Episode 1557: Interview with Jones Loflin About his Book "Focused As a Bee"

In today’s #podcast episode, I interview Jones Loflin. I ask Jones about his book Focused As a Bee (along with his others). I also ask Jones about how he arrived at using Bees as a model for how we need to overcome distractions. I also ask Jones to share with you how important focus is to your success.

 

Show Notes and Resources.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Thanks for joining us on episode 1557 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. Hey,
I'm Jones Laughlin.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.

(00:22):
Having the ability to focus your time and attention each day
is key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott
Mater. If my work helps people to have better relationships,

(00:46):
if it helps them to be their best selves,
if it helps them take a step forward in a way
that stores marriages,
helps them to be better parents,
helps them to be a better team member at work to
show that light that's in there that's not supposed to be
put under a bushel,
but it's supposed to be put on a heel.
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship

(01:07):
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent,
and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

(01:37):
In today's podcast episode,
I interview Jones Laughlin.
I asked Jones about his book Focused as a Bee,
along with several of his others.
And I also asked Jones about how he arrived at using
bees as a model for how we need to overcome distractions.
And I also asked Jones to share with you how important
focus really is to your success.

(01:57):
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Living.
Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time,
your tal talent,
and your treasures.
You can find out more about that book [e-mail]
it'll take you to a page where there's information and you
can sign up to get some mailings about it as well

(02:18):
as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
Jones Laughlin is a keynote speaker,
coach and Arthur who helps individuals and organizations struggling with too
much to do with three decades of experience,
he offers simple yet powerful strategies for focus,
time management and change.

(02:40):
His books include Juggling Elephants and Always Growing,
and his latest release,
Focused as a Bee,
offers fresh insights on how to maintain focus in a world
where we are constantly being distracted.
Welcome to the show,
Jones. Well,
thanks for the opportunity to be here,

(03:01):
Scott. I'm excited about what we'll explore today in our time
together. Absolutely,
yeah. It's always an exploration because I prepare questions and then
I usually ask something else.
Anyway, so that's just the way the world works.
I like to have a conversation.
So at the end of the day,
I shared a little bit about your journey and some of
the work you've done.

(03:21):
I love.
You've got a lot of great books,
and I love all of the titles of them because they're.
They're clever juggling elephants.
And now the focus is a bee that we're talking about
today. But when we talk about where we are today,
it really usually never tells the whole story.
I always think of intros as,

(03:42):
like, Instagram photos.
They don't show the whole story.
So talk about your journey.
Back up a little bit and walk us through what got
you to the point where this is the work you're doing
and this is the message you're putting out in the world.
Absolutely. Thanks for that.
Several years ago,
back in another lifetime,
I was a high school teacher.
I was a high school agriculture instructor here in North Carolina.

(04:04):
And so that's where I started out my professional career,
then went into speaking and training in the 90s,
and then had the big break in my career came in
2000. In fact,
I'd also say it's a personal launching point to improve my
life in 2000 when somebody handed me a book called who
Moved My Cheese?
Now Your listeners under 35 years of age are going,

(04:25):
what? But that was a book book.
And they can go look it up and see more about
it. But it told the story.
It was a parable,
and it told the story of how to look at change.
And so it just really radically helped me to see change
from a fresh perspective.
And that helped me to grow my career and even my
life in ways that.
That I hadn't been in the past.
Continued that journey,

(04:45):
have written a few books along the way.
And my whole idea behind the work that I do.
Yeah, you hear my tagline of.
It's about helping people make the best choices with their time.
My big overarching emphasis is just to help people be able
to say,
you know what I spent today,
I used my time well in service to what's of value
to me.
And if I've done that,

(05:06):
if something I've said or written helps people do that,
then I've had a good day myself.
So that's professionally what got me here.
I am thrilled that who I am is the husband of
Lisa. We've been married 35 years in June.
We have two relationships,
children. Thank You.
I have one really cool son in law and another really
cool son in law in the wings now.

(05:27):
My daughter Sydney got engaged this past weekend.
Excited about that.
And so that's,
that's my family.
What do I like to do?
Give me some decaf coffee and somebody across the table and
let's have a conversation.
Let's talk about fun stuff.
Let's talk about the world,
let's talk about anything.
Let's talk about travel.
Then I also like to get outside and grow stuff.
That's me.

