Unlocking the Secrets of Profound Value Creation with Randy Garn

Taking profound action is more than just goal setting, like full commitment to yourself. Do we commit so much to other people and sometimes we let our own self dip? Am I going to work out? Here's the money I need to make this year. Here's the things I need to do to be happy this year. I need to go for a walk. I'm one of those people that I got to get outside every single day for about 30 minutes or more because it really, really helps me stay in a good state. So it's like, what are the things that you need to take profound action? Now you know what your Polaris point is and now you know what your core competencies are and you're earning from your core. Now it's time to go and do. And that is raising necessity to a level that is like I'm fully committed to myself to do this.

Hello and welcome to the show your Value podcast where we explore the art of value creation in three macro buckets, material value, emotional energy value and spiritual value. I'm your host, Lee Benson and today my very special guest is Randy Garn. Randy is a New York Times best selling author, serial entrepreneur, investor and business and life strategist. He currently serves as the Chief Strategic Officer at Ariele Capital. Rally Capital is strategically positioned as one of the top innovation ecosystems in the world. He was also awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and young and top 40 under 40 entrepreneur. His passion is growing companies and the people behind them. Having mastered the art of relationships and customer acquisition, Randy is behind the business strategy of many of the most well known thought leaders and CEOs in the world. In his free time, Randy loves to write business articles for Entrepreneur magazine and others. He is an avid outdoorsman and loves to fly, fish, hike, golf and enjoys triathlons. His biggest priority is being a father and husband to his wife Charlotte and their four beautiful daughters and two rowdy boys. Randy, thank you so much for being here.

Lee, it's great to be here, buddy. I'm honored. We've met several times in person, but I'm honored to be part of the show and hope that the listeners will glean from some of the lessons that I've learned. Both good, bad, as I went through this journey of life.

Yeah, there's, there's a lot out there for sure. In one of your podcasts you mentioned completing an Ironman. So I, I've done, I've completed three Ironmans and a few ultra marathons on the trail running circuit. And then after six knee surgeries I now I Love long hikes. I don't do any running anymore, but are you still doing Ironmans?

So I, yeah, so I did, I did the, I had a group of CEOs. It's really fun story. You know, I try to do, try to do at least two triathlons a year just so I can eat. That's literally like, I, I do it just because I, I actually, I love it. I, I love setting a goal out there and then hitting it. And, you know, there's just something about the preparation of it. It's just as fun as doing it. So, yeah, I had a group, a group of really fun business leaders, and we were sitting around for lunch and, and all of them have done, you know, Iron mans before. The St. George Iron Man, Kona Iron Man. I, They've done several others, and they're sitting there for lunch and they're like, randy, dude, you, you've got a, you freaking got an amazing heart. You've got the Rudy heart, dude. Let's come do the Iron man with us. Come to the Kona. It was just Kona half Iron man. So I didn't do, I didn't do the full Ironman this time. But, but I mean, it was, it was pretty fun. I loved it. So I said, you know, I've only got eight weeks. And they're like, dude, you can make it happen. So I literally signed up with it with like eight weeks to it. So I only got about seven weeks of training in and, but it was fun. It was a blast, you know, doing it. It was a hot day and, but it was, it was more for me about the camaraderie, the amazing men that were with us and just pushing myself to another, another level. I never would have done it if these guys wouldn't have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged me. So. But, yeah, but I, I, I do love participating in, in triathlons and sports. So.

Yeah, the, the thing I love about events like that is that I don't believe we know what's, what we're capable of. And I love getting to the point where I want to quit with every fiber in my being, but I keep going and then it takes you to that next little piece, which I think is what you're talking about here, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I think it was, I think it was the last, the last six miles on the, I think it's Maunakea Golf. Like, we were running on the golf course and I had six miles left. All of my salt tablets had actually got soaked, and so I Didn't have enough salt. I was cramping up. And Lee, I'm just telling you, like I had like an outer body experience because all of a sudden the pain went away, everything went away. And I just said, dude, I, I, I have to finish this thing. My wife ran out and yelled at me. She's like, you've got to do like seven minutes. She's like, you got to do faster than a seven minute mile for the next six miles. And so I just, I booked it, dude. I gave it everything I had. And at the end, dude, it was, it was, it was awesome. It actually felt amazing because it did it, it pushed me to new, new, new levels that I didn't know I could do physically, mentally, emotionally. It was just, it was awesome.

Yeah. In some ways there's even value in not training enough. And that way you're forced to confront your limit and see how you do it, you know, mentally, emotionally, kind of getting through that.

Yeah. And I'm, and I'm good, I'm good friends with the Iron Cowboy. I don't know if you've ever had once on your show, but he, he kind of helped get me ready for it and get all my nutrition ready. But, but he's like, bro, this is going to be something else. But yeah, it was, it was fun. Just a test of life.

