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Leading is Serving seeks to provide resources and connection for leadership and business development. Particularly focused on the south-side and Indy in general. Tune in as we share the stories of people and companies, not just doing good work, but also having a positive impact on the community.
Chris Wood: [00:00:00] Well good morning Jason. How are you? Jason Kempf: Good morning, Chris. Doing well.
Chris Wood: Welcome to Leading. Is Serving podcast. Leading is serving? Yes. We are here bright and early. Well, not really that bright, not
Jason Kempf: early, but it de depends on your time zone.
Chris Wood: Right. And with we, with the weather currently today in
Indianapolis, it is rainy and it was actually sleeting this morning. Did you know
Jason Kempf: that? Was it really? It was. See my time zone is not up to date for that. Um, I may live in the eastern time zone, but I may live by a different time zone. Oh, man. Yeah, winter. Winter has returned.
Chris Wood: Yeah. I'm like, hopefully it goes away
Jason Kempf: as quick as it showed up. I know. That's okay. We'll get there.
Chris Wood: We'll get there. And here we are in the middle of April, towards the end of April. I'm like, oh my goodness, this is crazy. I'm, I'm done.
Jason Kempf: But you know, the, when it's warm, Trees and the grass and the flower, everything's gonna be beautiful. Oh, everything. Can't wait bloom and look crazy. Can't wait. Yeah. So, yeah, man, we're [00:01:00] uh, we're just moving and going.
Aren't we? Aren't. We are, man. I, I love what's happening in our community, what's happening with the podcast, with, you know, and there's just so much great stuff happening right now. It's beautiful. Yeah. And, um, so we wanna encourage you, jump over to Leading and serving.com and leave us a rating, review, share this.
Uh, if this episode speaks to you and you're like, oh man, I got a friend that needs to hear this, share it with them. Mm-hmm. That is one of the best ways that we know of how to grow a podcast for sure. I mean, it really, it really helps us a ton just to share that with one another. And leave us a rating review.
We love that. And then also, we're still putting groups together with the uncommons network. Yes, we've got super excited about that. Um, we're reaching out to, um, those who have applied already and we've got about, uh, a
full group already, and so we are moving forward and so That's awesome. It's, um, a lot of fun to see these, these basically a mastermind.
Network mm-hmm. Within our community develop. And it's really, really cool. That suck. I'm super excited about that. Jump on the train people. Right?
Chris Wood: [00:02:00] Right. Yeah. If you're not on, make sure you get on. Jason Kempf: My dad worked for, um, Santa Fe Railroad Oh, really? When I
was a kid. And so jump on the train means something a little different.
I was gonna say. Yeah. That was a, that was a cool, cool time. When, when you're five Right. And your dad works for the railroad. Oh, that's awesome. You know, Man that this cats me out. That was fun. So anyway, what's on your, what's on your mind today, man? So
Chris Wood: I was struggling with something, I'm gonna be honest with you.
I'm struggling with a little bit of something. I've been reading a book. Okay. And I mean, this, the book that I'm talking about is a, uh, talks about the prophets and trying to deal with some of the stuff, but it, it reminded me of the EMyth book. Oh yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Uhhuh. And so, you know, one of the things that as a solo.
Or, I mean, as I started as a solopreneur, right? I'm not no longer just a solopreneur. I have employees and it's kind of changed a lot, but. One of the things I have struggled with over the [00:03:00] years is being, is this whole combination of working in your business and working on your business. Mm- hmm. Like, and it is one of those things that, I'll be honest with you, Jason, it drives me nuts.
It makes me so frustrated because like I've read books where it's like, oh, you just need to start working on your business. Right. And I'm. I'm like, you need to run my schedule and try to do what I do and do that and add that to your schedule too, right? Because, and then like you get somebody like, well, you need to quit doing that.
Then who's gonna do that? Who's gonna do what I do. Right. Right. Because if you're telling me I need to add something onto my list, what do I have to take off my list? Mm-hmm. And who's gonna take it? Right. And that's, that drives me
Jason Kempf: nuts. Well, I got news for you.
Chris Wood: Don't tell me anything bad now. We're still lawn there. You're the, you're the only one
Jason Kempf: that struggles with this. Right. Everybody else has got this figured out, Chris. Okay.
