Episode 59: Special Guest David Rodgers

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso.

Greetings. This is Mike Troms coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And I am over pumped. I'm over excited about the next episode in the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. And we try to bring you the best of the best of the people that we know that have a message that can help you grow your business, create wealth, and allow you to have more freedom to live life on your own terms. All surrounding the three Ps, People, Processes and promotion, in that order. And you know, it's funny in life how things happen and things happen when you least expect them to happen. So you may be aware of this. I'm an avid road bicyclist and so I get to ride with people all the time. And I learned about our guest today and what he does on a bicycle. We ride bicycles together, we challenge each other, etc. Etc. If he wants to go into that, I'll let him go into it. But I found out what he did over some miles over a few hours one day. And I said, that is flipping amazing. And so I delved into it more. He ended up teaching at one of our recent Mastermind events. And everybody in the Mastermind events were blown away by his content, by his teaching, by the new mindset that he brought to everybody. And so I said it is an absolute no brainer to get Mr. David Rogers on the podcast. Dave, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. This is just absolutely great. I mean, you have done so much to keep me going and keep me moving and we are in different industries and there is that universal truth that just goes across it. So I really have to thank you. This is a great opportunity.

And.

And by the way, this is my first podcast ever.

Well, fantastic. Never to be the last, right?

No, I'm excited.

I think that someday you should start the Dave Rogers podcast. I'm not sure what we're going to call it. I see a visual up there in the corner. You call it B State Revealed or some great marketing line or something like that. But anyway, at the end of the day, I 100% agree with what you just said, Dave, because in my own personal development and training and growth, I learned that business principles are business principles. Business principles are business principles. And I learned so Much outside of the industry that I'm in from people like you and many, many others. So when we apply those business principles to whatever it is we're doing, that's where the growth, the creativity, the innovation develops. So Dave, fantastic. So share with those listening and watching today a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Where did you come from? Anything else you'd like to share?

Sure. Well, I actually grew up in Minnesota. I now live in California, which is great.

I love it.

It took me about seven minutes to adjust to California weather when I got here and I've never turned back. But I think all of what I'm doing now, it's been a long journey. It started when I was about two years old. I really love figuring out how things work. And I would, you know, I'd do erector sets and take them apart, put them back together just to see if I could do it better and how it worked. And that kind of went into what I did from that point forward. I actually was in operations with large and medium sized companies. I did engineering, I did marketing, I did program management, I did business management. And when I would master one part, I would just get interested in another. And then what happened was I joined a consulting group, B State, as a matter of fact, because I found a wizard much like you, actually that was just top of the line. And I found out the most interesting problem and the most interesting discovery was how to get groups of people to work together and execute effectively. That was the coolest problem and it never quit giving and it's always evolving and you got to keep up to it. So for the last 30 years now, it's a little crazy. I have been consulting with medium to large size groups, groups like Chevron.

Different technical groups, the US Navy, General Dynamics, just a whole number of groups plus smaller and mid sized companies that actually what they're looking for. The people that hire me are people that really have a big goal in mind. They really want to get it done quickly, quickly. And it's going to take a mindset and behavior change in their people to really capture it. That's when I get called in. So that's been my experience over the years.

Yeah. And I know when we were pedaling one time you mentioned Kaiser and Apple and other companies like that. So congratulations on your success so far. And you just said something that I think is so critically important. And then I want to make sure that we get plenty of time today to talk about the A word. And the A word is not everybody's favorite word. But it's so vitally important and I am so grateful for my accountability partner and you've taught me so much about accountability. I want to make sure that we get your critical thoughts on accountability and how you have helped these medium to large sized companies continue to grow and continue to flourish through accountability. But what you just said is mindset. One of my favorite phrases is our mindset is our skill set. So great stuff.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, we got into accountability because when we first were studying it, we were looking for what makes successful companies, no matter what the size, be able to establish success and grow from that, rather than just have that cycle of up and down happen that they can continue on this trajectory. And the common thing is, was they said, well, we've got an accountable environment and accountable people. But I think accountability is one of the most misunderstood, most misrepresented words out there. And people think of it as, it's just, I'm going to do what I say. It's all activity driven. And that's the mindset change. The huge mindset change I got when I started working in this is it's not about activity, it's about what's your future picture of success and what outcome do you want to create. And as soon as we get that picture of success and outcome, it totally changes the game. Because essentially people look at accountability and holding people accountable as looking toward the past. Accountability is really about looking to the future and are the actions you're taking leading you to your future picture.

