Watch or read the interview below…

Transcript

But before we get into that, I would just love you to just give us a quick brief introduction of, you know, who you are, who you help, and how you help people. Well, if you back the story up from the end and, and why would I be on a podcast to talk about how we launch, is that one of the things that I really found was that our ability to put digital products on the backside of businesses or even enter into a launch methodology was a very high accelerant into businesses that I was investing in.

So I look at service-based businesses, and then when you back that up, I’ve got about 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, or, or more if you count like my first business when I was 14 years old Mo Yard or something. But the decade prior to that, I flew jets in the United States Air Force. So I have a, a background in high performance leadership and,

and that’s kind of how I got into this segment. I, I have to ask you, Luke, have you seen Top Gun two? Oh, I love it. You love It. I love it. Yeah. It’s so good. You know, it’s funny cuz like when you talk about like cops or something that, you know, that they,

that you have to suspend disbelief if you’re in law enforcement watching a law enforcement show. So, you know, watching Top Gun, there’s a lot of things I’m like, oh, come on. You know, there’s, you know, little things like when they’re pulling their safe escape and the guy’s coming off and he can’t see, cuz he is, you know,

blinded by the sun. I’m like, put your visor down, you pig, you know, but obviously it wouldn’t make for good theatrics if they, if their face was hidden by advisors. So, exactly. I was, I was suspending disbelief, but I did really enjoy the show. Cool. Awesome. Well, we got that outta the way,

but yeah, you, you have been a fighter pilot for quite a few years and I’m just curious to, I mean obviously that taught you probably a bunch of lessons that you took with you and your life, and I’m curious just to hear what kind of lessons did you bring with you? I, I think that, you know, for a lot of what I talk about now on my podcast or,

or when I’m teaching coaching, mentoring, or even just in in general business ownership, is that it’s a lot of the components of leadership in high performance that I took out of the fighter pilot world. So the way that we set objectives, the way that we measure and we debrief against ourselves, our performance milestones. So, you know, you have a lot of parallels between business that are like KPIs into the fighter pilot world.

We measure everything. So we, you know, when I, when I was diving to the ground, we would say it was 30 degrees plus or minus five degrees, and I was usually at like 31 or 29 degrees. So my performance tolerances were very tight. But I think, you know, one of the, one of the things that, especially as I work with larger businesses,

so a lot of the folks that I work with are in that five to 50 million of, of revenue range, even a couple of companies up to about a billion dollars of revenue. And the bigger you get, the harder it is to start with the end in mind, that Stephen Covey principle, right? Right. And, and it’s, and it’s easier when we’re starting cuz it’s just us and we get to say,

here’s the next milestone, here’s the next ridge line that I’m gonna go accomplish. But as you get bigger, trying to move those things out further and further and further, and then get everybody else swimming in the same lane, it really comes back down just to the basics. So I, I spend a lot of time talking about the blocking and tackling of business.

Okay. You wanna elaborate a little bit more on what you mean by a blockchain Tackling? Well, yeah, so, so when I talk about it, and, and again, I, I think some of your audience may be just starting out, so we’ll try to apply those things and, and I’ll, I’ll answer it in two parts. The first part is when I talk about casting a vision,

so you start with what your business is gonna look like in 10 years. One of the things that I noticed about entrepreneurs is they play too small. They, they think that there’s constraints surrounding their business and they say, this sector wouldn’t work, or I don’t have the resources or the experience or the background or whatever it is. Especially coaches, consultants,

they, they say, well, I need to go get some more degrees before that would become possible, or certification or, or something else. And they give themselves the constraints first. And inside those constraints, it makes things become impossible for them in the future. But if we just take the constraints off and we say, what would, what would a business look like that supports the quality of life that I wanna have?

So for me, in my primary business, we’re growing to be a 90 million business. So we’re we’re going to that hundred million mark. And you go, what? Why is that important? Because we, we begin to then think and act like a business that’s growing to be a hundred million business. So if you played a little smaller in scale, you say,

well, okay, well let’s, let’s just say a million, you know, even if you’re looking right this year to go, I wanna get over the hundred thousand dollars threshold, why not think about what a million dollar business would look like? And when we cast that vision out to the 10-year mark, we then backwards plan and we begin to start acting.

