Monday, April 30, 2018

Don't Lose Sight of the Dream

One of the greatest things about the profession of project management is that we get to make dreams come true.  You can attend one of my sessions or the Free Webinar to hear the elevator speech that every project manager MUST know!  As I was participating in a mastermind session this weekend, I heard Paul Martinelli speaking into many entrepreneurs saying, "Many people have a dream, create a plan, and then fall in love with the plan."  I really started to ponder that in terms of project management.  How many times have you seen that happen?  

A project gets created to accomplish something.  We get together and create a plan.  Then every meeting from there forward begins to discuss the plan.  We fall in love with the PLAN!  It is all about status of the plan, completion of the tasks on the plan, and the percent complete of the plan!  Many times, the project (or dream) morphs to the constraint of the arbitrary notion of the plan.  Once the plan has been created, we have limited ourselves to a date or a budget.  However, it is the dream that is driving the results, not the plan! 

When we modify our dream, that becomes difficult because we have to adjust the plan, budget, document the scope change, etc.  It becomes a rigid process that diminishes the value of the dream itself!  Now don't get me wrong, controls are great and necessary.  What I am talking about here is for you to sit back for a moment and think through your last 5 to 10 projects.  Once the project was presented and a plan was created, did we fall in love with the plan or fall in love with the dream?

This is one of the greatest examples of displaying one of my core concepts that changed the way that I saw projects forever.  When Rob Thomsett explained that projects fail because of context, not content, it created a fresh perspective of what activities are creating value and enhancing the dream, and which activities are setup just to avoid failure or to affix blame.  That perspective shift is one of the greatest shifts a project manager can embrace.  Understanding that enabling the value of dreams far outweighs the strict adherence to our first thought or first plan.  It is being open enough to be always considering alternatives and having the flexibility to work within the constraints where progress and success can be found.

For example, we were working with a client in an industry that was new to us.  They hired us to create a specific system.  At the first release, it was clear that the system was what they asked for, however, not what was going to be what they needed.  We recognized this quickly and opened up a design and idea session with the key stakeholders.  We tested a few ideas and created mock-ups and wireframe designs with all ideas being considered.  The energy in the room was contagious.  We landed on a new design and after re-scoping the project realized that we would still be able to deliver by the date requested with only a slight modification to budget.  The result of the collaboration was a patented algorithm that revolutionized an industry.  One that would have not have been found by that team had we stuck to the plan.

This isn't a calling to throw out all plans.  Plans and controls are necessary.  The call is to not be so attached to a plan that we lose sight of the dream.  We do not want to become so attached that if the plan is failing, we attribute it to the failure of the dream!  

No Day But Today,

Rick

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Every Situation is an Assignment

I just recently became a Certified Human Behavior Consultant.  In the training Dr. Rohm shared a message that just hit home with me.  He said that every situation is an assignment.  When you find yourself saying, "I can't wait for this to be over, " or, "I will be happy when this situation ends," your attitude is incorrect.  The correct attitude is to step into the situation with the understanding of "What am I supposed to learn from this assignment?"  If you are trying to get through the situation as quickly as possible, you will try to speed the situation up and you will miss the lesson.  If you go too fast, you will miss what you are supposed to learn.

Life, your Creator, or whatever you believe assigns you situations.  These are not graded assignments like in school.  They are pass and fail.  If you fail to learn from the situation, you will most likely be given the assignment again.  This is why poor behavior seems to be repeated or you may feel like you continue to attract unwanted outcomes.  It is not that you are continuing to attract bad situations, it is that you failed the previous assignment.  No matter how painful the assignment, no matter how much it hurts, approach it with an attitude that you are seeking the lesson.  Find what you are supposed to learn and improve!  This is what a solution-oriented person does.  This is where growth happens.  Do not ignore the situation, embrace it!  It could lead you down the path of untold fortunes!

I have coupled this thought by looking at a timeline of my life.  I have gone back and looked at critical situations that still seem to crowd my conscious thoughts.  The things that creep into my mind and shout at the positive things to bring negativity.  Does that ever happen to you?  Do you ever feel the momentum shift?  When you start something positive or good things start to happen and then your mind seems to self-sabotage and bring up resistance thoughts?  I used to let those thoughts get me down.  I would listen to the negativity and allow that to hamper my positive momentum or my current growth.  What I do now is search for the lesson that I missed.  What did I fail to learn that I can apply to growth?  How can I turn that negative thought or negative situation into a positive story or a positive affirmation to create momentum?  Try it!  There is not a person on this planet whose mind isn't wired to tell them things that bring self doubt, self awareness, or pause.  The only difference between really positive and successful people and those who are not is the choice to filter out or not to listen to the negativity.  It can be as simple as a choice.  One of my favorite books was referred to me by Seth Godin called the "War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.  It is a beautiful book about Resistance and how to overcome it.  Check it out if you have time!

No Day But Today, 

Rick A. Morris

Sisyphus, you ready?

John Maxwell states it so beautifully, "everything worthwhile is uphill, yet most everyone has downhill habits." In my journey through self awareness so many quotes are flashing through my brain. Some of my favorites are bubbling to the top. John's, of course. Carl Jung's, "until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." Dr. Robert Rohm teaching me about my "I/D" personality and the understanding of how I start well and need the extra push to finish. All of these led me down the path to envision Sisyphus. Visualization sometimes is the art of learning. I visualize sometimes that my business and career is Sisyphus except that it isn't starting over every day. It just rolls back down hill if you stop for a day or even for a breath.

