Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the making it in Asheville podcast. This is your friendly neighborhood podcast, where each week typically we sit down with an Asheville business owner, entrepreneur, artist, creator, community leader, and ask them what they're making and how they are making it in Asheville. And I'm your host, Tony Hubertaccio. And this week, just me again, unfortunately. But this week is a really exciting week. I think when I. It's ego talking. But when I think back to some of the best conversations IRL in real life or emails that have come in over the years from listeners like you, the most common feedback is something that sounds like, you know, it was actually kind of, you're inspiring. There were episodes where there was something, you know, often they talk to episodes from the pandemic where there was something I said or some type of content that hit in just the right way. And I've kind of kept them in a little folder where sometimes when I need to remember who I say I want to be, I go in and I read them and I look them over and I remember back to this incredible feedback. And so that incredible feedback, in a lot of ways, is part of the cause that created the entire entrepreneur system, part of the impetus. And I don't know, the part of me that said, hey, it's not crazy, you already do this. You just have buried it into the content inside of episodes over five years. And so the launch of the entire entrepreneurs system has been unbelievable. The goal was to have ten vip case study cohort participants. There are eleven businesses and twelve participants. The first week has been off the charts better than I could have dreamed. And I want to share just more about what's going on over here because I think it's valuable, I think it's important and I think that this first training, and I'm using air quotes if you're not watching on YouTube, and I do recommend checking this out on YouTube because there is a slide deck that accompanies what will follow. But the content I deliver in this first training for the participants of this video vip case study cohort, I think it transcends this program specifically and is critical, important, valuable for everyone. And so without further ado, please check out this leaked insider footage from the very first training to the folks in the entire entrepreneur systems vip case study cohort. Thank you.
Thank you for taking a moment and setting an intention be here. Now, luckily, tech is working and I can hop back into my body. My intention for this call slash for these twelve weeks is, in a word, bhide in a short phrase it's be who I say I am. And you're going to see that kind of show up a bunch and be repeated constantly. Be who I say I am, be who you say you are, do what you say you will do is going to end up being everything. And so that's the intention for this call. I'm going to be here, be who I say I am, and hopefully consistently model the way. And so as I prepared for this call, as I prepare for these twelve weeks, there is a very real chance that it could feel like drinking from a fire hose, which some people like. Dogs do it, children play in fire. Like you can imagine the summertime beauty of a fire hose being open, right? Like that's cool, not necessarily sustainable. And so just to note everything that comes from this moment forward, my intention is that it's sequenced and thoughtful and that terms get defined and it's followable, it's sustainable, it is repeatable, right? So rather than overpower with some sort of abundance of maybe value or whatever, I'm going to try to use a domino sequential process that at least in my mind, should be able to move information and knowing into yours in a way that is logical and easy to follow. And so the process that we're going to follow will be kind of explained on this call and then lived into over the next eleven or twelve weeks. However you think about weeks, but you watched the video, hopefully, of the power of small actions stacked over time. When you watch tiny dominoes knock over large dominoes, it's not the most compelling or high production value video, but it's the promise of this system is that when things are lined up in our lives, in our businesses, we can knock over, we can do little light lifting and see large impacts. And so another thing I want to say, trust the process, but also test the process. Nothing that I'm going to say or ask of you, I'm not doing myself or have not thought deeply about. But in no way am I asking you to trust anything. Just saying, try it, test it. But the test has to have a statistical significance. There needs to be enough testing that we can point to it and say, hey, this worked for you, it didn't work for me. One swing is not enough to assess how good of a batter you are, how good of a golfer you are. We need to be in it. And so that's what I'm going to ask. And when we think about in it and when we think about what progress looks like, there are probably don't need that end screen. You could see my face still somehow. No, if I. Yeah. Okay, so when thinking about progress, there's a framework. I want to say University of Santa Clara, Barbara. There's some, like, hippie dippy California school that came up with this. This is not me. We have the goal line and the soul line. Okay? And so if hypothetically, we're right here, right now, which is not truly how we would be mapped, but if that's a zero zero. The ways that we'll attempt to assess progress is both on how are we tracking towards quantifiable, concrete, explicitly goal setting. And this might map to our businesses. Everyone