Yeah. Congrats getting through that. In going through your book, Book Prosper, I recommend everybody read it. What a great sort of foundational way to think about your life. What I find interesting when I talk to people about what it means to be successful or prosper or whatever that is. I don't think very many have thought deeply about and they're kind of doing what they think they should do instead of maybe what they were meant to do and how to go through it. But what are you finding there in general when you start working with folks have they thought very deeply about. And then I want to get to the, you know, what your answer of what prosperity really means. But if they thought very deeply about it, on average, when you meet with folks.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. When Ethan and I wanted to write the book, you know, we had, you know, a bunch of employees. We, we were helping other people launch their books. We had, you know, we were, we were helping authors get their messages out to the world with our, with our company. And I remember one of the guys that we were helping do it with, he's like, dude, you've helped so many other people become New York Times bestsellers. Why don't you do it yourself. And you know, again, he threw down the gauntlet. And, and Ethan and I are just like, you know what, let's do it. And I remember, you know, what was a topic that I would love to share with the world for the rest of my life. Because once you, once you write a book out there and you get it out there, it's like, what would you feel good about your grandkids and your great grandkids and everybody reading? And so we really came up with what's most important with us is ensuring that we're living a life of prosperity. Which means for us, after thousands of surveys and everything else, we ask everybody, what does it mean to you to be prosperous? And it was interesting. Everything that we got back, we found that prosperity, living in a zone of prosperity was actually very multidimensional. You know, it wasn't just about money, it wasn't just about happiness. You know, it was, it was more really multidimensional where it was actually a really good balance between money, happiness and sustainability. So it had to have those three elements in it to really have prosperity. Because a lot of people are like, you know, we all know a lot of people that have a lot of money, but they are miserable and not in a good space. We all know those people that are super, super happy and excited to have amazing families in life, but they don't have enough money to. And they're stressed because they can't pay their medical bills or whatever that may be. So we don't feel like that's living in a state of prosperity, that's just living in a state of happiness. And the other thing was the sustainability piece is that it had to be something that you could do for the long run and that was good for others. That you weren't taking advantage of your brother, you weren't taking advantage of your neighbor, that what you were actually doing with your life was meaningful and significant. And so that was that sustainability piece. So really a state of prosperity as like money is so important to be able to make it, to be able to learn your economic engine. And then the second part was, do you love what you're doing and can you do it over the long run and is it sustainable over the long period of time? So for us too, that was kind of the three legged stool of prosperity because it was those things, okay.

And it seems like you're helping people be more intentional in how they think about this. Whereas up until this point maybe they wanted it but didn't know how to think about Is that what you're finding when you work with folks?

Oh, yeah. Oh, 100. 100%. The intentionality about living a prosperous life and really the subtitles, you know, create the life you really want, you know, and. And Arthur Brooks has written a new book called the, you know, build. Build the Life youe Want. Him and Oprah Winfrey just launched it. It's really all of the studies around happiness, which is a lot of. A lot of the studies we did is. Is like, how do you get to that space where you have, you know, just really joy in your heart and you want to few things, even though the struggle is hard. It's. It's really understanding, understanding that. But if you combine what your core competencies are with the ability to make revenue and make, like, build a company or, you know, consult or teach or write or, you know, be a fly fisherman or whatever that is, like, if you really love it, you're going to do it. You're going to do. Excellent. And so what's really learning how to live a state of prosperity is living in a state of excellence across those three mediums for us.

Okay. And when I'm listening to this, it really ties into what I advocate for, which is creating value in the world. And if you're not creating value in the world, it probably doesn't feel right going through your process that you're talking about here. And of course, I had to do some of the exercises, so I wrote down what is prosperity to me? And maybe it's a little unfair because I think deeply about this stuff all the time, but I wrote being on a path that continually increases my internal level of fulfillment. And there's a lot that goes into that to make it happen. I've got a number of things that I cultivate, but that's how I thought about it. Does that directionally kind of fit with what you're talking about here?

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, 100%. And then what is that path? What are those things? You know, what is, what is your, you know, like, if you flee, like, I love you because you do a lot of strategy now think about that as your. As your, you know, strategic objective. Now, what are the five critical things that you need to do to. To fulfill that? You know, to hit. Hit your Polaris.

So, so I. And I want to get into the Polaris point here. And I. So I'll just. I did a lot of the exercises, but on that one, my Polaris point on the value side, which is where it kind of started in your book, three things That I really value elevating human consciousness, starting with my own health and fulfillment. So I look at that and I do this by connecting culture to holistic value creation within organizations of any type or size, communities, even at the individual level. And that feels really good because the more of that that I do, selfishly, it creates a better world for guys like you and I and my family and friends to interact with going forward.

Yeah, no, that's, I mean that, that's the perfect example. And Lee, I know your work and I know what you do and, and you just, you love people like you. I mean, what you're doing now even, even with me is like, you love to serve and you love to help other people accomplish their goals. And in so doing that, it actually is fulfilling for you.

