1 00:00:05,510 --> 00:00:07,080 Welcome back to Count Me In, 2 00:00:07,260 --> 00:00:10,800 the podcast that explores the world of business from the management accountants 3 00:00:10,801 --> 00:00:15,400 perspective. I'm your, host Adam Larson. Today we are joined by Nick Davies, 4 00:00:15,401 --> 00:00:18,840 an executive coach to leaders and other professionals looking to take their 5 00:00:18,841 --> 00:00:20,239 expertise to the next level. 6 00:00:20,860 --> 00:00:23,840 At the heart of Nick's coaching philosophy is what he calls the achiever's 7 00:00:23,841 --> 00:00:27,800 mindset and how learning to harness that powerful mental tool can lead to 8 00:00:27,801 --> 00:00:30,120 transformative results for management accountants, 9 00:00:30,300 --> 00:00:32,720 and other go getters in both business and in life. 10 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,360 I hope you enjoy the show today. Let's start the conversation with Nick. 11 00:00:42,820 --> 00:00:45,280 So Nick, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. 12 00:00:45,281 --> 00:00:46,840 We really appreciate you spending time with us. 13 00:00:47,420 --> 00:00:50,920 And today we're gonna be talking a little bit about the achiever's mindset, 14 00:00:51,060 --> 00:00:52,080 but before we get there, 15 00:00:52,780 --> 00:00:55,640 I'd like you to kind of give a little bit of your background for our audience 16 00:00:55,641 --> 00:00:57,880 today and how you got to the point where you are today. 17 00:00:58,340 --> 00:01:01,880 How long have I got? You know, it's interesting. 18 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,120 I was having this conversation yesterday with someone about talking about their 19 00:01:06,441 --> 00:01:10,880 story and fantastic story this lady had working in a business and it's something 20 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:15,920 that I made a distinction of a long time ago that I had a resistance to share in 21 00:01:15,921 --> 00:01:18,600 my story. And I thought, well, who wants to hear my story, it's my story? 22 00:01:19,180 --> 00:01:20,959 And then what I realized was that, yeah, 23 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,560 it's boring to me because it's my story, you know? 24 00:01:23,620 --> 00:01:26,400 So I always like it when people can share, 25 00:01:26,401 --> 00:01:29,360 because even if it feels like it's just your thing, it's like, well, 26 00:01:29,361 --> 00:01:31,000 other people haven't had that experience, you know? 27 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,200 And so for me grown up in England, 28 00:01:34,201 --> 00:01:39,040 I worked for almost 20 years in the banking world all over the world. 29 00:01:39,110 --> 00:01:43,720 I've lived in three continents and five locations and been a long time 30 00:01:43,970 --> 00:01:47,400 doing something that I didn't really want to be doing and kind of went outside 31 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,720 this personal development journey about 10, 12 years ago. 32 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,000 I asked myself like what did I wanna do when I grew up, you know, 33 00:01:54,250 --> 00:01:57,600 eventually moved to states and lived in Florida, 34 00:01:57,601 --> 00:02:00,680 worked on Wall Street for a while and, and decided that's it like I wanna, 35 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:02,113 I like working with people. 36 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:04,520 I wanna work with people working on what's most important for them, 37 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:07,400 whatever it is, whatever industry, industry agnostic, 38 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:10,520 but use my experience working in the corporate world and understanding how 39 00:02:10,521 --> 00:02:15,160 things work, but also work for people's goals that are most important to them. 40 00:02:15,161 --> 00:02:17,440 And so I'd ask to become a coach. 41 00:02:17,441 --> 00:02:21,320 And it's been an amazing journey over the last six or seven years. This point, 42 00:02:21,321 --> 00:02:22,400 coached hundreds of people, 43 00:02:22,580 --> 00:02:24,960 people walk different walks of life and a corporate setting, 44 00:02:26,889 --> 00:02:28,680 every different industry, business owners, 45 00:02:28,681 --> 00:02:31,120 non-business owners worked on more people's part of life. 46 00:02:31,121 --> 00:02:33,639 And it's something I get very passionate about now. 47 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:35,440 And I'm privileged to do every day. 48 00:02:35,980 --> 00:02:36,700 As you were talking, 49 00:02:36,700 --> 00:02:40,880 it kind of made me think about a lot of us are we may feel successful where we 50 00:02:40,881 --> 00:02:45,360 are in our careers, but despite having a pretty good handle on it, 51 00:02:45,761 --> 00:02:47,800 we feel like we're missing something, right. We feel like we're missing. 52 00:02:47,820 --> 00:02:50,840 We wanna be a top performer. And, but how do we get to the next level? 53 00:02:50,940 --> 00:02:55,639 So maybe that's kinda where we're gonna focus in on the conversation is how do 54 00:02:55,640 --> 00:02:59,440 we boost our skills and wherever we are, you know, this podcast is for folks, 55 00:02:59,721 --> 00:03:01,240 affecting the accounting and finance world. 56 00:03:01,300 --> 00:03:04,040 So accountants and folks in the accounting and finance world, 57 00:03:04,340 --> 00:03:06,080 how do we get to that next level? You know, 58 00:03:06,130 --> 00:03:08,480 we're not talking about specific accounting things right now, 59 00:03:08,500 --> 00:03:11,960 but it's just that, you know, how do we become successful in the next moment? 60 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:16,880 And I think that you talked about skills and you talked about, yeah, 61 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,440 we don't wanna talk about the technicalities of mechanical and finance. 