Want To Boost Profits? Learn How To Create An Optimistic Climate

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the Land Geek, with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and before we talk about today's super cool guest that's going to help us do work that really matters, I would be remiss if I didn't invite. And actually not invite, because I'm really inviting him. He's already on the podcast. If I didn't properly introduce my co host, Six Sigma Scott Todd from scotttodd.net landmodo.com and most importantly, if you're not automating your posting domination dot com, that's.

Not a bad thing.

Have you ever, like, really thought about the impact that we make on people's lives?

You know, I'm usually moving so quickly, I'm not that contemplative.

You know, it's funny because just a few weeks ago, I was sitting there thinking, like, you know, like, people do a lot of different work in their. In their lives, and for a lot of people, they don't ever stop and think, like, man, this has. This has an impact on someone else. You know, like, we just start to do things. Whether you're a doctor, I mean, you're saving lives. I mean, we know doctors who give, you know, help people give birth, right? You know, like, you know, they're forever changing the world. But I was actually thinking about this the other day. Like, even the work that we do with land investing, it changes lives. It really does. Even though it may be just a blip on the radar. And that's why I'm excited to talk to today's guest.

Yeah, me too. But before we talk to our guest, plug away. Let's get it out of the way. All right. Today's podcast is sponsored by Loan Geek. I used to manually put in all my loans and manage them on Sundays, and I started to get in carpal tunnel syndrome. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if I could just automate it and set it and forget it? And that's where Loangeek I.O. comes out. It automates your loans, get paid. Simplest, easiest way. Loangeek IO. And also, if you're not coming to boot camp, you got to come to boot camp. Learn more@thelandgeek.com Boot Camp. All the land investing clouds are going to dissipate and everything will become clear. And then, of course, Automate your postings. Postingdomination.com the Land Geek. Let's talk to Sean Murphy, shall we?

I think we should.

Sean has been picking. Been sitting there very Patiently, like, are these guys ever going to get to me? No.

I'm stuck on the fact that you used the word contemplative like it was just, like, rolled right off your tongue. It's like, wow, that's a good geeky word.

Look, we, you know, it's. Wait till I use lugubrious in a sentence. I mean, we're getting really geeky, Sean.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Now I think I can spell it. But that's maybe. Maybe. That's. That's a maybe.

I just hope you don't feel it, which, you know, would be very mournful. But let's talk about you, because you're a big deal, Sean Murphy. Your book the Optimistic Workplace is amazing, and I can't wait to talk about it. And the website swish swiftandshift.com and you probably know Sean Murphy from his weekly articles on a little rag called inc.com. sean Murphy.

Good.

And congratulations for finally making it on a prestigious podcast.

Well, thank you. I feel the red carpet welcome was quite an experience, so I am grateful for that. Thank you.

You're welcome. All right, let's just skip the pleasantries.

Yes.

What the hell are we going to learn in the optimistic workplace?

Workplaces suck and there's nothing you can do about it. That's pretty much it. Now, the optimistic workplace is really about how can we create a work environment that helps people feel like something good is going to come from their work? You know, if we take a look at, for example, what your listeners might be experiencing. You know, sometimes people come to work. It sucks. And they go home and they have an extra glass of wine, maybe some whiskey, and they lament over having not such a great work experience. But unfortunately, that's a big part of our life. So the optimistic workplace is for those leaders who want to be able to shift that very common experience to one that is actually a positive experience for people in their day to day. So it's a book that shows you why that's important. But more importantly, how do you go about creating an optimistic workplace? Because it's not about needing to be an optimist, and it's not about overlooking the pessimist. It's really about what we call climate. You know, there's culture. Culture gets all the focus and attention in organizations, and it doesn't matter what the size of your organization is. You have a culture. But the other side to culture is climate. And climate is what it feels like to work somewhere. And that has the most influential part on that is the leader of the organization.

Scott Toddler Sean, I mean, I agree.

That the leader really sets the tone. I mean, a philosophy that I've often heard and I've actually seen in place is the shadow of the leader. Right. Whatever the leader does within the organization, the entire organization will follow. There's an airline that basically has this. I won't call them out, but there's an airline out there that the CEO is publicly known for berating customers in a customer service environment. And consequently, the same airline has the lowest customer service rating of all time. But yet because of their price and everything, they're like also at the same time, the fastest growing airline. But it's amazing how as a leader, and I think you said it, it's not just, I mean, you could be a leader of one yourself in your own small organization. You can set the tone, you can set the culture, and as a result, the climate too. Right.

