October 28, 2025 • 36 mins
The temptation to cling to what’s worked in the past is strong, especially in a business built on consistency, relationships, and routine. But what if your current “normal” is holding you back from your next level of growth?
In this episode of From Busy To Rich, host Wes Young and co-host Justin Lakin unpack the power and danger of habit. Through the lens of a cautionary tale about Blockbuster’s downfall and Netflix’s rise, they explore why financial advisors must actively challenge their status quo to stay relevant and fulfilled.
Wes offers a powerful framework for navigating the tension between tradition and innovation, showing that real growth doesn’t come from starting over, but from constant reinvention.
What to expect from this episode:
- Why defending “the way we’ve always done it” can silently kill momentum
- How to spot fear and fatigue as enemies of growth
- A simple 4-part framework to define your current operating model
- Why periodic reinvention is the key to sustained profitability and human potential
- And more!
Resources:
- Submit your podcast question here!
- “From Busy To Rich” by Wes Young
- “No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention” by Reed Hastings
- “10x is Easier Than 2x” by Dan Sullivan
Other Listening Platforms:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
The From Busy to Rich podcast helps financial
advisors grow their businesses beyond the products they
sell and the assets they manage, increase profitability,
and reclaim their time by providing strategies and
insights that will not only change your life,
but practice.
Wes, it's always a pleasure to see you.
How are you this morning? Doing fantastic.
(00:23):
Justin's looking forward to our content today.
Yeah. I know it's an exciting one and
really central to
what we do here and talk about but
not just here. It's really a core value,
a part of what we do on our
business within the practice.
And so I'll hand it off to you
to kick it off with a couple of
quotes I know that are really central to
this theme.
Yeah. So there's a there's a great quote,
(00:44):
and I just love this, because you said
it is central to a lot of the
heartbeat of the way
we operate. I think it's it's this whole
concept we're gonna dive into
really is all about unleashing human potential. And
and so this is a Eric Hoffer quote.
He said, in times of change,
learners inherit the earth while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world
(01:05):
that no longer
exists.
It's such a good one.
It's so good. And and we say it
all the time because,
there there is this fundamental idea that we're
gonna explore today
that I think as I look back on
the last twenty two years of being in
this business and really even before that,
has fundamentally changed my life. And I've seen
(01:25):
it change
businesses and people and just the health and
the value that organizations are capable of delivering
and, and a lot more fun when you
can when you can approach life this way.
And when I when I really first started
putting this together,
I remember a story about my dad. My
my dad, for those of you who don't
(01:46):
know, he was the operations director for a
large franchise
of Blockbuster
Videos.
So they were major video before. It was
like a private company, and then Blockbuster bought
them. You know, Blockbuster
became this massive behemoth.
Like, it was a a six in February,
it was a $6,000,000,000
company,
and they had about 10,000 stores,
(02:08):
all across the country.
And my dad, he was actually they were
a private franchise, a part of this public
company,
and he got on there what they would
be the equivalent of, like, a board of
directors advisory board. So they weren't the they
weren't the board of directors, but they were
this advisory board.
And so one of the things that they
they would do every year, a couple times
a year, they'd go up there and they'd
(02:29):
meet with the,
with the with the main board. Board would
update them on things they're working on. They
would ask for feedback. And and I remember
my dad saying when he came back, and
it was just just past 2,000, he said,
I think our days in this business are
numbered.
And and I remember saying, well,
what what do you mean? He said, yeah.
He said, just the the
(02:50):
the company is has this tendency to defend
the way we've always done it. And he
started talking about what what he didn't have
the right terminology or the right name for
the company, but he was talking about Netflix.
And if you ever wanna check out a
really good story, you go read the book
No Rules Rules, which is one of the
founders of Netflix that that wrote this book.
And he tells the story of when Netflix
(03:11):
was a a start up company. So they
had, like, a 141,000
subscribers.
They were delivering,
DVDs
in the mail, The U through The US
postal system.
And I remember, I and so he said
and he walks into this boardroom because they
had this idea
where they were
gonna revolutionize
and be able to, like, change the way
(03:32):
people,
consume home entertainment.
And so what what he ended up doing,
they they built this model. It was working.
They had a lot of future things for
online. And they go to Blockbuster, and they
got a meeting with the CEO, Antiocho, at
the time. And they they kinda pitched, and
they said, alright. Look. Blockbuster, we would like
(03:53):
to to, like, take Blockbuster can can take
over Netflix. We'll brand it Blockbuster, and and
we're gonna continue our subscription based model through
DVDs in the mail. And there's this whole
online movement coming because we feel like this
is the way people who are gonna move
towards and gravitate towards in the future. And
they kinda spit all this out and Anyako
listened, they said. And then after about ten
(04:15):
minutes of discussion, he said, well, let let
me just ask you something.
How much would it cost Blockbuster to buy
Netflix?
And they said it would cost $50,000,000,
and Anyako
flatly declined. He said, look, guys. We're the
giants in this industry,
and and we've got 10,000 stores. We're a
$6,000,000,000
company.
(04:35):
If we wanna go create this thing, we'd
create it ourselves, but nobody's not gonna wanna
go to a video store. I mean, look
at our history. Look what we've built, how
great it is. And he kinda goes through
this, and and they left there. They would
say that day was the worst day of
their life
and then later became the best day of
their life.
Because as if you follow the story, ten
years later, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy,
(04:57):
and Netflix was like a $9,300,000,000
company. And today, I don't know what the
current market cap is, but it's well over
250,000,000,000.
And and it so it's just a massive
behemoth that is in the industry. But here's
the what what it makes me think about,
is it makes me think about this idea
that
all of us
(05:18):
have a gravitational pull if we're not careful
to defend our existing set of habits and
I believe with all my heart that one
of our greatest opportunities
to recognize our future possibilities
is not about abandoning our normal
totally
but it's also not about rejecting new it's
about keeping a healthy tension between the two,
(05:38):
transforming
the tension between the two on an ongoing
basis
because if we're not careful what happens in
all of our lives and this maybe you're
not thinking you're a blockbuster video
but think about how many times in your
day when you hear a new
idea, a new approach, something that's not a
part of your normal muscle memory way of
making progress,
how oftentimes you have this internal con conversation
(06:00):
with yourself
that you're rejecting
the that new and you're defending the way
you've always done it. This is why that
wouldn't work here. Look what's worked well in
our past. And so, Justin, I wanna talk
about this today and really really tease it
out a little bit and talk about how
this balancing act of navigating the tension between
tradition and innovation,
between navigating the the the the tension between
(06:22):
the normal and new, it can be one
of the greatest accelerators to unleashing human potential
and increasing profitability and quality of life. I
think it's such a great topic.
And that story in particular is the extreme
version of, like, what's possible or dangerous when
when you think everything is good, that you
don't need to create any new change, and
(06:42):
you're not looking for advancement.
Absolutely.
Yeah. And I remember the awkward phase where
they started to try to catch on, and
they they took on, like, the red box
model for a bit. And they Oh, yeah.
All of a sudden you had the Blockbuster.
Like, okay. You don't have to go to
the store, but now you can get the
that was I mean, the reality is it
was it's just You're still going to the
store. Yeah. Right. Yes. Just still defending more
(07:03):
of the normal. Like, not being able to
look ahead and seeing what's coming down the
pipeline
or being the opposite when you're when you're
in those early phases, like in this business,
a lot of it's new
and you're not even normalizing any of it.
You're just trying to ingest everything. But there's
gotta be a baseline of, like, you've got
to absorb it and figure out how it's
gonna apply to you
(07:23):
so it can be normalized
and define what that new new is that
you're gonna target because
there's there's tons of new out there. There's
lots of shiny objects, but but they're not
all gonna be good. What's that that comment
we make about,
you know,
new isn't always better, but better is always
new. Oh, yeah. I I love that. That
(07:44):
and in fact, when we teach our class
transform,
it it with the tagline for it is
while different isn't always better, better is always
different.
And and it's so true. And and to
flush it out, I'd love it I'd love
to, like I'm gonna I'm gonna throw some
stuff to those of you who are,
who are driving,
right now and just listening to us. You
you won't see this. So I'll try and
(08:04):
paint a beautiful,
like, verbal tapestry here for you. But for
those of you not driving, I'm gonna I'm
gonna show you a a little screenshot, and
I'm gonna I'm gonna actually talk about what
the this kinda
this kinda
tension, this this this navigating the tension between
tradition and innovation, between normal and new. To
do it first, though, let's talk about
(08:26):
everybody has a normal. Okay. We all have
a current way we go about making progress.
