Vision Without Execution is Hallucination | Cameron Herold (Podcast 355)

I think what happened before the vision was understanding what wasn't going to be in the vision. Like I was really clear I was not going into an office again. I was really clear that I wouldn't have deliverables for my clients. I was really clear that I wanted to work with entrepreneurs and not corporate. I was really clear that I wanted to be able to travel. Like I was very clear that I wanted to make great money. I was really clear that I didn't want to have to work in it. There was, I was clear that I didn't want to have to commute like. And over times as my business has grown and iterated, I'm getting even more and more clarity around the things that I don't want to do.

Vision seems a little bit wispier, a bit ethereal, a bit out there, a bit woo woo, let's maybe even call it that. Can you have a chat to us in terms of, you know, how did you come all the way full circle around to teaching us people about vision now, Cameron, and why do you think that's the key piece for people?

Great question. It goes back to 1998. So if I go back 23 years ago I was in Vancouver. I was a part of an organization called eo, which is the entrepreneurs organization. And our chapter here in Vancouver had been invited to a lunch with an Olympic coach, high performance sports psychologist and 120 entrepreneurs were invited. About 20 of us showed up and this looking into a crystal ball and we're like, oh my God, why did we bother? This is going to be so stupid. It turned out to be probably one of the most profound kind of concepts that I'd been introduced to which the concept of visualization in sport and how athletes use visualization to see themselves performing the event. And if you could take that into the business world and Visualize your company 3 years in the future and then figure out how to make it come true, you could actually execute. So I got introduced to the idea back then I was building a company and one of the guys in my forum was building what was then called the Rubbish Boys. We were coaching each other a little bit and he went out and wrote his first, what he called a painted picture at the time. And I wrote one for my company as well. We both were very successful with it. And then three years later I joined Brian. It was now called 1-800-got junk as his COO. He had 14 employees. And when I left six and a half years later, we had 3100 employees system wide. We ranked as the number two company in all of Canada to work for. We'd grown into four countries, Australia, the UK, Canada and US. 330 cities, 2 million, 126 million. We were on Oprah, et cetera, et cetera. All of that could be, not all of it, but a lot of it could be largely accredited to the alignment with vision that the employees had because of that growth. And I'd also done it with two other companies prior. I started getting asked to do speaking events. I've now been paid to speak in 26 countries. I've done three speaking tours of Australia, paid to speak in Melbourne three different times. And a lot of my speaking, I was talking about this vivid vision concept. And so it just started to really align. I had Naomi Simpson as a client of mine with Red Balloon Days from Australia. Clients started to use these concepts 10, 12 years ago and get success. And we just realized it was a cornerstone. It was a really, a key, key part. So that's why I still talk about it today.

And that's what you became consulting. I love that. And from my own personal experience, one of the things I found is we've got a mutual friend in Vishen, LA County. And one of the things he was speaking to me about was how important the work you've had to influence him has been. And he was saying, build a vision. And because I was going through this period with like hiring, it was hiring people and I was getting people that were competent and they're really good at the tasks that they were doing. But over time, like, there was just, there was. I just wasn't finding that there was like, I was finding. I was, I was doing a lot of the driving the other day. It was like sort of, hey, helping people pull up their socks and sort of cross their, Cross their T's, dot their eyes. I was doing a lot of that work at the end of the day, which actually when the more people you get on board, the more stressful that just becomes in the day to day. And he said, you know what, I've actually stopped. I've stopped sort of hiring for competency and more to sort of just go, hey, here's the vision. Does this align with you? Yes or no. And if it's a yes, allow them to pick up the competencies on the way. And that was like. That sounds really straightforward when I say it like that. But that was a river. I almost want to swear. But it was a revelation for me to sort of, you know what, share your vision and allow people to align to that and pick up competencies on the way.