Chris Wood: Start telling me how
Jason Kempf: to fix this problem. No, I'm lying. Because we ain't got it figured
out. You are [00:04:00] not alone.
Chris Wood: Well, and so I was like, you know, I was talking to you about, a little
bit about last week, and I was like, is this common?
Like that, you know, US solopreneurs, you know, and I kind of chalked myself up to a solopreneur because that's how I started. Sure. And in one of my business, I still am the preneur. Right,
Jason Kempf: right. But at some point you gotta, you grow enough that you wanna sing a duet or Right. A trio or Right. Like,
Chris Wood: Adding a third or second or third person sounds wonderful.
Right, right, right. Because then it's just not you. Just you. Right? Mm-hmm. You can like that whole gift of time is amazing. Right? Right. Anyways, so I just was like, all right, so how do you balance that out? How do you balance out the idea that I haven't just bought myself a job? Because that's the whole, like, I don't know if you guys have heard it or not, but I've heard so many people say, well, if you can't walk away or.
Um, the whole fishing mentality. Is it a fishing trip or something like that? Go Jason Kempf: for it. We'll fix it. Yeah. Like
Chris Wood: if you can go away on [00:05:00] a fishing trip and your business is still thriving while you're gone, then it's
Jason Kempf: Oh
Chris Wood: yeah. It's, it's past, right. You're no longer the solopreneur.
Jason Kempf: Right. When you're, your business is not dependent on you Right. To grow,
Chris Wood: to actually gotten the point where it's a legitimate business. Right. But prior to, The whole common language that I'm understanding is you've bought yourself a job. Right, right, right. I'm tired of buying myself a job. Yeah. Yeah. It's
Jason Kempf: frustrating because, and this might become a, a later episode as well, but we talk a lot about hustle.
Right, right. And about how, you know, be a hustling entrepreneur. Be right. Hustle, hustle, hustle. Be a leader. That's always, but if we look at our lives, are we dealing with the same problems we were dealing with a year? Yeah. Or did we deal with those problems, lay a foundation and now we're dealing with new stuff.
Now we're dealing with new problems. Yeah. So are we a, an accidental hustler, right? That's just, you know, fighting the, uh, you know, the biggest [00:06:00] fire of the day. Right? And then next year you're still fighting similar fires because it's like those birthday candles that won't blow out. Right. You just gotta keep coming back around.
I'm
Chris Wood: never gonna look
Jason Kempf: at this the same again. I know. Or, you know, are we strategically hustling so that we're laying that foundation and moving forward, so, right.
Yeah.
Chris Wood: And I mean, and, and, and I'm sure that our listeners feel this, like, it's not easy trying to fight for the highest good of others. Right. And like, I've take this podcast very seriously.
I love the idea of helping others grow, but you add that extra layer of foundation on what you're trying to build on. And it is not easy. Right. Right. And it's just like, okay. If you're going to fight for the highest good of others, you're going to take your business to the next level. You're going to hustle and drive.
Dude, I'm pretty sure you just hit a hundred hours a week. Jason Kempf: You could easily, right? Absolutely. I mean, like
Chris Wood: absolutely. How many people, if we start 20 people in here in this room and ask E and em, how many of them go over a 40 or an 80 hour week? Mm-hmm. [00:07:00] I, I bet everybody would have their hand raised right.
Because it's just as a business owner, solopreneur, solopreneur who's trying to get to an entrepreneur status, like mm-hmm. It is not easy trying to find the right people trying to fight for their highest good. Right. Recognizing they have your highest good as and right as in the place too. Right. And it's, it's a give and take there, right?
Mm-hmm. And then you'd go to the next level and you're like, well, are you working on your business? Dude, I'm just trying to get through today. Like, I mean, I don't even know. I mean, I'm not that way right now, but I know there's plenty of my friends who are like, I mean, if I'm them, I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to get through today.
I'm just trying to get paid on Friday, trying to do some work today so that I can send an invoice this week. So hopefully I can get paid by Friday, maybe maybe the middle, middle of next week, right? Mm-hmm. And then if you get to the A place where you're not just. Two guys in a hammer, [00:08:00] you know, and you get where you're hammering out stuff left and right, but, and you're sending out bills and you're getting paid at the end of the job.