62 00:03:20,220 --> 00:03:23,960 That's not the point. And so what I found out, what I believe is that right. 63 00:03:23,961 --> 00:03:27,120 It really starts with, well, where do you wanna go? 64 00:03:27,780 --> 00:03:30,000 What type of person do you wanna create within yourself? 65 00:03:30,001 --> 00:03:31,320 What type of life do you wanna create, 66 00:03:32,020 --> 00:03:36,600 rather than looking for skills or practices or best practices or 67 00:03:36,601 --> 00:03:40,720 strategies it's like, let's start with the best version of what it could be. 68 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,000 What if you could have it anyway, you would want it, like, 69 00:03:44,001 --> 00:03:46,360 what would that look like? And really start from that point. 70 00:03:46,420 --> 00:03:51,280 And oftentimes that comes with a resistance, like, well, what do you mean? 71 00:03:52,681 --> 00:03:55,640 I wanna get 10% better this year. I wanna get 20% better this year. It's like, 72 00:03:55,641 --> 00:03:58,120 well, that's great and good for you, no judgment. 73 00:03:58,540 --> 00:04:01,080 But what if you could flip it on its head? 74 00:04:01,670 --> 00:04:05,040 What if you could get a hundred times better? What would that mean? 75 00:04:05,041 --> 00:04:06,960 What actually does that look like for you? 76 00:04:07,340 --> 00:04:09,400 And if you're thinking with that end in mind, 77 00:04:09,470 --> 00:04:11,240 then you tend to find the path to get there. 78 00:04:12,340 --> 00:04:16,200 So if you're thinking with that end in mind, how do you get to that, 79 00:04:16,470 --> 00:04:19,600 that change of mindset because you're here and you're like, 80 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,800 I just wanna improve like 10% you said, 81 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:23,640 and you just mentioned a hundred percent better. 82 00:04:23,670 --> 00:04:26,400 Like those seem like very drastically different numbers. 83 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,360 Yeah, absolutely. Right. 84 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:33,310 And some of it starts with being willing and 85 00:04:33,311 --> 00:04:36,029 something within, could you start to, to talk about, right? 86 00:04:36,030 --> 00:04:37,870 Like some of us consider ourselves successful, 87 00:04:37,930 --> 00:04:42,029 but maybe there's something niggling inside you go, well, 88 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:44,029 maybe it's not quite what I want, 89 00:04:44,730 --> 00:04:47,430 or maybe I could be doing this in a different way. 90 00:04:48,050 --> 00:04:50,310 And it's really kind of leaning into some of that. 91 00:04:50,990 --> 00:04:54,870 And I believe that we all have it. And a lot of us go through a life scene, 92 00:04:54,871 --> 00:04:55,551 a little bit of a fog, 93 00:04:55,551 --> 00:04:59,270 sometimes a lot of a fog just doing what we think is the right thing to do. 94 00:04:59,290 --> 00:05:02,589 You know? And I think about when I got into banking, I felt was like, well, 95 00:05:03,170 --> 00:05:06,630 that's good. They wanna pay me to do this. All right. And I'll play your game. 96 00:05:06,690 --> 00:05:08,710 And then they're gonna pay me some more and I'll play some more, 97 00:05:08,711 --> 00:05:11,430 I'll get paid some more. It's like, and it just goes and goes and goes. 98 00:05:11,431 --> 00:05:12,670 And that's really all, you know, 99 00:05:13,890 --> 00:05:16,790 and it's not often you just get to chance to step back and go, well, hang on. 100 00:05:17,330 --> 00:05:20,190 Is this really what I want? Like deeply to my core. 101 00:05:20,850 --> 00:05:24,710 Do I get excited to do this every day? Does it keep me up late? 102 00:05:24,890 --> 00:05:28,589 Not just because I'm told to, or that there's deadlines or is it cuz I want to, 103 00:05:29,270 --> 00:05:32,150 am I getting up early to go and practice to be the best version of this? 104 00:05:33,330 --> 00:05:37,990 And that's a question that like hand on heart that I believe most people 105 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:38,833 can't answer. 106 00:05:39,170 --> 00:05:41,670 And I believe that that was just something that wasn't available for me. 107 00:05:41,830 --> 00:05:43,350 Like that wasn't the sort of person that I was. 108 00:05:43,910 --> 00:05:46,550 I thought that stuff was preserved for small stars or, you know, 109 00:05:46,551 --> 00:05:47,910 people that are in a creative field, 110 00:05:49,210 --> 00:05:51,870 but I believe it's available for everyone if you're willing to look. 111 00:05:52,750 --> 00:05:56,430 Hmm. So if you're willing to look, maybe we can start talking about, 112 00:05:56,490 --> 00:05:59,080 can you define the achiever's mindset for us? 113 00:05:59,081 --> 00:06:00,560 And we can discuss that a little bit more. 114 00:06:01,190 --> 00:06:03,560 Yeah. I think that, you know, 115 00:06:03,561 --> 00:06:08,180 the achiever's mindset is really about knowing that like there's 116 00:06:08,181 --> 00:06:12,380 always something else. There are no limits to what we can achieve. 117 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:13,500 The baseline, 118 00:06:13,501 --> 00:06:17,140 the achiever's mindset for me is that I believe that anything's possible. 119 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:23,140 If you think about what humans have achieved, just watching, 120 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:25,860 me, my wife sat down last night to watch Netflix. 121 00:06:25,861 --> 00:06:29,460 We were watching the SpaceX documentary that was on there. 122 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,700 And that what a great example, that is about what we could achieve. You know, 123 00:06:33,701 --> 00:06:35,580 even Elon Musk said, when we first started out, 124 00:06:35,581 --> 00:06:36,779 I thought there was a 10% chance. 