Latest / The Pausecast / Ep. 97 Jake Thompson: Compete Every Day

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Ep. 97 Jake Thompson: Compete Every Day · The Pausecast

0:04
Hi, I'm Rachel O'meara. I'm the host of The Pause Cast.
0:08
I'm also the author of Pause Harnessing the Life Changing
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Power of Giving Yourself a Break, as well as a private
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coach for men and women who are struggling with how to get out
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1:12
Welcome. Hi everyone.
1:14
Thanks so much for coming back to this episode of the Pause
1:18
Cast. I am so excited to introduce to
1:20
our guest, Jake Thompson. Hey Jake, how are you?
1:24
Great. Thanks for having me on today.
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I'm so excited to to get into it with you and a little bit about
1:29
Jake. And then Jake's very graciously
1:32
agreed to lead us in a pause. Jake is a athlete.
1:38
He's an author. He's an entrepreneur and
1:40
speaker. And I actually met you, Jake, at
1:42
the triathlon camp here in Florida a couple months ago.
1:45
And when I heard Jake speak myself, I was like, I got to get
1:47
him on here so he can help spread his message.
1:50
Because I think we share a few things in common.
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You know, Jake, you're from the the corporate.
1:55
World and you really are focused on helping leaders through your
2:00
your CEC E3 model, which is really about the well, how would
2:05
you describe it? Yeah, it's it's about the
2:08
well-rounded professional experience.
2:10
So it it looks at from an internal standpoint yourself and
2:14
how you're developing and growing.
2:16
We break that down to your mindset, your focus, and your
2:18
systems. And then from there, how are you
2:21
growing professionally and then most importantly, how are you
2:23
leading others? And so we look at kind of those
2:25
three models to help the professional be a well-rounded,
2:29
not only teammate, contributor, but really an impactful leader.
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So cool, yes. And then the key is, as you
2:35
know, not to burn out in that, not to stress out ourselves out
2:39
beyond what we can manage and feel sustained.
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So we're going to kind of integrate our worlds today.
2:45
And Jake also has a book out. Which is the same title compete
2:49
every day same as his company. So we're going to, we're going
2:52
to talk about that a little bit and I think the the bottom line
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that I love to share with my. Folks, today is just to know
3:00
that you know you are, I think. Cut from the same cloth as many
3:03
of us here, right where you're an achiever, you've done things
3:06
on an incredible achieving level, whether it was athlete,
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athletics or career based and things like that.
3:12
And now you've kind of worked to help others create that mental
3:16
edge, that mental toughness. Because I do think it's all
3:18
about the mental mindset which can bring us to these places,
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right? And that takes the things you
3:22
talk about courage systems. Competitive mindset and things
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like that that can come in. So welcome.
3:28
I'm so glad you're here and let's dive in.
3:31
So would you be willing to lead us today, Jake?
3:34
In a pause? Yeah, yeah, let's let's do it.
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So first thing I would love to start with anytime we do a pause
3:41
is is the box breath. So focusing on breathing in for
3:46
four, holding for four, breathing out for four.
3:54
And holding for four, in for four, hold for four, out for
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four, hold for four. The reason we do this is because
4:07
it forces us to focus in this moment, to focus on our breath,
4:12
to focus on our heart rate, to pull all of the distractions of
4:15
our inbox. Of our text messages, our social
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media, of our meetings later today, of everything going on in
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life. It says be here in this moment.
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And so after you take that box breath, just keep breathing
4:30
4444. And I want you to imagine your
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best self, that version of you that you were striving for.
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What do they do differently than you do today?
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How do they respond to challenges?
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How do they handle stress? How do they show up for not only
4:54
their teammates at work, but how do they show up for their
4:57
family? And most importantly, when they
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have that voice, that doubt, that fear, how does that version
5:05
of you show up for yourself? The reason I love this is to
5:10
paint this picture of who. That person is who that best
5:14
version of you is. Because I believe all of us can
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identify something somewhere where we want to grow, something
5:21
we want to improve on that version of us that's just out of
5:24
reach. That at times feels like that's
5:28
just a fairy tale. But in reality, that version is
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closer than you think. And the version of you today,
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right here, right now, is capable of reaching it.
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Shifting just a little bit of our mindset, tweaking just a few
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teeny tiny daily choices, and focusing on this moment where
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this breath is, you have the ability to bridge that gap
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between today and that best version of yourself.
6:04
Thank you. Thank you.
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I'm just coming out of my box, breath breathing there and the
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visualization. I love what you said about
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you're so close. And I think sometimes we just
6:15
forget how close we are and then we lose track or we don't
6:20
bother, we we give up or we just stay, stay put.
