[00:00:07.450] - Chris
Welcome back to the head, heart and Boots podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:00:10.870] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead.
[00:00:17.650] - Chris
Man, I love this industry.
[00:00:20.770] - Brandon
What's up, amigo?
[00:00:22.090] - Chris
Well, I feel like I'm getting back into the mode.
[00:00:24.550] - Brandon
I feel like this recording right now. So this is our first official show of 2024, technically, that we're recording right now.
[00:00:31.690] - Chris
It's New Year's Eve.
[00:00:32.640] - Brandon
It is new year's Eve, actually. We are literally recording this on New Year's Eve.
[00:00:36.020] - Chris
Hot damn.
[00:00:36.480] - Brandon
Feels a little bit like working out for the first time after 90 days. Yeah, or maybe longer.
[00:00:41.130] - Chris
No, it does.
[00:00:41.900] - Brandon
Little dusty little cobwebs.
[00:00:43.460] - Chris
It's been a hot minute since we've been behind the microphones.
[00:00:46.280] - Brandon
You sound a little stuffed up there, dude.
[00:00:48.130] - Chris
I am, man. I don't know what the deal is. I've been drinking bone broth and tea. Kind of pampering myself for the last couple of days, trying to get over.
[00:00:55.790] - Brandon
Whatever I've got going, trying to heal up.
[00:00:57.730] - Chris
You probably don't want to come any closer.
[00:00:59.150] - Brandon
We're not going to share mics, guys. No, let's leave it there. No, we were going to go a little different direction for our show today. You and I were in the cafe shooting the shit a little bit, and it was this idea of, hey, let's talk about our plans for this year. Plans being you and I's kind of different spin on New Year's resolution versus our vision for ourselves.
[00:01:21.140] - Chris
Yeah, I really, like, mean, you and I talk a lot about disciplines, but this idea of really visioneering, to borrow Rachel's.
[00:01:30.170] - Brandon
That's right.
[00:01:30.930] - Chris
Thinking more in terms of vision and then what disciplines maybe cascade down from that picture, that vision that we're.
[00:01:38.270] - Brandon
I hate the whole new year's resolution, but I'll complain about that in a minute. Before we get rolling, let's thank our sponsors, which, by the way, guys, we're getting all growns up here at DHHB. We've got a new sponsor that's going to be coming in Q one.
[00:01:52.740] - Chris
I came back from vacation and you're like, hey, by the way, I'm like, hell yeah.
[00:01:56.070] - Brandon
We got new partners, exciting partners in crime. So you guys will be hearing about them probably in the next maybe three or so episodes. They'll start popping on the radar. But to get us rolling, well, these.
[00:02:07.350] - Chris
Happen to be kind of longish term friends. It's just like super fun to see them. Come on.
[00:02:13.080] - Brandon
Yeah, I think that when we let the cat out of the bag with them here. In a few episodes, everybody would be like, yeah, duh. Surprised it took that long.
[00:02:19.720] - Chris
Exactly.
[00:02:20.330] - Brandon
Before we get going, let's talk about. I'm going to talk about liftify and like those guys. It's been a little while. I actually am having a little bit of relational withdraw from Zach. I haven't talked to him for multiple of weeks now.
[00:02:30.610] - Chris
Yeah, I was texting him the other.
[00:02:31.910] - Brandon
Day, time to catch up with close. But Liftify.com, as you guys know, not only have they been a long term sponsor of the show, but gosh, man, we just respect the heck out of Zach, the founder and of course, the team he's building over. You know, when we're talking about Liftify, at the end of the day, our digital currency, I don't think that we can give it enough attention. I think we often don't recognize the true long term legacy value of the impression that we're leaving. Ultimately, you know, the work that Liftify does to secure those five star reviews for us specifically and predominantly on that Google platform. What a game changer. It's a massive movement for us in terms of SEO, the street cred that we have. Obviously, we know that Google prioritizes their own platform. So when we're getting relevant and consistent five star reviews, there's just so much in our favor, especially for the spend, especially for the amount of energy that it requires. The return on those investments is literally a ten x opportunity for us and our businesses. So, liftify.com floodlight, check it out. Make sure that you guys do yourself a favor.
[00:03:36.170] - Brandon
Run a demo, see what they can do to absolutely lift. That is cheesy joke. Number of UNO for 2024. Anyways, Liftify.com floodlight, that's good.
[00:03:51.600] - Chris
Let's also talk about answer force. You've heard us ringing this bell for the last. How long have they been on now? Three or four months probably?
[00:03:58.080] - Brandon
Yeah, maybe a little longer.
[00:03:59.020] - Chris
But I think that the reason Brian and I are so excited about this is because having operated restoration companies, we realize just how important that call reception is to do a professional job of it. And yet, I think a lot of us get stuck in the groove of just forwarding our phones whenever our receptionist is away from the desk, whether they're at lunch or they're on maternity leave or whatever, phones just forward to a hunting system, right? And whoever picks up the phone answers it, titles the call intake. And unfortunately, we all know how the quality of that call intake suffers. Now, if you, as the owner, take that call, well, maybe you're going to apply the same level of focus and quality to that call. But let's face it, right? We're all busy doing things. And when our desk phone rings because the receptionist is out to lunch, are we going to give that inbound call the attention it deserves? I think often the answer is no, it's impossible. Right? And so answer force can really fill that gap. They can do it on a consistent, cost effective basis. They've got a great technology backbone.
