Leadership & Productivity in a Remote Workplace with Kevin Kruse
The Art of Charm
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Full episode transcript -

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Welcome back to the Arctic charm podcast. I'm A J and I'm Johnny, and we are safely under quarantine here in the state of California. We've been locked down, and we hope that each and every one of you is safe during this crisis. It does feel a little weird to be isolated for you, Johnny. I know this is one of our first full length podcast episodes ever done in separate rooms. First, I had some separation anxiety, but now I'm starting to come into my own and really blossom. I've been thoroughly enjoying it, in fact. Ah, once this is over, I'm not resuming. Ah,

recording with you. Yeah, you may say that now, but you'll be asking for me sooner or later. Obviously, we are concerned about everyone's health and safety. Our goal here is to continue delivering amazing content all around supercharging your social skills to turn that small talk into smart talk and allow you to build the skills to surround yourself with an army of high status individuals and grow that social capital toe. Unlock your hidden charisma and a crush and business love in life. Now imagine having a mix of experienced mentors teaching you their expertise, packing decades of research, testing and tough lessons into a concise curriculum each and every week. Well, that's exactly what we do here on the Arctic Storm podcast.

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And if you like

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this show, don't forget to subscribe and tell your friends. Now, if you're looking to make your lock down or quarantine Maur productive, check out our core confidence group mentoring program. You could access to our network with daily live videos. For me, Johnny and the AOC team, core confidence is all about the finding your life and rewrite the story of who you are. Each week. You meet on Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. Pacific with your virtual group and coaches. We have weekly challenges that push you outside of your comfort zone. Grow your confidence and deep in your connections with friends, family and co workers

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and every mission is Corona virus quarantine friendly so you don't even

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have to leave your house. We cover topics like dealing with negative emotions, defining your values, living in the present moment, identifying your limiting beliefs and achieving crystal clear goals. You get a chance to join a group of supportive and like minded art of charm listeners to bond and grow during this crisis, expand your network and connect virtually to reach your true potential. Our next group kicks off April 4th at 9 a.m. Pacific, and we are accepting applications now with just a couple seats remaining.

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Yeah, to learn more and apply today,

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head on over to the Arctic charm dot com slash corps. That's the art of charm dot com slash c o r e the Arctic charm dot com slash core Now, of course, being in quarantine means a lot of time on zoom calls, interacting with team members all over the world as well as a lot of time to focus on our own self development. And that's why we're excited to be talking today with Kevin Kruse. He's the author of six books, including one of Our favorites. Great leaders have no rules as well as 15 secrets. Successful people know about Time Management and Employees Management. 2.0, now Kevin is built and sold several multimillion dollar tech companies, and he's currently the founder and CEO of Lead X on online learning platform that provides free leadership development. In this episode, we're gonna talk about how we work from home, giving you some tips so that you could be more productive in how to use this time to actually be social and connect with others. Now,

this may sound counterintuitive, but this is actually the best time to be reaching out and growing your network online. And we're gonna give you some tips about just that. Hello, Kevin. Thank you for virtually joining us here in our homemade studio at the AOC house. And how have you been doing, Kevin? Obviously, we're all concerned.

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Yeah. I mean, it's Ah, it's interesting times for sure. I mean, thankfully. So I'm outside of Philadelphia. We've been locked down for about a week. I think Philly went into lock down even before the rest of the the state. You know, Fortunately, nobody no, no friends or family members or, you know, employees, friends or family members have been, uh,

affected from a health woo. Healthcare wise, you know, But it's certainly pretty crazy. And we've been a work from home first worked remote first culture. You guys are used to working all over the place, right? So that part hasn't really been it. But, you know, I think I'm usually like very chill, Mr Focus. Very stoic, but even this is testing me. It's hard not to grab your phone over and over again to be like, Hey,

what's the stock market? And, hey, didn't trump just come on. Hey, what's ah so and so recommending? What's my What's my state's daily count? What's my county's daily count like? It's just hard. When there's so much information, it's hard to kind of push it out, and I'm trying to give chips to my team. But how can we all not be kind of consumed by this right? It's that need to see if there's anything else there, and that's ingrained in human beings to want to get as much information as possible, because that's how we make decisions.

There is a lot of information that's not helpful. And then there's also information. If you keep digging, you're gonna find a bunch of things that are gonna freak you out and they're just not really relevant. But if you keep digging, you're gonna keep finding stuff. There is so many conspiracy theories, and they're all laid out in a way that you don't really know that you're in one until you get to a certain point and realize that you've been reading something that has been leading you in that direction for about 1/2 an hour and then you realize, Oh, no, I'm in another conspiracy. Is those those rabbit holes of information that tend to get a little scary if you're not cautious to where you end up and you guys are both in the l A area, is that right?

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Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Separate. But in L. A. Yes, wear separated by, ah few blocks. But, you know, I was talking to, uh, client of ours in Denmark. He owns a company that has locations in the U. S.

And he was actually out in Washington recently and talking to some of his staff members in the state of Washington right before the flare up. And he was remarking just the difference in tone between his staff members and Denmark, where there is a very high confidence in government in government officials versus the level of confidence or lack of confidence in the information we're getting here in the United States. And he was saying that you know, when he was talking to a staff members in the U. S. They just were so distrusting of everything. Yeah, and for that reason he was very concerned that our ability to handle this crisis because you really are not, as Johnny was saying, operating from an even playing field of information right now. And we're all kind of going and exploring and trying to figure out heads or tails in this uncertainty. And of course, it is leading us to a lot of discontent, a lot of anxiety and stress and also an inability to just come up with solutions that we can all agree on. Yeah,

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that's right, and it's I'm not. I'm not trying to strain myself to push this onto a leadership topic, But you know, there's that old saying about, like if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go with others. And right now, in times of crisis, you usually want to go fast. But that command and control presents. First of all, in United States, it's not set up like every state's got a governor and every governor's got like all these county commissioners or whatever they are like in general, it's the best system in the world,

right? You 200 plus years of success. Awesome. It's great in times of crisis when you've got that divided command and control. And then when it's a time when you know 1/2 of the country doesn't trust with the other half is doing no matter what the heck that thing is, right, there's just an automatic we can all feels literally from coast to coast. This craziness and what we believe in the different pieces of information and there's there's not confidence that it's taken care of, and I don't see how we're getting confidence in that, you know, anytime soon. I don't like. Look, I'm not I'm certainly not a health care professional about an economist. It was a Thursday ago. I did just 24 hours.

I flew from Philadelphia Airport to San Francisco, where or had a one hour meeting at a pharma company. They actually literally shut down in the middle of my one hour meeting, and I went back to the airport and flew home, and in that 24 hours there were several uber drivers that said, I'm making 1/4 this week what I made last week, the weight row, a waitress in the little, uh, diner area of the hotel, almost teared up, saying, I paid $2000 a month to live in San Francisco, and I've got to hotel jobs to pay for that. My other one just laid me off yesterday, and then she looked around.

