Episode #123: CVC Success Tips And Tactics

CVC Succcess Group coaches Jerry & Sheryl Isenhour

CVC Success Group coach Brandi Biswell

Transcript

Jerry I.: Well, good morning, good afternoon, whatever time of day it is where you are listening in with us. This is the CVC Tips and Tactics. And today, you know I got a couple of members of the team on here because we wanted to share with you what each of us thinks are things that can make you successful. What are the tips, what are the tactics that we can share with you today?

So we appreciate you being on with us. So Sheryl, let’s start out with you, you’ve been doing a lot of interviews the last couple days, pretty intensive in your interview process that you do for a lot of clients. So you probably picked up some tips and tactics. I know you had like a 200 applicants for one job this week. What would you share with the people listening to us today?

Stay Ahead Of Things

Sheryl: Basically, stay ahead of things, do not let them get behind. You have to go at things forward; a lot of people tend to push things off that don’t seem important. But you know, my biggest tip to anybody is pick the one most important thing that will make the day better and do it first. And that makes all the rest of it kind of slide by.

Jerry I.: So that kind of follows the book that Gary Keller printed, The One Thing. You know where you’re concentrating on that one thing. Do you think that people get just so scattered because they are trying to accomplish too many things at one time?

Let us get rid of all the little stuff

Sheryl: They do. And then they start pushing some of the important ones to the bottom because they are the huge projects. It’s like, okay, I’ve got my checklist, let’s get rid of all the little stuff. But then you’re left at the end of the day with still the most important thing that you did; then the procrastination kicks in. And I think that’s a huge problem with everybody, is procrastination a lot of times. But if you’ve got only the major stuff left that you’re procrastinating about, you’re farther behind the next day than you were today.

Jerry I.: That’s it. So, what about you, Brandi? What do you see? What would you share with people that you may have learned in the last week from dealing with our client base, and with the real world, and then your position at fluids brothers? What would you tell people that they got to stick down to if they are going to be successful?

Brandi: How much time do we have? When you told me what the topic was, I like mind-mapped a bunch of different things.

Jerry I.: With all the values you got to share, you take as much time as you want.

The first thing would be commitment

Brandi: All right. I guess the first thing you would say is commitment, not motivation, and this kind of goes back to, I was thinking about this morning; it was one-degree negative, I think, 12 wind chill here in Kansas City. And my routine to get out of bed at four and go to the gym, and I did not want to get out of bed. I knew it was so cold out there.

So I did not have that motivation; the motivation was not there. But what I did have was the commitment, and so motivation is going to always wax and wane. So get rid of it, and just commit to what you’re going to do. Don’t be afraid to fail. In business, in life, no matter what it is, you are going to mess up, you are going to make mistakes.

Go above and beyond, especially in the workplace

You are going to take chances on projects, and they are not going to work out. And don’t be afraid of that, because that’s what actually makes us better. You know Jerry, I tell our clients all the time, I’m only able to coach because I’ve already done everything wrong, and I’m teaching you how to not do that. Go above and beyond, so especially in the workplace.

I remember when I used to work at the hospital. I would get in before anybody else in the morning and get things prepped, and I was often the last to leave. And that was seen by the higher-ups. And so, just always be willing to go above and beyond. Don’t be that person, especially if you’re a CSR that’s sitting at your desk and there’s downtime, don’t be that person that’s looking on the internet or looking at your phone; go and ask how can I help? Do you have a project I can work on? Communication, so when I ask clients you know what is their biggest struggle, hands down, they all say communication.

There is no such thing as over-communication

And so a lot of us do not know how to communicate properly, and we under-communicate. I always like to say there’s no such thing as over-communication. Have grit and perseverance, so I always tell my daughter, she’s 14. And she has a learning disability, and she struggles in school. But her teachers love her, and she gets straight A’s because she has that grit and that perseverance.

She has to work ten times stronger

She knows she struggles; she knows she has to work ten times harder, study five times harder on a test than any of her peers. But she does it because she has that perseverance. I wrote down volunteer, and this again can be for work or for home, but getting out in the community and volunteering, this is something that you can put on your resume that gets noticed when you’re applying for positions.

And this is something that it’s going to make you feel better about yourself, and it’s going to make you forget about whatever problems you have at work or whatever problems you have at home. Set boundaries, so I try to teach people; some of them have like thousands and thousands of emails.

Put a sign on the door that says do not interrupt

And so, I try to teach them to check email three times a day maybe only, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening. And if you’re at work, set that time aside, put a sign on the door that says do not interrupt, you know more for the managers and owners. And set that boundary that you can’t be interrupted right now, you are doing that task, and that’s your boundary.

