December 10, 2023 • 55 mins
In this thought-provoking episode, Doug Bennett, "the goals guy," and Donnie Boivin engage in a captivating debate on the effectiveness of goal setting. Dive into a discussion that examines the impact of goals on personal and professional success.
Highlights:
- The Science Behind Goal Setting: Doug Bennett discusses the scientific research supporting goal setting, drawing from interviews with successful entrepreneurs and financial experts.
- Challenging the Status Quo: Donnie Boivin brings a critical perspective, questioning the traditional approach to goal setting and its potential downsides.
- Realistic Goals and Psychological Influences: Explore the importance of setting achievable goals and understanding the psychological factors that influence success.
- Discipline and Belief: Learn how discipline and belief play crucial roles in attaining goals, especially for those new to the practice.
- Personal Anecdotes and Experiences: Doug and Donnie share personal stories and examples, highlighting the need for meaningful, specific goals.
- Learning from Past Decisions: Discover why reflecting on past decisions and learning from mistakes is vital in setting effective goals.
- Goal Setting in Business: The conversation shifts to how goal setting applies to business management and the importance of individualized approaches.
What You'll Gain:
- Insight into both sides of the goal-setting argument.
- Practical advice on setting and achieving personal and professional goals.
- Understanding the role of mentorship and support systems in goal attainment.
- Strategies for developing discipline and belief in your goal-setting journey.
Who Should Listen:
- Entrepreneurs, business leaders, and managers looking for insights into effective goal setting.
- Individuals seeking to understand the pros and cons of setting goals.
- Anyone interested in personal development and success strategies.
Join us in this dynamic episode that challenges conventional wisdom and offers a fresh perspective on goal setting and its impact on achieving success. Tune in now!
Connect with Doug - https://dougbennett.co.uk/
Links
- Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
- YouTube Video - https://www.youtube.com/c/GrowthMode
- Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/blog/
- Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion
Mentioned in this episode:
Success Champion Networking
Success Champion Networking isn't for the beginning networker. Success Champion Networking is for business people that understand building successful relationships is a two-way street requiring commitment from both people involved. Stop wasting time networking with people that don't understand how to leverage their network to generate quality referrals for you. If you are ready to network with business people that are tired of doing all the heavy lifting and want to build real partnerships that generate high-revenue referrals visit one of our Chapters today. https://successchampionnetworking.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Doug Bennett (00:00):
If you make a decision to do something, and you believe in it, A hundred and X percent, that's
got to increase the likelihood of, if you're committingyourself to a goal and it's not realistic, alright.
Um, then there's every likelihood that you'llslip back into the way that you were previously.
(00:24):
It's got to be important enough for you to have the discipline.
It's all about discipline, right?
So the belief has got to be big enough foryou to apply the discipline and then overcome
the obstacles which will come your way.
(00:44):
You've got to get around people thatare doing the shit you want to be doing.
On the level and volume of what you want to be doing.
Go in and be the damn student.
I could learn every person in this room.
Think about how you talk about your business.
(01:04):
Yes, passion.
If you can't carry on a real conversationoutside the passion, you're gonna lose.
So the whole point of all of thisis one, show up as you, fuckin loud.
Two, get yourself in frickin roomsthat scare the shit out of you.
(01:27):
It's really about looking at those thingsthat you know will move the business forward.
And doing them anyways, thank you forallowing me to always show up as me.
And thank you for showing up as you
welcome to growth mode.
Donnie Boivin (01:48):
All right, Doug, I have a philosophical belief that goal setting straight up just doesn't work.
I think we've been preached at our entirelives to set goals, set goals, set goals.
When people think that that's the only way to findsuccess in their business's life and the likes.
And I know you write a lot about goal setting.
(02:09):
So, uh, I'm looking forward to, to hearing you outand talk to me, where you stand in goal setting.
Doug Bennett (02:17):
Well, let's see, Donnie.
Um, I'm known as the goals guy.
So, so that's like, right, red rag to a bull, if you like.
Um, I mean, there's, there's scientificstudies, which says that you're incorrect.
Uh, there's my research from 125 podcast episodes,interviewing goal setters, goal getters, financial
(02:48):
gurus, coaches, uh, you know, entrepreneurs.
Well, they have one thing in common, right?
They're all successful, for a start, and then the second thingthat they all seem to have in common is that they set goals.
Now, there are different ways of setting goals,obviously, and, um, the stats, you know, State
(03:15):
that I think it was a Stanford University thing.
92 percent of people don't have goalsand only 8 percent of people do.
So, you know, you're okay.
You're entitled to your opinion.
Um, I, I can come up with some, youknow, personal examples where, where.
Having goals in my life have made a difference to me, um, howwe can make it simple for everybody, how it will help your, uh.
(03:45):
Mental health.
I'm a great believer in that.
If you're wandering around without any direction, it's like,you know, you're open to be battered by that sort of stuff.
Donnie Boivin (03:58):
But anyway, you know, go for it.
There's been some recent studies.
That have come out, um, that, um, uh, Huberman,uh, who does Huberman labs, a phenomenal podcast.
Um, he's a researcher at, uh, Stanford, maybe I'mprobably screwed at university up, but he had a
(04:20):
fascinating study that he did on visualizationsand he took on long, uh, uh, distance runners.
And to listen to him, talk through whathe found with long distance runners.
was they never visualized the goal line, like the finishof the race, because if they visualize the finish of the
(04:43):
race, the ultimate goal, um, they would ultimately getdeterred by the amount and the distance they had to cover.
So what they found is long distancerunners did not set a end goal per se.
Um, it could be argued they sent some sort ofmicro goals, but they would run to a given spot.
And when they got to that spot, theywould pick another spot down the road.
(05:06):
There was another study that came out that, and I wish Icould cite this one, and I'll put this one in the show notes.
But what they found is when most people actuallyvisualize themselves having accomplished the goal,
the brain shuts off and says, okay, good job.
You've done it.
That goal's done.
That's been accomplished.
(05:28):
For my entire journey, I have been a guy that set goals.
And then would not achieve them for various reasons,but mainly I believe through this philosophy
of, you know, my mind said, okay, it's done.
You don't have to do this.
So, so help me out here, because I feel like there's a lot ofpeople that are like me that, that are struggling with this.
Doug Bennett (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, clearly, you know, 90, 92%, a vast, a vast majority of people do not get goals, right?
They just don't get it.
Um, and that's fair enough.
Right.
But if we can make a difference to one or two people, or,you know, an extra three or four percent of people along
(06:16):
the way, that would, that's got to be cool for a startingpoint, but it's possible and, and, you know, I'm going
to take a little step back to your long distance runner.
Right.
He's saying, well, you know, he'sonly going as far as that next point.
Well, isn't that, isn't he setting a, just a more meaningful,specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, trackable goal?
Donnie Boivin (06:41):
Yeah, when I was, when I heard it, I even had that same thought, like that could be argued as, isn't that a goal?
And, and, and, and truthfully, the whole pointof the study may have been the big end goal.
Maybe there's something there to be said about,you know, micro goals or some sort in there.
Um, but I just know for most people,goal setting is a demotivational thing.
Doug Bennett (07:04):
And I would, I would suggest that they've likely set their goals too big based on their
expectations, you know, and their capabilities, becauseyou've got to be able to actually physically do the thing.
Donnie Boivin (07:21):
Right, but where's the big area to achieve it?
What about the big, hairy, audaciousgoals that's been talked about for years?
Where does that come
Doug Bennett (07:29):
into play?
Okay, well, one, first off, just to haveone big, hairy, audacious goal, right?
That's your north star, if you like,your, you know, your peak thing.
And I have no doubt if we, you know, delved into yoursituation a little bit, there's something that you're
(07:50):
aiming for, something that you want to achieve, right?
Huge relative to everything else.
It's got going on, but so along the way, I mean, youneed to cut your teeth on some of this stuff, right?
And have achievable.
I mean, seriously achievable, like easily achievable goals.
(08:11):
If you've never ever set goals in your life,you need something that, you know, you can do.
Just to get into the little bit of a habit on it.
Give me an example.
Uh, well, one of, one of my goals way back when,when I started this, now, you know, I've been
doing goals for nearly 20 years now, right?
(08:32):
Okay, so I've got a bit of background.
Great.
But one of my, my, one of my starting goalswas I am an excellent timekeeper, right?
That's simple, isn't it?
All you need to do to be an excellent timekeeper isturn up 10 minutes before anybody's expecting you
to be there, and you're an excellent timekeeper.
(08:53):
And that serves a lot of little things.
I mean, it'll serve That you're paying respect to theperson that you're going to see because you know You've
agreed to meet them at a certain time and you're gonnabe there You've you've said or you've done what you
said you were gonna do so it covers off a lot of littlethings But you know just that was a simple one, right?
(09:14):
I'm a an excellent timekeeper So define a goal for me
Donnie Boivin (09:18):
then
Doug Bennett (09:19):
it's No, that's a good question.
That's a good question.
Donnie Boivin (09:24):
What I just heard you said doesn't make me think that's a goal.
I'm not saying it's not.
I just want to hear your definition for it.
Hey man,
Doug Bennett (09:35):
yeah, no, but if you're MrLastMinute.
com Right.
You know, all the time, every single time you leave theoffice to go to an appointment or a meeting or whatever,
you, you know, it's 45 minute drive from where you are or,you know, we don't do that in zooms now, but I'm talking
20 years ago when you went out and met people, right?
(09:56):
Physically.
Um, you know, if it's a 45 minute drive and you'releaving the office at 42 minutes before you're due.
Right.
You're setting yourself up for failurebecause you're going to be angry.
You're going to be frustrated.
You're going to, you know, every single cardriver on the road is going to be an idiot in
(10:16):
comparison because they're in the way, right?
Right.
Having a goal to be on time or be an excellent timekeeper,you know, gets rid of a, an awful lot of stress.
I know that doesn't answer the question.
All right.
I know that.
I know that that would be a good explanation
Donnie Boivin (10:34):
of that, that, that, that, that was a good explanation of where that could
potentially lead into being a goal, right?
Well, thank you.
And from, well, seriously, for that person, if they.
are trying to change a behavior, which is being ontime, then setting the task that I will be a person
(10:56):
that's going to be constantly on time, you know, makessense in how I understand of the framework of a goal.
Doug Bennett (11:05):
Good.
Another, another simple small one, right?
