How to Apply Unconventional Thinking in Business

Starting the conversation:

Your current thinking is holding you back — it’s time to reframe your business and create the opportunity you deserve. Imagine multiplying your results by adding a zero! Chad Jenkins, President and CEO at Seedspark, shares how to shatter conventional thinking to reframe your business’s hidden potential.

Forget best practices, it is time to find hidden value with the business you have today. Striving to discover or refine your company’s WHY is a necessary step to articulate your unique offering and find the value really being tendered. This is just one part of changing the way you think about your business to unlock new opportunities.

In this program you will learn how to reframe your thinking, ask bigger questions, and take ownership of your actions. This information will help you break out of mediocrity and push boundaries that can lead to exponential growth. Jess Dewell talks with Chad Jenkins, President and CEO at Seedspark, about being intentional and creating value from the work you’ve already done.

Host: Jess Dewell

Guest: Chad Jenkins

What You Will Hear:

0:00 Typical thinking: more budget does not equate to reaching growth objectives.

• People are motivated by fear.
• Stuck in “conventional” thinking patterns.
• Leverage the power of collaboration.
• The power of naming what actually is.

4:09 Best practices are conventional thinking.

• Best practices … are average.
• The dream, or vision, can get lost in optimization.
• Constraints help shape outcomes.
• It’s time to step out of your comfort zone and reframe what’s happening in your business.

9:48 Why can’t you double your revenue? Maybe, just add a zero.

• It’s rarely, but not impossible, to just add a zero.
• Ask more questions. Specifically the LARGER questions.
• Tips on how to start the conversation to the larger questions.

17:33 The coolest reframe that Chad Jenkins facilitated.

• It’s OK to pause for risk.
• Articulate what is in the path of progress.
• How opportunity can be created.

21:28 Monumental change is required to create opportunity.

• Exercise: Look at what you have done differently. Then, look at the opposite.

23:39 Claim your business knowledge.

• You know more than you think you do.
• Friction provides clues to what can be leveraged.
• Start with your business’s levers to impact revenue, profit, and capacity.
• Embrace change, which starts from the top.

31:36 What are you really willing to do?

• Are the concepts we use (or are considering) applicable to the business?
• Constraints are abundant, don’t let them stop you. You only need one first step.
• Collaboration has invisible value.
• It is a challenge to understand the true impact of your business.
• Obstacles make us grow.

38:06 You get the answers you seek.

• Understand your unique value contribution.
• Creating business value starts with WHY.
• Stretch your curiosity. Use your subconscious.
• Leverage your personal energy and work flow.
• More perspective is powerful.

47:41 It is BOLD to be intentional about creating your own opportunity.

Resources

• Reframe your perspective and cultivate activity
• Seeing your obstacles as opportunities, by Chad Jenkins

Transcript

Jess Dewell 00:00
Okay, you’re tuned in to the Bold Business Podcast, and I’m your host, Jess Dewell, Welcome. Every conversation that I host here is to spark an idea to get down to the right business right now, without losing track of your long-term business strategy. Join me on my pursuit to identify the right work to be done. How to do as much of that right work paths as possible, and to navigate your toughest business decisions. My goal is to bring you high-quality knowledge, experience and tools that allow you enable you and empower you to make bold decisions. As an entrepreneur, and a business owner. Don’t forget, subscribe, and press the bell icon to never miss a program. Share your thoughts, your questions and your ideas in the comments below. We thrive on your feedback and engagement, the conversation that I had with changing hands, I’m so excited to bring you here’s the thing. The thing is, there are a lot of concepts that you may have heard a little bit before you have not heard them this way. So listen closely and figure out how can you leverage this, we’re talking about opportunity. We’re talking about value creation. And through that, we’re talking about defining clearly what is conventional thinking. So we understand what we’re not doing. And what we’re going to work to let go of, not to mention, we’re going to be talking about claiming our business knowledge, because many of us tend to go with the status quo, or what the trends are. And guess what, knowing what you know in business, the decisions that you have been making, you have more knowledge than you may be giving yourself credit for. So claim it. And another thing that you will hear in this program is all about whatever questions you ask are going to be the answers that you get. So the power of the question and making sure that you have the right question is incredibly important. And we’re talking about why it is bold. We are talking about why it is important right now. And we are talking about how what you’re doing right now. We’ll set up your next and your next and your next. So let me tell you about Chad Jenkins, President and CEO of Seed Spark. He’s a lifelong entrepreneur, you’ll hear he actually started to figure out what his unique gift was at age of eight. And he’s a visionary. He reshapes businesses to deliver remarkable returns. There are groundbreaking methods he has brought, his curiosity is boundless, and he is a catalyst for business growth. He collaborates with leaders across industries, he uncovers hidden opportunities and adds enterprise value along the journey, not only at the end when it’s time to exit, but through the journey to benefit and grow and change in real-time with what’s presenting itself to you and your teams. Right now. He’s empowering others through the growth collaboration partnerships, in the Seed Spark Growth Academy. His new book, Just at a Zero is a guide to outperforming competitors and achieving exponential growth, through collaboration. Enjoy our program.

Chad Jenkins 03:16
Three words every day, three times a day, how to look at how to click them off, present, appreciative and inspiring. Ww,

ANNOUNCER 03:26
You are listening to the Bold Business Podcast, where you will hear firsthand experiences about what it really takes to ensure market relevance and your company’s future.

Jess Dewell 03:38
What is the situation that is typical, where people get stuck?

