Creating Success in Your Career – This Will Be Eye-Opening!

Welcome to the missing secret Podcast. I'm Kelly Hatfield

Hey, and I'm John Mitchell. So we have an interesting topic today, creating success in your career. And this will be eye opening. And just to set this up a little bit. So as some of you may remember, I became an entrepreneur when I was 30 years old, and I started out as a CPA, and I was in seven different businesses in my 30s and 40s. And as I look back on that, one of the problems I saw is that I really wasn't emotionally connected to any of those businesses, and like I was in a variety things. I started out in real estate development and built, like 300 apartments, and then evolved into banking. Then I bought a restaurant that ultimately became voted most romantic restaurant in Dallas. And that was totally cool, totally fun thing. And we had a lot of celebrities coming. Even the White House called me and George Bush came to our restaurant. Totally fun. I got into personalized children's books for a couple of years, and you're just different different things. But I was never emotionally connected to the business. Because all I really want when I became an entrepreneur, I like, I just want to get enough money so I don't have to work. I want to create financial security. And I see being an entrepreneur is the easier path for this. And I'm going to get into in a minute, if you're an employee and and you're not doing the entrepreneur track, but, but so stay, stay with us on this. But so I'd look at that and go, Oh, okay, so never committed to, never emotionally committed to any of the businesses. And then when I turned 50, I got into the reverse mortgage business, which, as you know, was also at the same time that I figured out the secret to Think Grow Rich and develop the 12 minute a day technique, but the reverse mortgage business was was different. I was connected to that emotionally because I had seen, well, my my dad had died when I was 24 and so over the years, I'd seen financial advisors coming after my mom trying to get her to invest in

this or invest in that. And they clearly did not have my mom's best interest at art and so that I found irritating. So when I got in the reverse mortgage business, which is basically only four people, 62 and hold her to pull some of their equity out of their house without selling their house, I'm like, Well, I'm just going to treat every every customer like they were my own, mom or dad. And so I was really connected to that and and it felt good to help people like my mom and dad and so I guess the lesson of this is you have got to be whatever you're doing. You have to be emotionally connected to the mission of your business. And Kelly, what do you say? Do you buy that? What do you think about that?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, specifically speaking about entrepreneurship, it's hard. It's not for the faint of heart, you know. And so you really do need to be very connected to your why, you know, and the emotional connection point, you know, because it's too easy, you know, to when things get tough, to, you know, there's lots of obstacles, there's lots of things that come up. It's too easy to get sidetracked or, you know, to give up. You know that so many businesses fail, and one of the reasons, I think, specifically, is, you know, people not being very super clear and connected to their why and to that emotional connection point. You know, I think it's so important for lots of different reasons for you're being fulfilled, you know, and what you do and, you know, there's so many things, but I think the, one of the key things for me as an entrepreneur is when you're when I'm so much more closely connected to that why it makes the really challenging and the hard things that you're going through you can push through because you're have a lot of clarity and A lot of motion around why you're doing this, right?

So, so how are you connected emotionally to the recruiting business?

Yeah, I think I'm, I'm super lucky because I had an opportunity to start as an employee, you know? And I did that and worked for a company for 13 years before I started my own firm, right? I was super lucky that I. I fell into something that I knew right out of the gate, that I loved, and how I'm connected to this is we all know, I think everybody who's listening has been in a position before that they don't like that's not fulfilling. Have had leadership that sucks. You know, whatever the case is, but your career, whether you're an entrepreneur, or whether you're an employee, is such an important part of your life and impacts the quality of your life. When you are unfulfilled or you do not like what you're doing from a profession, it ripples out into every other area of your life. Your relationships are impacted by it. You know. The way you interact with the world is impacted by it, you know. And so I love the difference that we can make by getting somebody into a position that they feel, that they feel fulfilled in. And then, on the flip side, I love working with companies and helping companies achieve their goals through making the right strategic hires. So I get a ton of satisfaction around you know, that element where people are in the job that they're supposed to be in, and the company is thriving as a result of having the right pieces in place from a from an employee standpoint. And so that's my emotional connection. I love how it ripples out into the world, how when you place somebody in a position that they feel fulfilled in, that it the way they interact with their kids, the way they interact in their home, with their spouse, like or their partner, it impacts everything in a positive way. And so that is what I love the most, is just again, you know, we talk about this all the time, and I don't want to get too Woo, woo, but it's just a fact in the way I think energy begets energy, you know, it's about like the energy that

