WHY Not Wednesday with Kurt Von Ahnen

Made us question everything.

Our relationships.

Our jobs.

What constitutes an.

Office.

And who we are.

In a.

World filled with chaos, confusion, and uncertainty. It's time for some clarity. It's time to start understanding one another.

It's time to start understanding ourselves.

We envision a world where everyone knows their why. But even more, we envision a world where everyone knows their why. O s, their why, their how, and their what. The operating system that drives you, that lets the world know where you stand.

What your unique gift is, and most importantly, who you are.

Yos.

Are you ready?

Hello and welcome to why not Wednesday. We are so excited today. I've got an old Albuquerque friend of mine at via Denver. Via Albuquerque, and now he's on the west coast. But Kurt Vanonen is our guest today. And if you guys have been following my LinkedIn post, he's a guy that gets stuff done. And there's another word that we can use in there and we'll let him use it if that's how he wants to use it. But you know what? He's a guy that gets stuff done and we want to talk to him. So he's a business consultant. He's a speaker, He's a trainer. He's a. He's a guy who is tech friendly and he helps businesses grow in productivity, efficiency, and profit. So if you're a business owner and you want to grow in productivity, efficiency, and profit and who doesn't? It doesn't matter. I don't care how good you are. Those are things you can always improve on. This is the guy you want to be talking to. His why Os is to make sense of the complex and challenging his how is to find a better way and is what is trust. So we've had a chance, I guess. We met about a year ago and we've had conversations back and forth. Just because he's such a great guy, he's bringing value to the world. I like him so much. I said when I started the show, he was one of the people. I said, you know, I gotta have him on. So let's welcome Kurt Van Ahnin. Welcome, Kurt. How are you, dude?

I am awesome. And here you are leveraging our Albuquerque connection. But I don't have any bottles of Tio Frank's green chili sauce in my house yet. So you know what?

We'll have to take care of that for you. If you're nice enough to me, we can take care of that. So welcome Watson. There's Watson. Jordan tunes in just about every week and he is one of Our YOS coaches. So is Lynn Everard, and he's here, too. So, guys, welcome and thank you for joining. I know you're gonna have some questions for Kurt as we get started. But, Kurt, you know, here's what's exciting. Here's what I know you're excited about right now. You've got a book coming out. So where are and tell us about it.

Well, you know, I'm a lifetime student of leadership. It's, you know, it started out with. With a. With a rough spot in high school, started out with some rougher spots after high school. And then I finally started to realize, like, I'm not fulfilling or I'm not. I'm not being natural in myself. Like, I was just always fighting and combating myself. And I said, I got to start doing things more seriously. And so I started studying things like John Maxwell and Tony Robbins and. And, you know, later in life as Pedro Russell Brunson, those guys. But the more I studied, the more I realized people were coming. Like, I'm John Maxwell certified. I went to the big event in Florida and got the certification and did all that. But a lot of the people that I graduated with, they had this misconception that to be successful in leadership, you need to speak to an auditorium full of people. You need to gather masses of people to do things. And for me, leadership was always about just leading the circle that you have the influence on at that moment. You know, so if you're a parent, your circles, your family, right? And then if you're coaching a baseball team, it's that baseball team. And I. I kept thinking in terms of these circles and. And that we can lead from anywhere. And that. And then I started to believe that everyone is naturally called to a certain position of leadership. And it's. The more I see things going astray in society right now, the more I'm realizing, wait a minute. The reason these decisions seem bad or imbalanced is because it's an. It's an unnatural fulfillment of that leadership position. Somebody that was naturally called to that spot, passed on it, and then somebody else unnaturally filled that spot. And when that happens and stair steps its way up through society, we end up with what we have now. An environment where we all sit around and go, how did that decision get made? Or how did that person get to that level? Or how did. And it's. We let that happen. So I wrote a book about it.

What's the title of the book, Kurt?

Action Leadership from the Edge. And originally it was going to be Action Leadership from the edge of the circle. Meaning that instead of speaking out to a group, you're speaking into a group. So let's say there's a circle of people that you have influence over.

Yes.

You don't have to be everything to everybody. You're only responsible for your niche, your specialty, your focal point, your sweet spot. And so as you are responsible for your sweet spot to that circle of people, other people around that edge of the circle filter in their value to those people as well. And then the goal is, of course, once you begin to recognize what you're doing is to leverage your relationships with co leaders on the circle to expand your circles and get bigger and better.