And I know you and I are gonna talk, we can talk about the BDO have type of construct, right? We had to change ourselves first to become the type of person that can have the character characteristics of the business that we want. So vision 10 years, and then you come back down to what are we, what are we gonna do this year,

right? That’s the one year plan, the goals, and then we break them down into what are we gonna do this quarter? And then what do I need to do this month, this week? And then all the way down the pyramid to where we get to one single binary action that says, am I gonna do this or that one or zero.
And if you can’t answer how that specific task connects all the way up to the straight line vision of that 10 year trajectory, then you shouldn’t be doing it. And it’s, and it’s just easier when you’re a one man show or you know, you’re just getting started out. It’s you and a couple partners that you’re gonna go do these things and you go,

Hey, we’d like to build a, you know, a million dollar business and that, that becomes what we think is possible. If, if that’s, if that’s what the ridge line is for you, then set it out there. The challenge that I would give people is just double it. Just double it. Just, just assume right now that you’re a hundred percent off and you’re gonna double that thing instead of one,

it’s gonna be two instead of 90, it’s gonna be 180 million. And then as we, as we walk it back down the scale, it gets back down all the way to the bottom of the pyramid that says, what am I gonna do? Zeros. Yeah. And I think I agree with that. And people do tend to think small. I mean,

it’s a vision. So why not just really think big? I mean, why just stop at a million? You can probably do 10, you can do a hundred. I mean, Sure. As long as you just keep pursuing that dream of having something that is aligned with all of the things that you wanna do, I’m sure that you can do it.

I mean, we’ve seen people create multi-million dollar businesses Sure. All over the world all the time. When I, when I talk to entrepreneurs and, and I, I love young entrepreneurs discussions because they’re very pliable and a little, as we get older right? We get a little more jaded and we think we know some things and we get into this hubris mindset.

Sure. You know, you and I kind of talk about the dunnings kruegger effect where, you know, you get over the hump and you go, oh man, I got so much more to learn now. But when I challenge someone to truly think about what can become possible and then, and then we get specific about the barriers that are actually standing in their way,

we can start carving them away and we can start moving them down a little bit to go, well, that’s not, that’s not a real barrier. So, so there’s actually two components, and I talk a lot about this on my podcast, but the, the belief structure, the way that we perceive things in the world, right? So there’s,
there, there are the events, there’s the observations, there’s things that happen as true as it’s middle of the afternoon in Charleston, South Carolina, there is a body of water there. But that’s really, it’s absence something because I’m not telling you what that means for me. So when we begin to look at the, the language structures, what it means for me is it,

it’s a, it’s a place of peace and it, and it, and it makes me feel a, a sense of pride for having accomplished what I have and living in a beautiful home and, and, and et cetera. But without that context of what I’m telling you, you could say, so what I mean, do you go fishing? You know,

you wouldn’t understand what that context means for me. So the, the, the belief structures, the bs, right? That, that I talk about a lot is what really impacts people. And, and it’s also how I coach myself. Why then what a 90 million, why, why 90? You know, that seems kinda arbitrary, Luke. Why not just say a hundred?

Well, there was some, there was some reasons for it. But even then the challenge is that, that target was created three years ago. And as we’re on the path for it, you have to continue to make adjustments to say, is that still the accurate place? And for me, it’s, it sets it because it sets the way that we behave.

That’s it. It says we’re gonna begin to communicate, but you Actually, it’s not so much about reaching that goal. No, it doesn’t matter. It’s arbitrary, right? The, the universe doesn’t care what, whether or not I hit the goal. You, Ken doesn’t care whether or not I hit the goal or not. My family doesn’t care.
They don’t even know that the goal exists. But my business begins to operate in that capacity. So, you know, one of the other things that you kind of just brought up I thought was so salient is that when we talk about removing those constraints for us, one of the things that I always think about is as a child, someone would say,

think outside the box, Luke. And that, that became very prevalent inside my adult life. You know, you, you have to be creative with your solutions. And as I began to put together what being in the box actually meant, I think of it very specifically about how we, how we affect ourselves. So on the bottom of the box is our experiences.

That’s our, our education, our learning, our upbringing, our, our environment. What, you know, maybe we were raised in a religious com country, maybe we were not, you know, whatever it is, it’s, it’s, it’s our experiences that form the foundation of how we got to where we are. On the left side of the box is our emotional state.

