Michael: Hello everyone and welcome to the HaBO Village podcast. I'm Michael Redman.
Kathryn: And I'm Kathryn Redman.
Michael: And this is the podcast dedicated to business leaders like you of small and medium sized businesses that want to build a company with the Passion and Provision strategy for more profit, more purpose and more legacy.
Kathryn: That is this podcast.
Michael: I almost stumbled over that.
Kathryn: You know what? Words are hard. It's okay.
Michael: Sometimes they are but it is. They're-
Kathryn: And we've been talking for about two hours solid this morning. So, you know-
Michael: It's been a very busy morning already and here we are on our podcast enjoying this. Today we're going to talk about what it means to keep passion in your company. We decided that it was a really good conversation and we were being interviewed on another podcast for our book. By the way, plug. The new book Fulfilled, is coming out May 5th.
Kathryn: May 5th. May 5th. Cinco de Mayo, people. Cinco de Mayo.
Michael: And you'll want to go out and get your Kindle copy because for the first week there will be a discounted rate on the book, on the Kindle version, extremely discounted rate.
Kathryn: Yes.
Michael: Now almost free.
Kathryn: Almost free. Not quite free, but almost free.
Michael: We would love it if you'd go out and get it and check it out and give us your honest opinion on the book. We are super excited about it. And while she was interviewing us, she had this great way of asking some good questions and one of those questions was, okay, well there's Passion and Provision and we want to talk about both. Let's start with passion. How do you keep passion in a company and what does that look like for, obviously for the leader, but for everyone? How do you keep this passion or this sense of fulfillment?
Kathryn: On especially during really challenging times, right?
Michael: Challenging times. Yeah.
Kathryn: Here in the middle of just unprecedented, everybody's having to work from home. The future's looking really complicated for a lot of people. Some of you are bored.
Michael: Because we're recording this right in the middle of the coronavirus.
Kathryn: Right in the middle. Yup.
Michael: The CV-19 pandemic, and the idea that we're all still sheltering at home or in our case, we're sheltering at home and the office. Because there's nobody in the office, so we just get in the car, drive two miles and-
Kathryn: So all of our workers are working remote, but-
Michael: We continue to come in and get the chance to come to the studio. But it's like, okay, there's only so many places, so many walls you can look at on a regular basis. And these are challenging times for everybody for multiple reasons. Some industries right now are just tanking it. It's having a hard time. The hospitality industry, restaurants, hotels.
Kathryn: Travel.
Michael: Travel, Disneyland, which we're a big fan of. I mean, they're closed. Disneyland is closed right now. I, in my entire life of 52 years, I've never seen Disneyland closed for more than two days in a row.
Kathryn: Ever.
Michael: Ever.
Kathryn: I don't think it has been historically, actually.
Michael: Well, every once in a while there's an event or something like that that's happened.
Kathryn: Yeah, but it's not closed. It's just closed to you.
Michael: Well, 9/11 they closed it.
Kathryn: Okay, that's true.
Michael: And so-
Kathryn: Okay. You're right. You're right. There is moments.
Michael: There are moments, but they're very, very rare. And it's one day, two days, couple of things like that, and that's it. So we have those type of events and those types of industries that are struggling. But then there are other industries that are thriving right now. For instance, it turns out that if you sell bread makers, that is online and there's a list of the top 100 industries that are growing right now, and bread is there. You might think toilet paper to yourself. That's actually number 24 on the list this last week.
Kathryn: You might think Zoom. That's probably up there.
Michael: Zoom's up there. And then you have things like the supplement industry, because anything that's going to help increase your chance of being healthy and-
Kathryn: And your immune systems.
Michael: Stimulate your immune system and it's quite frankly, the whole entire vitamin industry, supplement industry is having an incredibly difficult time right now staying up with demand.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Michael: And so, there's-
Kathryn: Both sides of that coin.
Michael: It's almost a feast or famine right now and it's crazy to think that both could actually be existing in this time. And there are, if you're in the vaccine industry or the vaccine testing industry, you're working 20 hour days. You're not getting a lot of sleep and there's a lot of stress involved because there's a lot on the line and there's just not enough tests out there right now or not enough time for the testing facilities to actually get through because they're getting backlogged with just the tests they have.