here owns, operates business, is working on that as a core part of who they are and how they show up. But the other way is on this slightly more qualifiable, softer metric of how are we feeling, who are we being, what's the depth of our relationships, what does our ability to commit look like? And so it is at least two dimensional. We can potentially argue three dimensions, right? But, like, at least two dimensions, we're looking quantifiable. What's the business? What's the metrics? How much money do I have? How much revenue are we making? Like, those are great things. And we will definitely be paying attention to that. We will also be paying attention to this soul line metric. And so, as an example of what bad looks like, you might have a starving artist who is painting every day or making music every day or performing in their, you know, backyard, this dance routine that means so much to them, right? They're a healer, a spirit guide, or whatever language you want, but, like, you know, is about to get kicked out of their apartment because there's nothing quantifiable success wise is happening in their world. Similarly, you know, imagine it goes into negative. You have, like, finance suit, thai business person crushing it, watching money stack up, gaming the market, winning constantly, but, like, cheats on their partner, is a liar, is a bad person, is aware of their own lack of integrity. That's, like, arguably worse than the starving artist who just hasn't made the jump into not wanting to be the best kept secret anymore. And so we can map into all these different places. My sense is that the only place to be is here and consistently. It's like growing the possibility of where you can even be mapped. What does ten out of ten look like? Ten and ten look like, what does it look like? And so that's what we're going to spend some amount of time on in this classes, like program or community or however the words end up feeling for you. But we're going to spend time just trying to live up here. And no matter where we start, like the course corrections, all routes lead to what is ten out of ten. So to kind of fly backwards in time. So 2009, your fearless leader, me, was in college, and I got a, through a series of unbelievable circumstances, got into this student leadership event. I was a sophomore in college, 20 years old. These photos are from five years later. Instagram didn't exist. So I scrolled back on Instagram for these pictures. 2014. And then, or at least Instagram didn't exist in my world. I don't know when Instagram started, but no photos existed on my account at all from 2009, so I assume it didn't exist. But this woman, her name is Frances Hesselbein. She in a lot of ways, is considered the modern era's best leader. Peter Drucker, who gets read a lot in business schools and master level stuff, considered the father of modern management theory, he said that Frances Hesselbein, at the time, she was the CEO of the Girl Scouts of America, made the Girl Scouts what we consider the best parts of the Girl Scouts that we know today are largely from the leadership she showed in the eighties and nineties in organizing and developing that business. Peter Drucker called her the greatest CEO in America. She was a nonprofit CEO. If you were to summarize all of the teachings that she ever did, she taught, she spoke to. So behind her in this, let's see if I can do it. Laser pointer. That is Reagan. That is another president who I can't see the face in this photo. These are books by. You can see the blaze opponent. Yeah, Jim Collins. So she was private sector, public sector government. Everyone called her in to like, teach us. Oh, Yoda. Five foot 1100 year old in these photos. Savant. Teach us your ways. It boils down to one phrase, and I heard it in 2009, and it took 15 or so years for it to really, truly lock in. And her phrase is leadership is a matter of how to be, not what to do. 2009, I heard that for the first time, and I could say it to you, and I probably, the logic mind goes, I knew what it meant. Living into it is a fundamentally different thing. And so what we're going to do throughout the course of this experience is attempt to get ourselves out of our own ways so that you also know that that's true in your world through example and experience after experience that you've lived yourself. Know that it is. Leadership is a matter of how to be not what to do. And that maps in everything, and so loosely, the entire curriculum maps to this truth. To be who we are being matters more than what we are doing, which matters more than the outputs we get from being and doing who we say we are. This is universal truth. We'll get back to that. This is a universal truth as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't mean just because this is true, it doesn't mean that we always, in every case need to start with some sort of Zen Buddhist. We need to be what is being. Let's meditate on being. Oftentimes we need to just work on being in action. Sometimes we need to update our goals and show some gratitude about what we actually have. And so it all works together and we'll get into this. But this is, as far as I'm concerned, a universal truth. And the content that we're going to spend time in will unpack this idea of who we're being. We'll unpack this idea of what we're doing and we'll improve how we think about having. That is the next twelve weeks and beyond, potentially, but this is at least the next twelve weeks. This is what we're doing. And to turn it into a statement, what has really resonated with me is, no, we'll do this