[00:04:58.980] - Chris
Makes it really easy to turn it on, turn it off, ramp it up during, say, a storm situation, or like the example of your receptionist being out on maternity leave, turn it on, utilize answer force, and then when the receptionist is back, dial back the usage of answer force. It's very flexible and it's why Brandon and I are big fans. Plus, we've had a lot of interactions with the team and we found them to be really credible, really thoughtful about their customer relationships. The one time I mentioned it before that we got some neutral negative feedback, they were very quick to take ownership and explain why that happened. It was years ago. Here's what's changed. We took some specific steps to switch this thing in our process and we're like, man, how much more can you ask for?
[00:05:45.460] - Brandon
That's what you want.
[00:05:46.430] - Chris
There are no perfect service companies, but how they respond, we were really impressed, so it gave us a lot of confidence. So, answerforce.com floodlight, your call intake partner, very cost effective too. And I think they told us this starter package is only $370. My gosh.
[00:06:04.680] - Brandon
Well, and I think the key incredible hit on is just that flexibility. Ramp it up and down however you need. There's no contract like in terms of you're going to spend this x dollars for this many months.
[00:06:12.580] - Chris
It's a really great resource.
[00:06:13.990] - Brandon
That's right.
[00:06:14.580] - Chris
And the last but not least, CNR magazine. We just renewed our advertising package with CNR and we're thrilled. There was no question marks about whether or not we were going to continue our partnership. CNR has helped us not only grow our podcast audience. Many of you learned about the podcast through CNR. We've had consulting clients that have come to us through things. They've seen our advertising and just, it's a no brainer for us as an industry vendor partner. So it's a tremendous opportunity there if you're looking for a great advertising partner. But then they also just have their ear to the mean. Michelle and her team are always scooping the biggest and best stories in our industry. So if you're trying to stay on top of what's happening in the restoration industry. There's no better publication to follow than CNR magazine. And so you want to make sure that you're not only registered on their website and you're getting their weekly newsletters, but you'll also want to make sure you're following Michelle Blevins on LinkedIn and you're also following CNR magazine on LinkedIn. So if you haven't subscribed, followed. You should. Yeah. It's an incredible resource.
[00:07:15.140] - Chris
She's an incredible friend to the industry. All right. Okay.
[00:07:19.280] - Brandon
So this is going to be kind of an interesting, we're going to do a little free flow, I think, on this, but here's kind of the tone I wanted to set, man. And sometimes I think people get absolutely just sick of hearing this. But you and I care about our physical fitness, right?
[00:07:32.340] - Chris
Sure.
[00:07:32.550] - Brandon
Just random. And part of that is new year resolutions. And I think I'm probably not alone that I had this moment over our Christmas break. We took where I was going a little off the rails in terms of personal business, bro.
[00:07:48.900] - Chris
I had more desserts in a ten day period than I probably had all year. Literally.
[00:07:55.530] - Brandon
You made up for twelve months, if.
[00:07:57.230] - Chris
I'm not counting as dessert, giant bags of dried mangoes, which I assaulted many times over the course of the year. But I'm talking like cakes, puddings, creme brulees. I mean, I really went ham. You went off on this vacation.
[00:08:12.920] - Brandon
I was kind of right behind you. It was wild. But I think the pressure with so many people right now is it's like, okay, January 2, I'm going to start getting into shape. And we all know, not only will the classes that you and I participate in be packed for the next 45 days, probably, right. We know that gym memberships just went through the roof. We know that their participation spikes. And the reality of it is that window of time that the majority of people who say, I am going to do x this year, it's gone within moments. Right?
[00:08:47.510] - Chris
Why is that?
[00:08:48.440] - Brandon
Oh, man, it's such a solid question. I have a theory, mainly from being that person my whole life. January starts with all these great ideas, intentions. And I think my challenge is in most cases, I'm trying to run from something versus for something. We've been there. Of course, we're not going to necessarily unpack that theory. But I think what that's moving me more in this direction of is this vision casting for myself, like, where am I going this year? And then are there behaviors or disciplines that that will require that I want to invest more priority or energy into. And I think that that's the way I'm going to really approach the launch of this year is more based on we have an intentional mission in front of us, we have some clarity around where we're going with our business. You and I are going to sit in a more of a team strategic session this coming week. The point is, we have a dot out on the horizon that you and I are chasing professionally, and you and I are openly having dialogs around what will that require personally, in order for us to be the best team members and the best leaders of this organization to accomplish that thing on the horizon?
[00:10:01.570] - Brandon
And I think that's where we're hanging. Right. And that's kind of the intention of the conversation today is, I think it would be fun to share some of those realizations that we have personally that that demand is going to require on us, and then how do we plan to kind of live that out versus it being a New Year's resolution? It's like, no, this is a state of being. This is something I'm committed to. And there's a bit of a theme for 2024. Right.
[00:10:25.770] - Chris
You know what's just flooding my brain right now as we're getting into this is some recent conversations and just observations that I've been making in myself over the break. So I told you, I was in an interview with one of our clients with a salesperson, and it was like a second interview. I think they'd had some internal interviews with this person already, and they were bringing me in as just another set of eyes and ears, right? And this guy was talking about his production at his current job this past year, and I asked him the question. I said, well, as you reflect on this year, what are two or three things that you might change or modulate in your activity or your approach or whatever to have a better year next year? It turned out to be a great interview question, and he gave really good answers and whatever. I came out of that interview thinking that same question the last couple of days. Yeah, that was Friday. I had that interview, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I've been asking myself that question. What kind of person do I need to be this next year in order to get what we want?