Kathryn: Right.
Michael: So we have these challenges, high stress crisis environments. How do you keep passion involved?
Kathryn: Yeah. So if you started your company, you're excited to start your company, you had a passion going in, how do you keep that alive? So one of the things that we just know to be true is that you can't sustain passion just on, I had this thing I'm really good at and it's fun to do. You just can't sustain passion on that. And so if you're in the middle of this season, what does it take to keep it alive? And we want to talk about how important vision is in the middle of keeping passion alive.
Michael: Yeah. Absolutely critical.
Kathryn: So Michael, tell us what it is that you think is so important about vision. So first of all, before we do that, because not everybody's listened to every podcast.
Michael: Right.
Kathryn: Describe what we mean when we talk about vision because it's very different for different people.
Michael: Absolutely. So, what is vision? The way we define vision is the model out of good to great.
Kathryn: Good to great.
Michael: It's phenomenal and we continue to emphasize certain parts of it, but there is actually four parts to a clear vision. And when we talk about a vision, we want a vision to be clear, complete and compelling. So, it's got to be clear. You have to understand what's being communicated in a very clear and concise way. Two, it has to be complete. We believe that a good vision has actually four parts. It has an anatomy and you can define the anatomy and we'll talk about that in a minute. And then it has to be compelling. So I have a vision to have three days off a week for the rest of my life. Okay, that's great. But that's not real compelling. It's definitely not compelling for employees. I want this company to grow to the place where I can have three days off a week.
Michael: That's not compelling. That might be a goal. That might be something you want to achieve. But if you're going to put that in your vision, it's not compelling. So you want something that's compelling. It's got to be, you've got to dream big and it's got to be written in a way and it's got to be something specific enough that could be compelling for you and for others because you're going to need to persevere. So you're going to have to have grit. And this is important because if it is clear, complete and compelling, then we're in good shape. And if it's got four pieces, the anatomy of it. It has four different parts, so know that if all these four parts are there, then you've got a whole. If you're missing anything, if you've got a table that was designed for four legs that's missing a leg or two, it gets wobbly or even just doesn't stand on its own.
Kathryn: Absolutely. And so we want to talk to you about those four parts of a vision, not just because vision matters in general, but vision matters for sustaining passion. So we're going to say now, and we'll say it again I'm sure throughout the podcast, but if you have a good vision, it will build resilience through the hard times and it'll help you sustain passion. So let's just talk about the vision piece. So we've got four parts. The first, they're four parts broken up into two halves. So one half is what we call your core identity, and that's made up of core values and core purpose.
Michael: Yup.
Kathryn: The second part is your envisioned future, which is made up of your big, hairy, audacious goal and then a detailed description of that goal. So, Michael, talk to us about the core identity part, the core purpose, core values. We talk about this a lot, but just refresh our audience in case we have new people joining us.
Michael: Yeah. Core purpose is our why. It's short. It's sweet. It's the process of what it is that we're doing. For instance, Disneyland's is to make people happy. Ours is to help leaders build Passion and Provision companies, and whatever that looks like it's meant to be open ended, but it's your why. Why do you do this? And well, we are about helping people do that. It's when [inaudible 00:08:02] wondering if you're ever asking that question as a leader, especially an entrepreneur, "Why did I do this? Why are we doing this? This day has sucked. This week has sucked. It's been horrible. It's been hard." I'm trying to figure out and remind myself why I'm doing this. There's two parts. There's the big goal that's a long ways off, but the thing that can be rewarding on a day to day basis is your core purpose. We're doing this because of this.
Kathryn: Yeah. This is why we exist.
Michael: Yes.
Kathryn: And you said open-ended and the reason, just to highlight that, open ended means it's not something that can be completed.
Michael: Absolutely.
Kathryn: Right?
Michael: Yeah. That's a good catch.
Kathryn: So, to make people happy. Hmm.
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: You're never going to be done doing that, right?