You know, it's interesting about these organizations that don't have a good climate but are profitable. I don't have, I haven't done the research on this yet, but I suspect that if they were to create a more optimistic, positive climate, they probably would be more profitable than they already are.

Yeah.

Sean, tell us a story about a company or an experience you've had where you said, oh, yeah, this climate is like Hawaii. And then, you know, and then let's juxtapose that to a different company climate that is like Minneapolis. Right.

No, which one's the better one?

Right, Right. Well, if you live in Minneapolis, you're like, I love the snow.

That's right. That's right. Yeah. So one of my favorite companies is Luck Companies. They are an aggregate business out in Virginia and they are predominantly blue collar. And despite the fact that stereotypically we think, well, you work in a rock quarry, you're not really going to think about optimistic workplaces. But yet what they practice is what they call values based leadership. And so in the morning, imagine a bunch of mechanics standing around in a circle doing what they call lying and laughing. Lying and laughing is what we men do. We get together, we tell big stories, AKA lie and we laugh. Right. But part of what their experience is is they, because they all practice this values based leadership. They talk about their organization's values. And what that does is it creates this kind of environment to remind everybody, hey, this is what we agreed to in terms of the game we're going to play together. These are the values that we all adhere to and we are responsible for creating an environment where, hey, things are pretty Good. Consequently, they are the regional top aggregate company and they're the third biggest in the country. So, you know, there's a good example of people coming together, you know, really united for a common cause and agreeing on how they're gonna do their work. Conversely, I've worked with some government and government is probably, I don't want to compare them to Minneapolis because somebody in Minneapolis might get pissed off at us. But they, you know, they have an environment where it's feast or famine. You need to be able to bend for yourself. And people don't stick around for that. And the quality of their work and the quality of, the quality of their ideas, you know, are pretty mediocre.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. You know, what's interesting is that I remember, you know, it's hard for me to kind of like think back because it's been so long that I've been, you know, on my own. I mean, it's been over, gosh, 15 years now. But I do remember working as an investment banker and the climate was pretty cutthroat. I mean, it wasn't really, it wasn't a fun place to go. We were profitable people. I mean, it was very money focused.

Right.

And it attracted a kind of person like that. And then after a while, like, you're like, this kind of sucks. But how, how does a leader sort of bridge the gap between profits, getting work done and creating this climate of, you know, hey, we're all like, you know, a book I'm reading right now, which I'm really enjoying, is the Great Game of Business, he's making the argument of open book accounting.

Right.

Everyone knows what they make. Right. What are your thoughts on that as well? First of all, how do we create it and still be profitable? And so, hey, we can have fun, we're gonna get our work done. I think that's a fear a lot of leaders have. And yet. And then talk about the great game of business.

Yeah. So I think if you're going to create a long lasting climate, you've got to focus on business results, businesses, you know, for, for most businesses that I know, they want to be profitable. Right. So you've, you've got to marry, hey, this is what we're here to do, right. If, if I'm in real estate, I'm here to be able to sell the land, sell the property, whatever it happens to be. Ultimately, that's the, one of the measures I'm going to be evaluated against. But if we also then say, all right, so how are we going to do that? How are we going to be profitable selling land or selling property? We've got to be able to focus on that experience. So if we can connect the goals, profit, sales, whatever it happens to be, with the experience that I have in producing those results, that's where you bridge the gap. So if we were a team and I'm your leader, say, for example, I'm going to focus on our relationships and making sure that we've got some clarity around where we're going, what our goals are, what our priorities are. I'm going to focus on making sure that we give you the growth support that you need to be able to be successful. And those are some of the key elements that help create workplace optimism. It's not where, you know, a lot of us get stuck with the soft stuff, which is like, well, I need to be a good leader, and trust me, that is an important component of this. But it's more than that. It's like, for what outcome you need to be a good leader to be able to help people be successful, you know, personally as well as professionally. So that's a key element to bridging the profit to the actual boots on the ground. How do I create this environment? It's very business focused, but it's also very relationally focused and it's bridging those two together. Bo's book the Great Game of Business actually influenced one of my other favorite companies that's actually featured in the Optimistic Workplace, which is Zingerman's. Zingerman's are students of bo's philosophy of open book finance. And I think what I love about open book finance is it says to employees, look, your work contributes to the bottom line and we're going to show you how. And that's missing in most organizations. Most employees show up, they do some work, they work on a project, and they don't really understand the impact of that work. And I think that's what is beautiful about open book financing is it says, we're going to teach you about the books and we're going to teach you how what you do contributes to it both positively and adversely.

