Secret Management and Adding Value

Business brain episode 472 for Friday, August 4, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take an idea, we dissect it so that we can train our business brains to, to be a little bit better each and every time we get together. And that way we keep on living the charm life that is such a priority for all of us here. Sponsors for this episode include financing that works.com, that's our sponsor, Zinch, who is waiving their $250 application fee for you, Business Brain listener. So go check that out and then miro.com/podcast where you can go to get your first three Miro boards for free forever. We'll talk more in depth about the details of each of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton, and out here in.

Lafayette, California, I am Shannon Jean. I'm happy that it's Casual Friday.

Yes, Casual Friday. Absolutely, man. Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, that's good.

That's good. I'm still working on this no Phone Friday concept. Not very many people get excited when I talk about it. They look at me like I'm crazy, but I just still, I'm saying I'm going to keep beating the drum. I've got to convince myself, of course, to do this.

That's the key. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's. It. There is, there is a benefit in, in sort of detaching. I wound up, I was away for. I was away for about 11 days. The first four of them were at a conference called Max Stock. Oh, yeah. Which happens just north of Chicago essentially in the Chicago area, which is a conference of Apple nerds. Right. It's very much, you know, for, like, especially for my life with, with MacGeek Gab and all that. Like, it's definitely a good one for me to attend. And a lot listeners are there. And what happened was I left on a Thursday morning, got to my hotel. There was like, the events related to the conference started that afternoon. I checked in at about noon and I said, you know, I could go to the event and get there a little early, but I don't have to. I can take a couple of hours and just like see where I am work wise and settle in and. Okay, great. So I did that, headed over about three and from 3pm on Thursday until Monday morning, I was so immersed in everything to do with the conference that I really didn't have any time to, to, to do anything meaningful, you know, work wise, at least. I mean, the conference.

I would argue that the concert.

Well, the conference was work for sure. Yes. But. But I mean, the other things that go on. Right. I. Yeah, I sort of had it in the back of my head, like, oh, well, you know, I'll be able to check in and do some stuff in the evenings. Nope. We would do dinner with all the attendees together, and then we'd wind up, you know, in the lobby of the hotel until I was, like, exhausted and ready to go to sleep. And I would go to sleep, and then the next morning I'd wake up and have breakfast in the hotel and go right to the conference. And it was just wash, rinse, repeat for the whole weekend. And the WI FI in the venue for the conference was not great. It was very difficult to get a laptop online. With the WI fi, you could get your phone online. But what it did was it forced everyone to be present. Right. Well, it. Or at least it removed that distraction of I'm going to be in the conference venue, but really I'm just going to be on my laptop, like, catching up with email and doing this work thing and doing that. Not really engaging or paying attention with the conference. That often happens. That did not happen at MaxDock this year. And I found it really. It was. I mean, it was great as a. I spoke at the conference, but I also was an attendee of the conference. I mean, there were. I learned things as well as is, you know, sharing things. And as both an attendee and a speaker, not having that distraction for myself or for anyone else in the room of just being able to just lose ourselves and our laptops was huge. I would argue that we should, like, somehow arrange to not have good WI fi again in the future, which sounds crazy. You know what I mean?

But I get it, man. I get it.

But having experienced it. Yes. Yeah, it really. It was great, but. And it gave me some perspective, like that. That detachment that. That immersion in the conference, which therefore caused a detachment from work, really gave me, you know, kind of what you're talking about with your no Phone Friday thing. And it's in its own way, there's something there. Yeah, man. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm gonna keep pushing it. I almost wish even when you're trying to have some other kinds of entertainment or immerse yourself in. In reading or whatever, you know, whatever it. It's. And if you can't, I wish, like, the Apple TV or Netflix had a blaster that would be like, okay, you're watching this thing, your phone is automatically in DND mode. Or something that would force you to, because it's just too damn addictive. And I know I'm not speaking just for myself.

No, this is interesting. I like, I wonder. There's the whole automations thing where you can like so there's Focus Mode on your if you have an Apple device, right, this Focus mode allows you to set what distractions you will allow in and you can sort of categorize them and group them. There are also automations that can enable or disable Focus Mode based on certain triggers. I wonder if there is a way to say, hey, if I'm watching something on my Apple tv, put me in my TV Focus mode so that at the very least I'm not getting bombarded. You know, I could still pick up my phone and do whatever I want with it, obviously. But yeah, that's interesting.

It is. It's such a great, incredible tool and a great device, but there's a dark side of it that I have to constantly fight against to to keep the balance in shape.

