130. The Confidence and Cash Connection

Foreign hey my friend, welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. I'm so honored to be here with you and super pumped about our topic today. We are at episode 130. Today's topic is the confidence and cash connection. Now there's a lot of turmoil going on. There's a lot of challenges. If you watch the media, which I don't generally watch the news, I watched it a little more than normal recently during the hurricane that went through the east, north, south or southeastern part of the US So on and so forth as I've got quite a bit of team out across Florida and the Carolinas. And so I got pulled into watching a little bit of weather and such and just watching the sensationalization of everything and whether it's before the act, during the act, after the act, so on and so forth. And the same is true in the business environment, in the what's happening with interest, what's happening with housing, what's happening, all these different types of things. And so we really need to maintain our confidence as operators, as leaders, really as just having a human experience because things are going to change. That's a reality. And so let's embrace these changes and let's learn what we can and enjoy the ride. And I think about confidence a lot and confidence, not cockiness, but confidence is such a big driver and it's such a big deal when it comes to the, the risks we're willing to take. And when I say risk, I want to frame that. I don't mean like oh, massive business risk or anything like that. What I mean is the risk of doing something different, the risk of thinking something different, the risk of saying yes to another level of your greatest self of self care of honoring your truth, of putting things in perspective, of realizing what's a big deal and what's not a big deal. And so there's a lot of confidence that comes from you realizing that you are a co creator of your life with, with the universe, with God, universe, spirit, soul. You're co creating this experience that you get to have. And we get to choose leadership in business as a vehicle of our evolution. So as we do that we get to take a look and go okay, cool. Where's my confidence lie? A lot of times it's tied to cash. And recently I was running a scale up session for our some of our blue collar success group members and it was mentioned on the call that I was running through a challenge exercise and addressing and doing some hot seat coaching on biggest challenges that the Group had that particular week. And it was said, it was said, hey, I've got some challenges, but really all challenges tied to cash flow. And I honor that. And I've been there. And I remember times throughout my career where I was very challenged from a cash perspective. And I want us to all take a step back and realize cash and confidence are connected. But let's really think about how and what it looks like. And so I'm reminded of a story that I was, I should say, recently reminded of a story about a guy that's just. He's losing his mind. He's losing his businesses on the fritz, and he's struggling along, and he's thinking he might have to file bankruptcy, and he's not sure how he's going to avoid it. And there's just the. You know what? I equate sometimes to one of the early Star wars movies when they were in the trash compactor and the walls were closing in. I feel like there's been times throughout my life and my career and my own personal challenges and trauma and pain that I've dealt with. I've just felt like, oh, my gosh, the trash compactor walls are closing in on me. Right? And sometimes in the business environment, we feel that. Or when cash flow tightens or sales are down a little bit or whatever, we feel that. So. So, as the story goes, this gentleman's in. He's walking through the park contemplating what's he going to do, what's he going to do? And this older gentleman approaches him and he says, you look distraught, sir. What's going on? And the business guy goes, man, I'm just. I think I'm going to file bankruptcy. I don't think I'm going to make it in this situation, so on and so forth. And the guy goes, oh, don't let money stand between you and what you want to do in your business and your goals here. I'm going to. I'm going to write you a check, and I want you to bring the money back. You're going to pay it back to me a year from now. And so he writes him the check, $500,000. Now imagine what you might do with an extra 500k, right? So the gentleman writes him a check for 500 grand, and he goes off to. It's like, wow, just can't believe it. Whatever. Well, he takes the check and rather than cashing it, he puts it in a safe and he decides that he's going to bring that exact same check back to this gentleman. One Year later. And so as the story goes, just like, okay, now I've got this cushion, let me go out and do some things. So he started making execution decisions that he wasn't making. He started making the, quote, difficult decisions. He started holding the business accountable. He started implementing cash flow strategies. He started up leveling his, his sales, training his sales force. He implemented education process, training his team at a higher level. He did all the things that he was under the guise that he didn't have the cash flow to do, but it shifted his thinking. And so as the story goes, we fast forward a year. He turned his business around in just a few months, got cash flow positive, things were going better, so he never touched the check. So a year later on that day, he pulls out the check out of his safe, he heads back to the park and he's looking for the older gentleman looking for him and finally spots him. Okay, cool. Runs across there, says, sir, check it out, I got your check for you. And right as soon as this is happening, this younger lady runs up and interrupts the interaction and is like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you found him. And the businessman's like, found who? What are you talking about? And she's like, oh, this is Mr. Jones. And he, he lives in this, this home over here. He's not mentally stable and sometimes he sneaks out and writes checks to people that for, with money that he doesn't have and tells him that he's a rich guy. He's not a rich guy. He just writes checks to people. And so the business guy's like, oh my God, da da da da. And so I love that. Call it a parable, call it a fable, call it a story, whatever it is, because it's so true. When you really think money is energy and the energy is what makes the world go round. And so today on this episode, when I'm