LeapBlog

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart

Welcome, thanks for coming back. Must not be the new years because you haven’t fallen off yet.

Last time I discussed how I can start to let things slide. I get closer to my goal, so I let up. I don’t see any progress, so I let up. A no win situation.

So why is that? Remember all the questions from the last part? Here they are so you they are fresh…

Am I not strong enough?
Am I not determined enough?
Am I not good enough?
Am I just average?
Am I just weak minded?
Am I just Lazy?

The first three questions are just my head doubting myself. They are questions that foster self limiting beliefs. Those are the thoughts that tell me I can’t do I and perpetuate the viscous cycle that continues the pattern, over and over. These are the negative thoughts that become beliefs and route themselves inside my internal operating system if I don’t fight them.

The last three are reaching for answers. Trying to discover a reason for my weaknesses and a way to explain why I stop short so often.

So, Am I average, weak-minded, and lazy? No, but I can be at times.

The answers can unlock the door to change that fosters growth and progress towards something bigger and better. I have to dig deep to find these answers that catalyze the internal change that will allow me to cross the finish line.

Yet they can also reinforce the pattern and become a crutch for self sabotage; simply a means to rationalize and justify our poor decisions and lack of action, that cause us to stop short over and over. They allow us to choose those decisions that keep us running in circles instead forward.

The reality is, I am not lazy, I simply choose to be sometimes. It is natural to be lazy, for me. It is natural to seek the path of less resistance. We like, water, like electricity, anything that moves and changes, seek the easiest, fastest way. Sometimes the mind says the easiest way is simply to quit and tell ourselves we are just not good or strong enough. You know the rest…

So why is that? Are we not strong enough or good enough? That is part of it. Yes, I just said that. Change is hard and it takes practice to establish a mindset and an operating system that can drive you through the hardest of the hard. Discipline, determination, and perseverance take effort, time and practice to develop. Changing our patterns is definitely not the path of least resistance, but the reward is worth it.

So get off your lazy ass and come back for part 8…

I will dive into how to trudge ahead when we start falling away…

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“My New Year’s resolution is to remember to cancel all those free trials I signed up for.”  – Anonymous

Do we really have to go? I’m only six weeks in and I’ve been so good. The food they cook is great, but the fat and calories! It will throw me off the rails!

Fine I’ll go, I’ll be strong. I’ll just eat the salad and drink water, no dessert. This will be fun!…

…These cookies are fantastic, can I have another…

Well, I think you ate the last one.

Or the last dozen! Can you relate to that? How about that opening quote? For me it’s a double edged sword. Damned if I do damned if I don’t. Let’s take the healthy eating and exercising resolution example. I can fall off either side. Why am I doing all this? Why and I getting up so early? Why do I work this hard? I don’t see any change. I’m out, done, maybe next year…

Or…

Hmm, I’m starting to look alright. I’m feeling pretty good. I’ve lost most of what I wanted. I have even gained a little muscle. Maybe I’ll just ease off the gas a bit. Hey, that cookie looks pretty good! One won’t kill me! Does it ever stop at one?

It can be so easy to just let it slide a bit. The rationalization and justification; my mind has become an expert, perfecting both the art and science of self deception, justification, and manipulation and I seem to I fall for it every time!

I can be moments from the finish line, just few more steps to completion. Just one more corner to turn and the end is in sight. But I turn the other way.

The last mile. The last 5 pounds. The last chapter. The last “fill in the blank” always seems to be the hardest. Always seems to go on forever. Always seems to, you get the idea.

Why do I do this? Why do I stop short so often? Am I not strong enough? Am I not determined enough? Am I not good enough? Am I not?…

Am I just average? Am I just weak minded? Am I just Lazy? Hmmm, maybe all the above. Maybe none of the above.

