Innovating In a World of Chaos – Episode 353

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[00:01] Today on the Prosperity Podcast, we’re going to be talking about a transition that we are all facing. And this is an unbelievable time. And essentially, we’re going from the industry of wagons to cars, meaning the workforce used to be in high-rise offices, and now it’s done in a bedroom. Let’s talk about that today, Kim. I am so happy to talk about that because it’s literally something that I’ve done since the internet began. I remember sitting in a conference room in the late 1990s with somebody trying to describe the internet, and I got just enough of it. And I’m not super technological, but I got just enough of it to realize that that was possible. Work from home was possible. I had young children at the time. They had a full-time nanny, so it wasn’t child

[00:54] care-related. But I was the kind of person that came into the building in the morning, went straight to my office, shut the door, and was in meetings. And some of them were over just a regular phone at that time, but some of them were face-to-face until noon, when I took a very quick break and then did the exact same thing in the afternoon. And it was just very clear to me that it was not necessary for me to be in the office building in order for those meetings to occur. And as soon as the internet came available and Zoom, which was at the time called Placeware, became available, then the screen share capability was there. We just went to that immediately. And so this is doable. And the funny thing is at the time, of course, nobody was there to train us how to

[01:47] do it. We had an entire team and we just figured it out. And this is what I love about today, in the spring of 2020, is we have had this capacity for years. I have had so many people ask me, how do you work from home? How do you do your work virtually? Got to see people face-to-face? How do I transition? And I’ve created various trainings and ideas and suggestions and whatnot, many, many times to no avail. Well, guess what? Now they just get to figure it out. Yeah. You know, you’re forced to do it. I mean, I think the time to learn to swim sometimes is when you get thrown in the water. Absolutely. And so I’m excited about this. There is so much blessing that occurs when you work from home. And yes, each person

[02:38] has to find their own way. They have to find their physical location in their home. They have to figure out how to keep dogs and kids away, or just let the dogs in, as so many people are now, Emma, dog included. And my daughter is here right now this week with her blue tick coon hound. Have you ever heard of coon hound bark? Holy cow. We think Emma has a big bark. So, you know, that’s all just become normal. And this is new normal. And new normal is going to change every day during our lives right now. And so we can embrace that. Now there will be some people that really still need the socialization. Awesome. Turn your camera on. There will still be people that need to do face to face meetings. Awesome. That’s what

[03:25] Starbucks and other places like that will turn into. And we’ve had three major structures, physical structures, the schools, the malls, and the office buildings, all built for a certain method of use. And I am so excited to see what they’re going to get turned into. That is a complete revolution. If you think about it, like completely changing everything. And depending on who we are as communicators, again, turning on the webcam solves a lot of those problems. It also helps us become a lot more effective in our communication. Oh, I’m so glad you brought that up because one of the things that I love most about working virtually is the efficiency, which I think is just like an absolute close cousin to effectiveness

[04:21] that business can occur. And so people are learning things like stand up meetings that are awesome and short and literally five minutes instead of 30 minutes. And people are learning to put better subject lines on their email. That’s like my pet peeve. Please, please, if you’re replying to me about something completely different, take two seconds to change the subject line. And so this is good and we must be looking for the good. Is there challenge? Are people afraid? Yes. Do I feel challenged? Am I afraid? Yes. And when that happens to me, I have some go to things that I go to in order to fix that problem. And the number one thing first is to figure out how we learn. And so people gravitate naturally either to listening, which is our awesome podcast

[05:15] community, reading, which is our awesome blog community. If you prefer to read, go to partners for prosperity.com forward slash blog. And we post something new every week. And then of course, some people prefer to watch, which is the videos. And I think people that watch videos mostly learn best by listening. When you figure that out, then go all in and get the sources that you can in your chosen mode of operation to learn, learn some new skills, practice. My dad, 80 years old, and his entire church community, probably average age of 80, just figured out Zoom on Sunday, two days ago, or yesterday. Sorry. Awesome. Way to go, guys. Yes. When we get forced, we innovate. Isn’t it wonderful? Yes. And we’re, as human beings, primed to innovate as long as we’re not fearful and