[00:11:28.570] - Chris
What kind of person, what kind of business partner do I need to be? What kind of leader do I need to be? What kind of podcast? What kind of all the things? Yeah. And here's just a funny little anecdote, okay? I talked about in a previous Friday live, I talked about how I feel like, if I'm honest with myself, I kind of lost my first love.
[00:11:47.120] - Brandon
You got to come into the screen there. I'm hanging out. You're, like, edging the screen.
[00:11:52.130] - Chris
I feel like I've lost my first love of reading. I've been a reader since I was a kid.
[00:11:57.690] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:11:58.120] - Chris
In fact, one early memory I have is I had this bed in my childhood room clear up until I was probably 14. And then I got this bunk bed with a futon thing on the bottom. But for, like, the first 14 years of my life, I had this bed with a set of built in drawers, but there was this cavity behind the drawers, and you could crawl back behind the drawer structure. And I would set up this clip light, and I had this, like, reading nook. It sounds super nerdy. I also a normal kid, but I would hide away in there, and I would take, like, snacks, like, box of cheesets and stuff. I'd read for hours. And I was social kid, too. But I read a lot, and I loved it. That's been true of a lot of my life. But I realized I've started reading from a much more utilitarian perspective now. I read to stay up. I read for the book club in different podcast episodes. Guests we have on, I'll read their books. It occurred to me I've not been reading for my own pleasure, but not just pleasure, but just like it used to be an important part of my life, reading.
[00:13:01.280] - Chris
And what's replaced it? This piece of shit.
[00:13:04.160] - Brandon
Yeah. For those of you that aren't watching, this is the phone getting held up, right?
[00:13:08.780] - Chris
And that's a little, whatever, harsh language, right? When I think about this, it makes me a little bit angry with myself. I've been thinking a lot about that ever since I did that little live cast thing. I'm like, okay, now I've said it out loud in front of everybody that this is an issue. What am I going to do about it? How do I gain some control over that? And how do I cultivate discipline in that area to gain some control over how I use my devices? So I get up this morning, it's so embarrassing, right? It's like, this is shit that we're so self deceived. I get up, my wife and I are laying in bed talking, and I get up about 08:00 and my 15 year old is up. So as I walk through our kitchen, we have a sunroom, a full length sunroom off the back of our house, and a glance through the window out to the sunroom, and my son's there, and what's he doing? He's sitting in a dark room, just lounging on the couch, looking at his cell phone. And I walk out there, I'm like, dude, you're sitting out here.
[00:14:06.530] - Chris
You've been sitting out here for how long? Say he'd been up for like an hour. You've just been sitting on your phone the whole time. I don't remember. He made some wise ass remark back. And I was like, by watching you, I was like, all right, dude. And then you know what I catch myself doing at the island in the kitchen 15 minutes later? I go to my phone and I'm in my phone and I'm doing bullshit. I'm scrolling through my feed on Facebook. I'm toggling back and forth to my email account. I'm doing this whole, like, I realize I have these physical addictions to my devices where I can catch myself zoning out, just blowing time. It's a really big problem. And so that's one aspect of something. I've been trying to create some vision for myself of what kind of person do I want to be. I don't want to be the person that has my phone in my hand all the time. I don't want to be that person because I know there's an opportunity cost to that. Yeah. Part of it is my distractability is at an all time high, I think, in my life.
[00:15:08.600] - Chris
I really do. Partly because the complexity of yours and I's business and our team and everything else is increasing as time goes by.
[00:15:15.960] - Brandon
That's right.
[00:15:16.390] - Chris
And yet my discipline over my devices, it's a growing problem, actually. And so what does it look like for me to gain some control? And then what do I fill that void with?
[00:15:28.460] - Brandon
Yeah, that's interesting component right there, because I think it's kind of like digging a hole in the sand at the beach. You remove that material and it fills with water. I feel like if you pull that thing out, something's going to rush in to replace it if you're not intentional about it.
[00:15:46.260] - Chris
And I think one of the hardest things for me to suss out when I think about my phone in particular is just, it feels good. There's part of it that I actually really enjoy. I follow some things on Facebook that really interests me legitimately. And so I think that oftentimes makes it more difficult to control. I can come up with these excuses or these justifications for my time on the phone. So, anyway, I've just been sorting through that and I think part of it, for me that I also realize I've gotten away from a little bit is my morning routine. It's not so much what the routine is. It's that I've just allowed myself to get back in a place of being a little bit sloppy. And when I think about just the connection to that behavior and my phone usage, there's just a sloppiness. Like, I fritter away my time. Yeah. Trying to be honest. So it just points to. And there's a lack of discipline that I think is keeping me from maximizing the things that I like doing and being in terms of what I really want. Yeah, I know who I want to be, the kind of person I want to be, but my behavior is often not congruent with that.
[00:16:59.580] - Chris
You know what I mean? It's misaligned.
[00:17:01.520] - Brandon
So I think you kind of tapped into two things, at least. This is kind of what I'm connecting with. One is, and you just hit it. You have established, or beginning to establish more clarity around who you want to be.
