140. The Heart of Small Business with Chris Lautenslager

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Smooth Operator/Podcast/140. The Heart of Small Business with Chris Lautenslager

140. The Heart of Small Business with Chris Lautenslager

CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML

As entrepreneurs, our heart and soul is invested in our business.

It’s literally part of our identity and a large part of what keeps us going.

But I think we’re all aware that many decisions were made by our government which greatly impacted small businesses across the country.

The good news is that seeing this happen has encouraged many to step up their own contribution, even coming out of retirement to contribute their knowledge and experience to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Which is why I couldn’t wait to sit down with Chris Lautenslager.

Driven by an unshakable desire to partner with the leaders of small and medium businesses, Chris founded GET LOOPED, LLC as a platform to showcase the value and benefits of a collective prosperity for people, businesses and communities. Today, he helps businesses and CEOs incorporate prosperity in collaboration with profitability into their business practices.

We explore:

- The impact of the pandemic on small businesses and their importance to communities.
- Company culture and employee value.
- Hiring and retaining valuable employees.
- Creating a fulfilling work environment.
- Team collaboration, value creation, and communication in business.

I’m grateful to have come across Chris and look forward to seeing the impact that he can make for our generation. Be sure to check out his book The Prosperity Loop!


Links

Meet Chris https://get-looped.com/

Learn more at https://www.adamliette.com

Activate The Warrior Within https://www.adamliette.com/awaken-the-warrior

The Greatest Opportunity Of A Lifetime...

20 Business Owners Lives Will Change In 2024...
​...And I’m Personally Inviting You To Be One Of Them!

The Greatest Opportunity Of A Lifetime

20 Business Owners Lives' Will Change in 2024

​​... And I'm Personally Inviting You To Be One Of Them!


Transcript


Adam Liette
Hey what's up smooth operators, welcome to this episode hope you're having a great week. Here at the time we're recording this it's approximately negative 300 degrees. Not really, it is chilly here in Ohio as we endure winter. But you know, there's so many things we can take from the time of the season where we can't get outside as much we can't play ball with our kids, we can't go running in the park. We can't do all of these things. But what do we have the opportunity to do I know what I like to do, I like to come sit on my couch, wrap myself in a blanket and wrap up in a good book. Because reading for me, it's one of my two main modalities for learning, reading and the other is this medium podcasting is where I've learned the predominant amount of my of the things that I pick up. I know video courses, a lot of you have those and I have one I sell as a coincidently. But there's something to be said about like these different ways that we learned and this nonstop kind of journey we're on. And I like to challenge you, as someone who's a professional who's coming up in the world who's starting to flex your leadership muscles to be constantly looking at the next Avenue. The next way that you can continuously learn apply just even the tiniest skill that you didn't think you ever wanted to learn but it's crazy when you do pick it up and you get to add another little tool to your repertoire. So much fun. And that's exactly why we're here today because I have Chris Lawton Slager with me. So Chris is a seasoned sales and business veteran with a master's in finance and economics from Northwestern University. He really has his like drive and desire to partner with leaders of small and medium businesses so much so that he came out of retirement crazy to found get looped LLC so get looked LLC is a platform to showcase the value and benefits of a collective prosperity for people, businesses and communities. Today, he helps businesses and CEOs incorporate prosperity and collaboration with profitability into their business practices. Chris, man, so good to have you on the show. How's everything going today?

Chris Lautenslager
It's cold here in Chicago, also Adam, and you want to know it? I can't think of a better way to spend the time than not a podcast with you and your audience.

Adam Liette
Fantastic. Well, we're here we have I have a cup of coffee. I'm not sure if you got one to keep warm. So let's jump straight into it. Chris, man, you got this like eclectic background and story. We could probably do the whole episode just on what brought you to this point. But if you give us the Cliff Notes, how did you end up finding founding this organization and pursuing this almost second or third life? helping entrepreneurs.

