[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's through those expansions of those additional challenges, adding some fear into your world that you recognize that there's something really beautiful. On the other side of that, there's growth that happens.
Welcome to this week's episode of Innovate and Overcome. I'm excited that you're here to join us for an incredible conversation with an entrepreneurial family. That's right. We have two members of the family today, a father and daughter duo. We've got John Coral Atoll and his daughter Alana Kasdan. Now, they are have been in a family business, and this family business started in 1958. That's 66 years of operation. What an incredible feat. Now, as you can imagine, a lot has happened over 66 years. We're going to dive into a little bit of one of these core elements, a situation that occurred for John where he had to step in and take over one aspect of a family business. And these challenges occur. And as you spend longer and longer periods of time in business as an entrepreneur, challenges are going to constantly occur at whether they're economic, personal, family related, and there's always a scenario that we need to overcome. And today's discussion, I'm excited for our viewers to learn about your journey, John, and what this particular challenge was. So welcome, both of you, to the show.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate it being here.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Before we hit the go button, you were telling me a little bit about this experience where, you know, you have your primary family business, which is a home building business based out of the state of New York, as I understand. And you also had a secondary business with the family, and that's really where this challenge occurred. So maybe walk us through what transpired leading up to this challenge happening, and how did you find yourself in the mix of it?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: So it was a family business that was on my mom's side, actually, my dad being in construction, and my mom owned with her family a concrete block manufacturing company. And for multiple reasons, the company was economy, mismanagement, so on and so forth.
The company was going sideways very quickly. And what I had found when I found out from my dad was that he actually guaranteed some of the loans, but he didn't really have any control or management over build the company. He was kind of a president, but he was like a seagull president, you know, come in and leap. And because he was building and he was doing other things as well, as long as. And so was I. And one day our accountant came up to us and said, you know, someone from the family has to step in this and get it into this business and go in there and run it and do something with it, because otherwise you will be bankrupt with them a year or less. So it was one of those situations where, you know, everybody kind of, it's like being in the army and someone tells you to volunteer for something and every whole line steps back. I mean, I think maybe the three Stooges or something, right? And there. There it is. Everybody's looking at me, and I'm like, I've never done anything like this before. We're small business. We're builders. I go out in the field, in the dirt, and now you want me to go run a company that's got 50 employees, truck drivers, block plant manufacturing machines, tractor trailers, the whole 9 hours. Plus it had a Teamsters union, which was something that I had never experienced before.
Didn't necessarily enjoy that part of it, but I learned I had to adapt and learn very quickly what needed to be done. Here's a guy being thrown into a business, had no clue. And as far as that management or the team of the people in the business we're looking at, they're seeing this kid come in and he's like, who the hell is he? And I think they were ready to really try to pull the wool over my eyes. But very quickly, I used a lot of tools and appreciation, gratitude and coaching, and just trying to get people to say, hey, look, you know, we've really got to make this thing work. And we were able to do it. I went in, I told my dad, I said, you know, I'm going to come back in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to give you some options on what you should do here.
Three primarily, you know, sell it, close it, or invest. And after about three days, I came back and I said, no investment. So. But then again, to reorganize the. I reorganize the operation. Again with no experience, I had no idea what I was doing. I just was feeling it. I just felt it, felt it, felt it.
And I made mistakes. I definitely made mistakes. But I got it to the point where it became more profitable slightly. It was just crossing over the border. I actually fired customers to do it. I actually fired one whole segment of the industry, which everybody thought I was absolutely crazy for doing. But by doing that, we actually were more profitable in another sector of that business, which was the commercial end. And then a guy from California walked up to me and he bought plant down the street, one of our competitions. And I was like, how come he didn't buy my plant? So I went over to him and I told him, I said, if you want to do this, I put a whole package together for him. And within six to eight months, I believe we had sold the operation. He eventually failed, but because he had never done it before either.