There was six people in the whole restaurant, right? I'll spread out that. How much longer they're gonna keep me around now? This was before the shutdown in California before the shutdowns in New York. So if you think about that economic impact of even a week ago, I mean bartenders, waiters, wages. My son, I've got 16 year old son and I love basketball go Sixers. And when they shut down, we certainly it hurts as a sports fan. But I said to own, I'm like for everyone n b a game out there. Think about all the people helping to park cars,

security, selling beer, cleaning up afterwards. I think they're not getting paid. I mean, it's incredible the ah, the economic impact that this is gonna gonna have.

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We look to leaders for certainty, and leaders are trained to deal with uncertainty and with a lack of leadership, we all now have this pressure to become our own leaders. To lead our families. To lead our business is to lead our communities. And how can we do that in the face of uncertainty? And how can we be better prepared for the uncertainty that's yet to come because it feels like it's getting less and less certain by the day. Yeah,

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age I wanted just for for our collective listeners, like you just said some really smart things there that want anybody hurt because you know it. I always say leadership is actually not a choice. You know, Leader, if leadership is influenced, were influencing everyone all the time was influencing in a good direction or a bad direction, right? And so just to what you said, leadership isn't about running a big business or being a Fortune 500 CEO. It's certainly many of us are team leaders and all the rest. But we're leaders, you know of our families, no matter who we are in our family were leaders in our communities were leaders in our in our friend groups. Whatever it is, we're influencing everybody around us. You guys know this.

I mean, emotions are contagious. You guys really know it's confidence is contagious and lack of confidence is contagious. Right? So what you just said was gold. You know, certainty defeats anxiety. But in times like this, it's hard to know what is still certain. And there's no easy answers. I mean, with my three kids, two or college kids sent home once in high school, his eye school shut down there like day to day, like what's going on wins or school opening? And is there gonna be graduation?

I can't lie and say, Oh, sure, all that's gonna be just fine. Yeah, sure. Graduations still be there. Don't worry about that. No, but I can talk about, like, the longer arc of like, Listen, you're gonna get a degree. You're the classes aren't the same as being a person, but they're gonna be there.

You still have friends, and you're it's easier than ever before to hop on and communicate, you know, with your friends. And next year will be better of the year. And the year after that will be better. You know, on the team, like lead X were I mean were three years old, but we're still a tech startup, very fragile. And I was straight out. Like when I flew back on that airplane back to Philadelphia. I saw and heard what I heard. I wrote this long letter. I said,

Guys, I lived through the doc. I'm on old guy. So I I managed through the dot com bust in 2000 the 9 11 the O a. Financial. I said, This is gonna be worse. I can just tell it's gonna be worse. We need to be ready to not make one new sale in the next 90 days. But here's what we know. We've got this much cash in the bank, and that's gonna last us this many months of road May we sell one thing that gets even further out, weaken, scrimp and save a little That gets extended even further out. We know that in the 25 biggest stock market crashes in history, the following year was up almost unequal amount.

There's always been like a trampoline. If you go and look at you know, the 1918 flu pen and whatever it is, the market in a 10 year period is always great. Seventies weren't so good. But other than that, you know that if you can take your focus off of this day this quarter, probably this rest of this year, things start to look really bright. And I I tried to say, What's certain is that things will change and the more we can participate that in the better, you know, out of that world War 1918 You know, chaos came the roaring twenties. I mean, it was the invention of jazz and dancing and drinking and cars and radio,

you know, out of World War Two. Hey, women went to work while the men fought and they didn't want to go home again. It totally change society for the better. So me, this song, it's like this really sucks right down. I don't like anybody about it, but we can be certain that as long as we take that view out to at least a year and certainly 10 years, it's gonna be great. It's absolutely long arc of history on Lee goes in one direction when we're talking about leading an age, and I, we stayed on the public house on time that you're going to have to lead yourself and were influenced by those who are around us. And that influences our decisions that were gonna make. We do know that in order to help this,

we've never been asked to do so little help. So many. And I mean staying in your home now for myself. I have an apartment that overlooks of the common area in my building in the pool and being stuck in here and buy myself. I'm certainly seeing the sunshine in L. A. As it is right now. And the other dads seen somebody go into the common area and lay down on one of the the chairs the last years of the pool. And I just thought to myself, How nice would that be? Now I know that I'm not allowed down there, and whatever the person was doing, they were breaking the rules in the building. Maybe if another person, another person to settle, that looks good,

they're gonna get other. How many people would it take for me to break what I'm doing to just go ahead and join them? Because, well, everyone else seems to think it's OK, but in this moment, it is important for everyone to understand and lead themselves and look at their actions rather than what everyone else is doing. Everyone else's hoarding toilet paper. Perhaps that's not such a good idea. Everyone else's putting 30 things of frozen pizzas in their cart. Perhaps that's not such a good idea. Well, there needs to be a responsibility of ourselves because we're going to be influencing everyone else who are around us who were in that store whore in who are watching from their windows to the common area. And actions speak louder than than words. Right? Johnny's mean to your point,

isn't just talking a good game. Hey, everybody, be safe. Be healthy. Whatever it's don't be the person to go hoard all that tissue paper. It's I was out at the grocery store this morning, coming back, and it was like I am intentionally going toe pause and let people cut in front of me in traffic. I'm gonna slow down if we're both reach of that same canned good and let the other person have it, and it's hard to do right, cause again we get impacted by all the stuff and we act out of fear where humans humans act out of fear. But now is the time to lead, even among strangers. And and I like that again. One person's at the pool.

Ah, that's good. I'll just go down the pool. I'll go on the other side. Then the third person goes down and I'm here in the L. A. Beaches are a little busy today. By the way, boys, I'm glad you guys aren't there yourself.

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Well, they had to shut down parking for that exact reason because people were going there over the weekend. And listen, it's tough being cooped up at home, no matter where you are. We do want to be able to go out and enjoy ourselves. But as John, he was saying that small sacrifice right now could lead to this being the next greatest generations. Right, Right. You look at the long arc of history and it's all about making those sacrifices, and it starts with each of us now, before we dive into your amazing book that we both love the title. Great leaders have no rules. Does that still apply in a crisis? Are there rules or amendments so or addendums you'd like to make now? Before we unpacked

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the book Yeah, I guess that's a good place to start. I've written a bunch of books, some indie published, some traditional published, and this is a traditional one. And they picked. I gave them 10 titles in rank order. They picked the tents Title like this I do not like more accurately, it should be great leaders make no rules Now. I always start to say, Look, I'm making Ah point, which we'll get into here about rules versus standards and things like that. But there, look, I'm not.