Now take it to the next level and hire for both. Hire for people that are aligned with that vision and excited of your vivid vision of where you're going. And they have the skill set to do what you need them to do. And that's what gets into hyper growth. You know, at 1, 800, got junk. We did six years in a row of 100% revenue growth. Really tough to grow it six consecutive years. We gave up no equity, we had no debt, we were profitable. Every year we hit 59 out of our 60 months. Projected goals we ranked numbered. So you can't do that growth without massive mistakes if you're hiring just on vision alone. So vision is great. And Mindvalley has actually just launched a quest, a course of mine on the vivid vision concept just recently. So he's right. But I think the next level is higher for the alignment with vision and the skill set. The power of vision goes back to a funny story. Have you ever been to Barcelona?

Yes. Beautiful city.

And you saw the Sagrada Familia, right? That famous cathedral that Gaudi designed. It's almost completed now after 125 years being built. Well, 80 years ago, there were these three guys sitting out on the sidewalk and they were making bricks. One of the guys asked the first guy said, what are you doing? He said, I'm making bricks. And he wasn't real excited and he was just doing his job. And the second guy was kind of being managed to make bricks faster. And they said, what are you doing? He said, I'm making bricks. I'm doing it as fast as I can. My boss is kicking my ass. But I'm building the left wall and I'm making bricks to build a wall. And they asked the third guy, what are you doing? And he was working fast, but he had nobody managing him. He was super excited. He goes, we're building a cathedral. It's the cigar. Yeah. And I get to make the bricks to build the left wall of the cathedral. They all had the same skill set, but one was very aligned with the vision and excited about what they were doing. And when your employees are excited about what you're building and are aligned with that vision, the leader can flip the org chart upside down and can put the CEO at the bottom. Supporting the VPs, supporting the managers, supporting the employees. But it's also the same with building our lives. If you really want to have an amazing life as a human, it's guiding the vision of what your life looks like in Three years. Craft a vivid vision for your personal life. Describe your relationships, describe your fun that you're having, describe your fitness, describe your eating, describe what you're doing for hobbies, describe your partners, whatever you're going to be describing in your life. Describe all that in that four page description of your personal life. And you start sharing that with everybody, you get more inspired and aligned as well. So the concept crosses from business into personal.

I love that. One of the things I wanted to tune into was this idea of, you know, sharing your vision. Because I think for a lot of us, you know, and I'll dive into this a little bit for those of us that are blocked, it can be quite hard to even bring a vision to the fore, to bring a vision to the mind. And potentially, let's go there right now. Like, what do you say for those, like, I'm sure in this work that you've been doing, there's been people and, you know, actually I chanced across your book when I was traveling through Georgia and yeah, someone recommended it to me. I picked it up and it took me. Honestly, I picked it up then and I was kicking myself that it took me 18 months later that I actually built out the Vivid Vision. But the first time I accessed it, there was. It felt like there were blocks around there for me to being able to see stuff. Do you get people that or was it just me?

Yeah, no, not just you. There's a bit of a funny, kind of an Easter egg component to my book. If you look at the COVID of the book, Vivid Vision, do you remember what the front cover of the book looked like?

No. I had it in audio. I had it in audio.

It's a very wispy kind of color y thing. And I'll see if I can pull it up really quick because I'm telling you. But the idea on how to craft your vivid vision first starts with getting out of your office. Yeah, right. And not taking a notepad with you. Not taking an iPhone with you. There's the COVID of my book.

Oh, yep, I remember that.

Yeah. You know, the colors are.

Tell me.