There are many moments throughout the day or week where distractions creep in. Each morning, I create a list of key things that I need to get done. That is my rock that I must get up the hill. Phone calls, e-mails, distractions, and the way my brain is wired is my mountain. Each time I cross something off the list, I am pushing. Each time a distraction wins, I have stopped for a breath and that rock is pushing me back down. I can feel the struggle with my own brain and thoughts to push through. Even in writing this e-mail, I thought, "wouldn't it be cool to have a Sisyphus desk ornament to remind you to stay focused?" That just cost me 15 minutes of searching on the Internet! Back to the post and the thought. We all have that thing inside of us. This is where my quote comes from: We all have the WANT to succeed, but do we have the WILL to succeed? I WILL finish this post, I WILL finish my list today. I WILL grow today. I WILL succeed. I WILL push this rock up that mountain. I know tomorrow, it will be there for me to push again. I welcome it. I welcome the challenge. Come what may, I hope the rock is bigger. I hope the mountain is steeper. I hope I grow tired sooner so I can become stronger. Let's do this. Sisyphus, you ready?

No Day But Today,

Rick

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Radio Show Transcript - Catching Up with Coach Jamy Bechler March 30, 2018

Catching Up with Coach Jamy Bechler - Recorded March 30, 2018


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Please remember this is a transcript of a radio show that airs live every Friday and is also podcasted.  Spelling and punctuation may be affected.

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

00:00:27;07 - 00:00:31;16
Rick A. Morris: And welcome to another Friday edition of the work life balance.

00:00:31;16 - 00:04:49;16
Rick A. Morris: I'm Rick Morris your host and if you happen to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn and you may have seen it but we have now redesigned it completely relaunched RickAMorris.com with some brand new products specifically for the project management community. So if you're like me and have been frustrated about the continuing education offerings in project management most of them are either designed to help you pass a test or a certification or they're a bunch of theories that you can apply to your day to day life or day to day project management activities. And so we have announced two new products off of the rickamorris.com Web site that are engineered for those that want to continue to grow their influence as a project manager. So one of those is the project management that works masterclass which is literally 17 chapters worth of videos that we recorded in about 15 to 20 minute chunks for you and each one of the videos contains tips and tools and techniques and links to the actual templates that we use. And it's designed to give you lifetime access to these videos so that when you are encountering an issue or something like that it's your job that you can go directly to the video and get the exact learning that you need. And it's also the bridge between your technical training and the soft skills that's necessary to grow your influence as a project manager. The second product that we started today is the Project Management mentorship series. So for those of you that have been following me on this radio show for the last two years you've heard my journey through mentorship in the John Maxwell team and listening to people like Paul Martinelli and Roddy Galbreath Christian Simpson John Maxwell himself and when I started to Google and look for if anybody has been doing this to the project management community themselves there's just no products like this out there. And so we wanted to fill that gap. So there'll be 24 lessons a year. So a lesson will come out every other week and then every other week there'll be a live phone call that not only do we reinforce that lesson that we taught but we're going to give you an opportunity to have a live Q and A with some of the best project management minds in the industry. And we're going to be able to address direct questions and issues that you might be having in your current organization are just things that you're trying to figure out. And there's no other product like this and if we tried to bring some of these people to your organization these people charge anywhere from 250 to 1000 dollars an hour. And you're literally going to get this for less than a cup of coffee a day. So check out the new rickamorris.com and find these new products. They launched a specialty today March 30th and so you can find out all the information you need to find there. So let's get to our guest today which I'm very excited not sure about the timing of this and you'll figure that out in just a moment. But we have this gentleman back in September of 2016 and we had such a great time we had to have him back. Unfortunately we couldn't get him back. So now just because he's so doggone busy. And this guy is just pumping out stuff. But he's a professional speaker he's a leadership trainer and executive business coach and he works with teams ranging from major corporations to the NBA. And before going into full time leadership work he served for 20 years as a college basketball coach. He's been a professor and administrator. And so when he hung up his whistle he didn't stop coaching. He just moved from the locker room to the boardroom. And now he travels the country motivating people and coaching organizations on how they can build championship teams and cultures see when he left his last college as the winningest coach in program history. His 2014 team earned the national champions of Character Award. He then moved into the high school ranks and served as an athletic director for two years and during his time there the basketball team won the state championship and transformed the departments athletic budget and instituted student athlete leadership training as a student athlete. He lettered in three different sports which was football basketball and track while attending college. And so his passion for leadership and adding value to others led him to go through extensive training. And like me is a John Maxwell certified leadership coach teacher and speaker. And so he's been part of the team. We've had him on before but we'd like to welcome back and I'll explain the timing comment in just a second but let's bring back. Coach Jamy Bechler back onto the program. How are you doing coach.

00:04:49;16 - 00:05:05;19
Jamy Bechler: Hey Rick I'm doing I'm doing great. That was. That was an amazing introduction. You even mentioned what I did in college. Yes. It makes me feel pretty good. Outstanding. I need to remind my wife or some of that stuff that that I actually did something to my life.

