Bonus - We're Changing Our Name!

0:07 Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. I don't know. What'd you think? I don't know. I was kind of serious. Should we laugh? What's up, Chris? Well, dude, I'm really excited about this. I'm a change guy. I like change. You are a change guy. You're a starter. I'm a change guy. I'm a change guy. I'm a change guy. Yeah. So we are changing the name of the podcast. We are. Listening to this. You've already seen the new artwork. Thank you, Gianna. And you're like, what's going on? Why?

0:47 It's kind of a big deal too. Yeah. We were a little nervous about it. Formerly known as the Mitt Resto Mastery Podcast, which I mean, for anybody outside the industry, they're like some of our friends. Oh, you have a podcast. What's it called? I want to check it out. Yeah. I'm like, okay, it's called the Mitt Resto Mastery Podcast. It's just a little cumbersome. I mean, it's part of it. Yeah. I kind of feel like sometimes when you go to explain that name, you almost are setting yourself up for a marathon. Like maybe we need people on either side of the highway ready with cups of water. Yeah. Cause it's going to take so long to say it. It's like that. It's like when somebody has a bad website URL and they have to spell it out and make sure that that's a one O-N-E.

1:30 Yes. And you got to do that every time you bring it up. And so that certainly was no small part of our decision. Yeah. It was definitely an element, if you will. But also too... We have some really visionary figures that we... One, we've already had on our podcast from outside the industry. But that's been a major, I guess, vision we have for the podcast is to bring outside thought leaders and entrepreneurs from outside of the restoration industry to talk to us in restoration. And so that was another reason for the name change. It was I think it makes it just a little bit more approachable for those folks. And then also too, I mean, a lot of those people want to share that stuff on to their own audiences and networks and understandably kind of give them some pause where it's like, Hey, check out my recent interview on the MIT Resto Mastery podcast.

2:22 It's true. Just kind of a funny disconnect there. So yeah. Well, and I think too, like we, man, what a year, right? So in 2021, we just, the podcast basically was the platform to give Chris and I the opportunity to meet so many great people in our industry. Like pros that have been at this a long time and they themselves have podcasts or training systems or things that they're doing to better equip our industry. And we just respect them. We really respect their work and what they're doing. And in some of it, we kind of looked at and we said, some of these folks are really delivering real tactical content that by name, right? It's like you think MIT, Resto, Mastery, it's so niche.

3:04 It's so specific. You're really anticipating getting this very technical, tactical expertise. And we do bring that from time to time. But there's people who that's what they focus on in this industry and they do such a great job. And we just respect that and we honor that. And I think for us, we have a little bit different direction that we're going with the show and that we've been going with the show. And we just want to honor that, I think, a little bit cleaner in the name as well. Well, it's just like anything, right? We started out really intentionally going for this balance between leadership, culture... Sometimes just some fun storytelling, us reflecting on experiences we've had and how it relates to our work and consulting and whatever.

3:44 And also having these technical components like, okay, how do we get our AR under control? I think we did even a show on that, right? Or how do we deal with the labor crunch that everybody's experiencing? Some of these tactical bits... Over time, like all of us do in business, we just realized we really, one, it's more fun for us to hang in that leadership culture. I guess you could say self-mastery. There's been a lot of self-work that you and I've talked about. And those ones are the ones that people text us later. It's true. The technical ones, they get a lot of plays because I think all of us are looking to improve our technical game as well. But those are the ones that seem to really grab people. Yeah. And so we wanted to double down on that.

4:25 So you can even look at our show catalog from this last year, our first 25 shows, and you can see that trend. Oh, yeah. We really walked away from doing those technical ones and more into this leadership culture, self-reportation. self-leadership, that kind of stuff. And it's going to be a similar mix. We're not rebooting per se. I think we're just getting clearer and more consistent with what we want to focus on and where our attention is going. Yeah, so this Head, Heart & Boots, I don't think you haven't even said it yet. No, that's it. Yeah, so it's the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. From a design standpoint, you've got two five-letter words and one fourth-letter word. It creates a nice visual stack. So we'll see what... I'm excited to see what Jana comes up with for our artwork.