Chris Lautenslager
It actually is a third life. I've been, you know, I've been through a career in which I graduated from college, and I was a commodity trader on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for 11 years. So I was a professional trader, we had our own firm during that time and, and did very well. Technology came and changed the entire industry. And I saw that coming. So I did what we're supposed to do, I found out a lot of the rules, Adam, you know, I went to the best school I could go to I got a great degree. And then I went and pursued the best job I could possibly get. And that was working for a world class global financial institution in New York City was in the commodity sector. It allowed me to be able to interact with brilliant people all around the world. It allowed me to make a lot of money. It allowed me to acquire skills and an incredibly high level. All the things that, you know, are part of quote the American dream. And I was miserable. And that's a common story I'm finding out because the American dream isn't necessarily your dream, or my dream. It's the dream we've been told we're supposed to have. And really, this last quarter of my life, this experience of coming out of retirement and we'll talk a little bit about why did that is really about pursuing my dream, pursuing the dream of helping others pursuing the dream of creating a better world, pursuing the dream of supporting small businesses because they're so important to every aspect of our life. I just felt that was the next right step to do because, you know, you talk about retirement, retirements, neither one of those things that were sold as we're supposed to do And what I found is that I've retired from a great career in New York City and moved to my dream location. I've been to 49 of the 50 states. If you're asking Alaska is the one I haven't been to yet, yet, I'm sure I'm going to be there. But it's retiring in Breckenridge, Colorado, my favorite state, and one of my favorite towns, because I love the outdoors. And I love to ski and I love to bike and golf and hike and all of the things that retirement were supposed to entail, which they didn't tell. It was so unfulfilling for me. Now, for some people, I'm sure that that's great. But what I've learned, and doing some self examination, particularly during the pandemic, was that I am really engaged in knowledge, I'm engaged in interaction with others, I like to build things. So just because I'm supposed to retire, doesn't mean that that's what's going to make me happy, doesn't mean that you can't balance those actions. But being engaged and having purpose and helping others has really reinvigorated, repurpose my life in a manner that's been incredibly joyful. So why did I come out of retirement, so to speak, to do this? Well, it was the pandemic, it was watching. All of those small businesses being told that they couldn't, that they weren't essential that they had to close down that they had to sacrifice. And it just seemed so unfair, that they were the ones doing all the sacrifice. I didn't see Walmart sacrificing. I didn't see Walgreens sacrificing. I didn't see a lot of companies sacrificing. But I saw a lot of small businesses being closed. And that just ripped my heart out. Because I knew what that meant. I grew up in a family that was a family small business. My father, he had a small paving company. And it was our family's heart and soul. It was like another member of the family, we were all engaged. And I just envision what would have happened if he couldn't work for such an extended period of time.

Adam Liette
With all that firsthand, where my wife runs a daycare, and my even at the time, I've been working online already since 2017. So like the pandemic hit, and I actually got busier, like, the online company took off, before I knew I was working 100 hour weeks, I saw her identity be taken away from her. And like it was a part of her soul was ripped out because she couldn't like that. That was her passion. And she was giving of herself through it. Yeah, it was a way to make a living. But it's way more than that. For someone that's running and owning a small business, it's it's part of your identity.

