Ep 195 - "The Leadership Equation: Focus, Faith, Effort"

0:00 Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours. I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't. And I am not happy with it. Dude, you social media. Are you scrolling right now? What are you doing? I'm looking through my notes. Oh, okay. Well, that's, that's, uh, now I feel bad for seeing it the way. Leave me the fuck alone.

0:40 All right, dude. Here's where we're going. Let's get supercharged here. Rah, rah. I have a... What? I do have another... You can't mid-shift. Like, we're recording. Dude, I have another topic that we could kind of riff through that I think is kind of fun and funny. Is it attached to what we're talking about already? Yeah. Am I hitting stop right now on the recording? Oh, dude, we already... Oh, we're live. We're live, homie. Well, maybe I'll just inject it if there's a... Okay. Yeah. Could you not ignore me though for like 30 minutes and then... I'm going to engage with what you're saying. And I may... I may bring in... Okay, let's get the mic here. Yes, I may...

1:21 Okay. I may inject a little sideline. That's right. Rabbit. All right. Trail. All right. So we're digging in on this topic then. I'm going to get my punches in before it's too late here. You remember Eric, oh shoot, what's Eric's last name? Founder of Rock Solid. Yes. You remember meeting him the first time? Now we've had several interactions with him. Yeah. But he was on the show, actually. He had a great show. I think we called it Golden Nuggets or something because the guy was like the king of one-liners. Like very effective and productive one-liners. Anyways, he and I, I can't remember now. I think maybe it was at core. We just kind of had a quick stand up, just kind of chit-chat a little bit about business. And he was talking about this equation that he buys into, which I really liked.

2:01 And it was this idea of, what was it again? Oh, yeah. The three Fs. So it's focus, faith, oh, and then E, FFE, focus, faith, and effort. All right. So here's the idea. If any one of those is a lower score, then your ultimate outcome, your chance of success is substantially lower, right? Because it's this times this times this equals, okay? So this idea of like faith, I could come into an opportunity, a strategic plan, whatever the case may be, an opportunity, and I can be really dang confident. Like, I have faith. I think we can pull this off. I can be really focused, right? Like I can be like, hey, I'm super confident we have a plan.

2:44 I'm focused. I know exactly what I need to do. But then if I show up lacking in effort, F times F times E equals bummer. Because the effort didn't match the level of the other two, and they're not siloed from each other. They depend on each other. So I was thinking about this. So this is duck. This is, oh, sorry. Yes, for me, it's duck football season. It is football season. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Oregonians, their claim to fame is college football because we don't have any professional teams up here. And so I'm personally a duck fan. Our office is in Corvallis, which makes, and Chris grew up here, so he's a Beaver fan. So we're technically Civil War. Yeah, I would argue Oregon's claim to fame is not duck football.

3:27 So it's just the only thing I care about, right? Super fun. All right. And we're in the playoffs. I'm not rah-rah-ing or anything. Phase two of the playoffs, round two. But anyways, so on the first, we played Texas Tech. And I was just thinking about all the different sports channels as they kind of do their pre-walking into this kind of second playoff game. What does it mean? Who's going to be able to do what? Blah, blah, blah. And there's a lot of this conversation around this idea. of effort, confidence, right? Do they have a plan? Have they watched enough film? Do they know what Texas Tech is going to bring to the game? Do they have their system dialed in to compete against that? You know, some of the newest conversation is, are they distracted by X, Y, and Z?

4:11 And will that make it difficult for them to show up? Anyways, I was thinking about that in relationship to this. And there's this thing in my mind, like when I'm thinking about the playoffs right now, is I'm super confident that the Ducks have the talent inside their team and their coaching staff to do it. My faith is high, right? Yeah. their faith is probably hella high. They're clearly focused. Like, they know exactly what is going to be required. And if the experience this year is any direction of what their coaching staff will do next week, or here in a few days, like, they're going to be focused. But that could cause them, hang with me, all my non-sports fans, that could cause them then to come into that game.