With that goes along, though, make sure that you leave time for family time. You never talk to a dying person, and they say that they wish they would have worked more, or they wish they would have made a lot more money to leave behind. Because all you’re taking out of there is your body and not even that. So make time for family, and that goes along with setting those boundaries too. Do not let your customers call you at 11 o’clock at night.

We just set the boundary

We used to have on Google turned on, where the customers could submit to us at any time of night or day, and a lot of them seem to do it at like 11 o’clock at night or three in the morning. Where they could ask questions, where they could ask how much a cleaning is etc. And we just set the boundary that we turned that off because I don’t want to be answering those things at eight o’clock at night when it’s time to spend time with my kiddos.

Work when you have the most energy, so you can probably tell that my most energy comes in the morning. If you talk to me at six, seven o’clock tonight it’s not there, I’m checked out. So I have to purposely get into the office early and do everything very early in the morning when I have that most energy. Kind of going back to what Sheryl said, do the thing that you hate first.

So I always talk with everybody and our clients about making a list, and so these are the notepads I like because you can write down tons of things, you can date it. So, make a list for your day, and whatever is on there that you hate the most, do it in that order backward.

Prevent that procrastination 

That is going to prevent that procrastination. In two or three hours, when you’ve done all the things you hate, and it’s just the things that are fine to do, you’re going to have a much better day. Make sure that you set goals for yourself. It is great if you can set them, let your maker know them, owner, and have them participate in them.

Be a mentor

But set goals, and these again can be for personal or home. But you have to have something to reach to. We’re not robots; we don’t want to be just going through our day. Mentor and be a mentor, so the NCSG has rolled out the mentorship program. Sign up for it and be a mentor. And you will talk to people that have only been in the business for six months a year, and they are like, well, I cannot be a mentor, I do not know anything.

Everybody can learn from you

Not true; you have something to give. I know that there’s something that everybody can learn from you. That’s the great thing I love about coaching Jerry; everybody thinks that I’m giving information, I’m learning so much from our clients. And that’s what I love about it. I have more. Do you want me to keep going?

Jerry I.: Keep going; I am loving this.

Brandi: I just made this huge list.

Jerry I.: But let us do this, ladies, and gentlemen, so you are aware, Brandy, tell them how long ago I told you we are going live.

Brandy: About 20 minutes before we went live

Jerry I.: Correct. So, this is not a deep couple days thoughts that she is bringing out to you; this is what she has assembled in 20 minutes.

Look at the glass half full

Brandi: I just mind mapped, and I just wrote it out. I added a couple when Sheryl was talking because they made me think of others. So okay, so we’re going to keep going; look at the glass half full, not half empty, that’s never going to get you anywhere in life. No matter how bad the situation is, you can make lemonade out of it, as they say.

Nobody got hurt today

Sometimes, we will be having a bad day here; maybe we have had a customer call in that was just grumpy. Maybe a technician had a problem on the job, and we could take that and make it to where our day is horrible from that. Or we could say, you know what? Nobody got hurt today. Nobody fell off a roof; nobody was in an accident; it was a great day.

Work harder than your peers, and that goes back along with what we were talking about. You know, coming in early, staying late. Make sure that you’re the one doing a lot of the work and that that’s being seen. That is going to pay off in the end. Now with that, I have taken a vacation. Because you don’t want to be the person that works 365 days a year and never takes a break, that’s going to get you a heart attack. Jerry, you know about.

Jerry I.: Hey, I know heart attack, okay.

Brandi: Make sure that you take vacations, and you do build in that time off. So, then the others that I have, I love exercise which of course I am a big believer in Jerry, you have really got on the exercise train now since having your heart attack.

Brandi: How many pounds is it?

Jerry I.: That’s an eight-pound dumbbell, and a dumbbell is the right word for me, okay.

Brandi: Exercise is going to make you feel better. Again, I haven’t met anybody that’s like I love to exercise; I can’t wait to go out and run 26 miles. They love the feeling that they get from exercise, and they love how they feel after.

It does not have to be anything elaborate

So, work that in, and that can be as simple as on your lunch break, walking around the office, and doing lunges with those dumbbells that Jerry has. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. When it’s a nice day getting out on your lunch break and taking a walk, along with that, decrease your caffeine. So I’m drinking tea right now.

Caffeine can really mess with you. I love coffee; I’m all for having a cup in the morning. But if you’re one of those people are drinking caffeine throughout the day, that’s going to mess with your sleep. And believe it, they’re not going to mess with your endocrine system. So try to cut down your caffeine if you’re a huge caffeine addict. I think we already talked about setting goals unplug.