00:05:05;19 - 00:05:15;02
Rick A. Morris: Sometimes we have to remind our wives because when I go downstairs I just launched all these products. You heard that lead in and I go downstairs and my wife looks at me like what do you do today.

00:05:15;08 - 00:05:46;03
Jamy Bechler: And I don't know the timing why as a motivational speaker or leadership trainer you know sometimes you know you're self-employed or you're unemployed depending on the. Sometimes it feels like. So yeah you know sometimes it's it's she gets home from the real job and she wants to know what she did all day in your office you know did you play videogames or did you just sit around in your boxers. But no we we actually we actually try to do things and try to add value to people.

00:05:46;04 - 00:05:58;29
Rick A. Morris: Absolutely. So the timing comment wise is kind of hoping I'd have you next week when Michigan finally got bounced out of the tournament. You didn't have that to hang over my head but what a run Michigan is having right now.

00:05:59;29 - 00:07:38;28
Jamy Bechler: Yeah we may be in the same boat you know. Come come tomorrow night with both of our teams being knocked out by the underdog Cinderella. LOYOLA Loyola team and Sister Jane you know it took kind of a miracle shot for them to beat her Tennessee Volunteers and then you know they get the Wolverines tomorrow night and that's my team. A lot lifelong Michigan Wolverines fan didn't attend there. I wasn't smart enough to get in. It wasn't good enough athlete to get it so. So I just wear the gear and cheer. But it's it's fun to see Michigan back in the final four and you know for anyone out there listening that's a sports fan. I mean you got to appreciate or at least you should appreciate the job that their coach has done. John B line has never talked about pretty much in the national media about you know what he does and how good of a coach he he is. Because he just doesn't get any of the studs at a high school. You know he recruits to a system he recruits it finds the right fit. And you know I saw that and I tweeted this out today actually. But he's since he's been at Michigan he's coached nine guys that have been drafted into the NBA and not one of them was a McDonald's All-American. He is just amazing at getting guys to fit together and the teamwork and the team framework and also to get guys to to develop in any case guys from three stars to stars and make them in the NBA players so he's a heck of a coach and he's pretty down to Earth 2 he's still Mozes on grass you know.

00:07:38;29 - 00:08:30;10
Rick A. Morris: I think that's an important thing. I was going to make it. I think the funniest tweet I saw about our last those everybody Tennessee was trying to find it and that could cheer for our team for next year. But Sister Jean but I think you make a very interesting point in certainly developing leadership and I'm not a big fan. Certainly the college rankings. You know two star three star four star because when you look at some of the best players at any level at any sport there's a few right you can look at LeBron and certainly the one thing but he has to overcome that every night as well because there's a night that he's not doing a triple double everybody's like well what's up with LeBron. He's like he's human. But but you look at some of these other people that are just breakouts that that weren't two started three star four star not even McDonald's all Americans and I think that that is a great testament to phenomenal coaching.

00:08:31;21 - 00:10:15;19
Jamy Bechler: Yeah. And certainly I mean you know John Wooden was the first one that I've seen attributed to are attributed to this quote. But you know you can't win the Kentucky Derby riding mules or Clydesdale's or any. You know you've got to have thoroughbreds to win the Kentucky Derby. And you know you rarely see a team actually win the whole thing without some talent and even a Loyola you know they don't have the big time athletes but they still are pretty athletic. They're still pretty good. They're just you know at that level at the mid major level. They tend to be that they can jump just as high. They just are shorter to begin with. You know their vertical jump sometimes is just as good as some other guys they're just a little shorter and that's really what it comes down to a lot of times in basketball and they are overlooked in high school maybe they played a small school or maybe they played in a large school but they were the third or fourth option and they don't develop until they get to college. And you know at the end of the day we're all you know whether it's our business team or whether it's our sports team what we're really not trying to accumulate the most talent. What we're trying to do is build the best team that can get results. And you know there's a lot of teams with just Oodles of Noodles of talent that's been sitting home the last two weeks watching this on TV while you know teams with lesser talent but are better teams and they're still playing. And that's really what it's all about what you and I are every day trying to do is trying to help people be better and make the best team that we can. And it's no different whether it's in our business our office our church our school or our sports team and then there's those guys too that were there perennial all stars.

00:10:15;19 - 00:10:25;23
Rick A. Morris: Now everybody knows their name now but they were to meet some of the best team players out there and I'll compliment one for Michigan one from Tennessee and the one from Tennessee.

00:10:25;23 - 00:10:53;04
Rick A. Morris: I don't think you're going to think of that. I'm going to say but of course Tom Brady right. I mean quite frankly right he was a backup at Michigan. Right. It wasn't even that heralded when he came out in the draft but everybody would like to go back and read those draft notes and pick him up now. Right. And then Jason Witten right. Jason Witten just renegotiated his contract to take 2.5 million dollars less this year so that they could free up some salary cap to go get some other people so they can win.

00:10:53;14 - 00:11:01;05
Jamy Bechler: Know who does that these days. Well that's great that the 65 year old Jason Witten is going to do that for the Dallas Cowboys.

00:11:01;13 - 00:11:05;29
Jamy Bechler: You know I mean he's he's one of the few guys with AARP cards still playing him.

