I learned everything I need to know before the internet.

It came up in conversation tonight and it hit me like a ton of bricks! It's true. I learned all of my skills before the internet. While visiting with my nephews a few years back I realized we might be in trouble. I mean as a race, you know, humans. They were both in their teens and I was leading a project to build a wheelchair ramp of sorts for my mother. Neither of them knew how to hammer a nail or work a screw gun. It was evident that they couldn't wait to get back to video games and air conditioning. I was besides myself. As a teen I stole my old man's tools and tore down his mower, then his car. I learned how build a wall of wood and poor concrete by working with MY uncle, (who showed me how to roof and build stairs and use a cross saw.) I walked to the store. I caught the bus to the punk rock show. I made my own money. I certainly knew how to drive a god damned nail!!! Look! I'm not saying I know what is wrong with us, as a society,or as a nation. I don't know what to do about Ferguson, or floods in the south, or this campaign debacle. I do know we should all put down our phones every now and then and LOOK UP! Get involved in the world around us. At the very least learn how to take care of ourselves. Build a fire or drive a nail... Just a thought.

You're doing it wrong.

I learned a very valuable lesson this week! Not that carbs and beer give you moobs after 40 or that your budget won't work unless you stick to your budget. I learned something about myself on a very deep level. You see after I sold my business last year, I have devoted most of my time to coaching. Business coaching and life coaching. It's been tremendously rewarding! I don't care what they tell you, business coaching turns into life coaching. If it doesn't you're doing it wrong. Business/work related problems all have one thing in common...humans. Humans are real time, real emotion, thought, fear, ambition, communication, miscommunication. For this reason it's usually a thought process, or a habit that is standing in the way of success. For some businesses the problem is tardiness, 1 in 5 Americans are late for work at least once a week according to Forbes. That's 20% of our workforce! Why do you think that is? Traffic? I think if you look it’s something deeper theres a root problem: poor planning, schedule conflict, work related anxiety depression? For instance, in my business one of the biggest problems we face is "pre-qualification." Assuming that the customer can not afford all that their vehicle needs because of the way they may act or dress or talk, or the half a joint in the ashtray and crusty fast food containers strewn about the interior of their vehicles. I call this the lebowski syndrome, and I always ask my clients if Lebowski can afford brakes and a tune up today? They inevitably say "I don't know." "Thats right!" I say, "You don't know! You are not his banker. You are however an expert in auto repair, so let's let Mr. Lebowski know everything he needs to repair and maintain his car today." It works! You can overcome bad human "habits" by training and by being consistent. You must set protocol, visit with it, revisit with it, again and again and again! It is not a set and forget. But most of all you change bad habits, (being late, prequalifying, texting, etc.) by enrolling your team members into a bigger vision.Creating excitement or Buzz as we now say about what you are doing as a team. But this is not what I learned this week.

This is...

For one reason and another, I have had my share of financial ups and downs this year. So I recently took on a job that was more a job than consulting or coaching. It was in line with my daughter's school schedule, the pay was shitty enough but along with my coaching gigs it covered the spread. It was an opportunity to coach/consult newish owners of a really exciting start up but mainly the job was scheduling appointments, answering the phones and emails. I had only been there a short while, a week or more when I got my ass handed to me on a Monday. The phone wouldn't stop ringing! The emails were coming faster than I could answer for around 7 hours straight! I did the best I could with my limited training and time on the job. Which is why I was VERY surprised the next day when the boss called me into his office and announced that he was worried that I didn't have the chops and that he'd give me another shot the following Monday, (Monday being the busiest day of course.) He suggested that if I didn't succeed we would have to go our separate ways. He did not want to waste more time on training me.

Well, if you know me, you know this tore me up! I tormented over this all week. I turned it into a personal issue about myself. Whirling doubt and anxiety, confidence smashing insomnia. "how could this be?" I wondered, "I have expedited in some of the busiest restaurants in the nation. I have written service for more years than I care to remember, coordinated thousands of volunteers, built a multi million dollar company out of nothing. I have trained hundreds of people to cook, wait on tables, expedite tickets, rotate tires, repair brakes, engines, phone sales,on and on and on. I certainly can answer a phone and use a few simple computer programs." I suddenly found myself as not a coach, but an employee who just got his ass handed to him and was about to get it handed to him again next Monday? I felt I must be completely over the hill. But there was something else, I couldn't put my finger on it but it was gnawing at me.

Then... it dawned on me. This is exactly the opposite of how I operate as a boss, a trainer and employer. The antithesis of how I train leaders and employees, (team members) It rocked my foundation. I spent four days in torment, self doubt and fear. I realized what a responsibility it is to take on a business, a team and people's lives. I realized that this person sitting across the desk from me was new to owning a business, or at least managing employees. I realized how much he still thinks he knows. I also know well the mentality of "chop off the beast's head." It works until you realize another head grows in it's place. I know this mentality personally, in 2011 I handed out 29 w2's in my small shop. "there's the door" was my MO. It damaged my reputation in this town. It was very hard to recover from that. However, I learned to "grow" my employees, team members. It was a hard lesson but I learned it.

So what did I learn? I might be slightly over the hill. I might be a drug war casualty, but I'm not that out of it. A little dusty is all. And completely fallible. What I learned is this... I'm a coach, a team builder. I help give people hope for their vision, their jobs their lives. It's what I do. I simply can't be with anything else. And that gives me the warm and fuzzies.