Win on Purpose

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Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and and actually helping you discover and then live your why. Now, if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we bring on somebody with that why. So if you've not yet discovered your why, go to whyinstitute.com, take the why discovery and then come back because. This will have so much more meaning for you when you know your why. Today we're going to be talking about the why of Better Way, which happens to be my why as well. So this is always interesting for me. Now, people with this why constantly seek better ways to do things. They can't stop themselves from trying to do it better. They take virtually anything and want to improve upon it, make it better, and share their improvement with the world. They invent things as you may. As you discuss something with them, they are asking themselves, what if we did it this way? Or maybe this would work better. People with this particular why contribute with constant innovations and better processes and systems, and operate under the motto often pleased, never satisfied. They are also very good at associating, which means taking something from one industry and applying it to another. So my guest today, his name is Jerry Lujan. Now, Jerry and I have known each other for many, many years. In the last six years, we've become a lot closer and you'll see why in a minute. Because Jerry believes when you find a better way to make a positive impact on people's lives, it's an obligation to share it and make a difference. He's a 30 year veteran in the insurance industry. Jerry found a better way to quadruple his business While cutting his 80 hour work week in half. Due to this, he was named one of the 25 most innovative agents in America. He's the founder of Elevation180, the Win 180 success program, and author of the book Win on Purpose. Jerry is committed to coaching people to prepare to win before they ever show up by developing successful habits, cultivating elite performance, and maximizing the freedom of time for all his coaching clients. Since 2014, every one of Jerry's coaching clients has had their very best year of their careers. Jerry, welcome to the Podcast.

Thanks, Gary. Appreciate you having me.

So you and I have known each other a long time. We're both from Albuquerque. Our families are from Albuquerque. Your father knew my grandfather. And so we go back a long ways.

Yeah, it's been a long, long friendship. And as you said, the last six years, a lot closer.

So tell everybody what happened. I know we have an interesting way that you discovered your why and, and so maybe even go back before that, kind of how you got interested in something like the why and then how you discovered your why.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. So I had, you know, started the insurance business, family business, started by my grandfather actually, in 1926. So long.

Big business.

Big business. Pretty good size insurance agency. You know, at one time the largest independently owned insurance agency in New Mexico. And when I got in the business, I had this big goal of growing my book of business to a million dollars of revenue. And no one had done it before. And so I had this big dream. And 17 years later, by doing things the hard way, just by being kind of a grinder, I finally reached the million dollar mark. But I didn't really have any tools and systems. Actually, the only things I felt I had was time and effort. And after 17 years of finally reaching that big goal, one Friday night I get home and my then 5 year old daughter Kelly came to me and said, daddy, I need an appointment with you to take me to the park tomorrow. And at first, Gary, I thought, well, that's kind of cute. She knows what I do for a living. You know, I make appointments with people when I want to see them or they want to see me, and then hit me like, oh my God, she thinks she needs an appointment with me in order to see me. That's not too cool. So fortunately, I went on the appointment the next morning. And when we get to the park, never forget, she runs and jumps on the swing set and I'm pushing her and she says, daddy stopped the swing. And I went to lift her off and she said, no, no, no, don't lift me off. Come, come around here, I want to talk to you. And so I walked around in front of her and I said, sure, honey, what do you want to talk about? And she looked me right between the eyes and said, daddy, why don't you love me? And it still gets me. But I looked at her and I mean, I'm pretty shocked, to be honest. And I looked at her, I said, of course, course I love you, honey. Why would you ever say that? Without hesitation she said, because you don't spend any time with me. And I said, well, the only thing I could think of. This is pretty lame, but the only thing I could think of to say was, well, honey, that's not true. I'm with you right now. She looked me right between the eyes and said, daddy, you're with me, but you're not with me. And, you know, that really hit me hard and quite frankly, made me mad. One is looking in the mirror thinking, she's right. I really didn't spend much time with her. All I did was work. And number two is I was pretty upset at my wife, Lisa, wondering why she set me up like that. And so after playing for a while at the park, I mean, it really was everything that I could do to pay attention to her. So when we got home, Lisa asked what happened, and I told her. And she said, man, I'm sorry that happened to you, but, you know, she's been at Kelly's, been asking me her about that for the last couple of years.

