WHY Not Wednesday with James Madison

There's a certain kind of coach who believes what we believe.

Who leads people to greatness, who gets people unstuck, who unlocks all of your passion. A coach who helps people discover what drives them and to tap into their superpowers. Then knowing your why is the first step to untap potential.

To focus.

To breakthroughs.

A coach who's looking for a better way.

Are you that coach?

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to why not Wednesday. I am so excited for this show today because we have James Madison on. James Madison is the founder, speaker, trainer and coach at on purpose Life LLC where he helps executives and entrepreneurs behind become high performing leaders and helps high performing leaders create high performing teams. He has a wealth of leadership wisdom, business experience and a genuine passion for guiding leaders to maximize their business performance. In 30 years of leadership, James has professionally developed leaders for successful careers while achieving amazing work life integration for maximum personal fulfillment. We'll definitely have to hear about that. James is passionate about igniting the spark in others to learn, grow and develop to reach their highest potential. He believes that when you live in purpose on purpose, you will never work another day in your life. So welcome James Madison. How are you? Thank you.

Dan, my favorite guy to hang out with. Brother from another mother, I call you.

Thank you so much, James. You know, in the post leading up to today, I was talking about the fact that when I got on the phone on our first zoom call, I saw that sign behind you and I said this is the guy I need to be talking to. Remember your why?

Right, that's it.

Love that so much. So James, your yos is better way.

You talked about coaches with better way in that video. That was me number one.

Better way looking. I'm looking for coaches who are looking for a better way. Your how is simplify and your what.

Is contribute greater value and significance, brother.

Tell me, tell me, tell me what that means. If somebody's listening for the first time, what does it mean? That your better way simplify contribute.

Yeah, it really goes back to this idea of helping people live their life on purpose and achieve the fullest. And so for me it's finding a better way. I coach a lot of clients that feel stuck and feel they're stuck in what they have to do and I really help. I call it set people free to live the life they were created to live. So that's better way and I want it to be something that's rapidly applicable. So that's the simplify. Like don't give 10 steps. I'm a three step guy. One, two, three. And then contribute to greater value and significance. That's what it's all about.

I love it. Melissa Walsh is joining us. She says better way, all the way. All right. Better way, baby. He's got the Minnesota Masterminds. So all the way from Minnesota, welcome Melissa Walsh. So, you know, one thing I want to do, James, because the name of the show is why not Wednesday. And the question I like to ask is, tell me about a time that you said why not and it worked out. And how did it work out? Because a lot of us, you know, I believe that when we get to our deathbed, we're not going to regret what we did. We're going to regret the things we didn't do. So tell me about a time share with our viewers and listeners. Time you said why not?

Yeah. I think. I think it's a story of how we met. Right. You and I met in April of 2021. And, you know, I was already a why guy. Right. Had already done the Simon Sinek start your why. And I was using a process at that time with my clients, which was more that discussion experience. Tell me a story. You know, the workshop type style. Right. And then when you talked about a process being a better way guy in an assessment, it was like you had me at Y. Dan. I told you at the end of the conversation, Dan, you can. You can quit talking. Dan, quit speaking. You have me at Y and make it better. Right?

Right. I love that in sales, we always say, look, when. When you get to the point when the client's ready to buy, you stop talking. Right. You'll sell your talk yourself out of a sale. And that's. That's. That's where we were. I love that conversation. Initial conversation was so much fun. And every conversation since then has been that same way, James. And you really are one of our avatar coaches in terms of how you use the assessment, how you use the why, how you use the yos. Tell me, how did you learn about start with why and how were you using it before the why Institute came into your life? Yeah.

So back a few years before I met you, I was living in Connecticut and we were doing a 25th year revitalization for our church. We're the live church in Connecticut. Right. And there were two consultants. Two. Two Jennifers, the two Jennifers, Jennifer Cavello and Jennifer Bernheim, who introduced that concept to me for the first time. You know, start with why, the circle and everything. And that just resonated with my life. Like, I just saw everything as why. How what? Why? How what? So that was the beginning. And so then as I got into coaching, I had gone through a workshop, a Simon Sinek workshop in July of 2020 was jumpstart your why? And I walked through the process of developing, so I knew that. So that's what I started doing with my clients as part of my signature system called Alignment for Success, helping people understand what I'm calling the personal operating system. Right. And I was doing it. But that's. That's conversations that. Stories. That's looking at words. And you came with a better way. And just to tell the rest of the story, Dan. So you and I met in April, I think I signed up in May. In June, I was calling you to put together a webinar. Right.