and we'll make it just bigger. Fat identity creates an inevitability. And so what we're going to work on is like, by the end of this twelve weeks, you're going to be able to say who you are and mean it in a way that might feel unbelievable at this stage of the game. And you're going to be able to say who you are and mean it. Because what we'll have done together for twelve weeks will have just validated that it's true. You are human, you have shortcomings, you're not always on the path, but you are who you say you are. And that's going to unlock levels of creation and possibility and what outcomes look like that just aren't possible without this intensity of an identity ship. So I think I visualize it for some people on the call, but I think about this b, do you have as this bullseye? I also think about it as woven together, but it radiates outward. At our best we have a really locked in, dialed in sense of who we are and that radiates outward. Who we are creates the context for how we will show up in the world. And the way that we show up in the world is through action. Actions speak louder than words, right? Like that is. There's. There's all sorts of, like, amorphisms about doing and the universe only really show equal and opposite reactions. Nothing. There's no quantifiable, though. I think that we're getting closer. Quantifiable reaction to a thought is harder to prove right now, but there is a quantifiable reaction to action, and so being is critically important, as is doing. That said, we can't sleep on having, and we're going to attempt to graph it if, and I'm no scientist, but if this is what, a graph of action or possibility, like material science, chemistry is above my pay grade. But if this is what your normal action level looks like, or your potential energy, somehow I believe that this is true, and I know that the terms are true. Something can happen that pushes your action higher, your potential energy higher, called activating energy. I think having and having a clear sense of what we want, having a clear sense of the incongruence, like what's broken between what we want and what we have can inspire action. And so there is an increased action. This is activating energy. The hurt that we might feel about what we want to have versus what we don't have might inspire more action. Chemical reaction happens, and then there is like a very beautiful, call it resolution in chemistry, where there's action and then it dissipates into a steady state that is lower than the two chemicals before. And so I'm reaching into chemistry, a space I don't fully understand, to really just highlight a concept called activating energy. And so at some point, perhaps in our call, perhaps in the social media content, perhaps in however you got here, there was a moment where the incongruence of perhaps who you're being with, who you say you wanna be, what you're doing versus what you say you wanna be doing. But more than likely, what present day having feels like compared to what you think you want to have, want something there inspired action, inspired that you begin this new thing that feels uncomfortable and scary and strange and perhaps hopeful. I'm hoping there's a sense of hopefulness, not just terror about what did I get into? But inspiration is a beautiful thing. And so we'll talk about how inspiration is not enough. We need motivation, but motivation is not enough. We need to create a standard operating, operating procedure. We need intentionality, and we need that. When our intention is not being met, that discipline shows up to fill in the void that we've created and the space between our intention and what is happening. So that there's a chance that habit forms, and so that over time, with an increase in consistency and the habit of action, that maybe there's this, like, renewed sense or first time discovered sense of passion. So, like, inspiration might have got us here. We need to, over the next twelve weeks, get past inspiration. Inspiration. Motivation is not a sustaining, driving force. It might push us, but then we need something to pull us. So just flagging that what got you into the room, if it felt like some sort of a lack, we need to solve for it together. And so we're gonna. And what we're gonna do is not necessarily get more mindful. Right? We're not gonna necessarily. While some of this is very thoughtful and mindful, that's not exclusively where we're headed. Okay. Mindfulness is great. Having high levels of intentionality and vision for where we're headed. Great. We're also. No one seemed to have illustrated this to me, but we're not in the business of trying to get interplanetary species to exist. No one here should be envious of the life Elon musk lives. 20 hours workdays, high productivity. Let's just say he's somehow more efficient because of the intensity with which he approaches everything he does. That is not an envious state for me. And no one seemed to believe that this is an envious state that we're moving towards or that you want to be moving towards. Okay. So if we're to map it, we have, you know, that's a thought cloud. We have thoughts, mindfulness. So we'll call this tension. And then we have. I don't know. That's a cog in a wheel. We have production ran out of space. Right. We have Elon Musk, and then we have the monk. Right. We don't want either of those things. I don't want you to become the best at doing x. I don't want that you increase your efficiency at x in a vacuum. Right. What we want is define this middle, this level of effectiveness. So, as part of the onboarding, was this effectiveness