Which I've lived most of my life is I do not sweat over problems.
Okay, that was a goal that I gave myself and I came across,um, I think Jack Canfield came up with E plus R equals O, where
event equals, uh, E, event plus reaction equals outcome, right?
(11:29):
Events happen.
We can't do anything about events.
Right.
It just happened.
The only thing that you are able tocontrol is your reaction to an event.
So how is that reaction will then determine the outcome?
Right.
Donnie Boivin (11:45):
How is that different than just a simple affirmation?
What?
Doug Bennett (11:49):
That one is an affirmation, but it supports a goal.
So I think the goal is I do not sweat over problems.
Donnie Boivin (11:59):
So for it to be a goal, it has to, you have to accomplish something, correct?
Doug Bennett (12:05):
I would, well, yeah, I would say so.
I would say that's, that, that's areasonable traditional assumption.
Okay.
The goal.
Donnie Boivin (12:15):
All right.
All right.
And I'm really not trying to playdevil's advocate on this, right?
I'm really trying to wrap my head around this.
No, and
Doug Bennett (12:20):
I'm really trying to have some fun with you too.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Because that's what you said when we
Donnie Boivin (12:24):
started.
Yeah, good.
So, so the, if, if it has to have a Tampa,you have to complete something, right?
I'm sure there's an evolutionary stage of goal setting.
That could be absolutely work.
Um, how do I then.
(12:46):
How do I determine what goals I should be setting thathave a tangible thing that I can actually accomplish?
Okay.
Doug Bennett (12:59):
Well, I, I start with most, most of my clients, my coaching clients with like, right,
come up, let's, let's have 10 goals, 10 goals.
And you basically write them down.
I was referring to a little notebook here.
Okay.
I was having a look at my goals because Iwrote my goals in this notebook in 2004.
(13:21):
Okay.
Cool.
Cool.
Oh, nice.
Nice.
I still have the original.
I have fresh ones for my clients, you know.
But they don't have these little things.
Because the idea is, you write your goalsdown, to start with, right, to start with.
You write the things that you want to achieve.
Today and if you can manage five if you can only manage five thenthat's fine But you know we've tried for ten ten goals Following
(13:48):
day you write them down again without referring to the ones youwrote down the day before And then the following day you write
them down again without referring to the ones that you wrotedown the day before Gradually like cream the really seriously
important goals For you will rise to the top of the list.
You will write those daily.
(14:09):
Okay.
Yeah That's and there will be goals that come in there willbe cold goals that come in right that are only important that
day And they'll never get on the list ever again, which iswhy you do the exercise for a period so that you can find
out what's really, really important for you in simple terms.
(14:29):
Okay.
So, like, you know, my goals back thenwere I have completed the London Marathon.
Right.
Um, I own or ride a, uh, custom 1200custom sports to Harley Davidson.
Right.
I live in a house that is immaculately presented.
(14:52):
Back then it was I am happily married to my wife, you know,these were sort of goals So I am happily married to my wife
is a complicated one because obviously how do you measure it?
How do you merit measure a woman's happiness?
That was, that was dry.
That was dry British humor there.
Donnie Boivin (15:13):
That was funny though.
Doug Bennett (15:17):
Okay, so, so, you know, it's, it's, sometimes it's difficult, but you know, those were the things that I was
writing down on a regular, I wanted to be happily married andI, I wanted to ride this motorcycle and I wanted to earn this
amount of money and I wanted to drive this car and I wanted to,You know, and then, some of it is feeling, but you, you gotta
(15:40):
see in all of that, it was like pretty, pretty much money led.
Donnie Boivin (15:46):
So, how many of those things did you actually accomplish?
Doug Bennett (15:49):
Well, that is the thing.
That is the really, really mad thing.
Because I wrote the book in 2004, and I knowI wrote it in 2004, because I started training
for the London Marathon in 2004, right?
And I ran it in 2005.
Nice.
Nice.
So So I must have written it before.
Right.
Okay.
Good assumption at least.
(16:10):
Yeah, and that's the only assumption I'vegot because I didn't date the book, right?
However, when I started running, I could runabout 200 yards and then I would throw up.
And we've all been there.
Yes.
Right?
Right.
The beginning of any journey.
Right?
So.
So I wrote the goals and wrote the goalsand then, then you get bored with it, right?
(16:32):
And it gets tucked in the drawer, and I foundit five or six years later, and I'd completed
10 out of 11 of the goals on the list.
Donnie Boivin (16:42):
Why do you think that is?
Well,
Doug Bennett (16:44):
because I told my subconscious that these were the things that I wanted and it hunted down.
Well, it doesn't hunt down actually, because theinformation we need to go forward is always there.
It's always available to us, right?
The information is always available to us.
It's only when we tell ourselves what wewant, that it actually shows up properly.
Donnie Boivin (17:07):
I've told myself a lot of things over the years that I wanted, and I can promise
you the things that I haven't gotten far outweighthe things that I've actually gotten, you know, I
Doug Bennett (17:20):
mean, you know, and that's fair enough.
Okay.
But.
It's like, it's not as simple as just writing it down, okay?
There's this thing, you know, because we talk aboutaffirmations and, you know, the law of attraction,
and, and a lot of people forget to mention thisthing called work that has to come with it, okay?
(17:41):
Because sitting on the beach thinking, I wantto be a, you know, a nomad millionaire, if you
just sit on the beach, it's not going to happen.
Donnie Boivin (17:50):
Right.
So, and most people find what they're trying togo the nomad life that they end up having to be in
one place to actually pull it off because they gotto find enough hours in the day to do the work.
Absolutely.
You know, so it's for, I am an action oriented guy.
(18:10):
Like most of the people that I coach with literally say, okay,Donnie, I'm going to tell you something, do nothing with it.
Because if you tell me something and if I believeit's the right answer, I'm just going to go do it.
Right.
Um, I'm just how I'm wired.
Um, so for me, it's usually a thought process, and thiscould be a goal of we need to get the company here by X date.
(18:37):
Cool.
Right.
That's the goal.
Let's go rock it out.
Now for me, I have to go, all right, what are my threelevers I can pull that will allow us to accomplish that?
Yeah, but I also know that along the way that there's aseries of events unknown that could happen that literally
(18:58):
make that original place we wanted to get to we can callit a goal that we wanted to get to completely irrelevant.
Yes.
So.
Like my largest goal I have, I havetwo major missions in my life, right?
Mission number one is I want to help as many people getto freedom through building a business as I possibly can.
(19:22):
That's an unmeasurable thing.
There's no way to put a number to it.
The second thing I want to do is Iwant to change how the world networks.
Right?
It's nether.
Untangible, right?
There's, there's no way I can say when that is accomplished.
So for me,
it's like more of a vision of what I want todo and something I can keep striving towards.
Doug Bennett (19:49):
So let, you know, go
Donnie Boivin (19:51):
on, go ahead, jump in, jump in, because I'm trying to wrap my head around
where it's different now from a vision to a, a,
Doug Bennett (20:00):
you know, goal.
Right, but the vision is the big picture thing, right?
That's, and we need to have one of those.
That's our big, hairy, audacious goal.
And we don't know how necessarily, this is the thing,we don't know how we're going to pull it off, right?
Great.
(20:21):
And, and I've got enough examples whereit's like, we thought the process was this.
However, what happened was this.
The end result was still the same.
However, it didn't trans, you know, it, it,it didn't happen the way we were expecting.
Right.
Okay.
So all the way through my journey on the goals and goal setting,I've set myself an income figure of, you know, increase the
(20:47):
income figure and I've increased the income figure and I've,I've got an example is that my, my, as a individual with two part
time members of staff, I wanted a 250, 000 turnover business.
Okay, quarter of a million.
That's a reasonable amount of money for most people, right?
(21:09):
When I did my books, my wife did my books and shepresented them to me, our turnover was 250, 278 quid.
Okay, okay.
That was, that was like, uh, withina smidgen of a percent of the figure.
(21:31):
And, and along the way, I didn't, you know, I,I was just doing my stuff and it came about.
So then I increased that figure.
And what do you do?
You know, when, when, when you hita big goal, you just Double it.
Donnie Boivin (21:46):
So why didn't you set a 25 million goal?
Doug Bennett (21:50):
Well, because if I told my subconscious that it would go, uh, based on the knowledge that we have about
you, your capability, you know, the, the contacts thatyou have and all the rest of it, that is too big a jump.
And that could be where a lot of people have the problems.
Agreed.
Subconscious just goes, do you know what?
(22:11):
You've got five clients and you want to turn over a million quid.
So it's not going to happen anytime soon.
Donnie Boivin (22:21):
Like, like, I hate the acronym smart goals, right?
It just, that's great to my soul, butyeah, that thing is, is that whole word?
Realistic?
How do you define what's realistic?
You know, just to this point of the 250 to 25 million, right?
That makes sense to me.
Yeah, but that's going to be on an individual basisbased on their subconscious based on, you know, their
(22:44):
background, their beliefs, the things they've done.
You know, because another person, 25 million is like way too low.
So, so
Doug Bennett (22:53):
what's the turn?
But they're not coming from a quarterof a million turnover, are they?
Donnie Boivin (22:58):
Right, right, right.
So it's, it's
Doug Bennett (23:00):
the experience.
You know, they, they, they bought and sold a 10million pound, you know, 10 million property.
And it's like, then it's just serious scale.
For sure.
You know, instead, instead of 250 employees, I now need2, 000 employees to achieve that, but I know the structure
(23:21):
and all the rest of it, and I know I have the contacts andthe availability to be able to go, yeah, I can do this now.
Donnie Boivin (23:28):
So, should then goals be incremental in nature?
Doug Bennett (23:33):
It wouldn't hurt until you start believing in them.
Donnie Boivin (23:38):
So, it's almost like a way to game the system, if you will.
Um, your mental system to buy into the idea of goals.
Doug Bennett (23:47):
Yeah.
Accept it.
Yeah.
Interesting.
That's why you need to have a couple ofeasy peasy ones to cut your teeth on.
That, you know, you can knock out of the park.
Within, you know, two or three months time.
And then from there you can, you canimprove and then you can improve.
But the point is, you know, I, I hit my 250 K income figureand increased it to half a million and the following year, a
(24:15):
firm approached me and said, we'll buy your business off you.
Right?
And they paid me 510, 000 in oneyear and 525, 000 the following year.
And it's like, well, I wasn't expecting that.