But that was a big challenge, and it was a very scary, a very scary experience for me. Going in every morning, I had to, like, you know, stand tall, stand proud, walk in there and just, I wouldn't say pretend, but kind of be that I know what I'm really doing. And every minute I challenge myself.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: So there's a little bit of a kind of fake it till you make it scenario, definitely.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: And I think that's, in my construction business, it's the same thing. I mean, I take on projects that are bigger than I. Not that I should, but bigger than they're uncomfortable projects. They're big, okay? And every time I do one, I get bigger and bigger. I take on a bigger one. And I'm always, like, doing something that I've never either done or it's an uncomfortable situation.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: There's so many pieces here. And, you know, I love how you, you took this, this thing that was an eight, nine month period of time of your life thrust, really, upon you being voluntold, essentially, to take on this initiative, and you really put it down into its core elements. But within that period of time, there's the scenario of having to step into that role, and then there's all the additional things that happen along the way. And I suspect that there was the big challenge of, wow, I have to do this. I've never done it before. We have a failing business. How are we going to get it done to, hey, I've got to learn how to show up as a leader. I've got to learn new skills. I've got to understand a business. I've got to start on a managed employees in a way that I've never done before that are doing different kinds of work than what I've been doing over here. So, like, there's a, you know, I could see a checklist of different, you know, challenges that you're doing in a very short time frame. And there's something that you indicated about that, you know, having to show up every morning and show up in a certain way in a certain role. What kind of things happened, John, as you, as you were getting up those days, knowing the challenge ahead of you, for a lot of people, our viewers, maybe they might have that feeling like they've been overwhelmed by something that's going on in their life. To me, I could see being in your shoes, putting myself in that scenario. I could feel the overwhelm, personally, just through your story. What were some of the things that you did from a mindset perspective? You know, what, what was happening? Is it just a natural, innate thing that you said, I can overcome, I can do this? Is it the inner competitor in you? What would you say it was that helped you, you know, show up the way that you did on a daily basis to start turning the ship around?
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Fear.
You need courage, and you need fear. But courage comes from fear. And by overcoming those fears, like every morning, you know, the cool thing about this one was that most of my business is within a very close distance. So within ten to 15 minutes, I can be at a job site. It took me 35 to 40 minutes to get there every morning and, you know, radio off focus and just think about exactly how I'm going to walk in, what I'm going to say. Probably not necessarily exactly, because who knows what was going on there, but, you know, where I was, where my posture was going to be in that moment, and, you know, I'd walk in and get out of the car and be like, okay, here we go. And that was so that fear, the fear of, first of all, making mistakes and doing things wrong and really not, and failing in the attempt that I was at gave me courage to do what I had to do to get it done. So I think you cannot do something you've never done before and not have fear as a catalyst to moving forward.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: When you identified that the stretch model, even with your home building, your home construction business taking on bigger projects, there seems to be a trend. And that I'm guessing maybe it wasn't early on, but it sounds like at this stage of your life, this stage of your entrepreneur journey, you've really come to terms and understand that it's through those expansions of those additional challenges, adding some fear into your world that you recognize that there's something really beautiful on the other side of that, there's growth that happens. So is that something that you picked up on early, do you say? Or is that something that when reflection you see was just a trend that developed in your life?
[00:09:18] Speaker B: I would say I probably saw it earlier, didn't understand it. But as I aged and got into more projects where I was more in control of it, as opposed to being on a team, if you will, that I began to really think about it and say, I'll buy a piece of property. And I'm like, oh, my God, what am I doing? But I would do it anyway. And then you begin to trust yourself. You begin to trust the fear.
Once you trust fear, and then you can go through it. But if you don't trust the fear, then you're just going to be forever locked in a backward position.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Preston, at this time, this is roughly how many years ago would you say this was, that you had to step into this position?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Oh, it was about 25, maybe 30 years ago. That's why I want to young at the time.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: So I think that's important because here we are, and for, again, our viewers, I'm sure a lot of people who have families, whether they're young children or children that have grown up and left the nest, you know, you're a young father at this point, you. And there's a number of other things you have. You're helping your own father in the other family business, the home building, home construction business, and you guys had a couple other endeavors at the time. So what else was going on in your world that you are doing prior to finding yourself in the position of having to take over this business?
[00:10:39] Speaker B: In the nineties, I became a real estate broker. I had some challenges with real estate agents in selling our houses, and I was a much better salesperson on houses than most of the agents. Not putting agents down, but, you know, I could interact on the level of the construction. We do new homes, we don't do existing things. And I also had my dad and started a small winery back in the seventies when I was in school, where basically in high school, and that was just a labor of love, and we turned it into a business.
So I had that going on.
When I entered the block company, it was just the beginning of harvest, and I was working side by side with my dad, growing grapes, making wine, and being the winemaker and that type of thing. And we were trying to sell wine at the same time. So there was a. I don't even know if, I don't even know if I saw my family during that time, and I got yelled at a lot when I come home, but other than that. So, yeah, it was a very, very challenging time, but my ability to kind of change directions quickly was, been very, very helpful for me.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Love it. Well, we're going to get more into that, and we'll be right back after these important messages.
