November 15, 2022

EPISODE 256: A Flower Doesn’t Think to Compare

One of the things that is so important when it comes to selling, especially to groups who are either outside of your normal client range or may not be familiar with your culture, is to ensure they buy into what you stand for and what you’re teaching. Ensuring that your audience can connect with you but also see you as someone reliable and sturdy is so important. We like to think of being like a strong oak tree that can stand the test of time.

So how can this be achieved?  In today’s episode, we share inspiration you can take from nature to help you grow into a strong leader, being in the right environment to flourish, and focusing on neutralizing the negative!

In this episode we cover:

  • The “nature” mindset you need to adopt to be a strong leader
  • Being in the right environment
  • Having the space to grow, scale back and train where you need to
  • Finding sources of energy all around you
  • Neutralizing the negative
  • Not every seed you plant will take root



Enroll in School of Sales (deadline to enroll is January 27, 2023.

Connect with us: https://www.instagram.com/theguideculture/

Macy
Okay. Do you want me to start again? Or?

Kat
Welcome back to the podcast, it’s Macy and Kat. Hey. So recently, it’s been a season of putting content together for outside groups quite a bit. And one of the things that is so important when you are selling in general, but especially if they’re not people who maybe are a part of your culture, they’re not a part of your team already. And they don’t know kind of what you stand for. You always, always, always want to give him bought in, but into the process of what you’re teaching. So for example, when guide culture comes in and does a talk, it’s very important that people are bought into the long game of what seeds are going to be planted today. And bought into the growth process and developing yourself as a person that people do want to buy from.

Macy
I mean, culture is the quick win, the easy button, the strategy, and that just doesn’t ever work. We all know that.

Kat
Or it does work possibly, for a moment.

Macy
Yeah. And so getting them excited about a list isn’t going to show up tomorrow, but I’m gonna say steadfast, and it’ll show up. And, you know, years down the road.

Kat
One of the personifications of how we like to think about people in ourselves, God willing, is that we would all be like oak trees, and just really be so sturdy and safe, and a place to provide shade for people, which really means like a refuge, and fruit. Yeah, supply fruit and just be, you know, hang your tire swing, so really being a sturdy place. And not only does that keep you as a person stable, but also people want to come to that. Okay, so with that in mind, you think, Well, how do you become that person? And I decided to Google last week, as I’m creating a buy in talk for a group, I was thinking, man, what mindset? Can you have coming into, you know, under being underneath a guide, culture training, or in general becoming the kind of a person that stands the test of time. And so I decided to Google, what can we learn from plants? What can we learn? Like, how do you think like a plant, who doesn’t think it just grows. And that’s actually one of the coolest things, there’s a quote from some, like Asian philosopher, that I think most people would probably know the name of, if I said it. But he said, a plant doesn’t think to compare, it just grows, it doesn’t even think to compare, it just grows.

Kat
So that would be like, the first thing that we can learn from a plant is that it only focuses on its own growth. And that growth process, which we will get more into some of these details, but the first thing that has to happen is a seed is planted in the right soil. And you may have, you know, heard it talked like this before, but when a seed is planted, it’s obviously dark. covered with dirt. unsane darkness. Yeah. And what is so encouraging about that, is that there actually is so much growth that happens in that place. Yeah. What roots do from the get go? It when watered, and supplied with the right things, which we’ll get to, is it anchors the little seedling it’s not doing it’s not doing anything above ground period, or else it would get squashed by the sun, by a bird by whatever.

Kat
But it just puts roots down to anchor it. Yeah. Which is a powerful, powerful, powerful thing. And I had researched where a even the biggest tree like probably a Sequoia or something out west, just the big redwoods. All trees. Never the roots never stopped growing. Never. That’s crazy. They might grow. Not very much. But they do continue to grow forever, for the whole life of the tree. That’s a long time. And, okay, we have like more details to get into. But I have to say this sometimes the initial growth can feel so exciting. Like, oh my gosh, like I’m putting roots down, I’m breaking ground I’m getting taller, taller, taller, taller, taller, and then eventually you kind of feel like plateaued, potentially for sure. But it’s not plateaued. It’s actually just really, really, really minut growth.