(05:48):
So, you know,
you mentioned you were a teacher.
Of course I was a teacher as well.
And I laugh because I think sometimes people don't realize how
at least if you're a good teacher,
and I'm not going to say all teachers are great,
but at least if you're a good teacher,
how much preparation that actually gives you for other things in
terms of organization and time management and leadership and communication and

(06:13):
motivate people think,
oh, they're just a teacher.
No, actually there's a lot of skills you can learn if
you're a good teacher.
How did you think that prepared you?
Yeah, first of all,
you said the organization,
being able to organize your thoughts and being able to put
them in an,
in a,
an order that would resonate with people,
that was certainly one of the big,

(06:34):
biggest ones.
The second one was just how to connect with people,
you know,
yourself as a teacher.
If you can't connect with the students on a human level,
they're never going to be interested in what you're trying to
teach them or how you're helping them learn.
So just that whole idea of connecting with people,
where they are noticing things about them,
those are two of the things that I think are most

(06:56):
resonating with me as I think about what did I do
as a teacher that helps me today.
So one of the things I like to highlight too is
the intersection between our faith journey,
whatever that looks like for us,
and our life journey and the messages that we put out
and how those things feed back into each other.
So share a little bit about your the faith journey part
of your journey.

(07:16):
Sure, Absolutely.
Funny enough,
if people see something about my company,
they'll see it's HOPE,
Inc. Which stands for Helping Us Prepare for Excellence.
My wife and I had this goal that one day we
wanted to run youth camps,
some Christian youth camps.
And the acronym was going to be Helping Others Prepare for
Eternity. And that was,
that was many moons ago that we had that thought.

(07:37):
I grew up in the church.
I had a loving mom and dad who took me to
church every Sunday,
got me active.
I really appreciate that grounding in my life.
And then I'll never forget talking about my journey.
I'll never forget my uncle Hoyt,
who's now long since passed,
who was talking to me one day and he said I
needed a wrench for something and God I looked at behind

(07:59):
the seat and God provided one.
And, and it's gonna sound really weird,
but that was the first time that somebody had really made,
oh, God really works in your life in a personal way.
And that was.
I was a middle school kid,
I think at the time.
And I'll just never forget how mind blown I was.
But that.
Because God was here and I'm here and we pray to
him, but wow,
God's working right with you on the little stuff.

(08:21):
That was transformational for me in my faith journey.
Because then I began thinking about how is God working in
my life right here where I'm at and the things that,
that I have going on.
You Fast forward to college experience.
Had some amazing people speak into my life there.
One of the beautiful journeys for my wife and I is
that we in the 90s were able to start a new

(08:44):
church, a new United Methodist church in our community.
For your listeners who've never done that,
talk about a kingdom experience to.
To birth.
There was a pastor and a family,
but we were the next ones.
We were members three and four in this group.
And just to be able to see how hungry people were
for a fresh perspective on what it means to.

(09:06):
To live a godly life and to reach people where they
were, that will always count as one of the highlights in
my faith.
Jo, Lisa and I continue to be active in our church
now. I love teaching and to all ages,
whether it's fifth graders or senior or I should say older
people. I don't know what word I'm supposed to use for
that. More seasoned people.
Mature. I think we can mature.

(09:27):
I think mature is allowed.
Yeah. Yes.
So just the excitement of helping people see where God is
working in their life,
that's always been something that's been a big part of my
journey. So the latest book,
Focus is a Bee.
You're the approach that you're taking there and the idea,
focus and then obviously a bee.
What inspired you to use bees and take that approach towards

(09:52):
how people work and how people are focusing and productive and
these sorts of things.
Sure. The first one was that my daughter Sydney and I
are beekeepers.
Someone gave us a hive of bees back about,
I guess about six years ago.
And we loved,
of course,
the dad and daughter adventures.
And there's nothing like suiting up and going and working,
working with thousands of bees that want to sting you.

(10:14):
And that was always fun.
So it was just the joy of working with the bees
and then beginning to see how they do things and how
God created them to be so focused so they could get
so much accomplished.
And so as we were learning those things and talking about
them, we began to ask ourselves,
is there more here?
Is there a message that could be beneficial to people to

(10:37):
help them to be able to be more focused on what's
most important to them?
And, of course,
we practice these principles in our own lives and then began
to, okay,
how would we teach those to others?
And that became the book.
Now, the book itself has its own story.
Focused as a Bee.
Because often we say,
busy as a bee,
people, oh,
I was busy as a bee today.
And. And the reality is,

(10:59):
you might have been busy,
but it wasn't like a bee,
because busy means you've had a lot of activity.
You may not have gotten to the outcome you wanted,
but you had a lot of stuff going on.
Bees are focused.
Every action that a bee takes is aligned with the outcome
they want for the H.
I can't say that,
Scott. Maybe you can.
I can't say that about my day.