So let's talk about some of those actions. What might some of those actions be? I know that you have. As far as the wheel of indispensability, is that where some of those actions are?

Well, let's, let's start it simple. Okay, cool. Let's say, and here's where people get off track. I think we think there's a certain process in our life, a certain thing that's made us successful up till now.

Right.

So as a leader, we want people to adapt our way of doing it and do it just the way we do things. And Mike, you know, when we do that, we become a micromanager, like instantly. And we never meant to be that.

Right.

But the first shift that needs to happen is when we're working with our people and with each other and we're asking them to participate, we're asking them to do a role. Are we painting a picture? Are we giving them an outcome to go toward? To say, here's what we need to do. And it's not just get all of these papers done and all these things filed the way we need it. It's like it also includes aspects of what's our relationship with our customer? Who are we really serving here? What do we really want to do? And what kind of teamwork do we do to do that? So if we can paint people a picture, then they know where they're going and they can take ownership of that.

Aha. Destination. Knowing their destination is all they need to get there.

Yeah. So go ahead, Mike.

Oh, please. Outcome. Outcomes. Important. I mean, what is the outcome that we desire?

Yeah.

And being able to identify that and create a plan to get to that outcome. I mean, it's critical.

Absolutely. And here's the thing. As a leader, in terms of accountability.

We'Ve been thinking about what we need so much.

That picture.

But when we deliver to somebody, what we do is say, I want you to picture.

But.

The end.

That's the mindset.

Well, if I. With the picture, because I make mistakes, I don't think about it. You need to ask me, what are you trying to get to with this? And that'll trigger me. So you set people up to help you be accountable as well as set them up to be accountable themselves.

Fantastic. And let's talk about some of the things that might get in the way. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, those are things that we want to avoid. Correct. Because if we're going to get the outcome we desire, what do we need to stay out of the way of or avoid in that path?

Like victim loop. I'm looking at something that I learned from you.

I know where you're going with this now. Thank you for leading me down the past. For those of you that don't know, one of the things that I shared with Mike and some of his group was a thing called the personal accountability model. And the thing is, the main component of that is if we have everything we need and all the right people, it's easy to be accountable and all the right time. But the thing is, we have crises and urgencies that come up that we didn't anticipate. And that's when it gets hard to be accountable. And that's when people can move into a victim mode. And that's a mode where we start ignoring what needs to be done because we feel overwhelmed.

It's a mode where we can easily start to deny our part in it. Like that's somebody else's role, it's not mine, because it never was up till this point. As soon as we do that, we don't even know it. But like, Mike, if I say to you, it's not my role, it's what. What's kind of the answer to that question. It's not my role, it's somebody else's problem.

Absolutely.

And as soon as you say that, you're not even meaning to, you're in the blame game, you're pointing fingers, and that doesn't work with people. So we're smart enough to get that. So then we realize, let's stop that. But let me tell you why I'm right about my opinion about not taking this accountability on. And pretty soon I'm believing it. Everybody's believing. Everybody's, you know, no matter what you say, you can't convince me. Now I'm resisting you. And eventually I'm hiding. And none of that gets the problem handled. And that's the victim mode. So those are the things you have to watch out for. Those are the trigger keys. If you're doing it, if somebody's doing it, we have to go back to that mindset of what's the outcome and what do we all have to do to get there? So let's go back. Let's not blame them for all of that because that's just human. We all do it, right? But let's go back to that, picture that outcome and say, hey, ok, regardless of what happened, where are we going?

And now what do we all need to do to get on board to make that happen?