It's actually pot smoke. Waft of marijuana. Yeah, right. And I was joking about it. I was joking with one of my clients. He goes, I really find it hard to be creative. I'm like, dude, smoke a fatty, you'll be fine. Just so you have to go somewhere where you can chill. You have to go somewhere where you can relax and be inspired. And you can't do it sitting on a train. You can't do it sitting with your notepad. You can't do it sitting. You got to take a book and take a pen and go sit somewhere around nature. Throw your headphones on, listen to some music and start thinking about your business without worrying about how it comes through. I'll give you an example. If you and I were to pretend that we hopped into the DeLorean car with Michael J. Fox and we're going to travel out to December 31, 2024, we're traveling to the middle of your business inspired evolution and we're going to describe what we see. What are the customers writing about your business? What are they writing about in their reviews? How are they interacting with each other? What's happening in your community? What are your employees saying? What are your employees writing on? Indeed. And Glassdoor? How are your employees showing up every day? How are they engaging with each other over Slack? What's your marketing team like? What's your marketing messaging like? What's your website look and feel like? Again, don't worry about how all this is going to come true. Just dream about each section. Write down three or four points about each area of your business. Talk about your leadership team and your metrics and your dashboards. So if I was building a home, building a house. I don't know how to do electrical. I don't know how to do plumbing, but I can describe what I'd want my dream home to look like. I could describe the windows and the view and the beautiful flooring and the cabinetry. I could see the lighting and I could imagine my kids playing and my friends hanging out and parties. And I could visualize the light coming into my room in the morning. Again, I don't know how to build the home. Entrepreneurs tend to get blocked trying to figure out how am I going to do that? It. It's not your job to figure out how to grow it your job to figure out what we're going to build. When you describe it in enough clarity, then people can figure out how to make every sentence come true. So I think we more often get blocked because we start worrying about the plan to make every sentence come true instead of just describing what it's going to look like and figuring out the plan later.

Yeah, thank you so much for that. One of the biggest takeaways I've taken away from your work is, you know, and it's a subtle thing, but also just projecting like it's a three year timeline horizon. Rather than me sort of describe why three years. Can you tell us why you choose Three years?

Yeah, it's. People have often in the past had a five year plan, but five years too far out. Like if you lean that far out you fall over and one year, it's just not far enough. One year is too, it just looks too similar to what I have now. So it's not exciting, it's not expiring. So three tend to be enough but not too much. It's not that 30 year BHAG because it's like so far out that there's no reason to even get started on it. 3. Three just tended to be the number that seemed to just work with everybody.

It's like in this sweet spot where you adjusted the right amount of inspired but it's also grounded in just the right amount of practicality as well.

Yeah, it's almost like if I was going to build my first home, would I design the best condominium tower of 80 floors ever to be built in Vancouver? No. Too much. I don't even know where to go. Right. But I can think about a home. Yeah, yeah, maybe I can think about a triplex. But don't lean too far out that you're outside of your comfort zone already.

Cool. So Cameron, let's have a quick chat about the home metaphor. And like let's say I've got a vision for the living room, I've got a vision for my outdoor deck, I've got a vision for my kitchen, but I've got no idea what I want my bedrooms to look like. And that may be what my sales looks like, what my financials looks like. Like there are certain rooms that I've just got no idea about. And just because I was never, just never never really exposed to that sort of stuff, is it then my, my opportunity to sort of go away and, and just think about what the simplest version of that would look like? Or is it about doing some research? Is it about asking some questions of some really int people thoughts in that space?

There's some sample vivid visions from real companies that have written their vivid vision that you can read. And when you read a few other people's vivid visions they often inspire you to think about how you can craft yours. That's one way. The second way, if your company is large enough, not massive, but if you've got a reasonable budget, you hire somebody like Jennifer Houde runs a company called Conscious Copy and she and her team have written about 450 vivid visions for companies all over the world. She has an ability to get inside of the mind of the entrepreneur and pull out the rest of the ideas to ask enough good questions to pull out the ideas, to inspire ideas, and then they can help craft the message and add the design elements to it. That's something that can be really helpful. And then you can also sit, depending if you're in mastermind groups or you're part of a tribe, you know, sit down with other people and just ask them what they see and pull some of the creative ideas there as well.