Chris Lautenslager
Very much so very much so and when and when that you had that gaping hole there with the uncertainty of when or if you'll ever be able to return what that might look like. And then of course, the financial insecurity that's associated with it. Just devastating, you know, we're only beginning I believe we're only beginning to feel the repercussions, the psychological and, and financial repercussions of some of the decisions that were made in regards to how they impacted small businesses. And that was part of the impetus of saying, I don't hear anybody out there saying that we need to support small businesses, we need to actively make choices to nurture the growth and development of small businesses, because it's a choice. You know, one of the great things about capitalism, particularly here in the United States is that we have choices, we have unbelievable choices. Every dollar that we spend has an impact every consumer choice that we make as an act. So do we want to support a big box store that doesn't care about their employees whose only focus is increasing shareholder value? Who takes those profits and sends them off into unknown areas? Most certainly not your neighborhood or community, or do we want to support the local restaurant where they know your name when you walk in the door or the local bookstore? I as you can see, I buy and read I get a lot of books, I read a book a week. I love books. And I buy every book that I have from my local bookstore. Jordan and and, and, and Keith are great friends, I walk in there, I talked to them about their families, I talked to them about how business is going. It's part of the community, they care about what's going on with their customers, they care what's going on, just on in front of their store on their on their, on their sidewalk. They care about the services that are being provided to everyone in their community. So they're part of the fabric. They're part of what's keeping life and society and our communities, part of the goodness of our lives. So if you make that choice to support your local business, and my, to me, it's an easy choice. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you because I have to tell you, those CEOs of large organizations that are running all of those for profit box stores. They don't, they don't think about you. They're not. They're not anguishing at night about whether or not they're going to take care of your neighborhood. I have to say, they're not always anguishing about whether or not they're going to keep their employees employed. There's not a small business owner, that I know of, that that's not their number one concern, keeping their people taken care of. Those are the people I want to support.

Adam Liette
And that's I mean, that's kind of stuff keeps most of us up at night. It's the uncertainty and, and I think it's born out of it's like, that carry you said that the small business owner has for the community around him like we, as small business owners have that same care for, it becomes part of your family, like it's an extension of you and the people you hire they bring in, especially those people that stay forever. I mean, you just get so close because of that relationship that's developed, that it is like losing a part of yourself if you have to let them go. And so

Chris Lautenslager
you do everything you can to not have that happen.

Adam Liette
Yeah, including not paying yourself, including,

Chris Lautenslager
including suffering through ISIS. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I don't know, a CEO at a large public organization that will withhold pain himself, to support his employees, just doesn't happen. So you know, it's an easy choice for me. And I didn't hear anyone out there saying, let's recognize and remember that small businesses are the fabric of our community that small businesses are the backbone of our country. And it used to be a common saying, You never hear it anymore. No, you know, what, 99.9% of all registered companies are small businesses. Oh, yeah, approximately 47% to the private workforce, are employed by small businesses. But because they don't lobby together, because they don't influence policy together, you just don't hear about it anymore. They just don't have quite the influence that they used to anymore. So I believe that it's not about policy, per se, I don't want to get into politics. It's not where my love or focus is, I want to get into the recognition that we need to help each other, that it's in all of our best interests to help each other, particularly our neighborhood businesses.

Adam Liette
So interesting, and I think so much of the corporate excess of the 80s and 90s has now bled into my generation where I'm technically a millennial, don't judge me for that. I'm gonna like a late bloomer millennial, but like, in my generation, like the attitude is all business owners. Like all sorts of curse words used to describe us. And they just don't care. And I'm like, Dude, you have no idea. Do what what goes into this, you have no idea how much heart and soul you're you're putting into to what you're building and so like, what can we do within our own organizations? I think to help build that. That culture that almost permeates to the outside like that people can feel that there's a different culture within our organization.

