Michael: Hello, everyone and Welcome to the HaBO Village podcast. I'm Michael Redman.
Kathryn: And I'm Kathryn Redman.
Michael: And this podcast is here to help leaders like you of small and medium sized businesses to build companies that are filled with Passion and Provision, more profit, more purpose and more legacy.
Kathryn: Legacy.
Michael: We want to leave a legacy that we're proud of that's going to better everybody around us. And we talk about all kinds of great things on this podcast. But we're talking about today ...
Kathryn: Today ...
Michael: Drum roll, please.
Kathryn: Hope that wasn't too painful.
Michael: Maybe not. We are releasing our new book. This podcast will come out on Tuesday, May 5th and the new book, "Fulfilled," that we have been working a very long time on. This is actually probably a four year labor of love that-
Kathryn: And sometimes hate.
Michael: And sometimes hate.
Kathryn: I mean, let's be honest.
Michael: This has been at times grueling, at times encouraging, at times exciting, and then at times discouraging process. And for the last year, we really leaned into it. Kind of about a year ago, we scrapped everything we'd done before and started over.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Michael: And then we just worked through this last year, worked with a great publishing team. And-
Kathryn: Super excited about how it turned out.
Michael: Over at Scribe Media, they were phenomenal. Worked with them and I was thinking this morning that it is amazing how many things, we brought the topic, we brought the zeal, we brought the love of the stuff, we brought the subject matter experts, as you will, for us doing all this, but there are so many places in this thing that we couldn't have come up with something that it came about through different people on the team.
Michael: And the team is pretty good size. And we're just thankful for all of you who over Scribe, who've been a part of the process. We literally could not do this without you. You've been phenomenal. And then our team at the office has been amazing putting up with us through this entire process also. The book, "Fulfilled," is a organized and thoughtful journey through what is Passion and Provision? Why do we care about it? What's the big deal?
Kathryn: What's the holistic model that we use?
Michael: And then we go through and explain it. Some people have said, already that have read it. We have some business people who've said, "This is like a mini MBA," or, "This is a book that will sit on the shelf and be referenced for a long time." This was designed for two purposes, because Passion and Provision is dual, it is about making money and having a profitable successful company in that fashion, but having success in the fact that you are fulfilled and happy and you're not just trying to make money because you believe work sucks and you got to do it so you grind as much as you can so the rest of your life could have quality. This is not where some people would say, "Work is the arena." The horse arena? [Crosstalk 00:03:07]
Kathryn: When you get the crap beat out of you. The Olympic arena or-
Michael: If somebody dies, a win-lose situation.
Kathryn: The Roman coliseum with the lions. I don't know. What kind of arena are we talking about?
Michael: Right? This is that whole situation where we're talking about win, win, win. Win for the business owner and the investors. We're talking about a win for the employees and we're talking about a win for the customers and then everybody benefits in the midst of something like that. And the question some people ask is, "Is it possible?" Yes, we've done it. And then you might say, "Well, you're only one company that's done it." Well, we've done it and quantified it and taken lessons we've learned from tons of other people, experience, research that's happened over decades. But then we have experience of working with lots of clients and having lots of friends that own companies that are Passionate and Provision companies. We know it works and we know it's a journey and a refinement and you're never fully done. You're constantly working. But this book talks about what that is, encourages them-
Kathryn: And it does it systematically, which is something that we don't always do that on our podcast. It's not always a systematic when we're just having conversation. But this is a systematic sort of really clearly laid out way to walk through what does it take to build a Passion and Provision company? Because we've said over and over and over again, as a business leader, you need a model. And it doesn't have to be our model, but it's a model and it's a model that actually will help you think about your business in a much more holistic sense.
Kathryn: Kind of pull back and go, "What are all of the key pieces of business that I actually have to pay attention to and have at least a working knowledge of in order to be successful over the longterm running your business." And obviously when you start your business, you kind of have to have a working knowledge of all of them. As you grow and you hire people, then they can naturally have more expertise than you, but you still have to be able to have enough competence in that area to have meaningful conversations to help them move forward, to keep them on track and to make sure that nothing is going completely awry. Right?
