My Business On Purpose

What kind of baseball are you playing with your business?

Are you swinging for the fences... trying to make a big splash? Or are you hitting singles and doubles every day? Well, let’s talk about each of these and the why behind them.

Happy Friday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I hope you’re doing well today.

A few years ago, a movie came out called Moneyball. It chronicled the rise of the Oakland A’s baseball club and their revolutionary approach to changing the game.

Their GM, Billy Beane realized something... they didn’t have the capital to play the game the way the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers...etc. played the game. 

Their strategy was based off of signing big name free agents that could swing for the fence and produce home runs or have a high batting average as power players. Get a few guys on base, hit a home run. Win the game. Simple, but EXPENSIVE!

What Beane realized was that there was a different way to run an organization. He started looking at often forgotten stats like On base percentage as a way to manufacture runs and began a new age of what is now known as “sabermetrics” in the MLB and is the way every single organization runs its ball club.

So why is this such a big deal? Well, a lot of those high-paid players hit slumps. They struck out a ton, meaning they were ineffective. And with their unbelievably high payroll, it put a tremendous amount of stress on the finances of the organization. But low paid players hired to fill a role and produce, created dividends over and over and over again.

So, if you look in your business...what’s your strategy? Is it making the high-priced move... hoping you hit the home run? Or is it base hits...base hits...base hits. 

The problem is, base hits aren’t sexy. They aren’t what books get written about or what we brag about to our friends and colleagues after work. Home runs is where the glory resides. Well, that is until it puts you under.

See here is what happens. We’ve seen this half a dozen times already this year with businesses we coach. That one big deal comes across your desk. The one you’ve been waiting for! It’s a homerun in every possible way. So what do you do? You take it and say, “We’ll just figure out how to make it happen and the profits will be so much higher that we’ll figure out the back end later.”

So you sign the deal and then go to work figuring out the numbers. Alright, if we do this we have to hire a new crew. And if we hire a new crew we’ll need a new Project Manager to be over that team. Well, that PM will need a truck to get around to job sites. That crew is gonna need a trailer... and tools and embroidered collared shirts, but then the project had a snag so they need some overtime to get it finished. Whoops, now our supply chain is backed up so our guys are on the clock, but can’t get the materials we need so we’re paying them to work slower or do other jobs around our business.

Or maybe it looks like this…”Oh, we’ll just hire a Sub crew. That will save us on payroll taxes and then we can just use them as needed for this massive job!” Well, that works until you have no leverage and the guys walk off your job for a higher-paying job. Now you’re stuck with a deadline and a rapidly shrinking margin. 

You look up at the end of the year and somehow your topline was 30-40% higher than the year before... I mean you hit a home run with the new deal right, but then you look down at your Profit and it’s smaller than the year before.

And on and on it goes!

You can laugh and say that this will never happen, but we’re seeing it time and time again. Base hits friends! It’s not sexy... it’s not flashy, but it’s the way to win. 

Why? Because as you grow your business with base hits you begin to build processes that work. You build systems that can handle your steadily growing business. The foundation is rock solid...so that when the big deal comes through, you’re ready to handle it.

If you watch Shark Tank at all, they use this phrase all the time…”Drowning in opportunity!” The entrepreneur is on there, they grew too fast and got too excited about all the potential revenue coming in that they didn’t take the time to build their business the right way. So they’re sitting there with Purchase orders that they have not chance to fill without going into massive amounts of debts, their manufacturing is a mess, distribution is a nightmare, oh but they’ve got purchase orders!

Base hits, guys. Base hits.

So, what kind of baseball are you playing in your business. Are you relying on the home run? Relying on that one whale of a client who, if they left, would absolutely crush your business? It’s not sustainable. It’s not a responsible way to run your business! It leaves you vulnerable on all sides and at the mercy of making that one deal happen.

Or are you playing Moneyball with your business. Finding creative ways to play the game and creative ways to innovate along the way. All the while building a foundation that is ready to handle whatever is thrown at you. 

As we love to say around here…”There’s no competition for a well run business.” It’s so true and we’d love to help you find the right way to run your business.

