Ep 159 - "The Real Spirit Of Core Values"

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. What's up, dude? You know, it was a great weekend. It was actually really good. Like good in what way? Good lead in new crap. Good because you achieved a million things. No. Well, actually, I cleaned my room.

0:41 Oh, now you got to explain what you mean by that. Well, I've been in this state of some out with the old and with the new or kind of just some... I felt really motivated. I've been listening to a lot of Jordan Peterson lately. And I've been doing some other things in my life. You know, we talked about, I think in last week's episode or a couple weeks ago, just my theme of reliability. Yeah. And I realized I needed to put some effort into kind of my Zen space. Yeah. Just it was accumulating some clutter. And I did a fair bit of purging and organizing and felt really good. We got all the Christmas stuff put away. Oh, yeah. historically, like my wife really enjoys Christmas stuff and decorating and whatever.

1:27 And so oftentimes the tree is up until the, well, I guess this is the, oh, we're the, it's the second week. Okay. It's the 13th. It's still pretty early. Yeah. So, you know, we got all of that stuff put back in the attic and the tree out to the street and all that kind of thing. And it just felt really good. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. A little bit of a winter cleaning episode. Yeah. Also had a friend over on Saturday, my friend Tim, and we ended up with my boys watching Pink Floyd's Berlin concert. Oh, wow. And I'd never seen it before. It's pretty remarkable. I mean, for something that happened in 1990. Yeah. And just having a really great time with him. I love when he gets around my boys.

2:09 He's really good with my boys. He's kind of like a surrogate uncle. Yeah. Yeah. Such a good dude. He's just a really good dude. And his energy is really fun to be around. And so it was just a really great weekend. Yeah. That sounds super fun, man. Yeah. I'm not going to open Pandora's box all the way, but we just went back to church for the first time. Yeah. In a significant period of time, my wife and my daughter... three of us decided to go visit a church and I'm still letting it marinate a little bit in terms of what I'm thinking. But, you know, just let the cat out of the bag. It was actually good. Yeah. Yeah. I actually enjoyed it and it caused me to think through some stuff and And that's good.

2:49 I'm a little bit of pursuit right now. I'm not going to say full-blown pursuit. Nod to some of our friends out there in the industry that maybe live a more committed faith journey. But I've definitely got some interesting conversations with a few friends in the business and definitely in a pursuit right now of my spiritual journey. So we, yeah, anyways, we tiptoed into a new church and it was actually great. And maybe I'll get really crazy and I'll talk more heavily about it in a future episode. I've got some ideas kind of bouncing around. But anyways, hey, we today, this is kind of an interesting one because I know we've just kind of come out on the other side of a ton of annual planning for most of us. Maybe most of us, though, if we're honest, we're probably doing some refining still in January.

3:33 Our team certainly was. And you know, in broad strokes, we've talked about the mechanics of kind of annual planning. Yeah. I think you and I were actually talking this morning prior to hit and record and you and I just felt really inspired after this last session on the ground that we had. And I wanted to, you know, you and I just kind of thought about, hey, what if we had a conversation more about the spirit of... And the gains that we can see when we really approach the annual planning and not getting into the nuts and bolts, but more from the synergies that we can create. Or Wayne coined the term the set bonus, right? For those of you that maybe have a video game bug behind you somewhere.

4:17 Yeah. Just this idea that together, these things create such a far superior outcome that it's clear that we need to prioritize finding the synergy of these processes to really see the spirit of and witness and experience the spirit of what annual planning realignment is. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like the combination of certain things creates a force multiplier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Last week, I was kind of riding a high from those three days. So did a little more definition, right? We had Wayne in town for our leadership quarterly strategy meeting. And we had our newest cohort of consultants that were flying in as kind of the last leg of our process, sort of the welcome to the team experience.

5:06 And the combination of those two is the first time we've had that in conjunction with our strategy kind of summit as a leadership team. But man, I just, I had, and I'm sure there's a lot of owners of growing teams that can relate to this, but there's something so special about being an owner and seeing one of your downline leaders doing like in their full genius. And this was the first strategy session. I think it's fair to say like Wayne led the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. He basically, he created our agenda. He really led us through the process. And Wayne's 30 years old. Yeah. And I only say that because it's just, it's rare.