And.

And Lisa said she'd been defending me about why I was never home, that I was trying to provide for the family. And Lisa said, but I guess she just couldn't take it anymore. So she confronted you herself. And that was a kind of a tipping point moment for me, Gary, that I realized that all of this work and energy and passion and that I'm trying to put into this business didn't really matter if I was going to lose the most important people in my life, which was my family. And so I realized really quickly that one of two things was going to happen. Either they were going to leave me, and if they didn't, how sad would it be to them grow up right in front of your eyes and not even really know them. And so that Monday morning, I hired a coach and started talking about what can I do differently? Because I still wanted to grow the business and felt there was opportunities and I felt there was better ways to do things, but I really didn't know how because I didn't have any more time. And one of the things that that coach did, his name was Dan Sullivan, is they run an assessment called Colby, which I took, and it helped me immensely to understand how I naturally take action. Well, from that, I went in. I wanted to know more about that Colby because it impacted me. And so I went and got trained by Kathy Kolbe, who was the creator of this assessment called Colby. And in that training, she taught me that there was actually three parts of the mind that activate us to take action. And Colby was the second part. And the first part, though, was all derived from our belief system called the affective part of the mind. And so I started taking some different assessments, you know, disc, Myers Briggs Strength finder, Xeniagram, later on, predictive index, culture index, on and on. Because I was always searching for a tool in that part of the mind that I could really get my arms around that accessed my belief systems, in essence, my purpose and my cause. And so I became kind of obsessed about that. And I started so in search of finding that, I kind of ran across you. I mean, it was a long time later.

And. Yeah, well, let me back up a little bit. I. After the good news is, is as you said in your intro, that when I took this coaching and I did the work, I was able to quadruple my book of business. And when that happened, I was honored to be named one of the 25 most innovative insurance agents in America. And from that, people started calling me from all over the country saying, jerry, how the heck did you do that? And most of them would end with, especially in Albuquerque. And so.

I realized at that point that maybe I created a better way how to do something. And I started documenting it all, and then I started trying it with some other people and they started having similar type success. And because of that, people started telling me, hey, Jerry, when you're coaching and training and mentoring, it's when you seem to be the most effective and have the most fun and have the most amount of energy. And so I eventually sold my interest in the agency and started coaching other people. And that's where you came into the picture. I started down that journey and I one Friday night, we're at a Lobo football game and you came up to me and said, hey, how you doing? You know, we knew each other, competed each other, golf and different things, but yes, how I was doing and knew that I was doing some consulting. And I asked you how you knew that and you said that a couple of your patients were clients of mine, but I'll never forget. And you stopped and said, they're getting a lot out of what you coach, but I need to ask you a different question. What's on your mind? And you asked me, you said, jerry, you know, why did you sell your interest in the insurance agency? And then you finished it with when you were at the top of your game and you had to have been making a lot of money and you had to have freedom from ownership in the agency. And I remember that very distinctly. And I gave you an answer and you Paused, and you stopped, and you kind of tilted your head sideways like a dog would when they don't know really what you're. What you think about. And you said, you know, I don't really believe you. And that was pretty much the same response that I had probably gotten a thousand or more times from people that would always ask me that, and I would always give them an answer, but they'd always give me that tilted head look. What typically would happen is because they didn't believe my answer or it wasn't clear enough, they went and made up their own answer.

Yep.

And there was all kinds of things that came out of that that weren't true, but that's what was said. So when I said, well, what do you mean you don't believe me? It kind of made me angry, to be honest. And he said, well, I don't think you're very clear on it. And I said, well, I don't know why you'd say that. And you said, well, I don't think you really know why you did it. You wouldn't let off the pedal on that.

I'm good at that.