Scott Todd, with your thoughts.

I've worked in companies where my last time I worked in a big publicly traded company and we had a CEO that did just that. I mean, he, he shared all of the numbers. He was very vocal in trying to teach every level of employee what EBITDA means and everything. I mean, he would consistently have a, like, the day that we released the earnings to the street, the Very next day, he would have a quarterly webinar where he went through the numbers again, but for the employees, almost at a more basic level. But he would have these quarterly town halls. He made everything open. He was very open as to what the company was doing. And then he left the organization and we went into the dark ages where the leaders did not want to talk about the numbers at all and employees talk about culture change. They instantly thought that the numbers didn't matter anymore. It's almost like the eye off the ball. And I can tell you that since that shift occurred, that company has not necessarily been as strong as it was under the kind of, the open finance kind of approach. So I think that, you know, you can. People have said this before. You know, you can, you can. We can all copy each other's business models, but what we can't copy is the culture that someone creates. And like, open finance is another example of it.

What's really cool about what Zingerman does to kind of bring to life what you're reading in Beau's book is that every line of business and they have, I'm trying to go on memory here, about five or so different lines of business. In every line of business, they, all the employees have this big whiteboard that shows the numbers and how their line of business contributes to the overall performance of the organization. They call it the Z Cobb, the Zingerman's family of business. I don't know what the Cobb stands for. Doesn't make sense. But hey, there you go. And in terms of the transparency, they have partner meetings and employees can attend the partner meeting. So it's not like this closed door session where just the, the, the officers of the organization are meeting. Like, no, if you have an idea and you want to know what's going on, come on in.

Yeah, I mean, I love it. What advice, like, what tangible advice would you give, Shawn, to a small business to create an outstanding Zingerman's esque, optimistic workplace type climate? Considering that the typical small business entrepreneur is wearing so many hats and running around and doing so many things, how do they focus on this? And how much time do they focus on, like, give us the goods, like, how do we do this, Sean?

Yeah, yeah.

Besides flying out to our offices and be like, okay, do this and this, this.

So here's the beauty of it. It isn't rocket science. So I'm gonna make an assumption that for those listening, if you're interested in this, you've got at least a couple people that are working with you and if that's the case, one of the first things that you want to do is you want to have regular one on ones. And in these one on ones, what you're doing is you're doing a couple things. One is you're syncing up and making sure everybody's clear on where we're going. Right. What are our priorities, what are our goals, how are we doing with our goals? The other piece is working with those individuals to help them be better in their work and in their life. And that's a key thing for optimistic workplaces is these organizations don't stop at how we just going to help you be successful here. Because if we recognize that our personal professional worlds do collide and that if we can help you be better in both worlds, you're going to be better here in the organization. So in these one on ones, what you want to be doing regularly is looking at and talking about and planning how are we going to continue to grow your skill sets, both in the professional sense and as well as a leader? You know, I have a team of five at switch and shift and, and I meet weekly with all of my team members. And in our one on ones we're definitely going through the business stuff, but I'm going to make sure that my employees understand the meaning of their work. And the meaning of their work is not just getting a project done, it's understanding how that project is going to support one of our efforts. And everybody knows we have, everybody knows what our strategic efforts are. We have what we call the radar report. And the radar report shows everybody what's critical, what's important, what's on deck in terms of coming up and what are the topics and ideas that we're exploring. And it's as clear as it could possibly be what our priorities are. And everybody knows them. And I think if you want optimism, you got to remove anything that creates doubt and distraction from people around knowing what's important, how we move in the ball, down the field and am I growing as a result of this? Nobody wants to go to a job and just contribute to something that they don't understand what they're contributing to, except they're getting a paycheck. There are those who want that they don't fit in an optimistic workplace. If you just want to show up, plug in, do your job, leave and not care about the bigger picture, you're going to have a hard time in an optimistic work environment.

Same principles apply for virtual assistants, say the Philippines or India.

Correct. Is that an inside joke that I Missed?

