Ep. 10 | Excellence As A Strategy

Yeah.

All right.

From scratch this time. This is our very first time doing this. I'm Daniel.

I'm Tommy. Hey, guys.

I'll be your host and. Wow, Tommy, I was gonna introduce you, but I guess you just. Just go ahead and introduce yourself. I don't even know why I'm here.

This is the fourth time we try to start this episode of the podcast. I don't know why you're here either.

It really is. And you know what? I don't think we even establish what the question asked, but that's okay. We're going to keep going because let's do it. We have a great podcast in store for you today.

Hey, you know, last. Last episode, you did ask me a question. You asked me what was my favorite episode. You asked me what was my favorite TV show. Obviously, the Office, but I feel like you can't say that the Office is your favorite TV show and not say what your favorite episode is, because it divides people.

Well, you can also fill a person out by what their favorite episode is.

Yeah, but you have, like, you know, PRC and arc. You have that pre Robert California group and the after Robert California group. I'm definitely prc. Like, I don't hate Robert California. He was cool. But, you know, whatever. Like, definitely Michael is the way to go all day long.

Oh, absolutely.

So what was your favorite episode?

Mine was. I mean, like, there's so many that I just go back to. I probably have, like, a top five, and it depends on the mood that I'm in. And so, like, they can just swap around auto, just depending on what's happening. Dinner Party is hands down my favorite. For lots of reasons. Nothing even comes close to that episode. I don't know what it is.

Here's my question about Dinner Party. How did they not call them Jandals?

Oh, my gosh. The showrunners, the writers definitely miss an opportunity.

Miss an opportunity.

So I don't know, maybe that. Maybe that's what they need to spark that show back up.

And if you've never seen the Office, you're not going to get that reference.

Nope, you're not. So you need to go watch what that's probably like, like five seasons in. Four or five seasons in.

Something like that. So my favorite episode is the wedding, when. When Dwight gets married. Dwight and Angela getting married.

Do Angela.

Do Angela. I don't. That's not as good as Jandals, but.

No, it's definitely not.

Thanks for playing. We. That's my favorite episode. Like, where she can't walk. Yeah. And Phyllis has to piggybacker down the, down the aisle. That's my favorite.

And then, yeah, he what was a mo's kidnapped her. Phyllis was supposed to lock the doors, but she didn'. Oh man. Yeah, I could sit here and talk about that for hours. But I won't because nobody wants to hear that.

No, we've already wasted eight minutes.

We did. I don't, I wouldn't say we wasted eight minutes.

So, so you, if you're, if you're hearing this weird stuff in the background. Andrew is in my office behind this wall behind us, talking and his voice is like 300 decibels.

It like Pierces through solid.

One day his kids are going to get old enough to get yelled at and it's going to be terrifying. It's going to be terrifying.

Poor kids.

I just can't because he's 6 5.

Oh man. Andrew is very.

And it sounds like a freight train.

I can't even imagine him yelling though. Like.

No, because he's so, so like you.

Know him better than I do.

I mean I've, he's yelled at me.

Hopefully you've never seen him yell at kids before.

But I mean I'm the size of a kid.

Well, well, I mean anybody is when they stand up against Andrew. He's.

I'm basically a 12 year old in a 15 year old's body.

That's, that's the best. Tommy description. We're gonna put that on the website. Make a note. Just so, yeah, Tommy, you, you're writing a book and I am, I am very interested. I've heard a little bit about this. This is mind blowing for me for a lot of reasons. This is gonna be mind blowing for everybody. How you got to where you're going with this book is, is crazy. So like you're, you're into this. Tell me a little bit about it. Like what's it called?

It has a working title but for copyright reasons we don't know if we can use it yet. But so tentatively Disney. Don't get mad.

So I didn't think about that.

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna have to see. It's called Got no Strings on Me. So it's based on like Pinocchio, right? Like the story of Pinocchio. So two and a half years ago I was in a hotel room in Rochester, New York where my company was located like three in the morning, set straight up in bed, like, and I have these weird like, for people who don't know, I like lucid dreams. So like I have these very Detailed. Very. Like, I might as well be awake. Vivid dreams.

So you go ahead and wake up.

