The episode centers on the pivotal notion that individuals are the X factor in both business and life, constantly surprising us in myriad ways. We delve into the profound impact of small actions and gestures, illustrating how micro changes can yield macro results, akin to the delicate adjustments made while sailing. Our conversations reveal that even the most seemingly insignificant interactions can resonate deeply, shaping our lives and the lives of others in unexpected manners. We share personal anecdotes that underscore the importance of being mindful of the advice we offer and the gestures we extend, recognizing that our influence can ripple outwards in ways we might not initially perceive. Ultimately, we encourage our listeners to appreciate the power of small things, urging them to be intentional in their interactions, as these can lead to significant outcomes in the broader tapestry of our professional and personal lives. The dialogue between Ben and Sia serves as a profound exploration of the subtle yet significant elements that influence our professional and personal lives. They commence with the assertion that individuals are the unpredictable 'X factor' in any business environment, a theme that resonates throughout their discussion. This unpredictability is portrayed as a double-edged sword, capable of yielding both remarkable and disappointing outcomes. The hosts adeptly transition into the notion of 'micro actions' leading to 'macro impacts,' drawing parallels to the precision required in sailing, where minute adjustments can dramatically alter one's trajectory in competitive settings. This metaphor not only illustrates the importance of attention to detail but also serves as a call to action for listeners to reflect on their own behaviors and the potential consequences of their daily choices. As the conversation unfolds, Ben and Sia delve into the implications of mentorship, sharing personal anecdotes that highlight the enduring effects of guidance and support from figures such as teachers. They emphasize that the relationships we cultivate can have lasting impressions on our paths, often in ways we may not immediately recognize. The hosts candidly recount instances where their advice did not resonate as intended, prompting a reflection on the complexities of offering guidance. They articulate the necessity of being attuned to the context and the recipient's needs when dispensing advice, acknowledging that even well-meaning suggestions can sometimes lead to unintended outcomes. Ultimately, the episode encapsulates a powerful message about the impact of small gestures and actions. Ben and Sia encourage their audience to recognize the potential of seemingly insignificant interactions to create positive change in others' lives. They advocate for a culture of empathy and attentiveness, urging listeners to embrace the opportunities presented by daily interactions to uplift and inspire those around them. Their parting words resonate with a reminder that every small action carries weight, and in the grand tapestry of life, these moments can lead to extraordinary outcomes.

Takeaways:

• In business and life, the unpredictable nature of people serves as the ultimate X factor that influences outcomes significantly.
• Small adjustments in our actions can yield remarkable results, akin to minute changes in sailing direction leading to victory.
• The butterfly effect illustrates how seemingly insignificant decisions can have profound implications on various aspects of our lives.
• Mentorship is a reciprocal relationship where both the mentor and mentee learn and grow from their exchanges.
• It is crucial to recognize that advice may not always be perfect, as our perspectives are often limited by our own experiences and biases.
• The power of small gestures in professional interactions should not be underestimated, as they can leave lasting impressions on others.

Links referenced in this episode:

• IamBenBaker.com
• BrilliantBeammedia.com

If there's one thing we've learned about business and life is that people are the X factor.

They constantly surprise us.

Both in amazing ways and not so much.

We're Ben and Sia, and welcome to the Gnaw this Business Bites podcast.

This show is all about real life, things we all deal with every day, how they relate to business, and how to make some sense out of our daily chaos.

Welcome to the show.

Foreign.

Welcome back to another episode of Non this Business Bites.

I'm Ben and this is Sia.

Here's something that I was talking to a customer about.

The early day, micro actions, macro impact, small shifts that matter.

It's amazing how the little things make all the difference.

I don't know how many people in this room are sailors, but I grew up on the ocean, and it's amazing how a small tweak in direction, getting the sails just perfect, lining up the rudder, you know, perfectly.

All those little things, making sure there's not kelp on the side of the boat, can pick up a knot or two.

And when you're racing, a knot or two can make the difference between second, third, fifth, or tenth place.

So it's those little things that matters.

Those little things, whether it's in our personal life, whether it's in our work life, whether it's at our entertainment, and we look at it, we sit there and say, okay, what are the little things that we could just pay a little bit more attention to and we can do just a little bit better that are going to have huge impact?

So, Sia, let's nod this.

I mean, what's that called?

The butterfly effect, right?