Kat
And in the case of a person, it could mean refinement, like you’re a dietitian, and you have been telling the same thing, the same thing, the same message, but you’re tweaking it little by little by little that 1% relentless pursuit of growth. Or, you know, gosh, maybe you’ve just been a team leader for so long. And you feel like you’re saying the same thing all the time? Yeah. It’s the refinement of what you’re doing that those small changes the small growth in your own self, it does show up. Even if it’s not as major as it felt at one time.

Macy
You know what I’m thinking about right now. In our neighborhood on the sidewalk. Recently, the cement sidewalk has broken because of the roots of the trees underneath kind of the sidewalk beside the tree. So it’s growing so slowly, but how powerful is that? That it breaks the cement. And so it’s all bumpy and cracked. That’s incredible. That’s enforced right there. That is some force. And that’s like all I can see in my head right now.

Kat
And before it broke, the concrete was just unseen.

Macy
It was just unseen. Exactly. And they and they poured the concrete on top of the soil because I just I’m sure they just thought it was just perfect right here. There’s nothing that could get on its way. And here comes as roots. Breaking cement.

Kat
It’s kind of crazy, because so Carl’s and I first house together this little 900 square foot off the Marietta square, I mean, old area. Yeah. And basically touching our house was this massive oak tree. Yeah. On this little house, big tree, little house. And it was described to us that it was basically just a matter of time for that tree mess with the foundation, the foundation of the house, which I think there might be some people listening like, Yes, I’ve heard that, like, I know, my husband’s a builder or whatever. But when you think about the thickness, foundation, oh, yeah, that roots that grow. I mean, how slowly ever actually grew at that size, but it That is crazy.

Macy
It’s incredible,

Kat
Very inspiring. Okay, so there’s a bunch of things that you can that we’re going to talk about to think like a plant.

Macy
Yeah. One thing I’m thinking about is how you’re like, hey, the seed gets anchored in the soil, but it only gets anchored when it’s in the right soil. Right. Yeah. And I’ve also heard quotes of, you know, the flower dies. It’s not the flowers fault. It’s the soil that it was in its environment that it was in.

Kat
Yeah. Which kind of preface with one more thing, please. The when I googled one time, what makes a flower grow? It said, the big bold google top response was the flower does the right things, at the right time, in the right place. Yeah. And so that’s what you’re saying, oh, is the all these things need to come together? But they’re actually very simple.

Macy
I know that this is kind of extreme. But recently also sent me about like, offset that passed away off, set me off. And I was like, what happened? You know, I don’t know anything. And he was like, well, it’s like 2am. And this is that. And I’m just like, the environment, like, they’re in the wrong spot. And I just think about growing up as a kid. I mean, anytime I made a good decision. It was like, I was in the right environment. I was like, with my family. I was like, you know, go to bed early. I was involved at church. I was like, hey, I want to go, I gotta volunteer on Sunday morning. So I’m gonna go to bed early on Saturday. And anytime I made a poor decision, I was in the wrong environment. I was out late. I was with friends I shouldn’t be with. The wrong people. And it’s just like your I mean, Andy Stanley says, Andy Stanley says, your friends shaped the direction and quality of your life. And your friends are what create your environment, in my opinion, so true, you know. And I’m thinking like, adult environment, also, like business owner environment, I mean, it’s everything I can tell when I’m off. It’s because my input isoff, you know, it’s when the wrong information is coming in, I’m looking at the wrong things, I’m reading the wrong things. And just with the flip of a switch, adjusting the input, adjusting the environment can change everything, it really can quickly, it doesn’t even have to be a big, you know, wave of change. It’s just like, hey, I’m gonna fight the bad. Turn off the news. I’m gonna like, you know, not listen to what I’ve been listening to whether the silly book or whatever, and just flip the switch.

Macy
And I mean, even just recently, I’ve been pregnant, I’ve been feeling so much better. And I’m like listening more stuff. I mean, I like to not listen to a podcast. So it’s like, made me sick hearing people talk for whatever reason. And my brain feels so much more sharp, I feel so much more excited. I was like, crying on the way to work. I was so thankful, just like everything. And it’s because of the environment and the input I put in, and that’s it. We’re going to church I feel good to go to, like feel it’s just everything about it just matters so much.