You're good at that. Very good at that. So a couple hours later, we're still at the tailgate, walking around, having a couple beers, and you wouldn't let off the pedal. And I finally stopped. And the only way I thought that I could get rid of you.

That was a lot. Yeah. Was by. By saying, hey, Gary, you know, what are you doing these days? Because I knew, you know, you're a dentist. You had created this chair. Awesome chair. You created different events from exercise events and things. World champion racquetball player. I mean, it's pretty diverse, the things that you created. And I thought I could distract you by talking about that. And you looked at me, gave me that sly grin, and you said, well, Jerry, to be honest, I help people figure out why they're doing what they do. Doing. Figure out their why. So I said, are you talking about this Simon Sinek stuff? And you said, well, kind of, but not really. And I said, well, then I'm not interested. You said, why? You don't even know what I do. And I said, I think that Simon Sinek is one of the most brilliant orators around. And the concept of Start with, why I was so intrigued with. I watched that TED Talk like TED Times. And the more I watched it, the angrier I got, or maybe the more frustrated I got because I couldn't figure out. I love the concept, but I couldn't figure out how to apply it to myself. So then when the book came out, I read that thing three times, and I finally got. I couldn't figure it out. So I set it aside and I said, I'm not paying attention to that anymore, because if I can't apply it to myself, then the concept doesn't really matter. And you said, well, that kind of happened to me, too. But you went a step further and you said, you. You interviewed a bunch of people, and you have a way how to help people do it. So reluctantly, I accepted a lunch meeting with you. And I'll never forget. It's one of the days in my life that's completely changed my life. I'd say the appointment with my daughter Kelly was one of them. And this was in the same vein, is it was October 31, 2013. And one of the reasons I remember that day is because that was Halloween. And when I came to pick you up at your office to go to lunch so you can discover my. Why you were dressed like Tinkerbell or I think it was the tooth fairy or something like that, but you. It's a tooth fairy. You had this. Yeah, you had this outfit on. And I'm like, hey, man, I'll go to lunch with you. But not like that.

I wish I'd have stayed in that outfit. I should have stayed.

You should have probably. Yeah, you would have really got me. So you changed clothes, but you still had all that twinkly stuff on your face and everything. So we go to lunch, and I distinctly remember sitting there thinking to myself, what am I doing here?

You were so negative.

I was so negative as a hat. I'm sure throwing off a bad vibe to you, because I remember, arms crossed, sitting back in my chair, like, what in the heck am I doing here? This is a waste of both of ours time.

We should have a picture of you.

I know. We should have taken a picture of that, huh? And so you started asking me some questions that were interesting questions, and when I started answering them, then you started reflecting and asking me things like, jerry, do you. You know, is it common for you to see things that aren't working more than you do, that are? And I was kind of like, well, yeah, I guess so. And you said, well, when you see that and you think you can fix it or find something that works better, do you do that? I said, well, of course. Everybody does that. You said, no, not everybody. And you. So you kept asking questions around that. Then you start saying, when you find a solution that you think is going to Be valuable to people. Can you not help yourself, but go share it with the world? And I remember you said, even if you don't get paid. And I smiled and said, well, of course, Gary. Doesn't everybody do that? And you said, no, not everybody. And so I'll never forget, you leaned forward some and you said, I know why you sold your interest in the agency while you were at the top of your game. Well, now you finally had my interest, real interest. And so I remember leaning forward, back towards you, and you said, jerry, you're wise to find a better way and share it. And you found a better way, and you wanted to now share it at a much higher level. So it makes total sense to me why you sold your interest in the agency. And it was like the biggest. One of the biggest reliefs I've ever had. I remember my shoulders kind of going down, and it's like, oh, my God, that's me. And I remember saying something about, I always thought that was a curse because that's what I did all my life, but that's where I found the most joy and the most amount of energy. But that's. I can't help myself.

Yeah, can't turn it off.