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Right, We do. We feel like it's it's like the
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we do it every year. In January we set a New Year's
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resolution. We set a goal.
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We come out of the gate trying to jump the Grand Canyon and one
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single leap like we're Evil Knievel instead of just saying
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what's the one thing today that moves me closer to that?
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And that's how I like to look at everything.
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It's how I like to look at this compete, everyday mentality.
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It's life. It's eating elephant sized
6:51
goals, but treating them like donut holes, one small bite at a
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time. Cuz you love Donuts, I remember
6:58
that. Love Donuts.
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The dog is named Donut, right? Love.
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One of my dogs I have a sugar, a biscuit and a donut. 4 Legged
7:06
family members. That's so great and and.
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I like that analogy of little things because I talk about that
7:12
too. One of the principles I work
7:15
with is the law of little things, which we all go by baby
7:18
steps and that's how true change happens.
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So thank you for reinforcing that as something that works.
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And and I know we we call you the Chief Encouragement Officer.
7:30
I love that the CEO and tell us a little bit about your story.
7:34
How did you get here in this world of?
7:37
Helping other leaders learn how to be on their own side and
7:41
really, like, improve what they were already doing.
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I I honestly laughed that I just kind of fell into it.
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I grew up thinking I was going to be a sports agent, wanted to
7:53
be the next Jerry Maguire. Yeah, that.
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That was what I wanted in in high school, college.
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I went to grad school for it, thinking like this is the path.
8:01
Told everybody this is the path. They got down that path and
8:04
realized. This isn't actually what I
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thought it was going to be, and this isn't what I want to be
8:10
doing. And I tell folks there's some
8:13
incredible agents out there. I had the unfortunate luck of
8:17
working with some individuals who weren't as great, and my
8:21
experience was kind of like seeing how the hot dog is made
8:24
at the baseball park. You don't necessarily want to
8:26
see the process of the hot dog being made and still eat the hot
8:28
dog. And that was me.
8:29
I was falling out of love with the one game that I absolutely
8:32
loved. So I got out this fall of 2008.
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I'd just finishing up my MB A and I couldn't get a job.
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It was the recession. I had an MB A I had years
8:42
working for a sports agency for a couple of professional sports
8:45
teams. I didn't want to stay in ticket
8:47
sales or do that kind of traditional route.
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And I was kind of out of luck. And so I started just a small
8:52
consulting practice by simply reaching out to people in my
8:55
network and saying, hey, listen, I taught myself basic graphic
8:57
design. I can build a website for you.
8:59
I can teach you social media and how to market.
9:02
I can do these things to get you going and a client would take me
9:05
on, I would help them build a strategy, they would refer me to
9:08
someone else and and over the years I built a pretty good
9:11
consulting practice. I was making six figures, I was
9:13
single, living in Dallas, enjoying life.
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But I was incredibly unfulfilled with the work, just wasn't happy
9:20
with what I was doing and I and I liken it to building a
9:22
sandcastle. All of these toys, all of this
9:25
wealth was doing nothing to help others, and I knew that at some
9:29
point when my time's up. Time in the water is going to
9:32
wash away that sandcastle, and if I've done nothing to impart
9:34
and help others, there's no real legacy left behind.
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I started toying with this idea of what could life look like if
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somebody showed up and took the competitive mindset that I grew
9:44
up with, loved in sports, always had, and shifted it to this idea
9:48
of competing every day with yourself to be better, to be
9:50
better Healthwise, financially, spiritually, relationally.
9:55
Professionally, every area of your life you you took intention
9:58
each day instead of just going through the motions hoping
10:00
things got better. I started talking to people
10:02
about this idea and it really seemed to resonate and I had no
10:06
idea what to do with it. I just had this compete everyday
10:08
message and brand and after 6 to 8 months of trying things that
10:13
didn't work, my best friend said, hey, why don't you try
10:16
tshirts? Think there's a company out of
10:17
Boston called Life is Good. They do some pretty cool stuff.
10:20
Why don't you try to do shirts? So I'd set aside some money for
10:24
a guy's trip, ended up putting it into a few boxes of T-shirts
10:27
and tank tops, and started selling them out of the trunk of
10:29
my car as a side hustle at the gym I worked out at.
10:32
And it started to grow. And in 2012 and 13 and 14, I
10:36
started traveling all over the country, working Expos and race
10:40
races and events and selling our brand in stores and loved it and
10:46
thought this was what I was going to do.
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And then in 2014, one of the customers reached out and said,
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hey, we're having this big, big HR week at our hospital.
10:55
We want to buy a shirt for everybody, 150 people by the
10:59
way. Would you come talk?