And and we've got this kinda up on
the screen here where we're talking about what
is our normal. So you can certainly divide
it into a bunch of subcategories here, but
but it's your beliefs, the perspectives you have,
the self image you carry,
your habits, processes, and procedures you're currently working
(08:47):
with, your your appearance, your presence, how you're
showing up, the competencies and character that you've
built, narratives, narratives that you use to move
people from one place to another,
the team that you've surrounded yourself with, their,
you know, quality and quantity,
the markets and memberships you belong to, the
products and services that you engage with, technology,
(09:07):
education training. I mean, we could go on
and on and on. But if I was
to follow you around and audit your life
in any area of life, but let's just
take your business life and or you were
to follow me around and audit my life,
you would find out what is my normal.
What is my current way of going about
making progress?
And and here's the thing. All of us
can have a future different way of doing
(09:28):
all that stuff. Everybody can have a new
we can have a transformed way of making
progress.
And as we said earlier, I believe, and
we've seen this play itself out over and
over again,
is that our greatest opportunities to recognize our
future possibilities is not about abandoning the normal.
And it's also not about
rejecting new. It's about keeping tension
between the healthy between the two.
(09:51):
And and so when we think about this
I think there's some common like enemies
to to this I think I think there's
a lot of reasons why we tend to
defend normal and reject new
and and I think those enemies are a
couple. I think even if, you know, if
you're listening to this podcast, you're a striver
already. Like, you didn't you're not tuning in
because you don't have anything going on. Right?
(10:11):
So this will fill my time. You could
go to Netflix for that.
But instead, you're you're tuning in because you
wanna be better. And you kinda know if
we're sitting here talking about it in a
room, and it's like not you're not even
taking notes on that. Right? That that different
isn't always better, but better
is is always different.
And so as as you as you think
(10:31):
about that, you and I both know to
to get where we've not yet been, we've
gotta be willing to do things we've not
yet done.
And it's not that things we've done in
the past haven't served us well, although some
of them probably haven't. And it's not that
they they they haven't assisted us getting to
this current level of progress that we're at
today,
but
it certainly is not gonna take us to
(10:51):
that next place we've never been. And I
know something about all of us. All of
us have a gap between where we are
and where we wanna be. And the gap
between where we are and where we wanna
be never goes away. It just moves. And
that's that's the healthy thing. We've been talking
about that,
just on our last, podcast together.
But when you're when you're thinking about this
and you go, yeah. I get it, Wes.
(11:12):
I get that that different and always better,
better is always different. I need to keep
the tension healthy between normal and new. I
need to transform the way I'm I'm approaching,
the business on a regular basis if I
want to have an extraordinarily better and different
life.
But there are some things, like, you can
go to you can listen to a podcast
and go, that is so good. I'm gonna
write that down. I'm gonna star it and
circle it. That's something I'm gonna do. Or
(11:34):
you go to a conference. Justin, I mean,
how many times we just came back from
our a big annual conference we go to
every year, and and I and we wrote
stuff down, man. We circle. This is gonna
be so good. And just like everybody else
in the audience that paid to be there
and and gave away their time. Or you
read a book. Right? You read a book,
and you it's so good. You listen to
it. You're like, this is game changer. I'm
(11:55):
gonna do it.
So what is the thing in us that
still won't do it? And I think there's
a couple of of, like, enemies
to normalizing new, to keeping the tension healthy
between the two. One of them is simply
fear.
Okay.
Fear. Because when we talk about, you know,
different isn't isn't always better, but better is
always different.
(12:16):
It's the first part of that statement that
gets us, doesn't it? Because because here's what
I know. As much as you want things
to be better, even more than that, you
don't want things to get worse. Mhmm. You
know what I'm telling you? Thoughts on that,
Justin? Yeah. I would think it's you talk
about complacency with people. It's easy to become
comfortable with where you are.
And even though you want something better or
(12:37):
you want more of something,
the one thing that you don't want is
to give up what you currently have. Yeah.
Yeah. There's you know, market in the market,
there's also this whole reams of study on
this, but,
loss aversion.
People actually have a a greater pain of
of losing
than they actually do of not winning.
(12:59):
And it's it's psychological. It's counterintuitive and doesn't
make sense.
But
the the reality of all of us is
we don't want things to get worse. That's
just a reality. So
so the the thing is the other part
of the statement is true too is while
different now is better, better is always different.
And if you wanna be beautifully prepared for
a world that no longer exists, keep doing
(13:19):
what you've always done.
Because there is there is this kind of
curve, and and and we'll we'll we'll I'll
show it to you here, that we we
utilize in our organization this growth curve. So
if you're if you're driving and this is
this is kinda what you're looking at, you've
got growth that's going on the vertical axis
and time that's going on the horizontal axis.
And then we have this little these little
(13:41):
circles that represent where you're spending your time.
And it could be all normal or all
new, although this would never really that. Right?
Because even when I was brand new and
I came into this business,
I I was 24 years old.
I needed a lot of help. There was
a lot of new things I needed to
learn to be functional in this business.
And but there were things I had that
(14:01):
were already already part of my normal that
were useful in this business. Like, I had
relationships with people. I knew how to call
people and work a phone. Right? I knew
how to use a computer a little bit.
They were not that great back then. I
knew I knew how to,
actually
solve problems,
analyze a situation because I'd come out of
the electrical contracting industry.
(14:22):
But but so much was new. And it's
like when you start in the business, it's
just like so much to learn, products,
it's it's a different system. And and everybody
kinda knows that.
But over time, I went from, like, 25%
normal, 75% new
on the bottom of this first if you
imagine, like, a a a kind of a
big s curve going up, if you kinda
(14:43):
turned an s a little bit on its
side, for those of you not watching. At
the bottom of it, progress is very slow
because you have so much new and a
little bit of normal.
Now then you kinda learn some things. You
internalize things, master things, and now you're more
fifty fifty. You're 50% new and
50% normal. And then when you really hard
to start hitting stride, when you're really, you
(15:04):
know, making progress on your first s curve,
that's where you have, like, 75%
normal, 25%
new, and you are running.
Now here's where it gets interesting.
You will either if you stay in that
mode of only 25% or some people don't
even have that at new. But but so
let's say 25%. We'll give them the benefit
of the doubt. If you stay in that
(15:26):
mode, you will you will certainly keep running
for a while,
but then you're gonna plateau,
and then you're gonna decline or atrophy
because you can't keep doing the same thing
over and over again
in a moving and changing world and expect
things to continue to get better.
They can get good for a while until
you kinda reach your your ceiling of complexity.
(15:48):
And then unless you reinvent,
you're going to decline. And and so this
is what we always look at our growth
curves. We're constantly, in our case, quarterly,
going
back and stopping and saying, alright. Where are
we now?
What future do we wanna create?
And in light of that, what what and
we have big ideas on the future. We
we'll talk about, like, 10 x, which is,
(16:09):
Dan Sullivan's concept that that 10 x growth
is actually easier than two x growth. Because
two x growth, there's so many things you
can grow by 2%,
but but
they generally involve doing what you're already doing
faster
or louder.
Run faster, work harder.
10 x growth, you can't grow 10 x
(16:29):
by keeping a lot of the existing things
you have. And so your options are fewer.
It kinda narrows the focus.
But every quarter, what we're doing is we
go and kinda figure out where we wanna
be, where we're starting from. And then in
light of that, what are the things we
need to normalize
that are a part that are new, that
we've not yet done
and have not yet added value to our
(16:50):
lives because by definition, they're new.
How do we blend those into the rhythm
of our operation? And so we go back
to kind of a fifty fifty. And then
hopefully, we internalize those well, and we're running
and we're back at that 75,
percent normal, 25% new. And then we gotta
go back again. Otherwise, again, the s curves
keep repeating. And if you can wanna check
this out, go online or on YouTube and
(17:10):
watch us. You can see this visual. We'll
also include these visuals in the show notes.
But this is this is how growth works.
So I wanna I wanna go back
and, and and go back to this one
of of fear. So the bottom line is
fear of things getting worse,
it it will cause you to not even
see or certainly not seize the things that
(17:31):
are gonna lead you to your next big
jump.