00:11:05;29 - 00:11:23;04
Rick A. Morris: I just about spit my water out that was not fair. He's also the guy that had his spleen removed and still got back and cut 14 passes two weeks later. But we're going to take our first break. We'll be right back with Coach Bechler and some more. Michigan versus Tennessee banter right here in the work life balance.


00:14:28;25 - 00:14:36;03
Rick A. Morris: All right we're back to the work life balance. We're visiting with Coach Bechler today and coach. You know actually I owe you a debt of gratitude.

00:14:36;03 - 00:14:58;15
Rick A. Morris: So you're one of the most active people that I know on social media. And as I was looking to continue to develop and redevelop my role of 5 and we can go into what a rule of 5 is and I'll let you do that. But as I was trying to do my rule of five I came across one of your tweets about how you start your morning and the three apps that you use in the morning.

00:14:58;17 - 00:15:04;07
Rick A. Morris: And I've been doing that ever since. You want it you want to talk a little bit about that.

00:15:04;19 - 00:15:08;28
Jamy Bechler: I'm sorry you cut out there just for a minute or I probably cut out there. Repeat that.

00:15:09;06 - 00:15:22;19
Rick A. Morris: I didn't hear a rule has the rule of five and the three apps that you use in the morning how you start your day Well first of all I start my day with I make my bed.

00:15:23;02 - 00:15:48;10
Jamy Bechler: Yeah. And I don't I don't know if that's what you're alluding to but I actually make my bed and that's that's some weird thing that most people don't think about. But I like to start off the day by winning the day. And and I feel like I can't win the day if I don't start the day on a good note. And I used to teach that to my players. You know we talk about you know make your bed in the morning even though no one else is going to see it.

00:15:48;10 - 00:16:04;27
Jamy Bechler: It starts you off building the right habits and there's a there's a gentleman Steve noodle Berg does a lot of sales stuff does you know he's he's pretty well-known in the business realm and he has a book called Confessions of a serial salesman.

00:16:04;29 - 00:17:26;18
Jamy Bechler: And in it he talks about one of the very first things he does other than get up at 5:00 each morning as he gets he makes his bed and I was like man that's awesome. But I had a player just this past summer that texted me out of the blue and and she was let me know that she just got into med school. Got to come in a medical school and she wanted to thank me for you know all that I had helped her with through the years. But she also wanted to let me know that she's still every single morning makes her bed and it's because of me. And so at least for one person I've had a I've made a difference in their lives because that's a huge difference. No. But for at least one person they've remembered something I said they might not have remembered the plays when I was coaching them but they remember to make their bed. I guess so you know at least for me that's that's a great way to start off. You know another thing that I'm trying to do I don't always do it the right way though is I kind of look at my phone for the first 15 minutes. Now that's a really really tough especially with it right next to my bed. But I try to start off the morning without any negativity. And sometimes when when we look at our phone in the mornings we might have you know e-mails that we got to take care of or you know we might hit Twitter or Facebook and see some of the negativity going on. And so I try for the first 15 minutes not to look at my phone even though I'm not always successful with that.

00:17:28;21 - 00:17:37;26
Rick A. Morris: Absolutely. Now and it may not have been you that I'm referring to but do you use headspace and that app.

00:17:37;26 - 00:17:39;11
Jamy Bechler: I do not use headspace.

00:17:39;14 - 00:18:05;07
Rick A. Morris: Oh no. So someone else that had tweeted that out that that started their day so I apologize I'm referring to you. But the other thing the making the bed now you had told that story previously on the September thing but that was one of the big things that you and I connected with especially with children. So you do that in camps and when you're working with and the students that you have there explain that a little bit further Yeah.

00:18:05;07 - 00:18:31;16
Jamy Bechler: I mean it's just you know what we what we try to teach a lot with what we're doing is is a success. Becoming a champion becoming successful all that kind of stuff is really rooted in habits and rooted in your choices that you make and and you can't make big choices you can't make big decisions you can't you can't make positive decisions in your life.

00:18:31;17 - 00:19:28;04
Jamy Bechler: If you haven't developed small habits that are positive small daily battles that you're winning and so you know for me making your bed in the morning you know those are the kinds of things that that lead to little battles that you win little successes that lead to habits and just developing now. And you know I'm so I'm I can't emphasize enough how much that you know the little things that we do add up to big things later on and that we all want to be real successful. We all want to you know make a big splash but it doesn't. You know there's very few people that are overnight sensations overnight successes very few people that win a championship because they just rolled out of bed one morning and they're really good. You know there's a lot of unseen hours that go into our success and I know the bad making is just a little it's a little thing little silly thing maybe.

00:19:28;18 - 00:20:05;18
Jamy Bechler: But that's an unseen hour. That's an unseen task that nobody sees that nobody you know nobody knows if we make are better or not but we know and we know if we're starting the day off right. And that goes to lots of little things you know do we do we pass. You know you know if you're on a campus a school campus or you're in your business and you walk past a paper cup or a napkin that's on the ground do you pick it up or do you just walk past it you know. And those are little things that people might not even be paying attention to. What are you doing the little things every day to be the best version of yourself.