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Welcome back. We're here again with John and Alana, and we're hearing this incredible story of overcoming a massive challenge while really in the thick of multiple businesses, stepping into a major leadership role, really being thrust into the role. John, you've done a great job of walking us through this, this incredible challenge that you found yourself in the middle of. And one of the things that you identified before we went to the break was how, in order to bring that business back into a level of profit or to try to revive it from the brink of bankruptcy, you actually did something very interesting, very unique. You actually fired some clients or you got rid of a line item of the business. And anyone watching, I'm sure they said, well, how did that work? What exactly. How did that bring you back into profit? And there's something that we learned through the strategic coach organization, which, that's how you and I connected originally, which is an amazing organization built by Dan Sullivan. And the idea that you can multiply through subtraction is what came up for me when you said that. So walk me through what your thought process was when you made that decision. Was there some numbers that you saw that said, hey, this just doesn't make sense? And how did you say, this is the way that we need to make a change here to be able to move forward with this business?
[00:13:58] Speaker B: So, interesting enough, remember, we were builders. My father was a Mason, and I worked on Mason crews in the holes, in the ditches, managing, laying block, and actually labor, not really on the layer, but western labor. And I saw how the Masons operated. And what I realized when I got to the block plant was that all the trouble that we had, like with our trucks and our mechanics and the issues that were happening out in the field where we were losing money, had to do with working with home builders. I had a unique perspective because I was a home builder. And I realized, I looked back at myself and says, my God, the way we behave out there is actually hurting this business. So I went in and I basically picked three or four of the best builders that actually paid us because that was another issue on time or didn't want to negotiate after the job was delivered.
And I just said, I went to management people and the block plant folks and I just said, we're not going to sell the home builders anymore. And I apologize if I offend anyone on that as well. But that was actually the part where we stopped losing money by trying to service a market who didnt appreciate us. That was what I felt is, you dont really understand. Were going to take this 40 ton truck and were going to put it to the edge of a bank. And when the bank starts to give away or its in the full of the mud, and then youre pulling it out with a bulldozer, ripping the bumper off, I mean, all these things were happening and im like were just wasting money. So I said, if I just get rid of that segment of our business and only deal with the people that actually respect us and love us and are grateful for what we do, then we ended up with four customers. And then I had customers calling me, begging me. They wanted to come back. I can't believe you're not selling to me and that kind of thing. So we focused on the commercial side, more like schools, hospitals, where you're delivering to pavement and you're delivering to finished product.
Again, they're much larger corporations, so they tend to be more sophisticated in how they run their business, et cetera.
And that all of a sudden, by getting rid of the pain, we began to accelerate the profits.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: There was more to it than just getting rid of customers. It was really actually cutting out the negative energy and the negative pain and the problems that were occurring. So I think that's the key that people should really take away from this, is that you were able to probably through communicating, you were, you were the new guy. And so you didnt know all the back end stories, but you started to hear them from being there, boots on the ground, talking to the managers, the different members of the staff, seeing obviously bumpers return without trucks and so on. To give you an idea of where some of the challenges were and the phone calls that people were getting, that they were probably creating a lot of unnecessary stress and tension in the workplace. And so by starting to cut through some of those things and to fix that, you really started to see probably a better mindset change even in the people that you work with it. Would that be a fair assessment?
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Well, of course, the mindset in the organization was that of a scarcity mindset, very scarcity mindset. And so the salesman's freaked out, the plant people freaked out, the truck drivers freaked out. It took about a few weeks, so they started to understand that, oh, wait a minute, maybe this does make sense. And then the mindset shift came to like, oh, this is great. And it was actually easy for the drivers it was easier for the mechanics because they had less, not less work to do, but they had less b's kind of work. You know, the stuff that you shouldn't be working on, you know, you know, they want to change the oil. That's a great movement forward, but, you know, putting the bumper back on is just a negative thing. So, yeah, that was the, you know, it took a while. It took a while, but not again. It was a very short period of time, so it was a little stressful for me, but we got through it, Preston.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Now, through all of that, there would have been days. We're talking about a period of around eight, nine months, as you'd indicated. There would have been days that would have been much harder than others. We all experienced those kind of days.
Unfortunately, last time I checked, not every day is the absolute greatest. They all have the potential to be the greatest, but that isn't always how it works. So if you reflect back to some of the days that were maybe harder than others, a little bit more stressful than others, there was a buildup, potentially, of some pain and some frustrations.
What were you relying on, John, to help you through some of those more difficult days? What's an example of that? And then how did you find you could get support, uh, through those. Through that process?