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Maybe, maybe, maybe, right.

But he didn't get frustrated about it. He just said, well, this would make this project better and I can add value to it. But. And again, selling it to his contractor the right way, presenting it in a helpful way as opposed to a thou shalt must, you know.

Yes, yes, that's a key thing.

Delivery matters. For sure.

It does. But being helpful and. Yeah, yeah, I think, I think it's great. I've had a similar experience. You know, we own vacation rentals and I'm shocked that the house cleaners in everyone we use in different properties in different areas, none of them have a checklist for the house. Like, oh, these are things I need to check. And my wife Renee manages those businesses. And I constantly hear they never do this. They don't check the utensils or they don't. Whatever it is.

Sure.

So I'm like, hey, let's create the list and give it to them. And sometimes they like it. Other times you can't make it crazy for them. You have to like this delivery. It, like you mentioned, Dave, is really important. It's like, look, you're already doing these things. Here's just a checklist so you be sure that they get done every time.

Oh, yeah, I, I love it when I'm in an Airbnb and there's a, you know, a, an easy to follow checklist for, you know, checking in and checking out. It like, it's like this sets us. His, his whole idea of setting people up for success makes such a difference. And I've caught myself in that frustration mindset of like, let's see, ask. I find myself asking, let's see if they fail this time. It's like, no, no, I don't want them to fail.

Yes.

You know, I, I want them to succeed. Let me set them up for success. Now, if I have someone that I'm setting up for success routinely and they're continuing to fail, that's different. But, you know, it can sometimes be on us to. To realize, wait, I. I actually set them up for failure here. I need to own my piece in that. So instead of doing that, just, you know, make it a habit to set people up for success, get out of.

Your lane, use your business brain and the skills you already have to help other people. Which leads me to what I actually think is the. The much more powerful point in Todd's message to us is this concept of value add or reciprocity. Always doing for others. You know, it. And like, I taught my kids this growing up, you know, the four most important words. How can I help?

Yeah.

But yes, he's, you know, Todd's being proactive and go, well, I already know how to help. Hey, I see this little thing like, you know, your QR codes or this with that. That is brilliant, and people do remember it. And, you know, everyone loves useful people. Right. I don't know if that's the word. Right word, but everybody loves someone that's. That's handy, that can fix something that offers that value, that value add. So that's huge. And, you know, teaching your kids, your employees how to do that for customers so everything isn't transactional. You know, doing. Doing nice things and not expecting anything in return, man, it just.

You.

I can't put. I can't stress enough how that has helped me in my life, whether business or personal, is being willing to help other people anytime. This is huge, and I appreciate you sending that in, Todd.

Yeah, no, this is. This was great, man. I love this idea of reminding ourselves to set others up for success, whether they report directly to us or not, like, just making it a habit. Help, help, help. And, yeah, things will fall into place.

You know what people do when they see people doing that, making decisions, speaking with authority in a nice way, using their skills, they are attracted to people that do that in a sense of, oh, that person's a good. I want to meet that person. I want to follow that person. I want to work for that person.

Yep.

So those are really powerful things, especially if you're young and you're just getting started in your career, whether you own a business, you want to start a side hustle, go out of the way, and you can do it in person, you can do it digitally, you can do it with a card that you put inside your boxes. We've done episodes of my I have this freakish, you know, obsession with the amazing out of box experience. If you're selling things, you're cutting. I mean, look at Apple and the millions or billions they put into creating boxes that people don't want to throw away. They're so nice. How can you do that on a small scale to your, you know, to your customers that are buying from you or digital products, whatever. There's all kinds of ways to do it. Have fun with it and people will remember it and they will love you for it and you'll be more successful.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff, Todd. Thank you for. Thank you, Todd. Yeah, good.

Yeah. What do you have to share with us, you know? Feedbackusinessbrain Show. Let us share your information, answer your questions. We've got a great group of listeners that want to hear from you and you get entered to win a MacBook Air.

I love it, love it, love it, love it. All right, folks, let's, let's keep helping each other live that charmed life. Send us those emails like Shannon said. Feedbackusinessbrain show and you can be like Todd and get entered into win a MacBook Air this year. So we're more than halfway through the year. The. The chances of you winning are still really good, but there's zero. If you don't see send in an email. So feedback at BusinessBrain Show. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for checking out our sponsors miro. Com podcast. Zinch is at financingthatworks. Com. Of course, you can see that all at BusinessBrain show. Keep living that charmed life and have a great weekend. See you next week.