Chad Jenkins 03:44
People get stuck whenever their budget doesn’t align with their growth objectives most often because they interpret that to grow, they got to invest a lot more money, maybe launch a marketing campaign, expand manufacturing, hire that sales guy, oftentimes, or maybe expand their product or service offering in often beg to differ.

Jess Dewell 04:05
Now I’m just curious because I’m guessing I have a way around it.

Chad Jenkins 04:09
Yes, this as far back as I can track, starting at around the age of eight. And with the awareness that folks are typically motivated by two things, I’m going to use two positive ones fear and love. Obviously, a lot of times people say fear and greed and that would be 100% True, but choose to use love more. So they want something or they’re afraid of something. Both of those happened to me at the value very exact same moment, around the age of eight. And I wanted a lot and I felt like I had nothing. So I was very fearful. So what that made me do is it sent me down a path to looking at things from a little different perspective. And those things that I’ll look a little different perspective are all the resources and capabilities you already have. How can you use them to recombine and create more value? So I’ve been doing that since eight years old and that’s what led Meet to hear even today. Now that circling back to what the question that you ask, so oftentimes are referred to me because they need unconventional thinking to create those unconventional results. And, and a lot of times they’re coming to me and they weren’t convinced or results, but they feel stuck. So a lot of times I’m able to look at all of their existing resources, their relationships, their team members, or products and services, it could be their packaging and their messaging, it could be all of the above, and see ways to recombine their people, places and things, to create more value, and empower them to not only get to get through whatever they’re challenged with currently, unconventionally, but also create some pretty sizable unconventional results. Oftentimes, it ends up where they’re launching some new product or service offering, leveraging everything they already had at their fingertips. But leveraging the power of collaboration with others, and their people, places or things to create something that their market has not yet seen. And I’m a big proponent of naming, huge proponent. I’ll give you an example. If you have a baby and I have a baby, and we don’t name it, is it yours or mine, I’m not really sure, because they look very similar, yours probably going to have a little bit more hair. But so we don’t do that personally. But we went in business every day. So they’re recreating intellectual property every day. So in that scenario, where we’ve looked at their immediate resources, we understand how to recombine them to create more value. We’ve leveraged the art of collaboration by naming it, because you brought something new to the market, you’re enabling your hero target, or a lot of folks will use target client profile. You’re enabling them to ask for it by name, so that they want that new product or service offering that is much more higher value. Well, by doing that, you just wiped out the competition.

Jess Dewell 06:56
I think we all know, what we think of when we think of conventional thinking, but for our conversation today to make sure that we’re shaping in, in a box, and we’re bringing everybody along with us. What do you consider to be conventional thinking?

Chad Jenkins 07:11
The easiest way would be best practices. So you can go to any industry conference, you can search on Gartner, you can pay some money for a report. And it’s gonna give you best practices, whether it be margins in your industry, cost of goods in your industry, your overheads, your expenses, your gross profit, and I can continue on the packaging, the messaging and the pricing. And the load time ago, I started thinking about like, okay, best practices by tractors are great, that’s a milestone, I’ll give you that. But we interpret best practices as average. Right? That’s what it is. Out of the people that do it. Well, the most people that are doing it, well, they’ve pulled together and done some research or like, Okay, this is best practices. Oh, my great. That’s average, I’m definitely not a me too, guy. I’m not looking to be average at all. So that to me, is definitely a byproduct of the conventional thinking.

Jess Dewell 08:00
This part of conventional thinking and shifting it. Does it start by actually listening to somebody’s hopes and dreams that they might think are? They’re supposed to be average, but actually aren’t?

Chad Jenkins 08:11
Yeah, listening is super important. God gave us four inputs and one output, a trauma, obviously, I won’t be able to do that on this podcast. But I try to do that and use them proportionally as much as I possibly can. I was afforded the ability, obviously, at eight years old if I’m able to track back, and that’s when I was first started being figured out how to create value. I spent time with my father’s and people of that age, as a kid until I graduated high school. Therefore, I grew up in the South, keep your mouth shut. And be respectful to your elders. So by default, plus, I’m okay. Just being in my head. I have tons and tons of questions. I’m very naturally curious. So I was just a sponge taking in the good, bad and the ugly of the way people operated. So that listening foundationally required. Absolutely. No matter what level of success you reach or obtain, you can always do more and have more of an impact. If you’re listening, not speaking.

Jess Dewell 09:08
I will tell you what, I’m going to name a temper tantrum as an adult as an adult who is giving a temper tantrum by the way, you all know when they happen. Everybody who works with you will be able to tell you what triggers you and so you can smile and go. Not me. Yeah, me. That’s all here. We’ve got that. And that’s actually the other piece of it is what are those things? We’re when we’re feeling defensive because we’re not being heard. It’s because we’re trying to be put into a box or put into a place that we can’t understand or that we don’t want to be because we see something else but we can’t we haven’t figured out how to bring people along with us. And that’s and that and that’s a little bit where conventional and unconventional clash and it’s the unconventional that will win out when there’s a path through.