[00:17:11.660] - Chris
Yeah.
[00:17:11.930] - Brandon
And I think that's critical. I think it's really important, and I think it's a piece that we undervalue, and we overestimate how much time and energy we're giving it.
[00:17:20.490] - Chris
Right.
[00:17:20.670] - Brandon
It's a bad combo. So I think it's that. I think the other thing that you're recognizing is that it's drawing away from the things you really want to do. And I think that's another really important element. And maybe the opportunity this year is for people to kind of hone in on those two things, like get a better picture of what it is in 2024, or who, I should say, in 2024 you want to be. We can kind of unpack that, I think, a little bit more. But in addition to that, what is it that you feel yourself giving up or not being able to enjoy or participate in because you're not focused in or aligning behaviors with this, who you want to be. Here's the way I kind of was thinking about this myself, and then I actually had an opportunity within a short period of time to practice what I was preaching, which was kind of fun, and actually, my wife helped me with it. So over the break, I was thinking to myself, oh, gosh, things personally kind of fell apart for me in December. Like you and I's cadence, like most of the people listening to the show, it was full on balls to the walls, grab gears, and just do what is necessary to get her done.
[00:18:31.040] - Brandon
And I realized post in the moment it was less obvious. But you and I had many conversations that last four weeks of, wow, we are really ignoring some important people, some important relationships. We're disconnected from some of our core behaviors and functions. It was just kind of a rough ride getting through the end of the year.
[00:18:53.240] - Chris
But the bigger picture for me is.
[00:18:55.850] - Brandon
It was so exposing to what I give up. When I go into this mode of thinking, it's only for a period of time.
[00:19:04.270] - Chris
Okay?
[00:19:04.990] - Brandon
So what I'm trying to do in 2024 is remain convicted and focused on the fact that what you and I do is a marathon. And I can't look at the year as another year of I'm just going to put my head down and grind. I can't do that because inevitably, just like what happened in a very finite period of time, I'm going to begin pulling the rip cord and ejetising some core behaviors, attitudes, disciplines. Because in my mind, I think, you know what? It's no excuse. This year, I just got to be all about this. And ultimately what that does is compromises our ability to run the race. And I'm nervous about that. Like, I don't want to go into 2024 thinking to myself, it's a twelve year sprint.
[00:19:49.200] - Chris
Fuck that.
[00:19:50.170] - Brandon
This is another year that can be profoundly awesome and productive if I realize this is one lap in a long race and what am I going to do to conserve energy? Spend the energy wisely and make sure that I'm paying attention to every step I take to make sure it's as productive as possible. And here's a silly example of that, at least for me. This is my world. If I'm going to run a race that's a marathon, I can't put off some of the things that make me happy or bring me joy, thinking to myself, this is just one of those years where I just don't have time for that. Because then what I try to do is give my people and our business my leftovers instead of my abundance. And so an example came up. I have a trip, a day trip one night and a day planned with my buddy to go near the umqua and go hunting. And it started out first because I've.
[00:20:42.580] - Chris
Taken the bow out for the first time, bro.
[00:20:44.270] - Brandon
So I committed to. I wasn't going to go until fall, but my budy called me. He's like, hey, I'm going to set up some cameras and I want to do some trail work. And I have my sportsman's pass. So he's going to have a Baron cougar tag. He's like, I might hunt while we're out, but he's basically prepping for this next season, and he's got an interesting tag that he can fill in March. It's like a cleanup tag. I don't know what the term is. Anyways, long story short, I wanted to go, and I said, yeah, I'm ready. I'll go. It's going to be awesome. Well, only a few days ago, stuff started to come in, and it started to wrestle with my calendar. And I immediately punted this trip with my friend and my wife, bless her soul, got on the phone with some family and said, look, we can't commit to this thing. It's not going to happen. Brandon's going to go hunting for the day with his friend, and I got back on track, and I am committed to going out in the woods and just being with my friend, being in the dirt, being aware of my surroundings and being in the moment.
[00:21:40.780] - Brandon
And I'm bringing my bow and we'll see what we can do. The point is that if I don't take that trip and I don't get that day, and I just chalk it up as 2024, I don't have time for that shit. Because I'm building our business. I won't have what it takes to build the business. I need that day in the woods, being completely consumed by the now, in the moment, breathing that air, being primal, healing. I need that time in order for me to give what I need to give. And so for me, if it was a new year's resolution, I don't think I would react or commit the same way. But because I go, this is a marathon, and I'm committed to having the energy and the bandwidth to run this marathon. It means, dude, this year I got to get away from time to time and do the things that fill my tank up. And if I don't prioritize that, I'm fucked. And I need to recognize that.
[00:22:37.140] - Chris
Yeah, dude, I don't think we talked about this enough, man. I mean, I went out to the woods yesterday just for like an hour. Yeah, maybe an hour and a half. Oh, it was just so cathartic. It's one of those things being out in the woods. It's one of those things that you don't even fully connect to what it's doing for you. There is something very restorative about purposelessness, of carving out that time to not have an agenda, but just to feel an experience.
[00:23:03.790] - Brandon
Yes.
[00:23:04.480] - Chris
And to just be. There's something really incredibly powerful about that, and I have a budy who just kind of turned me onto that several years ago. And it's just, wow, it's been a really huge thing in my life when I do it. But I really agree with you, man. And I find so much inspiration in what you're saying that all of us have the experience of kind of grinding our face off. And I think there's a lot of pride that we put in that.