Stay tune for next time and I will answer those questions.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“For a change, don’t add new things in your life as a new year’s resolution. Instead, do more of what’s already working for you and stop doing things that are a time-waste.” – Salil Jha

The crowd goes wild…
Jumping to their feet….
Clapping, applauding, screaming, whistling…
As the final act, the show stopper…
A fantastic combination of useless tricks…

He comes out doing the crab walk, while making his eyes look left then right…
One at a time, while wiggling his ears AND rolling his tongue and belly in sync!
Oh, and he’s doing this fifty feet in the air on a tight rope!

“Wow, if only I had a useless trick.”
“You don’t know any useless tricks.”
“Not really…well, I can speak some Latin.”
“Can you do any cool tricks?”
“I can do seven tongue tricks.”
“Show me.”
“How about you?”
“I can wiggle my ears, one at a time even.”
“Ok, how about you?…”

Maybe this is the year I will focus all my spare time on learning a useless skill!
That is my new year’s resolution. Oh wait; I have been doing that for two decades. Learning this and learning that, adding to my repertoire of skills differentiating myself from the pack; creating a more valuable me by investing in me. I have been focusing on becoming a standout, the cream of the crop, a jack of all trades but a master of none. Come to think of it, where’s the value in that?

“Use it or lose it”, words of wisdom spoken from my three time high school Latin teacher, Fr. Flynn. Yes, I said Latin, and yes I took it for three years, five if you count junior high. Five whole years learning a dead language, now that’s a useless trick. Although, I could pronounce just about any word you sent my way, and quite possibly know its origin. So maybe it’s not completely useless. But I’m sure I could have chosen more wisely.

Truth be told, I chose Latin because of the two years I took in junior high. Easy ride in high school, more on that later. The point is, we all have skills and talents. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Looking at these and really acknowledging them is important. When we do this we see what are assets and liabilities really are. We realize some skills serve us better than others. Some are useless, some are valuable. Knowing which ones serve us the most is important.

Unless you’re an entertainer or performer of some sort, focusing on developing and perfecting more useless tricks is not going to serve you very well. It’s probably not the best use of your time. Kind of like that fourth and fifth year of Latin. Unless, of course, you’re planning on becoming a scientist or priest.

Focus on developing your strengths and mitigating your weaknesses. Spend more time on what is working as the opening quote says. I am all for learning, growing, and developing ourselves but not at the expense of our most important skills and talents; the ones that really drive us and our success. So, choose to do more of the things that work for you. The things that make you better at being you.

That is how you dominate. Invest in your strengths, grow them, perfect them and continue to do more of what works for you. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It sounds easy enough right? If you have that ADD entrepreneur brain like me, it’s not. It takes practice…and a lot of it. Focus is hard for me. I always have so many things going at once. So much so that it is hard to complete anything. And, my head tells me I have to do it all myself.

“What an order, I can’t go through with it! Remember that? We need to retrain our brain so we can think in terms of maximum service. How can I best serve myself and others? Focus on your strengths and fill the gaps with people that have the skills you don’t. Then keep practicing one day at a time. Remember it takes about sixty six days for something new to become a habit. Habit creation leads to domination.

But don’t let it slide, consistency is the key. So be sure stay tuned and come back to stay the course.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge

What? Not a single pound? Are you kidding me? Do I look different? How do my muscles look? Any growth? What the heck? Why am doing this again?

Yep, another one of those convos. Frustrated, ready to throw in the towel. No results yet, not a single noticeable difference. Deep into week one of my resolutions to eat right and exercise. Making full use of that new gym membership. I should get bonus points for the extra mile I have to walk to the front door. You know, because there’s no place to park in the actual parking lot. But I know that won’t last. As February approaches the spots will begin to open up. Once April hits, this will be a ghost town. No more lines at the weight machines. I will even be able to use the strategically placed dumbbells; right in front on the mirror wall where EVERYONE stands. With or without dumbbells in hand, pumping and grunting to a new improved body. So they can “watch their form”, vanity at its finest.

Oops, did I say that out loud? Maybe I should resolve to judge less. Oh, but that’s a heavy cross to lift. To be the burden of example as I stay the course. To be the one that doesn’t judge. To be the one that does better. Better at this and better at that. Or whatever it was that I proclaimed on 12/31.