talking about the confidence and cash connection, really what I'm talking about is your energetic connection, your own belief system, how you feel about your own ability, where your self image is, your self worth, your self belief that you can execute necessary and needed changes to overcome challenges, to stand up in the face of opposition, whatever that may be. So I've got nine things I know that's quite a few. I'm going to run through them quickly. I want to be respectful of your time. But if you've got notes and you can jot these down, just jot down these nine things. If not, grab it out of show notes later and pay attention or Pull back and you can write them down a little bit later. So let's run through these nine with confidence and cash connection and some things we can do. Number one, pay attention to your thoughts. Your thoughts matter. Thoughts turn into words, words are beliefs. Beliefs end up executing your, what you do as your behavior, your behavior turns into personality. All those different types of things ultimately execute your life. And it all starts with thoughts. And as much as I study the mind and the subconscious mind and belief systems, I want you to remember that there are two types of thoughts. We have willing thoughts and we have unwilling thoughts. So I want you to be mindful of both. Pay attention to when you're consciously choosing your thoughts and what are those look like and then pay attention to more of your thoughts than your conscious thoughts which are those unwilling thoughts that just bounce in and come in and how much of those have are tied to confidence and how much of those are tied to fear. Number one, pay attention to your thoughts. Number two, always do your best. And that's it. Like that's all we're ever looking for at the blue collar success group. When we're coaching, when we're doing on sites, when we're hosting academies, when we're running scale up sessions, when we're running executive power meetings, whatever it is, there's always a tie to just do your best. That's it. Your best is going to change too by the way, based on the day, based on how much sleep you got last night, based on how clean you ate yesterday, based on where your blood flow is, based on your oxygen levels, based on how much you've been taking care of your physical body, are you working out, are you moving a little bit, whatever that is, it's going to fluctuate. So just always do your best with what you have at the moment. Okay. Number three, don't only focus short term. A lot of times and especially the confidence cash tie is we. Well I've, I've got some cash set aside. Therefore I feel confident short term or I'm feeling cash flow pressure challenge at the moment. So I'm focused only short term and yes, we've got to focus short term to right the ship to, to do what we need to do to get cash flow positive as fast as possible. But we want to just not only focus short term. Remember I talk all the time about the two businesses. We're running a current business and we're running a future business. Don't over penalize one or the other in spite of what's going on. Either short Term or long term. So three, don't only focus short term. Number four, don't lose sight of your dreams. So three, don't only focus short term. Number four, we go a little bit further out. Don't lose sight of your dreams. You're going to have cash flow challenges. One of my best childhood buddies that he went through a major challenge back, back during the real estate quote crash years and years ago. And he was, he was a young contractor and investor and he was a general contractor doing remodels and building homes and different things. And he met with me about he might have to file bankruptcy because he was upside down in a couple of properties that he thought were going to cash flow differently. The market shifted, he got caught by it and he ended up filing bankruptcy. And it was super painful for him. And I coached him through the mental process. I personally have never filed bankruptcy, but I've been around people that there's two types of bankruptcy too. There's the type that, that I can't stop shopping and I can't stop buying things that are out of my, my realm. And then there's the type that I took some business risk, I took some calculated risk and it didn't play out the way that I expected it to. And then I had to do what I had to do. Right. And so as we navigate these things, remember, don't, don't beat yourself up if you get caught a little bit because there's a lesson there and I'll just share. My buddy ended up, he did file bankruptcy. It was super challenging for him, super painful. He went through the necessary learning, the necessary education that he got, the necessary self image challenges and worth that he did. And he became a school teacher and he started teaching contracting and building in the school and he got super frugal with his money and he started putting money away and all these things and he committed to living below his means. And this is, gosh, 20, 20 year, 20 something years ago maybe. And he's now going to retire. At the time we're recording this, he's on a three year plan to ret and he's done incredibly well for himself and it was from not losing sight of his dreams. He had a goal of becoming financially free. He had no idea he was going to be able to do it on a teacher's salary. Right. So don't lose sight of your dreams. Number four. Number five, continue to grow and improve somewhat. Like number two, always do your best. We kind of go, of course, Kenny. No, this is serious. Continue to grow and improve. So when you do have challenges, when you have your confidence shaken, if cash flow is a challenge or becomes a challenge, grow and improve through it. Seek new knowledge, look for where are you lacking skills? Where do you need to get some coaching? Where do you need to get help? Where do you need to lean on peers, like minded peers, progressive peers, not the ones that have crab bucket mentality and try to pull you back because they're uncomfortable too. Always focus on growth and improvement. Number six, execute. Make mistakes and learn. So get in the game and execute, make, quote, put that in air quotes. Make what the world calls mistakes. I don't believe in mistakes or failure. I only believe in education. And so sometimes I get the education that I like and enjoy and sometimes I get an education I didn't sign up for. But it's a necessary part of my conscious evolution on the planet. So execute, go. Make those quote mistakes, learn from them and repeat. Start the cycle over. That's what it's