The Hidden Price of Mediocrity & How to Find Your Drive

I think it's kind of like the pain of change or the pain of regret. I mean, it's always— pain's always a motivator or fear, you know, fear of like, if you don't do anything, it's gonna stay the same. That can be scary. Or, you know, the fear of the unknown. So it's— you just, you have to choose, pick your battle.

Welcome to Big Hitters. I'm Larry Weidel, and this show is for people who are done playing small. Each week we break down what it actually takes to win at a high level, the decisions, the discipline, the adjustments that separate those who almost do it from those who do it. No theory, no fluff, just straight talk from someone who spent 50 years building winners. If you're serious about momentum, you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Hello everybody, in the green room with Jolene Jonke, and who is our MVP for last year. And so Jolene is on a Trans-Canada live speaking tour. And looking for leaders across Canada. When you're out there, please try and find yourself a new prime minister if you can. And so anyway, let's let's find out what's on Jolene's mind. What what would what are you curious about, Jolene? That getting inside the mind of you know high achievers and making things happen. What you know what's on your mind? And if I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna prompt you in a certain direction if there's not anything just hanging there right now.

No low-hanging fruit, right? So, well, you know, I mean, one of the big things about this cross-Canada tour is that my vision is opening up 50 offices in the next 3 years. So I'm looking for leaders that, you know, want to change their life. So looking for hungry people, I think what I'm finding is, you know, there's a lot of, um, desire for people to change their life. And then it's identifying the characteristics of the people who are ready to change their life right now. And what I'm finding is that the more uncomfortable people are, the more willing that they are. So, you know, I'm really able to, I'm, I'm able to spot as I meet people in person, I'm starting to really see what I see in myself, which is that, that drive that people talk about, but not everybody actually has that drive right now. So it makes it—

Absolutely. Absolutely. And the thing is that I've kind of come to the conclusion in the training center The people that we want are the people who are at a point in their life where they want to move up. You know, they're frustrated. And I've had people come up to me over the years and say, you know, I just can't make it happen and this and the other. And I say, you know, well, you just need to flounder for another year or 2 or 3 and get really— you're just not— you're not sick and tired of being sick and tired quite enough. Because at the end of the day, everything we do, see if you agree with this, everything we do is we do it because we want to do it more than the trouble it is to actually do it. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Everything you do is going to be trouble. Raising kids, like let's just say you want to do something nice for your husband. Well, you know what, throw him a surprise party. Well, that's going to be a lot of hassle. You're going to have to, you know, get a gift, invite the people, and set the time. And this— but if you want to do it more than— is everything in life like— it's like losing weight or getting in shape. You want to do it more than the effort it's going to take to do it. So you got to get over that teeter-totter type thing, really, don't you think?

Yeah, I think it's kind of like the pain of change or the pain of regret. I mean, it's always Pain's always a motivator or fear, you know, fear of like, if you don't do anything, it's gonna stay the same. That's, that can be scary. Um, or, you know, the fear of the unknown. So it's, you just, you have to choose, pick your battle.

And I don't think people think about, you know, they talk about the price of greatness, but they don't talk not enough about the price of mediocrity.

Yes.

Of course. You know, living in that gray area of, and the trouble with retirement, like people, so they look forward to retirement. But retirement is just bores people out of their mind most of the time. You know, they didn't, they didn't really realize how bored they were gonna be. And you know, it's like when you're working, even though, you know, you're doing hard things, the, the deal is we always want a path of least resistance. Like, give it up. You know, I, you know, I don't wanna have to put myself through this anymore.

Yeah.

