Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Success isn't given, it's earned. And earning it means becoming the person who deserves it. The bottom line is where we cut through the chaos to simplify success.
Uncovering the strategies, mindset and resilience it takes to win. Real stories, expert insights and practical tools. Because the only way to the top is by putting in the wall. This is the bottom line.
Welcome back to the Bottom Line. I'm your host, Ryan Herpin. And this show is all about cutting through the noise and to uncover what truly drives success. We can talk about success in business all day, but the truth is what makes business successful is the people.
And we can go beyond the surface level advice and focus on the mindset, habits and decisions that fuel greatness. And today's guest, let's let's Be Real knows a thing or two about leadership under pressure. Ryan Khan. Yes, he's got a beautiful name, but. But truth is, he's an accomplished entrepreneur and a transformative leader whose journey spans from serving as a detective sergeant and SWAT team leader to founding CS business consulting. He quadrupled revenue at Shelton and Amp and Associates. And it's just, it's crazy that he was able to accomplish that in three years and now he helps other companies across the nation build high performing teams and influential leaders.
Ryan, thank you for being on the show. Such a pleasure to have you here.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: The pleasure is all mine. I'm just tickled to be able to get on here and talk with you today.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: You know, it's funny, I like to remember, you know, one of my first appearances in NOW Media was actually on your show.
So I've got to give you first a thank you for helping get this pathway started for me because you did a good job making me look good on tv. So it's time to return the favor.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Oh, it didn't take much work. You're kind of smart, right?
[00:01:50] Speaker A: So I like to kind of reframe the problem, you know, change things, make it look like a problem so we can all kind of relate to it and see it from a lens that is in our everyday life. And you know, let's start with something that's kind of powerful here but often overlooked and it's leadership. And when leaders feel isolated, because let's be real, when you're really a leader, it can be a little bit isolating. You know, it leads to burnout, poor decision making and a sense of, you know, really being misunderstood.
So as the name of the show suggests, I like to get right down to the meat of it, right to the bottom line. Of what makes a difference. And I'm gonna start with a bit of a heavy hitting question here. So why do you think so many leaders feel alone even when they're surrounded by people every day?
[00:02:34] Speaker B: That is a great question. And that is something that most leaders, or at least any really good driven leader will experience at some point in their life, at some point in their journey and probably recurring and have to battle it. So there's something that I always remind myself of and it's alone but not lonely, or it's loneliness but not alone. And so what happens is leaders experience the latter. They experience loneliness, but they're not alone. They're surrounded by people. They're surrounded by again, a lot of their subordinates. They're surrounded by even their family and stuff like that. But the reason that happens is a genuine entrepreneur and leader who is serving and working for the betterment of others people is basically a unicorn in their little world. They're, they're very unique and they're not like other people. Most people want to check in, check out, do their job to a good level, go make a good living for their family, have that work life balance. And leaders do not have work life balance. They're forced to create work life harmony. And what they do is they begin to focus on their position and all the nuances of their position and how do I execute my position?
And they're forgetting the good healthy pressure that their position can bring. And that healthy pressure is to enrich other people's lives on a very simple way. And what they do is they eventually isolate. And that's, that's a problem. You have to just like you're going to schedule any other urgent task on your calendar, any other project with a deadline, you have to put goals out there, you have to schedule it out and you have to make time for it. You must make it a priority and make time for your family. You have to make time for your health, your fitness, your diet. And then here's the key. You have to actively seek out others like you. It is so important for leaders to have a peer group of other leaders, someone that you can talk to. Maybe it's a completely different industry of your own, but you can literally go vent and strategize and vision cast with these other people. And they're not going to shame you. They're not going to look at you and be like boss, isn't that just going to create more work? Right. It's not going to be the person that's doing your budget who's like, that's too much risk. We're going to be thin on cash if you want to make this next move towards your vision and they're going to be like, man, that sounds like a good idea. You should really do that. Hey, by the way, have you thought of this? And if you do that, your loneliness is going to go away pretty quick.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: You know, there, there is so much gold in what you just said that I've got to unpack that a little bit. A few things that I want to pull out of that and just kind of highlight, number one, balance doesn't really exist. Balance implies equal. And we can't spend equal time, equal effort on everything all at once. I think of rhythm. Rhythm is the way to put it because sometimes family needs more of you, sometimes work needs more of you. And you also brought up priorities.
And to me, God, family, business.
But in that, in that priority list, you've got to be able to, number one, take care of your health, prioritize you too. So when you're prioritizing your family, you've also got to find a way to prioritize yourself and to work on your health and to surround yourself with other leaders. I couldn't agree with you more. I joined a business networking group and ever since then I have exponentially grown because now I have peers, people that are not under my charge to give me feedback, to give me thoughts, and to bounce ideas off of with an unbiased perspective.
So, man, there's so much gold in what you just said. So if, to our audience, if you're not writing this down, you probably should be because this is serious wisdom right here. But to lead into the next thing you know, because a lot of, a lot of leaders feel like they're carrying the load all themselves. They feel like they're, they're balancing everything. They're carrying the weight of the entity and all the people. So what happens to that leader's confidence and mindset when they have been carrying that load for far too long?