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Um, well, family, for sure. That was the number one. Um, my wife Marie, and kids, of course, uh, you know, had to put up with no dad, bro.
You know, I'd come home and the dinner table would be there with my plate on it, covered in a napkin, and it would be hard as a rock because it's mostly frozen at this point. Uh, you know, where he was doing all. Taking care of all the kids, and I had no, you know, like, no responsibility there, which, you know, was. I was. Would think about that and, you know, but I said, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, and you're doing that. You're. And it was like a unique ability thing, because she would. She had the unique ability. I mean, I would not be as good of a dad if it wasn't for my wife. You follow? The same. And she was uniquely qualified to manage these three young kids and get them to school on time and do all those things. Did she complain? Yeah, all the time.
Right.
But I would say family. And then the same thing on the other side, you know, between my parents and my sisters and the rest of the family, that was probably the number one thing. We used to get together for Sunday dinners, you know, 2025 people. My mom would cook and that was like our boardroom. You know, we had a. We had a boardroom. We talk about business as much as we shouldn't be talking about business in there, because you're in a family business. It's just the natural thing to do. And I know a lot of times you read books. No, you should have, you know, no. No discussion about business and thing. But if you're that steeped into it, it's your life. It's in your blood. And when it's in your blood that you almost can't talk about anything else, except when you go on vacation, then all of a sudden that goes away where you plan things to do something else, like picnics or whatever, and then that business stuff goes away. But when you're sitting at that table on a Sunday afternoon, you're talking about business and you're watching the kids make sure they're hearing you, because instead, by hearing them now, all three of my children have grown up to be someone, one entrepreneur and two half entrepreneurs at this point. But they have that entrepreneurial mindset because they heard it all their life. And I think that was really, really important. So that would be my support system.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Well, I absolutely love that, John, and this is a perfect time. Elana, I'd like to hear a little bit. We're going to dive deeper into what you guys are doing for innovation here in a moment, but I'd like to just get some perspective from you growing up in that environment. So I also grew up in a family based business, and the idea of bumpers falling off trucks is like, I have mental images in my brain that stick out immediately, as you said that. So what I'm curious is, Alana, what were some of the things that you saw and you recognized as you were growing up in that environment? Maybe you have some of those. I'm sure you have very positive memories of those Sunday family dinners, but there's also obviously ebbs and flows to that. And so what were some of the things you learned to picked up on about entrepreneurial life?
[00:21:45] Speaker C: I'd say the biggest takeaway is you just keep moving.
My whole childhood was spent probably at the vineyard, running around, watching people work. And it was really just a way of life in our family. And we went to school, we did our thing. We come out outside and play. But I, you know, at the end of the day, as my dad already said, need walk straight to his office. And, you know, there goes dad. But, you know, watching that, you know, as a kid, you don't even really realize what you're absorbing, but you're absorbing that, you know, at the. Exactly. You're absorbing that epic, and that translates as a kid into your schoolwork, into, you know, youre piano practice, into your sports, is that you just keep moving forward. Whatever your life is at that moment, you just, you just keep doing. And my dad took something a little, a little bit ago that really resonated with me. Is that trusting that fear? Because that's, that's, that's a big part of it. And that's the only way you do different things is getting out of your comfort zone and trusting that fear.
So I would say that, you know, even outside of entrepreneurship, that work ethic is probably the biggest takeaway. And you just not, you just have it.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: The pasta was good, too.
[00:23:13] Speaker C: It's part of our life.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: I can picture this big italian family having these epic meals on Sunday, and part of me just kind of wants to be there for dinner.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: So I think that's, my friends always wanted to come over.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Incredible. And, you know, memories of working on the vineyard, and I think that's really important. The things that you take away from those experiences, although they might be subtle, you don't necessarily know what's going on. There's something at the core that you were able to resonate and pick up on, and that's now serving you in your life today. Is that what I understand?
[00:23:48] Speaker C: Yep. Yep. That's exactly right. Yeah. It's one of those things where, you know, you look around at others around you and you see what are you doing? Just, just do it. Just do it. Just get to work. What are you doing? And that's when you kind of can reflect back and really know that's just part of your upbringing and that entrepreneurial spirit is in your bloodline. It's not something you just spike.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: Well. And on that note, we are just going to do it as well. And by do it, I mean we're going to cut through an amazing commercial break and we'll be right back with John Olanje after these important messages.
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[email protected]. dot welcome back to the show again. We're here with John in Alana, and we're having an incredible conversation about the family dynamics of working through a business life together and over multiple generations. And one of the things that John and I both connected on is an organization called strategic coach and all the different important lessons that we've learned through that incredible organization.