[06:11] feeling stuck. So when you’re fearful and feeling stuck, that’s the time to dig out the positive focus. That’s the time to create value. That’s the time to try something new. And I get it. Some people say, I don’t want to try anything new. I don’t like change. That is still a choice. And so I’m going to encourage you to like it. And sometimes it’s literally just a shift and a forced attempt at digging in a little bit. And you’ll be amazed how quickly the rest of it will come around. And so it starts in your thought. So as soon as the thought pops in, I don’t like change. First of all, don’t let that come out of your mouth. And second of all, change your thought. And thought is very, very easy to change.

[07:05] I’ll share with you a story that I think I’ve shared on the podcast before. It comes from my good friend Jordan Adler, who is learning to drive a helicopter. Actually, I think the proper term is fly. So we talked about automobiles from wagons. Well, actually flying a helicopter is going to become more and more common, right? Because people are going to learn to fly drones. And there will be helicopter services that Uber is developing already. We’re going to need more helicopter pilots. Well, Jordan, as he was learning to fly a helicopter, was told that as he’s moving his hand on the joystick, helicopter is so sensitive that it literally is being affected by your thought because your hand is affected by your

[07:54] thought. And when you think I’m going to go right before you finish that thought, your hand is already doing that and the helicopter is picking up on that. So if that’s how sensitive the helicopters are to our hands, which are connected to our brains, think about what your self thoughts are doing for you. And so one of the other mantras that I’ve adopted right now these days is there’s enough. I have enough. It seems scary that I might not have food or I might not have money or I might not have the wherewithal to do whatever it is that needs to be done right now. But us human beings were made to innovate. And so if you will shift your thought and let that be the predominant thought, just literally swap it out. I don’t like change. I do like change. I’m afraid. Okay.

[08:52] Focus on what I can control and I can control my thoughts and fear and gratitude cannot exist in the same space. So just go to gratitude. Start thinking about things you’re grateful for might be the dog, might be the time at home, might be literally the color of the red microphone that I’m currently speaking into. Yes. Very good point. I think there’s another lesson as we begin to wrap up is we can also look at the past and we can learn from the past so we can see where previous innovations happened. So you may want to do some history reading and see what happened during the Great Depression and what caused people to prosper. Maybe you can look and see what happened during the revolution of wagons to vehicles and you can see what that thinking

[09:45] pattern is. Maybe apply some of that thinking pattern to now because we have the time. We have the ability and we have the time with the ability to create innovation and especially coupling that with gratitude. I don’t see how anyone can lose. I’ve got a fun story for you. In 1665, Isaac Newton had to work from home because the University of Cambridge was closed due to the bubonic plague. It was the most productive period of his life because he used that time to develop his theories on calculus, optics and gravity. So how about this? Is this the prosperity time for all of us to innovate? It is. That’s create and innovate and begin with prosperous thinking and think is the number one principle of our seven principles of prosperity and let that drive your creation

[10:41] and your innovation rather than fear. I love it. This is a punchy episode. I think it’s completely needed in our environment and for you listeners, I hope that you got a lot of value out of it and you can see that right now can be your Isaac Newton moment. This is your time to prosper. I love that story, Kim. I got one more for you. During the Black Plague, Shakespeare, when all of England’s theaters were closed, wrote Macbeth and King Lear. I didn’t know that. Wow. I didn’t know that. I think in about a year or two from now, we’re going to look back and we’re going to say, hey, during this time of spring 2020, here’s what was created. That’s right. That’s going to be interesting. That’s going to be really interesting.

[11:27] I want each and every one of you to be a part of that. Absolutely. Well, listeners, thank you for being a part of this episode and Kim, thank you for taking the time to chat with us and share those wonderful stories. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take 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.