Man, you, you are talking my language, Kurt. And I want to recognize some people that commented while you were talking. First of all, Tiffany Marchink, she's on my morning. Morning devotional. That, by the way, that morning devotional is run by this lady, Melanie Yake, who gave you a big woo hoo. She's a huge John Maxwell trained. She. I think she mentioned it here, JMT DNA. So you know all about that, right?

I got the T shirt.

I got to tell you, there are so many of our Y coaches are also John Maxwell. So we just enjoy that group. That's a great circle to have as part of our group. And you brought something great up. We talk about the, the, the circles that we're a part of, whether it's your prayer group where it's the masterminds that we participate in, the people that were involved when the influence we have. But you mentioned something that's really, really important. You said when someone doesn't fill that position, the person that's supposed to be, then the wrong person fills it.

Right? Yeah. Steps.

And, and we, and I hear this all the time. I know a lot of high quality people, you know, New Mexico, that I say, you know, that guy is so good, he should be governor or he should be our senator. But the best people are staying away from those very difficult roles because of the politics, because of what they would have to put their families through. So then we, then, then what we have is a lesser quality of individual that's willing. And not that they're. All of them are, but when you get to the point, those people that are making those decisions that are hurting us are people that maybe we wouldn't put up there, but we don't. It's the majority that rules. Right. Curse. So talk a little bit more about that.

Well, and not to blow the whole, you know, I wrote a book. It's in the book.

Don't give the whole book away.

But, but if you think about it the way that I'm talking about this, you know, the parent has to be the parent, the coach has to be the coach. The teacher needs to be the teacher, the pastor needs to be the pastor. So, so if all of these are naturally fulfilled roles, then we have a much more stable foundation for leaders to come in at those higher levels you were talking about with that extra stress and all that. But when you are, if someone comes up to you and goes, you would be a great governor, you know, we're going to give you financial backing. We want you to run for this.

Right.

If you look at the current societal structure and you look at all of the natural leadership voids that are existing now, right. Naturally someone that's qualified for the job is going to go, nope, nope, nope, not me.

Nope.

One of my famous lines when I talk about writing the book is a lot of folks that would be great leaders will say, you know what? Leadership's not for me, but I'd be a great number two. I'd like to be in the background and move some big pieces. But, but, but I'm not the leader. I'm a good number two. And the problem is, is that a lot of these folks that step back and go, I'm a good number two or a number three, they're the ones that need to be at the top. They need to make, they need to make that jump. But until the rest of us, I mean, again, I think everybody's called to a certain position of leadership. And so as, as more of us at the foundational levels fill those natural roles, we create a stronger foundation for people at higher levels so that they don't feel so alone and stranded and overwhelmed, quite frankly, with, with the void that's out there.

Yeah. No, and I think it is such a great point that you make. You know, sometimes we're called to step up. Right. It's as much as you want to be number two, number one might be exactly where you're going to make the most difference. Let me recognize Jerry Fletcher. He said he's ready for this. Thank you, Jerry. He's up in, he's out on the West Coast. And then Watson, Jordan, when you were talking about your high school days, and he said, be true to yourself for the win. So I want to make sure and recognize that. And then Melanie talks about the fact that we talk about this every morning. Leadership is influenced.

Yeah. Well, she's a John Maxwell DNA person, so she understands the leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. Quote from John. I leverage that quote quite a bit in the book and my calling on this is my calling. My statement is where does the influence come from? To me, I think the influence comes from the actions we take. So that, that's why the, the book title is Action Leadership. It's we can talk about being a leader all we want, but until we take action, not very many people are going to be influenced by it.