Hey, if you haven’t checked out our podcast or YouTube channel, make sure to do so! So much great content there. 

Thanks and have a great weekend.

4 Things Your Employees Need To Hear From You…

What do your employees need to hear from you? Let’s talk about that today. Happy Friday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose.

Everyone’s got that first boss you work for. You remember them? Can you picture them? If so, what does that picture look like? Are they yelling at you? Are they coaching you up? Coming alongside you? What are they doing?

Well, my first boss, thankfully, was a huge gift to me personally and professionally. I remember day 2 on the job him sitting our team down and doing 3 things that set the tone for my almost decade on Young Life staff. I’ll get to it here in just a second, but I think every employee needs to hear these things from their boss. They need to be told and reminded constantly. 

So often we, as business owners, cover this stuff once and think that our bases are covered for the next year or two, but no these conversations need to happen monthly, if not weekly or daily. They need to be a part of the fabric of the business in a way that you can feel and taste!

So, these are the 4 things your employees need to hear from you…

1. Where are you going?

Where do we want to be in a year, 3 years, 5 years? It’s a simple thing, but do your employees know what the long-term goals for the business are in tangible, broken down steps that they can begin to tackle on a daily basis? Day 2 on staff with Young Life we talked all about the scale and scope of ministry in the town we were placed. We dreamed about the new schools we wanted to reach and the new leaders we needed to get there. We spoke of the funds we needed to raise to make that happen. 

And at the end of that meeting, we knew exactly what was going to have to happen to end up where we wanted to be. We had a clear vision of all of that, now we just had to put in the work!

1. Your employees need to know how you’re going to get there. 

As we sat there with this tall task of things to accomplish we were struck with no clue of how to actually get there! So, one by one my boss asked us what are the hills we’re willing to die on when it comes to ministry. And we listed them out. As we stepped back, we were struck that these were filters through which every decision could make. A set of core values and principles that we could stand on that would keep us on track towards our vision. 

So do your employees know how to make decisions? Do they have something grounding them and filtering every decision? Do they know that these are the keys to getting them to where you want to be? 

If not, they need to know how you’re going to get to your vision. It’s what helps build momentum and build credibility in your community. A shared value system to accomplish the vision.

1. Why are you going there?

We spent a ton of time last week at our 12-week plan talking about work. That our work needs to be more than just a job! More than just clocking in and clocking out. We saw a plumber setting a toilet at a new park. Is he just setting a toilet? No! He’s creating a space to help out a young mom who’s overwhelmed and needs a clean place to take her child to the restroom. He’s facilitating people being outdoors, knowing that they can go to the park and not have to worry about a restroom emergency.

That’s what changes your attitude about work. Are you just driving in nails and framing a house? Or are you building a shelter for generations of families that will live under that roof? Knowing you’re providing quality work for one of our core needs.

That “why” is what should get you out of bed in the morning! It’s what makes a job what we call, “a work worth doing.” Your team needs to know the why behind what you’re doing so that it becomes a part of your story!

1. We need YOU, to get there.

So often we get this complaint from clients. “Well, we hired this person and they just aren’t working out.” Here’s what I’d say to that. Most times, employee failures are more on the owner than they are on the employee.

Why? Because we rushed the hiring process. When we rush the hiring process, we miss something and end up rushing the firing process.

It’s why we have such a thorough vetting process for hiring and 6 mos of onboarding for every hire. Because we value people enough to not want a constant in and out in our business. That doesn’t accomplish the vision and that doesn’t value our employees.

However, when you take the hiring process slowly, you can look at your employees and say, “No, you’re the right person for this job. I believe in you and I need you to help us get where we’re going!”

That’s empowering leadership. Taking ownership of your hires and equipping or training them to chase after the vision. Your employees need YOU to believe in them sometimes before they can believe in themselves. 

I hope you know that.

So, if these have never been communicated in your business take time to plan it out. They need to know where you’re going, how you’re getting there, why you’re going there, and that you need them to get there.

Have a great weekend Friends!!!

Sell me this…

What is the message you’re telling your clients? And what do you really offer? Well, let’s talk about it! Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with BOP here.