5:50 And it's so remarkable to see it through. I certainly wasn't as tuned in. And I wasn't on Wayne's level when I was 30. And it's just really, really fun to see somebody really living out of their strengths. And really... an enormous amount of self-awareness and EQ at his age. It's just so inspiring. And just the idea that you and I, when we started Floodlight, it was just you and me. Yeah. And that, and that moment of realization of, wow, this, this is growing into something so much bigger. Yeah. And it's so special to see others just running. Yeah. with the opportunity that's unfolding. Honoring it and really bringing absolute 100% of themselves to the process.

6:35 Full accountability and ownership. And for a lot of you, your organizations were pretty fortunate. A good hunk of it was intentional because Chris and I, always started Floodlight with this principle of we're building a team, a firm of consultants, and that you and I have to learn the tradecraft and offer the tradecraft as we build that organization so that we understand what we're recruiting to and what the long-term vision of the business is. But right out of the gate, we knew we would be seeking really powerful team members and then ultimately over time handing off a lot of the day-to-day of that organization to that team and getting out of their way, right? Finding powerful people that in combination are far superior than what you and I can do on our own.

7:20 So a lot of that has been intentionally. And then of course, we are also fortunate in the sense that we've had moments where we're reaping the benefit of what would you call it? Working hard enough to be ready to be lucky. Yeah. You know, and Wayne is earning your luck, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So some of the components that stood out to me are those three days. I think one thing that was really special and I think unlocked something very unique in my experience with hiring and team building is how Wayne chose to open up that consultant day. Mm-hmm. So we basically opened up the agenda with each person offering their personal high-low kind of life. We do this kind of in our meetings.

8:01 We call it What's Pause. We'll open up our meetings with, hey, something positive, personal, or professional from the week. But when this thing just as a get-to-know-you kind of icebreaker, it was a personal high and low, a professional high and low, and then what got you to here? And it was kind of like an abbreviated personal story, so to speak, and every single one was really heart level and revealing. There's a level of vulnerability that I don't know that you and I have fully experienced in our normal team building engagements and stuff prior. It was really special. And I think all of us, including the new consultants, just really felt this sense of connection with one another. By the time we finished out that day at dinner, it was just like...

8:44 Really rapid bonding. Yeah. Because Wayne opened it up and offered his own honesty and vulnerability about his own personal experience and journey. And that just teed up, I think, the trust and comfort for everybody else to do the same. For sure. It was just incredibly powerful. It was. And I think one of the things I kind of want to do is we kind of look at some of these elements of those three days. I want to try to tie us back into... why it's important for us in terms of your and I's vision for the business, our core values, and that we've just recently gone back through and really be aligned behind and got clarity about just because I think it helps kind of set the tone of what's the value of what we're saying.

9:27 Sure. The principle of the experience. So I would just say, one of the things that we did, and we just finished these up just in full transparency to the listeners, we've just finished these up over our Christmas break. Okay? Yeah. Chris and I, and again, in full transparency, I was just feeling very uninspired about our core values. We built them at a certain time in the business's history. We took a more team approach to the core values. And I think for some organization, maybe that's the right way. So this is not a conviction on right or wrong. I'm just going to tell you what we chose to do because it was important. And I was not feeling like I could adequately lead the organization in my appropriate seat because I just didn't feel the connection at a heart level, gut level to those core values.

10:13 And so I decided that we were going to redo those. And essentially, we did it from scratch. And then for any of our team members that are listening, they haven't even heard of yet. Like we're just being raw here. Like this is no different than your guys' organization. Shifts have to happen when they're brought to your attention, regardless of where you're at. So anyways, we redid these. And this was a labor of love. We really evaluated those, the core elements of those core values. We really dug in and made sure that we agree with them and that there's something that can serve as a guiding principle and a guiding light to the future of the organization. And so part of that as an element of our core values the type of relationship that we want to build with our consultants, not only internally as an organization in preparation though, for them to have the aligning type of relationship with their clients.

11:05 It was important for us to have this relational connectivity that took place in a transparent way early in the relationship. And for most organizations, I think Chris and I would say, we agree or we think that this is probably important for everyone. But again, for the sake of clarity, based on our core values and based on the mission that our company is on and the type of relationship that we want to have with our clients, it's critical to do this internally from the very beginning. And so that's what was shaping the intentionality of that icebreaker, if you will. And then it's in conjunction with that. It's why Chris is so excited about the outcome.