No, no, I'm asking. No. Because there's, you know, like a lot of my virtual assistants, I don't do one on ones with like, I'll Skype them, but, you know, their English might be poor. Right. We've got, you know, 12 hour time difference. So they're morning, I'm getting ready for bed. Right. So it's more difficult logistically to do the one on ones. That being said, I think it is important now that the author of the Optimistic Workplace mentions it, I think that.

If you, you know, that's an interesting dynamic where you've got somebody in a different culture, in a different time zone, in a significant time zone shift, you can still have those conversations even electronically. You know, the research is a little sketchy around how effective electronic interactions are and how that affects people's sense of cohesion and belonging to a team. The research is a little lean still more towards the physical interaction, like us being physically located in the same space. But I think we're all getting more accustomed to working with people who might be in India, say. Right. Or in the Philippines, and we can't be physically located in the same room often or if at all.

Yeah, I mean, Scott and I have a team. Even Scott and I work there. Like, we don't physically see each other very often. Is there going to be a disconnect there? I mean, should we be having like, you know, monthly retreats or quarterly retreats?

You know, I think it depends. I will say my business partner, he is in Colorado Springs and we meet, we use zoom, like what you guys do on a weekly basis for our meetings. But we do make an effort quarterly to meet in the same space. You know, what tends to happen biologically is we can connect at a deeper level because we're interacting with each other physically. And what research shows that that doesn't happen so much when we're interacting like we are now virtually. That's just what the research shows. But I think the interesting thing is the brain changes and adapts to its environment. And so could that be possible where it doesn't matter that you're physically located or virtually located? I don't know. I did that.

I do think, like you and I will meet up at boot camp and stuff like that and we will spend time together. And I think that that's a good, like reconnection point because we don't talk about just we talk about all the things that are going on. It's not just, you know, little pieces. So in a way we do have kind of like this quarterly retreat or something, that even though it's not like it's just you and I or just a small group locked in a room together, the reality is, is that there's a connection points in there. And, you know, I think that what shot. You know what Sean's saying too, about virtual teams? You know, I've got virtual teams in literally that's now span the globe. And, you know, I'll try to do zoom with them. You know, like, I'll try to. To at least see them face to face because it's not like I'm gonna hop on a plane and go to the Philippines or Serbia. I'm not gonna go to those places. Well, maybe I will, I don't know. But you know, it's not. It's not in the travel plans to necessarily go, but I think that by meeting with them on a regular basis and then instead of like, sometimes I'll do training where I do it on my own and then send them the video of it. But what I find is that if I can deliver that with kind of like a face to face training or face to face for feedback, then it seems like it's better. It's like a better touch base. And Sean, I think you're right. I mean, I think that the brain evolves to where if this is the new reality, then you necessarily start to maybe not enjoy, like, oh, I got to go to this retreat, you know, with my boss, or, you know, I got to go there. It's more like, you know, I'd rather just do it virtually because it just becomes kind of what we know and it becomes our own safe zone.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the world is definitely moving more towards virtual interaction. So, I mean, it's already. We're already doing it, right. So it's interesting to see what ultimately comes from how we feel a sense of team when we never see each other physically, you know, like in person.

Yeah, I had a. I managed a.

Team.

In my last role. I managed this team that they were literally spread out across the entire United States. And what's funny is that this team, they would get on conference calls together and they would know each other's names, but some of them had worked together for 20 years and never had once met, you know, their co worker. And, you know, like, I started giving them when I got into the role, I started like pulling team projects together, like, okay, this is what we're going to do. And I'd take people from within the organization, I'd bring them into a central location. And have them meet and, you know, solve problems and work on processes. And, you know, it was always amazing because they'd be like, I've never met this guy. I've been talking to him on the phone for 20 years. And then what you find is that. That bond, that bond when you have the two people face to face, so much more powerful because the next time they need something, now there really is somebody, a human being behind the name, a human being behind the voice behind the email, and you start to see that communication changes. The way that you support people changes. It's really amazing. Yeah.

Sean, when you were writing the book, did you see a common thread among all these countries, all these companies that had an optimistic workplace?

I did. And that was actually one of the surprises, because I went in assuming that these optimistic workplaces were, you place people first. And what I. I did well over 200 interviews with employees in these optimistic workplaces. And one of the things that I learned was it wasn't that simple. What these organizations that had optimistic workplaces where there were three elements. One was they were very purpose oriented and employees were very clear on the. That why that organization existed. They then made sure that employees had work that was meaningful to them, that was in support of that organization's purpose, and that they were really good at attracting extraordinary people. And not just people who wanted to show up for a paycheck, but for people who really were interested in the purpose and really interested in investing the time in. In doing the work that was meaningful to the organization and to them as well. So those three elements kind of interplayed together to be able to kind of give the bones of what optimistic workplaces come from.