Pretty much, yeah.

You know, or.

Or my personal favorite, don't make seeing.

Oh, my gosh, the grabbing hands.

Grab all they can.

Everything counts in large amounts.

Everything counts in small amounts.

So everything that you do has a great impact elsewhere, whether you realize it or not, intentionally or not intentionally.

And it's man alive, you don't realize what you.

I think sometimes we don't realize our effect on people in general.

Yes, absolutely.

I mean, whoosh.

Like, whoosh.

Like, I think teachers probably, you know, they get students day in, day out, and they never know where their kids end up landing next in life.

And then you get the.

I remember when we were graduating high school seniors, we went back to our sixth grade teacher because that teacher was our favorite teacher.

And we all come walking in and she just started crying, like, instantaneously.

And she just said, oh, my goodness.

She goes, I remember you guys.

And she just said, we.

We Were that class to her, we were special.

Good, bad and ugly.

Yes.

Oh, all the above.

We were to her.

But it was just really lovely to just, you know, she sat back and you know, again, we're seniors, we're about to be 18.

But she talked to us like adults.

And I loved that about her because she just, she, she.

When we were in sixth grade, she, she, she challenged us in a lot of different ways.

And boy, when she, we, we pushed her buttons.

We tried so hard in so many ways, but she loved the, she loved the challenge and then she would give it back.

And I think that's so much, a little bit of my, my edge.

I think I have so much.

Mrs. Barton, I love you.

I heard she has since passed on, unfortunately.

But yeah, that, that small impact.

You don't think you do.

You know, it's funny.

Okay.

I have to tell you because you got me in memory.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Small, small thing, but I remember and it's a childhood memory with Mrs. Barton.

She had this locker thing that she had in her, like, it's like the cubby.

She had a mirror on the inside and she was a tall lady.

She was like six foot tall.

And I just remember every day after lunch, we'd come back into our class, she come in.

I always see her touching up her lipstick.

And I remember making a comment because you and I haven't met in person, but I'm pre tomboy.

Like I, if I have my choice, I'm wearing sneakers, pants, T shirts, concert T shirts typically.

And I just remember walking up, I go, Mrs. Barton, like why do you put that.

And it was always like a spicy, like a lipstick color, by the way.

Yeah.

Like, why are you, why you like lipstick?

Lip syncing, Whatever.

I said whatever.

And she just looked at, she goes, honey, it, it may not be your cup of tea, but always know this makes me feel good.

So find something that makes you feel good.

This is what I do.

And just that.

That way, find what makes you feel good.

And I was like, I like that.

And so because of her, I'm partially deaf now because I go to concerts.

So there you go.

Because you do what you like best and little message.

Now I am deaf.

Thank you.

Mrs. BARTON I'm kidding.

But I am partially, I probably am partially deaf.

Anyway, that's the story.

But it was just one of those little things that stuck with me.

It's like always be you.

Do you.

You know what I mean?

And it stuck with me.

So I never thought about until now.

She is one of the major key People that has always been in the back of my brain of that.

So, yeah.

Little thing.

Ah, okay.

Yeah.

It's interesting because we all had teachers like that.

I mean, do you remember the movie Mr. Holland's Opus?

Oh, my gosh.

Did you ever watch it with.

With Dreyfus.

Richard Dreyfuss.

Richard Dreyfus.

And it's all about.

He believes that his life has been wasted.

He spent 35 or 40 years as a teacher, and he felt that his life was on and on.

The day that he retired, his students got together for 40 years, who he taught music to for 40 years and played for him his opus that he had been writing for 40 years and never, never got to actually be a conc.

Conductor.

And his, you know, students got together and played this for him.

And it was the sense of joy and excitement and, you know, everything that went with it to sit there and say, I made a difference in these people's lives.

And there was.

I think there was the governor of the state.

I think, you know, there was.

There was.

People had gone on and doing amazing things with their lives, but they always remember Mr. Holland and the lessons that they learned in music class.

And I think we all have people like this.

And that's why I mentor.

I mean, one of the reasons I mentor is, first of all, I get as much out of it as I give.

I learned so much from the kids that I mentor.

Things that different perspective, different ideologies, different philosophies of life, different way of looking at problems.

And it makes me better.

But at the same time, I get to sit there and say, look, I've got a lifetime of falling down holes and figuring out how to get out of them and being able to impart just some of that knowledge.