But, yeah, remember, if you if you're in
your best moments, if you're really thinking,
you know this. You know that, hey. We
we we know that if we wanna get
better, we gotta do things different. So rhythmically,
like, don't blow everything up, but rhythmically, have
points in your year where you're stopping
and saying, alright. What is it that we
(17:52):
need to normalize that's part of our new?
And and what of our normal do we
need to nurture? Because there are things you're
doing right now that probably will fit and
are still pretty good. And so every every
quarter, that's what we have. We have nurture
the normal. Here's what we're gonna keep doing.
And then normalize new. Here are the things
that we believe are gonna move the needle
that are not a part of our next
10 x job. So any anything else on
(18:13):
fear,
Justin?
No. I think that that's the one that
a lot of people can resonate with
in the sense of with what the enemy
is, so the true enemy there. I think
the tangible point is
to make this hit home from how it
feels for us. Like, when we're going to
look at this quarterly, Wes already talked about,
we're going to conferences. And there are ideas
and things coming from, but you can't implement
(18:34):
all of those in any point in time,
like, in a condensed period of time. Sure.
So it's but it gives us that rhythm
of an opportunity to go back. Alright. Of
the things that we've identified that could be
great new for us Yeah. What what is
the one, two, or three things that we're
gonna focus on right now? What's critical? And
the flip side of that,
you can talk a little bit more about
this may tie into the other enemy here,
(18:55):
but is
as we're adding new, some things
have to fall off. Like, some things that
we were doing,
we're no longer gonna keep doing. And I
think there's that component as well of not
only normalizing some of that new and building
that into the rhythm, but identifying, alright, some
of the things that got us here aren't
gonna be beneficial with where we're going. And
(19:16):
you can see this in every area of
your life.
Hey. Thanks for tuning in to From Busy
to Rich. If you're listening and something sparks
a question or you just wanna explore these
ideas further, visit us at wesyounglive.com
or email us at info@wesyounglive.com.
You'll find free resources, tools, and ways to
get in touch. We'd love to hear from
(19:37):
you.
Totally. Totally. And and and it's so true.
Yes. All of us have things that again,
maybe some of them serve you well for
a while, but there's a shelf life to
it. The markets have moved. Maybe maybe just
the way culture is moving, how you that
tool or that strategy or that thing you
were using,
it just no longer serves you as well.
And then some things haven't served you well.
(19:57):
They just have come along with you. You
know? It's kinda like if if you've got
a bad tooth and you just learn to
chew on the other side of your mouth,
you you existed, you lived,
just not optimally. And if you just got
that tooth fixed,
man, it would make all the difference in
your your your comfort and your ability to
eat and enjoy well. So the the show
(20:17):
just you're looking for those things. Last one,
and then I wanna get into some practical
application here,
is fatigue. This is the other big enemy.
This one's so sneaky
because here's the deal. Again, we we know
we need new, and we know we wanna
blend it in.
But you can fill up your day with
your normal already.
So the reason and I I laugh. I
always tell the story about my buddy, Michael
(20:39):
Broderick. Years ago, we were at one of
our annual conferences, and we we got to
the the, like, the the big convention room
first where all the speakers were gonna be,
and we're kinda early. And we had our
books from the meeting the year before, from
this same exact meeting. So we were kinda
talking. We were, hey. What what did you
take away from last year? So we opened
our books and, you know, we had a
lot of the same stuff highlighted and and
(21:01):
circled and starred and these things. We thought,
man, this is gonna revolutionize how we're doing
this work.
And then we hadn't done any of them.
That was the other thing. It was a
year later. Right? We're like, well, what it
what and it wasn't because we were afraid,
and it wasn't because we didn't wanna do
them in our case. It was because
change is like remodeling a house while you're
(21:21):
trying to live in it.
It is. And if you've ever done that,
you know it is messy. It's inconvenient.
And it'd just be less effective than if
you just
just left leave it alone. It'd be more
effective just to leave things alone because there's
always a cost to change,
but there's big cost not to as well.
And and so when it comes to this
idea of fatigue, the issue is
things that are new have never added to
(21:43):
your bottom line. Things that are new have
never paid your mortgage. They've never helped solve
somebody's problem. They've they because by nature, they're
new.
So it kinda feels like when you're doing
new things,
because you it's you're less efficient with it.
It's not subconscious yet. You're having to use
your conscious mind. So it's different energy. It's
harder energy. Like, if you've ever see a
a a kid learning to tie their shoes,
(22:04):
it is like the highest level of concentration
when they're learning. Now you could do it,
you know, without even thinking about it. Or
driving a car, if you I drove you
drive to the gym. Right? And I can
do that and talk on the phone, listen
to a podcast. You know? I mean and
and but, when my kids were learning to
drive,
I can tell you it was, like, the
highest level of concentration and a bit terrifying
(22:26):
at the time. So but but here's here's
what I I'd say all that for is
if you don't if you don't, like, structure
your your day
to digest new, to say, okay. These are
the things we wanna do. Now now and
we'll talk more about application of this,
over the next couple of podcasts. But
where is it gonna fit? And I believe
it's gotta be some of your best energy.
(22:47):
It can't be the energy left over at
the end of the day. New narratives you're
trying to,
to
to to internalize,
new systems that you're trying to internalize. It's
gotta be on account a calendar of when
is this happening.
Because if not, when is it happening is
you're gonna you're gonna run through your normal
and get to the end of the day,
and you still don't have all the things
in your normal done
(23:08):
because you are gonna run out of time
before you run out of all the ideas
and opportunities you could go pursue.
And our tendency is to pursue the things
that scream the loudest, not necessarily those that
actually matter most. And so you've gotta remember
those things so that fear and fatigue when
you when you see them showing up, just
know these are our common enemies to keeping
tension healthy between normal and new. Before I
(23:29):
jump into, like, the the real simple practical
application we have to wrap things up, Justin,
Any other thoughts on on the enemies?
I I think it's critical to be honest
with yourself.
Have a real dialogue.
Take inventory and take a look at what
in what areas are you doing these things.
Are you
arguing with yourself? Because I can tell you,
(23:50):
I am the best salesperson
against myself that there is.
Absolutely.
So having some real dialogue there. And I
also think a great opportunity when you find
yourself defending your normal,
bring in somebody else, especially somebody else that
has information or context about what you're doing,
whether it's your industry or if it's something
with your family or your personal.
Bring somebody else that has some context and
(24:11):
then ask them like, hey. I'm thinking about
these things, looking for new opportunities and ways
to grow. Here's the things I've identified
and get their feedback.
And then be willing to to step forward
and bypass some of those enemies, and then
you've got some proof that it's not just
you. You're not crazy. You're thinking that these
could be good ideas and get some support.
Yeah. Awareness is is key.
(24:32):
Being self aware, the best leaders in the
world, the best companies in the world, organizations
are aware companies, people, and organizations.
So here's what here's the application, guys. So
every quarter, this is we our team goes
through this.
But to to to, ironically,
this is part one of, balancing act, navigating
the tension between tradition and innovation.
(24:53):
To to keep a healthy tension between your
normal and new,
you have to be great at your normal.
And to do that, you've gotta identify what
your normal is. And from a business aspect,
really, there's kind of four areas that we
go through, and I'm gonna give them to
you, kinda rapid fire here. It's it's your
what, why, who, and how. What, why, who,
(25:14):
and how. So right now, it's getting like
this is what do I believe about this
business? Your what is what is your
bumper sticker when in this business?
This isn't a mission statement or a vision
statement. This is a single statement
that that can fit on the bumper. It
could be a long bumper. Okay? But but
that at the highest level, like, rapture win
into it. So for us,
(25:35):
we we inspire people to increase profitability and
quality of life. That's our win. And that's
why we do this podcast. That's why we
have our our planning business because that that's
what at the highest level we do. And
there's a lot of things we can do
to do that, but that that is our
win organizationally.
And and then I wanna move on to
why because why actually is really an integral
(25:55):
part of the what.
Why is so what? Like,
if if you're not out there doing your
win, what problem's going unsolved? What opportunity's gonna
go unceased? Because what we all need in
our lives to be truly happy, a component
of happiness is meaningful work, work that matters
to others.
And so if my
why is not strong enough in, like, how
(26:17):
what the work I'm doing is solving a
problem or seizing an opportunity,
you're you're just not gonna have the same
fuel long term in this. So for us,
here's here it is. Now camp on this
just for two minutes. So
we years ago, I wrote a book called
from busy,
from busy to rich. And in that book,
what we talk about is the definition of
(26:37):
rich that being rich
is the activity of creating more than you
consume financially.
