Podcasts about highly effective people

If you have tried gentle parenting and still feel like nothing works with your strong-willed child, this episode is for you. New to the show? Start with our ⁠Start Here playlist⁠. Wendy Snyder was three years into motherhood, home with a colicky newborn and a three-year-old who got sent home from preschool on repeat, when she walked past a flyer for a free positive parenting class and took it as a sign. Fifteen years later, that same strong-willed daughter is a Division I beach volleyball player at a top ten school. In this conversation, Wendy and JoAnn get into why the strong will you are fighting is the exact trait that will carry your kid, and what has to shift in you first before any strategy will work. In this episode, you'll learn Why punishment, timeouts and "break their will early" advice backfire hardest on the kids they are aimed at The difference between a kid who is born strong-willed and a mild kid moving through a power surge season What autocratic parenting actually is, and why almost all of us absorbed some of it How releasing control over homework and grades produced a self-motivated straight A kid One tactical swap you can make today: replacing compliance statements with choices Resources mentioned in this episode Fresh Start Your Family: Powerful Parenting to Restore Peace in Your Home by Wendy Snyder Fresh Start Family Race to Nowhere, the documentary Wendy recommends for every public school parent The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, source of the subway story The 3 in 30 Podcast with Rachel Nielson, who introduced JoAnn and Wendy The Happy Mom Reset, our free class No Guilt Mom Inner Circle The Best Mom is a Happy Mom by JoAnn Crohn Protect your loved ones without spying on them. Go to https://heypolo.com/ngm or use code NGM and get 40% off your first year! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of the Grow A Small Business Podcast host Troy Trewin interviews Brett Penager, co-founder of Chiro One Wellness Centers, shares his remarkable journey from four failed businesses and being forced out of a top practice management firm to building a chiropractic empire that grew from just two clinics and 12 team members to 164 offices across 13 states with over 1,000 employees. In this candid conversation, he reveals the highs and lows of rapid scaling, including a near-collapse that forced the closure of dozens of locations, the landmark $100M+ private equity deal in 2017, and hard-won lessons on culture, leadership, and accountability. Penager challenges the myth of work-life balance, stresses surrounding yourself with smarter people, and explains why complete personal responsibility is the true lid on any company's growth. He also discusses his book Larger Than Life and his new mission to support 5,000 entrepreneurs worldwide. Packed with practical wisdom for owners scaling past the 5–30 team stage, this episode delivers both inspiration and actionable insights. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? Brett Penager shares that the hardest thing in growing a small business is learning to set it up so you're no longer the source of everything, especially once you reach around 40–50 employees. He emphasizes putting capable people in place, staying out of their way even if they don't do the job exactly as well as you would, and accepting that acceptable results from others free you to focus on what you do best. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most? Brett Penager shares that his favorite business books are The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Good to Great, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If he had to choose just one, he says The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has been the most powerful for him. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Brett Penager shares that he listens to a wide variety of podcasts and online learning resources rather than sticking to just one or two regularly. He values hearing many different voices and perspectives, so he recommends exploring broadly across platforms instead of limiting yourself to a single show or tool. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Brett Penager recommends the Landmark Forum (from Landmark Education) as the most powerful tool for growing a small business. He describes it as transformational learning that accelerates personal growth, helping entrepreneurs become the kind of leaders who can successfully scale their companies by gaining decades of wisdom in a much shorter time. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Brett Penager shares that he would tell himself on day one: "It's all going to work out." He encourages embracing the beauty of the journey itself, because the real magic happens in the process—not just at the mountaintop—and that mindset helps shorten the learning curve when starting over. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest:   Balance is a myth — when you're out of balance, it simply means you're doing things that aren't lighting you up – Brett Penager If it's working, it's on me. If it's not, it's on me. At the end of the day, the leader is the lid – Brett Penager Every problem has a solution, and every solution brings with it a new problem you could never have foreseen – Brett Penager      

I denne episoden dykker jeg ned i Stephen Coveys intro til «Seven Habits of Highly Effective People», hvor han presenterer et kraftfullt bilde på forholdet mellom vårt indre kart og det terrenget vi navigerer i. Mange av oss går gjennom livet på autopilot, med et indre kart som er både utdatert og unøyaktig. Vi konfronteres med forvirring og usikkerhet når vi møter tankemønstre og emosjoner vi knapt forstår. Hvordan kan vi navigere effektivt i våre mentale landskap hvis vi aldri tar oss tid til å undersøke kartet?Covey minner oss om viktigheten av å ha et presist og fleksibelt indre kart. Uten dette er vi dømt til å gå oss vill, ta feil valg og gjentatte ganger oppleve stagnering i våre liv. Det er lite nytt i denne innsikten, men den er universelt relevant. Ved å bruke Coveys metafor om å orientere seg i en ukjent by, peker han på at vårt indre kart representerer hvordan vi forstår oss selv og vår plass i verden. Når vi ikke har et nøyaktig kart, kan vi ende opp med en stigmatisert tilnærming til oss selv, våre følelser og livserfaringer.Et annet sentralt tema er det Covey omtaler som distinksjonen mellom personlighetsetikk og karakteretikk. Mens personlighetsetikken fokuserer på quick-fix-teknikker og overfladiske strategier for å oppnå suksess, inviterer karakteretikken oss til å finne de dypere prinsippene som gir oss varig mening og retning i livet. Det er her de virkelige verktøyene for selvutvikling til syne kommer — ikke bare å lære seg taktikker, men å virkelig kjenne seg selv og navigere i livet med integritet og empati.Vi knytter også Coveys tanker til moderne psykologi, særlig mentalisering, som handler om evnen til å forstå tankene og følelsene som ligger til grunn for handlingene våre. Mangel på denne forståelsen kan føre til at vi mister evnen til å skape avstand mellom oss og våre tanker, noe som kan gi opphav til angst, tvangstanker og emosjonell stivhet. En person med spiseforstyrrelser kan for eksempel miste forbindelsen til sine egentlige følelser ved å bli besatt av eksterne faktorer som vekten.Videre diskuterer jeg Carl Jungs syn på symboler, som fungerer som broer mellom vår bevisste og ubevisste verden. Gjennom jungiansk psykologi får vi muligheten til å utforske og integrere sider av oss selv som ellers ville vært utilgjengelige. Dette er essensielt i arbeidet med å utvikle et nyansert og fleksibelt indre kart.I denne episoden ønsker jeg å legge et grunnlag for de kommende ukene, hvor jeg vil dykke dypere inn i hver av Coveys syv vaner. Ved å revurdere våre indre kart, styrker vi ikke bare vår egen selvforståelse, men også vår evne til å navigere i det komplekse terrenget av livets erfaringer. Vi må erkjenne at våre tanker og følelser bare er fortolkninger av virkeligheten, ikke selve sannheten. Å utvikle denne distansen mellom oss selv og våre tanker er hjertet i psykologisk vekst. Dette er invitert til en reise av selvrefleksjon og dypere innsikt som vi alle kan dra nytte av.Vil du ha mer psykologi og flere dypdykk i menneskets sjelsliv?Vil du har en praksis for selvutvikling og hjelp til å dykke ned i ditt eget indre liv?Da kan BeBalanced.ai være noe for deg! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sales reps who cannot speak the language of business are going to get exposed fast.In this episode, John sits down with Kevin Cope, founder of Acumen Learning and co-author of Business Acumen for Sales Success and See the Big Picture, to talk about why business acumen is now one of the most important skills in sales. Kevin shares lessons from his time at the Covey Leadership Center, the start of Acumen Learning, and 25 years helping companies close the gap between functional expertise and real business understanding.If you are in sales, leadership, RevOps, enablement, or any role where you need to speak with executives, this conversation gives you a practical way to think about cash, profit, assets, growth, people, discounting, cashflow, AI, and how to connect your solution to the business results buyers actually care about.Want to build stronger business acumen and sell with more executive relevance? Visit www.jbarrows.com and learn how you can Make It Happen.What You'll LearnWhy business acumen is one of the first skills sales reps need to buildWhy round-number discounts can signal weak negotiation and weak business understandingHow a small discount can create a much larger hit to profitabilityWhy cash, profit, assets, growth, and people give reps a clearer business lensHow salespeople affect cashflow before and after a deal closesWhy AI research only matters if reps can translate it into business relevanceHow curiosity helps reps use AI as a learning tool instead of a shortcutKevin Cope is the founder of Acumen Learning and co-author of Business Acumen for Sales Success and the bestselling See the Big Picture. He built his career at the Covey Leadership Center, joining just before the release of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and later served as president of international for the combined organization following its 1997 merger with Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey. Through Acumen Learning, Kevin helps organizations close the business acumen gap and connect everyday decisions to cash, profit, assets, growth, and people.Connect with Kevin Cope on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinrcope/) and grab his book, Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company, at https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Big-Picture-Business-Credibility-ebook/dp/B07DPWFK7T?ref_=ast_author_mpb, to build the business acumen that earns you a seat at the table. Learn more about Acumen:Website: https://www.acumenlearning.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acumenlearning/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AcumenLearningFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcumenLearning/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acumen-learning/?viewAsMember=trueJohn Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution—helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today's AI-driven sales environment.Connect with John Barrows:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows Check out John's Membership: https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=podcast Join John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter

Junk Refund Show with Alan J. Cook Hidden Value in What Others Throw Away Summary A Trampoline Job and an Unexpected Gift Alan J. Cook opens the episode while leaving a completed trampoline-removal job in Sandy Spring, Maryland. He explains how he dismantled the structure, separated the springs, mats, poles, and metal, and used tools that had previously been discarded on other jobs. The customer had left a check taped to the trampoline and added a jar of fresh honey from beehives in the backyard. Cook uses the experience to illustrate both the practical side of junk removal and the value of thoughtful customer relationships. He also recommends using before-and-after photographs to show prospective clients the visible impact of a service. Slowing Down to Work Better The host shifts from the job itself to the importance of rest and mental clarity. After making a house payment, he rewarded himself with breakfast and returned home for additional sleep instead of immediately rushing into more work. He describes the tension self-employed people may feel between starting early and allowing themselves enough rest to be effective. In the fast-paced Washington, D.C., area, he argues that slowing down can help people clear their minds and approach the day with more energy. He connects this theme to a performance by singer Sissel that he recalls as carrying the message "Slow Down." Cash Back and Practical Savings Cook discusses the Upside app as a way to earn cash back on purchases such as gasoline, restaurant meals, and groceries. He says he has accumulated more than $1,100 over roughly two and a half years and hopes to use the money toward a cruise to Bermuda. He explains how users can link a payment card or upload receipts and describes a monthly bonus tied to completing 21 qualifying uses. He also shares a promotional code, while noting that referrals may generate additional rewards. The segment reflects his broader interest in finding small, repeatable ways to recover value from ordinary expenses. Using Artificial Intelligence to Grow a Small Business After finding a quiet office complex from which to continue the show, Cook describes using Microsoft Copilot to build a mailing list of approximately 800 real estate offices in the Washington, D.C., area. He contrasts the automated process with his former method of researching and entering addresses one at a time. The new spreadsheet allows him to send about 90 promotional postcards per day for a discounted junk-removal offer tied to America's 250th birthday. He expects that even a small response rate could generate substantial cleanout work. He also explains that the campaign creates paid work for an unemployed member of his church who applies labels and stamps to the postcards. The Junk Refund Model and a Win-Win Philosophy Cook explains that his company sorts hauled material into four categories: actual trash, recyclable metal and wire, donatable goods, and valuable items that can be sold. When saleable items generate money, the company returns part of the proceeds to the customer. He connects this model to the win-win principle he learned through FranklinCovey and Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The host also promotes a discounted pickup-truck-load voucher for listeners in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Later, he recounts his long-running Christmas-card exchange with Warren Buffett as an example of humor, initiative, gratitude, and creative relationship-building. Decluttering Gradually and Reusing Discarded Assets In the final segment, Cook recommends clearing clutter gradually by filling one heavy-duty bag each week and rotating among trash, recyclables, donations, and items for sale. He describes a multigenerational estate cleanout to show how accumulated possessions can become an expensive burden for surviving family members. He urges listeners to compare junk-removal prices by truck capacity and cites jobs where his company charged less than larger competitors. He then tells the story of a discarded 2007 Chevrolet TrailBlazer and tools acquired through previous cleanouts, repaired, and put back to work in the business. The episode closes with his belief that discarded property can still produce value, that artificial intelligence can expand opportunity, and that removing physical and mental clutter can improve life.

What if 98% of people are just winging life, and don't even know it?We don't do book episodes often on Entrepreneurs United, but Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People earned one. We brought back returning guest John Mitchell, founder of the Center for Advanced Leadership of Self at the University of Texas at Austin, to go through the book habit by habit with hosts John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann.In this episode, the three of them talk about which habits actually shaped how they lead, why most people are proactive in theory but not in practice, and propose the eighth habit they think Covey left out of the original book.What you'll walk away with: why John Mitchell says 98% of people are winging life instead of living it on purpose, Rich Hoffmann's data backed case for why listening beats talking when it comes to real influence, John St. Pierre's take on Covey's big rocks story and why it still beats every modern productivity hack, the space between stimulus and response and why that pause is the real secret to self-control, and the eighth habit John Mitchell thinks Covey left out: learning to control your subconscious autopilot.If it's been a while since you've read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this episode is your reminder to pick it back up.Connect with John MitchellHosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/

Abraham Lincoln is often credited with saying:  "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." A  simple phrase my husband told our missionary daughter that has stayed with me: "Do what you can to be a sharp tool." It led me to ask : Am I working harder, or am I becoming sharper? In  Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we'll explore the principle of "Sharpen the Saw" and how renewing ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially allows us to better serve God, our families, and those around us. We'll discuss why so many of us aren't broken, maybe we're depleted. The Savior modeled the importance of stepping away to pray, rest, and reconnect with the Father before returning to serve. You'll also be invited to consider where God may be prompting you to grow and how one small act of renewal can make a lasting difference. If you've been feeling like you're pushing through life with a dull blade, this episode is a gentle reminder that renewal isn't selfish....it's essential! As we become sharper, we increase our ability to love more deeply, serve more fully, and create lives filled with greater purpose and joy. Join me as we discover how becoming a sharper tool can help us become more useful in the Lord's hands and more joyful in our everyday lives.