11:46 Because principally, we needed to do that because it aligned with the core values and the mission. And then we did it and got the net result of why we're doing that. And so it was worth celebrating. We had three very high caliber and some of those announcements will come out over the next several months as they get their legs under them. Very high caliber and respected individuals. They walked into a room, not only with the three of themselves and us as a leadership team, in a very new raw relationship and met us. Yeah. So I think what this points to is why I was so excited is... Wayne led with actions that unite in synergy with our core values.

12:29 And those team members, because Wayne and our team did a great job filtering candidates. And so by the time we flew these three individuals out, they did really what we anticipated. And they stepped in and met us. And it was a freaking unbelievably cool time together as we were beginning to set the stage of our team. So I hope that's okay. I know this is kind of a shorter episode, but I just want to do that kind of alignment, right? So the principles. All these things came together. And obviously part of this strategy meeting included doing a fairly deep dive on our pro forma and some of the tactical... goals and benchmarks we've set for ourselves this year and really breaking them down and understanding exactly what behaviors and changes and shifts were going to be required for us to get there.

13:19 And so there was a lot of that sort of tactical breakdown of our plan. Wayne led us through what probably many people listening have also done, which is the Gazelles, the Scaling Up book, the Rockefeller Habits, taking us through one of their exercises, which was really useful. The seven strata. It's a great framework. Planning doc. It's basically a one-page business strategy. And God, that was really helpful. Yeah. Really helpful for us defining and refining our brand, our unique value proposition that we're designing and building for our clients, for our internal team. I really, really enjoyed that process. And I think it helped us kind of crack the code on some things that maybe we've lacked clarity on thus far.

14:05 Yeah. And just kind of danced around a little bit. It forced us, like the process forced us to really dig in and find some answers. Yeah. Let's think through some of those examples because I don't mind sharing some of the language that we use internally. But just to, again, principally, I think what we're trying to say here is that we as a team experienced, I think, for the first time in a while, the spirit of this annual planning and quarterly planning. What is the net result that you're ultimately looking for in this? And so, like an example. I think many of us in our businesses, we struggle to have a true elevator pitch. One, I think at times we feel like they're cheesy. Maybe we're being over salesy.

14:46 But there's a reality that when you and your team struggle to cohesively and concisely say specifically, what does your team do when somebody asks you the question in the hallway at an event? And they're like, well, what does Floodlight do? And then, I mean, I think for many of us, we go into this 20-minute overly wordy explanation where we're trying to be comprehensive and we're trying to not leave anything out. And the problem with that is, one, the audience doesn't hear it. And two, it's a sure sign that there's a lack of clarity inside your organization that your team can't synthesize that. Because there is. And I think, again, this is just us being very transparent and vulnerable.

15:29 But I think many of you that own restoration companies, construction companies, service companies of any kind that are listening, you can relate to the fact in those first three, four years of your business, maybe longer. I mean, we encounter some clients who are still kind of in this mode 10 years in. And in the midst of success, there's a tendency in a service company to sell to everybody. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And we've been guilty of that at times. Somebody wants consulting, take them on. We can do our thing. Yeah. But over the years, we've started to identify the avatar of a business owner, a leadership team that is most likely to be successful, leveraging consulting. Yeah.

16:09 And that was part of what this process really forced us to wrestle with is who is our target client? Right. Right. And I think what we found is that it had very little to do with how big or how much revenue they make. And it really had to do with what is their goal, objective, posture, what's the current personality of the business? And so it's okay if I say it. Can I say our pitch? Yeah, no, I want you to because I think, again, it's like... It's very simple. It's simple, but it's important. But it's so important. And maybe we can kind of break down the why behind this. I want to. Yeah. So where we landed is our unique value proposition. What we do, our one phrase elevator pitch is we partner with restorers.

16:55 who want to grow and scale their companies and help them create a ton of enterprise value in the process. That's what we do. Now, why? And you say, well, okay, that's not very fancy. That's not hyper-specific. Well, I think over the years, we've had clients that have come to us with specific operational problems. We need our project managers to do a better job of running projects. We need some project management training or we got to figure out commercial sales. And at times, I mean, it's always a spectrum, but at times they feel like they've got everything else figured out and or they're content owning and running a lifestyle business.