125 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:41,580 We'd get someone to orbit and it just 126 00:06:41,670 --> 00:06:45,500 comes from a place of look, I'm willing to move forward. 127 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:47,740 I'm willing to throw the other paradigms out. 128 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:51,180 I'm willing to think a little bit differently. I'm willing to just explore. 129 00:06:51,850 --> 00:06:54,020 It's not like I'm gonna be committed no matter what. 130 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:55,900 I'm just willing to explore. 131 00:06:56,720 --> 00:06:59,820 I'm gonna go from the baseline that anything's possible. 132 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:02,220 And if you think about it, that's one example, 133 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:06,940 but think about what we've achieved as human race, but just in the last 10, 20, 134 00:07:06,940 --> 00:07:08,660 30 40, a hundred years. It's ridiculous. 135 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:13,820 And so pretty much I believe that human possibilities is pretty much endless 136 00:07:13,821 --> 00:07:17,020 capabilities there. So we're all human. So what's the difference. 137 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,820 The difference is deciding that you want to go and get some of that or get more 138 00:07:21,821 --> 00:07:25,420 of that. And the more that you play in the sandbox, in that space, 139 00:07:26,220 --> 00:07:27,740 the more that your mind starts to expand. 140 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,380 And then you start to see other possibilities, you start to play with it, right? 141 00:07:31,381 --> 00:07:35,860 So it's more like it's a starts from that baseline that anything's possible. 142 00:07:37,070 --> 00:07:39,690 That's what really the human mindset is as a starting point. 143 00:07:40,390 --> 00:07:42,410 So that sounds wonderful in theory. 144 00:07:42,411 --> 00:07:47,250 Can we maybe focus in on maybe some more practical application 145 00:07:47,750 --> 00:07:50,850 of that, and maybe you can share some examples of, you know, 146 00:07:50,851 --> 00:07:53,930 we don't know if you give any names of folks who've been able to take this 147 00:07:53,931 --> 00:07:56,210 mindset and do something great with their careers. 148 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,450 Yeah, absolutely. And that's part of it, right? Like it's like, well, 149 00:08:02,190 --> 00:08:04,890 the theory and translating it into the strategy, right? 150 00:08:05,090 --> 00:08:07,090 Cause as soon as you get to the strategy, you're back to the how, 151 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:09,930 when you're in the how it's like, what come on, 152 00:08:09,931 --> 00:08:12,970 I need to see the actual practical steps right now. It's like, well, 153 00:08:12,971 --> 00:08:17,850 that kind of defeats the purpose. It's a balance, right? To balance going, okay, 154 00:08:17,851 --> 00:08:21,370 well here's the part where like anything's possible. 155 00:08:22,230 --> 00:08:25,450 And those people oftentimes get called dreamers, playing the sky, 156 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:26,570 blue sky thinking. 157 00:08:27,430 --> 00:08:31,970 And those people that are working on the practical things are looking at those 158 00:08:31,971 --> 00:08:34,850 people going well, come on, man, come down from a cloud. 159 00:08:35,130 --> 00:08:38,370 So you need to make that practical. You need to make that actionable. And you, 160 00:08:38,371 --> 00:08:40,250 those people are actually absolutely right. 161 00:08:40,950 --> 00:08:44,010 But these people up here without these people who wouldn't be able to create 162 00:08:44,011 --> 00:08:46,090 things that aren't available right now, we wouldn't best dream. 163 00:08:46,630 --> 00:08:50,210 So where's the right place to be. It's like both, right? 164 00:08:50,410 --> 00:08:52,130 Cause if you're up here, you can't do the action. 165 00:08:52,390 --> 00:08:54,890 And if you are down here in the weeds, you can't see where you're going. 166 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:57,960 I love the something I thought of a long time ago, Adam. 167 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:00,320 I just love the thought of like being in a jungle. 168 00:09:00,470 --> 00:09:03,400 Like let's say you're in a jungle and you're with a bunch of people and you've 169 00:09:03,401 --> 00:09:06,240 got like a machete and you're hacking through the jungle and you can only see 170 00:09:06,241 --> 00:09:07,440 what you hack down in front of you. 171 00:09:07,780 --> 00:09:11,120 And you are heading towards a camp for the night. Let's say a direction. 172 00:09:11,121 --> 00:09:14,080 You're gonna try and find something. And you've been doing this thing for hours, 173 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:16,320 just hacking away, hacking away going, are we in the right direction? 174 00:09:16,321 --> 00:09:19,559 And everyone in your group's getting a bit fed up and tired like, Hey leader, 175 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:22,520 Hey boss. Like, where are we going? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? 176 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:24,880 And everyone's getting a bit uptight cause they're not quite sure. 177 00:09:24,881 --> 00:09:26,840 And they're like, you're going the right way, going the right way, hacking, 178 00:09:26,841 --> 00:09:30,679 hacking, hacking more and more effort. And you know, this helicopter comes past, 179 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:34,559 right? And you're like gives you a rope to jump on. You, 180 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:37,920 jump on the rope and you get wood up to helicopter from the helicopter and you 181 00:09:37,921 --> 00:09:41,240 see everything and you see the whole jungle you're in and you see exactly the 182 00:09:41,530 --> 00:09:44,600 whole place of where you're supposed to go. And you can notice that, look, 183 00:09:44,601 --> 00:09:47,120 you know what? I'm 200 feet from where I wanna be going. 