audit, this hope that we can look at our own intentions and our own output and assess, were they actually aligned? Was there any intentionality in our production? We've defined some terms there, but effectiveness is the bullseye. And so defining effectiveness, I did it in the effectiveness audit, but is just that productivity is doing stuff. Efficiency is doing stuff with less effort. Mindfulness is choosing what the right stuff to do is. Effectiveness is that middle ground? It's knowing that with each unit of input, more output comes graphed visually, you have like a seesaw. If we push down here, what might we be able to get done? The goal is not to create necessarily more force downward so much as, let's see if I can so much as can we create a longer lever arm so that the force we apply can lift more? My knowing is that, yes, we can, but rarely are people thinking about, well, so the other way you have a lever arm, we, you know, how do we create a larger fulcrum? So we have lever arm and fulcrum. Those are pretty much. There's a bunch of ways we do it. But the goal is not necessarily to increase the absolute value of the force we can apply to the system. Said directly, I don't want you working more necessarily. That said, let's be clear. We're going to work a little bit more. To start activating energy requires some level of increased action initially. But our target is eventually down here is that we have stabilized at a lower effort level, but the outputs are as high or higher than where we started. Tracking with me, science stuff and trying to make it sound like a human is speaking. But this arrow is a matter of how much effort we're putting into the equation. Don't need it to get bigger. You're already working hard enough. Cool. So that is some stuff. One of the ways that we're going to make it clear that effort is not the goal and attempt to illustrate these truths is with what I call distinctions. Okay? A distinction. When it hits, it hits. When you hear it, it resonates in a way that it's unforgettable. When you see it, it can't be unseen. An example might be that there's an arrow in the FedEx logo. At some point you either saw that and said, holy shit, there's an arrow in the FedEx logo. I'll never unsee that. And now every time you see a FedEx truck, you go, look at the arrow. It's pointing backwards. So silly. Every time. Or, hey, there's a spoon in the e. There's a spoon in the e. I see those two things can unsee it. A distinction operates in the same way. Once you've truly understood a distinction, it affects the way you see the world forever. There's no going back. There's no time before you can't access that because it's worked. And so I'm going to go through a couple of distinctions just to set the tone at a high level about what we're working towards together and how we're going to attempt to achieve it. And so distinction. Transition versus also, I'm a terrible speller and that's okay. So that might be spelled wrong. Words will eventually be spelled wrong when I have to spell them in public. I'm come to peace with that. Transition versus transformation, both are good. We are going to start transitioning the way that you see the world, transitioning the way you act, transitioning the way everything in your world looks, feels and operates. But what our target is to be absolutely clear is transformation. When transformation happens, time and space can kind of weird potential is possible. The DeLorean was at 88 miles an hour. DeLorean accelerates. There is transition. It hits 88 at the right time, it leaves and exists somewhere new. I like one of the ways that I've mapped this in the past. So if transition. Let me scale this down a little bit. If transition, sorry, is a step graph tracking with me. Transition is a step graph. Transformation is a jump. Transformation is space time folded onto itself. The dot is in the same place. The dot has changed, right? So we're dot where my fingers are touching data has changed. It is. It feels silly. It feels like a over promise. And so I'm going to promise is transition. And then my belief is that if we stick and stay in it and be who we say are, do what we say we do, there will be a moment where the inspiration and motivation, intentionality and discipline. All of a sudden it's a habit. All of a sudden there was this like, oh shit, I am the person who does the thing. I don't remember not, I can't be not that person. Now there are moments where transformation comes from just a new level of knowing, from having a new word for the thing, having experienced it in this new way. Often it's a. It's a choice. And the choice is to be consistent. And then bang, all of a sudden identity shift has happened. That won't happen this week, might happen this quarter, will happen if we stay in it. So we're working for transformation. It's a distinction how to versus make this bigger. Want to. I will say this time and time again, I can almost guarantee it. The information is free, or rounding to free. There's nothing that you're going to provide your customer, your client, your people, that is in a vacuum net, new to the universe. There's nothing that you are going to want or that the system that you think that we're building together. There's nothing you need to know that can't be known, that is not available online for free, that will not be accessible through me, in this program, through each other, through your friends, through somebody. How to do the thing is never a true blocker. It's just a matter of wanting to do the thing and wanting to do it enough. Going back up, we have activating energy. Is