For potential client.

I sold it in in June. I got paid in. It was for August 21, I think. On August 10, I decided to go through certification.

Right.

That's why I was like, why not? Why not do it? I know it's what I do. It's going to work. I believe it. And it was amazing.

And you did a great job. I remember we had some conversations about the presentation, and you had. Of course, you had questions because it was your first time doing it, but you came back and you told us how it went and what a great success that was. You were working with a group out in Virginia, I believe, right?

Yeah, it was a procurement. It was a VA group out of the. Out of the military, the government, and about 16 of their leaders. And it was amazing, fantastic.

So I. I love hearing those stories. What about personally? Tell us about a wine moment personally that you had.

Yeah, I think. I think when I. I spent 25 years in the corporate world, and then I pivoted in 2019, before pivot became a cool word in kind of the pandemic, you know? And honestly, I had a coach that said to me, so, what do you want to do now? You. You've done 25 years there. What is it you want to do? And I'm like, I don't want to go back to that. He said, what do you want to do? And I said, the thing that appeals to me most would be to be an executive recruiter. Yeah, I'd work with an executive recruiter in Los Angeles when I ran a plant. And I loved his. What he did. And I told him years ago, his name is Ron. Ron. When I retire from doing what I have to do to make money, remember I got the velvet handcuffs on of the corporate dating and the benefits and the options Right. And when I can do what I want to do, when I retire, I'm going to do what you do. So my coach said, why not do that right now? And I went, hell, yeah, I'm going to do that now. And so literally then that week, I went to the gym, to my Saturday morning zumba class, because zumba is my cardio of choice to this day. I'll be there Saturday. I met a lady. She was an executive recruiter. Seven days later, I went to work with her. Law of attraction. Right. Just because I knew what I wanted to do and I just had no idea, put it out there. Went to work with Sylvia. She's always part of my story about how I got to where I am. And for a year, I was an executive recruiter during the pandemic.

Love that. Love that. So you know, you met. You just mentioned the law of attraction. So you're also John Maxwell coach. How does this. The yos fit into what you do? Because you're a John Maxwell coach. You use the core values in desktop index. You use disk. How does the YOs get incorporated into those tools that you already have?

Here's how I break it down very simply. My company's called on purpose life. Right? And so it's this idea of living in purpose, on purpose, with passion. Passion is the fuel. You don't chase after the passion. You chase after the purpose. Right. In purpose, on purpose with passion. And then I say, you'll never work a day in your life because all the blessings, all the resources, all the people, the opportunities, they chase after and overtake you. Like, you attract so much that it's overflow. Like I said to you that when you said, how are you doing? I said, dan, brother, I am sipping from the saucer because my cup overflows.

I love it.

That's attraction. That's not me. That's just vibrating and doing the things and attracting what I need to fulfill that purpose. That's what I help people do.

Lisa Ma commented last week on a post that I had, she said, you know, when you put out your vibration, you attract people with your vibe. You attract people who believe what you believe. And so she called it soul tribe. And I love that word. Our soul tribe is those people who believe what we believe. And even if they're not people who believe exactly what we believe, they believe in respecting our beliefs. And that allows them to be part of our tribe.

Absolutely. You always say this, Dan, that when you understand your why what you do has greater impact. Yeah. And what I've Learned is I help people to discover their why, their full operating system and stand in their power. They no longer feel bad or as the outlier, the weird person because they're challenged. They now understand that's my superpower. It's my unique contribution, and I'm going to stand in that. And it just revitalizes the person, it revitalizes the team, and it's super powerful. One of the things I did be a couple years before I met you was read the book called the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. And that's where this idea of living purpose driven came. And there's a quote that I always remember and it goes like this. Without God, life has no purpose. Without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.

That's at the core of everything I do is helping people discover their why, discovering how, discovering what so that they can show up impact on the world that they were created. They were created and they get to design their life based on how they were created. They just don't know it.

Yes. Well, we show the video, right, James, I know you use it. We talk about. There are a lot of people walking around out there that are really good at what they're doing. It's not that they're bad.

No.

But when you know your why, there's just a different energy, right, that you're going to bring to everything that you bring when you know yourself. So you help people discover not just their why, but their whole operating system. And you call it the personal operating system. So there's the stuff that you bring, but then there's their why operating system, which is a part of that. So you're incorporating it all together, right?