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And I was like about what? And I'm like, just come tell
11:03
your story. So I'm like okay.
11:05
So I, I show up down in Houston, I give this talk.
11:08
Didn't think anything about it. I just kind of fumbled through
11:10
three lessons I'd learned building this business, why it
11:13
was so important to me. And the VP pulled me aside
11:16
afterwards. She said, I don't know if you've
11:18
thought about this, but you should go do more of this.
11:21
Like there's something here. So I filed it away, didn't think
11:25
anything about it. Flash forward a couple years
11:26
later, it's 2016. I'm trying to figure out how to
11:29
change our business. We were in ecommerce business.
11:32
We had a couple of retailers. We were doing offline events and
11:34
online sales, and I was tired of honestly traveling every
11:38
weekend. My wife and I just met, got
11:40
married, and so when I'm gone, she's off work because she
11:43
worked in real estate kind of Monday through Friday.
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I was like, there's got to be something one to change the
11:48
business 2. There's got to be a better way
11:50
to impact how people show up. Like the shirts are motivating.
11:54
We know through the research of include cognition that what you
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wear influences how you show up. But there's got to be more to
12:02
it. And so I'd always studied
12:03
leadership development, sports psychology, just fascinated with
12:06
this idea of developing yourself.
12:09
So I just started talking about it, ended up finding a coach,
12:12
hiring a coach who trained speakers and thought.
12:15
Maybe I'll go this route the same time.
12:18
Got to ask to do a keynote by another customer for her state
12:21
association and going through the process with a new
12:25
perspective of actually teaching and sharing this content.
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I fell in love with it, loved the work, the practice, the
12:33
mess, loved the stage, loved the opportunity to interact and
12:36
thought maybe this is what I want to do.
12:38
And so in 2018, I called a buddy who teaches speakers on the
12:42
business side, said, hey, teach me this.
12:45
We've got a wealth of knowledge on how to develop, not only grow
12:47
a business, but to develop leaders.
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I've learned this, I've studied this, I want to help people do
12:53
it. And so they taught me the
12:54
business side. And in late 2018 I jumped in and
12:58
2019 I was full time as a speaker of 2020, as we both know
13:01
was chaotic. But still the business grew
13:04
through referrals, word of mouth and has continued.
13:06
And so really that's all I do today.
13:09
So I have the opportunity to travel every month, work with
13:11
companies. Do a lot in sales, a lot in
13:13
construction. But I have clients in
13:15
healthcare, transportation, staffing, you name it, Of
13:19
helping them develop their leaders by developing their
13:21
mindset to really embrace this idea of not just going through
13:25
the motions every day at work and do life, but where can I get
13:29
better? And then following through with
13:30
that by building the habits to get better every day.
13:35
Quite a story, quite a journey and here we are, right.
13:38
So I think that message does resonate and I can see you are
13:41
wearing a shirt right now that says compete every day.
13:44
So nice work kind of growing that and evolving it based on
13:48
what you were desiring and hearing and and really like that
13:52
calling to leave your mark and so many people need this message
13:55
I think and I and it brings me to my next question because when
13:58
I hear that phrase and we just talked about this before we
14:00
clicked record was well. Is that just going to stress me
14:03
out if I compete every day how do I add that in on my plate
14:07
man. Like I'm already maxed out for
14:09
whatever I do. So what do we say like what
14:12
happens with these with I think we're all we all get to that
14:15
space maybe even daily where you're just like I can't do
14:18
that. How do we address it so that we
14:21
can compete every day and not feel the overwhelm or the
14:24
stressors of that pressure that we can easily so put on
14:27
ourselves. I think that's a big issue I
14:30
think right now in the in the world of leadership.
14:32
Huge, huge and and I get that all the time of like, Oh my
14:35
gosh, that sounds exhausting and I challenge him.
14:38
I said it's actually competing with yourself is the most
14:41
exhilarating process because it it's similar to the idea of
14:45
waking up every day and going to the gym.
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Some days it just sucks. You're not motivated.
14:49
It's rainy. Today I wanted to sleep in.
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You don't necessarily want to do it but afterwards you always
14:54
feel better. You never regret the workout you
14:56
did like you're always proud of it.
14:58
And so the way I look at it is. Most of us get exhausted
15:01
competing every day because we're competing with everyone
15:03
else and there's someone always ahead of us that's out of reach
15:07
that we can't catch and we get frustrated by.
15:09
There's always someone behind us that we can inflate our ego
15:11
about and feel better than while taking the foot off the gas of
15:15
our own progress. And so with me it's a.
15:17
It's a simple process of you think about competing with
15:20
yourself .011% is greater than 0.
