather around in the office, you create your own weather, you're gonna make it with your mental mindset approach, a sunny day versus a cloudy day. And if it's cloudy, like your wife says, there's gonna be flowers later on. That's right. The grass will be green, we need it. Okay. All right, good. Good point, to say, but I'm just looking at this sad cold weather, but Okay, yeah, yeah. So then I want to go into another part of your chapter that with the, we've touched on it a few times to see the Eastern philosophy. But I also heard a bit of a religious aspect to this too. It doesn't necessarily have to be I tell you, where it fits in nicely. He's, I'm a big believer in balanced, sustainable goals. And that to be truly happy, you have to be connected to your emotional and spiritual self. And that that, you know, that's probably advertised it. Yeah. And so that when I recommend when you're setting goals to set, you know, physical and health, spiritual, emotional, financial, and work and have a balanced set of categories, so that you can show up because if you're not conscious, and, and have the ability to control or manage your emotions, or connected, you're not going to be as effective as you want to, in your relationships at work at home, wherever. So, yeah, I'm a big believer in setting. And and meditation is a spiritual practice, if you will, in that you're connecting with yourself. Within if you believe in a supreme being you're Collette connecting to a supreme being. So journaling, if you will, is can be a terrific spiritual and emotional strengthening process to both understand where you're at. And But no, I love it. And we recommend all clients to set balanced set of goals and all of those categories, not just financial. In fact, that gets me on one of my other pet peeves. I have never, in all the success I've had in business, set a financial goal, meaning I'm going to earn a million dollars this year. Interesting. I have set activities and goals that can get me that money and have but I have never anticipated or tracked my salary bonus dividends and know exactly how much I am going to make this upcoming year. Of course, I know it once it received. But if you and this is one of the keys to goal setting, this is why I mean, there's great stats out there Josh, only 20% of people and companies accomplish their goals, all their goals. There's so many learnings in there. One of them. We've already talked about having a balanced set of goals. But the other one is this idea of making it specific and measurable. And have you heard the term leading or lagging indicators before or process or outcome or result indicators? Yes, I have at least so. And for the listeners, the idea of an end result indicator or a lagging indicator or lagging goal is earn a million dollars. So the real magic is not setting that intention that there is some power to that some 10 or 20% power, just to focus your mind. The real magic is pinpointing the leading indicators activities that will help you earn that million dollars. So in the consulting business, in my case, it's time with clients signing up new clients, it's delivery for new clients. If you focus on those three activities, you're going to be wildly successful and do well. So I set my goals in those categories, and the finances game. So in your career, pinpoint the right indicators, the right activities, to get to your financial success, because everyone wants to be financially independent, financially successful, you know, whether that's, you know, earning 10,000 or a million or whatever it might be. But that's not the magic in my mind. The magic is pinpointing and focusing on the activities in measurable terms. They're going to help you get to that lagging result. Just like weight loss. I don't believe setting Okay, well my intention is to lose 20 pounds this year. Okay, that's good. But the real magic is, what is it that you're going to do about it? track that set goals with that review that with accountability partner, then you're going to be successful at what you do? Absolutely. No, just go into the fitness aspect because my work everyone when we were allowed to go to the gym, so I think I am now in California, but they're like, why are you paying so much money I'm like, well, let's put it this way. I know I can pay$60 and get two very nice fantastic meals, like, depending on where I go or I pay $60 and I'm gonna damn earn my money and go pretty much every day said so there's the incident or the delayed, said it's also like so you know and one thing you can trick your mind on it because we do live in an instant gratification world. And some of us believe that that's not all that great. But what you can trick yourself with is okay, let me set a goal to like I got a in my daily plan is to work out today. I've got instant gratification, I got a great workout. Now that's ending towards something big and powerful down the road. But yes, I got instant gratification, I got an amazing workout. Right? But if you focus on Well, I didn't lose you know, a pound today, you're going to be a very frustrated guy. So that's another point. Like why I say spend less time focusing on the end result you want and more time focusing on those activities that you have to do well to be successful and get instant gratification from those. Oh my gosh, you know, one of my indicators to get my message out is number of podcast interview. So this is amazing. This is this is this is my main goal. How do I reach millions with my message? Right now with Josh Bolton. It's amazing. So this, this will be a great day and is because I hit one of my leading indicators now will help me on the lagging result to reach millions. We'll see. But I know that the best best opportunity to hit and reach