That I can control. Yeah. And I can, like. And so I don't. I don't remember what I was dreaming, but I woke straight up in bed, like, set up and went, man, Pinocchio was such a tragedy. And, like, I just, like, literally makes so much sense. Spit the sentence out. And it took me, like, I mean, like, literally could not go back to sleep. Like, was, like, laying in bed. Got up, took a shower, sat down in the little, like, the hotel room at the little table and, like, took out some, like, you know, Hampton Inn paper and, like, started writing. And essentially it came down to, like, I wrapped my thoughts around the idea that Pinocchio, Disney's version. I've never read the other one, but, you know, as a kid from the late 70s, early 80s, the Disney cartoons at all I'd seen. And so Pinocchio, I just took that story and was thinking about it and, like, here's this being, like, this kid, Pinocchio, who was made of sticks. He was a walking, talking pile of sticks. He was a puppet that was animated, like he was alive. He was really one of one in the universe, completely and singularly a miracle. And his highest aim in life was to be a real boy, which is like, one of maybe a couple thousand in his little village. Like, he just wanted to be average. And what a tragedy that. Because he gets his dream.

Spoiler alert.

Yeah. Yeah. If you haven't seen Pinocchio, he becomes a real boy.

He does become real boy.

After, like, striving to get it in all kinds of different ways, he became a real boy. And what a tragedy that is. And some of us get our dreams and we realize that, like, man, we were dreaming for the wrong things all along, that we were. We were trying to be other people or we were trying to be like other people. And what a tragedy that is to be born unique like we all are, and be one of one in the universe and then give our entire life's existence towards being someone else, being average. What a boring and waste of a life that is. And so Pinocchio, as it stands, it has a happy ending if you watch the movie, but it's not happy ending because he becomes a real boy.

Right? But you're so into it when you watch the movie.

Yeah, you're into it and you're like, oh, he became a real boy. He got what he wanted, and everybody celebrates it, which is another great lesson that sometimes you're going to achieve Average. And people are going to celebrate. And your real friends would know better. And so, like, you should. You should evaluate your friends based on who's celebrating. When you don't achieve your best, when people are patting you on the back going, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. And you know you had more in you, right? Those people are not your friends.

This is mind blowing that these, like, things you're talking about came out of Pinocchio. You know what I mean? Like, the topics, all the. The parallels, all that stuff. Because I walked away from Pinocchio just feeling good. He became a real boy. You know, like, here we go. He got it. He got it. And then when. That's why when you sat down and told me this, initially, I was just like, wait, what? Because you're like, it's the biggest tragedy in the world. And I'm like, yeah, yeah.

But he came.

I'm like, I don't think he. Tommy saw the ending.

He became a real boy.

And then you get to these points, and I'm like, he missed the last. He cut it off. He fell asleep. But you just make this. You know, the parallel. And I love it.

It's not just him in the story. Like, the story of Geppetto. Like, okay, one, let's stop. Like, I've said this before, but, like, the entire thing should be called holy crap, a talking cricket. Like, let's. Let's just start, like, before. Before Pinocchio comes alive. There's a talking cricket in a top coat, a top hat and a coat. Like, he was a cricket and he had clothes on and he talked. Let's start with that.

What's right about that?

Let's just start with that. So. But it is. But it does seem normal. And then here's like. So the theory behind it is that you hear before you. Before you see Jiminy Cricket. You hear it. You hear him. He's the narrator. And so as the movie opens, it's like a scene of the village, and it's showing, like, all the lights out, and it's very cold. And he's talking about how he was looking for warmth. And you hear his voice and you get sort of, like, lulled into, like, oh, this is a voice that I'm familiar with, right? And then they. Then they expose who's actually saying the voice, right? It takes all of about 30 seconds for that to happen. You become so familiar with Jiminy Cricket in 30 seconds that when you see him, it's not shocking. Well, that's how we Treat people in our actual lives. If we treated like. If I fail to treat you like the miracle that you are, like, it's a miracle that you are here with us at Leadfast. Justin, Mark, McKenzie, Andrew, all the fact that we're all here. It took a global pandemic to put this team together. No one saw that coming in June.

No, absolutely not. No.