Chris Lautenslager
Well, it all starts at the top and it's a great it's a great point, Adam, if you have employees that are disgruntled You have a responsibility to change that culture. And actually, it's in your best interests. You know, millennials, 77% of millennials, state in a recent poll by Deloitte, that accompanies purpose is a significant factor in determining whether someone will join or stay at an organization. If you think someone's staying at your company simply because they're getting a check, you're in the wrong generation. It's not what that's that's my generation, I was happy to get a check. And that's really all that I focused on. And that's an empty promise. Okay. The younger generation, the millennials and younger, they figured out that life is about much more than just getting a check. So as a business owner, one of the ways that I encourage people to change their culture is it all starts in changing their own mind. And the number one thing that you can do in regards to changing the relationship with your employees, is to stop viewing them as your biggest expense, and start viewing them as your biggest asset changes everything. When you view your team as your biggest asset. And by the way they are, they do all the work. They, I know you'd work hard as a business owner, I know you put your heart and soul into it. But I know for me, I can't do my job without my team is just too much to do. There's just too much to do. So you better start recognizing that this concept of being a self made millionaire is make believe there's no such thing. Everybody needs a News's help. It's just the reality. So start treating people as the primary asset that they are, invest in them. If you'd want people to believe that you care for them, invest in them, help them acquire greater skills up but they're gonna leave. Not if you treat them well, not a few. Give them the vision of where we're going together. Not if you give them purpose, not if you continually reward them with things that they care about. And what I found is that my employees care about learning, they want to acquire more skills. It's the number one thing that I can do for people is to buy classes for them to buy instructional experiences for them to give them more responsibility. And is it going to be exactly the way that I would do it? No, you know, one of the books that I read is, is is Martel's bike that buy back your time. And he talks about that, if you're doing all the work yourself, you don't value your time very much. And it is the only variable that we can't recreate that we can't get more of it. Once you define how much your time is worth, then allocate out all those other services. And he makes an important point. If it comes back 80 to 90% as good as what you would like, that's a winner. Yes. That's a winner. And if it isn't, then it's your responsibility to get them up to speed. Now, I'm going to put a caveat. Okay. People with difficult employees have only themselves to look at the mirror and feel responsible about it. Okay, it's not that employees fault. You're, as the business owner responsible for that employee, you're responsible for hiring that employee. Okay. So I think the hardest job that a business owner has, and the most important job that a business owner has is hiring the right person. Okay, yes. And if you're only focusing on skills, you're missing the boat. It's about it's about their values. It's about their contributions. It's about their attitude, you can teach skills.

Adam Liette
Okay, 100% I almost accidentally hired an assistant for myself when I was director of operations for a while. And luckily, I had a very smart business coach who we we were doing have multifaceted hiring process. And my coach says there's no way you can hire this person at him. I'm like, why not? Look at her credentials. They're perfect. Mike. Yeah, look at her discuss. Desperate, she's gonna drive you crazy. And you're gonna drive her crazy, there's no way you can make this work. So do yourself both yourself a favor and steer her in a different direction. So it's so interesting. Like,

Chris Lautenslager
I've been doing assessment tests, doing assessment tests. I'm a firm believer in them. As part of the preview as part of the interview process, really, it's talking to them about experiences, how they would, and then the interview process, how would they approach a certain tasks? It is, again, it's not just about the skills, do they need some of the skills you need? Sure. Let's take a simple one. I need a website designer. Okay. It helps that they have certain skills. But do they see the world the same way that you do? Do they interact with challenges the same way that you do? Do they accept responsibility and meet deadlines? This within your expectations doesn't always you don't want a clone of yourself. I mean, that's the joy of working with other people, as we all have unique and amazing skills. But the collaboration in the culture, so important, the integrity, so important. And, again, look at this in the long term, I can't emphasize enough that who you hire the hiring process, again, I think it's one of the more difficult but the most important job for particularly a small business owner, because a bad apple, a poison pill will kill your business. It will, it will take so long and can be so expensive to repair the damage, you might not ever recover from a bad employee.

Adam Liette
And that one hits close to home, because I think we've all been there in one way or another.

Chris Lautenslager
I've been a bad employee, a bad employee. Hard to say I have. I have. And here's how I was a bad employee. I'm a superstar performer in sales. Don't you know who I think I am? Oh, my God, what a poisonous attitude. Huh?

Adam Liette
was a little bit too headstrong Did you?

Chris Lautenslager
I can perform, I can generate huge revenues, treat me special. Poison, just poison. And fortunately, when I was fired from a really high performing job, the person walking me out the door said, Chris, you're so talented. You have to learn to get along. It's the best advice I ever got. The best advice I ever got. And when you're being escorted out the door, and in this case by security, because that's how it was done there in front of everyone with your shoe box. It's humbling. It's humbling.