being in the career you're supposed to be in, what the energy that moves through the world as a result of that? And so that's where my emotional connection is.

You know, that is a great explanation, I think, of being connected to to your business. And of course, I'm maybe I'm a little biased because of our relationship, but I think that, like, I have a friend of mine that has a great personality that I've told you about, yeah, and unlike for the very reasons you just stated I said, the recruitment business is a great Business, and she's sort of going in that direction. But I guess the lesson that I wanted to convey that that I wish somebody had said to me when I was say 30 at launching into an entrepreneur ship, you know, embrace being emotionally connected to the business, because if you are not, you won't be successful, and it won't be fulfilling. And you'll find this interesting. So my stepson, who is a musician, and just came back from LA, and he is a very talented musician, he is now living with us, and he is now starting to understand that being a musician will not pay the bills. And as I've been thinking about this, I'm like, you know, he's 38 years old, and you know, like 30 years older than he is, and I see how much I sort of know that I didn't know when I was 38 and I'm like, and because I didn't have kids of my own, I'm like, I am going to really take will and make this my project to get him pointed in the right direction, career wise, in terms of making money, I support him staying a musician, because that's his passion, and I love that, but, but he's got to have something else. And where we have sort of landed on is getting into the longevity space. And he's totally into longevity. He's healthy, he's into health and and all that stuff. So it's a fit for him. And like, he could do real estate, which is what his family background is, but he doesn't have any passion for real estate, so no sense doing that. And so I am orchestrating him getting into the longevity space, because I'm totally into my health and and I've discovered some things the last couple years there were very eye

opening, and I'm orchestrating this with the head coaches here at the University of Texas. And so in that, that sort of situation, there may be, ultimately, a job for him, but the way we're starting it, as I was telling will, I said, So, read a book. Read this, when I consider the Bible on longevity, by Peter Attia. You know who Peter

Attia is? Yeah, he's great. So it's just, you just had an interview with, I think, Laura Donaldson on 60 minutes or so, yeah, yeah. And that was absolutely. It, yeah. Well, and,

