For the last 9 years, my two sons and I have made a pilgrimage to Camp Ridgecrest in Black Mountain, NC for the annual father/son weekend camp. 

A weekend marked by meaning, muscular pain, intentionality, and ibuprofen, this time may be the most momentous in our relationship as dad and sons.  The regularity, frequency, and repetition of daily life is wildly important, of course, and these dedicated moments of focused intentionality have bred special awareness.

This year was different for two reasons.

Both of my sons are now living away from home, each maneuvering through their own experience outside of the daily, in-person interaction of mom or dad.  Both were working as staff members of father/son camp for the weekend while I was able to participate as a volunteer cleaning floors and watching dads walk with their sons to play frisbee golf, hike through hornet's nests, and most meaningfully, sit and read what they had written.

There is a tradition that has been manufactured through premeditated repetition; if a dad is not careful, he will miss it and so too his son(s).

The second uniqueness of this year’s father/son camp is that a key leader and influencer of the day to day function of camp lost his father suddenly this past year.  What may customarily be a localized and isolated experience impacting only this leader, his family, and a few close friends; this year, every participant at father/son camp was impacted without most being aware.

A hallmark of father/son camp happens each year on Saturday morning when a couple of hundred boys and teenagers are ushered away from their dads to go lose themselves in jovial amusement for an hour or so.  During the hysteria of boy fun, not yet even laced with an ounce of Mellow Yellow or Sour Patch Straws, the dads are invited into a complementary experience.

For years, Mike Pineda wrote.

Every single morning, Mike’s family would wake up to an email in their inbox.  These daily emails became a stalwart foundation for anyone who made the time to read them.  Periodically, one of these emails would “leak” and those of us nearby would feel the coolness of wisdom blow to influence the direction of our day and our thoughts. 

I never met Mike in person, and yet Mike has a significant influence on our decision-making, our thoughts, and our parenting.  

Why?

Mike wrote.

Mike was not a New York Times Bestseller, nor a Pulitzer Prize nominee.  Mike was a husband, a dad, and a friend, just like many of us. 

Mike made time to write so that the meaning of his thoughts could slow-release into the narrow scope of his influence.  Mike’s son now oversees the camp where hundreds of dads are invited on a Saturday morning once a year…to write.

Each dad was provided with a piece of letterhead, a pen, and a beautiful place spread out to be alone.  Writing requires time;  time to think, time to reflect, time to go after wisdom, and time to get all of those thoughts down on a piece of paper so that the echo of their minds rings through the peaks and valleys of life's realities.  These dads write so their sons can see and hear what they really want to say in a way that leverages the value of thought and contemplation. 

Saturday night, each dad walks under the night sky with his son(s) to a place prepared by quiet and clandestine volunteers with a small firepot and a couple of chairs.  With limited distraction locked on the shimmering tongues of small flames, each dad sits with his son(s) and his letter(s).  

The son sits as a recipient, the dad as the giver.  Dad reads because dad wrote.  

I’m not even sure it was Mike’s pattern of writing that stoked the need for dads to write letters to their sons each year at camp; but I believe the continuation and longevity of this important rite has been, in part, perpetuated because of Mike’s precedent.

In business and leadership, we obsess about the power of writing things down because of the down-stream value of replicable systems and processes.  We push you to write because it unlocks the freedom of your team to run.

Now stocked with the deliberate wisdom of dads and granddads at father/son camp, sons all over can run with the freedom of knowing what their dad has to say about life; and more importantly about their son.  

Mike made time to write so that we could see, hear, and run.  

Owning and operating a business is a continual streak of tests that ultimately prove the trustworthiness of the business that built.  The business of scammers and hucksters fall apart over time forcing them to be in a state of constant reinvention and re-huckstering.

Traveling various parts of our historic world over the past few months has reminded me of the longevity and duration of things.  Walking the streets of Rome flanked by artifacts from late B.C. and early A.D. eras has a way of sobering the hardships of your time.

Walking through the carved caves of the Cappadocia region of modern Turkey sobers you to the challenges and hardships of previous cultures. 

Every culture endures testing.  Every generation is put on trial so as to mark the trustworthiness and endurance of that generation.  Endurance allows for longevity and the hope of seeing the days that are hoped for.

Without endurance, life is short and hope is fleeting.

The ingredients of our words fuel much of the cocktail of what is continually being tested through the swishing and swashing of the minds of those around. Each word that comes from the mouth of a leader is filtered through the taste buds of life’s mental truth machine and filed away in the vaults of our minds. 