All together. And the thing about it, energy, that's the key. A lot of people I work with are very successful, highly decorated and high achievers. And they're good at what they do, but they aren't all energized by what they do. And so what I help people distinguish is from behavior, from energy. What energizes you, what drains you. And if you line up in your why and the operating system and you spend more time in the zone of genius, we call it. Right? This is all part of that. So you have more energy. I call it like this, Dan. It's like midair refueling. When you go through your week, you get filled back up because you're staying focused in your why and doing less of the things that drain you.

Love that. It's absolutely. We only have so much energy, right? So when you're doing those things that energize you. You have energy for those not. So there's some things, and you know this from the Colby, some things give us energy, some things are energy neutral, and some things drain our energy. So you want to do those things that give you energy before you do those things that drain your energy, because you got to do some of those things you have to do. Well, tell me about this. You. You. We've kind of talked about it a little bit. How did you learn about why Institute and what made you decide to join? Take us through that decision process, because I know a lot of coaches are watching and saying, okay, tell. Tell us how that went.

I honestly think it was an email from you through LinkedIn, Dan, you reached out to me and said, hey, I've been reviewing your profile. You seem to fit what we're looking for. Would you be interested? And you get. We all get a million of those, right? Hey, I want to help you grow your business. And so. But again, you had me at why. Like, in there, it said why? And I went click on the why Institute. That's the same why that I talk about why this is a better way to do it, which before I knew better way. And that. That was it. I said, yeah, but other than that, you know, I don't take those. Typically. I delete those when they show up in my LinkedIn. But it really was the why, honestly.

So we had you at why. I mean, like I said, we get. We get on the phone call you got, remember your why right behind you. I said, yeah, Dan, you. You had better do well with this client because he wants to talk about why. So we had a great, great conversation. How. Now we talked about how you incorporated into your work.

Yeah.

How has learning your why operating system affected your personal life? I know you do this with your wife, and you guys are partners, so tell me about that.

She's the first person I did when I got my five free. I did it with my wife. She's trust. Right way. Contribute.

Right.

And so she did that. She's in sales. She's like you, Dan. She does what you do, business development. And the first thing she did is she started changing the way she introduced herself to people. Hi, my name is Kimberly. I believe success happens when you build strong trust in relationships by doing things the right way to contribute. Like, and she does it. She works in a role that really helps people in education that have fallen out of the system, just a huge cause. And it really helped her, like, stand in her power. The interesting Thing between the two of us with her being trust. I learned that for trust people when you. You better do what you say, say what you do. Right. And there have been times where we. I make a plan. I love to plan, just love to plan. But I'm also very flexible. Go with the flow.

Right?

And it's Thursday night and we were supposed to do something, but I look in her eyes and she's tired and I'm, you know, let's just stay home and relax. For her it was like. But we said we were going to do this, and if I change that, I lose some trust. And I didn't understand that till I went through this with her also. Then she's right way. And I now understand she's right way. And right way for her is synonymous with my way. So her way is the right way and I'm better way. So we have a lot of what I call intense fellowship discussions in my house.

Yeah. Right way versus better way. I remember when I had a sales team under me. I remember there was a guy worked for me, called it carefrontations, not confrontation.

Because we care about each other. We're gonna have a carefrontation with each other. And you know, Bella, who's on our team, her why is trust. And she's the same way. Don't go changing plans on Bella without, you know, that's. That's what we're going to do. Wait a minute. People are counting on us to be there. Right? So let's not change that plan. Very important. That's tremendous insight.

Huge. The other thing Dan I learned is it gives you this common language and it lets you depersonalize the interaction. It's not you me, it's your better way. Your makes sense. You're simplify. So it allows you to have a conversation with someone you're close and not feeling feel attacked or judged because it's just recognizing this is your unique superpower and that superpower shows up with mine this way. Sometimes they complement really well. Sometimes they have a little friction, but it's the superpower. It's not you. And so that really helps us to have healthy carefrontation conversation.

Well, James, your coach, Krista Martin. Right. She's right way, all the way. And I can see where you need that coach to bring you in because a lot of people say, well, right ways aren't going to get along so well with better ways. And of course there's going to be that friction. But when you realize what you bring to each other. Right. Christa is all about Structure. She's all about systems and processes. James is not going to have a system and process in place unless nothing practical.

And you're going to change it a lot because you're always looking for a better way. And she's going to say, look, this works. Why are we going to change it? Right.

Go ahead.

We get on a call and I start talking and Krista starts drawing pictures. She's got markers and drawing pictures. She says, here's what I heard you say and here's how you should do it. And I take it and she sends me screenshots and I run with it until I get to the next point. And it works so well because she is that detailed, process oriented. I'm like this, Dan. I jump out of the plane and I develop. I grow my wings on the way down and I fly. That's how I go. That's how I roll. And she keeps me landing smoothly with the right way.