You know, think about 60 minutes. If they have a episode on on longevity, whoever they're going to interview is going to be considered the expert, yeah. And so he does a 20 minute episode on 60 minutes. It's fabulous. And you know, one of the things he said in there. Just this getting a little off topic, but it's so fascinating. The first thing he says in that interview is that when you turn 75 years old, you fall off a cliff in terms of your health. And he says, If you do nothing over the next 10 to 15 years, your mental capabilities and your physical capabilities will decline by 50% and he says, You can ignore that, or you can dial that into what you're doing in terms of exercising and supplements and that type of thing. And so I thought that was so powerful. So I told Will. I said, Okay, take Peter at Tia's book, and that's the Bible. Read it, and it's very thick, like I read it this summer, and I have, like, 23 pages of notes, literally, and because I it was so significant to me. And I'm like, that's all you need to do. Read his book. And then we'll go out and create a speech that's about 45 minutes long on longevity, and you'll become an expert. Create, make yourself an expert, then then teach it. And in that process, maybe you're doing some comments on blogs. You're and and you know you're you're now, you're launching yourself intelligently into this, this industry. And so it's sort of fun to take this idea of starting literally from scratch and launching him into a business he's passionate about. And I, I think that's really the lesson to our audience, is if, if you're in a business that you're not passionate about, get out of it, as blunt as that might sound, and as easy it is for me to say that ultimately, you might as well get out of it again. This is the advice I wish I'd gotten when I was 30 years old or 40 years old even. Do you think that's true, to get out of it, even though you may have 10 years in that business?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think that, you know, obviously you've, you know, I've gone through different periods in my, you know, business, you know, where it's been like, oh, geez, you know, like, just burnout from, you know, three and from all of that. And so I think it's really getting some clarity around what it really is like. And is there a way to, you know, find that love and feeling again, you know, yeah, it would cost that love and feeling, see if you can find out again, if not, if you can't, you know, bring that passion, you know, back and that that connection emotionally to it, then absolutely, and I just think of it this way. I think, you know, everything like, so if you are an entrepreneur, and you're in that place right now, you know, it's like, okay, well, let's start figuring out, like, what are the exit, you know. How can I exit out of this? What would I be, you know, interested in, like, what's the next thing you know? What are some things that you can start doing, you know, to, you know, begin to set the stage for that. And thinking about all the things that you've learned throughout this business that you're going to carry with you to the next one, and right, you know, like, but that you Life's too short being entrepreneurs too frickin hard. So like you better, there better be a close connection to, you know what it is that you're doing in an emotional connection and a passion about it, you know? Or otherwise, it's a tough game. You know what I mean? And life's too short to be, you know? It goes back to what I was just talking about, where I love to find people. It impacts every single aspect and area of your life. How many entrepreneurs I know? How many I've talked to, hundreds of entrepreneurs who are miserable in their personal lives because they're investing everything they have into these businesses, and oftentimes they've lost that connection to their business a long time ago, and they're, you know, and it's just

like, it's not worth it. Figure out what the next plan is, you know, if your own is to be the architect of your of your life, figure out what the next chapter is of your book, so to speak, and then begin to map out, you know, how you're going to move out of the space you're in into, you know, and maybe even it's a offshoot. So like, you can carry some credibility and some of that experience you've had, but, you know, transition it into something that you're more passionate about, but be able to piggyback off of everything that you've gained as a result of having this other business in a similar space. Or maybe it's a maybe it's a parallel space somehow. But right anyway, no, I fully. I wholeheartedly agree with you that if you've lost that connection and that emotional connection to it, and you can't find a way to get it back. And one other thing that I'll say in just talking to people, and I've gone through this myself, actually, sometimes it's not about it isn't about losing the emotional connection. It's about, I don't know what's the right word, just being tired. You know what? I mean, like this, entrepreneurship can be a lonely place sometimes, if you don't the right now, if you don't have the right network, you know, if you are don't have the mind right, the right mindset around what you're doing. Because entrepreneurship is, like, 80% of it is mindset, right? Yeah, yeah. So I think part of that if, like, you've gotten into a dark place personally, because maybe your personal habits, maybe you stopped exercising, although you were exercising before you've stopped exercising or working out other areas of your life, and that's translating to your business. So I would be careful make sure that you do the appropriate analysis around what is it that's like, why am I feeling disconnected to my business, the emotional aspect of my business? Is it the business, or is there something else happening holistically that you need to address first before you make

a decision about your business? Right?

Right? You know, that's a great point, and I think that that's illustrates one of the fundamental problems I see with, with a lot of people, is they're on the treadmill of their life. Yeah, and they, even though it's they're not happy, they won't get off the treadmill to step back and go, What the hell is going on here? You know? I mean, there's so much power in just going, you know, hold the phone. Just, let's stop this, and for the next two weeks, let's say I'm going to assess my life, I'm going to assess my marriage, I'm going to assess my career, I'm going to assess my my health. What are the most important things in my life? What do I like about myself? What I don't like about myself. And just said self assessment is so critical, and I think it fits so well with the think it be it methodology, because the essence of the top of the world on success, Think and Grow Rich, is, hey, just, just step back from your life and create immense clarity about your life. And then, since 95% of your daily actions are unconscious, and those actions are what determine your success, then the second step is you got to feed that clarity, that immense clarity, to yourself every day, and when you do then that makes the right actions happen automatically. That I had no clue about any of that until I got into my 50s, but but the point I'm really making is that just stop your life for some period of time, two weeks, three weeks, and examine it, and then once you have a sort of an idea of where you want to go, then you do the think it be it methodology, and it then it evolves your life. You're reading every day, sort of the direction, and one of the things that that you'll see is, after a few days, if you don't like the direction, it'll cause you to change it a little, and it may tweak it and refine it to where, after some period of time, you're like, Okay, this feels good. And I think back, just just for our audience, when I was in my mid 50s and was