You get to a professional level, you're almost invoicing every 10 days. Well, you know, you send, send the invoices out and then you're at a 10 day status kind of thing. Right. That kind of shifts that stuff too. It's like you get to a certain level where everyth. I, I don't know. So anyways, my long story short, let's not lose sight of what I was talking, talk about, sorry.
Um, this dynamic of recognizing that I'm trying to go from, I bought myself a job to, I actually have a legitimate business. Right? You know how I bet a lot of people struggle with this and I, and I know Yeah. Several people who.
Are trying to get there, but don't quite understand how to get there, so. Right. I mean, what's your 2 cents on that?
Jason Kempf: Well, I think first is a [00:09:00] mindset that it's not a flip the switch and all of a sudden I'm there, right? Yes. We talked about this before we hit record, that we're not, it, it's a process, it's a growth process.
Right? And there's no growth process that's not quick and easy. Yeah. And I think, right.
Chris Wood: I think that's one of my pet peeves too. It's not been, there's nothing about where I'm at now has been easy, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm. But it's like, oh, well you need to start doing this. Like, they make it sound easy.
So I don't even want this podcast to come off like, cause it's easy. Oh yeah, sure. You should do this. And you got
Jason Kempf: it all figured out. Yeah. Well they're, they're writing the book and, you know, I'm preaching the sermon from the other side of the story. Right, right.
Chris Wood: I'm like, yeah, that's easy for you to say cuz you're in a different spot.
Jason Kempf: Right, right. And so it's a, it's a process of, hey, this week I might
find. 5% of my time to work on my business. Right. And then next week I'm gonna carve out 7% and then 10%, you know, and that, and it just becomes this shifting scale. [00:10:00] And you know, and, and I think we also. I don't know what the right word is.
Not, not dilute ourselves, but you know, we bring on that first hire. Mm-hmm. Or we bring on that second hire and we think, oh my goodness, this person is gonna help us do so much more. We can go further faster. Right? Mm-hmm. Right. But we bring 'em on and it adds this layer of complexity when we think it's gonna be this quick shift of like, Woohoo.
Right, right. You know, this person just took off running and well, now we gotta take time. There's training, there's, you know, not, you know, maybe some handholding to let's, you know, you, you got somebody based on personality, not skill. And so we're teaching skills, uhhuh, you know, there's great chemistry and they align with the vision, so let's teach 'em the skills that they need to know.
Right, right, right. Um, but we think as soon as we bring that person on, now I can go and do this. Uh, Well that's not tomorrow. That's might be maybe a little further down the road another week, two weeks for a month. Right. But we try and cram it all in. Mm-hmm. As fast as we can. And we go, I was working 80 hours [00:11:00] last week, I hired somebody, now I'm working 90.
Right, right. Because we're, you know, cuz it's that mindset of walking in with the right expectations. Mm-hmm. And there is this thing in our culture, Always wants us moving up into the right on the graph, right? Mm-hmm. We've always gotta be moving further, faster, further. Yep. And if we're not, we feel like a failure.
Yes. Completely agree. And I don't, I don't think that's reality. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's not reality. Well, and
Chris Wood: it's funny because like I love, I love my mentors and I love the books that I read cuz I do get a lot of stuff out of 'em. But Book says, You need to quit working in your job. Mm-hmm. Or quit working in your business.
You need to start working on your business. Does I say that right? I think so. And then I had my mentor who said, well, once you hire somebody, the whole purpose of that is to free up your time. Right? And then it turned into what you said, I hired somebody. I was working 80 hours a week, [00:12:00] and then it went to 90 hours a week.
Right. And I was like, and I mean, looking back now, I. But
Jason Kempf: Right. And you probably freed up 20 hours of your week. You just added 30 on, right? Yeah, exactly. You're like, oh, I got the help. Now I can do all these things I've been dreaming
Chris Wood: about. Right, right. And I was like, and then it just, I was like, and, and they even, and the, and God bless him, I love him because he's given me great words, words, words of wisdom.
But he even said to me, you know, Hey, um, y you. If you're not freeing up some of your time, you're, you might not, it might have, might not have been the right per right fit. Right. And I was like, but we didn't, we didn't have a conversation that took into account like, well there might be also a training period.