Leadership isn’t about managing time. It’s about making better choices. That is the central message from Christina Olivier, co-founder and Managing Partner of Excelerant, whose thoughtful conversation on Discover Lafayette challenges many of the assumptions we make about work, productivity, and success. Christina co-founded Excelerant in 2003 with business partner Elise Bouchner after realizing that growing companies needed more than legal advice or technical expertise, they needed leaders who knew how to develop people. What began as The Training Source evolved into Excelerant, an award-winning, woman-owned leadership development and organizational consulting firm serving organizations throughout Louisiana and beyond through executive coaching, leadership development, succession planning, team building, and organizational effectiveness. Excelerant quickly grew to include partners Jill Adcock, Phyllis Arceneaux, and Jill Meaux. Our conversation moves well beyond business coaching. Christina offers practical wisdom for anyone feeling overwhelmed by competing priorities, struggling to say no, or wondering why there never seems to be enough time. One of the first ideas she reframes is the phrase “time management.” Referencing Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Christina explains that she prefers the term “time effectiveness.” “We all have the same 24 hours in our day. It’s how we spend that time, and if we spend it as effectively as possible, that makes the difference.” Rather than trying to squeeze more activity into every hour, she encourages people to become intentional about where their energy is invested. “What I’ve noticed is that most people don’t stop to think about how they are spending their time,” she says. “You wonder why you’re tired, or you wonder why you’re burnt out, or you wonder why you’re not getting to those things that you want to do.” Throughout our discussion, Christina repeatedly returns to the importance of self-awareness. Before any planner, productivity system, or coaching exercise can help, people must honestly examine whether they’re spending time on what matters most—and whether those choices actually bring them joy. As an executive coach credentialed through the International Coaching Federation, Christina works with successful professionals who want to become even more effective. She explains that coaching isn’t about giving answers. “In coaching, we hold that our clients are whole and resourceful. We’re just helping them find their own answers.” That process begins by helping clients identify what success would actually look like six or twelve months into the future and then removing the obstacles standing in their way. Christina shares one of her favorite coaching analogies involving a small airplane that is too heavy to stay safely in the air. Every passenger must throw one “role” overboard to survive. Those roles might include committee chair, volunteer, employee, spouse, parent, or community leader. The exercise forces people to identify which commitments truly deserve their limited time and which have simply accumulated over the years. The lesson naturally leads to one of the most powerful themes of our conversation: learning to say no. Drawing again from Stephen Covey, Christina introduces the concept she and her team use regularly: “Integrity in the moment of choice.” “Every no you’re saying is because there’s a bigger yes inside.” That “yes” may be spending more time with children or grandchildren, caring for aging parents, protecting personal health, or simply creating space to think. The challenge is recognizing that every commitment carries an opportunity cost. Christina also speaks candidly about perfectionism, particularly among professional women. She questions the belief that “if it has to be done right, it has to be done by me.” Instead, she encourages leaders to lower unrealistic standards where appropriate, delegate more intentionally, and invest the time necessary to develop others. Her advice to leaders is straightforward: “You can’t be too busy doing the work to train and develop others.” Otherwise, organizations become dependent on one individual while employees never have the opportunity to grow. Another recurring theme is presence. In today’s distracted world, Christina believes one of the greatest gifts leaders can give employees, colleagues, friends, and family members is their complete attention. “Putting down the device when someone walks in… there’s also a great benefit and maybe a stillness that you receive by not multitasking.”She distinguishes between efficiency and effectiveness with a memorable observation: “With people, you can’t be efficient. You can only be effective.” That perspective extends into how organizations communicate across generations. Rather than criticizing younger employees for preferring text messages, Christina recommends “co-designing” communication expectations—meeting people where they are while establishing mutually beneficial ways of connecting. The discussion also explores practical ways to slow down in a fast-paced world. Although Christina once believed meditation wasn’t for her, she now incorporates grounding, centering, and intentional breathing into her daily routine. She emphasizes that meditation doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it is simply placing both feet on the floor, taking several intentional breaths, and allowing yourself to become present before moving into the next activity. She also recommends what she calls a “transition pause”: Finish what you’re doing. Put down the device. Take three intentional breaths. Then arrive fully present for whatever comes next. That simple practice, she believes, helps leaders become more thoughtful, more connected, and ultimately more effective. Our conversation also explores succession planning, an increasingly important issue for Louisiana businesses. Christina describes Excelerant’s work helping family-owned companies, financial institutions, and publicly traded organizations identify future leaders through assessments, coaching, mentoring, and leadership development. Rather than assuming who should lead next, Excelerant helps organizations objectively evaluate strengths and prepare the next generation for success. Toward the close of our interview, Christina shares one final reminder that resonates long after the microphones are turned off. Sometimes the greatest productivity tool isn’t another app, another meeting, or another committee. It’s simply becoming aware. As Christina says, “The first step…is to be self-aware.” Whether you’re leading a Fortune 500 company, managing a small business, serving on nonprofit boards, or simply trying to create more balance in your own life, Christina Olivier offers practical insights that remind us success isn’t measured by how busy we are, but by how intentionally we choose to spend the time we’ve been given. To learn more about Christina Olivier and Excelerant, visit https://exexp.com/ or connect through their LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Discover Lafayette would like to thank Christina Olivier and Excelerant team members for all of their support throughout the years! You continually give back when requested!

There is no shortage of founders who have read Principles or Traction. Far fewer have built their business around what those books teach, week after week, when it is inconvenient to do so. In this episode, Marcus Cauchi speaks with Keith Gillispie, founder of REI Automated, about the discipline of turning ideas into working systems, and why that discipline is harder than the ideas themselves. Why this conversation matters Most conversations about business systems focus on tools. This one focuses on behaviour. Keith didn't just read about principles, operating systems and delegation frameworks. He applied them, tested them, and kept refining them long after the novelty wore off. For founders who are drowning in advice but starved of consistent execution, this episode offers something more useful than another framework: a working model of what it actually looks like to follow through. Major discussion points Discipline over information. Keith names two books that fundamentally shaped his business: Principles by Ray Dalio and Traction by Gino Wickman. What sets his account apart is not the reading list but what he did with it: he built explicit, testable principles into daily operations, and adopted Wickman's Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) as the structural backbone of how his business runs. Writing and testing SOPs. Keith's method for creating a standard operating procedure is deliberately unglamorous. Do the task. Write down exactly what you did. Follow your own instructions the next time and notice everything you missed. Repeat this three to seven times until the gaps close, then record a video walking through the process. Only then does a task become fit to hand to another person, or to an AI agent. Where AI should not go. Keith runs a company that sells agentic AI voice agents for real estate sellers, so he has a commercial incentive to promote automation. He was candid about its limits. When he tested his own AI on a negotiation for his own property, reaching the point where the AI pressed him on price, he found the experience uncomfortable. His conclusion: AI handles information well, but emotional, high-stakes conversations still need a human. Hiring as a discipline, not an event. REI Automated filters candidates roughly one hundred to one. Keith uses the GWC framework from Traction (get it, want it, capacity for it) to decide not just who to hire, but who to keep, and applies a consistent SOP-based interview and onboarding process across every role. Cadence over intensity. Rather than reviewing performance monthly, Keith's team submits short daily and weekly reports, which are read and responded to using Claude, and quarterly goals ("rocks") drawn from EOS. He argues that weekly management gives a business fifty opportunities a year to course-correct, against twelve for a business run monthly. The absence test. Keith takes one week off every month with no calls, texts or Slack messages. During a recent house move that disrupted his usual routine for roughly a month, revenue held within a thousand dollars of the prior month. He was candid that the business currently sustains itself well in his absence, though he is less certain it grows without him. AI as a thought partner, not a shortcut. Keith's team members are expected to bring Claude fully into their process, including drafting their own SOPs when Keith does not have time to write one himself. He was clear this only works because the AI has deep context on the business and because his people bring genuine critical thinking to the exchange, rather than treating it as a way to avoid thinking. A moment of disagreement. Marcus challenged Keith's use of performance improvement plans, arguing that everyone should effectively be on one from day one, and that needing to formalise one is often a sign management has let something slide. Keith pushed back, drawing a distinction between personal development and performance accountability, and defended his position with a clear rationale. Practical takeaways Before automating or delegating any task, do it yourself first and write the SOP from direct experience. Follow your own SOP repeatedly until you have found and closed the gaps, then record it on video. Review your business weekly, not monthly. You get roughly four times as many chances to correct course. Keep team communication in shared channels rather than direct messages, so ideas get scrutinised by more than one person. Test whether your business can run without you before you assume it can. Use AI to draft and challenge your thinking, not simply to execute tasks you have not fully worked out yourself. Memorable quotes "Sometimes in order to be helpful, you have to say the hard thing." "When we're dealing with information, AI is fine. When we're dealing with emotion, that needs a human touch." "You always have to take away before you can add." Books and resources mentioned Principles by Ray Dalio Traction by Gino Wickman Essentialism by Greg McKeown The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Guest biography Keith Gillispie is the founder and CEO of REI Automated, which provides education, software and coaching to real estate investors on building automated, systemised businesses. He spent eight years on active duty with the US Marine Corps, during which he began investing in real estate and developed the systems-first approach that now underpins his companies. Subscribe If this conversation was useful, subscribe to TheInquisitor Podcast for more conversations that challenge conventional thinking on selling, leadership and building businesses that last.

The best retirement strategy starts long before you stop working. In this episode, Certified Financial Planner Ray Goodletsky shares practical strategies for building tax-efficient wealth, maximizing retirement accounts, and avoiding costly mistakes before and after retirement. From Roth conversions and inherited IRAs to long-term care planning and business-owner retirement strategies, Ray explains how thoughtful planning today can create greater financial flexibility tomorrow. Tune in to learn how smart financial planning can help you build and protect lasting wealth.   Key Takeaways To Listen For Why tax diversification may matter more than investment returns The retirement planning window most investors completely overlook How Roth conversions can reduce future tax headaches Overlooked retirement tools available to business owners and solopreneurs Why having a flexible financial plan beats reacting to market uncertainty   Resources/Links Mentioned In This Episode Retirement Planning Guidebook by Wade Pfau | Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey | Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover  Atomic Habits by James Clear | Kindle, Audiobook, and Paperback   About Ray Godleski, CFP® Ray Godleski, CFP®, is a financial advisor and partner at Southeast Wealth Partners, where he helps individuals, families, and business owners build long-term financial security through personalized wealth management and retirement planning. With expertise in investment management, tax-efficient strategies, retirement income, and estate planning, Ray takes a comprehensive, client-centered approach to helping clients achieve their financial goals. Known for simplifying complex financial decisions, he is committed to providing trusted guidance that empowers clients to make informed choices and build lasting financial confidence.   Connect with Ray Website: Southeast Wealth Partners Podcast: Executive Retirement Compass | Apple Podcasts Email: info@sewealthpartners.com    Connect With Us If you're looking to invest your hard-earned money into cash-flowing, value-add assets, reach out to us at https://bobocapitalventures.com/.    Follow Keith's social media pages LinkedIn: Keith Borie Investor Club: Secret Passive Cashflow Investors Club Facebook: Keith Borie X: @BoboLlc80554  

What if some of the greatest investment opportunities weren't hiding in Silicon Valley or Wall Street, but inside small businesses that have been overlooked for decades?In this episode of The Conscious Capitalists, hosts Timothy Henry and Raj Sisodia sit down with Monika Mantilla, Co-Founder, President & CEO of Altura Capital (https://alturacap.com/), to explore how patient capital, purpose-driven investing, and entrepreneurial success can create extraordinary financial returns while strengthening communities. Over the past 21 years, Monika has built a proven track record investing in lower middle market businesses across low-and-moderate-income communities, demonstrating that impact and performance are not competing priorities, but mutually reinforcing ones.Monika shares why Altura Capital was intentionally built as an investment platform rather than a traditional private equity fund, allowing the firm to provide flexible capital tailored to the unique needs of growing businesses. She explains why patient investment horizons of three to seven years, combined with operational partnership and long-term thinking, consistently outperform short-term approaches. Along the way, she introduces The Altura Way, the firm's ten-pillar value creation framework that helps companies strengthen strategy, operations, leadership, governance, digital transformation, and community impact while building more resilient businesses.The conversation also explores one of the largest untapped opportunities in modern investing. Monika discusses research conducted alongside 29 of America's largest corporations that identified an estimated $590 billion in unrealized value within underserved business segments. She explains how diverse ownership, improved market access, and stronger partnerships with companies such as Walmart, Kroger, CVS, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson help unlock growth that traditional investors often overlook.But this episode reaches far beyond investing. Monika reflects on the influence of her upbringing in Bogotá, Colombia, the lasting impact of her mother, her faith-driven approach to leadership, and the philosophy that guides both her life and business: ser en el hacer—being in the doing. She also shares her unique 200-hour planning system, organizing life into fourteen categories across eight-week cycles, and explains why she considers leading Altura to be only her seventh priority after ensuring the rest of her life is aligned with her values.Listeners will gain insights into:Why the lower middle market represents one of the most overlooked opportunities in private equityWhat patient capital really means and why long-term investing creates stronger businessesHow Altura's ten-pillar value creation framework systematically scales growing companiesWhy diverse ownership and investing in underserved communities can generate above-market returnsHow market access and strategic partnerships accelerate business growthWhy values, intentional leadership, and disciplined time management are foundational to long-term successThe role conscious capitalism can play in creating both economic progress and social progressWhether you're an investor, entrepreneur, business leader, or simply interested in how capitalism can be a force for lasting value creation, this episode offers a compelling conversation about building businesses that deliver exceptional returns while expanding opportunity for more people.If you enjoy this podcast, would you consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify? It takes only a few seconds and greatly helps us get our podcast out to a wider audience.Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.For transcripts and show notes, please visit The Conscious Capitalists. This show is presented by Conscious Capitalism, Inc.Chapters0:00 Introduction – Meet Monika Mantilla, Co-Founder & CEO of Altura Capital1:50 What Is Altura Capital? Overview of the Investment Platform3:51 Why "Platform" and Not Just a Fund5:27 Patient Capital: What It Means and Why It Matters7:12 Non-Financial Investment Criteria: Values, Purpose & Impact9:39 The Meaning Behind the Name "Altura" – Height & Vision11:24 Dignity as a Core Value12:52 Women in Finance: The Case for Parity in Capital Allocation15:56 Investing in Overlooked Communities: The Opportunity & the Returns21:41 Track Record & Above-Market Returns23:26 Market Access & Corporate Relationships as a Value-Add26:23 Impact Metrics: Jobs, Communities & the Altura Way36:49 What Made Monika Monika? Roots, Values & Spiritual Foundation41:33 Time Management: The 200-Hour / 8-Week Planning System45:52 Rapid Fire Questions46:05 Favorite Book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Join us friends, for a real paradigm shift. Andrew and Craig's synergy reaches levels never before seen as they proactively seek to understand the meaning behind this self-help titan. We'll also discuss our most upsetting dairy-related prose since the Krampus egg-nog thing. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Love Your Career Podcast? Let us know!Most people don't expect a career crisis. Redundancy, restructuring, a change in leadership or the sudden realisation that your contribution is being overlooked can happen with very little warning. And when it does, important career decisions often need to be made at the worst possible time.In episode 283 of Your Career Podcast, I explain why proactive career planning matters and how giving regular attention to your career can help you avoid making rushed decisions under pressure.I share a personal story from my years in Singapore, when I arrived at the airport with my two-year-old daughter and discovered that my Australian passport had expired. What followed was a stressful race against time and a difficult arrival in Australia using my British passport without the correct visa.It was a powerful lesson in what happens when something important, but not urgent, is left unattended for too long.The Urgent Important MatrixI introduce the Urgent Important Matrix, a practical framework made famous by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and associated with former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.The matrix helps you separate tasks into four areas:urgent and importantimportant but not urgenturgent but not importantneither urgent nor importantCareer planning usually sits in the important but not urgent category.That is precisely why it is so easy to postpone.Your career does not send you a reminder when your industry is changing, your role is becoming vulnerable or your professional network is growing cold. By the time career planning feels urgent, you may already be facing redundancy, burnout or an unexpected career transition.What proactive career planning includesI discuss the career work that is best completed before you urgently need it:understanding and articulating your professional valuegaining clarity about the direction you want your career to takekeeping your resume, LinkedIn profile and other career assets currentmaintaining relationships and nurturing your professional networkreflecting on your achievements, skills and changing prioritiespreparing for career change before circumstances force the decisionProfessionals who manage redundancy or career change well are not necessarily luckier than everyone else. Often, they have already invested time in understanding who they are, what they offer and what they want next.This preparation gives them greater confidence, perspective and choice.A restructure may still be unsettling, but it is less likely to feel like a personal verdict when you already understand the value you bring.Take control before your career becomes urgentYou do not need to wait for a crisis to pay attention to your career.By setting aside time for the important but non-urgent work now, you can make better decisions later, strengthen your professional confidence and respond more effectively when change arrives.What have you done to proactively manage your career before redundancy looms?- - - - - - - -Welcome to Your Career Podcast with Jane Jackson where I help mid career professionals overcome self doubt and gain career clarity and the confidence to create the life and career they desire. Book a Zoom chat with me at janejacksoncoach.com - I'd love to meet you and discover what's happening in your career! Support the show- - - - - -To discover how to make a successful career change and land the job you'll LOVE, take the CAREER SUCCESS QUIZ and within 2 minutes you'll have your results, analysis and recommendations for career success.  https://careersuccess.scoreapp.com/   