[00:06:18] Speaker B: That, that is, that is really great. Well, let me, let me ask you a physical related question.
If I put, let's say a force, and you're a healthy guy, I know you are, because we're wrestlers. Okay, so if I put a 45 pound backpack on your back, you would feel the load, you'd be able to, whatever, walk around the airport, you could come to the office. But if that load never came off, how long would you walk before your back hurt, your shoulders aches, your legs got weak and stuff like that? And the problem is if you're a leader and you're driven, you're going to be adding five pounds of that backpack every day until it weighs 120 pounds, 200 pounds and it literally is crushing you. So leaders have this problem where they're like, I can do more, I can do, I can do more. They have, often they have imposter syndrome. Like, man, I'm getting some type of clout, I'm getting some type of success. People are like asking me for advice and you know, but I'm like, I'm just a normal guy. I'm just Ryan, right? And so they get imposter syndrome and that makes them shy back and that feels like its own load as well. But if you never offload onto other people, then you will be stuck carrying that load. And what happens is if I am fatigued, right? Fatigue makes cowards of all men. That's, that's a very famous quote, okay? If I am fatigued, if I am self doubt because I haven't put in the work, I didn't have time to put in the work to train and prepare myself, I'm going to go into this meeting and I'm going to doubt myself and therefore I'm going to make mistakes, right? And if I'm, if I'm hurt and sore and broken because I'm doing it all, I'm, I'm less mobile, agile and hostile when it goes out to hunting, killing and eating and dragging that home to prosper, right? And so you have to very deliberately identify what are the things in your backpack that you can hand to somebody else. Now you bring five people along the journey with you and everybody's holding six or seven pounds. Like you walk forever, right? People's water bottles these days with those giant Stanley's weigh six or seven pounds. You can walk forever with that weight. And then if you add more weight, you spread it or add a team member. If you think about going on the journey together, you can still lead the expedition, right? But you're going to take other people with you to share the load, have tools, have resources, and nobody gets crushed. And there's no fatigue that makes a coward. There's no absence of time that makes your confidence shake and waver and you can continue to go forward and build on that adventure.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: You know, I think you're also kind of touching base on a topic there that, you know, something I see, you know, as a consultant and it's in your world as well, and I'm sure you see it. Sometimes leaders can feel like they're weak if they need to delegate. Really, delegation is not weak. It's, it's a sign of strength to be able to train somebody, trust them with responsibility. Now you're also giving them opportunity to grow, but you're also relieving yourself from all that weight, all that pressure, all that stress, and giving yourself the ability to move on to something different and go further.
So there's, there's definitely a lot that comes with carrying that weight, but having a team around you, having those peers around you makes all the difference. And, and because we're talking about those peers, right, you know, how can finding that right circle of peers, mentors, coaches, leaders, even friends, help you feel supported?
[00:09:24] Speaker B: I'll, I'll help you with that one. So I always say that every person and a lot of time I speak to leaders needs five types of advisors. And I won't just rattle them off, but one of them is you need a morale person, A person that's just generally a cheerleader, that interest, best interest in mind and says, go get it. You got this. When you're down, they pick you up. When you're too high, they back you down. Right? And they do things and they're very realistic. Then you need somebody that's an industry specific advisor. If I'm in the accounting and consulting world, I need somebody else that does this as well. And they say, hey, by the way, when you gave that last speech, your mannerisms were off. You came across really arrogant and that's not going to sell to the crowds. Oh, I need to dial this down. And then you need somebody that's completely, completely objective, unrelated to your industry at all, that can just bring you those new ideas, like that business network, you know, you might have somebody who's like, man, this dentist over here, he is really, you know, helping me out. He's got some really creative ideas. And so if you can just start to layer with just those three types of advisors in the beginning, it will really help you. And then you can start making time to have purposeful conversations, lunch meetings, threads in social media, threads and email groups, things like that are really going to help.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. You know, it and something I learned very early on, you know, I was very, very blessed when I was transitioning from blue collar to white collar to have a good mentor to guide me, to lift me up, to also share those thoughts. And honestly, I was able to unburden myself and him, help hold me accountable all at the same time. I think of it just Like I think of my brothers, my brothers, I don't come to them with a real life problem. No. But I come to them with things that I know I, I, and finally man enough to say I need help on or I need other thoughts. Right? And just having someone there to listen to, speak up to share their thoughts and then remind me, hey, dude, you got where you're at because you're good at this type of thing. It all really does play into your ability to be agile and focused as a leader.
So to our audience, don't go anywhere, grab some coffee, grab popcorn, grab pen and pad, whatever it is you got to do. Because coming up, we'll talk about why so many leaders get stuck in survival mode and how to shift from, you know, firefighting to real growth. So we'll see you right back on the Bottom Line.