15:25
And every single day, if you can wake up and say, where's an area
15:28
I want to get better today, identify.
15:31
Maybe it's how you don't lose your temper with your spouse.
15:34
Maybe it's when you get home from work today, you take your
15:37
phone and you put it in a drawer for 20 or 30 minutes, setting a
15:40
timer, and then give your children 100% of your focus
15:43
instead of trying to hear about their day while you're still
15:45
responding to emails and text. Maybe it's the simple desire to
15:48
say I keep telling myself I'm going to get up and go for a run
15:53
before work, and I keep hitting snooze.
15:55
Maybe the goal today to win is to put your shoes and your alarm
15:58
across the room, so tomorrow you automatically start the day with
16:01
that win. It's just this idea of instead
16:04
of going through life through the motions, it's having a
16:06
target, working at that target, evaluating how you did and then
16:11
repeating it. And that's really where it's so
16:13
important. What I tell people is, if you
16:14
think about it from a simple standpoint of somebody that
16:17
lifts weights, you set a goal of, hey, I want to lift 200
16:20
pounds, Where are you now? I lift 100 pounds, Okay.
16:23
So we're trying to bridge £100 gap.
16:25
Why does that matter to you? Well, I want to be able to lift
16:28
my grandkids or carry my dogs with me places.
16:31
I want to do these different things.
16:33
Okay. Great.
16:33
So you have a motivation, you know where you are, you want to
16:36
get stronger. How do we do that?
16:37
We have a plan. We hire a coach, we work a
16:40
training plan. We do it for 8 to 12 weeks and
16:42
at the end of 12 weeks you test, you evaluate, did you get
16:46
stronger? Maybe that process you gained
16:48
£100.00 but maybe you only gained 50.
16:51
And so now your baseline's 150 versus 200 and people be like,
16:54
ah, you suck, you failed, you missed it.
16:56
Or you do the real competitive analysis and you step back and
17:00
say over the last 12 weeks, what did I do?
17:02
Well, I trained every day. I was consistent with my
17:04
training. I listened to my trainer, What
17:06
did you not do well, where is there room for improvement?
17:09
I didn't really eat that well. I didn't sleep that great.
17:12
Awesome. So now we're going to start the
17:13
process over again and instead of trying to bridge £100 gap.
17:17
We're only bridging a £50 gap because our baseline is
17:19
increased. We got better and we also know
17:22
this time we're going in with the intention of there's really
17:25
good at training, but I need to be more focused on how what I
17:27
eat and how I sleep. Which is going to help my
17:29
results. And so even if you only jump £25
17:32
or £20 that next time, you're continually growing and getting
17:36
better by saying what's the target, How am I working at it
17:39
And then doing the thing that I think most people get too busy
17:42
to do, which is step back and evaluate and say what did I do
17:45
well, whether I got the sale or I didn't get the sale, what do
17:48
we do? Well, where do we need to
17:50
improve and then how are we going to improve it?
17:54
I'm hearing a few things that really resonate with me.
17:56
And just going back to that that statement you have compete every
17:59
day and it reminded me of, yeah, that that does stress us out
18:03
when we do compare ourselves to others.
18:05
In fact, that's one of the tenants I really hold for folks
18:09
that I work with because that's just never an apples to apples
18:12
comparison anyway, right. And of course it'll why that
18:15
would totally stress you out. But we forget that, and I know I
18:17
do too. Where I'm all of a sudden being
18:20
like well why don't I have a million followers and all those
18:23
things that we can easily fall into as a way of thinking and
18:27
you're just such a good, it's such a good reminder to hear
18:29
that back to me is yeah like well remember it's about
18:33
yourself and where did where were you yesterday versus today.
18:37
And and that's really the fair approach, right.
18:40
Like that's really the the apples to apples that we're all
18:43
looking for. But we just forget that,
18:45
especially in our day and age. We do.
18:49
And social's a great point. I made a I made a post this
18:51
morning that's gotten some decent traction on Instagram,
18:55
and I laugh because it didn't on LinkedIn, which is funny.
18:58
But I said don't confuse online attention with real world
19:03
results because it's really easy for us to get caught in the
19:06
comparison trap of you make a post on social media and it gets
19:10
two likes and somebody else gets 200 and you just think, well, I
19:15
I suck compared to this person. Or you see this person posting
19:19
stuff and it looks like all you know, they're just crushing it
19:22
as a leader. And all of this in a reality,
19:25
they could be struggling. They could have people be
19:26
quitting. They could be a toxic lead like
19:28
you don't know. And so we get confused with
19:30
these snapshots we see of others versus knowing our entire story.
19:35
And I think that's where it gets dangerous.