Chad Jenkins 09:53
Yeah, a path and communication very important. And I live in a world of outcomes. Always Always always. So the path in which to get from point A to point B, there’s millions of options, millions. And the only thing that’s constricting us is what’s between our ears and our ability just to leverage what we were given at birth. Just let it go. And so I have a couple days, obviously, the My first book was named, just add a zero, out in time to the very similar concept, which I did at a very, very early age as well, which that contributed to the fear that I had. Oftentimes, in business meetings, a lot of times are we people folks are wanting to accomplish something, and they owe 25, or 35% growth and a real simple concept, why not double? Just please, why not double? And that if you embrace the way that your brain works, let it all out? Well, here’s why not double, we can’t do this, we can’t do this, we can’t do this. And then there’s another little thing that I use often, which is super powerful, under the same concept of letting your brain work the way that it does, and it’s intended to just harness it. Add unless the power of unless, after you shoot, let your brain tell you all the reasons that you cannot double add unless to every one of those reasons, and then let your brain do what it will do naturally, which is give you the roadmap to creating, or let’s see what wasn’t we want it to grow by 25%. And then this weirdo ask why not double and just took us through a little process. And all of a sudden we had the roadmap to grow by 100%. And that they had no idea that they could do it. Why? Because they were inside of a box. Because they just got back from a conference. And somebody in leadership saw it on the big beautiful PowerPoint, that this is what your profits should be. And this is what your overhead should be. I’m like, Why? Because he said, so no, no, ask yourself some larger questions, because you have all the power inside of you. Which is of course, if you’re sitting in that meeting that I hypothetically orchestrated. How inspiring is that?

Jess Dewell 11:57
Ooh, oh, not at all?

Chad Jenkins 12:01
Yeah, not at all. They’re asleep at the wheel.

Jess Dewell 12:02
Maybe there are people that like that, but for me, not at all. Thanks, though. Yeah, yeah. I feel pressure. I feel overwhelmed. I feel well, if everybody else says that this case, I’ll tell you, I’ll chat. I’m going to share our story with you. And I know some of my listeners have heard this before. But there are a lot of people that will be listening to this one that haven’t heard this before. And that is I had to earn an earnout during the.com crash, I had to continue to grow big in a technology company in a big way. And nobody told me I couldn’t and I was the only one who did it. So all the other departments were like, Nope, it’s the it’s a downturn, it’s whatever, blah, blah, blah, this is the way that it isn’t here it came I didn’t know any better. And I was doing all of this. And it never occurred to me until much later that was like I don’t understand let’s because somebody said it. So everybody rose to need it. And so what we got to what we’ve got to remove the baseline or, or I’d like to make a trapdoor in there or something like that. That’d be super fun, right or against, if you’re talking about summer camps for your actual real-life horses for your almost 13-year-old. But that’s right, that we got to be able to break through somehow. And it sounds like these two questions will do that.

Chad Jenkins 13:17
Oh, if you want the right answer, you must ask the right question. Always.

Jess Dewell 13:20
Always, and sometimes specifying the different question.

Chad Jenkins 13:23
Yeah. Yes. Yes. More questions. Whenever in that hypothetical scenario, which is hypothetical, because we’re conversating about it. I do it very, very often, including many companies that own the folks that are in the room. When you ask big questions like that it’s real easy for them to come up with the why not? And whenever you add the power unless it’s real easy to get their buy in because they’re creating the roadmap of the how, okay, yep. It’s the focus on the questions that’s paid me so well over the years.

Jess Dewell 13:52
Well, because we all have the cycle of business is just happening at a different time for each industry. And I like that. Ah, that’s a win, we’re willing to look a little farther How can we figure this out? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below. I thrive on your feedback and engagement. You’re listening to the Bold Business Podcast on your house to just duel. This is your program for strategizing long-term success while diving deep into what the right work is for your business right now.

ANNOUNCER 14:31
Maybe you are or know a company that is looking for support to double their revenues to $3 million 10 million or $25 million. Jess Dewell a will roll up her sleeves to quickly understand your growth strategy and assess how you work with uncertainty. How much stamina is being used to make decisions and how your current priorities aligned to your long-term growth goals. You can schedule a complimentary consaltation to find out more at Reddirection.com. And now back to the program.

Jess Dewell 15:06
If I have to get the courage to speak up and said meeting because I’m in this, this orchestrated meeting that we’re talking about, in our example here today, yes. Do I just need to, like, swallow my fear and speak up and say it? Or have you found that there is a way to move into this or create or find a certain opening with which to start asking that bigger question, especially if we’re not the torchbearer?

Chad Jenkins 15:31
What a wonderful question. I will lead in my experience, just whenever, and you’re anyone’s Welcome to first import, just add a zero to a number. That’ll get it that will definitely spark some folks ideas because it empowers their brain to do what comes naturally. And when I talk about just how to zero impacts is in the book, you can add it to the back, everyone understands that, oh, you raise the number by 10 times great. But oftentimes, I’m adding it to the front. So instead of having this hypothetical 10, what if we did the same thing had the same output or grew by our goals? But we went down to one salesperson, that example, not 10? Salespeople, when four of them are out to lunch anyway? foundationally, asking that first question, whether it be why not double, or just adding a zero to a number, I’m looking for content, consistently, things that spark what my boot my brain does naturally. So giving an empowering your teams with those questions as a beginning point, I think the rest takes care of itself. So when you ask questions like that, and I mentioned that earlier, your brain, my brain, even the quiet, introverted brain in the room and saying, these guys are absolutely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Here’s all the 19 reasons that’ll never become. We don’t even have a sales team that can sell what we needed to last. But what are you talking about, we’re going to grow by double. They almost emotionally, we just blurted out, which is okay. That’s what we were looking for. So it might not be in the very first meeting, but you’ll have some contribution for sure around the table. But in the second meeting, where they know it’s very safe, that we are going to think unconventionally, why, because we can create unconventional results. Once you walk to a meeting in that scenario, one time, it’s empowering to the others that are sitting around the table, at least in my experience. That’s a great question, though.