Amazing. I love that. I love that. So winding back now into the sharing piece, where we sort of took off into the blocks, and then I want to just discuss the sharing piece. Why is it so important to share it? And I think I kind of know the answer to that. But potentially for the audience to tune into, like, and also the resistance piece that might be there, it's like, okay, I've finally created this, like, intuitive vision. It's something that's like, I've just started and I'm not even sure if I'm like, 100% agreeing that, like, oh, this is actually even possible. And it's like years out and it's like this, this thing, it's a bit like, you know, a bit inspiring, bit daunting almost in some ways. And then Cameron comes along and goes, can I do with everybody? Like, man, give me a moment. So tell us a little bit about that process and why it's so important, bro.

Yeah, you've hit, you've. You've hit two parts. One is it's really, really hard to share it. And I'll just, I'll, I'll, I'll speak to that first and then I'll talk about, you know, why it's important to do it. Second, the reason it's so hard to do it is we feel like imposters. What gives me the right to dream like this? I have no idea how to do this, so how can I talk about what it's going to look like? But if homeowners ever thought that way, they'd never build homes. Homeowners decided to dream of what their home would look like, give their dream and a budget and a timeline to a contractor, let the contractor ask them a bunch of questions so that contractor can draw the plans and the blueprints to make the vision come true. Owner sign off on the blueprints and you build the home. It's the same process. You just have to trust that the process works. But it is scary. I find it's often important when you roll out the vivid vision to remind people this is not what we look like today. This is what look like in three years. Some parts of this won't happen until third year. It's like the cabinets and the flooring don't happen until the end of the construction. Some won't happen until the second year, like the electrical and the plumbing and the wiring. Some parts will happen in the first quarter, like the foundation. So reminding them that it's going to take time. But over time, every sentence will start to come true and we'll build it from the foundation up. So it's just having the confidence that that's why it feels awkward. But when people realize when they start reading it, they're excited. Your confidence will build. And if you realize you don't have to be the one to know how to do this, that other people are the ones that figure out the how, then you're okay with it as well. Now, the first question was like, why is it important to share it? Because if you don't share it, you're not going to do it. If you don't share it, you don't have any accountability.

Accountability. Yeah. Gotcha.

Don't share it. You push it off till next year. You push it off till next year. Right. So there's a bit of that shared accountability. There's also a bit of if I share it with people, they'll help figure out how to make parts of it come true. We're all hardwired to help people. As humans, we're hardwired to help each other. So if I can read your vivid vision of what your company looks like, acts like, and feels like, and I see one sentence that I can help make come true, we'll help make it come true. So in the Vivid Vision for 1, 800, got junk in the early days, one of the things we had in there was to be a case study at Harvard Business School. We had no idea how to make that come true. Someone walked through our office one day and saw that on the wall on our vision wall and said, are you guys serious about this? We're like, yeah. He goes, I know the guy at Harvard who approves case studies. A year later we were approved. And for the next 10 or 12 years, we've been a Harvard Business School MBA case study. The reason we put that up there was a bit of a joke because the very first business book I ever read was what they don't teach you at Harvard Business School. And Brian, we're so bad at school, we knew we'd never be allowed on campus.

There become a case study kind of.

Funny that's why you share it, is because other people will go, oh, I can hang the cabinets. I can do the electrical. Right. I can put the roof on.

Yeah.

That's why you share it with people, and it gets you started.

I really love even just the story that you shared in terms of the importance of sharing it. How it magnetizes people to your vision, but then also how certain things may potentially even open up that are beyond your wildest imaginations, that you sort of put them put on there as, like, mini beehigs, and they sort of just dropped it. And, yeah, it's. It's possible to. To unveil things. I still love the fact that, you know, we're having a conversation about vision, and it's all about what's in a particular person's head. Now, you make this quite clear when you start going into the vivid vision process, that the vision can only be created by a particular person. Who's that person, and why only that one person? Why not a collective?