17:36 I just got to tweak and fix this little thing. Everything else is good. We're cruising along and they aren't necessarily compelled to or desiring to grow and scale and build. They're calling us more as a problem solver versus a partner. Is that fair to say? That's really fair to say. They're hiring us as a problem solver more than a partner. And so there's a very myopic, specific, targeted thing that they want us to do for them. When in reality, our entire makeup as a team, yours and I's gifting, talent, desire is oriented around partnership and building and growing. Yeah. That's how you and I are wired.

18:18 That's how all of our talent and skill set is deployed in our consulting model is by helping our clients grow and scale and all the things that entails and all the emotional journey, the intellectual journey, the skilling up required all of that stuff. Tactics. That's what we do. Yeah. That's what we do. And I think us sorting out, we partner with restoration companies who want to grow and scale and build a ton of enterprise value in the process. It's helped us identify that, you know what, we have to get out of that tactical problem solving role. Only. Only. Of course. It's an aspect of what we do in our partnership with folks.

19:00 Yeah. Yeah. But again, the distinction is when somebody comes to us and say, I got this little thing, can you teach us how to do this? And we're like, yes, we can. We ultimately, it's just an unsatisfying engagement. Yeah. It's part of it. And we're never able to have the same magnitude of impact because the client wasn't seeking that magnitude of impact. That's just not what they were looking for in a partnership. Yeah. Yeah. And so I just want to kind of point back kind of the synergy of this, kind of going back to the set bonuses. How does all of this begin to kind of work in conjunction with each other? So if we go back and I'm not going to, I'll save you guys going through all of our core values. Although anytime, if you want our core values, let me know. I'd be happy to share them with you because we love them.

19:41 But... We summarize. So we do ours a little bit differently because we were really keyed in that our core values really are something that we look to almost as the 10 commandments. It's like this thing that we point to and say, is this decision in alignment with these? is what we're trying to do tactically in alignment with North Star. The true North Star. And so we don't want those to be open for interpretation. There's not five different ways that you can interpret our core values in order for them to lead us the right way. We had to be crystal clear. So we have the words combo of that core value. We have a simple sentence that summarizes the spirit of the core value.

20:21 And then we add three bullets that kind of give us heat up, right? I'm just amazed that you're able to read that on the screen. I know. So we... And then as we kind of came up with a summary of what are these core values telling us? What are they designed to do? And so as a team, we decided and kind of really oriented around this idea of always seek the path of greatest impact. That's ultimately what we're trying to accomplish with our core values. So thinking about that phrase, and this came up over and over and over again as part of our strat planning process for the year, was this, does that marry up with us always seeking maximum impact? Is that true of this tactic, this design, this whatever?

21:05 And if we go back to that summary... our elevator pitch, and this is what we're talking about with set bonuses. It's not simply an easy way to tell people what we do, but it's in direct alignment. And we asked ourselves this question with the summarization of our core values, the spirit of our core values. And if as a leadership team, we're saying, we're always seeking that path of greatest impact, then from our world view, for the principle of our business and the type of relationship for us to have with our client is aligned with that, it means we want to be in a strategic partnership with our client where we are serving the role of assisting them in scaling, growing their business and creating this really life-changing enterprise value in the process.

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25:27 is there synergy in your core values, in the mission that you have for your organization? Is that capturing the spirit of what you're doing besides just telling people you do disaster response or that you're a plumbing company or you do roofing? There's something under the skin of that that has more weight, the spirit of it, That's better than just the delivering of the service. So that was really powerful that we could come up with that in one sitting. And it was because we're starting to get so clear, going all the way back to the core values. We've spent enough time defining those with such clarity that now it is lending itself to creating clarity in every inch of our business, our strategic plan, our strategic plan, our our elevator pitches.

26:13 Like what do we tell people we do, right? Yeah. The other thing too that we spent some time on, and then I need you to define set bonuses because bonuses are people are thinking this is some newfangled commission thing that gets people more aligned. You've got to give them the video game language because I certainly can't. I think the other thing too that was powerful and part of the notion of set bonus is the combination of us getting really, really clear on our values and then getting really, really clear on our value proposition that we want to offer our clients and that we are about is we also were able to redefine what KPIs we're going to focus on as indicators of our progress in our achievement. Yeah.

