Episode #93: What Have You Learned, What Have You Implemented

CVC Success Group coach, Jerry Isenhour

Video Transcript

Jerry: I want to welcome you to another episode of the Chimney and Fireplace Success Network. This will be episode number 93; and the Title for today’s episode is; “What Did You Learn, What Would You Implement” every episode of the Chimney and Fireplace Success Network is sponsored by the CVC success group. 

Keep in mind, what is our mission? To provide the tools to make your business dreams into your business reality, isn’t it time that we have a chat if maybe our systems, our processes may be exactly what you need; to help you through the challenges you face each and every day in the world of business. 

So let’s move on with our podcast today, you know; I was sitting here, and I put together this podcast. It’s right at 10 weeks. So, it’s what I call my day of realization. This was the day that I boarded a plane leaving New Orleans and arrived at the HPBA show, which is an annual convention and trade show for The Hearth, Patio and Chimney Industries. 

And it was really a shock later to find out that the building we were in having this large trade show will be turned into a field hospital for the City of New Orleans. So what’s happened since that time, let’s face it. It’s been 10 weeks of confusion, 10 weeks of frustration, 10 weeks of people looking for government programs such as: grants, PPP loans, and disaster loans.

This has yielded some actions, where we saw changes happening; not in the every month, not every week, not even every day. But often the changes were coming at us every hour even to this period. As we look at business a day in this new world, which has now been presented with; and my friend and mentor; Randy Pennington calls it “The New Next”. 

We see steps they that have to be taken that only a short ten weeks ago, no one had any idea that we would be focusing on these type of things. How did we know that the focus on safety would change from fall protection using roofs in a staid mood to virus protection? 

Sanitation of washing our hands, of wearing respirators, of putting on a mask, coming up with totally new ways to mingle with our clients and their homes; for those of us who travel for a living; it’s also been 10 weeks of significant change.

 Airline Travel is down drastically, this estimated at 94%. Today as I review the estimated unemployment figures are at 30 million, and we now hear a new word to describe the State of Mind where often in which is called Zoomed out because of so many Zoom meetings we have likely tuned into

We often commonly felt zoomed out because we have used zoomed in to meetings so much. Even industry trade shows and conventions became online conventions, and virtual trade shows. As I mentioned while ago, today’s unemployment is estimated at 40 million individuals; and their businesses across America that are suffering due to the shutdown, the economy, and their markets.

 Now, you may not be feeling this or you may be feeling it. Another economic factor that’s hitting a lot is lower cost of all; which has hit some marketers dramatically, while others look at the lower cost of gas as a gift from above, and over the past ten weeks; some in our industry have suffered immensely; all others are reporting record sales and profits right now today. 

We also see where regulations and some states are even extremes, and in others it seems like the covid-19 virus quite simply never existed there. So, what is this point to today for business owners?

We need to fully understand the economics of our own areas of business practice. What’s affecting business where we are? During the most recent crisis the issue of doing business in the New York state of Pennsylvania areas; they were vastly different from the way business is done in Kansas, Alabama, Oklahoma are other similar sites. Even today while wearing a mask is common in some areas, in other areas, you hardly see anyone wearing a mask, and the differences are much more than that.

 If you are located in an energy producing states such as Texas, the world is much difference; as they’re being hit very hard due to unemployment, and due to all industry layoffs due to the downturn in energy demand and costs. You see again, it comes down to us as business owners. We must understand the needs of our own markets, and we must understand the customers of our market.

And just as business changes in different regions, so does the needs of the individual markets as their customers have a different demographic.  In our business, we hear the frustrations of these different regions on an ongoing basis, because we have clients that do business in these various regions of the country and why we develop programs for each of their individual needs, this is the reason many chose to work with us as clients. We do not have a 1 size fits all program or process. 

In our coaching practice. We gear our services to the unique needs of each of those individuals. There’s no one size that fits all for everybody, and that’s where I want you as a business owner to look.