Right. And the right way. People that are listening are like, how can you do that? Right? You've got a plan and trust. And you. What do you mean you didn't have. You just jumped out of the plane. That's what you'll do when you're, you're, you've got better way. Hey, listen, we'll figure something out. We're gonna go fast. Right? Love that.

Tell me about this. I, I know that you, we work with a lot of people. Not all of them have that interesting story. You're a veteran.

Yes.

You're a business leader. Tell me when we met and we figured out, okay, James, here, here's your why operating system. Your, your why is to find a better way. Your how is to simplify and your what is to contribute.

Yep.

One of the things I love doing is. Let's get that story. Tell me some story. Tell me about a time that you did. You found a better way to do something. You did it by simplifying and ultimately you contributed. When you went back, how did you, how many of those stories did you find?

Like every day that happens. And here's the cool part, Dan. When I, when I teach this, I tell people, here's how you activate it. Start telling people ahead of time your why, your how, your what as. As a disclaimer on why the next thing is going to come out of your mouth. Right. So I'll say to people, hey, listen, I'm. My how is simplify. So you're going to get from me three bullets. You're going to get an acronym. You're going to get A story. Just know that's what you're going to get from me. And so they don't, they just know from James it's going to be simple. I was in church one Sunday and the pastor was talking about purpose. There's another guy who coaches purpose. And he looked at this guy and said, hey, don't you have a 15 question process to get to purpose? This guy nodded his head. He pointed to me. How many is yours, James? I said, three.

I get the purpose in three. Like I make everything simple. So I'm continually simplifying, always looking for a better way. Obviously, you know, with better ways, our challenge is it's never good enough. We're permanently dissatisfied. Right. And so we have to say what's good enough. So I have to kind of start out before letting go of continuing to ideate better ways because that's enjoyable for me and really land on what's good enough.

I love that. So how have you. So we've got the. How's your messaging changed, James? Because a lot of people that I talk to say, well, I've got messaging. I've, I'm working on that already. But how did you change the way you message your business since you found out your WYO operating system?

Yeah, again, I was always talking about this idea of purpose driven living on purpose. And now when I could talk about why I do what I do and what you're going to get from me if you work with me, I'm going to help you get to the dreams and visions you want. Because better way is what drives me. It's going to be very simple and ultimately it'll create value and significance in your life. That's the way I talk.

I love that. And, and tell me, tell me this. I, I, as you know, in business development, I'm always talking to people that haven't heard of us before, haven't heard of our system. If I've got, if got, if you had someone call you and they said, you know what, I'm on the fence. Dan's talking to me about becoming YOS certified. Here's what, what he said. What would you say to someone that's on the fence?

Man, I'd say, first thing I'd say is lace up your Nikes and just do it. That's where I'd start. Just jump in the water and do it. The strategies, the vision, the mindsets, the energy, all the resources and support. Like, I'm in a couple of other different groups, Dan, and there's not a group that I'M connected with that has so much support and resources as working with the Y Institute. Back to your. How do I apply it? When that presentation you and I worked on the presentation from a webinar. I simplified taking the nine rank order and I used the two questions. Remember that? Right to this day. I was talking to Eileen, shout out to Eileen out there and Data Point. And I was saying, I do the two questions and I walk people through that. It's simple. They get it at the end. I have every client stand up wherever they are and read their full why iOS? Statement. And just to watch them light up on screen when they recognize their superpower and they stand in it, they will no longer take judgment from anybody. Condemnation or shame. This is who I am. And so I, I would say the resources, the support, the tool like it's to the point. Dan. I could do a. I could do a class this afternoon. I don't have to prepare because you guys have done the work. You have the strategies. You help us understand how to honestly monetize it for a three hour yos. I charge $5,000 and companies pay it. And then there's a second team yos and it can continue on and that can result in one on one coaching. So there is a huge income stream from one encounter with the client to maximize the ROI on anything that it costs us to get started. So again, put on your Nikes if you're thinking about it. Step out in faith. Many times we want clear understanding of the destination before we move. But the fact is clarity comes from looking in the rearview mirror. We have to take action, then we get confident, then we generate momentum and then we achieve our results.

So just do it, man.

That.

