Randy Cantrell

Randy Cantrell is the founder of Bula Network, LLC - an executive leadership advisory company helping leaders leverage the power of others through peer advantage, online peer advisory groups. Interested in joining us? Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com

Episode 165 – Two Big E’s: Enterprise vs. Ease

David LIndley
David Lindley is an accomplished musician

This is David Lindley. I took this picture with my phone when I saw Jackson Browne and David play together. For years he has played with Jackson Browne. If the instrument has frets or strings, he can play it. He’s a remarkable musician. He’s been working at the craft of music his entire life. You don’t become a world-class musician like Lindley without spending hours and hours practicing. When it comes to music, enterprise has ruled his life.

Rocky snoozing
Rocky enjoys a life of ease

Contrast David with Rocky, one of my White West Highland Terriers. Rocky lives a life of ease. This is his daily posture. He sleeps about 23 hours a day. The richest people on the planet don’t have it any better than Rocky. Of course, they earn a lot more money than he does. I’ve never figured out a way to monetize Rocky.

Today’s show is about two big E’s:

Enterprise vs. Ease

While they’re not mutually exclusive, it seems people prefer one over the other (usually ease trumps enterprise), or they pursue one (enterprise) so they can enjoy the other (ease). Too many people want the rewards of enterprise, but they want to pay the price of ease. For good reason.

The interwebs are full of people who claim the ability to teach us all how to do it. Cha-ching, money making passive income – resulting from passive workload. They’ll often site the recording or publishing business model. Write a hit song, record it once – get paid over and over and over. Yes, that’s a terrific business model, but it’s not reasonable for most people. Besides, it’s a lot of work to just be a one-hit-wonder!

We mock them, but how many of us have one hit? And like most things that we don’t understand, we under estimate the amount of actual work done…even by a one-hit-wonder. Just this morning I exchanged emails with a longtime professional acquaintance who is doing as well as he’s ever done. Books being published, speaking gigs lining up nicely…he started his company 20 years ago! I jokingly told him his overnight success only took 20 years! A lifetime of enterprise paying off after taking longer than expected and filled with failures along the way.

I’m not sure we should compartmentalize enterprise and ease. They may be like living a balanced life, fictitious! And I’m pretty sure ease isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.

I cite this YouTube video in today’s show.

Thanks for listening!

Randy

P.S. Yes, I called Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sullivan! Listen for it. I even think I did it TWICE. Kiefer Sutherland.

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Episode 164 – Show ‘N Tell Your Way To Success

Showing and telling a grandchild
Showing and telling a grandchild

In 2nd grade I used an opportunity afforded during “show ‘n tell” to tattle on my neighbor. We lived on some acreage with horses, ducks, a cat and a dog. Our neighbor would ride his lawn mower around – not mowing necessarily, but using the mower like you might an ATV – drinking beer and tossing his empty beer bottles over the fence onto our property. I’d watch him through the woods. I don’t think he ever caught me catching him.

My mother was horrified that I shared that with my entire 2nd grade class, but it seemed noteworthy enough to me. I don’t remember any reaction from my teacher or the class. But it was off my chest and I know I felt better for telling on our beer swilling, bottle throwing neighbor.

Show ‘n tell is cool. And fun!

I still love it. I’ve got one neighbor still who is very show ‘n tell worthy, but it’s not quite as becoming to tattle on adults as it once was.

Businesses desperately need to learn how to show ‘n tell. It’s not much different than me reading “I Love School” to my granddaughter. It’s a story. With pictures. And everything. When you’re not quite 2-years-old, you need more than words to keep your attention. And Kinsley, my granddaughter pictured in my lap, won’t let me linger on any single page for much more than 5 seconds. Thankfully, I’m a speed reader (and page flipper) so I can maintain her interest.

Your customers and prospects have very similar attention spans. Then again, don’t we all? I guess we’re all battling the ability to maintain focus. We may be smarter than 5th graders, but most of us aren’t able to concentrate any better than a 2-year-old.

This makes the skill of storytelling even more valuable. Many businesses, especially what many called “traditional” businesses, don’t do enough work in crafting their story. I didn’t say in manufacturing a story…but in crafting a true, genuine story that is worth telling.

In the 2nd grade I knew I had a story that I really wanted to tell. It was interesting to me. My classmates were much like me so I assumed they might enjoy it, too. It had some classic elements. A main character – my neighbor. An illicit behavior – drinking beer. Another illicit behavior – tossing empty bottles into somebody else’s yard. That made the main character, an adult, the villan. Even better when you’re a 2nd grader!

Let’s talk about telling a more compelling story so our prospects are engaged enough to do business with us! Jay Leno’s Garage is a YouTube channel that does a great job of telling stories about the cars.

Randy

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Awareness, Ingenuity & Repeated Action

Awareness chart
Photo of an “awareness chart” I created on my whiteboard

About 3 years ago I drew this illustration on my whiteboard. I was urging myself and a few clients to take meaningful action in a single direction. We can all be tempted to take a few steps in this direction, then a few in that direction, then a few in yet a different direction. All that movement is often confused with action. I’ve written about that kind of stuff before.

Awareness is hard work. It’s not merely opening your eyes or paying attention. We have to have our mind tuned to see things we might otherwise overlook. It’s a state of mind that can often demand preparation before we can see things clearly. We bring our biases and assumptions to everything. They don’t always serve us well.

Ingenuity isn’t genius. It is creativity, but that doesn’t mean it’s some super-extraordinary skill exclusively for world-class thinkers. You can do it. We can all do it. Just like awareness, it requires us to tend the soil of our mind before we can accomplish it. Awareness and ingenuity are tied together though so we can get our mind right to embrace both. They can feed one another.

There’s a really important fact that you may not have noticed. Or did you?

Taking action is 75% of this entire chart.

Seventy-five percent!

It’s a bit misleading though because awareness and ingenuity are ever present during the process of taking an idea from start to profit. Along the way, we have to make choices. We have to clearly be able to evaluate feedback. Action and reaction are sparked by thoughts. Thoughts are fueled by accurate perceptions and the ability to discern what we think is our best course of action.

Does this help you? I hope so. I often have to re-examine this chart and remind myself of the foundational elements of figuring things out.

Randy

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Episode 163 – Don’t Live One Way In Your Head And A Different Way In Real Life

balanceSomething must give.

It’s less of this so we can grab more of that.

It’s saying “no” so we can say “yes.”

Choices, choices, choices.

Many choices aren’t easy. Instead, they’re confusing, conflicting and agonizing. People chase balance, but there’s no such thing. Work, life, pleasure, faith, conviction, philosophy, family, friends. It’s all a big mashup of everything that makes us who and what we are.

It’s about more than fictional balance. It’s…

Time To Embrace Congruency

Today’s show is about regret, risk, opportunity, but most of all – it’s about being congruent. Don’t live your life one way in your head and a different way in real life. It’s high time to make the two come together. Stop fantasizing about what might be. Take a chance and try to make it reality.

So what if it doesn’t pan out exactly like it does in your dreams. It might be better. It might not. Either way, you’ll be better for the effort. You’ll also be spared the agony of wondering what might have been.

It’s time to venture out to create a better – a different – future. It’s time to make it real.

Randy

Podcast Options:
• Subscribe via the iTunes store
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