Jess Dewell 17:24
Thank you. And I recognize that as well. I’m usually the one that they bring in to stir the pot.

Chad Jenkins 17:30
Very surprising to me various.

Jess Dewell 17:33
Are you sure? No. All right, that’s fine. Feel it? No, bro. Actually, that’s not true. But in the grand scheme of things, I will I’ll ask a question at a like, how come not this. And so it’s important, though, because I think, to your point, we all have it in us. And all it takes is one question to create pause and magic can happen in that pause. Only with which to that curiosity of our brains. And to your point, what our brains do naturally to repeat you. I want to know what was the coolest reframe you have ever done.

Chad Jenkins 18:05
Yes, at a multifamily facility that I’m a very large investor in and I’m gonna sponsor semis, I’m pretty close to the top there are some developers that have put that thing together came over $5 million, this is bedroom COVID $5 million over on a $30 million project, which is not a good percentage to be over. No, that’s not. So in that particular type of financing, which is a federal vehicle nonrecourse very, very attractive at face value, that you can’t change the ownership structure, therefore, where your income up this 5 million, and everybody’s standing on the sidelines with their hands behind their back, for obvious reasons, the cheese has definitely been moved. I’m saying well, we’ll hold up. This is the best financing on the planet. Yes, they’ve been quite a bit over. But the market is continuing to move in the same direction, this is an opportunity. And it absolutely was. So being able to capture a lion’s share more of the investment, just by looking at it from a different perspective. The thing is an opportunity zone is going to be wildly successful and it’s in the path of progress. The whole world has changed of course during in through and after COVID but just being able to look at that particular situation different I would dare say is going to have three times return above what the original projection was.

Jess Dewell 19:27
If I can’t get far enough into a reframe because my fear or my risk intolerance is showing up then what call me

Chad Jenkins 19:38
It’s pretty easy. Yeah, I mean, I was I was actually going to have a completely different answer as to where we could help etc. But ultimately, if you’re stuck and it’s just not in you, that’s okay. We all everybody who was ever created as a genius. Most people would not even try to find there’s only about 1% would go and do the homework to try to find it. I have I know exactly what I was built to do. And exactly what my unique capabilities are. So it’s really easy for me to look at it just from my work in my upbringing, the way I’ve approached business for 70 years. So now I do it as a business. So if you get stuck, you’re welcome to reach out, I’m happy to have a conversation and more power to you. But and of course, I like to partner on future money, only old outcomes. So it may be something that might have interest in if, if something’s gotten way out of out of balance, so to speak, anytime there’s a change in this is the fundamental understanding of mine. Anytime there’s a change, there is an opportunity created. In one of the earlier businesses, I would say, early 2000s, obviously, we know what happened on 911. A lot of stuff changed. That was not too far after the 2000s, which you mentioned.com earlier. It every time and I thought about this very early age at that time, I should say, when there’s as many people on earth as there are. And they have to every day unless we all work remote, which has definitely changed a lot over the last couple years. But at that particular time, they have to get up tomorrow morning, and they’re going to leave their house and drive most likely, or ride public transportation or the other to get to their place of work. That’s not changing. So whenever you have that many people in motion doing things, unless you have 100% of the market, you still have a lot of opportunity. The good thing is whenever you have that level of monumental change in your industry, your vendor or your market or your pricing your financing, it creates so much opportunity. And the by way of creating an opportunity, everyone’s running to the left. Why don’t you just run to the right, look at it from a different perspective and say, Okay, what has changed, and then what opportunity to open up. Because there are some statics and I gave you an example, those, at that time, there were 6.7 billion people on Earth. Great, that’s a lot of people, I promise, at that time in the business I was running, I did not do business with 6.7 billion people, there was still a lot of opportunity for me. And I find that very, very often, no matter what the type of industry, no matter what the geography, it can be all over the planet. I was talking with some in Sweden yesterday. And they had that in their industry. And it opened up an immense opportunity. And the good thing about this particular organization, they had all the capabilities already on staff, they already had the systems, they already had the web and digital platform, just to make a small tweak, and go capture that opportunity has opened up, guess who’s not doing that. Their competition does not do anything. But unless they looked at it that way, they’re doing the same thing that everybody else are getting prepared for layoffs, reducing their price, oh, we’re gonna make it a race to the bottom. Let’s go and get this inventory move, because you don’t want to get stuck with it, where everybody else is doing that. So it you potentially even and I’m just thinking about this, you potentially even could, again, leverage what your brain does. And write down with everybody what you think you need to do? And then look at them and grade them. Is everybody else gonna do this check mark, check mark, check mark, if that’s a true statement, make a white line on the right side of the whiteboard, write the exact opposite. And then just say why not? That’s a very simple process of somebody could go through to give them the perspective of looking at things a little bit differently.