26:54 How are we going to hold... Getting more clarity on how we hold our consultants accountable to the right things that are aligned with our values and our objective with our clients. 100%. Because I think it's very, very easy for companies... and individuals to get our incentives misaligned, where inadvertently we're incentivizing the wrong behaviors. It's huge. And that the behaviors they incentivize end up in conflict with our values that we set out in the first place. And that was really powerful to do all of that in kind of one session. It was just like this trifecta of focus. I think that's why we felt so good coming out of it because there was so much clarity of what we're going to hold each other accountable to how we're going to achieve both the numbers and the culture that we discussed.

27:45 For sure. Yeah. God, it was just so good. Okay. So give us, what the heck is set bonus? Explain. Okay. So there's, I'm going to give two versions. Try not to nerd out too much. I'm going to give two versions of that. I'm going to give the video game analogy for those of you that are secret video game players. Because I know there's more people out there than just myself. I do find myself sucked into a good video game from time to time. Don't hold it against me. Alright, so it's this idea in the video game world, it would be, look, if you find a piece of equipment, okay, let's just say maybe you're a shooter genre, whatever, you find a piece of equipment on its own, that piece of equipment is good. But when you get multiple pieces of equipment from the same, let's call it set, you've got a helmet, you've got gloves, you've got the chest armor, you've got the weapon, you've The summary of those items working in conjunction with each other give you an exponentially better bonus.

28:38 A more powerful character. More powerful character, right? Think of this in a real-life scenario. Think about body armor. Let's say maybe a military environment. You could be in the Dark Ages. We're talking about knights. If they had a one shield, would that shield protect them? Far more than being naked, 100%. But if they had the shield and they had the entire coat of arms, now all of a sudden they have this very robust protection in place, right? Because the pieces are working in conjunction. If it glances off your shoulder and hits your protected forearm or part of your bicep, right? But it's got a plate over it. Now you've got this robust protection.

29:18 So it's this idea of when we begin getting all the parts working in conjunction with each other, the return is exponentially greater than any of the parts on their own. Okay? That's kind of the idea. So when we were talking about like even the KPIs, and this is, again, this is where the set bonus stuff starts to really ramp up and create serious momentum if you do this well. is we went back and we looked at our, again, in light or context of core values and the summary of those core values of we always seek the path of greatest impact. Like that is the mission before us at Floodlight. Mm-hmm. And then we look at KPIs and how they're ultimately motivating our consultants to be in alignment with that or not.

30:07 Right? And so, for instance, for us, we track and we're on a mission to increase over time our client lifetime value. Well, everybody's like, well, yeah, you want your clients to stick around. Yes, you're right. That number numerically, though, is worth tracking because it unifies floodlight and all of its team members behind that mission. Because the longer our clients choose to live with us, Meaning we're continuing to create strategic value. We're continuing to partner with people the right way. We're continuing to say yes to the right client base that says, I want to grow and scale my business and create enterprise value in the process.

30:52 The more aligned we are with getting all those things working together, we should naturally see a client lifetime value that continues to grow over time. Yeah. That is telling us as an organization, our strategy, our system, our processes, who we're hiring, how we're feeling. Customer experience. Well, the customer experience. It means those things are beginning to work together and our client lifetime value is extending. We're winning. But that measurement tells us, are we following our plan, right? And so that's like a working example. Another one would be, and again, we're being very open book here, right? Yeah. Another one would be our MRR or that monthly revenue rate.

31:32 Okay. If we see over time across the book of consultants inside Floodlight Consulting Group, that the average MRR per consultant is increasing with time, it means that they, again, are in alignment. It means they're partnering with the right kind of client. And that partnership is netting that client the right kind of results that they are open to when they sit down with their consultant and there's some form of an increase associated with the lift right, just over the years, costs change and we have to marry to that. It just shows that that consultant in their tactics, their behavior, in the accountability, in the systems, in their dedication and proactive engagement.

32:19 The experience value is growing. They're earning it. Right? They're earning it. They're doing what is appropriate to earn it. Therefore, it's going up or it's staying, remaining healthy, right? Whatever the number is, right? So again, we're just trying to be really transparent. Why do we measure this? Well, because it puts the consultant and Floodlight as a team on the same page. And it's showing us... that we are doing what it is that we said we were going to do. And that is always seek that path of maximum impact, right? So this is kind of what we're saying. It's like, you begin to establish this clarity when you go all the way back and you rebuild the foundation based on some really valuable core principles and And you're really getting clear on what is the spirit, the why behind what you guys do as an organization and what it is that you're building.