Michael: So, a core purpose is designed to last. Let's say a company gets passed down from generation to generation in a family company or it's just moved on. The stockholders have it and the CEOs come and go. The core purpose is designed to last, let's say a hundred years. You want to think longterm. This is not something that in four or five years we're going to turn around. No, that's your BHAG. When you get to your goals, if you get to a goal in 10 or 20 years, then you create a new BHAG. You create a new giant, big, hairy, audacious goal, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But this thing here is supposed to be open ended and it's okay if your competitors even have the same type of purpose. It's not meant to distinguish you. So, there's that core purpose. That why. Then your core values. Your core purpose always comes out of your core values.
Michael: They're reflected in each other, but your core values are those three to five core solid foundational values that you run your company on. You hire, train and fire to your core values.
Kathryn: Yup. And we would define your core values as... See, you can have a lot of different values. You can have a bunch of different words that reflect your values, but your core values are those things that are so central to who you are and to your company that if you had to violate those values to stay in business, you would rather close the doors.
Michael: Absolutely.
Kathryn: Right?
Michael: Yep.
Kathryn: So we've got a big word cloud and one of the things we value is we have wine and whiskey and beer on this.
Michael: Actually there's no whiskey on that. Yet. It-
Kathryn: There is in my mind.
Michael: It needs to be put there.
Kathryn: In my mind there is.
Michael: But the old one is wine and beer.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Michael: And there's lots of different things.
Kathryn: There's lots of different ones.
Michael: There's probably 25 or 30 different words on that word cloud.
Kathryn: But the core things are those things that are so critical that you would rather close your doors than continue to do business if you can't do those things.
Michael: So give an example of something that would be significant for us, if out of our core values-
Kathryn: So one of ours is kindness.
Michael: Okay.
Kathryn: So kindness is one of those things that is super critical to us. I don't like unkind people.
Michael: Right.
Kathryn: And we don't like unkind clients and I don't like unkind employees and I don't want to be unkind. I think kindness is a core human interactive skill that we need. We have to have. Life is too short.
Michael: So if we bought into the philosophy of work that said that nice people finish last-
Kathryn: It's just business.
Michael: It's just business and-
Kathryn: It's not personal.
Michael: Quite frankly, this is no place for the personal side. That's fine when we're friends. That's fine in the off hours. It's fine somewhere else, but being kind. Ruthless is actually valued. That's how you get ahead and you're not going to get ahead in this business if you're not ruthless. There are people who have that philosophy. If for some reason we were forced to have that philosophy, if we were told, "Look, you guys are never going to succeed unless you be that," we would close the doors, wouldn't we?
Kathryn: Yup.
Michael: We-
Kathryn: I don't like nice guys finish last kind of thing. It's like, no, no. We just don't. We don't buy it.
Michael: We don't need to play in that pool and we don't try and compete there. At the same time, that's a core value for us, of kindness. And that's how it implements out is, we would shut the doors. We would literally go do something else-
Kathryn: Right.
Michael: Because we wouldn't want to play that way.
Kathryn: Yeah. Too high of a value on people and just relationship to want to run business that way. So that's an example.
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: So that's your core identity, right? It's why you exist and the riverbanks in some ways. Why you exist and how you want to run your business.
Michael: Okay. So the other half is the envisioned future. Talk about the envisioned future.
Kathryn: So the envisioned future, the BHAG, the big, hairy, audacious goal. What is it that you want to achieve? What kind of impact do you want to make? When you look back over 20 years, what is different because you existed, because your company existed? What are you solving? What are you serving in the world? So that BHAG becomes this place of really tangibly saying, this is what I'm about in terms of the difference I want to make, the impact I want to make. And then the other half of that, which is equally important, is the detailed description of that BHAG. So a BHAG might just be three or four sentences, it might be two sentences, but the detailed description of that is you really flushing out what changed because we accomplished this. And beginning to really put flesh on those couple of sentences, to write a narrative description of the way the world changed because you achieved what you set out to achieve.
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: So give an example of that from your vast...
Michael: Well, we have one of our friends that runs a digital marketer. Those guys, they created... Their BHAG was, we're going to help 10000 companies double in size.
Kathryn: Right.
Michael: Ours is to help 10000 companies. Just coincidentally, 10000. We all came up with this independently.
Kathryn: Such a good number. I don't know.
Michael: Ours is 10000. Help 10000 companies become Passion and Provision companies.
Kathryn: Right. And-
Michael: It's something larger than life. Something, we don't know if we can achieve it. We can't just plan it out, but we believe that it's possible and it's worth pursuing.