184 00:09:48,140 --> 00:09:50,920 And so you can come back down into the jungle. You go, Hey guys, we've got it. 185 00:09:50,921 --> 00:09:54,280 200 feet. Now the mood completely changed. The outlook completely changed. 186 00:09:54,281 --> 00:09:56,280 What they believe is possible, completely changes. 187 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:58,960 Cause you go 200 feet in that direction. And then you're there. 188 00:09:59,390 --> 00:10:02,160 It's like from the place in the helicopter, you can't do the work. 189 00:10:02,660 --> 00:10:06,000 But if you haven't got the outlook and know when to get back into helicopter, 190 00:10:06,460 --> 00:10:09,240 you're gonna quickly drive yourself into place where all you believe is all you 191 00:10:09,241 --> 00:10:11,200 doing is go around in circles, go around in circles. 192 00:10:11,500 --> 00:10:13,760 And that's the balance to get to. Right? It's like, there's no, 193 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:16,700 here's another way to think about it. Right? 194 00:10:16,701 --> 00:10:20,620 Oftentimes in life we think binary it's yes or it's no, 195 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:22,179 you're in and you're out, 196 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:27,020 but really life is more of a scale, right? 197 00:10:27,021 --> 00:10:29,780 It's like one extreme to the other. There's so many stops along those ways. 198 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:31,580 So it's just, what's the right balance. 199 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:35,660 And so if you find yourself bias in a particular direction, 200 00:10:35,990 --> 00:10:39,059 which most of us do, everyone has their biases. No good or bad. 201 00:10:39,060 --> 00:10:42,300 Just that's just our, and you might say, okay, 202 00:10:42,301 --> 00:10:46,140 how might I lean get a place to perhaps open up some more possibilities? 203 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,690 Yeah. Everything you said kind of helped me think about in lot of different 204 00:10:50,691 --> 00:10:51,230 directions, 205 00:10:51,230 --> 00:10:56,010 but it's great for leaders to be able to take that, 206 00:10:56,429 --> 00:10:59,770 you know, helicopter trip up to be able to see everything and say, okay, 207 00:10:59,771 --> 00:11:01,570 this is where we need to go to help your team, 208 00:11:01,571 --> 00:11:04,530 understand the why and what we're doing and get that morale going. 209 00:11:05,750 --> 00:11:09,330 But what if you are standing there watching your leader go up and you're like, 210 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:10,650 wait, but I wanna see up there, 211 00:11:11,230 --> 00:11:15,370 how do you get from where you are and go up there because maybe you're a staff 212 00:11:15,371 --> 00:11:17,330 accountant and you're just in the numbers every day. 213 00:11:17,331 --> 00:11:21,210 But you want to get to that CFO level so that you can see all the things. 214 00:11:21,510 --> 00:11:23,130 What's that first step you need to take? 215 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:25,890 Beautiful question. Thanks Adam. Thank you for contextualizing that, 216 00:11:25,891 --> 00:11:29,809 that's really powerful. Yeah. You you've got to, especially in organizations, 217 00:11:30,950 --> 00:11:35,380 you've got to make sure that you're still playing your own game. Right? 218 00:11:35,381 --> 00:11:38,980 So for instance, I worked with the quite a few financial advisors. 219 00:11:38,981 --> 00:11:42,700 There's a guy that I worked with this morning and like here's a particular goal 220 00:11:42,701 --> 00:11:46,340 that his company's given him for a certain amount of transactions and dollar 221 00:11:46,341 --> 00:11:50,500 value for the year, of course. And that's the goal that they've given him. 222 00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:52,620 And so, okay, this is what you need to go and produce. 223 00:11:53,140 --> 00:11:55,600 Now that's based on what they think that they need in totality. 224 00:11:56,300 --> 00:11:58,920 There's some general generalities to it as well. 225 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:00,840 Cause it's spread across many different people. 226 00:12:01,540 --> 00:12:05,160 And what we work on is what's his actual goal within that? 227 00:12:06,050 --> 00:12:07,540 What does he own? Right? 228 00:12:07,540 --> 00:12:12,220 So if you're the junior guy looking up to the CFO, you've gotta go look, 229 00:12:12,670 --> 00:12:15,660 where do you wanna be going? You've gotta get your own helicopter. 230 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:20,500 And you wanna make sure that either it is in line with where the helicopter's 231 00:12:20,501 --> 00:12:23,140 going for the CFO, for the company. And you've gotta know that. 232 00:12:23,141 --> 00:12:27,100 And if it is awesome, then you can plot that path within that. Or if it's not, 233 00:12:27,101 --> 00:12:29,059 then you wanna know that as well. Then you can take a different path. 234 00:12:29,059 --> 00:12:33,660 It's really knowing where you are going either inside of someone else's game 235 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,940 or creating your own game. And again, that's part of the fog of it. It's like, 236 00:12:36,941 --> 00:12:39,179 all I can do is I've gotta wait for the next person to move up, 237 00:12:39,180 --> 00:12:42,460 to move up again. It's like, are you really playing your own game? 238 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:44,220 Or are you playing someone else's game? 239 00:12:45,620 --> 00:12:48,580 I really like what you're saying, there is you have to get your own helicopter. 