Well, if you're the homeowner and you want to build a home, do you want to get all of your neighbors to help design it? No, because they're not living there. Want to get your brother and sister to help you design your home? No, because they're not living there. So you want to design it because it's for you. And then you want to get workers around who are excited to help you make your home. CEO has to drive vision. They have to be the one obsessed with what they're building. So who created the iPhone or what company created the iPhone? Apple. Now, when Steve Jobs came out with. Or Apple came out with the iPhone, there was something missing. What was missing on the iPhone was a keyboard, because every smartphone in those days had a keyboard. BlackBerry.

Yeah.

Everyone thought, no one will ever buy this if there's no keyboard. He had such clarity of vision and such an idea of what the product would look like and feel like. He was like, it. There won't be a keyboard. It'll be better. And as soon as we saw one, we're like, can I see it? I want to see how it feels with the keyboard. And we went, click, click, click. We're like, whoa.

The future has arrived.

What Steve Jobs knew was if he owned the vision, other people would line up behind him and help him figure that out.

Yeah. Yep. I love that. That's a great example. And so ultimately, the fact that we're building something that important, I think the key thing that I'm taking away from this particular juncture. In the conversation is the importance of the vision helps us build a why. Yeah, like, it's like a real why. It's like what we're driving behind, but it's also like, it's connected to your why, but it's almost giving a structure to the what and then not to think about the how. It's like a connection between the why and the what.

Kind of. In fact, Simon Sinek, who popularized the whole idea with start with why and the core purpose. Simon was on our board of advisors five years before he did his TED Talk. Simon flew out to Vancouver to meet Brian and I because we'd been on Oprah and we were in Fortune magazine and we ranked number two in Canada. He really wanted to see if what we were building was real. And he taught us the idea of the core purpose. The core purpose idea is separate from the vivid vision, I think, of a business like a jigsaw puzzle, that your vivid vision is the picture on the front of the box of what you're building. And then the four corners of your jigsaw puzzle are your core purpose, your bhag, your core values, and your plan to make the vision come true. Right. And then the sides of the puzzle are separate. So core purpose is something that is needed, but is separate. Aligning force. So my core purpose for my business is to help entrepreneurs make their dreams happen. My books help them, my CEO alliance helps them. My invest in your leaders course, my second in command podcast. Everything's aligned with my core purpose. Even saying yes to being on your show, it's aligned with my core purpose. I say no to government. I say no to groups that are just the wrong groups. Right. If it's not aligned that way. So it's separate.

Yeah, I get it. Yeah. Perfect. And you mentioned that taking on a vivid vision for our personal life is also really important. Are there differences in the process or is it. Would you recommend much the same? Get out of nature. Take some time.

Yeah, I smoke a patty. It's definitely similar. It's similar for sure. Now I'll give you a really vivid example of a vivid vision for your family life. Let's say you're a traditional family, husband and wife. You're starting off raising a family together. Have you thought about how you're going to raise kids? Have you had that discussion? Have you talked about your family's core values? Have you talked about your family's hobbies and your family's vacations and your family's traditions? Have you talked about family meal times and family Discussions and how you'll handle family conflicts. Have you written all that up in a family document that you can share with your friends and family and children? Everyone sees what you're building and can you get the husband and wife on the same page? Literally? That's really powerful and almost never done. John and Missy created a thing called Lifebook and their Lifebook is a very expanded package. It's a five day program that you go through to create a book. Your vision of your family or your life. Powerful, powerful concept for your personal life. A vivid vision is kind of a compressed version of Lifebook in a way. I think about what's my family situation like? How am I showing up as a dad, how am I showing up as a partner? How am I showing up as a friend? Where does fitness fit into my life? Where do relationships fit in? What are my hobbies, how do I weave travel and business together and where do I live and what are my vacations like and, and how do I describe all of that in such detail that my company knows how to support me in that, that my EA knows how to support me in that, that my kids see what I want to be and show up as a dad? I have friends literally coming in from out of town and they'll be like, hey, I'm going to be in Vancouver. I see you're going to be there. I heard you really love golfing from your vivid vision. Can we go golf together? Yeah, because I don't want to go for another glass of wine with somebody. I'd rather go hiking or golfing or go for a bike ride and then maybe go for a glass of wine after. But it's because I'm sharing my vivid vision that people are inspired to help be a part of that.