And you know, we talk about that and Melanie was talking about things we talk about every morning. One of the things we talk about is action. Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. Better than perfect. Yeah. Because perfect in action doesn't help anybody. Just get started. Get, get, create that first draft and then make it better. Bella has a great comment here. She thinks, she says a lot of times she thinks contributes would be amazing leaders, but a lot of them prefer the background at times. However, when they do step up to lead, they kill it. So these are the people that believe in making a difference, making a positive impact. They always want to put other people forward and when they get put in the forefront, they do a fantastic job. And we've met some great leaders through, through the WHY Institute that we've talked to that have the why of contribute. So let's talk a little bit about your yos, Kurt. So your make sense. You're a person that loves to make sense of the complex and challenging, solve problems. You do that by finding better ways and sharing them. So you, you find better ways to do things in order to make sense of the complex and challenging. And then ultimately what people can count on from you is you're, you're a trusted source. You're somebody that, and I know this just from the few times we've interacted. If Kirk says he's going to do something, just consider it done. You don't have to check on Kurt. It's going to get done. And that's powerful, especially as a coach, as a consultant, to have somebody who's, hey, by the way, here's a guy who wants to solve your problems by finding better ways to do things. And ultimately you can count on him. Who doesn't want to hire that guy? How does that resonate with you, Kurt?

You know, the Manana Nomas name is, is all based on that. And I think we talked about that before because it was, it was born out of frustration when I worked in New Mexico running my own company. It was called Vanonen Designs and PR back then. And I kept Scheduling with new clients through the South Valley Economic Development Center. They would send me all these new clients, and. And I would say, great, so you want a website. Awesome. This is what we're going to do. We're going to do boom, boom, boom, boom, right? So from you, I need this, this, and this. So we're going to meet again in two weeks. Make sure you have that with you, and then we can move to the next step. So we'd meet again in two weeks, and nobody would ever have their stuff ready. And I finally lost my temper once, and I said, dang it, you know, manana, no mas. You can't put off till tomorrow what can be done today. We can't miss deadlines. We can't go over budget. You know, these things exist for a reason. We have to comply. And the guy that ran the center, he goes, hey, Kurt, that'd be a good, good name for your business. And so. So Mandela, mas.

That would be a good name for your business, eh?

So I. I registered the name. I kept it. And, you know, people told me, they said, dude, this is suicide. You know, you.

You're.

You're. You're German. You can't call yourself manana. No, Moss. And I said, you know what? We're going to change the rules. No more deposits, no more payments. No, you pay up front, you meet your deadlines, or you get thrown out of the program. We make room for someone that wants to be vested in their own success. And I put out some accountability. And our business tripled that year. And. And that was that. That was the thing, like, as far as leadership goes and where my mind was going at that time, I was like, people want the accountability. People want the performance. They want to know what success is going to feel like. And unfortunately, when we let people kind of mishmash on their own, they don't have that inner drive to fulfill it. And sometimes they need a nudge.

Yeah, well, it's funny you're talking. You're talking about that because I was talking to a coach yesterday, and what happens is if we lower the standard, then we just keep lowering the standard, right? It just keeps. And then you. And then more people get in. But when you raise the standard and next thing you know, you're. You're. Now, when you tripled your business, you were working only with your ideal clients, People that were doing what you wanted them to do, that were listening to what you had to say, and they were implementing those better ways that you found for them. They were implementing those solutions that you found for them. And they built trust, right? Because trust was important to you. If I. If you tell me, hey, you got to get this done in two weeks. And you show up two weeks later with nothing. That's violating Kurt's trust. You don't have a lot of patience for that. The other thing I was going to comment on is a better way how. I think this is something you guys do. Gary, our founder and CEO, his. He developed the why Institute because of frustration. He was trying to build the program. So the algorithm that you went through to discover your why, how, and what, he had sent it out to some programmers and they were trying to build it. And every two weeks they come back, oh, we haven't figured it out.

We.

We can't get. We can't get it right. He finally said, forget it. And he said, give me. Give me all the code. Give me everything. He spent an entire weekend, just 24 7, taught himself how to code and wrote the program himself, because that's what better way people do. You know what? There's got to be a better way. If you can't find it, I'm just going to do it myself. I think that's what you finally did. You know what? There's got to be a better way to do that.

It's got to be a better way. I remember I was working 14 hour days in the car business, and when the. When the economy went down, 2008, you know, it was pretty bad in Albuquerque, right? Y. And I thought, I keep looking for work. I'm not getting it. I keep, you know, I can stay in the car business and work 14 hours a day and make nothing. I said, you know what? I'm just gonna start. If I can't find a job, I'll make a job. And so I started Manana Nomas and just started getting customers. And. And you know, it was. Here's a funny thing about starting your own business, Dan. No one says, where did you go to school? What was your gpa? Or what college did you go to? When you say, here's the services I offer. I can have them done by this time. And it costs this much. That's all the business cares about. They don't care about all the other stuff that helped you get a job on time, right? Yeah. Are you under budget? Are you on time? And then. And are you okay to work with? Is it straightforward? You know, and I grabbed onto that.

