Launch Workshop Module 3 - Afternoon Course [8.5.2020]

Background, which I was not pleased with, with.

Banner and stickers.

Like the look. Like the look. Everybody's got a much better look.

How quick it got there. Pretty quick too, didn't it?

Yeah. I could have had it overnight if I really wanted it.

That's fantastic. Well done.

Love it.

We'll be getting to backgrounds in a little bit.

But let's first dive in with a quick recap of what we covered in module one and module two. So think about it. Here's what we've learned so far. Who you are, your brand, what's important to you, your priorities. And today, when we dive in, we're going to talk about how to communicate that in the most effective way in the remote world. And look, Mark.

Yeah, quick recap, guys. Just remember the goal to the perfect 24 hours is starting your day off right, putting your mindset in the right place, thinking about the things you're grateful for and getting that. Whether that's the reading, the journaling, the exercising in or a combination of all of them, it's taking control of your day right out of the gate. Then when you dive into the day, focus on those three priorities. But most importantly, make the first priority the first thing you do. Because if the rest of the day goes, you know where you still got your most important thing done. And then wrapping up the day, remember, we look back, celebrate the wins. We got to enjoy the journey here. And then we look forward to the next day, look at our list of activities we gotta do, game frame it, and then figure out what our top three priorities are. So here's what I wanna do right now. I'm gonna go through each, pick on each one and if you got answer two questions. Number one, what was any. What was the one or two insights you gleaned from last week's module? Cause I know time management was a big thing for many of you. And then a quick recap of your top three personal or top three or four personal professional priorities. So, Sean, why don't we start with you? Any insights from last week? And then what are your top three personal and professional priorities?

Yeah, the first insight was forget the cold showers. That just doesn't work for me.

That was that credit. You're fine.

My second insight was that really going to have a tough time.

Focusing on myself. First. I did not this week get up and do my 3Ds upon starting my day, I got out and started exercising. And the whole time I was out there, all I could think about was what was I missing? And I wasn't capturing that. So I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to work on that a little bit because I've just been ingrained to focus. And you know, after 30 years as a consultant, I want to be very responsive to my clients very quickly and I don't want to miss anything. So I'm gonna have to work on that really to figure out how I can keep my professional goals out of getting in way. In the way of my personal goals.

Yep, that's an easy thing, easy thing to let happen. And for everybody on the call, you gotta have patience and a little grace for yourself. If you're not used to doing it that way, you can't go cold turkey and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you're completely focused on yourself before you start the day. Just it's patience, it takes time. So what would you say right now, Sean, again, a quick recap of your top three personal and professional priorities?

Well, personal is just is exercise. I'm going to move that up to the front of the day and really get started. Make sure I get that done. That is the one thing that I allow to slip out of my schedule, have been replaced with other things. And the other thing is I've got to figure out a way to.

Prioritize. I don't want to say that others control my time. I know that's something that we have talked about. But for example, I've gone into this week, we've got a big meeting coming up with cms. They want to talk to several of my members about how they're handling the opioid crisis underneath the COVID crisis. So I've been prepping for that, identifying members to participate, et cetera. But yet then I email from a member who just got a letter from several senators who want, you know, specific information on something completely different that needs to be addressed in a timely manner. So it's one of these things I just don't feel like I can delegate. It's at a high enough level with a high. With an important member that I feel like I have to jump into it and it completely displaces my goals for the day or for the week.

Yep.

A quick, a very quick response to that. When you get those type of emails or text messages or voicemails, a quick response to that individual saying, hey, I'm working on this right now. If I get this to you by X, is that okay? They're either gonna say yes or no. And now you get to, you get to take Some control back and say, okay, I'll do it. Cause I have to do it, but I know I have all day or whatever to get it back to them versus thinking it's urgent and you've got to drop everything to get it. Get it to them right away.

That is more or less how I handled it. I did reply that, you know, at first review, this is what I'm seeing and that, you know, I do some more digging and get back to them, but good.

Awesome, awesome. Trevor, how about you.