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We are still here with the magnificent Ryan Khan. Once again, great name. He's automatically a genius because of it. But now we're shifting into a challenge nearly every entrepreneur faces at some point and it's being stuck in survival mode. Now I can talk about this for days because I was there once upon a time and I found a way out, wrote a book on it being published and I know Ryan has a lot to say on this topic and I'm dying to get into this. You know, when, when you're constantly putting out fires, it feels impossible to focus on growth. Right. And many leaders stay in that reactive mode, draining their energy and, and preventing long term progress. So, Ryan, thank you for being here. I'm so excited to dive into this with you.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Oh, my pleasure. This is, this is a big one. This is a big one because it makes or breaks beat.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: It really does. You know, with the statistics are always changing, but so many businesses fail in the first two to five years and this is a big reason why.
So I'm curious on your thoughts for this. Why do so many leaders and entrepreneurs get stuck in that survival mode, you know, where they're always just trying to put out fires.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: So I really like this one. And here's something I'm going to, I'm going to tell people, I said, most leaders when, you know, a lot of times you scratch, just scratch around just to get your first handful of clients. But once you get a base of clients, you have a product that people are aware of, people start to mistake busyness or activity for progress. Just because you're busy doesn't mean you're making progress. And so our brain will trick us and say, man, I did a lot at work today, but did you do anything that was productive, vision based and really moves the arrow up and to the right in the long run? Or did you just scramble and shuffle around papers on your desk or did you just shuffle things around the office in the inventory and you really didn't make a lot of sales, you really didn't market, you didn't increase your ability. So do not fall in the trap of fooling yourself that just because you were busy, you are making active process progress.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: You know, you just said something that made me so deeply happy because it's a common topic I have to talk about with clients. And it's doing more is different than getting more done.
It's easy to get caught in the feeling of, I'm getting, you know, I'm doing so much, so much, so much. I'm on the grind, I'm killing it. But are you really getting anything done?
You know, it's easy to do busy work, it's hard to do progressive work, the work that actually moves you forward.
Right. We like to avoid the hard things a lot of the time. Sometimes the hard thing is just realizing, ah, I didn't actually accomplish anything towards the vision, the bigger goals to prepare me for the next big thing. Right. Putting out those fires can rob you of the growth and direction that you really need to have and that bleeds over into the team as well. But how does this mindset hold them back and, and truly, you know, from truly building that future they want?
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is, this is very blended and this is how it holds you back. Right. If you want to build anything that lasts, you have to get yourself out of the way. Okay. You can't be what it hinges upon. And so, you know, something that is urgency feels very productive, but it is ultimately a trap, kind of like you are saying. So one of the big quotes that kind of slapped me across the face as I was trying to grow the first business was, you know, you're sitting here and you're looking at this and you're trying to work on what is important for as long as you can, until the urgent gets in the way and then you need to delegate as many urgencies as you can. So my question for you is some people feel really productive, like in a consultation or advisory based firm.
Constantly we get these weird situations with all these different business owners. So sometimes it relies on mine or my partner's expertise to like, yeah, we're the surgeon, we need to come in and be the one that makes that surgical cut. But I want to train as many people as possible to answer as many questions as possible. If I'm running around all day, just my people go, hey Ryan, can you help me? Oh, hey Wayne, can you answer this question? And we're running around putting out fires, I'm not getting any of my 50,000 foot view work done and I'm down here in the weeds. You must be in the weeds some, but you can't get stuck there. So you need to really develop your people. And I have that five Ms. Program. And the mentorship is important. If they just see you as an easy button for their answers and quick fixes, you'll never grow. You have to delegate growth and learning as well as the skill sets and the education inside the firm as well. So they have to learn how to learn. They have to be told and taught how to grow themselves. Then you can experience some really big stuff because other than that, you're just gonna be in survival mode, which is basically focusing on today's noise instead of tomorrow's vision.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Oh, that right there is a bumper sticker that's, that's a, that right there is a powerful one liner from being real with you. It's just like in all my keynotes I always have that bumper sticker that tried to just sink in and that, that was one of them for sure. You know, you actually touched base on a few things that are some of those like core deep beliefs within my firm. And, and a big one is we're trying to teach people not to depend on us. We're here to help give guidance, change the way you think, change the way you address problems. Right. There's a difference between, you know, you know, reacting and responding and, and learning how to respond. Overreact is a major part of success in a business. But we're not trying to jump in and do everything for you. We don't want dependency, we want you to grow from working with us. Right. So I kind of created a concept within my firm is I'll be your fractional implementer if there's a problem in the business or somewhere, you struggle and you want to see it be done. You want to have that example. I'll jump in and help facilitate it. Right. Sometimes that's what it takes. But another important question on, you know, on the reacting side of things is, you know, what small shifts in daily habits can help leaders, you know, move from reacting to leading with purpose again.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: So with a lot of your clients, let me ask a question back to you. If you had to guess when they showed up, let's say the average person starts at 8am and for the sake of this scenario, we're, we're in like a white collar office setting. Okay. And you come in here. Would you say most people kind of greet their people in the morning, then they sit down on their desk. What's the first thing they do? Do they open their email first, Would you say? That's pretty common thing in America?