about. Number seven, stay positive and in gratitude. A lot of times if I'm struggling with confidence, if I need some more confidence, I get frustrated, I get upset. I can quickly shift to a victim mentality, right? It's like oh my gosh, why did this happen? Or what's going on? Or how did this person wrong me? How does this person not show up? How did this person lose sight of our vision? How are their team that doesn't want to work? I, I had a client recently that said like 20% of his team doesn't show up on Mondays. It's like, well hey, here's the deal. You got to stay positive and in gratitude and go, what am I missing here? Time. Back to to number five, growing and improving. If your team's not showing up every Monday there, you've got something going on internally. Got something to check with your own leadership, right? So when you look at those things, it's just an opportunity to grow. Don't get all pissy and don't get mo wine and moan and beat yourself up. No, learn from it. Stay in gratitude. I get a chance to play the game. I get a chance to learn. I get a chance to grow. Stay positive and in gratitude, my friend. Number eight, get over the fear of rejection. Get over it. It was like when I worked with my buddy that had to file bankruptcy. There's not too many for business people, I would say for sure there's not too many more, quote, embarrassing things or self rejection things than having to file bankruptcy. Just what a brutal. It's an ego Bruise because it has nothing to do with soul, it has nothing to do with sole purpose. It's just a human situation. We've created currency, we've created leverage of currency calling debt. There's productive debt and non productive debt and it gets looped together all the time. And we have billions of dollars coming at us every single day of where to spend, how we're lacking, how we suck because we don't have this pair of shoes or that handbag or whatever like all of this stuff. It's, it's a wild ride out there. And so get over fear of rejection and what I mean by that. I'm not saying you need to file bankruptcy, that just was the story that, that I wanted to share from my buddy. But it about that hopefully you're not in that situation. What I want you to remember though is get out of get over fear of rejection, of selling at the right price, of clients telling you no, of training your team, getting in front of the room, of going on ride alongs and seeing what's actually happening in the field. Rejection is a part of life. Not everybody can handle rejection and that's okay. But get this rejection is 100% a necessary component in the recipe of success. You have to face rejection. I remember as a young entrepreneur when I first started my my or got involved in my first service business. I'd say I started it, it was a drain business doing $12,000 a year in revenue, running about a thousand bucks a month. And I did buy the business but when I bought that little company and I started my trek as an entrepreneur I remember my, my mom having a very difficult time. When I would leave the Thanksgiving table I was on call and I charged double time on Thanksgiving. Back then I'm like hey, I gotta go, I'm trying to build a business here. And I had a vision and I knew what I wanted to create. I didn't even understand at that point what self managing companies meant, what true leadership meant, what I didn't know anything other than I was driven and I was going to create a life that was better than what I had at that time or had been exposed to at that time. So I dealt with family rejection, I dealt with peer rejection, I dealt with market rejection. The market that I was in was a smaller market and, and I won't say I single handedly but I created massive change in that market. I brought the first camera to town, I brought the first jetter to town. I was the to implement upfront pricing, I was the first to run box Trucks back in the day with inventory on, I was the first to implement incentive based pricing and all of my peers in the industry threw darts and oh, he's a ripoff. And he's this and that. And now they're all so grateful that I created that change for the entire market because we were able to shift an entire market and I'm proud of that. But I got rejected at every turn and you have to be okay with that and stay focused on your goal and stay focused on your self worth and realizing it doesn't define you. In, in order to get to success, in order to get to yes in your life, you've got to have people tell you no. That's all there is to it. It's simple and that's what it's all about. And that's why the law, number seven in the blue collar success laws is self care. Because when you're taking care of yourself, you're able to have this armor, if you will, where people, you shoot arrows and throw darts and they're able to bounce off a little bit more. So number nine, enjoy the ride, my friend. My gosh, we're here getting to play the game of life. We're having a human experience. I mean, good grief, I could be the. I opened the blinds this morning and there was a grasshopper out on the blinds. And I had this quick thought. I'm like, my gosh, I could have, I could have come into this life as a grasshopper. I'm so grateful I'm having a human experience in this container. And I would encourage you to focus on the same levels of gratitude and not bury your head in the sand if you've got challenges or issues. But the confidence and cash connection is why I shared that story earlier. It's a mental connection that's tied to energy. You have more energy to go do what you want to do in life if you've got a few quarters in the bank, right? So let's focus on how do we get there if we're not there and how do we maintain and grow this confidence and if we are there, number one, pay attention to your thoughts. Two, always do your best. Three, don't only focus on short term. Four, don't lose sight of your dreams. Five, continue to grow and improve. Six, execute, make quote mistakes, learn and repeat. Seven, stay positive and in gratitude. Eight, get over your fear of rejection. And nine, enjoy this ride, my friend. We're here for a limited time. Yes, I believe I'm here for quite a long time because I just had my 52nd birthday a couple. Well, not even a couple weeks ago. And I'm here till at least 1:46. So I'm here for a minute with you. I hope you keep listening. Again, if you haven't got my new book yet, go to blue collarlaws.com and make sure you grab a copy of that book until we talk, my friend. Make it a better than fantastic week and I'll see you next time. Keep that confidence up. Thanks, Sam.