Turn your mic on?

There we go. Just personal and professional insights.

Yep. Just insights from last week. And then one. Maybe we'll just go your top personal priority right now and your top professional.

Yeah, I think top personal one came out on top. Spending more time with my wife, which is a good thing.

And then the one that came in on top on professional was planning and setting goals for 2021.

Cool, good, cool. Steve, how about you?

Any breakthroughs from last week or any like aha's?

You can hear me, right?

Yeah. Yep.

Okay, perfect. I mean, so for me, personal and professional is definitely time management that I need to do a better job of.

I'm still struggling with starting my morning off in the right, like, way as far as, like not looking at my phone, what's going on Twitter, you know, what catastrophe is happening first thing in the morning.

I would like to focus, like instead start reading like a book in the morning. Just start my morning instead of good, you know, all the terrible things that are happening.

Awesome. What about professionally? What's your number one priority right now?

Still? I would stick with time management too. Professionally, definitely something I need help with and work on.

Is it more or less because you're playing multiple roles within the company? You own it. You're also, you know, as we talked about, producer, manager, leader. Is it balancing those roles throughout the week?

Yes. I mean, every day is different here. I mean, there's something. Something happens, something breaks. It's, you know, customer issue. You know, it's everything.

You are definitely in an industry where every day is an adventure, right? Yes. And it's fast moving and things are happening and when something breaks, it's, oh, crap, we got to fix it now. So, yeah, you have that added task or that added pressure there. But.

Time management is something that I think you want to definitely focus on and we're going to keep working on that as well, so.

And Steve, one thing that could help you is take small steps in that direction because of the nature of your business and that it is a crisis oriented business. And there's always going to be things that disrupt your calendar. Take advantage of the opening of your day where the person you can most effectively lead is yourself. Well, you said you want to read instead of jump right on Twitter. So, look, that's muscle memory. You're going to have to shift a little bit. So use the old reward system of.

Start simple. Start with, I want to read one page today of something that makes me feel good when I do that. Then I'll let myself check Twitter. If you do that, just a small incremental step, within a couple of weeks, you'll be reading four and five pages, and you'll be less inclined to check Twitter first. And all of a sudden, you'll. Over a short period of time, by the fourth quarter, you will have carved out that little space where you lead yourself, and that's going to fill you with the energy you need to start handling the crises that are coming your way.

And, Steve, do you use your phone to wake up in the morning with an alarm?

I say if you don't literally put your phone in a drawer or something so it's almost. You can't see it when you wake up. But most of us use our phone as an alarm nowadays. So, yeah, I would say the simple tip is turn the sound off for sure. So there's no dings and pings in the morning. And I just simply take my phone and turn it upside down so I can't even. I can't even. Even if I look at it, all I see is the bottom of the phone. I know that sounds like it wouldn't do anything, but if you do that over time, it actually trains you to just keep doing what you're doing, focus on something else.

And, Steve, put your phone on the book you want to read. So when you wake up, it's right there in front of your face. To remind you, just read one page tomorrow. Read one page.

Okay.

And then build from there.

That's actually a really good piece of advice, Jerry. So. And this is for anybody with morning habits and rituals. Steve, if you were to read a book, is there a certain spot in your house you'd read?

Not particularly. Could be just in my room or.

Okay, if there is a spot or you know where you're going to probably read, put the book there before you go to bed, okay? Make it. It's just like I tell people with exercise. If you're struggling to get up and exercise in the morning, literally set your clothes out that you're going to exercise with the night before and put them right on the. On your. On your dresser or whatever, where it's just easy to grab them and put them on. Same thing with a book if you want to start reading in the morning. Like, I've got a chair. I read in, put the book on the coffee table right next to the chair just to make it super easy for you to start doing it. Because literally, as small as it sounds, you having to, say, go in the bedroom to grab the book, and then you go downstairs, and that simple thing might cause you not to do it.

Makes sense.

Awesome.

All right, Katie.

Hey.