You know, if if if a company has to follow laws, you should follow laws. If if there's certain things that are for people's safety, Okay, there are probably good rules. Having said that, the premise, The idea is that most people don't like rules every time you bump into a rule, especially at work. But it could be at home, it becomes a little bit more like it's their company, not my company, you know, I didn't give myself that. Rogers showed up,

and there's a rule someone else made it. Someone else is in charge, and I'm being controlled. This is not my company. That's not my family. And so a better approach is to co create as much as possible with your family with your company, with your team standards of excellent standards of performance. So this was a while ago now I had sold. I've started, sold a few different companies. I was 30 years old, sold the company, and it was like an acquisitions. I was onboard for, like, another year or two on an urn out.

And I'd be reporting to the CEO. And the CEO told me his name was Rudy and he's a Kevin. You know, I don't think of me as your boss because we're both partners. We still own a lot of stock. Like I just have partners. We're gonna figure this out together, You know? It's one vote at that board table on whatever it is. Doesn't matter how many shares we, Joan, we're equal partners. That sounded pretty damn good, right? Like, Oh,

this is good. I like this. I like this guy. So I was in the job about a month and I had submitted my expense report first time. Ever submit an expense report and the check comes back. I noticed it was like short by about $4. Not a big deal. Not a lot of money. But I just thought, like maybe I filled out the form wrong. Like something's weird here. Shot often. Email to the C C F o Dons a don. Did I do something wrong? You notice it's short for box change. You responds back and he says,

No, we deducted your post. It notes We don't reimburse for post it notes, huh? That's kind of weird. So I e mail him back. Why he e mails me back. Wasteful expense. So all of a sudden I had bumped into my first rule. Supposedly I'm equal with the CEO. Supposedly I'm a partner in this firm. Supposedly, I've got a vote on the board and I can't buy post it notes. So how much did I really feel like I was there equal and everything else that disengage me? What are you talking about? I can't my post notes,

you know, I go to the Goto CEO Rudy and I say what's going on here? And I explained to him I didn't really understand employee engagement leadership, though I do now. But I explained that Hey, listen, you know, this does not feel good when your employees can't get reimbursed for something like a like Post it notes. This tells them It's your company, Rudy, not there. You made this rules out there. And to Rudy's credit, he said, Kevin, I had no idea people were bummed out about this.

Rule says Find the rules gone. Don't worry about it. Go ahead by all those notes you want, but let me explain where it came from. This is one of our official values is growth and profit Now It sounds like a weird corporate value the have, but he had a whole thing about. He's like, Look, the, you know, the purpose of of life is not to breathe, but you need to breathe in order to live. And profits are what cash profits is. What helps us to pursue our mission. It's about just being frugal. And he said,

I would walk through the office, see everybody's posted notes, they'd be doodling on them just little designs to be writing phone messages on them, says you want to know what I use, and he reaches over and he had a stack of paper like scrap paper that he had ripped twice so these little ragged pieces of paper because that's what I do along. That's what I write little notes on their free. And so his point was that he was trying to use no post it notes as a symbol of frugality as an example of living up to corporate values. But nobody sat me down to tell me this. No one explained it in that way. It was just like there's this rule, no post It notes. So we're giving you your $4 back. So I knew I could buy posted knows that he changed that rule. I never did. In the five years that I stayed there, I would buy them.

I would reimburse it. I would have to reverse it because, look, I want to be a good corporate citizen. I want to be, you know, a representative of being frugal and all that. But the difference is, imagine if on my first day, instead of Rudy giving me the B s speech about we're equals and blah, blah, blah, what if he said, Hey, listen, we've got some standards here that most of us have have adopted,

and it starts with our values, so see this value about growth and profit. You know, one of the ways we remind ourselves about frugality is you know, we try not to buy things like post it notes, because you could just use a paper. We try not to. I don't know. You know, stay in a hotel. When we travel above $100 a night, we try not to. But see, this is a very different thing than a rule. Not to mention that, like rules tend to backfire anyway,

Right? So, you know, if there was a rule that we can't spend more than $100 a night on a hotel, Well, you know, if the hotel closest to our client was $110 will spend $70 on the rental car to stay at the cheaper hotel, you know, 10 miles away. Well, is that what the purpose was? No, but we're following the rules. So that was the birth of this idea is around, you know, rules.

When when, uh, you don't create them, then it's like, Hey, this is disengaging easy to miss, you know, misuse it or violated any way. And you go from being a leader. Leadership is hard, but it's easy to be a rule enforcer. Hey. Ah, you know a J. You got too many buttons on button on your shirt there. That's not professional.

I don't like your shirt or Johnny, you know, you came in it. Ah, 908 today. You know, nine is the starting time. Well, that's just a rule enforcer. That's not leadership, right? So that's why I really I was 30 years old when I bumped into that kind of sparked this journey about, like, rules versus standards in which rules are usually just stupid out there, like these principles of management, open door policies and all these things that we just take for granted is Oh,

that's just the truth. And it really isn't that way at all. Something you mentioned there and age. And I have talked a lot about rules, our values of rules that we talked about living through our values in power. It's important that it plays a role in and allowing us to engage in the things that are that allow us to be happy, but at the same time also, when engaging in values rather than rules. I think it also does wonders to help your staff guide themselves rather than trying to figure out howto make that rule. It's it's easier decision making on them as our company that has employees. I seen them be so tentative on making decisions or just not making decisions because they were afraid to make the wrong one. That's right, because because of a rule, rather than focus on a value

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you say in the book rules Takeaway possibility, You hear this phrase all the time, don't let a good crisis go to waste. So what's the first thing that's happening in this crisis? All rules are out the window. We have to take them off the table for there to be possibilities, to band together to solve Ah crisis. But yet so many of us get blinded by the rules right in our daily lives, and we get attached to them that removes heartily to see possibilities. Can

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you imagine this date? You know, like what we're living through right now, and the old Skool managers that are out there that were the rule managers who you know, checked, looked at their watch or, you know, when their team members walked through the door never wants anyone to work from home because, my God, how do I know they're working? If I don't see them sitting in a cubicle dress code police, like all these buttoned up horrible bosses that now have no choice but to figure out how to get work done with every freakin rule they ever thought of out out the window. It's insane.

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You brought up the open door policy and I myself have been guilty of this. And Johnny actually called me out on this after reading the book because, you know, I, as a manager want to keep a pulse on my team. I want to know what's going on so that I can make great decisions so I can guide everyone. But at the same time, it's easy to get a little bogged down with an open door policy. And I think for a lot of our listeners, they're going Well, wait a second here. Why are we throwing out that rule? I like that rule. Yeah. How did that come about?

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Well, it's in again, like all of these, um, rules that I talk about in the book. They come from a good place that we start with a good intent and you know so the idea of an open book, open door policy Rather is, you know, Hey, let's let's ah, facilitate communication. Let's cut through red tape. And not only can I go in and bug my boss in time, I can leapfrog and goto any leader in a company and, you know, flat in the organization, all this sounds great.