4:55 And not put the effort in. And not put the effort in. And then that would be their demise. And then they all go home disappointed, even though they could do it and they knew it and they had a plan of attack. But then they show up laxing as if Texas Tech won't demand everything from them in that game. And if they do that, they will lose. And this is the kind of stuff that I think shows up in our personal lives, our professional lives, is we don't accurately account for all the variables in the equation and by ignoring one of them, We basically neuter our ability to be successful. Okay. So F&E, focus, faith, and effort. Yeah. Focus, faith, and effort.

5:36 Yep. Okay. So can we unpack the faith thing a little bit? Mm-hmm. This is a bit of a buzzy word. Yeah. To me. So depending on when Hunter actually puts these shows out. I know Eric's a Christian. So I know probably for him, but the context for that word probably has a- It's not religious faith though. Oh, it's not. Okay. Okay. Well, let me be careful. I'm not speaking for Eric right now. Sure. The idea of this equation is not a religious or faith-based. It's do you have faith in the plan, the direction, the commitment, the solution? You could say confidence, maybe. Confidence, for sure, right? Sure, yeah, yeah. And so for those, like, again, I'm not entirely sure how Hunter will release these episodes, but we did record an episode within the last week or so where we talked about this idea of like, one of the most profound ways that we can create a really high level of confidence to then remove some of the emotional dynamics in our business... Is to plan.

6:31 Is to plan. Be prepared well, right? And so, I think this is an example, if we're looking at this in a business environment, like the better planning and preparation you do, it should then jack up your faith in the outcome, in the process, right? Based on the planning that you've already put in place. And then the focus thing, I would think, is our ability to hold to the plan. Yep. In spite of many constant distractions. 100%. Right? The emotional ups and downs. Like, can you stay the course? I mean, I think for all intents and purposes, there's this element of discipline in this. Right? How do you not allow yourself to get distracted?

7:13 How do you maintain a specific level of discipline that marries up or matches the result that you're ultimately getting? seeking. And then this effort, and you and I have talked about this before in different settings, but it's this idea, I think, where depending on what the outcome is that we're seeking, we have to ensure that the level of effort marries up or matches what is required to yield said result. Here's an example. Coming into the work this morning, I come in early, just early day. We have an East Coast team. So literally, I have to start early. And as part of that, I'm like, I'm wrestling right now a little bit with just like what level of commitment is required to win in this thing.

7:56 And then actually asking myself honest question of, do you have that in you? Like, are you going to do that? Are you going to do the thing that is required? And I think we can fail to do that well often. I think we get really, I have a tendency to get overly romantic about people and ideas and concepts. And so I get all fired up. I might have a ton of faith. I might have a ton of focus in terms of, yeah, I want to do that. I'm in. But then I didn't properly value or assess the level of work and commitment that that will demand of me. And so when I look at my equation, I had faith, I had focus. Yeah. I underestimated what it would require for me.

8:37 You didn't count the cost. I didn't count the cost. You didn't count the cost. And the other side of that too, I think is, I think a lot of times us as owners, leaders, and everybody, We feel really powerful shoulds. Oh, yeah. I should. I should be willing to do all of that. Yeah. I should be able to tackle it. And we make the decision based on this compulsion. Yeah. Because, well, other people do. Or I should do that because it's going to get me all these good things. But internally, we don't actually want to. 100%. Like that's the trap for me sometimes. I mean, dude, think about, think about every person to include ourselves where we've had an opportunity.

9:25 I mean, dude, this is making me uncomfortable saying it out loud, to be honest. I'm going to point at other people. Let me talk about others. Are you a business that's under five million in sales and you're just now getting ready to try and scale your company up and hit some of those targets you've always wanted to hit, but now you've got to build a sales team? Or maybe you just hired your first sales rep, but you don't really know how to manage them. Like how do you manage, lead, train, develop a sales rep? Floodlight has a solution for you now. So we can actually assign your sales rep a turnkey VP of sales that will help them create a sales blueprint, their own personal sales plan for your market, They'll have weekly one-on-ones with that sales rep to coach, mentor them, hold them accountable to the plan.

