116. The Business of Self-Expression

Foreign hey my friend, welcome back to Leadership in a Nutshell where we're cracking the code of this amazing driven mind that you and I have. I want to thank you for being here celebrating our time together. We get together once a week to just share some energy, share some positive vibe in this amazing and crazy world that we get to live in right now. Episode 116 Today the Business of Self Expression and I I'm super pumped about today and I get pumped every week that I get to be here with you. And I want to thank you and I want to ask you to take a quick moment and email this just Leadership in a Nutshell as a podcast to somebody and share if you're getting value from this. I get a lot of great feedback and our community only grows by you sharing it. I'm not here to pitch anything. I don't sell anything. Yes, I'm the founder and CEO of the Blue Collar Success Group. I share some stories from that. But this podcast is for the industry as a whole, regardless of if you're a member of Blue Collar or not. So I just want to share some love and energy out there with you every single week. And today it's about the business of self expression. Because as leaders, we have a responsibility to understand ourselves at a different level. And what I mean by that is our team is counting on us to know certain things. Now, I've talked in the past, it's not about being certain about everything. It's not about having everything figured out. Last week I talked about if you lose control, it's not about being in control of everything. But our team is really counting on us to know ourselves at a certain level. To know ourselves at a level that says, you know, I understand who I am now. And that takes some time. That takes some awareness, that takes some experience, that takes some, what the world would call failure. I call it lumping in with experience. I don't believe in failure. I only believe in results. And when you set out to do something and you don't get the result that you intended on or planned to get, the world calls that failure, don't they? I call that BS is what I call that label. It is not failure. It's execution. It's getting things done. And what I'm getting the gift of seeing with clients and peers in the space now is a lot of people are doing a lot of things. And what's really fascinating about the last few years is many of you have had the best business environment that you've ever had, really over the Last two and a half years or so, we've been really gifted in the blue collar industries. We were named as essential workers in the beginning of the pandemic. The government sent a bunch of you, a bunch of dough and you didn't have to lay off anybody. So you're able to pigeonhole that money away. We had some early on uncertainty and lasted a couple of months. We had many of you had a couple bad months. And then it's been record month, record month, record profit, record profit. Where am I going to hide the cash? How am I going to deal with all the taxes, whatever it is for many of you, and some of you started business during that time because you saw the opportunity. Some of you realize you don't have control over certain things. But what I want you to realize is, is that the key to life and business is self expression. And as a leader, the better you get at self expression and the more authentic you do it, the more your team is going to rally on your behalf, the greater fulfillment you're going to have, the more success your team is going to, number one, feel and number two, go out and create. And so really the reason I titled this week the way that I did is really the business is self expression. And I remember In December of 2000, we'll go back 22 years now, and almost 22 years, I guess. And I was at the E. Myth Academy and many of you that have followed me for a while know I was a certified E Myth consultant based on the book the E. Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, that the entrepreneurial myth is what it stands for. That if I the myth is that if I understand the technical work that a business does, then certainly I'm capable of owning or running a business that does that technical work. Nothing further from the truth. I can be the best plumber in the room and I can suck at owning a plumbing company. We see it all the time, right? And so I got certified as a consultant with Gerber at that time. And I was like, you know, I was only six years into owning my own service business. I'm like, I'm going to, I'm going to systematize and I'm going to quote E. Myth my business and I'm going to create freedom and all these different types of things. And then I realized, damn, it's a lot of work creating your own, you know, freedom in your business. So I decided not to do consulting at that time and I just focused on creating a self managing company, which I did in a short period of time. And then I waited to found the Blue Collar Success Group until many years later. And so in this walk I realized that self expression's a big part of what makes the business world go round. And in 2000, Michael Gerber stood in front of me and he said, show me a small business leader and give me a mirror and I'll show you what their company looks like. And some of you have heard me say this before and some of you may have heard Gerber say it from stage at some point or whatever. And I thought that, you know, that hit me. Obviously I'm talking about it 20 years later, but it's so true. And at the Blue Collar Success Group we see that with our clients where you could have two clients in the same market with the exact same offerings and the businesses look completely different. Why? Well, I used to say culture, it's a different culture, it's a different feeling. Maybe they could even have the pay the same pay plan and have very different cultures. It's because the business is self expression and that self expression of number one, the visionary. And then we go down to the implementers and the executors of the vision. And so that's kind of what makes up the culture. So you take leadership expression as a whole and then that creates a culture where mid level and frontline team express themselves. And now you get an entire wrap of a company culture. And so what I want you to realize today as we share this time and space and energy together, is that the business itself is a massive component of self expression. And why are we seeing people that sell their businesses and end up frustrated? Why is it that there's nothing more dangerous than a bored entrepreneur or a bored business leader? Because you've taken away your platform of self expression. Your career can be a massive source, a major source of self expression. What we've got to do is turn in and realize that overcoming the fear of judgment is a key. Right? So think about that when. Well, if I'm going to express who I truly am for me, you know, I don't. I try not to swear from stage when I'm speaking here. I. You're going to catch me. I drop a I. I don't drop any f bombs on here. Check me if those of you that have been with me 116 episodes, but I don't think I've dropped any f bombs. I don't use the F word very much. But I just once in a while I'll drop a curse word in here because I'm just having A conversation with you. Yes, I'm in my studio at the moment, but I'm literally picturing riding in your car and just having a conversation with you, being on the elliptical next to you at the gym, or you know, on a run with you. Slow down, I got to catch my breath if I'm running with you. Right? But whatever. I