No one saw that coming in January, March. Like, Justin was moving to Atlanta with his wife for a new job, and that fell through because of the pandemic. And they were here, and so we were able to get him. You were working at another company, traveling the US and based out of another state and about to move to Houston and Dallas. Yeah, Texas. And so someplace in that big state I don't care about. And, like, you were going there and that felt. That didn't happen because of this. And because. And so, like, it was a. It was miraculous that you were even available to come be a part of this dream with us. Right. And so the moment I fail to lose sight of that, I become familiar. If I get too familiar with you guys, right? If I. If I let myself get used to coming in every day and seeing you guys. Like, I came in this morning and I, like, fist bumped and hugged everybody because I don't. I want to be intentional. I mean, that wasn't like, just me walking into a room. I've walked in here many times, just said, hey, or just went to my office, grabbed a drink, whatever. I this morning intentionalized coming up the steps and saying and greeting everyone because I was coming in a little late because I was coming in for my thing. And I did that on purpose because I don't want to become too familiar. Because the moment you become familiar with something, you know, there's a saying that says familiarity breeds contempt. The moment you become familiar with something, you'll abuse it. And so, you know, or take it for granted and take it. Taking something for granted is just sort of passive abuse. And so I don't ever want to abuse you guys. Like, I want to always honor and acknowledge your presence and that you're here and that you're important to not just my dream, but our dream. Right. And so. But it only takes 30 seconds for us to do that with Jiminy in the story. 30 seconds. 30 seconds of hearing his voice made his appearance. Not important. That's crazy to me.

That's crazy to me because that's how.

Quickly as humans, we internalize and rationalize not being impressed with other people.

Wow.

And we should. We should be look, we should be fighting to do the opposite, to give honor and fighting to show respect and fighting to. To value others, especially in this day and age. So. So those like. So there's. There's lessons to be learned in all the characters. Maybe my favorite is, though, out of all the story is Geppetto. Because the story is not about Pinocchio. It's about Geppetto.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, Pinocchio doesn't exist without this old man's desire. Like, he just doesn't. Because the dream was fulfilled. This was the entire story of Pinocchio. Was Geppetto's dream to have a real boy? Not even to have a real boy. To have a son. Like, there's no indicator that Geppetto was disappointed that Pinocchio wasn't flesh and blood.

Oh, yeah.

Like, Pinocchio's dream was to be average. Geppetto's dream was just to have a son. And he got one.

Yeah.

And so he was happy. He was delighted. He sent. He, like, immediately sent Pinocchio out into the public to go to school, like, the next morning. Right. And so there wasn't even a little quick, but incredibly quick. He's been on the planet six hours. It's time for school. Here's an hour.

I need a break, by the way.

That's how being a dad feels sometimes. Moms make it look so easy. Six hours of being alone with your kid, and you're like, go to school.

Oh, man.

But I'm. Pinocchio did it, and he was six hours old. You get to school. Yeah. That's how it feels sometimes as a dad, because we're just not, I don't think, emotionally equipped to handle.

I'm definitely not.

And that's not me being sexist, because God bless women who decide to go be beast at everything else except momming. But my wife is a tremendous mom, and I could not imagine having to do that role and be a dad.

Like, no, same for. I mean, every weekend I get a little taste of what my wife does every week, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, am I going to make it to the end of the day? Go to school?

This is why Monday is such an important day for me. So anyways, but, like, that's, like, that whole story is Geppetto's dream. Right. It's. It's just all that it is. And so. And Geppetto is a great example to me. Like, so we talk about all the time that you'll hear us say all the time. If you're Listening to this podcast, if you. If you're here in our office, we talk about the fact that excellence is always a strategy. Always. It's always the right strategy. Excellence is always what you should be doing at all times. Because even if it's not your dream, even if it's not what you want, go be doing excellent work. Because the excellent work does two things. One, it qualifies you for the dream. Because when. Because people want to put responsibility and authority and opportunity into the hands of people who are going to steward it well. And the way you prove that you can steward something well is being excellent with what you have. Right? So excellence is always a strategy. If you're. If you're stuck, your middle management, you want to get that promotion, you want to. You want a shot at the big boys table, big girls table, you want to see yourself progress. The opportunity will come. The opportunities always come because people don't live forever. So if you stay in one spot long enough, you're gonna get an opportunity. The way you rise to the top and be granted the opportunity is by being excellent in the meantime, with what you have. And Geppetto was doing that. You know, I don't know if you remember the story, but, like, quickly after we meet Jiminy Cricket, we meet Geppetto. But, like, as Jiminy's walking around the house, as this little cricket's walking around, there's clocks everywhere.

I was gonna ask you about the clocks.

Yeah, yeah. So there's clocks everywhere. I mean, like, he was a woodworker, right? And there's tables falling. Like, the work. The work has taken over. So he's obviously not, like, not selling according to demand. He's not. He's not using basic economic principles about how much he should be making versus how much he can be selling. Like, he's just working because there's work to be done. And he's being. He's excellent, and he's refining his craft. And you see it everywhere. It's evident, even so much so, that the entire village is asleep. Like, he's the only light on.

He's the Tommy of his village.