Good advice, and I couldn't agree more. I set things up the night before for my morning routine as well, and that helps a lot. My insights are. Well, my first insight was that I was doing pretty well with my personal. My personal goals. Spending time in the morning, doing what I want to do, putting my phone aside, and then spending time in the evening with my husband and my kids. So I feel like personal was strong. It was the business area that I. Where I really struggled to prioritize and think strategically. So I did the weekly plan right after the call or shortly after the call and came up with my list. And then the video that Jerry said, talking about the looking at your quarterly goals, your annual goals, it actually changed my order of what I had planned for the week. So that was kind of a big aha. That I wasn't thinking far enough ahead. And so that was a big breakthrough. And my priority, I actually made doing this work, the strategic planning in my business context work, the priority this week.

Awesome. Excellent. A great tip there, Katie. And it's a good spin off of Jerry's video, is one of the best things everybody on this call could do right now, because we're at a little past the second half of the year. Look at what your goal is for December 31st. What is that ideal goal? And then reverse engineer the goal all the way back to today. So if you got a goal for the 31st or the end of the year, where do you have to be at the end of this quarter, at the end of September? Where do you have to be at the end of August to make that. Where do you have to be at the end of the week and all the way back to? Okay, what do I need to do today so that I hit my weekly goal, I hit my monthly goal, I hit my quarterly goal, I hit my semiannual goal, Just constantly reverse engineer.

That's what I did. And that was a big eye opener.

Yep. Yeah. Most people go the Other way.

Yeah.

And then they look up at the big goal and it looks so far away. They're like, oh my God, I'm never going to get there. Reverse engineer it down to the smallest domino. You need to make it happen.

So, Greg, how about you? I know you weren't, you've been unable to make the last couple calls, but were you able to do the homework from call two?

You know what? I have and it's kind of funny, I feel like the kids, starting in the spring semester, I feel, but only through YouTube. So. Yeah. So for personal goals.

I'd say I've got that pretty well locked down. Kind of like Katie, I spend time with my wife. I could probably use a little more exercise, but spend time with the kids.

I think the only thing on the professional side that I might bump up would be I'm a little jealous of everybody's morning routine compared to mine, it's not as intense, you know, it's kind of get everybody ready for the morning. I guess I'm the quarterback of the family when it comes to that. I get everybody's lunches ready, get the vitamins laid out, get the dog out, make sure everybody's fed.

And then it's right to my. I guess I don't take a little time to just slow down and take a breath. My calendar, what's on my personal calendar, I look at my professional calendar, check email, see if anything. Our parent company is in Europe. So what happened over the course of the evening and early morning? I should probably. That's one aha moment I had from the last session was just, I should probably just push this off, push that kind of stuff off until later in the morning.

And even if you just buy yourself 15 minutes, Greg, to start, what happens is you start with a leadership activity, leading yourself, which positions you to be a better leader throughout the course of the day, the week, the month and the year instead of. And look, life calls on us to get the kids, the dog, the job, the email. Understandable. But if you start with those things, you're starting with producer and manager work and you never get out of the weeds to be a leader. So even if you just got to back the start of Your day at 15 minutes or another way to do it because I've been dog sitting my son's dog for the past week and I love going out for a walk with a dog, with a cup of coffee. Take the dog out for a half an hour, walk with your coffee and just use that as your think time.

Yep.

Well, and Another little tip there too is you said you're responsible for, you know, lunch, getting the dog ready and all that stuff. Some of that stuff you have to do in the moment, but even maybe something as simple as packing the lunches the night before, putting them in the refrigerator, that buys you extra time in the morning.

Yeah, extra 10 minutes. Yeah. But it's just shifting some of these parts of my routine one way or the other.

And as we've been talking about, give yourself grace and patience. It doesn't happen overnight by any means.

No.