7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Book Overview- Mufti Yusuf Moosagie by Radio Islam

What if the fastest way to end an argument with your child is to refuse to join it? When emotions are running high, most parents instinctively step into the conflict, hoping to teach a lesson, fix the behaviour, or set things straight. But what if that's exactly the wrong move? In this episode, Justin and Kylie explore why children often invite us into arguments, why it's so tempting to accept, and how learning to pause can transform family relationships. Discover the simple mindset shift that helps parents stay calm, avoid power struggles, and create space for better conversations. Sometimes the most powerful parenting response is not responding at all. KEY POINTS Why children often bait parents into arguments The hidden cost of reacting in the heat of the moment How "high emotions = low intelligence" affects family conflict The power of self-regulation during challenging interactions A simple phrase that can instantly de-escalate tension Why many arguments don't need to be revisited later How calm, delayed conversations lead to better outcomes Teaching children emotional regulation by modelling it yourself QUOTE OF THE EPISODE "You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to." RESOURCES MENTIONED The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey The Happy Families approach to self-regulation and emotional coaching ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS The next time your child invites you into an argument, pause before responding. Use a calm phrase such as, "We'll talk about this later." Keep your tone soft and reassuring, even when emotions are high. Create space for everyone to cool down before revisiting the issue. Ask yourself whether the problem still needs solving once emotions have settled. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Owners say they want freedom. Push on the word and most are describing relief - not being overwhelmed, not carrying every decision, not putting out every fire. That's real, but it's a short-term fix. Real freedom is different: it's what's left once the structure, the team, and the standards can carry the business without the owner in every room. Mike LoBue and Tommy Rohrlack separate the two, get into why a team learns to wait for the owner, why control is usually a standards problem and not a trust problem, and why most owners regret selling when they never planned the next chapter. It's worth knowing which one you're after before you plan an exit or a vacation.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:• Why “I want freedom” usually translates to “I want relief,” and why that distinction changes everything.• The question that quickly shows how owner-dependent your business is: what breaks when you leave?• Why most owners regret selling and the one thing the other group did differently• What separates a free owner from one who has quietly checked out DOWNLOAD THE LEADERSHIP GUIDE:‍ ‍Episode 194: What Real Ownership Freedom Looks LikeREFERENCES:John Maxwell: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (the Law of the Lid)Stephen Covey:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and The Speed of TrustJocko Willink and Leif Babin:Extreme Ownership (prioritize and execute)Exit Planning Institute: State of Owner ReadinessHELP US IMPROVE THE SHOW: Take our 30 second Survey

In this episode of Paradigm Shifting Books, hosts Stephen and Britain Covey explore Habit 1, Be Proactive, from their grandfather Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Featuring archival audio clips of their grandfather teaching in the 1980s and 90s, this "Power Principle" episode reveals the difference between proactive and reactive living. Dr. Covey shares Viktor Frankl's discovery of the "last human freedom," the power to choose your response to any circumstance, and the story of a nurse who realized she had chosen her own misery and could therefore choose otherwise.In the second clip, Dr. Covey introduces the Circle of Influence vs. Circle of Concern through the story of Ben, an employee who transformed his organization by focusing on what he could control. Stephen and Britain reflect on why taking responsibility is not daunting but deeply empowering and why this timeless wisdom is more urgent than ever.Tune in to hear Stephen R. Covey's own voice teach these powerful principles and discover how one simple shift in focus can change everything.What We Discuss[00:00] Introduction[00:40] What makes this episode different[01:58] Habit 1 explained[02:26] The opposite of proactive[03:18] Viktor Frankl and the last human freedom[05:20] The nurse story: from prison to liberation[07:26] Why taking ownership feels daunting but is ultimately empowering[08:56] The circle of influence and circle of concern[09:19] Where proactive vs. reactive people focus their energy[12:00] The story of Ben[14:24] ConclusionResourcesParadigm Shifting BooksPodcastInstagram YouTube BookThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. CoveyStephen R. CoveyLinkedInInstagramBritain CoveyLinkedIn InstagramStephen H. CoveyLinkedInMentioned EpisodeViktor Frankl – Man's Search for Meaning

What if the entrepreneurial principles you spent your 20s and 30s learning the hard way — accountability, financial literacy, win-win thinking — could be baked into your kids' education from the very beginning? David Richter shares the story of how a conversation at a real estate investor mastermind led his family to discover Acton Academy, a nontraditional school with an entrepreneurial framework so aligned with how he runs his business that they eventually moved across the country to enroll their daughter.This episode isn't a sponsored segment — it's a genuine recommendation from someone who watched his six-year-old come home and propose a win-win negotiation without ever being taught the term. From peer accountability contracts and level-based progression to real-world apprenticeships and early financial literacy, David breaks down what makes Acton different and why the principles behind it translate directly to how successful investors build teams, hire by core values, and think about the next generation.Timeline Highlights[0:23] David introduces the episode: the question of how to pass down hard-won business lessons to your kids earlier than you learned them[1:03] The mastermind conversation that introduced David to Acton Academy and why the word "nontraditional" immediately caught his attention[1:35] The book that started it all: Laura Sandefer's Courage to Grow, and how both David and his wife reacted to reading it[2:38] Why Acton's model resonated with David's EOS-based business: accountability, buy-in, and team ownership over top-down directives[3:29] How David's family searched for an Acton campus, eventually relocating to Florida specifically for the school[3:52] The guide vs. teacher distinction: why Acton calls classrooms "studios" and instructors "guides," and what that signals about the learning philosophy[5:17] The peer accountability contract: how students write and sign their own code of conduct at the start of each year and enforce it with each other[6:16] Level-based progression instead of grades: how students move at their own pace by earning badges across academic and social-emotional skills[7:14] The apprenticeship program for junior high and high school students, and what that would have meant for a young real estate investor[8:16] Financial literacy built into the curriculum: from basic money concepts in elementary to reading a profit and loss statement in high school[9:09] The moment David's daughter, then six years old, came home and proposed a win-win solution — a concept he didn't encounter until reading the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in his 20s[10:04] David's closing encouragement: whether you're already enrolling kids or just starting a family, there are alternatives worth researchingKey TakeawaysThe same principles that make great business operators — accountability, buy-in, core values, and peer enforcement — can be taught to kids in a school environment designed around them, not just added on as life lessons later.Acton Academy's peer accountability contract mirrors what strong companies do with core values: students write the standards themselves, hold each other to them, and face real consequences for repeated violations. That kind of accountability, learned young, is rare.Level-based progression removes the arbitrary pressure of grade advancement and lets students move at their own pace while building a more honest picture of mastery — a more honest model than a lot of corporate performance reviews, too.The apprenticeship structure Acton uses in secondary school gives students the kind of hands-on, real-world exposure that most real estate investors had to pay a coach or mentor for in their 30s. Starting that exploration at 14 instead of 34 changes the trajectory.Financial literacy — reading a profit and loss statement, understanding a balance sheet — is embedded in the Acton curriculum. Most real estate investors learn this through painful trial and error. Teaching it to kids before they ever start a business is a significant edge.The best businesses invest in teaching their teams the things they need to know. The same logic applies to your kids. If your school isn't teaching entrepreneurial thinking, accountability, and financial basics, it may be worth asking whether there's a better option.Links & ResourcesActon Academy — actonacademy.orgCourage to Grow by Laura Sandefer — available at major booksellersSimple CFO Solutions — apply for a free financial discovery call: https://simplecfo.comClosingIf you've ever wished someone had taught you financial literacy, accountability, or how to think like an entrepreneur before you had to learn it the expensive way, this episode is worth passing along. Subscribe to Profit First for Real Estate Investors so you don't miss future Case Files and guest conversations, and if you're ready to bring clarity and structure to your business finances, visit profitrei.com to get started.