“But you said” has caught many a leader in moments of double-speak not realizing that a mere fit of external processing was being received by all others as gospel truth.

In your strategy to be more decisive, more creative, more inventive, or more direct, always remember that “a fool who keeps his mouth shut is considered wise” (Proverbs 17:28).

Your words enter the world with the longevitous ink of a tattoo.  Once out, your words are nearly impossible to cram back in and the surfaced emotions are floating for all to sense and respond.

If you are a leader or an owner who uses words (ahem, all of us) then here are a few devices that will bode well for you to adopt and deploy.

First, be slow to speak and quick to listen.  

This was wisdom provided to a group of Jewish citizens who had been thrown out of their homeland and were living a scattered lot in unfamiliar territories.  Their house was not their home, their streets were not their domain, and the people were not their people.

Look, see, listen.  Very rarely has a winning strategy been speak then think.  The fire of anger is stoked by the sparks of unfiltered words.  

Want to throw a small group into a frenzied rage?  Make a habit of speaking the first thing that comes to your mind and you too will have created a remarkable and unfortunate riot, or at least a really frustrating place to work.

Speak slowly.  Listen quickly.

Second, place a timeline on your ideas.

An idea is often birthed into an assumption of perpetuity meaning it never ends.  Want to start meeting in a small group?  What happens when you are tired of meeting?  

Want to start volunteering?  What happens when it is clear that your voluntary role has run it course?

There is no shame in running ideas through a test period of limited time.   Take an idea and declare, “We will try this and monitor the results for the next 3 months and then decide on DATE/TIME whether to extend or extinguish.”

The boundary of a start and stop timeline will allow everyone involved to feel a sense of urgency, and also a sense of freedom knowing that if the idea does not provide its intended outcome, then we mustn’t be married to a bad idea for life.

Third, remind yourself that your words are sticky.

The words that come out of your mouth as a leader carry a volume and camera-like photograph that burns itself into the emotional landscape of the people with ears to hear.

Your words tend to stick longer and with greater weight than other because they directly impact the day to day lives of the people you work with.  

Be careful with “just spitballing”.  It is probably best to remember that spitballing can be construed as truth-telling and there is not much you can do to change that.  

We can say, “Well it’s not my fault that is what they heard!” 

The RPMs of great leadership can guide us in how we should speak.  Repetition ensures that what we say has fidelity over time.  Predictability ensures that what we say will remain consistent over time.  Meaning built into our words will ensure that we have baked in the mission and the values that we hold dear to our decision-making over time.

Your words matter, and the matter of your words stick.  

Remember that Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start The Fire?

It is a maniacal mantra sequencing decades of rage into a lyrical pounding intentionally crafted as a relentless onomatopoeia; the song feels like it sounds allowing us as listeners to likewise feel the chaos.

That song could be the soundtrack for so many chaotic business owners who are on a remorseless campaign to find the next great marketing hammer that will crack open a whole new world gushing with leads and sales because, in their minds, sales solves everything.

The myth of that last statement will have to be fleshed out on another date and time; for now, we need to confront the restlessness and confusion of marketing.  It is good to turn the volume down, or maybe off completely for a moment, and sit in the silence of what is rather than the snake-oiled and empty promises of what could be.

We’ve said often that marketers are like gypsies and business coaches (a bit self-deprecating seeing that business coaching is our profession); the barrier to entry into each profession is low and broad.

The good news for marketers is that the human brain is wired to respond to hope and promise often neglecting reality and objectivity.  Marketing is always susceptible to the “Clark Stanley-anization” of theatrics and promise.

Clark Stanley (aka The Rattlesnake King) was known as the true snake-oil sales pioneer.  According to Wikipedia, in the late 1800s Stanley began hawking his snake-oil linament at a variety of expos and shows throughout the United States.

The nothingness of the snake-oil linament was exposed in the early 1900s and eventually led to a series of food and drug laws that would be the precursor to the modern U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  

Stanley sold on what could happen forcing people to neglect the balance of what has happened.

Both perspectives are helpful; for without seen historical learning we will miss the obvious, and without unseen hope life will lack wonder, invention, and creativity.

Are all marketers like Clark Stanley?  Of course not…just some.

So how can you find a marketing strategy, leader, or team who will generate leads that convert to sales in a meaningful way?

Let’s start by looking in the foggy rear view.

One question that our coaches ask every one of our clients when they bring up the topic (usually in frustration) around marketing; where has 80% of your business originated from in the past?

We are continually stunned by the number of business owners who are ready to burn the boats, bomb the bridges, and cut off the parachute of what has brought predictable clients and customers in the past.