(11:19):
Not every choice I make every day is aligned toward the
outcomes I want.
In fact,
I catch myself going,
jones, why in the world are you doing that?
So that's the big idea behind focused is a B.
Is that our goal,
is that every action we take every day aligns with the
outcomes we want?
Yeah. I remind people as well that there's a big difference

(11:41):
between being busy and being productive.
Because I.
I tell them,
if I had a big pile of rocks in my backyard
and I asked you to pick up a rock,
walk over to the other side of the backyard,
put the rock down,
and then go back and forth and do that all day.
And when you've moved all the rocks,
just pick them up and move them back to the first
pile. You'd be busy.

(12:02):
But I don't think anyone would argue that you've been productive.
And in fact,
I don't think I could pay you enough to do that
too long before you just quit at some point.
It's now,
this isn't.
I'm not going to do this.
This is a.
This isn't what I'm supposed to do with the rest of
my life.
Yeah. When you think about how people think about doing that
the rest of My life that those things and they talk

(12:24):
about so many people are not really happy with their job.
They don't feel like they're doing what they're supposed to be
doing. I call it calling whatever name you want to give
it. How do you see what you teach around productivity and
focus and these things being related to living out your calling?
Yeah. To me,

(12:44):
a common thread in all of my books is that we
need to stop,
we need to give pause in our lives.
We are so active that we don't often,
and for those of you who understand this term,
we don't often stop to sense the presence of God,
the Holy Spirit,
Holy Ghost,
whatever you want to call it,

(13:04):
that is trying to tell us some stuff,
trying to help us to get that awareness we need about
our calling,
our vocation,
our how we want to treat our families,
what we should want for ourselves.
But we just,
we stay so active instead of stopping to reflect on that.
Someone was telling me the other day an activity at the

(13:24):
university. It was a group of college students and they asked,
they told the college students that they wanted them to remove,
to move their phones or put them on airplane mode that
close their laptops.
And for two minutes they could not engage with any technology.
They could not talk to anyone next to them.
And some of the people talking about how traumatic that felt
out two minutes.

(13:46):
Two minutes,
God. I think where so many of us need to improve
and I find myself this way when I feel like I'm
ready to stop breaking rocks,
it's because I haven't stopped to say should I be breaking
rocks in the first place?
So I think that's one of the keys for any of
us is to stop and say,
what is it that,

(14:06):
you know,
God is calling me to do?
Not just in big vocation ways,
but what's God calling to me to do with my family?
What's God calling to me do in my personal life?
And then looking for those not only in just the presence
of the Holy Spirit,
but in the council of Godly people of being living our
lives out based on the scriptures,
the texts that we know are important.
But I think that's where it starts,
is stopping.

(14:26):
What do you think keeps us from stopping during the day
when. Because a lot of people will say,
I know how important it is to plan.
I know how important it is to have that quiet time.
I know how they'll pay lip service to it.
And yet.
But actually doing it is a whole nother thing.
What's that gap between we hear that and we go,

(14:49):
oh, absolutely I know,
yes, I need to do that.
And then actually doing it during our life.
Yeah. It just seems counterintuitive.
How am I going to get more done?
Or how am I going to get more of the most
important things done if I stop?
Because if I'm active,
I'm going to get them done.
Should you be doing them in the first place?
Should someone else be doing those things?

(15:10):
How do these activities align with the outcomes you're looking for?
I'll never forget I was talking with a really busy mom
who was talking about.
I asked her the question.
I says,
what's not happening for you that would help you in your
life? She goes,
time for me.
And of course,
I ask her,
tell me some reasons why you're not taking.
I want to be available for my kids.
I want to make sure that I'm doing the things I
ought to be doing as a mom.

(15:31):
And I asked her this question.
I said,
how would you be a better mom if you did take
15 minutes for yourself in the morning before your kids were
up and those things?
And without even skipping a beat,
Scott, she said,
I'd be more patient with them.
I'd be more present with them.
And so I think that's where we start,
is what's the value in stopping?