blessed to be making, you know, 25 times the 200 300 grand a year I was making the prior 20 years. That's very analytical about what was different. And I've, I've mentioned this before, but I saw that it was really two things. One, I was doing three high performance skills that I had no clue of when I was in my 30s and 40s, and one of them was being highly organized, where I'm planning my day the night before, in time, blocking my days. Then the second thing I was setting aside time, two times a week to deep think. And the real value of that was it was two times a week to assess reality. What is what is reality telling me relative to what I'm doing, is what I'm doing working? Is it not working? And and I found that was tremendously valuable to check in with reality twice a week. And then the third thing was I became a conduit of learning using a system where I was feeding the wisdom of experts into my head every week in areas that were strategic relative to what I wanted to accomplish. Well, those three things I wasn't doing in in my 30s and 40s, but in my 50s, i. Could because they were having automatically, without thinking from the methodology. But the other thing that I was also going on in our template, we're articulating the six things that I've mentioned before. You know your your strategy for well, your business plan, your strategy for success. So two or three things that move the needle where you want your business to be three years from now, the four or five milestones to get there, and the lichen issue to go to the next level. Well, you know, feeding that to myself every day helped me refine all those things and and one of the things is you, as you do that in your business, like, really think what that strategy for success was like in the reverse mortgage business, my strategy for success was that I systemized the heck out of everything in the business, so that, like when my loan officers were having a conversation. They were by God,

following the script. They weren't winging it, but we were doing that throughout the business to a level that my competition was not doing it, and so we more consistently delivered a strong message to the customer. And that ultimately made us the biggest in Texas and the fourth biggest in the country. But I would say that to you, if you're an entrepreneur and you're doing the methodology, look at what your strategy for success is and make sure it's intelligent in your thinking deeply through it. Because I've seen people, as I've said before, where people would say, on the template, they go, Well, my strategy for success is, is great customer service. Well, come on, you're not thinking deeply, you know. And so I don't know. I mean, if you had to articulate what your strategy for success in the in the recruitment business is, what would you say?

My personal strategy for success in the recruitment business has always been well, and this is specific to this isn't a mission or anything along those lines. It's that I Am. I am, and this goes to where, like my highest value is with my organization. 80% of my time is spent connecting with people, right? So, like, I am, you know, either you know, I'm working with our internal team, I'm talking to clients, I'm talking to candidates. I'm still in, you know, where I'm leveraging every single conversation I have and being able to connect the dots in terms of, like, where, what bucket can this fall into? So that, personally, for me, my highest, you know, use within the company is that I am connecting with people, you know, that's my superpower, and so, and that is, like, the hiring, you know, again. So, like, I'm interviewing internal, you know, I'm making a point where I'm I'm interviewing candidates for internal role for my art bench. So I'm ready to go, as you know. So anyway, I'm not articulating that very well. I don't have my visualization in front of me right this second. But yeah, that I and I understood that once I went through this process of finding a lot of clarity, because I as an entrepreneur, was running around with lists, checking stuff off that had nothing to do with, like, really, the success of what was going to drive the business forward. It is like, like,

I think that that, knowing you, one of the key things is you are high accountability. If you're going to work for you, there's going to be accountability, yeah,