10:07 And they'll also have a monthly owner's meeting where they'll meet with you or your general manager and review the progress of that sales rep. Their plan to actual results, what kind of performance improvement they're working on with them. Also let them know, hey, you might, they're doing really well. Maybe we should think of hiring a second sales rep. They're going to have that one-to-one advice for you as an owner or senior leader on the team as well. How great would that be to have a bolt-on sales manager for your one sales rep and it's only $2,500 a month? If you're interested in talking more about that, reach out. Let's grab some time and let's talk shop. Our floodlight clients this last year in 2024 generated over 250 million in revenue. Supported by, advised by, an industry expert who's owned and operated a business just like you.

10:50 So take action. Don't kick the can down the road. Start with our business health and value assessment, and let's unlock the next chapter of your success story. So how many times do we have a downline team member or a team member that in principle feels owed, expecting, or wants to fill a certain role in the organization? And sometimes they lean into time and grade, loyalty, I've been around, I know the company, whatever. I know stuff. I know stuff, right? Been in the industry a long time. And so I think what you would say in a situation like that is you've got a scenario sometimes, for example, where someone's got faith, right?

11:31 it could be a bit assumptive, but for whatever reason they have it, they feel that they're totally capable of doing that job. They're focused. They want it real bad. They're clear on what the tasking is, at least for all intents and purposes. But what they underestimate is the level of effort required to be in alignment with that plan to remain focused, discipline, blah, blah, blah. And when you put them in that situation, their success rate obviously is not good because faith and focus was high, but they couldn't marry up to the level of effort that was required or demanded by the position. And I mean, I have interviewed a lot of project managers, for example, that want to become a GM or an OM, whatever you call them.

12:17 And they've even used language in the interview of, oh, the last company, I mean, I did everything. I mean, from start to finish, I was a part of it. I helped sell it. I knew exactly how to produce the work. I mean, they're lucky. They're lucky because if it wasn't for me, they wouldn't have done everything. only to come to find out the person's never done anything beyond, had a handful of projects that they were responsible for, but the only thing they were responsible for was managing the calendar. They didn't really understand the budget. They weren't responsible for the budget. They didn't negotiate rates with subs. There was no interaction with invoicing. They didn't participate in the scope negotiation. They actually haven't participated in any of the things that are required, let alone to do the job of an OM or a GM.

13:02 But in their mind, their faith is high. They believe they're ready for this position and their focus. They want that job doing that thing. For that money. For that money. But they underestimate the actual cost to do the thing. And then because of that, they fail. Right? And there's many different ways to split this up. Sometimes it's like, we were talking about this, I think, a couple weeks ago or something where sometimes imposter syndrome can get the very best of me. And I actually had a great plan. And I was focused. And I actually was willing to put in the effort. But I fucked myself because I lose the faith. I let the imposter syndrome voice get so loud.

13:45 And blow out your confidence. That it blows out my confidence. And now I'm missing that variable in the equation and my effectiveness drops exponentially. So I just, I think one of the things I'm just trying to lean more into are these frameworks to help me synthesize the things that I experience in my real life. I like that. Right? To make it easier to communicate and share with our friends and our people. I think that's like kind of this journey that I'm on right now is like, okay, it's cool that I get to run a podcast and think curious thoughts and be inquisitive and do all the things. But what does that mean? And how does that translate as a leader for me to deploy that down into my ranks? And this is an example, right? Like this idea of, gosh, can I teach my team to understand these three variables in an equation and help them understand how important it is that they understand all three and that they're aggressively chasing a high score on all three.

14:33 Yeah, you know, pardon me while I'm tightening a bolt. You're doing a little mechanical there. Yeah, repairs. I think that's actually a really interesting idea, like a really interesting coaching framework. Like one-on-one with team members. Mm-hmm. Because it's not just, that doesn't just apply to like with Eric being the CEO of a giant nonprofit or, you know, like in your position, it's kind of true of all of us. I got this thing, I have this objective in front of me. And are these things synced up at any given moment? Like if something's not working... Yeah. Well, let's peel this back and let's look at this, right? If there's a lack of confidence, there might be a lack of clarity, which is a great signal for you as a leader to understand that for whatever reason, maybe it could be the fault of somebody not paying attention, right?