Where has 80% of your business come from in the past?  

Start your new marketing strategy there!

But wait, “most of our clients are word of mouth”.  That statement has become a bit of an arrogant monicker of recent as if to declare, “We’re so good we don’t have to market.”

NO!!!  

That misses the point.  

Marketing is tucked into every hidden crevasse of your business.  The cleanliness of your bathroom markets.  The quality of your material markets.  The clarity of your communication markets.  Every process, every system, every deliverable, every payable, and every receivable communicates something to your existing and potential clients and customers.

When you allow your business to be lulled to sleep by the apathy of word-of-mouth marketing you are building your real estate on someone else’s property and you are robbing your business of the challenging creativity to innovate on what has already worked.

As an example, we work with a sizeable number of homebuilders and remodelers in the construction space.

Every time we present at a builder event we are asked about marketing at because of the assumption, “If I can just figure out where the faucet is, then we can open it up and have a constant stream of business.” 

More leads and sales added to a poorly systematized business will do nothing but hasten the end.

The system must be built to handle the load.

If your dominant marketing strategy is “word of mouth”, then how do you build a system to capitalize on the mouths that are spreading your words?

Throwing your hands up and hoping for the best is not a winning strategy.

For homebuilders and remodelers, one of the best lead sources for new works are the professionals that live upstream.  Who are the professions that receive early indications that new projects are coming down the pipeline in construction?  Developers, Engineers, Architects, and Real Estate Professionals.

Everytime we have built a simple process for homebuilders and remodelers to proactively, repetitively, and systematically make time for these professionals, magically new leads begin to come in.

But doesn’t that require face-to-face (in-person or virtual) interaction?  

A side note, generally (not always) if you wish for a digitally scalable marketing option that limits or eliminates face-to-face interaction, then the entire culture of your business will be changing also.  Not to mention, digital marketing and advertising will usually require a lot more money and resource expertise that you think and are typically prepared for.

Stop right now for a moment.  Where has 80% of your business come from in the past (or some majority)?

Stop overthinking all of the unproven ways to go generate new leads and begin building a repetitive, predictable, and meaningful process that will add value to the lead channels that have already proven themselves in your business.

Down the road you can create a marketing slush fund for some skunk-works type activities when you have proven your predictable marketing model.  

For now, turn the volume of marketing options down.  Just calmly walk on past Clark Stanley’s snake oil display, have confidence in the objectivity in what you already know, and take courage in building on that objectivity with the unseen hope of what could be. 

Brent Whitaker Business on Purpose. I wanna dive right in. So we were sitting the other day with some folks, and, y'all have heard this song, “You can't always get what you want.”True.

Well, you definitely can't get what you want if you never define what it is that you want. This came up because I asked a couple in real estate, and I said, Hey, what is it that you want?

And it was like deer in headlights. Like I'd asked them some quantum theory question and they paused and said, I don't know. And I said, well, definitely can't get what you want if you don't define what you want. I said, why is that a, you know, difficult question for you.

“So we're just so busy” Ask anybody how they're doing lately, man, I'm good. I'm just, just busy. I don't know if being busy is a good or bad thing, but they were so busy they haven't slowed down enough to ask that question. What do I want?

So that's the question today is if you're driving, if you're sitting, I'd encourage you, if you're in your office to grab a pen, if you're driving, maybe a voice memo after this is over, what do you want?

You're allowed to ask and answer that question! And then write down what it is that you want. And dream a little bit. We’re not allowed to dream anymore.

It feels like we're so task-oriented that we don't dream. We get to the end of our lives and we say, Hey, how did I end up here? Well, you never defined where it is that you actually wanted to be.

It's one reason we build out a vision story, both for family and work. Cuz those things intersect. You can't compartmentalize those. What is it that you want? Write it down.

It's a brain dump as they say. Then ask the question, what's getting in the way of what it is that I said I wanted? Identify those barriers. Just write 'em down, all of them. Then as you kind of marinate on that, digest that, let that metabolize a little bit as they say, what will life look like? what will life feel like two, three years from now if nothing changes, if we keep moving in the same manner, on the same trajectory that we're moving in now and, and changing nothing, what will life look and feel like? And then what are you willing to invest time-wise to get what you wrote down or verbalize that you wanted?

That's why we create that vision story. We write it down, we get really granular, right, with what it is that we want holistically, life, work, finances, health, and then we make a plan to move forward in the direction of what we want and decisions are made in light of the vision story that we create. So I hope you pose that question to yourself today.