I was expecting, you know, another three or four yearsof hard graph scaling and all the other bits and pieces.
And that's the point.
You don't know how it's going to happen.
(24:37):
It's like, you know, and the data's out there, and we justneed to tell our brain what it is that we're looking for.
If you took up photography today, and walkedinto the mall, supermarket we call it, alright?
You walked into the mall, into the main shopthere, and you walked down the magazine rack, you'd
(24:59):
find that there's 10 to 15 photography magazines.
That mall's been there for 10 or 15 years, and thosemagazines have been there for the last 10 or 15 years.
You've just walked past them becausethey had no value to you whatsoever.
But because you've told your subconsciousthat I need to do this, right?
(25:20):
That's why I took the call, the phone call, fromthe firm, because I told my brain that I needed,
you know, I was, I'd done 250, so I wanted 500.
The conversation just happened and it was like, ordinarilyI would like, yeah, yeah, listen, listen, yeah, yeah,
that's fine, yeah, I'll think about it, come back to youand, and you, brush them off, but it's like, they said
(25:44):
something and it triggered and it was like, Oh, flip me, man,
Donnie Boivin (25:49):
that, that, that almost feels like flying by the seat of your pants, right?
Cause, cause in my head, what I would, whatI heard was, I'm going to, uh, hit my 250.
And then we're going to shoot for 500, andwe'll see what turns up as we go along the way.
Doug Bennett (26:13):
No, because I was expecting, I was expecting, because I'd gone from 100,
I'd gone to 200, then I'd gone to 250, right?
Yep.
Over a period of time, and then it was a case of, right, okay,well this works, so why not go for something a little bit bigger?
(26:33):
So did you set a call then imagining that?
I would need to, yeah.
Donnie Boivin (26:37):
Yeah, yeah.
It's, but once you get to 500, didyou send a seven 50 to then a million?
Or because
Doug Bennett (26:43):
you got the 500?
Well, no, because I thought of may I got, well I got500 twice and it was like, well I wasn't expecting that.
Alright, so I'm in a, a period at the momentwhere, you know, lots of little things.
It's like, that's more money than I was ever expecting.
In my whole life, to be fair, right, my brain hasn'tbeen set for banking a million quid in a relatively short
(27:08):
space of time and going on from there, you know, there's,you've got to be set for set for that sort of thing as
well, you know, because lots of things have happenedsince, which means I don't have all of the millions.
Donnie Boivin (27:25):
Life
Doug Bennett (27:25):
happens for sure, right?
Life happens, indeed it does.
Donnie Boivin (27:29):
So I can remember in my early years when I was getting into my first kind of real big boy sales job.
I was around 23 years old.
And as I was going in for the interview for thejob, um, I had in my head that man, I wasn't
going to take less than a 36, 000 a year draw.
Okay.
(27:49):
36, 000 us draw, um, straight commissionposition, but they gave you a draw base.
Right.
And I remember in the negotiation, I was prepared to fight.
So you can remember 24 years ago, youknow, or 24 years old, that's 20 years ago.
Right.
So I'm getting ready to gear up to havethis huge negotiation about my salary.
(28:11):
Um, and I'll never forget Jane Miranda looking atme going, well, I can only offer you a 40, 000 draw.
And this was 4, 000 over what my highest number was.
Right.
Yeah.
I instantly lost all capacity to negotiate.
I just smiled and said, yes, I'll take it.
Yeah, of course.
Because it was beyond my current beliefs.
(28:32):
That's what you're talking aboutthough, with a lot of this is we have a.
Limit, maybe limit's not the rightword, but a limit to our belief systems.
And if we set a goal beyond thosecurrent belief systems, we're gonna lose.
Yeah.
Doug Bennett (28:53):
Because you'll be sabotaged along the way.
You'll be, you know, because it's like you can'thave the thought processes that are necessary.
With on your own, I mean, you can probably have the thoughtprocesses that are necessary and if you have support to
develop your belief system and expand your comfort zone,I don't like, you know, going outside your comfort zone.
(29:16):
I prefer to expand my comfort zone.
So it's bigger on something oncestretched doesn't need to go back.
All right.
So, you know, expand your comfort zone.
If you've got somebody to support you along thatway, then, then, you know, the bigger goals are.
Uh, more likely, but you need the support for your beliefsystem and, you know, I, I've, I've got coach, right.
(29:42):
You know, I'm going to see after the,after the show to, you know, well,
Donnie Boivin (29:46):
you might need therapy after this one.
Um,
Doug Bennett (29:48):
well, right.
Well, well, we'll see.
We'll see what the next question is.
Donnie Boivin (29:55):
So as I build the company.
And I'm thinking about, you know, the, the, the incrementalgrowth idea, which aligns a lot with my, my belief system, you
know, uh, something you said earlier about, you know, the bigjumps and people that make, I used to teach sales people that
like, if they made a hundred thousand dollars in year one.
(30:18):
They always seem to, in year two, say, I'mgoing to set a quota for a million dollars.
I'm like, look, you just sold a hundred thousand dollars.
You're not going to hit a million.
So instead of hitting a million, can we hit one, youknow, a hundred thousand, you know, what is that friggin
add, you know, incremental, can we get the 200, 000,then can we get to 300, 000, um, you know, and the likes.
(30:42):
So.
Where should I be looking at my company incrementalstages, not just financially, but potentially staff
and the like, how should I be looking at it all to go?
This is how I should set goals for the businesses as a whole.
Doug Bennett (30:59):
Well, you should, you should be able to improve and scale your business without increasing.
the staff
Donnie Boivin (31:07):
proportionately always, always a goal, right?
You
Doug Bennett (31:10):
know, um, you, you know, you've got 200 staff and you're doing, you know, 2 million, for example, you're hurting.
No, you're, you're struggling actually.
Sorry.
Yeah, 20 million.
Well, you know, I mean, I'm a financial advisor, right?
I've got the biggest calculator on my desk, right?
I don't use my brain anymore.
I'm 60 years of age for goodness sake.
(31:30):
I've had alcohol.
It just doesn't happen anymore, right?
Okay.
Um, but I can get the feel for things.
No, you've got 200 staff.
You've got to be doing, you know, 10 million really.
Okay.
So, but you don't need to do to do 20 million.
You probably would need maybe 250 staff.
Right, right.
(31:51):
You know, because it's really a case of, especially these dayswith automation and, you know, looking at your systems and, and
making sure that everything that you're working with is workingand that you have documented standard operation procedure so
that a school leaver Can come in and do some of the jobs, right?
(32:17):
Just by following a tick box exercise.
Now, if you can create that sort of thing, then that,that would be the way you, you could scale your business.
Donnie Boivin (32:28):
Let's say I have those 200 employees.
We'll stay in that scenario.
How do I get them to set incremental goals to grow?
How do we set a company culture, if you will?
Um, cause I promise you goals is nowhere near in our,in our, uh, Oh, whatever we call them champions codes.
(32:50):
Uh, everybody else calls them something else.
I forget what they call them.
So you have your mission, Oh, core value.
Everybody else calls them core values.
Core values.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In our mission, our vision, our, you know, champions codes.
We don't have the word goal written anywhere.
That's fine.
Doug Bennett (33:06):
Right.
It is still a goal though.
Donnie Boivin (33:09):
I want to, yeah, I, I, I'm learning that as, as we're talking through that.
Right.
Um, so, um, and that may be, uh, something for, you know, youas a gold guy to think about is the word goal, the wrong word.
Um, does that drive more?
More unadoption of the concept because theydon't understand the word goal in itself.
(33:36):
So they automatically turn off whensomebody says you need to set goals.
Food for thought.
Doug Bennett (33:41):
Yeah, no, no, it's a good call.
And it's quite a masculine thing.
It's quite a masculine word as well.
Oh, I never thought about that.
It's very difficult for, for feminine
Donnie Boivin (33:55):
people.
Why do you think that is?
Doug Bennett (33:58):
I don't know.
I think it is just, you know, it's.
I'm going to say it stood the test of timeand, you know, you've just made me think that
maybe I do need to modernize it a little bit.
Yeah, um, So thank you for that.
You're welcome.
I appreciate it.
You're very welcome.
Um,
Donnie Boivin (34:15):
you know, but to, to, to get people, you can't motivate people.
No.
You can kind of inspire people by your own actions andthey see you doing a thing, they're likely to take action.
Um, you know.
But I can't imagine it's simple to look at200 people and go, okay, let's set goals.
Doug Bennett (34:40):
It's impossible, right?
Because it's impossible.
You can't do it as a, as a, uh, as a group thing, right?
You're going to have to take time with each of thoseindividuals and find out what rocks their boat.
And that, that, that is a big exercise, and it will take alot of time, but you will reap the rewards, and you need to
(35:02):
adjust your compensation program to suit the individuals thatyou've got on board, because everybody will be different.
There will be probably five or six differentremuneration packages that you can create.
I mean, for example, I have, rather than sort of increase thesalary of one of my team members, I've given her extra weeks.
(35:25):
Annual paid annual leave so that she can spend the summerbecause we have four weeks five with six weeks holiday in the
UK over the summer holidays for the kids, you know, um, so shegets to spend more time with her Children over that period.
But we had a conversation about it and said, right,you know, we've got, would this work better for you?
(35:51):
And it's like, it got quite emotionalbecause she did it last year.
She's just not finished it this year, but she did it last year.
And she said, she came back at the end of theholiday and she said, that was the best time.
I, you know, I had more time with my kids.
We've made some memories.
It's, it's been amazing and all the rest of it.
And now I have a team member.
Donnie Boivin (36:12):
So, what would happen if she said I wanted 12 weeks?
Doug Bennett (36:16):
We'd have to sort that out.
We'd have to work it out.
You know, I mean, you, you I hear you.
Right.
I hear you.
Because, you know, people take advantage, right?
Donnie Boivin (36:30):
That, for me, that one sounded about Yeah.
That one was, for me, so much on taking advantage isWe'll take it back to more of a money concept, right?
If somebody is Making 50, 000 a year and they're talkingabout a raise and they want to get to 125, 000 a year, right?
(36:56):
They've only proved that they could handle a 20percent bump, you know, uh, to, to keep them going.
How do you handle that belief that well, Ishould be here, but you're only paying me here.
I think I'm here.
You see me here.
How do you handle that, that conversation, if you will?