[00:23:29.160] - Brandon
Sure.
[00:23:29.730] - Chris
And at the same time, when I look back and I look at those times where I was just kind of grinding and I was just letting go of certain disciplines or family connection or my connection with my wife in order to pour myself into the business or into this sales job or whatever, nothing got the best of me.
[00:23:49.600] - Brandon
Yeah, nothing did.
[00:23:50.880] - Chris
And I think the other reality that I'm starting to admit to myself is that there is plenty of time in the day for me to live out the vision I have for myself. Plenty. I just waste so much time. And that's not to say that looking at stuff on my phone is 100% bad. Of course. Yeah.
[00:24:11.470] - Brandon
Because most of that time, it's communication with people. It's responding.
[00:24:15.350] - Chris
Right. It's all the things. Not just Facebook, but it's like, I know the difference. I know when I'm mindlessly scrolling and I'm filling time, and a lot of times, too, if I really pay attention, I'm avoiding something.
[00:24:29.290] - Brandon
Okay, you just hit the vein, dude. You keep going.
[00:24:32.170] - Chris
I'm avoiding something. I'm not moving towards something. I'm avoiding something.
[00:24:37.880] - Brandon
There you go.
[00:24:38.660] - Chris
I'm numbing out. Right? And I've also noticed this, too, is that sometimes where this sets in is when I have a conflict with my wife. It's like, for whatever reason in the moment, if I'm not willing to dig in, in that conversation or whatever, my device or. I'm sure there's other examples in my life, but the phone is just so obvious to me right now, I can disappear. I'm really not proud of that. But I'm noticing this about myself, just how much I use my phone as an escape. Some people do it through alcohol. It doesn't happen to be my thing. In screen time, you can look inside your settings. How many pickups you have a day?
[00:25:14.960] - Brandon
Okay. Probably a nuts number.
[00:25:17.060] - Chris
It's disheartening, actually. When I look at it, it's clearly not motivational enough be looking at that data. But every time, I just think to myself, this is a colossal waste of my time. Most of it. All right.
[00:25:32.640] - Brandon
Headhart and boots, listeners wanted to stop here just a moment and thank our underwriting sponsor, bloodlight consulting group. As all of you, you know, Brandon and I, this is our passion project. Headhart and Boots is. But it's also a way more and more that our consulting clients find us and in effect, they interview us, right? Those of you been listening to show for a while, you get to know.
[00:25:54.530] - Chris
Who we are, right, what we're about.
[00:25:56.500] - Brandon
So if Headheart and Boots is valuable to you, one of the best things you can do is share it with your friends. And it's been incredible to watch just the audience grow. And we still get text messages from many of you about shows that you really like and impacted you.
[00:26:09.940] - Chris
So that's number one.
[00:26:10.940] - Brandon
And please keep doing that. Many of you have been huge advocates of the show. We also just want to remind you, too, if you're a restoration company owner and you're interested in a partner in your growth, you want some help building out systems, developing your leadership teams, helping set up the infrastructure for you to scale and grow into the company that you're trying to build.
[00:26:31.220] - Brandon
That's what we do.
[00:26:32.240] - Brandon
That's what we do is we come alongside restoration company leaders. We help equip them and we help support them in that growth trajectory. So if you're looking for that, go to floodlightgrp.com. Potentially, we could be a great match for each other.
[00:26:45.380] - Brandon
Another way that we really do serve our client base and our sphere of influence is through our premier partners. We work really hard to vet those folks that we believe bring a level of value to the industry, that it can really be leveraged in a way to have a sincere, positive impact on your business. We take that very seriously. The folks that we create, those kind of ongoing partnerships, that's not a check the box kind of scenario. We really see strategic alignment in the value that they bring. We see value in the way that their leadership teams and their partners are developed. And we've done very sincere work of ensuring that these folks that we introduce our clients and our sphere to can actually create vetted value. So go check out premier slash partners and see if there's some folks on there that you can connect with and begin developing some other resources to support your growth and your business. I think you tapped into something, though, Chris is. So, again, I think, you know, we kind of chalking up this episode as the anti New Year's resolution, right, but still get something of significance out of it.
[00:27:49.380] - Brandon
Vision for yourself, who do you want to be? And then identifying some behaviors that align or can get you to be able to live out that. But I think you just hit something on the head, dude. Is the numbing, the running from, the not doing the work on the shit that actually matters. And so an example for that, like, in my world, is doing the job building the business. It's easy for me to invest in that. It's easy for me to throw everything at that and kind of sacrifice all other things because it's easy for me to tell myself that that's valuable. It's principled, there's reason. It's mature, it's grown up. It's all the things. But I think you just hit it on its head is how often, though, am I pouring myself into those tasks? Not being committed to a bigger vision, not being committed to having a more balanced approach, an approach built for a marathon and not a sprint, is because I'm afraid to do that hard work.
[00:28:48.480] - Chris
Yes. And for me, the other thing that's been stirring in me is my dad's dying. Right.
[00:28:56.110] - Brandon
I don't know if we've talked about that on the show yet, dude.