33:13 Because now when we sit down, our elevator pitch is in alignment with our core values. Mm-hmm. our measuring of performance indicators in alignment with our core values and our underlining mission, the spirit of why floodlight exists. When we onboard a new group of consultants and we're in that day, the agenda for our time together is engineered around and in alignment of finding Are they going to align behind the mission? Are they going to be motivated and aligned behind our core values? You know, one of the things that we did and kind of the last thing that we did as a team with them is I just went through and very slowly went through the core values and explained the spirit behind them.

33:57 We went through every detail of the core values and we did that to create clarity around their understanding and then asking them one final time. Do you align with these because they are not going anywhere? Yeah. Like if you aren't in alignment with that, then everything that we're talking about as an organization doesn't apply to you. All of your performance and behavior will be judged against these. Against that. Just like us. Yep. Exactly. And I loved, I loved to, I mean, we were, we were at this, this cool brewery where we had this final meeting in Sky High Brewery in Corvallis, Oregon. It's a great place. And I remember you looking across the table at them and saying, this is who we are and this is what's going to be expected.

34:43 And if... I or Chris or Wayne are ever out of alignment, we expect you to call us out on that air gap or on that misalignment. And I, yeah, it was such a powerful, such a powerful day, man. I think kind of like, we don't need to drag this out for hours, although we probably could in all the nuance. But I just think that the reason in principle that, The reason that we walked away motivated. Now, guys, we put three 10, 11-hour days in. I mean, this is emotionally taxing. You have to stay focused. You're constantly pushing away distractions to stay on the bone.

35:25 It's intense. And you guys know this. You've done versions of this. And we walked out of that Friday afternoon so freaking motivated, dude. I was on fire for this year again. And it was because there was so much clarity and synergy of the principle of what we're doing and why we're doing it. And that's what we're really trying to motivate people here. This is going to show up in a million different ways in your business. But I think it's just this encouragement of, look, Annual planning is something that takes time. It's taxing. I get it. Quarterly reviews and then a resetting of expectations. It is taxing. I understand. But man, when it's done in the right posture, when it's done the right way and there's a conviction to pull out the spirit of what you're trying to do with these business functions or tactics, it changes everything.

36:21 It is. And I just, I want to make sure to highlight this and underscore it. The part of what made it so powerful is that we didn't stop at the macro. I think sometimes the way I've handled annual planning in the past is it really primarily revolves around the budget. And what's our top line going to be? How are we going to manage our costs? How are we allocating our monies? How many leads do we need to get? And all that stuff's very important, right? It's like reverse engineering. How are we going to do $10 million this year? Okay, well, it's going to require this amount of jobs, this average job size. And it's very sterile. And oftentimes... we never get down to the behaviors that are going to drive the necessary outcomes.

37:06 And so I think that was really powerful. And honestly, that seven strata planning document that Gazelles forced you to go through, I mean, I wish I could say it was some proprietary floodlight like we came up with. No, it was many of you have looked at this and I know in the past when I own my state farm agency, I actually, it was the first time I read Gazelles because I think it came out 2004 or something like that. I read it and I tried to apply it and I just didn't have the discipline or fortitude to really lean in. It's because it was very... It required a lot of us wrestling with some of the questions in that thing. It really forces you to think about what is our unique skill set as a team? What are the strengths of the team?

37:47 The real differentiating strengths of the team. what is the thing that really differentiates us as a company from every other consulting company? And it's really easy to come up with sort of generic answers. And I think that's where oftentimes we tend to land because it feels navel-gazy a little bit. Mm-hmm. But boy, when you press through, and we did. Yeah. When you press through and you really work through all aspects of that planning, really think and get in the weeds to really understand, yeah, what is it really that makes us different? What is it really that gives us a unique advantage in this particular area or this aspect of our business?

38:29 The clarity that comes from that is unmistakable. It's unmistakable. And that level of clarity, it was new for us. It was. We've been working towards it. We wanted it. And lo and behold, Wayne ended up unlocking that achievement for us this time. So that was really cool. Yeah, I would say that you and I as a team, we had done the kind of the more pro forma components prior to. This really was the culture behavior focus, right? Conversation and the conviction that, that I think we walked away. And when you do this right, I think that's the ultimate outcome that you're looking for is when this is done well, and you've spent enough time in the trenches with your leaders to really unpack the spirit of where you're going and ensure that the language you're using, the tactics that your team's going to deploy, how you're and who you're recruiting...