Some of those lessons for myself have been around a better understanding of how I operate in the world, and that's something that we share in. And so I'd like to maybe go down that road a little bit. John, talk to me about when the idea of having a coach, having a business coach, implementing coaching started to occur for you to help you grow and elevate the business. And what were some of the important reasons why you made that decision?
[00:26:03] Speaker B: So my first back, and, you know, a way while back, I had had some one on one coaching, you know, I found that that was very helpful for me and helped me get through a lot of things, too, having that one on one coach. But then back in 2000, I think in 2002, my cousin, who had actually started in coach, called me up one day and he says, you gotta, because you got to do this. You got to do this. And I said, ah, you know, maybe next year. He goes, no, no, no. He goes, this is Dan's last class that he last workshop that he's going to follow up with, and then he's switching into something else. And so I ended up joining and I got my Colby. That day was a change. It changed my life. Now this, the very things that make you a good entrepreneur. An entrepreneur, rather. It also can be very hurtful for you. So in my Colby was a eight quick start. See that? You're a nine. So we're very similar in that regard. I, and, you know, going through school and going through college, and there were certain things that I thought I was doing wrong because I didn't follow them. The correct mode. You know, the school has a certain way of, you know, you behave this way, you successfully, you behave this way, you're not, you know, you end up in detention, you get jugged, you get all this stuff, right?
And that day I sat down, I read my Colby score, and I just weeped because it was even make this me right now. It's like, it was like, oh, my God, this is what has been wrong with me, but it's been right with me. So it's helped me, but it's also hurt me. And it was that day that I actually wrangled it to the ground, and now I understood a lot more about who I was. I mean, Colby is much deeper than one index.
And then in joining coach, then the tools that we learned, and it just accelerated me very, very quickly. And I had a lot of experiences where probably without having that coach in the background, even though I made it through the block plant thing, now I'm into the next phase, and coach, really, the exercises with Coach and plus the Colby really set me off, even in a faster, almost an exponential way of growing and handling my business.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Thinking about innovation, I view the Colby index. The Colby a index is what we're speaking about, developed by Kathy Colby, an incredible, incredible thing. And I had a similar experience to you, John, and so I view that as an innovation in. In my life personally. And it sounds like it was a huge innovation for you at that time. And then it's allowed you to almost, for lack of better terminology, let's say, compound some aspects of your natural gifts as you move forward in business and life. Would you say that that's a fair way of looking at it?
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. I was that I began to put people around me that could support me where I thought, without getting too deep into the Colby concept, but the people that were highly organized and so on and so forth, they were like my enemy.
But I realize now that's what I needed. I needed those people. And then from there again, you go to appreciation and gratefulness, because now of a sudden, you look at someone, you say, well, they're not like me. Thank God there's only one. There should only be one of me in a room. That's it. And even for my hiring practice, I used to hire people that were more like me, because guess what? Quick starts get together, and we start talking, and everything's fine. Like, this is the greatest guy that ever walked the planet, and therefore, you should come work for me. And then about three months later, you end up hating the guy because he's just like you. So that really changed a lot, both for our vineyard, for my construction, for my family. I came home from coach, and first thing I did is I gave everybody a Kobe index where he was like, what the hell are you doing? You know? But, um. And then we. We began. We began parenting around that, you know, and it wasn't, like, this big, you know, oh, my God, you know, we're going to follow all this stuff. But it was more like the little things that would happen. We could understand them, you know? And, you know, with the three of us, we were all quick starts. And Alana, fortunately or fortunately for her, she was not so. She lived in. I remember when one person looked at our results altogether, they said, oh, my God, there must be so much chaos in your house. That poor kid.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot of fun behavior came for a household.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Well, I'd imagine Alana as someone who has a slightly different Colby than everyone else in the house. You're higher on fact finding, the fall through zone of things. That must have created some stress for you. But in seeing, you know, do you kind of remember when your dad came home and brought this idea of Colby to you? Is there some memories that you have of that?
[00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Remember I was pretty little, I mean, little young, I want to say I was probably twelve at the time.
I remember taping it, honestly, I remember sitting at our orange Mac.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Big Mac.