00:20:05;19 - 00:21:04;13
Rick A. Morris: That's where we connect to because I talked about the first 15 with my kids. And you know the fact that in and you know X boxes and all those things are distractions and so we had sat down as a family and said you know what. What does Daddy do in his day. You know we get up but I take everybody to school and then I work. No. But but I do enjoy video games but I won't do that until the very last thing in the evening. And so we constructed what we call the first 15 which is in the first 15 minutes of the day that they each have to do something for everybody else in the family. Right. So my son needs to get up and think about what his mommy need. What does his sister need. What do I need. And as long as they can do that then they have the rest of the day that they can take care of themselves but to really put forth effort and do something for somebody else in the first 15 minutes of the day. And you're right those small habits. It's just teaching how to think of others before you satisfy your own needs.

00:21:05;16 - 00:22:21;18
Jamy Bechler: Yeah. And if you if you I mean that's a great way to start your day. I love what you're doing. And you know the thing is you think you build that habit while you're doing it. Day after day after day eventually I think it becomes something where you know maybe at the start you do it you know your kids do it for 15 minutes and then they take the attitude of ok I don't have to do anything the rest of the day. But after they've done that for so many days and it becomes a habit I think it becomes almost subconscious that they start doing things for others that they start getting in that mindset. Maybe a humility mindset or an unselfish mindset and they do things more than just those 15 minutes because it becomes who they are. And you know 15 maybe turns into 30 minutes which turns into an hour which turns into a whole day you know where they're thinking about other people and you know humility you know C.S. Lewis said it best. I think when he said humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less you know it's not being woe is me or I'm not very good or having low self-esteem or downgrading yourself or disparaging yourself. It's just thinking of others more than you're thinking of yourself I love that.

00:22:22;02 - 00:22:27;18
Rick A. Morris: So you've been a busy guy as well. So you've had a couple of new books since we last talked. Is that correct.

00:22:28;17 - 00:22:42;04
Jamy Bechler: Yeah it was 20 years in the making. You know I had I counted up about a year and a half ago two years ago I counted up that I had 23 book titles and book proposals but I'd never written any of them.

00:22:42;22 - 00:22:46;14
Jamy Bechler: And I realized that you know I'm not getting any younger.

00:22:46;20 - 00:24:27;26
Jamy Bechler: And you know I gotta quit procrastinating and I've got to know at least my mom and my wife would like to read some of my thoughts so I need to put them on paper and so you know really them. The main thing was I was going around speaking to a lot of sports teams and there were some sports teams. No one in particular was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. But one coach in particular said the same thing that a lot of others were saying was you know we'd love to have you come in but we can't afford you or at this point we don't have the budget money. Do you have any materials that you can give to us to help us through this next season or our summer or whatever. And I was like man I have got to get this one book done that I've been thinking about for a while and it's essentially it was my first book The leadership playbook and it's essentially the stuff that I was talking to teams about in working with them and doing seminars workshops on and I just I just expanded it and put it into a book form. And it's it's been fairly successful for the most part and it reached at one point it reached number two on Amazon basketball coaching books. So it was ahead of Pat Summit book. Coach Chizhevsky his book Tom Izzo was ahead of all these people that most people would know. So it definitely took a screenshot of that. You know that was that was a nice accomplishment but it's been good we've had a lot of teams purchase that you know to use for their whole team. We've had booster clubs purchased it for all the coaches at the school. So that's been fun. And then we followed it up with just last week we released our second book called Building champions standing.

00:24:28;21 - 00:24:50;20
Rick A. Morris: And then we've also got huge podcasts to talk about but we're right up against the break. So when we come back we're going to talk about your podcast series which is success is a choice which I got a chance to be a part of and that was a fantastic experience. But we can talk about that when we come back on the other side of this break. We've been visiting with Coach Bechler. You've been listening to Rick Morris on the work life balance.


00:27:49;24 - 00:28:08;22
Rick A. Morris: Now back to the work life balance and we're back to this Friday afternoon edition of the work life balance with one of our favorite guests coach Jamy Bechler and it goes back. You've got a podcast now called Success is a choice. Talk to us about the podcast what inspired you to do it and how that's been going.

00:28:10;06 - 00:28:11;08
Jamy Bechler: Yeah it was.

00:28:12;02 - 00:29:36;16
Jamy Bechler: You know I'd been on a couple of podcasts and then your show as well and I enjoyed it. I listened to podcasts all the time when I'm driving I listen to them when I work out. Not that you know some people would think that those are very motivating you know to listen to when you work out. But I love it it makes the time on the stationary bike or the treadmill go a lot faster. But those listening to me. I was listening to Gary V again Gary Vaynerchuk one of his podcasts. He was talking about Alecks voice and the eco system. And he would say how he thinks the future is voice Boyce's audio and certainly video is huge you know that that's not going away either but people can't multitask with video but they can multitask to a degree with with audio. And he was saying you know if you're a entrepreneur or if you're a business person no matter what. Really no matter what you are in. You can start your own podcast and you know people will listen to it or a few people will listen to it. But audio is not going away and in fact it's probably going to get even bigger and it's easy to do a podcast and I have all those kind of things happened all you know I started getting thoughts and I was like you know what I just need to do this. And so I talked to a few people that do podcasts and got some got some quick tips started my own.