Oh, 100%. And selfishly, again, it makes the world a better place for us to interact with. So when people talk about being selfless or, you know, anything about altruism, it never makes sense to me because we all do it in our best self interest for this life or the next. And so by definition we're selfish. And if I feel good doing something, then selfishly I want to, I want to feel good going through, you know, getting the, the six prosperity practices. So when you go through the book, these are the things after thousands of surveys and working with, you know, thousands of leaders that you landed on the first one, which is a foundation for all of it. Finding your Polaris point. So talk about why that's so important and a little bit about what goes into that for our listeners.

Yeah, I mean it, it is, it's, it's really interesting as you look at, like if you look at. Finding your Polaris point is really seeking clarity and on your life, you know, being prosperous to us means you have a life worth living. You know, it means your internal and external worlds are congruent. You know, it means you have deep, loving relationships and then that drives our happiness. Most of our joys and most of our sorrows will come within the walls of our own homes and with the partnerships we have. Right. So that's actually a big part of it. It means you're making the world a better place and helping others prosper as well. And that comes back to you. You and I are very similar. Like my, my father's told me when I was coming, you know, down the stairs, heading to college my first year, I just come back from a two year mission in the Philippines and my father grabbed my face and he said, Randy, you know, I want you to remember One thing that's going to help you have so much success in your life is to learn to do as much as you can, as often as you can for as many people as you can and expect nothing in return. And I wrote that down in my journal and then I just tried to like, internalize that. And really what he was teaching me is that law of reciprocity. And so for me, my Polaris point is. For me, my Polaris point is mankind. I love helping as many people as I can. Lee, you and I are very similar because I've kept to that mantra. It's like, how many people can I help raise up? My whole thing in life is leadership. And if I can help groups and organizations and team be better leaders, dude, that makes me so, so freaking extremely just pumped when I see a company that we can turn around from doing a million dollars in revenue, over $100 million in less than 18 months. Right? Because they all get aligned. Like, that is my Polaris point. Like, my players point is helping other people be the best versions of themselves. That's what I found that I love. But my brother Marty, he's an engineer and he loves to build and create software and technology and apps and learning and training modules and all of that. He, you know, he's not. Doesn't deal with people as much, but he deals with systems and processes. So. So I think, I think finding your Polaris point is like. Your Polaris point is like, what were you born to do? What did God create you to do? What is your, like, what was your one thing that you're going to do that's going to create, create value for the world? And that could again be writing books or building a company or, you know, building an orphanage and a charity. And it doesn't always need to be. Living in a state of prosperity just means you have enough money to do what you need to do. Doesn't mean that you're going to be uber wealthy. It's just that you're living in the state where you have all your needs met.

And I love your point around, you know, enough money to maintain your basic lifestyle, super important. Without that, it does become, you know, a struggle that will make you way less happy for sure. But I find unless people are actually cultivating, trying to have a better mindset and perspective, increase fulfillment, you know, etc. No matter how much they have, it doesn't matter. You know, I've even hired employees, a few in the past, and I've gone through, you know, probably thousands of employees that I'VE hired over the years in different companies where they would say, the last place I worked was terrible. This is going to be so much better. And lo and behold, within six months, we were just as bad as the last place. In their minds, you know, this was their reality because they weren't cultivating to have a better, healthier perspective over time and beyond that path. So when you run into things like that, I mean, how do you. How do you help them bust through that? I. With some people, they just seem to want to be stuck. Like it's their. Their badge of honor, and this is where they're at. They're a victim. But how do you help people through that? So they. They cultivate their mindset, perspective, all of it.

You know, I think some of it is helping them go through that exercise. I think, you know, Lee, a lot, like, I love it that you already went through the exercises, right? There's a lot of. A lot of people that you and I work with. I mean, there's a lot of people that are like, grasshoppers, great on takeoff. You never know where they're going to land. Like, a lot of people don't take the time to really understand what their Polaris point is. And so if there's one thing that I could get out of your show, if there's one takeaway that I could do for people, is get our book, spend some time on, really go up in the mountains, Go somewhere where you can get away and have peace and quiet. And really, like, for me, I talk with God, you know, I actually, I write it down and then I'll pray about it and then I'll let you know. The spirit kind of say, like, dude, that the angelic choirs are singing like, yes, Rani, this is who you need to work with. This is what you need to be doing. This is what your purpose is. And, you know, you think about big decisions in your life. Like, when I first got married, it was. That was a Polaris coin for me. It's like, who kind of person do I want to be with for this life and build something together? You know, who are my partners? Because you think about your Polaris point, too, is like, it is a lonely road by yourself, but your Polaris points also going to include who's traveling with you on this road. So you have to be thinking about what it is, where you want to go, and what do you want to accomplish by the time you leave this earth. And I think it's like, it's so profound to think about that because we can't do everything, but it's like you can make a difference with what you have. So I would suggest that everybody take some time and really write down. And I always say, like, this came from Tyler Norton, a good friend of mine. If you don't have your strategy on one page, you don't have a strategy. So I'd really take some time and write down, like, what are those things? What is most important to you, money wise? How are you going to do it? What is most important to you with your joy and happiness? And then is it sustainable? Is it good for others? Is it driving value? And can you do it over the long haul? So I think if people would just sit down and do a one page, like, this is what I want to accomplish the rest of my life and try not to get derailed on it and you'll find a way to do it. And so I think that as I wrote the book too, we wrote the book as a challenge, but I wrote the book and it actually changed my life is because all of a sudden I was like, really? Some of the people that we were interviewing made a massive impact in my life too.