15:19 Not reading their emails, sure as shit, been guilty of that, right? So there could be some ignorance involved. Or a lack of planning. They never really thought through what is the intended outcome here and how am I going to get there? And so therefore there's a lack of confidence, there's confusion, there's a lack of faith because they really haven't done the work to really plot out, okay, how many like for the salesperson maybe you're working with, you know, how many sales calls is going to take me to schedule a sales meeting? My goal is to get five sales meetings a week. I must not be making enough call, but they never thought through that. And so it's just willy-nilly. I'm going to go gangbusters on sales. So that's a great, really cool coaching framework for, look, there's the confidence and the faith that comes from planning and consideration.

16:05 And then as we start to execute, there's the focus, focusing our attention on the plan and the effort. Where might we be? Yeah. where is something out of alignment? And I would think that's like really helpful for regaining confidence and clarity, shoring those things up. I'm like, shit. Yeah, it's like, it's almost like a good, excuse me, it's almost like a good framework to start with questions in terms of, let's say yourself or somebody in the team or an entire team is really struggling to get the result that we need. It's like kind of pausing for a moment and go, okay, let's break this down. Like, okay, faith, focus, effort. Let's go through each part of this equation and identify where are we at.

16:47 Like, can we properly assess the current state of affairs in that particular category? And if we say like on the face side, like... Why doesn't the team have confidence? Let's hang in that pocket. Like, what is going on? Do we not have a clear enough plan? Did we ask them to do too much ad lib, figure it out on the go? Have we not repeated the plan or gone through it enough for people to really understand? Have we not communicated it? Right. Did we do a drive-by like we do as leaders more times than not? Did we do an effective walkthrough? Meaning like, when we presented the plan, did we do any kind of role-playing? Did we allow them to give pushback, to press in, to like... What can we do to create a clearer path of faith and confidence, right? And then you just kind of work your way through the variables.

17:30 And I'm just thinking, man, it's really a great framework for solving problems inside your company too. Because it's like, instead of getting all swept up in the what's not working, you're almost reaching deeper that and you're asking, well, the why first. And then it gives you this area to... Anyways, I just, I've found it super fruitful and I've been leveraging it a lot more ever since. And I think he shared that with us. That must have been August because it was core this year. Oh, that's right. So like August, September... Yeah. So it's only been a quarter or so, a little more than a quarter. He spoke. He was a keynote at a quarter. Yeah, he's, dude, I'm telling you, that guy. Really phenomenal.

18:10 He is a crazy good speaker. And he literally has, I don't know what happened, but that guy's brain is so good at synthesizing the... big subjects and concepts into these one sentence bangers. I mean, he's unbelievable at it. Anyways, super powerful framework. It's not overly complicated, but it's kind of like one of those little pocket tools I feel like you can have with you all the time. And you can really leverage this inside your company as a tool for just equipping your people to solve problems. Right? So anyways. I'm actually writing this down. You are? Yeah. Yeah. It's just a really great mantra. Yeah, faith times focus times effort equals our level of success.

18:57 And so slowing down, identifying each, our current status, and then determining with certainty, can I do this? Will I do this? You know, I think you and I have talked about this before in terms of like when us as business leaders or owners, we don't execute the level of action that's required to truly solve the problem. Like an example might be... We understand that somebody's not performing well, but because of our relationship with them, it makes it difficult for us to take the action, which is get them out of the seat, period. And so we delay that. So then the amount of... It doesn't matter how bad we want something, because we're not willing to put forth the level of effort in that action that's required, we don't yet yield the result.

19:42 I just... It's so universal, it's silly. Yeah. It's super universal. So... All right. There you go. Little 20 minute banger. There we go. All right, gang. See ya. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and 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.