240 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:51,740 You can't use your current CFO's helicopter. 241 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,740 You have to get your own helicopter so that you can start to see where you need 242 00:12:54,741 --> 00:12:58,300 to go. You can't focus on his journey. I mean, 243 00:12:58,301 --> 00:13:01,020 you can learn from their journeys. You can learn from steps they've taken, 244 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,540 but you can't jump on their helicopter and expect to go the same place. 245 00:13:05,610 --> 00:13:08,580 Yeah. Like, and if you are good with that, then that's fine. 246 00:13:08,860 --> 00:13:13,100 But it's having the awareness to know that you are on someone else's journey. 247 00:13:13,490 --> 00:13:15,700 Yeah. Like if you haven't got a plan for your life, 248 00:13:15,701 --> 00:13:19,100 you'll end up fulfilling someone else's plan. You'll be part of that. 249 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:20,660 And there's nothing wrong with that. Again, 250 00:13:20,661 --> 00:13:23,580 just having the outcomes or the awareness to know what that is. 251 00:13:23,940 --> 00:13:24,940 I think it's really, really powerful. 252 00:13:25,450 --> 00:13:27,140 Yeah. That is very powerful. 253 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:30,580 And I think the other thing that I was thinking about too, 254 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:34,900 is if you're sitting there, you know, you've gotten your own helicopter. 255 00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:39,380 You may recognize that my journey will not continue at this organization. 256 00:13:39,550 --> 00:13:43,340 Maybe my journey needs to go to another organization. And so, you know, 257 00:13:43,341 --> 00:13:47,260 that's a scary place to be because you, you may be just early in your career. 258 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:49,660 And you're like, if the place I want to go is over here, 259 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,380 but I see that my journey is not gonna stay here. 260 00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:56,940 And you don't know, like there's a lot of unknowns there. 261 00:13:56,941 --> 00:14:00,420 And the unknown is very difficult, especially when you're trying to, you know, 262 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:01,460 trying to change your mindset. 263 00:14:02,950 --> 00:14:06,000 Yeah. We are people, 264 00:14:06,380 --> 00:14:10,480 all people are driven or not as the case may be by fear. 265 00:14:11,300 --> 00:14:15,200 And whether we wanna admit that or not, that's really what it is. 266 00:14:15,340 --> 00:14:17,920 And certainly true for me. I can tell you that for nothing, right? 267 00:14:17,921 --> 00:14:20,120 Like it's something that's always coming up. 268 00:14:20,620 --> 00:14:24,400 But what we do is we tend to optimize for the fear of taking action. 269 00:14:25,070 --> 00:14:29,960 What we don't tend to think about is the fear of inaction. And that's for me, 270 00:14:29,961 --> 00:14:34,880 the biggest opportunity cost. It's like if I take this, 271 00:14:35,201 --> 00:14:38,280 my journey is not at this place, it's like, oh no, 272 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:41,440 like now I'm not in a place where I wanna be. That's scary. 273 00:14:41,441 --> 00:14:44,200 I've gotta make some change. I've gotta like, get uncomfortable. 274 00:14:44,201 --> 00:14:47,640 I've gotta move to somewhere else. I've gotta figure some stuff out. True. 275 00:14:48,260 --> 00:14:50,920 But the alternative is that you don't make a change. 276 00:14:51,530 --> 00:14:54,020 Even though it's something in you that tells you, that's not quite right. 277 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,340 You don't make a change. You follow the beaten path, 278 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,340 you do the things that you're supposed to do. You take the next part up, 279 00:14:59,341 --> 00:15:03,420 you take 10% and 10%. And then somewhere down the line, 10, 15, 20 years, 280 00:15:03,660 --> 00:15:06,460 goodness could be, you go, oh man, 281 00:15:07,410 --> 00:15:10,580 I've just spent 20 years in a place I didn't want to be in. 282 00:15:11,430 --> 00:15:15,050 And that's what I get so passionate about what I do. Now I honor my journey. 283 00:15:15,650 --> 00:15:17,410 Cause I did spend 20 years doing something I didn't wanna do. 284 00:15:17,411 --> 00:15:18,370 And it gave me a lot. 285 00:15:18,810 --> 00:15:21,570 And that's exactly what my path has been is supposed to be. 286 00:15:21,870 --> 00:15:23,330 And now I get to share with people, right? 287 00:15:23,331 --> 00:15:26,810 Let's come back and compress some of that time. Cuz deep down. 288 00:15:27,130 --> 00:15:31,330 I knew if I'd really ask myself the deep questions, at any of that spot, 289 00:15:31,370 --> 00:15:33,730 I could tell myself that like this isn't the right thing. 290 00:15:33,860 --> 00:15:36,930 Gotta start thinking about doing something different and figuring something out. 291 00:15:37,090 --> 00:15:40,650 And it doesn't have to be a huge change, but just be honest with yourself. 292 00:15:42,430 --> 00:15:45,050 So if you're being, I like the idea of being honest with yourself, 293 00:15:45,210 --> 00:15:49,130 cuz that's something that I think a lot of us kind of struggle with and just 294 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:53,290 growing in our careers and our personal lives is being honest with ourselves. 