A time every day where you are unplugged

So, make sure that you have a time during the day where that phone is put away, that computer is turned off, and you are unplugged. And again, this can look like at work on your lunch break; you can just take a little nap if you have an office. Power naps are also a secret of a lot of very successful people. And a power nap is just a 15 to 20 minute close your eyes; you won’t fall asleep, you might not.

But you’re going to wake up, and you’re going to be refreshed, and you’re going to be ready to go. Eating right, again, Jerry, we’ve talked a lot about this since your heart attack. Nobody can think and do well throughout their day if they’re high on sugar. I love sugar; if there’s candy in this office, it has to be hidden from me because I would just eat it all. But I know then that I just feel like crap, and my body just wants more and more sugar.

Make sure you are eating right and feeding your body

So, make sure that you are eating right and feeding your body. Along with that goes taking your vitamins, Sheryl I know you and I both take a lot of vitamins. So making sure that you’re doing that, you know they’ve proven with COVID, some of the studies have showed that vitamin D is very effective against it, vitamin C. So make sure that you’re getting those nutrients for your body. I don’t know if I said sleep yet, but I love sleep. I was the kid in kindergarten when they would say its nap time, and everybody was complaining; I was already in my mat and had been asleep for 10 minutes; I was mad when they woke us up. Get at least seven to eight hours of sleep, don’t be the person that works twenty-four hours. I know you’re out there, I know you’re saying well, I feel great on four hours.

You may feel great, but what’s happening inside your body is not great. So get seven to eight hours, if you can get more, great, I prefer nine. Read books; we talk about this a lot. The most successful people are reading books. I think I have a copy back here; I might have taken it home of your book Jerry, which is a great one to read.

But you have to be constantly filling your brain on your own with education. That can come through books; it can come through podcasts. Constantly be learning and improving yourself. And I think, believe it or not; I’m looking at my list Jerry, I think that was all that I had. Okay, I apologize; I’m sorry I had one more; keep clean.

And what I mean by that is don’t have your office to where you’ve got backs and stacks of piles. I know people say they work well; they know where things are at. But I promise you if you keep it more tidy and organized, you are going to have more energy. That was my last one, I promise.

Jerry I.: Okay. So you know, Brandi, you just wrote that book I have been trying to get you to write. What we get done, I’m going to tell you to send this to my editor, and yes, I think you just wrote your first book. What do you think, Sheryl? I have been on her to write a book.

Sheryl: I am impressed. I think she should do that because the thing is, a lot of times if we could just give Brandy first lead, you and I could just sit here and watch.

Jerry I.: That’s it. So if you’re watching us right now, if you agree that brandy needs to write a book, put it in the comments. Because I’ve been pushing her on this for years, it was a hard time to get her started doing videos, but she has come out of that shell, and there you go. Brandy, please write the book, your first request, okay.

Clients that are overwhelmed

Hello people, join in here, tell her she needs to write that book. She got so much information to share. So here’s mine, here’s the thought process. Brandy, Sheryl, do you agree that we talk to clients all the time that are overwhelmed? Do you all see that?

Brandi: Yes.

Sheryl: Always.

Jerry I.: And what happens is they go off in all these different directions, all these different tangents, and they never get it accomplished. And you know, I deal with clients with all types of personalities, and one of the clients that I deal with, that really moves very rapidly, sent me a list the other day.

How many would you list?

And Sheryl, it was all the holes in his business. Can you imagine this list, Brandi, if you wrote the holes down in Flues Brothers on a list, and you listed all those holes, all those fumbles? How many things would you list?

Brandi: I mean, I think everybody would have quite a few. The goal, though, would be to be working on those and have less and less each week.

Sheryl: The first step, they now have admitted their holes.

Jerry I.: Right. So this is what we had our coaching conversation on, and I told him what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to prioritize what is the biggest hole that you’re falling into. And Brandi, you know, like we had joint clients, you and I have had conversations this week. And in fact, you, myself, and Sheryl we had a joint conversation this week about a hole in their system.

Pulled the management team together

And that is what you got to recognize and come up with that strategy. Earlier this week, you and I had what I called a Kaizen meeting, which is where we pulled the management team together at a company, and we went through the problem that they had. And then we had to keep them focused if we were meeting to come up with a resolution to that. And since that meeting, the person who took ownership of that task is now coming up with a really neat SOP of how to get there. But you know it’s got to be concentrated, somebody’s got to have ownership of that role. But that’s what you’ve got to do; you got to analyze what your problems are.

You got to analyze what’s going on in your business, and from that point, you’ve been got to develop the strategies to come out of that hole. You know, one of the great guys that I really admire and Brandi, you recently got the opportunity to listen to him. You were actually a customer of this company, who is Tommy Mello at A1 garage doors.