19:37
And so I I tell folks like when you really embrace this
19:40
mentality that I'm only competing with myself, I'm not
19:42
intention. I'm not in conflict with
19:44
everyone else. You can start looking at others,
19:47
peers in your space, other leaders in your industry, and
19:50
simply saying what do you do well, What can I learn from you?
19:55
And then how can I apply what you do well with my spin on it
19:59
to help me get better. It's not about where do you do
20:02
well and I suck in comparison. It's like, what are you doing
20:04
really well and how can I learn from you?
20:06
And that's a huge game changer in terms of how we show up
20:10
because it really changes a lot of that process.
20:14
Because you get out of this consistent comparison game and
20:17
really start getting into a competitive game with yourself
20:19
to say what's out there that's better.
20:22
Okay, that's my target. What do I need to do to bridge
20:24
that gap? And then how can I do it?
20:26
Cuz that's all I control. Right.
20:29
And 100% agree agree with that and that it's about being
20:34
objective. And that's what I think your
20:36
phrase helps us with and. Reminding us in that power that
20:40
we we're able to stay objective. If I'm just looking at you know
20:43
where I am and growth mindset too right.
20:44
That's kind of what you're bringing in.
20:46
I think is how do I apply what I can learn from others or
20:49
learning from myself in this moment in the in a better or
20:52
different way versus all resentfulness or like they're
20:57
going faster than me. They got the promotion, that
20:59
person got the project and and I think.
21:02
And that's just the autopilot default that we can fall into if
21:05
we're really not careful. It's a slippery slope right?
21:07
So what if we just compete with ourselves and and I'm.
21:11
I'm also curious, you know, for you personally have you felt
21:14
overwhelm or burned out like have you how do you how do you
21:18
continually think sustain yourself, knowing you were
21:20
flying around the country. You've got kids and dogs and
21:23
lots of things on your plate. What can we, what can we learn
21:26
from you in that sense, Jake, it's it's having non
21:30
negotiables. So for me it's establishing
21:34
routines while you travel and then being very intentional for
21:38
time for yourself. So one of the things that I do
21:42
travel is every day, regardless of what I'm traveling, I'm going
21:44
to get some kind of work out. It may be 10 minutes of pushups,
21:47
situps, air squats in my room. Could be 20 minutes just walking
21:51
on a treadmill because I'm exhausted and jet lagged.
21:53
But like every day I've got to have that.
21:55
I've got to have 5 minutes, just a journal, write something down,
21:58
and then five to 10 minutes reading.
22:00
That's one of the habits I really started building is when
22:03
I got on planes because I was traveling so much.
22:17
And So what I normally do is I will.
22:06
The last handful of months is it's really easy to get on a
22:09
plane and just want to relax like I nothing makes me sleepier
22:11
than sitting down on a plane and being like take a quick nap.
22:15
I know I can just. I'll pull out a book and say I
22:21
got to read one chapter before I'll watch a show.
22:24
Before I do anything else, read a chapter.
22:25
So always have a book on me to make sure I hit my daily
22:28
chapter. Because you know, if I go to and
22:30
go to a client event and I do a keynote and then I'm talking to
22:33
everybody afterwards, they get back to the hotel room.
22:34
Usually I'm spent mentally. I'm fried and so I don't want to
22:37
read at that point. So I'm like okay, I'll get it in
22:39
this morning. So I do that while I'm on the
22:41
road of having little things every day that I can do
22:43
regardless of where I am. The other thing is when I'm
22:46
home, I'm scheduling time for things that recharge me.
22:51
So yesterday afternoon is a perfect example of I finished
22:55
podcast interviews on my end and a little bit of writing.
22:59
And it was 2:00 and I said, you know what?
23:01
I have some things I could do. I need to reset.
23:04
So I grabbed my golf clubs and went down the street to the golf
23:07
course and played a quick 18. And my wife laughed.
23:10
She was like middle of a Tuesday said, yeah, I said I work some
23:14
Saturdays, I travel, I do this. I was like I needed a recharge.
23:17
That recharges me. So it's no different than when
23:19
I'm on the road for multiple days at a time and I just need
23:23
to kind of unplug one night I'll go watch a movie by myself, just
23:26
go to the theater, grab a movie and just watch it and just
23:29
relax. And so I think we pack our
23:31
schedule so tightly as leaders because we have all these fires,
23:36
all these things that we don't create, that time to recharge.
23:38
And it's no different than your triathlon training.
23:41
Like, you can't go all out every single day.