I can't turn it off. And you said, so now, if you can live into that because you can't help yourself, you're always going to be finding better ways. And when you do, if you have the ability to go share it, then you're always going to be lit up. You're always gonna. Your energy level is gonna be a lot higher. You're gonna be so much clearer about things.

Well, it made a lot of sense to me at that time, because that's my why as well. But then I could see the choice you made from the perspective of your why versus just what you did.

Exactly right. Exactly.

Oh, yeah, you found a better way. You have to share it. It no longer gives you the energy to go do it. You want to share it.

Exactly right. Just. That's why I had to do it with a larger audience, I could have continued to do what I was doing. But it didn't get me up in the morning, every day, really excited anymore. As much as if I was sharing what I had found and created with other people so that they could go do it. And I got to tell you, ever since that day. This is going to sound kind of hokey maybe, but I can't recall a day where I didn't wake up not knowing what I was going to be doing and why I was going to Be doing it. And so I use it as a filter. Now I can't help myself, you're right. And so I got pretty good at deciding who my audience was, who I wanted to work with, specifically why. So let's talk about that and who I didn't want to work with.

You call it a filter. What do you mean?

Well, I know that. So my why is to find a better way to insure it. How I do that is by contributing people. I want to make an impact and have an impact on, make a difference in people's lives. And then thirdly, at the end of the day, what I deliver is predictable results. So in y terms, we call that right way. But now when people ask me to get involved, serve on a board, work with somebody, I'm very clear about questions that I ask. And if my role is involved in finding or sharing better ways, Finding, creating, sharing better ways to do things that can help people drive predictable results. Yeah. Then I'm all in. If they're willing to do the work and they're thinking about it in terms of peak performance, doing things at a high level, I'm all in. And if that's not what they're looking for, nothing wrong with them, nothing wrong with me. But that's not a game that I should or lane I should be running in because I know that I'll run out of juice. Yeah, run out of energy. And it's so much more fun when you're operating with a lot of energy. I could do it all day, every day and never get tired of it. And so that's a filter for me or an indicator of the kinds of things that I can have the biggest impact on the world. And you know, I think technology is going to, you know, people want to travel around the country and talk to people. And a lot of it's in the insurance industry. Technology is going to have a huge impact on a lot of people, but. And it's scaring a lot of people. And so I believe truly that if people can really discover why they do what they do, what gives them the most amount of energy, what's most natural to them, help them get the clarity around that when technology comes in, I think they're just going to have an advantage to be able to impact other people and then use the technology that's out there instead of get bypassed by it.

I hear you talk about this a lot. Being in the right lane, playing in the right lane. What's it like to be in the right lane versus being in the wrong lane?

You know, I guess you'd say it metaphor is I can run a lot faster for a lot longer period of time. Right. I can run faster and further. And to me, the. If we're going to really impact people and have fun, we have to have energy for it. And if you're out of the lane and you. You start running out of gas or start slowing down or start getting hurt, in essence, then you can't perform at the same levels. And so back to the filter. What you were talking about is, no matter what, you know that I know my why and how and what, there's still times where we seem to veer out of the lane a little bit. Sure. Right. It's just human, that we're just humans. And what I've. By utilizing this, though, I'm so much clearer to know. When I start feeling tired, I use it as a filter and say, okay, am I running? Am I running out of the lane? And pretty much I always am, because when I'm in the lane, I don't get tired.

Yeah, it's kind of like when your wife asks you to do something you don't want to do.

Right, Exactly. Exactly. Right.

You get that question of, you know, honey, could you do this? And you're like, oh, my God, I'm too tired.

Yeah, I can't do that. Well, especially they ask when you are tired.

Yeah.