Kat
So that is because that is so foundational and so important. It might be easy for someone listening to this to say, you know, easy for you to say may say you were a guy culture, you know, or easy for XYZ person to say they don’t have the negative family like I do. And I think that the best thing for you to do is to take complete Extreme Ownership over your environment, and to decide that you will prune back. Yeah, people you spend time with things you listen to, even if that means that you become a seed buried in isolation. Yeah. And I know that sounds like very extreme.

Kat
Yeah, sometimes the prune back looks a little bit extreme, it looks sad, it looks like it will die. And really what you’re doing is planting your seed into something better, where you’re in groups of people who are talking positive they are, which is why Academy is so important to them. It’s the right soil, which is the graduate Guide Culture Program. After School of Sales and listening to the right stuff, even if there’s not a single person in your life and you haven’t invested into something, it’s creating the culture in the soil of your thoughts. That even like the that even teaching, like, if you did come into school of sales with the right soil, the seeds of thoughts will take soil, take more root. Because you want the right environment to be prepared for all the growth that you’re going to experience.

Macy
And listen, if you think that there isn’t hard stuff in my life and weird family stuff in my life, you are mistaken there. Right? There’s always stuff. One of the biggest things is helped me is when something happens or something is said or I experienced, you know, the first question I think is like, Okay, what am I making that mean? Because it’s not the event that or the comment or whatever that is making me feel something is what I’m making it mean. And that has been huge for me. Yeah. And even just asking that question. It’s like, what what am I making it me? And what can I make it mean? You can make it mean anything you want it to mean? So I don’t know if that’s encouraging to you. But you can like, have your own environment in your own world by how you think, which is making sure that you’re planted in the right soil.

Kat
100% Yeah, so do everything you can to get into the right environments. Because there can be one of the pointed out the wrong plants have void overcrowding, and they do not thrive and overcrowding. So we learned that actually having that space allows them to put roots down and tomorrow with our own thing. Yes, having that margin Exactly. So just think about like what areas could you scale back? Something that comes to my mind honestly, like being overtrained? Where if it’s, if there’s a thing where you’re kind of at the buffet of learning from everybody, you’re learning from podcast, every single podcast, every single Instagram reel or someone teaches you how to do something you’re in YouTube, there’s probably an overcrowding that’s suffocating the life out of your own seed. That’s interesting.

Kat
So I would personally tell you to to decide and I don’t want anyone personally in our program School of sales, who is overcrowded. Yeah. Because you are going to get overwhelmed, not have the nutrients you need prepared with the margin you need to thrive. Yeah. So I would say decide what season are you going to be in? For example, a lady told me that she was going to only focus on sales for q4, which is not very long, but it is better than trying to do everything for sure. And along with that, I remember when I first got started trying to think this Yeah, this was after I first learned sales skills. Very, very, very baby. I hadn’t even seen like these super tangible above ground results yet. But I did decide, hey, I’m gonna like leave every training group. And I think that training groups were work. Like I thought that okay, what did I do today, I watch training videos. I didn’t want that to be true. But it just ended up being what it was. And that was not needle moving. It was actually overcrowding. So getting into the right learning and shut I mean, prune back completely. Because they’re bad people. No, not because they’re bad people. Because there’s only so much you can focus on in a plant knows that has to focus.

Macy
And that’s good. And I think, Gosh, I know that we that is just so good. Because we’ve pruned back people that we use listen to y’all. It’s not because they’re bad. But it’s like, hey, what’s important, what deepens roots? There’s a quote in a book that we’re reading right now that said, focus on the root, not the fruit. And there are some people in some content that focuses on the fruit. Yeah. And is it focused on the route of like, being anchored in the right thing versus like whether the results were the results were the results. And I know that that’s not the right environment from my heart, and I know you probably would agree with that.

Kat
Yeah, it’s 100% True.