What works in other markets might not be your magic beanstalk. What’s your business go? What’s your perfect business? And as my friend Ellen Rohr has often said in a lot of her presentations, what makes for your perfect day?

 You see the perfect day for each of us is going to be different, because we each envision it differently as our perfect day. Not as what another says it should be, you know, as I go through these thoughts that I have today. It takes me to words that I said last month; and articles, and Publication I wrote the words. 

Did you waste the crisis? That was the last month when the crisis is going on, and many did waste the crisis. But today I got two particularly important questions for you:

1. What did you learn from the crisis? The failures that may have occurred, and the scope of what you learned.
2. What would you implement in your business as you move through and out of this curve? You see, this is what great minds often do; they use the experience of pain and take the lessons they’ve learned from pain to construct the path to move to a much higher level that will lead them to be better prepared for future episodes of chaos in their lives.

And that’s what we have to be aware of, there may well be future episodes of chaos. And what we need to be able to do is take the lessons we’ve learned as tuition and use that to prepare for the next crisis that may hit at any time.

So it brings the question to you. What did you learn? What were you doing as you move forward? I’ve got a couple questions I want to ask you, and think about this; you know, as you look back, think of back earlier over that ten week period before it began.

 Do you realize that you were running down a road at record speed, and business was booming? Everything was good. No one was predicting what was getting ready to happen in the middle of the March, when a virus decided to unleash itself on the world. 

You are running down a road. You’re traveling at breakneck speed, and all of a sudden the largest pothole that you can imagine loomed right in front of you. So what do you do, you put on the brakes? Hopefully in time that you did not fall into that pothole.

So here’s the question for you that I think are vastly important to ask ourselves each and every day now; what does this crisis reveal about the culture of your Workforce, what did you learn about your own people?

2. Did this crisis reinforce on you the need for a budget that includes placing funds into a reserve fund, where if there’s a future crisis such as this, would you have the reserves funds to make it through? What did the crisis reveal about your Workforce? What did the crisis reveal about your own fears? 

And lastly, what was the most significant pain you underwent? And more important than that, what did this teach you?  See, what you need to do is use this past 10 weeks as a form of tuition, to build yourself and your business to a higher level.

Often as we look at life and what we go through, it is pain that makes us to see the benefit of going through the pain of required changes. This takes us being in pain, we must make our decision that the pain of the change is not as bad as the present pain we are undergoing. 

And likely, some lessons and changes will result in pain if we’re going to make the changes that we know we need to do, it may involve some pain to get those done. So those are Jerry’s thought, as we end up after this 10-week period of life, this 10 weeks of chaos and confusion.

This probably been like no other time in our lives; again, remember how it was; we were rocking and rolling down the highway of a superhighway of business, always good. And same time, we know that economies change; and we have brought a record-setting almost 130 months of continuous growths, almost a hundred and thirty months of being better and better and better; and all of a sudden, everything changed.

The way we did business changed, the way we look forward is changing and we’re looking at things much harder and much stronger than we ever did in the past. You see, that’s what the business leader has to do. 

What we went through in these 10 weeks. You probably paid heavy tuition at points. You probably paid tuition, monetarily, emotionally and mentally, during this period. So again, it goes back to the title of this episode this month. What have you learned? What did you learn and what will you implement based on what you want? 

Because if you do those things, if you answer those questions honestly, and put together your path and the changes that you need to make in yourself and your business, the tuition you pay for would not be wasted.

 It’s going to build a better business, and it will build a better you.

 And with that I appreciate you joining me here again today on the Chimney and Fireplace Success Network. 

This is Jerry Isenhour with the CVC success group. Let us know how we can help you take your business dreams and turn them into your business realities. Talk to you next time. Appreciate you for joining me. Thanks always!

Thanks for joining us here each week at the Chimney and Fireplace Success Network Sponsored by CVC success group, providing you the coaching, and educational outreach services you need to move to your dream destination in business and in life.