Then it's really miserable. Right. And so knowing these things and the. And the filters and the lane is critically important. Actually, my wife, Lisa, a couple years ago, when I started doing a lot more of this work, she came to me and she said, you know, you have to do more of this work. And I said, yeah, I know it's going to be impactful. You know, it's going to generate revenue for us, so on and so forth. And she goes, no, you don't understand what I mean. And she said, as we've started to develop this and understand ourselves, it's had a monstrous impact on our marriage. And I'm starting to hear that from more and more people. I get all the time, couples come up to me and say, hey, man, I just got to thank you. Our marriage is so much better because we understand each other more. And I think it's really that, you know, in looking back, Gary, it's virtually impossible for any of us to understand why and how people don't just do things the way we do because it's so natural to us. And so we assume, because it's natural to us, it should be natural or easy for somebody else to do. And the advantage of knowing your why is that we know not only what's natural to us, but we know what's natural to other people around us, whether it's peers or friends or especially spouses or relationships, the clarity of understanding each other. I think it's something that actually it's why I wake up every morning so excited to be able to go do this with people, because of the benefits that it brings and not just for them. Then it's far reaching. Right. Because then that multiplies to other people. And so, you know, I have a big goal of at least a billion people knowing this. We've talked about that a lot. And you know, you know, when we talked about earlier, I really feel it's an obligation that since we know this and we know it works, and it is the fastest way I've ever discovered for to how people understand the essence of what's deep down inside them as to what they believe in.

Yeah, that essential first step.

It's that essential first step. And so I love the other tools like Colby is an unbelievably effective tool for how you naturally take action. But I think, I truly believe that knowing your why is the essential or critical first step that has to happen. And that's what I'm doing with clients friends is we discover their why. And then a lot of times we'll utilize this other tool, Colby, to understand some specifics of how they do things. And then they understand themselves so much better and they can just get in their lane that they should be running in. Then they can run so much faster and further. This is the funnest thing I've ever done. And you know, I know you do.

It in a lot of different areas, mainly insurance. I know you've worked with sports teams. I know you've worked inadvertently, I think with couples. Just by chance you happen to work with couples. Not like you have a marriage type coaching program, but you have impacted a lot of marriages. And with larger and larger businesses, multi, multibillion dollar businesses. Talk about how you've utilized this with sports teams.

Yeah, so I've been mentoring a guy named Brian Greene. He was the head baseball coach at New Mexico State for the last five years. And now he's the head coach at Washington State. And as I was mentoring him, I really won't work with somebody, mentor somebody, coach them if I don't know their why, because then it's just kind of like shooting at a moving target as to how I can impact them or help them. And so we did his why. Actually, in that case, you and I were playing. We were playing golf with him and we sat him down and discovered his why. And his why is to create relationships based on trust. And I mean, he lit up so much like, oh my God, that's when I am the most effective. That's what I'm doing. My recruiting, I mean, he had four years in a row where they were in the top 40 recruiting classes in the country from a mid major that was kind of an unknown in college baseball. And. And he had the worst record, right? Yeah, at one time when he first came in there, you know, their first year they won 11 games. The next year they won 35 games. It was the biggest turnaround in college baseball. They were a half game from being the biggest turnaround in one season in college baseball history. Wow. And one of the reasons he attributes that is that he discovered his why. So he felt so authentic about his messaging and he got the right people. If he felt there was a connection with not only the player and the in the family, he was going to get the right people in. And if there wasn't and they didn't really care about relationships or trust, no matter how much talent they had, he wouldn't bring them into the program. Well, they went from 11 to 35 wins, 36 wins. Then they won two conference championships in a row. And we started not only after we discovered his why, he said, I need to do this with all my coaching staff. And so when we started working with his coaching staff, he felt that their culture changed and they became so much more cohesive and they could understand each other better, to each could play their position better. Again, running in the lane, however you want to call that. And then after that he said, can you come in and do this with my players? And so we did that at New Mexico State. They had significant success. I mean, I'm grateful that he credited some of this to some of this. Why work and to their success. And you know, after they won a conference championship and went to the NCAA regionals, when they got their rings, he gave me one.

Oh, that's awesome.