Yes, it’s hard to stay the course and do something different. That is why the gyms are so busy when the year begins but the crowds slowly die off as each month goes by.

It’s not that we do not want to do better. It’s not that we don’t want to be better. No, it’s not that we don’t want to change. The simple fact is that it is hard to change. Change is scary. Change is new. Change is different. Change is unfamiliar. And most of all, change is work. And, the work is not always easy. It’s truly is the heavy lifting.

But, with heavy lifting comes big rewards. The good news is, it gets easier. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Just like lifting weights, the more often you lift the more you are able to lift.

So why do we give up so easily? Why does the gym become a ghost town by April? We live in a world of instant gratification. On demand this and on demand that. Just about anything you desire is readily available at the touch of a button, the swipe of the screen, or even a voice command. A movie, a song, ride, a meal, you name it; we don’t have to do much these days.

Unless we decide we want something better. If choose we want something with purpose and meaning. And, we are willing to work for it. So if we want to fulfill our new order we must do the heavy lifting. The rewards will come. Practice makes perfect, right? Sixty-six days worth to be exact. Okay, maybe not exact, but studies show it takes about sixty-six days for a habit to form. So, there you go, just sixty-six days of heavy lifting.

I guess that explains the April ghost town theory. The last six days are a killer, but hey, after that it’s just part of your everyday life. The heavy lifting doesn’t seem so hard anymore.

Once the habit is formed, real change takes place.
Then, domination!

Come back next for the next part and dominate your new order.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“And now we welcome the New Year. Full of things that have never been.” –  Rainer Maria Rilke

Wait, what, you’re serious? I was three sheets to the wind when I said that. You can’t actually expect.  You really thought I was serious? Why would I ever commit to something like that? Every single day? What an order, I can’t go through with it!

Of course you can, you just have to make the commitment. Then, of course, follow through. That was another one of the convos I have with myself. I warned you I do it a lot. Maybe I should resolve to stop talking to myself so much. It definitely would free up a lot of time to think about other stuff.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I don’t like the pressure placed on resolutions on New Years. The timing seems perfect for setting and expressing resolutions. What better time to review our growth, progress, and accomplishments. Review our goals, lists, targets. Did we hit the mark? Did we fall short? What worked, what didn’t? Right? Can there be a more appropriate time?

Perhaps not, but perhaps there is a more appropriate approach. A more genuine process or system to incorporate into our lives on a daily basis that grounds us in the present moment. Regardless of what the calendar says. After all, January 1st is just another day.

Why is that day the best day to start eating healthy, exercising, being nicer, or working harder? Why is that day the best day to stop smoking, drinking too much, spending too much money or whatever vice you need to address?

Isn’t every day a day that we should resolve to do better and be better? Why should we wait until the eve of a new year? Is waiting until the final ticks pass away really the best time? The best time to set our intentions for the coming year? You know the intentions that will set our goals for the next 365? The goals that will take us closer to the things we want to do and be.

Buy a new home, go to graduate school, start a family, become more financially independent, start a business, launch our coaching program, write a book, etc. Whatever if may be, your intentions for the year seem like a pretty big deal. Maybe we ought to wait until we are in better state of mind. You know, not three sheets to the wind or caught up in the moment.  Slurring our resolutions while stumbling about with a bubbly beverage doesn’t seem fitting. Or very genuine, especially when you have a party whistle dangling from your mouth. Not to mention the silly foil and glitter bedazzled cone hat on your head.

So let’s forget those resolutions. Let’s start a resolution revolution. Let us resolve to create a new order. A new way doing things. A new way of creating authentic intentions and meaningful change. Starting with our personal resolutions. Whether they be set on the eve of a new year or the eve of a new day. Any day, even if it’s the 182nd day of the year.  July 2nd most years, except of course those wonderful one out of four years. The ones we get an extra day to play, and, celebrate yours truly!