I love that. So one of the things that comes through for me is, okay, you've got this vision for yourself, you've got this vision for your business. What happens if you don't hit certain parts of your vision and does that corrupt your self belief?

Yeah, great question. It should not corrupt your self belief. What it should do is just make you realize that you're human or you're a business. And some things don't happen, but a lot of them will. When I built a home years ago, 10 years ago, or had a home that we designed, built, there were parts of the home that were completely different from what we'd first thought about. Because in the process of building, all of a sudden we had to move a beam in the kitchen or then all of a sudden A view didn't quite work when we got three stories up and we looked and went, that view sucks. So you just, you iterate a little bit, but you don't bulldoze the whole house and start again. So you're driving towards something and you just iterate a little bit. So there's a little bit of meandering. Maybe one sentence doesn't happen, but the paragraph does. Maybe one paragraph doesn't happen, but the next three paragraphs do. But at least everyone's aligned and driving towards that same common, you know, four or five page description of your future.

I love that. Thanks for articulating that. And that sort of leads into one of the other questions that I had was tuning into the audience and potentially, you know, where some of us may be. Because when we're at a place of transition, there's many options. And I remember this was one of the things when first disconnecting from a corporate role. It was like you sort of groomed into this belief that this is your one opportunity. You know, like you went to university, you did all this stuff and like you're in this opportunity. It's a golden opportunity. It's the golden goose, it's the golden egg. Don't let go, you know, and then no one talks about the fact that when you do let go, the problem becomes that there's too much opportunity. In which one do I take on? Right? That's a conversation that's not been had, but nonetheless, let's have that conversation in this space, right? There is so much opportunity. And what if you're like if what you're feeling into and potentially being able to discern what is it that is the vision that is calling you versus all this distraction for, you know, there's so much that's being marketed to us today in this day and age, like how do we craft an authentic vision and also know that, you know, in an age of distraction, like how are we sort of staying consistent with our vision and are we allowed to iterate or are we, you know, I think you get the essence of what I'm trying to ask.

Yeah, yeah, you're totally allowed to iterate. It's your life too. So let me speak, I'll give you my experience through this journey of my kind of entrepreneurial, corporate, entrepreneurial kind of career, or if people aren't watching, if they're listening. I'm 56 years old now. I've been running companies for 35 years. When I was 21, I had 12 full time employees. Kimbal Musk worked for me back in 1993. Elon's brother. I was a reference for Elon in 95. By 1989, I'd coached 120 entrepreneurs. Business coaching didn't exist until the mid-90s. So coach you. National Federation of Coaches didn't start until four years after I'd been coaching entrepreneurs. So I've been doing this for a long time. When I was with a company called College Pro Painters, which went on to become the largest residential housing company in the world. Where king for me, as did his brother or Cousin who built SolarCity, they both worked for me. I was with them for seven years, was highly successful, left the company, and I thought my life was over. I thought all I knew was house painting. And then all of a sudden, I realized I knew franchising. So I got involved with a friend. We built out a chain of cool collision repair shops. It's now the largest collision repair chain in North America. It's about a $900 million company, publicly traded. I left that company after four, four and a half years and was hired as president of a company at a smaller company. But I was president. I got to help build something that was really cool. And all of a sudden I started seeing like, wow, I've built teams. I have leadership abilities. I have interviewing skills. I have a lot more skills than I thought I had. And then I joined my best friend Brian, and we built 1, 800, got junk for seven years. But I was only five years in when we were like, whoa, we got this now. It's good. I left there 14 years ago. When I left 1,800 got junk. I knew I didn't want to go run a company anymore. I knew that I really, in my gut, had things that I loved to do and things that I didn't love to do and things that I hated. That spectrum. I started journaling and I started writing every day for three and a half months, 20 minutes a day, every morning, just making lists, mind maps, lifelines, just journaling about stuff. And what I identified was a whole bunch of areas that I hated. And then I had a whole bunch of stuff that I was okay at, and then a bunch of stuff that filled me. So I decided to create a life and a career around the stuff that filled me. And that's where my coaching started and my book started, my speaking started, and everything kind of came out of me authentically being me right now. I've had 11 full weeks vacations since January 1st. I just came back from six weeks in Europe. I was in Italy for six weeks. I didn't even count that as part of my vacation. And I only was working Monday to Wednesday. And I'm going to have two more weeks vacation by December 31st. All about 13 weeks vacation, which is completely unusual for a North American, for.