Adam Liette
It has something to be said about being let go in that fashion versus over a zoom call.

Chris Lautenslager
For sure wish I could say I wish I could say that I've been a perfect human being my entire life. But there are periods that sometimes you need to learn some lessons. And those lessons usually involve a reasonable dose of humility.

Adam Liette
But that's what ends up being that's part of the mosaic of having experience and being you know, I'm getting up there but seasoned in it, you know, you've experienced things you made mistakes, you screwed up, you've, you got the t shirt, and now you're able to get back and

Chris Lautenslager
it's the some of the best advice that I can give to people is it's not about what you can get from them. It's about what you can give if you as an employee can walk into an actually as an owner, also, it's not what they can do for you. It's what you can provide for them. If you can walk in with that attitude of service, to your employees, to your team, to your vendors, to your customers. You're going to go much further than how can I maximize profit? How can I reduce expenses? How can I get the most from X, Y or Z? Those are all formulas for disaster as a small business and believe it or not, and I know particularly when you're starting up costs are so paramount in your mind. Costs are so paramount in your mind. Don't let them interfere with focusing on providing value so that you can increase revenues

Adam Liette
and I'd say like providing value and like contributing to people isn't always a monetary thing either. Sometimes monetary things are like the worst thing you can do. And so I'm gonna make another book recommendation, which seems weird as a business book, but read The Five Love Languages. Like and understand everyone's love language like mine is words of affirmation, like, I will take praise trover, I will take praise over a bonus every day of the week. It depends on how big the bonuses, but like I need that a combination

Chris Lautenslager
of both is the best. But it's you don't need to give the biggest bonus if that person believes that you value him out, I'll I'll go to the ends of the earth for someone who is an advocate for me, just like you were saying, I'm in the same way affirmation is just so important to me. So great advice. Super great advice, Adam.

Adam Liette
Well, so this brings us to like the idea of putting this together in a framework, hard to believe systems and operations guy, I love frameworks, I love processes. I love my nice, neat little checklist. And like I want to hear about the prosperity loop how that's put together, so that I can start forming that into my own process.

Chris Lautenslager
So the prosperity loop came together, when during the pandemic, and I was seeing all of this going on it, I had an opportunity to think and I thought, you know, like all of us did. And I had an opportunity to reflect on my family, on my, on my career, on my relationships, on many of the decisions that I made. And I came to the conclusion that work, small businesses in particular that, that they have the capacity to be so influential in the world, because I thought about what were some of the best jobs that I had, and what were some of the worst jobs that I had. What did I like about the jobs that I that I loved? And what did I really despised about the jobs that that I dreaded going to work and and I took those thoughts and created the prosperity loop that in conjunction with talking with a lot of small business owners, you know, what's been successful at your company, because the most companies have a lot of the same issues. And not surprisingly, the biggest issue that most small businesses have is employee related. And it came down to how do you enhance the relationship with your employees. And the prosperity loop was about six different steps. And the first step was about creating vision. Okay, having purpose. As we had mentioned earlier, just coming to work for check, is not only unfulfilling for your employees, it's unfulfilling for you. I remember when I mentioned that my father had a small business. And when I was in high school, during the summer, I would go to work with him every single day. And being in the construction industry, that meant getting up super early, we'd get up at four in the morning and go and have breakfast with all the local business owners at the local diner at 430 in the morning. And I remember driving to work with them at 415 on the way to to the diner and just going, dad, how do you do this every single day. You're up every morning and you're working late at night? How do you do this every single day. And his response was so uninspiring and sad, Adam, he said, What else am I going to do? And I hear that now, with a lot of the conversations that I have with business owners, they're sort of burnt out. The pandemic, the lockdown really took a lot out of them, they've lost the joy of what they're in business for and creating purpose. within your organization, your organization doesn't have to be about saving the world. It can be about creating a drive to support the cancer survivor of the wife who are supporting the woman who has cancer, who's your CFOs wife. It can be about creating a playground for those that are disadvantaged in the neighborhood across town. Having a purpose that everyone can get behind is really important not just for the employees, but also for you. So I talked about a number of ways that you can identify Add value, either for the company overall for yourself or for specific employees. Then I talked about having conversations being able to have communication, and what that looks like. So how did you collaborate with your team? Do you tell them what to do? I know that's the world that I came from, you could do this and tell me when you're done? Well, if people are walking out the door, it's because they don't want to be told what to do. It helps to ask people's opinion, it not only helps in regards to the culture, it helps in regards to the profitability of your organization, because it's the people that are on the front lines that have interaction with your customers that know a thing or two. And when you ask them their opinion, it helps value them, it helps bind them to the purpose of your organization, and it helps them feel engaged. So collaborating with your team, value creation, and is the third step of the prosperity though. And when I talk about value creation, most people think of how much is this worth? How much value are we creating? And really, what, it's more of a cultural value? What's the values of the organization, often reflected in the values of the owner? And what I mean by values? is not what's right or wrong, not what's good or bad, not the morals from the Sermon on the Mount. It's what generates happiness. What choices are you making? In your day to day work, that bring you happiness? How are you aligning your work, the choices that you make at work with what makes you happy? If doing the books every Friday night makes you miserable? Stop doing that. And you're like, well, it's gonna cost has outsourced that, yes. And it's going to bring you joy.