I’ll never forget sitting in professional selling class at Clemson University and the professor pulls out the age-old selling conversation. 

He calls a student upfront and says, “sell me this pen.” The first student clearly rattled, asks him if he wants to buy the pen.  Uh, no, said the professor. Next!

The next student walks up there and says, “I’m curious, are you interested in any pens? I’ve got some amazing options that I’d love to show you.” Nope! Said the professor and he sent him back to his seat. 

Then the third student walks up there. At this point, we’ve all had a few minutes to calm our nerves and think through what we’ve learned so far. The student sits down and just says, “so Jesse, tell me a bit about yourself.” They go back and forth a few times and the conversation slowly gets to what he does and what his needs are for his business.

From there, the student starts solving his problems one by one... all with the purchase of this pen. He went on and on about it taking 3 years to develop the way it fits in your hand and the slow release of ink so there’s never too much or too little. He talked about how when you click it to get the point to come out it’s quiet, not like other ballpoint pens that you can hear from down the hall. And finally, he finished by saying how professional it looks and how reliable it is. 

“I’m sold!” Said the professor and we all just laughed.

You see selling almost never starts with an object. A thing, a widget, a service. No, it starts with understanding a problem and then finding a solution. The process of understanding that problem and finding that solution is your story! 

And people always want to buy a story. 

We had our 12-week live event last week and had just an amazing assortment of 20 businesses join us in person and another 20 or so through zoom. Our speaker, Billy Watterson spoke all about the power of story to change your life and change your business.

I was struck when he said this, “People don’t buy the thing, they buy what the thing can do for them!”

Man, that is so true! People don’t care how great your thing is or your service is until they know what it can do for them.

So, are you telling them what it can do for them? Are you highlighting the benefits and all the ways it improves life for them? If not, why?

Tell your story! Tell how you came up with your design and your service. People need to know the why behind everything you do from an operations standpoint. And if it’s not something worth sharing? Change it! Find a way to make it share-worthy.

There is so much noise from a marketing standpoint right now. So many things being thrown around that authenticity sticks out like a neon t-shirt on the beach. People can spot it from a mile away.

So take some time today... maybe for the first time, to write down your story. Write down the why behind your product or service and begin to document it and share it with the world. I wonder how many great products or services have fallen by the wayside because they never shared their story with the world.

Remember, “The world doesn’t want to buy your product, they want to buy what it can do for them!”

Now don’t lie to them. Don’t make something up. But craft a story to be proud of and highlight all of the benefits for your ideal client.

Find what problems you solve and relate it to your client. That’s it! The rest is up to them.

That’s all for today friends. Make sure to check out our podcast and YouTube channel when you get a minute. So much great stuff on there!

Have a great week!

Inexpensive Marketing Ideas For Small Business

There is no love loss in my relationship with marketing.

If you ask any of the members of my Mastermind they would chuckle if you asked about my history with marketing.  Their response would sound something like this, “he hates marketing.”

It’s true.  

I don’t like things that feel ambiguous and cross-your-fingers-ish.  

Marketing can feel like trying to find an undersized needle in an earth-sized haystack, in the dark, upside down, with sub-zero temperatures...all while wolves are chasing you and snipers are aiming in on you.

Two years ago we tried to take the shifting and unpredictable tide of marketing and put a system to it.  I read the interesting book by Marcus Sheridan entitled They Ask You Answer (the second best marketing book I’ve read next to This Is Marketing by Seth Godin).  

Sheridan makes a powerful (and yet obvious) point that customers prefer honestly providing direct responses to their biggest questions.

The title of this post for instance; Google told me that this is the title that many of you have searched in the past.  I can answer this question based on our experience.  Our answer may vary from other business owners... but it is how we see it from our angle.

If you go to our website at mybusinessonpurpose.com you will find that we answer the biggest question we receive directly on our homepage so as not to waste the time of business owners who are not a fit, and yet to solidify our offering for those business owners we are a perfect fit for.

In following Sheridan’s model we have created a unique and inexpensive content marketing strategy that adds loads of value to our existing clients, our future clients, and our existing team.