But if you're going to the gym, And all you're doing is lifting the broomstick over in the corner, you're really not going to develop any kind of muscles. You're not going to be, you know, you go to the gym and you sit down in a chair and read a magazine for an hour. You're really not, I'm sure you're comfortable, but you're not really going to get in shape. You've got to put yourself up against hard things if you're going to grow. And sometimes you, you can, you've got your mind on the wrong stuff. It's like, what kind of progress am I making? What am I getting from this? And it's easy to get sloppy in your thinking and let your mind shift over to, you know, I do this all the time, like with the big, the Be Wow Board. I've got an idea about the, I'm gonna see if my new designers, and by the way, they're making great progress on getting our own platform for our training center, getting away from Mighty Networks. But I'm gonna see if they can give like everybody, now you have your, you know, your information. I'm gonna try and call that a locker room. Like, everybody has their own locker. Everybody's got a locker in the training center where you have your information, what you want people to know about you. But what I'm hoping to have in there is a scoreboard. You know, every time you put a big win for the week, that it transfers over and you keep a list of these inside your locker.

Oh, so good.

Yeah. And so then we can start measuring streaks. Who's got streaks of 5 weeks in a row, 10 weeks in a row? Who's got the longest streak inside the training center? And things like that to where we need to— part of this thing is setting the big wins up. That's something I've got to do for myself too. People come to you all the time and say, well, how you doing? Pretty good, doing good, this, that, and the other. But kind of you feel like, well, okay, if I'm being honest, You know, got an ache and pain or this, that, the other. But most of us are, have so many great things to be thankful for that, you know, it's a matter of getting your mind on it. And it's part of, it's part of discipline is the way you control how you look at stuff.

Yeah.

You know, it's like, it's easy to slide into the negative side of life because especially when you're dealing with hard things like this didn't work, this didn't work, this didn't work. Yeah. You're developing a strength, the ability to deal with that type thing, or you're learning something. It's forcing you to think of something in a different way that you've never thought of it before.

Definitely.

And that's why the training center is so important. But the whole concept of continuing to train after you're successful is beyond most people. But in sports, they take it for granted. You know, they, you know, and when you confront people with the fact that I don't care if you're running a multinational corporation and you're on top next year, if you want it to be better, you got to get better. You got to keep, you know, you're not going to drive your company past the point at which your ability to lead. And so when you say that to people, they say, oh yes, but they'll go and they'll spend multi-millions of dollars in the research and development and new products and refinements and improvements of their company. so they can compete in the market, but they won't work on themselves.

Absolutely.

And so that's what we do in the training center with a light touch, with, you know, as much of a light, very little interference in people's lives, as little as possible with that one signature kickoff event a week. Just like strike the match, reboot it, get some new insight in there and get you going to where right from the beginning, you got the chance of having a special week. It may be the best week you've ever had, but you take that out of the guesswork, out of that, out of the equation by starting with a definite start to the week. And then it's up to how much more, you know, during the week, how much time you have to check in and check on other stuff and everything. But to make light demands on people's schedules so they can make this an ongoing part of their life. If you were to take Jamie Dimon, who's running JP Morgan. And they say, somebody was telling me last night that their profits every day, or they handle transactions of like $14 trillion a day.

JP Morgan.