Michael: Yeah. And you called it systematic earlier, Ryan Levesque over at The ASK Method, he read it and called it a step by step framework. And then that's what we mean by systematic. It's a step by step process. There's the high level concepts and ideas in the front section of the book. The middle meat is six areas of our business model and we say all the time, there's lots of great business models out there and ours isn't the end all be all. And quite frankly, we stand on the shoulders of a lot of people. I don't know how much we even created except kind of we put it together in our own little recipe as-
Kathryn: As our friend, Katie, said yesterday.
Michael: As our friend, Katie, said, yes.
Kathryn: One of the this has been so much fun as we've been on, I don't know, seven or eight podcasts of late-
Michael: So far about the book.
Kathryn: Yeah, about the book and talking about it. And in every case, the folks that have been interviewing have done some reading ahead of time. And so it's been so much fun to kind of see based on who they are and their world and their experience, what it is they're pulling out. So you take a Ryan Levesque and his is, "This is a framework for entrepreneurs." You take someone who's seasoned in business like Katie who runs a nonprofit and was a banker for 20 years and then has run a nonprofit, 14 years in a nonprofit, then banking, then back to a nonprofit and her take was, "It's like you guys created a new recipe. Of course there's business and there's models, but you put it together in a way that's a little bit unique and add some spices and some different things that just enhance it and I want this in my kitchen." It was that. It was so funny.
Michael: It was really neat. And she said something similar to Caleb over at-
Kathryn: At BetterWealth.
Michael: BetterWealth ... And Caleb, man, he's a young leader who's done an amazing job with this company and everything else. He's a firecracker full of energy and encouragement.
Kathryn: He's my daughter's age. It's so weird.
Michael: But it is.
Kathryn: It's stunning.
Michael: But he's already so accomplished in his career and doing some great things and we'll do many more great things. It's fun because Katie's on the tail end of her career, at least in the last third of her career. Caleb's in the first quarter of his career. But they're both totally engaged, doing great things, seeing a lot of stuff. And he was listening to us and saying, "I hear Jim Collins." He's talking about different authors, Steven Covey and he says, "I hear EOS in there and," all this stuff. He can hear the influences. I think that's a great compliment because it's like, yeah. And we can say, "Yeah, absolutely." We have benefited so much from so much reading, so many different authors, so many different people who've brought this knowledge, written it down, written it from very unique wisdom, their unique perspective. And when we put this book together, it really was our hope, folks, that we would have something that ... What was the gap? Why would we write a book if we thought there were so many great books out there?
Kathryn: Because you all are not reading all those great books and you don't know they exist.
Michael: I mean, it's amazing how many times we recommend books to our clients or our friends, or when we're speaking.
Kathryn: Things that are staples for us that they've never heard of.
Michael: Yeah. "I don't know who that is." I'm amazed how many people have never heard of Patrick Lencioni when it comes to company culture and health.
Kathryn: Well, and how many people have never heard of Stephen M. R. Covey and "The Speed of Trust"? Maybe they've heard of his dad, but not the speed of trust. And that is a powerhouse book for developing trust and understanding the framework and the DNA of trust and bringing hope. So part of what we did-
Michael: So there's ... Go ahead.
Kathryn: Part of what we did is say, "Okay, in each of these core areas, these are the key elements that you need to know. And then for further reference, go read these people." We did that in leadership, we talked about the guys who do mastering leadership. They're phenomenal. It's phenomenal stuff. But we understand that you're not maybe going to read all of those things and we wanted to bring those things to you in a package that's like, "Just get this stuff. Use this as your foundation."
Michael: And this isn't the end all be all. This is the place where we would say, "Here's the philosophy, here's the concept, here's the model. Start here." There's a lot of meat in this book. Matter of fact, I think it's meatier than we thought it was going to be. We were both concerned that it wasn't going to be enough, that we weren't going to say enough and we made the mistake that a lot of our entrepreneurial friends, when they're writing and creating content do, and as you underestimate the impact and the significance of the content you're sharing and you over-deliver on value and all of a sudden you've got like, "I don't need a 35 page diagram to tell me how to make coffee. Just could you please simplify it?"