there a want that is adequately large that enables you make sure it's black to roll the burden up this hill, the burden of watching the YouTube video, the burden of making whatever project a reality, the burden of learning how to do whatever you think you need to learn before you do the thing is the want to enough to make you roll that ball up this hill. If you're not willing to do the thing, that's absolutely fine. But it's not a lack of information that's stopping you from doing the thing. Not only is it available, it's available for free on the Internet somewhere. So key distinction is how to versus want to and what I'm going to, I'm not going to require. But what I will continue to mirror back to you is that all the problems are a want to versus how to problem. You want to be on this call. How do I find the link? Cool. Let's work on that. Let's work on how to find it. We're just like, you know, it's. It is solvable. We'll get in it. I got to do Internet. I got to download zoom on my iPad. I got like requisite want to. It's figureoutable. Only always. This is a critical one, and this is going to be part of the homework for this week. Expectations versus probably one. Agree one g. Agreements. Agreements. Agreements. Agreements. Agreements. Expectations are premeditated resentments. One of the most powerful sentences I've ever heard having an expectation is having premeditated resentment. Expectation lives in a future, a future that no one else has opted into sees the same way. It's a future. Present is where we want to be with everything. The way that we can be in the present is by transitioning expectations that are implicit, meaning not said out loud, into explicit agreements. Hey, tone, you said be on this call. We only knew what time the call was on Monday morning. I can't make it. I got a doctor's appointment. Amazing. Dot de dot. But I'll watch. When will you. When will you post the video? I'll watch it immediately when it's available. Awesome. That's an agreement. I can live into that agreement. So what we're going to do a is I'm going to have you agree to watch this or listened to this audio by a coach of a coach of a coach who created this language for me, expectations verse agreements will be everything. When you are aware that an expectation exists in your mind, let's attempt to transition that into an explicit agreement. That's with our partners, that's with our employees, that's with our children if they're old enough to agree to agreements. But like, this is it. I have no agreements with my two and a half year old child. I can't have expectations of how they're going to be game changing distinction and what it boils down to is communication over everything. One of my favorite, least favorite movies is the movie the breakup slash every movie that is rom.com in any way is a illustration of how failure to communicate ruins everything. If we can be in communication early, say what's actually going on early, and honestly, everything is figureoutable. Agreements can be updated. We got to be in communication and we got to be making agreements. The last coaching so my bio is a coach consultant community builder and what's a beautiful thing is Eric Robinson on the call and in the community is a coach. And some of the stuff I'm going to be doing in this community is my attempt at bringing the best version of coaching into this equation. Instruction is do this thing. Coaching is what things should we be doing. Consulting is answering questions. Coaching is asking questions. You might have noticed if you looked at other people's bios or read some of the introductions. So far, almost no one. If you were to map it like the Venn diagrams, almost no one is overlapping wellness to some degree. And so physical therapy slash hot yoga, maybe jiu jitsu, people sweat and marbendi. But there isn't consistency in the exact business that anyone is building. There's definitely no consistency in what we're interested in outside of our vocations, right? Our intentionality, like the five eyes are different, mapped. You mapped, we would all be in different corners of what a person might be. So I can't instruct you to do anything any specific way. What I can do is coach, and what I might do is offer insight into what's worked for me or guide you in some way that feels like it might solve some problems. But when people say like this is the exact step by step on an, on an instructional level, there are some assumptions that just break in reality. I don't know what it's like to have two kids. I have one. I don't know what it's like to operate a studio with five, six coaches. I can't. But what I can say are. Here are some good questions that are coming to mind for me. And so expect on the continuum of coaching and consulting. Coaching, asking questions, consulting, answering questions is that we're going to be over here more often than not because I can't pretend to know your world. Right? And so in the jiu jitsu, and there will be jiu jitsu references in the jiu jitsu experience is that there are countless instructionals, instructing versus coaching instructionals that give you step by step by step by step. This is the perfect arm bar. Come on. From guard. It's 14 steps. You do this just like this. You do that just like that. You do this just like this. Now go. My body's not that guy's body. My opponent's not that guy's opponent. What are we talking about here? This is instruction versus coaching. The coaching is, hey, do elbows bend further than that? No. Can you find a way to make your opponent's arm move in that direction and hit an end range? Yeah, I