Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Sam.
[00:00:32] Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to tonight's episode of Pivotal Change. We're going to be talking about how to systematically get yourself from the basics, something new, a brand new adventure, to being elite. And there is a process and a path and phases or stages to go through and do that. My name is Ryan Kahn. I'm the host of Pivotal Change and I also am the owner of CS Business Consulting. And we are here to learn how to develop ourselves individually, create high performance teams, be better business owners, business leaders, executives, and just have and create more influence in a positive direction so that anybody watching can have those one or two little nuggets they need to make the pivotal change down their path to success. I'm going to invite you, like I do on every episode, to go ahead and grab a pen and paper, take notes and make this more of a conversation. Even though we're not talking back and forth about what you should be doing, what little tips you can make. And I write things down during my episodes all the time because you should always be hunting and seeking to improve.
[00:01:35] So what I'm going to do is I'm going to break down what I believe is the path to becoming elite in four phases.
[00:01:42] I'm also going to directly compare the business side of things to what we do in the wrestling world.
[00:01:48] And I've been very fortunate to talk with a lot of the single most elite athletes in the world, the elite wrestlers in the world. And this is extremely similar to the plan that they use. I've talked to them extremely well accomplished business owners, people of, of large organizations or communities, whether that be government program, attorney program, and they also use things just like this. So this is my twist on the phases to becoming elite. We're going to talk each segment about a different phase or year. So for me, year one, whether you're a wrestler or business owner, is you need to be mastering the basics. Year two, you need to learn to play chess, not checkers. So year two is chestnut checkers.
[00:02:30] Year three is something called this is the minimum. And that won't make sense yet, but this is the minimum is going to take you to that next level. And then finally year four and beyond, you're always attempting to be elite in all things. And we're going to go step by step through tonight's episode and break all of this down.
[00:02:48] Let's talk about the basics. Basics often are the things that people don't want to do. It's more on the boring side or the simple side. People think, okay, I've got it. I Got it? Let's move on.
[00:03:00] But in order to master the basics, you have to do exactly the opposite of what I just did and humble yourself. You need to start with humility.
[00:03:08] Everyone begins as a beginner at some point, I don't care who you are or what endeavor you're getting in, at some point you had zero skills, zero knowledge, zero self awareness in that field. And so greatness ultimately starts with consistency and in the fundamentals that is built on humility. So humility is also not just important in the beginning phase when you're brand new to something, but it's very important to come back to the basics. Often I'm going make several comparisons. The first one, of course, is going to be wrestling. In wrestling, there is extremely complex moves and maneuvers and conditioning levels and flexibility, all kinds of stuff that can happen.
[00:03:47] But you've got to master first your stance, Your first line of defense is making yourself difficult to get to. If somebody wanted to attack you and score points.
[00:03:57] Your motion being able to be a hard target or to set yourself up to be an attacker. Hand fighting, which literally means grabbing hands, wrists, elbows, collar, ties, all those things. Posting and shifting and moving your opponent around and taking away his weapons and making it to where your weapons can access his legs, his waist, his upper body. In order to score. Then you got to learn like the basic shots. Okay, there's lots of different ways. I mean, you can do some really awesome like low, single ankle pick, things like that. You can do fireman's carries, but you probably should be learning double legs, head inside, singles, high crotches, high Cs, things like that. And then you need to learn your basic defense again, how to keep your head in the fight and use that as a fifth appendage or hand for defense, how to move your hips, how to sprawl, how to turn down, how to do a lot of different things, move, circle away or escape from the bottom. And what happens is you get your basic technique and then you program yourself with repetition.
[00:04:57] Repetition is going to be the king of anything that you can do when you are brand new at this. So think about this metaphor. Over into business or into a leadership position that you're starting into. You have to master clear and efficient communication and you have to get reps. You have to over communicate, especially if there are changes going on in the organization. You have to over communicate if you're coming in in a time of crisis or difficulty, because every time you say it one time or they might hear it once. So master clear and concise communication. Master Organization and how to keep things flowing in a proper order. Everything has a place and everything in its place.
[00:05:42] Do the basics of showing up on time. That is one thing that takes absolutely zero skill is to show up on time. If you struggle, literally set your alarm 5 minutes 10 minutes earlier and leave the house 5 minutes 10 minutes earlier.
[00:05:57] That's not a skill thing, that's just a button on your phone or alarm clock.