Kathryn: Just make me coffee.
Kathryn: Well, and even yesterday we were laughing because last night-
Michael: So we didn't make a 35 page manual to make coffee.
Kathryn: We will give you an SOP for making coffee, but nevermind that.
Michael: It's in the book.
Kathryn: But even one of our staff, so Paige has worked for us for eight years and last night she texted and she had just finished really diving into the marketing and sales chapter. And she basically said in her text, "This is stuff that took me three, four years to learn and you've just done such a great job of pulling the key stuff all into one absorbable package." And I was like, okay, "That's encouraging."
Michael: Yeah. And I love that text. It said two things to me. One, she has a breadth of understanding of it and-
Kathryn: She's been stuck with us a long time-
Michael: She's been with us eight years?
Kathryn: She's been learning it we've been learning.
Michael: Well, yeah. And after she got over that beginning curve and stuff ... I absorb it and pull it in and then I just give about to our staff as much as I can. Okay. That said, what encouraged me about that was A, from such a broad perspective, she said you did a great job kind of introducing it and condensing it, but I also heard in that, which is what we say all the time, This is not ... You can't read a chapter, or even a book, and understand how to do it all. There's the ongoing practicing, gaining experience, learning for yourself, the nooks and crannies of the path because marketing is a great example.
Michael: There are solid core benchmark strategies and principles that you just got to use and they've been around since man started. The idea of frequency, good communication, speaking to people's pains. If they don't care, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Those that are, throughout time, and there are ways to manipulate people and we don't want to do that, but then there's that other part of your unique industry, your personality, your voice, your skill level of communicating, your skill level at talking about it, understanding your market. Who are you talking to? What country are you talking to? All these different things. There's so many nuances that you want to start applying, but you can get such a head start if you know the core basics and so that kind of that tension there-
Kathryn: Yeah, that minimum competency, right?
Michael: Yeah.
Kathryn: So you guys have been listening. If you're listening to this podcast, you're one of our tribe. We just assume that and unless this is your first time, then you're like, "Who the heck are these people?" Hey, welcome.
Michael: Hey, welcome to the tribe.
Kathryn: But I mean you guys know, because we talk about it all the time, that the philosophy here is this concept of Passion and Provision. This concept that work is actually a gift. That work is something that it is one of the main ways that you get to contribute to the world. Work is not a curse. That's one of the things we talk about. We talk about toil and labor. That sense of how do we help people move into a place of understanding philosophically and then going after the concept of work being a gift and a good thing and something that when you're using your gifts, skills and talents and you surround yourself with people who are using their gifts, skills and talents and you have a vision and you know where you're going and how the world's going to change.
Kathryn: When you get there, then you have Passion and Provision begins to follow that because you're working in your gifts and skills and there's something so powerful and you guys know this. When you see somebody who is doing something that's just right in their sweet spot, it causes something in you to sing. It causes this response like, "Oh my gosh, that person is really good at what they do."
Michael: And we see it in-
Kathryn: And it makes us so happy.
Michael: We see it in music and arts and everything else. When somebody is just so gifted and talented and skilled at what they've done. And that is a combination of gifts and practicing. And they've really taken those natural things and elevated them and sharpened them. But it happens when you look around and you go, "Man, you're just good at what you do," you make doing that thing, whether it's accounting or marketing or leading or making widgets or making tables and woodworking, you make something that I know is difficult, seems so easy.
Kathryn: Well, and what ends up happening is when we're interacting with somebody who's working in their strengths, is working in this sweet spot, it puts us at ease, right? So why am I saying all this? I'm saying all this because on this podcast you guys know we are all about Passion and Provision. This is what we've been talking about. We're a hundred plus episodes into this sucker. We've reshaped it and reformed it over the last three or four years. But this is what we're about. What's so fun is trying to spread this philosophy.
