Ben’s Bites #3
Transcript:
I was recently going through many of my notes from the past year, and was reminded once again of how incredible this year’s 2021 Global Leadership Summit was! I had pages and pages of scribbles. I was writing so fast I couldn’t read my own handwriting
I’m a little behind to expand on my thoughts. But I thought, better late than never, right!? The summit was last August,
And of course, there will be another summit in august 2022. I will see you there
In this episode, I review my personal takeaways on 10 fascinating quotes from 2021’s Global Leadership Summit…
1) “Your Comfort Zone… Can expand or contract.” -Michelle Poler
Reflection: The more we get comfortable, the more we get complacent. This leads to dissatisfaction long-term. We need to expand our comfort zone and work it like a muscle.
I know that personally, I actually struggle to get out of my comfort zone. I often find that sweet spot where I know exactly what I’m doing and continue to just get better and better at that. For example, I really struggle at the accounting/operations end of my business. So for almost a year, I managed and tracked all my income and expenses on a poorly organized excel spreadsheet. After the summit, I decided that I had to bite the bullet and get set up on Quickbooks. Trust me, it’s a lot harder when you don’t do things right the first time…there was endless information to transfer over. Now that I’m set up acclimated and comfortable, I’ve found Quickbooks to be really easy to use and an incredible organizational tool for my business. I love it!
2) “Do we listen to the no… or the knowing?” -Jamie Kern Lima
Reflection: We may hear “no” daily. People will challenge us and disagree with our vision. However, if we KNOW with certainty and conviction we are on the right track, we need to listen to that intuition and continue forward.
This message really spoke to me. For a lot of my life, I felt insignificant. I felt not good enough. And I took negative feedback from others to heart. I heard no a lot. And I failed a ton. I was never the worst employee at the workplace, but I also was not the best.
I dove into what is now a 10+ year journey through self-development and have become a person who KNOWS that he is deserving. I have become a person who KNOWS he can be successful. I have become a person that KNOWS that no is just a building block leading up to the next yes. When I started Balbert Marketing in August of 2019, I KNEW I would be successful! And I was right! No matter what anyone else thought.
3) “Your ‘Hire’ self has an answer for everything.” -Shola Richards
Reflection: Shola exclaims, “If you wouldn’t say it at a job interview, don’t do it at work.” We know exactly what to do during our job interviews, what to say, how to act, and we might even pretend to be someone we aren’t on the day-to-day. We should seek to be our “Hire” self in all situations, even when no one is watching.
Big Yikes, I think everyone could agree that we don’t always live up to our vision of our best self, and we don’t always do exactly what we say we’re going to do. I’d do anything to be able to be my perfect “hire” self. But that isn’t possible, is it?
However, do you know what’s really rewarding? Knowing my “Hire” self does have all the answers. And since I do know the right answer, I’m past step one to taking action on it. Suppose I can admit I’m slacking off, not always reaching my goals, and not performing as consistently as I could. In that case, I can acknowledge that, accept it, and start working forward to actually become my “Hire” self. This doesn’t happen overnight. So I have to take it day by day!
4) “Napping is the new hustle.” -Albert Tate
Reflection: What did God do on the 7th day? He rested. We need to take more time to relax, reflect, and rejuvenate. This makes us more productive and creative.
Albert Tate’s speech was inspiring, and his message reigned supreme for my life. When I first started my company, I was working 70+ hour weeks, no exception. With the Covid lockdown, social unrest, and everything going on all at once, it was pretty hard to focus and feel “sane.” Following the summit, I realized that taking a 4 day weekend to go camping wasn’t the end of the world. I started taking long lunches to play basketball. I started getting out of the office to take a walk daily. Overall, I refreshed my passion for business and marketing by taking a step away from it now and then. Is there anything in your life you need to step away from?
5) “To do something significant, you don’t just have to take an operational risk… you have to take a social risk.” -Malcolm Gladwell
Reflection: True greatness is accomplished by taking a social risk, breaking the traditional norms, and taking massive action!
For me, Starting Rochester Business Connections at the very least felt like a massive social risk. I’m a new business owner. I’m not an expert at everything. I am subjecting myself to criticism, and I might not be the most qualified person for the job. But there weren’t any relevant small business podcasts I knew of in the area, so why not grab the torch and be the man who does it. Since then, I’ve 10x’d my growth by learning from and becoming buddies with some true business experts. The risk was worth the reward!
6) Sometimes our best leaders are the ones that are hiding… do we have the eyes to see where they are?” -Bianca Juarez Olthoff
Reflection: The best leaders aren’t always the most outgoing, most charismatic, or prettiest. Maybe they appear unqualified. However, in many situations, they are the perfect fit. When called, they will fulfill the request and lead like the best.
I’m personally not the most outgoing, charismatic, or prettiest. But when I was furloughed from my previous role, I felt this was my calling to become an entrepreneur and become a community leader! And Bianca opened my eyes to the fact I am surrounded by so many other incredible leaders, some of which just don’t know it yet! I realize now I always had it in me. And you should realize, you have it in you too
7) “Relationships…A network for life.” -A.R Bernard
Reflection: Too often we are short-sighted. We just seek the next easy win. This is misguided. We need to build bridges and foster long-lasting relationships. This is how we achieve long-term abundance for life.
I couldn’t agree more with Bernard. I used to not understand what networking was at all. I once worked in a high-volume sales role, where building a relationship was, if anything, discouraged. And when I took Steve Heroux’s Sales DNA Test, I found out my inability to build relationships was my Achilles heel. I scored very low! You would have never guessed that today, I run a business built on relationships. I’ve learned that the more I help others, show them respect, and provide value without expectations, the more others do the same for me. We all know this. What goes around comes around!
8) “The antidote to fear Is hunger.” -Richard Montanez
Reflection: Fear can feel crippling. Hunger and necessity will always trump fear. We should set ambitious goals, show grit, and be passionately resilient.
Some days I don’t even want to get out of bed. Then I don’t want to make that first call. I don’t want to attend a networking event. I don’t want to have to operate my own business anymore. It’s risky, it’s stressful, it’s hard…
When I make a deliberate decision that I’m hungry, and the least I must do is accomplish my non-negotiables, even if it’s fearful, frustrating, and stressful, I do it anyway! This is why every day, I put together a to-do list of non-negotiables. These non-negotiables are stepping stones to reaching a higher level and gaining momentum. What are your non-negotiables. How are you going to trump your fears?
9) “We entertain ourselves with screen time instead of asking questions like, ‘why am I bored?’” -Juliet Funt
Reflection: We have an attention-grabbing machine in our pockets at all times. Why not seek to embrace boredom? We may gain irreplaceable insights into our lives.
This statement by Julie couldn’t have been more relevant to me, and I’m sure so many of you as well. I am seldom just in silence. I’m always doing one, two, or three things at once! Juliet reminded me that I need to unplug more often. And since then, I’ve been trying to allocate more time in the morning just to sit in silence. Or I’ll take a walk around the block and unplug for a moment.
I’d love to hear what some of you do to allow yourself to be bored. A lot of great creativity and insight can come from reflection, but how do you reflect when there are so many distractions? We all have to do the best we can!
10) “The healthiest mindset a leader can take on is a mindset of gratitude.” -Rich Wilkerson
Reflection: We should all embrace every moment in our lives, even the tests. As a leader, be grateful, always.
I am grateful to all of you for taking this journey with me! I hope you enjoyed these insights from world-class leaders, and I appreciate you taking the time to hear my reflections. Gratitude is infectious. And I’m full of it today. Thanks again! I’ll talk to each and every one of you again soon!
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