[00:06:01] Be reliable. Make sure everyone knows you're going to be where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there. These are basics. These are the simple principles in business or leadership. Be accessible and then ultimately know your job roles and do them regularly. Show up and do what they are paying you to do or what you said you were going to do. Be on time, do what you said you were going to do or what you're being engaged to do, and ultimately put on a positive attitude and have that mindset. That is the beginning of the basics in your business and in your leadership. Once you master the basics, you build confidence not only in yourself, but you build confidence from your team members. It's more predictable that your foundation is rock solid and it can start to bury, bear a load to handle adversity, to get more responsibility, put on that foundation. And it's also important to not rush the process. Let me tell you a little bit jumping into my law enforcement career.
[00:07:02] When you go into detectives, which is high level of court cases, high level investigation, a whole nother set of skills that the patrol officers are not relying on in any form of regular basis. You get new equipment, new resources, new access to people and tools at your disposal. And so you got to remaster those bases, basics, right? But you gotta not rush the process. You're going to be a competent officer by the time you get hired into or promoted into a detective division. But if you skip those fundamentals, you're going to clap under, collapse under pressure when you make detectives. My captain also said when I came into detectives, he says, man, it takes pretty much every officer about a year just to figure out and grasp exactly what it is you're doing on a regular case, working basis and following up. And once you've got that year under your belt, you've got your head on you and you can develop a little bit more of your style and your system. He says the fastest detectives could maybe do it in six to eight months. And the slowest detectives took at least a year to really grasp the fullness of their rope. So most people are like, oh, just rush me through the one week, two week crash course. And I've got it. I'm sorry, that's not the way the world works. Not in anything that has complexity anyway. And then leaders must be able to teach the basics. So if you've mastered the basics, you can now teach them. And leaders also need to reteach the basics. It would be a fundamental flaw for you to learn the basics, get really good at them through high rep, critiquing your technique, critiquing your processes to get really good at mastering those basics and then never come back to them. And make sure that you keep the dust knocked off to keep sharpening it, to keep making adjustments along the way. Because you can really get down into the minutia in a lot of different things in life. So you must teach the basics to others, reteach the basics to them, and you yourself go back to the basics constantly. I've been guilty of this as well. I've been guilty of not doing it myself. Learn those lessons. And so we came up with a rule in the firearms program and in the wrestling program that are very similar. When we're teaching somebody, we're going to show up and we're going to touch on the basics at least at every range session. Before we get into any of the advanced stuff, whether it's 30 minutes or it's three hours, we're going to hammer out some of those basics to make sure the core skills are there. Then we can add something to it. Add something to it, go back to the bas, then add something else, then add something else and go back to the basics. And you want to keep it connected to your core at all times. That is truly how you're going to learn to master the basics. Guess what? Education and skill development is no difference. I mean, think about going in and taking some types of physics or calculus class. Well, you better be pretty darn good at algebra before you sign up for calculus. Right? You better be pretty good at even geometry before you try to get into trigonometry. You better understand the English language before you get into AP Literature, right? So you got to understand those basics so that you can add to yourself. And then what you happens is you are developing some really consistent habits. Really good habits are going to form early if you have the mindset of mastering the basics, like I'm just learning this move or I'm just learning this work process at the office and I'm going to keep coming back to it and making sure I'm doing it exactly right. I have seen too Many people get comfortable and then not grow or be able to put more on the foundation of the basics.
[00:10:28] So do that. And some of those habits are going to be things like literally just getting consistent sleep. I don't care what industry, what you're trying to do.
[00:10:36] In all of the dominoes to success, sleep schedule is the first domino, right? So you take out your sleep schedule and you build a consistently bad habit. You're defeating the rest of the chain of dominoes. And you got to practice. Even if you're at the office in a corporate setting, you can actually practice. You can get some dummy file and run it through the system to make sure that you hit all the checkboxes, you knocked out all the tasks, you, you pulled all the right levers on the factory line and then go back and do that with a real product. You got to study and you got to execute your habits with professionalism now. So not frustrated, not as the new guy that's learning and be patient with me, but now as a professional.
[00:11:15] So don't be afraid to do the boring work. In fact, embrace it. Embrace the boring work because you can see the long term vision of what going back to the basics, mastering the basics and doing it all time with repetition will make you stand out later.
[00:11:29] So take just these last moments before we cut to commercial break and write down what are the basics in my field, in my industry and how can you recommit to mastering the basics and even start this week answer that question. We'll be right back for the next segment on Pivotal Change after these messages.