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Fairly common. If it's not the phone when no one's looking, it's probably the emails while the drinking, you know, drinking some coffee.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah, Right. So people are coming, drink their coffee, say hi to their peers, right? Then they're sit out on their desk and probably the first thing to do is drag that mouse over there and open their email and see what's up. So immediately their first step, other than the social norms, which are important, is to go be reactive. Right. And so in wrestling and in law enforcement, we, we have something called action beats reaction. And your first maneuver of the day was to go be reactive in your email? No, no, the first thing you do is you sit down and you write down three bullet points. I will get these three things done today. Right? So every single person sits down at their desk, they isolate their brain for a second. They look around at their workload or whatever it is, and they go, 1, 2, 3. Then they prioritize and they execute and say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna concentrate all firepower on that Death Star. Right. And I'm gonna kill priority number one. It's gone. I'm moving on to number two. Now here's the cool part. Some days you may knock your whole list out by number three. Then you can spend the rest of the day being reactive and putting out fires. Some days you may have to stay a half hour late just to finish number three. Right. But that's, that's going to be what absolutely sets you down and sets up those dominoes for success. So you don't want to do that. You do not want to start your day with fog by going into an Email the unknown, starting with fog and going to unknown. What's your car gonna hit? You're gonna run over a deer, you're gonna swerve off the road? I don't know what's in my email, but I do know what my priorities are and I'm gonna do that first. Then you have to schedule time to think throughout the week. Okay. And then you have to schedule time to mentor yourself. You should be training yourself bare minimum, like two to three hours a month. Okay. Whether and even if that's on work time, you're gonna go look up and research this new thing. You're gonna go look and see like, hey, is there a tweak to the materials that I can order? And is there a better deal for my company to save on the bottom line? And you have to do those things. And then every single decision you make has to be examined, has to be measured up to the mission and the vision. Okay, am I accomplishing the mission with this activity and with this decision? Is it furthering the future vision? If, though if the answer is yes to those easiest green light, let's go, let's move forward. But you have to break down those things in order to truly drive yourself forward.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: I cannot express how important what you just said really was.
Like, I like to start my, my day with, here's my three non negotiables. Here are the things I'm going to accomplish even if it hurts, right? I, I, I, I've been a, you know, it's crazy. It took me a long time to really understand the difference between start my day with, you know, response before I get into that reactive mode where I'm inevitably do have to jump in the weeds, put out some fires, address emails. I like to start before all that garbage and decide what am I going to just destroy today.
So I, I cannot tell you how much that's helped my mentality. And hearing it come from you just only really solidifies the power in that. So to our audience, please write that down. But you know, Ryan, you know, this, this has been absolutely incredible so far. And to our viewers that want to connect with you and learn more about, you know, your consulting work, where can they find you? How can they get a hold of you?
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Yeah, so an easy way is on LinkedIn. I'm not super active on LinkedIn. I do a regular check in on LinkedIn, but primarily my website, csabizcon.com is where you can find me. You can actually schedule meetings with me on there through a calendar link in there. You can look up a lot of my resources, ebooks, things like that. If you want me to come to a workshop or even do like a keynote speech or something like that, I do that. I work a lot with teams and leaders, but that's the best way to do it. And also you can even just call down here at the office. So we actually share a master phone line with Shelton Associates, NCS Business Consulting, and they just direct you which way you need to go. So that's 270-442-6688. There's a lot of ways to get a hold of me, but I'd love to help people out if they're needing.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Now, to our audience, I can tell you from the time that I've, I've met Ryan, which is over a year ago, he has been someone that I've seen consistently be dedicated to growth, development, discipline and impact. Somebody that actually wants to make a difference with their actions. So if, if he's somebody that you're interested in reaching out to, I can only recommend it to the highest degree.
So we've got so much more coming up and so many other wonderful things to talk to Ryan about, to pick his brain on and to really dive into to get some of the expert advice and understanding. So up next, you know, we'll be talking about vision and why having big dreams without action leaves leaders stuck. This is another topic I'm writing a book on. And I can only expect that Ryan's going to have very, very deep thoughts on this that are actually going to matter. So grab your pen and pad. Be prepared for a powerful segment coming up next on the Bottom Line.
We are back on the Bottom line. I am still here with Ryan Kahn. And in this segment, we're taught we're.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: You know, we're really going to try.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: To tackle the danger of having vision without execution. This is a really, really big topic and too many people are stuck in a loop of thinking about things, seeing a vision, having a dream, but just failing to execute consistently. You know, too many leaders have, you know, inspiring ideas, but it really never translates into those real results. So, Ryan, thank you for being here. This is a kind of a one of those touchy topics, might make some people uncomfortable, but I'm so glad to dive into this with you.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Oh, it's my pleasure. It's something I'm obviously very passionate about.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: You know, there's a concept my business partner and I came up with when we transformed his business. And my first full book is on this topic. It's currently being published and it's all about influence, thoughts, actions and the breakdown between thought and action. And it's, it's procrastination throws you into a loop of complacency, worry, guilt and, and, and getting out of it all boils down to action. But you know, vision without consistent action becomes empty, right? It leaves teams uninspired, leaders, frustrated and, and really affects that self confidence. But you know, your opinion on this, your experience, your knowledge. I'm so curious to see what you see on this topic that I may have never seen. So to really start this off, why do so many visions sound inspiring but never translate into real change?