Kathryn: Yeah. And when we begin to flesh that out and talk about, "Okay, so why does that even matter? What would change in the world if we help 10000 leaders develop Passion and Provision companies?"
Michael: It starts to become our detailed description, doesn't it?
Kathryn: Yes. And so what we start saying is, "Okay, let's just imagine an employee in a Passion and Provision company and that employee has a family." And if you have ever worked in a job where you were bored and you weren't being well utilized, you were being undervalued-
Michael: Oh yeah, I got those.
Kathryn: You couldn't figure out why anything you did mattered. Right? I think every single adult in the universe has probably been in that position one time or another.
Michael: Had a few jobs like that.
Kathryn: I've had a few jobs like that.
Michael: Mine was the shrimp packer company where I had to put shrimp on the skewer.
Kathryn: There you go.
Michael: I like to talk about that because it was a mundane job.
Kathryn: Mine was filing with a Master's degree.
Michael: Yes.
Kathryn: Okay. So for lots of reasons, those things happen. So what ends up happening is that you come home from the end of the day, from a job like that, just... I come home crank. Didn't I come home cranky?
Michael: You came home very cranky.
Kathryn: I was so bored.
Michael: Well, boredom drives you nuts.
Kathryn: Boredom makes you tired.
Michael: Well, and you-
Kathryn: It sucks the life out of you.
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: Oh, it's terrible.
Michael: Boredom affects different people differently. I think boredom does make people tired. You were-
Kathryn: It makes me super grumpy.
Michael: Not. Okay. Let's talk about... Okay, this is a great example.
Kathryn: We're going to get back to this complaining our [crosstalk 00:14:58].
Michael: No, we're not getting back to it.
Kathryn: We're in it?
Michael: We're in it.
Kathryn: We're in it. We are in it.
Michael: Okay.
Kathryn: Go.
Michael: Just follow me here.
Kathryn: Okay.
Michael: Okay, so we talk a lot about the impact of what that BHAG has on people. One of the ways the BHAG impacts people is that impacts the employees and when it impacts the employees, it changes the quality of their life, like you filing and being bored. We also talk about it affecting the people at home. I was the guy at home during that period of time, had my other job, right? A different job and you came home and you were cranky. You were more tired. You didn't have as much energy to do a lot of other stuff. You didn't just get off work and go, "Okay, now I can go do stuff." You were dragging through that season of life.
Kathryn: Right. It was awful.
Michael: It caused friction in our marriage. I mean, conflict became more enhanced and less easy to resolve and more easy to trigger when you were at work and you were unhappy.
Kathryn: Okay. So enough of that conversation, because it just makes me sound like a horrible human. No.
Michael: No, no, no, no, no. It just, but it-
Kathryn: It's just true, right?
Michael: But it does. For us, when we create Passion and Provision companies, I'm drawing the connection.
Kathryn: I know, I know, I know.
Michael: Be willing to be vulnerable. It's okay.
Kathryn: I know.
Michael: These people-
Kathryn: I cried two weeks ago on this podcast. I'm vulnerable.
Michael: Okay, fine. I'm vulnerable, damnit.
Kathryn: Why is everybody always picking on me?
Michael: Okay. So what happens is, that situation is exactly what we're trying to create. We're trying to create healthy homes. Our major goal is not to create healthy families and healthy homes, but as a byproduct of our BHAG, that is one of the things that's included in our detailed description of, what does it do for marriages and what does it do for raising kids and teaching them what the value of work, the dignity of work, the joy of work, how the work actually helps you become more who you are, your better self and work can be a tool to that-
Kathryn: Oh, preach it.
Michael: Or work can be a tool away from that. And a Passion Provision job is work that takes you to becoming your better self because work is part, especially good work, is part of your best self. You can't be your best self without working and doing good work in the works that you were created for. So therefore, this is part of our detailed description. When we go, "Why are we doing this? Where are we going? We're doing that? Well, what's it going to matter?" It's going to matter to people. It's going to matter to families. It's going to matter to the next generation of kids because they grew up watching their parents have a healthy relationship with work and a healthy relationship with their employers.
Kathryn: Yeah. It's super important.
Michael: And that could change, literally change the fabric of our society.