Yeah, 100%. And as I think about this work, this is not a set it and forget it exercise. It's something to be regularly reviewed and cultivated over time. And I think at first for a lot of folks, and it was for me when I started doing it a number of years ago, it's hard work to kind of do the introspective thinking and all of it, but then you get better and better at it over time and you have to give it at a year of consistently kind of revisiting this and then all of a sudden it's fun. It becomes part of your, part of your process. So that's. How do you, how do you talk to folks about, you know, staying on the path? Because it's hard to get started. I imagine a lot of people would probably give up. It's super frustrating. How, how do you, how do you get them sort of cemented in this foundation and then keep them on the path?

Yeah, I mean, we, we do. So some of the things that I learned doing this is the important. And I've gotten this habit too. And I don't know if you have, but as part of doing this, I have my Polaris point on the top of my journal and I have it in the front of my journal and I know exactly what I want to do, what I'm creating. And I literally, I journal every single night. And I spend time Doing the deep work myself to make sure that I'm doing those things that matter most and spending time with the people and the individuals in my family that matter most. At the same time maintaining a great income for my life and the things I want to do. So I think what I would recommend for people is spend some time finding out what it is that you were born to do. And then I journal every night and I know exactly what I'm going to do each morning. But then I do do quarterly reviews with myself too. And I have, I have my own personal board of directors, some of my closest friends. So I do have a good friend group that we help lift and build each other up. And we meet quarterly and we review them together and we say, hey, what can we do to help each other out? So, so those are some of the things that I think are so important, is your daily check in. I would even say monthly, like, review of your strategic plan. And then those quarterly deep dives where you're spending a full day, couple of days by yourself, like, thinking about, like, your life and what, what you're intended to do. So it's such a fun thing to do because sometimes we get stuck in the thick of thin things. We get running too hard and too hot and all of a sudden we look back and we like, miss the mark and now it's too late. And so you and I both work with a lot of CEOs, and I'll tell you an interesting. I'll tell you an interesting story. You know, some of the people that we are interviewing in here. One guy that we, I thought was living in his Polaris Point, you know, he was corporate attorney in la dealing with. I mean, he was the corporate attorney for Michael Jackson and all these stars and everything else. He'd go to the Emmys, he'd go to the red carpet, you know, always going out to amazing dinners. Like, you'd see him everywhere. And, and we interviewed him and, and he said, you guys, I seriously want you to know, as I, as I think about this, and I'm talking with you guys like, I absolutely hate my life. I'm making millions of dollars a year. I have zero relationship with my kids, and I haven't seen my kids forever. Me and my wife are not doing the best because I can never be dependent upon. And he's like, I feel like the last 20 years of my life has been just serving other people and utilizing my skill set to build up other people's companies, and now I can't get out of it. Like, this is what, this is what I've done. So it was really interesting. And then we interviewed his neighbor that has, you know, he had eight kids, doctor detail. He would wake up in the mornings at 3, 3am and he would, you know, wake up in the morning, sorry at like 5am and he and his kids would do detail car washing and go detail people's cars. And he called Dr. Detail and they would do it together as a family. He'd be done by 3 o'. Clock. Never miss a baseball game, never miss a, you know, camp out, never miss like their kids things. And, and I remember listening to this attorney and he's like, man, I, I really wish I had Brent's life. I really Wish I had Dr. Detail's life. And you know, he was actually doing well financially. He had franchise the doctor Detail and all that. So it just. But he wasn't known by the world. He wasn't known. He wasn't in prominent circles and things like that. But yet family was still strong. Kids were strong. Kids did what they were going to do. Kids go off and go to college and things. And there was just a rich, deeper meaning. So that's what I'm saying, like, who's living in the state of prosperity? And I just use that as an example. Just be thinking about that as your life. You know, we're not all going to be Elon Musk, right? We're not all going to be Bill Gates. But dude, what can you do in your little sphere that you love it and you love what you do and you love those that you work with and you can do it for long periods of time. You wake up with your feet so freaking energized and pumped ready to go. That's the kind that's prosperity right there for me.