Doug Bennett (37:21):
It's a complicated conversation because everybody believes that they should be paid more.
I mean, it's, you know, it's pretty old school that you dothe job that you want to be paid for, as opposed to just
doing the job that you're paid for, which is unfortunately the
Donnie Boivin (37:41):
way Yeah, a lot of people just take the job that's offered to them, right, without even thought.
Doug Bennett (37:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, and it's like, right, I turnup at nine, I'll finish at five.
Thank you very much.
That's right.
Okay.
Well, these people don't have goals.
They don't have aspirations.
They're um, what's the name?
Meaningless generality rather than ameaningful specific, which is what we want.
(38:08):
We want meaningful specifics in our lives.
Um, so you know, the person that wants 50 to, wantsto increase from 50 to 100, let's say, we double it.
Right?
First off, are they in a position where that is Feasible, right?
Because there will be people that have got it and aredoing the 125 and the 150 with the same raw material.
(38:39):
And when I say the raw material, the same number of leadsand the same number of, you know, opportunities, right?
And, and they just have something extra.
Very often, you know, sometimes that something extra canbe trained and sometimes that something extra is just.
Charisma, which, you know, you can't trainsomebody to become charismatic for sure.
(39:03):
I mean, we've got it in spades, obviously,and, you know, we just, we just picked it up.
Right.
Right.
Okay.
We
Donnie Boivin (39:10):
were good looks and charm too.
I mean, let's just throw it all.
Yeah.
Doug Bennett (39:14):
Yeah.
Donnie Boivin (39:15):
Yeah.
Uh, it's, it's fascinating.
So as I'm hearing you talk, what I've, what I've.
Come to a current belief I'm now forming isbecause goals are so intrinsically personal.
There's so much that leans into those goals.
(39:36):
There's no way to put a blanket statementon it saying goals work or goals don't work.
Because it's 100 percent based on the individual's personaljourney and where they're at and you can't ever understand
what somebody's personal beliefs are because you can't ever100 percent walk in their shoes, you can make some broad
(39:58):
assumptions, you know, along those lines, but you can't.
Fully understand it.
How does somebody understand their own limit to their beliefs?
Like what's their personal ceiling?
Therapy?
Therapy.
(40:18):
Therapy.
I'll agree with that because
Doug Bennett (40:20):
I've done it.
Me too.
Me too.
And, and, and there's nothing, you know, Well, there isa bit that is being brave about getting therapy, right?
I mean, it's not anything that anybody should be ashamed of,or there's always a, there's always, you know, there's always
stuff that we picked up between the age of 0 and 12 that wedon't understand has been tucked away and just keeps coming and.
(40:48):
Scaring the bejesus out of us every now and again,because that's where our beliefs all come from.
So there's no, no, no.
So back to the question,
we, we can understand where people have come from.
If we take the time, we can always find out about somebody.
If you take the time, and if you're interestedin people, then, and you take the time, that's
(41:14):
where you will get the best out of people.
Right.
As an employer, okay, you need to,you, you, you cannot be autocratic.
in your, you know, system is my way orthe highway or any of that sort of thing.
You've got to be, you've got to be involved with yourteam if you really want to get the best out of them.
(41:41):
And so to find that out, you need to talk to them.
On a regular basis, and that becomes a bigtool ask if you get 200 people real quick.
Yeah, you know, but then, then, then you, you,you delegate the thing to a competent HR person
Donnie Boivin (42:01):
and then, and then all of a sudden you hire an HR person and now you have HR problems where
you never had them before as soon as you hired the HR.
Yeah, yeah,
Doug Bennett (42:09):
yeah, yeah, yes, you just got to get well, yeah, maybe you subcontract that one out.
So, so, so they're always on edge, right?
How, how long is he going to pay my contract for?
Maybe that's, maybe that's a subcontractone rather than an individual hire one.
(42:30):
Right.
Donnie Boivin (42:31):
Because I know for me that these last six years running a business have been a freaking self reflected, you
know, I don't think there's any tool on the planet betterthan building a business to meet the dude in the mirror,
because you're going to find out what the hell you're made of.
Really quick, because I really believe that if 90 percent ofthe world saw what happened and what it took to run a business.
(42:57):
They would love their job so much more thanthe craziness we put ourselves through.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, um, it's, it's pure insanity.
So for me, it's been not easy, but I'velearned to find my, my limits, right?
Where's, where's that self imposed ceiling ondifferent beliefs in different areas of the business?
(43:19):
Um, I'm not always good at figuring out how to get through them.
Hence coaches and therapists andthe like to figure out how to get.
You know, through those, um, is there strategies outside of a,of a therapist to, for one to become more self aware so they can
understand better how they should set the goals for themselves.
(43:42):
So, so they're not setting these goals thattheir subconscious doesn't immediately go.
Yeah, you're not going to be able to pull that off, right?
How do we get to or understand where our ownpersonal ceiling is, if they haven't done the,
the, the groundwork to uncover that, that ceiling?
Doug Bennett (44:04):
Well, I mean, if you're starting, if you're starting from zero or, you know, nothing, no, no goal setting.
Stuff.
You need to take a, uh, uh, a good look at whereyou are, in life, knowing that you are where you are
(44:26):
because of the decisions that you've made in the past.
Donnie Boivin (44:30):
Complete ownership.
Cad, thank you for saying that.
Doug Bennett (44:33):
Because most people It's nobody else's responsibility,
right?
You are where you are because of thedecisions that you've made in the past.
So reflect on that because you will have made some fuckingstupid excuse my friend I've been very very careful.
(44:53):
Oh, you know, I thought it was a family show.
No Um,
Donnie Boivin (44:56):
I love talking to you guys over there in the uk because you guys cuss worse than I do
Doug Bennett (45:05):
I'd say I have done my best here.
Um Yeah, I mean, you will have made some howlers, right, andyou need to reflect on those and then think about what you could
have done differently, which is to carry on doing the same thing.
It's the definition of insanity, as we know, right,expecting different results and carrying on doing
(45:30):
exactly the same thing as the definition of insanity.
So the first thing that you need to do is understandthat you are responsible for the position that you're in.
Based upon the decisions that you've made in the past.
Reflect on those.
Have a look at those.
See if there are any lessons that you can learn from those.
Okay?
If you can't work out the lessons yourself, askyour spouse or significant other, they'll tell you.
(45:56):
For sure, for sure.
Because they knew, they knew everything that you were goingto do that was wrong, because that's the way they are.
Anyway, um, more dry British humour there.
Yeah, no, you're good, you're good.
You know, I need to, you know, to, I did, I didthink once, I was doing a gig with 1500 people.
(46:17):
Uh, you know, in the audience, and I was thinking,do I hold up a sign which says dry British humour?
You know, because it's like, ooh, you know, someof that, some of that might just go past them.
That, that, that's where you've got to start.
You've got to be pragmatic about thefuck ups that you've made in the past.
(46:38):
And make a decision that you're not going to do them again.
That you have learned a lesson from them.
Donnie Boivin (46:44):
It's got to be a little bit more than a decision.
Because, in, in, in, the, because And the argument'sbeing made, well, you really didn't make a decision.
Well, no.
A lot of people they do, they make a decisionthat they're going to change their ways.
Yeah.
And then six months later, they're right back to where they were.
(47:05):
Yeah.
Right?
Is it they didn't actually make the decision,or did they not apply the right action, or is
there too many variables to put it in a box?
Doug Bennett (47:16):
If you make a decision to do something, and you believe in it, A hundred and X percent, that's
got to increase the likelihood of, if you're committingyourself to a goal and it's not realistic, alright.
Um, then there's every likelihood that you'llslip back into the way that you were previously.
(47:39):
It's got to be important enough for you to have the discipline.
It's all about discipline, right?
So the belief has got to be big enough foryou to apply the discipline and then overcome
the obstacles which will come your way.
(48:00):
Expect obstacles, expect hurdles
Donnie Boivin (48:05):
and that led me down to the, the path going Molly back to the beginning is maybe it's not so much about
making a drastic change, maybe it's small incremental changes.
Set those smaller goals or smaller ideals that you, you, thesmall incremental changes and quit trying to do the big swing.
(48:27):
So, so, you know, I don't know if it's sales cause Iknow sales and, you know, you're not doing the reach out.
You're not doing the networking, not doing the thingsyou need to do to get your sales to a higher level.
Instead of saying, I'm going to make a hundred coldcalls, you know, on Monday, maybe it's so much more of.
Let's say five, can we make five cold calls on Monday, right?
(48:51):
And then cool.
Can we do two days of five?
Doug Bennett (48:55):
And, and well, the starting point is look at your stats in the past, right?
Measure what you've done in the past.
Okay.
So if the number of sales calls that you'vedone is, you know, 20 in whatever time period.
It's like, and then there's the, you know, the, there's the salescalls, there's the presentation, then there's the closing, and
(49:23):
then there's the, the paperwork and the follow through, right?
Each of those little stages, if you can just improveeach one just a little bit within manageable amounts,
then the, the final result will be exponential.
Donnie Boivin (49:42):
Nope, I like it.
I like it.
Doug, this is a lot of damn fun.
Um, thanks for dancing with me on this one.
Um, because it's something that I'vefought with for a extremely long time.
So thanks for some of the clarity on all this.
Um, how do people get in touch with you?
How do they reach out to you?
How do they learn more information?
(50:02):
Well,
Doug Bennett (50:03):
um, it's, uh, dougbennett.
co.
uk The co.
uk is the UK.
Yep.
Yep.
Right.
They know that it's just more humor.
Donnie Boivin (50:15):
Um, I want to sign.
I officially want to sign.
Doug Bennett (50:24):
Um, I've, I've got a, from financial struggle to financial success PDF, uh,
which, um, I've got bit lied up or bit lead up.
Oh, bitly.
I mean, you know, I can let you have that or do I read
Donnie Boivin (50:39):
it out or read it out and then we'll, we'll include it in show notes.
Doug Bennett (50:43):
Okay.
Yeah.
I have to put my glasses on.
. Donnie Boivin: Doug, your age is showing
. Doug Bennett: No, I know I may.
Yeah, so we've got https colon slash slash bt ly.
Stroke, Struggle, S T R U G G L E, Dash, Success, S U C C E S S.
(51:10):
Okay?
That'll take you to, uh, my struggle to success.
That, I mean, we didn't touch on it, right?
But in 2010, I was on the edge of bankruptcy.