Small steps in the right direction lead to huge gains over time because as you've seen, most people don't make those steps and they wait to try to make some giant leap. And quite frankly, you can't make the giant leap because life really is a function of small steps, big process. So you now know who you are, you know what your brand is, you know where you're strong and you're weak in terms of reinforcing that brand and your overall communication. Today we're going to talk about specifically communicating in this two dimensional space, this remote workspace. And you'll see that it's a little different than what we have seen in terms of in room communication, but it's a powerful way to reinforce your brand because this technology enables you to literally reach people around the world. You're no longer limited by the hours of a day, how long it takes to Drive to Washington D.C. or Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You can be in Washington in the morning, Milwaukee in the afternoon, and Los Angeles in the evening. And never leave your home office, all the while reinforcing your brand. So as we go through our session today, I want each of you to take the time to reconnect with your core four and to have that with you because I'm going to keep pushing you back to your core four today. As we go through everything we do today, start by folding your arms across your chest.

Did you notice how nobody asked me for instructions? Nobody pursued options. You all defaulted to the way you have done this one exercise your entire life. Notice which arm is on top and which arms on bottom. Now reverse the order.

How's that second way feel.

Sean? You look positively bemused.

It's hard to get your head wrapped around right. What I just introduced you to is the feeling of change. And I want you to notice where change registers. It registers right in your gut and then in your brain. And if you'll notice that the second way, you actually got away from the second way pretty quickly, the first way you would have Sat there the entire time we're together today with your arms folded the second way. I noticed everybody got rid of it without me saying, unfold your arms. And that's the mistake we make in order to improve in anything, whether it's our understanding of our brand, our integrating our priorities into our schedule, or becoming more effective communicators, we have to pass through the process of change and we have to recognize how uncomfortable change feels. And then all we have to do is the opposite of what we've done most of our life. You just did what most people do. You got away from the feeling of change. Instead, starting today, I want you to lean into that. Take that as a signal of, okay, here's an opportunity to improve on something and lean into the change. See, change is one of those things that once we become comfortable with that feeling of uncomfortable, we can move through it very quickly. If you fold your arms the second way once an hour throughout the business day, by the end of the month, the second way will feel as comfortable as the first way and you will have doubled your skill set. I can't imagine how doubling your arm folding skill set is going to help your career. But imagine if you double your communication skill set, how much that's going to help your career, your business, even your life. That's what we're setting out to do today. In order to get there, you're going to have to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. I'm going to explain a concept to you I call the Zen of the digital world. It will also help you understand why we feel so fatigued on zoom when we're on it too much. This is a key principle we're going to reinforce on camera and on brand. Now that you're comfortable with your brand, I'm going to show you how to take that brand on camera where you're not necessarily comfortable and still convey and reinforce that brand. And then finally, the mechanics of the medium, from the look to the lighting, all the little tricks of the trade that help you look your very best when you have to look your very best in front of your clients, your prospect and the marketplace, so that when they see you, they see you on brand first time and every time. So, quick show of hand. Who has had some challenges in this two dimensional medium? On zoom, who has felt uncomfortable at times? Let me just see a show of hands.

Great.

Shaun, go ahead and unmute. Everybody. Unmute. Shawn, what would you say your big challenges are in this space?

Well, I just noticed, like, my glasses are reflective. I can't.

Can't pick my nose when people are watching. And you know, when I'm on the phone, just, you know, sometimes a hair is not good. You know, I think when we started this, I'll note several of us were wearing ball caps and, you know, our scrubby clothes. I think we've all kind of, you know, gone to the button up shirts and the collars and actually washed our hair. I haven't seen a ball cap since the first meet. So, you know, few things like that.

Good. Trev, how about you?

It's a tough one, Jerry. I think.

I feel pretty comfortable in front of the camera. I think my message may not come.

Across.

As well as it does in person.

I think that's just having, having the three dimensional, you know, connection I think is a struggle for me. Eye contact, we'll get into that. That's very big. And once you learn the art of eye contact on camera, it's very powerful. And you can control the whole room, whether the whole room is 6, 600, 6,000 people or one person, because it's all the same thing. And you'll find after we go through today that it is a skill set that's actually pretty easy to adapt.

Trevor, do you sell over Zoom virtual?