And the reality is especially this day and age. That rule's been around a while, right? Especially in these when everybody works in an office, Of course, right makes it impossible to get any serious work done. The deep work because every you're just interrupted nonstop and it still applies, even if you're sitting in a cube and not an office like, Well, I don't have a door. No, but you're getting tapped on the shoulder That's even worse, or I'm at home. But the slack channel is buzzing every two seconds and yeah, that's happening. And then you feel compelled to answer it.

And so this idea is like, Hey, with the way communication is now and the way that policy has involved, it's becoming really difficult to get any serious work. You know, if you have important thing, you really gotta do it. Work? Nobody says Okay, I got to really focus on this. I'm gonna goto work between 9 to 5 to get it done. No, they're either gonna get there. It's six. In the morning before anyone shows up, they're not gonna go to work,

right? They're gonna go to the coffee shop where they're going to stay home and what's worse. And you know, this is Marshall Goldsmith wrote about this a while ago, and he says, Hey, if you've got your team members running into your office asking you a question or whatever all the time interrupted you, something's wrong. Like, did you hire the wrong person that can't actually do their job without checking in? Maybe, Maybe not. Maybe they're the right person. Well, did you give them the training? Do they have the tools?

They need the frameworks, the values, et cetera, so that they can go solve problems on their own. And and if that's like, Oh, no, I gave them all the train. We'll then have you created the psychological safety on your team for them to work independently and try something I can remember someone. One of my readers said, Yeah, a bad habit of letting my people delegate things back onto me. You know, you delegate out, they want merely delegated back on you. So you know,

I say, you know, it's it's time t close the open door policy. But it's not an either or I'm not saying Don't be accessible to your team members. Let's start thinking about banding it. And so one idea is like, Hey, um, there's gonna be days, like for me. It lead acts. Mondays are for meetings. So my Mondays they stink. But it's like all my one on ones. On Monday, the team huddle is on Monday,

any outside meeting to try to stack on Mondays. But then a lot of its deep focused works. I kind of do like solo time in the middle of the week and then the interruptible social time on Monday and Friday. A lot of people will do deep work in the morning, So my office doors closed. My I'm not gonna log into slack. I'm gonna keep my email off from, like 90 noon or 9 to 10 so I just give me some focus time and then I'll pop up and you can interrupt you and everyone. Other people do office hours. Hey, we don't have an open door policy around here because we value serious work. Deep work, strategic thinking, creative thinking, but 4 p.m. To 5 p.m. Hey, open door policy.

Walk anywhere you want. Do anything you want. So teach their own right. Like you know, depends on your company, your culture, your team. But the idea is to have this discussion and two co create the standards. As I've been talking to teams about this, it's probably the issue that is very controversial, but it's the one. I want to get the most positive feedback like you know what? We didn't have a rule about it. We just had a conversation about it, and suddenly people stop knocking on my door. Before noon,

people stopped trying to schedule meetings before noon like, Hey, there's some deep work time and there's some collaboration time. It was just sort of be mindful of ideal times to do those things. When you're talking about the collaborative time, this brings up one of the parts of the book that changed my whole day. And not only did it changed my whole day, it changed the way I attacked today and it changed how excited I was from the day which was dividing your day up in Jenna's the three scenes and for myself, the way you laid it out worked perfectly for me. Now everyone could lay it out, however, works for them, but create, collaborate and connect. So could you go over this for our audience? Because this this was a game changer for me?

Yeah, I'm glad you got some value out of it. And that's something I started. Um, years ago I wrote a different book, 15 secret, successful people know about time Manager and interviewed a ton of people, self made billionaires, entrepreneurs, all kinds of people. And that was one of the things that I can't remember now where I heard it like this idea of structuring your day and Johnny, I'm glad you brought it up now because when were all suddenly being forced to work from home and most of us haven't done that yet. You know, we have the most. The world hasn't done it. It's more important to get that structure than ever.

before. Otherwise, we're gonna go into that doom loop of endless checking on social media. So the first see you know it is create, and that's where again, psychologists it's really clear, for most of us were cognitively at our best early in the morning. Like give us an hour to wake up, maybe have that cup of coffee, but our brain has the most glucose and were charged up, ready to go. We start to get decision fatigue, and everything else kicks in as we work harder and harder throughout the day. So our morning hours for myself, I always try to do at least one hour of my most important task. You're one thing you know,

you're M I T. And so that's the creative time. And again, we're not all literally like artists creative, But that's your creative time. Whether you're a coder or a writer or whatever it is, that's your solo time collaboration. You know that is for me. That's how I usually use my afternoons so it will be collaborating with people on whether it's on an interview or on my team. Say, you know, quote unquote sales calls. In my mind is a collaboration. We're just educating, trying to help. So anything with other people tends to be in the afternoon.

And sometimes people say, Oh, you don't need to be is mentally sharp when you're collaborating with people probably don't actually. But collaborating sort of recharge is you. So you wake up, you do your hard work, your focus word. It's getting kind of tired. But now in the afternoon, you're with other people, your work and you're talking. You're laughing, you're socializing. And that connection in my mind, it's still with other people. But to me,

that's the personal is connecting with friends. It's connecting with family. Whether that's over, a sit down at the table meal with your kids, I try to do that as often as possible. We're connecting, you know, with friends, you know, through ah, through a text message. That's a great day to meet, creating the morning collaborating afternoon. Connect with those you care about love. You know, in the in the evenings you could take it one step further,

which could then to actually schedule. You're tasked with a time So you're like, Oh, I got till noon to get it done quitted to do list and schedule it between those two things. Not only that, I free up more time. I was more productive, and I was more excited about getting after every day because I was doing the things that I wanted to do when I wanted to do them with time allotted to those where I could schedule other things outside of that and did not have to worry about them or even think about them until that. A lot of time. Yeah and Johnny, this is where I again I get I get hate mail for this one. Like where the time manager system getting things done gets it wrong, in my opinion is it's like, Hey, here's your to do list and you know you're gonna pray or die doing that kind of stuff and then your calendar is for your your meetings and your phone calls. What I learned interviewing all those highly successful people is I mean,

they weren't using to do list. They had asked me about it, but well, what do you mean you don't use digitalis? I had huge to do list, they said. We live from our calendars and a calendar. If you're put if you want to do something. If you really want to do it, pick a day, pick a time, pick a duration and put it on there. You know, it's not good enough to just say Oh, yeah, I need to go to the doctor for whatever I put on the bottom to us.