And I’ll come back to that. Cause I think it’s one of the most powerful things that we can change on the top of the box is our values. So that, that kind of constrains us. Especially if, you know, if integrity is a high value for you or freedom is a high value for you, it becomes limiting in the top of the box because you say,

I I wouldn’t be willing to exchange this for that. And I know that you have young children as well. You say, I wouldn’t be willing to exchange time away from my children for a 10 million company or a hundred million company. Right? And then the right side of the box is the, your desired outcomes is your objectives. So when we define the box,

now, we can get outside the box and, and we can say, okay, what, what can I affect? And that comes back now, Ken, to that emotional state because in the emotional state, I can change in a day or even in a moment the way that I perceive the world. So if the box is actually the window into the way that you view the world,

I can open and close that box simply by my, my emotional state. So when you’re frustrated, anxious, nervous, aggressive, you know, whatever you’re feeling, that’s a negative emotion. It constrains your worldview and, and is one of the easiest things for us to be able to fix. Hmm. I love that. It was a great analogy because I mean,

just being able to reframe your thoughts and just be able to be aware of how you’re thinking it can affect so much. Just, you know, the energy that you’re putting out, the, the things that you’re doing, I mean everything, Right? Yeah. And it’s how you show up as a leader. And, and that’s, that’s the, the name of the game in anything is the way that you lead.

Some people would say, you’re always a salesperson or you’re always a marketer. What’s your number one job? I say your number one job as a leader. And it’s the same thing at home for you, you know, as you take your family across the ocean and you come over to the United States and and party in California with us, is that you’re leading your family.

You’re teaching them how to interact and you know, I don’t know how old your kids are, but if They’re nine and 11, Yeah. So they, so they speak English now, right? As they kind of get into that age. And, and, and it’s a great opportunity for them to practice with native English speakers, but you’re teaching them how to grow and you’re teaching them how to interact.

And that’s, that’s the name of the game for me, is how we lead others. And, you know, for me, my mind is, my mission statement is just to lead behind a trail of better humans. And I, I focus on that. So how I, how I face the world is n it’s necessity for me to show up each day is the best version of me.
And that’s, that, that right there is probably the one thing that I think is the biggest challenge is that it’s only me versus me. It’s not me versus you. You and I aren’t comparing to each other. It’s me versus me. And if I can make this day a little bit better than yesterday and tomorrow a little bit better than today, then I’m always on a progression of high growth.

Exactly. Yeah. I to I agree and I see it almost the same way, but it is more of how can I, you know, help my kids become a better person. Not not than me, I would say, but how I can help them deal with things that I had no idea about when I was young. I mean, the things that I’m learning now at the age of 40,
I mean, it’s amazing that I can give that knowledge back to my kids at the age of, you know, nine and 11 and how that will set them up for life when they’re in the twenties. I mean, they’re way ahead of what I was at back then. And just imagine how the opportunities they will have when you get to that point.

Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah. I, I think so again, one of the things that on my podcast that I talk so much about is, is brain science. And it’s the, i I would say that it’s probably the life study for me right now. And, and I don’t know that it would end because it, it becomes this abyss of depth to have an understanding of how the nervous system and your gut health and your brain all interact.

And at the most basic level, the reason I talk about it so much is because I teach persuasion and influence, you know, make, make no doubt about it, that when I’m interacting with my kid, I’m trying to teach them through persuasion. I I believe that I have a wider view of the world and that by assuming my view of the world,

they would be better off. Right. The, the irony of that is that my view is somewhat limited as well. Of course. Yeah. Compared to someone else’s view of the world. So when you look at the brain science, and, and again, it, it’s so important. It, I mean, mean it affects everything that I do.
It affects the way that I engage with others. It affects my empathy level, it affects sales and marketing the way that I communicate. But you know, at the root of it, there’s, there’s really only a couple of the brain components that we even really care about. The amygdala as part of our reptilian brain is really our fight or flight mechanism.

Yep. And then as it interacts with our reticular activating system, which is a, a very awesome concept is that it releases certain hormones. So we have serotonin and dopamine and adrenaline that get released that control a lot of those emotional responses. So the brain is, you become aware that you’re competing with yourself because your prefrontal cortex in the front of part of your brain,

your left and right brain, as you know, it is your logical brain and it, and it needs to be satisfied, but it’s competing with your reptilian brain. You know, your, your old portion of your brain that’s designed to do one thing, keep you safe, keep You safe, yeah. That’s it. You know, so, so when we’re,
when we’re battling that, and, and you now can talk to your children or your clients as you’re engaging them, as they’re going through a launch, and you can say, which, which part of your brain are you activating right now? Is this your prefrontal cortex or is it your, your reptil brain that’s being activated right now and you’re trying to be safe?

