50. Knowing - Doing Gap

Foreign. Hey, my friend Kenny Chapman here, your host of Leadership in a Nutshell for Home Service. I wanted to welcome you back. This is episode 50 and I'm super pumped. I'm always super pumped, it seems, when I get to spend some time with you. But I don't know if you caught that there in the opener or not, but I said this is Leadership in a Nutshell for home service. That's right. 50 episodes you have spoken and you would like me to go a little bit deeper into specifically our industry of home services. Therefore, moving forward, starting with today, we will be diving deeper into the home service industry. So Leadership in a Nutshell for home Service. I will remain your host. We also have a couple other things we'll be doing. I'll be bringing guests onto the show. I'll be interviewing other industry experts, talking with people outside of the industry that can bring value to us. I'll interview clients of blue collar as well as people in the space that are not clients of blue collar. Just anybody that is operating well, anybody that's influencing well, anybody that's really helping the trades. And so I just, I'm really excited because I. This is where my heart and my passion and my soul lives and, and breeze. And so we're just going to take a deeper dive because that's what you want to talk about. So that's what we're going to talk about. So give me a like, make sure you're subscribed. If you're not in the home service industry, I know many of you have been listening and you're not from home services. Here's the deal. You're still going to get a ton of value. It's just that every direction that I go, every story, a lot of the things I talk about will be specifically around home service. As we know, business is business, people are people, and human behavior is human behavior. And so with that being said, let's jump in. Today we're talking about the knowing doing gap. So if you think about contracting, if you think about us in the trades, I mean, where does it show up more than here when it's not about what you know. And yes, I'm the CEO of a coaching and training company, but here's what I know. It's not about what you know, it's about what you do with what you know. And so, you know, it's been this thing coined as the knowing doing gap. There's different books have been written about it, different blogs about it. I'm going to write a blog about it. It's going to be in the show notes. I've got some thoughts around this, but what I really want you to focus on here today is there's really five areas to help you get out of the gap when it comes from knowing and doing. And I, I talk about gaps in life and strategy all the time. Where, yes, it's about where you are right now, where you want to go and when you draw those two points, there creates a gap because there's a gap between where you are and where you want to go. Now that's fine because all we're doing is continuing to close that gap. That's why it's important that we measure success by looking backwards. Because as long as I'm looking forward, I'm never going to arrive, I'm never going to get there. But when I turn around and look behind me, I go, damn, I've come quite a ways, right? So be easy with yourself in your quest for life, mastery for business, mastery for leadership, mastery for financial mastery and realize you've come quite a ways, right? So today, as we think about leadership and the knowing doing gap in home service, I just want you to really focus on these five things. Number one, let's be clear. If you have an opportunity to take notes, take notes. If not, it's going to be in your show notes. And I don't want you taking your eyes off the road if you're driving or falling off the treadmill. We don't need another YouTube of somebody falling off the treadmill. Here's the thing, get over the knowledge advantage fantasy. That's right. There's a lot of fantasies that bounce around in the world and what life's going to be like at a certain time or moment. There's a knowledge advantage fantasy that you need to get out of your head. When you have a certain amount of knowledge, then you're going to have an advantage. Absolutely. 100% false. It's an absolute fantasy. It's a fallacy. It is not true. It is all about your actions. So get that out of your head. You know, it's kind of like top line intoxication that we talk about in the trades where it's like, oh, as soon as I get to 5 million, as soon as I get to 10 million, as soon as I get To 25 million. Every one of those levels I just talked about, we've seen people struggling to make a dollar and that is a tragedy, but it's real. There is no advantage to knowledge. There's only advantage to application of Knowledge. So number one, get out of the knowledge advantage fantasy. Number two, there's something we call the talk tragedy. Get over the talk tragedy too. What do I mean? Never mistake talking for action when we're talking about the knowing doing gap there. I mean, I have countless calls with clients that are like, oh, I need to have the, quote, difficult conversation. Need to have a hard conversation. Then stop talking about it and have the conversation. Right, right. I was just on with a client a couple days ago and having a, going to have kind of a come to Jesus with his service manager and long term team member having some different struggles. And I said to him, I said, how many times have you had this meeting? And he's like, well, I haven't had it yet. I mean, it's a difficult meeting. You know, I don't look forward to these. It's kind of a struggle. I'm not looking. I said, no, honestly, how many times have you had it? He's like, what do you mean? And when I push clients, I push them and push them and ask questions, ask questions and till they finally realize I'm kind of making a point here. And he's like, well, I haven't met. I said, I didn't ask you how many times you've met with him. I asked you how many times you've had the meeting. And that's what I want you to think about today. Between the knowing doing gap, there's a talk tragedy that's out there because he had had the meeting multiple times already in his mind. When waking up in the night, thinking about it over coffee in the morning, driving to the office, is today going to be the day? How am I going to structure? What phonetics am I going to use? How am I going to have inflection in my voice, whatever it is? Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying don't plan and don't prepare. I'm saying get out of talk tragedy and don't mistake that for action. Okay? If I'm stuck between the knowing and doing gap, realize that, that talking is not action number three. Hit mute. Now, you thought you hit mute right here, right? No, I, I'm not, I'm not talking about that. I hope the, I hope my producers leave that in because I want that space there. It's like hit mute on your talking. Right? So stop talking about it and I'm going to tell you, start writing. Hit mute on the talk and hit go on the writing. I'm a huge proponent. If you don't know that by now, you haven't listened to very many of these episodes. I will continue to talk about the power of writing. And you can write. You know, I'm a fan of old school. I journal every morning using my pen, my favorite pen and a journal. But I've got plenty of clients and peers that also write into apps or different Google Docs or whatever it is, you know, typing on the computer. The point is to write. Why? Because it slows down the conscious mind. When I help my client to slow down and go write about the meeting that he needed to have, what happens is you're able to slow your conscious mind down to where now your subconscious can start catching up and actually offer some solutions. You have this going on and it's bouncing around and you're running it through your head. Slow down and write. Because if you're stuck between knowing and doing in this gap we're talking about here today, you need to get clarity and you need to write about why you're not doing what you know you need to do. Okay? So get rid of the fantasy of knowledge is an advantage. Stop executing the talk tragedy. Hit mute and start writing. And then number four, commit for real here. Commit for real. Like if you want to get out of the. I know this information I think about back when I first went became an upfront contractor. I ran my numbers. That was way back in the days of Maurice Mayo. There's a name I haven't said in, in quite some time. God bless. Maurice was one of the first guys out there offering price books and different stuff. And I called him up and they offered three options. You know, I was $58 an hour at the time. And he said, you can do 80, 100 or 120 bucks an hour. And I said, holy cow, well then you better sign me up for the 80 because I'm 58 and I don't even know if I can get 80, so. So I did that. But what was funny is I got the price books back in the old school, you know, hand cop or hard copy paper books that came in the mail and all that. I knew what I needed to do, I just wasn't committed. So I was stuck in the knowing doing gap. Not only did I know, I invested, I. I spent some of my hard earned money and invested. How about yourself? Where have you invested? And you're not doing what you need to know. So commit for real. It's okay. Be easy with yourself. Don't beat yourself up, but make sure that you actually commit and do something about it. Now, number five, last point here, get the necessary leverage. So as leaders, we need leverage. I've got a new book coming out later this year about leadership in the home service space, and I'm going to help guide you through that. And I also want to help do that on this podcast and in our interaction. And when I hear from you, when you email me, when we communicate, I want you to realize that as a leader, you know, just because you, you might, you know, maybe you're an owner, maybe you're a, a general manager, maybe you're a service manager, maybe you're a lead technician that is sharpening your skills by being here. Maybe you're a salesperson. That is the top salesperson. So you're looking to increase your leadership is why you're listening here with us today. And all I care about is you to be easy with yourself and realize you need some leverage. It's okay. We got to get leverage on ourselves in order to create change and massive human behavior alterations. And that's. We need that until our subconscious can take over. And so when you think about different life events, different major times, when you've changed your life or different things like that, it's been quite some time ago now when I decided to be sober for life and I needed some leverage on myself and I didn't have some tragedy or chaotic event, thank God, that helped me make that decision. I just decided one day that that was it, I'm done. And then I created new routines, I changed my habits, I changed my schedule, I created some leverage and I got an accountability coach. And that's one of the things that I want you to think about, is making sure that an accountability partner, it can be a friend, it can be another manager in your organization, it can be a formal coach, it can be somebody at the gym that, you know, it can be. I don't recommend a spouse by any stretch. I do have clients that have spouses as their accountability coach partners. But just be cautious there. But the point is that sometimes we'll commit a little more for others until we get an opportunity to commit for ourselves. I'm about you committing for yourself and creating leverage. So you live the best life, so you create the best version of yourself so you get the fruits of your labor, if you will, by fulfillment, by emotional regulation, by really waking up and enjoying every moment of this life. That is such a, a freaking gift that we have. And so will there always be a little gap between knowing and doing? I think so it be easy with yourself. I think there's there's certain things that you woke up this morning, you know you needed to do it, you're not going to do it. That's okay. Don't beat yourself up. Just decide, was it that important? That important I should say realize, am I, is there, am I still stuck in this fantasy that the more I learn, the better I'm going to be? As soon as I get it totally figured out, then that's a fantasy. It's not about knowledge. If you're talking about it all the time, catch yourself, you're talking with peers, you're talking on Facebook forums. Are you in a talk tragedy? And you need to realize like talking is not doing it. Do you need to hit mute and stop that talk and stop listening to yourself and stop hearing yourself and start writing. When we talk about systemization, when we talk about process and procedure in home services, we, we know that if it's not in writing, it's not real. Michael Gerber taught me that when I became an E myth consultant. December of 2000 is when I was first exposed to that completely changed my life. Helped me build a self managing contracting business over the next several years and started coaching and training in 03 and never looked back. Right? It's about putting in writing. What about yourself? Why aren't you putting your own thoughts in writing and slowing things down? When you think about that gap from what you know you need to do today and maybe you're not doing it, check your level of commitment, my friend. It's okay. If you don't want to do it, don't do it. Just stop telling yourself that you want to. That's where the pain comes from. It's a disconnect between what you're saying and what you're doing that's painful. So stop it. If you don't want to do it, that's okay. If you do, then commit for real. And once you commit for real, get some fricking leverage on yourself. You need to have some leverage. You need to have some different things that create maybe, you know, the studies say we do more to avoid pain than we do gain pleasure. What does that look like for you? How can you find some accountability in your life to help you do what you know will make your life better, will make your team members lives better, will make your business better, will increase your profitability. As you do all those things, you get an opportunity to serve your clients better. As you do that boom, the business grows and grows and grows. Life scales and scales. Emotional regulation minimizes out financial mastery, comes on the table, and it's all about that. This is your life architecture as a leader. I'm super honored to be able to play this game with you. Leadership in a nutshell. For home service as we move forward, I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. This has been episode number 50, the knowing doing gap. Until we talk, give us a like, let me know how we're doing here. Give us a review, and until we talk, make it a better than fantastic day, and I'll see you real soon. Thanks, everybody.