millions with my message is to start one interview at a time. It is that's a martial arts instructor says that because he's a very successful entrepreneur. He's a brilliant marketer literally could sell rice to someone. Anyone really. But that's the one thing he said what's the he said the best way to how do you best eat an elephant? I'm like, will you cut it up into little segments? He's like, nope, one bite at a time. Okay, well, I got a story for you on this one. Dr. Bob Mauer who invited interviewed on my podcast ci for life, or continuous improvement for life. Dr. Bob Mauer I came across his book, it's it's a it's why it approached me is it's I can't remember the exact title. But it's basically something like achieving your goals one small step at a time, the Kaizen way which Kaizen is continuous improvement in business, domain, seven step problem solving, and highly engagement and start small. And that's his whole message. And there's an incredible story in there and that, that I've heard him tell and actually said it in the book, too. I'm so fascinated by it and such an important principle for goal accomplishment for people and organizations. To your point on the elephant, he says, I was in a teaching hospital, I was an intern, you know, I was, I had the intern in the office patient, let's call her Debbie, and himself and he's supposed to be helping this intern, coach, health and Debbie has been coming in regularly, bad health, overweight, anxiety, stress, and not making any progress on the things the doctor asked her do. You got to lose weight, you got to exercise, you've got to take care of yourself. Your blood pressure's going up, blah, blah, blah. So Bob gets this idea. He goes through this Kaizen, I'll do one small step, one bite at a time. And he says, Debbie, do you watch TV at night when you're you relax after the kids go to bed to try to unwind? Yeah, I got my favorite shows. Okay, what about tonight, and every night till you come in again, during one commercial of your favorite show, stand up and do jumping jacks for that one commercial or walk in the spot or run in the spot anyway. Do you think you could do that just for one commercial? Right? I'm not asking for a miracle. Debbie says okay, I can do that. But it was so overwhelming to her to get the 20 pounds. But when doctor when he broke it down into one small step. She comes back the next week I did it. Don't worry, you know, no big weight change, no big health change, still, you know, high blood pressure etc. So Bob says okay, now I want you to come back in two weeks. And what if, during 130 minute show you exercised? Or Which one did you like better? I like jumping jacks better. It was good. If you did jumping jacks, you get the story, right. And then eventually she started running short distances and then long distance lost 20 pounds, blood pressure goes down. Success Story, but it all starts with it because this is you know, this is what they don't teach you when you're setting this big, hairy audacious goal. You can overwhelm the limbic system, you can overwhelm your team, you can overwhelm yourself, that that big, scary audacious goal but if you break it down into one small step, all of a sudden, that fight or flight syndrome in in your brain relaxes And allows you to start right call it a mini goal. Call it I mean, I've heard people tell the story of that we're trying to get into exercise walking or running. And he said, you know, and they're having a hard time, it was just frozen up that a lot of, you know, different reasons why. And they said a mini goal to, okay, success this week is to go outside with my gym clothes on. That's it. And if I don't have time to run, run, or whatever, all success is for five days, when I get bad, and organizing about myself up, I'm just gonna get dressed to walk outside the door. And you know what, four out of the five days, that's all he did was get up, get dressed, kept that little commitment to himself. And the one day, he got out, he found the time he was relaxed enough. He got it started running, and he develops his running habits. So start with mini goals start with small steps start with one bite. That's another reason why people are not successful accomplishing their goals. They don't pinpoint the little step, the mini step to allow them to get going on their goal 100% was alluded to earlier with the workout and my martial arts instructor is when I went to the gym, I was like, I want to lose specifically 25 pounds of fat because I was a big boy, I'm still a little bigger. But so I was sitting there and I watched the way and I even paid like an extra 10 bucks a week and went to this fancy scale that would read my percentage of body fat everywhere. And nothing worked. And one of the guys just said, you're looking at the wrong goal. He said, He's like, why don't you just focus on pure strength? Things you can actually measure? He's like, what's your deadlift? I'm like, oh, currently, it's about like, 190. He's like, Okay, come back in two weeks, he's like this session tree, make it to 20. Eat more if you have to kind of think Don't worry about it. And it was the one of those I beat it by, like 30 pounds. So he's like, focus on this, this works for you. The body fat will go away later kind of thing. That's great story of AI pinpointing the right leading indicator, the right small step, to focus your brain on to feel some success. Right. Okay, well, I did 199 you know that today? I did. 200. That's amazing. And I lost any weight yet? No, as my BMI reduced? No. But you keep doing that. And maybe adding one more leading indicator around, you know, consumption on the food? Because I think, especially the older you get, you have to do both, right? I mean, yeah, when I was