Are you afraid to spend money on ads? And, and, you know, that kind of gets into the other component of fear that that is such a powerful discussion as we get into fear and becoming aware of what those fears are. And I can kind of tell, happy to share that story as well, but as we kind of get into it and you go,

what are your fears so that you can become aware of them and then when they become manifest and triggers that you can now do something with them in a positive capacity. Yeah, I know, I would love for you to share that story, but fear is definitely an interesting thing because I did this exercise of, you know, if you say what if,

you know, we tend to go to the negative stuff, you know, what if this doesn’t work out? What if people don’t buy? You know, it’s usually negative and that’s just how we write. But I wrote down 10, what if possibilities of, you know, how could things actually happen for me in a great way? Maybe I could,
you know, build my dream home. Maybe I have a million dollar business. And all of that come, came from, you know, what if I launched my beta, because I’ve been holding off that for a whole year. But when I started looking at possibilities, what that could actually trigger and get started with that beta, suddenly body responded in the same way as we do when we have fear.

You know, tightening chest, sweaty palms, beating heart, all that stuff. But my brain was in a totally different place. Right? It was excited. It wasn’t fear, but the emotions was exactly the same way. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I think that’s important to note, and, you know, the fear discussion and, and I’m happy to go there,

but before I, I do, you know, your, your exercise there I think is such a powerful exercise to go, and it goes back to the concept of the box. There is, on the right side of the box is your desired outcomes. If the, what ifs are all filled with, what if I fail? What if I don’t have my revenue targets?

What if, what if, what if the, the right side of that box begins to come into the left and it begins to close and your worldview becomes constrained, right? So by simply making it become the, you know, the things that we can’t change are the really, the top and bottom, those become the governing versions of ourself. What got you to 40 years old likely can’t change.

You have your own set of learned and lived experiences, your education, your background, and then likely your values aren’t gonna change. There’s some values for you around business ownership. There’s some values for you around your family and your relationships and, you know, integrity or freedom or two that I mentioned often. If those aren’t gonna change, then how do you open your box?

Your emotional state and your desired outcomes are the only two. So when I begin to expect success, I begin to expect abundance. When I begin to expect the wealth I move in a more broad capacity. So that, I think that’s a very salient observation, and I think that’s a great exercise. I, I’m, I’m guessing that you do that with your clients because I think that’s a great,

you know, great exercise to do to make things become possible. But fear, fear is a, is an interesting thing. And I, there there’s a couple of very key influences that have happened in my life that have helped me come to this level of conclusion that I have about fear and how to do it. And, and the, the short of it is that I,

I’ve been married now for about 12 years, but around that seven year mark, we were having marital troubles, troubles. And we went to a marriage counselor, and the marriage counselor says to us, you project upon others the things that you most fear. And like, and I’m like, well, that’s not true. That that can’t be true because I’m afraid of heights and I don’t care if anyone else is afraid of heights.

Now, I I know that as people are listening to this and they’re like, well, I’m, I’m sorry, Luke, you said you were a fighter pilot. Yes. And I’m like, yeah, I, I am a fighter pilot and I can fly at a hundred feet above the ground at 350 knots and be completely fine, but if I stand on the ladder,

my knees start buckling. So when I hear this and I hear her say, you project upon others the things that you most fear in life. And I, and I got present to that, what was being manifest in my own marriage at that point was a frustration associated with my wife. My wife’s an author and she was writing a book, and she wasn’t completing it at the pace that I,

that I thought she should complete it at. And I would get frustrated and, and then I did what we all do. I should on her, you should do this, you should do that, you should consider this. Right. And it was then that I got very quiet and said, what’s happening? What’s, what’s coming up for you? So the next influence was,

was Marissa Pier, if you’re familiar with her in the United Kingdom. And Marissa Pier put it very eloquently when she said that there’s two things that people fear most in life. The first is the fear of inadequacy, and the second is the fear of judgment. And at the root of all those fears is when you can then figure out what’s going on with yourself.