Jess Dewell 23:19
So maybe from your own personal experience, or business owners that you’ve worked with? How have they moved from where they were at of going? Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to have a clearer understanding of what might be happening and anticipate well, to actually going, Oh, I actually would do this, and I have a grasp on this. And I am anticipating

Chad Jenkins 23:39
Well, yeah, that’s a wonderful question is when did I created a methodology for a long, long time ago? A little bit by accident. And then I’ve got words to help that make it very easy for me to remember. So it’s removed the film. And for me, just like you would buy a new phone, everyone, I’m sure listening has done that a new car, you’ve got the plastic uncertain things, we need to peel that plastic, obviously, what would that became a lot more vibrant, or a new TV. And when you don’t take the little bit of plastic around the frame is really, really small. But when you do, it’s like, oh, that’s a lot cleaner. So in anything, you’re making it better. By making it better in business, you’re creating value. What are the indicators that point you in that direction, to being able to create value that nobody else is even looking at? or focusing on or even the a lot of times are running away from it. And that to me is friction. So film, for me stands for friction identification, leverage the market. So whenever you are driving into work, or this morning, the first text message you got or the first phone call, which is a little bit abstract, this site is probably a text message or email. It may have been formed in an a normal way, which is a complaint for me, when I see trending through complaints, that is opportunity, opportunity opportunity, because those are frictions. So to your point earlier When folks are asking them the questions, they want to have the intuition. Always, always, always focus on your hero target, be really, really clear on who you want your business to be a hero to enter those times when there’s big change, if you can potentially take a big step back, and let’s write down what we think we know, even old school, because there’s been a big change in my industry, what do we think we very much understand about our hero target. And then because of this change, let’s try to figure out where the film is, where’s the friction that we can identify? And then let’s validate how much of our hero target does this friction apply to? If it does, and you’re the first to identify that friction and figure out a solve to it and offer it to your hero target, you just remove the rest of your competition as well. So remove the film, as is the strategy I use almost on a daily basis, but definitely on a weekly basis. And it works for all different industries, because is focusing on those that you would like to be a hero to and making it this is, of course a fundamental rule. Make it easy for people to do business with you. Yeah, yeah. That business is not super complicated. What makes it complicated? Is us on a daily basis. And the funny part is, they will go away for a quarter will go away on an annual off site, what do we do decide to get back to the basics? And then we get back to the office. And what do we do the next thing, we make it more complicated, we don’t have to do that. Let’s focus on do we want to be here, too, let’s figure out what’s causing them friction, and let’s embrace it. And then you begin to write the competition out which is actually quite margin friendly.

Jess Dewell 26:37
I’m hearing change from the top. In everything that we’re talking about, is that a fair hearing to have,

Chad Jenkins 26:46
It’s a fair hearing to have, because in obviously, the role that I’ve always felt I’ve always participated in is at the top. It has to come from the top and the way in which we’re looking at it. But all the change of the real value creation change has come from the bottom, focus, or guess the folks who are actually in the trenches or the field and are delivering the value. They’re on the headset right now, listening to what we would perceive as complaints. And a lot of us are recording them. Every call that comes in I have a pretty large cybersecurity many services firm, every call is recorded. And they’re looking for quality assurance, of course, which we hear at the beginning, every time we call a large company. I’m also and we’ve got algorithms where we’re looking for things that introduce complaints, and we try trending to them, that enables us to be way out in front of the competition to say yes, change from the top from a strategy standpoint, but the real value, whoever is most client facing, because it’s all about those hero targets. And if you want to take it one step further, you want to improve culture. It’s all about who is there at the front lines. So listening to the frictions that they have is quite empowering from an HR perspective to help us not do the convention. Oh, goodness, what is it the ping pong table in the break room? About a beer keg? Yeah, okay, great. But if we’re listening to them, there are other frictions, yes, that could be empowering your organization to separate yourself from your direct competition from a talent acquisition strategy. It works inside and outside the business ultimately removed. The film has been extremely empowering for years and years for many organizations, including every one I’ve ever owned.

Jess Dewell 28:22
In a very loud world with more and more access, and so many things that are becoming a lower barrier to entry on many levels. That difference is better. And the noisy is easy.

Chad Jenkins 28:36
There’s a little book is called Built to Sell. I’m sure many books I’ve read it. It’s actually a wonderful book. Yes, this particular guy was stretched out trying to be everything to everybody. And when he made the decision, listen to his mentors. And ultimately, this guy decided to instead of being a true marketing firm with all services, which is extremely hard, I own one, he decided to do logos. 18 months later, he got an offer for something six, or six and a half million. So to me, my simple brain, he made a decision to do one thing. 18 months later, he had created six and a half million dollars, because in theory, and of course he read the book you can pick up on, he didn’t have anything to sell until he made that one decision. So focusing on the one thing for me is absolutely value creation. I am drawn to and attracted to ways to create value inside the organization outside with your existing resources, just the way I’m wired. But if for anyone who’s listening, if you can always just focus on that one thing. Yes, it will manifest in different products and services, that every time you get a chance what is at the core, what is at the root and how can we improve our messaging around that one thing that value creation that we do better than everybody else? So you mentioned it, differentiation is very positive. And then focus on that concepts that I’m introduced to and wired up to find the practical application or practical applicability is one thing that I often use. So I have a very good friend Dan Sullivan, who wrote the book with Ben Hardy who not how, huh? practical application for me. Very, very simple. And it will likely be one of the next books I release. Nothing new without a who is probably been whenever this book came out, that’s the couple years now maybe was shortly after reading it so great, but how can I throttle myself? That was it. Nothing new without a who that means, of course, I’m somewhat of a little bit of a visionary. I come up with value-creation things in my sleep all the time. Uh, huh. I put them in my apple notes at three o’clock in the morning. And there’s always a dash and I have to assign it to someone, not me, someone else. So nothing new without a who was my practical application of the concept who not out. So empowering yourself to break it down simple. To the first step, what is the one first step. And now, in an example, I just gave that first step, it’s not me, it’s not me, I’m empowering somebody else to take the first step. And guess what, they’re a lot better at doing it to be honest with you. They are not wired up like me to come up with the concepts. And the beauty of identify this invisible value that I say is right there in front of everyone. But what they are really good at doing is taking that first step. So find someone who can help you practically apply the concept that you have learned that is going to be empowering to you and help you grow.