So maybe they don't fall down the same holes that I do.

They could go discover their own holes.

But at least I sit there and say, hey, listen, watch out for this one, this one, this one, this one and this one.

That one's a killer.

That one you're going to break your neck on and having those discussions, you know, you never know.

You know, because sometimes you.

You lose track of people, and sometimes you never know whether what happened to these people and what happened in their lives and where did they go and what do they do.

But the people that you do run across 10, 15, 20 years later that still remember those conversations, it's an amazing feeling.

It's absolutely an amazing feeling.

And, you know, it's.

It's not that I turn somebody into, you know, an NHL Player.

It's not like I turn somebody into the, you know, the President of the United States.

It's not like I turn into somebody into a CEO of Fortune 500 company.

But maybe I made their life a little bit easier and maybe I gave them a little bit of wisdom that enabled them to go off and do amazing things.

Or maybe they passed that information off to somebody else who went and did amazing things.

Yeah, that's the way I try to live my life.

Because the more we can give back, the more that we can, you know, we can create these little moments for people.

You enable people to have the skills that they maybe didn't have before that are going to enable them to go off and do great things.

You know, I think, I think in our, In a, in, in a.

All things world, happy world, in a fantasy world, that's the word I'm looking for.

Man, I'm having fun today.

Disney, Disney, Disney.

You know, in a Disney fantasy world, you know, you'd like to think that, especially if you're the mentor versus mentee, you'd like to think that the wisdom you're imparting is, is always good wisdom, good information.

Right.

And so you just got me thinking of like, okay, let's, let's look, we're all angels and roses and all that, and we like to walk the pony and ride whatever and all that good stuff.

But let's, let's twist this a little bit.

Sure.

Do you have a, and do you have a recollection of a time where you've given advice and it wasn't exactly the best advice?

Because I know I have one.

But I'm curious, do you have one that pops up for you?

You know what?

I've certainly given people advice of how to handle a situation and had it backfire on people.

There's, there's no question about that.

Where, where either I didn't have all the information or I read the room wrong or I read, read the person wrong and suggested that somebody do something, they went ahead and did it and it didn't turn out the way that they wanted to.

Absolutely.

I'm sure we all have those situations, you know, in life.

You know, nothing with huge ramifications, nothing with, you know, no one ever got fired.

Nobody ever.

No one ever lost their job.

No one, no one ever died because of it.

But, you know, I have given people advice and said, you know what?

This is probably what I would do in this situation, and it would be given the information I had, that's exactly what I would have Done.

And we all need to realize that sometimes advice is not perfect because we don't have a crystal ball.

No, no, we're not all knowing.

We're not all knowledgeable.

And what we can do is we can give the best information based on the.

The information we have at the time and the biases that we have within our.

Within our own psyche.

You just nailed it.

Yeah, like, so, like what I was thinking, this one situation, it was advisement that I was given for my mentor, for me to give to my mentee.

And I'm not gonna lie to you, this is where if you're gonna give advisement, trust your gut and your intuition.

If you think whatever.

Whatever information you give to someone and you are not comfortable with it or you're not at peace with it, that's a sign that it's not for you to give.

Right?

And it could be the right information, but if you just have a misgiving, maybe you're not the right person to deliver that particular message.

Right?

And yeah, so I had a situation where I had to not had to.

It was very strongly encouraged by my mentor to give advisement to my mentee about something related to their, you know, their position.

And I hated it.

I hated.

I didn't know how to give it to them.

I wasn't feeling it.

It wasn't authentic to me.

And well, sure, Scheissers, it was not received well.

And it was a lesson for me as I saw how they literally rejected it.

And then I felt like a jerk, right?

Because I just gave feedback on something that was an intangible thing, by the way.

It wasn't necessarily 100 tied to the job, but it was like job adjacent, if that.

I'm trying to be vague on purpose because I don't want to identify the situation, but I think that's where the small things matters.

Because that little situation for me was a wake up call to you got to trust who you are.

Because now it's been 20 years and I still regret having that conversation with that person.

Now, the funny thing is, I talked to that individual literally about three or four months ago, and we'd been on and off because we're colleagues.

And I had.

I actually mentioned to them, I said, hey, I just want, you know, I'm kind of bothered I said this to you and they freaking didn't have a clue what a hell.

I said they didn't remember.

