How Your Unique Ability Plays A Part In Life And In Money – Episode 315

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors.

[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Today on the Prosperity Podcast, we’re going to be talking about how your unique ability applies to your money and to your prosperity. So Kim, help us understand first, what is this term unique ability? Because some people may be thinking we’re speaking a different language. So this is a term that was coined by Dan Sullivan of strategic coach. And for those of you that have heard us before, he is such a gem. And for those of you that haven’t heard us talk about Dan Sullivan, again, of strategic coach, he has been a mentor of mine for over 25 years. He has a company both in Toronto and Chicago that helps entrepreneurs develop more growth in their lives, both business and personally.

[00:51] And so I’ve attended strategic coach for many years. I’ve coached for strategic coach for, I don’t know, I think almost 20 years. And it’s a real class act of an organization to be involved with. And Dan has a couple books about unique ability on Amazon that I’m sure we can link to in the show notes. And essentially, unique ability is your unique areas of expertise applied to your lives in all situations. So there’s unique ability, which like I said, is your area of expertise applied in all situations. And then there’s unique ability activities, which are the specific things that you do typically during your day-to-day work environment, but could also be an act on a Saturday or a Sunday or even when you’re on vacation that are evidence of that unique ability.

[01:46] So you can think of unique ability as this big overarching concept that just identifies what you do, how you get results, how you are operating in the world. And it is then further defined by the unique ability activities, which are the specific exact things that you’re doing. And while your unique ability activities may change from day to day or time to time in your life, your actual unique ability is something that really has been with you forever and is installed and in operation at all times. OK, that makes sense. Now, I think one thing that we’ve noticed as listeners of the podcast is that you have a unique ability to be able to teach and educate and listen, and you’re helping your clients with that and actually in the industry.

[02:39] But then your husband, Todd, his unique ability is working on software and it’s teaching in a different way. And so oftentimes we read business books and we think that the successful business owner is someone that is a go-getter and someone that’s an extrovert and they are always in the limelight, whereas that’s not the case. You have to find that unique ability and then lean into it. And I think we can help you, the listener, identify your unique ability in a couple of different ways. First of all, I recommend Dan’s book. He has a little workbook that goes with it and helps you identify unique ability. The Colby profile, k-o-l-b-e dot com, that is a contributor to your knowledge around unique ability.

[03:26] And there are personality profiles on the web like Myers-Briggs and Disc and the lion, otter, beaver, golden retriever process that Gary Smalley has. And there’s a lot of other personality things on the web that also contribute to your unique ability differently than Colby, which is not about personality, it’s about conation or how you get results. Unique ability really boils down to self-knowledge. And what is interesting is when you have more and more self-knowledge, you can lean in, to use Spencer’s word, in the area of the work that you’re doing because you get so much more energy from working in areas of your unique ability, and that’s where you want to spend the bulk of your time. So when a person understands that unique ability and they want to spend

[04:19] more time with that, it makes me think in the terms of prosperity. And I kind of want to go down this path where you’ve been successful at something in your field, and that could be on owning a business. It could be I’ve seen oftentimes that a person’s very much into real estate, and so they do real estate investing. Or a person could be very much into owning businesses and managing employees. So how can people maximize those unique abilities following these principles of prosperity? Well, what’s interesting to me is that unique ability needs to apply to how you make money decisions, especially at the higher levels when you’re getting involved in investments. Just as much as the concept of unique ability needs to be applied to the work

[05:07] that you do on a daily basis because, again, if we work in areas of our unique ability, we’re much happier. Well, if we invest in similar areas that aligns with our unique ability, we’re also happier and we get better results with our money. So let me give a real estate example. My husband and I are very well versed in the tax benefits of owning real estate. We have a real estate calculator inside the Truth Concept software, and frankly, that’s unusual for advisors. A lot of advisors don’t really know how to deal with real estate. We do. We’ve seen the benefits. And so consequently, when it was an appropriate time in our lives, we wanted to get started in investment real estate. And we dabbled at it at the residential level like most people do,

[05:51] but we were ready to step it up. And so we bought a small apartment complex. And it became fairly clear to us pretty quickly that that was not an area of our unique ability at all. And Todd and I were in over our heads. We had a management company involved and we were still in over our heads. And it was miserable dealing with it. I dreaded the phone calls from the management company. I dreaded the interaction that I had to have with the residents. And it was just not a good match for us at all. The property was cash flowing. It was okay as an investment, but it was not something that we had any business being involved with because it didn’t coincide or match with our unique abilities. We would have been so much better off choosing another investment.