And one of the greatest aha. Moments that I had in the early, incredible training that you shared with our mastermind groups was once we got through that, by getting out of the resistance, getting out of the rationalization, oh, it's my way or the highway and the blame game, the denial and ignoring and all that kind of stuff, you got us to the point of intentionality so that we moved away from all that. We finally got to the point where the intention, the desired outcome was within our reach because we put all that behind us. And then you just start moving up the personal accountability model ladder. And it's just a great journey, right?

Yeah, it's a great journey. But, you know, again, I think what you're hitting on is if we aren't clear and if we aren't agreed on the intention, there's no way we can be accountable to it. You can't be accountable to a future you don't know or. Or you don't agree with. So you have to get that. You have to get that clear. And that's the key with a Group, that's where it all breaks down. We assume people have the same intention we have, but we've never dialogued about it. So you hire good people. I mean that's people's your number one part of the P's, right?

Yes sir.

You hire good people, but then your execution process falls apart because you haven't gotten together and made sure you're aligned around the outcome, that future picture and that picture is going to change. So you have to keep. Alignment is not a thing that happens at one time a year. Alignment is an ongoing dialogue.

As you execute.

This alignment, how often should it happen? And I mean the organizations you work with, mid to large size businesses, give us some of the inside secrets of how this alignment works.

It's more the inside secrets of how it doesn't work.

Okay.

Because what they do is they'll traditionally and by the way, organizations are catching on to a different way of doing it. But if you look on a whole they strategic plan once a year and they get everybody aligned up around goals and things like that and they set them loose. Now here's what happens. As they say in the military, no, you know, no battle plan survives the first encounter with the enemy. And there's not like an enemy out there. But there's the world changes, there are crises that come up, there are things that get in the way that you never anticipated. And what you do is you get that alignment first. But you have to keep the dialogue going every day so that you can pivot as a team when you need to. So it never ends. It's about bringing into your meetings, it's about bringing into your one on one interactions. And that's what I love when I've been watching you do it, you do that every day. You know.

I mean, am I wrong? It never ends, right?

It never ends. But you know, like I learned this morning, I got to deliver what we call a state of the agency address to our entire organization. Happens a couple times a year. But a lot of people said, hey, that went really, really well. You were really dialed in, it was very clear, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm sure you find this in the organizations that you work with and help flow flourish. But my response was the reason it went so well is because I prepared and I prepared and I prepared. And the one that I have to thank for all that is my wife because she allowed me the time to prepare that I needed to make sure it went well just during that quick 20 or 30 minute segment. So talk about that within organizations that are really successful out there.

Well, when I see organizations, how do.

They prepare to continue to succeed using, you know, your skill sets, There's a quick process.

The ones that really do it well is they, they get the alignment and what they do is they then talk about the execution. So it's one thing that, it's one thing to actually get the alignment and paint the outcome and get everybody talking about that, but then it's like, how are we going to execute? Because where people get stuck is going into their own silos and executing in a way that they don't get a combined result. So they set the direction, they discuss the execution, they do it.

They follow up, and then they pick their heads up and they say, what's changed about our environment before we go back into the next stage? And they do that continuously.

Got it.

Where they look is they don't look at just their goal. And any business owner would know this. You actually look and say, what's happening in our customer environment right now? What's changed about the competition? And this could be in the middle of a stream of things. What's changed about the regulations or what's changed about the economy? And how are we going to leverage that, keeping our picture in mind, but seeing what the rocks are and moving around them.

Strategy, Culture is all about execution.

Strategy and culture are all about execution. So let me paint a different kind of picture for you. What would you say to somebody who is just starting out, maybe is not a medium or large sized company yet they have a team of, you know, maybe just two, three or four people.

I just heard you say.

Make sure I get this right and correct me if I'm wrong.

The culture equals the execution. The culture and the strategy equals the execution. What would you say to them, what they need to be doing? Same kind of strategies and things that they need to be doing internally to get that execution.

Well, when you're with a smaller team, it's actually easier, more powerful and more important. Aha. All three of those. It's easier, it's more powerful, it's more important. So the first thing you do, and let's just break it down simply, is.

What are our priorities for the next quarter?

And you can break it down into any series of timeframes. But the first problem is you make too many priorities.