Kathryn: Yup.
Michael: Because we wrote a book.
Kathryn: Not because we wrote a book, but because we care. So-
Michael: Yes.
Kathryn: If you've listened to us much, you'll know that one of the statistics that really caused us to go, "Oh my gosh, how do we step into trying to solve some of this stuff?" is 74% of American workers are disengaged, per a Gallup poll-
Michael: Which sucks.
Kathryn: Probably 10 years ago, but recent data would say it's not gotten any better. So if they're disengaged, which they define as sleepwalking through work, they're miserable. They're going home the way that I was. They're cranky. They're not giving their best self at home because life is being sucked out of them at work. This is not the fun way to live. And we're saying, okay, if we can reach our BHAG and we can help leaders develop a mindset that says, "You know what? The health and wellbeing of this company and of my employees, this company isn't just to make me happy and healthy. It's to actually build a company that the employees enjoy. Everybody gets benefit from. That helps them work in their best selves. I'm working in my best self," and as we do that, as business leaders, we begin to change the world.
Michael: Absolutely.
Kathryn: So that's part of what that detailed description. So now, those are the four parts. How does having that four part vision contribute to sustaining passion through hard times?
Michael: Okay well, to answer that question, let's talk about what steals passion and let's talk about that because those things are what a detailed, clear, complete and compelling vision helps counteract. One of those things is discouragement.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Michael: Right? I am discouraged because I'm just not getting the traction I thought it was going to get, or three steps forward, two steps back.
Kathryn: Yeah. Yeah. I mean you brought up, even when we were talking earlier this morning in another conversation, I think it was... No, it was an E-Myth where the guy, Gerber basically said, phew, words are hard.
Michael: Words are hard.
Kathryn: Okay. Michael Gerber. E-Myth. Here we go. Where he described the fact that most businesses, if you think of the business failure rate, most businesses that close?
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: They don't go bankrupt.
Michael: No.
Kathryn: They just get tired of treading water.
Michael: Yeah. You know, we talk about sucking saltwater. If you've ever been-
Kathryn: Yeah. Or swamp water.
Michael: If you've ever been... well, no, I'm talking about being in the ocean.
Kathryn: Oh yeah. Ugh.
Michael: I've never been in a swamp.
Kathryn: Me neither. You're right. Fair. Let's go salt.
Michael: But-
Kathryn: Let's just go with salt.
Michael: But I've been in the ocean. I've been in the ocean a lot and it's one thing to be in a fresh lake and to get water up your nose, to swallow water and whatever in a lake when you're water skiing, you fall off your skis. We've done that, too. But I think it's even worse in saltwater because it hurts your nose and everything else, especially if you're not-
Kathryn: So horrid.
Michael: If you're not used to saltwater.
Kathryn: Choke and gag and bluh.
Michael: But it's that idea of, when I'm tired of treading water, and I'm treading, you get exhausted. You get tired and the consequence is you just drown.
Kathryn: Yeah. That's so awful.
Michael: And you get really tired and you fall under the water and you spit up water and you get that sense. Okay. The picture has been painted. I grew up around water, swimming pools, lakes, and even going to the ocean. So that sense of-
Kathryn: So that discouragement.
Michael: I'm just-
Kathryn: That sense of, "Ugh, I just cannot get my head above water. I just can't."
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: "I just am so done."
Michael: Well, and again, it's as Michael Gerber talked about, treading water, those are the places that I think about because immediately he says that, I think about, what was it like when I couldn't touch the bottom of the pool, the lake, the ocean? And what was it when I was getting tired? And what was it when I didn't have the life jacket on? Or whatever.
Kathryn: Sure.
Michael: And you're sitting there going, you're just exhausted. You're scared. You don't know what's going to happen. And that burning in the back of your nose when you're gulped the water when you shouldn't have and it comes up. That's not a pleasant picture. That's actually what's happening to a huge amount of businesses. Between 80 and 90% of all businesses fail. And across the board, most people believe that statistic. And out of the ones that survive, only 4% of them actually make it to $1 million a year.