younger, you could just exercise and it was all good. You like burgers, and you're good for the day, right? You get your workout and you're fine. Your, your teen burger or your Big Mac or whatever. But so yeah, that is a great example of focusing on a leading indicator that you can get some success on and some movement on. And then let's head towards that goal. So for you, um, you were talking about the correlation with the small steps, I didn't write even down, forgot that goal. The with the setting the small steps for business? So with the indicators that was it an activities. So you chose activity was your measurable action, let's say someone who has not been in your position but aspires to at least get up to the C suite. How would they map out their next 10 years kind of thing? Or is that too, too unrealistic? As you're sitting? Oh, no, no, I think that that's good. It's good to have big dreams and big ambitions. And then you got to break it down into small measurable goals. What can I do now? Okay, maybe I can have one lunch per week, per month, with a C suite executive and ask them their success. People love to tell their story. Right? They you ask them, and oh, I can't ask a C suite guy to have lunch with me. I don't know him that well. Okay. Well, what if you got in their calendar for 10 minutes? and ask them maybe a relationship with foreign so this whole networking mentoring idea is a classic, it's within your control, and it's a small step, and and map and and find out what did they do to be successful? Because there's lots of ways to get there, right? Yes, learn, be curious, be open, and be courageous to say, Hey, can I get 10 minutes for coffee on your schedule or for your favorite Diet Coke or whatever? I'd love to pick your brain on a mentoring topic of how you were successful, I'm sure. You know, and people love to do that. But that's a great example of something you can do a small step to start heading that direction. You know, in a consulting business in mind, it was actually time with other clients, C suite leaders. How can I have meaningful 20 C suite meals integrations, meetings, connections, right each month. I know if I can do that. I'm going to be able to consultant grow my consulting practice. But so it just goes back to that same principle, right? And if you're first starting out and you're 25 year old, out of grad school and you see I want to be, you know, well then have a networking lunch every two weeks. And and if they won't give you a whole 45 minutes in the cafeteria, ask for 10 for coffee or your favorite Diet Coke and have that discussion. But that's, that's an example of the leading indicator. Yes, that's a very good one. That's when I wish I knew I was younger. It's just the networking. It's, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Yeah. Yeah. And it's usually networking before you need them, right? Because people don't like I get messaged on Facebook all the time. Like, I want to do this for you, I want to do that for I don't even know from Adam. And there's no warm connection. But if you've already built warm connections with your network, then when you actually need something a favor or an ask, people are going to, you know, particularly if you've asked them to your story, and you've you've been generous and complimentary and your insights about why they were successful, you can be able to ask, you know, even C suite executives, if you've honored them and recognized and then manage their time or careful with their time, when you do need an ask a reference a referral, whatever you warm that connection, but man, do not. I don't know anybody that dming on Facebook, when you don't even know them when you've just had a yes to a friendship, connection. And all of a sudden, you're asking for something that rarely works. But anyhow, they're the best ones do know how to make warm connections, right? That's what all these online business people are doing through different various forms and is trying to warm the connection. And that's a that's a true principle right there. Whether you're an online business or, you know, at work or in your family. Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's definitely one where I always thought it was silly for people who don't even know the, the executive and is asking them for whatever position within the company. It's like, first of all, you're not even employee there. Secondly, maybe they have like a grander plan. And you don't fit that right now. Because you're like you said, You're, you're not lukewarm. You're not room temperature. I don't know you, you could be a hostile threat. And I think, but it's just the audacity to say, hey, just because you click this button, I want my instant dopamine. Hey, can you give me in? Right? It's just for the ego, even a humble ego to take. All you're telling me is you're going to take take, take and never give to me kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's going back to the online community, because that's something I'm starting the last 18 months. Even if you you know, like some of their work, or some of their comments, or some of their podcasts or some start there. And so they can start to see you, Hey, you know, Rick really likes my stuff. He's been engaged, he's made comments. And now a couple months later, he's asking for 10 minutes of my time to share a couple ideas. Okay, maybe I'm gonna, you know, listen, but the same thing is true when you're in an office building with 200 people is, you know, building relationships, the warm connections are, it's a true principle, whether it's online or face to face. It really is. And so actually, I want your perspective, because you've seen the growth and lineage of it. And how it plays out, is an online presence