Beware the De-Nester

This Week’s Summary:

Learned: Have a systems

Planning: Systems enable the plan

Business idea: Capture your systems

Vet Opp: Construction Industry

I met: Brothers of the Regiment

Stoic Quote of the Week

He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.

-Epictetus

What I learned this week:

Habits and systems or routines have been an essential part of everything I do since I was a Boy Scout. You have to know where in your rucksack you put your knife or the matches. This habit carried over into my military career. I still follow those habits or packing systems when I hunt and even in my everyday carry rucksack. I know exactly which pocket the cords are. I know where the extra pens and my spare earpiece are. Everything has a place. The system makes things easier for me because I know which slot my computer goes in. I know where I put the keys and so on. Because I do these things, I mitigate the stress of where my power cord or my truck keys are. It is intentional and allows me to move on to more important things like my next keynote or whom I can refer to someone I just met. This system works great until it doesn’t. Really, until I don’t follow it, that happened this weekend. Ms. Suzanne and I were at the Achieve Biz Explosion conference in Denver. We had a nice room at the conference hotel. All just like we always do when we travel together, except for one thing. Ms. Suzanne wasn’t coming home; she was continuing on to Texas to visit our folks. Here is where the system wasn’t used. I had my new electronic notepad out on the desk in the hotel. No big deal. It was near my computer. I didn’t consider the fact that Ms. Suzanne had her new electronic notepad out also. I also didn’t consider that even though the two devices are different makes and models, they still look very similar because of the cases. I learned a new term because of that similarity: de-nesting. I have been making fun of Ms. Suzanne’s “nesting” when we get on to an airplane or arrive in a hotel room. She has always been the one who does the extra sweep of the room when we leave; she de-nests that area. De-nesting means making sure everything is secured before final departure. She is damn good at it. So good that she packed my electronic notepad and took it to Texas. I stepped out of my system. Part of the system is that I use the item, and then it goes back in its place. The item is always where it is supposed to be, except when it isn’t. In this case, the item was in Texas. When you have a system, stick to it, monitor it, and improve it. When you break the system and look in your rucksack for that item and it isn’t there, ask yourself, where didn’t I follow the system?

Planning thought of the week:

Systems are the way things get done effectively. Plans come and go. The systems that we build in our lives and business are what create success. Systems allow you to scale and get better at what you do.

Business idea I heard about or thought of:

I was talking with my Thursday morning B2B group about systems in our businesses. Systems aren’t just to make your business more effective. They increase the value of your business. Our discussion this morning revolved around M&A and how so many businesses don’t do the simple things like track their cash flow and have marketing and sales systems. The irony is that we get so wrapped up in the day-to-day to-do’s that we don’t realize that the system that we created to do XYZ is all in our head. If it is all in our head, it can’t be passed on, it can’t scale, and you sure as hell can’t sell it. The irony is that it isn’t that hard to capture those systems and be able to hand them off. There are several tools out there that do just that while you are doing it. I’m most familiar with Loom and the screen capture program that you can use while it is recording. Now you have captured the how-to-do-it, and you can easily train someone else to do that for you or present it as an asset when you sell the business, increasing the business’s value because you have a repeatable process that anyone can learn to do.

The Steel Men Tribe launched last week. We have two slots available. If you want to be part of this small, tight-knit tribe of men changing the world, go to Steel Men Tribe and schedule a call to see if you are a fit.

Veteran opportunity of the week:

If you’ve always wanted to drive down the road and point at a building and say, I built that. Now is your chance. The construction industry continues to boom. The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER)?is helping veterans get started in the construction industry. Learn how you can become a hard hat hero here.

Someone I met this week:

I love a chance contact with another brother from the Regiment. This weekend I had two! Two fellow 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) members were at the Achieve conference this weekend. As the three of us got to know each other, I was reminded of the instant bond that we formed, even though these two guys served in Group well after me. Thinking back on the chats the three of us had, it is humorous to watch the people around us who have no idea why we had that instant bond. The commonality, or as I like to call it, the bona fides amongst our Regiment, is stronger than any connection I have ever had. Keep your eyes out for these two men making an impact on the community and the world. Nathan has his own wealth management company, which is growing nationwide. Marc is opening a defensive shooting and training range East of town. More to follow with both!

Ask?

We always love your feedback. We are trying the new summary section at the top. We'd love to know what you think!

Here's a link to the current 10X Your Team with Cam & Otis podcast episode, Veterans' Voices: Preserving History with Val Burgess | 10x Your Team Ep.?#399.

Subscribe to 10X Your Team with Cam & Otis on YouTube.

You can watch all our podcast videos, full-length videos about our living with intention, and all the #whiskeywords! subscribe

Please follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Tribe + Purpose.

Thank you for your support.

PS: If you enjoy this email, please share it with others.