So it was, I felt, really part of the team. Well, this last summer he got hired as big jump. Big step for him to go to the Pac12 and coach at Washington State. They needed a big turnaround and they pretty much hired him right away, mainly because of the culture that he drives and the things that he does that are unique. So. So that he brought us out there to work with his coaching staff and his new team. And I think we're going to be doing a lot more of that work because a lot of their coaches now are saying, hey, Coach Green, how are you doing this? Why are you doing this? And so I've already been contacted by other coaches, and so it's interesting where this goes. It doesn't really. I mean, I came out of the insurance industry and started the work there, but. But it doesn't really matter who we're working with, because it's conceptual and what the clearer people can get about themselves and then understand each other, whoever they're working with, have relationships with, they just are moving so much faster.

So if you haven't caught on yet, if you're listening to this and you haven't caught on yet, Jerry uses this in every bit of coaching that he does. So once you learned about this whole why thing and the ability to actually help someone discover their why, you dove right in and you went through all the training to learn how to do it yourself.

It's a better way.

It's a better way.

So I couldn't help myself when I knew it was a better way, and it impacted me. You know, my philosophy is I'm going to learn as much as I can from people that do things at a high level and also things that I've done at a high level. And that's. I filter it all, and that's what I train on. I only train people and work with people and mentor people based on things that I know work and work the best. And when you discovered my why, I said, I need to learn how to do that so I can help other people with that. And now it's essential first step in my relationships with them is doing this with them. And that's how we determine whether it's another filter of mine, whether I really believe that I can help them or not. Because if we believe what each other believes, not that our why has to be the same, but we get that straight from the beginning. And if we can, then we move so much faster together. And if we can't, nothing wrong with them, nothing wrong with me, but it's just we don't really have a reason why we should continue the relationship. I don't really fight that anymore. Or go try and find somebody that doesn't fit. It just becomes clear pretty quick.

But you use this pretty much before every phone call, right?

Yeah, I won't work with anybody. The first thing I do is say, I need you to get online, do the why discovery. And once you've done that, Then I'd be happy to talk to you. Yeah.

Changes everything.

Changes everything because I understand them better and you know, if I can't help them, then I'm not the right person, then so be it. Knowing this though helps us to understand whether or not we want to pursue each other. And if so, then we move and if not, we don't.

So you talk a lot about peak performance, performing at the highest level. What does that mean? Define that for us?

Yes. So one of the things when again back to discovering my why is I realized in anything that I've ever done, whether it's coaching my kids, teams or working with people, is I love working with people that I don't really care how much talent they have. What I care about is if they believe in something that they're going to do the work to get better at. And I believe that those people will always surpass the so called natural talent who won't work at it. And so what lights me up is helping people get to the highest level. And so I study people and try and work with people that do things at the highest level, peak performance. Because I really believe, especially now, as I said before about technology, that people that can't perform at peak levels a lot are going to struggle because technology, you know, they say 35 to 55% of all jobs in five to 10 years they're going to, they're not going to be around anymore now they're going to be new jobs. They say 100% of all jobs in 10 years will be completely different. And so I believe that the people that are going to maximize everything that they do are the ones that can perform at peak levels. And the key ingredient, or at least the essential first step to that is knowing themselves really, really well so that they can get in the right lane so that, so that they can run faster and further.

Yeah, totally agree with you. You did us and in fact we did it together. We worked with a coach, the coach you were talking about, and had him kind of pick the players that he really wanted to build his team around and then found that they were all within a couple of Y's.

Yes.

And that affects his ability to communicate with them, talk to them, attract the right ones so that he builds the right team. How does something like that. You've done a lot more of that than I have as far as building the culture of a business, hiring the right people.