(15:52):
I can get better perspective.
I can understand if I'm making good choices with my time.
I can stop and see what my body.
If you're just.
What is my body telling me?
Your body's telling you you need to Dr.
More water or whatever it might be.
But I think that's the value,
is that stopping gives you that rest and that gives you
that moment Decide what do you need to be doing in

(16:14):
the next moment.
Fun fact about honeybees,
they take about 40 naps per day and you're going,
really? How's that?
I want to be a bee.
Yeah, really?
Me too.
When I heard that,
I'm like,
come on.
But research backs it up.
They after being so focused on an activity for a while,
they stopped.
They need rest from that activity so that they can be

(16:36):
ready to be their best in the next moment.
And how often.
Let's take it to the corporate world for a moment.
How often do you have back to back to back meetings?
All day long.
And about the second meeting you're in because you didn't stop
and process,
you're like,
now what are we talking about here?
You need to rest from thinking for a moment so you
could be fully focused in the next meeting or conversation to

(16:57):
deliver your best work.
It's hard to do.
I don't question that.
That's why I tell people I think sometimes you got to
use technology.
I have some coaching clients that every day at a certain
time their watch buzzes or their phone makes notification and their
job at that moment is to take one minute to do
some deep breathing.
Yeah, I think.
And again,
it's. Earlier you mentioned the sitting without technology for two minutes

(17:19):
and how hard it was for those college students.
And by the way,
somebody heard that was like,
yeah, young people today.
Okay, I challenge you to do it,
by the way,
because I don't think,
oh, that's as young people think.
That's a people.
At least in today's culture,
we have a hard time.
I even just challenge people to speak for two minutes and
be silent is that's actually really hard to do.

(17:43):
We don't like quiet,
we don't like silence.
We don't like not having our brain fed with all of
this stuff.
And yet at the same time,
we know that it pulls us away.
We're focused on the wrong things.
We're trying to multitask.
We're doing all of these other things.
Things. How do you see as the intersection or what would

(18:04):
you talk about that's the same or different between.
We talk about time management,
then we talk about focus management or energy management.
How do you see the relationship between those ideas?
Sure. I think they all three have the genesis that it
starts with our goals,
our priorities,
our values.
There's some beginning point for all of that is what are

(18:26):
those things in your life that you hold most year,
what is most important?
And then recognizing that we need to have activities scheduled into
our day,
that's time management activity schedules our day to carry out those
things that are most important to us.
So that's the time management piece.
The other side of that is that being engaged in the

(18:47):
right task at the right moment or the right activity requires
energy, requires focus.
And so when you're focusing on something that's going to wear
you down mentally,
physically, emotionally.
And so that's why it's important to take those breaks we
talked about a little while ago.
It's not just about focus,
because I know lots of people who are focused like crazy.

(19:08):
I mean,
but they're not focused on things that are aligned with their
values and what's important.
So they're burned out.
I know people who can manage their schedules,
have the schedule,
oh, yeah,
I'm going to be here there.
I'm going to be here there.
I'm going to be there.
But when they get into those places,
they're not focused or they're not aligned with the outcomes they're
looking for.
So I love that question,
Scott, is that what's the intersection between all of those?

(19:29):
And the intersection is you got to decide what you want
or in the case of what we're.
The grounding we use.
What's God calling me to do in my life?
Who's he calling me to be right now?
Okay, then how does that play out in my calendar?
How does it show up in the way I work with
other people?
One of the things that I've shared on the show before,
and I'd like your take on it and your input in

(19:51):
it is in some ways time management,
or we use those words,
money management.
Whatever it is,
it's about managing those other things.
I like to point out the real truth is all of.
The core of all of them is self management.
You know,
because if you're not doing the self work,
all that other stuff really doesn't matter because you like.

(20:13):
And that's.
You could have the really productive schedule.
But is it the right schedule and those sorts of things?
What do you see?
Is that.
Or what would you add to that?
Yeah, I.
I was on a campaign probably.
This is probably pre Covid where I was going to stop
using the phrase time management.
We even looked at removing it from the website and those
things. But we recognized that wouldn't go well because time management's

(20:35):
a placeholder term.
If you're.
You sneeze,
you say,
would you hand me a Kleenex?
It's not a Kleenex.
It's a tissue.
That's just a.
So I think time management,
you're right.
Is that placeholder term for a ton of other things?
It's not about time.
Time can't be managed.
Time can only be accounted for.
It is.
Is self management,

(20:56):
schedule management,
energy management.
It's all of those things that allow us to make the
best use of our time.
So I'm completely in line with you on that,
Scott. Yeah,
yeah, because.
And I think sometimes it's easier if we call it something
else. That it's like we don't have to do the hard
work. Actually,
I'm not the.
I'm not the problem.
It's. Time's the problem.