00:29:36;16 - 00:31:26;29
Jamy Bechler: The name was the easiest part because that's something that I've used success as a choice that's something I've used for a lot of years with my sports teams it's something I believe in. And so I wanted to have that and then I decided to go against conventional business strategy business models and I didn't niche it. So so my target market is everybody which is not the way you're supposed to do it in business. But I wanted to interview people that I thought had a story to tell or had insights that could help anybody. So you know whether you're an actor whether you're a Miss America fitness trainer whether you're you know a sports personality it doesn't matter if you have a story and some insights that you can share that can help everybody then and then I think we all can learn from different people like if if I'm a basketball coach and I only think I only listened to basketball people then I might get smart basketball wise but I may not get smart in some other areas and I may not see the big picture as well as I could which. And I think it's your ceiling I think the more well-rounded we are I think the more that we see big picture the more we can we can look at things from a macro level the more versed we are and stuff the better off we are. And I think about I interviewed Lolli Daskal and Lolli has you know I mean she has well over a million Twitter followers. You know she is there go to business coach for Fortune 500 companies. And Lolli read a book a day which is absolutely insane. But one of the things she said was she reads books on something physics not actually. So I forget at this point what is.

00:31:27;13 - 00:31:29;12
Rick A. Morris: What's that. Quantum physics.

00:31:29;18 - 00:31:57;11
Jamy Bechler: Yes quantum physics. See that's something I need to get smarter. But she reads she even reads books on quantum physics and I said why in the world would you read that. And she said because I may be at a party I may be at a get together. I may be with a group or in a business setting and somebody there is talking about quantum physics and I don't read the book so that I can necessarily add a whole lot to the discussion.

00:31:57;11 - 00:32:04;16
Jamy Bechler: But I read the book so I have a background so I understand what they're talking about. Maybe so I don't ask stupid questions or whatever.

00:32:04;16 - 00:32:21;06
Jamy Bechler: And so you know I figured let's get some people on this show that are interesting. Let's get some people that I want to interview and that have a great story to tell and so we're we're about 70 we're 72 episodes in. So it's been pretty exciting yeah.

00:32:21;07 - 00:32:28;05
Rick A. Morris: So I mean so you're not following a weekly format and you're just kind of as you get home if you're 72 episodes in.

00:32:28;11 - 00:35:25;28
Jamy Bechler: We we started off and and I started off absolutely crazy and I had three to four episodes a week when I started because we started in October we had three to four episodes a week and we've kind of scaled back to about two episodes now. We took a few weeks off but you know I've got I've got ten that are already done that are waiting in the queue to be released and so we typically release an interview about a month after we do it. So they're not they're not necessarily time sensitive. If there is some time sensitive stuff then we we put a priority on that and get that out quicker. But you know I've really enjoyed the interviews getting to know some of the people you know we've had some people that that most listeners would would have heard of and we've had some people that'll be you know kind of new to everybody. And you know I think I think it's been fun. You know I just interviewed a guy that stars in a trailer park boys and Netflix kind of a cult classic thing and you know he's a bad guy in trailer park boys. But but he you know he has a great story to tell about how he got the part. What is life like. He's just fought cancer and he's overcome cancer. You know and so we just have some people that essentially are choosing success. And they talk about some of the obstacles they've had the adversity they had and the successes they had. And so it's just been real fun. And you know we had you on as you alluded to. You were one of our first episodes. And you know I loved your episode because you talked about you know not only what you're doing but you talked a lot about just leadership principles in general and join in the John Maxwell team. And you know your your background in the John Maxwell team and how that's helped you and helped others and so we just I've just been real excited about the guests that we've been able to get. You know we got a guy that was on the first four seasons of Shark Tank Kevin Harrington. He he is the inventor of the infomercial. So you know as seen on TV he owns that brand. He invented the infomercial Ginsu knives the Gizelle with Tony Little you know all that kind of stuff. He was the guy. And so we were able to get him in. And you know the interesting thing is I get him on the phone and he's like Jamy I'm sorry I only got 10 minutes. I'm on the way to the airport. How my thinking to myself will shoot. You get your own private jet. I mean just put it off a little bit. But you know I was appreciative of him given me. He actually gave me 14 minutes I think. So you know that was that was fun but that was one of those interviews where I didn't think we would ever get it because it got postponed. And we went back and forth and they got postponed about six times so I was thinking we'd never get that. And we finally did.

00:35:25;28 - 00:35:31;17
Jamy Bechler: And he's been very gracious and I think that's the funny thing is getting into it.

00:35:31;18 - 00:35:51;05
Rick A. Morris: I mean we we structured this show as the work life balance and he's got a project management tends to it and a lot of times that will stay with that. But we've had psychics on here. We've had you know I've got the background in entertainment so I've brought radio personalities and singers and that kind of stuff on I've got a basketball coach on right now.

00:35:51;06 - 00:36:03;29
Rick A. Morris: But the beauty of that is is diving into the different areas and stories just to make it interesting. I think it's I agree with you. This doesn't become the labor of love like a book does.

00:36:03;29 - 00:36:17;09
Jamy Bechler: Read the book you're kind of pushing yourself and going. I got it right today. Right I've got to write today. But when it's radio show time and it's time to kick back have some fun and just really have a good time with that person and let them let them shine through.