Maybe with your significant other or just to a buddy. Hey, what do you want? See what the responses are, but then take some time to really unpack what it is that you want. 

Maybe you've done this, most folks I have talked to have it. So we've gotta set the target. We've gotta create this vision of what we really want and we've gotta identify the barriers that are in the way.

And it really gives you motivation when you ask yourself, Hey, what will life feel like if I do nothing different? No, I've said those several times. So unpacking the day, that's one of the things we do here at Business On Purpose.

We do not start anything in our coaching roadmap, our installation roadmap until we define what it is that folks won't. Y'all have a great day. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time.

While in Turkey, we were struck with curiosity as to the various wars and struggles that entangled Asia Minor leading to the rules and regimes that have inhabited the intersection of the world in modern Istanbul.

Netflix had an interesting historical presentation of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on Mehmed II that details how the Sultan empowered his forces with relentless raids on the impenetrable walls of Constantinople.

They eventually took the city and rules the regions for centuries. 

While watching Rise of Empires: Ottoman I was struck by the number of messages that were sent by couriers, or delegation of one side directly to the leaders of the competing side.  

These were soldiers who had but one task; deliver a message from the leader in its exact form and for its intended purpose.  Mehmed II or Emporer Constantine were the originators of the message, and the courier its delegate.   

Delegation is birthed from the Latin delegere and according to latin-is-simple.com  carries the idea that you are assigning and entrusting an appointed trustee to carry out the wish and desire of the original delegator.

Delegation is not a modern concept, it has been used in organizational growth since the beginning of time.

In the midst of a time of overwhelming demand on his leadership, there is a story about Moses who was warned by his father-in-law, “‘This is not good!’ Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. ‘You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself.’”

Leadership is an infinite cycle of emotional labor.  Leadership is the constancy of assessment (seeing, hearing, and experiencing), deliberation, decision, evaluation, rinse and repeat.

There is not a clocking in and clocking out of leadership which is I why the statement “rest is resistance” is an imposing idea.  The leader must artificially will moments of sabbatical (minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months) in the crevices of leadership.

A strategy for healthy leadership is found in the power of healthy delegation.

There is a difference between delegation and abdication.

Whereas delegation aligns with trust, equipment, and empowerment, abdication is the intention to leave a post or a task with no desire to return; a resignation.

Abdication does not require equipment, training, thought, care, empathy, or intentionality.  Abdication simply wipes its hands of responsibility and walks away, at the ready to blame any nearby candidate for the failure that it will spawn…and spawn it will.  

One of the privileges and massive responsibilities in leadership is to delegate well.

Three elements will stock your toolbox for healthy delegation.

First, setting clear expectations which can be found in writing things down.

Is it a role or a task that you will be asking someone else to complete for you?  Write it down, record a video, and capture that role or task in such a way that will scale easily to those you wish to delegate.  

Violate this step, and you will cascade downhill into the bitter valley of abdication.

Just last week we had a couple of clients that were “sort of not documenting their processes” and it was causing unnecessary delay in important hiring of new team members that would ultimately bring these leaders freedom.

Their homework was easy; “Record two videos by Friday of the tasks you are going to ask this person to do.”  That’s it.  No excuses…write it, record it, video it.

Second, build a simple scorecard of what success looks like.  All humans will ask at some point, “Am I doing this right?” 

Give a simple checklist of “here are the five, or eight things that will need to be done each week to ensure that your role is airtight.”

A scorecard is what winning looks like.

Build your first version, and then adapt as time progresses.  

Finally, build repetitive, predictable, and meaningful communication points.

Repetitive, pre-determined meetings times are your friend.

Each person who has been delegated to must have time on their leader’s calendar that is pre-set and has a pre-determined set of questions that are aligned to the role, scorecard, and culture of what is being asked.

We have regular (twice monthly) check-ins with our team members in addition to a weekly team meeting, a weekly coaches meeting, and every-other-monthly vision days.  

The goal is forced conversation.  In the absence of information the mind makes things up; a wandering mind is good for innovation, but not delegation.  

Clarity wins, and clarity demands repetition.

Are you abdicating?  Or are you delegating?

Abdication brings burden and imprisonment.

Delegation brings clarity and freedom.

Join Patrice Miles, BOP Business Coach, as she interviews Conner Fennell, BOP Intern. Discover Conner's experiences, the hiring process, DISC test insights, tasks for BOP, and how this internship is shaping his goals. Don't miss this valuable internship discussion!

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Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos?  Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on. 
Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/healthy

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For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/

LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210

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