(21:17):
You're part of the problem too.
Let's get practical for a minute.
Somebody out there is hearing all of this and they're thinking
to themselves,
okay, interesting concept.
Focuses a balance.
That cool idea.
I get it.
I need to be productive,
not Busy.
I need to do the right things.
I need to do this hard work.
What are some of the first steps that someone could take
if they realize,

(21:37):
hey, my day is not in alignment with what I want
to do?
My. But it's not working.
What are some of the first things they can do to
begin moving the right direction?
Yeah, you said the first one already,
Scott, which is getting clear about,
you know,
what's important to you,
what are your goals?
What are your priorities as an individual,
as a family,
as somebody,

(21:58):
somebody in an organization.
I think it has to start there.
What was it Covey said 20,
30 years ago?
You got to begin with the end in mind.
I think it has to be in place.
The next step,
I think,
and we talk about this in the book,
is you got to give yourself permission to focus on those
things. And we say you have to give yourself permission because
we often give ourselves permission to be distracted.
And that's that busyness that we've been talking about for much

(22:21):
of the show.
So giving yourself permission to focus.
And then in the book,
we talk about some of the different pieces of that.
But it's okay.
I'm going to give myself permission to say that task is
most important right now.
So I'm going to give myself permission to prioritize.
I'm going to give myself permission to plan,
and I'm going to give myself permission to recharge.
We talked about bees resting a moment ago and asking yourself

(22:44):
even the question,
what's the permission I need to give myself to begin aligning
my day's activities with those outcomes that are important to me?
Sometimes it's permission to say no,
sometimes it's permission to stop.
I'm yet to meet anyone.
If I didn't say,
what permission could you give yourself that would help you to

(23:04):
be in better alignment with your schedule or you schedule alignment
with your values?
And they can always tell me something.
I had someone tell me the other day,
Jones, I needed to give myself permission to be mediocre because
everything I do I try to do at a plus level.
And said when I finally recognized that was driving me in
the wrong direction,
I said,
you know what want for this task,
I'm going to give myself permission to be mediocre.

(23:26):
And so I think that's where you start.
I love that one because I think a lot of.
A lot of us burn ourselves out trying to make everything
perfect when the reality is that oftentimes some things that we
do, it's okay that it's not perfect.
Good enough is actually good Enough.
And that phrase is the phrase I use a lot of
times. Done is better than perfect.

(23:47):
Yeah. And if I can get rid of it,
if I can get it off my plate,
then I can go work on this thing that really gets
me excited or that's really more in alignment with what's important
to me.
If I just get that done.
And sometimes if you're in an organization,
sometimes you need to ask,
what does done look like for a project or a task
we may have,
like you said,
if we're type A or we're really focused on creating something

(24:10):
excellent, we sometimes need to ask,
what do you see me having as a finished product?
And when they tell you you're going,
oh, I was planning on that was going to take about
five hours.
I could knock that out in two hours.
Ta da.
You've opened up three hours of possibility because you were willing
to ask the question,
what does done look like?
And I think the other thing that I've seen happen with

(24:30):
that one is if you don't ask that question about what
are you actually looking for out of this,
not only are you possibly going to overshoot or undershoot,
but a lot of times you'll discover that the person maybe
hasn't actually even thought about that yet.
And now I can get some clarity.
Oh yeah,
that's a great question.
Let's think about that.

(24:51):
Oh, okay.
Yeah. Which helps them too,
because that's.
I've been asked that when I was in a leadership position.
It's. Huh,
yeah, we need to figure that out,
don't we?
Let's sit down and figure that out before you get started.
Because otherwise you're wasting.
You're spinning your wheels.
And that's.
Yeah, that's a waste of my time and your time as
your leader.
I don't want you over there wasting time either.

(25:12):
Not good for me,
not good for the team.
I've got a few questions that I like to ask everybody.
But before I go,
there is.
Is there anything else about the work you do or your
new book that you really would like to share with the
listener? Sure.
I think the key is that it's important to ask yourself
the question we've been talking about all day.
What's important to you?

(25:33):
What do you value?
And how can you begin aligning your schedule to accomplish those
things? And I think it does start with focus.
Perhaps it's focusing on yourself,
perhaps it's focusing on your calendar.
But where does your attention need to be?
Our definition of focus is the intentional direction of your time.
And Energy towards what matters most.
There's three parts to that.