And I got Tommy to come in, and he talked to our client base in a group coaching call. And one of the things that Tommy did is he shared about just like you did, about all the failures you’ve had and where you keep coming up and learning from that standpoint. You know it’s like you bring up my heart attack, that was a recent failure, and that was chaos in my life, and I’ve got to change a lot of my habits.

And the neat thing I’ve got, I’ve got these two ladies here that are behind me, it’s like earlier Brandy sent me a note said she wanted to check out my exercise program. She wanted to know about my food program; in fact, she questioned while ago, what’s in that glass you’re drinking, Jerry? Okay. So when you go there, but that is because they care about me.

Go and be that success

And that is what you have got to do if you are going to go and be that success; those are the tips and tactics that is there. So Sheryl, what are your thoughts? Anything you would like to add to this?

Sheryl: I just want to see people move forward. Always look in the mirror in front of you or the window; never look in the mirror and look back. We all tend to look back at the things we’ve already done, and the bad part is we’re so stressed out, we make the same decisions again. Look forward, moving the right direction; I think that, to me, is one of the biggest tips that anybody ever needs to do. Quit looking backward.

Jerry I.: Okay. And Brandi, what about you?

Brandi: Well, I am a very visual person, so when you are explaining about the holes, I am like picturing a boat and plugging up those holes. And I think what happens to a lot of us, myself included, I’m guilty as well. Is we go through our day, and we’re tired, and we’re just trying to get the essentials done, and we’ve got so much else on our plate.

And we’re putting out fires over here, that we know those holes exist, but we don’t devote any time to making them better. So my advice would be I love that that person wrote down their holes, write them all down, and work on one or two a day. Again, you’re not going to feel like it; the motivation may not be there, but commit to it.

Jerry I.: That’s it, and that’s what you got to do. And one last thing that I want to share with you is, if you’re in business, you’ve got to set up a business to what you want. And I see often people will be looking at other people’s businesses, and they want to get there, they want to be that person.

But what you have got to do, and Brandi, I think you are an excellent example of you and Jeremy, said what you wanted the size of Flues Brothers to be. And there were definite reasons of why you did not want to exceed that size.

You Got To Grow

And that is what a lot of times, I see people that have they are doing podcasts and they are telling you, you got to scale, you got to grow, you got to grow. Well, that’s great if that’s what you want to do, but never set your business dreams or your personal dreams. It is just like vacations; if I ask Brandy where is one of your favorite places on vacation, she is going to tell me San Diego, California. Would that be correct, Brandy?

Brandi: Absolutely.

Jerry I.: Now, for me, I have no desire to go to San Diego; I am not crazy about Southern California. I’m going to pick a Caribbean Island to go to, okay. So we’re different things, so different ways. And that’s what you got to do in your life. So Sheryl, what’s your thoughts on that? Would you agree with that?

Sheryl: I agree totally. It’s just the thing is everybody needs to, like Brandy said, sit back, prepare and go in the right direction. Because we’re all guilty, we are all guilty of doing all of these, all three of us are sitting here telling you things to do that we know ourselves that we’re guilty of.

But we keep working at it day after day. And I think that’s why we all can coach, we’re not perfect. And like Brandy said, we’ve done made the mistakes. So that is why we try to help other people, not make the same ones at least.

Jerry I.: Fantastic. So Brandy, what is your imparting wisdom to the world that is watching and listening to us today and on the replays?

Write down 3 things 

Brandi: Well, if you are watching and listening, I would just say write down three things right now, three holes that you want to work on. And within the next hour or so, start working on at least one of those holes; no matter what comes up, commit to it.

Jerry I.: Okay. So if we can help you in any way through our coaching and our training services, you’re seeing an email address coming across the bottom of your screen. If you’d like to talk to one of us, we’ll be glad to set up a phone call.

There’s no charge for that call, so we can get to know you. You can get to know us. We’ve got a lot of subject matter experts here, and we bring a lot of expertise to the table. And I can tell you that our goal is to take every client to the destination that they want. We do not set that destination, do we, Brandy?

Brandy: Absolutely not. And I think that is the thing that I love most about this coaching group.

Jerry I.: Yes, it really is. Where you are our concern, so appreciate you joining us today for our tips and tactics; tune in next time. Usually, I do things on Wednesday, but I’m moving it around a little this week, so just watch when they come out.

Feel free to share this on your social media if you care to do that, we’d love to get our words out to other people. And with that, we’re out of here, we’ll see you on our next broadcast of the CVC tips and tactics.