And and here's what I've observed in life
is most people, because we have this gap
between where we are and where we wanna
be,
we run and and it's never it's never
fully and finally satisfied because that's that's actually
a beautiful part of life.
We all have a tendency
(26:59):
to run out of time before we run
out of all the ideas and opportunities we
could go pursue. We will run out of
money before we run out of all the
ideas and opportunities we could go pursue.
So when it comes to to navigating your
gap between where you are and where you
wanna be, be it financially,
professionally, personally, physically,
one of the things with the role we
play in the clients' lives is really that
(27:19):
person that stops them long enough
and and says, hey. Look.
Where do you wanna go? Where are you
coming from? In light of that, what are
the areas of planning that are the most
critical
that are new sometimes, an interruption in your
normal
to get you
to accelerate your velocity, to unleash your human
potential, and really move you to a place
(27:40):
where you're not always living with no margin.
Because if you're in a team meeting with
one of us, and, Justin, you've heard this
every week for a long time, somebody would
say, what's our win? We'd say, we inspire
people
to create to we inspire people to increase
their profitability and their quality of life. And
then the second thing, they go, why does
that matter? Because in our effort to get
the most out of life, it's easy to
(28:01):
live a marginless life. And in so doing,
miss out on some of the things that
matter most to us in life. So, certainly,
you're welcome to take ours if you want,
but but I would say you've gotta have
your what and your why. And it's okay
if it's sloppy and wrong. Okay? Then then
moving on,
to the last who is who and how.
So who's a funny one?
Who is is like,
(28:22):
I I can picture a pyramid. Okay? And
on the bottom of the pyramid, you have
the greatest portion of the population of the
planet.
Then middle of the pyramid, you've got the
next, you know,
biggest piece, and then the the top is
the smallest piece. And the way we like
to put clients on here is where are
they relative to rich?
And what I mean by that is where
are they relative to creating more than they
(28:43):
consume?
So on the bottom, you've got people that
are surviving.
These people are creating more or these people
are consuming more than they create.
And and these were my clients' life, by
the way, when I first came into the
business at 24 years old, like, meeting at
night at the kitchen table, trying to help
them understand where they were gonna come up
with $50
to pay for the term insurance that we
(29:04):
discovered they wanted. And then again later where
we come back up with it again. But
here's the thing. People that are are in
that survival mode,
they believe a lie. They believe, what do
I need to to break through to the
next level financially?
I just need to make a little more
money. If I had more than I would
be.
And and and so with that idea, understanding
(29:26):
more money makes you more of what you
already are.
And and so more,
it actually potential
to accelerate
your collapse if you're not careful. You can
look at lottery winners or professional athletes that
are tragic examples of people who had a
little, got a lot, went right back to
a little, and, like, destroyed their lives in
the process.
(29:46):
And and so and and then you got
the middle. And and both both, by the
way, the middle and the top. So you've
got surviving. Then second, you've got stabilizing, and
then you've got thriving.
Both stabilizing and thriving,
they're meeting my definition of rich. They both
are creating more than they consume
financially.
Here's the difference. People who are stabilizing are
(30:07):
still dependent
on their human capital, their ability to go
trade time and value of their human capital
in the marketplace
for an income stream,
they they are still required to do that
in order to continue to create more money
than is being consumed. In other words, if
they quit going into work,
they quit being able to cover all their
(30:27):
monthly cost, and whatever they've created is being
consumed down.
The people who are striving,
those people are creating more than they consume,
and they've built enough human they've built enough,
value outside of their human capital. Could be
in the form of the businesses they've created
and how they're structured. Could be in the
form of liquidity in their family bank to
(30:49):
pay them a passive income that is greater
than what's being consumed, whether they're trading time
for money or not.
Now neither the neither of these are a
position of permanence.
Right? We're all a handful of bad decisions
or good decisions away
from relocating ourselves on this map. So when
you put your clients on here, here's what
I would say, and this is the takeaway
for this one, and then we're gonna close
with the last one.
(31:10):
When you put your clients on here,
you will notice a pattern. You'll notice a
majority of people showing up. And here's why
you need to know where they show up.
Because when you start thinking about the things
you're gonna talk about with them, the processes
you use,
While everything you know may be very true,
not everything is equally relevant.
Okay? So in other words, when my daughter
(31:30):
used to play soccer at the YMCA,
she had, like, a top level coach when
she was four years old that had coached
some of the highest women women's soccer.
And the reason he coached our team was
the same reason you'd coach your kid's team.
He had a kid on the team.
And and, you know, four year old soccer
is like
chaos. It's like people are sitting down crying.
(31:51):
Some people are are, like, swarming the ball.
Nobody plays defense, by the way. They just
nobody sits in the goal.
And they'd say they don't keep score. We
kept score. Parents keep score. I I wanted
to know. But our coach, he one day,
I was shocked at practice. He had Abby's
attention,
which is something I was rarely able to
do, at that age. And and he's telling
(32:12):
her about the nuances of defense and how
if she would just stand in front of
the goal and and how they would be
able to score more points and and the
other team couldn't and they would win the
game. And she just locked in. And after
about two minutes of this, Justin, he said
she said, now do you get it? And
she said, I'm a wear my hello kitty
dress to school tomorrow.
And so so
(32:34):
the coach just, like, looked at her and
said, just kick the ball that way. Just
kick the ball that way. Here's what here's
the point.
Sometimes
financially we're trying to teach people the nuances
of defense that just need to be taught
kick the ball that way.
So I mean we also use this analogy
is like
where do babies come from?
Well, doesn't it matter who's asking the question?
(32:56):
You know, if it's a five year old,
mama's tummy is a pretty good answer.
If they're 14, they they probably should know
that it's a very different answer. And if
they're a pre med student, it's a different
answer. But sometimes, we get so smart in
this business. We try and get premed answers
when people don't need that. And so
what what is relevant to where they're at?
What do they need to know? That don't
(33:16):
need to teach the intricacies of tax law
to someone who's surviving. And and so just
think about that. Put them on there. And
then the other thing it's gonna do is
help inform where do you wanna go next
with with the thinking that you have. What
do you need to learn next to help
those people at the level that you're currently,
serving them
and then to get them to that next
level. So so we think about that. Your
(33:37):
what, why, who, where the where are your
people mostly showing up, and then how.
How's a big topic, and we teach a
whole class on all this stuff. So how
just a simple analogy for how
is what's your what what are you doing?
What is your process? How what's your organizational
structure?
How do you move people from onboarding
to they weren't a client. They heard about
(33:58):
you. They they went through your onboarding process.
They became a client, and now you have
them on this annual cycle of operations, which
is a big part of what we what
we teach all the time.
How is like this. It's two things. Organization
and structure, those two words.
Every bicycle is organized the same, has two
wheels, handlebars, sprockets, pedal system. If it had
(34:19):
three wheels, it wouldn't be the organization
of a bicycle, be the organization of a
tricycle.
And and so what what if it had
you could have two bicycles
that are organized the same
but structured differently.
So one bicycle could have really hard tires
that are smooth, good for going on flat
surfaces really fast,
(34:39):
and another can have,
soft knobby tires, good for going off road.
Neither one is bad or wrong.
One is just more relevant
for the capability of the rider
and the terrain they're trying to go through.
So as you hear us on this podcast
or you read books, you listen to things,
you you're always gonna have, like, things that
may be true. They just may not be
(35:01):
relevant for the season you're in, your capability.
One day, I hope you're flying a jumbo
jet. But if you'd given me our team
when I was brand new in the business,
it would have been like me flying on
the jet by myself, and we would have
run out of gas before takeoff because I
didn't have any money to support the flying
of the jet.
It would not have helped me go further
faster. I needed a tricycle.
(35:21):
But now things have changed. Now things are
different. So
with all that, I just say this. You
know, our greatest opportunity is to recognize our
future possibilities.
Not about abandoning your normal, not about rejecting
new. It's about keeping the tension healthy between
the two. And part one of your ability
to do that is you've gotta be great
at your normal. To do that, you've gotta
define it. What is your what, why, who,
(35:43):
and how? How are you making progress today
in this business? Put in there in your
how, your systems, technology, all the things you're
currently doing.