[00:11:52] Sam, welcome back to Pivotal Change. You survived the first break. We're going to keep pushing on the show because we know that you love what you're watching. And here's the cool part. Even if you have to cut short, you get a WI fi breakdown or you just have to travel and can't catch the show, you can get Pivotal Change in all of NOW Media's network on demand anytime. So your favorite NOW Media TV shows, they're available wherever and whenever you are. If you can just get a signal or some WI fi. So download the Now Media TV app, get it on Roku iOS, you can enjoy instant access. And the cool part is this is a fully bilingual network. So all shows are available in both English and Spanish. So the cool part is I move around and travel a lot. I don't sit still very well, so I have to listen to things on the go. And all of your shows are also doubled into a podcast format. Let's go to www.now, media, TV, and you can get all of your business, breaking news, lifestyle, culture, literally everything in between. And we'll be streaming 24 7, wherever and whenever you are ready to watch. So that's always a really fun thing, is that the network can advance to accomplish your needs. So now we're going into phase two, which is you're going to advance as well.
[00:13:31] Think about year one, Master the basics. If you can learn a really good shot, you could probably get in there on your opponent and get a hold of his leg. And you probably need to also finish the takedown. Maybe you can do a really good setup on the bottom to get a guy flat and ready to be pinned.
[00:13:48] But there's these gaps, there's these, these kinks in the method. So I want to talk to you about playing chess, not checkers. And this is what it means in wrestling, okay? It's learning to chain wrestle. Literally linking one move together after another. If I can take the shot and then take him down and immediately set up my ability to turn him to his back and then put him in danger on his back and then pin him. I've just done three or four different learning sessions, and now I'm moving three or four different pieces across my chessboard one after another. So that's really important. In checkers, you're literally moving one piece very simply on whatever diagonal is available, and you can only jump one or two pieces at a time. It doesn't even get close to complicated until you king somebody at the end of the game. Whereas chess has almost infinite moves that can be made, and it definitely has almost infinite combinations of the moves that can be made when two people square off against each other. So wrestling, learn to chain these moves together literally flow from one technique that you've mastered into another, and then all also predict what that opponent's reactions is going to be, predict what that client's reaction or feedback is going to be, and then play into it or play against what they're going to propose in a defense. So chess takes strategy, it takes learning more and different complex pieces and moves, and you have to do that with your business as well. So even if you just started off as an entrepreneur and you say, hey, I'm going to fire up a lawn mowing company, checkers would be like, I'm going to go knock on doors in my neighborhood, I'm going to pick up a different route in my neighborhood, and I'm going to be mowing 10 or 20 yards today or this, this month, over this week or this year. Whatever it is. But then getting into checkers is okay. I need to start considering employees, make sure my insurance is beefed up. I need a marketing campaign, I need a referral campaign. I need some different types of levels of subscription. I need to bring in some type of landscaping service or edging service that's just more than lawn mowing. And you start to compound the complexity and have to make these different moves at a time. I need a system to track all of this stuff. I need a point of sale system and a tracking system and an invoice system and a follow up system and a booking system. And I need software to help me. I need more tools. I need three lawnmowers in case one of the two goes down. You know, you can really get difficult in this. And you're also going to make sure that you're connecting decisions. See, chess is really fun thing. A lot of people know how to play chess, just what pieces move in what way. But in chess, if you can sit down and just legitimately think three moves ahead, you can beat like 98 of the people that know how to play chess. And that final 2% is the people that play all the time, actually study strategy, actually get themselves into tournaments, and they're seeking after, you know, those master type levels in that entire category. So we want to do what chess tells us to do to be good. Chain moves together, understand all the pieces, how they work together. Because you can pin pieces, corner pieces, you can work yourself into a stalemate instead of a checkmate. There's lots of cool things that you can do. Wrestling and business are no different.
[00:16:53] Another thing that's really important is having that foresight. You need to anticipate the needs. You need to anticipate the needs of your opponent. If I'm going to move my queen out from the back row, I need to have various defenses or clear paths, or I need to have other people set up to where they can't attack me because I'm covering or pinning opponents. If you don't know chess, you can look those things up. But it's very important that you plan for growth.
[00:17:18] Anticipate the needs of clients, workers, government entities and filing, and you see the cause and effect. You have to really focus on long term decision making. Long term planning is the decision I'm making right now today seem real cool, fun or satisfying right now. But does it accomplish that long term plan?
[00:17:38] So in wrestling, if you say, hey, I want to shoot off the whistle and grab this guy's leg and you get this huge Big scramble going. Did you just burn up all your conditioning to where you're going to get whooped in the third period because you tried something crazy crazy early on? It all compounds on each other. Then we really need to understand that we could be playing chess in wrestling, in business, in our organizations, even in our families. We should be playing chess in our families knowing that if I do A, then B will result, then C will be the result, and finally my kid will develop in this way. That's important stuff. So the other thing is part of playing chess is often you don't want to just sit back and react to all of your opponent's attacks. Stop reacting and start designing an active attack, an active system, an active process that will help you solve your problems. Instead, don't just solve your problems as they show up, prevent them and predict the problems. In the sales world, playing chess is that you're going to, in the sales pitch, answer the vast majority of all of your customers objections, all of your customers excuses, all of your customers reasons that they would ask a question for more clarity. And you're going to deliver a speech, a sales pitch, or an experience that nurses all of those expectations. Those salespersons are having incredible success and they're really killing it because they play chess before the customer ever sets foot on the parking lot.