Jess Dewell 31:27
And it may already be internal, please look there. First you build a company. And then after that, please look outside. And don’t stop because they actually might be there, you just haven’t seen it yet.

Chad Jenkins 31:36
I’ll give you an example where you can leverage the out slides. I focus on collaborations. And I talk about being able to identify the invisible value that is created with a combination between people places and things. That’s exactly it. So in this scenario, I would absolutely always look internal. Sure, absolutely those resources that you already have. They in theory already aligned with your vision. So they want the betterment of the company, or whatever the objective is, it makes a lot of sense. If you don’t have that resource internally, you can always look outside for a collaboration partner. These objectives, these concepts that we want to implement in our business, or objectives that we have for our business, I don’t think we want to do them, because we want less gross profit and less net profit. We want more if you’re the visionary who has been exposed to this concept, whether it’s reading or etc. And you know that properly implemented, this is going to have a very positive impact to your business, I would challenge you if you need a collaboration partner, and that there are those out there as well, to understand the true impact that it’s going to help on your business. And I use that concept often because just the same any of these concepts are out of my struggle along the way as well. So I’ve high leverage future money all the time, in businesses, where there’s one-on-one or one I’m helping to help grow is they do not have the immediate resources to take advantage of that. So leveraging a collaboration partner who is just as confident at producing the outcome, as you are with whatever your unique value crib capabilities are, if you partner with them on the outcome, they’ll just split the money in the future. So I do it all the time. It’s a concept that folks don’t even consider especially small to medium-sized business owners, and it holds them back. When there’s somebody out there who’s really good at whatever you need to complement what you’re trying to accomplish. Please consider, I encourage you to potentially use collaboration to help you along your growth journey.

Jess Dewell 33:36
I think that’s an incredible point to bring up because we don’t write and I’m saying we I’m one of these people, okay, I’m one of the authors of medium-sized business, or I’m like, I can’t get a loan big enough for that. Or I don’t want to get a loan right now because of whatever or whatever it is. So now I’m thinking about this. So I’m thinking back to earlier in the conversation when we were talking about what if we just double it? What about that added zero? And it could be in either direction? As you said, how does that look? Right? So that exercise comes into play here also, to open that door and expand this possibility because that’s actually one thing I can tell you. And I’m speaking to the choir when I tell you this, but when we feel like we are and maybe you’ve you may not be in this sauce, I’m including myself in this one. When we feel like we are squeezed or we feel like there’s only one path forward. Even if that turns out to be true. Doesn’t mean opportunity is absent.

Chad Jenkins 34:34
This great opportunity is abundant, all abundant. Always, always, always most.

Jess Dewell 34:39
I like rocks and hard places. Can I be real with you?

Chad Jenkins 34:43
Absolutely. Yeah. If everything was good, always how would we know what good is if it’s always the site and start and we don’t grow? When is that like when? Yeah, so obstacles I’ll be at sometimes and of course in the heat of the moment when your phone rings or you get that email you’re like, Oh, darn it, it was supposed to close Thursday and there’s always go closer As I hold up, there might be an opportunity to get about 20% more, because the market has changed. But if you look at it as it’s just going close Thursday, and that ruins your weekend, it’s on a Friday, hypothetically, I choose to start to look at it that way. First, I want to say how can I embrace this change. And no matter if I’m on the other side, as well have as an improved proposition, even from a point of leverage to create a much bigger outcome, because it oftentimes you will get the answers that you seek when you ask those right questions. Let those obstacles come they’re gracious, they come anyway, ultimately, in your dispelled it, they’re going to come there is there Oh, no, was it roses and daisies forever. That’s just not the way it works.

Jess Dewell 35:44
I’m your house to just do well, I’m we’re getting down to business on the Bold Business Podcast. This is where we’re tackling the challenges that matter most to you with actionable and achievable advice to get real results that lead to your success. Don’t forget, press that bell icon so you never miss a program. And it’s time to subscribe as well.

ANNOUNCER 36:06
Focused on growth? Listen to more programs like this, which support the challenges and opportunities you are working with right now. Search Bold Business Podcast for the key terms at Reddirection.com or your preferred podcast listening app.

Jess Dewell 36:23
I was like, Oh, we can remove potentially an obstacle here. So if you’re getting results that you don’t like, if you’re getting information that you don’t like, I bet you it’s because of the questions that are being asked.

Chad Jenkins 36:32
You have to ask the right question. Yeah, continue to ask questions, the natural curiosity, I probably had a little bit of an advantage, not having a bunch of formal education and being naturally curious, and costly for the questions even inside of my head. But what over time, that proves quite beneficial. Because you just you end up looking at things a little bit differently.

Jess Dewell 36:51
There’s a lot of mindset going on here. A lot of mindset, and I’m listening to you. And I’m like, Sure, I’m pretty positive. Sure. I was telling you in the greenroom a story where my whole morning was made up by total strangers.

Chad Jenkins 37:05
Total strangers? Absolutely.