And I found these, I found the gold book.
And then I sold my business for seven figures.
Right?
So the, the, what you've got in struggle to successis the essence of everything that I learned.
(51:36):
What I've, you know, I've been in business for 40 years.
It's like, you know, it's, it's like the simplestuff because I like to keep things simple.
Right?
That's how you win big.
Oh my God.
There's a title of a book there.
Donnie Boivin (51:49):
He's also got the book, Think Simple, Win Big, you know.
Doug Bennett (51:51):
But that's it, you know, you can book a one to one if you're struggling with your goals, just book a one to one.
We can have a chat and, you know, see ifI can bring any value to your situation.
Because that's what it's all about, right?
Can we bring some value to your situation and, youknow, I'm, I'm pragmatic and realistic and old enough
(52:13):
to know whether I can or not relatively quickly.
Love it.
Donnie Boivin (52:20):
Love it.
Well, guys, if you are still hanging out with us andenjoying the show, do us a favor, take a screenshot
of wherever you're listening and watching thisposted on a social media, tag me and Doug in it.
And if we can see it, we'll come in and jump inand comment and say howdy and hello, um, otherwise.
Love you, mean it.
See you, bye.
If you make a decision to do something, and you believe in it, A hundred and X percent, that's
got to increase the likelihood of, if you're committingyourself to a goal and it's not realistic, alright.
Um, then there's every likelihood that you'llslip back into the way that you were previously.
(00:24):
It's got to be important enough for you to have the discipline.
It's all about discipline, right?
So the belief has got to be big enough foryou to apply the discipline and then overcome
the obstacles which will come your way.
(00:44):
You've got to get around people thatare doing the shit you want to be doing.
On the level and volume of what you want to be doing.
Go in and be the damn student.
I could learn every person in this room.
Think about how you talk about your business.
(01:04):
Yes, passion.
If you can't carry on a real conversationoutside the passion, you're gonna lose.
So the whole point of all of thisis one, show up as you, fuckin loud.
Two, get yourself in frickin roomsthat scare the shit out of you.
(01:27):
It's really about looking at those thingsthat you know will move the business forward.
And doing them anyways, thank you forallowing me to always show up as me.
And thank you for showing up as you
welcome to growth mode.
Donnie Boivin (01:48):
All right, Doug, I have a philosophical belief that goal setting straight up just doesn't work.
I think we've been preached at our entirelives to set goals, set goals, set goals.
When people think that that's the only way to findsuccess in their business's life and the likes.
And I know you write a lot about goal setting.
(02:09):
So, uh, I'm looking forward to, to hearing you outand talk to me, where you stand in goal setting.
Doug Bennett (02:17):
Well, let's see, Donnie.
Um, I'm known as the goals guy.
So, so that's like, right, red rag to a bull, if you like.
Um, I mean, there's, there's scientificstudies, which says that you're incorrect.
Uh, there's my research from 125 podcast episodes,interviewing goal setters, goal getters, financial
(02:48):
gurus, coaches, uh, you know, entrepreneurs.
Well, they have one thing in common, right?
They're all successful, for a start, and then the second thingthat they all seem to have in common is that they set goals.
Now, there are different ways of setting goals,obviously, and, um, the stats, you know, State
(03:15):
that I think it was a Stanford University thing.
92 percent of people don't have goalsand only 8 percent of people do.
So, you know, you're okay.
You're entitled to your opinion.
Um, I, I can come up with some, youknow, personal examples where, where.
Having goals in my life have made a difference to me, um, howwe can make it simple for everybody, how it will help your, uh.
(03:45):
Mental health.
I'm a great believer in that.
If you're wandering around without any direction, it's like,you know, you're open to be battered by that sort of stuff.
Donnie Boivin (03:58):
But anyway, you know, go for it.
There's been some recent studies.
That have come out, um, that, um, uh, Huberman,uh, who does Huberman labs, a phenomenal podcast.
Um, he's a researcher at, uh, Stanford, maybe I'mprobably screwed at university up, but he had a
(04:20):
fascinating study that he did on visualizationsand he took on long, uh, uh, distance runners.
And to listen to him, talk through whathe found with long distance runners.
was they never visualized the goal line, like the finishof the race, because if they visualize the finish of the
(04:43):
race, the ultimate goal, um, they would ultimately getdeterred by the amount and the distance they had to cover.
So what they found is long distancerunners did not set a end goal per se.
Um, it could be argued they sent some sort ofmicro goals, but they would run to a given spot.
And when they got to that spot, theywould pick another spot down the road.
(05:06):
There was another study that came out that, and I wish Icould cite this one, and I'll put this one in the show notes.
But what they found is when most people actuallyvisualize themselves having accomplished the goal,
the brain shuts off and says, okay, good job.
You've done it.
That goal's done.
That's been accomplished.
(05:28):
For my entire journey, I have been a guy that set goals.
And then would not achieve them for various reasons,but mainly I believe through this philosophy
of, you know, my mind said, okay, it's done.
You don't have to do this.
So, so help me out here, because I feel like there's a lot ofpeople that are like me that, that are struggling with this.
Doug Bennett (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, clearly, you know, 90, 92%, a vast, a vast majority of people do not get goals, right?
They just don't get it.
Um, and that's fair enough.
Right.
But if we can make a difference to one or two people, or,you know, an extra three or four percent of people along
(06:16):
the way, that would, that's got to be cool for a startingpoint, but it's possible and, and, you know, I'm going
to take a little step back to your long distance runner.
Right.
He's saying, well, you know, he'sonly going as far as that next point.
Well, isn't that, isn't he setting a, just a more meaningful,specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, trackable goal?
Donnie Boivin (06:41):
Yeah, when I was, when I heard it, I even had that same thought, like that could be argued as, isn't that a goal?
And, and, and, and truthfully, the whole pointof the study may have been the big end goal.
Maybe there's something there to be said about,you know, micro goals or some sort in there.
Um, but I just know for most people,goal setting is a demotivational thing.
Doug Bennett (07:04):
And I would, I would suggest that they've likely set their goals too big based on their
expectations, you know, and their capabilities, becauseyou've got to be able to actually physically do the thing.
Donnie Boivin (07:21):
Right, but where's the big area to achieve it?
What about the big, hairy, audaciousgoals that's been talked about for years?
Where does that come
Doug Bennett (07:29):
into play?
Okay, well, one, first off, just to haveone big, hairy, audacious goal, right?
That's your north star, if you like,your, you know, your peak thing.
And I have no doubt if we, you know, delved into yoursituation a little bit, there's something that you're
(07:50):
aiming for, something that you want to achieve, right?
Huge relative to everything else.
It's got going on, but so along the way, I mean, youneed to cut your teeth on some of this stuff, right?
And have achievable.
I mean, seriously achievable, like easily achievable goals.
(08:11):
If you've never ever set goals in your life,you need something that, you know, you can do.
Just to get into the little bit of a habit on it.
Give me an example.
Uh, well, one of, one of my goals way back when,when I started this, now, you know, I've been
doing goals for nearly 20 years now, right?
(08:32):
Okay, so I've got a bit of background.
Great.
But one of my, my, one of my starting goalswas I am an excellent timekeeper, right?
That's simple, isn't it?
All you need to do to be an excellent timekeeper isturn up 10 minutes before anybody's expecting you
to be there, and you're an excellent timekeeper.
(08:53):
And that serves a lot of little things.
I mean, it'll serve That you're paying respect to theperson that you're going to see because you know You've
agreed to meet them at a certain time and you're gonnabe there You've you've said or you've done what you
said you were gonna do so it covers off a lot of littlethings But you know just that was a simple one, right?
(09:14):
I'm a an excellent timekeeper So define a goal for me
Donnie Boivin (09:18):
then
Doug Bennett (09:19):
it's No, that's a good question.
That's a good question.
Donnie Boivin (09:24):
What I just heard you said doesn't make me think that's a goal.
I'm not saying it's not.
I just want to hear your definition for it.
Hey man,
Doug Bennett (09:35):
yeah, no, but if you're MrLastMinute.
com Right.
You know, all the time, every single time you leave theoffice to go to an appointment or a meeting or whatever,
you, you know, it's 45 minute drive from where you are or,you know, we don't do that in zooms now, but I'm talking
20 years ago when you went out and met people, right?
(09:56):
Physically.
Um, you know, if it's a 45 minute drive and you'releaving the office at 42 minutes before you're due.
Right.
You're setting yourself up for failurebecause you're going to be angry.
You're going to be frustrated.
You're going to, you know, every single cardriver on the road is going to be an idiot in
(10:16):
comparison because they're in the way, right?
Right.
Having a goal to be on time or be an excellent timekeeper,you know, gets rid of a, an awful lot of stress.
I know that doesn't answer the question.
All right.
I know that.
I know that that would be a good explanation
Donnie Boivin (10:34):
of that, that, that, that, that was a good explanation of where that could
potentially lead into being a goal, right?
Well, thank you.
And from, well, seriously, for that person, if they.
are trying to change a behavior, which is being ontime, then setting the task that I will be a person
(10:56):
that's going to be constantly on time, you know, makessense in how I understand of the framework of a goal.
Doug Bennett (11:05):
Good.
Another, another simple small one, right?
Which I've lived most of my life is I do not sweat over problems.
Okay, that was a goal that I gave myself and I came across,um, I think Jack Canfield came up with E plus R equals O, where
event equals, uh, E, event plus reaction equals outcome, right?
(11:29):
Events happen.
We can't do anything about events.
Right.
It just happened.
The only thing that you are able tocontrol is your reaction to an event.
So how is that reaction will then determine the outcome?
Right.
Donnie Boivin (11:45):
How is that different than just a simple affirmation?
What?
Doug Bennett (11:49):
That one is an affirmation, but it supports a goal.
So I think the goal is I do not sweat over problems.
Donnie Boivin (11:59):
So for it to be a goal, it has to, you have to accomplish something, correct?
Doug Bennett (12:05):
I would, well, yeah, I would say so.
I would say that's, that, that's areasonable traditional assumption.
Okay.
The goal.
Donnie Boivin (12:15):
All right.
All right.
And I'm really not trying to playdevil's advocate on this, right?
I'm really trying to wrap my head around this.
No, and
Doug Bennett (12:20):
I'm really trying to have some fun with you too.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Because that's what you said when we
Donnie Boivin (12:24):
started.
Yeah, good.