[00:19:07] So that strategic foresight is important. And if you don't know how to do it, learn how to do it. Ask somebody that's been in your field before. Go to my system of having your five advisors and see what you need to do to get yourself to this level. Part of playing chess, not checkers, is saying, I need somebody better than me to teach me how to execute a strategy in chess, in business and wrestling.
[00:19:27] So in chess, your mindset is going to be your career. Are you going to be networking? Are you working three years out, five years out? Are you looking three, five, ten moves? The famous Bobby Fischer movie. I can't remember what it was, but it was like 11 or 13 moves away to where he could see it and win a very significant match.
[00:19:46] And so you can get better at this. And you don't have to limit yourself to just looking three moves in the future, because in wrestling, you might look three moves in the future. Hey, I'm going to post. I'm going to move the guy's body here. I want to hit his head this way. I'm going to pull his hand down this way. And finally, when he reacts to that third stimulus, the leg should be open. And that's what you're doing business. I'm going to put this tool in place. I'm going to have this person learn the software, that person jump on this piece of equipment, and all of that's going to be boom. I now have a whole squad or team that can take over and break off into a new city, a new region, whatever.
[00:20:17] And then learning to read patterns. Okay? Every wrestler kind of has their own style, their own takes their own favorite moves. Well, every market has its own pattern. Every people, group of clients and various teams inside your organization. Anything from, like, who can read the fastest, right? Like hand this person the giant packet with all the information saying you can literally read the fastest words per minute. Cover this and feed it back to us, right? Who can make moves that are a little bit smarter, harder, like on your team. Who is the person that is the, the rah rah cheerleader and gets people fired up, and who's the person that's the closer or the finisher? And make sure that all the I's or dots, T's are crossed and the project is wrapped with ribbons because those are two different roles. And you got to put people into that knowing the patterns. So complexities are also going to emerge from the simple basics that you've learned. So you got to go back to your basics like we talked about and understand how this complexity applies, how this action you make produces a reaction on their end and may open a different door for you to go in there and jump onto, you know, some credits or a new sales pitch or a new offering. But don't get outside your scope. Don't get too crazy with it, okay? So you can see that things get more advanced. And once you get at the highest level of your business, you can really start to make what you're watching on the screen. Here is the big moves, right? If you don't master the basics, if you're not making setups, if you're not getting your footwork into position, if you're not exploding through the opportunity, you don't get the big moves. And that is all part of playing chess. I may have to sacrifice a piece and trade material or even sacrifice my queen so that I can jump my knight into position and get the checkmate. That is how you learn to play chess and get in the right position.
[00:21:58] Another thing that happens is short term wins do not always lead to long term progress. And I see this the most in like elementary and middle school where the kids, there's this move called a head and arm or a headlock.
[00:22:11] And these kids Learn it early on in their career and boom, they can just hit it. They can just hit it. So they win a lot of early matches, but they don't develop any other skills because they just go out there, push people around. Maybe they're really fast or maybe they're just stronger for their age so they can hit this headlock, put people on the mat and beat them. Well, guess what? By the time middle school and high school comes around, they've only learned a headlock and maybe one other move. And these other kids have an entire tool belt of what they can use and rely on and stuff like that. So don't fool yourself with some early wins, some early quick sales pitches. Maybe you just have a gap in the market and you can jump on some sale pitches early and say, oh, I can sell to anybody. Well, there was just a need. That doesn't mean you're a master salesman and you're playing chess and being able to expand and grow the bandwidth of your business.
[00:22:57] So all of this links together, all of the communication, the psychology, the strategy, the resources, the building of the, the teams and connecting it all together so it flows. Oftentimes in wrestling you do something really good, then there's this little pause moment like, oh, I got the leg. Wow, I did a good job. Well, that guy's already adapted and moved around. You don't stop on these little short term wins and let them eat up your time. Create gaps in your, in your plan and then the market or the clients move on beyond you. So think about this as we cut to commercial break. We're going to go to halfway on the episode, but where are you playing checkers right now? Basically reacting or only doing simple short term based movements? And where are you playing chess or should you be playing chess where you're stringing things together, you're making a plan and it's looking out to the future. Write that down and maybe we get a chance to share on Ryan Forge's leaders later on. We'll be right back for more of the episode after these messages.