Okay, so what are the key priorities above and beyond? Now, when I'm talking about this.

There are three types of priorities in a day. One is get the washout, do the business. Each one of us has a list of have to do for our business that we manage personally. That's priority one. We don't do that, our clients are not served.

Number two is there are. Well, let's boil it down to just two. The second one is what are we going to do to make our business and our service better and easier to do so that we can scale and grow and serve more people. It's the second one that you do your priorities around. So do the hard things first and get those aligned. Because the real amount of time we have to do proactive, what I call them priorities that remember the wash needs to get out. We need to maximize our time together to get the important big ones out. Don't want to overwhelm. So pick one to three priorities there as a small group that you're going to work on. And if you pick three and you can only have the time for one, pick only one. And this is really hard for people because I got all this stuff to do. No, it's you execute on the one, it's going to free up time for everything else.

Leverage.

Leverage, absolutely.

And go ahead.

The second one is how do you keep the cycle going when you're picking the next priority or set of priorities? Don't assume it's from the same list.

Take a fresh look, get a fresh list because something else may come up before above the ones you were thought that were the top priorities before. And that's what keeps you fresh and agile in what you're doing.

Right.

Wow.

Just those two things.

Yeah. So stay focused on your priorities. Get clear on exactly what your desired outcome is. And, and make sure that your priorities have the right intentionality built in. Correct.

Right. And I put it just in a slightly different order. Get clear on your picture, your outcome first. What are the priorities to leverage you to get there.

Fantastic. So once you begin to get there and once you have the right people in the right seats. As an example, we Talked about the three Ps, People, Processes and promotion.

Okay.

So to an extent we then need to become accountability and I want to dig into that for just a couple of minutes. Let's focus on the wheel of indispensability.

Okay. Let's focus on that.

I'm looking at being accountable, but it's surrounded by six quadrants.

Right.

So what do we each of those quadrants mean? And you got purpose driven, play big, adaptable, re centered, priority focused and value others. So we were talking about priorities just now, right?

Yep.

So we're priority focused. Culture and execution and strategy are all working together. What do you mean by value others?

Well, it's really. These were six set of great questions to ask yourself. And the question around that one is, are you valuing others or are you disregarding them?

And I don't think any leader goes in with the idea of I'm going to disregard my people.

But if you don't paint the picture for people and allow them to input, and allow them to input the ideas to how we do that, you're disregarding them. And so you're not valuing the critical thinking in that person and the value that they can bring that you have not discovered yet.

Yet.

And I think you say it a lot, Mike, and I really listen to this. You say people are silently waiting to be led.

Yes.

Painting the outcome, painting the future picture is the leading. But if we, if we paint it in terms of, I want you to do activity one, then two, then three, that's a training for someone that doesn't know how to do their work. So when they're early on, that works perfectly. But if you paint the picture that way, you're disregarding the potential of your person. So it's called paint the picture. And then allow them to input into the how to. Because although they're silently waiting to be led, my cab, my add on to yours is. And people, once they understand they're good at something, hate to be told what to do.

Right.

So, so give the leadership, but then engage them in the how to, because that's what they want to be a part of. How do we get there?

Right. That's all they want. They just want.

That's all they want.

Yeah, because to an extent, they're purpose driven. Yeah, they want a purpose.

If you've hired the way that you outlined for people to hire, you're gonna get people that, that actually are purpose driven. They align with your purpose. But you can undermine that by that one part you talked about by not, not valuing them and disregarding them.

So play big. How do you get them to play big?

Oh.

That, that is an interesting. Why is it important? Well, let's, let's.

Let'S answer that one first. The why it's important is if you don't play big, you're not expanding in your company and your thinking, you're just repeating the things you're good at. And if we just stay in place and repeat the things we're good at, the fast movers will overcome us. What was that? Was that Will Rogers? That said, even if you're on the right track, if you just stay there you're going to get run over.

That's correct. That's what he said.

Yeah. Something of that nature. So if you're just doing the same things you always did do, eventually you're going to be passed up and left in the dust. So thinking big is a big thing and that doesn't mean big ego.

