137. Working Your Plan With Flexibility

Foreign Kenny Chapman here, your host of leadership in a nutshell, cracking the code of that driven mind of the home service professional. I just want to thank you for being here. Super excited. I want to be efficient with your time. I know it takes, it takes some commitment to listen to a podcast, to jump in for a few minutes with me, and that's one of the reasons I, I solo cast the show in the way that I do of just 10, 15, sometimes 20 minutes a week where we rock and roll. Today I'm with you for episode 137. Working your plan with flexibility. So, yes, plans are important and flexibility is important as well. So, you know, over the last few weeks, we talked about what, why, why we want more. We talked about failing as our future self, which is super important. We talked for a couple weeks about connection and influence and what that looks like. And way back when, I mean, gosh, a month, month and a half ago, we, we had talked about decision fatigue. Today I want to talk about work in your plan. And next week, we're going to delve into letting go of mistakes. And you know how I feel about mistakes. And if you haven't been listening too long, then tune in next week and I'm gonna share with you how I feel about mistakes. So working your plan with flexibility today. Here's the key. Working your plan. So, yes, plans are important. I mean, heck, at the Blue Collar Success Group, we run a planning and budgeting workshop once a year, and we help our clients lay out the exact plan and what's going to happen and all those different types of things. But then reality happens and change happens. I'm not saying reality isn't part of laying out the plan. And we do our very best to, to lean into what, you know, what possible changes could happen, what might evolve or shift on us, whether it's internal situation, whether it's external situation, whatever that looks like. But what I see is when business leaders get stuck on, well, this is the plan. No, we got to stick to the plan. No, we can't change. No, we can't do that. And, and I want to walk a, a bit of a fine line here with you today. And I'm gonna, I should say, I'm gonna ask you to walk a bit of a fine line because on one hand, some of you may take this in a context of Kenny saying it's okay, it's okay to, to, you know, set out in the world and go say you're going to do something. And then as soon as you run into any challenge, Any resistance, any. Any frustration, any kind of a rub at all, or friction, then you stop. That's not what I'm saying. However, I am saying that the universe always has a plan and it includes yours. And, and so you have flexibility within what you're doing and you pay attention to the market, you pay attention to team members, you pay attention to your growth opportunities and you adopt a mentality of flexibility. And so your ego wants you to trip out and freak out if you don't finish something exactly. With the exact intention or plan of how it started. I'm going to tell you that I don't know in my 52 years on the planet, I don't know that I've ever seen anything unfold exactly as it was planned. And as I say that, I would also say that I'm not sure if I've seen anything that hasn't unfolded better than it was planned. And you go, well, man, Kenny, that's tough because I've had a lot of hardship in my life. I've had. Let's say you've had failed businesses. Let's say you struggled it. Look, I haven't. Well, yeah, I would say I've had failed businesses. I wouldn't say I've gone like, I haven't gone bankrupt or anything. I did have to finance my way out of that diaper delivery service, so I had to borrow money to sell the business because I sold it for less than I owed on it. So picture a car that you're upside down on. Yes, I had a business I was upside down on way back when. So I guess you could say that that's a failure, but. Or a mistake. And we'll talk more about that next week. But I believe that it happened better than I, than I could have planned because one of the things I've said out of all the statistics around businesses that fail and leaders that fail and different thing, oh, you know, it's going to be 90. What is it, 94% in the first 10 years or something like that. Maybe it's 96% in the first 10 years. And I've often said one of the tragedies is the ones that make it past that point. And that sounds a little harsh, but the fact is there are sometimes businesses that struggle and aren't providing good opportunity, benefits, growth for team members and not having people in unique ability in their zone of genius and these types, maybe that's a failure more, maybe better to go bust and get on with it. And that's what that was true with My diaper service company, it was better for me to sell that business at a loss, which I didn't have the money to take the loss, which is why I had to get a loan to take the loss. And as painful as that was, and I remember that, just the absolute trauma that I created mentally for myself. And yes, I look back on it now and go, that was huge for me because I really focused on the plumbing business then. I already owned my drain cleaning company and we were doing a little bit of plumbing, but not really not focused on it. I, I was, I stopped, you know, kind of minimizing my resource, spreading my resources, I'll say, into too many things. And I got committed to the one thing theory, and off I went. Focused on the drain cleaning plumbing business. And as they say, the rest is history. No, I'm joking. I don't know. I guess they do say that, but I'm going to say the rest is still unfolding as history unfolds itself. Right. And things like that. So today I want you to just kind of think about your plan and, you know, this time of year, like, oh, we're doing business planning and people are setting their budgets for. For next year. At the time I'm recording this and you're looking ahead at what the, you know, what 2023 is going to bring. And I'm just going to tell you, yes, set the plan and then move forward and have a little bit of flexibility. So I want to give you five things today to kind of focus on and think about. Number one, I've already been talking about. You got to get clarity of what your strategy is going to be and what the plan number one, clarity of strategy. And plan number two, know your why. So once I'm clear on what my strategy is going to be, what my plan is going to look like, I gotta make sure that I know my why and honor it if it changes. So let's say go back to my diaper service business. I had clarity of my strategy and plan. I was working out of my house in the drain cleaning company, and I had to get that thing out of my house. So I thought, well, I'll find another service business to buy and get it out of my house. So I found this diaper delivery service. It makes sense. I. It had a wash facility. There's laundry in there. All the. Oh, perfect. Okay. I can answer the phones out of that office and dispatch the two or three trucks I had at the time out of there. And I'll do laundry and the. Okay, cool. That that that was it. And my why, you know, so that was my clarity of strategy and plan. Then knowing my why I wanted to get it out of the house. And I had a false belief or a limiting belief that I couldn't afford to do it without doing that. I