I think that's absolutely perfect. And as you're, as you're talking about this, I think it's okay to admire and learn from others that have certain levels of success around material, emotional or spiritual value creation. But don't ever compare because then you start, you know, doing what you think you're supposed to do and living a life that isn't a prosperous life the way you're describing it at all. What really matters, I think, is this internal fulfillment because you've cultivated in all these different buckets. And especially on the spiritual side, you know, it could be a relationship with God, but it's connectedness, it's community, it's family, it's love. And if it's only on the material side, which it Sounds like your friend was focused on. No wonder things went off track over 20 years. What a unfortunate place for him to be. However, I think within a year or less, for sure, you can completely reorganize your life. And one of my slogans, Randy, is do less better. And I say no every day, multiple times. And here's the few things where I think I create the most value in the world, and I'm going to. Unless I'm doing that at a 10 state and I've got tons of extra time, I'm not going to do anything else. Why would I?

Right. Yeah. I love. I've been on the, you know, ground table with Harvey McKay for the last 14 years, and I always love Harvey because I don't know if, you know, Harvey, swim with the sharks, you know, never. Yeah, never, never trust that naked man that offers you a shirt. You know, dig your well before you're thirsty. This classic. But Harvey always does, you know, say, no, no, no until your tongue bleeds. And I think about that a lot in living. That state of prosperity is like, are you running your calendar or is your calendar running you? You know, every time we get an email, that's somebody else throwing, you know, something on your plate. And so as you and I work with a lot of CEOs and a lot of leaders, it's also helping them get their mind back and get their time back and really focusing on those things that do matter the most because we live in such a crazy, crazy world. For me, prosperity is me being able to manage my time and those that I spend it with and that I can do the things that I love. I mean, I. I love the mountains. I love me and my twin boys. I've got twin boys that are 11. Some of my favorite things is like skiing at Sundance with them and spending the whole day just talking and turning my phone off and really being present with them. For me, that's like true prosperity is being in the mountains or fly fishing with them. You work all this time and you're able to do those things, but are you doing those things that have real, meaningful ramifications for those that you love most? So for me, that's also a big state of create the life you really want, don't create the life that others really want. The other thing that my dad always shared with me is, like, one, do as much as you can for as many people as you can, as often as you can, and expect nothing in return. The other thing that he shared with me as I was walking out the door too Is that Randy, if you don't have your own goals, someone else will use you for theirs. Again, if you don't have your own goals, someone else will use you for theirs. And so you have to be thinking about that in your state. Whether you're an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur. Are you really putting your time and energy. Can you have that freedom that you need? And you just. I, I want to question that. To everybody that's listening today is like, you know, are you really managing the kind of life you want?

Yeah. You, you talk in the book about living in your priority zone, that this is what you're talking about here, correct?

Yeah. Are you living, are you living in your prosper zone? Yep. And that's for the, that's where that balance between time, money and sustainability that intersect. That intersect right there. If you look at that Venn diagram or whatever, it's, it's, it's right there that you're living in that zone where, where you're doing what you were born to do. And, and it is, it's super. We live in a, in a crazy time. But I do know it's very possible.

Okay. Yeah. And sustaining that over time. Which, which is all part of the formula. Yeah. I said priority. But your prosper. Prosper zone. And then earn, earn from your core. You know, I see this a lot where folks will kind of give up because they don't have all the things for something to happen that they want to achieve. And yet I think most people have way more than they believe they have. And you kind of have to, you kind of have to start from where you're at. And I've had employees over the years say, because I'd always do new employee orientation sometimes in the, in larger groups say things like I wish this stuff would just happen to me. I'm like what are you talking about? This is my 30 year overnight success story. It didn't just happen. Like I built from this little thing over here and turned it into this other thing and 80 and 100 hour weeks sometimes. And I loved all of it. It never felt like work. So starting. Talk a little bit about that. Starting from where. I know what I would say about it but. But what. What's your advice? To get people more energized, starting from where they're at.

I think, I think really, I think really earning from your core and really start where you're at too. But earning from your core is really understanding what you're the best in the world out. What like you talk about what you can do excellent. You know, I really come to find that for me, excellence is. I. I love working with amazing leaders and helping them be better. Like, that's for me, like, I love working with people. I am a hundred percent a people person. I love gathering people, I love events. But I don't necessarily need to be on stage and doing those things. I like to be the guy that's actually like the guy behind the scenes helping. I love it when somebody I'm working with is like just crushing it out there on stage and writing the books and everything else like that. So. So I really love the story from. It's a really, really cool story. It's just like, what are you? The very best in the world? That he said. My mother said to me, if you are a soldier, you'd become a general. If you are a monk, you'll become the pope. Instead, I was a painter and I became Picasso. That's a quote from Pablo Picasso, right? So you just have to think about, like, I know some really good friends of mine that all have different businesses and they're. They all are amazing singers. They came together and they just, you know, we're doing two things. Chasing two rabbits, like, doing all their work and then singing at different shows and all that. All of a sudden the four of them were just like, guys, let's just go all in and. And do what we really love. Like, we love this. And now they're. They're massively successful in doing now what they love, right? But for like 10 years, they're fighting back and forth and not doing anything excellent. So doing too many things and not being excellent at those things. And so I think when you really understand your Polaris point, you stop going all over the place, you know, and you've got more focus, you're more laser focused. You know, if you, if you, you know, throw a blunt stick at something and it's like gonna bounce off, right? But if you sharpen that thing and you sharpen it up, right, and really find and focus, you know, he can pierce through anything. So. So I think a big, big part of that is really finding out what it is that you really want to just accomplish in your short life. And, you know, the older I get, the more time my life gets just shortened. And the more I like really want to focus on, you know, saying no to certain things and really focusing on the things that matter most. And so I think if you do that, I do think that if you will literally sit down and figure out what that is. I search for help From God too. I believe in angels. I believe on the spiritual side that you'll also be directed on what you should do and you'll get those feelings and those promptings. And so that's also a big part of writing things out, like working it out in my own mind and then going to God. Hey, is this where you want me? Because if you also have God behind you and that spiritual side, Lee, then I do think that you can, you can be unstoppable and whatever it is. But too many people don't take enough time and they let other people direct and dictate their lives instead of them taking charge. So that's what I, I love for people to spend some time on those points.