[00:30:59] Speaker C: Yeah, it'd be hard to, but I don't have a lot of memories around that. My parents, you know, they did such a phenomenal job of just parenting. Parenting us and just being there for us. And it was like a seamless. Where once they understood our colbys, it was like they just parented for us rather than us against.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:31:22] Speaker C: So. So as a young person taking this, I do remember it, but not in that way because my parents such a not held job.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: John, you and your wife were able to identify certain needs or ways that you could provide a different way, probably at least for your daughter. Here, more information. When there was something that needed to happen, less. You need to run out of the door right now more like, here's everything you need to know before we run out of the door right now. Is that kind of some of the differences and changes you guys started tackling?
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, in reality, it is difficult to adapt.
So you really had, like you said, you have to kind of think it through. Like, oh, yeah, we need to like, make sure Alana understands everything, you know, whereas my other two, it's just like run out the door, start the place on fire. It's no big deal. Someone come and take care of it. Uh, and that was, you know. Yeah, we, we had that, but it was, it was more subtle than like, you know, right in your face and, and that type of thing. It was easier for me to manage the quick starts than it was to manage a lot of because they just went along with everything and we learned a lot about it. Too, in terms of, you know, her frustration with, like, for example, my son, who's a. I think he's a quick start, as well. And he would never clean his room up, which is characteristic, and he would clean his room up. He was a neat kid, but it was a messy neat, if you don't understand that.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Strategically organized piles.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Right, exactly. And, you know, so Marie would always be like, oh, you know, you gotta, you know, you gotta clean up your room. And it's a. Listen, look, just give him a date to do it. And don't walk in there a day before it's due and tell him you only got 24 hours left, because that was what drive drives us crazy. I said, but you watch an hour to 2 hours before it's due, he will go in there and clean it up. And that's exactly the way it was. And that was a way that we parented him because it relieved the stress from us. We relieved the stress from him.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: And that discovery and having a deeper understanding of this, you started to implement it into the business with your teams as well, and even through a hiring mechanism. So what have you seen now in regards to teamwork? By having the people in your organization in the business have a better, more in depth understanding of their Colby instinctual way of doing things. What's transpired with that?
[00:33:48] Speaker B: Just better team synergy. People understanding. They understand the language. Again, maybe not the depth that you and I would have would go to on it, but they understand the language. You know, they'll be like, oh, you know, the quick start. Yeah, let's. Let me, let me. Let me take this on because I'm a fact finder, and then I'll come back to you guys. So we actually let them do what they can do because Colby's doing, it's not, you know, it's not intellect. It's not affect of the mind. And so we let them do what they can do so that it makes the team the best team it could be. And sometimes you're. You have to hire. You know, maybe you say, well, I need a Colby like this, but this is what their score is. But we see other things in that person that we could use, and we'll manage around this. And, you know, that's because you. Not every, you know, it's not just Colgi. There's other pieces to the pie. There's three parts of the mind. And so, you know, you got to look at all three parts.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: It's such a refreshing thing to hear about your experience of learning this. This, this really a game changer for you years ago when you first got started and you first learned about your own Colby, the validation of understanding that not only was there not anything wrong with you, you actually had always had innate superpowers, which is really what I call them. And my kids are at an age of six and eight presently. And so we are in the process of talking through some of these things as well and really helping them try to understand and discover what their innate superpowers are. And you dont need to be absolutely great at everything, but theres some things that youre naturally great at and were going to try to really uncover and unpack those so that you can achieve everything in life that you want to be able to achieve. And I think that thats a key in conversation. How would you say that your kids now understanding Colby and were going to talk more about that after the break? How would you say that theyre, theyre implementing and using these tools now in their adult life?
[00:35:41] Speaker B: So, you know, my daughter Nina is a quick start, and she is an emergency room nurse. She decided she wanted to go to med school. She spent a semester, possibly two, I just remember, and she came home, she said, I don't want to be a doctor. And they're like, well, why? Well, because, you know, there's things, you know, paperwork you got to fill out and all these things that you have to do that were really against her grading. And so now she's just, she, she, her current position is she's an emergency nurse on a helicopter and the money is good. It's not great. I mean, if she was doing something else, she might make more money, but she loves it. She's in her zone.
Go in there crisis mode, boom, fix the problem as best as possible and then hand it off to the next person who could take it to the next level without knowing her. Colby, if you will. I probably would have been very upset with the fact that she got accepted into the med school program but didn't follow through with it. Then again, she doesn't have the follow through.
She has to follow through in the moment. Like, she's not going to let somebody die on her watch, if you will. But she, when she's done, she's done. When that energy, when that quick start energy is done, she can't use the next level of energy because she doesn't have enough of it.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: She will likely procrastinate in doing it.