39:20 When all of these things are lined up, the level of conviction you have to be disciplined, to take the action, to hold people accountable, then to said posture and behaviors becomes totally unparalleled. Like I will tell you, it's not going to make... decisions easier, but your conviction of the actions you have to take will be profoundly different. I would say that. It's, when we have a hard conversation with a downline team member that's out of alignment with this, it's still going to suck. I don't care who you are unless you're just an absolutely heartless bastard. Yeah. No one loves that part. Yeah. But, we will be convicted it has to happen.

40:01 And we will be unapologetic when we have to do that because we've done the work to show clarity, create clarity and that synergy that we're looking for. I think one other thing just has to be said in the context of this is that, while these three days were really powerful and action-packed and very deliberate and all the things we've talked about, it's worth noting that you and Wayne in particular, this is kind of in your guys' area of focus for the business, is, you guys massaged and reworked our pro forma like 100,000 times. Big time. And I think what I've witnessed in your leadership is the more deliberate and specific and detailed that you and Wayne were working through that and a lot of that too with our mentor that we work with and we look to for guidance, also the more conviction around, no, how are we actually going to execute on this?

40:51 That's right. Like I think the picture for me when you guys presented the pro forma to me the picture is so vivid about how we're going to get there. It's like every single aspect, we all know exactly what week-to-week behaviors are going to accomplish that pro forma. And I think, and certainly we've wrestled with this with our clients too, because there's just such a temptation with the work rolling in. And we have the same thing, right? You're a growing business. It is so hard sometimes to really dedicate yourself understanding where you're trying to go, right? Yeah. At the beginning of the year. Like really understanding it because there's different levels of that.

41:34 And I think this might've been our very best year. Yeah. In terms of us planting our feet and having very, very clear mileposts. Yeah. And signage along the path for us to follow. I would say that it was so value added personally in terms of how what we accomplished, that it will absolutely influence what our team will be doing this year to partner with our clients to create that level of expectation and clarity around their annual planning process. we're going to be doing some of that with them this year. But man, when we get to the end of the year and it's go time to really get into the annual planning, this is the spirit of what we will attempt to create in that partnership because it was so freaking motivating.

42:17 It's so motivated, so clarifying, so convicting. So anyways, I hope that was helpful. Here's a tactical thing I would encourage you guys to do. And I think it is like, for many of us, the ship has sailed. We're in route this year. We're starting to take action. But let me encourage you guys as key leaders and business owners, two things. One, if you're an organizational leader and this is part of your wheelhouse and responsibility, take those core values and go find a quiet place lacking distraction. and go through them really intentionally and really ask yourself the question, does your heart, your spirit align behind those core values? And as the owner of the organization or the key leader in that organization, are you convicted enough by them that you will allow that to shape your decision making and therefore to shape your...

43:07 the culture inside the organization. And if they are not there yet, they're not clear enough. If you can't tell a clarifying story of how these things will drive how you behave in the organization, let's start there. And if it takes you the better part of this year to land the plane on that, it's okay. Because they're not going to hinder you Right? They've already been as effective as they're going to be. But I'm telling you, they can be 10x effective if you do that. And then if you're not the owner, you're not the key leader, think about doing this for yourself, right? In your own personal core values. Because I think the net return of that will be exponential. I was snickering myself a little bit as you talked about these core values because the reality is I was the one who wordsmithed the old values.

43:51 And I think even in that, and oftentimes I'm sort of one of the words, I'm kind of the wordsmith in our business to one degree or another. And it's just funny that I think even in those values, when I go back and reread them, I did not feel inherently captured by them either. But I... But I was the one who made them sound, you know, good and whatever. And so it's just funny how a lot of times, right, we settle for kind of the obvious thing or the something that just kind of works. Like we did the thing. And I think what we've been talking about, what we discovered in this process is there is value in going another step or two deeper and saying, hey, am I really willing to align everything I do around these core values or not?

44:40 Are they really going to be the standard? Or is it just kind of a thing that's going to give us something to talk about? And you know what I mean? I don't know. I guess I did. There's a very big difference. Yeah. It's not a subtle distinction. And I think I undervalued the importance of that. But once you know, you know. Yeah. And certainly. You cannot know it. Yeah. So anyways. All right. All right. Thanks for hanging out with us, guys. We'll see you on the next one. 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.

45:24 Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.