Yeah. And I think the more we're in tune with this prosperity zone and living the life this way gives us more opportunity to be fully present, relaxed, in the zone, whatever you want to call it. And all of us have experienced that when we're in that state. Ideas and creativity just flow, flow from something greater than us. It just comes in. Right. You know, so I, I write songs, I've been a musician my whole life and, and some days like four songs will come and I can't get it out on, you know, recorded fast enough and then a week or two will go by and I've, I can't get an idea to form, to save myself. Where does it come from? And I think, I think the more we're in that zone, and I love the way you're sort of describing it, that prosperity, innovation, creativity, all of it just sort of flows, it just, it just goes, goes through.

Yeah, you get, you get into the flow. Right. My thing is like, you know, you're in the flow and you're enjoying it, you're loving it. Like it doesn't feel like work. And a lot of times if you understand what you love and what you're really good at, like if you love guitar, like my daughter loves guitar, you got to spend the time and the work at it, but you enjoy it, right? So for you to get in that flow, you got to continually increase your skill set with your challenges. And so if you look at that like if you're trying to find your players point and you know what your Polaris point is, you have to also understand that it's going to take hard work and you got to keep refining it and living in excellence and working hard at those skill sets or those competencies that you need to be really, really, really good at it. If you want to be a really Great investor, you know, don't spend time doing other thing that's going to take you away from that. Like really learn investment strategies, learn from the best. Read books from Warren Buffett and from, you know, Charlie Munger, whatever that is. Like get dialed in 100% on that and it won't feel like work anymore and you'll continue to stretch your brain and your, your skill sets and then start increasing your challenges. You know, just like we do with Ironmans. Like I, I was in the flow when I was running, right. Because my skill set was low. Then I was in a state of anxiety because I was like, oh my gosh, I had to increase my skill set and those challenges were high. But I was like so pumped. I was like, dude, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna finish it. So it's like that's living in that prosperity zone. That's living in that, that, that zone of just complete focus. And when you get there, and I'm saying it's not easy, I'm not saying there's any magic thing to. It takes hard work to continue to stay in your prosper zone. But it's much better than at the end of the day living in tons of regret.

Yeah, 100%. And I think a key part here is to kind of trust the struggle that you're going to have some very healthy struggles. You're not a victim as you're building this capability and then it becomes fun and you get into flow more of the time, you know, walking through it. And I think a lot of folks, you know, it's interesting with kids. I recently wrote a book called Value Creation kid the healthy struggles your children. Children need to succeed. And trying to operationalize value creation within families with a really simple way of doing it going through. But it seems like anything that is hard they view as unhealthy struggle. It's like wait a minute, these are healthy struggles that children should go through. But I'm also noticing it with adults that it becomes hard. They're a startup, you know, founder or a leader in organization. They get mad that the world isn't just miraculously rolling out the way that they want it to. It's like, well time out here. If you had the capability set, you wouldn't be going through this right now. So embrace this healthy struggle that you're going through 100% so you can get to a place where you're at the next level struggle because you took your business to the next level. So talk about that a little bit. I don't have. I'm very carefrontational or whatever you want to. Candid but caring in these situations. But I, I don't give a lot of slack to leaders that act like victims when it was their job to put all this stuff in place. And they're basically dealing with the product of their decisions. But what's your advice around that? To get people to kind of trust and value this struggle, you know, you.