He's the Tommy of his village. Maybe. I don't know, but the entire village is asleep. And here he is still up being excellent, and he's just now finding time to get into his passion projects, the things that, like, make him happy. And he's, like, got this puppet he's working on, and he is excellent at everything he does, and then he shows all. And that culminates in this thing that he's building in this puppet, and what he really wants is a son. And he's using what he has now to create a model of what he wants in the future. And that's great. That's just great advice. Like, if you want to be an executive, use what you have now to create a model for what you want to be in the future. Show care for people, because that's what executives do. If you're going to lead people, you've got to show care for them, conscientious about getting your work done, because executives have shareholders to listen to. Like, you got it. You got to start building a model in the. In the processes and the things that you're in charge of now. Start building a model for what is to come. And Geppetto was doing all of that. And when it came time for his dream to be given to him, the very thing that they used to. The very thing they used to provide for that dream was the thing he had been working on, right? And so that excellence is always sort of the lattice work that the dream grows on. You can't. You know, you can't get something. Like, what would it have been like? Like, think about this. If you'd have just been working on clocks and working on clocks, and he was like, whatever, it's nine o'. Clock. I'm gonna go to bed. And he never worked on his passion project, his side hustle. You know, every entrepreneur's got that side hustle they're working on. I've got two. Like, if he wasn't working on his side hustle and being passionate about it and being excellent with his job, and then this fairy shows up to go, hey, I know you really, son, can you. So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna find that puppet you've been working on. And he was like, oh, I was gonna start that project, but I just. You know, I was sleepy. I just never got. Had he not been working with excellence, when it came time for him to get the opportunity, he would have nothing for them to use.

Again. I just walked away from this feeling happy that Pinocchio became a boy, a real boy. That's crazy. I mean, like, we have it.

We're like, we're. By the way, we're three minutes into the movie at this point, and.

Yeah, I know. Like, this is. You know what I want to do. I'm gonna let you finish, but.

Okay, Kanye, I just want to say.

That I want to sit down, and I want you to watch, like, three different Disney movies. And then I Just want to be like. I just want to stop it. Okay, Tommy, tell me about this movie because I just want to hear like your takeaway from a Disney movie. Just a Disney movie. Because we're three minutes into Pinocchio and here you are with like this life changing, you know, like, advice and the, these like, like parables that you're making. These, these modern day parallels to stuff that.

But there's. There's just so much there. I mean, there's just. I mean, like legitimately so much there. But yeah, so that's why I decided to write a book because there's legitimately so much there and, you know, and you start finding everybody's place. It's not even just the people that, like, make your dream happen. It's the people that surround you while you're waiting on the dream that are important because there are two characters that like, never get mentioned really again. Like there's Figaro the cat, like that little black cat that he has. And then what's the fish's name? There's a fish. Cleo. Yeah, so Figaro and Cleo, like the. They. They didn't do anything for the dream. Like, they don't even have opposable thumbs. They can't carve, you know, they can't, they can't participate.

Freeloaders.

Ye. They're there, they're just sucking up resources. But they, but they can't, they can't actively participate in the dream. Where they found value is that they kept Geppetto's spirits up while he waited. They were someone to talk to. And we don't know anything about Geppetto, like, other than he was old, but. So we don't know why he wanted a son. Like, think about all that. Like, we don't know why Geppetto wanted a son. Maybe why he didn't have one like his. This is even. This is the best part. And well, we can. We got 25 minutes in, so we can, we can kind of end on this thought. But like, because this is what I think is the best part about the whole thing is that Geppetto had a dream that for him was impossible because he was. He was missing the prerequisite other half of that. He didn't have the plumbing for his dream. Like, he didn't. He can't have a baby by himself, right? And so he didn't, he didn't have the other half of the prerequisites for that. But he was a man and he was employed. He owned his own business. He was by all accounts a successful entrepreneur. Right. Why, why didn't he just go like, the thing that was an impossible dream for him was commonplace for everybody else in his village. Even, like, so we start looking at people and we go, well, why don't they just go get that? Like, that's not even hard. Lots of people do that. For some people, dreams are impossible. That would be easy for you, right? I've got family that like, they, their dream would be like something that I could probably do in a week, you know, but that would be like a lifelong, like bucket list item for them to get this dream to happen, you know, but like that because I have a different set of resources or I have a different set of capabilities, I can go do this thing. And we judge people based on the scope of their dream instead of the scope of their abilities. What we need to be is more like Cleo and Figaro where if you're in relationship, it's not your job to judge the dream, it's just your job to encourage them until it happens. But his dream was impossible. We don't know, like maybe, maybe, you know, Geppetto was, you know, a miser. Maybe he was like, maybe he had crippling social anxiety. I like to think of all the light things he could be. Maybe like he. When girl. Like, he was like the guy on Big Bang Theory and he couldn't talk to women.