Wondering how to achieve your goals? Well, achieving goals is quite different than just setting them. So while the first step may be to set the goals you really want, then we have to prioritize our actions from high to low. What is the most important thing that I need to do in order to get there? Because generally, you can come up with a dozen or a hundred different things that you’re going to need to do to achieve your goals. But there’s probably one to three things on there that are going to be more important than the other 97. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will discuss how to achieve your goals. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, so glad to be here, David, and once again, I’m looking forward to this discussion. We hear people talk about goals all the time, and I know for me it’s something that I struggle with because what will happen is I’ll set those goals. I really haven’t defined how I’m going to get there, and then when I don’t achieve them, it becomes something that deflates me. So I think for a lot of people, goal setting can work against them. David: I think it can too, because I believe there is a lot of focus on goal setting, and it’s something that we do, particularly at the beginning of a new year. A lot of people focus on their new year resolutions, which are their goals. And while there’s been a lot written about goal setting, the importance of goal setting, writing things down, reviewing it regularly, having your affirmations and things like that. All of those things are certainly helpful, but they don’t actually, directly connect to the idea of how to achieve your goals. And that’s why I wanted to title this the way that I did, because setting your goals has been done to death, but how do you achieve your goals? I think it’s interesting to explore that aspect of this topic. Jay: Well, yeah. And one of the things that frustrates me is, when people talk about goal setting, they tend to assume that everybody’s the same. Oh, just follow this and you’re great. It’s like, I read The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People and what was never mentioned or considered in that was, it was also seven habits for highly organized people already. You had already achieved a level where all you had to do was put these things in place and you’re good. You can achieve your goals. Well, what about me? I wasn’t raised with systems and those kind of things, so what about me? I didn’t feel like there was any place that I could implement that. David: Yeah. And that is very common. I mean, I think everyone probably deals with that because unfortunately, when you’re writing a book that’s going to be on a shelf for a long period of time, you have to include things that are essentially timeless. And The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I mean, it’s such a great book. It’s a very inspirational read. But when you’ve got rules, like “Be Proactive,” that’s a big, broad rule, right? And in many cases you can be proactive, but what does that mean? It gets down to the nitty gritty. We’ve talked in the past about Michael Gerber, the author of The E-Myth. I love that book. The E-Myth, The E-Myth Revisited. I read the original copy a long, long time ago, and I just loved it, because this was all about processes. And that book talked primarily about the fact that you have to have processes. But then what are those processes, right? Because that’s the part that people like you and I need. It’s like, what are the processes? How do I do that? How do I make that happen? And so much of my career has been focused on that. How do I turn this great recommendation, “be proactive,” you know? Jay: Yeah. David: “Work on your business, not just in your business.” How do I take broad statements like that? To some extent, they become platitudes, and how do I turn that into something that is actionable? Because that is the only way you can ever achieve your goals. You have to be able to convert those great ideas into actionable tasks. Jay: Yeah, such a key point. I think for me, what I found is I have to break it down enough to where I can feel that feeling of success instead of failure. Right? So it’s got to be minute enough to where I can say, okay, I did it. I accomplished something. And it could be something very simple. But that motivates me to the next step. I find if they’re too big, then I’m setting myself up for disappointment. David: Absolutely. But I think anyone who reads any sort of self-help material or business material, if you can take what they’re giving you and then just ask yourself right away, “how do I apply this right now to my business?” Again, Seven Habits, “begin with the end in mind.” Jay: Right. David: I mean, you could find that in a fortune cookie, couldn’t you? It’s brilliant advice, but it’s like, oh, hey, yeah, that’s really great. Now, again, in fairness, because it’s an excellent book… Jay: Yes. David: And he goes into a lot of detail about some different ways that you can do that. But in some sense it has to be general. And that’s why, if you’re able to ask yourself that question, “how do I apply this right now?” It’s going to get you a lot closer to being able to achieve your goals. Because now it’s not about concepts, it’s about you: Your activities, your focus, and what your next step is. Jay: Yeah, so let’s get into a little bit more detail. I’ve asked myself, “how do I accomplish this now?” Is that a list you would write down or how would you recommend people proceed from that point? David: Well, yeah, I think what I would generally want to start with is thinking in terms of resources. What are you going to need to achieve your goals? Okay. because once I’ve written down the goal… say my goal is X amount of dollars in sales by the end of the year. My goal is to sell X number of customers by a certain date. Whatever your thing is, now you’ve got the goal. All right. Well, as I said, the goal is kind of the easy part. Now we need to think in terms of, okay, what are the resources? What are you going to need in order to be able to achieve your goal? Can I do it by myself? Am I going to have to hire additional staff? Hopefully you’re not. But you need to know upfront. Because if you don’t take the time to consider the resources that are needed, versus the resources at your disposal, then you won’t even know if you’re taking actions that are not going to allow you to get to your goal. But if you take the time to think upfront, okay, what are the resources I’m going to need? Who am I going to need? Right? It’s not just about the things. It’s also about the people. Am I going to need additional help with this? And if so, what kind of people am I going to need? There’s an excellent book called Who Not How, by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Ben Hardy. It talks about the fact that when we’re looking to get things done, a lot of times we think in terms of “how am I going to do this?” When in fact we’re often better served by saying, “who can help me with this, who can help me get this done?” And that goes back to the resources. If you have a clear idea of what you’re going to need and who you’re going to need, then it’s going to be a lot easier to achieve your goals. And then ultimately, how much am I going to need? How much am I going to need in terms of resources, in terms of money, in terms of people, in terms of time? Time is always one of those resources that you need to evaluate upfront, and if you don’t do that, you’re never going to get beyond the fortune cookie aspect of what it is we’re talking about here. Jay: Yeah, you’ve kind of brought up negative emotions with me because it reminds me, I grew up in the restaurant business. And before I became an area manager and a regional manager, I remember my area manager coming in every year and we’d have to set sales goals. And so first of all, it was a complete shot in the dark. It was based upon air. Right? Just how much do you want to increase your sales? And second of all, there was never any instruction on how you’re going to do this. And so, how do you do it as a restaurant? I’m not in control of the marketing budget because it was a chain. So what am I going to do? Nobody ever said, well, you can increase your sales by doing A, B, C, and D. They just came in and set this arbitrary goal, and at the end of the year I was beat up because I didn’t reach that goal. And I’m like, this just becomes a bludgeon that creates disappointment. David: Right, because the focus there is on the what. Jay: Yes. David: What is it that I want to accomplish? Just like we’re talking about with goals. This is the goal. Okay. The goal is established very early on. But then every day, every hour preceding that, you need to ask yourself, am I on track? And that’s going to go back to, first of all, do you have a plan in place? Because if you don’t have a plan to achieve your goals, then it’s not going to happen. But then beyond the plan, do I have the resources? Do I have them in place? Am I firing on all thrusters? Jay: Mm-hmm. David: Are we doing the things that we need to do in order to accomplish it? And then also just adapting, recognizing that, let’s say you establish your goals today, you lay out a plan today, and you’re starting on it tomorrow. Well, as soon as you start it, it’s like that old quote, I don’t know if it was Colin Powell, some military general talked about the fact that “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” Jay: Yes. David: And it’s the same thing with a goal in business. It’s not going to survive contact with prospects and clients. You set your goal in terms of what you want to reach, but every day you’re going to be taking actions, some of which will work and some of which will not. At which point you need to be able to discern what’s good, what’s bad, what’s working, what’s not, so that you can jettison the stuff that isn’t working, do more of the stuff that is, and ultimately achieve your goals, achieve your objectives. But too often, just like New Year resolutions, we write them down January 1st and we don’t think of them again until December when we realized we’re nowhere close, because we never had the plan in place. We never had the resources in place, and we didn’t take consistent action. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And back to my own example, when I became an area manager, I resolved not to be that guy who put my managers in that place. And so I identified an action plan of how you can increase your sales. Starts with excellent customer service. Who are you putting on the front lines? How do you handle complaints? How do you assess your customer service? Then it went to quality of product. Are you following guidelines? Are you building the product the way that it should be? Is it consistent? So there was a checklist that they could go through and then they would see the results happen. To me, that was empowering as opposed to deflating. David: Yes. When you empower your employees with the specific steps they need to take in order to accomplish the objectives, that’s exactly what they need. Jay: Yes. David: You know, there’s a difference between lead measures and lag measures. I’m sure you’re familiar with that concept as well. Jay: Mm-hmm. David: And our goals are usually lag measures. I want to be able to get to this amount of sales. But what are the lead measures that are going to make that happen? So when you talk about customer service being a first key, and then breaking that down, what does that mean? If you’re answering a phone, how many rings do you have? Do you have to answer it within three rings or 30 rings? Because that’s going to determine the experience of the customer. You can’t control how the customer’s going to feel, but you can control what you do on the front end to at least help to impact that experience. Jay: Yeah, and we had it as much as, you know, I had a really good employee in the back of the house, but not so good with customers, not a very good communicator. So I’d never put him on that interface with customers. It doesn’t mean he couldn’t help me in other places. So being that specific about each of those goals is so important. David: Yeah, I think so too. And I believe you want to start with setting goals that you really want, that are important to you. Because if you don’t have a really solid, great feeling about it, if you don’t have that driving “why” behind it, I really want this because it’s going to allow me more freedom in terms of my time, or it’s going to allow me to spend more time with my family or do more of the things that I want. If your goals don’t motivate you, then once again, you’re going to forget about them very quickly, or the moment some sort of temptation comes up that’s designed to derail you from your focus. So the first thing is you set the goals you really want, then you prioritize them from high to low. What is the most important thing that I need to do in order to get there? Because generally, you can come up with a dozen or a hundred different things that you’re going to need to do to achieve your goals. But there’s probably one to three things on there that are going to be more important than the other 97. So prioritizing is key. After you’ve set the goals, you got to prioritize what is that list of actions, and then it’s a matter of just focusing on each one. And in a previous podcast, we were talking about declaring independence from business as usual, looking at that and saying, I’ve got to be consistent about implementation because if I’m not, there’s no way it’s going to happen. Jay: Yeah and this last one you mentioned, focusing on getting them done. This is where so many times it falls down. And where if you do have a staff, you can really destroy your credibility. Because again, back to my own experience, company rolls out a new company-wide goal. For three days they’re pounding it and watching it. On day four, and forward? You never hear about it again. That teaches everybody that we just have to stay in line for a couple of days. Then it’s going to disappear. So you’re actually working against yourself at that point. It’s something I resolve to never do. You have to have systems of follow up. You can’t just say, “oh, we’ll follow up.” Have dates, have benchmarks, have things that are built in to help you track where you’re at at all times. David: Right, and just because they stopped talking to you about it after day four doesn’t mean they’re not going to hold you accountable for it. Jay: True. David: They’re still going to hold you accountable for it 362 days later, right? Jay: Mm-hmm. David: They’re going to say, “Hey, we talked about this. Why didn’t you hit it?” It’s like, “oh, are we still doing that? I forgot about that. That was, that was a long time ago.” Jay: Yeah. Absolutely. Again, I love this discussion, David, how can people find out more? David: You can go to TopSecrets.com/call to schedule a call with myself or my team. We love having conversations like this with smart, focused, bright business people who are not just interested, but committed to achieve your goals and get to the next level in your business. If you’re just interested, it’s like, “oh, it’s kind of cool. It’s kind of interesting, maybe.” No, forget it. Because that’s not going to get you there. But if you’re serious, if you listen to these podcasts, particularly if you’ve been listening for a long time, if you haven’t scheduled a call yet, do it today. Now’s the time to do it. TopSecrets.com/call. We’ll have a conversation. You’ll love it or you won’t love it. If we’re five minutes in and you say, this isn’t going anywhere. Perfectly fine with that. It hasn’t happened so far, but it could. So you don’t have to feel like you’re locked into anything. If the call does not have value for you, then we’ll drop it. But if you’re open to the idea that there are better ways of doing things that will allow you to achieve your goals and generate more sales in less time, then schedule a call. Jay: Yeah, set a goal to call right now and then follow up on your goal. David: Execute, right? Jay: That’s right. Thanks David. David: Thank you, Jay. Are You Ready to Achieve Your Goals? If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow: Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help. Need Clients Now? If you're already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you're serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

"A million dollars a shot is my price. But I only take one a year. The rest of the time I maintain my skills." That was Francisco Scaramanga, the villain in The Man With the Golden Gun, played by the superb Christopher Lee. Who, interestingly, was a cousin of James Bond creator Ian Fleming and a regular golfing partner of his. Now, while I certainly wouldn't recommend following Scaramanga's career path, there's a valuable lesson in that line. The reason Scaramanga could ask such a high price was not because he worked all the time. It was because he spent most of his time practising, refining, and maintaining his skills so that when the moment came, he could perform at an exceptional level. And that brings us to this week's question, which is all about developing, and more importantly, maintaining, your skills at managing your work and your time.   Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin   The COD Productivity Method  Learn more about the Quiet Productivity Method here   Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes Subscribe to my Substack  The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page   Script |421 Hello, and welcome to episode 421 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show.  There's a belief, held by many, that becoming better at time management and productivity is something you learn once and then you're set.  Or all you need to do is buy the latest productivity tool and all your struggles disappear.  Hahaha, it's not quite so easy.  Theoretically, it may be possible to add a new app or use a new process for getting your work done. Unfortunately, life doesn't fit perfectly into the little boxes we create. There's always something different or new.  This is why the idea of plotting out every minute of your day on your calendar doesn't work in practice.  Simple, natural things are not always predictable. You don't know when you will need a bathroom break, or if a colleague asks you a question, or perhaps you spill your coffee all over your desk.  If any of these things happen when you have carefully mapped out every minute of your day, your day is ruined.  The missing pieces are flexibility and practice, and that is where this week's question comes in.  So, let me now hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question.  This week's question comes from Kathy. Kathy asks, Hi Carl, I've recently taken your Time Sector System course and loved it. One thing that's worrying me, though, is that no matter how well I plan my week, by Tuesday, my whole plan is ruined. Do you have any tips on staying on plan when things become hectic? Hi Kathy, thank you for your question.  This is a common discovery. Once you know the theory, putting it into practice can show up bumps in the road that cause problems.  One of the first problems people face is changing habits. If, for instance, you've never planned a week or a day, getting into the habit of consistently doing so is hard.  After all, you've spent most of your life so far without having a plan; skipping a daily or weekly planning session isn't going to cause too many problems.  Yet when you are building your system, it's that skipping that causes a problem. The more times you don't do it, the longer it will take you to build the essential habits.  The goal is to use your new knowledge automatically. When you're processing your inbox, you instinctively know what to do. It's like there's a voice in your head asking the three questions: What is it? What do I need to do with it? When will I do it? When you start, asking these questions can be slow. You're naturally thinking too much. But when you've done it consistently for a few weeks, you think less, and you automatically move things to their rightful place.  Today, I can process an inbox of twenty items in less than 6 minutes. When I first started following this sequence of questions, though, it would easily have taken me twenty to thirty minutes. I was overthinking and learning patterns.  In one scene in The Man With the Golden Gun, Bond and Scaramanga are having lunch. The lunch begins amiably, but soon turns hostile. At one point, Bond reaches into his coat pocket to pull out his gun. The camera pans to Scaramanga, who is pointing his legendary golden gun at Bond.  The surprising thing here is that Scaramanga had to build his gun from a golden cigarette case, a lighter, a fountain pen, and a cufflink. All Bond had to do was pull his gun from his shoulder holster.  How was Scaramanga faster? Practice.  How many hours would Scaramanga have had to practice putting his gun together to get that fast?  I know, it's fiction. But the point is, you get faster the more you do something.  This is why people who continually switch apps are also consistently behind on their work. They remain stuck at being slow.  What's happening there is they have to learn new ways of getting things into their system, and then moving tasks, and learning all the new features. And that doesn't account for the time it takes to move everything over to the new app.  It's dead time. Instead, sticking with the apps you already have forces you to get better and faster at using them.  Then we come to the realisation that no two weeks are ever the same. No matter how carefully we plan something, things will inevitably go wrong.  This is where practice and experience come in.  I have a client who travels for work a lot. Sometimes he travels domestically; other times he travels internationally, often to the other side of the world, which involves 20 hours of flying time.  He found the Time Sector System worked brilliantly when he was working from his office, but it fell apart when he had to travel.  When we analysed the problem, we discovered that he was trying to run things the same way while travelling as he did at his office.  How many times have you booked a flight, found that WIFI would be available for the flight and thought, ah, I'll catch up on my email and messages when flying, only to discover that the WIFI doesn't work? Now, you could respond to your actionable emails while flying, but you won't be able to send them until you get into a WIFI zone. But that disruption to your plans can leave you feeling very frustrated.  The solution in this case was to have a travelling routine. On days when my client was travelling, he reduced his task list to the essentials. Rescheduling or postponing routine tasks  He also set up a routine for international travel, using the flight time to plan and clean things up. None of which required WIFI.  The first few times he used this new process, he found he needed to make adjustments, but after a few tries, he had it working perfectly.  And that's the key part. Build in flexibility.  In my client's case, it was not to try and follow the same system when travelling as he does when at the office.  When you plan your week, allow for the unexpected.  One way to do this is to ensure that, when you plan your week, you have time for the essential things. That would be your core work and the parts of your life you have decided are important. Time with family and friends, hobbies and exercise, for example.  Once you have those on your calendar, then really you have the beginnings of a solid plan that should be flexible enough.  Hopefully, you have already locked in your core work.  When I was a teacher, I had an hour each day protected for class preparation. I was teaching around four to five hours a day; those times were fixed each month and were non-negotiable. I had to be in the classroom teaching.  The class preparation time did change from day to day, but it was always there, and I tried to fix it around the same time each day, which made it much easier to make it a habit.  The unknowns often come from project work. Projects, by their very nature, are unique. Each one requires something different. You will find that while you may not be able to plan precisely what needs to be done at a weekly level, scheduling time to work on your projects each week will help ensure you have enough time to keep these moving forward.  If you've ever read Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you will no doubt remember the chapter: Sharpen the Saw.  In the chapter, Stephen Covey uses the example of a wood cutter who's working so hard that they never stop to sharpen the saw. Over time, the time required to cut the tree increases, not because the woodcutter is getting weaker, but because the saw is becoming blunter.  Your time management and productivity skills operate the same way. Sometimes you have to stop and sharpen your skills.  For example, I use an iPhone, and every time Apple updates its iPhone operating system, I review my collecting methods to see if anything in the new software will make collecting faster.  For example, when Apple added the action button to their phones, it let me map that button to add tasks to my task manager's inbox. It's super fast, and after a few days it became automatic for me to tap the action button when I needed to add something.  The most productive people I know spend time improving their ability to produce. This is why athletes train, musicians practise scales, pilots rehearse procedures, and surgeons continually update their skills. The performance people see is only possible because of the preparation and practice nobody sees. This is also why the Scaramanga quote fits this question. His point was essentially the same. As he said: “The rest of the time I maintain my skills.” Scaramanga's version is darker, of course, but the principle is identical. Exceptional performance is not the result of the moment itself; it's the result of the time spent preparing for that moment. If you find that by Tuesday your plan for the week looks destroyed, allow for that when you plan your week.  One way you can do this is to plan your objectives.  What is it that you want to get accomplished next week? These could be: To finish an important proposal Get on top of your emails To clean up the garden  To exercise a minimum of four times To update your LinkedIn profile With these five objectives, you can then decide when you will do them.  One tip here is to front-load your week with these activities. This way, if you do get waylaid, there's still time to recover in the week.  This reminds me of a story from one of the world's top rugby coaches. When he joined a new team, he found that if the team got ahead early in the game, they invariably won.  However, when they went behind early on, the likelihood was they would lose.  When he analysed this, he found that the team panicked when they fell behind, dropped their plan, and spent too much of the game taking unnecessary risks to get ahead.  He reminded the team that it was an 80-minute game and that what really mattered was sticking to their plan.  Tackle aggressively, maintain their defensive line and minimise mistakes. If they stuck to that, they would likely end the game ahead.  You don't win games in the first twenty minutes. You win the game over 80 minutes. It's the same for you, Kathy; you don't win or lose the week early on. You win the week by sticking to your plan and making adjustments where necessary, without losing sight of it.  I hope that has helped. Thank you for your question. And thank you to you, too, for listening.  It just remains for me to wish you all a very, very productive week.   

