Part II of my Conversation With Onward Nation and Stephen Woessner

 

S0 Craig, let’s jump in. Let’s start off by, you taking us behind the scenes, into your process, your daily routine. Kind of the recipe for how you begin the first 60 minutes of your day.

First 60 minutes, the first thing really I begin my day with some gratitude. Okay, a glass of water and some gratitude and I think of something that I’m very grateful for. I write that down in my journal and that’s how I start my day. It’s so enlightening.

So, take this a little bit deeper here. So why do you feel like that piece, the glass of water, the gratitude, why do you feel like that process is so enlightening?

I think it’s kind of like looking at something, the glass is half full or it’s half empty. It just gives you a very positive way to start the day out. I think that frame of mind is just good for our brain and it just helps you really try and excel.

Yeah, it is, we as business owners, right? There’s this myriad of pressure that come at us each and every day. It is really easy to get bogged down in the myriad of those pressures and forget about all the amazing, awesome, wonderful, beautiful things that are going on. So it sounds like you’re sort of taking inventory and keeping mental stock, if you will, of all the great things that are going on too. To really kick that other stuff to the curb, right?

Right, you have to smell the roses and you know by putting it in the forefront of your day it really, really does help. It’s really made a big difference.

Wow, I can see why that would have. So, one of my favorite quotes is, “Fear and procrastination are the enemies of success.” Which is a powerful lesson I learned from one of my mentors. So Craig, do you have a favorite quote or maybe a favorite lesson that you can share with us that helps you keep that focused mindset throughout the day?

I think just treating people the way I want to be treated and, I had a mentor once when I … a different life, I would call it, a different career. It was a career where you could not pay people with bonuses, everybody was kind of making it, it was a civil servant type of field. And you couldn’t pay people more so you had to motivate them in different ways. And by treating them right and giving them the respect they wanted, you will able to really get them to work for you. And I’ve taken that into my business, and it works very well.

Yeah, it’s probably been … we see, again, we as owners, we see these surveys all the time of how compensation or pay increase salary, however you want to term it, tends to be number four or five on the list of things that are more important. And what tends to be number one, two and three kind of fit in the category of what you’re describing, right Craig?

Oh yeah, definitely yeah. I think, you know, the first time I saw it on paper I was a little bit shocked, even though I really knew it, but I was a little bit shocked. I thought I was thinking things differently than everybody else but, yeah, that’s what people want. It’s not all about the dollar.

Yeah, and so we’re going to chat a little bit about mentorship here, in just a few minutes, but oftentimes Onward Nation, your team members, your employees, they don’t want more money. Actually what they want is your time, your caring, your compassion, your gratitude, your gratefulness for the hard work that they just delivered. And you know what? That stuff is free. It takes some of your time, but it doesn’t hit the W two, per se, right Craig?

Right. Exactly. Exactly. It’s a different type of compensation but it goes a long way.

It sure does. So, let’s tackle an intangible sort of subject, if you will, and kind of a difficult one, and that’s the definition of success. It’s a very personal word, and again it’s a very difficult word for most people to define. But oftentimes having a guide post, sort of having a mentor kind of define that in how he or she defines it, can be really, really helpful in us coming up with our own definitions. So, be our mentor here. How do you define the word success.

For me, the word success is being able to go home to a family that is actually happy that I’m there, and is used to me being there. And being happy to see people coming through my door. That’s the way I define success, it’s not a matter of dollars and cents, it’s a matter of at the end of the day, when we put all our work away, what do we have? And if it’s all work … I hate to say, no play, … eventually you get to a point where you’re all alone. And it’s a sad state when you see that.

It sure is. And so when … I love your definition and as you shared that, I’m sitting here thinking that’s a really wise and mature definition, that of course it’s important to drive revenue and so forth and build a business, but not at the expense of the things that you just mentioned, right?

Exactly. Coming home to an empty house, if that’s not what you want, that’s not a good feeling, I’m sure.

No, it leaves somebody pretty empty inside, and at some point that emptiness will just become kind of overwhelming.

So let’s take that momentum that you’re giving us here, a really good perspective, and let’s take that and move it into the topic of fear. Les Brown once said, and I love this quote that he shared, that “Most people don’t work on their dreams because of fear.” Whether that’s the fear of failure, you know, what if things don’t work out. And then the fear of success, well what if they do and I cant’ handle it? So, fear in all it’s shapes and sizes is something that is … as well all know, we as business owners, we have to deal with nearly non-stop, so Craig, do you have maybe a couple of strategies, maybe some tips that you use that help you cast aside those stubborn road blocks, and keep pressing forward?

Yeah, I try and vision, or envision, what it is that I want to do and where that fear is coming from. Just almost, like, role-playing in my mind, okay. Whether it’s fear of not landing a new client, or fear of, you know, in the old days fear of not having enough money to make payroll, and if you hire this person what’s going to happen? Just kind of walking through it in my mind, and sometimes saying it out loud, is the best way to overcome that fear. And also knowing that, you know what? Most of us have those same fears and we need to take them on instead of letting them just kind of percolate there.

Wow, okay. I’m trying to rapidly take some notes here. There’s some really great wisdom in what you’re saying. So let me give that back to you. I think what I heard you say is almost like a three-step process. First, you sit down to really dissect to be able to see where the fear is coming from. So that’s the first step. Did I get that right?

Yes.

Okay. And then the second piece is, I think I heard you say that once you know where it’s coming from, then you actually say it out loud, like, call the fear out, to really audibly acknowledge what that is. Is that right?

Yes.

Wow, so … okay. So that’s really cool. Where or when did you learn to do that?

Probably have to give credit to my wife on that one. It really comes down to just, you know, when … it comes back to when you talk about things they’re so much easier than when you don’t talk about things. And just applying the same concept to certain fears that you have that maybe you’re not dealing with other people with them, but let’s verbalize them, kind of let it out.

Wow, okay. Awesome, so thank you for that. Kudos to her, good props to her. That’s awesome. And then so again, we sit down to see where the fear is coming from. Two, once you know the source, and what the fear is, you say it out loud to verbally acknowledge that you’re confronting it, and then three, you keep in front and center the recognition that, hey, we all have to deal with this kind of stuff. And so just sort of consciously acknowledging that we’re not unfairly yoked by being fearful of something. Is that the third step?

Yeah, that’s it. Just saying it, and then realizing it and then going for it.

Boy. It’s really smart. I love the recipe, so thank you for sharing that.

Thank you.

 

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