First, we ask each of our coaches to write one article per week between 500 and 800 words.  The subject of the article is simply a response to a question that we received from clients during our coaching time the previous week.

I can hear some of you now, “I can’t write!”  That is another battle for another time, but you can certainly talk, right?  Of course, you can!  Pretend that a client just asked you a question, turn your phone camera on and record your response and then go get it transcribed using a service like Rev.com.  Voila!  You have your article.

Second, we ask each of our coaches to use the article they wrote as the script for their video.  Pretend you are a radio show that happens to do video recording.  Download the Teleprompter app on your phone, press record, and read your script with a little life and enthusiasm.

Third, we send our article and video each week to a virtual team member who then edits both the article and video with some callout headlines and images.  

These edited assets then become an amazing list of tools that both existing and future clients can draw value from.

From only one weekly article and video we are able to provide a YouTube video and Facebook Live video, a podcast episode, a LinkedIn article, a blog post, and a string of valuable social media posts with images.

It is an inexpensive marketing process for our business in terms of real dollars spent, although it costs each one of our coaches about two hours of time per week.  With four coaches this process can provide up to twenty pieces of content per week that we can share with our network.

For us, we believe that our online media is air support to our ground game.  The most effective form of marketing in our work with business owners (and most other businesses) is direct referral by word of mouth...that IS the ground game.

After being referred, the first place future clients will go to learn more about us is our online channels.  With this inexpensive marketing idea, we make sure that we are adding credibility to the referral, and more importantly, adding value to our existing and future clients.

Don’t make excuses as to why this cannot or should not be done.  Get started with this methodical, consistent, predictable, and inexpensive marketing idea, and maybe even your relationship with marketing could be redeemed like mine has been.

Business On Purpose LIVE Event- The Power Of Storytelling

by:
Billy Watterson
Owner, Burnt Church Distillery

BOP Live Event- A Work Worth Doing

"The work you're doing is only a work worth doing if you decide in your mind that your work is A WORK WORTH DOING."
#businessonpurpose

by:
Scott Beebe
Founder | Head Coach
My Business On Purpose

Do You Have Wise Counsel?

Who did you consult the last time you had a big life decision? How about the last time you had a small decision? I want to hear about it, and I want to talk about it today.

Happy Friday everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

We live in a world right now that is moving faster than ever before. Split-second decisions happen all day, every day. And yet the thing that seems to be lacking day after day after day is wisdom in each of those decisions!

So, what is the filter that we run everything through? Do we just freewheel it and deal with the consequences, or is there a system that we run everything through? 

I think we’re seeing right now that most of us just run...and correct mistakes along the way. Because we really don’t have anyone in our life that we would consider wise counsel or a mentor, so we don’t bother to fill the void, we just make judgment calls and see what happens!

Think about the way journalism works these days... it’s ready, fire, oh shoot we forgot to aim. They release content knowing it could potentially be damaging or not 100% correct, but they will retract the story later on if it’s false. It’s a horrible way of going about your business.

Or in business, we don’t take the time to get the information needed to make a wise decision, so we push forward hoping we made the right call, knowing that it could cost us down the road.

So, why do we do that? If we know it costs us, why do we keep making poor decisions? 

Well, I think it’s because we don’t know there’s another way. I also don’t think we know the value of wise counsel in life.

I was reading in the book of Proverbs the other day and it said this…” Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

Let me say that again, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

That’s powerful. Would you say you have a multitude of counselors? Ok, not even a multitude, but do you have any? Do you have a group of people that you run business decisions by, do you have people that you run personal decisions by? Questions about marriage, kids, fitness, hobbies? Anything?

Just last week I had a situation in my family where I was just stuck. Spinning my wheels day after day and I needed some perspective. So, I called a man I really respect and asked him to speak into it. I took him to lunch and just said, “tell me what I’m not seeing.” 

Here’s what I can tell you. The perspective he gave me was worth 10x what I paid for it. Which, conveniently, was an $8 burrito. 

It saved me frustration. It saved me mistakes that would have cost me and set me back in other areas of life. But, it took me humbling myself and reaching out for wise counsel.