didn't understand how powerful this business was in the service business at that time. And so I knew my why. Then it changed then when I was out of the office all day on Wednesday because a bulk of our route and our clients were up valley from western Colorado up in the Roaring Fork Valley and Glenwood Springs and Aspen and Vail and like, you know, we, I, So I was gone long, long hours. Every single Wednesday took me completely out of the plumbing business. And so it began to change because I hated the business. I, I hated everything about. For crying out loud, my friends, I don't even have children and I'm running a diaper cleaning and delivery service. What am I? Okay? But my why was right when it started. And I'm not going to beat myself up over that now, knowing what I now know because I was failing as my future self then tying back to last week. Right? So just be mindful of when the why changes. Lean into it. And when it changes, that's okay. But you got to listen to yourself. Third thing, encourage flexibility at every level. So first you get clear with yourself that you want to be flexible and then encourage your team to be flexible as well. So you've got to create a culture of flexibility. You got to create a culture of people not sweeping things under the rug. You got to create a culture where this is the bosses. Put that in air quotes. This is the boss's project or plan or initiative, if you will. So we don't want to tell them that the market is voted and this isn't going to work. This marketing campaign that we rolled out, we're really not getting the numbers we wanted. But the boss wrote the copy, whatever it is, fill it in. Oh, you know, we, we tried this different training and it's just not working the way that we thought. And we need to go back to the way that we used to do it. And we need to reengage our technicians and get our, get our technicians, you know, dialed in with profit driven training and utilizing weekly training again and implementation. Encourage flexibility. Your team needs it. The world needs it. The world's ever changing. And that, yeah, that's a cliche. And yes, it's absolute truth. So one, clarity, strategy and plan. Two, know your why and if it changes. Three, encourage flexibility. At every level. Four, shift the budget and spending as necessary. One of the most liberating and dangerous statements in business is it's not in the budget. What do I mean by that? Hey, there's massive importance in having a plan and looking at the plan and budgeting for it and putting spin behind it. Very, very important. And I'm an investor and what I look for are areas to invest. And so many times there will be an opportunity when something may come along in one of my businesses throughout the year where I'm like, there's an opportunity, but it's not in the budget. Okay, well then I've got to go back and go, what's my clarity of strategy and plan? What's my why I'm encouraging flexibility at every level? So maybe I'm going to shift some spending here. Maybe I'm going to take some budget. Maybe I'm going to add money to the company personally that's going to invest in this, whatever that is. You've got to shift budget and spending as it's necessary and stop spending on things that don't make sense anymore or whatever it is. I mentioned a marketing plan, mention sales, you know, whatever that is. You gotta shift things around and that's okay. That's part of being flexible. Again, I'm not saying you throw it out every time something doesn't go your way, but you're mindful of when things shift and change and you go in that appropriate direction. So be super mindful of that. Be super clear about that and make sure you lean into that. Number five, maximize strengths over minimizing weaknesses. Okay, let me say that again. Maximize strengths over minimizing weaknesses. The world is full of people looking to minimize weaknesses and they want to, oh, I'm gonna, you know, I'm, I'm doing this wrong. I'm doing that wrong. I suck at this. I'm terrible at that. So I want to work on that. I want to get better at that. Now, again, I'm not telling you not to get better at better. I'm a life improvement guy. I'm a behavior expert. I'm a conscious exploration individual. I'm connected with source energy. I. I want to evolve consciousness in humanity. That's why I'm here. And yes, that will involve having some things that I'm not great at get better. But where magic happens is when I realize what Kenny's really good at, when I realize, and through my leaders and my team, what I realize our companies are really good at, then really start leaning into that more and more and we get better at what we're really good at and then we minimize. Okay, well I'm not going to try to make my weak. No, just be mindful of weakness, but maximize strength. So when I say maximize strength over minimizing weakness, that's a focus thing. Of course you're going to minimize your weaknesses. But don't spend all your, all your time trying to upgrade and up level your weaknesses. Otherwise you end up at the end of your career, you end up at the end of your life with a whole lot of better weaknesses. That's not what you're here for. You're here to live in your zone of genius. You're here to be the best version of yourself possible. You're on your own hero's journey and you want to rock and roll why you're here, what you're doing here. And when you get, number one, get clarity of your strategy and your plan in your business. And this can go across your life as well, any aspect of your life. When number two, you know your why. And if it changes, you know that it changed because you're checking in, you're conscious, you're aware. Perhaps you're journaling, perhaps you're meditating, you're paying attention. Number three, you encourage flexibility at every level with yourself. You're managing your ego, making sure that you're not rigid, making sure that you're not stuck in your own way. Number four, you're shifting budget and spending as accordingly. When the market changes, when the world changes, when there's a quote recession, when there's a pandemic, when there's different things that go on, when work goes remote, whatever it is, you shift budget and spending accordingly, I should say. And number five, maximizing strengths over minimizing. Don't focus as much on your weakness as you do maximizing your strength. It's a massive, massive, massive opportunity. You can never, just like in business, you can't. You've got to be a good steward with your income statement and you've got to hold expenses accountable and, and you've gotta watch your spending of course. But you can't cut your way to scale. You have to go out and sell. You have to go out and generate additional opportunity, additional income in order to scale. Then you manage your expenses as that takes place. The same is true with your own conscious evolution, with your own strengths. You go make your strengths bigger and then you minimize the weaknesses just like sales expenses. That's what it is all about. Episode 137 Working your plan with flexibility. Such an honor to have you here. Give us a like, give us a rating, give us a review. Do me a favor and share this with somebody. I'm honored to have you. Until we talk. Make it a better than fantastic week. I'll see you soon, Sam.