Anybody, for most people. I was just about to say.

My company is accelerating and I'm making more money than ever. And I'm, you know, and I'm doing what I love to do. Right. So it's by deciding. And I think when you decide to only work on the stuff that you love, you end up working at it harder, you end up getting more success, you end up having better energy.

Yeah.

So you end up getting that flywheel effect happening faster.

Yeah. That was going to be one of my questions. How important is it, you know, what is the secret source of. Because the vision is authentically at the heart of the essence of you. Like, you dreamed up your vision and it's in like, it's coming hard in the way I articulate it, but it's coming from your heart. Right. And how important is it to like, you know, that element of you're working on what you love?

I think it's. I think what happened before the vision was understanding what wasn't going to be in the vision. Like, I was really clear I was not going into an office again. I was really clear that I wouldn't have deliverables for my clients. I was really clear that I wanted to work with entrepreneurs and not corporate. I was really clear that I wanted to be able to travel. I was very clear that I wanted to make great money. I was really clear that I didn't want to have to work in it. I was clear that I didn't want to have to commute. And over times, as my business has grown and iterated, I'm getting even more and more clarity around the things that I don't want to do. I don't work after 5pm ever. I don't work on weekends ever. I just, I say no to the wrong things. Like I said no to a speaking event the other day. It was 30,000. But they wanted me to fly to Chicago from Vancouver. I'd have to fly there, get off. It's not worth it. It's better to just stay home and hang out with my kids and my girlfriend or my fiance now. And. And I'll make more money by being engaged and happy and having fun than by chasing a buck going somewhere else again. So the vivid vision comes out of all that.

Yeah. The point you just made is something that I'm slowly starting to realize on a really visceral level. And so I'm just going to go there and just riff with you for a moment, because we've got a newborn and he's 12 weeks, and it's been a real blessing just to be part of that process and being, like, becoming a father. Like, there's all this, like, some part of entrepreneur. And Steven Kotler writes a lot, and he talks about the new baseline for, you know, what is baseline 2020. Normal is like this. We've got 20% anxiety impregnated in the system of just like, you know, always just focus on the future. Focus on the future. Trying to, like, call in what the next thing is. But having a newborn and being at home, it's just like this super. Like, I'm just present, you know, I'm just like, super present because everything's happening in the moment when I need to change a diaper, when I need a feed. And it's like, you know, I'm just super and I'm enjoying it. I'm loving so many parts of this, and it's helping me realize that with the presence comes this incredible amount of clarity. The things that I was spinning in my head. Spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning on thinking that I was actually resolving things by spinning on them. Actually just taking the time to just be here, focus on the things that are most important to me. A lot of that stuff either goes away or resolves itself or something inspired. It gets the space to drop in, to focus on, which has been a huge revelation. And I just was just. It sounded a lot like what you just said. You know, there's an opportunity to go to Chicago. But you know what? No. Like, actually, no.