Adam Liette
So as much as your happiness, I guarantee that it's

Chris Lautenslager
so true, but people forget, people forget that there's a trade off, and that it's not always about saving, or making every last cent, spend the money to create your happiness, identify the things that bring you joy. Those are the values that I'm talking about. And then communication. This is still a lesson that I need to remember. I can't read minds. I can't read minds. I can't read my girlfriend's mind. I can't read your mind. I really, I might think I know what you're thinking. But there's really only one answer. And asking and having communication is so key. One of the things that I advise people that have large organizations that don't necessarily see all of their employees on a regular basis, get there early, or stay late. And talk to the people that are hanging around the company, create a dialogue, have communication, ask questions. Listen, okay, care for what they say. That is gold. In regards to building relationships and building culture. People want to be heard, ask questions, listen to what they say, respect their opinions. It's just so important to be able to have broader communication than just the core group of the management team that you see day in and day out. Other people want to be involved, allow them to be involved. And then this is a controversial one. Not to me, but certain business owners share their award. Okay. I'm not, I'm not recommending increase your fixed expenses. I, I hear you. I know how concerned you are about your salaries and your expenses and your labor costs. But that doesn't mean that you can't share the rewards. When you make more money. They should make more money. It's really easy to create incentives. It's really easy to create bonuses in incentives, increased productivity. You know, I was in sales I was very successful in sales. And one of the reasons I was successful at sales is I followed the compensation structure. I knew how I was going to be compensated. I knew how I was going to generate commissions. And so when I followed the compensation structure and generated commissions, I was always sort of surprised when management was like, Well, why did you do that instead of this, I was like, because that's what I was unsanitized to do. You can do that with your employees, but you can also give shared, valued incentives share the rewards of the success of the organization. And this does not mean a $25 Starbucks card, okay? It doesn't cut it, make it something that has value to them, doesn't necessarily mean a cheque, either. It could be a donation, could be a new iPad, it couldn't be a phone, take the time to understand what's important to people, but share the reward. Because the reasons that you hear that frustration from people that, you know, I don't want to be a business owner, that greedy old guy, or gal, as the case may be, is because they are when you don't, when you take all the reward, and it's not surprising that the people that have this type of mentality are also the ones that push off all the blame. You're responsible, you're responsible for your employees, help them, they'll appreciate it, you'll appreciate it. Then the assessment, how are things working? How are they not focus on the things that are working and try to minimize the things that are not make sure that what you think or not, or are working are the same things as as the rest of the organization, okay. It's there's a, there's an old statement that it's lonely at the top. If you're lonely at the top, it's because you're not doing it right. There's plenty of people that want to share and being at the top, invite them in.