Have to help them get in the right frame of mind is that there is, you know, there's the probability mindset and the possibility mindset. I try to get them, you know, and everybody calls me Coach Garn because our job as leaders is to push people to levels they couldn't do on their own or not that they couldn't do on their own, that they didn't know was possible on their own. So when I'm working with somebody, it is to help them accomplish super hard things, you know, and we really do. I love my buddy Trench Shelley. He says you always, you choose your hard, dude. Life is hard regardless of what we choose. You might as well choose to be excellent because life is hard. Not making the money you need to. Life is hard. Like that's being out of the, that's being out of prosperity. Like living in that prosper zone as it is, you've got it dialed in. You've worked, you've worked the things that you love. And so I think helping them understand that living that is, you're going to continue to need to sharpen your skills, your challenges, your skill sets. And I always share with them a story. Is like one of my favorite mentors, you know, he always, he always said like, I used to pray for mountains to climb and I pray for hard things. I pray for challenges, I pray for things that are going to make me be a more refined human being. And so if we are strivers and if we really want to be become the best versions of ourself, it is going to be fine. It's going to be, it's going to be chiseled. You know, I have, I don't know if you can see that there, but I have, I have a little statue there of a man chiseling himself out of, out of rock. You know, and it's a good symbol for me that I look at every single day is like, am I becoming the best version of myself that the, the person that God created me to be? You know, am I, am I doing that? It's going to be painful. It's going to be hard. I Think about, you know, I am a Christian and I love the life of Christ. Like his, his life was not easy, right. And so you look at anybody that's really accomplished great things and lived in that prosperity zone is that it's not going to be easy, but you're going to be filled with joy and happiness because, you know, you're on the path you need to be on. That. That's really, that's really what it comes down to.

Lee yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And I, I don't think we can stay at one spot. We're either advancing and growing or we're sliding backwards. When, and, and I think if we, when we're sliding backwards, it can't feel good inside for anybody, regardless of the face they put on for the world. I also don't think, which. A lot of gurus out there talking about happiness, if you're not happy 100% of the time, something's wrong. Don't believe that you can't be happy all the time. But I do believe you can increase internal fulfillment over time. And the trend can be really good. And through hard times, you can feel really good about accomplishing challenging things. Right?

Well, and I think it's important, too, is this. If you're staying on your Polaris path and it's hard, you have joy in your heart, but you can also, instead of wasting time on stuff you shouldn't be doing, you're really focused. So, like, literally you're going to go faster and you're not going to do those things. So the thing that I think is also important is that when you're in the prosperity zone, when you're, when you're directly headed towards your Claris Point, you know, your North Star, you can take time for rest and replenishment, you can take time for Christmas, and you can take time to do stuff on Saturdays, you can take time on Sunday to, you know, if you, whether you're Jewish, you know, on Shabbat or the Sabbath, you can, you can take those times to be able to get the rest and replenishment you need because you have your, you have confidence that you're going in the right place. You can take that vacation and have peace of mind that you're not running after somebody else's deadlines and doing all these things that don't matter in the end.

That's what I'm saying, makes total sense. And it would feel pretty weird taking a vacation as an escape from doing what you know you should do, and you're falling behind and that would ruin the vacation potentially, you know, going, Going through. When I talk about value creation in three different buckets, I think the most important one is emotional energy because it supercharges the spiritual and material value creation part of it. And I think it's the X factor for leaders. And I always looked at it and said the job of a leader within an organization is to create an environment or foster environment where every team member is intrinsically motivated and empowered to create more value over time. I'm not sure many leaders understand the power of emotion, positive emotional energy. And you know, I've had. I'm on my seventh company, I've started from scratch. Exits from a few million to well into nine figures. But I. And that's just one category of value creation material. I think the one that served me the best is this emotional energy piece and being able to create those environments. So talk about that. You've worked with a lot of leaders. I find that most don't intentionally think about that piece of it. How do you approach it?

I mean, honestly, like one of my. A really super close friend of mine is, one of my best friends is Brendan Burchard. He wrote the book High Performing Habits. And his very first habit of high performance is to seek clarity. Again, back to your Polaris point. Like, are you super clear what you want to do? But the second thing that he did, the second habit of high performers, that. And high performers are things people that exceed over the long run, you know, above average, but maintain relationships. His second thing that he spent tons of research on was to generate energy and to generate good energy. And I think that that's when you're living your Polaris point. Like, you have great energy, people want to be around you, you have a bright light, you have confidence, you have that courage to do what you need to do. And so I think that you're right at that is like really good leaders know how to manage energy and know how to attract that energy of those people that they need to surround themselves with too. So I think that's a key piece to living in your prosperity zone, is that you literally have. You have super clarity and you have amazing energy and emotional strength. Yeah.

When you walk in the room or facilitate a meeting or participate in something within the organization, do you elevate the energy in the room? Do you have no effect on it? Or do you take it down? And some people have an unknown or yet to be discovered superpower when it comes to emotional energy. And they can light up the room like nobody's Business, but they can also take it all the way into the ground, too, because they haven't really thought about this. And I think there's a lot of value in intentionally trying to elevate emotional energy in appropriately, of course, but in every interaction throughout the day for everyone going through. And it's, it's good, it's good practice to cultivate the right use of that emotional energy. How does that land on you?