00:36:18;12 - 00:37:45;07
Jamy Bechler: Yeah and you get to ask the questions you want to ask. No. I make sure I'm not trying to make it controversial. You know I'm not trying to make it click baitish or you know you know polarize people you know but I do get to ask follow up questions. I get to ask you know hey these are some things I'm wondering about. Or you know we might talk to somebody who's and we don't even get to their expertise or what they're known for until you know more than halfway into the show. Maybe we're talking about some other things that that they didn't expect to talk about but it's a little bit different than maybe the other 10 podcasts that they've been on recently. So you know some of this stuff is basic generic boring questions. You know for some background sometimes because because I only got 30 minutes with them and some of my audience may not be familiar with the person but if they're very familiar with the person we try not to go into that. But you know we want to we want to establish you know why this person is even on the show and then why do I think that they are interesting and you know it's it's been fun and you know obviously some of them have bigger followings than others. But you know it's I've enjoyed it a lot and made a lot of connections that I didn't have before and some of the connections I had before. They've been strengthened because of that or I gave them a platform or gave them an audience of people that maybe wouldn't be as from that that we didn't know about them ahead of time.

00:37:45;07 - 00:37:59;29
Rick A. Morris: So you know and then in the same way you know maybe some of their audience learns about me and starts following me on Twitter or maybe there's a tweet or or an article I write or something like that that helps them.

00:37:59;29 - 00:39:08;24
Jamy Bechler: You know you never know. Like I send out I sent on e-mail in the summer maybe or the fall but it was you know back in the late summer early fall I sent on e-mail and I got to my to my mailing list and I got this lady from England that responded back and said this came at just the right time. I can't tell you how much that e-mail meant to me because my husband my husband committed suicide last week. And your the message you had in that e-mail was spot on. And it gave me encouragement and hope. And this is a lady I don't know. I mean she she's on my e-mail list because she wanted to you know she downloaded something or or she wanted something free that I was offering and so she entered her e-mail you know so I don't really know her but but she's somebody that that's not associated with coaching but she's someone you know sometimes when we cross have those cross networking or things like I'm doing on this podcast you know all of a sudden you get an audience of people that that maybe you wouldn't get otherwise and you never know when you'll touch somebody. And that's what it's all about.

00:39:08;24 - 00:39:26;08
Jamy Bechler: You know I mean sure we'd love to make money but at the end of the day that's just kind of being successful in our job. But the significance to significance in our life is when we're helping others be successful or helping you know add value to other people's lives so that they're better yes.

00:39:26;09 - 00:39:34;07
Rick A. Morris: To drop the Maxwell quote right when. Significance success really doesn't apply. So yes how you managed to reword it a little bit.

00:39:34;07 - 00:39:40;28
Jamy Bechler: So it was a quote but you know maybe maybe one day. But yeah yeah.

00:39:40;29 - 00:39:59;06
Rick A. Morris: My favorite quote We've got two minutes left before break it. Have you ever been taken off guard or surprised that you've worked with a lot of famous people. But did anybody kind of get starstruck that you didn't expect.

00:39:59;06 - 00:40:45;22
Jamy Bechler: Well I was nervous. I was nervous with Kevin Harrington because he's worth like 400 million dollars. And you know his time is money and so I was a little nervous with that. I was nervous with Ken Coleman Ken Coleman is the entree leadership podcast and he wrote a book called One question and he is known for doing great questions and so I was really nervous about asking him questions because. But so I ask him this question and he's answering it. And the part of the answer is you know what people do wrong and he said one thing people do wrong is they don't listen to the answers that people are giving them they're just getting so you're afraid that you weren't listening.

00:40:45;22 - 00:40:48;20
Rick A. Morris: Did we lose you.

00:40:49;00 - 00:41:03;24
Rick A. Morris: So yeah I got tongue tied for No Reason. I've known Britney Wagner the real life Tammy Taylor from Last Chance U and Netflix were interviewing her for some reason I got tongue tied. I have no idea why not. Not even a real reason.

00:41:03;24 - 00:41:18;06
Rick A. Morris: But yeah when I did her interview I couldn't speak squarely for for whatever reason and I'm nervous now because I have a great coach Jamy Bechler on the line. But we're going to take a break right here and we'll be right back with the work life balance.


00:44:15;12 - 00:44:59;20
Rick A. Morris: And we're back to the work life balance so I have to give you a quick apology go to it because I hit you with this in like the second segment but I swear to you that I saw this tweet that somebody said you know how I start my day. And they had these three apps from their phone and it was headspace peptalk and bleakest and I was like Oh yeah I'm gonna go look at those apps that look pretty good. And I've been doing that ever since and I've been attributing it to you ever since to my entire network. I was like you got to get these abs coach Bechler uses them. And so my apologies for giving you undue praise but I swear it was you squeeze that out. And that's just me being a high and not following through. So that means that that means I have to go.

00:44:59;21 - 00:45:20;16
Jamy Bechler: It means I have to go out get those apps to prove that you're not a liar to all those people who've been telling Rector retroactive truth is that something that is a possibility that is retroactive honesty or retroactive truth is that a thing. Could I go if I add them to my phone then I guess you were telling the truth.

00:45:20;27 - 00:45:31;10
Rick A. Morris: Absolutely. Absolutely won't make me a liar for sure but that's her friend. So our final few minutes here how did people get in touch with the coach.