But I digress yet again. So let us start by committing to do something different. Set our intention to do better and be better regardless of what the calendar says. By committing to such we will truly create a new order. A new order of people wanting to do and be better. A new order of people who want to create positive change. A new order of people who help others honor their intentions. What an impact that would have, right? The infectious nature of the warm fuzzies, It would just spread like wild fire.

Maybe in a perfect world, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to do our part. So where do we start?

Stay tuned and we will get started on changing the world together.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Let all the failures of your past year be your best guide in the New Year!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

There I stood…
A failure…
I couldn’t do it…
I couldn’t handle the pressure…
I felt dirty…
I felt ashamed…
It was only two minutes after midnight…
The New Year was so young, so fresh, so clean…
And I tainted it…
I ruined it…

My resolution, broken, gone, vanished…
Before my first wake up of the new year…
Before the dawn of the new me
The new healthier, happier, me…

…Not this year…

Can you relate to that at all? If not, if you are not writing, teaching, coaching, consulting, start now! I will hire you. Why? Because obviously you have it all figured out.

Or, maybe not. Why not? Because wouldn’t I rather be taught, coached, or consulted by someone who has failed before? Someone who has gone through similar failures and experienced the ups and down with up-cycles and down-cycles. Maybe even more than one or two and has learned a thing or two and made it successfully to the other side. Someone that has progressed to that “happier, healthier” person or business?

If you can’t relate to that opener, maybe you are in denial. No, of course not. Not you. I truly apologize for suggesting that. No, I really am sorry. I know, I know, I was out of line. (I am lying through my teeth, my pants are on fire). I do not know anything about you. I should not have…

Alright, enough of that. If you are not able to relate. I hope that if you think hard enough you can recall a similar situation. If not, start preparing for the crash!

The point of all this babble is in the title, “Ready To Fail.” I am just not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for change. I am all for striving for personal growth and having the desire to do and be better. My issue is with the timing of it all. Why must we wait until next year? Everybody is going to change next year. How will we recognize anyone on January 1st? We are all doing something different, something better, except me of course! Remember? I didn’t even make it to sleep before I broke my resolution!

Sorry, squirrel…

There is so much pressure placed on the New Year’s resolution that I feel we are setting ourselves up for failure. Some of you know my story and that I believe failure is good and necessary. Failure can provide the greatest opportunity for positive change and growth but, with a fighting chance to succeed if we are willing to learn from it, not deny it.

If we fail, we dust ourselves off and embrace the opportunity to get better. We do not need to stack any more odds against us. So, let’s resolve to revolutionize how we set our resolutions! Let’s create a new order for ourselves and those among us.

No really, let’s create a new order….next time…stay tuned…

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” – Albert Einstein

There I was…
A deer in head lights…
Everything rested on my next decision…
All eyes on me…
What am I going to do?
How do I answer that question?
I’m not prepared…
I’m not ready for this…

“I’ll just have a glass of water, thank you.”

Ever go to one of those restaurants with a menu the size of War & Peace? Did you even know that many appetizers existed? Can you really prepare an egg that many ways?

How about standing in an aisle, looking at the latest widget that just hit the market? It offers twenty five color ways, ten different models, and five different bundles. So many features, so many functions – SO MANY CHOICES! “I’m outta here!”

Just like when the waiter asks “And, for you sir?” You settle for water because you just can’t decide. Can you relate to that feeling? There are so many choices that it’s easier to just walk away.

The most important thing to remember about marketing is that the goal is to HELP our customers UNDERSTAND who we our, what we OFFER and how it solves their problem. Not confuse them.

This piece is a quick, cursory view at this issue. Enjoy the brevity of this one because I can tend go into greater, sometimes ranting depth into various marketing concepts. I have held out for other articles.

This is a quick, rule of thumb type test all marketers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and others in the industry should utilize, especially when starting out or launching new products/services. People like options, but people do not like making choices. They like the feeling of having control and that they made a choice, but really, they want the choices made for them. The key is to make the options simple, so the customer has an easy choice yet the feeling of control.