[00:28:58.910] - Chris
Yeah. He's not dying today. And maybe he could be here for years. It doesn't seem likely. So he's got cancer, and da da. It's been stirring up all these thoughts and just the mortality, I think, that we all have and we all face. So it's been this really weird experience of processing, maybe not having my dad around for a ton longer and what all that means, but then it's also, at 43, it just feels that much more real that nothing's guaranteed. I think of this woman. Her name was Andrea Thornberry. She's a couple of years older than me. A couple of years ago, she's driving back from a meeting with a donor. She ran the local humane society here in our town, and she was, I think, coming back from Albany from a donor meeting or something like that and got sideswiped by a distracted driver and killed instantly, like 45 years old, left behind husband and kid. As you get older, you experience more and more of those things, and then, of course, when your family starts to get involved. So all that to say, I think the thing that feels so real to me that I have not given enough airtime to in my own vision is, what kind of life am I building right now?
[00:30:09.460] - Chris
It's possible I won't get to that ten year mark where everything, all the things come together. Right? Yeah, all those things. The whole picture of that vision for that to be realized. Well, what am I realizing right now?
[00:30:23.540] - Brandon
It's huge.
[00:30:24.260] - Chris
What kind of life am I creating between here and there? Because if I'm sacrificing everything today for what's tomorrow? What if tomorrow doesn't come?
[00:30:34.670] - Brandon
Yeah, man, that's an interesting question to ask yourself.
[00:30:37.790] - Chris
And what does that mean, as far as my relationship to my children and my family, like our family name and who we are and who we'll be ten years from now, what role does all that play? So it's like, I feel like that has to be part of my vision, is what kind of person do I want to be? Not just to achieve the business results and the top line and bottom line and the material things, but what am I going to build this next year? And one of the thoughts that I've had in terms of the vision that I've had for myself is I've gotten away from going out in the woods with my boys. One of my boys is 15, the other one's twelve. And this whole thing with my dad, it started to stir up, like, for a while there, I was going out every Saturday with them.
[00:31:20.960] - Brandon
Yeah, you were? Really?
[00:31:21.710] - Chris
We'd go out to the woods.
[00:31:22.640] - Brandon
Consistent.
[00:31:23.140] - Chris
Yeah. There's this place called Vineyard Mountain, just north, about five minutes from my house. And we go up there and it's about a mile up and a mile down. There's a radio tower at the top of this thing. And anyway, it was just like we would do these. We call them man runs.
[00:31:35.360] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:31:36.000] - Chris
And we just go as fast as we could up to the top, and then we'd jog down together. And it's special. Yeah. And do you know how many Saturdays since then I've killed by waking up slow, rolling my coffee in the morning while I've got this stupid thing in my hand, scanning the feeds. Ten minutes turns into off and on for 30 minutes turns into 45 minutes, then, whatever. I realize I probably should get a couple of loads of laundry done this weekend before the new week starts. And then now it's 11:00 on Saturday morning. No, man, run, no trip out to the woods of my kids. My boys are already sort of enmeshed in the video games and stuff that they often do in the winter and fall and on Saturdays, and it's just easier to leave them be. There's one Saturday that we didn't go to the woods. There's another Saturday we didn't go to the woods. That stuff is starting to add up. And I'm looking at this next year and I'm saying, man, I'm either going to do something about this or I'm not really that kind of person. I have to be honest with myself.
[00:32:35.270] - Chris
Right.
[00:32:35.760] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:32:36.370] - Chris
Either I care or I don't. Either I care to be the kind of dad that instigates and prioritizes that stuff, or I'm really just fooling myself, dude.
[00:32:47.790] - Brandon
Okay, so I'm going to go back just very briefly for all those listening that aren't into physical fitness and get sick of hearing about it. One of the things I've recognized about the physical fitness stuff is that I have yet to actually enjoy the most of the workouts. And certainly every minute that ticks, right up until the point I lift my first weight, I am talking myself into.
[00:33:12.180] - Chris
Going, oh, yeah, 100%. Even when we're doing that stretch warm.
[00:33:15.480] - Brandon
Up fix, the whole stretch warm up thing, I'm like, I hate this, and I kind of hate what we're about to do. But you know what's interesting about it is the feeling in it when you are doing it changes. I get a couple of sets in and it's go time and then the post experience that lasts until the next time I go into the gym.
[00:33:37.010] - Chris
And it's not just or maybe even physical? No. How do you feel about yourself?
[00:33:41.690] - Brandon
It's more mental and emotional. Yeah, it's almost 100% mental and emotional is what I'm experiencing. That really is amazing. Okay, here's my point with this. It's actually not the physical fitness part. It's the part where in this year and kind of in my journey period, I want to get better at fully understanding what actually fills me up. Because it doesn't often look like the thing I would think. Meaning there's probably very few people on the planet that love working out legitimately. I don't think there's very many, even the ones that are monsters, if you get to the nitty gritty, they actually don't love it. They love the result, period. Well, that being said, I think what I fall prey to often is I need a break. Saturday morning, I need a fucking break. We've worked our asses off the week prior, and if I'm going to do this long term, I need a break. Otherwise, I can't go 365 days straight. I just can't do it. But what I do is I end up doing things that in the moment feel like resting, that really aren't resting for me. And my thing is going to look different than yours, might look different than somebody listening to the show.