Kathryn: So as we're talking with other people, yeah, we've got these mechanics here, but really this philosophy, how do we think holistically about business? How do we change people's mindset so that work becomes something they embrace, not something they dread. So that running their company becomes something again, that actually fulfills the dreams they had when they started it or stepped into it. And it just reignites hope so as we're talking with other folks, that's part of what I'm loving so much is because we have something that allows us to step out into the world and say, "Okay, there's a big picture here that we really want people to understand." And it just enlivens my soul to talk about it.
Michael: Okay. Really quick, we're kind of about halfway through today's, a little bit more than halfway through today's podcast. Where can they get it and what's the deal that we're offering this week?
Kathryn: Okay, so you got to fulfilledthebook.com. That's where you go. Fulfilledthebook.com.
Michael: Fulfilledthebook.com.
Kathryn: And we bought various variations. If you don't know how to spell fulfilled, you'll probably still get there. One L and then two Ls. Fulfilledthebook.com.
Michael: Okay. Then go to our website-
Kathryn: Go to our website. And then for this first week you're going to see an opportunity to buy on Amazon. And there's a reason that we're doing that. We are working really hard and we're hoping you're going to help us to reach the bestseller list on Amazon. And one of the ways we're doing this is the publisher gave us permission to discount the Kindle version to 99 cents. It's going to normally be $9 and 99 cents but for this first week, launches on Tuesday through Sunday night, it's available for 99 cents.
Michael: 99 cents.
Kathryn: And so we need to get 200 people-
Michael: To get the word out and everything else and we're pushing for that bestseller list, but it's to get the word out and to help people share and make it accessible. And if you want to buy a paperback or a hardback, we will get it there that first week-
Kathryn: Audible.
Michael: And it's on audible. But our goal is we have to sell this week-
Kathryn: This week-
Michael: This week, we have to sell the week of May 5th, 2020, we have to sell Kindle and then the Kindle price is going to go back up to $10. Great opportunity. We're super excited about that. Sending the message out this week and we're recording it a little bit early so it can go live on May 5th and so that's going to be pretty exciting and then we'll be able to move forward.
Michael: I'm just, it's amazing how we've been talking about this for years. We've been talking about Passion and Provision for over eight years now. And with that I mean that's amazing. We came up with Passion and Provision when I was putting together that speech and it was right around the time of trying to audition for-
Kathryn: The TEDTalk.
Michael: TEDTalk.
Kathryn: Oh, that's right.
Michael: TEDx.
Kathryn: I had forgotten that. That's funny.
Michael: And Passion and Provision kind of came out of that, trying to go, "I needed something to say, how do I capsulate it?" And that was what we came up with.
Kathryn: And we argued over Passion for a while. We even argued over Provision. There's simpler words.
Michael: And I just got told six months ago, "I love the passion concept," by somebody, but I don't think that provision makes any sense. So real quick, if you're new to the podcast, here's what it is.
Michael: Passion is not a flighty passion that we're talking about. We're talking about a passion that is really an emotional energy and engagement and delight and fulfillment at an extreme level that comes from accomplishing things and pushing through when you're giving yourself to things that matter and you're finding that you're getting success. it takes sacrifice and everything else, but you believe and you know that you're moving forward and it's worth the hard work because anything that's really worth having is worth the hard work.
Michael: And so the passion is that energy and motivation and encouragement that comes out of being committed to that. But it also allows you, continually refills your tank to be able to push forward and make the sacrifices and work through the hard times so you can get to even better times. And then on the provision side, the provision is for ...
Kathryn: The provision is for you to meet the needs of today and the dreams of tomorrow. It makes me happy when I say it right.
Michael: It does. It so does.
Kathryn: I know. And we use the illustration in the book about, provisioning a ship and olden times. That's one of your favorite illustrations, right?
Michael: Yeah, I love it.
Kathryn: So in olden days of sailing ships, you'd go from port to port and it was really important that you had enough provisions to get from one port to the next successfully.