Macy
And you know, also think about like what might need you might need to cut back in terms of like all that you’re doing. Like maybe you’ve have a ton of social media outlets that you’re producing content for. Maybe you have a ton of products and you’re just like, why do you need it? How am I gonna make money, let me create it, something else may create something else. Maybe that works for you. It also could be overcrowding for sure. And cat made such a good point, before we do this podcast, she’s like, it really just depends on where you are like, if you’re, you know, six months in, and you need to create all day long, and figure out what works and what feels right. But just being aware of your season and being aware of where you’re at, and knowing when to prune, when to create.

Kat
Yes, yes. Another thing that plants do in the vein of focusing on the right things is that they relentlessly focus on the sun. They focus on the sun, because a sun obviously is what creates the food for plant photosynthesis. What’s right, as we all probably remember, a tree or a plant in general will I mean, it will curve. Like I have a tree in my kitchen, and it grows toward the window. So crazy. I mean, it’s so basic, because we just watch these things happen in our life. And when you think about this little tree that does not is not a person, like it is not a creature, it is a living thing, but whatever. It’s trying to find the sun, because that’s where it gets its energy. And it’s very, very, very easy as human beings to look left and right and not up toward where are you going? It’s easier to look left and right. What are they doing? What are they doing? What are they doing? And I know I know that tension. I know that tension, because you might say, well, I look left and right. To learn from that culture, I learn left and right to learn from my coach. And that is awesome stuff I want you to think about that is like planting seeds and nourishing what you can do to look up like I Katherine cannot be the source for your business Macy cannot be your coach cannot be but the sun can be a you can get some nourishment and plant the right seeds in your little pot to grow up. Talk about focusing on the sun you’ve had been pretty fired up about this.

Macy
Well, it just makes me emotional thinking about little flower. They’re just like fights to survive, you know, and giving everything they can to make it. And I mean, it also reminds me of a horse with their blinders on, you know, they look any other direction before they fall, and make everybody else trip and crash and and I know if I’m sitting in your seat or I’m you’re probably thinking like, well, what does that actually mean to like, look at the sun. Like, what does that what does that tangibly tangibly mean? Because I’m looking for ideas and like those don’t come out of thin air. They can come out of thin air. But I also think it’s like it’s up and down. It’s like rooted and looking at like, the more you route and like growing yourself, the more clearer it becomes on like, where the sun is for you. For I’m thinking like, for me, what always feels right, is when I’m in conversations with people. I know we talked about that all the time. But it’s like, that’s where I feel the most clear. That’s where I feel the most growth. That’s where I feel like the greatest path. Yeah, the path is like so obvious, like the sun placement and like, there it is. Whereas if I’m not in conversations, I am like, what do I do next? I am looking left and right. But conversations give me so much clarity, hearing what people are going through where they’re succeeding, where they’re not succeeding, how to help them. It just makes everything so obvious for me personally, and you might not have never ever experienced obvious sunlight. You know, I’m thinking about somebody who’s listening to this, who’s like, I literally have never felt that clarity. And maybe conversations don’t give that to you. I don’t know, maybe everybody’s different. Do you know where you like find that sunlight?

Kat
If your business if your mission is to serve people in some shape or form that should be the son. Oh, yeah. And how that becomes exciting and like a fresh idea from a conversation 100% 100%. When you think about what, like what life change can I create for someone else? That is the sun? Yeah. Because if you need to move left and right, yeah, and shimmy, shimmy shimmy. It doesn’t really matter how you do that. There’s a million ways to do that. And thank God for that. If you know, if you can focus your son, your son is the life change people can experience Yes, then you actually have the freedom, the flexibility, and like such a light burden to accomplish that. Because I know for example guide culture, we have made plenty of mediocre decisions for sure it’s not personal because the sun is the same. And whether Guide Culture ended up in the school system or ended up on a podcast like today or ends up just whatever it doesn’t matter because the sun is the same and allows you to the freedom to move.

Macy
And so if you’ve never felt that clarity, and you’re like, I literally don’t even know where the sun is, I don’t know how to turn to it, I would encourage you to get into like five conversations, and not for any reason, but to listen. Not to get them to make a decision not to get not to, you know, it’s not I don’t want you to think of it as market research, because that feels interrogated. But just opening the door, and hearing where someone else hates a conversation, I think will bring a lot of clarity.