23:44
Your body breaks down and we as leaders break down if we don't
23:47
createspace. For me, it's working out when
23:50
I'm at home, catching a movie once a month to just kind of
23:53
unplug. It's other activities with
23:55
friends that I know replenish me so that I can be at my best for
23:59
everybody I'm trying to serve. You're given great examples of
24:03
daily pauses that I would, that's my lingo of what I would
24:06
say. It's these intentional shifts in
24:07
behavior that bring you fulfillment and and more joy,
24:11
right. So yeah, non negotiable is huge,
24:13
huge and I love hearing that these are so simple, right.
24:16
And it's like 5 minutes journaling boom, right?
24:20
So, so. That's a great example.
24:22
I mean I yeah, I'm, I'm inspired by what I'm hearing here too
24:26
because I think a lot of leaders don't do that and we know this
24:29
from stats like one out of 3 individuals in the workplace are
24:33
burning out right now and and it's just sad to me because a
24:36
lot of it can be self corrected like what you're saying we can
24:39
take that time. I just, I just heard, I'm sure
24:42
you know Brendan Brouchard. He had an event this weekend and
24:45
my brother was there and I just listened into his podcast and he
24:48
talks about high performers. 52 minutes is the optimal time to
24:52
schedule according to his research for tasks and to do's.
24:56
And then you got and then you take a break like that's from
24:59
the from like the leading research in high performers.
25:02
So, hey, if he says that and you're saying that, then I think
25:05
we're on to something, right? Yeah.
25:07
I mean, and and what are the little things in like your daily
25:09
routine that you can mix in? I mean, you talked about like,
25:13
the pauses. Like first thing in the morning
25:14
is the gym. For me, usually mid afternoon I
25:17
start to get that low where everybody's like, I need that
25:19
next cup of coffee. If it's sunny outside, I'll take
25:22
my my dogs on a walk and just say, hey, let's go do a quick
25:26
lap around the neighborhood, let me get some sunlight on my face,
25:28
maybe listen to music, maybe listen to nothing, and then come
25:31
back in and attack the last part of the day.
25:34
Yeah, yeah, super good. Good advice there.
25:38
And I also want to talk a little bit about your your, your, your
25:41
model, the CE3. Can you tell us a little bit
25:44
about that and what we could learn here as leaders to just
25:47
know, yeah, how can I apply this to my world and feel a little
25:51
bit more prepared and effective in what I'm doing?
25:55
Yeah, so a couple of pieces to it.
25:57
So the CE really revolves around this idea of creating a
26:01
competitive edge. And the stuff that creates our
26:04
competitive edge is never secret sauce.
26:08
Like I I love to say, it's not anything magical that gives you
26:12
a competitive advantage. It's doing the little things
26:16
consistently well. And so when we talk about it,
26:18
it's kind of the inner game, the outer game and the side game.
26:21
And so the inner games, all mindset, focus and systems.
26:24
And so this is where we talk about growth mindset, which I
26:26
know your audience is familiar with.
26:28
Self talk, mindfulness, controlling our controllable
26:31
setting targets, managing our time, not starting our day in
26:35
our inbox, but with our priorities.
26:36
Like little things like that of like what am I doing first to
26:40
build a better me. And then as a leader it kind of
26:42
goes to that outer game of what am I doing really to be
26:46
purposeful and how I develop my team?
26:49
How am I developing my future leaders, my frontline people?
26:52
How am I mentoring people that aren't going to grow into a
26:55
leadership piece? How how am I owning the culture
26:59
and the language Whether I run an organization it's
27:01
organizationally wide or I have a team within an organization.
27:05
How am I making sure we have shared language?
27:08
We have kind of I call it like the positive locker room talk.
27:11
It's not like the crude raunchy. It's the hey your team all has
27:15
the same language says the same things.
27:17
So that if we're talking about teammates determine trajectory
27:22
like my team knows that my team knows.
27:24
When I say teammates determine trajectory, it's a compliment to
27:27
our group because our teammates, our friends, our circle
27:30
determine how far we go in life. It's not just up to us.
27:33
And so we have standard things that we say together and then
27:36
that accountability piece of friendships and relationships.
27:39
And so the model is designed to say you have to build you.
27:44
Then you have to look around and build your circle, your social
27:47
circle of who your friends are, who you spend time with, who
27:49
you're relational with from a mentoring coaching as well as a
27:53
friendship. And then how are you building
27:55
the people within your organization?
27:57
And so always start with just a simple process you can do with
28:00
yourself and then you can do with people on your team and
28:04
friendships. And it's really just three
28:05
questions. And I think we talked about it
28:07
in Miami, but it's from sports psychology.
28:09
I picked it up from a guy named Brian Kane, who I think got it
28:12
from Ken Ravisa. But it's start, stop, continue.