So, if there is safety (and I would add security, wisdom, steadfastness, freedom) in having counsel, why don’t we run to it? It’s why we use business coaching as our platform to liberate business owners from chaos. If our mission, which it is, is to liberate business owners from chaos, we choose to be counselors and extra sets of eyes on your business.

Everyone needs a coach or mentor. Whether you use us, BOP, as a coach or not, YOU NEED WISE COUNSEL IN YOUR LIFE! Think about the best athletes of all-time, most of them are marked by a great coach or mentor in their life. Michael Jordan had Phil Jackson, Kobe had Phil Jackson (Ok, maybe we all just need a Phil Jackson in our life!). I’m kidding, but Tom Brady had Bill Bellichek, Tiger Woods had his dad... all giving them perspective and coaching/mentoring every step of the way!

So what wise counsel do you need? Or, better said, what kind of coach do you need?

One that can shine a light on your weaknesses and fortify your strengths. Every day. That’s it. Someone who can teach you the pieces of your business that may be blind spots for you. Someone who can provide perspective and rationale to help you make informed decisions. 

Oh, but we can’t afford that. That’s a luxury only high margin businesses can afford. Really, I’d argue that you can’t afford not to. As I said, whether it’s us, or someone else, you can’t afford not to have someone helping you navigate tough decisions in your business and in your life. 

Not having a coach is costing you more than you think. I guarantee it.

And that’s exactly the value we provide our clients. Always peeking over the shoulder, pointing out what’s ahead, giving perspective from our experience with currently coaching over 80 businesses and thousands of hours of these conversations. Helping you avoid costly mistakes and walking alongside you to help you make informed, wise decisions.

So, let’s talk! If you feel like we’re not right, we will help you find the coach that’s right for you because we believe so strongly that everyone needs a coach. Heck, it’s why we have coaches that coach us, as well! It’s a game-changer. Do it!

Again, if you just want some free content that we send out, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and our podcast. Search my business on purpose. 

Alright have a great weekend and please reach out so we can chat.

How To Structure Your Business Mentoring Program To Change Lives

Tragedy struck this past Friday night.  A young, 18-year-old student, friend, athlete, and rising star is dead.

What we know right now is that at least one, if not two gunmen took fire on another car while driving their own car.  Now one young man is dead, one is in critical condition, and one is in a wheelchair for now while he processes in his mind everything that went so wrong so fast.

Our family was beyond excited that same Friday night because our college daughter had come home for an evening to hang out and catch her breath before heading back to school.  We laughed around the dinner table for a while... in another part of town, chaos was brewing.

Then.  

Gunshots.

Why?

Saturday we woke up somber but still distant from the story.  Our kids knew of the students involved in the incident, but not firsthand.

Sunday morning we woke up with a completely different proximity.  A mug shot of one of the young men who was a member of the small group that we started four years ago when these students were freshmen.  There were only five in that original group... and now one of those five is wearing prison orange staring empty and scared into a County Detention Center camera.

The emotion centers in our heads began to buffer and spin.  How?  Why?  Who?  When?

Over and over again.  

Feeling real empathy for the Field’s family of this young man who is now gone, and for the lifetime of lingering pain.  

Feeling anger at the escalation of teenage emotion.  

Feeling confusion.  

Feeling failure. 

Why?  

WHY??

Here is a hard truth that I was forced to reckon…

While I spin my wheels myopically building a kingdom that will ultimately dissolve, an 18-year-old somewhere is ready for my faulty influence, my lackluster enCOURAGEment, my unpolished intercession, my handshake, my slap on the shoulder, and my curiosity about their life.

A business on purpose affords us options.  We have the option to grow, build, create, innovate, lead, shift, and research.

We also have the opportunity to invest the margin our business provides; marginal time, money, resources, and connections.

Tim Elmore in his book Gen Z Unfiltered relayed that “72 percent of high-school students wanted to start a business and nearly one-third of those ages sixteen to nineteen had already begun volunteering their time.”

There is a real desire among High School students to do something unique, innovative, entrepreneurial, and meaningful.

Your business can be a training ground for that.