What that means is, am I willing to say go beyond my comfort zone and do something I'm not comfortable with?

Right.

Life begins outside of your comfort zone. Correct?

Yeah.

We need to admit many times in order to get that to that outcome that you were referring to earlier, we need to increase the size of our game.

Yeah, absolutely. And how do you get them to play? I think you're demonstrating that right now with me. I mean, you're the way you get them to play, to ask good questions. So they have to think about what that expansion is. They have to put themselves in the uncomfortable place you ask questions so you can draw it out of them. And you're doing that with me right now. Great demonstration.

Thank you. I appreciate that. So the wheel of indispensability also talks about being adaptable. So I'm asking you to adapt also to the current discomfort zone where life begins. Right. So comment on being adaptable. I mean, one of the things that I've learned in the current environment that we're in, it's not the strongest who are going to win and thrive more, and it's not necessarily the smartest who are going to win and thrive more. The ones who are going to win and thrive more are those who can change and adapt better and faster than anybody else. Talk about it.

Absolutely. We're in a realm nowadays and I think it's going to go on for a long time where we're learning to think, do more things virtually than we ever imagined we'd do in our lifetime.

Right.

So I have talked to more people and senior leaders, you know, that go well, no, we're not going to work at home. No, I don't like video. So, you know, we'll make everybody fly in to meet. And what's happened is as we've moved into a need to work virtually.

They really have had to adapt. So adversity can actually help us adapt. But why wait until we're pressured to do it? Why not just take that leap into that? We, for instance, do a team system. We where for decades we've refined it and we do it in person because it is the most effective. When people got more virtual, we spent like three weeks just redoing the whole thing, because we realized we could do it virtually, but if we weren't pressured into it, it probably would have taken us another 10 years.

So it's. Can you adapt? Can you do that as just your nature rather than when you're. You're, you know, put in a vice and you have to. That's what it's about.

Right. Well, you're speaking about the senior executives, the aforementioned a minute or two ago. The last part of the wheel of indispensability is we centered.

Yes.

So they're not being we centered, are they?

No, they're not. It's. In that case, they're definitely, definitely demonstrating the opposite of that, which is me centered.

Right.

I'm the top dog. I'm comfortable with this. So this is how we're going to do it. And same with my most recent boss. He likes to have physical meetings. He is having more virtual meetings now than he ever has. And he's loving it because he can call him like that. He can get just the right people involved. We don't waste other people's time when it's not the topic. He loves it. But, you know, months ago, now, come over to my house. Come over to the office, you know. Yeah. So just looking at that.

So it's really all about, you know, making that decision and being adaptable to change and being willing to change. Because, you know, according to the late, great Jim Rohn, he said, if we want things to change, who has to change?

Absolutely.

So let's talk about breakthroughs for just a minute. Breakthroughs. Let me try that again. So we learned in the mastermind that you led so well, where our people in UPP were just going, oh, my gosh, Dave was awesome. One of the things that came out of that was somebody said after they learned from you, they said, one of the things I learned without, if there's no breakdown, there can be no breakthrough.

Ah, interesting.

Yeah. So I don't know if I told you that or not, but that was one of the results of your training.

I didn't hear that. That's great. What else did they say about that? Can you get them on here?

I've got it written on some notes. I just don't happen to have them with me right now. I do remember that because that one sunk. But, you know, with no break, if there's no breakdown, there can be no breakthrough. So I want to talk about as we begin to wrap this up. Thank you for your time today, by the way, Dave.

Oh, my pleasure.

Great stuff, great stuff. Talking about outcomes. We're talking about intentionality, we're talking about personal accountability models. And we just talked, got done talking about the wheel of indispensability. And lastly, I want to talk about the three steps from issue to breakthrough, because I'm sure it was in this part of the teaching that that UPP member had that little aha moment, if you will. So the three steps from issue to breakthrough. The first thing you talk about is clarify the situation and the intention. And you may have already touched this, but people like me, I need to hear it again. When you say clarify the situation and the intention, describe that more for us.

Sure. We're talking about there is a breakdown or there is an issue and you want to approach somebody with it rather than saying.