And and what'll emerge is clarity. It gives
you a starting point. And that's gonna be
a lot of fun for next week when
we begin to talk about challenging your normal
with new, which is the second part of
this. And there there are four distinctions that
(36:03):
we're gonna go through together and talk about
how we do it. We'll see you back
next time for part two. Until then, take
care.
Thanks for tuning in to From Busy to
Rich. If something in today's episode sparked an
idea or hit a nerve, don't keep it
to yourself. Follow the show, share it with
a friend, and let's keep building a community
of advisors who want more. You can find
(36:24):
more resources,
tools, and free content at wesyounglive.com.
We'll see you back here next time for
more real conversations about building the life and
business you really want.
The From Busy to Rich podcast helps financial
advisors grow their businesses beyond the products they
sell and the assets they manage, increase profitability,
and reclaim their time by providing strategies and
insights that will not only change your life,
but practice.
Wes, it's always a pleasure to see you.
How are you this morning? Doing fantastic.
(00:23):
Justin's looking forward to our content today.
Yeah. I know it's an exciting one and
really central to
what we do here and talk about but
not just here. It's really a core value,
a part of what we do on our
business within the practice.
And so I'll hand it off to you
to kick it off with a couple of
quotes I know that are really central to
this theme.
Yeah. So there's a there's a great quote,
(00:44):
and I just love this, because you said
it is central to a lot of the
heartbeat of the way
we operate. I think it's it's this whole
concept we're gonna dive into
really is all about unleashing human potential. And
and so this is a Eric Hoffer quote.
He said, in times of change,
learners inherit the earth while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world
(01:05):
that no longer
exists.
It's such a good one.
It's so good. And and we say it
all the time because,
there there is this fundamental idea that we're
gonna explore today
that I think as I look back on
the last twenty two years of being in
this business and really even before that,
has fundamentally changed my life. And I've seen
(01:25):
it change
businesses and people and just the health and
the value that organizations are capable of delivering
and, and a lot more fun when you
can when you can approach life this way.
And when I when I really first started
putting this together,
I remember a story about my dad. My
my dad, for those of you who don't
(01:46):
know, he was the operations director for a
large franchise
of Blockbuster
Videos.
So they were major video before. It was
like a private company, and then Blockbuster bought
them. You know, Blockbuster
became this massive behemoth.
Like, it was a a six in February,
it was a $6,000,000,000
company,
and they had about 10,000 stores,
(02:08):
all across the country.
And my dad, he was actually they were
a private franchise, a part of this public
company,
and he got on there what they would
be the equivalent of, like, a board of
directors advisory board. So they weren't the they
weren't the board of directors, but they were
this advisory board.
And so one of the things that they
they would do every year, a couple times
a year, they'd go up there and they'd
(02:29):
meet with the,
with the with the main board. Board would
update them on things they're working on. They
would ask for feedback. And and I remember
my dad saying when he came back, and
it was just just past 2,000, he said,
I think our days in this business are
numbered.
And and I remember saying, well,
what what do you mean? He said, yeah.
He said, just the the
(02:50):
the company is has this tendency to defend
the way we've always done it. And he
started talking about what what he didn't have
the right terminology or the right name for
the company, but he was talking about Netflix.
And if you ever wanna check out a
really good story, you go read the book
No Rules Rules, which is one of the
founders of Netflix that that wrote this book.
And he tells the story of when Netflix
(03:11):
was a a start up company. So they
had, like, a 141,000
subscribers.
They were delivering,
DVDs
in the mail, The U through The US
postal system.
And I remember, I and so he said
and he walks into this boardroom because they
had this idea
where they were
gonna revolutionize
and be able to, like, change the way
(03:32):
people,
consume home entertainment.
And so what what he ended up doing,
they they built this model. It was working.
They had a lot of future things for
online. And they go to Blockbuster, and they
got a meeting with the CEO, Antiocho, at
the time. And they they kinda pitched, and
they said, alright. Look. Blockbuster, we would like
(03:53):
to to, like, take Blockbuster can can take
over Netflix. We'll brand it Blockbuster, and and
we're gonna continue our subscription based model through
DVDs in the mail. And there's this whole
online movement coming because we feel like this
is the way people who are gonna move
towards and gravitate towards in the future. And
they kinda spit all this out and Anyako
listened, they said. And then after about ten
(04:15):
minutes of discussion, he said, well, let let
me just ask you something.
How much would it cost Blockbuster to buy
Netflix?
And they said it would cost $50,000,000,
and Anyako
flatly declined. He said, look, guys. We're the
giants in this industry,
and and we've got 10,000 stores. We're a
$6,000,000,000
company.
(04:35):
If we wanna go create this thing, we'd
create it ourselves, but nobody's not gonna wanna
go to a video store. I mean, look
at our history. Look what we've built, how
great it is. And he kinda goes through
this, and and they left there. They would
say that day was the worst day of
their life
and then later became the best day of
their life.
Because as if you follow the story, ten
years later, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy,
(04:57):
and Netflix was like a $9,300,000,000
company. And today, I don't know what the
current market cap is, but it's well over
250,000,000,000.
And and it so it's just a massive
behemoth that is in the industry. But here's
the what what it makes me think about,
is it makes me think about this idea
that
all of us
(05:18):
have a gravitational pull if we're not careful
to defend our existing set of habits and
I believe with all my heart that one
of our greatest opportunities
to recognize our future possibilities
is not about abandoning our normal
totally
but it's also not about rejecting new it's
about keeping a healthy tension between the two,
(05:38):
transforming
the tension between the two on an ongoing
basis
because if we're not careful what happens in
all of our lives and this maybe you're
not thinking you're a blockbuster video
but think about how many times in your
day when you hear a new
idea, a new approach, something that's not a
part of your normal muscle memory way of
making progress,
how oftentimes you have this internal con conversation
(06:00):
with yourself
that you're rejecting
the that new and you're defending the way
you've always done it. This is why that
wouldn't work here. Look what's worked well in
our past. And so, Justin, I wanna talk
about this today and really really tease it
out a little bit and talk about how
this balancing act of navigating the tension between
tradition and innovation,
between navigating the the the the tension between
(06:22):
the normal and new, it can be one
of the greatest accelerators to unleashing human potential
and increasing profitability and quality of life. I
think it's such a great topic.
And that story in particular is the extreme
version of, like, what's possible or dangerous when
when you think everything is good, that you
don't need to create any new change, and
(06:42):
you're not looking for advancement.
Absolutely.
Yeah. And I remember the awkward phase where
they started to try to catch on, and
they they took on, like, the red box
model for a bit. And they Oh, yeah.
All of a sudden you had the Blockbuster.
Like, okay. You don't have to go to
the store, but now you can get the
that was I mean, the reality is it
was it's just You're still going to the
store. Yeah. Right. Yes. Just still defending more
(07:03):
of the normal. Like, not being able to
look ahead and seeing what's coming down the
pipeline
or being the opposite when you're when you're
in those early phases, like in this business,
a lot of it's new
and you're not even normalizing any of it.
You're just trying to ingest everything. But there's
gotta be a baseline of, like, you've got
to absorb it and figure out how it's
gonna apply to you
(07:23):
so it can be normalized
and define what that new new is that
you're gonna target because
there's there's tons of new out there. There's
lots of shiny objects, but but they're not
all gonna be good. What's that that comment
we make about,
you know,
new isn't always better, but better is always
new. Oh, yeah. I I love that. That
(07:44):
and in fact, when we teach our class
transform,
it it with the tagline for it is
while different isn't always better, better is always
different.
And and it's so true. And and to
flush it out, I'd love it I'd love
to, like I'm gonna I'm gonna throw some
stuff to those of you who are,
who are driving,
right now and just listening to us. You
you won't see this. So I'll try and
(08:04):
paint a beautiful,
like, verbal tapestry here for you. But for
those of you not driving, I'm gonna I'm
gonna show you a a little screenshot, and
I'm gonna I'm gonna actually talk about what
the this kinda
this kinda
tension, this this this navigating the tension between
tradition and innovation, between normal and new. To
do it first, though, let's talk about
(08:26):
everybody has a normal. Okay. We all have
a current way we go about making progress.