(25:53):
Intentional time and energy.
And what matters most.
Which one of those three needs your attention right now to
help you start living that life that,
that you feel called to live?
So my brand is inspired stewardship,
and I run things through that lens of stewardship.
Yet over the years,
I've discovered that's one of those words that can mean a

(26:14):
lot of different things to a lot of different people.
People. So when you hear the word stewardship,
what does that word mean to you?
Yeah, it's ironic that you asked me that.
And I think we talked about this in a pre show
call at one point.
My word for 2025 is steward.
Because when I hear Stewart,
this is something that's not mine,

(26:35):
but I'm responsible for.
And so for me,
the three things that I look at every day,
am I stewarding myself,
My relationships,
and my.
My business in a way that honors God.
And that's,
that's pretty easy to do a checklist.
Every day in my quiet time each morning after I've done
my gratitude journal,

(26:56):
I say,
how. What's my.
I even rate myself sometimes.
Yeah, what would I.
How would I rank rate myself on stewardship with the business
yesterday? How did I use my time?
Did I make sure I was show being present for podcast
or whatever it might be?
But steward,
being a good steward to me is all about taking great
care of something that someone else has given you.
And God's given me my family.

(27:17):
God's given me this business.
God's given me this body and this mind.
Am I stewarding them well,
in a way that brings honor to him.
So this is my favorite question that I like to ask
everybody. Imagine for a moment that I invented this magic machine.
And with this machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,

(27:38):
maybe 150,
maybe 250 years.
And through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life,
see all of the connections,
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
I'll tell you a story that'll highlight that.

(28:00):
I think Scott,
and I think it will.
I think it'll get me there,
because I'm thinking I have to.
I was at a conference years ago,
and someone had a copy of my book,
Juggling Elephants,
which is about managing working life like it's a circus.
And without saying,
we're walking.
If you can imag walking toward each other.
I didn't know he was going to stop and talk to
me, but he flipped up a copy of Juggling Elephants and
he said,
your book saved my marriage.

(28:21):
And I went,
touchdown. I'm like,
yeah, but that,
that sums it up.
If my work helps people to have better relationships,
if it helps them to be their best selves,
if it helps them take a step forward in a way
that that restores marriages,
helps them to be better parents,

(28:42):
helps them to be a better team member at work to
show that light that's in there that's not supposed to be
put under a bushel,
but it's supposed to be put on a heel,
then that's what I hope my work is done.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
Absolutely. A couple of things.
One is,
of course,
right now I'm spending a lot of time and energy around

(29:03):
getting awareness out about focused as a B to give people
the opportunity to find value in the book and see if
it works for them.
We're also developing something I'm really excited about.
We're developing an online assessment that people can go and take
and they can determine what their greatest opportunities for improvement are
based on the six permissions that are in the book.
And I'm excited about that because what we're going to be
able to do is once they take that assessment,

(29:27):
then we can provide them resources to be able to say,
okay, here's how you take that next step forward.
So that's one of the things that's going on for me.
Another one I'm excited about,
something I've never done before is having my books in a
language, language that I responsible for language other than English.
Juggling Elephants is available in lots of other languages.
My other books aren't.
I've had a lot of people talk to me about my

(29:48):
always growing book,
which is about leadership,
about having that translated into Spanish because there's such a need
for leadership books that will help the the Latina community to
grow as leaders.
And it's a simple message about leading with a gardener's mindset.
And so I'm excited about that project and getting that completed.
That's really neat.

(30:10):
So you can find out more about Jones Laughlin at his
website, Jones laughlin.com.
of course,
I'll have a link to that in the show notes as
well, so you can find it over there.
Jones, anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
One thing is that if you are active on LinkedIn I
put out a lot of content on LinkedIn related to the
things we've talked about today.
Feel free to go there.

(30:31):
I think that's a good place to start.
Part. The other thing is I want to leave you with
a quote.
Not by me,
but by one of the icons in my life,
Zig Ziglar,
who was a professional speaker,
motivational speaker back in the 80s.
Amazing guy.
He had a quote that it's kind of my life quote,
if you will.
And he says,
go as far as you can see,
and when you get there,
you can see farther.

(30:52):
And that has always spoken to me that in those moments
of fear,
those moments when I didn't know what step 15 looked like,
God calls us just to take that next step,
have that conversation,
stop for a moment and see what is what you're really
thinking about and what's important to you.
But go as far as you can see.
And then when you get there,

(31:12):
look around because you'll be able to figure out the next
step. You're not going to figure it all out,
but one step at a time,
you can accomplish what's most important to you and ultimately bring
glory to God.
Absolutely. Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast.

(31:34):
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
please do us a favor.
Go over to inspired stewardship.com
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(32:01):
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Until next time,
invest your time,
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and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.