28:15
And so on an individual level, every day, at the end of the day
28:18
or every Friday afternoon, ask yourself what's something I did
28:22
not do this week, I need to start doing next week to be more
28:25
successful. What's one thing I did this week
28:29
I should stop doing next week to be more successful.
28:33
And then what's one thing I'm doing well this week?
28:34
I need to continue. So you identify something you
28:37
didn't do that you want to add in something you did do that you
28:41
should probably remove, and then something you're doing well,
28:43
which is that confidence booster to keep going.
28:46
Now, when you do that every week, you raise your awareness
28:49
level of what am I doing well, where am I getting in my own
28:52
way? What do I need to continue,
28:54
which allows you to grow? Because until we're aware of a
28:57
behavior, we can't change a behavior or improve it.
29:00
And so on a weekly basis, this sets us up where we're
29:03
constantly competing with ourselves to say, I've got a
29:06
target, 2 targets. Really.
29:08
How do I keep improving? Now when you do this with your
29:10
friends, it's a way to hold each other accountable of, hey, you
29:14
said you were going to take your spouse on a date night this
29:15
week. Did you get it planned?
29:17
Don't just hope it's going to happen.
29:19
Make a reservation. Tell her, like, let's go.
29:21
Did you do it with your team? So every Friday or every month,
29:25
sit down with your team members, sales team.
29:27
Hey, let's talk about this. Let's not just talk about
29:30
outcome. How many sales you got?
29:31
Talk to me about your process. How many calls were you making
29:34
on a daily? Oh, you got distracted on
29:36
Facebook. We're playing on LinkedIn.
29:38
Let's talk about next week, how we're going to stop spending an
29:40
hour on social media, spend 15 minutes mining, Then you're
29:43
going to spend that other 45 minutes on the phone or sending
29:46
emails. And so that process, really what
29:49
that does is when it raises your awareness level 2, it creates a
29:51
sense of accountability with your peers, with your direct
29:55
reports. Because every week you're
29:57
saying, hey, we've identified 3 things next week you need to do
30:01
or not do. By accepting this, you're
30:03
agreeing to it now, get to hold you accountable.
30:05
And then the overall scheme, It puts yourself and them on a
30:08
level to continually grow because you can't hold them
30:11
accountable. To Start, Stop, continue.
30:13
If you're not doing it yourself, and if you're not continually
30:16
growing, why would the people you lead ever want to follow
30:18
along? I don't know why.
30:21
Yeah, that would make sense. Like, what a good.
30:25
Like Mantra and and and have it to build.
30:27
Is that what you journal about? Do you write that down in your.
30:30
Yeah, so I I do that. I there's a couple of things
30:32
that I do. I do the start, stop, continue.
30:34
And then there's a version of it called well, better how, which
30:37
is essentially what you do well today.
30:39
What do you want to do better tomorrow?
30:40
How So not just, hey, I want to be more focused tomorrow.
30:44
Well, how are you going to be? Well, I'm going to put my phone
30:46
in the other room during work sessions instead of having it in
30:49
here. So I do that and and actually we
30:51
did a, we created a journal last year.
30:54
We actually just sold out of them that had pieces of that.
30:58
It had that daily reflection of one thing you did well today.
31:00
What do you want to do better? And we just finished the draft
31:04
of the new one for that reason. If we wanted it in there every
31:07
day to reflect back, start stock, continue, raise your
31:10
awareness so you can change your behavior and raise your
31:12
standards. But my journaling process is
31:14
pretty basic. I write down what I'm grateful
31:16
for that morning. I write down what are my 3
31:19
targets for the day, only set 3 and everything else on my To Do
31:22
List is if I have time and then what am I excited about?
31:26
What am I looking forward to? And then at the end of the day,
31:28
it's just a quick thought of like, what did I do?
31:30
Well, where do I need to be more intentional tomorrow?
31:34
Yeah. So you are a morning journal, or
31:36
it sounds like, or a routine morning person morning journal.
31:39
Usually when I get back from the gym, I get out the door, I get
31:42
to the gym, I listen a little bit of music and then when I
31:44
come back I usually pick up some coffee on the way back and then
31:47
sit in ready to rock'n'roll. Yeah, kudos, man.
31:50
I love that. I'm a big journaling fan myself
31:53
and. Yeah.
31:55
There's pause the journal and and I think it can really shape
31:58
shift what and how your mind is. And I know you you say that you
32:01
know what it matters the most between the ears is what happens
32:04
in the in the day, right. So whatever we write on paper is
32:06
kind of what's in our ears anyway.
32:08
So we can help create that in a more intentional way.
32:12
Yeah. Yeah, So wrapping up here, you
32:16
know, what would you say would be your one thing that you'd
32:20
want to leave folks with who are potentially, you know, wanting
32:24
to compete and compete every day with themselves and lead a
32:28
better life and be a better leader?