Oh, yeah. I want to write that great novel. I'm gonna put on my to do list if you really care about it. Scheduled time for it and it goes back. Johnny, too. I love how much you're talking about, like values, because this is really the secret to productivity, success, life, love everything, like get clear on your values and what great looks like for you. So no judging, like most people would say My family's ah,

high value or my health is a big value. And, you know, you really care about health. Yeah. Life's all Gabi healthy. You'd be happy. Great. So how many minutes last week did you spend at the gym? How many minutes did you spend meditating or whatever for mental health is like, uh, Well, last week was kind of busy. Yeah. How was this week? If you really care about your health,

you'll be like I value it. Therefore, I'm gonna schedule time for that value if I value my relationship with my spouse. You see, I do get a lot of hate mail. I get up on this one to schedule date night. Who cares of it? Slightly less romantic that you have to remember it by scheduling it. Nobody's your spouse. Your partner won't air. Like, Okay, if I truly value by marriage, I can schedule 234 hours on Thursday night or Aiken, you know, dumped the kids with the in laws and and go out. But like if you don't schedule it, it gets lost like our values get lost in the busy in the little fires that we think are important that really aren't that important.

36:34

Yeah, and you have to then opt out of not doing that thing. If it's on your calendar, you have to consciously not do it. That's right. And that alone it's powerful enough to make you productive.

36:46

Yeah, that's right. And I look, hey, I make mistakes all the time, and things come up life. Life comes up, so I'm always sliding like a thing that was on my Thursday at noon toe now Friday at 2 p.m. Or whatever, like life happens, but it's far more effective to put it on your calendar and to live that way

37:4

now. The three of us, I would say our relative pros when it comes to working from home. But this is on everyone's mind right now, and I have multiple friends who've reached out to me saying, How in the world do you do this? I I can't seem to do it. And now I'm in a situation where I'm working from home with my fiance is it's all she's usually on the road, so we're having to find different rooms to be on phone calls and trying to work through that. So what advice do you have for those of us who are struggling with this new work from home quarantine lifestyle? And are there any tips or tricks that you've developed over the years to make you more productive while you're working from

37:42

home? Yeah, and I just did a webinar, which, uh, it's up at the lead excite for free. There's no e mails or whatever about this because it's working from home being productive at home and leading, you know, teams working collaboratively from home, which is a challenge for so many. And the first thing I always tell people is that you talk about the three agreements Whether you're the official leader of your team or your team member, you can still use this tool. It's really important for Team's new toe working from home toe. Understand? Like what's normal working hours, you know? And it doesn't have to mean like,

Well, it's 9 to 5. And so we will all start at 900 and five and then we quit. But it's sort of like in general, we're gonna all agree that it's 9 to 5 or look, start and stop when you want, but we need these four hours of overlap so that we can all sort of collaborate and message. The second agreement is to get in again. These are like standard, like what? What are we just agreeing to do? Thio support each other? The 2nd 1 is how long will it take for us to get back to each other? So is the expectation that you send me an email. I reply in five minutes And if you don't unlike mad like well, you're supposed to be,

you know, Malcolm, not evenly back. So is it Is it that, you know, we expect to get back to each other within one hour? One day? Five men like What is that? It is it different by channel? So again it lead acts. So we use base camp. We have messages and all that stuff, and so you know we'll ping each other, but there's no assumption that it's an immediate reply. So if you get back to me like the same day, that's that's fine.

We don't actually use e mails. That's not a big deal. But I never call. Yeah, text people. Why I very rarely call them occasionally will tax with the phone. So people know that if my phone's rain and it's Kevin, something's going on like I gotta answer that. I've gotta I gotta get back to him quickly. And so I think you know the second agreement. Just how long is it gonna take to get back to each other? The third agreement is just how we communicate when we can't do number one and two. Hey, I got to take my daughter to the dentist this morning. I'm not gonna be back till 11 o'clock, so I won't be around.

Well, that's fine. But, like, is it just that the boss knows is it that we're gonna have a shared calendar? Isn't that that goes in the group chat? You know, for that? That's it. I mean, if you could even just start with, like, what are the overlap? Working hours. How long is it gonna take to get back to each other? How are we gonna communicate when we're not around?

That helps the team function a lot. I think when it comes to personal productivity at home, it's a lot of it is about that structure. So it's like, OK, I'm gonna calendar my exercise so that all these snacks I'm eating and weird door dash stuff I've been consuming. They're gonna pack the pounds on. So, you know, I'm gonna calendar my workout. I'm gonna counter a work sprint. And if you know it, especially now, like Johnny, Like, I can't go that long without checking in on the world.

So I'm not doing, like, nine to noon sprints like I probably should, but I can still do a 50 minute sprint, Put my phone on airplane mode, Grab o'clock. I'm seeing the time timer over my shoulder right here where you set it, and it actually spins down so you can put your phone away and not be, you know, pulled by your phone. And it's like, You know what the world's like machines that much in 50 minutes. So I'm gonna block it out. I'm gonna shut down my my slack in my e mails of my pings, And I'm just gonna solo focus and I'm gonna write that report. Make that forecast build that power point.

Read that book, whatever it is. And then being where that 50 minute timer goes off, teach their own on the time for me, it's 50. Then I pop up, I walk around, I breathe, I drink some water, I hydrate. Sure, I shouldn't do it, but I'm gonna cheat. I'm looking. You know, my favorite news.

I'm gonna take a look at Twitter, whatever that might be. Check in with the team. They need me. And then top of the hour boom. Another 50 minute work sprint. So whether it's 30 minute works, France three hour works friends. The point, though, is like schedule your day when you do in that group where we needed that collaboration and then just so low focus, you know, while you're while you're working on each task

41:51

for me, the routine part of it is so crucial I feel that many of us now we're in this work from home situation. I've been a little lax on waking up on time, hitting the snooze Maur a little lax on actually getting dressed and showered. We just sort of role in our PJs and think we're gonna be productive. And then the day goes by and we go. Man, I didn't get anything done. How do you do this? And you shouldn't treat work from home any different than you would treat work from the office. Right? Keeping that routine is obviously allowed you to be productive at work. It's going to do the same thing mentally to put you in that headspace of You know what? I'm getting my workout in 6 a.m. Regardless of if I'm working from home or if I'm going into the office, I'm getting dressed as if I'm going into the office. I'm not allowing myself to be in PJs all day because I know that that leads to Netflix. That leads to snacking, and that leads to just mindlessly shuffling on Instagram.

