Aspirational Change...Is it Realistic???

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[Music]

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if there's one thing we've learned about

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business in life is that people are the

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X Factor they constantly surprise us

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both in amazing ways and not so much

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we're Ben Andia and welcome to n on this

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business bites podcast this show is all

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about real life things we all deal with

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every day how they relate to business

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and how to make some sense out of our

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daily chaos welcome to the

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[Music]

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show

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and welcome back to another episode of

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non this business bites I'm Ben and this

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is CA and today I want to talk about

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aspirational change we need to have

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aspirational change we need to inspire

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As Leaders our people to sit there and

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say this is where we're going and why

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there's where the top of the mountain is

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that's where we're heading and this is

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what we're going to be able to achieve

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then that we can't now it's giving

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people a reason and a purpose giving

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them a goal giving them giving them

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Something to Believe In so they can sit

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there and say all right this is why

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we're going to make a big mess this is

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why we're going to go through the chaos

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this is why my feet are going to be

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uncomfortable as I'm sitting there

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walking but I know that at the end of

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the game things are going to be better

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you know when I I tell this story at the

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beginning I grew up in the construction

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industry my father had commercial

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renovation company and he used to

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renovate these 40 50,000 foot stores

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with 500 600 700 employees and he would

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bring people together the at the

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beginning he says look we're gonna make

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a great big mess we're gonna make it

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chaotic we're going to make it so it's

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it's things are going to get moved

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around you're going to be working long

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hour hours but in the end you're going

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to have a beautiful new store and you're

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going to be proud of it your customers

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are going to love it and everything is

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going to be better placed and and be

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able to be shown off a lot better

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because you're going to have brand new

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fixtures brand new floor brand new

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lighting and everything is going to be

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better and it's

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amazing how much alignment and how much

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he got those people on board with him to

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work midnight shifts to move move entire

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you

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know floors worth of stock around in

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order to be able to do the construction

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because these people said I'm working in

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like this for a reason that's

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aspirational change so seea let's know

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this I gotta tell you uh when I think of

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aspiration aspirational

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change aspirational change uh I I cannot

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help but go back to my my time at Disney

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I I know I talk about Disney a lot uh

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good bad ugly indifferent you know

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happiest place on Earth until you work

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there all the great stuff that you could

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think of but uh I will say the thing

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that Disney does extraordinarily well

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that I've taken in my life and career is

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the fact that you know when you have

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something that's rooted in a purpose

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that everyone can rally behind and

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everyone understands what that purpose

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is it is aspirational it's inspirational

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it is everything that we want the end

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result to be and that you get that

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accountability mixed in with it you can

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move mountains you literally can move

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mountains think of the Hoover Dam man

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like you know anything at Disney that

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we've done and I say we collectively I

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basically just you know served my way

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through it but you know I like to say we

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collectively because we were all cast

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members Together part yeah because we

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were because we were part of ensuring

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that even during the construction I mean

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I was there um you know I've said this

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before we were the pilot to uh determine

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if the dining with characters was going

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to be a thing and so we were the

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original Goofy's Kitchen right we were

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the test pilot and during that time this

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was also underway they were already

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planning California Disney adventure and

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like you know the downtown Disney and

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I'm talking about or Orange County

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California Disney by the way so they

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ended up tearing down our building so

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while we were doing test case of this

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New Concept they were already planning

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on tearing us down we didn't know it at

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the time but what they did though was

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while we were doing the test case they

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redid and renovated our our space so we

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were gone one weekend and came back

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closed down for a weekend and then all

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of a sudden we walked in it was a

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completely different restaurant even

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though we knew exactly what it was you

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know we still called it everything but

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it was a different restaurant it was

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amazing to see and because we knew what

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we were doing

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everyone was on board everyone was

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definitely in that cheerful Disney yay

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we went from being like the restaurant

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that no one wanted to work at to um

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people were trying to pull rank into

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seniority and say no we should be

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getting those shifts um and luckily you

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know in this context you know we we had

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definitely good representation to ensure

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that none of us lost our jobs in this

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transition so yeah crazy man once you