Michael: And on a long journey you would set into ports to restock your provisions. So your provisions were food, water, anything you needed, all that kind of stuff when-
Kathryn: And have citrus to avoid the scurvy.
Michael: Exactly. And even later on down the road when we had fuel and diesel and all that. But you couldn't make a lot of ships, couldn't make the full journey across the Atlantic or something like that. So you had to catch fuel or whatever. And in today's world, that analogy, we're pulling over into this idea of do you have enough? Do you have enough cash? Do you have enough of the resources you need to move forward in this organization? And quite frankly, here's what happens. On the open seas, there was all kinds of challenges and risks. There was, I mean people loved this lifestyle. This was what they did or this was their profession. We still have sailors today, both wind sailors and ship sailors and all this kind of stuff. And at one point the captains actually ran international. They oversaw and governed international commerce and everything else up until the mid 20th century-
Kathryn: Is that where the "Captains of Business" came from?
Michael: I think it's the Captains of Industry. Yeah.
Kathryn: Captains of Industry.
Michael: Yeah, Because, well ... Side note, if you're ever interested, footnote. Malcolm Gladwell does a great job of talking about where the shipping, the history of the shipping containers and how that changed because they didn't use to be the size they are now and they're all uniform now and it was a tradition and it really switched over from the power and control that the sea captains had around the world and all this stuff and it started to shift and change and it's now something of history because it's not like that anymore.
Michael: Well, you have all these people out on sailing and everything else and the seas are dangerous and you have pirates, olden and pirates today.
Kathryn: Storms.
Michael: You have storms, you have currents, you have winds. Some things you can't control. Things that are predictable. And so if you have just enough provisions to get to the next port, if everything were ideal conditions, no pirates, you're not going against the trade winds, they're with you. They're actually blowing and you have everything you need and you don't have any problems or emergencies or anything like that while you're out at sea, then you're going to be great.
Michael: But any good captain knows that they cannot just stock for the minimum amount to get to the next port, assuming everything's perfect because things change.
Kathryn: So we translate that to business and suddenly, I mean, we're in the middle of COVID-19.
Michael: We're talking with Katie who oversees the Chamber of Commerce in Chico.
Kathryn: Right. And she's dealing with multiple businesses who they literally had enough to make it to the next payday and they may not make it. And that's sad. It's a lack of provision.
Michael: There was no resilience. And we were talking about this yesterday. Yeah, it is. It's a lack of provision because it was enough provision to get to the port, which let's call the port "paycheck to paycheck", because we all know, if you've heard that term, that employees, just your normal person, goes paycheck to paycheck.
Michael: But I'm telling you a lot of companies, and we had to at times too, go paycheck to paycheck.
Kathryn: Yeah. And you know what, hear me on this. We have had plenty of seasons in Half a Bubble Out wondering even if we were going to make it to the next three of the next payroll, how we were going to make it. So there are those seasons.
Michael: And even larger companies. I mean, one of our friends runs a fairly significant company with a couple hundred employees. And he was telling me recently that if the government right now in the midst of COVID-19 shut everything down and they had to shut their company down and keep their employees, they could stay in business for about two months. And that's it. Now that's resilient and that's some buffer, but that's a lot different than, "I can't make it two weeks." And that would be if he didn't do any layoffs, if he cut off half of the staff, he could make it a whole lot longer. And so you have all those dynamics and provision really is how do I make sure that we not only have enough for today, but then there's extra, we're thinking about extra and our company is profitable enough to put off extra that we can grow.
Michael: And we've had the fortune, in two different companies that we've owned, to grow at greater than average rates for most companies. And I'd like to say we are geniuses and we could do it every time. We can't. I know we can't. I know we've been fortunate bringing everything we have to be prepared and our knowledge and experience, but we've also had to have a perspective that meant longterm because there were periods of time in both companies, this and Rabbit Hole Hay, where it wasn't doing anything and it was stagnant. And we knew we were putting away in preparing for the next season. There's seasons in a business.