It'S really part of owning what you know about it without accusing or claiming you know the truth. It's what a friend of mine would call.

Speaking tentatively.

Not like you know the truth, but what you go back to is the truth that you both know. So we both knew what the assignment was. We both knew what the intention was. Let's review it. Or I think we did, but let me share my view of it, because maybe you had a different view. See how the openness, that's the tentative approach. And then here, if that was the view, here's what I'm seeing. And if I were put it in a real simple state. I one time gave someone, asked someone to do something. It wasn't. I gave them an assignment, was an agreement between us, and they were supposed to get it to me by Friday. Right. I thought that's the agreement. So Friday comes and goes and it's, it's Sunday and we happen to have a quick communication. And I said, hey, here's what I thought our agreement was and what I've noticed, and this is where you share what your notice is, is I don't have that yet. What happened? And the person said, oh, you said Friday. So I thought, well, Friday's, you know, Friday goes on a long time till midnight. So they stretch it to midnight and they said, well, he's not going to be until 8 in the morning on Monday. So I've got till 8 in the morning on Monday.

And yet it was something I needed for the weekend. So rather than say, you didn't come through, I just set the parameters, let him feed it back. And now I know his thinking, now I know what he was doing. And now we can create a new intention together for the future when we make agreements.

So to be terrific in other Words, you need to be specific and you need to clarify the intentionality and the situation to make sure there's no confusion.

Yeah. And you need to be open.

Yeah.

Essentially. That you don't have the answer, but you have something to discuss.

Aha. Open to the outcome.

Open to the desired outcome.

Open to the fact that you might not have communicated as clearly as you wanted.

Yeah.

Or open to something else happen that you didn't know about yet. And they're really doing their best.

Yeah. So that's fantastic stuff, Dave. You know, a lot of this I learned from reading the book that you contributed to making yourself indispensable. And that's where a lot of this stuff is. And I'd certainly recommend. If you haven't read it or listened to, it's on audible as well. Get out there and get making yourself indispensable. There's some sequel books that Dave has a hand in, and I'll get to that in just a minute, Dave. I want to stay on track. So step number two, from issue to breakthrough, you're talking about, where are you on the model and the wheel that we just talked about? So why is it important to identify where you're at now and how you can grow from there?

Well, it's important because it actually checks your horses when you're in full drive. Like when you're in full righteousness, I call it. I'm right. And Mike, I'm going to put you in your place. Or not even that. It's Mike, we're going to get this done and I'm going to tell you how it's going to go. And you know how well people receive that. Not too well.

Right.

But my way or the highway.

Yeah. What you do is you look at this wheel and on the bottom are the victim words that will cue you. If you're being a victim or an attacker, you could say, and on the top are the accountable words. And if you see your reactions or your words that you're about to use or you're using with people are in the bottom, then you know, before you do your communication, you have to shift.

Right.

And what's interesting with this little model is the answers to the bottom words are on the top.

Right.

If you. If the first step is, well, I've been ignoring this, then this, the opposite word is I'm going to acknowledge that this is something that I've been ignoring and I need to handle. Gives you the answer right there. If you've been resisting.

The thing and that you're sure your Resistance is right then right above it. You want to ask good questions. You want to. What's the exact words there right above?

We've got learn, take action, self examine, forgive, self examiner.

Yeah. So self examining. The key. I lost it for a second. The key is asking good questions. So you want to start questioning your opinion. You know, how did I come up with that? What's going on? So it gives you the answer right there. It prepares you to deal with anything in your mindset before you.

Our mindset's our skill set, baby.

That's it.

So speaking of aha moments and all of the aforementioned self examination, so I want to share with everybody one of my biggest takeaways, if not the biggest takeaway that I got not only from learning from Dave, but from making yourself indispensable. And it's permission to forgive myself. I remember when I got to that point in the book because, I mean, I am an.

Entrepreneur by spirit. I love to create, I love to build. I hate to fail. Let me say, I hate to fail. And I'm my own biggest critic. Me and the mirror of truth have some brutal conversations, and they're not always pretty. So, you know, I find it very hard to forgive. Give my. Give myself permission to forgive myself. But those lessons do come. And I remember getting through that passage. Oh, my gosh, that is awesome. We have to forgive ourselves. It's okay. That's what we learn, right? Wins and lessons.