5:06 But... it really hits on the things that are important to us. It's like figuring out, boy, where do we go from here? It's like, there's so many ways that I relate. I remember when we first came up with this, I just had these three words pop into my head and I looked over at you. I'm like, dude, Head, heart, and boots. The boots is the work. There's work. It's the strategy. It's the nuts and bolts. It's part of it. I think the part we leave out, though, is really having good conversations about what's going on in our head and our heart, though. And how does it affect... the work we do. Yeah. No, absolutely.

5:46 I think when I first heard you mulling this idea around it, it really was just these words that represent the spaces that we hang in. So we talk about business, we talk about legacy, we talk about life. And that's not going to change. That is the mission behind the show. But I just think that this head, heart, and boots summarizes those or puts this appropriate label on those different categories that we hang in, that we talk to our guests about, that we exchange ideas and thought patterns on. And so I think this headpiece for me is... It's changing the way that we think about our companies, the way that we think about our roles as leaders, the way that we think about our roles as members of our family and our spheres of influence.

6:30 What is the head game? And we get all sorts of things that come into that category. We're talking about things like personal disciplines. different strategies that we deploy to make sure that we're bringing our whole self to the situation or to the job. It's the head game. How much really when we boil it down, how much of our time and energy is spent... processing, working through these thought patterns, the ways that we identify ourselves, the way that we think about ourselves as leaders and as business owners, that whole space, not navel gazing, as you brought that up a lot. It's not being self-consumed. That's not what we're talking about.

7:10 It's the game. How do we ensure that the thing that for the most part ends up steering the direction that we go, the thoughts that we have, the choices that we make, We want to make sure that we're bringing in guests and that we're spending enough time talking about this element that really is the engine, if you will, on what drives us. Yeah. I heard this one phrase and I just thought, that is so good. The value of... thinking about our mindsets and our perspectives, the phrase was, I want to be the steerer of my thoughts rather than my thoughts steering me. Right. Right? Oh, yeah. And I just thought, that is so good because...

7:52 our thoughts can so easily get the best of us and create a lot of suffering. Our thoughts about our business, our spouses, our relationship to our kids. I mean, we all have these dark thoughts and if we react to them, they create suffering inside of us. Right. Right? They create unhealth, right, in our businesses. And so, yeah, that's probably been one of the most productive areas for you and I to lean into these last several years. It's just kind of revisiting some of these mindsets and, perspective. Anyway, it's a good source of change. So what about the heart? Yeah, the heart. What does that mean to you? Well, it's funny because I remember when we first launched the podcast, how... I can't remember what episode it was, but you tiptoed around this love word a couple of times, right?

8:36 And so for me, it's really, it's attaching the emotional context to what we do, right? It's this... how do we build the relationship? How do we emotionally respond to our environments, to the task, to the responsibilities? And I think that's what we're talking about there. And I think that sometimes you can kind of get those two. I think the lanes cross a bit when we're talking head and heart. But I think for me, it's the soul work. It's the legacy work. It's that, you know, what are we leaving behind? For me, it's how I categorize the heart. It's this deep emotional response to what we do, how we do it, and why we do it, right? I think that's where I've been hanging with that.

9:18 That's good, man. As you say that, one of the books that comes to my mind that I relate to on this is Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute. Yeah. they talk about being in the box versus being out of the box. And when we're in the box, we see others as objects, things to get around in order to accomplish our purposes and our objectives, people to move over or cajole into doing what we need them to do. We objectify people when we're in the box. And then it talks about being out of the box as we see others, as people just like ourselves that have hopes, fears, and dreams. That's huge. And so that's the heart.