I love that. I'm gonna. We're gonna record that. I know Bella is gonna take that and record it. We're gonna share it with other people. I love the that what you're saying is you just have to take action sometimes. And like you did, right? You jumped in, you sold it, you weren't ready, you hadn't finished, you hadn't started trading. You already sold the workshop. And then you and you went on and then created, created your presentation. We worked on it together. I want to give a shout out to the Y Force. That's what we call our internal team.

So Aiden, Bella, Lynette, Sunil, Rafiq. He's our tech guru.

Yeah.

And of course Maria, who kind of runs the. Runs the whole show. You know, they're, they're making it happen behind the scenes so that we give you Excellent support. So I really, really appreciate you giving them a shout out for everything that they do. You know, you came in, James, before we had the automated yos.

That's right.

So that first workshop you did, you had to do some work. It took you, like you said, two to three hours of hard work, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

How has having the automated YOS discovery changed the way your practice runs?

So here's what I've chosen to do. If I'm going to do, if I'm going to meet with someone to consider them as a partner, I'll use the yos to get them all the way quickly, then we have a conversation. But for me, with clients and with the workshops, I love the interactive experience of going through it. So I'm still doing the old school, ask the two questions and what's cool about it is others then weigh in and go, yeah, that is you. Yeah. And it just kind of helps to confirm for people as they go through that. Because here's the thing, Dan. Knowledge plus experience equals the true head and heart transformation. Right? And so if you just get the knowledge too fast, you don't get to experience it. You don't have that transformation take place before the encounter is over. So I still kind of work through that process. And in other cases where I want to go better way fast, I'll take them all the way to yos. So it just depends on what the need is for me.

We just had a comment from Tanika. She just joined us very recently. I know she just finished training. She said, awesome. Anointed counsel, James Madison. So kudos from Tanika to you. You know, one of the things that some of the, you know, we. I've been around this long enough that we used to do the why manually. Just the why.

So.

And when we went from the why manually, walking people through it, asking the questions to get to why to the automated why discovery, everybody said, well, I'm missing out on that experience of getting to know people. Same thing now. When we went from the YOS to the doing it, you automate it. A lot of people said that. What I have found is you can still have that time in those stories. You're just doing it afterward and now you're not guessing on what's going to come out. Right. So you probably have a lot, just like I did earlier with you. So tell me about a time.

Yeah, yeah.

Where you found a better way to do something. You simplified it, you did it by simplifying and ultimately contributed to someone's success. We can still do that what about what your best. What's the biggest breakthrough that you've had once, you know somebody's why operating system? Maybe it sounds like it might have happened with your why with your wife, but anyone else where, you know, maybe you were butting heads before, but now that you've understand him at this level, things are flowing better.

Yeah, I think I actually. I was coaching a client two days ago, and hers is identical to my wife, so I understand exactly how she operates. And I told her, tell your husband to call me. I can give him the keys to you, because my wife is exactly the same. Trust and right way and contribute. And so we were talking about something about her getting overwhelmed and taking on too much. Right. And I know that's trust. I heard that kick in. So we really broke that down. And what at the root was this belief that had been developed, the false belief around I'm not enough at a young age. Right. So imagine taking the lie of I'm not enough and adding it to trust, which is doing everything, even at your own expense. Expense to prove you're trustworthy. So as we dove into that and we really got deep, we got to the root of that, using trust as kind of that springboard. And she said to me in an hour, this is the best session we've ever had. Like, to really get to the root, not just fix the thing today, but to fix the thing that will prevent the things from happening in the future was amazing. And I just referenced back to that. When I heard her speak, I connected to that trust, and she. She clearly got it. And she. And we. And we went from there. It was amazing.

Excellent job. Well, James, we're out of time. I know that Bella and Lynette are going to love that we finish on time. Especially quick start, guys that love to talk, and we're going to finish right on time. We got. Is there. Is there a question I haven't asked you that you want to make sure.

We talk about today.

Again? I just think the question is, for me, there was never hesitation. And I would just tell people, clarity comes from taking imperfect action. My coach says imperfect action, then you learn and you get confident, then you gain momentum, and then you run. So I would say, again, just do it.

James, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. I missed you. I know we. We talk on text all the time.

That's right.

But it's been such a pleasure to have you on the show. I love that we started. Why not Wednesdays? Because, you know, we. We've had so many new coaches join. The monthly show was not enough so I could feature you guys. And I had to go back and say, wait a minute. We haven't had James Madison on. We had to get you back on. And I love this interaction today. Really appreciate you. Have a great rest of the week. And I know I'll be talking to you soon.

Absolutely. And see everybody else in the y family.

All right, brother.

Take care, man. Bye.