just feel like I'm with you right now, sharing this energy. But when we think about self expression, that's the only reason that I might curse on here and I wouldn't from stage because this is a more intimate, I'm just having a conversation with you. And so this is a different form of self expression than let's say a formalized keynote would be. Or when you come to acceleration days at, you know, twice a year that we do a blue collar and I might do a formal keynote or a three hour workshop with you where I'm going to drive behavior change for you, but in a little more formal setting. And so what I want you to realize when it comes to your self expression is it's going to come out in different ways based on platform. But one of the first things you've got to address is judgment of other people. And here's the reality. I want you to write this down if you happen to be in your office or flag this episode, to come back and make sure you capture these thoughts. But what I want you to write down is all judgment is self judgment. All judgment is self judgment. And so when I realize that, oh, I'm worried what so and so thinks about me or what is going to say about me, that's a form of self judgment. When I look at the homeless person and unconsciously go, my gosh, what happened to them or why? That's a self judgment from a fear place in me. When I look, whatever that is, right? When I look at somebody that's on social media and hey, look at me and my jet or my Lambo, if I catch myself unconsciously judging that, like why are they doing that? What's the point of that? That's a form of self judge. The same is true for you. If you're worried about what your team thinks, you're judging yourself. There is no judgment from other people. There's only self judgment. So be clear about that and get into your business of self expression because that's what people want. They want authenticity. And guess what? The millennials, the Gen Y, the Gen Z, the people that are coming up that are your team members, they want authenticity. Realize this avoidance as a coping mechanism Is not going to serve you long term. I understand coping mechanism. I grew up in an environment that I ended up creating a lot of pain in my life and I'm grateful for that because I created a lot of pain early and really had an opportunity to step into some of that pain in order to make my life much better now, like I truly live a dream life. Like a lot of people have a cliche around a dream life. I mean, that's why I wrote blue collar success laws. The recent book is because I'm focused on success now. Because I want to share with you what it is. It's why we get on here. And today I wanted you to realize that the more you lean into self expression, the more you stop using avoidance techniques. Whether it's sex, drugs, alcohol, shopping, whatever, any of the core key addictions are, I want you to realize it's just a form of not honoring your truth. All addiction comes comes from not the ability of you not to be able to deal with reality of your own life situation. And so I want you to just think about where are you kind of having that us and them mentality? Where are you showing up authentically and where do you put on a mask? I know for me I would have a certain mask I would have on. I used to play a lot of competitive softball. Those of us that you know, I played some college baseball and then I ended up playing competitive softball. Maybe some of you can relate to. And that was a blast I got back then I was super competitive. So I got my competitive nature, got that scratch itched and it was a huge parties and I partied a lot back then. So I got a huge party out of the weekend of tournaments as well. But what was interesting is I would have a mask on there and I would be a certain person on the softball field and then I would pull into my office on Monday morning to go work at my service business and I would put on a different mask and then I'd go to happy hour with my accountant and I put on a different mask. It was like I was carrying around a briefcase of masks and I was going to use that self expression at the time. Can you relate with me? Give me a little head nod if you've ever been in that situation. I'm not saying you are now. I'm just saying that maybe you've been there before. So I want you to think about that and realize when you're authentic, people dig it. And you know, recently we had the opportunity to add a new team member at blue collar at the success group. And I was interviewing or not interviewing, she was already on the team and I was talking to her. I think she had been here a couple of weeks at the time. And so we have a hiring process that you go through and end up meeting with each of the leaders individually. And then there's a group decision made. And I'm generally not involved in that process, and I wasn't in this case. And so I met her a couple weeks after she was on the team and got to know her a little bit and learn more about her. And I, then I asked, I said, hey, what's been the disconnects between Chris, our president, or Jim, our sales and marketing director, or Chelsea, our operations director, our leaders? Like, what. What's been the difference between the messaging that you've got from those three? And she kind of looked at me and she's like, it's going to kind of sound like a cliche answer, but nothing. Like, everything has been consistent, like from the onboarding process that I had to what the coaches have told me to, sitting in on the trainings as I'm getting, you know, in indoctrinated into the culture. Like, everything has the same message. And she said, that tells me that it's real. And I just smiled inside hugely. And I'm sure I smiled outside some. And I couldn't wait to go share with the lovely, the lovely Christie, who I founded this business with over 10 years ago, that it was like, man, the vision's being executed, you know, and I know it on a certain level, but how cool that a new team member is. Like, you can't fake that stuff, right? And that's where I want you to realize that wasn't the case even at blue Collar when I wasn't being authentic at my highest level. I was sober for several years before I wrote blue collar success laws as a book because I was still figuring out what the success algorithm was and what the seven laws are that really drive success. And that's where I want you to realize today. There's a business, and it's called the business of self expression. And your business is a byproduct of that, my friend. Focus on that. The better you express yourself, the better your business will get. We're in times of uncertain economy, uncertain supply chain, uncertain inflation, uncertainty. Okay? There's all kinds of uncertainty. You express yourself from an authentic place and use your self expression to connect with people. Your business is going to continue to get better and you're going to attract the team that wants that authenticity, Check yourself, check your ego, check your self judgment and continue to grow as a human. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host. Leadership in a nutshell. Episode 116, the Business of self expression. Do me a favor, kick this episode or any episode that you like to somebody that you know could help check their mind for a few minutes once a week. We would love to have them as part of our community, as part of our tribe, leave us a review, give us a rating. However, they keep changing this platform some way. Connect and share the love until we talk. Make it a better than fantastic week. I'll see you real soon.