43. Priorities... In This Order - Purpose, Passion, Profit

Foreign. Welcome back to Leadership in a Nutshell. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. I'm super excited to have you with me here today for episode number 43, Priorities. In this order. Purpose, Passion, Profit. We have so much time that we think about priorities and what we're looking to do. And, you know, there's not enough time in the day, and time management is so critical, and yet there's a guy like me out there beating a drum that says there's no such thing as time management. Stop it. Quit with your insanity and realize that you don't manage time. You manage yourself as a human being who has interactive relationships with time. And at the end of the day, everything that you do is based on priority. I'm not saying it's always conscious. I'm saying that it is based on priority. So sometimes we take action, we do things, we live our lives, we put time and effort into projects, into relationships, into financial things, into investments, into our businesses, into our team members as leaders. Priorities really run our game. But sometimes I want you to realize that just because you're doing it doesn't mean it's important. I'm a big fan of the Stephen Covey Time Management matrix or Quadrants, or whatever the correct title is for that. I'm not here to get into all that today. What I am here to do is help you realize that where you focus your energy is definitely where your attention is going to go. And that's why I believe, as for priorities in business, certainly we can. I would assume we can agree that purpose, Passion and profit are major priorities. Without having those three keys in our business and our lives, things are going to be pretty painful. Things are going to be very challenged, right? And I've spent a lot of my time, I've committed my entire life. I've got another book coming out later this summer that's going to be around leadership and purpose, how those are tied together. Which, as a prelude to that, to that book, I would really enjoy it if you would download the Six Dimensions of Change 2.0. It is available in all the major areas as an audiobook, whether you like Audible or whatever your platforms are. And let me know some feedback around that. Because I wrote that book again, like I wrote it 10 years ago, but now I wrote that book because I understand how this works in my life now. And the six dimensions haven't changed as far as clarity, habit, action, never give up gratitude and enthusiasm. But how I execute those. I wrote that book before I was sober. I wrote that book before I understood Certain things in life. I wrote that book before I realized that priorities have to be in this order for you to create sustainable wins long term in your life. Next episode I'm going to be talking to you about sustainable growth. And there's certain things that we have to do is in order to have it long term. And I'm always intrigued and I have super, you know, I have major empathy, I'll say, for my clients that are in pain and they just want to sell their business because they're burnt out. They want to sell because they have fear around next recessions. They want to sell because they're not sure how they're going to handle consolidation or whatever that is. And what that means is that we've got some priorities out of alignment and it's not like there's going to be necessarily smooth sailing and every day is going to be a bright sunny day with the birds chirping and you know, just skipping through the roses and daisies in the meadow. However, if I realize that the success path is tied in the priorities going in this direction of purpose, passion and profit, now I'm able to set myself free and really go about life in this way. Because when you think about where you're spending your time today, and I will get into a little bit more of allocation of time next week, but just when you think about, you know, just a snapshot of what is getting your attention now, where is your energy? What are you giving attention to? You know, we, we had an, a wicked wild ride in, in 2020 and here we are rocking and rolling in 2021 and some people are hanging on. Right. I remember the old days of being a good athlete in school and I went to a small school so it wasn't anything epic to be a good athlete. I'm not minimizing myself or any of my friends or peers that we did great. I was a four year lettered athlete as a baseball player. Let's be clear. If I went to a huge school in Southern California, I might not have made varsity as a freshman. It might not even have been available to me. It doesn't mean that I shouldn't be proud of being making varsity as a freshman. But I also have an awareness that that happened because I was a good player in a small market. And what I want you to realize about your leadership abilities and what you're doing now, it's not, it doesn't matter. I don't care about the size of your company. What I care about is your own growth. And sometimes we need to have some challenge. Sometimes we need to challenge our own priorities in order to facilitate and allow the necessary growth that we need. And so priorities are critical. We can agree on that. Yes. Give me a head shake up and down right now with me. Yes, priorities matter. Right. But how do we decide what priorities we go in? Because certainly there's been times that you have focused your time, effort, energy on profit in your business. If you want to go get some coaching and consulting from the Blue Collar Success Group, one of the companies that I own, and we would have gone, okay, what do you, what's your sales price? What's your cost of doing business? Make sure that you're pricing your goods and services in a profitable way. Of course, we've got to focus on that. Right? There's going to be times in your career where you're going to be focused on passion as a leader and really realizing that nothing happens if I don't care about it. It doesn't matter if, if I'm, you know, good at something, but I, I, I just don't wake up jazzed and excited and fired up to go execute and get it done. And then there's going to be times where you might take a step back and maybe you've gone through a little bit of personal reflection and maybe you've been exposed to some information or taken some time out of really just realizing what really matters to me. Like what matters. Sometimes it takes a death in a family, sometimes it's a loved one, sometimes it's a divorce, sometimes it's children leaving the nest, becoming empty nested. Sometimes it's a recession, sometimes it's a car accident. It can be all kinds of different things where you just wake up and go, whoa, wait a minute, is this really my purpose? Am I really doing these things? Because I want to, I want you to get clear about that and I want you to challenge your priorities right now, today. And what I know is that there's a three step process that too often gets flipped upside down. So I believe purpose comes first. You've got to get clarity on your purpose. You've got to know. I've talked about this in the past. This is just a simple reminder because sometimes we need to hear things over and over again. Tony Robbins says repetition is the mother of all skill. I believe in that. And I think it's important that we hear things over and over. And if you're not living in purpose on purpose, then it's time for me to hit you again with it and remind you that it's super important. I'm