Yeah, that's the main place that we work with is in culture and getting the right people in the right seats, you know, Jim Collins wrote the book Good to Great, and he talked about the get the right people on the bus, then get the right people in the right seats and get the wrong people off the bus. Well, I believe that if the culture is their purpose, their cause, what the organization believes in. And so I created what I call the five Cs of culture, which starts with culture, and a lot of people get it backwards. They have their culture, and then they just go communicate it. And what I found is that typically doesn't stick. And so why we developed the five Cs is I believe we got to go from culture to clarity. And everybody on the bus, are they really clear about what we're all about? And I believe the first step in that is them knowing themselves and. And then knowing each other from a clarity standpoint. And the essential first step is them knowing their why. Well, once they're clear, then we see whether they're committed or not to the organization, and we filter that out. Once they're committed, we understand they are and they got the right people in the right seats, then we go to how much are they going to collaborate or do they understand what collaboration or cooperation and the interdependence they have on each other is order for the culture to really fly and go at a high level. Then once we establish all of that and how that works, then the last step of the five Cs is communication. And then communication is more authentic. It goes so much faster, so much better because they understand each other. And when they understand each other's whys, then they can talk authentically and understand each other so much better so that they can move forward faster.

So real quickly go through those again with me, the number one. Number one is clarity.

Yeah, well, number one is culture. So we're talking. We're focused on culture. In order to really establish culture, we believe that everybody in the organization has to understand, have clarity around what that means.

Got it. And what that is, then commitment.

Then commitment. And so do we have the right people in the right seats? And we'll a lot of times look at with organizations that they'll have us run their why and their colby before they hire them, to see if there's natural things about them that they're going to have energy for over a period of time based on the kind of position they want to put them in. And then cooperation, collaboration, and interdependence. A lot of people do things what they do pretty well, but if they don't understand how to cooperate or collaborate and. And what interdependence really means and don't really care what the impact they have on others by the things that they're doing and understand what that is. We button all that up also so that there's free flowing dialogue.

Got it.

And they're playing their position that they play the best. And then the communication kind of flies through the organization so much faster. And so that's why we're working. We've been really fortunate to work with companies that are growing by millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions and even billions. And we do this same thing with all of them. What we've done with Coach Green at Washington State, his coaching staff and his players, and it really seems to make sense to people and to stick. And again, I talk about filters all the time, but all five of those are filters that we look at. If there's a breakdown, where's it coming from? And it's usually one of those five things.

So if you're listening to this and you're a coach or you're a consultant or you're a creative agency, what would you tell them, Jerry, as far as utilizing this process, what has it done for your business? What has it done for your clients? Businesses?

Yeah. You know, there's a term called exponential growth, which is it doubles every time, right. So instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, it's 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, so on. And that's what's happened to my business. And what I'm finding is happening to the businesses that we're working with is they're getting massive growth without the wear and tear because they go through these five Cs. But it all starts with the first, the essential first step is discovering their why. So I, you know, this may sound arrogant, but I won't work with somebody unless I know that, because then I really don't know whether I can help them or where we're focused on. And it all starts with, you know, the organization we work with is the leader, the visionary, the CEO, because we learn that first and then we see how everybody else's why, how what fits into what their role is and where that organization is going. And so, you know, knock on wood, we haven't had a client yet that hasn't grown significantly and had success. Now, I'm not saying it's always been easy. You know, there's work to do. But by utilizing these tools in starting with why we break through so many barriers that we wouldn't know of otherwise. Yeah. Things start popping out that are very predictable based on knowing this, and we can address them so much faster. You know, I call it an unfair advantage. Not unethical advantage, just an unfair advantage to know certain things that are very predictable that we can focus on and not be shooting at moving target.

You know, one of my mentors last. I was with my mentor group last weekend in Miami and different people were complaining about, you know, how hard it is to run a business, build a business, all the things that go into it. And he said, don't wish that it was easier, wish that you were better.

Yep.

That's a really interesting way to think about it.

Yep.

And. And how you get better is by the first step is always self awareness.

Yep.

So the first step of self awareness is knowing your why.

Completely agree.

And how and what. And when you have those three things in those sequence, that's when your message matters.

Right.

That's when your culture matters.

Yeah. You've talked about before. It's the criteria that must be met for you to be fully in. And what I found is. And why I'm so excited about this.