Michael: So what we have is, we have a lot of people who are not thriving in business. And so they don't go bankrupt. They actually just go to the... I mean, I have a picture in my head of walking. Every day they would walk to the front of their storefront. They would put the key in and they would click and turn it and you can hear that deadbolt in one of those doors turning. Ka-ching. And I had just imagine that very last day standing outside looking through that glass door, the person who's finally said, "We're done. I can't do this anymore." And they walked from inside. They closed the door, they lock it, and they put the sign up, out of business. And they turn around and they walk away. That's not the way it's supposed to be. That's sad. That's not thriving. And that's where we talk about this idea that most businesses don't go bankrupt.
Michael: They just get tired of treading water because it's not getting [inaudible 00:22:21]. That's a discouragement.
Kathryn: Yeah. Huge discouragement.
Michael: And clear vision can help fight that discouragement in so many different ways. First of all, I love the story of, we talk about it in the book, of the bricklayers building a cathedral actually in your hometown of York, and the fact that it took over 300 years to build that cathedral. So you have families that are generationally just, this is what they do. They go and they work and they go and they work and in the first 100 years, maybe the first 200 years, maybe even further than that, they knew that they would never see the completion of that in their life. It would be their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren potentially. But one brick layer is putting bricks and all, they get stuck in the tunnel vision, of all I do is go to work and put bricks.
Michael: I put stone, I put stone, I put stone and it's totally mundane and purposeless.
Kathryn: I'm just building the wall.
Michael: Just building a wall and I've been building this particular wall for 10 years and that's discouraging. That can be incredibly degrading. The other person next to them is putting the same bricks up day in, day out, but they're building a cathedral to God. They contextually remember the big purpose and without a vision, without a major purpose, it could be you're just putting bricks here and nobody told them what the big picture was. Look, you're just enslaved. You're just going to do this. Just keep doing it. And it's mind numbing when nobody gives you a picture. And that old saying that says, my people perish for lack of vision. They don't have a clear vision of where they're going and why. There's no purpose and meaning in it.
Michael: And so when we put all this together, having a clear vision, a clear purpose, core purpose says, I do it for this reason. It gives you a why. That right there starts to build you up. I have values in which I behave, therefore I have a code of ethics that I can say, I give myself the ability to say no in certain contexts and yes to other contexts. It gives us a sense of self-power in that thing, and that helps fight discouragement. And then I have a big goal that's out 10 years, 20 years, maybe generations, but this is what we've chosen to do. I love the story recently that we were listening to the man who was trained in forestry and the older gentleman, he's passed away now recently, and he thought about multigenerational wealth because he was taught about thinking from a forestry perspective about thinking multigenerational, because when you plant a tree, like a grove of redwoods or walnut trees, they're going to grow to their maturity probably after your life is over.
Michael: They have that kind of life in them, and so when you're thinking about that, that gives you purpose and meaning in something that maybe doesn't have it. So, it fights discouragement in all those ways. It's powerful.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Michael: And we talk about grit.
Kathryn: Yup. Resilience. Grit.
Michael: And grit is that ability to push through.
Kathryn: It is. I'll just use this illustration again. I was driving to work this morning and thinking about, we're recording this during Easter week, right?
Michael: Yes. Yeah.
Kathryn: It's the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. It's the passion week and regardless of where you stand religiously, there's this amazing image of what Jesus was doing and why they call it the Passion of the Christ and what I was thinking about this morning that just totally gripped me was, he knew it was coming. He knew why he was doing it.
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: There's a verse that says "for the joy set before him, he endured the cross," blah, blah, blah, but there's this moment where the scripture says, he set his face toward Jerusalem.
Michael: I really like that verse.
Kathryn: He set his face toward Jerusalem. That sense of, you know what? I know that it's not simple. I know that I'm going to have to sacrifice to get to the goal, to the dream, to the passion, to the BHAG. I know that I'm going to have to sacrifice, but I am setting my face to that.
Michael: If somebody hasn't heard that term, setting their face, what do you think that means?
Kathryn: It means I am pointing in a direction and I am going for it. In fact, I want to get the buffalo poem.
Michael: The buffalo poem.
Kathryn: Can I go get the buffalo poem? Can you-
Michael: Yeah. I'll-
Kathryn: Yeah. You just keep talking for a second. Do it.
Michael: Yeah, go get the buffalo poem. Okay. You don't have a picture of the buffalo poem?