So, so the, if, if it has to have a Tampa,you have to complete something, right?
I'm sure there's an evolutionary stage of goal setting.
That could be absolutely work.
Um, how do I then.
(12:46):
How do I determine what goals I should be setting thathave a tangible thing that I can actually accomplish?
Okay.
Doug Bennett (12:59):
Well, I, I start with most, most of my clients, my coaching clients with like, right,
come up, let's, let's have 10 goals, 10 goals.
And you basically write them down.
I was referring to a little notebook here.
Okay.
I was having a look at my goals because Iwrote my goals in this notebook in 2004.
(13:21):
Okay.
Cool.
Cool.
Oh, nice.
Nice.
I still have the original.
I have fresh ones for my clients, you know.
But they don't have these little things.
Because the idea is, you write your goalsdown, to start with, right, to start with.
You write the things that you want to achieve.
Today and if you can manage five if you can only manage five thenthat's fine But you know we've tried for ten ten goals Following
(13:48):
day you write them down again without referring to the ones youwrote down the day before And then the following day you write
them down again without referring to the ones that you wrotedown the day before Gradually like cream the really seriously
important goals For you will rise to the top of the list.
You will write those daily.
(14:09):
Okay.
Yeah That's and there will be goals that come in there willbe cold goals that come in right that are only important that
day And they'll never get on the list ever again, which iswhy you do the exercise for a period so that you can find
out what's really, really important for you in simple terms.
(14:29):
Okay.
So, like, you know, my goals back thenwere I have completed the London Marathon.
Right.
Um, I own or ride a, uh, custom 1200custom sports to Harley Davidson.
Right.
I live in a house that is immaculately presented.
(14:52):
Back then it was I am happily married to my wife, you know,these were sort of goals So I am happily married to my wife
is a complicated one because obviously how do you measure it?
How do you merit measure a woman's happiness?
That was, that was dry.
That was dry British humor there.
Donnie Boivin (15:13):
That was funny though.
Doug Bennett (15:17):
Okay, so, so, you know, it's, it's, sometimes it's difficult, but you know, those were the things that I was
writing down on a regular, I wanted to be happily married andI, I wanted to ride this motorcycle and I wanted to earn this
amount of money and I wanted to drive this car and I wanted to,You know, and then, some of it is feeling, but you, you gotta
(15:40):
see in all of that, it was like pretty, pretty much money led.
Donnie Boivin (15:46):
So, how many of those things did you actually accomplish?
Doug Bennett (15:49):
Well, that is the thing.
That is the really, really mad thing.
Because I wrote the book in 2004, and I knowI wrote it in 2004, because I started training
for the London Marathon in 2004, right?
And I ran it in 2005.
Nice.
Nice.
So So I must have written it before.
Right.
Okay.
Good assumption at least.
(16:10):
Yeah, and that's the only assumption I'vegot because I didn't date the book, right?
However, when I started running, I could runabout 200 yards and then I would throw up.
And we've all been there.
Yes.
Right?
Right.
The beginning of any journey.
Right?
So.
So I wrote the goals and wrote the goalsand then, then you get bored with it, right?
(16:32):
And it gets tucked in the drawer, and I foundit five or six years later, and I'd completed
10 out of 11 of the goals on the list.
Donnie Boivin (16:42):
Why do you think that is?
Well,
Doug Bennett (16:44):
because I told my subconscious that these were the things that I wanted and it hunted down.
Well, it doesn't hunt down actually, because theinformation we need to go forward is always there.
It's always available to us, right?
The information is always available to us.
It's only when we tell ourselves what wewant, that it actually shows up properly.
Donnie Boivin (17:07):
I've told myself a lot of things over the years that I wanted, and I can promise
you the things that I haven't gotten far outweighthe things that I've actually gotten, you know, I
Doug Bennett (17:20):
mean, you know, and that's fair enough.
Okay.
But.
It's like, it's not as simple as just writing it down, okay?
There's this thing, you know, because we talk aboutaffirmations and, you know, the law of attraction,
and, and a lot of people forget to mention thisthing called work that has to come with it, okay?
(17:41):
Because sitting on the beach thinking, I wantto be a, you know, a nomad millionaire, if you
just sit on the beach, it's not going to happen.
Donnie Boivin (17:50):
Right.
So, and most people find what they're trying togo the nomad life that they end up having to be in
one place to actually pull it off because they gotto find enough hours in the day to do the work.
Absolutely.
You know, so it's for, I am an action oriented guy.
(18:10):
Like most of the people that I coach with literally say, okay,Donnie, I'm going to tell you something, do nothing with it.
Because if you tell me something and if I believeit's the right answer, I'm just going to go do it.
Right.
Um, I'm just how I'm wired.
Um, so for me, it's usually a thought process, and thiscould be a goal of we need to get the company here by X date.
(18:37):
Cool.
Right.
That's the goal.
Let's go rock it out.
Now for me, I have to go, all right, what are my threelevers I can pull that will allow us to accomplish that?
Yeah, but I also know that along the way that there's aseries of events unknown that could happen that literally
(18:58):
make that original place we wanted to get to we can callit a goal that we wanted to get to completely irrelevant.
Yes.
So.
Like my largest goal I have, I havetwo major missions in my life, right?
Mission number one is I want to help as many people getto freedom through building a business as I possibly can.
(19:22):
That's an unmeasurable thing.
There's no way to put a number to it.
The second thing I want to do is Iwant to change how the world networks.
Right?
It's nether.
Untangible, right?
There's, there's no way I can say when that is accomplished.
So for me,
it's like more of a vision of what I want todo and something I can keep striving towards.
Doug Bennett (19:49):
So let, you know, go
Donnie Boivin (19:51):
on, go ahead, jump in, jump in, because I'm trying to wrap my head around
where it's different now from a vision to a, a,
Doug Bennett (20:00):
you know, goal.
Right, but the vision is the big picture thing, right?
That's, and we need to have one of those.
That's our big, hairy, audacious goal.
And we don't know how necessarily, this is the thing,we don't know how we're going to pull it off, right?
Great.
(20:21):
And, and I've got enough examples whereit's like, we thought the process was this.
However, what happened was this.
The end result was still the same.
However, it didn't trans, you know, it, it,it didn't happen the way we were expecting.
Right.
Okay.
So all the way through my journey on the goals and goal setting,I've set myself an income figure of, you know, increase the
(20:47):
income figure and I've increased the income figure and I've,I've got an example is that my, my, as a individual with two part
time members of staff, I wanted a 250, 000 turnover business.
Okay, quarter of a million.
That's a reasonable amount of money for most people, right?
(21:09):
When I did my books, my wife did my books and shepresented them to me, our turnover was 250, 278 quid.
Okay, okay.
That was, that was like, uh, withina smidgen of a percent of the figure.
(21:31):
And, and along the way, I didn't, you know, I,I was just doing my stuff and it came about.
So then I increased that figure.
And what do you do?
You know, when, when, when you hita big goal, you just Double it.
Donnie Boivin (21:46):
So why didn't you set a 25 million goal?
Doug Bennett (21:50):
Well, because if I told my subconscious that it would go, uh, based on the knowledge that we have about
you, your capability, you know, the, the contacts thatyou have and all the rest of it, that is too big a jump.
And that could be where a lot of people have the problems.
Agreed.
Subconscious just goes, do you know what?
(22:11):
You've got five clients and you want to turn over a million quid.
So it's not going to happen anytime soon.
Donnie Boivin (22:21):
Like, like, I hate the acronym smart goals, right?
It just, that's great to my soul, butyeah, that thing is, is that whole word?
Realistic?
How do you define what's realistic?
You know, just to this point of the 250 to 25 million, right?
That makes sense to me.
Yeah, but that's going to be on an individual basisbased on their subconscious based on, you know, their
(22:44):
background, their beliefs, the things they've done.
You know, because another person, 25 million is like way too low.
So, so
Doug Bennett (22:53):
what's the turn?
But they're not coming from a quarterof a million turnover, are they?
Donnie Boivin (22:58):
Right, right, right.
So it's, it's
Doug Bennett (23:00):
the experience.
You know, they, they, they bought and sold a 10million pound, you know, 10 million property.
And it's like, then it's just serious scale.
For sure.
You know, instead, instead of 250 employees, I now need2, 000 employees to achieve that, but I know the structure
(23:21):
and all the rest of it, and I know I have the contacts andthe availability to be able to go, yeah, I can do this now.
Donnie Boivin (23:28):
So, should then goals be incremental in nature?
Doug Bennett (23:33):
It wouldn't hurt until you start believing in them.
Donnie Boivin (23:38):
So, it's almost like a way to game the system, if you will.
Um, your mental system to buy into the idea of goals.
Doug Bennett (23:47):
Yeah.
Accept it.
Yeah.
Interesting.
That's why you need to have a couple ofeasy peasy ones to cut your teeth on.
That, you know, you can knock out of the park.
Within, you know, two or three months time.
And then from there you can, you canimprove and then you can improve.
But the point is, you know, I, I hit my 250 K income figureand increased it to half a million and the following year, a
(24:15):
firm approached me and said, we'll buy your business off you.
Right?
And they paid me 510, 000 in oneyear and 525, 000 the following year.
And it's like, well, I wasn't expecting that.
I was expecting, you know, another three or four yearsof hard graph scaling and all the other bits and pieces.
And that's the point.
You don't know how it's going to happen.
(24:37):
It's like, you know, and the data's out there, and we justneed to tell our brain what it is that we're looking for.
If you took up photography today, and walkedinto the mall, supermarket we call it, alright?
You walked into the mall, into the main shopthere, and you walked down the magazine rack, you'd
(24:59):
find that there's 10 to 15 photography magazines.
That mall's been there for 10 or 15 years, and thosemagazines have been there for the last 10 or 15 years.
You've just walked past them becausethey had no value to you whatsoever.
But because you've told your subconsciousthat I need to do this, right?
(25:20):
That's why I took the call, the phone call, fromthe firm, because I told my brain that I needed,
you know, I was, I'd done 250, so I wanted 500.
The conversation just happened and it was like, ordinarilyI would like, yeah, yeah, listen, listen, yeah, yeah,
that's fine, yeah, I'll think about it, come back to youand, and you, brush them off, but it's like, they said
(25:44):
something and it triggered and it was like, Oh, flip me, man,
Donnie Boivin (25:49):
that, that, that almost feels like flying by the seat of your pants, right?