Right. You know? Right. And then we talked about that and he was like, oh, you know, at some point, you know, if once you have them trained, then you should be in that predicament. Mm-hmm. Which I see that now. Right. But it's definitely early on, like. And I don't know if other [00:13:00] solopreneurs do this or not, but like you read these books and you're just like, oh, well this, I need to do better in this practice.
And that one drives me nuts, right? Because it's, it's not all on or all off.
Jason Kempf: Right? I want to, who's gonna write? Maybe we should write a book. You wanna write a book? No. Okay. So somebody should write a book. If you're listening. Um, at least just, you know, put us in the forward of like, Hey, thanks Jason, this leading serving, um, and I, I wanna see you a title of how to take two steps back so you can take one step forward.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. That sometimes that really is the reality of how we grow, is that we have to slow down, we have to take a couple steps backward, we bring a person on and for a month, two months, you know, A defined amount of time. Mm-hmm. You take a couple steps back going, okay, we're gonna create a new reality.
Mm-hmm. But instead we, we try and take two steps back and four steps forward all at the exact same time. Right. And we're not creating that foundation, kinda like we were talking about earlier, about, you know, that accidental busyness. We just, we just [00:14:00] create more hustle for ourselves. Right,
Chris Wood: right. Yeah. So I will, Do comment on the previous question that you said.
I said, no, I don't want to write a book, but I do have somebody who, who says that they're gonna write the book for me cuz I don't wanna write the book.
Jason Kempf: That's fair. I
Chris Wood: was like, that's fair, but I don't want to add anything more to my
time. I know. Yeah. But anyways. Yeah, yeah. I mean it's so true. So true. Exactly what you're saying. It's just, yeah. The.
And as, as I'm sure other people, other entrepreneurs feel it, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, doesn't matter where you land, like time is one of those things. Like you either have it or you don't. And if you're giving it to something, should you be giving it to that like, and trying to know the best way to make sure you're moving the pendulum in the right direction of right.
And like you said, moving higher and over. Mm-hmm. To trying to get closer to success is the goal. Right, right. But at sometimes I think that, you know, moving up and over doesn't always look like I thought it would, I [00:15:00] guess.
Jason Kempf: Yeah. Well, I mean, this is a, maybe an important time to pause and think about, uh, our voices.
Mm-hmm. If we, you know, if we look at the five voices, which if you want to jump in that and understand your leadership voice, there's a link in the show notes to go take the, there's a free assessment mm-hmm. That tells you your voice order. Um, that's what we, uh, we do some coaching on that through Exxon Solutions.
Right. Um, but as you think about the voice order, remember there's two voices that are present voice, and that actually consists of 73% of the population. And then there's three voices that are. Future focused. Right. Right. You and I both happen to be future focused. Correct. And so it's very easy for us to bring a solution in for today while packing on tomorrow.
Mm-hmm. Is that right? Yeah. So we tend, my tendency is that I want to look to tomorrow more than I want to look at today. Right. Okay. And so taking that two steps back to move one step forward. Feels like failure to me. I [00:16:00] agree. Because I'm, I don't wanna look at where I'm standing, right? I wanna look at the next 10 steps.
Mm-hmm. I wanna be on that 10th step away from here. Right? Right. And being in that present moment with our business going, this is where I'm at today, and it's okay. I'm okay because this sets me up to take stronger steps. Right. I mean, if, how many, how many shows are on Netflix and Prime right now of like, um, you know, the, the physical competitions where there's like the moving walkway and they have to run to the end of this moving walkway, jump off of it and land on a floating pad, right?
I mean Yep. That's what it feels like trying to take these steps. I agree. And if we just pause and get our. Make sure that foundation is firm so we can take a more confident step tomorrow. Mm-hmm. You know, as a future voice. Right. That would really, if, if we could just learn to be patient,
Chris Wood: you know? Well, and you bring up a good point and that is like coaching.
I [00:17:00] think that coaching also was a huge proponent of me understanding this a little better as well. Cuz like it's at this point in these, at these, in these moments. I can bring these conversations to my coach. Mm-hmm. Right? Like I didn't, I listened to a lot of podcasts, but I also had a coach, you know?
Mm-hmm. So it's like my coach, um, Oftentimes I can call and have this conversation, right. You know, and say, Hey, this is what I'm frustrated with. Mm- hmm. Why is this frustrating me right now?