Yeah, that's really interesting. I was talking to a buddy of mine, and he went to a management seminar. I don't know if. Have you heard the cheeseburger test? No. So before they hire somebody, they'll say, hey, you know, Blair likes a cheeseburger from this restaurant, but he's a little particular. So. And they give. They give them an impossible task. They say, look, you know, he wants his bread to be sourdough, and he wants his cheese to be, you know, a type of cheese that they know they don't have.

Right.

And make sure that when they do the condiments, it needs to be in this order. It needs to be lettuce, pickle, and tomato.

Right.

And then a white onion as opposed to a red onion. Right. And then just kind of make the cheeseburger for him, and then he wants to cut it in Fours right now, it becomes impossible because the restaurant they send them to doesn't have half the ingredients. And so what they're looking for is, will that person go to the grocery store next door and get the ingredients, make the cheeseburger the way he wants it, and if they come back and say, oh, I couldn't do it. It was impossible, then they know, probably not for us, where if the person goes to the grocery store and does it, this person gets stuff done.

I like it. I think that's a good sniff test of, you know, is this person going to be a good fit in our organization? I like that. I hadn't heard that. I have to remember that. Boom, boom, Drop the mic.

Thanks for being on the podcast, John.

All right.

Have you heard about that? We lost your audio.

Sorry about that. I haven't heard about that. It would be interesting to figure out how you could do that for a va, you know, like as a hoop.

Well, I mean, we know how to do it. We basically give them an impossible task virtually, you know, do these steps, and it's really difficult. Like the way the steps that you give them, it's like, impossible.

Right. Well, I was really hoping I could just get someone to deliver a cheeseburger to me.

Yeah, that's not. Yeah, exactly. Like, here, figure out a way to get me my favorite cheeseburger from Shake Shack. And I want this, and I want it delivered by this day.

Yeah, that's actually pretty good. I like that. I have to admit that that's definitely going to weed out the lazy from the entrepreneurial.

Yeah. Yeah. So, Sean, tell us something we don't know about creating, like being a great leader.

Right.

Like, we all seen. We've all read the books about values and purposes. Start with why tell us something we don't know.

Something you don't know.

I love this question.

Yeah, it's a tough question about creating optimistic workplaces or just leadership in general.

Whatever. However you want to answer it, I'll give it. I'll give you full editorial.

All right. So I can go any way I want. I would say what we don't know is that this is a tough question.

It is a tough question. And you can think about Scott, and I can plug away while you think.

What do you got coming up that you're listening?

So, Scott, while Sean is thinking about what we don't know, what is your tip of the week?

I don't know why my microphone keeps going offline for some reason.

Blue yeti. We gotta get you a new Blue yeti.

I don't understand this crazy. Okay, check this website out. Ifnoreply.com if noreply.com it's like a boomerang. It ties into your gmail. But what's really cool about it is you can predetermine next steps in an email conversation if someone does not reply. So you know, like how many times do you send an email and it's sent and then you're like, okay. And then a week later you're like that guy never submond it to me, never answered me. This would automatically send another follow up email to the person to say, hey, I didn't get a reply. What's going on?

Interesting. You know what, I have a better solution for this.

Is it boomerang?

No, it's Mixmax.

Mixmax.

Although is this free?

No.

Okay, so Mixmax basically shows you if they open up your email or not. And that's free. And then you can know and then you can say with a CRM, hey, you know, if this person hasn't opened my email, I guess, I guess this automates a little bit better. This is guys. Yeah, this is a more elegant solution if no reply. Calm. Awesome.

Yeah, check it out.

Let's go back to our, our guest Murphy from Switch and Shift.

Break. You know, this is a tough question and I'm not sure that I'm going to come up with something that we don't know. But maybe I'll add an insight that might not be as commonly known.

Awesome.

So we mentioned that relationships are really key for creating optimistic workplaces. But research that has come out from Gallup, then there's an HR group called hey Group. What they have found that is 70% of what an employee's experience is is based on their leader's style. So 70%. If you're a jerk as a leader, 70% of what I experience is based on your jerkiness. So I think that's a great answer. Okay. Oh good. Whew. So it's think about that, think about how. And I think Scott, you were saying that a little bit earlier in terms of the impact that we have and most of us don't know. In fact, I was just teaching a class yesterday and I was walking them through an exercise that we do. It's called Vision for Impact. And it's like you got to know how you show up and affect people's lives. You, you can't just show up and be a jerk and get away with that without recognizing you're impacting people's performance.