really passionate about this because I've been involved in nine different industries. I've, I've owned companies in many different industries over the, over the time from, I mean from diaper delivery services to sewer and drain businesses, to heating and cooling, to coaching and training, to 900 numbers way back in the day. No, not the kind you're thinking of, the kind for sports updates and stock updates. But I've had all these different, these areas that I've sent my energy and my attention, but it wasn't tied to purpose. And if I'm not living in purpose on purpose, then why am I doing everything? Because guess what, one day I'm going to wake up dead. What does that mean? I'm not going to wake up one day right on this planet in this capacity. And so why would I waste my time here that I've been gifted to be able to create an influence on myself and those around me? Why would I waste it not doing something that I have purpose about that I'm not passionate about? Number two. So we start with purpose and then we go to, okay, cool, I know why I'm here now. What is going to create my fire? What's going to bring passion to my life? And here's where I want to remind you. Passion is a byproduct of activity. We have this tendency and belief, I've talked to you about it in the past, where we think that I'm just going to sit around, maybe in meditation and God's going to wave a magic wand down on me and all of a sudden I'm just going to be passionate about everything that I do in my life and I'm never going to question myself, I'm never going to have challenge, I'm never going to struggle because I'm just passionate about everything. False. Now you can challenge me that I have a limiting belief about that. I'm speaking from experience on what I know is that passion comes from activity. Passion comes from getting things done. Passion comes from doing things, making mistakes, kicking the curb and going, wow, that didn't feel good. I'm not going to do that again. I over invested, I overspent, I overgave whatever it was and that didn't feel good, that now I can have passion around that. What's my purpose? What's the activities I'm taking and making in order so I have passion. And then the last one, that is a byproduct. Now it's definitely important. It's why it's in the top Three is profit. And so if I'm involved in leadership in any capacity, if you're listening to this as an up and coming leader or you want to be a leader one day, I want you to, number one, realize you are a leader. You're a leader of your peers, you're a leader of your family regardless of what it is. You could be the youngest of 11 children and 16 years old and you are leading some of your older siblings based on how you're cleaning your room or not, based on the activities that you're doing, based on the conversations you're having, based on the beliefs that you have. Everybody is a leader in certain capacity. And profitability can start at home with my own personal finances, meaning that I keep more than I make, no matter what my income is, I have a profit to show, quote, unquote at the end of the day. And I'm not trying to create any confusion here, but I just think that profit doesn't need to be tied just to business. Because I know plenty of businesses that make a lot of money and have principals, presidents, CEOs, owners, stockholders, shareholders, whatever it is that are running around in fear because they don't have a healthy relationship with money and they spend more than they make, even if it's 4 or 500,000 a year. And some of you listening might be like, that's impossible. There's no way I'd never spend more than 250. If I made 250, everything would be amazing. I, I want to remind you of something. You thought that when you made $5 an hour, if you could just make 7:50, everything would be amazing. And what happens now? Everything changes, my friend. Don't judge, don't judge others. Just pay attention to what you're doing. And too often in business we flip this upside down. As I said, if you come to work with blue collar as a client, we're going to go, look, let's make sure you're prized for profit. But that's not where you spend all your time, effort, energy and, and focus and training and everything. Yes, profitability matters, but it's going to flow when it's coming from passion and purpose. And so we see the companies out there that are just focused on the next dollar. They're focused on trying to wait for a certain thing, try to front load a certain quarter for Wall street, whatever it is that doesn't work out ever. Good long term profitability needs to be a major part of business, but it does not need to be the only thing that we Focus on our problem is we flip this upside down. And what I tend to think is as soon as I become profitable, then I'm going to be passionate. And when I'm passionate, then I'm going to finally tap in and feel my purpose. And it's not true. I know myself, I've built profitable businesses that had a hole in them. It wasn't about what I really loved, who I really was. I've had leaders in the past that could definitely create income in businesses that I've owned or invested in, but they weren't living in their purpose and they were trying to fill a void. We see it by leaders going, the more money I make, then I'm going to have fulfillment, then I'm going to be validated, then the world is going to recognize me and I'm filling a self image gap in a hole that doesn't get filled until I realize why I'm on the planet, that yes, I'm okay, even though I've got broken wounds and stuff from trauma as a child, from being raised by parents that were always doing the best that they could, but had my own generational belief systems that were instilled in me, whether it's from finance to relationship to religion to whatever it is. And as I realize who I am and what my purpose is and take action and activities in my life that develop passion and then realize that from those I can create profit in the world to share, to impact, to influence, to make the world a better place and ultimately live my own primary purpose, which is to make a positive impact in my own life and the lives of others while learning and growing and becoming the best version of myself each and every day. Now things start getting really, really fun, really, really engaging, really, really fulfilling. And I can't even tell you I've had addiction problems in the past. I've had relation problems in the past, I've had financial problems in the past. And I'm not here saying, oh, Kenny's perfect. I don't have it all figured out by any stretch. I have enough figured out to share with you my walk, my path, my guilt, my shame, the challenges I've had. And what I know is when I do these priorities in this order, when I focus on purpose, when I unleash my passion through a major activity and all the things I do and I focus on profit in business, in life, in relationships, in health, really good things happen. Do me a favor, give me a rating. Give me a review here. We want to continue to grow this community. I'd love to hear from you how things are going. Also, do us a favor and download that audible copy or audio copy of the six dimensions of change 2.0. And until we talk, this has been episode 43. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host of Leadership in a Nutshell, and make it a better than fantastic week, my friend. I can't wait to see you next week. We'll talk about sustainable growth. Cheer.