295 00:15:54,070 --> 00:15:58,890 And I think something we need to remind everybody is, is that these journeys, 296 00:15:58,891 --> 00:16:03,130 this getting to these mindsets is not something that happens like today I'm here 297 00:16:03,131 --> 00:16:04,730 and then tomorrow I'm gonna be at a hundred percent. 298 00:16:04,750 --> 00:16:08,530 No it's an actual journey that takes time. So yeah, 299 00:16:08,531 --> 00:16:10,490 you may be taking those incremental steps, 300 00:16:10,830 --> 00:16:13,690 but eventually that helicopters and you gotta grab on. Right? 301 00:16:14,460 --> 00:16:18,330 Absolutely. And that's why playing up at this place, 302 00:16:18,331 --> 00:16:22,730 which feels like it's pie in the sky and going what's that difference between 303 00:16:23,410 --> 00:16:26,890 10% is that what's a hundred percent, it's it's opening possibilities. 304 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:31,240 It's saying, well look, what if I could have it any way I want it to be? 305 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:32,313 And if you let's say, 306 00:16:33,020 --> 00:16:37,480 you're just starting out in where you are in your accountancy career, 307 00:16:37,490 --> 00:16:39,840 let's say you're like, okay, what do I wanna do? 308 00:16:39,841 --> 00:16:40,960 What's the best version of this. 309 00:16:40,980 --> 00:16:43,760 If everything went exactly as I wanted it to go, 310 00:16:43,761 --> 00:16:46,400 if I could snap my fingers and create that, what would it be? 311 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:51,640 And you might say what for because I can't get there yet. There's no point, 312 00:16:52,900 --> 00:16:56,080 but the sooner you can do that and create something, 313 00:16:56,700 --> 00:17:00,600 you have a place to move towards and your life will start to optimize for that 314 00:17:01,070 --> 00:17:03,520 just naturally cuz you'd be thinking about it and then you can take actual 315 00:17:03,521 --> 00:17:06,800 action, make it real, take those steps. And you might also say, well, 316 00:17:06,801 --> 00:17:08,680 I don't know yet. Well, 317 00:17:08,710 --> 00:17:11,960 part of that is also a game of just doing what's the right thing for right now. 318 00:17:13,570 --> 00:17:17,670 Oh and by the way you could also say I'm not prepared to do anything on that 319 00:17:17,671 --> 00:17:19,350 yet, but either way, 320 00:17:19,351 --> 00:17:22,070 you're being honest with yourself and being intentional about what you're doing. 321 00:17:23,540 --> 00:17:28,390 Yeah. That's so important is that you may not be ready for the next step. 322 00:17:29,210 --> 00:17:33,910 And this idea of like, you can't always be in the clouds obviously, 323 00:17:34,020 --> 00:17:36,390 because you'll never get anything done, 324 00:17:36,930 --> 00:17:40,150 but you can't always be in the weeds cuz then you'll never see the big picture. 325 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,109 Right. So finding that balance. 326 00:17:42,210 --> 00:17:45,109 So we've talked about the person who is early in their career. 327 00:17:45,410 --> 00:17:47,390 So maybe let's talk about leaders. You know, 328 00:17:47,530 --> 00:17:51,520 I'm a leader and I have a team of 20 people and I'm like, okay, 329 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,080 I wanna have this achiever's mindset. I wanna see the big picture, 330 00:17:55,081 --> 00:17:56,160 but also see the practical. 331 00:17:56,161 --> 00:17:59,600 I wanna find that balance for myself and then also teach it to my team. 332 00:18:00,100 --> 00:18:04,840 How can leaders help get their team to a place where they're starting to 333 00:18:05,070 --> 00:18:06,280 find that balance as well? 334 00:18:06,670 --> 00:18:08,119 Yeah. Great question. Thanks Adam. 335 00:18:08,859 --> 00:18:12,040 And so first things first it's knowing as a leader, where are you going? 336 00:18:12,980 --> 00:18:15,560 Can you specifically articulate super quick, 337 00:18:15,609 --> 00:18:20,400 what is success for you by the end of this year or the 338 00:18:20,401 --> 00:18:24,400 next relative point that you're looking at in your career or that business line 339 00:18:24,420 --> 00:18:25,520 or that area of focus. 340 00:18:26,220 --> 00:18:29,760 And then when you know what that is and what you are doing every day to get you 341 00:18:29,761 --> 00:18:31,960 there, even without sharing it, 342 00:18:31,961 --> 00:18:35,480 people gravitate to that because that's the guy that looks like he's got 343 00:18:35,481 --> 00:18:38,000 everything figured out, right? It's like, 344 00:18:38,001 --> 00:18:39,520 you can tell it when you even look at people, right, 345 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:41,920 when you're walking around the office, if we do that anymore, right? 346 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:45,680 And you see people and the people that know where they, 347 00:18:45,820 --> 00:18:47,880 you can look at people and go, that person knows where he is going. 348 00:18:48,940 --> 00:18:52,920 And because he has an in intentional outlook of what success looks like to him 349 00:18:52,921 --> 00:18:56,200 or her that day, that week, that month, that year. So that's the starting point, 350 00:18:56,201 --> 00:18:58,560 right? And that will create people will naturally follow you anyway, 351 00:18:58,780 --> 00:19:00,840 people in your team. That's what leadership is. 352 00:19:01,369 --> 00:19:04,040 Management is the sorting it out and figuring it out. 353 00:19:04,041 --> 00:19:07,280 The leadership is just doing the thing and people follow that people will 354 00:19:07,281 --> 00:19:09,000 gravitate towards that. So it's, first of all, 355 00:19:09,001 --> 00:19:13,119 knowing what it is for you and as a leader, likelihood your goal, 356 00:19:13,150 --> 00:19:16,080 your vision is something that's bigger than you. Anyway, 357 00:19:16,580 --> 00:19:18,280 you need to enroll other people in it. 358 00:19:18,660 --> 00:19:22,400 And part of your power as leader and part of your requirement, 359 00:19:22,401 --> 00:19:24,600 your responsibility as a leader, is to be able to share that, 360 00:19:25,619 --> 00:19:30,250 share what that is and articulate in a way that we can attach to it. Right? And 361 00:19:32,281 --> 00:19:36,320 sometimes people will share that. Like, I'm not thinking about this emotionally. 