Make time for family

Make time for family

The busier you get the harder it is to “make” time for what's important.  

My son started a project truck 1937 international.  I am proud of him for doing what he has accomplished so far.  He has a ton of work to do but it has been great for us to bond and works together.  

I had a business coach recently tell me “your spending too much time on fun stuff and need to focus on the business”  

Needless to say, he is no longer my coach.  

You see he has a dog, a girlfriend, and lives in an apartment in a big city.  He has no clue what is important to me because he doesn't have it.  

The whole reason I work is to provide for my family.  Not to fund awesome trips or late nights at the bar.  It’s so I can spend time where it is really important.  With my wife and kids.  

It hit me hard the other day, my son is 14 we only have him in our house for about another 4 years.  Then he is going to want to go do his thing.  My youngest son will only be in our house four about 10 years until he wants to move out and start doing his thing.  

10 years isn't very long and 4 years will be gone before we know it.  

Here's what we are going to do to make sure that we spend time where we need to.

First, I made family time a priority. When I can, I stop in the early afternoon to spend time working with each kid on a project they want.  My oldest son is 1937 international, my next sons are playing video games, my daughter projects are (crafting) working the garage on a gocart, and my youngest son is the go-cart we are building as a family from an old lawnmower.  

Yes it takes time to do these projects, but it's worth it. Every second of every day that I spend with them is a better investment than being able to give them $$$.  

Let’s not forget about my wife.  It was a tough adjustment from working for someone else to working for ourselves.  We both had to learn how to handle it.  What I realized was that I needed to stop more often and spend time with her.  We started going on lunch dates at least once a month and spending time talking about things other than the business in the middle of the day.  

The best thing we did was to start dreaming of the future together.  There was a time where she had her dreams and I had mine, they didn't always match.  Now we dream together and work together to accomplish those dreams.  

One of our dreams is to travel more as a family.  We have always strived to give our family experiences, not stuff.  So our newest goal is before our oldest is out of the house to travel to all 50 states and at least one foreign country (not Canada or Mexico).  We are well underway on accomplishing that.  

The moral of this whole thing is that you have to make your priorities a priority.  It's not always going to be easy, and sometimes it might seem almost downright impossible.  

Find ways to make it work though. You might have to be a little creative, but I know you can do it.  

Get out there and spend some time doing what matters.

Trusting God

Trusting God isn’t always easy.

Is it?

I fail at that every day.  In fact, I fail multiple times every day if we want to be honest.  

One thing that I have learned is that no matter what God has our best interests at heart.  He truly wants to see us succeed!

Never forget that.

Luck Chapter 11 verse 11 says, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?”

As a father, I know that this is true!

So why do we (I) struggle to trust that God has it all under control?  

The only answer that I have is that Satin is always at work for everyone.  He wants us to doubt that God can and will come through for us.  

That's how satan works.  He gets us to start doubting God’s love for us.  What happens when we doubt?  Fear creeps in and starts taking over our mind, body, and eventually soul.  

How do I get better at trusting God wholeheartedly?

The first step is to get your mind in the right place.  Mindset is the key to success.  If we don't have a positive mindset then we need to change it.  

There are so many ways to change my mindset.  The thing that works the best for me is prayer!  I pray constantly for God to give me the mindset that I need to accomplish his tasks.  

After that, We have to have an open mind and heart to allow God to take full control.  

In a different season of life, I traveled for work, a lot.  I would fly out every other Monday and fly home that Friday.  Some months I was home on weekends only (which I was thankful for).  We persevere through this for 3.5 years.  

You should know that my wife was married for over 10 years before that and the longest we had spent away from each other was 2 consecutive nights.  This was a tough change, to say the least.  

I hated leaving the house on Monday mornings.

What kept me going was knowing that God needed me to be wherever I was going.  He used me in every situation.  It's true.  He would introduce me to new people and start the conversation that needed to happen.

I had to change my mindset to know that God had plans for me.  He gave me a fish and I didn’t realize it until I opened my eyes to see.  

The key here is to know in your heart that God has it all under control.

When a client wants to back out of a contract, God is doing it for a reason.  He needs us to learn how to handle the situation now so we can grow.  

When we can't land that “Giant” client, it's because God has bigger plans for us.

When we don't get the job we really, really, really want, it's because God has a better one waiting for us.

Everything happens for a reason.  The sooner we realize that God is a friend, he is always looking out for us the sooner we can stop worrying about why we are where we are and trust God’s plan and timing.

Is coaching right for you?

I’m sure that if you have listened to podcasts from almost any entrepreneur they make you feel that paying for coaching is the only way to succeed.  Or at least succeed faster.