Too many options create confusion which can then lead to inaction. In the business world that means no sale! Trust me, I share from personal experience. My first business was a clothing company that tried to create too much too soon. We had too much inventory, too many styles, in too many colors, and no unique selling proposition. We couldn’t even explain who we were, what we did or what we were about. If we even had an elevator pitch, it would take a ride to to the to of a high rise to deliver it. It overwhelmed our prospects and over leveraged our books!

The moral is to start simple. So, let’s take a quick look at each of those capitalized words above.

HELP:
Confusion is no help to anyone. Everyone loses. We lose money on our marketing expenditures. We lose potential customers and profits. Prospects lose a potential solution to their problem– they lose the value we could have provided. We all lose the time the whole ordeal consumed; The time to create the product and marketing message and the time the prospect spent trying to figure what the heck our product is and does.

Our job is to serve our customers. Whether we sell a product or a service, we are in the service business. How can I/we best serve our customer? That question should always be top of mind. Ask it when designing products, packaging, ad copy, promotions, manuals, everything.

UNDERSTAND:
How do we help our prospects and customers understand what we offer and how it adds value to their life? How does our product or service solve a frustration or problem they have? Be clear, be specific, be direct, BE CONCISE. You only need to communicate three things – what? why? how?

What is the product?
Why they need the product?
How they get the product?

A prospect needs to be able to clearly ask and answer these questions if they are going to buy. You, the marketer, need to ask yourself the three “whats” and be able to clearly and concisely answer them.

1. What is our product?
2. What does it do for them?
3. What they have to do to get?

This is assuming, of course, you have already done your preliminary due diligence work! Market research, creating a product that solves a problem, etc…

Create and tailor your marketing efforts with these questions mind. Once you have something ready to go – review it by confirming tat you can answer the questions. Then put it to the test. WAIT! I don’t mean put in on the retail shelf yet. Let at least three people unfamiliar with the product test it out. Can they easily answer the what, why and how?

Great – good to go!

OFFER:
The offer must communicate two things to even qualify.

1. What the product is.
2. The value of the product.

I’m not talking sticker price here. A prospect needs to understand what the products is and why they should exchange their hard earned money for it. If you don’t a have product and a perceived value, there is no offer. The official term for the traditionalists out there is value proposition. A prospect wants to know the that value of what they are going to receive, if they choose to buy, is of equal or greater value than the money they have to exchange for it.

Again, this is super basic because marketing should be. We, the marketer, have a wonderful knack of over complicating things. Keep it simple and run through these quick and easy “acid tests” before you get in to deep with your new product, business, or campaign.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Don’t push the river, it flows by itself.” – Chinese Proverb

My dad loved that quote and used it many times in discussions with me and many of his lectures. He used it frequently with me because I always tried to push everything. I was constantly trying to get more and do everything faster. I was not the poster child for patience.

It is very fitting that I sit and write this final part to close out this series on the weekend of his birthday. The first birthday since I lost him. Yesterday was his actual birthday but today is Sunday and the day we would have all gathered at his house and had our family dinner to celebrate him. After dinner we would have had dessert and a cup of Darkness Descends coffee. Cheers to you, dad, we will toast you at dinner tonight where mom will join us for chicken pot pie, Stacey will also be here and Karen will join us in spirit.

This quote is so relevant to this series on so many levels and we will see how deep the river gets today as I just type what comes to mind. Like I mentioned above, I have always pushed things; the process, the limit, the budget, the lead time, the point, the argument, the judgment…everything.

There was no difference with the first business that I started with Kerry and a friend that I discussed in an earlier part. I tried to push everything too, far too fast, including my ideas and opinions and let’s not forget about my control. I am sure you all know where that ended up; a big, deep hole of debt and frustration. But I like to look at silver linings. I learned so much from that experience. I wish I could say I learned all my lessons, but some took a few more fails to drive them home.

Fast forward a bit and business one is done, business two to riding high, and the seed of business three is starting to sprout; ColdFire Coffee. I had developed a cold brew process for coffee that yielded a drinkable coffee better than anything I had tried on the market at the time. Granted there were very few as cold brew coffee was just becoming a thing. I will say almost ten years later that I still feel the same, but I digress.