362 00:19:36,380 --> 00:19:38,560 I'm not thinking about it in that way. I just need to do these things, do that. 363 00:19:38,561 --> 00:19:42,760 And I get that. It's like, alright, cool. There's a practical sense to it. 364 00:19:42,761 --> 00:19:44,240 If I do that, I do that. And now I get that, 365 00:19:45,140 --> 00:19:48,920 but everything has emotion tied to it. Everything is tied emotionally. 366 00:19:49,820 --> 00:19:51,960 And if you don't think yourself as an emotional person, 367 00:19:53,060 --> 00:19:56,680 and then there's a reaction to that, no, I'm definitely not an emotional person. 368 00:19:56,681 --> 00:20:01,000 It's like, well, that's an emotional reaction. We can't get away from it. Right. 369 00:20:01,001 --> 00:20:03,840 And then we should honor those feelings. And however, that means to you, 370 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,000 how it show up, everyone's a bit different, but that's part of it, knowing, 371 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:10,880 be able to articulate that to your team is a really good step. And then again, 372 00:20:10,881 --> 00:20:14,520 going back to being honest, this is where we're going as a team. 373 00:20:15,100 --> 00:20:17,440 And this is where I wanna go overall, are you on bull face? 374 00:20:17,980 --> 00:20:18,960 So you are helping them. 375 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:21,880 You are in your leadership helicopter to extend the analogy, 376 00:20:22,070 --> 00:20:24,240 looking back at the other helicopters, going, Hey guys, 377 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:26,880 or looking back down on the fit, down in the jungle, going, Hey guys, 378 00:20:26,881 --> 00:20:29,640 are you in your helicopter yet? You wanna hit your ride on mine? 379 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:33,920 Cause I'm going over here. So you are creating a way of, 380 00:20:34,020 --> 00:20:36,720 so some people might not be ready to get in their helicopter yet, 381 00:20:36,721 --> 00:20:40,000 but you're saying I got mine. Are you willing to get into it with me? 382 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:44,280 Cuz we are going this journey as well. Right? So that's really what it is. Now, 383 00:20:44,281 --> 00:20:47,920 once you're aligned, all the things that are part of it, 384 00:20:47,921 --> 00:20:50,680 which is basically communication will figure themselves out. 385 00:20:50,900 --> 00:20:52,680 We can't go anywhere until we're aligned. 386 00:20:53,670 --> 00:20:57,070 I like that picture of there's times where we, 387 00:20:57,071 --> 00:21:00,030 as leaders have to pick people up and carry them with us and saying, Hey guys, 388 00:21:00,220 --> 00:21:02,510 come with me. See what it's like up here. 389 00:21:03,369 --> 00:21:06,950 And then here look your helicopter's right there. Jump in. Right. 390 00:21:08,020 --> 00:21:12,030 Yeah. Absolutely. And all done with like no judgment. And it's like, 391 00:21:12,031 --> 00:21:15,590 this is where I'm going. I'm all in. I'd love it for you to come. And if not, 392 00:21:15,591 --> 00:21:16,750 then I wanna know that as well. 393 00:21:17,020 --> 00:21:17,853 Yeah. 394 00:21:18,109 --> 00:21:20,630 Because it can be, and I've been in leadership positions where it's just like, 395 00:21:21,751 --> 00:21:24,710 what's wrong. Like this is what's laid out like this is, 396 00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:27,950 which is what you signed up for. Like why can't you do it? What are you doing? 397 00:21:28,770 --> 00:21:30,830 And there's so many things to pick out of that. 398 00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:32,270 Like they might not have signed up for that. 399 00:21:32,790 --> 00:21:36,310 Where do we have the explicit conversation about this particular thing, 400 00:21:36,311 --> 00:21:40,270 we might not have done! And I'm judging them in that moment. I'm saying like, 401 00:21:40,271 --> 00:21:42,830 what's wrong with you? Or I'm implying what's wrong with you. 402 00:21:43,369 --> 00:21:46,990 And when people feel like they're being judged, they're gonna shut down. 403 00:21:47,180 --> 00:21:51,790 They're not gonna play. And so the goal always is to think about things like, 404 00:21:52,109 --> 00:21:53,270 okay, well where do you want to go, 405 00:21:53,810 --> 00:21:57,590 and put yourself in their shoes and create the opportunity for people to step 406 00:21:57,619 --> 00:22:00,190 into it. Right. Rather than close things down. 407 00:22:00,330 --> 00:22:02,390 And so that's a real big part of it. 408 00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:06,260 So as we wrap up our conversation, I think this has been really great. 409 00:22:06,490 --> 00:22:08,980 Just kind of understanding this achiever's mindset. 410 00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,580 It seems like there's one word that you may have said it already, 411 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:18,140 but there's one word that seemed, or it's a hyphenated word I should say, 412 00:22:19,290 --> 00:22:21,980 that seems to be very important in this whole thing is self-awareness. 413 00:22:23,020 --> 00:22:25,740 You need to be aware of self, of how you're feeling of how, 414 00:22:26,581 --> 00:22:29,740 where you are in your journey, because that's where we have to start. 415 00:22:29,910 --> 00:22:33,660 Maybe we can talk a little bit about self-awareness and how it connects to 416 00:22:33,661 --> 00:22:34,140 everything. 