42:46

And it's funny because again, like we know this stuff. But we have to always be reminded. And last week, as I was starting to do zooms, business zooms I was noticing, like especially guys, like how many guys were had not been shaving right? And I realized I haven't shaved in like a week was looking a little scruffy. And so this weekend, I'm like, All right, wait a minute, like I know better than this. Like, why am I acting any differently now? So I started medic I'm gonna share every day,

and it's one of those little things I think I forget which Admiral wrote the book. Make your bed like he says, you know, first thing in the morning you might not control anything else in your day, but you can make your bed in the morning, and that's a sign of, like, control discipline. Positive habit, and it signals your brain. This is how my day is gonna go. I am gonna take charge now. I don't always make my bed in the morning, but I could at least shave every morning. I'm like, Okay, for now, I'm gonna shave. I'll put on my It's still casual with my normal work attire and run my damn Not gonna let the day run me. I'm gonna run my day and you start with that those first few minutes A

43:53

lot of us understandably have collaboration with our teams, and we have standards that we've agreed on. Now is the time to agree on some standards with your spouse, your significant other who is also working from home so that they know. Hey, you know what? After launch, I'm in my collaborative space, so I'm totally cool to have that conversation about what we're going to eat for dinner. But in the morning, I need to jam through my creative time. I need to block it out. I can't have you coming in the office and say, Hey, I was wondering, what should we do? I need the space,

and setting those standards for both of you is going to be very important for that productivity because it's so easy now that all of our routines have gone out the window for us to get lax a daisy ical and then be so frustrated ourselves that we're not as productive as we were when we were going into the office. Now this is a Q and A episode as well. We got some very timely questions here from our listeners, So let's open up our mail bag. If you want to get your question answered by us in the show, go to the arctic char dot com slash questions. And you can also email us questions at the art of charm. Our first question years from David, is this. Hey A J and Johnny. My resolution for 2020 was to take your lessons to heart and, as you say, build the network before I need it. Well, guess what happened. The conference is that I lined up for the next couple weeks are all canceled,

and if that wasn't enough, now is really the time that I need that network. Do you have any tips for building a network effectively while being stuck from home? Stay safe, David.

45:24

No one's going to be stopping and connecting. In fact, I think more people now are going to be reaching out or open to speaking and reaching out because hearing a nice, warm, comforting voice on the other side and wanting to have some normality and work is on Lee going to help everyone's nerves. In this moment, I'm a big believer in Steven, this digital world power face to face and and so my network. Everything else. Yeah, it's all off table, but there's a lot of people who are now not on airplanes, not at those events that are spending more time. I think there easier to get in touch with remotely, and Twitter was one angle. I noticed there's a whole lot more activity. I get home out more invitations on linked in these days.

And so, even if it's something mild, fairly passive, like the linked in stuff social media. That's one way for anyone who really wants to hustle out there. And this is good advice, even in better times. But you can work now, which is like, Hey, you reach out to people in your area of occupation, expertise, whatever it is and say Hey, I'm going to write an article to write a series of block goes on this topic. I would love to talk to you for 30 minutes, 20 minutes,

whatever it is and pick your brain and put you into that article. People want to help other people. If they think it's gonna help their personal brand it all. That's kind of a win, and they're gonna be around and a little bit more receptive now than during normal times. So, you know, I think just be aggressive, digitally and remotely. You might get surprised at some of the high level connections you could.

46:55

I completely agree, and I would take it even a step further, and I would reach out to them saying, I've so bummed this event was canceled. I was looking forward to meeting you. That's great and invite them to a quick zoom, have a cup of coffee over Zoom, and you will still be able to use technology to connect with people right now, when Guess what? We're all thirsty for that connection because we're stuck working from home shelter at home. So I think we can still leverage those opportunities. Even if the conferences have been canceled.

47:28

There is a lot of people whose lives have been so turned upside down because their jobs weren't from home. And now they are. And now they're seeing more self with Gary V. And guys like him have been saying of Do something online for the last. How long is scary? Been doing anything for 20 years now. So it's like there's a lot of the people who have to deal with that reality and arranged Well, I'm stuck here no time like the better. How do I get started for you guys? Reach out, right? Every content creator you and that you enjoy and the formats that you're looking to do something at and let them know how much you've enjoyed their work and how much it is meant to you. And now that you have this extra time, perhaps they could lend you an ear or send you some resource is to get you started.

48:22

All right? Mario asked us. Hey, a J Johnny have been a big fan of that show for a while. Thank you for all the great stuff you're sharing. I've never had a question of Senate, really. But now is the time when I could use your input. I don't want to jinx it, but with all that's happening at the moment. Work is not going to Well, this might be the time for me to start my own online business. I guess that's what everyone is saying at the moment, though, and I might not be the only one having this idea right now. Do you think the online market is too crowded and will it only get worse? And if you think there's still room for one more online business,

how should I start with this? Especially since I don't even have an idea of what that could be. I'd love your input on this. Thank you both, Mario. Definitely. I feel like, of course, everyone is now thinking about ways that they can make money and online is tthe e easiest when we're all stuck at home. But I don't think the market is ever too crowded. If you focus on helping others, we're all having issues right now. Whether we talked about teaching people how to work from home and be more productive, there are new issues that are arising out of this crisis that we had no idea existed before because the landscape has completely changed. So I think the most important thing that we always say is, Are you actually solving a problem of value to other people?

If you are, the marketplace will reward you handsomely. If you are not, then yes, you are going to struggle. So I don't think that we're at all at a place of saturation and online business. I think everyone now with all this free time should throw yourself into learning about how to launch something. Even if you fail. I can't stress this enough. We have had so many failures over the last 14 years, and all of those lessons have allowed us to evolve the brand to change the way we deliver the content. We're even evolving as we speak with our online platform, because you have to be nimble and agile, and you have to be able to learn to be a good businessman. Business is constantly changing, shifting and moving,

and now is the best time for you to be learning this. Taking all of the opportunity of time, you have to try to figure out some ways that you can leverage your experience, your knowledge or find some service is or products that are deeply in need in today's market and you will be rewarded. You're shaking your head, Kevin. What are your thoughts on this?

50:48

No, you said it perfectly. I think like every just about every one of my companies, I've started in a recession like it's always gonna be hard. And it's always gonna be worth it, regardless of what happens at the end, because it's a journey and I love you just saying like there's there's never a better time to learn than now and that longer it has never been easier time to be Nachman or now I mean, it's so cheap to communicate, to sell the market, et cetera. And I like the way you framed it. It's never about like that question about Well, okay, I'm going to knowledge is what should I sell? It's not about the what and certainly don't don't pick something because, oh, I got this email and everybody's making $1,000,000 on this product or this thing because that changes,

right? Everything jumps on or somebody hypes it. What is the problem you're trying to solve and who are you trying to solve it for? Like there's a lot of personal trainers out there, right lot of people, a lot of good personal trainers out there, many of them now offering online stuff. Very competitive, very, very, very crowded space. Yet there's room for the first of all. The market for people who should be in better shape is huge. There's always room for good trainers, but imagine now if I certainly am not, Ah,

personal trainer. But if I was thinking about it, I'm like, Okay, how do I niche this down so I could be number one in my niche and to start with, it might be okay. Um, I'm the best trainer for guys over 50 in Philadelphia that can on Lee work out for one hour a week, like that's my market, and that's how I'm gonna go after. And that's my message now, maybe when I've got enough of those that I have got more time than I need to expand it to something else. But it's like what problem you solve. Where do you want to add value? And who do you want to offer it to and jump in and go for the ride and learn its being offers? Always hard.