No, I'm talking to my employees and.

Some, because if anybody, for anybody who might be selling via virtual and via zoom, I've talked to a lot of people, sales professionals who are struggling with that because they don't feel like they're connecting with their prospects as easily, as easily as they would if they're in the same room together. So that's something we're going to talk about today too.

Steve, how about you?

I don't have any issues.

I really don't know.

I don't really use, you know.

I don't, I don't use the program that often. Just maybe talk to friends every once in a while. But I don't really have any issues with it.

So after today, I hope you'll see the power of tapping into this and you might be able to start using it a lot more for business reasons. Everything from meeting with your team, interviewing job prospects, talking to industry peers, expanding your reach and your influence without having to literally leave your office.

Katie, how about you?

For me, it's when people are looking down while you're talking. So I facilitate a group and when one person's talking, other people are looking down. They might be taking notes or they might even just be reflecting on what that person's saying. But it's hard to read because it Looks like they could be checking their phone. I don't know. It's distracting to me, especially as a facilitator, to be comfortable with that and make that person who's speaking feel like everyone's actually paying attention to them.

Katie, did I just distract you?

Well, not while I was speaking. I was.

That. There's just that right there. Yeah, that's. So we'll talk about that. Because that's so different on Zoom than it is when you're in the conference room. Absolutely.

Yeah. Because we would all be maybe looking if someone was walking past the window, but in your home or wherever you are, it's. It just. It is. It's distracting.

All right, Greg, how about you?

You know, one of my. One of my core four is being more engaging. And I find this kind of communication a little more difficult to be engaging as opposed to being in a conference room. And I can walk the room, do my, you know, make my transitions. You can't transition when you're in front of a small little laptop camera, not to mention angle and lighting and all that stuff.

I'll show you a little bit how to do some of that, but it takes a lot more imagination on your part. So for Katie and Greg and anybody else who's had this, where you're used to it in room, you can read body language. You can kind of read the room. You can get the vibe, you can sense the energy. You can tell if you're hitting or not. Here's one of the TV tricks you learn early on when you work in television. And it'll sound arrogant at first. It's not. It's just kind of self preservation. Always presume you're killing it.

On television. Unlike Zoom, you don't even see a strip of people on television. It's you and a piece of plate glass. It's a square teleprompter. Sometimes there's words in there, sometimes there's not. It's just a piece of glass. And so if you're on air and you're cracking a joke, you literally have to imagine people laughing. And you have to presume they're laughing because the studio is empty. There's like two or three people in the whole studio. It's like talking in a giant closet. And the mistake we make is we're waiting for feedback. We need that reinforcement. So shift to a leadership position and presume you're doing your job very well because you're in touch with your brand. You know what that brand is. You're conveying that brand. Effectively much more so after today and presume people are getting it. And when you do that, all of a sudden your energy rises to a new level and they get it much better. And even though they're not there to give you the in person feedback, they get a great deal more out of it than you just waiting for the email or the call or the visual identification that you're doing a good job. That's what creates that uncomfortable pause. And the way to get around it is just presume you're hitting it. So you heard me use the phrase the Zen of the digital world. Because in the digital world you are on camera, it's important to recognize something you've already felt. The camera has energy. There's actual vibrational energy coming out of that camera lens. Whether that's a laptop camera lens that's right in front of you, whether that's an iPhone lens, whether that's a television studio camera or something in between on that spectrum. Every camera has actual energy that pushes against you. Part of the strength of that energy is from the expression. The camera never blinks. The camera just stares at you. And so you feel that after a while. And sometimes if you don't match the energy of the camera, it will push against you. And you'll find people doing this. They're pushing back and they're not connecting. I can always spot because people's chin comes up and their head comes back because they're succumbing to the energy. This is not a comfortable communication style. The other part of the balance, you want to find a balance, you have to meet the energy. If you overpower the energy, you get all up in somebody's cage. You have too much energy, you're too close. This will freak people out, wear them out. The art is to feel the energy from the camera.