[00:25:04] Speaker B: That is a great press question. Because we have another thing that tricks people's brains. Because talk and planning and excitement feels like progress, but it's not, right? So our brain says, well if we keep talking about it, we keep coming up the ways to tweak it and stuff like that, we're making progress but you're not actually getting the boots on the ground and taking steps forward. So it feels like to your brain and to the people in the group that you're making process progress but then to the people that impacts it doesn't. And so that's, that's really fun. So think about this. Vision without execution is just entertainment, okay? It's just a dream. You're just talking about this grandiose idea. These what if scenarios is really what your vision is if you're not going to back it up with action plans. And one of the first things I do, I like to work in threes and fives are kind of my favorite numbers to work with. Okay. So if you're going to do it, you need a three step action plan. Okay. And your three step action plan is this. I'm going to put what I like to call a three day plan, which basically is one business week. Okay? So in this business week we're going to get these three things accomplished and then we're going to do a 30 day action plan. So by the 30 day mark we're going to have these other three bigger things accomplished and then we're going to have our three month mark. So by the end of the quarter we're going to have accomplished nine different actions towards our goal in small, medium and large. And your three day plan, you should literally be like let's pick these easy wins and just get the ball rolling. Like even if it's starting a new business, let's just register and get the articles organization done with the state. Right? That's an easy win. You can do really quick, right? Okay, let's go ahead and set up the bank account so we at least have it, you know, you know, very easy wins, 30 day goal. It's like, okay, we have an implemented plan. We're actually doing this. We've recruited our first couple of clients, we've done these couple of things, or we've sold our first couple of products. And you can do that and you're no longer talking, right? You're checking boxes and moving forward. And you have the dominoes now falling in motion. And that's, that's a big thing. A lot of people love the idea, but they're really struggling with the discipline to execute. And George Patton, General George Patton says all good plans fail at implementation. And if you don't have those check boxes to lead and hold yourself accountable, you're going to fail just like George Patton's enemies.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: A really, really great example. And you said something in the beginning that reminded me of a quote from Jim Rohn.
Hope without action is delusion.
You know, it, you know, big ideas, excitement, you know, vision without actually taking the steps forward is the same thing. You know, you, you address that. The excitement, ideas, the planning is not actually getting things done. You know, there's so many people that get caught up in big ideas. You know, I know plenty of people that start a million projects, finish absolutely zero of them, right? They, they go at it real hard. When the emotion's real big, when the fire's burning bright, all the excitement's there.
And that's something I learned. That is different between the 5%, the top 5% of the world, and the 95%. You know, most people can stay fired up about something for a week, two weeks.
You know, less can stay fired up for a month, three months.
Very few people on this planet can stay focused and fired up about something for a decade. And that makes a major difference. The thing that keeps you fired up on that vision and plan is measurable growth, measurable progress. You cannot manage what you do not measure. And for me, that's a huge way to stay in tune and in alignment with the vision. Because I can see the clear steps that I have taken forward in my progress towards that thing, and it just becomes second nature. Consistent self disciplines become habits, and you just find yourself closer and closer and closer to that thing. But, you know, breaking it down into steps. If someone wanted to start today to immediately change, taking, you know, making big steps or consistent movement towards that vision. You know, you talked about writing things down, doing things in threes you know, what's another first step that someone can take to but immediately start changing the way they think about it and actually move towards that vision.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So I would, I would say there's gonna be kind of a ball here, right? So we're gonna work a circle real quick. The number one thing is you've gotta write it down. You have to clearly write down and articulate your vision and listen to everyone. Careful, this is not insulting everyone. You have to write your vision so clearly that an eighth grader could easily understand exactly what you're doing, right? Probably even a fifth grader could read it and be like, that sounds really cool, you know? So you have to write your vision down thoroughly and articulable so that everyone can understand it. So the next step after that one is now you need vision alignment. You need to recruit people who see and understand that vision to now help you push it forward. So what that does is that keeps that morale, that motivation higher. And a real quick comment on that. Motivation is awesome because it's very exciting. But discipline is what wins, right? Motivation goes like this and discipline stays right here and gets the job done. So some days you're not going to be motivated. Guess what? Lace up your shoes and go to the the gym anyway. That's discipline, okay? And that's what's going to get you stronger. And then, so after you get vision alignment with the people that are going to help you execute or the people that are going to be the beneficiaries of this new vision or what it is, you get that vision alignment. And now you hold each other accountable. So here's a real cool part. If you guys haven't done this, there's something called the six types of geniuses. If you've not read this, and it's really, really fantastic because once you take the little test, you're always going to have a primary style of genius and the secondary style of genius. There are people that find their happiness like their actual joy, not just fleeting happiness, but their joy in getting to utilize their style of genius. So a lot of people are divisionaries or idea casters or motivators. They can get other people motivated, but then they're really bad at, like, I'm not the one that's going to finish the project and put the last period on the sentence so it's done right. Like, I have a really, really big struggle with that. But I can fire up people. And if some of those people I'm firing up, I know I have ident as the people that Grind or rally or finish their closers. Right. And I put my team with vision alignment with all those six different types of geniuses. Holy cow. You can identify not just getting the right people on the bus, but getting the right people in the right seat on the bus and then the buses. That's a whole nother adventure right there. So that would be something I would do today is our clearly articulate your vision. Now don't make it three pages long. Make it like just a healthy paragraph for an eighth grader. Then get vision alignment with the right people. And those right people are specifically the different styles of execution. You need to have that vision become a reality.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: You know, it's funny because it's not about finding a bunch of others that think just like you.