Jason Kempf: Right. And I, and I wanna say, be sure you interview your coaches. Yeah. All right. Completely spend time understanding their mindset and where they go.
Yeah. Um, because if they're just a coach that is all about up and to the right, you'll, you'll feel frustrated. Yep. Because if you don't get. Then it's because you didn't implement their steps. Right? Yeah. Right. And so it's somebody who will journey with you. Cuz I'm, there's some
Chris Wood: personality stuff that goes on there. Right's, why? I had a, I love the
Jason Kempf: five voices. Yeah. I had a coach, um, that I [00:18:00] met with briefly who, you know, was like, find the two or three things that only you can do. Mm-hmm. And this is a great leadership principle that when you have the opportunity to work on your business and you have that team around you, what are the two or three things that only you can do?
What's the gold that you bring to your. And focus on those things. Right. Focus 80% of your time on your gold. Right. And I was like, I'm juggling seven or eight things, right? I don't know how to focus on the two or three. And I was like, I'm just juggling, juggling, juggling. And he's like, w, eventually you drop a ball, right?
And I'm like, well, sure, yeah. You know, one thing falls to the wayside or whatever. And he's like, right, what do you do? And I was like, well, I pick it up and I start juggling again. Mm-hmm. And he said, stop picking the ball up. He said, well, if somebody cares about that thing getting done, they'll pick it up and start juggling it.
And I walked away going, oh, that's brilliant. Mm-hmm. And then the next week I was like, what? Right. Like there's no [00:19:00] how, nobody even knows that what, how, how this doesn't work, you know? Right. And so, you know, I, I just walked away from that moment going, I, there's got to be more of a process mm- hmm. To get from A to B.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Completely. And so, Next week we, we should talk about that process a little more. Yeah, let's do that. About what are the things that, as
leaders we can be working on today to prepare us for that step tomorrow. Mm- hmm. Okay. Um, you know, we touched on five voices in communication, but let's talk about that a little bit more.
Okay. Next episode. You wanna do that? Yeah. Sounds good. Because,
Chris Wood: okay. I know this is, this has gotten, uh, we're running out of time. Yeah. But,
Jason Kempf: so, moral of the story today, people, um, y'all, it's not black. It's not, it's not in or on. You're, it's a process. It's a growing process of giving 1%, taking that next right step today to grow toward the direction you wanna be.
Mm-hmm. Right. Totally agree. Yeah. So don't beat yourselves up. Yep. You're okay. We're all in this together. Yeah. And if you're feeling frustrated,
Chris Wood: we feel your
Jason Kempf: pain. And we're not, we're not [00:20:00] knocking the books, we're not knocking the coaches, we're not knocking any of those. It's actually great advice. It
Chris Wood: is.
It's. How to manage that advice, I
Jason Kempf: guess is what it comes down to. Well, we can't implement 12 chapters in one day.
Chris Wood: Right. I mean, well, and you can read, I mean, I don't even know how many times, how many other books people read, but I can try to squeeze in about one a month. But I also know that I can't, it doesn't matter if I read the whole book or not.
I can't implement the whole book. Right. In one month.
Jason Kempf: It could take you a year to implement one book, for sure. Right, right. And that's. And I'm, I'm there. It's okay. I'm there. It's okay. Hey, we're with you guys. We're fighting for your highest good. Go out fight for somebody else's highest good too. For sure.
Join us and, uh, hop over. Leading is serving.com or uh, uncommons network.com. I don't think we mentioned that earlier about the groups. That's how you sign up for a group. The Mastermind. The mastermind, yeah. Peer, peer Mentoring. Yep. You, so commons network.com. All right.
Chris Wood: Yep. Make sure you reach out and, and get involved with that cuz
we are getting ready to launch.
Um, and we, like you [00:21:00] said, we had, we had one full group, if not a second. We have at least, I think we're starting on our second, second group. Yeah. I think we're gathering. Yeah. Super excited about those. Get in touch. Um, let us know if you have any questions. Shoot us an email. Mm-hmm. Leave us a voicemail. All those options on the, uh, leading servant.com.
Jason Kempf: That's right. Y'all guys. Y'all guys, you guys, boy, I just joined two regions of the US in one, two words. That's awesome. Hey, you guys have a great
Chris Wood: day. Bye-bye.