And and we've got this kinda up on
the screen here where we're talking about what
is our normal. So you can certainly divide
it into a bunch of subcategories here, but
but it's your beliefs, the perspectives you have,
the self image you carry,
your habits, processes, and procedures you're currently working
(08:47):
with, your your appearance, your presence, how you're
showing up, the competencies and character that you've
built, narratives, narratives that you use to move
people from one place to another,
the team that you've surrounded yourself with, their,
you know, quality and quantity,
the markets and memberships you belong to, the
products and services that you engage with, technology,
(09:07):
education training. I mean, we could go on
and on and on. But if I was
to follow you around and audit your life
in any area of life, but let's just
take your business life and or you were
to follow me around and audit my life,
you would find out what is my normal.
What is my current way of going about
making progress?
And and here's the thing. All of us
can have a future different way of doing
(09:28):
all that stuff. Everybody can have a new
we can have a transformed way of making
progress.
And as we said earlier, I believe, and
we've seen this play itself out over and
over again,
is that our greatest opportunities to recognize our
future possibilities is not about abandoning the normal.
And it's also not about
rejecting new. It's about keeping tension
between the healthy between the two.
(09:51):
And and so when we think about this
I think there's some common like enemies
to to this I think I think there's
a lot of reasons why we tend to
defend normal and reject new
and and I think those enemies are a
couple. I think even if, you know, if
you're listening to this podcast, you're a striver
already. Like, you didn't you're not tuning in
because you don't have anything going on. Right?
(10:11):
So this will fill my time. You could
go to Netflix for that.
But instead, you're you're tuning in because you
wanna be better. And you kinda know if
we're sitting here talking about it in a
room, and it's like not you're not even
taking notes on that. Right? That that different
isn't always better, but better
is is always different.
And so as as you as you think
(10:31):
about that, you and I both know to
to get where we've not yet been, we've
gotta be willing to do things we've not
yet done.
And it's not that things we've done in
the past haven't served us well, although some
of them probably haven't. And it's not that
they they they haven't assisted us getting to
this current level of progress that we're at
today,
but
it certainly is not gonna take us to
(10:51):
that next place we've never been. And I
know something about all of us. All of
us have a gap between where we are
and where we wanna be. And the gap
between where we are and where we wanna
be never goes away. It just moves. And
that's that's the healthy thing. We've been talking
about that,
just on our last, podcast together.
But when you're when you're thinking about this
and you go, yeah. I get it, Wes.
(11:12):
I get that that different and always better,
better is always different. I need to keep
the tension healthy between normal and new. I
need to transform the way I'm I'm approaching,
the business on a regular basis if I
want to have an extraordinarily better and different
life.
But there are some things, like, you can
go to you can listen to a podcast
and go, that is so good. I'm gonna
write that down. I'm gonna star it and
circle it. That's something I'm gonna do. Or
(11:34):
you go to a conference. Justin, I mean,
how many times we just came back from
our a big annual conference we go to
every year, and and I and we wrote
stuff down, man. We circle. This is gonna
be so good. And just like everybody else
in the audience that paid to be there
and and gave away their time. Or you
read a book. Right? You read a book,
and you it's so good. You listen to
it. You're like, this is game changer. I'm
(11:55):
gonna do it.
So what is the thing in us that
still won't do it? And I think there's
a couple of of, like, enemies
to normalizing new, to keeping the tension healthy
between the two. One of them is simply
fear.
Okay.
Fear. Because when we talk about, you know,
different isn't isn't always better, but better is
always different.
(12:16):
It's the first part of that statement that
gets us, doesn't it? Because because here's what
I know. As much as you want things
to be better, even more than that, you
don't want things to get worse. Mhmm. You
know what I'm telling you? Thoughts on that,
Justin? Yeah. I would think it's you talk
about complacency with people. It's easy to become
comfortable with where you are.
And even though you want something better or
(12:37):
you want more of something,
the one thing that you don't want is
to give up what you currently have. Yeah.
Yeah. There's you know, market in the market,
there's also this whole reams of study on
this, but,
loss aversion.
People actually have a a greater pain of
of losing
than they actually do of not winning.
(12:59):
And it's it's psychological. It's counterintuitive and doesn't
make sense.
But
the the reality of all of us is
we don't want things to get worse. That's
just a reality. So
so the the thing is the other part
of the statement is true too is while
different now is better, better is always different.
And if you wanna be beautifully prepared for
a world that no longer exists, keep doing
(13:19):
what you've always done.
Because there is there is this kind of
curve, and and and we'll we'll we'll I'll
show it to you here, that we we
utilize in our organization this growth curve. So
if you're if you're driving and this is
this is kinda what you're looking at, you've
got growth that's going on the vertical axis
and time that's going on the horizontal axis.
And then we have this little these little
(13:41):
circles that represent where you're spending your time.
And it could be all normal or all
new, although this would never really that. Right?
Because even when I was brand new and
I came into this business,
I I was 24 years old.
I needed a lot of help. There was
a lot of new things I needed to
learn to be functional in this business.
And but there were things I had that
(14:01):
were already already part of my normal that
were useful in this business. Like, I had
relationships with people. I knew how to call
people and work a phone. Right? I knew
how to use a computer a little bit.
They were not that great back then. I
knew I knew how to,
actually
solve problems,
analyze a situation because I'd come out of
the electrical contracting industry.
(14:22):
But but so much was new. And it's
like when you start in the business, it's
just like so much to learn, products,
it's it's a different system. And and everybody
kinda knows that.
But over time, I went from, like, 25%
normal, 75% new
on the bottom of this first if you
imagine, like, a a a kind of a
big s curve going up, if you kinda
(14:43):
turned an s a little bit on its
side, for those of you not watching. At
the bottom of it, progress is very slow
because you have so much new and a
little bit of normal.
Now then you kinda learn some things. You
internalize things, master things, and now you're more
fifty fifty. You're 50% new and
50% normal. And then when you really hard
to start hitting stride, when you're really, you
(15:04):
know, making progress on your first s curve,
that's where you have, like, 75%
normal, 25%
new, and you are running.
Now here's where it gets interesting.
You will either if you stay in that
mode of only 25% or some people don't
even have that at new. But but so
let's say 25%. We'll give them the benefit
of the doubt. If you stay in that
(15:26):
mode, you will you will certainly keep running
for a while,
but then you're gonna plateau,
and then you're gonna decline or atrophy
because you can't keep doing the same thing
over and over again
in a moving and changing world and expect
things to continue to get better.
They can get good for a while until
you kinda reach your your ceiling of complexity.
(15:48):
And then unless you reinvent,
you're going to decline. And and so this
is what we always look at our growth
curves. We're constantly, in our case, quarterly,
going
back and stopping and saying, alright. Where are
we now?
What future do we wanna create?
And in light of that, what what and
we have big ideas on the future. We
we'll talk about, like, 10 x, which is,
(16:09):
Dan Sullivan's concept that that 10 x growth
is actually easier than two x growth. Because
two x growth, there's so many things you
can grow by 2%,
but but
they generally involve doing what you're already doing
faster
or louder.
Run faster, work harder.
10 x growth, you can't grow 10 x
(16:29):
by keeping a lot of the existing things
you have. And so your options are fewer.
It kinda narrows the focus.
But every quarter, what we're doing is we
go and kinda figure out where we wanna
be, where we're starting from. And then in
light of that, what are the things we
need to normalize
that are a part that are new, that
we've not yet done
and have not yet added value to our
(16:50):
lives because by definition, they're new.
How do we blend those into the rhythm
of our operation? And so we go back
to kind of a fifty fifty. And then
hopefully, we internalize those well, and we're running
and we're back at that 75,
percent normal, 25% new. And then we gotta
go back again. Otherwise, again, the s curves
keep repeating. And if you can wanna check
this out, go online or on YouTube and
(17:10):
watch us. You can see this visual. We'll
also include these visuals in the show notes.
But this is this is how growth works.
So I wanna I wanna go back
and, and and go back to this one
of of fear. So the bottom line is
fear of things getting worse,
it it will cause you to not even
see or certainly not seize the things that
(17:31):
are gonna lead you to your next big
jump.
But, yeah, remember, if you if you're in
your best moments, if you're really thinking,
you know this. You know that, hey. We
we we know that if we wanna get
better, we gotta do things different. So rhythmically,
like, don't blow everything up, but rhythmically, have
points in your year where you're stopping
and saying, alright. What is it that we
(17:52):
need to normalize that's part of our new?
And and what of our normal do we
need to nurture? Because there are things you're
doing right now that probably will fit and
are still pretty good. And so every every
quarter, that's what we have. We have nurture
the normal. Here's what we're gonna keep doing.