Yeah, I think you nailed it there.

Yeah. So anyway, thank you for that. So we got through two of the three steps from issue to breakthrough. Number three, the third step on issue to breakthrough, he can and will. What can and will you do differently? So once you get through step one and step two, what can and will you do differently? Talk to us more about it. Share with us more about that.

Well, when you're talking about increasing your own accountability and when you're talking about improving your own leadership, when you're talking about even improving the culture or the execution in your team, the real way to do it is focus on once you've got the clear outcome you're going for, what are the few habits I need to change? What are the behaviors I need to change to do differently in this than I would typically do? And you don't need many of them because it's all a game of leverage. But what are the do differently? You don't have to fix the habits that are working.

You just have to develop new habits in areas that aren't your strengths yet. So if my thing now is I'm going to approach this person that I had a breakdown with. What's the habit that I need to do differently? And the habit may be just, you know, I have to put the situation out there in a short period of time and ask a question like, what's going on? I really want to know. And my favorite one from you is if they respond is, well, you know, how can I help you?

Right.

And if that's my new habit, I want to make it simple and I want to practice it. And here's the thing that's fun. I'm going to tie back to something else you said about the person I love the person that said, you know, I don't really get a breakthrough until I get a breakdown.

Right.

Understand when you go out with a new habit, intention, and you have a strong old habit, if you're under pressure, you're rushed, what are you going to go back? What are you going to go to the new habit or back to your old standby?

We're going to go back to the old standby.

Absolutely. So that's human.

That's rationalize it too.

Absolutely. Why you did it and why it was right and all of that stuff. But when you do that, that's human. That's the breakdown. It's a new intention. You're going to go backwards. And that's where you have to self forgive. Because like, okay, I am just human. I'm going to state of the intention. But if I can figure out how it breaks down and catch myself and get back on track, that's going to strengthen that new habit. That is going to make all the difference. And if I can play that way, my team members know they can play that way and they can play that way with me. Now I have got a team supporting me in the new habit and that is where the breakthrough comes.

Aha. So people are silently waiting to be led.

Yeah.

Wow. We've come full circle, Dave.

And that's the way it works.

Fantastic. So let's just share a couple of nuggets as we wrap this up today and I'm going to ask you for one last piece of information. Thank you so much for being with us today. It's been absolutely fantastic. You know, the personal accountability, the self accountability does lead to greater accountability within an organization. Great, great stuff. Thank you so much. So because of our personal relationship and bicycle riding efforts and so forth, you started coining me. Mike, Mike, Mike. Because of my alliance to the insurance industry. And we won't name the name of.

The company we Won't name that name.

There's something about a camel, right.

I think it was about hump day is what it was about.

Hump day. That's what it was. Yeah. Mike, Mike, Mike. And then I started calling you Dave. Dave. Dave. So for anybody that sees this out there, it's Dave. DDD That's Dave. Dave. Dave. And I'm mmm. Which is Mike. Mike Mike. So that's kind of a fun thing. And you and I have ridden hundreds of miles together in one sitting and grateful for it. Grateful for our relationship. So we've got the great personal and professional thing and I can't wait to continue to learn from you. Speaking of learning from you, I don't know if you're ready to drop this nugget, but I'm in the business of pulling stuff out of people are not ready to share yet. So I'm going to go ahead and do that. Right.

I can almost guarantee I'm not ready by the way you set it up. So.

Okay, go for it. So anyway, so you told me recently and I do listen quite well and don't forget things. You said you're working on a brand new book.

I am. I was challenged by my partner to do this.

Okay, so when's it going to be done?

It is going to be done within. Well the draft of it's going to be done within six weeks.

Okay, fantastic. So we can look forward in a couple months from now. That or three months from now roughly the book might be out. Do you have a title for it yet?

Well, if I had a title I wouldn't be ready to share it yet, but let's just say it's give us.

A subject, give us a content matter.