[00:23:56] Sam, you've made it past the halfway point with me, your host, Ryan Kahn on the TV show Pivotal Change. And we've been discussing a four phase or a four year process on how to go from basic to elite. And we've talked about concentrating and having your mindset focused on mastering the basics. And we went through that entire process and what it means, what your mindset, what your focus needs to be on the actual daily and, and planned out actions. And then the other one is we said, hey, after you've mastered the basics, you need to start playing chess, not checkers, and start linking strategy and movements and more complexities in your game and make sure you're filling the gaps and doing things fluidly and anticipating needs. And we went into a lot of detail on that one and hopefully you made some good notes. So now here we are, we're in our third year of wrestling or our third season of growth, our third phase. And guys, it doesn't have to just be year by year. I find based on the detective model that I told you that it probably is closer to a year model, but I totally respect that. In various industries learning curves, there's people with different levels of intelligences as far as physical intelligence, emotional intelligence, skillful intelligences that some people may learn faster or slower. So it might take one person a year, might take another person seven months. What takes one person a year, might take another person a year and a half. That doesn't mean you throw out the entire process or even the person. It just means you, you double down on it. You give them the chance.
[00:25:46] And here's a really good thing for just business owners to learn is that the average person doesn't just get it or not get it. They're either fit or not fit for the job. Because maybe something's not catching on. Almost always what a person needs to learn something is simply just more time, whereas you heard in the basic sections, just more reps. And it's our job as a leader who is training people to go in there and make sure that they're getting the reps that are appropriate. We're not expecting them to get it on their first, second or third try, but they get continued mentoring and coaching till they get it just right. And then we pass off the responsibility in the role. Yes, that produces more time investment on the leader or the trainers side of things, but it also produces a massive return on investment because later on you're not constantly having to come back and correct things that should have been done in the basics phase. So after we get done with chestnut checkers, we get into the phase or the year three as a wrestler, as a business development person, that this is the minimum. And here's what I mean. Simply put, doing more than what's required, it makes you irreplaceable and kind of. Here's the, here's the big idea behind that one. I tell my wrestlers, especially in this space, if you show up and you do what the coaching staff tells you to do, you show up to all Your practices, you put into two hour practices. You put in good hard work. We tell you to go do 10 reps and you do 10 reps and you do our conditioning and you work hard. We can make you good, we can even make you really good, but only you can make you great. So if you want to jump that bridge from being success, mastering the basics, being successful as a chess player, but then also getting your breakthrough year, you need to embrace that this is the minimum mindset. So anytime I call a command and say, hey guys, show up at 3pm for practice and everybody rolls the door five to 10 minutes, they barely get their shoelaces tied to get on the mat. You show up at 22, you get your shoelaces, ties and you stretch and you warm up, maybe do some pull ups or some other strength training exercises. You get those extra reps, you do 20 takedowns before practice and then boom, now practice starts and you just did more than the minimum in wrestling. You can go out and actually get extra practices. There's all kinds of clubs.
[00:28:01] Some youth programs or other teams will let you come in there and be like a senior in high school can come coach the youth guys. And there's always some type of heavyweight. So if you weigh 150, 60 pounds in high school, there's going to be maybe 130, 140 pound middle schooler or youth person that you can at least roll with and get more reps, get more feels. And then there's the skill that teaching actually helps you imprint and learn the skill even more. So these guys that you're going to watch at the highest level, they never do just what the coach says, they never do just what the program requires. They never do just the amount of reps that was on the board for them to go get their workout in. They're always doing more. They're studying film, they're getting leadership in the room. With younger kids mentoring younger kids, they're getting leadership from old retired wrestlers. In business, you got to do more than just your job description. That was phase one, year one, mastering the basics. Do your job description, know your roles and do it well. Now you got to do more. You got to take on more responsibility on your shoulders and you got to own the results. Okay? Not just task by task like a factory worker, but own the results. Be a difference maker. And discipline is the best way to be the difference maker. Most people stop at this is good enough or I checked the box and did what was asked of me and you can be really good okay. But in order to be great and ultimately establish yourself as a leader or a person of influence or get to the promotion or get to the point where your company is running itself, you got to go beyond doing the minimum. And others were naturally follow you when you do that.