I thought the same thing.  So I hired my first coach and didn’t hold anything back. 

Here’s the thing, I hired a fitness coach and I’m in the transportation industry.  This guy didn’t know anything about my industry at all!  Like he didn’t even know that it took a CDL to drive a truck.  

What was I thinking? 

Hiring him to help me get more results?  

He had awesome results when it came working one on one with a person, but had no clue what it took to get a contract with a business, or the amount of time and effort it took to land those contracts. He was used to getting massive results from his clients because he taught them how to sell to individuals.  

The key here isn’t that coaches cant help.  The key is that you need to find the right coach!

Don’t just listen to your friends and people you reach out to.  Take time and research before you spend your hard-earned $$.  

When I first started the conversation with these guys it was all roses.  This thing is that they were running me through a sales pitch.  I carefully paid attention to it because I knew what was going on.  but I still got sucked into it.  They didn’t ask me any questions about my real goals.  And at the time I didn’t realize that they were using a script to get me through the door.  

Here’s the thing about me.  

I hate scripts.

As a kid, we used to put on 1 act plays.  The directors always “hated” me because I would constantly go off-script to add humor to the production.  

It took me a long time to realize it, but God was telling me never to script anything in my business.  He was giving me the foundation to keep it personal.  The way business should be.  

So do I think that you need to hire a coach to help you get to the next level?  

YES.

But make sure they are the right fit for you.  Do some research.  Get them to give a free month of their teaching and see where that month takes you.  Don’t afraid to fire them and find one that fits your style better.  

The biggest key that I want you to hear is that I’m not upset that my first coach(s) didn’t perform the way I needed them to.  I used that as a learning experience so I knew what to look for in a coach.  

Before you hire a coach, listen to their podcast, read their blogs, dig into their personal life (a little) to make sure that they will be a good fit.  Then after you start don’t be afraid to change and ask for a refund.  Think about it, if you don’t provide the services to your customers that they expect wouldn’t they expect a refund?

I hope that this helps you. Get out there and find the right coach for you!

Stay safe and keep the rubber side down.

Dan

Trust as a leader

I grew up hearing the trust isn't given it's earned.

 While I agree with that, I also disagree with it.

I agree with the premise that trust can be lost extremely easily. all it takes is one mistake and all the trust you earn is lost.

The reason I disagree with it is that we have to have some trust to survive. I trust it when I go to the store I'm not going to get shot at. I trust it when I get in my car brakes are going to work.  I trust a bit when I go to work in the morning my teammates are going to be there to help me and we're going to work together to accomplish the project.

You see trust is one of the most important things that you can have in life and it's not always learning sometimes you have to give it.

As a leader, trust is extremely important.

I'm sure that we've all worked for bosses they didn't trust. Think back, do they make you feel? Did you want to go to work? Did you put your whole heart and everything that you were doing? Did you give your best?

The answer for me is no. When my boss didn't trust me I didn't perform as well as I could have or should have because I knew it would never be good enough. When they question my every action they continue to strive hard to be the best person I could be, no.

As a leader, if you don't trust your people then you're not getting the most you can get. 

Not everybody is going to be able to relate to this but a lot of you will. 

As a father or mother do you trust your kids? If you ask them to do something, do you trust that it will get done?

Me, I do. I trust my kids wholeheartedly that they will try their best to get it done. I also know if they make mistakes, and I know it won't be perfect, and I also know that I could probably do it better and faster. what does a teach them if I don't trust them?

As a child how did you feel when your dad trusted you to do something? I still remember the first time my dad gave me a screwdriver and said go clean the carburetor out on this lawnmower. I was scared to death what's so excited. after I got done came out and he looked at it and we tore the carburetor back apart and we put in a few pieces that I didn't buy get put together right but throughout the whole process never belittled me never talk down to me. All we did was explain how I could have done better, he explained but it's hard to remember how everything goes back together the first time you do something.

The point is trust goes a long Wings Frost can make your teamwork together. The lack of trust will tear your team apart.

I work for a boss one time and on a team of three people, he's somehow divided the entire team for we all dislike each other. He thought Dubai feeding each Amore goes individually not as a team he will accomplish more out of us. He would create a rivalry between this and it would cause us to create inner competitions. What you did was took a team of three people who are fairly tight all my chores all part oh, and broke us down where we didn't even want to see each other anymore.

Because of his lack of trust in all of us his team failed.

Have you ever been in a leadership position where you had to trust somebody completely new somebody you never met before in your life?

The next time that you get put into a situation where you trust somebody, trust me. Don't hesitate to give them the benefit of the doubt. Know that they can accomplish the task just as well as you could do it.  they might even do better than you could you never know.