But Sean, how do we know how we're being perceived. Like, I think I'm a great guy and really fun to work with, but Scott might be like the other end of some of my voxes to him. Mark is really in a bad mood today. He's really short with me. That was a terse communication. Or he might be like, boy, you know, Mark's had three cups of coffee and is like, add bulletproof coffee, by the way. Bulletproof coffee? Yeah. I mean, how do I know where I think I'm communicating in a way that's effective and kind of like, you know, impactful and fun.

Right.

Where he might be interpreting it completely differently. How do I know?

Yeah, it's a good question. And what I really like about this question is that most people, most leaders don't ever ask that question. It doesn't occur to them. And the fact that you're bringing it up is that that's the answer is, look, if you're going to want to, if you're really going to want to create a positive environment, optimistic environment to boost performance of your team, whatever the size is, you've got to sit down and say, hey, what am I doing that's working? And what am I doing that's making making life difficult for you? You don't have to invest the money in this 360, which is really popular and they're really expensive. Just sit down and take some people to coffee. Ask, Ask seven people that you know are going to be straight shooters with you and say, what's your experience with me? You know, am I a jerk? Am I good? Am I somewhere in between? Am I wishy washy? What is it? That's probably the best way because you're not going to know otherwise. You've got to stop and think about what impact am I having on people, Scott?

What impact am I having on people?

Mark, I think that you, I think that you're a very likable guy. I think you, you, you're. You come across true to your, you know, to your true personality. I don't think that. I think that what people hear on this podcast and what people see at boot camp is really you. I think that you're just really on a mission to help other people transform their lives, you know, So I think that, I think that you come across very positively.

And I would add, I just met you, right? So I get to, I get to answer this question. Here's a guy. I don't know if. Are people gonna see this or are they just gonna hear this?

Well, they're going to hear it, but that's okay. We can talk about what you're saying.

So when I first joined the Zoom Room, I see Mark on a treadmill, and my immediate thought was, here is a guy who is all about trying to simplify his life and be healthy at the same time. So why not get your steps in while you're working? So it's like you're a maximizer. You're a guy who's going to maximize time and get things done and maintain your svelte figure at the same time.

Well, I want to thank both of you now, Sean, but how do I know? I'm not fishing for compliments. How do I know? I mean, Scott has an economic interest, for example, of having me like him. Now, Scott doesn't have that big of economic interest, and I know Scott personally, so he'd be like, mark, you're a jerk. And he would be like, I'm gonna be just fine, but there are people on my team that would probably not be as forthright.

How do I.

How can I interpret it with the voices go up. Okay. You know, Jimmy, when I said that to you, did you think I was being a jerk? No, that was fine.

I know anything. You're sitting down, having some kind of face to face conversation, and you're choosing people that you believe will be honest with you. If you really are interested in honest feedback, then go to the people that you know. And that might be someone that doesn't know you very well, but you know that they're straight shooters. Right? But, you know, first impressions definitely are key to that. And just don't choose the suck ups. Don't choose the people that you think are going to be uncomfortable with that directive.

A question, Scott. Who do you have in your life? Do you like a personal board of director, Sean, that will give you that kind of honest, direct feedback that you really need to hear. Maybe you don't want to hear it. You know, it's kind of like black licorice, but, you know, you got to take it.

I'll tell you who I go to. And because. Because I trust her and she doesn't hold back is my wife.

Right?

Like my. My wife, if I'm like, if I go through a scenario with her and she's like, you were a jerk. Okay, all right. You know, like, she. She becomes my barometer, right? You know, and other times she'll. She'll see things like, we might be out and about, and something just really, really upsets me, and I'll get to the Car. And I'll be like, was I wrong? You were wrong. Okay. Or you know, like, you know, she, you know, we'd walk out of the store and she's like, what is wrong with that person? You know, like, holy cow, I can't believe that just happened. And then I know, like, okay, she's my, my check. She's my checkpoint, you know, and that's sometimes hard too, because I will tell you, you know, like when, when I, when I do something that's not maybe not so good and she calls me out on it, I feel like I feel bad, you know, like, but she's honest, you know, Like I know that. What's her vested interest here? It's not to make me feel good.