[00:29:34] My son was a perfect example of this experiment starting two seasons ago. I introduced this with some of the wrestlers that had a few years under the belt. And it started with him and his best friend. And after practice, every single day, they go lift Bulgarian bags, do pull ups, push up, sit ups. We have these stretch bands that you can wear around your waist, and you take your shot with resistance. So you learn to become more explosive and push through your shot. And they'd say about 20, 25 minutes after wrestling practice, which by the way, half the team is there and they kind of talk their way out the door. And then a whole bunch of the team has to wait for their parents to show up to get rides. People that got a boo boo are getting ice bags. There's always somebody going to be there anyway. So if you're in the facility, why not get the work in? Show up to work early, stay late, make sure you get the project done a day before it was due. Just because it's due on Friday by close of business doesn't mean you can, you can't get it done by Thursday at noon. Be excellent and your excellence becomes contagious. This is the standard. Razor mentality. This is the minimum. Say, hey, if the boss asks us to do 15 tax return this week, let's do 20, right? And that becomes the standard. And now the standard of excellence spreads like a wildfire, a good wildfire in this, in this metaphor. So the stage creates your repetition.
[00:30:51] Reputation, excuse me, creates your reputation. Whether you're a coach or mentor, your employee, your leader, your client that comes in and does the minimum, that doesn't do the minimum, does more than the minimum. And then they start to notice who gives more. Guys, if you're a client of somebody else's and they say, hey, can you interact with us in this way? And you do more as a client, what do you think is going to happen?
[00:31:12] They're going to start preferring you as a client. You're going to start getting taken care of faster than the other guy. You might get a deal and you're going to develop a relationship because you're doing more in, in just the, the purchasing relationship. Think about going into the next restaurant. You sit down, actually take time to learn the waitress's name, actually engage with the Host that's going to seat you.
[00:31:35] Go and compliment the menu or ask them how their day is doing. And start doing more than just, oh, thanks for the menu, can I get an appetizer? Do more than that, okay? Ask questions about them, make a relationship and see how their service changes. Now do that with somebody where money is exchanged. Changed for a higher level of business related entity. Somebody that says, hey, can I fling you a client? You've never asked me for a referral, but can I fling somebody to you? You do good work. That's more than the minimum. So get that into your system, into your habits. Is now if you say we're wrestling for, we're conditioning for 10 minutes, well, I'm gonna stay after and do five to 10 more.
[00:32:12] In education, this is really important. Stay after class. Don't just say, I didn't really get what the teacher said and then walk out. Ask the question later, write it down, shoot an email, actually ask deeper questions, get to the bother, understand the why and not just the formula that you're supposed to memorize. And then teach others and your friends and your study groups and see if you can mirror back the type of information the instructor or professor is giving. That is big stuff. The teachers are going to see that, the teachers assistants are going to see that, the classmates are going to see that. And I've got, you know, I deal with a lot of youth and young people. There's one in graduate school right now that is doing just that. That and her. The whole class is starting to flock to her because she's the one that's doing the extra. And she's even starting to teach them how to make their own note cards and do this stuff. And also I'm coaching on the business side of things also. Like, don't let them be your easy button. Right? Don't let them just ride on your coattails and don't be their easy button. Teach them where to find the answers, teach them how you study, teach them how you pay attention, how you get more out of the professor. And that makes a big difference. Difference. My son has been very successful, my daughter has been very successful with that. Inside of school, when there's something weird going on with the teacher, I said, just email the teacher. I don't need to take care of it. You can CC me on the email. But you go out, you ask the questions, you express your concern. I'm confused because.
[00:33:29] And they're going to take care of you.
[00:33:31] 99% of 99.9% of all people are Good people are going to want to help somebody when asked for help. And then make sure you have some sustainability, okay? And that requires purpose. Doing more isn't just about, like, how I'm going to get burnt out, but it's going to be tied to meaning. You have to remind yourself of your vision, your why? Why am I doing more than the next person? It's because, boom, I have this vision, I have this purpose, and this is the person I'm going to be. That better version of myself I see in the future is requiring this extra effort today.
[00:34:05] And on a negative side of things, too. Not just failing to do more than the minimum, but skipping workouts or skipping a day at the office or skipping a meeting or whatever it may be.
[00:34:16] There's a really big poster in the police academy here in Richmond, Kentucky. And that police academy has a big, buff, super thick guy. You know, he's big, strong guy, and he's on a squat rack in his full orange prison jumpsuit. He's got his numbers across and he's squatting some, just, like, unimaginable amount of weight. And it says, this guy hasn't skipped a workout in 10 to 20 years. Have you? Well, this guy is doing more than the minimum because one day when he gets out, he decides to be a criminal again. It's gonna be real hard to stop him. So you, the officer, are you doing what you're supposed to do? Are you doing more than the minimum so that you can handle the baddest of the bad when it happens? Are you the leader doing more than the minimum so that when, not if, when crisis comes to your door? You can lead with confidence, you can lead with ability, you can lead with moves, you can lead with the basics that are mastered. Can you do that? Because then everyone will rally behind you, you'll save the ship from sinking, and you'll be the leader you're supposed to be. That is important.