Kathryn: I [inaudible 00:26:36].
Michael: Okay. Go get it. For all of you that are listening right now to this insanity that's going on in our podcast, Kathryn has just sprinted out of the studio to head across to our office to pull a picture off of the wall and it comes from an event. Kathryn and I were in Truckee, California on a couples weekend with some friends and there was a farmer's market and in the farmer's market was this gentleman who was making poems. 10 poems for 10 bucks or whatever you gave him.
Kathryn: Your poem, you price.
Michael: Your poem, your price and a little sign there and an old typewriter, the whole bit. I mean, a real typewriter. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. Mechanical, not electrical. And Kathryn said, "Well, we should do something. Let's give him a word."
Kathryn: Yeah, we walked by him four times. I was like, "Aaah."
Michael: Basically it was, give him a topic. And so our topic was perseverance and because I don't want to go into the whole story about all of it.
Kathryn: Nope.
Michael: Obviously you can hear now she's back from running across the office.
Kathryn: I am back.
Michael: And out of this moment, which is a whole 'nother story that we've shared on this podcast before, is this poem about perseverance and a clear, complete and compelling vision creates this kind of perseverance. Kathryn, the poem.
Kathryn: The poem. "Like buffalo, standing strong against the storm, not easily swayed once the direction has been decided upon. To grow any dream from seed takes incredible devotion and ruthless perseverance to manifest. Let us be like buffalo and stay true to our path of growth and becoming." Cha-cha. Mic drop.
Michael: Bom-bom.
Kathryn: Okay, so set your face, right? It's this image of a buffalo, looks at the coming storm and just is like, "Yep. It's coming and I'm just going to keep moving forward."
Michael: Well, and what's unique about buffaloes is when the storm comes, they actually turn in. So whatever direction the storm is coming from and the winds are coming from, instead of trying to turn away from it back-wise or let the wind cross them over sideways, they actually turn their face into that wind. And there's a great painting that we saw recently that's just a giant closeup of buffalo's or bison's face, buffalo in North America are bison and-
Kathryn: That's another story.
Michael: And it's just covered with snow that has been blowing and it's just this weatheredness that says, "I can take it." And they're not running for shelter, but they're like, "I'm going to continue to go." Because of that, you persevere. Because of that, your face is set towards that BHAG. Meaning, I will not defer from this. I may have to bend my strategy. There may be a roadblock, but then I will figure out a detour.
Kathryn: Yeah, and remember when we're talking about passion, we say in the book and we say it over and over again, passion is not some flighty, lighthearted, "I'm just passionate about this." Passion is, we would say if you aren't willing to sacrifice for something, it isn't really your passion. So when we're talking about this kind of passion, we're talking about something that you're willing to pay a cost to continue to move forward, to reach that dream and to press in.
Michael: Yeah, you may not be sacrificing your life-
Kathryn: We're hoping not.
Michael: For this particular thing.
Kathryn: Yes, we're hoping not.
Michael: But there does require a passion. You like something enough that you're willing to give up other things. You're willing to give up other things that are things that you might like or enjoy. But to gain something, a skill level, a set, an award, to cross the marathon path that you need to give up training or you need to train and you need to give up things so you can train.
Kathryn: Chocolate.
Michael: That is perseverance. Never give up chocolate. Never. That would be perseverance. And so when we talk about what stops you, what causes you to want to just give up, to stop treading water. It's that discouragement. It's the storms that come in your way. It's everything else. It's the voices that tell you, you should be doing this or you should be doing this. It's great opportunities that come along that say, "Well, you know what? If you'll stop going after this, you can go after this. If you stop pursuing your big goals there, we'll let you do something else that'll be cool and fun over here." And those could be amazing. Sometimes it's as simple as, this business idea that you have is really hard. If you'll just stop here, I have this guaranteed idea over here. That's your first clue that it's a ruse, right? Guaranteed business idea. That you're going to make your wealth so much easier over here. It's going to be faster over here. It's going to be quicker over here. Okay. Maybe. Or you find somebody who's actually been successful in another industry and they go, "You know what?