Oh yeah.

Like maybe he was Rajesh. And so like anytime, like, right, Maybe, maybe anytime. Like, he was like Cooter probably. And so anytime some. A woman came in to like, I need to buy a new clock for a gift, he just couldn't talk. He just stood in the corner till they like, put money on the counter and then he was. And they left. Right? And then maybe he just had crippling social anxiety. He couldn't talk to women. And so being married was something was never on the table. Maybe. Oh, maybe like they lived in a community where it had wells that would eat people. I mean, because if you. Have you seen the movie? That's what happens. Spoiler alert. And so, but like, maybe like his wife and he had a baby boy. Maybe they got lost at sea and eaten by a shark or something. Like, I don't. I don't. So like, so maybe like he had some personal tragedy in his life that stunted his emotional growth and so he could never, like, get over the hump. And what he really wanted to be was a dad, but he just couldn't give his heart to another woman to make that happen. Yeah, maybe like, so maybe he had some emotional, like, and these are all, by the way, things that everyone experiences. Yeah. Some emotional trauma that keeps him from trying hard or putting their heart on the line or their effort on the line, or they're for another opportunity because they were scared they're going to fail, or they've got anxiety about trying and whether or not they'll be succeed, how they're going to be welcomed or greeted, how are they going to be perceived if they fail? All those things. And this is maybe the thing that I struggle with the most, is maybe he had worked all his life, and in that day and age, if you didn't have a son to carry on the family business, when you couldn't work anymore, you couldn't earn anymore. So maybe that explains why he'd made so many clocks. Maybe his arthritis was getting bad and he had to make enough inventory to last until his hands gave out on him and he realized he didn't have enough. Maybe he did the math and he said, my resources aren't enough. And if my dream doesn't come true, if I don't get a son, I could die. Maybe it was a matter of life and death. Wow. Like, so why. Why want something so badly? You know, it's got to be important. And as an entrepreneur, it feels like that all the time, that everything's a matter of life and death. I've done the math. We've got 90 days of resources, and if our dream doesn't happen, this dream dies. Like, this thing that we built dies. Like, that's a huge thing. Right. And then all he knew to do was, in the meantime, keep doing what he's doing with excellence. Like, keep using excellence as a strategy given. Just keep. Keep putting the wish out into the universe. Like, that's what he did. He just kept saying, I just want to. I just want a boy. I just want a boy. I want to. I want a son. I want a son. I want a son. The same way we come in every day and go, all right, we want a successful company. We want us. We want a company that inspires people and generates joy in people's lives and helps them see that they can accomplish incredible things. We want that. We want that. And until that happens, we're going to keep doing what we know to do, which we're going to keep teaching with excellence. We're going to keep doing podcasts, we're going to keep putting out content. We're going to keep trying to inspire people. We're going to keep coaching. We're going to keep walking alongside each other until that happens. And when it happens, we'll be ready for it, because that's the only thing we know to do. It's the only option that we have. We were missing whatever prerequisite parts, so maybe it's like, we need a million dollars in funding. That's the other half, and we don't have that. We'll just have to do it without that. Maybe it's, you know, we have crippling anxiety about putting out the truth and say, hey, we're a small company, so we try to appear bigger. Like, we're not. We're just five of us. We say that over and over. We're not trying to be anything that we're not. Right. All we know to do is to continue loving our dream the best we can, love it, Stewarding our dream the best that we can steward it, and then pushing forward with excellence. And it's really our hope for all you guys. That's what you do with all your dreams. I feel weird hitting that button. Don't feel weird.

Maybe we just need to preload, like, a sadder, more somber. Okay, we're already there.

We're there. I just. I faded it up. I mean, like, honestly, though, at the end of the day, like, we should have happy music. This is, like, it was a very intense, like, serious ending, but. Because it should be. Yeah. Because you should know that you can go accomplish all that you accomplish.

No, that's true. Yeah. So that's great. I'm trying to transition with you, man. That's. That's. That's good. We have a podcast. I mean, we have.

You're watching the podcast.

We do have a podcast. We have an Instagram, and our handle is eadfastco.

We also.

We're also on Facebook. Check out our website, leadfastco.com and there's plenty of resources there that you can, like, peruse through. There's a lot of good content with a lot of great talks and discussions. Like this one.

Yeah. You got any connects at Disney Legal? Tell them to hit us up. Want to use their book name?

All right, we'll see you guys next time.