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get people on board and accountable it's

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amazing what you can do and now the

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whole Disney com concept of eating and

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dining yeah that that's like everywhere

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everywhere within Disney absolutely and

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it's about to change again I mean I

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think a and and the Gang are looking to

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spend $65 billion or something some

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ridiculous amount of money over the next

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10 years crazy renovating the park I

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mean they're talking about taking from

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what I remember talking about taking the

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Indiana Jones ride and moving it in

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Florida to uh um uh to the Animal

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Kingdom think what that's going to do I

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mean but if if if people within Disney

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are excited about this if people about

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Disney understand what what the end

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result is where we're going what the and

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they have the alignment behind

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it they're going to be excited and that

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excitement will will rub off on on the

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on the patrons you know it will it will

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rub off on people because they say yeah

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yeah yeah look at all this hoy yeah okay

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but you can't believe the cool stuff

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that's going to be coming down the pipe

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I mean I've looked behind the curtains

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it's going to be really cool I can't

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tell you exactly what it is but trust me

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I've seen the plans of this that the

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everything you are G to love this with

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really plan to come back in eight months

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you're GNA want to plan to because

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you're going to want to be one of the

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first people to see this and when you

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get cast members that are that

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excited about it to sit there and say

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hey look we're constantly changing we're

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constantly evolving we're constantly

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moving forward you know we're not just

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status quo Disney you know the Disney is

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the is the never finished Park I mean

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that's the beautiful thing about Disney

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I mean I'm I'm a Disney fanatic I truly

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am it's and I've gone to through all the

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back you know the back scene you know in

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the tunnels and I've done all the all

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those type of Tours to me it's the fact

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that it's never finished yeah and the

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fact that you're dealing with something

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that is always want to move forward and

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that's the aspiration that has to be

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part of the culture and part of the

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purpose of an organization now when

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you're dealing with Disney you're you're

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talking about hundreds of millions and

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billions of dollars when you're talking

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about a company that's five people it's

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still about sitting there going look

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what are the new things we can do you

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know you've been doing this for a while

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you've been here for a year what are the

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things that you see that what that we're

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doing that we could do be better

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okay well we don't have a half million

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dollars to invest in that but what if we

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gave you $110,000 to try

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it

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okay and you own that

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project how excited is that person when

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all of a sudden they've been given a

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budget and a purpose and a goal that's

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an idea that they came up with to sit

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there and test to see whether this is

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actually going to work or not you know

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even if their job is only to do the re

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$10,000 to do the research

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they may not actually implemented on

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that 10 grand but they say okay here's

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10 grand for you to go out there and

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research whether this is actually doable

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or not come back to us with a plan all

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right that's doable tell me what tell

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you what we're g to give you

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$50,000 to to do a test market and

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you're in charge all of a sudden you've

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got somebody bought in you got somebody

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excited you got somebody that that is

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passionate and they're not going

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anywhere but if all of a sudden people

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are are given a job and just told to you

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know be quiet and do your job and that's

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it there's no aspiration there's no

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there's no reason for them to go the

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extra mile there's no reason for them to

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say hey wait a second but what if or or

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how about and if we don't give people

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the re the ability to say how about what

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if or you know have you thought of and

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at least be able to listen and sit there

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and say you know what prove me wrong

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then we're not giving our people reason

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to stick

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around look everyone wants to feel like

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they're contributing to some way I mean

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think about it's a rudimentary I don't

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want to say it's a human thing because

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I've seen dogs want to be useful but

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people want to feel useful right

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like it may not be a rocket science job

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that you're doing but at least you want

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to feel like you're actually

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contributing to something and and and

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and that it matters right that there's

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value behind anyone on your team and

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what they're doing uh it doesn't

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cost you anything to

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listen I've I've told people over and

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over and over again at all levels people

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want to be listened to understood and

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valued yes it's really that

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simple what you know if somebody sits

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there and say listen I listened to you I

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understood what you have to say

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unfortunately we've just gone ahead and

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we've done this we don't have the

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economic bandwidth or we don't have the

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people bandwidth to do this right now

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but we'd like to talk about look