can try and find that way. Cool. Do that. That's an armbar, if you need to name it, illustrating a point. And the point is that we're going to be creating stuff together using what I have found to be universal truths. We can fact check. We can fact check together. You don't need to trust any of this. We're going to be testing. And so the three universal truths that inform this entire entrepreneur system is that who you see yourself as matters. Because identity creates inevitability. First time I read something that spoke to this as a truth was when atomic habits James cleared was still just a blogger. He wrote a New Year's post, maybe 2010, that said identity based goals are the only New Year's goals worth making. Become the type of person who does the things you want yourself to do, who you see yourself as matters. We're going to work on building the phone booth that you step into to become your Clark Kent. Another universal truth. You have to do something. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is an all time movie. There's a scene. Do less. Paul Rudd lays on the surfboard. Well, you have to do something or you're doing nothing. We have to do something. While I do believe on some quantum level, our thoughts can manifest in some way, in the meantime, on a practical level, actions have reactions, so we have to do something. That something can be optimized. What it looks like specifically for you remains to be seen. But there are some universal truths in processes we can follow in varying applications of the process that will add value. We have to do something. What we do matters. So let's be strategic about how we do what we do. Let's build an operating system. Let's build our iPhone three. There's a photo in front of it. We can strategically increase the surface area of our own luck. If our outcomes, if the things we earn could boil down to being at the right place at the right time, could be luck. Great. Let's call it luck. I know that there are ways to increase the surface value of our luck. So when we look at outcomes, the way that we approach it is going to be what boils down to let's increase the surface area of our luck. Our ATM will work in varying degrees based on our ability to put ourself in a position to be lucky. Cool. Check in time. 1122. Great. So let's get into details. And even the details will be at a relatively high level. The details look like this. Mondays I'm going to send you an email at varying degrees of success, sending emails yesterday. So we're going to try and troubleshoot that this week. Okay. A lot of ways to get information to you, some automations, some manual. I got to make sure I'm getting into your inbox. So if you didn't see emails from me, we need to figure out how to white label myself for your inbox. We'll troubleshoot it together, reach out what I'm going to ask for. And this might be a new agreement is that at least for this week, month, in the month of July, when you get an email from me, reply with something I see it, can't read it all received. Anything like received is probably the best received. That will a let me know that the mess signals are going out and being received and that's important. Also will let the algorithms know that, hey, no emails from that person seem to be good emails. We got to figure out how to white label me for you. One way is going to be by saying received on Tuesdays we're going to have trainings. Right now I have them all scheduled for 1030 in the morning. There's a world where I send out links and we say how many maximum amount of people can be at the trainings on Tuesdays and we try and select for that time. There's a world where it's just consistent. This is when it happens. They will be live. You will be welcome to participate. But an important part of this is the intention here is asynchronous. I don't need you to be on my timeline, but what we need is that what lives here and potentially in my heart to like has a way to get into you. And so consumption and then action based on the new information is what matters. So on Tuesdays, I'm going to try and record and then immediately put it in a place where you can consume it. On Tuesdays, I'd love for us to try and agree to consumption of the information or participation in the creation of the information. That's also great. On Wednesdays we're going to have workshops or office hours. So you've consumed it. We've talked through it. We do some faqs or question and answer Q and A. At the end of a Tuesday call. Wednesday, we're going to work on applying it practically, or what it might look like to apply this practically into your world, live and available. You can watch other people's questions. Also going to be as quickly as possible put online so you can consume it at your own air, quote, leisure. And then on Friday, pow. I don't know if I want to maybe change that, but proof of work on Friday, there will be some request and I'll probably define what it is on Monday or Tuesday. But by Friday, you're going to, you're going to communicate into the channel called proof of work with a thing that you put into action and created that week. All the while we're going to be chatting, troubleshooting in app.
All right, that's probably enough of that. So the first lesson, I hope it resonates with you. I hope it hit. I hope that there's something in there that unlocks something for you. If it did, please reach out, send an email, comment on Instagram. There are a million ways to find us. Thank you for listening all the way to the cheap seats of this episode. We will talk soon. See you around. Take care.