And I ran with it as it makes sense, right? You help me make sense of it. So tell me. So I know we've talked a little bit about Banana Nomas, but what is it? Well, tell me what, what. How do you define it? What is it?

The. The best way for me to define it for people, because I'm in my 50s and it seems like I've done a lot more than I haven't done. So people say, well, can you do this? Can you do that? Can you? Yes, yes, yes. But to describe it in, like an elevator speech, it's, we're a business consultancy agency, and we leverage tech for communication. So I'll go into a business, I'll do a needs assessment, and if that needs assessment says, hey, you do great with a digital online onboarding program for your employees, we can build that for them, that's not a problem. Or, you know, you've got a community of customers, you need something off of Facebook, well, then we'll. We'll build an online community for them, a membership or a learning site for them. And then we, you know, because of that, we end up doing the digital marketing and the stuff that goes along with it. I've got a great team of people that work with me. It's not just me, but. But, you know, I've got some real good core power partners that I bring into different projects. And, and it just works, man, just being able to meet business owners where they're at, and go, okay, what do you. What are your goals and where do you want to be? And then say, okay, well, here's the snapshot. This is where you're at, and this is where you want to be. These are the five steps I can take to get you closer to it. And then it's up to them, you know, if they want to write the check, we go to work. If they don't want to write the check, they can take the free advice and move on down to find somebody else.

Absolutely. And what I have found is you can take the free advice. There's a lot of free advice out there, but you need the person that created it. There's a. There's a structure and everything that comes with it. That's what you pay Kurt Von Arnold for. You know, I heard a great story of a consultant that they hire. There's a machine goes down at a manufacturing plant, and they have to stop production. And they pay this guy to come in, comes in with a little briefcase, taps the machine with his hammer. Once machine gets started going, they start production. The next day, they. He sent him a bill, and it's for a thousand dollars. And the guy's like a Thousand dollars for him to come in and tap the. The machine. He's like, you're crazy. He says, no worries. I'll redo my invoice. He sends the invoice, itemizes it. He says, $999 for the experience that led to me knowing where to tap the machine, $1 for tapping the machine. And that makes sense. That's what. That's what's there from the experience, because, as you said, you've done more than you haven't done. I want to recognize Raymond Kemp. Make your own way. You know, Raymond Kemp's a former fleet master chief of the United States Navy and one of our coaches, and he's an amazing individual. So I want to make sure and say hi to Raymond, and he's giving you kudos for making your own way. And as Watson says, desire for more equals freedom and independence. I totally agree, Watson.

So let's. Let's thank Raymond for his service, too.

Absolutely. Raymond is in a. He's got an amazing story. He's been on the show, Kurt. He's on our podcast, too, so if you get a chance to listen to him. Not a bad guy to connect with. He's got an amazing story, and he's doing some amazing things with. He's. He was appointed to the National Battle Monuments Commission by the president. So he's going around making sure our battle monuments are kept in great shape and part of making sure we keep the right ones, especially in this cancel culture, where some monuments are going away. We've got raven to protect the national monuments.

I was doing good. I was. I was tightening my lip on that one. I wasn't going to make any comments.

Yeah, it's hard, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're living in some really strange times.

Yeah. Well, we love Raymond, and if you get a chance to meet him, he is a quality, wonderful individual. Tell me this, and, Kurt, you've probably had a few of these. What's been your biggest why not moment? That's the title of the show. We always want to ask. Tell me about a time when you said, why not? You went for it, and you got some great results.