So, you know, may maybe there are some fear of heights and spiders and some other things, but when I really come down to my own entrepreneurial endeavors, it’s not judgment for me because I truly do believe that it’s a, it’s me against me. And, and, and I am my own worst critic. I don’t, I am not externally referenced.

I don’t necessarily care what someone else thinks. I guess that’s kind of as I’m saying that, quite a limiting belief there because I, it is judgment, it’s just my own judgment. But for me it’s inadequacy is that I don’t want to be inadequate. And then I compensate for that. And, and the way that that happens in my life is I compensate through hard work because that was the identity I had growing up was that if you want it,

you have to work, work for it. Well, I’ll tell you what doesn’t become a 90 million business working for it. There’s not enough hours in a 40 hour, 50 hour, 60 hour work week or whatever, 24 times seven is for me to be able to outwork enough to get 90 million. So I have to then change to the type of leader that I’m gonna become that’s gonna grow the type of organization that grows to 90 million.

So parking those fears and getting present of those fears of inadequacy and judgment is truly what was the breakthrough catalyst for me as a leader. Because I, I see them clear as day right now when I get angry and I get frustrated with my children, my wife or my employees, and I look at it and go, what’s the emotion that’s coming up for you right now?

Go back to the box. Right? If I’m in an anger state, I’ve closed my view of the world. So I look at that and go, what’s coming up for me? Is it inadequacy or judgment? And then do I need to go deeper to figure out where that cause is coming? I mean, yeah, I, fear of judgment was a huge thing for me.
Hundred percent. So I know where that’s coming from, but you know, as you work through it and you get aware of it, it’s easier to handle, obviously. But I think one of the biggest things for me on that thing was the inner critic. I know you and I were at Business by Design Next Level event, and we worked through that right there.

And those two days working through the inner critic stuff, that was some really powerful stuff. Really helped you shut down that integrated that’s telling you, you know, that you can’t do it, you are useless. You know, you can’t, yeah. I mean, that was amazing. You know, Ken, I mean the challenge that I have, my children are a little bit younger just,

just by a couple years, eight and six. And, and it’s, it’s a very, it’s a very hard dichotomy to solve as a parent because many of the things that I tell my children are designed to keep them safe, physically safe. Right. Don’t do this, get in line, stay, stay this, do this. And it’s designed for safety.
But I mean, can, I wouldn’t blame you for feeling those feelings of an inner critic that, that it can’t be done because the entirety of your whole life, you’ve been told not to do that. You’ve been told to stay in the box. Yeah. And unfortunately we do it still to this day, you know, to our kids, but it,

we’re a little bit more aware of it, obviously We are. And it’s a dichotomy because you want to open up the world of possibility to them, but you also have an obligations that parents keep them safe and healthy and happy and fed and all the things that they, you know, I I think they still have a expectation for a roof over their head and food on the table.

Yeah. And it just means that we obviously care, you know, it’s not that the other way around, but obviously they also get confronted with a lot of things that’s emotional, you know, it’s not just about the physical things that’s happening. That’s right. I mean, kids are being bullied, you know, it, it, it’s just the way it is.

It’s always been like that. And that’s also something that we gotta try to protect them from. But I think that’s more of the things that we are talking about right here today that could actually help them. Yeah, that’s right. I love it. Hmm. But I’m curious though, how did you go from fighter pilot to building multimillion dollar businesses By accident?

By accident? You, you know, I, I, I think that much like many folks is that I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. And it’s interesting now because I watch what my peers are doing and, and I just, I, I can’t do that. It would, I would not be able to function. And I, and I did for a while after I got out of the Air Force,

I went to the airlines and I flew for Delta Airlines, and I was a pilot here in the United States, and, and every time I closed the door of the cockpit, it was like closing the jail door because it, my, but because my mind closed and it was so constraining when I wanted to be thinking so much bigger. So an entrepreneur’s bend or bite was almost a necessity for me.