417 00:22:34,140 --> 00:22:37,460 Cause I feel like that's a real connector for a lot of this that we've been 418 00:22:37,461 --> 00:22:38,270 discussing. 419 00:22:38,270 --> 00:22:42,619 Absolutely, absolutely. Adam. Yeah, self-awareness is great. 420 00:22:42,740 --> 00:22:47,020 I just call it awareness because it fits within the model, 421 00:22:47,021 --> 00:22:50,660 which I think that we live in and everything starts with awareness. 422 00:22:50,770 --> 00:22:54,820 Without awareness, you are nothing. It's not everything by itself, 423 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:56,500 but it's a place that we need to start. Right. 424 00:22:56,700 --> 00:22:59,859 Cuz when you can understand where you really are and be honest with yourself and 425 00:23:00,900 --> 00:23:02,780 like, if you're gonna build anything, you wanna dig down first, 426 00:23:02,781 --> 00:23:05,380 make sure you've got the right foundation. So that's what awareness is. 427 00:23:05,381 --> 00:23:09,540 It's like taking stock. What's really true. What's really important for you. 428 00:23:09,541 --> 00:23:10,500 Where are you? Yeah. 429 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,580 And then that awareness then allows us to jump off to action. 430 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:17,940 So I call this the Triple A approach, right? And I believe, 431 00:23:18,060 --> 00:23:22,020 I mean that's semantics, but I believe we're always in this Triple A approach, 432 00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:26,020 it's a cycle of life. So awareness knowing where you are jump off to the action, 433 00:23:26,021 --> 00:23:30,700 which is actually creating a plan right back down to the very specific roadmap 434 00:23:30,701 --> 00:23:33,500 of where we're going. Like that's the actual strategy, the tools, skills, 435 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,420 all that stuff is very important, 436 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,780 but we can't do that until we start with the awareness part. 437 00:23:38,781 --> 00:23:41,820 So we move off into the action plan and the action is now, okay, 438 00:23:43,090 --> 00:23:46,080 this is where I'm specifically going over this particular milestone, 439 00:23:46,081 --> 00:23:48,760 this timeline I've defined, here's the action I'm gonna take. 440 00:23:49,100 --> 00:23:53,800 And then that last A of that Triple A approach is achievement. 441 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,080 And the achievement part is the checking in part. 442 00:23:57,780 --> 00:24:00,480 That's how we know whether we should be up on the helicopter or down in the 443 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,160 weeds because it constantly changes. 444 00:24:03,780 --> 00:24:06,840 And so every week can say I work with my clients every week we come back 445 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,119 together, go, did you do the things you said you were gonna do? Oh, great. 446 00:24:10,270 --> 00:24:13,840 What results did you get based on that? Good, bad, different? Again, again, 447 00:24:13,930 --> 00:24:17,000 again. And you know, life happens or sometimes it'll be like, 448 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:19,920 I didn't do anything. Okay. Where do you wanna get back to now? 449 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:24,960 Cuz without that last ADA achievement, even if, here's the scariest part, Adam, 450 00:24:24,961 --> 00:24:29,960 perhaps is that you see some self-awareness to call it your way and you start 451 00:24:29,961 --> 00:24:31,240 to go, yes, I'm committed to this. 452 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:33,800 I've thought about something that's completely different. 453 00:24:34,060 --> 00:24:36,560 You start to take action, you have a little plan in place. 454 00:24:36,780 --> 00:24:39,280 And then something happens. Life happens, you get smashed in the face, 455 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:41,800 emotion and you get hit down. You forget it. 456 00:24:42,460 --> 00:24:46,840 And you come back to it a month later six months later. A year later. 457 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,960 And it didn't happen for you and you think, oh man, it must be me. 458 00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,280 So it must be wrong with me. Maybe this isn't on the cards for me. 459 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:57,560 And it's just the process. And that's like the scariest thing, 460 00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,480 cuz the next time you get yourself back up again, 461 00:24:59,980 --> 00:25:01,840 you're gonna be a little bit less certain than you can. 462 00:25:02,220 --> 00:25:03,600 And that could have been a year gone by. 463 00:25:04,140 --> 00:25:07,200 But that's why it's so important to have something around you with that 464 00:25:07,201 --> 00:25:09,520 accountability and that place where you can check in every week. 465 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:11,000 Cause the maximum you can lose is a week. 466 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:16,920 I get very passionate about this because I know how powerful it can be to keep 467 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:17,913 in that space. 468 00:25:19,869 --> 00:25:21,119 This has been Count Me In, 469 00:25:21,869 --> 00:25:25,960 IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from 470 00:25:25,961 --> 00:25:27,520 the accounting and finance profession. 471 00:25:27,619 --> 00:25:31,000 If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant 472 00:25:31,001 --> 00:25:33,840 accounting and finance education, visit IMA's website 473 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:37,480 at www.imanet.org.