Cause, cause in my head, what I would, whatI heard was, I'm going to, uh, hit my 250.
And then we're going to shoot for 500, andwe'll see what turns up as we go along the way.
Doug Bennett (26:13):
No, because I was expecting, I was expecting, because I'd gone from 100,
I'd gone to 200, then I'd gone to 250, right?
Yep.
Over a period of time, and then it was a case of, right, okay,well this works, so why not go for something a little bit bigger?
(26:33):
So did you set a call then imagining that?
I would need to, yeah.
Donnie Boivin (26:37):
Yeah, yeah.
It's, but once you get to 500, didyou send a seven 50 to then a million?
Or because
Doug Bennett (26:43):
you got the 500?
Well, no, because I thought of may I got, well I got500 twice and it was like, well I wasn't expecting that.
Alright, so I'm in a, a period at the momentwhere, you know, lots of little things.
It's like, that's more money than I was ever expecting.
In my whole life, to be fair, right, my brain hasn'tbeen set for banking a million quid in a relatively short
(27:08):
space of time and going on from there, you know, there's,you've got to be set for set for that sort of thing as
well, you know, because lots of things have happenedsince, which means I don't have all of the millions.
Donnie Boivin (27:25):
Life
Doug Bennett (27:25):
happens for sure, right?
Life happens, indeed it does.
Donnie Boivin (27:29):
So I can remember in my early years when I was getting into my first kind of real big boy sales job.
I was around 23 years old.
And as I was going in for the interview for thejob, um, I had in my head that man, I wasn't
going to take less than a 36, 000 a year draw.
Okay.
(27:49):
36, 000 us draw, um, straight commissionposition, but they gave you a draw base.
Right.
And I remember in the negotiation, I was prepared to fight.
So you can remember 24 years ago, youknow, or 24 years old, that's 20 years ago.
Right.
So I'm getting ready to gear up to havethis huge negotiation about my salary.
(28:11):
Um, and I'll never forget Jane Miranda looking atme going, well, I can only offer you a 40, 000 draw.
And this was 4, 000 over what my highest number was.
Right.
Yeah.
I instantly lost all capacity to negotiate.
I just smiled and said, yes, I'll take it.
Yeah, of course.
Because it was beyond my current beliefs.
(28:32):
That's what you're talking aboutthough, with a lot of this is we have a.
Limit, maybe limit's not the rightword, but a limit to our belief systems.
And if we set a goal beyond thosecurrent belief systems, we're gonna lose.
Yeah.
Doug Bennett (28:53):
Because you'll be sabotaged along the way.
You'll be, you know, because it's like you can'thave the thought processes that are necessary.
With on your own, I mean, you can probably have the thoughtprocesses that are necessary and if you have support to
develop your belief system and expand your comfort zone,I don't like, you know, going outside your comfort zone.
(29:16):
I prefer to expand my comfort zone.
So it's bigger on something oncestretched doesn't need to go back.
All right.
So, you know, expand your comfort zone.
If you've got somebody to support you along thatway, then, then, you know, the bigger goals are.
Uh, more likely, but you need the support for your beliefsystem and, you know, I, I've, I've got coach, right.
(29:42):
You know, I'm going to see after the,after the show to, you know, well,
Donnie Boivin (29:46):
you might need therapy after this one.
Um,
Doug Bennett (29:48):
well, right.
Well, well, we'll see.
We'll see what the next question is.
Donnie Boivin (29:55):
So as I build the company.
And I'm thinking about, you know, the, the, the incrementalgrowth idea, which aligns a lot with my, my belief system, you
know, uh, something you said earlier about, you know, the bigjumps and people that make, I used to teach sales people that
like, if they made a hundred thousand dollars in year one.
(30:18):
They always seem to, in year two, say, I'mgoing to set a quota for a million dollars.
I'm like, look, you just sold a hundred thousand dollars.
You're not going to hit a million.
So instead of hitting a million, can we hit one, youknow, a hundred thousand, you know, what is that friggin
add, you know, incremental, can we get the 200, 000,then can we get to 300, 000, um, you know, and the likes.
(30:42):
So.
Where should I be looking at my company incrementalstages, not just financially, but potentially staff
and the like, how should I be looking at it all to go?
This is how I should set goals for the businesses as a whole.
Doug Bennett (30:59):
Well, you should, you should be able to improve and scale your business without increasing.
the staff
Donnie Boivin (31:07):
proportionately always, always a goal, right?
You
Doug Bennett (31:10):
know, um, you, you know, you've got 200 staff and you're doing, you know, 2 million, for example, you're hurting.
No, you're, you're struggling actually.
Sorry.
Yeah, 20 million.
Well, you know, I mean, I'm a financial advisor, right?
I've got the biggest calculator on my desk, right?
I don't use my brain anymore.
I'm 60 years of age for goodness sake.
(31:30):
I've had alcohol.
It just doesn't happen anymore, right?
Okay.
Um, but I can get the feel for things.
No, you've got 200 staff.
You've got to be doing, you know, 10 million really.
Okay.
So, but you don't need to do to do 20 million.
You probably would need maybe 250 staff.
Right, right.
(31:51):
You know, because it's really a case of, especially these dayswith automation and, you know, looking at your systems and, and
making sure that everything that you're working with is workingand that you have documented standard operation procedure so
that a school leaver Can come in and do some of the jobs, right?
(32:17):
Just by following a tick box exercise.
Now, if you can create that sort of thing, then that,that would be the way you, you could scale your business.
Donnie Boivin (32:28):
Let's say I have those 200 employees.
We'll stay in that scenario.
How do I get them to set incremental goals to grow?
How do we set a company culture, if you will?
Um, cause I promise you goals is nowhere near in our,in our, uh, Oh, whatever we call them champions codes.
(32:50):
Uh, everybody else calls them something else.
I forget what they call them.
So you have your mission, Oh, core value.
Everybody else calls them core values.
Core values.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In our mission, our vision, our, you know, champions codes.
We don't have the word goal written anywhere.
That's fine.
Doug Bennett (33:06):
Right.
It is still a goal though.
Donnie Boivin (33:09):
I want to, yeah, I, I, I'm learning that as, as we're talking through that.
Right.
Um, so, um, and that may be, uh, something for, you know, youas a gold guy to think about is the word goal, the wrong word.
Um, does that drive more?
More unadoption of the concept because theydon't understand the word goal in itself.
(33:36):
So they automatically turn off whensomebody says you need to set goals.
Food for thought.
Doug Bennett (33:41):
Yeah, no, no, it's a good call.
And it's quite a masculine thing.
It's quite a masculine word as well.
Oh, I never thought about that.
It's very difficult for, for feminine
Donnie Boivin (33:55):
people.
Why do you think that is?
Doug Bennett (33:58):
I don't know.
I think it is just, you know, it's.
I'm going to say it stood the test of timeand, you know, you've just made me think that
maybe I do need to modernize it a little bit.
Yeah, um, So thank you for that.
You're welcome.
I appreciate it.
You're very welcome.
Um,
Donnie Boivin (34:15):
you know, but to, to, to get people, you can't motivate people.
No.
You can kind of inspire people by your own actions andthey see you doing a thing, they're likely to take action.
Um, you know.
But I can't imagine it's simple to look at200 people and go, okay, let's set goals.
Doug Bennett (34:40):
It's impossible, right?
Because it's impossible.
You can't do it as a, as a, uh, as a group thing, right?
You're going to have to take time with each of thoseindividuals and find out what rocks their boat.
And that, that, that is a big exercise, and it will take alot of time, but you will reap the rewards, and you need to
(35:02):
adjust your compensation program to suit the individuals thatyou've got on board, because everybody will be different.
There will be probably five or six differentremuneration packages that you can create.
I mean, for example, I have, rather than sort of increase thesalary of one of my team members, I've given her extra weeks.
(35:25):
Annual paid annual leave so that she can spend the summerbecause we have four weeks five with six weeks holiday in the
UK over the summer holidays for the kids, you know, um, so shegets to spend more time with her Children over that period.
But we had a conversation about it and said, right,you know, we've got, would this work better for you?
(35:51):
And it's like, it got quite emotionalbecause she did it last year.
She's just not finished it this year, but she did it last year.
And she said, she came back at the end of theholiday and she said, that was the best time.
I, you know, I had more time with my kids.
We've made some memories.
It's, it's been amazing and all the rest of it.
And now I have a team member.
Donnie Boivin (36:12):
So, what would happen if she said I wanted 12 weeks?
Doug Bennett (36:16):
We'd have to sort that out.
We'd have to work it out.
You know, I mean, you, you I hear you.
Right.
I hear you.
Because, you know, people take advantage, right?
Donnie Boivin (36:30):
That, for me, that one sounded about Yeah.
That one was, for me, so much on taking advantage isWe'll take it back to more of a money concept, right?
If somebody is Making 50, 000 a year and they're talkingabout a raise and they want to get to 125, 000 a year, right?
(36:56):
They've only proved that they could handle a 20percent bump, you know, uh, to, to keep them going.
How do you handle that belief that well, Ishould be here, but you're only paying me here.
I think I'm here.
You see me here.
How do you handle that, that conversation, if you will?
Doug Bennett (37:21):
It's a complicated conversation because everybody believes that they should be paid more.
I mean, it's, you know, it's pretty old school that you dothe job that you want to be paid for, as opposed to just
doing the job that you're paid for, which is unfortunately the
Donnie Boivin (37:41):
way Yeah, a lot of people just take the job that's offered to them, right, without even thought.
Doug Bennett (37:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, and it's like, right, I turnup at nine, I'll finish at five.
Thank you very much.
That's right.
Okay.
Well, these people don't have goals.
They don't have aspirations.
They're um, what's the name?
Meaningless generality rather than ameaningful specific, which is what we want.
(38:08):
We want meaningful specifics in our lives.
Um, so you know, the person that wants 50 to, wantsto increase from 50 to 100, let's say, we double it.
Right?
First off, are they in a position where that is Feasible, right?
Because there will be people that have got it and aredoing the 125 and the 150 with the same raw material.
(38:39):
And when I say the raw material, the same number of leadsand the same number of, you know, opportunities, right?
And, and they just have something extra.
Very often, you know, sometimes that something extra canbe trained and sometimes that something extra is just.
Charisma, which, you know, you can't trainsomebody to become charismatic for sure.