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addressing this maybe in: 2024

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come back to us in six months and let's

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talk about it and at least be open in

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six months to actually talk about and

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don't just push them off again right

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because if you push them off again

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you've lost them but if you sit there

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and say look okay let's do a test Market

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let's let's you know prove me wrong show

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me the data show me the you know give me

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a case study get show me how somebody

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else is doing this effectively

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and at least be willing to sit there and

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listen to sit there go okay maybe this

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person has

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something and you may go ahead with it

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you may not go ahead with it but at

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least what you've done is you've given

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them the ability to sit there and say

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hey you know what I gave it the best

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shot that I could and if if they are

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going to put it out it's for a reason

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that is outside of my control but at

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least I was listen to I was understood

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and I was

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valued and the thing about listening

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is that feedback it's not just listening

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to say okay listen to you thank you

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Deuces you know peace out it's it's

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maybe taking a point sometimes it's that

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take a little small nugget and they know

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they got input into that like yeah it is

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invaluable how good you can make someone

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feel even if you don't like the 99.9% of

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their idea take that 0.9 that you can

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apply to mix it in so they feel like

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yeah they contributed it's like help

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having a two-year-old help you cook

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right pour the sugar in all right not

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the salt not the salt yeah yeah one

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hundo you know what I'm saying like so

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yeah I think it's and it's not to be

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little us and be like Oh Pat you on the

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head I'm not I'm not saying you know

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patronize people but sometimes I don't I

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I don't I'm a firm

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believer every idea has its merits if

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there's like just a small percentage you

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can take the of that into incorporate it

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it matters it's so much it's so much

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like more than you realize the return uh

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that you'll get from those individuals

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right um yeah now again don't patronize

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people be like oh that's a genius idea

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we're going to implement this in six

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months and you never do that's BS it

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could also be maybe hey I can't do that

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now maybe and and and this is maybe my

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suggestion for the way my brain would

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work put it in my calendar for three

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months from now to say hey so and so's

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idea is it still not good is it any good

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maybe say thank you for that idea that

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you brought up three months ago little

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gestures like that seriously make people

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feel listened uh especially if they're

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like me where I throw out ideas and

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someone says thank you three months

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later I'm like for what but you know

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that's that's just

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me I think majority of people would

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would appreciate if their opinion is is

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shared three months later so yeah I

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don't know man I mean I look at it and

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sit there when I when I had

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staff that that reported to me on a

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regular basis there is there is one rule

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the rule is if you came into my office

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with a problem you had to have two

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solutions and nine out of 10

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times I would sit there and say which

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which solution do you think is better

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which solution is going to be better for

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the company and the and the person that

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it's for well this one then go ahead do

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it and you're empowering them and you're

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giving them you're giving them the

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ability to be aspirational for giving

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them to sit there and say what if what

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could we do that would be the best thing

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for not only the company but also for

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you know the customer the vendor

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whatever it was if you just sit there

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and and tell people no I need you to do

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this here's the problem do

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that yeah you know what all you're not

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giving any empowerment to these people

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and you're not giving them any

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reason to to think bigger and to be

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bigger and and and to push themselves

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and I think that we need as

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Leaders to give people the ability to

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push themselves and to sit there and say

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how can I be better how can I you know

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Take Lessons Learned and and be able to

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be a better person and a and a better

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leader myself because of

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it you you remind me of another

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conversation I had the other day about

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how do I be a better leader like this

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conversation right here is it's not end

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all of course not it's just a thing to

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consider in your conversations to get

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input to feel give the team that sense

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of accomplishment accountability

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empowerment all that good stuff still

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goes back down to listening I'm still

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gonna go back to that yes okay what was

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our original premise again well it was

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all about aspirational change

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aspirational change yeah yeah you get

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that you can affect that uh if you

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really listen to your team along the way

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because they'll give you the feedback

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you need to keep them

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inspired to

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Aspire and I think that that's a great

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place to leave that that was very

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inspirational why thank you oh thank you

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I'm Ben and I'm CA and we'll see you

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soon hey hey hey thanks for listening to

15:58

another episode of not on this business

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