[00:34:56.000] - Brandon
It could be that a movie on a Saturday, mid afternoon for you is the thing that fills you back up and that's outstanding. What I often fall prey to is that not doing anything in quotes, getting caught up in entertainment and realizing I don't feel better, I don't feel rested, I don't feel energized somehow it actually made things worse. And so what? I want to be really diligent this year.
[00:35:20.740] - Chris
Again.
[00:35:21.100] - Brandon
I think this is kind of the bigger message here, right? Is it's don't get caught up in New Year's resolutions because to me New Year's resolutions look like I feel really fucking guilty for this thing I haven't done before or I wasn't doing consistently. And now I'm guilt tripping myself into conviction that I'm going to do this thing now. And I think that sucks. I think what we're alluding to here, or pointing people to, is getting better at asking ourselves the hard questions so that the energy, the disciplines, the behaviors, the things we invest in are actually doing what we need them to do. So for me, my rest can't look like, and maybe from time to time it's an Xbox or some movies, but I think the bigger picture is no, I need to be convicted on. What actually fills me up is getting out into the woods or actually doing a hard lift that day I got nothing else going on. Cool. Hang in the gym for a couple of hours, don't be in a hurry. Really isolate things, sit in the moment, whatever that I'm going to feel the impact from significantly more than this thing I've bought into, because I'm not listening to myself, I'm not asking myself hard questions, I'm not casting a vision for myself.
[00:36:34.240] - Brandon
I don't know where I'm going, I'm just reacting to shit around me. And when I get caught in that moment, I end up doing a lot of things that on the surface feels like taking a break. And in reality it's just drawing more from me. It makes me feel shittier for whatever that reason is. And again, it doesn't look the same as everybody else's. But the point this year, in 2024, start asking yourself those questions. What do I actually enjoy? What fills me up, what makes me feel like I'm taking a breath, I'm getting a grip, I'm able to reset. And don't worry about what it looks like for other people, whatever that thing is, invest in that and you'll probably end up receiving or experiencing something a lot closer to what you want this year.
[00:37:21.900] - Chris
Well, yes. And another thing that I'm just experiencing, a theme I guess that keeps coming up for me is there is something universal about doing hard things and that the most important things in my life that are the most restorative are really hard. Yeah. Like, you referenced this with working out, and I agree with you. It's funny because a lot of people around me, they see me as kind of like a fitness enthusiast. I don't even know what people think of me, but I do. I value it, I prioritize it. I have a pretty good discipline around fitness, but I feel exactly the same way. I'm almost never excited to go work out. Yeah, I get excited at times about what it does for me, but I'm just like anybody else. It's hard. It's hard for me to get up. I can't tell you how many mornings less so since you and I have started working out together because we just kind of plan it and it's like, I don't want to switch gears on you and likewise you with me. And so it's like we're doing it at 430 at the end of our day or, hey, we can't do it then, so we got to get up and let's meet at 630 or 530 in the morning and do it then.
[00:38:26.310] - Chris
And so that helps. It actually helps me a lot just to know somebody else is going to meet me there. But I can't tell you how many times prior to that that I was planning on going at the 05:30 a.m. And 05:00 a.m. Rolls around and I'm like, screw this. I'll look at my calendar. I'm like, oh, sweet, I have an opening later and then I'll just go later. How often I do that because I don't want to be there. I know I have to. But anyway, there is something important there that I want to explore this year about hard things. I think I've talked about it in a previous live or podcast. I've kind of gotten enamored a little bit with this cold plunge sauna. I've talked about the sauna. I'm sure people are irritated as fuck, but I got that Costco sauna and it really has been a great thing. And I think one of the things I like about it, too, is I'll have friends over occasionally and it helps pass the time when you're talking with people in the sauna. I'll forget. I'll be like 30 minutes. Holy cow, it's already done.
[00:39:20.690] - Chris
But I've felt a lot of benefit from that. But it's not pleasant. No, I don't actually get excited to go in the sauna. It's how it makes me feel after the fact and just how many things I'm starting to notice, like that cold plunge. Cold plunge. I really don't want to do. And what's funny, actually, my kids, our whole family's done it now. Kara did a cold plunge yesterday. Three minutes.
[00:39:42.430] - Brandon
Wow.
[00:39:43.050] - Chris
So on her first time, I have a lot of friends who've been dabbling in it, and some of them have gotten in in like 20 seconds. Oh, my gosh. This is so terrible. She hunkered down. It was amazing.
[00:39:53.950] - Brandon
She's not exactly a fat person.
[00:39:55.820] - Chris
No, she's not. She does not have. She's not a well insulated person.
[00:39:59.220] - Brandon
No, there is no extra.
[00:40:01.620] - Chris
Yeah. But, like, even my kids. So my boys have been doing it sporadically. And when they first did it, my middle son told me, he said, dad, I almost couldn't sleep last night thinking about doing the cold plunge. The next morning, he's like, I woke up without my alarm at like 430, feeling nervous about it. And I'm like, well, what do you make of that?
[00:40:21.670] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:40:22.260] - Chris
And I think it's those things that are difficult for us to do. We know there's a prize inside. There is just something about us hardwired as humans where when you intentionally do hard things, there is such a huge payoff on the other side. Every single time. Every single time. I could trace back my steps when I've taken hard jobs that I wasn't sure if I could handle it. I didn't know if I had what it mean. I could chart a path all through my life that some of the best decisions I made were the hardest. And part of what instigated that for me. I was really fortunate to have a great mentor and we weren't super close, but there's a period in my life this guy named Isaac Tolpin. Isaac Tolpin was a cutco manager. He's only three or four years older than me. That's the whole environment at Cutco is. Everybody's young. Yeah, he was very successful. And at like 28 years old, this dude was running an organization with like 4000 sales reps in the Pacific Northwest and like 15 managers that he led and developed across the whole northwest region. It was just unbelievable.