I mean, that's just up and down, up and down, but just staying on that course. Now's a great time,

52:46

absolutely, and I think when it comes to this time that we now have, you can look at it for the positive or you could look at it for the negative. That's not to downplay any of the negative that's going on, and I know there are serious concerns in serious issues. But we've talked so much on the show of trying to find the positive in any situation, trying to find those opportunities. And if that means learning how to leverage your skills online and how to make some side money right now, while the economy is shifting under our feet and opportunities may be moving away from us, there is no better time than now and you hit the nail on the head. It is easier than ever to market. Sell yourself online. There's never been a time like this. I know Gary V talks about it constantly. You know, when we started 14 years ago to get a website up and running, that actually looked halfway decent.

You're talking thousands of dollars, a team of developers or teaching yourself how to code heart. I remember learning HTML in PHP who's actually doing that. Now you can go online, and there are places where you can turn on a website in a matter of minutes. So why not throw a couple 100 bucks into it more hours of your time since we can't go out and socialize with our friends and learn how this online marketplace works, All right, Last one here from Chris. Hey, I'm a total introvert, and this is the first time I don't feel bad for staying at home, actually being asked to stay at home. It's a bit like an introverts dream come true if this entire situation also weren't so scary. Anyways, here's the weird thing that need your advice on. Now that I get to stay home without feeling bad about it,

I actually feel like I have the energy to engage with people. Yeah, I see the irony in that you have any suggestions on how I could work on growing my social circle without leaving the House Best Chris. Obviously, for us, I feel like we've been using Zoom said it first launch. But many of us now are encountering the world of teleconferencing video zoom conferencing for the first time and whether it's face time or whether it's instagram. It feels like every app now has video chat capabilities, and I know the three of us are huge fans of the in person. There's no substitute for that. We can absolutely agree on that. But when you can't meet with people in person, now is the time to use that phone of yours for actual communication. Not for social media, not for games and APS but toe actually reach out and talk to people. And I've been showing this with the clients that I've been coaching.

Go through your phone, go to your text messages, swipe 34 times and see who's been buried in there that you haven't got back to that you haven't had time for. They're in your phone. Obviously they matter to you. To some degree, reach out to them. I feel like everyone feels a little isolated, feels a little alone right now, and I've enjoyed the text messages, check ins, the phone calls that I've been getting, and Johnny knows I'm allergic to the phone just as much as the next guy. We can use this time to reconnect with our phone and to reach out, as Johnny was saying earlier to the creators, the people online that have made a difference in our lives And since we're all in front of the computer now, more than ever will probably actually get through will probably actually reach these people that we thought were unreachable. Previously

56:16

treat that I set out this morning was that empathy and gratitude are certainly the things that are going to get us through this, and everyone is commenting and liking people's tweets and re tweeting or on Facebook or sharing and all that kind of stuff. None of that adds up to the amount of for film that you get when you hear a voice on the other end and you see that picture, they're actually having a real conversation. Don't think. Oh, listen, I just commented on Jim's. I mean, so he knows I'm good? No, he does it. In fact, Jim would probably fill 100% different if you reached out and said, Hey, man, I'd really like to talk to you right now.

It would love the detail here with how your day has been and what you're up to or what you're gonna do during all of this to keep yourself occupied. Those conversations mean more now than ever. I was just gonna jump in to do a shout out to the introverts because I am a massive introverted. People are often surprised by that. I mean, I am like, on the extra version introversion. I'm like the hermit side of the scale. And, you know, I was in my teens and early twenties. I mean, I was. So I was introverted and painfully shy, and I so wish that art of charm boot camps existed 30 years ago instead of 14 years ago because my my college years and twenties would have been a very different thing. I was talking to a friend of mine.

He's the CEO coach just this morning and he said, One of the one of things that's gonna come out of this. It's like introverts are gonna now have their day and whether it's right or not, the extroverts are the ones that really are, You know, they promoted in the leadership and they get noticed and they walk in a room and you know, they're charismatic and they own the room. Well, there's no room for the extra effort to walk into right now. And so what people are gonna value are good listeners. People who think things through and right with written communication is very, very strong. I mean, I think, like, shout out to the introverts.

Now is a time to really get some new success and, um, a Jake and we're just like mine melted on this stuff. I felt kind of weird that I did it, but I went through my texts and my notes, and I I just on no pad. I put down a long list of people friends, family members, et cetera, And I just started, like, Okay, I'm gonna just tend attacks. Hey, how are you doing? What's it like?

Lava bought. And it started on text yesterday. My friend Roy. I knew when I was, like, 10 years old. He's now in Napa. He texted me bags like you want to jump on the phone right now like Oh, yeah, sure. We're both home. We talked for over an hour, you know? And so this is an incredible time to use these supercomputers in our hands to reach out. Maybe first on text or voice or video. It's great toe, you know, build these relationships. It's easier than ever before.

59:16

It's so funny that you say that I myself of a massive introvert, and I have had no real issues with shelter at home. I've quite enjoyed my time spent alone, and my fiance now realizes how much of an extrovert she truly is. Just always say, Oh, I have an introvert, too A. J And she's climbing up the walls right now because she's just stuck with me and poppers and I'm not. Although I have a fun podcast, I'm not always the most amazing conversationalist because I do like Thio, get focused on my work, drill in and and stay zoomed in on that. But to your point, this is that great opportunity to reconnect. We've never had more time available on our schedules were not taking our kids to school. We're not zipping around running 100 miles an hour.

We can actually stop collect ourselves and figure out what our values, what matters to us. And with this time spent rebuilding that community that we may have disconnected from, for whatever reason that life got in the way, the chase to your success has got in the way of you reconnecting with the people that have supported you. And if they're in your phone, reach out. If they're on social media, followed them. Now reach out. We're getting direct messages all the time on social media. And as Johnny said, we're responding. I feel like the world is now more responsive than ever. So now is the time to start reaching out.

60:42

I believe it's nature's gay science, and he's He's speaking about how, even in today's world, and this is in the late 18 hundreds, he's saying that men can't even have a meal without having a watch in the hand and a paper and the other wondering, looking at the start markets, hoping they don't miss some. That is in the late 18 hundreds. So obviously these things have not de escalated at all. In fact, they've only escalated. And with all the technology we have, we're not only doing on the paper a watch, it's all right here in our film with a 1,000,000 more things that we have. I posted that in a tweet am I and the one that came after that was stop use this time for some reflection. The whole world is stopped. You're not missing anything right now.

And if we've been in that pace on def Nietzsche was writing about it. I'm sure it was long before that. It's probably bleeding. Ah, a disease of humanity, of thinking that there's always something. Listen, or they were constantly running from something, usually ourselves. But this is the time to get so this is the time to get right. And you're only gonna be able to do that by sitting in it and given it yourself something and the decisions that you're making and and where you are right now,

62:14

I think foam Oh is at its all time. Lois. Now, Kevin, obviously we would be remiss without talking about online learning and lead axe and what you're working on there. What are you doing? It lead X. And how can our audience find out more about the great things?