Jess Dewell 37:08
If we’re even closed to the little things like that will be closed to the true opportunities of the big changes that we can make. And I know every single one, every single person that goes into business, whether they sell and somebody takes over, and it’s a leadership team, it doesn’t matter. Whoever’s running the company, at whatever stage it is that has some sort of a mission. And if we’re accidentally thinking small, this is a problem. So our mindset must be big. And when we’re talking about mindset, and we’re talking about, I don’t know, I’m not talking about like, puckering big, but maybe I am talking about that. Why? Personally, I think the bigger the better, the more because then you can see me it won’t be straight path, but there is a path. So how have you worked with companies to around mindset, all of the things you have are illustrations of that. But when it comes down, I’m gonna just say this is a mindset thing. And so let’s talk mindset for a moment.

Chad Jenkins 38:05
Yeah, you have fundamental mindset is absolutely required for me to engage. And I’ll give a little bit of context around that. They do not have to think exactly like I do, or have the same capabilities, it’s foolish for me to think that they could, because we’re all made unique. But understanding their why I call it their unique value contribution. If we can get on the same page as to what that is, then a lot of the other things that the thinking tools that are built, we have something called the seed spark collective, which is a collection of all of our growth partners that kind of support each other. There are ways to help them shape the overall mindset that equals the exponential growth. But fundamentally, we have to be true into what is our y. Robot favorite books is a Simon Sinek start with why? Please start with why? Because you can be moderately successful. And then I’ll tell you, how could you be Mallory’s successful, this is probably gonna ring true with some of the quite a few of the folks. Let me show you, right, so out of frustration, or they just want to show somebody else that they can do this, that will take you a long way. But you will run out of gas, you’ll get to a place Oh my gosh, I had some level of success. But what’s next? What else is there? If we don’t start with the why? Or if you do start with the why? It lets you soar past that. So for me understanding what their unique value contribution is, how are they creating value? Understanding their Why is paramount beyond that? I’ve spent a lot of time in creating thinking tools to help them and we’ve gone, gone through a couple of them. Why not double yet leverage the power of unless all of those things help folks get in the right mindset or help continue foster the right mindset? But foundationally we have to have that core understanding of what their Why is the unique value contribution.

Jess Dewell 39:58
So what are the other things that you do, right that stretch that curiosity, maybe it would be the ask you,

Chad Jenkins 40:05
Leveraging the power of your subconscience is super important for me. So I try to write down two questions every evening, right before I go to bed. And just doing that helps. And some of the and I do try to make them quite abstract. Sometimes they’re not abstract, I literally have a big ol obstacle in front of me. And I haven’t yet figured out how to get around this thing. So I’d like to feed it to the supercomputer, which, of course is your subconscious. By doing that, a lot of times you talked about three o’clock in the morning, which is absolutely 100% True. Wake up naturally have a very defined bedtime, page 58. I like that. They think that’s crazy. But if you think about, don’t say around nine, don’t do that. You might consider picking out your time, if it’s 917, you know what happens? Every time you look down, or you’re looking at something that’s o’clock, you’re doing the reverse math between that in this hypothetical 970. A regimen and Tommy go to bed, obviously, two questions to really leverage the power my subconscious, I’m going to wake up between 330 and four naturally. And when I do a very first start with gratitude, keep my eyes closed. After that, still, sometimes I have to box breathed like they’ve trained Navy SEALs to do. Yeah, but once you get in not so much anymore, because now I can get very present very quickly. I do a lot of meditation. But I then move into meditation. Yes. What shows up the answers to the questions. So abstract questions, leveraging your subconscious come up with your own routine, you don’t have to work to mine whatsoever. I just created it. But it really works for me. And understanding that at that time of the morning, you’re at the highest melatonin. So people wake up naturally. And they like, oh, I woke up last night No, no, no embrace that. Just lay there be still embrace it and leverage the power of your subconscious, you end up coming up with those answers. So that’s the way that I stay curious about things that are just a little bit unconventional for me.

Jess Dewell 41:54
Can I ask you a really personal question? Sure. What were the questions you asked last night before he went to bed?

Chad Jenkins 42:00
Oh, goodness. So I have a transaction going on. And it has a pretty unique app to America. But one has a very unique structure. And there’s a large impediments, Miss valuation from the person who’s selling in that I have one organization I’m exiting as well. Those were about two questions for last evening. And sure enough, I came up with a very creative way to solve for both of the objectives for both parties. And actually, there was delivered this morning about 7am. happy to report that closing is now set. Yeah, it’s really good deal.

Jess Dewell 42:32
I appreciate you actually sharing your process too, because I’m always fascinated by the process that people take. I know, for me, it takes me like 30 minutes to get into something. Box breathing meditation, otherwise, it used to be longer. So I’m like, Cool, I got to do some action. And then I can then my everything will click together. And then I find the flow super fast. But part of my I have a rub up. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Now that I can embrace it. I used to think wrong, right? That’s my issue is That’s right. And so to be able to embrace Oh, look, I’m listening to you, boy, wouldn’t that be awesome. But hey, I got it down to 30 minutes. And hey, that 30 minutes means I’m gonna randomly take care of other stuff that would possibly be distracting thoughts in between. So instead of having to fight distraction through it, I’ve done it all. Covered it that’d be exactly right. So that’s my little, all of that, to to this, because curiosity really does matter. And slowing down does matter. It’s all there. If we’re willing to listen, and I’m gonna say listen, listen to every sense on every sense, whether we so what we see