Here are three ways (there are plenty more) for you to begin a business mentoring program that would provide students exposure to your influence, and just maybe give them a reason to their still-developing teenage emotion.  

First, you can simply begin meeting with a group of students regularly.  You may be surprised... but students like to congregate and they love it even better when there is food.  

Come up with a basic theme of your time together, get some cheap food, and plan a simple activity.

We began meeting with students four years ago at a local Wendy’s Restaurant with cheap breakfast biscuits.  I would play a five-minute video of something motivational and then have a silly activity ready like burning a match from end to end, or a spit-ball competition at the head of a Dave Thomas poster (the founder of Wendy’s).  

I would share stories from our life and business and focus on one big takeaway from our time and then drive those five guys to school.  That group still meets, now it is on Tuesday nights (because all of the guys can drive) and has grown to 10 to 15 on any given night.  

Where do you find the students?  Ask the coaches and local youth leaders (like YoungLife or FCA).  They would welcome your support, and the students will invite their friends. 

Second, build a simple business mentor program.  Create one role in your business that could easily be filled by a student (especially social media management) and create a one-year, revolving program where you bring a student in each year. 

During that year, go ahead and map out a calendar for their time and also the time that you and your team will intentionally spend with them so they can learn.

I am proud of a local drone training company here in Bluffton (Crossflight) that has invited a group of four students to come and take part in an internship.  One of the young men in our Tuesday night group is a part of it and they have taken the kid gloves off and are empowering these students to learn drone flight while also taking their drone pilot’s license.

Finally, connect with other local business owners and collectively determine mutual roles that one or two High School students could co-op on.

If you are a law office, maybe you can connect with other firms in the area for mutual services that a young student can help with.

Investing in students is an active decision that takes active effort, time, and money.  

Your failure rate may be high, your confidence level may be low, but the good news is that those don’t matter.

What matters is showing up with intentionality.  We all knew that one lady, or guy, that as a student we thought, “what a freak!”  Then when we grew into adulthood we realized…” what a sage.”

May you and your business be an intentional light to a student today and maybe we’ll have one less student in the grave, and one less student in a jumpsuit.  

Do your employees know all that you think they know?

So many frustrations with employees. Why can’t they just do things the way I would do them? Well, maybe they don’t know how you would do them!

Good morning everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose.

The past few weeks I’ve set up Weekly Team Meetings and trained local business owners on our process for that. 

The funny thing is we always get the same objection. “Thomas, we’ve tried it in the past and it doesn’t really work.”

You see, most team meetings are miserable. Boring. Basically pointless. They go on for way too long, they don’t accomplish what they should accomplish... and worst of all, there’s no follow-up.

So, what should a team meeting look like? What makes it worthwhile and game-changing for your business?

5 simple things:

1. A written agenda. 

If you don’t write it down it doesn’t exist. Here’s what writing things down shows your team… it shows them you’ve prepared. Shows them this is a legit meeting and gives them a predictable set of items that they know they will be asked about. Write out what you want to cover.

1. BIG Wins

If you’ve spent any time around us, you know we are all about BIG Wins. It stands for begin in gratitude. It’s simple but helps to make you feel known and seen. Gives it a personal touch in a meeting that normally feels all about business. But it also gives you rare insight into your teams life that you don’t get when you jump straight into business. Do it, every week.

1. Follow up from last week's action items

Nothing is more frustrating than being asked to do something and then never get any feedback. This is your chance to hold your team accountable. You don’t need to list everything your team needs to do, but what are the main focus points from the last meeting and how did they go. 

1. Next week’s action items, or action items for the near future

Again, if your team knows they will be asked about them at the next team meeting, they can plan accordingly and execute the plan. Give them the things to focus on and let them know y’all will talk about it next week.

1. 5-10 min of Training

This is where you get creative. Pick one process each week and train the entire team. Let everyone poke holes in the workflow or give feedback on things. Businesses want to do these day long or multi-day training days, and while that’s great, your team retains less of it than you think. But if you can build 5-10 min of training into each team meeting, times 52 weeks... that’s A LOT of training throughout the course of the year. Served up to your team in bite-size chunks they can digest and be held accountable.