Shawn, what about you?

Yeah, I've got a couple people. My business partner has a very low tolerance for bs so he'll definitely call me out or point out something that I'm. That's in my blind spot. And then I've got a really good friend who does similar work as we do. And like, what Scott said about you is really about helping people transform. So he's not going to tolerate any kind of closed minded, limited thinking perceptions that I might have. You know, I like to think I'm a pretty evolved person, but I'm a human being so I step in my own stuff all the time.

Yeah, same here. Yeah, absolutely. So now, Sean, we're put you on the spot. I'm going to ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go right now. Improve their businesses, improve their lives. You've given us tons of unbelievably valuable information. One more.

So I'm going to give you two sites. One is free. It's Track Meet. So if you like to, if you meet with a team virtually and you use Gmail as your, your email system, Track Meet actually allows for you to schedule meetings and send agendas to everybody who is invited to that meeting. So you know, for us virtually, you know, we. I only allow meetings to be 15 or 30 minutes. So track meet helps keep everybody on track. So track meets, it's free, so that's cool. The other thing is if you like to process, do daily check ins with your team, we use A site called Jell J E L L & Jel allows for you that this is a, you have to pay for it. It is a site that you. It's a way to know what everybody's working on and track your.

Goals. Awesome. Okay, so now I'm going to track meet. I can't find.

It. You have to. I think it's.

Gettrackmeet.Com. get trackmeet.com. okay. And then the other one is.

Jell. G, E, L, J, E, L.

L, J, L, J, E, L, L. Take a look at this. All right, awesome. I love it. And I love the site. I like the landing.

Page. Yeah. Jell is. Track meet is. I think they're kind of bootstrapping it, but it's the best meeting software that I have found that works. You can track your decisions, you can track your action items, that kind of stuff, which are. Which is.

Good. Let's see. How much is this thing? Crazy. Four bucks a year. Pretty cheap. It's like a Starbucks per.

User. There you.

Go. There you go. All right, My tip of the week is learn more about Sean and go to switchandshift.com and also subscribe to his Work that Matters podcast as well. He's got a ton of amazing books on his bookstore, but I think the book that I'm definitely gonna get next is the Optimistic Workplace. The only thing, Sean, is it on.

Audible? It.

Is. Are you the author? Are you the narrator? Because I like your.

Voice. My publisher did not want me to do it, which actually, honestly, when he told me why, I was like, okay, it's a huge time investment, and I, as a small business owner, I don't have weeks to devote to reading my.

Book. Okay, fair enough. Of the books that are on your site, is there one that you would say, hey, if I was going to go on a desert island and I had to do business and I can only have one book, which one would you pick? And you got so many of these great books in.

Here. Let me take a look here. What would I suggest? A good place to start is. Well, one of my favorites is the Moral Molecule, the source of love and prosperity. Sounds not very much like a business book, but it's a really good look at what builds science, or, excuse me, what builds trust from a science perspective. That's. That's, you know, just in flow. If you've not read Flow. Flow is definitely like, everybody's book list of books to.

Read. Flow's the author. Like, nobody pronounces last.

Name. Yeah, I. It's. I think it's cheek sent me.

High. Only Sean Murphy can pronounce his last.

Name.

Now. That's phenomenal. Psychology of Optimal Experience. It's a great.

Book. It's a great book.

Yeah. Sean Murphy. Switch and shift.com. optimistic workplace. Are we.

Good? I've had a great.

Time. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Scott. Todd, are we.

Good? I think we're great.

Mark. Well, I want to thank the listeners. I want to also remind them the only way, the only way where you're going to get the quality of guests I like is Sean Murphy, is if you do us the biggest favor, subscribe, rate and view the podcast, send us a screenshot. Supporthelandgeek.com we're going to send you for free our $97 passive income launch kit. This is Mark Podolski, the Land Geek, and I want to thank everybody again. Scott, we're going to do it. Ready, two, three, let freedom ring. Sean Murphy shaking his head like, oh, my gosh, I knew these guys are.

Geeks. I think the audience is, too.

Mark. All right, maybe we should do a different tagline at the end. Maybe, maybe we should switch off doing it like you do it one week, I do it next.

Week. Yeah, okay, we'll try.

That. I don't.

Know. Thanks, Sean. Thanks.

Everybody. Hey.