“I'm so passionate about creating a world where fraud is rare and trust between a member and their credit union is a given.” - Shanthi ShanmugamThank you for tuning in to The CUInsight Network, with your host, Robbie Young, Vice President of Strategic Growth at CUInsight. In The CUInsight Network, we take a deeper dive with the thought leaders who support the credit union community. We discuss issues and challenges facing credit unions and identify best practices to learn and grow together.My guest on today's show is Shanthi Shanmugam, CEO of Casap. She joins me for this episode to discuss the winding path that took her from studying computer science at UC Berkeley to helping credit unions rethink one of the most stressful moments in the member experience: disputes.Throughout our conversation, Shanthi makes it evident that she is passionate about building technology that feels human. She shares stories from her time at Facebook and Robinhood, including the moment when she realized that she wanted to spend her career solving problems that genuinely matter to people. Hear how that mindset eventually led to the formation of Casap, an AI-powered platform helping credit unions reduce fraud losses, improve dispute resolution, and strengthen member trust without losing the human judgment these situations often require. We also dig into why disputes are far more than just operational headaches, with Shanthi explaining why they're “trust moments” that can determine whether a member stays loyal to their financial institution or walks away entirely.As we wrap up the episode, Shanthi talks about her love for custom suits, Bollywood dancing, Colorado Springs, and why Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People still resonates with her years after first reading it. Enjoy my conversation with Shanthi Shanmugam!Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com.Connect with Shanthi:Shanthi Shanmugam, CEO of Casapshanthi@casaphq.com casaphq.com Shanthi: LinkedIn Casap: LinkedInShow notes from this episode:Film mentioned: RatatouilleCharacter mentioned: RemyBook mentioned: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen CoveyIn this episode:[1:00] - When she was young, Shanthi dreamed of traveling worldwide through dance and teaching others to love it.[2:27] - After Berkeley and Facebook, Shanthi pursued product work that was focused on meaningful human impact.[5:01] - Learn how ChatGPT inspired Shanthi to launch Casap and reimagine trust-centered fraud prevention.[8:16] - Hear how Casap helps credit unions improve member experiences and reduce fraud via AI-powered dispute management.[11:13] - Shanthi identifies three major gaps in the dispute process - starting with credit unions needing more transparent support.[12:36] - The second gap is fragmented systems which weaken fraud decision-making.[13:57] - Thirdly, better dispute insights are needed to differentiate between legitimate cases and attempted fraud.[15:09] - Shanthi points out that disputes become defining moments that shape long-term member loyalty and retention.[17:49] - Shanthi illustrates the difference between agentic AI and other AI tools.[20:28] - I praise Casap for balancing fast automation with compassionate human support.[21:08] - Casap aims to become credit unions' broader AI operating system beyond just dispute management.[23:24] - Hear why Shanthi credits her mother with being a good leader.[25:36] - Shanthi reflects on a trip to Colorado Springs which offered her a refreshing conference experience outside the usual Vegas routine.[26:39] - Shanthi empathically believes that everyone should read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.[27:14] - Shanthi reveals that monthly check-ins help her balance rapid company growth with family and personal priorities.[29:49] - Shanthi expresses gratitude for credit unions.

What does it take to move from being a transactional Executive Assistant to becoming a true strategic business partner?In this episode of The EA Campus Podcast, I sit down with Gillian Gelston, Executive Assistant at Salesforce, to discuss her career journey from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service to supporting senior leaders in one of the world's leading technology companies.Gillian shares how she built a successful remote EA career, the systems and workflows that have helped her save time and money for her Executive, and why understanding personality types has transformed the way she works with different leaders.We also discuss:How Gillian transitioned into the Executive Assistant professionBuilding trust and credibility as a remote EAThe importance of boundaries and protecting your timeUsing Slack workflows to streamline approvals and reduce email overloadHow a simple budget approval workflow saved thousands in unauthorised spendWhy compliance can be a valuable area of expertise for Executive AssistantsManaging competing priorities in a fast-paced sales environmentCreating a single source of communication to reduce overwhelmThe role of personality frameworks in understanding ExecutivesFinding your support network as a remote EADeveloping a growth mindset and continuing professional developmentThe books, podcasts and resources Gillian recommends for Executive AssistantsThis conversation is packed with practical ideas for Executive Assistants who want to become more strategic, work more effectively with their Executive, and create systems that make work easier for everyone around them.Whether you work remotely, in the office, or in a hybrid role, you'll come away with plenty of ideas you can implement immediately.Training & Courses→ The Strategic Business Partner Online Course (The EA Campus)→ Elite EA Course by C&C AcademyBooks→ The Modern-Day Assistant by Lucy Brazier→ The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor→ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen CoveyPodcasts→ The EA Campus Podcast→ The Crodie Files→ Executive Office InsightsFrameworks & Assessments→ Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)→ The Four Tendencies by Gretchen RubinTechnology & Tools→ Slack→ Slack Canvas→ Slack Workflow Builder→ ChatGPT→ Google Gemini→ Google DocsLearning Resources→ Slack Academy→ The Global Skills Matrix for Executive Assistants→ The Rundown AI The EA Campus

I don't end many podcasts by inviting someone to come hang out at the farm, but this was one of those conversations. In this episode, I sit down with Patrick Engasser, a bestselling author, speaker, and coach who's built and led a seven-figure sales team…all while being blind since birth.  This isn't a “feel good” story. This is a wake-up call. We talk about what it actually takes to succeed when the odds aren't in your favor, how to stay aware of opportunities most people completely miss, and why building the right systems is the difference between being stuck and having real freedom. Patrick also shares powerful perspective shifts around adversity- how the very thing you think is holding you back might actually be your greatest advantage. And yeah…we even get into guide dogs.  If you've been waiting for the “right time” or better circumstances… this episode will challenge that hard.   Find Patrick at www.TalkwithPatrick.com  If I Can Do It, You Can Do It!: Inspiration for Eliminating Excuses, Overcoming Challenges, and Succeeding in Business and Life by Patrick Engasser https://amzn.to/4cIg1VH    Things mentioned in the show: 10X is Easier than 2X by Dan Sullivan https://amzn.to/4mErRok  4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss https://amzn.to/4cB3XFF  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey https://amzn.to/489fc72  Goals: How to Get the Most Out of Your Life by Zig Ziglar https://amzn.to/4twO7mY  The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer https://amzn.to/4cX7rUk    --- Click here to change your life- http://eepurl.com/gy5T3T   Hit me up for a one-on-one brainstorming session- https://militaryimagesproject.com/products/brainstorming-session-1-hour    Check out my Linktree for different ways to rock your world! https://linktr.ee/ruggeddad    Check out the sweet Hyper X mic I'm using. https://amzn.to/41AF4px    Check out my best-selling books: Rapid Skill Development 101- https://amzn.to/3J0oDJ0 Streams of Income with Ryan Reger- https://amzn.to/3SDhDHg Strangest Secret Challenge- https://amzn.to/3xiJmVO This page contains affiliate links. This means that if you click a link and buy one of the products on this page, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you!) This doesn't affect our opinions or our reviews. Everything we do is to benefit you as the reader, so all of our reviews are as honest and unbiased as possible. #passiveincome #sidehustle #cryptocurrency #richlife

Find more on the Daily Debrief Habit Builder DebriefAdvantage.com   Episode Summary Five-Step Debriefing Habit Model Jeff discussed his background in military aviation and his current work helping teams debrief to improve performance. He explained that effective debriefing requires developing a habit of regular reflection, particularly in Western cultures where self-reflection can be challenging due to vulnerability concerns. Jeff outlined a five-step habit model (G-R-E-A-T) for debriefing, starting with gratitude to create a positive mental state, followed by reviewing goals, and then evaluating performance through specific questions about what was done. Five-Step Debrief Model Presentation Jeff presented a five-step debrief model focusing on what worked and what didn't work, emphasizing the importance of recognizing both successful and unsuccessful aspects to drive continuous improvement. He explained that the model helps teams develop a championship culture by identifying successful dynamics to repeat and learning from failures to improve over time. Tyler agreed with the approach and discussed the importance of creating a collaborative environment for debriefs, particularly in sports teams where coaches often struggle with accountability and responsibility. Continuous Improvement and Visualization Jeff discussed a 5-step quick model starting with why they are glad to be present, emphasizing the importance of developing a culture of continuous improvement through consistent practice rather than perfection. He explained how fighter pilots use visualization techniques, including chair flying, to prepare mentally for missions by envisioning every aspect of the mission from start to finish. Jeff stressed that the goal is excellence rather than perfection, and that visualization helps condition the mind to see what good performance looks like. Chair Flying Debrief Strategies Jeff and Tyler discussed the concept of "chair flying" and its application beyond sports, including in personal and professional settings. They explored strategies for conducting productive debriefs, particularly when challenging conversations arise, with Jeff emphasizing the importance of starting with gratitude and self-identification of mistakes. Jeff outlined three key traits that distinguish good from bad debriefs: structure, appropriate length (five minutes), and regular, daily practice rather than only addressing failures. Combat Mission Debrief Experience Jeff shared his experience of his first combat mission in the northern Arabian Gulf during the initial ground waves into Iraq, where he provided close-air support to Marine Corps infantry units. He recalled the plane captain's words "This time it's for real" and the realization that years of training were about to be tested in a high-stakes environment. From this experience, Jeff developed his approach to helping teams debrief and improve, focusing on addressing the question of "what if I'm not good enough" in high-performance environments. Debriefing Process and Reflection Jeff discussed the importance of reflection and adjustment in debriefing processes, emphasizing that experience alone doesn't lead to improvement without these steps. When asked about advice for his teenage self, Jeff suggested focusing on the idea that "it's all gonna work out" and recommended reading "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.

Nobody jumps out of bed wanting to do a bad job. So why does the day fall apart by lunch? In this episode, Dwayne Kerrigan breaks down the actual mechanics of high-performance productivity — not the philosophy, not the mindset pep talk, but the specific rituals, systems, and daily habits that determine whether your week produces results or just burns time.In this episode:The Time Management Matrix — originally developed by Franklin Covey, which Dwayne taught for 35 years — and why the only quadrant that actually moves your life forward is Q2: things that are important but not urgent, including planning, training, creative thinking, and relationship buildingWhy weekly planning and solitude is the single most important hour of the week — what Dwayne looks at during that block, how he structures it, and why if you miss it consistently, everything else breaks downHow Dwayne uses a color-coded identity calendar — each role in his life assigned a color, from Chairman to Love Slave — so that every time block is set with intention, not just task completionThe AI accountability system: Dwayne sends his planned week and his actual week to an AI agent named Jarvis, who measures his efficiency against his seven-year mission and purpose — and tells him when he's gotten sucked into operationsThe 30-to-60-second rule for managing in-the-moment interruptions: handle it now if it takes under a minute, or put it on the task list immediately and review every two to three hoursWhy perfection is a fool's game — Dwayne's case for defining "good enough" before you start, launching at that standard, and building a continuous improvement process rather than waiting for perfect.Episode Highlights: 00:00 - Progress Over Perfect00:28 - Podcast Introduction01:05 - Productivity Not Time02:44 - Roles And Identities03:44 - Mindset State And Why04:56 - Strategy Culture Habits06:47 - Health Vitality Long Game08:32 - Vision Plan Action Framework11:33 - Weekly Planning Solitude16:07 - Time Management Matrix23:18 - Plan Your Week In Practice24:41 - Daily Planning29:09 - Handle Interruptions Fast30:33 - Email Tasks34:06 - Inbox Overload Fixes35:39 - Stop Chasing Shiny Objects36:39 - Eat The Frog First37:35 - Perfection Blocks Progress38:56 - Get Resourceful Ask Help40:09 - Break Tunnel Vision41:29 - Identity Based Weekly Planning43:08 - AI Accountability Feedback45:00 - Guardrails And Honest Feedback46:42 - Daily Execution Rituals49:46 - Urgent Versus Important Explained55:51 - Stop Unneeded Meetings57:17 - Prioritize Across Roles59:59 - Why Breaks Feel Hard01:05:23 - Calendaring To Reduce Stress01:09:17 - Wrap Up And DisclaimersResources mentioned: FranklinCovey Time Matrix, Plan and software (Dwayne's current task management tool)The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — book by Stephen CoveyExactly What to Say — book by Phil Jones2 Second Lean — book by Paul AkersByron Katie's four questions framework — "Is it true? Is it absolutely true?"Video text messaging - Todd Hartley and Paul Akers referencedWaking Up app — Sam Harris meditation appTony Robbins — six human needs framework referencedKeith Cunningham — "Progress is not only measured by yards gained, but sometimes by yards not lost"Quotes:“Don't mistake being busy for producing results” - Dwayne Kerrigan“ Lose two hours of your day out of an eight-hour day, it adds up to a 20% of your day all of a sudden disappears. Well, factor that out over the year, you've got 20% of your year that you've not been working at directing yourself to a target.” - Dwayne Kerrigan“The difference between excitement and fear is just the label that we put on it. Physically and physiologically, it's kind of the same experience in our body, but we put a label on fear versus excitement.” - Dwayne Kerrigan“ The biggest problem that we make is we let perfect get in the way of progress. We've gotta identify what is good. And I'm not saying lower your standards, but what I am saying is we can get stuck on perfection or our need for certainty, and we have what I call failure to launch syndrome.” - Dwayne Kerrigan“ We often overestimate what we can accomplish in a year and we underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade.” - Dwayne KerriganConnect with Dwayne KerriganFacebookInstagramLinked InWebsiteDisclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed by guests during The Dwayne Kerrigan Podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Dwayne Kerrigan and his affiliates. Dwayne Kerrigan or The Dwayne Kerrigan Podcast is not responsible for and does not verify the accuracy of any of the information contained in the podcast series. The primary purpose of this podcast is to educate and inform. Listeners are advised to consult with a qualified professional or specialist before making any decisions based on the content of this podcast.