32:30
What would you tell them? Yeah, we'd say the best thing is
32:33
to raise kind of the selfawareness process and just
32:36
take out something as simple as, like for those of us watching
32:41
just a yellow notepad and have it on your desk in your office.
32:45
And at the start of every day, write down what you
32:48
intentionally like. What's your intention for the
32:50
day? What's your primary target?
32:51
Just one thing. Take you 2 seconds.
32:53
And then at the end of the day, when you get ready to leave, I
32:55
want you to ask yourself, what's one thing I want to do better
32:58
tomorrow? And then what's my number one
33:01
priority for tomorrow? And the reason I want you to do
33:03
at the end of the day is when you get into the office, what
33:05
happens? We have emails, we have people
33:07
talking to us. We have chaos.
33:09
We tend to let other people's priorities take over our own.
33:12
And so setting our agenda and our attention intention at the
33:15
end of the day allows us to start the following with it
33:18
right in front of us. There's no questions, no
33:20
thinking. It eliminates a choice.
33:21
It just says hey, go. And so just starting that
33:24
process. Because the idea that we talked
33:26
about the very beginning in the pause of getting to your best
33:29
self is not an overnight transition, but it is a
33:32
transition overnights. If we just take teeny tiny steps
33:36
every single day, and on the days that we fall short,
33:40
understand it happens. Nobody's perfect.
33:42
Winning in life is not about being perfect, but how you
33:44
respond to imperfections. And I love, love that idea
33:47
because my favorite sport is football.
33:50
Quarterbacks are not perfect throwing the ball.
33:52
Teams never play perfect, even if they win.
33:54
Big guy makes a mistake, guy misses a block, somebody gets a
33:57
penalty. There's always mistakes.
33:58
There's always things that happen.
34:00
How quickly can you bounce back? Can you make sure that one bad
34:03
day doesn't turn into two and then four and then eight?
34:05
Can you cut it always off at 1? And so this little process
34:09
allows us to set intentions every day.
34:11
It takes less than 5 minutes and really set you up for success in
34:15
that continual growth into the best possible leader you can be.
34:19
Love it. And it's right there on your
34:21
notepad when you walk in to your desk and you remember and like,
34:25
Oh yeah, that's it. And then that sets you up for
34:27
the cycle that day too. So that's really great.
34:30
Thank you, Jake. Thank you for sharing so much of
34:32
your wisdom today and just. Your story and and how you
34:36
continue to to thrive in your world.
34:38
Where can we find more out about you?
34:40
I know your book is out there. I want people to learn more
34:44
about what you are working on right now too.
34:46
Yeah, so best website for me is compete everyday.com.
34:50
If you're on LinkedIn, just search Jake Thompson would love
34:53
to connect with you. And then for anybody listening,
34:55
I've got a free leaders checklist you can get.
34:58
It's on the website www.weekendsseparatewinners.com.
35:03
A weekend separate winners is a phrase that I love to use
35:06
because it's the idea of spending 15 minutes Saturday, 15
35:10
minutes Sunday to plan your week.
35:12
And that doesn't seem like much you're thinking it's the
35:15
weekend. But if you spend 15 minutes, say
35:17
Saturday morning recapping the week, checking little boxes
35:21
Sunday, planning your week ahead over the course of a year, that
35:24
weekend 30 minutes stacks up to 26 hours of progress towards
35:29
your goals. And so we we always emphasize
35:32
the importance of like, those little steps.
35:34
And So what we do is every Saturday morning at 6:00 AM, I
35:37
send out just a training e-mail to like leadership performance.
35:40
Like, here's a lesson on accountability and it's a quick
35:43
story and then implementation. So here's an idea.
35:46
Here's something I read, here's something that happened to me.
35:47
Here's how to implement it. And it comes with just a free
35:50
download. When you sign up of, like, a
35:52
checklist similar to this that starts stop.
35:54
Continue with yourself and your team.
35:56
Like things to think about that will help you be more successful
35:59
and more importantly, more influential as that leader in
36:02
the workplace. That sounds essential for anyone
36:04
who wanted who wants to kind of shift gears a little bit and do
36:07
something more intentional or do something different.
36:09
What a great place to start so. Weekends Say it again.
36:12
What's the weekends? Separate winners.
36:15
Weekendsseparatewinners.com Getting the leadership checklist
36:19
Awesome. Well, Jake, thank you.
36:21
Thank you so much for being here today.
36:23
And it's an honor to share your work in the world.
36:26
Appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by.
36:28
You bet. Thanks for having me.
36:32
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37:37
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