This is fantastic. We're going to dive into how you guys are using Colby together as a team. When we come back after these messages. Are you looking for a great book to read? Turns out I have one for you. It's called cash follows the leader. It's available anywhere books are sold. But if you want to get a free copy and you can download it right to your inbox, you can go to coachcanfield.com cashfollows.
Welcome back. Now we're here with John and Alana, and we're having an, an incredible conversation, and we've been diving deep into the power of the Colby a index. Now, an interesting thing occurred during the pandemic years, John, that you were sharing with me, and an innovation of utilizing Colby in a way to really help your, your team, your staff members and many other people kind of occurred. So walk us through what you discovered during that period of time. And where did you see the connection point, all of a sudden of how Colby could become a solution in this area?
[00:38:04] Speaker B: So where I saw it was in some of my employees when we have a lot of young women and mothers in our organization, and then basically they were struggling trying to work from home. They had their children at home and they needed to teach them and they needed to do the work. And being in the business that we were in, we weren't actually closed down. So our construction was somewhat closed down, but our property management side. Property management side, because we were managing 400 rental properties. So they needed our support and we needed to collect the rent, et cetera, or I helped them. And so I needed my team. And what I realized was, you know, they would come in and, or be on our Zoom calls, and, you know, they would be very stressed out about the differences in their children and what they were going through with school. And what I started to realize is that, well, this is not, you know, one child is bad and the other child is good. This is a Colby issue. This is a parent not understanding how little Johnny works and how little Susie works. So, you know, if the mother or father and or both have a certain Colby there, and they're, one of their childs has a similar Colby, they're going to say, oh, you know, Susie, you know, look, she, she gets her homework done on time. She's not laying all over the couch. She, you know, she gets things picked up. And then Johnny over here, you know, that guy, you know, I don't know when he's going to learn anything, and, you know, but what, you know, so just to make that be that, like that follow through fact, follow through, quick start scenario, so if the or. And the opposite could occur, you know, the parent is a quick start, and it's being bumped by the kid because the kid wants more help, because they need to know the facts. They need to understand, you know, the process. They need to make checklists, and the mother or father are like, we don't need a checklist. It's all here, you know? So I was starting to see that, and I'm like, oh, this is where we can fit in and help these parents understand their kids and create that appreciation that I spoke about earlier on teens in the business. And that was it. That was. And I started talking to Lana about it, and she's like, oh, my God. I, you know, I said, well, you got to get certified.
So we had to go to Phoenix to do that, and. And she didn't want to do it online, which was okay, because. So we ended up making a nice little family trip to Phoenix. We had everybody, and she was in school, and we were all having fun at the pool, but we got certified. She got certified, and then quickly adapted to the student program, got her student certification so that we now really could have those meaningful conversations with the kids and the parents. And that was the catalyst that started. And I also had my own feeling about getting those children next level to, okay, your freshman sophomore in high school, where are you? Where do you want to go? Let's talk about it now. Not like with your guidance counselor at senior year when you're trying to pick a college or even junior year, for that matter. And I've helped people, you know, that were struggling to figure out what they were going to do, and now theyre successful at what theyre doing, and they love it.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: And, Alana, youve got the youth designation here, and you really like the idea of working with the younger kids. When your dad approached you about this idea of getting certified, other than wanting to ask a bunch of questions about what was required, what were some of the initial reactions for you, and what have you really loved and enjoyed about having this certification now and starting to do this work with, with kids of different ages?