Michael: Ah, gosh, it's just hasn't been as hard for me over here." It just so happens that you started investing in real estate in 2002 after 9-11 and then you actually rode the real estate boom to 2007 and you got out and in 2006 you're saying, "This is cake. This is easy. Look how much money I've made in four years. Look how much money I've made in five years. My property that I bought in 2001 and two has actually quadrupled in value. You should be doing it my way." When you're out there doing something else and you're like, "Okay, this is taking forever. I'm trying to get market share. Growth is slow," and they're like, "Pfft." That's a temptation and sometimes in a short window, the temptation's real. All that kind of stuff. But the value that our property had when it went up from $112000 in 1998 in California where we live to the value of $350000 by 2006, all of a sudden we had this, it tripled in value in, what was that? Six, seven, eight years.
Michael: Our house tripled in value in eight years. What kind of investment is that? That's a crazy investment and then two years later, it was 10 years later now, but it had only gone up about 60% because it came back again. It plummeted. The real estate market fell apart. We probably couldn't even have sold it easily at that point. You got to have this perspective and sometimes it's the big perspective and the big goals and you have to be willing to say, "You know what? That's great, but this is what I'm called to." That's the other thing a vision does. A vision says no, this is what I've set my face towards. This is what I've set my mind towards. This is what I'm going to do, and before I did it, I evaluated it. I didn't hastily pick a vision.
Michael: You think about these things with purpose and meaning, but here's what happens. With a core purpose, core values and this BHAG, you actually have this opportunity as the very first thing we would suggest in a Passion Provision company, to achieve and maintain fulfillment and a sense of passion in your company for yourself and for everybody you work with. Because this model, this model of vision, starts to shape, guard and protect your passion and enthusiasm, your passion and fulfillment even in hard times. So we talk about a clear vision helps you create a Passion Provision company and thrive in the good times and survive the bad times.
Kathryn: Yup.
Michael: It's that survival. It's that clear vision and how a vision makes you resilient and maintains that sense of purpose, meaning and focus. And even when it's really hard and if you run a business, it's going to get hard. If you're going to do anything of worth at all in the world, you're going to go through moments where you're tested. Are you really committed to this? Is this really something that's worth doing? Because anything really worth doing is going to drive you to places where you're thinking, "Should I give up?" And you're going to have to say, "Hmm, it's worth doing. I'm going to keep pushing forward." You need something to pull you through. That is the power of a clear, complete, and compelling vision.
Kathryn: Indeed. Well said. So we just want to encourage you today that if you haven't dug in and really developed that vision, you really need to.
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: If you have and you're discouraged, go back to your vision and remember why you're doing what you're doing. Just pull out of the weeds, pull out of the fear.
Michael: Don't leave it in the drawer.
Kathryn: Pull away from the anxiety and remember why you're doing what you're doing. If you have staff that's still working for you, remind them why it matters. Because during these seasons that are incredibly difficult, we need to pull back and get that perspective. And having a clear, compelling vision is one of those things. Going back to, "Okay, I can maintain my passion through this because I know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And there's a big picture. This is not the end of the story. What is happening now is not going to last forever. There's going to be another season coming." So how do we keep pushing through to that season? So we just wanted to give you some encouragement today.
Michael: Yeah, we really do. This is powerful stuff and we know it's true because we've done it ourselves and we've built a company for 18 years and a marriage for 27 plus years based on these principles. They work, they bring a life and we just thank you for this. And as of May 5th, 2020 the book, Fulfilled, is coming to market. It's going to be on Amazon starting on May 5th and we want you to grab it. There's going to be a discount that first week and it's got in here all these principles about running a Passion Provision company.
Kathryn: So we want you to mark your calendar. Cinco de Mayo-
Michael: Help us out.
Kathryn: Cinco de Mayo equals Fulfilled.
Michael: Fulfilled. All right. If you heard about us on Apple, please hit subscribe. We love that. Comments are fantastic. Let other people know that you're doing it. Whatever platform you're on, hit subscribe, hit the notifications for the next time something comes out, we can notify you and we just really appreciate you listening. Thank you for taking the time to listen every week. This is Michael Redman.
Kathryn: And this is Kathryn Redman.
Michael: And this is the HaBO Village podcast designed for you and we'll see you next week.
Kathryn: Bye-bye.
Michael: Thank you.
Kathryn: Take care.