And I'm like, son of a C. Cook.

But the thing is, like I said, like you say, the smallest things matter the Most because that mattered to me.

And I, I said my piece, said sorry.

And of course, they looked at me like I was, you know, had three heads.

But, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, isn't that the craziest thing that what we have in stories we tell in our heads, too, that become a small story into a big story?

But.

Yeah, but it really has shaped me to be more mature about giving advice because sometimes it's not always welcome.

Peeps.

Right.

Or get, you know, whatever advisement you give may not always be welcome.

Well, and that's what I'm a big believer.

It says, this is, you know, would you like some advice?

Yeah, yeah.

And I preface this.

Look, this is my opinion.

Take it for what you're paying for it, you know, which is usually free.

And, you know, my attitude is, is that, look, here's what I would do in this situation based on this, this, this, this and this.

Here, here's how I see this issue.

And this is what it is.

And this is.

This is what I would do in the situation.

Because you, you know, because you asked for my opinion.

I tend to not give a lot of advice unless it's asked for.

And for me, it's you.

I don't.

I won't.

Want to sit there and cloud somebody's judgment and, you know, fog up their reality with my biases, etc, you know, but that it all depends on building those relationships of trust.

And I think it's.

It's important for you to know that.

Say, hey, listen, not everything I'm going to say is perfect.

I'm not perfect.

I, you know, I am going to make mistakes.

And we have to know that about ourselves and we have to embrace that about ourselves, is that we have to be careful about the advice that we give.

Yeah.

And the question is, is it something that I'd want to see or is it something that's the best advice for them?

Yes, true that.

You know, what you just remind me of, too, is, is like, okay, we're talking about advice that we give and whatnot, but it's the same thing.

Could be gestures, right?

Small gestures.

I remember early on in my career in sales, I had to give a quarterly business review.

So you have to stand up and present your quarter to your team.

And there's nothing for me, at least, that I can present all day long.

I presented in front of Clark 11,000, I think was my highest I've ever presented to you.

Okay.

But there's something about a room of your peers or, you know, family members were like, oh, My God, they are so judging me.

And.

And there's no.

This is not the.

Oh, my God, they're judging me.

No, they are judging you.

You know, they're judging you.

You know, you know this audience.

But at the same time, it's really interesting.

I remember it was.

First few times I didn't feel very.

I was new to the.

The team and I didn't really know them.

They knew me in a different capacity.

So I moved over from one division to another division.

So they knew me, but they didn't know me, you know, this way.

Right.

And it was really nice because I was kind of nervous and freaking out about it.

And one of the guys noticed and I was like, you know those clickers where you go next, next, whatever.

I was fidgeting with mine and something wasn't working.

And he goes, oh, bet you it's a battery.

And he just turned around and just gave it to me and didn't think twice.

Right.

Like.

And it was just one of those, like, I didn't know that guy that well at that point.

And it was just a small gesture, but ever since then, and it was.

He could have been.

And it's kind of a competitive group.

Okay, sure.

And he gave me something that was going to help me shine.

Right.

He didn't have to do that.

I'm the new kid on the block.

You don't care.

But ever since then, it's taught me to always have, like, I always carry extra batteries.

You never know.

You'd be amazed the stuff that I carry in a kit based on, you know, lessons learned over the time of.

I carry extra light bulbs for my.

When I.

When we used to have projectors.

Oh, yeah.

When we used to have projectors, I used to carry extra light bulbs for my projector just.

Just to be on the safe side, you know, but we.

We should actually land this.

But I think that what we're trying to get at through this whole thing is that never underestimate the impact a small gesture can make.

Yeah.

You know, whether it's giving somebody a battery whose battery is dead, whether it's, you know, opening up a door for somebody, whether it's, you know, whether it's giving a, you know, giving somebody a pat on the back or a firm handshake or.

Or.

Or introducing them into a conversation.

Yeah.

It's amazing the small little gestures that we can have over our lifetime that we don't know where they're going to go and we don't know how people are going to take them.

And we don't know things.

And it costs us nothing.

It costs us nothing.

And because it costs us nothing, why wouldn't you do it legit?

And it just makes it, you know, I'm appealing to everybody's better angels, so let's leave it there.

I'm Ben.

I'm Sia.

And we'll see you soon.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

Thanks for listening to another episode of not on this Business bites.

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