[00:41:21.490] - Chris
But one of the things he told me, he said, chris, really, the only advice I have is when you're faced with two choices, always pick the harder of the two. And, man, I haven't always lived that out, but I'm reminded of that here at year end, I'm looking back at what has worked this year for me and what's been meaningful. I think about my marriage with my wife. It's like almost everything good comes on the other side of hardship. Awkwardness. God, awkwardness is such a big part of it. Fear, discomfort. Yeah. It's like I could trace dang near everything good in my life back to those things. And yet I catch myself sitting on this thing, avoiding that stuff. Like, our forest runs. One of the things that deters me a lot of times. And my kids will complain about it. They should. They're twelve and 15 is often it's raining, especially here. Right. And so it's very easy for me to come up with excuses of, oh, shit, the trail is going to be muddy. We did this yesterday, and ultimately we put the boots on and we just went and, oh, man, the mossy forest floor, the soft.
[00:42:32.220] - Chris
I mean, it's just like there are so many things that when I finally got out in the woods, I'm like, oh, this deep sigh of relief that comes over me. And yet I was fighting it inside my mind. It's raining. It's supposed to be raining until after one. Maybe let's wait until after that. But then, of course, I knew that we probably wouldn't. You know what I mean?
[00:42:51.590] - Brandon
Oh, I get it.
[00:42:52.570] - Chris
Everything good in life is almost always on the other side of hardship, awkwardness, all that stuff. And yet, for some reason, right. It's so hard to keep that front center of the moment. Yeah.
[00:43:04.830] - Brandon
We avoid the discomfort over the result. I think maybe that's a decent place for us to kind of circle the wagons a bit and kind of draw this one to a close. So I think, guys, for Chris and I, kind of where our heads are, is we don't want to look at this year and start it on the back of guilt or a commitment to something, because something or someone else tells us that we need to prioritize that or add that to the list of new year resolutions. And I think what we want to do is we want to commit to doing the hard work of asking ourselves tough questions, getting into those dark spaces, and really seeing what's behind the scenes.
[00:43:42.540] - Chris
And just trying to practice noticing what I'm doing. Like catching yourself in the ax.
[00:43:48.080] - Brandon
That's right.
[00:43:48.700] - Chris
Yeah. Like that moment where I was at the kitchen table and I realized, oh.
[00:43:52.490] - Brandon
Shit, I'm just doing what I literally.
[00:43:55.300] - Chris
Am doing right now, 15 minutes later, what I just criticized my boy for.
[00:43:59.870] - Brandon
And I think, guys, I know for a lot of you listening to this, right? So it's staying on track, kind of with this idea of cast that vision for yourself. Ask yourself the tough questions. If it was up to you, what would that person look like? Who would they be? And then start looking at those things that we have been afraid to do or that we haven't prioritized. That really could be the game changer for you this year. I think Chris hit it. Something really important there is that avoidance component. Like, what is it that driving into work earlier and earlier is really causing you to miss? Not give attention to that really is monumentally important for your happiness, for your well being, for your success. Like our business owners that are just crushing their companies, they're just winning, dude. Many of them. Part of the reason they will grind the hours that they do is the things they go home to may not be as motivating as they'd like them to be. And so I think part of the opportunity for them is not only could you be experiencing this explosive business success, but what if that was built on top of a foundation of really solid relationships that started at home?
[00:45:11.570] - Brandon
So what would that require? What is it that you're avoiding potentially? What is it that you're not asking yourself the correct question to identify? And is there a way for you to incorporate more of that this year? And don't get caught up in a new year's resolution. Get caught up in a vision for yourself and starting aligning more of your behavior behind what it would take for you to live out and experience this vision that you have for yourself.
[00:45:34.700] - Chris
And what if you dedicated yourself to that? How much more? What could it mean for your business and all the other things you're doing? Right? I think all of us in general, are hungry for examples of people building and creating their life in a healthy, sustainable way. We just don't see it. We don't understand it. We've so glorified grinding our faces off for 30 years and then buying the rv and going off into the distance, giving our entire lives over to building wealth, only to die at 65 of a heart attack. It's like all of us have watched that game played out over and over and over again. And it's like, what kind of culture would you build in your company if you were modeling something different, something more holistic, something more healthy? Right? It's like, I think there's so much opportunity in it, and most of us just haven't ever seen it modeled. And we're going to have to figure it out ourselves. Right in a lot of cases. I think it comes back to that interview question, right? What are the two or three things that I need to do? You need to do change, to modulate, to shift.
[00:46:39.320] - Chris
What are the two or three things that I need to do differently or approach differently this next year in order to live out and be the person that I want to be, to create the life that I want. There we go, guys.
[00:46:50.840] - Brandon
Thanks for hanging with us. We'll see you on the next one. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of head, heart and boots.
[00:46:59.720] - Chris
And if you're enjoying the show or you love this episode, please hit follow. Formerly known as subscribe Tribe, write us a review or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.