So back to my clients... I’ve had to try their first team meetings in the last 2 weeks. The first one came back and said it was one of the best things they had done this year. He picked an easy process, how to set up your service truck every day. What are the things you don’t leave the shop without? 

You know what? They had no idea what they were responsible for having on their truck every day. They grew as a team. So, next time something happens, the business owner isn’t driving it out to them on the job site, or they aren’t getting paid to drive back to the office for supplies. Their trucks and employees are ready for whatever comes.

That changes your business! That gives you freedom from the chaos!

And when, inevitably, one of your team members fails in an area. Hey, it’s ok, but we talked about this. You were trained on our process. That’s radical accountability that brings the performance of your team up every day.

So, what’s stopping you from having a team meeting? Is it the thought of, “Oh, well they just don’t work for us.” 

It’s not true. Build out your process, implement it, and watch your team grow.

I can’t wait to hear some stories of successful team meetings. 

Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube and podcast. So much great stuff on there.

Have a great weekend!

My Friend’s Cancer Made Me Confront Chaos

I received a quote recently that bothered me, “slow dancing with chaos”.

It immediately recalled the famed John Mayer title, “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room”.

Christmas Eve, we are driving through a small, pass-thru town on the way to have a quick glimpse at the university that my son just committed to attending and running for.  

“Hey man...just wanted you to know before word got out... I’ve got stage 3 melanoma.”

About four weeks later, another bomb... a 14 x 14 centimeter mass on his kidney.  

My friend and I along with another dear wisdom mentor grabbed lunch as we do throughout the year.  No agenda, we typically just check in with each other and then meandor the back roads of our experiences while laboring intently to take in new views along the way while staring out a windshield of the wisdom of foundational books and Proverbs. 

If it sounds geeky, your perception would not be misaligned.

Throughout our lunch, I was unusually quiet primarily because I was moved by my friend’s hope, joy, laughter, humility, curiosity, and confidence.

At one point he told us of the many texts he had received encouraging him to “kick cancer’s ass”, and “you can do it!”.

He obviously appreciated the backing and optimism, and yet he had a contrasting strategy for the next few months as he cranked up radiation.

“Scott, I want to be a helpless lamb in God’s arms.”

How did he come to such an outrageous game plan?  The human spirit must fight, battle, war, aggress, and strike blows to that which invades.

This quiet warrior had procured a different armamentarium.  His stockpile was one of quiet, thought, slowness, patience, stillness, and sharp perception.

To my knowledge, I do not have cancer or one of a thousand other possible ailments that can lob death threats and sentences at the very bodies they call home.

I, and you likely as well, suffer from a more social disease; submitting to chaos.

Email tethers us.  Facebook (insert your channel of choice) grips us.  The expectations of others blind us, and societal noise confuses us.

Ryan Holiday contends that Stillness Is The Key.

How can my friend have the courage to build an arsenal in such stark contrast to the common battle tools that are wielded?

He practices stillness.

My friend wields the sword of wisdom, the shield of a quiet life, the helmet of thinking, the spectacles of reading, and the smiles of joy. 

Chaos thrives in the stickiness environment of busy.  Chaos LOVES busy.

Our usual response to chaos is to match it with louder and louder chaos.  Chaos is loud, be louder.  Chaos punches, punch back harder.  Chaos confuses, act like a know-it-all.  Chaos delivers a blow, try to kick its ass.

Holiday quotes Marcus Aurelius, “Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’”  Holiday goes on to say, “Knowing what not to think about.  What to ignore and not to do.  It’s your first and most important job.”

Stillness will determine your battle armour.  Stillness will provide the insight that you need in the moment.  Stillness sets the stage for wisdom.  

Chaos on the other hand... well, if stillness is the key, then chaos is the beautifully groomed path to destruction.  

I will not offer a typical stepwise approach to stillness... for I need stillness in order to see it for myself.

Maybe this wisdom statement will help, “be still…”  Drop your hands.  Step back.  

“... and know…”  

I’ll invite you to fill in the blank.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.  Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.