But I started my first business now and, and this isn’t fair, Ken, because because I, I’ve truly had businesses, I, you know, I I I told you I mowed yards when I was 14 years old or right, or younger. I think at 15 years old, I, I worked at the golf course and then I changed that in for an entrepreneur route.
But like the first business that I said I’m gonna start a business was actually the business that I have today that’s an eight figure defense contractor, you know, in the United States. But, but I started that wanting to be a coach, and I thought that I would teach executives how to debrief using the fighter pilot mechanisms. And, and it’s, and the irony of it now is,

is 10 years later, it’s still what it comes back down to. What, what happened then was those fears of inadequacy and judgment. Because as I walked into this first meeting with a ceo, I didn’t feel like I had the level of expertise and the depth of understanding to know what that person was going through in order to teach them something. Right.

I made it all up, Ken. I made it all up there. There was no truth to that. And I delivered a phenomenal service and I gave a lot of expertise and I didn’t actually need to know what was going on at all in their business to be able to help equate those skills back to what I was teaching. But I abandoned it very quickly.

And, and as I look back in hindsight, it was fear of inadequacy, not judgment, because the person on the other side of the table wasn’t telling me anything about my level of performance. It was my own, here you go, limiting belief, right? Potentially it was judgment because it was me judging myself on that. But it was a feeling of inadequacy that said that I can’t do what I want to do,

and I stopped. And, and that right there, you know, at 40 years old, 41, as I look back, is the single impediment for the failure of every single thing that I’ve done in my life. If I, if I have quit on something, it’s because of a fair, a fear of inadequacy. And I’m not saying, I’m not saying completing something because,

because I completed my journey in the Air Force, I did that, right? I, I, I walked that from the version of, of what I wanted to complete and have for myself. So I wouldn’t call that quitting, but the other things that I quit and just stopped doing was almost always self-induced. There was nothing in the environment that would’ve precluded me from success in that endeavor.

And that’s probably the way it is for a lot of people. I mean, it’s, it’s only you who’s getting in the way, most likely. That’s right. Unfortunately, unfortunately, We also talked about you being an investor when we talked a little bit about this before we got on how you help people go through a launch, through investing. Wanna share a little bit about that?

Well, yeah. So one of the things that I look at, so I I I, I love service-based businesses, so, you know, I, not manufacturing, you know, not products. I like services. And when I look at services, one of the hardest challenges is client acquisition. And business owners spend so much time doing client acquisition,

client acquisition, client acquisition. I’m of the, the opposite. No, I think that once you’ve already got the clients you need to get more money from them, which means that you need to provide more value and more service to them, right? But, but once you’ve already earned that rapport, you’ve moved through the no, like and trust model,

you know, and it’s, it’s ironic because I do consider myself a very good marketer at this point, but I’m really a strategist and that’s, I, I see things for business owners that they don’t yet see as possible. So this, you know, we were kind of given this example of a recent launch, again, about a 30 year old business.

So very mature business, very solid service. It was an information product that’s been delivered via mail and fax before email advent. It is now being delivered digitally, but simply going through the process of saying you’re leaving money on the table because you’re not meeting the needs of your customers. They have a higher need that you’re not fulfilling yet. So let’s figure out how to box that up and let’s figure out how to put that into a,
a, a product. And I’ll skip to the end of it. It was 160,000 launch. So a very quick launch. Now, a pretty warm list. There was 500 members of the, of, of the information product before that. So I think the average price was something like $999 a year or something like that for that. It goes out weekly,

you know, whatever, it’s, it’s a forecasting product, right? But, but we were able to generate $160,000 in seven days. And the one thing that stood between the previous business owner and that $160,000 was belief, just didn’t believe it was possible. Wow. And told himself a lot of stories about, well, this market wouldn’t work, this segment doesn’t have that kind of resources.

And I’m like, you know, it’s a business to business. I’m like, I’m like, what segment business, you know, if they’re not making money, they would cease to exist. They’re in business. And I, and I know it’s a, it’s a commodities market, so I do do know there are some constraints there, but, but the market wasn’t telling him there were constraints.

He was telling himself there were constraints. That’s interesting because I, I’ve worked a lot of years in retail as store manager and area manager, and I’ve definitely heard something similar with all of the store managers that I work with as well. You know, oh, well in this town, you know, people don’t buy this and they don’t do that. And all these self proclaimed limiting beliefs that they have about their own town,

their own people in the city, you know, it’s, it’s so funny because it’s not really that different, you know, from city to city. I mean, most people Are in general the same. Yeah. So sure. Like, but there, there are some things, right? So when I go back to the belief statements and I say,

there, there is a body of water there. Yes. There, there is a body of water there. It’s the, it’s the Wado River, whatever, it’s in Charleston, South Carolina. I think it’s the Wado, I think the Cooper River’s on the other side. I guess I should know my geography better. If I was in northern Europe, there may be some things that would not be here.