Go back to that for a second. What do you mean? Because I don't know if I was listening, if I would have caught that. What is that? What did you hear?

Okay, so in my case, my why is to find a better way, insure it. I can't help myself. Anything that I do, I know that that's my role. And if I can't do that, then I'm probably going to be somewhat disruptive because that's just the lens I see everything through. And so it's a filter I use if I'm going to get in some, get involved in something. So it's part of the criteria that must be met because that's not going to change. I don't. That's never going to change. That's the position that I have to play. It's. So it's part of my criteria that must be met for me to be fully in. And so secondly is then my how is to contribute. So I want to make a difference in people's lives and have an impact and add value. And if I can't or don't feel like I am, it's another for me to be fully in. If that's not what I'm being able to do, then I. I'm not fully in. Yeah. And then thirdly is my why, what is right way. And so that's all about predictable results. And so everything that I do, I go through that sequence and that criteria that if that's the game that you need and want, then I'm probably the right person for you. But if I'm not allowed to do that, then I know I pretty quickly run out of juice, run out of energy, and then I'm not near as effective. And that in essence, when I keep talking about whether I'm in the right lane or not.

Yeah.

That's when I know I'm in the wrong lane and that I'm not, it's not that much fun for me and it's therefore it's not going to be that effective for who I'm working with.

So what you're saying is that your why is the essential first step in self awareness, but just as important are your how and your what.

Exactly.

So your why is better way, your how is contribute, and your what is right way. And if you have a decision to make and it's not better, doesn't make a difference or do or bring the right way to get results you're not in.

Yeah, I, and I've tested it a lot of times and I find that I try and force it.

Yeah.

I always eventually run out of gas. And that's what I believe happens to people is, you know, we so often see people that seem like everything's right for them and they could believe in something so much that they try to do things. But eventually, if that's not all the way in the full sequence, something catches up to them. And all of a sudden we see people just kind of flame out, burn out. And you're like, what happened? I thought everything was perfect. Yeah, right. Well, to me it's pretty predictable. And we're finding that by doing this with literally tens of thousands of people that I really believe that when people get the essence of this, that we can help them get in the right seats to be able to perform at peak levels. And then the sky's kind of the limit. And guess what? It is so much more fun. This is the most fun I've ever had in my life. It's actually. I was on the road 40 times this last. This last year, which I, you know, I'd said I'd never do that again, but, you know, the year ended and I wasn't tired because this was the kind of work that I was doing all the time.

Yeah.

And so it's kind of proof in the pudding.

That's why I wanted to have you on. Really, why I wanted to have Jerry on is because he's living proof of what happens when you discover your why, and it changes the course and the direction of your life. Luckily for him, he had it done by a tooth fairy for the second time. A tooth fairy has changed his life, but it changed the direction in the course of your life. But then you've now done that for so many people in their businesses, in their coaching careers. You're proof of what we're talking about.

It's a better way. That's all I ever look for it. It's something that I'll never stop using. Yeah.

So if somebody's listening to this and they say, you know what? I want to talk to Jerry about getting my business to perform at the highest level. I'm a coach. I want to talk to Jerry about getting my coaching prep organization to a higher level. How should they get ahold of you?

Yeah, the best way is email me at jerrylevation180.com so J E R R Y E L E V A t I o n180.com Jerry, thank you so.

Much for being on today. Finish your story, by the way, before we leave on what happened with your daughter.

Yeah, thanks, Gary. I appreciate you saying that. You know, I feel really blessed that things did change. We quadrupled. The business had a big impact on my time, my ability to spend with my family, the income that we were able to generate. And so Kelly was 5. She's now 28, just turned 28. My son Jared, who I helped, I coached over 600 of his baseball games. 35 of those kids ended up playing college and professional baseball. He's 24, doing well. And my wife, Lisa, we just celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. And so I'm just thrilled and grateful to say that I didn't miss it, which I was probably real close to on the edge of missing it, and things have only gotten better.

Awesome, Jerry, thanks for being here.

Thank you, Gary.