Of course, $14 trillion. I said, well, you know, if in 3 or 4 days they could pay off the, our national debt, you know, but even Jamie Dimon, if Jamie Dimon took an hour a week And plugged into the Big Hitter Call, he's going to hear things. He's going to be prompted to remember things. It's going to trigger things in his mind. And if he did that 50 weeks over the year, there's just no way he wouldn't be the best Jamie Dimon he's ever been in his life next year, able to stay ahead of the challenges and everything. So no matter where you are getting started or if you're up there running one of the biggest corporations in the world, This is the kind of thing you got to take yourself serious. You can't just say, I'm going to necessarily be able to handle all this stuff. And so the rewards for training are just staggering and they can ripple over into all areas of your life. And, you know, thank God for you guys that are smart enough to see— people either see it or they don't see it. And they're either, like you say, at the point in their life where they're ready to do it. Ready to move. They're sick and tired of where they are, and they're you know they're ready to jump. But if they're not, it's not the time. Like you're making your trip across Canada. You'll probably be making those trips across Canada for the next five years. You know, you know harvesting people that are at that point that where they're ready to go. But if they're not ready to go now, is no sitting and having a talk heart to heart talk with them. Like you really should, you know. You really should be more miserable about your situation. You know, you really, they either are or they're not, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think what you said, Larry, like, so one of the things in the talk that I give is, you know, like what's the cost of actually not doing it right now? 'Cause sometimes in life we don't move until we've actually, like, I used to always play out the cost for myself. If I don't go do this, who's actually going to suffer? Your kids may not be able to do things. Like I, I know our son plays hockey in Utah. I mean, I never wanted to book appointments and build a business. I mean, I never felt like doing that every day, but you do it because if those little decisions later, like before, now he can play there. That costs money, right? Like, so, you know, I try to help people see like right now, if you stay where you are, it's not just yourself, but who's gonna be affected by your lack of decision to go after something bigger than you're currently doing. And then, so that, that's a big thing. And then I think like what you said, You know, a lot of times with, you know, the fear and all of that and the commitment, you know, when we're overwhelmed, I feel what I'm experiencing is people are in a lot of overwhelm, financially overwhelmed, time overwhelmed. And I, it's really just a lack of commitment. It's like, okay, so you're overwhelmed, but like, what's the goal? Like, what's the vision? Lots of people have totally lost track of having a goal or having a vision that they're stepping into. They're literally on a hamster wheel. Just going through life. So like you said, we need to come in and have someone just change the way you look at things. Because when, when someone brings that to you, you start looking at things differently. And that's why I think there's a call to leadership. I think there's a big missing in the world right now of leadership. People who are actually willing to go get uncomfortable and go pour into people and help them just like you do all the time. Like just spark that next thing. Because no matter what, as long as you are around people that are going somewhere, you're going to get like You know, they'll catch you on fire, so to speak. Right. So.

All right. Well, what we're talking about, folks, we're gonna wrap this up. And, uh, Jolene has brought up an interesting subject we'll get into later. But the deal is that, uh, if you're wondering, you know, this is one of the key things. You, you wanna be a leader, you wanna build a company, you've got to have people want to be with you. You can't control their want to. You can, you know, lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink, but you can give them salt. You know, you can, you can expose them to Other opportunities and are there— make their situation clear to them. But if it just doesn't mean that much to 'em, you gotta just give 'em time. You gotta go on out there. And it is like fruit that is ripe on the tree. Some people are ready to go. People are not. Some people are not. And if they're not, there's nothing you could do. It's outta your control. But the people who do, it's the job of finding 'em, and that's the prospecting. And you can't want things for people more than they want it for themselves. Is people are gonna do what they want to do. And so your job in building a company is to find those kind of people who are at a point where they're at a point where they want to get involved in what you're doing. They want to take advantage of whatever it is you're offering them. If it's a job or if it's an opportunity, if it's commission sales, or if it's a chance to open their, you know, train and open their own office, whatever your opportunity that you're— or service, you know, if they've got a company and you've got a service, you know, you, if they don't want to take advantage of it, if they don't want to jump in, fine. You gotta move on.

Yeah.

And we always used to say that is a, they're either a yes or they're a statistic.

Right.

You've gotta be a little, you gotta have a little thick skin about that. So thank you, everybody. A little bit of insights into the mind of how big hitters think. Thank you so much, Jolene, because this is something that the clearer you can get on this, the better leader you can be, and the less you'll let yourself get emotionally wrapped up in the people that You know, you see, you, you know, you care about them. You want them to do great things. They're just not gonna do it. You gotta learn to move on cuz you gotta pull your little red wagon and not slow the pulling of your little red wagon because somebody else doesn't wanna pull theirs.

Get the boulders out.

Yeah. You gotta keep moving at your own pace. Okay. Thank you, Jolene. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Larry.

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