(39:03):
I mean, we've got it in spades, obviously,and, you know, we just, we just picked it up.
Right.
Right.
Okay.
We
Donnie Boivin (39:10):
were good looks and charm too.
I mean, let's just throw it all.
Yeah.
Doug Bennett (39:14):
Yeah.
Donnie Boivin (39:15):
Yeah.
Uh, it's, it's fascinating.
So as I'm hearing you talk, what I've, what I've.
Come to a current belief I'm now forming isbecause goals are so intrinsically personal.
There's so much that leans into those goals.
(39:36):
There's no way to put a blanket statementon it saying goals work or goals don't work.
Because it's 100 percent based on the individual's personaljourney and where they're at and you can't ever understand
what somebody's personal beliefs are because you can't ever100 percent walk in their shoes, you can make some broad
(39:58):
assumptions, you know, along those lines, but you can't.
Fully understand it.
How does somebody understand their own limit to their beliefs?
Like what's their personal ceiling?
Therapy?
Therapy.
(40:18):
Therapy.
I'll agree with that because
Doug Bennett (40:20):
I've done it.
Me too.
Me too.
And, and, and there's nothing, you know, Well, there isa bit that is being brave about getting therapy, right?
I mean, it's not anything that anybody should be ashamed of,or there's always a, there's always, you know, there's always
stuff that we picked up between the age of 0 and 12 that wedon't understand has been tucked away and just keeps coming and.
(40:48):
Scaring the bejesus out of us every now and again,because that's where our beliefs all come from.
So there's no, no, no.
So back to the question,
we, we can understand where people have come from.
If we take the time, we can always find out about somebody.
If you take the time, and if you're interestedin people, then, and you take the time, that's
(41:14):
where you will get the best out of people.
Right.
As an employer, okay, you need to,you, you, you cannot be autocratic.
in your, you know, system is my way orthe highway or any of that sort of thing.
You've got to be, you've got to be involved with yourteam if you really want to get the best out of them.
(41:41):
And so to find that out, you need to talk to them.
On a regular basis, and that becomes a bigtool ask if you get 200 people real quick.
Yeah, you know, but then, then, then you, you,you delegate the thing to a competent HR person
Donnie Boivin (42:01):
and then, and then all of a sudden you hire an HR person and now you have HR problems where
you never had them before as soon as you hired the HR.
Yeah, yeah,
Doug Bennett (42:09):
yeah, yeah, yes, you just got to get well, yeah, maybe you subcontract that one out.
So, so, so they're always on edge, right?
How, how long is he going to pay my contract for?
Maybe that's, maybe that's a subcontractone rather than an individual hire one.
(42:30):
Right.
Donnie Boivin (42:31):
Because I know for me that these last six years running a business have been a freaking self reflected, you
know, I don't think there's any tool on the planet betterthan building a business to meet the dude in the mirror,
because you're going to find out what the hell you're made of.
Really quick, because I really believe that if 90 percent ofthe world saw what happened and what it took to run a business.
(42:57):
They would love their job so much more thanthe craziness we put ourselves through.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, um, it's, it's pure insanity.
So for me, it's been not easy, but I'velearned to find my, my limits, right?
Where's, where's that self imposed ceiling ondifferent beliefs in different areas of the business?
(43:19):
Um, I'm not always good at figuring out how to get through them.
Hence coaches and therapists andthe like to figure out how to get.
You know, through those, um, is there strategies outside of a,of a therapist to, for one to become more self aware so they can
understand better how they should set the goals for themselves.
(43:42):
So, so they're not setting these goals thattheir subconscious doesn't immediately go.
Yeah, you're not going to be able to pull that off, right?
How do we get to or understand where our ownpersonal ceiling is, if they haven't done the,
the, the groundwork to uncover that, that ceiling?
Doug Bennett (44:04):
Well, I mean, if you're starting, if you're starting from zero or, you know, nothing, no, no goal setting.
Stuff.
You need to take a, uh, uh, a good look at whereyou are, in life, knowing that you are where you are
(44:26):
because of the decisions that you've made in the past.
Donnie Boivin (44:30):
Complete ownership.
Cad, thank you for saying that.
Doug Bennett (44:33):
Because most people It's nobody else's responsibility,
right?
You are where you are because of thedecisions that you've made in the past.
So reflect on that because you will have made some fuckingstupid excuse my friend I've been very very careful.
(44:53):
Oh, you know, I thought it was a family show.
No Um,
Donnie Boivin (44:56):
I love talking to you guys over there in the uk because you guys cuss worse than I do
Doug Bennett (45:05):
I'd say I have done my best here.
Um Yeah, I mean, you will have made some howlers, right, andyou need to reflect on those and then think about what you could
have done differently, which is to carry on doing the same thing.
It's the definition of insanity, as we know, right,expecting different results and carrying on doing
(45:30):
exactly the same thing as the definition of insanity.
So the first thing that you need to do is understandthat you are responsible for the position that you're in.
Based upon the decisions that you've made in the past.
Reflect on those.
Have a look at those.
See if there are any lessons that you can learn from those.
Okay?
If you can't work out the lessons yourself, askyour spouse or significant other, they'll tell you.
(45:56):
For sure, for sure.
Because they knew, they knew everything that you were goingto do that was wrong, because that's the way they are.
Anyway, um, more dry British humour there.
Yeah, no, you're good, you're good.
You know, I need to, you know, to, I did, I didthink once, I was doing a gig with 1500 people.
(46:17):
Uh, you know, in the audience, and I was thinking,do I hold up a sign which says dry British humour?
You know, because it's like, ooh, you know, someof that, some of that might just go past them.
That, that, that's where you've got to start.
You've got to be pragmatic about thefuck ups that you've made in the past.
(46:38):
And make a decision that you're not going to do them again.
That you have learned a lesson from them.
Donnie Boivin (46:44):
It's got to be a little bit more than a decision.
Because, in, in, in, the, because And the argument'sbeing made, well, you really didn't make a decision.
Well, no.
A lot of people they do, they make a decisionthat they're going to change their ways.
Yeah.
And then six months later, they're right back to where they were.
(47:05):
Yeah.
Right?
Is it they didn't actually make the decision,or did they not apply the right action, or is
there too many variables to put it in a box?
Doug Bennett (47:16):
If you make a decision to do something, and you believe in it, A hundred and X percent, that's
got to increase the likelihood of, if you're committingyourself to a goal and it's not realistic, alright.
Um, then there's every likelihood that you'llslip back into the way that you were previously.
(47:39):
It's got to be important enough for you to have the discipline.
It's all about discipline, right?
So the belief has got to be big enough foryou to apply the discipline and then overcome
the obstacles which will come your way.
(48:00):
Expect obstacles, expect hurdles
Donnie Boivin (48:05):
and that led me down to the, the path going Molly back to the beginning is maybe it's not so much about
making a drastic change, maybe it's small incremental changes.
Set those smaller goals or smaller ideals that you, you, thesmall incremental changes and quit trying to do the big swing.
(48:27):
So, so, you know, I don't know if it's sales cause Iknow sales and, you know, you're not doing the reach out.
You're not doing the networking, not doing the thingsyou need to do to get your sales to a higher level.
Instead of saying, I'm going to make a hundred coldcalls, you know, on Monday, maybe it's so much more of.
Let's say five, can we make five cold calls on Monday, right?
(48:51):
And then cool.
Can we do two days of five?
Doug Bennett (48:55):
And, and well, the starting point is look at your stats in the past, right?
Measure what you've done in the past.
Okay.
So if the number of sales calls that you'vedone is, you know, 20 in whatever time period.
It's like, and then there's the, you know, the, there's the salescalls, there's the presentation, then there's the closing, and
(49:23):
then there's the, the paperwork and the follow through, right?
Each of those little stages, if you can just improveeach one just a little bit within manageable amounts,
then the, the final result will be exponential.
Donnie Boivin (49:42):
Nope, I like it.
I like it.
Doug, this is a lot of damn fun.
Um, thanks for dancing with me on this one.
Um, because it's something that I'vefought with for a extremely long time.
So thanks for some of the clarity on all this.
Um, how do people get in touch with you?
How do they reach out to you?
How do they learn more information?
(50:02):
Well,
Doug Bennett (50:03):
um, it's, uh, dougbennett.
co.
uk The co.
uk is the UK.
Yep.
Yep.
Right.
They know that it's just more humor.
Donnie Boivin (50:15):
Um, I want to sign.
I officially want to sign.
Doug Bennett (50:24):
Um, I've, I've got a, from financial struggle to financial success PDF, uh,
which, um, I've got bit lied up or bit lead up.
Oh, bitly.
I mean, you know, I can let you have that or do I read
Donnie Boivin (50:39):
it out or read it out and then we'll, we'll include it in show notes.
Doug Bennett (50:43):
Okay.
Yeah.
I have to put my glasses on.
. Donnie Boivin: Doug, your age is showing
. Doug Bennett: No, I know I may.
Yeah, so we've got https colon slash slash bt ly.
Stroke, Struggle, S T R U G G L E, Dash, Success, S U C C E S S.
(51:10):
Okay?
That'll take you to, uh, my struggle to success.
That, I mean, we didn't touch on it, right?
But in 2010, I was on the edge of bankruptcy.
And I found these, I found the gold book.
And then I sold my business for seven figures.
Right?
So the, the, what you've got in struggle to successis the essence of everything that I learned.
(51:36):
What I've, you know, I've been in business for 40 years.
It's like, you know, it's, it's like the simplestuff because I like to keep things simple.
Right?
That's how you win big.
Oh my God.
There's a title of a book there.
Donnie Boivin (51:49):
He's also got the book, Think Simple, Win Big, you know.
Doug Bennett (51:51):
But that's it, you know, you can book a one to one if you're struggling with your goals, just book a one to one.
We can have a chat and, you know, see ifI can bring any value to your situation.
Because that's what it's all about, right?
Can we bring some value to your situation and, youknow, I'm, I'm pragmatic and realistic and old enough
(52:13):
to know whether I can or not relatively quickly.
Love it.
Donnie Boivin (52:20):
Love it.
Well, guys, if you are still hanging out with us andenjoying the show, do us a favor, take a screenshot
of wherever you're listening and watching thisposted on a social media, tag me and Doug in it.
And if we can see it, we'll come in and jump inand comment and say howdy and hello, um, otherwise.
Love you, mean it.
See you, bye.
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