And then normalize new. Here are the things
that we believe are gonna move the needle
that are not a part of our next
10 x job. So any anything else on
(18:13):
fear,
Justin?
No. I think that that's the one that
a lot of people can resonate with
in the sense of with what the enemy
is, so the true enemy there. I think
the tangible point is
to make this hit home from how it
feels for us. Like, when we're going to
look at this quarterly, Wes already talked about,
we're going to conferences. And there are ideas
and things coming from, but you can't implement
(18:34):
all of those in any point in time,
like, in a condensed period of time. Sure.
So it's but it gives us that rhythm
of an opportunity to go back. Alright. Of
the things that we've identified that could be
great new for us Yeah. What what is
the one, two, or three things that we're
gonna focus on right now? What's critical? And
the flip side of that,
you can talk a little bit more about
this may tie into the other enemy here,
(18:55):
but is
as we're adding new, some things
have to fall off. Like, some things that
we were doing,
we're no longer gonna keep doing. And I
think there's that component as well of not
only normalizing some of that new and building
that into the rhythm, but identifying, alright, some
of the things that got us here aren't
gonna be beneficial with where we're going. And
(19:16):
you can see this in every area of
your life.
Hey. Thanks for tuning in to From Busy
to Rich. If you're listening and something sparks
a question or you just wanna explore these
ideas further, visit us at wesyounglive.com
or email us at info@wesyounglive.com.
You'll find free resources, tools, and ways to
get in touch. We'd love to hear from
(19:37):
you.
Totally. Totally. And and and it's so true.
Yes. All of us have things that again,
maybe some of them serve you well for
a while, but there's a shelf life to
it. The markets have moved. Maybe maybe just
the way culture is moving, how you that
tool or that strategy or that thing you
were using,
it just no longer serves you as well.
And then some things haven't served you well.
(19:57):
They just have come along with you. You
know? It's kinda like if if you've got
a bad tooth and you just learn to
chew on the other side of your mouth,
you you existed, you lived,
just not optimally. And if you just got
that tooth fixed,
man, it would make all the difference in
your your your comfort and your ability to
eat and enjoy well. So the the show
(20:17):
just you're looking for those things. Last one,
and then I wanna get into some practical
application here,
is fatigue. This is the other big enemy.
This one's so sneaky
because here's the deal. Again, we we know
we need new, and we know we wanna
blend it in.
But you can fill up your day with
your normal already.
So the reason and I I laugh. I
always tell the story about my buddy, Michael
(20:39):
Broderick. Years ago, we were at one of
our annual conferences, and we we got to
the the, like, the the big convention room
first where all the speakers were gonna be,
and we're kinda early. And we had our
books from the meeting the year before, from
this same exact meeting. So we were kinda
talking. We were, hey. What what did you
take away from last year? So we opened
our books and, you know, we had a
lot of the same stuff highlighted and and
(21:01):
circled and starred and these things. We thought,
man, this is gonna revolutionize how we're doing
this work.
And then we hadn't done any of them.
That was the other thing. It was a
year later. Right? We're like, well, what it
what and it wasn't because we were afraid,
and it wasn't because we didn't wanna do
them in our case. It was because
change is like remodeling a house while you're
(21:21):
trying to live in it.
It is. And if you've ever done that,
you know it is messy. It's inconvenient.
And it'd just be less effective than if
you just
just left leave it alone. It'd be more
effective just to leave things alone because there's
always a cost to change,
but there's big cost not to as well.
And and so when it comes to this
idea of fatigue, the issue is
things that are new have never added to
(21:43):
your bottom line. Things that are new have
never paid your mortgage. They've never helped solve
somebody's problem. They've they because by nature, they're
new.
So it kinda feels like when you're doing
new things,
because you it's you're less efficient with it.
It's not subconscious yet. You're having to use
your conscious mind. So it's different energy. It's
harder energy. Like, if you've ever see a
a a kid learning to tie their shoes,
(22:04):
it is like the highest level of concentration
when they're learning. Now you could do it,
you know, without even thinking about it. Or
driving a car, if you I drove you
drive to the gym. Right? And I can
do that and talk on the phone, listen
to a podcast. You know? I mean and
and but, when my kids were learning to
drive,
I can tell you it was, like, the
highest level of concentration and a bit terrifying
(22:26):
at the time. So but but here's here's
what I I'd say all that for is
if you don't if you don't, like, structure
your your day
to digest new, to say, okay. These are
the things we wanna do. Now now and
we'll talk more about application of this,
over the next couple of podcasts. But
where is it gonna fit? And I believe
it's gotta be some of your best energy.
(22:47):
It can't be the energy left over at
the end of the day. New narratives you're
trying to,
to
to to internalize,
new systems that you're trying to internalize. It's
gotta be on account a calendar of when
is this happening.
Because if not, when is it happening is
you're gonna you're gonna run through your normal
and get to the end of the day,
and you still don't have all the things
in your normal done
(23:08):
because you are gonna run out of time
before you run out of all the ideas
and opportunities you could go pursue.
And our tendency is to pursue the things
that scream the loudest, not necessarily those that
actually matter most. And so you've gotta remember
those things so that fear and fatigue when
you when you see them showing up, just
know these are our common enemies to keeping
tension healthy between normal and new. Before I
(23:29):
jump into, like, the the real simple practical
application we have to wrap things up, Justin,
Any other thoughts on on the enemies?
I I think it's critical to be honest
with yourself.
Have a real dialogue.
Take inventory and take a look at what
in what areas are you doing these things.
Are you
arguing with yourself? Because I can tell you,
(23:50):
I am the best salesperson
against myself that there is.
Absolutely.
So having some real dialogue there. And I
also think a great opportunity when you find
yourself defending your normal,
bring in somebody else, especially somebody else that
has information or context about what you're doing,
whether it's your industry or if it's something
with your family or your personal.
Bring somebody else that has some context and
(24:11):
then ask them like, hey. I'm thinking about
these things, looking for new opportunities and ways
to grow. Here's the things I've identified
and get their feedback.
And then be willing to to step forward
and bypass some of those enemies, and then
you've got some proof that it's not just
you. You're not crazy. You're thinking that these
could be good ideas and get some support.
Yeah. Awareness is is key.
(24:32):
Being self aware, the best leaders in the
world, the best companies in the world, organizations
are aware companies, people, and organizations.
So here's what here's the application, guys. So
every quarter, this is we our team goes
through this.
But to to to, ironically,
this is part one of, balancing act, navigating
the tension between tradition and innovation.
(24:53):
To to keep a healthy tension between your
normal and new,
you have to be great at your normal.
And to do that, you've gotta identify what
your normal is. And from a business aspect,
really, there's kind of four areas that we
go through, and I'm gonna give them to
you, kinda rapid fire here. It's it's your
what, why, who, and how. What, why, who,
(25:14):
and how. So right now, it's getting like
this is what do I believe about this
business? Your what is what is your
bumper sticker when in this business?
This isn't a mission statement or a vision
statement. This is a single statement
that that can fit on the bumper. It
could be a long bumper. Okay? But but
that at the highest level, like, rapture win
into it. So for us,
(25:35):
we we inspire people to increase profitability and
quality of life. That's our win. And that's
why we do this podcast. That's why we
have our our planning business because that that's
what at the highest level we do. And
there's a lot of things we can do
to do that, but that that is our
win organizationally.
And and then I wanna move on to
why because why actually is really an integral
(25:55):
part of the what.
Why is so what? Like,
if if you're not out there doing your
win, what problem's going unsolved? What opportunity's gonna
go unceased? Because what we all need in
our lives to be truly happy, a component
of happiness is meaningful work, work that matters
to others.
And so if my
why is not strong enough in, like, how
(26:17):
what the work I'm doing is solving a
problem or seizing an opportunity,
you're you're just not gonna have the same
fuel long term in this. So for us,
here's here it is. Now camp on this
just for two minutes. So
we years ago, I wrote a book called
from busy,
from busy to rich. And in that book,
what we talk about is the definition of
(26:37):
rich that being rich
is the activity of creating more than you
consume financially.
And and here's what I've observed in life
is most people, because we have this gap
between where we are and where we wanna
be,
we run and and it's never it's never
fully and finally satisfied because that's that's actually
a beautiful part of life.
We all have a tendency
(26:59):
to run out of time before we run
out of all the ideas and opportunities we
could go pursue. We will run out of
money before we run out of all the
ideas and opportunities we could go pursue.