Perhaps one of the most aptly named individuals I've met, James Clear possesses a clairvoyant ability to articulate his understanding and mastery of habit formation.   His book Atomic Habits, which eclipsed the sales speed of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has sold nearly 20 million copies and is one of the top books recommended by high performers. However, he didn't set out to write bestsellers. James's journey from basement projects to a multi-million subscriber list is a testament to the power of resilience and adaptability. He turned early setbacks into a strategic advantage, proving that sometimes, the best plan is the one you never intended to follow.Building a brand is like building a new habit. Despite aiming for consistency, Clear emphasizes that success in habit formation isn't about rigid adherence but rather the ability to adjust. Rather than fragile, unwavering discipline, Clear's methodology is flexible enough to adapt to the relatable complexities of maintaining habits amidst life's inevitable changes. “The way to be consistent is actually to be adaptable,” he explains. Your best asset could be the flexible mindset that keeps you on track even when life's rhythms get a bit unpredictable. Rather than imploding upon routine and environmental changes, we should focus on accounting for the natural bouts of turbulence.“Reduce the scope, but stick to the schedule,” says Clear, encouraging a flexible approach, adjusting the intensity of activities rather than skipping them entirely. This mindset is critical to avoiding discouragement and self-sabotage, which can derail long-term progress."Support the show

R' Shmuel Diamond is a Jerusalem-based educator, speaker, entrepreneur, and former internationally sought-after photographer whose work and teachings bridge the worlds of creativity, psychology, personal growth, the inner wisdom of Torah, and selfless Divine service.After a successful two-decade international photography career photographing high-profile Jewish families around the world, he transitioned toward education, mentorship, and spiritual teaching. Deeply influenced by Tanya, Chassidus, Kabbalah, psychology, and Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Shmuel is the founder of Bnei Aliyah and creator of “Journey to a Blessed Life,” a revolutionary new approach to self-mastery and the art of living. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children. --Please rate and review the Empowered Jewish Living podcast on whatever platform you stream it. Please follow Rabbi Shlomo Buxbaum and the Lev Experience on the following channels:Facebook: @shlomobuxbaumInstagram: @shlomobuxbaumYouTube: TheLevExperienceOrder Rabbi Shlomo' books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Four Elements of an Empowered Life: A Guidebook to Discovering Your Inner World and Unique Purpose⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Four Elements of Inner Freedom: The Exodus Story as a Model for Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Personal Breakthroughs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can order a copy on⁠ Amazon⁠ or in your local Jewish bookstore.

Perhaps one of the most aptly named individuals I've met, James Clear possesses a clairvoyant ability to articulate his understanding and mastery of habit formation.   His book Atomic Habits, which eclipsed the sales speed of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has sold nearly 20 million copies and is one of the top books recommended by high performers. However, he didn't set out to write bestsellers. James's journey from basement projects to a multi-million subscriber list is a testament to the power of resilience and adaptability. He turned early setbacks into a strategic advantage, proving that sometimes, the best plan is the one you never intended to follow.Building a brand is like building a new habit. Despite aiming for consistency, Clear emphasizes that success in habit formation isn't about rigid adherence but rather the ability to adjust. Rather than fragile, unwavering discipline, Clear's methodology is flexible enough to adapt to the relatable complexities of maintaining habits amidst life's inevitable changes. “The way to be consistent is actually to be adaptable,” he explains. Your best asset could be the flexible mindset that keeps you on track even when life's rhythms get a bit unpredictable. Rather than imploding upon routine and environmental changes, we should focus on accounting for the natural bouts of turbulence.“Reduce the scope, but stick to the schedule,” says Clear, encouraging a flexible approach, adjusting the intensity of activities rather than skipping them entirely. This mindset is critical to avoiding discouragement and self-sabotage, which can derail long-term progress."Support the show

Quick SummarySonya Szabo is a Canadian business lawyer, former café owner, and entrepreneur who has never done things the conventional way — and that's exactly why it works. In this episode, she returns to the Rain or Shine podcast after eight years to share the full arc of her story: building and selling the Vic Café, going to law school at forty, battling imposter syndrome, and ultimately creating a law practice that reflects her values instead of the industry mold.In This EpisodeHow Sonya opened the Vic Café at 35 with three kids — and led with boundaries from day oneWhy she hired a manager before opening the doorsThe highs and hard realities of running a brick-and-mortar restaurant for eight yearsGoing back to law school at forty and navigating four years of imposter syndromeThe "90-year-old self" exercise Sonya uses to make every major decisionHer "quit week" in 2025 — what triggered it and what brought her backWhy in-person relationship-building has been her most effective marketing strategyWhat Zebo Law does and how to work with SonyaKey TakeawaysKnow your priorities before you open your doors. Sonya put a note in her very first employee handbook that said she was a mom first — and that transparency set the tone for every working relationship that followed.Build the business around your strengths, not your job description. She hired a manager before opening and stayed focused on owner-level decisions from the start.Your vision isn't a prediction — it's a decision-making filter. Sonya doesn't hold her vision because she expects it to happen exactly as planned; she holds it because it tells her what to say yes and no to.Think about your ninety-year-old self. When you filter decisions through who you want to be at the end of your life, the noise clears fast.A "quit week" isn't the end — it's a signal. Panic means something isn't working. Go back to your values before you go anywhere else.Memorable Quotes"Before we even opened our doors, we hired a manager. Traditionally that would have been the owner's job — but I knew I needed to outsource that and just be the owner.""When I hold a decision up against my vision and ask, 'Will this bring me closer to where I want to go?' — the answer tells me whether to say yes or no.""When people started connecting me and 'lawyer' together, you could see the relief on their faces — like, finally, a lawyer who doesn't make me feel belittled. Someone who makes me feel empowered."Resources MentionedThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. CoveyThe E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber (referenced)Sonya's Instagram: @askmeaboutcontractsSonya's Website: sonyaszabo.comKelsey's Website: KelseyReidl.comKelsey's Instagram: @KelseyReidlFirst Rain or Shine episode featuring SonyaVoxer app — walkie-talkie voice messagingAbout Sonya SzaboSonya Szabo is a Canadian business lawyer and the founder of Zebo Law, where she helps entrepreneurs and business owners navigate contracts, corporate structure, trademarks, and more — in language they can actually understand. After eight years running the Vic Café in Prince Edward County and selling it in 2023, Sonya went to law school at forty and built a practice rooted in her own experience as a founder, parent, and entrepreneur.

Ask most agency owners how profitable their last project was, and you’ll get one of two answers: a rough guess, or a long pause. This kind of data is rarely readily available, and when it is, it’s usually buried in a spreadsheet that someone else built, that nobody’s updated since for months, with a formula that breaks in the click of a mouse. And whilst there are a multitude of agency management platforms available, finding one that works for your agency, at your size, and providing ALL of the functionality and data you need in one place is almost impossible. This is exactly the gap that Anna Appleton set out to close. Anna is co-founder of We Create Digital a small digital agency specialising in design, development, and accessibility, and the driving force behind Rofinery, an all-in-one agency management platform built by a small agency, for ALL agencies. In this episode, we talk about: Why data is one of the most overlooked components of winning and growing new clients How Rofinery brings together pipeline, proposals, time tracking, resource planning, and profitability in one place The hidden cost of “profitability leaks” — and why agency leaders are often the worst offenders Building proposals grounded in real data, not finger-in-the-air estimates Rofinery’s refreshingly straightforward pricing model — and why it’s staying that way Of course there’s a brilliant book recommendation: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Join the conversation on LinkedIn using #smallsparktheory and we’ll pick a winner and send you a copy. Also mentioned in this episode: Design Business Association In Focus Report Get in touch with Anna: Book a demo: rofinery.com Email: anna@rofinery.com

Join us for our Summer Wisdom Shorts where we share brief thoughts of wisdom for you to ponder. Mentioned in today's episode:7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven CoveySome of our show notes contain affiliate links.    We want to save you the effort of looking up resources + we get a small commission at no extra cost to you.  Thanks for your support.

How can leaders move beyond the noise and overwhelm of AI to create value for their teams and organizations? In this episode, Kevin talks with Matt Kesby about why AI is not just a technology challenge, but a change management challenge. Matt explains why organizations should avoid chasing shiny tools and instead focus on the systems, processes, and repetitive work where AI and automation can create measurable "value impact." He also introduces the difference between makers, watchers, and blamers, encouraging leaders to act now by documenting tasks, identifying opportunities for improvement, and building clear procedures that both people and AI can follow. Matt's Story: Matt Kesby is the author of Untangling AI: Driving Business Success Through Enterprise Automation and AI Agents. He is a serial entrepreneur, AI transformation leader, and business strategist with over 29 years of experience helping organizations achieve triple-digit revenue growth and sustainable profitability. Based in Cebu, Philippines, Matt leads a team of over 1,000 professionals across 7 countries, using AI to accelerate operational, financial, sales, and marketing performance by up to 5x. Matt is the founder of GoTeam and Multiplai Tech, companies dedicated to helping businesses scale and people exceed. Additionally, he is Founder, Chief AI Officer and Master Coach at www.aicoaches.com. He has partnered with more than 300 businesses worldwide, building high-performing offshore support teams and embedding automation-driven solutions into their DNA. A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Matt is a trusted voice at the intersection of people, growth, and emerging technology. https://www.aicoaches.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattkesby/ Looking to Develop Stronger Leaders? Want help developing the leaders in your organization? Reach out to explore how the Kevin Eikenberry Group can support your team at info@kevineikenberry.com.  Book Recommendations Untangling AI: Driving Business Success Through Enterprise Automation and AI Agents by Matt Kesby The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey Like this? The 4 Disciplines of Execution with Jim Huling How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth with Patrick Thean Growth Through Innovation with Lorraine Marchand Podcast Better! Sign up with Libsyn and get up to 2 months free! Use promo code: RLP   Leave a Review If you liked this conversation, we'd be thrilled if you'd let others know by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Here's a quick guide for posting a review. Review on Apple: https://remarkablepodcast.com/itunes    Join Our Community If you want to view our live podcast episodes, hear about new releases, or chat with others who enjoy this podcast join one of our communities below. Join the Facebook Group Join the LinkedIn Group  

How can introverts build meaningful connections in a world that often values constant interaction and small talk? In this episode of The Quiet And Strong Podcast, host David Hall welcomes Mark Marrott, business builder, keynote speaker, and host of the Knee to Knee podcast, for an inspiring conversation about thriving as an introvert while forming deep, authentic relationships.Listeners will discover:The powerful impact of genuine connection on well-being and resilienceStrategies for introverts to create and maintain deeper relationships—at work and in life—without pretending to be someone they're notHow to embrace your introverted nature and use it to your advantage in public speaking, sales, and leadershipPractical tips for moving beyond surface-level small talk and making conversations more meaningfulWhy recognizing your own needs, preparing in your own style, and taking simple actions—like sending a thoughtful message—can foster rewarding relationshipsWhether you're an introvert seeking tools for better connection or someone who wants to understand and support the introverts in your life, this episode will empower you with insights and encouragement. Learn how to use your quiet strengths, build relationships that matter, and be strong.Episode Link: QuietandStrong.com/277Mark Marrott has literally had to rebuild from the ground up. A 40-foot fall and years in a wheelchair reshaped how he leads and connects—turning big ideas like empathy, faith, and grit into everyday practices instead of just nice words. As a business builder, keynote speaker, and host of the KneeToKnee podcast, he sits down with executives, athletes, first responders, and everyday heroes to explore how real human connection drives resilience, belonging, and performance. He's an introvert who's spent a career in outward-facing roles, and he cares deeply about helping quieter leaders build authentic connections on their own terms—without pretending to be someone they're not.Connect with Mark: Website | Podcast---Books mentioned in this episode: The Will to Win by Kurt Brinkman The Levity Effect by Scott Christopher The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (specifically referenced Habit 5: "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood") Send us Fan MailSupport the show- - -Contact the Host of the Quiet and Strong Podcast:David HallAuthor, Speaker, Educator, Podcasterquietandstrong.comGobio.link/quietandstrongdavid [at] quietandstrong.comNOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.Take the FREE Personality Assessment: Typefinder Personality AssessmentFollow David on your favorite social platform:Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube Get David's book:Minding Your Time: Time Management, Productivity, and Success, Especially for IntrovertsGet Quiet & Strong Merchandise

What if the key to a healthier tomorrow started tonight? In this episode, Lisa Oldson, MD shares a simple but powerful idea inspired by a New York Times quote: "The day starts the night before." If you've ever found yourself making impulsive food choices, skipping workouts because the day got away from you, or staying up too late scrolling your phone, this episode is for you.Dr. Lisa breaks down why preparation, not willpower, is the real driver of healthy habits, and she draws on wisdom from productivity experts David Allen (Getting Things Done), Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), and behavioral scientist BJ Fogg (Tiny Habits) to make the case that small, consistent evening efforts create outsized results.Whether your goal is weight loss, lower cholesterol, better health, or longevity, you'll walk away with a practical, five-point evening checklist designed to reduce impulsive eating, protect your sleep, and help you show up for yourself every single day, no elaborate meal prep required.Thanks for listening! If you'd like more support during your SMART weight loss & health focused journey, sign up for our FREE newsletter, or check out our program at: www.SmartWeightLossCoaching.com. We would love to help you reach your happy weight, and transform the way you talk to yourself about your body and the number on the scale. Negative thoughts about yourself don't have to take up so much brain space, and we'd be honored to help you reframe those thoughts. Also, we'd be grateful if you'd follow us and share our podcast with your friends & family. We're here to help you live longer, healthier, and lose weight the SMART way! This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com.The Smart Weight Loss Coaching Podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified healthcare provider before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.