[00:35:17] Always do more than this is the minimum. Somebody asks something from you, your brain should internally say, this is the minimum. I can do more. Go do more. So what's one area of your life where you're accepted of just doing the minimum?
[00:35:33] And what would above and beyond look like?
[00:35:35] Start that today, write it down and challenge yourself. And we'll be right back after these messages for the final segment of the night with more pivotal change.
[00:36:17] Welcome back for the final segment of the night on this episode of Pivotal Change. Now, I know you love what you're watching and you want to find more pivotal change. Maybe you just learned about the show and you want to go find all of those episodes from the past.
[00:36:29] Well, all you have to do is download the Now Media TV app or you can go to www.nowmedia.tv. the cool part is these are aired live this show at 5pm Central Time on Thursdays or you can just go Download it on Now Media TV at the Roku and iOS is where you can find that you get instant access to all of the whole entire full lineup. And it's bilingual English and Spanish. You can get it whichever way you prefer.
[00:36:56] And you can catch a podcast version of the show as well. Just full audio and you don't have to stare at the screen. If you want to take a long road trip and just knock out and binge on some episodes. So feel free to go download not only pivotal change, but all of the other business and culture and lifestyle and everything in between. You can find it on now media streaming 24. 7.
[00:37:16] So if we want to continue this conversation on what it is to become basic to elite, we have to get into our year four or our phase four. So year one, master the basics. Year two, start playing chess, not checkers. And we just got done talking about year three. This is the minimum. Anytime you know there's a job that needs to be done, there's a project ahead of you. You need to get reps or assignments or growth or development, whatever that is. Guess what? This is the minimum and you're going to do more.
[00:37:48] That's the fun part of how you can grow and become a better person.
[00:37:51] So now we want to be elite in all things. And if you guys could ever see how I write this out, all is like capitalized or underlined because it's much more about wrestling. It's about true excellence. And true excellence is holistic speaking. It is a lifestyle. It's not just some event. I ran a race and had an excellent performance, right? All of the stuff that went into that to execute on race day or on the tournament day or in the business meeting or the closing of the corporate deal, everything that went into that was a lifestyle. Elite performers don't just compartmentalize their success, they live it consistently. So we're going to talk about a couple of different things. By the time a senior gets to like their junior and senior year and they've got several years under the belt, hopefully they've been wrestling since they were a kid. But let's say they start in middle school, which is super common. By the time their senior year comes around or the junior year, every Detail matters. The nutrition, the recovery, the mindset, the extra workouts, the habits they've built in life, the sleep schedules, the diets, etc. Etc.
[00:38:57] Far too many times I have seen an elite level wrestler go out there and wrestle another elite guy and he loses with 20, 30 seconds left on the match. He just gases out, the guy gets the final takedown, beats him back by points. The whistle blows, the matches over and you lost somebody that you were beating to and oh, coach, I just gassed out. Oh, I just didn't have it in me. I just, I just wasn't feeling my best. Let them catch their breath a little while later. I say, hey, what did you eat last night? What did you do before you went to bed? Or what time did you go to bed? Oh, hey, didn't you skip practice on Wednesday to take your girlfriend out on a date? Oh, okay, gotcha. And for me it's a very simple formula to understand why that last little effect went in there.
[00:39:39] One of the biggest pleasures I've had recently about being educated is I'm pretty big into the diet performance and basically I exercise and work out so that I can eat. So I don't have the cleanest diet. It's pretty clean. I just eat a lot of it is my problem.
[00:39:53] But going to the Olympic Training Academy in the Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs and getting the elite performance nutrition, it's about a two, two and a half hour presentation and the science and the data and the timing of what you're supposed to do before workout after workout rest details, loading the week or two out on these basic minerals and vitamins and things like that and these gel packs and all this kind of stuff gives you that 1% edge, that 1% edge. And when you're trying to become elite, 1% is a huge gap from the next category.
[00:40:29] So you gotta dial that in in leadership, elite leadership consistency. And you know how I like to do things in like threes and fives and stuff like that. So think about this, leaders, how's your faith, how's your family, how's your fitness and how is your focus on making things a priority? And oh, how's your follow through on all of those things? So if you can get those five Fs in there, your faith, your family, your fitness, your focus and your follow through, then you're going to have a lot that you can do in your business. You're going to have a lot that you can do on your sports teams or your communities or at your churches or at your various Organizations that you support.