as important to be achieved something like your position, or is just as simple as a very good LinkedIn profile. And you're good to go kind of thing. Well, I, I'm an interesting one to ask. So I'm turning 60 this year, and 32 years in business, and all I had was my LinkedIn profile. And in and I had to, you know, connect and work with clients. And that worked very well for me. And then I started my own podcast two, two and a half years ago now. And, and by the way, I just got on listen notes. It just got top 5% of all the podcasts for a year. That was nice. Yeah, that's awesome. Continue some, well, no, that's actually total. So what listen notes ranks is 2 million podcasts. And I think it goes to Apple and Google and some of the majors, and I'm not sure how they exactly measure it, but they'll show you if you're in their top 10, top five, top 1% top half percent. So But yeah, I never really previously needed an online to connect, you know, there's conferences, there's committees, there's different things to interact with C suite. But more and more today, I'm noticing that and the C suite people are very busy. They don't always listen to a ton of podcasts. But I think today, the way we're going is there's an increased need to have a social presence? That wasn't there even 510 years ago? You know, isn't it? Yeah, to have my success? The short answer is all I had is a LinkedIn. And then the last couple of years, I'm figuring out, you know, what if I want to reach instead of working with 40, or 50 clients, if I don't reach hundreds of 1000s of people I need, I need some kind of social presence. So I'm learning all that the last couple years. I'm learning it too. So you're not alone. What one of the guests I had on? He's like, Yeah, I did some work, like research and you just quick homework. He's like, you have no social media presence. So like, Well, I do. I just don't, I'm not active on it. He's like, you might want to fix that later. Just so you know. Wait, okay. Yeah, and it's the same thing, right? You need the connections, you need the presence. And then well, how do I warm the listeners up that I'm a trusted, credible voice? Because I think it'll, it'll help your podcast as well. Right. But yeah, I, I'm a big believer now. But I wasn't Express you with 2020 pushing everyone online and getting used to being more isolated. It's now more than ever more important to have a presence. Yep. So I want to go into you were talking about the goal planning itself and your, your website. So let's go into the website. What do you offer there into different? You said a giveaway too, right? Yeah, yeah, so I just redid my website. And on there, they've got my coaching services to help for individual or business performance. It's got a course on teachable for 5999, you 10 professionally done videos, it's actually workshop based, where you'll go through your I'll teach the importance of purpose and how to do it, and then you stop the video, or complete that video, do your purpose, and then you come back and then we're working on lagging indicators and then leading indicators and then then your operating rhythm or business cadence that you should have in order to accomplish your goals and, and I take them right through the whole process on how to improve performance for small business. So that's up there the books up there, the CI for life journal, and that's what the first five people that messaged me on Facebook and it's Rick Highland, h e y looks heyland. And tell me they listen to Josh his podcasts, I will send them a CI for life journal. And that's the word journal with purpose goals, actions, gratitude and daily planning. And, or you can go on my website and just subscribe with me. And put a note in there, say just say, Josh Bolton. And I'll know to connect with you on email and get you one of these journals. So yeah, there. I'm very excited about it, it's going to help. I always like something and people that teach how. So it'll inspire my mind and give me a framework to improve rather than just jacking me up on a podcast. And then there's no how I think this journal so far has been really good. I've got lots of positive feedback on it. But first five listeners that messaged me on Facebook or on my website, preferably, they're going to get one of these journals shipped to them for free. I was gonna say, so how much would these normally costs? Let's say there is later on after like the Yeah, they're on the website for 3999. But yeah, I want to bless your life. If you're listening to this. message me, I'll need your address, of course. And I'll get you one of these things. Too sweet. Awesome. Actually, Rick, I really do. I want to cut it there. That was awesome. Any other socials you want to put in? And I'll email you afterward? For more details and stuff in the description? No, I'll just go to the website ci for life, the number four in the middle there ci for life.org. And you'll see all these ideas. There's even a free template for how to develop your purpose statement. But yeah, I want to give these journals away to the listener that's keen on continuous improvement and wants to kind of work through this idea of purpose. In fact, on that same website, you can get a assessment a 30 minute free coaching call with me. And there's a place now to sign up if you're Ernst on continuous improvement for your business and or yourself. You can also sign up for there. So there's a couple of freebies. Yeah, I mean, the time alone, that's just the 30 minutes alone with you. I just learned so much about things I need to do. So this is something very vital that they need to look into. Good Josh, appreciate your time today. And thanks for having me on. I appreciate you. Stay safe and stable Rick. Cheers. Cheers.