Facing uncertainty can be challenging – being a business owner facing uncertainty is tougher.
Red Direction helps you [fast track and] grow your business – authentically, pragmatically, and resiliently.
Starting the conversation…
How does disciplined action impact achievement?
Host: Jess Dewell
Guest: Chris Prefontaine
What You Will Hear:
Get started!
How you reacted when **it hits the fan and everything we know is upended almost overnight. (2001, 2008…)
It can take time to get out of a mess – for Chris it was 4 years.
Discipline and persistence when things are going poorly.
Scale through what you don’t like.
You can know what to expect.
Ask your questions. People that have been there will share.
Live Audience Question: Why is self-discipline praised, yet to discipline someone has a negative connotation?
Audience Question: Can discipline makes us rigid and inflexible?
Audience Question: Have you ever experienced negative effects of discipline?
Accountability defined.
What companies can easily overlook when creating goals.
Bring in simplicity when our head and heart don’t align.
Stay connected to your goals.
One of Chris’ lessons.
When did discipline make its debut in your goal-driven self?
Live Audience Question: How would you define a connection between accountability and habits?
Audience Question: What is Chris’ morning routine?
What makes it BOLD to be disciplined and bring purposeful action to achieving goals?
Notable and Quotable:
Jess Dewell 6:08
We all face problems that are going to be multi-year problems that we don’t want to be, and the sooner we recognize that the sooner we can get our nose grindstone.
Chris Prefontaine 6:37
I used to tell the kids when they were young, if you have discipline, if you go start a popcorn stand, you’ll have success, whatever it might be.
Chris Prefontaine 7:07
It’s easy for us all to say discipline works, and goals work, and persistence works when things are good because you go. “Yeah, it works.” When I was getting crushed, and when we get crushed in general, I think back to any mentors, and any books or tapes. Those things are important because it’s story after story after story of people had a way worse than you. And way worst than me. And way worse than everybody we know, but you see the access to it, to know that you’re normal.
Jess Dewell 9:08
What you do and what you plant today, is what you will sow tomorrow.
Chris Prefontaine 9:28
If I have a rotten month, it’s not because we’re I did this week. It’s what I did 90 days ago, probably.
Jess Dewell 9:38
I think part of discipline is a forward lookingness.
Jess Dewell 9:51
When I am looking back and going, “here’s what I did before” And then, “here’s where we know we’re going,” and deciding what actions to take with that. Of course, we don’t know what the conditions are going to be down the road, but we know we’ve made the best decision possible, which means we probably have less far to fall, provided that situation were to occur.
Chris Prefontaine 10:20
If you’re not coachable, and you’re not open to being coached, that is a skill set. And I think that crushes some people.
Jess Dewell 13:40
The younger I was, the harder it was for me to listen.
Chris Prefontaine 14:13
When you’re a solopreneur, you can have a board of directors. You don’t pay them. This is gonna sound a little fluffy, but you can have an imaginary one. Mentos alive or dead, you know their advice would be x, y, z.
Chris Prefontaine 14:34
If you call an author, and you sincerely compliment them, 9.9 out of 10 are going to want to help you. It’s amazing.
Chris Prefontaine 17:04
By the nature of discipline, you’ve got some kind of a rhythm going on. Presumably, it’s on the path of your goals and then obviously that helps the preparedness.
Jess Dewell 18:18
There’s a choice thing that has to occur. And especially in a coaching or a mentoring role, whether it’s formal or informal. Either way, there still is the “Well, you’re coming to me. So do you need a sounding board? Would you like my experience? Would you like advice?”
Chris Prefontaine 20:15
The person dishing out the discipline isn’t necessarily in the right to do that, and isn’t necessarily right. It’s different than getting permission and/or the two of you living within a boundary that you both know. It’s just that someone’s throwing stuff at you doesn’t mean that’s right.
Chris Prefontaine 21:05
I have this thing called, Power of One Daily Discipline,” and you listing things on the left, and then across the right is the the month. But in there should be buffered time, like I’m going to chill out or meditate for this time. Or I’m going to go take a walk. That’s part of this discipline too, it’s not just all hard, hard, hard, hard, hard work, work, work. That makes for a very dull Harley.
Jess Dewell 22:02
Did you hear that? Have fun and be disciplined? Because discipline can be fun.
Jess Dewell 22:58
When you’re neutral, how does stuff get done? If you’re too filled with energy, and all you do is generate ideas, how does stuff actually get done?
Chris Prefontaine 23:33
Everyone’s different. Don’t beat yourself up on it. But what might be cool is to align yourself with someone who can help do a check for you. Have a mentor or even a personal accountability partner, which I do every week, and then they help you stay in check or stay in rhythm.
Jess Dewell 27:05
But from trial and error, teach self, then share. Which is the definition of a teacher. Learn something, then, then when you put it out there, you’re reinforcing what you learn.
Chris Prefontaine 27:56
I’ve always had an accountability partner in some shape, form or fashion. So every Monday morning at 8 am, I’m on the phone with Steve is his name> It’s not a social thing. We share wins, losses ah-ha’s, and fixes for the week. And we hold each other accountable to what we say we’re going to do. Then boom, we’re off the phone, and work on next week. It’s a 15-minute call.
Chris Prefontaine 31:11
So there’s always a legal agreement, but then there’s, “Do the right thing, morally, ethically, and every other way.” It comes up all the time. Is the decision we made, is it the right financial decision? Was the right thing to do?
Chris Prefontaine 32:45
Whether it’s a mentor, or Board of Directors, or a family member, it doesn’t matter. Somebody who’s been through what you’re going through. Just asked them.
Chris Prefontaine 33:12
If a mentor is telling you that they’ve never had a failure, they’re full of you know what, because it’s not possible to push the envelope and not have failure. It’s just not.
Chris Prefontaine 34:08
I found to get to micro-level, if I’m working with someone, each night I want you to hit me with a quick message on slack so I know where we are. Even better, hit me with a voicemail every night. I want to hear your voice. I want to hear if you’re down, If you’re up. If you’re sad, or whatever. That helps to kind of realign people on occasion.
Jess Dewell 36:12
And I actually think it’s a workflow style. The people who like to work remote and do it well, will gravitate together. The people who want to be in a physical proximity will gravitate and want to be together.
Chris Prefontaine 37:14
We start every meeting with what we call positive focus. It’s just a two-second before we start the meeting, gets everybody’s mindset.
Chris Prefontaine 37:29
At home, there’s nothing negative to come home from the office. So literally, we live next to our son. And we’ll get out of the car and say, “Hey, how was your day?” and just laugh and go in the house, like we didn’t see each other all day. We keep it separate. Unless it’s a win. We can talk about it, but nothing negative comes home, on purpose. That’d be crazy.
Jess Dewell 42:04
She said, “All these butterflies are flying around. Your goal is to get them all going in the same direction.”
Chris Prefontaine 42:48
Say out of the suction of those drifting backwards, because they’ll take you with them.
Chris Prefontaine 49:49
Do what the masses are not doing because clearly, if you look at the statistics, they’re not going the right direction. And that has to do with staying out of the suction those drifting backwards too, in my opinion. So, look at what he’s doing and go the opposite direction.
Resources:
Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast
Smart Real Estate Coach – Book
Tags:
growth, accountability, culture, knowledge, discipline, goal setting, goal-driven, business growth