High accountability, a very clear expectations. High accountability, again, requires a level of organization intentionality, like you need to know what is happening each day and what you're doing in each block of time that you're scheduled in. So there's a, you know, they're again, you know, accountability and high organizational skills. And if you're sitting in a recruiting seat, you better be connecting with people in some way, shape or form. You know, for the majority of your day, 80% of your time should be connecting with people

And plus, you are, by your nature, a learner, and so you're learning from other people more successful than you, and you're taking those ideas and bringing them back to your your business. I mean, those, those are examples of of having a strategy for success that is intelligent. And I talk about, so what if you're not a entrepreneur? Well, no problem. The way I would sort of look at it, though, is that everybody's an entrepreneur. And if you're working for somebody, your your career is your business and and you're managing that, that career, and maybe you have one customer. Whoever you work for, but if, if you're an employee, you have to look at it like, Okay, so what's my what's my business plan for the next few years? Where do I want to be? How am I going to get there? What skills do I have to get to to move up? How do I need to hold myself accountable. What are the milestones? Where do I want to be in three years? And what are the milestones to get there? What maybe positions do I need to to attain? But it's the all the safe stuff applies whether you're an employee or or an entrepreneur. And so

Absolutely, yeah. And I think you know one of the things as an employee, and this is big as an as an entrepreneur as well, but you know, when you're mapping that out, the other thing too, is getting either a mentor in the company, yeah, you know, making sure that the people who need to know what your aspirations are and what your goals are know about those aspirations and goals, you know, because you'll be surprised at when you vocalize this and put that out into the universe, how things begin to fall into place and how people will will or or orchestrate themselves to the pieces will start to fall into place more easily when you've got it out, you know, and have verbalized what it is that you're Looking to achieve. You know, I found that in business like, when I'm clear about, like, what my goals are, when I'm sharing what our goals are, what our challenges are, what projects, you know, we've got coming up, or aspirations, you know, even if it's in, you know, with my friend group or with mentors, or, you know, with other client, with clients or other businesses, it's so fun to watch how people would be like, Oh, I actually know somebody I can connect you with about that and like, what will happen as a result of you having clarity around what you want and then sharing that clarity with others. You know, it can't be understated. It's huge,

Boy, I completely agree with that, that idea of getting a mentor, and maybe it's even just your boss. I mean, I would fall out of my chair if I had an employee come to me and say, John, you know, I love this company, and I love the mission, and I'm a believer at it. And here's where I'd like to be in this company in three years and and here's what I'm willing to do to get there, I would have like, oh my god, I'm mugging this person right now, which is that attitude, because that's not how most people are rolling. And so if you roll that way, you're at an advantage. And maybe one thing to wrap this up, I was thinking about sort of big picture, maybe the 30,000 foot view of the power of this 12 minute day methodology. And I see that it's really two things. The first thing is it makes you enjoy your life more, because life is a matter of perspective, and when you're reading the succinct articulation of your desired life, you are getting yourself immense perspective on on your life. What are you doing? Why you're doing it? The mind thrives on order. So So inevitably, just the simple reading as your life GPS template every morning makes you feel feel good and enhances your enjoyment. And then the fact that you're now acknowledging that your daily actions to determine your success, and 95% of them, are unconscious, meaning you therefore have to take control of your unconscious mind. That's what the feeding of the succinct articulation of your desired life does, is it is it then makes more of those unconscious actions that are on autopilot and fear based and reactive, and makes them under the control of your intelligence and intellect. And the effect of that is you just do more of your intentions, way more of your intentions, using your conscious mind intelligence. Then, then is currently the case. You're moving that that 95 five to probably 30% conscious, 70% unconscious, and and that's fine, because there's a lot of things that can stay

unconscious that it just doesn't matter. But when you move the conscious from 5% to 30% total game changer. So just something to think about.

Think about that little nugget. Or, yeah, leave you today.

That's right, that little, tiny nugget. Okay, until next time, we'll see you.