You know, I have a signature talk where I was actually asked to leave high school about three, four months before high school ended. And. And that's always a unique one. Right. Because this is before childhood protective services and stuff like that. I just got pulled in a room and told, hey, you're behind on your tuition, and we're just going to let you go, you know? And I was, you know, a single Parent household that I came from and all I was helping pay bills and all these. And I thought it was so bizarre, right, Because I. This is weird because it can't be about money. I mean, they've got kids, they bus here for free, you know, So I was like, it can't really be about the money. And I. And I said, well, I'm sure we can work something out, you know? And the disciplinarian at the school said, well, Kurt, it's not just about the money. It's about your attitude, you know? And I said, okay, well, I guess I'm gonna leave then. And he goes, well, and. And just one more thing. He says, you know, a kid like you is never gonna amount to anything in this world. And that was the last thing he said to me before I left. And some. Some people would say, that's, you know, how is that your why not? Moment, Right? How is that? Or whatever? Well, it wasn't. I mean, for the first 10, 12 years, I went out of my way to prove the guy right. I mean, I led a horrible lifestyle and made really bad decisions. But then I would say maybe 12, 14, 15 years later, it was kind of the kick in the pants to like, wait a minute, I'm not who they said I was. I'm not that person. I can overcome and I can be whatever I want to be. And then the next why not that's positive is when I ran Manana no mas Ducati North America was my biggest client, you know, and I was. I grew up loving motorcycles. I started riding bikes when I was six years old. And now I got a company telling me, hey, can you go to Italy real quick and learn about the new models and teach all the mechanics in the United States about it? And. And you're going, yeah, I. I might be in a little bit over my head, but I'm pretty sure I can figure this out along the way. And ended up making some really great strides in that position for the company. I mean, we came out with an electronic diagnostics program. We came out with all kinds of stuff that wasn't even on the chalkboard when I got the job, you know, But. But through again, finding. Finding a better way, right?

It's like, well, you went in and solved the problem and you found a better way. I mean, that's living. Living your yos. And hey, I want to recognize Ada Jo. So she is just brand new, by the way. So, Raymond Melanie Watson, everybody. Say hello to ADA Jo. She is. She's going to be joining us here in the next few months as a newly certified Y coach. So we want to welcome her. And I know she is very excited to be part of the team. Melanie says fun interview, so I know, I know she's enjoying this. Kurt, that is so cool that you are, that you, that you shared that story about, you know, who you were isn't who people said you were and you didn't change. Right. It's not the fact that you had to change. It's that you lived into who you are. And Gary and I were having this conversation yesterday. So tell me if you agree with this. When you find out you're discovering your why is not about changing. It's about living your strengths. It's about understanding. Hey, man, Kurt solves problems. It's something he does. That's his superpower. He finds better ways and he is trustworthy as the day is long. And those are things you can't take away from Kurt.

Once you understand why you can, you can amplify the strengths.

Yes.

You know, I mean, you can read the book strengths finders all you want, but if you don't understand how you're wired or how you can employ those strengths, you can find yourself, you know, trying to tread water quite a bit instead of making distance.

Yeah, exactly. And you don't realize it how many of us, and Melanie knows, we were both on that corporate hamster wheel for a long time. So we didn't do what you did. You went out. Either way. We all ended up at a great place. But I took the corporate route. And you could say it was an easy route. I knew how to interview. I had the test scores, the mba, all that stuff that gets you to those places. Then you realize you wake up one day, it's like, this isn't what I love doing. What I love doing is connecting with people. What I love doing is helping people succeed. What I love doing is doing things differently. And being in a corporate environment didn't feed that. And you're the same way. You know, you, you, you started that down the path. That led you to some stability. Those 14 hour days weren't fun. No, you weren't, you weren't having fun. Those 14 hour days. I bet you probably put in 16 hour days today and they don't even feel like you're working.

I actually control myself much better than.

That now, Dan, that's something we want to hear about. Tell us.

In fact, about three months ago, I was doing. You know, I don't know if you know this or not, but I went live on LinkedIn and on YouTube every day for two years. Kind of like a social.

One of the times we met, we.

Were during your streak and this thing was going off like crazy when I was doing one of my lives about three months ago, just ding, ding, ding dong. And I thought, you know what? I don't have a boss. I mean, I have, I have clients, but I don't have a boss. Nobody needs to reach me that badly. Like what's. I'm. I, I had given myself over to something that wasn't there to take, that I should have given myself to, right? So I reset the phone and I took all the social media out of it. Everything. All it does now is emails and phone calls. And my life changed. So now I use social media for work. I don't use social media all the time. I use it for, for work. So when I'm working, I'm here in front of the computer, I'm in this little work area and, and I have access to everything through the PC. As soon as I turn the computer off and go in to spend time with my family and cook dinner or watch TV with them in the evening, it's over, it's done until the next day. And to be able to steal that time back, that, that, that kind of, that re centering, right, that, that like if I want to go mountain biking, like if I, if I get to a point where I'm staring at the computer and nothing's happening, I realize I need a physical outlet. My mental outlet is done. So I get a physical outlet, I go mountain biking for two hours, I come back and I knock out two days worth of work in an afternoon. Oh yeah, but it's just, you have to be able to know yourself. You have to recognize, you have to recognize your current state and then execute accordingly.