On the side of Go-Go Babyz, Kerry and I were coming up with ideas and a model for this business after I nailed the product. Of course, my entrepreneurial mind was going crazy with ideas, products, strategies, events, and potential partners. I was ready to take over the world, and, I was trying to push the river yet again. This time, however, I learned my lesson so I stopped pushing it and just let it float. We set our big plan aside because it wasn’t time yet.  I scaled it back to a smaller side hustle operation for the time being with a killer cult following that kept me busy brewing.

Fast forward again about eight years. We relocate our family and Go-Go Babyz to another state in order to get out of the chaos, simplify our life, and scale back Go-Go Babyz to make it profitable again all while we search for our next venture.

As chance would have it, my childhood friend moved to the same place within two weeks of us, totally unplanned. Talk about serendipity! So we met on several occasions, over coffee, to discuss potential business ideas and investment opportunities.  Meanwhile, I was starting to re-launch ColdFire in Idaho and get set with all the different state laws and regulations for a food and beverage company, but this time, I didn’t push the river. We all loved the idea of a coffee shop type place that would provide a great place for the community to come and enjoy our food and beverages and where we could provide a nice atmosphere and experience to along with it.

Over the course of two and a half years we had found some opportunities and invested together in some then as serendipity would have it again, we stumbled upon a pie shop and eatery for sale. So we bought it. ColdFire bought it that is. Just earlier in the year we had finally set up the business in Idaho to start giving it a go again. Remember the original business idea I shared? The Caffeine Inferno? This might not be that concept exactly but the circle of life, and business,  has brought us back to that point; another coffee connection.

We now have a space for the community to come and enjoy homemade cooking and excellent coffee and make connections of their own. Sharing laughter, tears, joy, grief, and everything else in between because we provide a safe, comfortable place to enjoy life; the coffee and pie are just the whipped cream on top!

When the student is ready the teacher appears. When the entrepreneur is ready, the opportunity appears. Let the river flow and bring what it will. Life is better letting the river run its course. I am excited to see where the river goes with this business and how many connections I make and wiriness being made along the way. And, if you live in the Boise area or are passing through, make a detour to the Boise Pie Company and say hi over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie.

Cheers dad! Today I will have a cup of coffee and a slice of pie for you.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake all afternoon.” -Jilly Cooper

Where was I? Right working a steady, well paying job that I hated, planning a wedding, searching for our first home, raising our babies Burton & Kona; our dogs, they were our babies before we had babies. Let me not forget, figuring out a business to start while drinking lots of coffee.

Let me get right to it; I hated my job, life was crazy and I wanted a change. The time for thinking and brainstorming was raging on for far too long. It was time to fish or cut bait. So, we pulled in a buddy who we had been sharing ideas with and we just did it. We planned a day to get down to the city offices and get all our paperwork filed. We walked away with a business license, sellers permit, a fictitious business name, and as a registered, legitimate business. Now for the obscene amount of coffee consumption

We didn’t really know what we were doing but we did it anyway. All three of us were working full time jobs. That meant everything was done before and after work, so we needed lots of coffee. I stayed up late and woke up early, filling all the spaces with whatever needed to be done for the business.

Everything outside of the office seemed to start with coffee. We had a Starbucks, pardon me; I just threw up in my mouth a bit, where I scheduled everything. I met my partners, clients, customers, service providers, athletes, you name it, and I met them at the corner coffee shop. And, I had a cup of coffee each time. If I was at meeting five for the day, I drank my fifth cup of coffee for the day. If not more because I did make coffee at home as well.

You may recall that this business didn’t last. We never made it out of the red and as you know, black is where it’s at, for business and coffee! Therefore, I had to scale my coffee drinking habit back a bit, at least the coffee shop drinks. In the end, this business crashed hard but there were there plenty of lessons, good memories, and better friends created from the experience. Many of which revolved around a cup of coffee.

Come back and share a final cup with me while you read the last part of this series.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live