No, you want to find people that can be red hot, fired up, and disagree with you vigorously. Right. But in a way that is in alignment with their interpretation of the vision of the goals. If you get a bunch of people that think the same way, you're not gonna get anywhere necessarily. Right. Having those different people in those different strengths can make all the difference. You know, I, I learned the hard way that sometimes you need to truly evaluate who is on that bus and what their strengths really are. If you surround yourself with people that are strong, where you're weak, you're gonna get things done faster, better, more consistently, and you're going to have better input from your team. You know, and, and we can say the, the dangers of, of, you know, having vision without consistent follow through are obvious. But I'm curious, from your perspective, what are those dangers? Right. When someone's vision just isn't followed through consistently?
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Yes. So that's, that's a really good one. And I'll also kind of give you an example of a client that I worked with. This, this guy was extremely intelligent there. Okay. And he had a vision and he could articulate that vision. But what he didn't do is he didn't map the vision. And because he didn't map the vision, he didn't know exactly what path. And I want to take people back in the day, right, when you actually traveled with road maps, Right. Or, or if you even, what was it, you would download and you'd print off your, your maps, your map sheet, and it would tell you you need to drive 117 miles and then get off on this exit to merge onto this highway and then get onto this back road and then go here, and you would do that and you would literally map out your. So you knew where every turn was going to be. Now, it's hard to predict in actual real world, but you at least have these trigger points. You're measuring things, right? When we get to this point, people, we're pivoting and going over here. That's the next turn on our journey. Everybody expects it. There's actionable steps along the way. And you get that. Well, he couldn't map it out. So when I went and did his workshop with him, we brought everybody in the room and we mapped out the entire process of A to Z of what the exact vision should look like when executed. And then we put people's names and their roles along the different stops on the highway, right? And of course there are some branching stops. Like there's like, if this happens, then it goes to this department. If this happens, it goes that department, stuff like that. And so we mapped it out and said, now this owner was really bad about jumping in there and trying to fix it for people jumping in there and say, I'll just let me do the work because I'll get it done faster and it's urgent, you know. And so he was crippling his people and their growth. And it was frustrating because they were genuine people that wanted to help him achieve his vision. He had good people. And so we a an accountability session where we said, now we have the vision. Everybody knows their roles, their responsibilities and where it happens in the chain down, down the road.
And I had him make this big statement of can you now have everyone admit that, hey, we're starting to get in the way and they're going to say, hey boss, I got this, this is my job. It's okay for you to back off and they're going to hold you accountable. It's going to be the opposite. It's not the leader saying, I need you to do more, it's the subordinate saying, I need you to do less and back off in a very nice, friendly, professional way. And he was able to move his line forward because his entire people sat down and made an accountability agreement about how we're going to execute this vision.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: And that's huge because, you know, a lot of the time we think of the leader, you know, the owner, business owner, whatever, as, as the end all, be all authority towards the vision. But in reality, once you have a team that's fully bought in, that truly sees that vision and sees the importance of their role within that vision, they're going to hold you accountable just as much you're going to hold them accountable. That's a true team that is what every leader should strive for in their team. If you want to stay the authoritative power, I can honestly say you've got a lot of learning to do as a leader, because knowing that I've got someone to my right and to my left that'll call me out and hold me accountable is much more valuable and comforting than knowing that I can say whatever I want. Right? So we'll be coming right back to this. And when we do, we'll close with an important conversation about breaking free from burdens of other people's expectations. We've talked about leading, you know, and feeling isolated and, and surrounding yourself with the right people. But now how to break free from those burdens of other people's expectations. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on the Bottom Line.
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And for our final segment here with Ryan Kahn, we're diving into a challenge so many leaders face, and that's carrying the weight of other people's expectations. You know, we, we've talked about, you know, how leaders can feel isolated and kind of lonely at times. We've talked about, you know, the struggles of, of taking vision, turning into action. We've covered a lot of different things, but one of the big things we, you know, we addressed is the importance of having the right people around you, you having right people on the bus and on your team and supporting you.