That is, you know, that is. Put that as a golden nugget. Joe Ache. Record that and let's put that in the highlight video. One of the things we'll do, Kurt at the end of the show and is our.

Partner, Joe A Studios, edits the videos and he'll take some clips and he'll create a file and you'll have access to the clips in the whole show. But I want that one of the clips, turn off the phone, take off the social media so that if somebody needs to reach you, they're going to text you or call you and that's it. And if you want to surf, you can surf, but no LinkedIn, no Facebook, no YouTube, all of that stuff that steals time away because how often are we in front of somebody having a great conversation in that buzz, and you can't avoid it. Right? That is really cool. Let's recognize. So Raymond Kip's got two. I'm going to recognize him twice. He said, walking in power. That's great. Love that. And I agree with him. And then I love Lynn's comment with regards to the why your weaknesses won't change the world, but your strengths combined with your why can. So our team is giving you a lot of love here. So let me ask you this. How has discovering your yos given impacted your personal life? Are you doing anything different since you figured out how you how you operate in your why, your how, and your what?

Just to be blunt, Dan, and really transparent, I think. And. And bear with me. And people might think that I'm talking out of some other orifice, but.

I'm ahead of the curve a lot. Like, a lot of my projects are way ahead of their time. Like, I had an online power sports magazine before. Magazines weren't when they were in print. So everyone said, well, where's it printed? Well, it's not. It's online. Well, that's never gonna work. Right. I had an online motorcycle accessory store called Rainy Performance Products. Never got off the ground because I didn't have a brick and mortar store. And. And so you see how I'm saying these things. It's like now you're thinking back and you're going, well, that doesn't make sense, because that's the only way to do business now. So, like, when I launched this power sport academy thing, I launched that at the beginning of COVID to be dealer direct and have dealer focused training for people in the power sports industry. And people aren't signing up, like, at least not the way I thought they would. And. And I'm realizing I'm ahead of the curve. And the Y O S helps me to realize that, you know, my ability to make the complicated more simple and to find a better way and to build trust, all of that takes time. And I might be two, three, maybe five years ahead of the curve for what that audience is going to be due for. And I just have to build the patience for that, which I didn't. So. So earlier I may have said, oh, look, another failure. Yeah, right. But now instead of saying another failure, I go, I'm early to market again.

Yeah, just hold on to that and. And keep going. Right. And Bella. You got it. Bella says, makes sense. People are usually way ahead. You have an uncanny ability to process stuff and understand it way faster than everybody else. That's your superpower, and that's absolute. You're absolutely right. You're going to be ahead of the curve a lot of times, and so you just got to have some patience for it. And Ada Jo says, raymond Kemp, thank you. Oh. So she's giving Raymond Kemp some kudos. Ada Jo, welcome. But, yeah, you're absolutely right. And the fact that you're in your, as a better way person, you're just wired to improve things. That's probably what you've always done. And then at the end of the day, man, what a great. What, you know, somebody you, you can count on. So I, I, I've just enjoyed this time together, Kurt. And I can't wait to, to be on your show and, and to share our networks with each other. I know everybody, all these comments. I know some of these folks are going to be reaching out to you. I, I want to make sure we bring you, you know, we're having our annual conference in September in Albuquerque, so we're gonna bring all our coaches from all over the world to Albuquerque. So I'll make sure and get those dates to you. Maybe we can have some green chili for you while we do that.

I was gonna say I could smell that. Green chili roasted.

I'm not gonna tell you, but I'm about to go have a green chili cheeseburger for lunch when we're done here. A late lunch for me, but I can't wait. And you know what? Let's, let's trade addresses and I'll get you some, some, some green chili over to your, to your neck of the woods. And I think with that, I think, what do you say we wrap it up, Kurt?

Why not?