Kat
And just so you know, when when I talk about Guide Culture’s sun and how it’s the mission, it’s the words we use now is to help people persuade for good like, that is our mission. And I can take so many different forms. So whatever that looks like for you is, I mean, maybe you are someone in the health field, and you want people to experience freedom in their body. You want them to be proud examples for their kids, because of the way that they take care of their health or something, you know, whatever. That’s the son. And that’s where you stay rooted in and excited about so that all the things that you do nourish yourself with are just supplemental and awesome. That’s exactly right. Fertilizer is a treat. It is not a necessity. That’s right. Someone might disagree with that. And that might be true, but I assume there’s a lot of planes in the world that don’t fertilize. They don’t Yeah. But God knows that you cannot have an overcrowding, just like we talked earlier this year about in Yosemite Valley, there was a Native American Indians who would literally burn Yosemite Valley because pine trees didn’t know when to die, right. And they were overcrowding, where crops could be planted and all this kind of stuff to actually nourish a freaking village. Yeah. But the pine trees must have been burned down, created more fertile soil showed more light. I mean, hello.

Macy
I also learned that about salmon this weekend, I was looking up some recipes. And it was like a fisherman cool thing about salmon. And he said, you know, fishermen save the population, because overcrowding can actually like ruin the I mean, he gave a lot more detail giving deer, for sure. It’s like hunting, it’s like, it is good. It’s normal. And it’s natural. And it’s actually very important. So fascinating. Yeah, it’s cool.

Kat
Another thing that plants do is they neutralize pollutants. That’s so cool, right? Just by nature, it’s what they do. And if you think about yourself, like a plant, in part of your mission, is to see the good, we haven’t talked about good as cool for a long time. But neutralizing the negative, like the gossip, the the negativity that could be in the world, you literally have a chance to be light for people. And that is awesome. So you can actually help someone else. You can be the son for someone else in a way, you know, not in a weird way, just in a light type of a way. And be nourishment for somebody.

Macy
I’ve met a few in like New York people lately, just in my neighborhood and just you know, being around. And it is just so cool how you meet people and you’re like, they make me feel amazing about myself. Sweet. They made me laugh. They made me like you just oh my gosh, they’re, you know, those people in your life too. And one thing that might could help you like, I don’t know, everyone has their own version of that in some way, you know. But I love thinking about this as like mental rehearsal is like pretending or practicing in your head to be that for someone to be the person that like neutralizes negativity neutralizes pollutants. And just like being that person in your head before you go into a room. We’ve already rehearsed it. And so now you can go like perform for lack of a better word. And that’s how you’d be the most liked person that room is be happy and ask questions about other people period.

Kat
Yeah. Macy has been looking at what our sales skills. Because it’s really fascinating in our own world and what we know what they are. And just being curious, like, you know, tell me tell me what I already know, in a different way. But potentially or not yet. And a lot of the things that our sales skills, which was very confirming for us is that they are intangible they are one of one of them was optimistic, right? Empathetic and optimistic.

Macy
Was it problem solving? Yeah, empathetic, like active listening. I mean, it’s just all these really good things that someone might read and be like, Oh, I have that. But they don’t realize that there’s actually a skill to it. To do it really well.

Kat
So I already hear someone thinking like, Okay, if I go to my friend’s and I’m just like, oh, but it’s great because your kid is crying because this is annoying. Like don’t be positive Polly, who does I see people right? Because every thing has balance to it. So there’s a way to be empathetic and really sit with someone. Oh, for sure also see the best and help point them toward the sun. And that’s your goal is to not tell them shake your finger and be like Hey, you need because it’s a happy day and God is good. It’s silly. It’s about sitting with them, seeing them understanding them listening and then helping them see the sun. Yeah. And honestly, where even as their son, What even are the clouds? You got to help someone. And that’s why sales skills not only are life skills, but they are. I mean, it’s a skill like this is not jet. If you just heard me describe that night, man, I would pay someone to be that for me. Yes, you’re right, you would and it’s called a salesperson, training guide culture because people got problems are so many pollutants. I mean, in my own head, I got pollutants and Mason’s gotta sell me on what’s happening, right? I mean, it’s I’m watching Carl start a business and someone needs to show me just talking to Carl on the phone. And he just texted me he’s like, Y’all just, I feel so much more confident that you have no idea. And I’ve never gotten a text like that. But sometimes you just have to listen to someone and point them toward the sun so that they can go grow.