00:45:31;10 - 00:46:06;06
Jamy Bechler: How did they start to follow you Twitter. Coach Bechler looks like Bachelor. So Coach Bechler on Twitter. My website coach Bechler dot com and they can get. I've got six free ebooks that cover a gamut of different topics so they can download those for free. I also have the two books they're building champions and the leadership playbook so they can they can check those out as well. Coach Bechler dot com.

00:46:06;09 - 00:46:13;02
Rick A. Morris: And then you've got a few you've got tons of speaking engagements. But what are some upcoming speaking engagements that you're going to be doing.

00:46:13;04 - 00:46:31;22
Jamy Bechler: Yeah actually next week I'm going down to Florida. I'm going to be speaking at a few places a few high schools in the Orlando area and then I go next week to Missouri to speak to them as are in two weeks to go the Missouri Athletic Directors Association.

00:46:31;24 - 00:47:26;27
Jamy Bechler: I've got a couple other conferences coming up in the spring and then I do a couple large conferences for coaches in the summer so you know I've got a lot number of things in the works. We're going to start doing some online leadership workshops that will be free so people can get some of our knowledge for free there and some tips on leading their teams and those will be started here and they end of April. So we're excited about that. And of course the podcast and they can get the podcast to it coach Bechler dot com they can click on the podcast tab and check out and I would imagine if you like podcasts I guarantee you're going to find somebody there that that looks like somebody you want to listen to you know someone maybe you've heard of or someone that's known for something that's interesting to you. And so we have their pictures of all the people that are podcasts and then what they're known for outstanding.

00:47:27;17 - 00:47:35;10
Rick A. Morris: And so one of the big questions we always ask is What is some of the best advice you've ever received.

00:47:35;12 - 00:48:59;11
Jamy Bechler: Well I don't know if I actually technically receive this. Like Jamy you should do this but a friend of mine named Alan Stein he's with a top performance coaches in the country for athlete athletes. And he told me this story about when he was working the Kobe Bryant's camp and this was back in 2007 when Kobe was the top of his game and he went to watch Kobe's Workout and it was it was really really early in the morning. I mean we're talking four o'clock in the morning and he's watching Kobie and he's bored out of his mind because Kobe is doing all these essentially middle school drills and he goes up to Kobie afterwards and he said you know why why were you doing all these basics. You know why is the best player in the world doing these fundamental middle school drills. And Colby looked at him and said Why do you think I'm the best player in the world. And you know he didn't tell me that like Jamy. You need to do the basics but he told me that and I'm like that is great. That's a great thought because the best of the best in the world are that way because they've mastered the fundamentals. They've mastered the basics they do what they need to do and I love if any of your listeners are football fans. The old football coach Hall of Fame Chuck Noll Pittsburgh Steelers coach he used to say champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do ordinary things better than anybody else.

00:48:59;13 - 00:49:11;08
Jamy Bechler: And so the basics and that's kind of on my mind also because our new book that just came out building champions is really about success principles I love it.

00:49:11;08 - 00:49:13;04
Rick A. Morris: We've actually has Coach Stein on this show.

00:49:13;07 - 00:49:34;22
Jamy Bechler: We'd love Alan. Yeah he performs coach great at that job but he's kind of pivoted and transitioned into a full time executive coaching motivational speaking as well. And he does an absolutely great job. I highly recommend him. He's a rising star in the business for sure.

00:49:34;22 - 00:49:37;20
Rick A. Morris: So any final comments for our audience.

00:49:38;03 - 00:49:56;02
Jamy Bechler: I just appreciate you you giving me an encore performance and let me come on even though I'm a huge Michigan fan and your Tennessee volunteers got knocked out already but you know maybe one day we can do an all sports show where we just talk about leadership in the business of sport.

00:49:56;02 - 00:50:11;21
Rick A. Morris: And you know I can just talk about how great Michigan is yeah I'm not sure if we're going to do that since you used your final comment to knock my volunteers. But we'll see. We'll see how that shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you or I should be gracious host.

00:50:12;01 - 00:50:27;23
Rick A. Morris: I get enough beatings from one of my best friends Mike or is a huge Michigan fans I hear all day as is I'm used to it. But we appreciate your time. We thank you so much for joining us on this hour. And we wish you luck and of course would hope that you would check in with us in the future.

00:50:27;23 - 00:50:29;09
Jamy Bechler: Awesome thanks a lot for having me Rick.

00:50:30;02 - 00:51:45;07
Rick A. Morris: Thank you gang. So next week we're actually going to do a dive into the Costa Rica trip. So I left a an open slot because we teased that a little bit as we were waiting for Rob Thomsett to come onto the show last week. But I am going to talk about the Costa Rica transformation trip on our show next week the week following. We're getting back to the real life. Q So if you guys have ever heard me interview him he is the real life Q the real life guy that makes the spy stuff for the CIA. He's just released a new book. Michael O’Brochta will be back on the show with us and then the following week I'll have Inge Rock on the show she is a longtime servant leader with us in the John Maxwell team and she's just announced an entire new platform that's helping small businesses and businesses everywhere. And she'll be with us on April 16th. So we're looking so forward to these upcoming shows. We hope that you guys will join us. We thank you for being with us on the work life balance again. Visit coach Bechler site. So that's coach Bechler com and also the new and improved Rick Morris to find those new products that we discussed at the top of the hour. We hope that you guys have a fantastic Easter weekend and we'll talk to everybody soon. You've been listening to the work life balance with Rick.