[06:42] Okay, so you and I want to clarify something because I think this is often the trap is that you had this real estate investment and it was actually winning on paper, but it wasn’t winning with your time or with your conscience or with what you knew was best. So what did you do with the property and then what did you do next? Well, the final straw is actually a very funny story. So Todd’s out of town. We often traveled together, but in this case he was gone and we got a call from the police because the apartment building had been broken into and the thieves were after the copper wiring and pipes in the walls. And so they had torn apart the walls in this one particular apartment unit and then tried to get into the next one to get the copper pipes and sell the

[07:36] copper, crazy, absolutely insane. Wow. So hopefully you sold it. Well, you got to hear the rest of the story. So, and I talk about this in my Busting the Real Estate Investing Lies book in case you want a little longer version of it. Well, the bottom line is I have to, like the management company can’t deal with it. Apparently when the police get involved, then the owner has to show up. So I’m in business dress clothes. I don’t know why that was actually unusual in and of itself. Doesn’t matter. I drive down to this apartment building. The policemen say, ma’am, you need to stay in your car. They draw guns and like crouch down and go around the corner because they told me later, you never know what you’re going to find when an

[08:18] apartment building has been broken into like this. I was scared to death. And so, yes, quickly after that, we sold it and got away from that building. And I mean, it was so clear to me how, I mean, talk about being out of place to the nth degree, even though it did look good on paper. You know, I, I wonder though, if your unique ability could be in the bodyguard business, Kim, you’re pretty fierce sometimes. I don’t think so. Okay. So you decided to sell this real estate. And what would be your unique ability with an investment because now you freed up some capital, but more importantly, you freed up time and your mind to be able to focus on things that were more important. It’s interesting.

[09:06] I really encourage people to follow what they love. And so as an example, I have no idea why I have loved the oil jacks that are across like the state of Kansas and you see them, of course, in Texas, since I was in college, I remember driving from St. Louis, Missouri to Denver, Colorado, with some friends across the state of Kansas, and I wanted to stop by every little pump jack that we saw. I just think they’re the coolest things in the whole world. And so, um, there, and I literally have pictures of me, but there was also a place called Hayes, Kansas, and my maiden name is Hayes spelled H-A-Y-S, which is an unusual spelling of it. Well, Hayes, Kansas is spelled H-A-Y-S. So I have pictures of me in front of the signs of Hayes, which are

[09:52] right in front of the oil pump jacks. So I have been interested in this space from the beginning of time, and I can’t even say why, but there’s just a natural love there. So when you ask about unique ability, as it relates to my money, I encourage people to follow their heart. So of course we know that the first investment is in ourselves. It’s our learning, it’s our ability, it’s our mindset. And of course, whole life insurance supports that beautifully because it frees our mind to know that we have cash value growing. That’s going to be unaffected by anything, you know, who’s in the presidency, oil prices, stock market, totally unrelated to whole life. And yet you can’t put all of your dollars in whole life.

[10:34] You have to either take on some tax benefits, which of course we get from oil and I’m always interested in tax benefits, which is why we pursue the real estate. Well, with oil, I can get tax benefits with just writing a check and not having to go see policemen crouch in front of the corners of the apartment building. And so that is something that I just naturally gravitate to. I love it. I love reading about it. I love the tax benefits it comes with. Of course, I do need to say that for getting involved in oil, you must be an accredited investor. And yet this is a space that I love. I love learning about it. I love paying attention to it. And so it’s a natural investment that completely aligns with

[11:13] my unique ability. So, you know, for our listeners, there’s a really simple lesson to take. And that is once you know your unique ability and, and oftentimes it can be disguised because you can do very well in something and you can see another family member or a friend do financially well, and you want to copy them. I would encourage you to not do that because often it’s going to be solving a short term problem with a long term amount of stress. Totally not worth it. But because you went into oil and gas, did your stress levels reduce? Absolutely. And I get to see the benefits of what’s going on. They do happen to be fairly near our home. So I mean, literally see, but more importantly, see the impact that

[11:59] it has on me because I’m not stressed with this piece of real estate with so many moving parts. This is a much simpler environment. I write the check, I get the tax benefits, I get the growth and or income, depending on whether we’re talking oil or gas. And it just really aligns with my thinking and who I am and how I want our world to move forward. Even so, you know, you could argue and say, Oh my gosh, that’s so not, you know, green energy or whatever. And my response is yes. And it works for me. So I think for you as a listener, take a moment and think about your unique ability. We’ll put some links inside of the show notes about the books that Dan Sullivan has written, but overall think of things that

[12:42] have worked well for you. And if you’re not sure what’s working for you, or maybe if you have a strange unique ability and you’re trying to figure out how to get that to fit for your investments in the future, maybe you’re into real estate, but you’re not sure if you want to take on another apartment complex. Well, there’s turnkey real estate or whatever it may be. Probably the best thing to do is to reach out to Kim and go to hello at partnersforprosperity.com and ask, hey, what unique ability, here’s my unique ability. What type of investment or what strategy do you suggest? Would you say that’s probably one of the best things to do? I do. And also there’s nothing wrong with just sitting in

[13:23] cash. I mean, here in 2019 when we’re recording this, there is going to be some serious opportunity in the next two, three years. Being in a position of cash enables opportunity to then be taken advantage of. So storing cash and whole life insurance, if your whole life insurance policies are full, then it’s time to get another policy and or just store cash in the bank or a credit union so that you’re prepared for taking advantage of opportunities. Great way to close it out. Thanks for spending time with us today on the podcast and we will get you another episode with our unique abilities, helping you understand more about the prosperity economic principles. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take

[14:08] control of your money and have it work for you, visit us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.