So when it comes to to navigating your
gap between where you are and where you
wanna be, be it financially,
professionally, personally, physically,
one of the things with the role we
play in the clients' lives is really that
(27:19):
person that stops them long enough
and and says, hey. Look.
Where do you wanna go? Where are you
coming from? In light of that, what are
the areas of planning that are the most
critical
that are new sometimes, an interruption in your
normal
to get you
to accelerate your velocity, to unleash your human
potential, and really move you to a place
(27:40):
where you're not always living with no margin.
Because if you're in a team meeting with
one of us, and, Justin, you've heard this
every week for a long time, somebody would
say, what's our win? We'd say, we inspire
people
to create to we inspire people to increase
their profitability and their quality of life. And
then the second thing, they go, why does
that matter? Because in our effort to get
the most out of life, it's easy to
(28:01):
live a marginless life. And in so doing,
miss out on some of the things that
matter most to us in life. So, certainly,
you're welcome to take ours if you want,
but but I would say you've gotta have
your what and your why. And it's okay
if it's sloppy and wrong. Okay? Then then
moving on,
to the last who is who and how.
So who's a funny one?
Who is is like,
(28:22):
I I can picture a pyramid. Okay? And
on the bottom of the pyramid, you have
the greatest portion of the population of the
planet.
Then middle of the pyramid, you've got the
next, you know,
biggest piece, and then the the top is
the smallest piece. And the way we like
to put clients on here is where are
they relative to rich?
And what I mean by that is where
are they relative to creating more than they
(28:43):
consume?
So on the bottom, you've got people that
are surviving.
These people are creating more or these people
are consuming more than they create.
And and these were my clients' life, by
the way, when I first came into the
business at 24 years old, like, meeting at
night at the kitchen table, trying to help
them understand where they were gonna come up
with $50
to pay for the term insurance that we
(29:04):
discovered they wanted. And then again later where
we come back up with it again. But
here's the thing. People that are are in
that survival mode,
they believe a lie. They believe, what do
I need to to break through to the
next level financially?
I just need to make a little more
money. If I had more than I would
be.
And and and so with that idea, understanding
(29:26):
more money makes you more of what you
already are.
And and so more,
it actually potential
to accelerate
your collapse if you're not careful. You can
look at lottery winners or professional athletes that
are tragic examples of people who had a
little, got a lot, went right back to
a little, and, like, destroyed their lives in
the process.
(29:46):
And and so and and then you got
the middle. And and both both, by the
way, the middle and the top. So you've
got surviving. Then second, you've got stabilizing, and
then you've got thriving.
Both stabilizing and thriving,
they're meeting my definition of rich. They both
are creating more than they consume
financially.
Here's the difference. People who are stabilizing are
(30:07):
still dependent
on their human capital, their ability to go
trade time and value of their human capital
in the marketplace
for an income stream,
they they are still required to do that
in order to continue to create more money
than is being consumed. In other words, if
they quit going into work,
they quit being able to cover all their
(30:27):
monthly cost, and whatever they've created is being
consumed down.
The people who are striving,
those people are creating more than they consume,
and they've built enough human they've built enough,
value outside of their human capital. Could be
in the form of the businesses they've created
and how they're structured. Could be in the
form of liquidity in their family bank to
(30:49):
pay them a passive income that is greater
than what's being consumed, whether they're trading time
for money or not.
Now neither the neither of these are a
position of permanence.
Right? We're all a handful of bad decisions
or good decisions away
from relocating ourselves on this map. So when
you put your clients on here, here's what
I would say, and this is the takeaway
for this one, and then we're gonna close
with the last one.
(31:10):
When you put your clients on here,
you will notice a pattern. You'll notice a
majority of people showing up. And here's why
you need to know where they show up.
Because when you start thinking about the things
you're gonna talk about with them, the processes
you use,
While everything you know may be very true,
not everything is equally relevant.
Okay? So in other words, when my daughter
(31:30):
used to play soccer at the YMCA,
she had, like, a top level coach when
she was four years old that had coached
some of the highest women women's soccer.
And the reason he coached our team was
the same reason you'd coach your kid's team.
He had a kid on the team.
And and, you know, four year old soccer
is like
chaos. It's like people are sitting down crying.
(31:51):
Some people are are, like, swarming the ball.
Nobody plays defense, by the way. They just
nobody sits in the goal.
And they'd say they don't keep score. We
kept score. Parents keep score. I I wanted
to know. But our coach, he one day,
I was shocked at practice. He had Abby's
attention,
which is something I was rarely able to
do, at that age. And and he's telling
(32:12):
her about the nuances of defense and how
if she would just stand in front of
the goal and and how they would be
able to score more points and and the
other team couldn't and they would win the
game. And she just locked in. And after
about two minutes of this, Justin, he said
she said, now do you get it? And
she said, I'm a wear my hello kitty
dress to school tomorrow.
And so so
(32:34):
the coach just, like, looked at her and
said, just kick the ball that way. Just
kick the ball that way. Here's what here's
the point.
Sometimes
financially we're trying to teach people the nuances
of defense that just need to be taught
kick the ball that way.
So I mean we also use this analogy
is like
where do babies come from?
Well, doesn't it matter who's asking the question?
(32:56):
You know, if it's a five year old,
mama's tummy is a pretty good answer.
If they're 14, they they probably should know
that it's a very different answer. And if
they're a pre med student, it's a different
answer. But sometimes, we get so smart in
this business. We try and get premed answers
when people don't need that. And so
what what is relevant to where they're at?
What do they need to know? That don't
(33:16):
need to teach the intricacies of tax law
to someone who's surviving. And and so just
think about that. Put them on there. And
then the other thing it's gonna do is
help inform where do you wanna go next
with with the thinking that you have. What
do you need to learn next to help
those people at the level that you're currently,
serving them
and then to get them to that next
level. So so we think about that. Your
(33:37):
what, why, who, where the where are your
people mostly showing up, and then how.
How's a big topic, and we teach a
whole class on all this stuff. So how
just a simple analogy for how
is what's your what what are you doing?
What is your process? How what's your organizational
structure?
How do you move people from onboarding
to they weren't a client. They heard about
(33:58):
you. They they went through your onboarding process.
They became a client, and now you have
them on this annual cycle of operations, which
is a big part of what we what
we teach all the time.
How is like this. It's two things. Organization
and structure, those two words.
Every bicycle is organized the same, has two
wheels, handlebars, sprockets, pedal system. If it had
(34:19):
three wheels, it wouldn't be the organization
of a bicycle, be the organization of a
tricycle.
And and so what what if it had
you could have two bicycles
that are organized the same
but structured differently.
So one bicycle could have really hard tires
that are smooth, good for going on flat
surfaces really fast,
(34:39):
and another can have,
soft knobby tires, good for going off road.
Neither one is bad or wrong.
One is just more relevant
for the capability of the rider
and the terrain they're trying to go through.
So as you hear us on this podcast
or you read books, you listen to things,
you you're always gonna have, like, things that
may be true. They just may not be
(35:01):
relevant for the season you're in, your capability.
One day, I hope you're flying a jumbo
jet. But if you'd given me our team
when I was brand new in the business,
it would have been like me flying on
the jet by myself, and we would have
run out of gas before takeoff because I
didn't have any money to support the flying
of the jet.
It would not have helped me go further
faster. I needed a tricycle.
(35:21):
But now things have changed. Now things are
different. So
with all that, I just say this. You
know, our greatest opportunity is to recognize our
future possibilities.
Not about abandoning your normal, not about rejecting
new. It's about keeping the tension healthy between
the two. And part one of your ability
to do that is you've gotta be great
at your normal. To do that, you've gotta
define it. What is your what, why, who,
(35:43):
and how? How are you making progress today
in this business? Put in there in your
how, your systems, technology, all the things you're
currently doing.
And and what'll emerge is clarity. It gives
you a starting point. And that's gonna be
a lot of fun for next week when
we begin to talk about challenging your normal
with new, which is the second part of
this. And there there are four distinctions that
(36:03):
we're gonna go through together and talk about
how we do it. We'll see you back
next time for part two. Until then, take
care.
Thanks for tuning in to From Busy to
Rich. If something in today's episode sparked an
idea or hit a nerve, don't keep it
to yourself. Follow the show, share it with
a friend, and let's keep building a community
of advisors who want more. You can find
(36:24):
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.