In this episode of Paradigm Shifting Books, hosts Stephen and Britain Covey take a deeper dive into one of the foundational ideas behind The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: the maturity continuum. Building on their recent conversation with Dan Coyle about flourishing and human connection, they explore the progression from dependence to independence to interdependence, and why so much of modern self-improvement culture stops short of the ultimate goal. Drawing directly from the teachings of Stephen R. Covey, they unpack why independence is often celebrated as the highest form of growth, even though life itself is inherently interconnected.Stephen and Britain reflect on how these ideas apply to leadership, relationships, teamwork, and personal fulfillment. They discuss the dangers of victim thinking, the rise of hyper-individualism, and the growing appeal of “monk mode” culture in a world that increasingly rewards isolation and self-focus. Through personal stories, sports analogies, and timeless insights from The 7 Habits, they make the case that true flourishing happens not in separation from others, but through meaningful collaboration, trust, and shared growth. This episode is a powerful reminder that independence is not the final destination of maturity, but the foundation that allows us to fully thrive together.What We Discuss[00:00] Introduction[01:43] The maturity continuum explained[02:13] Dependence: the starting point[02:58] Independence: personal responsibility and discipline[03:55] Interdependence: the highest level of the continuum[05:25] Reading from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: the limits of independence[10:16] Self-reflection: where are you on the maturity continuum?[11:13] The role of “monk mode” and private victories[13:08] Modern life: isolation vs. interdependence[14:53] Conclusion Notable Quotes[03:41] "Independence is the paradigm of I can do it, right? I am responsible, I am self-reliant, I can choose." – Britain Covey[10:03] "Strength is found in differences more than it is in similarities in a relationship." – Britain Covey[13:02] "Growth doesn't stop at independence. That's really just the foundation." – Stephen Covey[10:56] "Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make." – Stephen R. CoveyResourcesParadigm Shifting BooksPodcastInstagram YouTube BookThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. CoveyBritain CoveyLinkedIn InstagramStephen H. CoveyLinkedInMentioned EpisodeWhy We Need Other People to Become Our Best Selves (Part 1) with Daniel Coyle

Nicholas Lares is the founder of Insur3Tech, a syndicated insurance group built for real estate owners and operators. Before entering real estate insurance, Nicholas was one of the largest brokers for Amazon's logistics network. When carrier exits threatened his clients' ability to operate, he helped them build a collective, self-insured alternative rather than accept the market's terms. That same model now powers Insurer Tech, which enables property owners, operators, and investors to retain the profits traditional insurers keep, averaging $28 million in annual distributions per 100,000 units.     Make sure to download our free guide, 7 Questions Every Passive Investor Should Ask, here.     Key Takeaways The traditional insurance market is a negative feedback loop: rising premiums drive more claims, which drive premiums higher Every premium you pay includes broker commissions, administrative overhead, and margin that never comes back to you Good-risk operators are pooled with bad-risk ones and effectively subsidize the market's worst performers Captive insurance gives participants a co-ownership stake and returns annual profits when the pool performs well Residents can be enrolled in the same captive, turning renters insurance into a separate profit center Getting into a captive earlier compounds the financial benefit significantly over 5 to 10 years     Topics Why Insurance Costs Keep Rising Pre-2020, insurance was a manageable expense; post-Covid, premiums surged to the point where operators began questioning the ROI Policyholders started filing more claims to justify rising costs, which accelerated the cycle further Carriers facing unsustainable losses began exiting markets entirely, most visibly in Florida, California, and Texas How Traditional Insurance Actually Works Premiums are priced on pooled risk across millions of policies, not based on your individual property's claims history Every premium includes roughly 30% in administrative costs, 10-15% in broker commissions, projected claims, and a margin buffer on top When the pool outperforms projections, the surplus flows to carrier shareholders, not policyholders The Captive Insurance Model Captive programs have existed for decades, originally built for Fortune 500 companies and large industrial operators A captive functions like a controlled bank account, backed by a reinsurance program, where unused premium returns to the owner Insurer Tech builds group cell captives, making co-ownership accessible to operators who cannot support a standalone captive independently How Insurer Tech Works Unnecessary margin layers, including excess broker commissions and profit buffers, are removed and redirected to members Year-end surplus is distributed to participants; there are no external shareholders Members choose their risk level: with or without reinsurance backing, depending on portfolio size and claims history The Leverage Problem in Traditional Insurance Clean-record operators have almost no meaningful leverage to negotiate premiums because pricing is determined by pooled market behavior Captives realign incentives: when participants think like owners, they manage risk more carefully and file fewer claims Moving good-risk operators out of the traditional pool separates them from the bad actors they were subsidizing Who Qualifies Insurer Tech works across all real estate types, including multifamily, single-family, self-storage, and commercial, as long as a lease agreement is in place The resident piece (renters insurance) typically targets 50+ units to generate a net surplus for the captive Operators with fewer units can pool with other investors in their market to meet the threshold A Real-World Example An 80-unit multifamily property in Georgia: total property insurance cost was $14,000 per year After captive returns, the net cost dropped to approximately $11,500 per year Resident renters insurance through the same captive generated roughly $20,000 in annual profit The result: the owner's insurance cost is fully offset, with a net surplus of approximately $9,000 per year    

Are your priorities BS? Well, focusing on that area in particular, looking at what are the things in my life that really are important to me? What are the actions that I want to take and need to take that are important to me? Even if they’re not urgent, how can I get those things scheduled so that they have a better likelihood of getting done? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the topic Are Your Priorities BS? Welcome, Jay. Jay: Hey, David, as always, such a pleasure to be with you. And another great topic. I think that it’s so easy to just do the squirrel thing or the squeaky wheel gets the grease and we don’t really know what our priorities should be a lot of the time that’s half the battle I think. David: Yeah, I think that’s true. Knowing what our priorities are and recognizing that a lot of times they’re not really what we think they are. And most of the time when I talk about stuff on these podcasts, it’s not because I’m particularly smart, is because I feel like I’ve made every stupid mistake that anyone can make. And so if I can help our listeners and viewers to avoid doing some of those things, then that’s a pretty good service. And when I think about priorities and I reflect on the priorities that I’ve had over the years and over my life, I recognize that we have priorities that we really put out there. We say, okay, this is what’s important to me. What’s important to me is my family. What’s important to me are my friends. What’s important to me is, whatever, losing weight, like if we have goals, my my priority is to do this and to do that, and all these different things. And then when we look at our actions and we realize that our actions don’t really line up with what we say our priorities are, it raises the questions are our priorities BS? And I think in some cases, even when we don’t realize it, they might be. Jay: Yeah. First of all, I’d say there’s nothing wrong with learning in the school of hard knocks. I mean, sometimes those are the best lessons we can learn. But I also think it, we can spin our wheels a lot trying to reinvent the wheel, so learning from other people can help expedite that process. Right? Which is why I’m glad you’re so willing to share the trials that you’ve had. I think that that’s so critical. But I think you’re right. We’ve talked a lot in the past about self assessment. Can you really look at yourself and know what your weaknesses are and what your strengths are? And oftentimes, I think you’re right. We think something is a priority for us, but in the grand scheme of things, and according to our own actions, it’s really not. And we’re kind of fooling ourselves. David: Yeah, and the way that I’ve actually sort of worked through some of this is recognizing that there’s a really big difference between our stated priorities, the things that we say are priorities to us, and then our actual priorities, meaning the priorities we act on the things that we do, the actual steps that we take or don’t take. Because if our priority is to spend time with our family and our actions are that we’re working all the time and we’re not spending time with our family, then we have two different sets of priorities, our stated priorities that always sound good, and then our actual priorities, which is what we’re doing on a daily basis. Jay: Yeah, I see this all the time in like TV reality shows. I don’t know why this comes to mind, but you see people saying, my family is the most important thing to me, and they’re working 80 hours a week at their career, or their job. And I’m sitting there thinking, Hmm, no, I don’t think you really understand what your priorities really are. David: Yeah, and most people are sincere, I think, when they say those things. It’s just that in many cases, life interferes. And when we allow life to interfere, then it turns out that our actual priorities are different than the ones that we’re telling ourselves and telling other people. Jay: So how do we sift through that? How do we do that self assessment and really identify what our core priorities are, and maybe we need to identify them as BS and head in a different direction. David: Well, I put together a worksheet. You can download it here. It’s very simple. It’s basically got stated priorities on the left and actual priorities on the right, and what you do is you list down on the left hand side all the things that I tell other people and that I tell myself are my actual priorities. And then you just keep an eye on what you’re doing every day. Did I take action on my top priority on the left hand side of the page? And if I didn’t, what did I do instead? If my goal is to write a book and instead I slept until 10:30, then I’ve got a stated priority and I’ve got an actual priority. And so when I’m working with clients, these are some of the things that we look at. What is it that is most important to you? What is it that you believe, that you truly believe is most important to you? What do you believe your priorities are, and then what are the actions that demonstrate what your actual priorities are? Jay: Yeah, and I think, people have specific priorities, but they get trapped in the every day. So it’s not like it isn’t my priority and the priority’s not really BS. What is BS is that I’m, not doing anything towards it. I’m letting my business run me instead of me running my business. David: Yeah, I mean, a personal one for me is like I’ve been losing and gaining the same 10 pounds for probably 20 years, right? So if my priority is actually to lose 10 pounds or whatever it is. But then I have a conflicting priority, which is, “oh, dessert!” Right? Then those two things are in conflict. And every time I choose the dessert, which is the actual priority, it’s the action that happens over the stated priority of losing the weight, then it really is BS. It’s BS to say that this is the goal, if the actions on the right hand side of the sheet are not going to correspond to that. And that’s where I feel like, by calling ourselves out on it, it might encourage us to take the actions that we need to take to accomplish the results we’re looking for and to really get our priorities in order. Jay: Yeah, and let me tell you, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, of breaking even on weight loss. David .Losing 10, gaining 10, at least you’re not completely losing that battle. So that’s something to be proud of. So we talked about the worksheet and identifying your priorities. And making sure they’re not BS. I’m guessing then you want to set a path, you’ve got to break that down into smaller chunks or something. You can’t just say, “oh yeah, that’s my new priority,” or that I’ve identified it. You’ve got to talk about how you’re going to get there. Right? David: Right. So when we look at the left side of the page and we compare it with the right, and we determine that, okay, our actions are not in line with our priorities, then it’s a matter of looking at each of those priorities and breaking each of those down into projects and tasks essentially. So a project is anything that requires more than one action. A task is basically one action, right? That’s the way I break it out. So if there are a series of three or four things that I need to do to accomplish that, then those are three or four tasks. If there are three or four or five or 10 related things that belong to an entire project, then I put it in the form of a project. And the way that I manage my time is that I use a time planner that allows me to use different colors for different things. So I use one color for projects and another color for tasks because I can look at it and say, okay, here’s a task. This is something I can knock out relatively quickly. And when you know which goals, which priorities your projects and tasks line up with, then you can always be taking action on something that is actually important to you. Jay: Yeah. And I think you’ve hit on something very key as part of this process is by writing things down, by having a color code, by doing those things, you’re giving yourself kind of back testing, right? So you can look back and say, okay, you know, do a monthly assessment. I know people who spend a couple hours on Sundays just reflecting back on their previous week and saying “Did I really make my priorities, priorities?” And so that process of writing it down, whether it’s digitally or some people still use day planners, you know, they actually still use paper. That drives me crazy. But I understand, because that’s got to be an important part of the process. David: Yeah. And I think the calendar is really an important part of the process because we could do another podcast called “To-Do Lists are BS,” right? Because I feel like in a lot of cases they are. If you have a to-do list that has a hundred things on it and you don’t get to most of them… If you’re getting to the most important things, then it’s worthwhile. But if you’re not, then how do you fix that? And generally, the only way that I’ve ever been able to fix it is to budget time on the calendar for those specific activities, block it off just like you would any other appointment and say, “okay, from this time to this time, this is what I’m doing.” Turning off the phone, not answering calls focused on doing this just as if I were having a meeting or an appointment and making that appointment with yourself. I’m sure I’m not the first person to recommend something like that, but for me, just moving things from a to-do list onto a calendar helps a great deal. As long as you’re willing to follow through on what’s on your calendar. And if you’re not, yeah, then you got some real issues. Jay: Yeah, it’s really a place where I struggle. I kind of have a good idea where my priorities are, but moving them into a schedule, I still have the tendency to just kind of do whatever I feel I want to do. that’s the life I want to live, as opposed to the things that are most important in that moment. And that comes from the fact that I haven’t identified and categorized them by level of importance. And so, again, I’m letting the mayhem of the day, and my own emotions, dictate what I’m working on at any given time. David: Yeah, I remember reading the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and he referenced, I think it’s called the Eisenhower Matrix. I think Eisenhower is the one who came up with it originally or popularized it. You can download it here The idea that you draw a cross on a piece of paper and you break out your priorities according to urgent and important. So one of the Sections is urgent and important. Another one is urgent, but not important. Another one is not important, but urgent. And then not important. And not urgent. Okay, that’s it. Breaks out something like that. And of course, the things that are not important and not urgent are probably the things we shouldn’t do at all. But very often they’re the easiest things to do. They’re the most tempting, and they get the attention. The things that are urgent and important tend to get done because they’re urgent and you have to do them. But the sweet spot is the area that is not urgent but important, and that’s the area that tends to get neglected in favor of the other areas. So, even doing something like that, breaking it out and saying, “okay, what are the most important tasks that I need to get done? What are the most important actions I need to take that I haven’t taken that are not time sensitive?” Because that’s what always nails us. If there’s something that’s time sensitive, that’s going to jump in ahead. And then the other category of not important but urgent, a ringing telephone, for example. Some people might view that, if they’re required to answer it, as urgent. And in that case, you don’t know who’s going to be on the other end. You have no idea how it matches with your goals or your priorities. You end up taking the call and at that point you can be derailing your success. So focusing on that area in particular, looking at what are the things in my life that really are important to me? What are the actions that I want to take and need to take that are important to me? Even if they’re not urgent, how can I get those things scheduled so that they have a better likelihood of getting done? Jay: Yeah, I love that. So figuring out first what your priorities currently are. Are they BS? Then identifying what you really want those priorities to be, and then creating a plan and scheduling that plan. Such great advice. How do people find out more? David: Well, you can go to TopSecrets.com/call to schedule a call with myself or my team. If you’re struggling to get to the results you’re looking for because of whatever, if it’s time management, if it’s a failure to actually address your own priorities, you know, there are combinations of things that can help. One of the things that I think we struggle with sometimes, and this might be a good topic for a future podcast, is the fact that in some cases, we think that more energy and more effort is going to fix the problem. But if the things that we’re doing are designed to create average results, then putting time and energy into them is just going to create average results faster. It’s not going to create exceptional results. And so by changing the activities that we’re engaged in, maybe changing the way that we’re doing some of those things, the results change dramatically. So if that makes sense to you, if you’d like to have a conversation, TopSecrets.com/call. We would love to talk with you about that. Jay: All right, David, we really appreciate you sharing your experience and what you’ve learned from trial and error and this service that you offer where people can just talk about it, because I think that’s a great place to start. Thank you so much for joining us today. David: Thank you, Jay. Are You Ready to Take Action on Your Real Priorities? If so, check out a few ways we can help you grow your sales & profits: Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional product sales, learn how we can help. Ready to Grow & Scale Your Business Fast? If you're an established distributor serious about growing your sales and profits now, check out this case study and schedule a call with our team. Need EQP/Preferential Pricing? If you're an established distributor doing a decent volume of sales, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.