Adam Liette
It's so interesting that you you've reflected on like, some of the most critical, or some of the ones that are that are wanting to grab it off in themselves or like also quickest to deflect the blame, and put it on you put it on something other than themselves. And I think what, what my mind continues to circle back to is this. This idea that, like being a better leader, and being a better person in our organization, it's it's not some magic trick. It's not some I have to go to a five day Tony Robbins event to figure this stuff out. It's really just taking an honest look at yourself and honest evaluation. And just making those incremental changes, or radical changes, however you're geared towards, I'm a radical change guy, I don't like to do incremental change, I'd like to do it like rip that band aid off. And it's going to be uncomfortable, it's going to stretch you in a new kind of way. And I think that's really part of the secret in in becoming that transformational leader that I think we all say we want to be, but do we all are we willing to put in the reps to be it? And I think it's an important question, ask yourself that,

Chris Lautenslager
right? There's the secret Adam is the reps, okay. I like to use sports analogies, because professional athletes in particular, do what it takes to win. Okay. All the suggestions that we're making here are not just about kumbaya feeling good. It's about making more money. I'm a capitalist. I got my master's in finance and economics. I've worked on Wall Street. I'm a capitalist, I believe in the possibilities, opportunities that the capitalist system creates. There's been no better economic system to raise the standards of living of millions of people and capitalism, use the system, but use it in the way that it's originally designed. Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, he wrote The Wealth of Nations. He talked about that there's the possibilities of capitalism being abused. The nature of capitalism is to raise the living standards of everyone. You know, it goes back to the old comparative advantage. If I'm a village that machine and near a village that does Hunting, if we trade with each other, everyone benefits, it's as fundamental as that if everyone is not benefiting, there is a problem in your system. So will benefit others is part of the message. But let me get back to the reps, professional athletes, they practice. So if you want to practice being a better person, invest in yourself, take the time to invest in yourself for me. Every morning, I meditate. Every morning, I journal every day, I read, and or listen to a podcast, I make learning a part of my life. I every single day, it's the practice, it's the consistency of getting better, of investing in your yourself of winning the day, every single day. And when you do it, right, this isn't the burden. This isn't something that I have to get up and go and make myself better. I swear, you feel better about yourself. It's a joy. It's it's about creating an environment and a lifestyle in which life is better. The other is, again, the professional athlete analogy, get a coach get healthy. And it doesn't have to be how do I become more profitable that business? It can be a coach in regards to how do I become a better person? How do I meditate better? How do I learn something that other people know more than you and take advantage of their expertise, because there's no faster way to improve in anything than to get expert help.

Adam Liette
It's, it's so present. And it's so like right there. Because I often tell people, one things that I teach is, I'll coach you to go from that transactional management do this, do that do this, like none of us actually want to do that? It's exhausting. But when we can move from that, to being a transformational leader, that's when your company, your organization, and you yourself change in this really beautiful way. And what I found now is all those self improvement things that you hear about, and like everyone has their morning routines, and if you're not doing them, you're kind of like, whatever. The funny thing is, when you raise your own standard, and you raise your own bar as the leader in the organization, everyone else starts to around you. But it starts with you the ripple effect you you have to be leading from the front. And I'm saying this, I'm 16 days into my new I'm going to improve myself journey. And it's been somewhat interesting, the latest iteration of Adam, which is I became 100%. sober. Congratulations, that, thank you. I did that for the sole purpose of this asking myself realistically, like, what is adding value to my life? And where is my time going? And I need to add, I just wanted to remove something that wasn't adding value to my life anymore. And as it happens, my wife was like, We should do this. And I'm like, You know what, you're right. And that's, it was like that quick of a decision, you know, you're right, let's do it.