[00:41:48] Speaker C: Yeah, great. Um, so I would say, you know, when my daughter approached me with this idea, it was like a lifeball went off, because it's not just the. It's not just the friction between parent and child. It's. It's the mental wellness by the child and the parent, for that matter. But, you know, when you have this fortune, if the parent and the child, you have feelings of lesser self worth and you feel like you're not good enough or, you know, I can't live up to my parents expectation, and that during those formative years is so important to mitigate because that's going to carry them through into adulthood, because those feelings of lesser self worth are not going to go away. They're just going to translate into different parts of their life. And so the earlier we can grasp onto them and teach them that they really are perfect in so many ways and show them how to use their strengths and how to work with people around them, the more they're going to understand themselves and just be overall more well balanced individuals into adulthood. And, you know, one of the major things for me was, again, that mental health piece with the kids because there's just a huge, speaking of pandemics, endemic for mental health in children these days. And it's just a really sad reality that we're living in. And so, you know, making that part of our mission and navigating these parent child relationships was really just the biggest.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Piece for me and just for clarification and Kathy Colby's sake, because she's always instructed us that, you know, although we understand a lot of this, we are not psychologists, we are not therapists. And if we see that, we're not there to help them through some other types of issues that they may have. So we would just say, I think this is something that a professional psychologist or professional therapist needs to deal with. We do not get involved in. I know she spoke about mental health, but also, it's nothing about that. It's about working to your potential. It's about working with your basic instincts so that you are happy of what you're doing and taking away the stigma of, because a lot of times, you know, I work with my hands, you know, and I had to work with my brain, but I also work with my hands. And that's not being a doctor, that's not being a lawyer. That's not, you know, you know, the, what, what people perceive you would go to college for. And so there's a stigma out there that we're trying to overcome, too, and say, look, you know, it doesn't really matter. I mean, if the guy, if the kid is very tactile, then let him be tactile, because you're going to put him in a, in a room with a bunch of managers who are bookworms and he's not going to, he or she are not going to get along with them. So that's where, that's where our focus is. We don't just be clear on that, that it's not, we're not, no no, that's fine. It's just, it's just, you know, we're not, we're not psychologists.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: I really appreciate that, John, because, you know, it's, it's not about helping or dealing with trauma. What it is is about identifying and creating clarity. The clarity is about a natural, instinctual way of how you get things done. And that point of clarity, once it's understood whether it's at a parent or a child level, if you can get to that level of understanding, all of a sudden it opens up possibility, the possibility of how you might choose. Be more intentional about choosing how to use that knowledge and that gift into the future. And I know for myself it's been about, about eleven years or so since I first got my Colby index. One of the number one things that I loved that connected with me instantly was that I should start my day with a not doing list versus a to doing list. And the concept of that Im like, well that just makes so much sense. But everyone I tell that to, they look at me like ive grown a second head and I think that thats interesting. So I really appreciate the capacity to be able to think differently. And its almost like it was like I always knew that I was good at doing a, b and c, but I didn't know how to communicate with others and so I'd often hide what I knew to be true for me because it didn't fit in the world I was around. And so I would just do them anyway. But I would do them almost subtly or rather than like, hey, I'm going to give you the full force of my superpower because we can get this done really fast, faster than most other people know as possible. And let's go. And so that energy is available to people who understand how to use it. Or if you have a different type of energy and you have a different instinctual way of doing it, you have another superpower. You could take the chaos that a guy like a Richard or a John brings to the table and you might be like Alana and you might say, hey, hey, why don't we structure this chaos in such a way where we actually make sure it gets accomplished and all these great ideas just don't fall off to the side. And what an incredible, liberating thing if you can get kids to understand that early on before they start making a career choice. I'm so in love with this innovation that you've come up with around how you're going to help kids and parents. Now what are people saying who are starting to go through this process and the families you're working with. What are some of the things that you're hearing from the parents and the children?
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Basically, there's a freedom, I think the freedom of not feeling, again, frustrated or the kids don't feel that they're the, you know, not living up. These are the things that Alana, we're really talking about. She's extracting it from the comments, you know, and that, for me, was. Was one of the things, too. And personally, you know, once I understood my Colby, I was like that, you know, it just explains everything. And then you just feel free to do the way you want to do it. And then, you know, the things that you are, in Colby words, you know, if you're either resisting or you don't initiate it, because the higher the number that's your initiation number, the lower the number is where you're more reactive.
Those are very helpful to everybody because, you know, if I've got. I've been. I've gotten. I kept myself out of trouble by listening to someone that has a two and follow through that will slow me down, you know? And I think it's the same thing with parents. It's like, okay, you know, you want. You want a motorcycle, but let's. Maybe we should go and take some lessons first, you know, instead of just jumping on the motorcycle. So. And then the kidde, you know, you kind of like, okay, you know, we know you. You know, we know you can do this, but we want you to do it safely. So let's have that conversation. And that conversation becomes easier because child understands, or we work to make that child understand, and the parents, you know, hopefully understand as well.
So I think that's it. I would say the freedom of not feeling that frustration of, you know, either they're putting. They're either oppressing their child or their child oppressing them.
[00:48:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely amazing. Well, you guys, I absolutely love and appreciate what you're up to and giving us a bit of a deep dive into the world of Colby. As certified Colby, individuals who are taking this knowledge base and you're actively finding ways to help people and give them a new way of thinking about and understanding what their natural gifts are. Truly, truly amazing and potentially very life changing for many of the people that you're going to be working with. And for our viewers, this has been an incredible conversation. We have many more of these to come, so make sure that you tune in to next week's episode where we uncover more of the amazing stories of entrepreneurs who are dealing with challenges finding their way through the other side and finding ways to innovate into the future. Thank you so much.