62:34

Yeah, Thanks A J. I, um the businesses that I've started and failed, we're almost always a failure of leadership. The ones that have done well is when I learned how to focus on talent powering others, and I learned through some hard lessons in my personal life that we have to lead at home as well. So I, you know, was retired for a few years, was writing books and things. But I have this crazy idea like, how can we spark the next 100 million leaders around the world? I can't reach 100 million people through a podcast of books, speeches, et cetera, and we know that a lot of leadership is behaviors.

You guys know it could be hard to change behaviors. You guys do it better than most, but it's not something that you can just show up in a class and not do or practice you need. Coach is right. You need interaction. And so have the crazy idea three years ago of Let's Take IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence and create an executive leadership coach. We call her coach Amanda, And so, instead of having to hire a $500 an hour human executive coach, which on Lee the sea level, or VPs can afford to do how do we put this coach experience into a nap for 20 bucks a month or less and release her into the world so anybody can start to develop? You know they're they're coaching experience, and that's what we did. And Amanda's getting smarter month by month, year by year. And,

um, you know, we have. Ah, if people are interested, they could just go to lead X got or l e a d x dot org. You just go to the APP stores, you know, Apple or Android. Download the APP. Try it for free for seven days, but it's got a really cool personality assessment. Behavioral nudges to give you advice, you know, through your phone a long way. Thousands of micro learning videos and podcasts and webinars and blah, blah blah. But it's fun to talk to Coach Amanda, so people check it out.

64:28

Well, we gotta make sure Amanda's recommending the Arctic charm podcast. Thank you for joining us, Kevin. It was

64:35

a blast. Hey, thanks for all you guys were doing, really making ah difference in a lot

64:39

of people's lives. And I'm honored. Thio. I met you guys. Now this is the new in person, I guess Right back. Thank you so much. Today's shoutout goes to Max. He sent us a question for our Q and a episode a little over a year ago, and has since made some massive changes in his life, but hear it from him. Hi. I see this is Max from Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed your year of Toolbox. You guys help me with some trouble. I was having maintaining relationships. I was afraid to say no to social engagements.

65:24

And this was draining

65:25

me much too much because of your advice to take better care of myself. Okay. Giving me best permission to say no. I now reserve one day a week just for May. I don't do more than a few nights out in a row, and I'm better communicating my needs to others, especially to my girlfriend, who I've been seeing for eight months straight. Now, once again, you've changed my life. Thank you. I say,

65:50

Hey, so I just want to say this one thing here and this hopefully will reach you in the audience. And And have you think about this point now? A. J and I we certainly do a lot of talking about grinding it out and then put your all your effort into it. But you shouldn't be putting

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your effort in this something to escape from the realities of life and with this, you should be taking time for yourself to be reflective. Forced himself awareness so that you can make the right decisions that are right for you. And this is one of the things that Max realized about himself. And by taking that time, he was able to start growing. Now, obviously, setting boundaries is going to be important to better guard your time, your energy, and to give your all to the people that matter if you're burning the candle at both ends is my aunt loves to tell me. Of course you're gonna feel run down. Of course you're going to feel challenge. It's important to create that space in your life for yourself, so you could better show up for the people that matter. So congratulations, Max.

On building out those boundaries were always hear from you for your next question. You love us to answer on an upcoming Q and A. Now today's challenge is gonna be all around bringing some gratitude into your home office. We constantly talk about keeping a gratitude journal on this show, but this week we're gonna modify this of it. Your challenge is to start a gratitude jar. What's the difference. Ah, gratitude Journal is something that you open when you're ready to write, and then you close it again and put it aside. Ah, gratitude jar is actually a glass jar that you put on your desk and put some paper next to it every time you're grateful for something. Well, write it out on that sheet of paper, rip off a piece, fold it up and put it in the jar.

What we like so much about this approach is that you can actually see that glass slowly filling up over time. And once it's all said and done, you could empty out that jar and review all of the reasons that you were grateful. In a time like this, where we're all feeling a little uneasy, we're all feeling frustrated and nervous, reminding ourselves to stay positive and choke a CZ. Gratitude is a great way for all of us to get through

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this, and we want to hear how that one for you so fill free to write out. We're always excited to hear from you guys. You can send

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your thoughts to the Arctic charm dot com slash questions or e mail us at questions at the Arctic trying dot com. Or find out that any of our favorite social media at the Arctic Charm Facebook, Instagram and or Twitter That's right. And Johnny, we're going live on social media for you all to answer your questions. We're bringing on some fun guests, and we're trying to be maybe even more entertaining than this podcast. 8:30 a.m. Pacific weekdays. You can catch Johnny and Crew live on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. So Kevin's book was one of my favorites from last year, and it definitely changed my approach throughout the day and how I attacked it. And I hope some of those lessons stuck out to you

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guys and you really

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give it a try. I was shocked at how my day's and life had changed, and I would love for that for you guys. Absolutely. And his three C model for scheduling and structure your day has been key to our productivity, starting out creative, using all of that positive energy you have towards working on something that matters with those creative juices flowing, Then setting aside time in your afternoons to collaborate with your team members and ending the day with connection, especially in today's environment, where we're all stuck working from home. I couldn't think of a better strategy to be more productive. And I'm so happy that Kevin shared it with our audience because it has benefited all of us on the Arctic term team. Now, if you're ready to take it to the next level, you've been wondering, What can I do with this time? I have stuck here at home.

Let's get accelerated. Let's crank up our social skills to the max because guess what? This to show pass. And once this passes, we want a sharp axe to go to battle with. The easiest way to start working on improving your social skills is through a little program John and I put together called the Communication Accelerator. Johnny. You want to tell our audience a little bit more about

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it? Well, it's everything that you need

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to do right now to expedite. You're learning of better communication, identifying invalidating emotional

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bids and just being able to break the ice and being more

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present. I love it because we've distilled down conversation skills, networking strategies and how you can start putting together a framework to grow your network right now because there's never been a better time for you to connect with people on Lincoln on Zoom on all of these platforms where we've been distracted in the past. We're getting people responding to us that we never thought we'd get a hold of, and you can, too. We broke this all down. In a very simple, easy to follow program called Our Communication Accelerator Toe Learn Maur head on over to the arctic charm dot com slash accelerator. That's the arctic storm dot com slash accelerator to get your conversation skills cranked to the max. Also, could you do us to the entire Arctic charm team a big favor? Could you head on over to iTunes and rate and review this podcast? It would really mean the world to us. The Arctic char podcast was produced by Michael Harold and Eric Montgomery and engineered by Sanjay and Bradley Dunham, a cast media studios and Sonny Downtown Hollywood until next week. Guys,

I'm Johnny and I'm a J. Stay safe and quarantine. Keep your distance and keep rocking. Yeah, yeah,

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