Chris Lautenslager
And it's an easy habit to slide into that glass of wine, or two, or three, every night, or that beer watching the football game, and there's football on all the time or basketball or whatever your your, your joy, or even just sitting at Netflix. It adds up. So again, what do you do? Take, take the time, if you're gonna go on a retreat, and I've been to Tony Robbins events, they're fun. I come out of there jest. And being jazzed is fun, you actually get a lot done, but you have to do the work. It's not just the workbook that you do with the event. It's what did you learn from it? And what can I apply? And many of the things that Tony talks about is, what are you going to get rid of? What is interfering with you becoming the person that you want to be? It's not what what do I need to add to my schedule? It's what do I need to get rid of? So for me, I got rid of the news. And I did that many years ago. You know, it's like, how do you get up so early? I go to bed early. Why do you go to bed? How do you go to bed so early? I don't watch the news. I don't watch the political shows. I don't watch the craziness that's on television. And lo and behold, I sleep better because all those programs are designed To create fear and insecurity and chaos in our lives, hey, I'm not saying it's right or good or bad. I'm just stating facts. This is what they're about. They're not. They're not about providing information that that model has gone long ago. They're about getting eyeballs on on their commercials. And the way you do that is to create what human nature is focused on. And that's, you know, chaos fear. It's all it's all primal, protect, protect the tribe.

Adam Liette
You know, that one goes all the way back. That's like before, like written history back that tribal nature. So

Chris Lautenslager
as what's what's going on in our lives, and congratulations on identifying taking the time and taking the action, and it's a little uncomfortable at first. But it becomes so much easier, you know, it becomes so much easier, and your life becomes so much richer. But if you want to change your life, guess what? You got to change your life.

Adam Liette
Get to the one the one really interesting moment was I am a football junkie. So I'm a Browns fan, even though we just lost in the playoffs, sorry. But I had all my friends over to watch the game, and I'm here the sober one, and I wasn't gonna make a big deal out of it. But it's like, Adam, you're just like, yeah, it's, it's, why aren't you having a beer? And it's like, well, I just, I'm just not. Okay. And that was that. It's okay, I taught myself this story that was gonna be this big thing. And I better have this, like speech prepared for my best friends. And they I'm just like, I'm just not okay.

Chris Lautenslager
And they so stop they So stop thinking about it after that question. Exactly.

Adam Liette
Like, all right, like, Okay. Sometimes these things that we make a big deal out of, like, the rest of the world is kind of like, Oh, okay. Okay, sure. Whatever. That's fine. Yeah.

Chris Lautenslager
It's, and it's great. This has been fun, happy for you. I'm happy for you. And part of the journey is making improvements and, and testing, you know, test and adjust, test and adjust, test and adjust.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. I do want to respect your time we've been going on here, and I could talk all day for sure. It was fun. I think the biggest thing that I'm taking away, it's just that that continued continued reflection. And if you if you don't like what you see in the mirror, like imagine what your employees are seeing. And if you want to improve that culture, start by improving what's in the mirror. Is there any lasting thoughts or any things that has impacted you particularly that you can leave our listeners

Chris Lautenslager
with? Actually, what I want to do is offer people the opportunity to continue the journey with me go to www get dash looped.com, that's GTSL Op Ed, we're going to be offering a course on identifying and creating your values, and what that process is like, I know that for me, that journey has just been wonderful. Once you identify what brings you happiness, it's really easy. It's really easy to make choices to say, Hey, I'd rather do that because I know that makes me happy. So if you want to learn how to incorporate happiness into your decision making processes the leader, go to my website, and we're happy to send you some information

Adam Liette
absolutely will be linked in the show notes. And gosh, man, it's been an absolute pleasure, Chris, I can tell. Like you're it's really amazing when we see these lives that we've led, because we both have had interesting lives that brought us to this point. And it's truly amazing and a little bit intimidating to think about the journey and what it's all taught us and now allows us to do for others. So grateful.

Chris Lautenslager
Just so grateful. Thank you, Adam. I appreciate the opportunity to have been on your show and I wish your audience you and your audience. The very, very best have a great 2020



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