[00:41:07] Excellence is not accidental. Please write that down. Excellence is not accidental. It is the result of systems. It is a result of accountability. It is the recall, the result of intention and purpose and the consistency to stick to those systems, to hold yourself and others accountable and to be intentional with every movement through the long term versus short term planning. The small details absolutely compound. James clear does another wonderful percent example of what just making a 1% change or improvement every day does for a year versus staying the same, getting 2% this day, minus one here. Oh, he does a great job. So I recommend looking into that, that. But everything matters. So you've heard me talk about the sleep, the diet. What about the preparation, like the mental preparation? Did you visualize, did you run through scenarios in your head?
[00:41:59] Are you in good spiritual health right now? You know, where you're not clouded, you're not frustrated, you're not angry. Are your relationships in place? Are they order where they're supposed to be? Heaven forbid I go try to close the business, the biggest business deal of my life, and I'm sitting over here arguing, walking, arguing with my wife and, and walking through arguments and stuff like that because my head's not clear. You think I'm going to perform in that business meeting? You think I'm going to perform on the wrestling mat? You think I'm going to be able to stand up and give a speech? No, I'm going to have head fog because my relationships aren't right. So all of those influences are basing on your or helping the performance get the result that it needs. In business, the elite companies, the professionals, they're very predictable. They wake up at the same time every day. They get their workout in the same time every day. Even when they travel, they have a plan to get the most consistent version out of their travel. So excellence is always consistent. Every client, every project is going to be done just right. We're not just cutting the corners here and only focusing on the big guys. We're not just, you know, letting this one slide and making an exception. Because too many exceptions means that's the actual culture in the rule.
[00:43:05] So character is going to be your competitive advantage. Character is who you are when nobody's looking. So when nobody's looking, you're constantly going back to the basics and mastering them.
[00:43:15] When you're going to learn how to train your movements and your systems and you're reviewing your system and you're going back and refining your system, that's character. That's what you do in your head. That's what you do in your offside. That's when you're driving home from work or, or back and forth from, from an activity or hanging out with friends. You're running through that in your mind.
[00:43:34] You can't, you can't fake elite, okay? Those people have a competitive advantage because they do those things. They got years of compounding habits, compounding the humility to say, I don't know it all and I'm going back to the basics and I can learn something from everybody. You may be a more accomplished business person, a more accomplished wrestler, but somebody else enters your life and says, oh, I got this little tip or trick, and you're humble enough to say, wow, that was cool, I'm going to try that. And ultimately you got to have the hunger, the passion. And the hunger. And the passion isn't something that's just inherent inside of you. Otherwise everybody just get up off the couch and do something awesome. The hunger is fed through success, through these victories, through these wins and stuff like that. And that makes you more hungry, more hungry, more hungry. And you want to desire that more. Excellent approach. And you see the results and the impact it has on other people in your life. If you're excellent, you have more opportunities to make other people excellent and impact them and help them and to get full integration out of this to be like who you are on the mat, you're actually the same person at home. Home, you're the same person in your team meetings or your client meetings, you're the same person in church, you're the same person everywhere. And what you need to do is in order to maintain an upgrade being that same person, you have to start getting elite with your friendships and your relationships. Okay? By now I'm sure everyone has heard on the Internet that you know the five friends. If you have five friends that are, you know, party drunkard, whatever, you'll be the six, right? If you have five friends that are business minded and educated and working hard to improve themselves, you'll be the fifth. If you have five friends, four friends that are highly fit and all focused on exercise and stuff, well, you'll be the fifth. So elite friendships.
[00:45:16] And then you can be the same person on the mat at home. You can't be this hard worker at the mat and then not put in the effort with your family, not put in the effort with school. Elite and all things, okay? Elite people, they don't chase balance.
[00:45:29] Balance, guys, it's kind of a myth. It's kind of this image that's been twisted you want. Alignment and harmony is everything you're doing. Align with the core person you are. Your core values should be defined and they should be displayed in an excellent and elite way at home, in the meetings, at church, on the mat, wherever it is that you go.
[00:45:51] So what would you do in Elite in All Things? Like, how would that look for you in this next season of your life? What is it you have to do and change and ultimately sustain to make sure that you are elite in all things?
[00:46:08] That is my challenge. Because once you become elite in all things, you have a much better chance of going out into the world and then seeing the change and being the change. And that's what we're trying to do here on Pivotal Change. We'll catch you the same time next week. Week.
[00:46:24] Tune in for more and go out there and be elite.