I'll give you a content model. It's really about we're faced continually with different crises or urgent needs and it's what's the lessons in those things that we can apply every day when things aren't urgent. It literally came from me being frustrated with a group I was working with that said, you know, under crisis our teamwork is great. It's when we go back, when the crisis is gone, we kind of fall apart. So what I found in over a year of research with that was there were things, there was a. It was really about answering this question what is the environment that crisis creates that causes people to, to work together so well and we can see this in recent crisis we've been facing how the world's even come together to work together in a common bond and they've given up Their rigidness and their me centeredness to become we centered. So it's all about that and how you can learn from that. And whether you're moving into a challenge, moving out of it, or you're just in the day to day work, what are the keys to set up the environment that you can use? Really easy to get a high performance environment.

Wow, I can't wait to read that. Bigger than that. I can't wait to read and implement that. Maybe we can get you back on the podcast and you can share some additional nuggets from your evolution in writing that book. I can't wait. Dave, congratulations on the book, by the way. But I know one of the things that I've identified through the current situation that we're in, everybody's kinder. Yes, Forgiving. It's amazing how that works. But you know, the other thing that I was thinking about as you're discussing that as we wrap this up is I've got on my garage wall and it's there for a reason. And this might fuel your mind a little bit. And what you're working on.

Never be settled, never arrive, and complacency kills.

And at the end of the day, isn't it amazing how much we get done the day before we are ready to leave on vacation?

It is amazing.

Wouldn't it be great if we could operate like that every single day? Right?

Absolutely. Just talk to my wife.

Say it again, please.

Well, talk to my wife because I have got the opposite. I get amazing amount done before I go on the road to go to work and I clean up everything. And she looks at me and says, can't you just do that every day?

Well, you can, right?

You can. And I've started to. Yeah.

Dave, what can and will you do differently? It's step number three in the issue to breakthrough, buddy.

Absolutely.

You too. My wife said to me on the patio, since we're trading life stories recently, and it hurt my feeling.

Okay.

She said, you know, if you'd implement as much as you teach other people in the agency business, we might be a lot further along. It's not that we're not successful. Don't get me wrong. I heard her say that. And the unfortunate thing is, Dave, she was right.

Yeah, she was.

What a privilege and a pleasure it is to teach other people. Right?

It really is. All of these things that I've learned haven't come from my mind, right? They everything in our company hasn't come from our minds. It's come from being in the trenches with the People and learning from them as we work on an improvement or an issue or a big goal, like we say together. And when we do it over and over enough, we find, oh, here's how it works. Not because we were so smart, but because the people we're working with are really sharp.

Yeah, that's the goal. That's the goal. To great leadership. Surround yourself with great people. You don't always want to be the smartest man in the room, right? Or woman. No. Yep. All right, Mr. David Rogers, thank you so much for sharing your continued gold nuggets with us here on the Unstoppable Profit podcast, everybody. I hope you were taking notes. If you didn't make sure you stop, go back and listen to this again. Take plenty of notes. And most importantly, implement, execute, and take action. Any last words? Dave, Dave, Dave.

Yeah, Outcome is a big thing. If you're interested in getting how to do how to practice this in your team meetings, this whole idea of outcome.

Yeah, please.

You can literally text this number 44222, and then put the words in the one word great meetings in there. And what you'll get is you'll get a PDF on the one thing that I found really changed meetings for me forever. Plus three support emails covering some of the stuff we talked about.

That's 44222 exactly. And in the text, put great meetings.

Just one word, no space in between.

Got it? One word, great meetings, 44222. And then put great meetings, no space. All lowercase is fine, doesn't matter. Okay. And just send it. And you're going to get lots of great information to help you continue to take the steps with intention to get the outcome that you desire.

Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

You're welcome. It was absolutely awesome. Thank you again. And everybody, until the next episode, get out there and take action. Implement, execute, and take action. And remember, make a difference. Be unstoppable, leave no regrets. Dave, Dave, Dave. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Mike. Mike, Mike.

You're welcome, buddy. Have a great day, everybody. See you on the next episode.

Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share the subscribers podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com. now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.