This episode started with the question: How do you approach working with clients and understanding their needs and goals? Suggested reading from this episode: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

What does transformational leadership actually look like in practice? Father Mike Schmitz, 15-year director of the Newman Center at UMD, sits down with coaches to share the leadership principles, culture-building strategies, and mentorship frameworks that have transformed thousands of lives on a secular college campus.Whether you're a coach, team leader, manager, or anyone invested in building high-performance culture, this conversation is packed with actionable wisdom on setting priorities, establishing boundaries, leading with authenticity, and developing the next generation of leaders.

At a young age, David Fullmer experienced a transformative journey alongside his father who was working with Stephen Covey, the author of,  "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." This experience exposed him directly to human development which instilled in him a profound belief that one individual can change the course of events, regardless of their circumstances. This understanding shaped David's perspective as he moved 29 times by the age of 19, forcing him to learn how to forge numerous friendships while learning to cope with their inevitable loss. These experiences cultivated in him a unique outlook on life, enabling him to create meaningful connections, no matter how brief.   https://www.becomingseven.com/aboutdave

Most solopreneurs got into business to chase a passion, not to crunch numbers. But avoiding your financial data is one of the fastest ways to stay stuck, underpaid, and overwhelmed.In this episode, we sit down with Andy Weins, junk removal business owner, professional speaker, and fractional CFO, who spent 17 years learning (sometimes the hard way) that the answers to your biggest business problems are hiding in data you're probably not collecting.Andy breaks down why entrepreneurship is inherently emotional and illogical, and how that wiring makes business owners uniquely bad at tracking the numbers that actually matter. He shares the story of a graphic designer charging one client the equivalent of $9/hour without realizing it, explains why your "best-selling" product might be draining your profits, and walks through how to build a KPI scorecard, even if you're a one-person operation.He also introduces his 20-20-10 framework: 20 hours working in your business, 20 hours working on it, and 10 hours investing in yourself. Plus, a dead-simple formula to calculate your real billable rate starting today.What You'll Learn in This Episode:— The difference between accounting and financial leadership (and why your CPA isn't enough) — How to calculate customer acquisition cost in three different ways — Why you should start with many KPIs and whittle down to the vital few — The 20-20-10 weekly structure for solopreneurs — A quick formula to find your minimum billable rate using 48 weeks and 20 hours — Why "spite is a hell of a drug" but success is more sustainableResources Mentioned: — Andy's book: Stop Avoiding Your Numbers: The Guide to Financial Confidence for Small Business Owners — Atomic Habits by James Clear — The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey — Connect with Andy on LinkedIn or at AndyWeins.com

Each of us has a personal kingdom, or domain, for which we are responsible. Whether it's our home, apartment, or dorm room, we have a place where what we say happens. What does it look like, in the midst of a chaotic world, to bring order and shalom to our realm? This new five-part series begins with John, Blaine, and Allen talking about why God made us to rule, how we're meant to grow in this responsibility, and what role consecration and invocation play in banishing chaos from our domain.Show Notes: The books referenced are Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body by John Paul II and Michael Waldstein and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Send your questions about this series to questions@WildatHeart.org. Keywords: Spiritual Warfare, Emotional Regulation, Intentionality, Christianity, Prayer_______________________________________________There is more.Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Ask us at Questions@WildatHeart.orgSupport the mission or find more on our website:WildAtHeart.org  or on our app.Apple: Wild At Heart AppAndroid: Wild At Heart AppWatch on YouTubeThe stock music used in the Wild at Heart podcast is titled “When Laid to Rest” by Patrick Rundblad and available here.More pauses available in the One Minute Pause app for Apple iOS and Android.Apple: One Minute Pause AppAndroid: One Minute Pause App

Listen is to the latest episode of That's Not What Mom Said to find out if Amy is leaving the podcast for another side hustle. The duo returns to one of Tim's favorite topics of Time Management, or the folly that it is. And yet again brings up "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." We all have the same amount of time to spend each day, how we approach filling the hours should align with what is important in your life and fulfill your goals. As Amy tells us "Grace costs us nothing. "What do you do to "Sharpen the Saw?"

Justin Humphries reveals his fundamental principles for rapidly growing opportunities and income in an uncertain job market.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) How to multiply your inbound opportunities2) The simplest way to expand your professional network3) The key that keeps people coming back to youSubscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1149 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT JUSTIN — Justin Humphries is a dedicated Loan Officer with experience since June 2021, specializing in VA, first-time homebuyer, and DSCR loans. A Nashville native, Justin is deeply motivated by personal and professional growth, drawing strength from his faith, family, and a passion for building meaningful relationships. He takes great pride in helping clients align their mortgage strategies with their life goals, aiming to support them in building long-term wealth. Justin values the opportunity to develop lasting connections with customers who return to him year after year for their mortgage needs.Beyond his professional work, Justin is actively involved in his church community, serving on the parish council and volunteering with the Society of St. Vincent DePaul to assist families at risk of homelessness. He is happily married to his wife Stephanie and is a proud father of three young children, including twins.• LinkedIn: Justin Humphries• Profile: Justin Humphries• Phone number: +1 615-438-8125• Email: jhumphries@loandepot.com— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Tool: Claude for Google Chrome• Article: “Researchers Asked LLMs for Strategic Advice. They Got “Trendslop” in Return.” by Angelo Romasanta, Llewellyn D.W. Thomas and Natalia Levina• Study: “Death Squared: The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population” by John B. Calhoun• YouTube: Squat University• Book: Rebuilding Milo: A Lifter's Guide to Fixing Common Injuries and Building a Strong Foundation for Enhancing Performance• Book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Edition by Stephen R. Covey• Previous episode: 184: Building Your Network Before You Need It with Dr. Ivan Misner— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Keepsake Voices. Get mom something special and save about $100 with keepsakevoices.com/pete• Scribe. Book a personalized enterprise demo with scribe.how/awesome• Narwhal. Treat your home to spotless, fresh floors with us.narwhal.com/pete.• Monarch.com. Get 50% off your first year on with the code AWESOME.• Gusto. Get three months free when you run your first payroll with gusto.com/AWESOME• Shopify. Sign up for your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/awesomepod• Vanguard. Give your clients consistent results year in and year out with vanguard.com/AUDIOSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your child loves reading… but now the books feel too mature. Do you step in, or risk shutting it down altogether? This episode tackles the tricky middle ground between protecting your child and preserving their love of reading. Discover how to set boundaries without constant battles, why pushing back can backfire, and how to guide your child toward better choices—without losing connection. Plus some great book recommendations below! KEY POINTS: Why boundary-pushing is a normal (and necessary) part of growing up The tension between encouraging reading and managing content The risk of shutting down a child’s love of reading How to guide without controlling—and reduce power struggles When to hold firm boundaries—and when to soften Shifting from protecting kids to preparing them QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: “Get curious, not furious—because the moment you push, they pull away.” RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Keepers Trilogy by Leanne Tanner The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Clean romance suggestions for 10-12 and 12-14 year olds (from @thekidsbookshop) Two Hearts - Australian middle-grade romance series Top 48 reads for kids aged 9-12 (free download from @bookswithbecandjane) ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS: Protect your child’s love of reading—even when the content worries you Have regular, low-pressure conversations about what they’re reading Ask more questions instead of shutting things down Offer alternatives that align with their interests (not just “better” options) Set clear boundaries where it truly matters—and explain why Focus on teaching values so they can self-regulate over time See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy and Tim delve into another deep topic as they discuss being Liked and being Respected. Is it possible to be liked and respected? Is it possible to be liked without being respected? As a director of people, which is more important, being liked or being respected? These are just a few of the questions they discuss in this episode. Also, is there a book that you've read that has made an impact on your life and you quote from many years later? For Tim that book is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." And the impact it has made on him has been passed down to his daughters - well, at least one of his daughters. They also talk about active listening and how that makes a huge difference when trying to resolve conflicts, and fits right into Habit #5: Seek First to Understand..."We're also still planning on getting some t-shirts for the podcast! Let us know your thoughts on what sayings we should consider!

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3524: Kathy Robinson reframes retirement as an active, purpose-driven phase of life rather than a passive endpoint, urging readers to focus on meaning beyond career identity. By shifting attention to what we can influence and taking intentional action, even small acts of service, fulfillment, connection, and well-being naturally follow. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://athenawellness.com/blog/2022/7/1/retirement-is-a-verb Quotes to ponder: "When we focus on The Circle of Concern, it can feel futile and result in reactivity and negativity." "Happiness and meaning are not found on bucket lists. Rather, they are the result of living a purposeful, healthy lifestyle." "Here's the key, the more we focus on what we can influence, the more change we can elicit." Episode references: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: https://www.amazon.com/7-Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/1982137274 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most entrepreneurs think the next stage of their business requires a better strategy. Dwayne Kerrigan disagrees. In Part 2 of his live keynote at the LeanScaper Operations Intensive in Cape Coral, Florida, he makes the case that what's actually required is a different identity — and that without that shift, no system, tool, or team will get you where you're trying to go. In this episode: Dwayne walks through his personal identity chart — from the "warrior" and "general" identities that ran his life for years, to the consciously designed identities he operates from today, including the Chairman, the Profit Seeker, and the Peak Performance Coach Why the Serenity Prayer became one of the most powerful business tools Dwayne ever learned — and how distinguishing what you can and can't control transformed his leadership at 32 years old, running an $18M business with 300 employees A live identity creation exercise: how to write your own eulogy for a specific business role, and why that process is the starting point for becoming who your business needs you to be The eight stages of the entrepreneur and the business lifecycle — and why understanding exactly where you are in both is critical to knowing which identity needs to show up The four economic seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) and why Dwayne believes the landscaping industry is currently sitting somewhere between late fall and early winter 40 years of lessons learned — distilled into the principles that have shaped how Dwayne builds, leads, and recovers Episode Highlights: 00:00 - Tsunami Of Change 00:27 - Podcast Mission 00:59 - Internal Vs External 02:07 - Serenity Prayer Lesson 03:42 - Identity Chart Origins 04:32 - From Warrior To General 06:10 - Purpose And Marriage 07:47 - Building New Identities 08:48 - Chairman Identity Script 09:50 - Language And Questions 12:38 - Borrowing Role Models 13:41 - Post Fight Debrief 14:40 - Create Your Identity 16:48 - Write Your Eulogy 17:46 - Visualization And Realism 19:01 - Do The Work 19:48 - Physiology Guidelines 20:15 - Physiology and Rituals 20:57 - Energy and Emotions 22:00 - Identity Agent Tool 23:53 - Daily Identity Editing 24:56 - Future Shock and Adaptation 26:22 - Economic Seasons Framework 27:58 - Entrepreneur Stages 29:13 - Business Lifecycle Reality 31:33 - Shift Identity in 3D 31:56 - Courage and Deep Thinking 34:57 - Lessons Learned Log 37:19 - Hard Won Business Rules 40:19 - Final Fear and Farewell Resources Mentioned: Think and Grow Rich — Napoleon Hill Stephen Covey — The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey Institute Keith Cunningham — referenced as the "Rich Dad" in Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad Tony Robbins — Date With Destiny, UPW seminars Identity framework AI agent — available at The Dwayne Kerrigan Podcast: https://www.dwaynekerrigan.com/identity-framework/Quotes: “You can either be right or you can be rich, but you can't be both.” - Dwayne Kerrigan “I did this for my wife through a lot of pain and self suffering, I had to get to the point where the general just couldn't run the show anymore because it was just not sustainable.” - Dwayne Kerrigan “You don't experience the life that you live. You're experiencing the life that you focus on.” - Dwayne Kerrigan “ My greatest fear in life is on my final day to meet the man that I could have been.” - Dwayne Kerrigan Connect with Dwayne Kerrigan Facebook Instagram Linked In Website Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed by guests during The Dwayne Kerrigan Podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Dwayne Kerrigan and his affiliates. Dwayne Kerrigan or The Dwayne Kerrigan Podcast is not responsible for and does not verify the accuracy of any of the information contained in the podcast series. The primary purpose of this podcast is to educate and inform. Listeners are advised to consult with a qualified professional or specialist before making any decisions based on the content of this podcast.

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3350: Vicki Cook draws unexpected parallels between spinning classes and smarter money habits, showing how investing in yourself, building routines, and seeking guidance can pay off in multiple areas of life. Her insights highlight how prioritizing health, community, and ambitious goals can lead to stronger financial and personal outcomes. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://womenwhomoney.com/money-lessons-spinning-class/ Quotes to ponder: "Spending money on yourself and your wellness matters too." "Whatever it is you're focusing on, put it first and it's more likely to get done." "Start strong, set the bar high, and you'll end up further ahead." Episode references: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: https://www.amazon.com/7-Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/1982137274 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Kwik's brain health suffered a major setback after a traumatic injury in kindergarten. Labeled "the boy with the broken brain," he believed his intelligence was permanently limited due to learning difficulties, poor focus, and memory issues. This mindset shifted when he discovered a new way to learn and train his brain. In this episode, Jim reveals how he improved his memory, transformed his brain health, and reframed limiting beliefs to unlock limitless potential. In this episode, Hala and Jim will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:20) Overcoming the “Broken Brain” Label (07:11) The Shift That Changed How He Learned (16:12) Immigrant Mindset and Inner Strength (21:20) The Science Behind Motivation and Learning (29:36) Myths About Brain Health and Intelligence (34:33) Training Your Memory for Real-World Success (40:46) The B-SUAVE Method for Remembering Names (46:05) How Technology Weakens Brain Performance (52:03) Loving and Training Your Brain Jim Kwik is a world-renowned brain coach, memory expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling book Limitless. With over three decades of experience, he teaches high performers how to improve learning, focus, and brain optimization. Jim is also the host of the top-ranked Kwik Brain podcast, where he explores brain health, cognitive wellness, and mental performance. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Spectrum Business - Keep your business connected seamlessly with fast, reliable Internet, Advanced WiFi, Phone, TV, and Mobile services. Visit https://spectrum.com/Business to learn more. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to Framer.com/profiting and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Working Genius - Take the Working Genius assessment and discover your natural gifts and thrive at work. Go to workinggenius.com and get 20% off with code PROFITING Experian - Manage and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reduce your bills. Get started now with the Experian App and let your Big Financial Friend do the work for you. See experian.com for details. Huel -  Get all the daily nutrients you need with Huel. Grab Huel today and get 15% OFF with my code PROFITING at huel.com/PROFITING. Resources Mentioned: Jim's Book, Limitless: bit.ly/-Limitles  Jim's Podcast, Kwik Brain: bit.ly/KB-apple  Jim's YouTube: youtube.com/c/JimKwik  Jim's Instagram: instagram.com/jimkwik/?hl=en  YAP E385 with Jim Kwik: youngandprofiting.co/E385  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: bit.ly/-7Habits  The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale: bit.ly/TPoPT  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: bit.ly/-TaGR  Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals  Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter  LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new  Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Biohacking, Manifestation, Life Balance, Self-Healing, Positivity, Happiness, Sleep, Diet