Chad Jenkins 43:37
I have three words. And I’m not sure which book that shared this with me, or if I came up on my own, but I have three words. You mentioned alarms earlier uses, my lovely wife does as well. They’re hideously sounding to a guy who used to be on a big phone company. I carry two phones when I was single. Oh my gosh, that’s horrible idea. So I don’t I don’t use those. I do use reminders. And actually, they’re all my phone currently, three words. Every day, three times a day. I have to look at I have to click them off. And it’s present. appreciative and inspiring. Those are my three. Do they change? Not for no, there’s been consistent for quite a while. I’m not saying they cannot change. Absolutely they can. This is your show make it yours. But the empowerment that has just set your alarms it grabs your attention. Mine does too. Even though a silent they pop up I have to click it off because it’s a reminder that it’s going into my brain consistently and it makes me take impulse. Yes, something could have just happened as the last emails last text message. Probably not an email for me because I farmed that out. But it makes me be appreciated. For who is managing all my email. It makes me be inspiring to the persons who may be causing the conflict is still my responsibility to be inspiring and the only way that I’ll be able to do that presence. You have to be at To the to everything.

Jess Dewell 45:01
Totally, that’s actually something I come by naturally. You right now chat are my absolute positive most favorite thing. Just when I was eight, making those houses for my ponies was my favorite thing. Because it was in front of me. I’m so present all the time, and I can get there. And people are what’s your favorite? I’m like, What was the last thing that I did on that? Because that’s truly.

Chad Jenkins 45:23
That’s really cool.

Jess Dewell 45:25
And so that’s very cool that you use that to anchor it,

Chad Jenkins 45:29
I really began to use it when I did some more research and understand that everybody who is listening, you and I as well, yeah, we have about 2.2 million inputs per day. Do you know how many we can absorb?

Jess Dewell 45:41
Like, 11, I’m kidding. It’s more than that.

Chad Jenkins 45:44
What that really means is our brains have the big finger on a very rapid-firing delete button. But I’m deleting things that you’re not, you’re deleting things that you’re not because of our personal experiences. So the more present that we are, we can began to understand other people’s perspective and try to align with and just understand not that they’re wrong or right, they’d have different inputs than we do. But in doing that, you began to really connect with people. And that’s where a lot of value creation could actually organically happen.

Jess Dewell 46:20
We could talk about this all day, let me just tell you, I actually really love this concept of presence, and how do you get close? And how do you do this? And by the way, one of the reasons I believe, and I’m going to speak for myself, and you can tell me if you want to add anything to this, but my perspective of our conversation today is that that presence that you’ve been cultivating, not only enforces, maybe reinforces all of the work that you have done, but and reinforces what your uniqueness is. But it is the thing that allows that to show up so that you can truly be real with people.

Chad Jenkins 46:54
Yes, be real, and understand where they’re coming from. And understand I mentioned earlier, the remove the film, the only way that I’m able to really spot those things and create businesses that other people have never even seen they grow really quickly have nice margins, is unprecedent. To understand those frictions are actually opportunities, they really, really are. And it just it’s such, it creates an immense amount of value for those that you’re likely already serving. Like they’re already in your billing system. But now they just love you more, and they spend more and they stay longer. You guess what that equates to bigger and greatly enhance enterprise value. Because every day, every one of us at one day is probably going to exit the businesses that we have today. I’d much rather be focused on creating a lot more enterprise value along the way, not the last year or two years, and it takes to get prepared to sell.

Jess Dewell 47:41
What makes it bold? What makes it bold to be intentional about creating opportunity?

Chad Jenkins 47:47
There’s a wonderful book, and you’re welcome to take this one. I’m rereading it probably for the third or fourth time is called clear thinking a luxury. It’s awesome. So the social default, the ego default is the worst one for me, because it just stopped the present and also don’t respond, good lord, apply rational rationality, the particular one that, that answers your question the I feel like the social default or the inertia default, is not being impacted by those biological responses that come so naturally to us, obviously, it’s biological, that makes it bold. Well, the only way you can do that is to not react, take a big step back. And you can do that. And then physically if you need to, and some people need that, whatever the anchor in their brain is that enables them to create the outcome, I’d strongly suggest encourage you to do that. So when I talk about stepping back, if that’s what helps you catch yourself, catch your subconscious catch that biological response, it empowers you to be bold, and I promise you other people are watching and looking and they you become a leader over time, because you’re just different. And so that, that in itself in it, they want you to be bold.

Jess Dewell 49:00
This is just one program I’ve created in the pursuit of identifying the right work to be done, and then doing as much of that work as possible. Because that’s where success happened. We’re talking about building businesses that last, the Bold Business Podcast equips leaders, business owners and management teams with the strategic mindsets and the practical tools to navigate the ever-evolving business landscape. Before you go, remember to visit red direction.com for solutions, articles, and more programs like this one created to help you navigate the challenges that you’re facing in your business today. Don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels to keep up with all the latest insights. It is bold to pursue building a business that lasts until next time.

ANNOUNCER 49:57
Jess hosts the Bold Business Podcast to provide insights for building a resilient, profitable business by deeply understanding your growth strategy, ensuring market relevance and your company’s future. It is bold to deeply understand your growth strategy with your host, Jess Dewell. Get more information about how to drive solutions and reset your growth mindset at Reddirection.com. Thank you for joining us and special thanks to our post production team at The Scott Treatment.