Ep 108 | How to Measure the Greatest Five Years of Your Life with Brian Gubernick

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about the most powerful question I know of that you can ask in a coaching or mentoring type of conversation. It's also one of the most powerful questions I think you could ask yourself as you plan for your future in business, in life, in relationships, in whatever it is that's important to you. So I'm going to outline this question for you. This is my experience in having an opportunity to work with and coach and train so many but also be the recipient of an awful lot of training and coaching and mentoring over my 20 or so year business career. And here's the question. Now there's a whole setup to it. Bear with me, but you'll get a crux or you'll get the understanding. You'll get the crux of the, of the, of the question here in a moment. Okay? So here's the way I do this here in Arizona. And this is going to sound super corny, but, but deal with it here in Scottsdale. There is a Costco. And at this Costco, every single time I go to this Costco, which is not all that often, but when I go there, I somehow managed to run into somebody that I haven't seen in years, even decades. Maybe it's someone from high school because I grew up here. Maybe it's even been people from elementary school. Sometimes it's someone I just haven't seen in a decade. You know, 10 years ago, I saw him at a Phoenix Suns game or something was the last time. And I run into the most random of people, again, people that I've crossed paths with over the course of my life, but I haven't seen in a long time. And when I bump into them, I almost always say, man, what have you been doing? Like, what's been going on? How's life? Or they ask that question of me. So I tell you that because when I ask this question, this coaching question, you'll know, you'll have the backstory to it because the way I ask this question is this way. I say to you, all right, Julie, imagine that for whatever reason, you and I, after today, we don't see each other for another 5 years, for whatever reason, right? Like we, we, we just go different directions and we don't see each other. And suddenly 5 years from today, it's, it's 2028. I'm at that Costco over there. On Hayden Road in North Scottsdale. It's where I run into everybody and I'm pushing around this giant cart and I'm walking my giant cart around Costco buying a bunch of stuff I don't really need. And who do I run into? It's you. And I say, Julie, oh my God, it's been so long. I haven't seen you since, gosh, was that 5 years ago at my office? And you say, and Julie says in this, this example, Yeah, it's been 5 years. And I say to Julie, I say, Julie, oh my gosh, how have the past 5 years been? And you say back to me, the past 5 years have been the greatest 5 years of my life. And I say, no way, that's absolutely amazing. That's so good to hear. Now here's the questions. Tell me, Julie, over the past 5 years, what has happened in your job? And Julie says, gosh, the past 5 years of my job have been absolutely amazing. And I say, that's awesome. So what has happened over the past 5 years since we met, since we last met in your job for you to tell me That it's the most amazing 5-year run you've ever had. Now, as the question asker, I just shut up. Now, Julie will tell me what's been going on, and I want her to, to be creative. Julie, no, no, no, not you just made a bunch of money. Tell me exactly what happened. Like, what was your experience? What contracts did you close? What direction did you take your, your job? Who did you meet? What experiences did you have in that job? Tell me more. I want to know why, why you're saying it's the best 5 years of your job. Tell me more. I let her go through that exercise, talking around her job. Great. Julie, tell me, when we last met, we were talking around your wealth. We were talking around your money. How have the past 5 years been in terms of your wealth creation and your money? And Julie says, Couldn't have been, can't be better. Like I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve over the past 5 years. And I said, Julie, tell me what happened over these past 5 years. Now, mind you, we're sitting in 2023 when I'm asking these questions. What's happened? It's 2028 now. Let's picture ourselves in 2028. What happened with your money for you to tell me the past 5 years with your wealth, with your money, are the best 5 years you've ever had? Where did you invest it? What did you acquire? What kind of cash flow have you created? What investment did you make that you never thought you were going to make? What doubled or tripled in value and caught you off guard? What makes your wealth and your money the best 5 years? Again, we're sitting here in 2023. I'm going to break script. Here I am sitting in 2023, and I'm asking this question to forecast out to 2028. What happened in your money? What happened in your wealth? Now I could ask this same exact question in all of these other areas. That I know are important to Julie. I went through job, I went through wealth. How about experiences? Julie, tell me about the past 5 years. I had the greatest experiences. No kidding. What did you do? And I want her to be, I want her to be creative. I want her to employ her 5 senses. I want me, I want her to tell me where she visited, what she ate, what experiences she had, who she met with, right? What were the travel excursions? What did she do that she never thought she'd do? And I could talk all around her experiences. I could talk about her travel. I could talk about her family. She says, the past 5 years of my family have been absolutely amazing. Now here we are sitting in 2023. What's happened in 20, you know, by 2028? I know her kids. I'd say, hey, last we met, your kids were, were 16 and 14. 5 years now. I want you to forecast. I want you to use your imagination. 21 and 20. 19. What's happened over the course of those past 5 years for you to tell me it's the best you've ever had with your family? Now I'm just asking the questions, and I am encouraging her to use this creative side. I want her to, to picture the greatest opportunities, the greatest experiences, the greatest, you know, life over the past 5 years, and I want her to tell me about it. Now, as a coach, as a mentor, I know what her dream scenario looks like for a job, what her dream scenario looks like for her money and wealth, what she aspires to do for her travel and her experiences and her family and any other component that comprises her life. And of course, now I could sit back and say, how do we make all that you just said a reality. Now, I want you to picture yourself sitting across from a peer, or maybe an employee, maybe a teammate, whatever it may be, and having a conversation just like that. You don't have to have the whole Costco part in there. That's my, that's my own silly twist. But imagine having a conversation when you're saying, forecast out like next 5 years, What's the greatest life over the next 5 years look like, specifically in your money and your wealth and your family and your recreation and your hobbies, whatever it may be? What's the next 5 years look like, the greatest experience you could come up with? Now let's walk it back to today. Our current reality is this. You just forecasted that for your next 5 years. How do we close that gap together? How do we work together to make all of those dreams very much a reality? Now imagine as being, being a business leader that understands exactly what I just described for all of your key people. And imagine every day when you go into that office, every week when you're in that office, every month when you're in that office, you know these things that your key people shared with you. And your job as the leader is to guide them, support them, give them every opportunity to achieve everything they outlined for you. It is such, such powerful information to have. But if I asked you, could you do that? Could you tell me about all of your key people and what their dream 5 years looks like? Could you articulate it for me? The answer for most of us is probably not, right? So the focusing question today, the thought today, how do you leverage this question or series of questions with others? How can you get them to think about the next 5 years, share with you what the greatest 5 years could look like, and then help them develop a plan to achieve the things that they state? Next question, next focusing question. What if you took yourself through this, this activity? What if you got some thinking time scheduled today? You sat down and you said, 2028, I'm going to describe the previous 5 years from 2023 to 2028 as my best 5 years ever. What happened in your life? What happened in your family? What happened in your job and money and investment or charity or whatever it may be, spirituality, whatever it may be for you? What if you jotted down all those things? If you, if you thought forward 5 years, how might you behave today? I'll tell you what, it's part of what made the No Days Off movement what it is today. Asking questions like that and then realizing, man, we really don't have a day off if we want to get there in 5 years. That's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for spending time with me, the No Days Off podcast. Remember, every single day brings a new opportunity. To get better. So let's get after it.