Oh, I mean, that's, it's. That is. So the second, the second bucket, right, is happiness is like, you got to live. You got to create money and live in that state of happiness. And so for me, having good energy is like. Is when you are clear, you have that joy in your heart, you have clarity in your mind, you have peace. Peace. And people will be attracted to that because it is very rare. Like, we get out. We get out there in that in the business world, and there's a lot of people that are hard drive. You can be really hard driving, but still have good energy. You can be, you can, you can. You can, you know, really, with loving enthusiasm, expect excellence. Right? And you can still be a high achiever and expect excellence, and you can still do that. And, and when your team is winning, that's a great culture of high energy, right? So living in that, you do necessarily. I, I would put that right in our bucket. We have a whole thing in here on what it means to be living a state of happiness is that your. Your energy is amazing. And I think for me, that's one of my superpowers is like, I wake up pretty happy. I wake up pretty in a good state. And I think from that, like you, Lee, I think people want to. Want to work with me because they want some of that. They want to know how to get that energy and how you're living in that state. And so for me, it's just like, you got to get in the habit of being happy.

Yeah, 100%. I was interviewed by Janje Kellogg from American Thought Leaders around this whole concept of value creation. And he was thinking about it, and he made a comment that I think is really valuable for all of us. He was not having a very good day emotionally. Walking down the street, saw somebody else that clearly was having an even worse day. And so he walked a little straighter, smiled, said good morning, and had that interaction. And he said what he noticed about his internal emotional energy state is it went up. So even if we're, if we're down helping somebody else elevate brings us up, you know, right along with it. So anyway, I just think what it. What a great tool to get us out of any sort of, you know, lower emotional state that we might be in when we do that intentionally.

Yeah. And I mean, that goes back to, you know, my principle is like, I try to. When I journal, one of my key things is who do I need to reach out to today to make their life a little better? And those are things, the habits that I've got. And really, it goes back to what my dad said. Do as much as you can for as many people as you can, as often as you can, and expect nothing in return. And now you live in that. You live in that state. But I think I've gotten that habit of, you know, I'll send a letter or I'll send a video. I just got done sending two books out to people that I know, you know, could. Could use a little. Little boost with a little note, handwritten note. I still do all that kind of stuff, but. But I think those are the kind of things that will help you have joy in your heart. And especially if you know exactly where you're going, you can't be stopped.

Yeah. In. In the book you talk about commit to your prosperity path. But. But take profound action. What do you mean by profound action?

Yeah, I mean, full commitment is like, a lot of people set goals, and I really think it's like coming down to, like, raise necessity is taking profound, profound action and be fully committed. Is that by the. Like, I set a goal. I set a financial goal by the end of this year that was pretty big. And by 2023, and you know what's crazy is that I hit it by like a little over a thousand dollars. And I was like. I was like, what? I mean, so it's just like. No, I mean, I remember setting the goal in 2023. I'm like, dude, I'm going to do this. I'm going to. I'm going to hit it. And so even though I'm working at, I'm watching, I'm monitoring it. Like, I told myself I was going to do it. So it's. Taking profound action is more than just goal setting. It's Lee, it's like full commitment to yourself. Do we commit so much to other people? Well, sometimes we let our own self down. Like, am I going to work out? Here's the money I need to make this year. Here's the things I need to do to be happy this year. I need to go for a walk. I'm one of those people that I got to get outside every single day for about 30 minutes or more because it really, really helps my needs stay in a good state. So it's like, what are the things that you need to take profound action? Now you know what your Polaris point is. And now you know what your core competencies are, and you're earning from your core. Now it's time to go and do. And that is raising necessity to a level that is like, I am fully committed to myself to do this, this. And so that's really what we're talking about, like taking profound action, you know? You know, it's, that whole story is like there's four frogs on the log. You know, they, they, you know, they decide that they're going to jump off. How many are still on the log? Like all of them. They only decided they didn't jump, you.

Know, so it's just like, you know, 100%. And it's like I, I talk about, hey, you've set your Strategy Wonderful. You're 3% of the way there. 90, 87% is going to be actually going out and executing on it. But it's a lot more interesting to talk about strategy and talk about goals than actually do it, which I put in the category of business virtue signaling, you know, because it sounds really good, but they didn't actually practice real virtue and go forward and do those things. Yeah, interesting. So how can people learn more about what you're doing and give our listeners direction to learn more? Randy?

Yeah, I mean, they're, they're happy to go to. You can get the book on Amazon is a good way to get it. Or you can go to Randy or Randy, you can email me randy randygar.com or go to randy. Randygarn.com is my, my website as well. But yeah, I, I really appreciate the time. We'd love to, love to spend more time with you. You and I are, are so similar in what we do, but really appreciate you taking time with me today.

Well, of course. I mean, in, in this entire discussion that we've had, you just exude positive emotional energy. So you. Elevating my emotional energy and I'm sure for the listeners that we have here today. So thank you so much for, for being here. And this has been the show youw Value podcast where we explore the art of value creation in three macro buckets. Material, emotional energy and spiritual value. If you like what you heard today and you got some value out of it, please like this episode and leave a review. And until next time, go forth and create value.