9:59 It's staying anchored to this place where our employees, our business partners, our vendors, I've seen them as people. I think there's been a lot of times in my career where I felt frustration and irritation with certain employees And nine times out of 10, when I'm feeling that the strongest... I'm seeing them as a production unit. I hired them. I pay them to do this thing. And they're not doing it quite the way I want them or need them to. And I feel irritated. And of course, when I'm seeing them in that way, I'm no longer in a mentor's mindset or a leader's mindset.

10:44 I'm in an old school manager. At best, I'm in an old school manager's mindset where I need to change their behavior. Mm-hmm. And so I think the heart is just about recognizing, geez, the people that work for us and with us, are there people that have their own mind games going on? Yeah. They have real life happening. They have real life happening just like us, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Boots. Where are we going with the boots? Yeah, the boots is... It's just the work, right? It's sometimes... I don't think we've totally laid down the technical or the strategic or the tactical bits. I think we're going to come back to that. But I think...

11:24 It's just, it's part of, it's part of the conversation. You know, I think even about, there's a lot of head and heart in this upcoming release of Clint Pulver's podcast, but there's also a lot of tactical stuff. It's like, all right, as we consider this stuff, as we start to change our mindsets, we start to get tuned into our people and ourselves and we see ourselves working. More clearly, that's going to change how we go about our business. Yeah. And I think it's why we do the summaries. Right? It's fun. But the purpose behind it is that we want to make sure that every time we record a show and we share that with the audience, we want you to be able to walk away with something you can put into practice. And so I think as we unpack these concepts, as we work through and interview folks and have them share their level of expertise or their deep experience in these certain categories, we want to be able to assimilate that into something that you guys can bolt on and put to work.

12:20 You can take with you and put into action. So I think there's a lot of that in that boots component. I think like you said, there's going to be tactical, technical stuff that we're doing. Good business is good business. And actually what's funny is Eric Sprague from the Blue Collar Boys, he did a post this morning and he was just talking about like Ed Milet says, you know, it's doing the work when no one else is, right? That's right. Separate you from the pack. And it's kind of that rise and grind. Like there's an element. Like you can't just wish this stuff into place. You got to put the boots on and go to work. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. And then sometimes too, the next action, the to-do list item is just to think and mull over.

13:04 I think sometimes there's going to be practical bits. And I think we even ended a few of our podcasts last year where it was like, okay, there wasn't necessarily a next action to take. It was more reflective. I think about our filling the whole podcast. And at times, the work is just the art of noticing. Yeah. Yeah. Hearing a conversation between other people can tune us into maybe something we just hadn't really given much thought to. Yeah. Right? And the next order of business is... I need to give that some more thought in my own life. So anyway, we've got a really cool lineup of guests this next year. We do. And I almost think too, there is...

13:47 I don't know. I mean, you and I show up every Thursday and we're just like... Somehow, I'm always a little bit worried when I come to production day. I think, what are we going to talk about this week? And then we go on our coffee walk. And inevitably, one of us has either been wrestling with something, had something on our mind, got an idea in the shower that morning, you know, or the guests just bring it. Oh my gosh. And this year is going to be fun. We keep hinting at this, but our first show beyond this name change that's coming out in 2022 is just going to be the bitch. And I love it. And then as far as how this will influence where we go with our guests, and really, we're going to use this head, heart, and boots as our outline. We want to be consistent.

14:28 We want to continue to raise the bar in our professionalism and how we exchange ideas and thoughts with our guests. And this is our framework that we get to use to make sure that we stay on point and we stay in that zone. that we promise to bring with our show and how we differentiate ourselves from other well-respected shows. And we're just going to take them through the process, man. We're going to dive into the head games and talk about how they manage themselves and their perspectives on what they do. We're going to dive into the heart matters. We're going to get behind the scenes and talk about the real emotional context of the things that drive us and both the wins and the losses that happen and then dive into how do we go to work? How do we do this? How do we put it into play? Yeah. I think this is a much better title for where we're going to go on this journey.

15:11 And we're really excited that you guys are going to continue to take that journey with us. So here we go. Okay. Share away, friends. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart & Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.