Kathryn: Yeah. Or even that in periods of time in both businesses where the growth is outpacing our ability to keep up with it, whether from a financial perspective or a leadership perspective. There's a lot of things in this.
Michael: Yeah. And the sailing advice and analogy, you could actually ... If you had enough provisions and the trade winds were good and they were strong and you didn't want to go into port and potentially miss them dying down. If you had enough provisions maybe to get to the next port, you could make time, get better ....
Kathryn: Make more money because you're faster.
Michael: Exactly. And then all of a sudden you get to take advantage of it. Growth and trade winds are synonymous in my mind.
Kathryn: A fair wind.
Michael: Yeah, it is.
Kathryn: We have a fair wind behind us.
Michael: If that wind is too strong or if you don't have enough provisions to take advantage of it, no matter how good it is, you just go, "Well, we're just going to have to miss that." And we've seen growth in both companies, but when we saw 400% growth in Half a Bubble Out that we talk about in the book, it was hard. It was really hard and we just had to manage. It was kind of like being in a typhoon storm. It's pushing your sails, but it may rip your sails right off.
Kathryn: And there's that. Yes.
Michael: So we're super excited to announce that this book is coming out. I think it's going to be a great resource for our listeners and tons of people who say we were looking for a business model, we were looking for a plan that we can look at and think about and add our own unique wisdom to that is going to help you build a plan and build a business that's not only successful financially because it's sound, wise, prudence, but it also includes it. How do you do that while seeking fulfillment, seeking passion, seeking purpose and meaning in life so that the legacy you bring and the legacy you leave, because you will leave a legacy.
Kathryn: One way or another.
Michael: Is a positive one that betters yourself, the people around you and the world around you and your community around you. Or is just a legacy of greed and neglect of all these other things and broken relationships and we've seen both. We don't want you to have that. We don't want to have that, which is why we worked really hard at building this and codifying it and writing it down. And I know that we're going to benefit really from actually codifying it and putting it in a book because it's going to help us be even more intentional about being a Passion and Provision company.
Kathryn: Absolutely. So-
Michael: So where can they get it?
Kathryn: Fulfilledthebook.com.
Michael: Fulfilledthebook.com.
Kathryn: Fulfilledthebook.com.
Kathryn: Go there. Buy-
Michael: The first week, there'll be links to the Amazon site ...
Kathryn: And then after that it'll be just regular buy the book from us and then there's all sorts of resources and bonuses and fun things. So it's worth doing that too. But please buy the Kindle book the first week. You really need that.
Michael: This is a first week push and then after that the book will be sold where books are available online.
Kathryn: Anywhere books are available.
Michael: It's going to be, quite frankly, in a lot of different places. You'll be able to get it on Amazon. We will have it. We will for the foreseeable future, after week one, we will have it at a discounted price on our website so that people can have the opportunity to get that. And we would love for you to get it, read it and give us your honest review. We really want it. It would be really helpful. We'd love to have you leave your honest review on Amazon, but we want to hear it. We want to hear what you're thinking. We want to hear what your thoughts are, what stood out to you, what was valuable to you and where could we have added in pieces? What's missing for you? Because there will be a revision of this book and we will continue.
Kathryn: Don't say that. I'm kidding.
Michael: We will continue to teach and train and consult, and we want to hear what are we missing in the midst of this for you?
Kathryn: Well, and plus, the other thing too is that we have courses that go behind this. So the missing pieces too, we want to make sure that we're really clear on what is it that you need? Because we want to be helpful.
Michael: We want to be helpful and do whatever we can to help 10,000 of you business leaders build 10,000 Passionate and Provision companies full of Passion and Provision jobs. I know we will change lots of people's lives together through this because we're here to help. But you're really doing the amazing work of building your company, growing it, and taking care of your people.
Michael: So thank you very much. I'm Michael Redman.
Kathryn: I'm Kathryn Redman.
Michael: And this is the HaBO Village podcast. And we are now published authors of the book "Fulfilled".
Kathryn: Take a deep breath. That sounds so freaking weird.
Michael: You all have a great week. Thank you very much.