Here’s a good one. Denmark, they love that stupid ass licorice, right? I, I mean, Jesus Christ, that stuff tastes so bad. You probably couldn’t sell a lot of licorice in the new United, United States cuz we don’t have a pallet for, for licorice. But you know, there’s, you know, a better analogy is it’s Charleston,
South Carolina, it’s, you know, any given day is 95 perc 95 degrees with probably 85% humidity. It’s hot. You probably should not sell jackets in summertime, right. In Charleston, South Carolina. That is true. And well, I can’t say that’s true, right? Because I, because I don’t know That’s true. When we take it at face value and we say,

this is our observations, we say, I, this, this wouldn’t work for me as a strategist, as a teacher, coach, a mentor, I go, well, let’s look at that and let’s figure out is it true? Would people never buy jackets? And then who, who would your target audience be? So yes, a storefront on King Street in Charleston may not be the best delivery mechanism for you,

but how about an online store? Is there a warehousing space? Do you have access to a vendor? Can you get some type of specificity or agreement with a, with a manufacturer that you can get a specific relationship to do dealing in the area? Right? So, so when we break it apart and I say, okay, what’s your observation? The relationship,

and this is, again, I talk a lot about linguistics and the study of language because I think that language is so empty in the way that we communicate. We just, and you and I are speaking in English, but, but even English is so empty and there may be some words that, you know, that are not English. And I think there’s some,

actually some German words that are very good, that are better descriptors, better descriptors of a feeling or emotion associated with an event, right? And I can’t remember the the word right now, but, but when we slow down and we apply and we look at what we’re making that mean, the language structure has three components is a cause, an effect,

and a complex equivalent. So if you’re asking me for my belief statement about something, what’s my observation? And you need all three parts of that belief statement, cause effect and complex equivalence. So the first piece of it, the cause and effects is an if then statement because this then that. But even that is speaking in a deletion, distortion or generality.

Because the next component of that is what does it mean for me? And the example that I always use when I’m teaching is if I were to say, my day is ruined, and you go tell me more Luke, and we begin to back it out and we, and the fully formed belief statement would be, my daughter didn’t brush her teeth on time,

which made us late to school and my day is ruined. Okay, well now at least it’s a fully formed belief statement. And, and you know, you’re laughing and your audience is laughing because you’re like, well that’s ridiculous. Like your, your day is not ruined because your daughter didn’t brush her teeth. But we do that to ourselves. We create these observations and then we make them mean something and then we back it up with our stories and we live into it and we hold it true.

It’s why hypochondria acts can actually manifest real illnesses, a physical manifestation in their body. Their body begins to shut down because of the belief structures that they have. And then they hold it together in their reality. And I just say, Ken, if your body and your mind is that powerful, why not just choose the alternative? Exactly. Why not just choose to be healthy and wealthy and have deep and loving relationships and then we begin to move in that direction?

Yeah. Yeah. That is a hundred percent true. I mean, the mind is incredibly powerful and unfortunately we not that aware of it so that we can live in that, you know, positive environment all the time. But when you get to start working on that and you start to get aware of all this stuff makes new things will happen. That’s right.

Is there anything that you feel like we left out that you wanna mention Through? Oh man, we, we got deep into it, Ken, you know, one of the things I just, I’ve, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you and watching your journey and your level of intellectual rigor that you apply and, and the way that you teach coach and mentor other folks.

So I, you know, I, I fancy anyone in your audience, fortunate to have the opportunity to engage with you and interact and, and learn from the way that you’re growing your business and the way that you can help others people. So I, I’m appreciative for your leadership in the community. Thank you. I appreciate that. What can people find you or,

you know, work with you or any Kind? Well, I certainly welcome ’em to, to hop on over to The Shift Work Podcast, but also you can just go to lukelayman.com and there’s all kinds of links to social media and I love engaging with folks on social media as well. Awesome. We’ll link up everything in the show notes so people have something to click on.

And thank you so much for spending time with me today. It was a really interesting conversation. I think we do really deep into some really deep stuff, so appreciate that. Thank you. You bet, Ken.