What happens when you're kind of on the other side of that bill and now you're carrying the weight of other people's expectations and, and living for approval? You know, that can drain creativity and confidence. But, you know, authenticity can really set leaders free. So I'm ready to dive into this. Mr. Ryan Kahn, thank you for being here once again so we can close this out with a powerful time topic.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: Well, my pleasure. I, I always enjoy these things. I could do this for days.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: It feels like definitely, you know, that wisdom, I mean, is the whole reason why you're able to do what you do and make the difference. You make and help others thrive. So, you know, leaders often measure themselves by, you know, external approval instead of purpose. You know, it really leads to stress and misalignment and, and I can say I've been in those shoes before. I, I was a people pleaser once upon a time when I was to trying and, you know, climb that corporate ladder. But what really set me apart as a leader and really got me in that position of, you know, deserving to lead over many because I was faithful to the few and instead of looking for their approval, I looked for a purpose. Right. So I'm excited to dive into this and see your perspective and what you think and how we can really help others. And I want to start with kind of a loaded question here. You know, it's pretty broad, but why do leaders and professionals often measure themselves by what, what others expect instead of their own purpose?
[00:38:35] Speaker B: There's a pretty simple answer to that. When it gets down to the base of it, it's because approval feels safer than authenticity. You know, so we, we sit here and we're like, oh, that feels good. That feels good, right? We are trained as humans in general, but now it's exponentially more. We are trained to chase validation instead of that actual vision. Think about it. Just think about social media.
Everyone is chasing likes and followers and how many comments can I get? Can I get this post to go viral and therefore get my 15 minutes of fame or get my reach out there a little farther? Some of it's for good purposes because maybe you're trying to spend a message, send a message where you're imparting wisdom. Other people, I want to benefit their life, but generally we're focused on being accepted and not effective. And we need, we need to really try to pivot on those things and understand that, oh, am I being effective?
And it doesn't matter who other people out there say, I don't care what other people think about me. That may be true, but then when somebody slights you, your smile is going to turn into a frown and you're going to have at least a dark cloud over your head for a minute and then you move on with life. It's just, it is human nature. And so we really need to turn ourselves around from seeking validation, from just trying to be accepted all the time, from letting our clients run our businesses and we run our business instead and just, well, isn't my client going to like this? Are they going to, you know, and then we react and we change and we pivot and we do things. That's not really in our sop and we make these, these exceptions to the rules and that spreads like fire, you know, and you have all these things and you just need to bunker down and say, hold on. I have my clearly defined standards, I have my vision and my action steps. We're going this way. And if people want to get on the bus, that's great. Once they get on the bus, I'm gonna put them in the right seat, okay? And we're all going to move forward. And that's, that's really what we need to focus on as professionals so we can really get away from looking for what other people want us to do and fulfilling our purpose.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: You know, honestly, I couldn't said that better myself. And something that I see when others, you know, they're out there for approval is it invites drama into business. In my opinion. You know, business is no place for drama, for that, that personal, you know, investment into it. You know, there's a lot of risk in that. But something that I find to be profound and powerful in so many ways is when you start, start chasing your own approval for you, when you see your purpose clearly and you're chasing fulfillment rather than approval, your life just changes. For me, I got a lot happier, My goodness, you know, I, I felt like a better husband, a better father, because no longer was I chasing somebody else's, you know, thoughts of me or what they thought I was or who they expected me to be. It was more of, here's what I believe I'm here to do, and I'm going to give everything I've got, no matter what you think. Because what I believe I'm here to do do is to serve others. So if I'm doing good at that, you'll probably like me automatically. But genuinely, I just want to be happy with me. And there's a lot of power in them. I feel like a lot of people are trapped in that, that loop of, of I need people to like me, I want people to think of me this way. But social media is definitely a target to hit there because that's what it's all about for a lot of people. Chasing those likes, those comments, those views. So you couldn't be more right on this topic, but, you know, let's dig into a little bit of how, you know, living for others approval drains that confidence and creativity. What is the long term negative effect of chasing that approval and, and, and acting in that way?
[00:42:01] Speaker B: Well, the long term negative effect is a shallow and empty life that leads to anxiety and depression. That's that's the long term potential negative effect. I said, but the part is that you keep think about building a document or maybe even building a video of your life. And if you're going to try to meet other people's expectations, you're constantly going back and editing that video to try to edit or snip out something that's going to get approval. You know, a director of a movie goes out and just creates the movie based on his vision and the script and tries to get the best characters to act it out or the best actors to play out the characters and gets it out. Now if he sit here and said, hey, there's 350 million people in the United States and they all have to love this movie, movie, he would constantly edit and change that movie. And guess what? Everyone would hate it. It's what would happen. And so he goes, he says, I'm going to make a comedy and the people that want to laugh are going to come to my movie and he's going to get 70 million people to enjoy it and watch it. He's going to make his money. So if we want to stop editing our life and we want to avoid this eventual path that leads to the lack of fulfillment and depression and anxiety, then we really need to find the proper approval. Like you said, your purpose on this earth is to serve and you have found talent and you're going to apply that talent to your service. And now you're a better husband, better father, better, better businessman, better partner, better community member. Okay? So if you can fulfill your purpose like you said, you're going to stop trying to meet everybody's expectations.