Macy
What’s so crazy is a conversation with Carl, it was like we just told him how amazing he is. Because he literally is amazing, some practical things he can do. So Oh, yeah, some practical tactical sales skills, tips. And he’s engaged culture right now. So he speaks her language. But to me, it was like so obvious. Like the obvious, like perception that I have of him, it’s so obvious, like, how do you not see that in Carl health professional, meticulous how great he is. And, like, sometimes, like people just don’t see that in themselves. People do not believe in themselves. And you get to be the person to give them tangible, freaking ways to see the way you see them. And listen, most people are not, if people have a hard time believing in themselves, they are naturally not going to believe in other people and say it right. And so for you to be able to do that for someone else. I mean, people are going to be lying at your door to be your friend, you know.

Kat
That’s a good point, I was searching the value of a compliment, which we talked about compliments a lot in school of sales and value them a lot just like what Macy is saying, Yeah, giving someone else a compliment. Not only does it boost your confidence, but actually grow. So it grows your confidence, and helps you build it in someone else. So cool. So it’s this like infinity symbol of growth, which is really cool. And I want to point out that not every seed you plant should or will take root. It’s good. Not every seed will or should take root, I do want to talk about and I don’t know what seeds will work for you. What I want to encourage is like some seeds of thought, like the way that you can literally be thinking here. And maybe their belief seeds about who you want to be in the future that you maybe don’t feel like right now. And you know, I’m doing a new workout program. And I find it fascinating that I’m not as strong as I will be one day. The people teaching me are way stronger. But we’re doing the same workout. It’s interesting, isn’t it? So there’s always a next level to the same process. Wow. So this never stops is kind of one of my points. And so these are thoughts that even if you make $1 million in a month, I don’t really care, these thoughts help you become an even stronger version of yourself by doing the same thing. And some thoughts I have, that you could just decide are true, even if they don’t feel as true as you want them to be is like I’m someone worth buying from. I’m a really great storyteller. I enjoy the process of learning how people buy. I don’t know like what’s honestly like, if you think about what’s frustrating you right now and you just turn that into, I’m excited to figure out this new business, I’m excited to sell to people. I look forward to challenges I don’t know what conversations gosh, yeah, whatever it is, there’s always that next level of belief in that actually is a little bit of your son, because that desire to learn or be challenged or whatever that case is. It pulls you forward. Whereas thinking in the pollutants rarely and it also pulls you so you either do one or the other, you never stay still. And it is or your brain naturally wants to fear because it wants to keep you safe. And so to decide intentionally every single day to plant a seed that actually clears up some of the sky for you. It’s very encouraging and nourishing.

Macy
Denis Waitley you know, he says,

Kat
You get what you think about most and what you fear the most and what you fear. Yeah, whatever you think about the most is what you get.

Macy
So when you fear something, often that’s exactly what you’ll get. And it’s so crazy because I, I’ll talk to people all the time, and they’ll tell me what they’re like stresses them out and what they’re scared of. And they are like subconsciously going in that direction. They haven’t realized this and they don’t even realize it.

Kat
It’s crazy how many people have shut down their businessthat one year ago, they were saying things yeah, like, this was basically bound to happen, but it didn’t have to happen. Yeah. And they didn’t have to be confused. It could have actually stayed really clear. And I’m not saying you can’t shut down the business. I don’t know what’s right for you. Oh, gosh, things change. But knowing that when you have that ultimate mission and desire that pulls you forward, whatever that looks like for the life change you want to see in people typically that’s really huge amazing, because you’ll do stuff for other people that you wouldn’t even do for yourselves right you know, yep, man, we could keep going but I hope this was helpful.

Macy
Yes, God really be given us some clues he really do be like, Hey, this is right in front of us This really encouraged me I know when when I’m tempted to look left and right I’m gonna think about where’s my sun? Where’s the sun? I need the warmth I need the growth. And I hope you do as well.

Macy
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please let us know if you do send us a DM on Instagram @theguideculture we would love to hear what resonated with you the most. And we will see you on the next episode. Bye fam.

 

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