Yeah, I think. I think it is that presence and being super clear on what matters and why you're doing it. It's your core purpose, your bhag, your vivid vision, your core values that provides all that clarity. But most people don't ever sit down to think about that, even in your personal life. If we just make it easier for everyone. What do you want your fitness to look like in a few years? What do you want your relationships with your friends to be like in a few years? How do you want your relationship with your kids to be in a few years? Not worry about how it's going to happen yet, but how would you like it to be? How would you like the relationship with your spouse to be? How would you like to feel in the mornings? Start describing all of those things, and then that's your future state. And then where are you today? And then reverse engineer that delta. Right. How do I get from where I am to where I want to go? But most people never do that, so they just wake up being busy and they work out. It's kind of like getting in your car in the morning and just starting to drive. You'll go somewhere, but where are you going? Well, I don't know. Why are you driving? I always drive. It doesn't make any sense, but that's so true of so many people. I had someone the other day. This is a sad story, but it's true. A former client of mine's employee, so a senior employee saw that I was over in Italy and he said, oh, I would love to go to Italy. That's a dream to be able to go. I'm like, you should go. He goes, no, my girls are too young. They're only seven and nine. I'm like, dude, that's an amazing age to take your girls to Italy. Are you kidding? Here's three cities girls would love. Flights from Chicago to Italy are super cheap. Direct flights from Chicago to Rome, Chicago to Naples, Chicago to Milan. Just go to Italy, man. No, it's really more that I'm starting on my business right now and I really want to be growing that. No, it's really like, how many excuses you want to come up to to have a life you're okay with sitting at home and watching sports all weekend. Stop saying you want to have a dream and go somewhere else. Because it's not that hard to quit your job. It's not that hard to go work somewhere else. Like, look, none of our parents grew up where we live today. I'm telling you, there were no Emirates growing up in Melbourne.

That's true.

Somehow you got there. Like, there's no Aussies that were Emirates. Right, Right. So at a point, a grandparent or a great grandparent or a parent moved you, right? I'm not from Vancouver. I decided to move 4,000 miles away. My son decided to go to university 4,000 miles away from here. People have to make those decisions about where to live, who to date, who to break up with, what foods to eat or not to eat. No one's putting food in your mouth. No one's forcing you to sit on the couch and watch tv. No one's forcing you not to go to Milan.

I love that. I love that. So empowering. Cameron, before I let you go, I want to tune in. There's a lot that you're doing with the vivid vision. There's a lot that you're doing for entrepreneurs and my deepest gratitude for books like Double Double and Vivid Vision. But in that space, what does an inspired evolution look like to you? What is your vision for? Hey, like, you know, does. Is everybody. Does everybody on the planet have a vision for themselves? So they've got that GPS clarity in terms of I'm not just hopping in a car and just driving around and knocking around with people on the streets. I actually know exactly where I'm going. What is an inspired evolution to you?

Yeah, well, so my bhag is to replace vision statements with vivid visions worldwide. Because vision statements don't work. That one sentence statement where you mashed up a few keywords and you've got one sentence, go team, that doesn't do anything. So that's why I was so happy to partner with Mindvalley on the quest. That's why I'm happy to partner with Jennifer Houde on her writing all these vivid visions. Why I talked about it in my invest in your leaders course. I wrote the book with scribe on vivid vision. I'm really pushing this concept out globally. And so that bhag, my big hairy, audacious goal, the Jim Collins charm, is around that, but it aligns perfectly with my core purpose. So it's all kind of dovetailing together and I'm not losing sight around the fact that none of this matters and we're all going to die and we're all just walking each other home. Because what really, really matters is my relationships with my fiance and my kids and myself and my friends. Right. This is just what we do to make money along the way.

I would say probably one of the biggest challenges for myself. His name is on the door, but I'm the one making the decision. And so that's a challenge. And it's a challenge for the team, I think as well, especially the ones that have been here for a while, because you go from someone reporting to the.