If you want to meet somebody's expectations and they say, hey, I'd like to buy you flowers for your birthday, you want pink or blue, you go ahead and meet that expectation, right? But if they're like, well, I want a product you don't offer, I want you to act a different way. And a lot of it, here's the crazy, crazy part, right? A lot of these expectations actually come from our own imagination. We're making up what we believe other people expect us to do and then going ahead and acting on it like it's reality. When in, if you actually talk to the person like, oh, I mean, that would be cool, but I didn't expect that from you. And now you just chase this ghost this entire time and edited to your life into a movie that nobody wants to watch.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: You know, it's funny. One of the things that I see pretty regularly with business owners, especially early on in the business within the first five to even seven years. A lot of the time is people will say, oh, you're just too expensive or you should be cheaper. And then they compromise on the value they know they have, the quality that they deliver and they lower their prices because somebody else's expectation is outside of, well, being able to afford the quality of service you can provide.
That's one consistent problem I see with, with younger businesses. And it's all drive, you know, driven by wanting someone else's approval. People have a fear of if I'm too expensive, you know, I'll never get customers. No, if you consistently deliver high quality service or products, you're going to get them automatically.
That's how that works. But if you keep compromising your values for other people's expectations, you're going to end up realizing you're wasting time, wasting resource and you're selling yourself short. And over time, that's just going to break you you down. Right.
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Can I address that mindset real quick?
You know me, I love metaphors. So, tennis shoes. Let's talk about tennis shoes or just shoes in general. Ryan, you have probably a couple of nice outfits, a really nice suit, and you have your best pair of shoes. Is that true?
[00:45:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: Okay, where do you keep that best pair of shoes? Probably in your closet, maybe even in a box or hung up someplace special, right?
[00:45:27] Speaker A: Yep. I'm a big fan of nice boots, so I keep them stored away.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: Okay. Do you have yard shoes that you do your weed eating in or you go walk the dog in the rain or anything like that? You got some yard shoes?
[00:45:36] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: Can you be and if scuff the curb on those shoes, would it hurt your feelings?
[00:45:41] Speaker A: No, not at all.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: What about, what about your nice boots?
[00:45:44] Speaker A: It would burn my biscuits a little bit.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Okay, so what did you pay? Not actual dollars, but what was the difference in what you paid for those two sets of shoes?
[00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah, fair amount. Sure.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: So what is the value you place on each of those shoes?
Right. So as a business owner, do you want to be the nice pair of shoes or you, the person wearing them. Them are going to be very careful not to scuff them and wear them out or maybe get creases in them or the other one. If I pay a low price for your shoes, you're just the dirty pair of shoes that I weed in and cover in grass and dog stuff and, you know, all kinds of stuff. Right. So I want to be the person that you paid an extra high for and you're going to take care of my relationship as I'm going to take care of you. And then if I have less clients that are more expensive and recognize my value, I can serve less clients with great care instead of a million clients with little to no attention. So sorry to tangent on that one real quick.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: No, I love that because it's also part of the secret of branding. But man, this, this conversation has been so incredible. There's a lot of insight in this conversation. Where can our audience find you? How can they, you know, get in touch with you, see what you're doing and know what's coming up in the world of Ryan Kahn?
[00:46:54] Speaker B: That's great. So CS bizcon.com so that's a biz bizcon.com that's where you find me. I've got my courses on there. I have a couple of online courses. There's the business foundations course. It has like the 5M, the seven pillars of leadership, stuff like that. There's a new course getting ready to come out that's specifically for young or startup entrepreneurs. And then I have several of my ebooks that you can download for free on there. And then lastly, I'm also writing a book as well. I have not honed in on the name. I think I know what the name is going to be. I'm not going to say it live just because if I change it or tweak it, but it's going to be a compendium of all of my ebooks put, put to flow and so it'll, it'll be a pretty volume. This will be all about leadership, improvement and influence and so be looking for that stuff. You can always grab me on LinkedIn or just call down at the office. 270-442-6688. Get a hold of me.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Ryan, thank you so much for being here and joining us today and sharing your wisdom. You know, from tackling leadership loneliness to moving beyond survival mode and bringing vision into reality, then letting go of others expectations.
You've reminded us that leadership is much more about clarity and authenticity than it is about, you know, strategy all the time. So to our viewers, remember the bottom line is that success isn't about being everything to everyone. It's about leading with purpose, staying true to yourself and taking consistent action that creates real impact.
I'm Ryan Herpin and this has been the bottom line on NOW Media tv. Until next time. Remember, remember, success isn't given, it's earned.
