Why Smart People Miss Great Opportunities – Episode 686

Transcript provided by the show’s production team.

[00:00] Spencer Shaw: Prosperity Thinkers, welcome to the podcast. On this episode, we’re gonna be talking about the, some of the most critical things that happen to us, and this is us of looking at where the economy and everything else, and we’re going through all these things that are gonna affect us. And so here we go. This is why smart people miss opportunities. Kim, have you ever seen a smart person miss an opportunity? Kim Butler: Oh, yes, myself included Spencer Shaw: So why? I mean, it was right in front of you, or it was told to you, or you could see it. Is it time? I- w- what is the reason for missing it? And I’ve got a couple stories myself. Kim Butler: I love it. Yes, we all are human, aren’t we? So, it’s definitely time. There’s occasions when an opportunity presents itself. I’ve actually got one on my desk right now. It’s a opportunity to present a case study. They gave me the

[01:00] sample case studies. I used AI’s help. Now I’m always very careful if I’m putting something out in the public, every single word has been looked at by me, but I use AI help for the research to prepare my case study. But what I haven’t done is taken the time to go in and look at their case studies and make sure that what I’m presenting and providing will fit with what they want, right? So there’s an opportunity, and I’m two weeks late. Like that’s sad, and it’s just a function of time, which is always a function of priorities, right? And I absolutely had some other priorities in the last couple weeks, so that’s the way it goes. I think additionally, there are opport- missed opportunity because of money, and it’s not always that we don’t have the money, it’s that we don’t have the money liquid and ready to go. So there are so many investments these days that require a certain minimum to get involved, 100K, 250K, whatever the numbers are. And our lives tend to operate monthly, so you

[02:00] can’t put monthly money into these lump sum deals that require 100K or 250K or a million, you know, whatever the number is for the minimum. And so it’s imperative that we have some form of structure that takes the monthly money and stores it in an opportunity fund whereby we are ready to go when opportunities present themselves that require those lump sums. There’s a very famous saying by Nelson Nash, who has long since passed on, and he says, “If you’re in a position of cash, opportunities will seek you out.” And so my question to you as the listener is, do you have an opportunity fund and are you actively building it in such a way where it is completely liquid and leverageable so that you could act quickly if an opportunity presented itself? Spencer Shaw: Ooh, I love that. Okay,

[03:00] so I am going to pull an example from your life, and you’re probably going, “Oh no, wait, what is this one? How did, d- how did he get access to my diary?” No, I didn’t. But I’m gonna use a really good principle from a story, which is this, ’cause the title of the episode is “Why Smart People Miss Great Opportunities.” And recently, you were with Tom Wheelwright. Tom Wheelwright is arguably a pretty smart tax person, and by being a smart tax person, he’s a magnet to other smart business people. You have put yourself in the room with Tom and others. So, many people miss great opportunities because they never open the door and get in the room. You did. Now, does that guarantee that you have opportunity if you go in the room with them? Is– I would imagine there’s no guarantee. Did you hear conversations that

[04:00] opened your eyes or your ears or you said, “Wow, this is an opportunity”? Maybe it’s not for you, but you saw opportunity. Kim Butler: Absolutely. And I think the first opportunity is to be really present in the room and with whoever it is that you’re speaking to, which for us human beings can be a challenge, right? Because we’re so, especially when we’re actually face-to-face with somebody, we’re so caught up in how we look or how they look that we might be inclined to pass judgment, which is sometimes way too early to do so. And so as we involve ourselves, and Tony Robbins calls this the power of proximity. As we involve ourselves in the proximity of, for example, so there were three different events over the course of a week. The last day was 50 different entrepreneurs that were in the room. So you wanna talk about opportunity, it was all over

[05:00] the place, right? And so asking good questions, being very present with the people that were in the room, and the answers that I was getting, listening more than we talk, right? We have two ears and one mouth. Taking good notes, remembering people’s names and people’s stories, et cetera, and not being there to get. I have found in my life, when I walk into a room, if I go in there with the attitude to get, in other words, I’m looking for a good investment, I’m looking for a good business partner, I’m looking for a good business, I’m looking, you know, get me, then I do not come off well and I do not get good results. Oppositely, if I go into that room to give, how can I help? Who can I serve? How can I be as authentic me as possible and do the two ears, one mouth listening-talking ratio,

[06:00] and give and serve and I call it my give first mantra, then I usually get way better results Spencer Shaw: Absolutely. So you’ve learned to and this is a bad way of saying it ’cause a person could take it negatively, but you’ve learned to work a room. And work a room means to present yourself presently, to be there present with the people, and to look to give rather than get. So opportunities can come to you because you’re there. So there’s two things that happen when there’s opportunities. There’s a yes and there’s a no, Kim Butler: हा Spencer Shaw: and nos are actually, for me at least, nos are really hard because I’m like, “Oh yeah, that sounds great. Oh, that sounds great. Oh, that sounds great.” Nos are really hard. And yeses need to, in most, many cases, need to be made fast. No analysis paralysis. So for you, how are

[07:00] you operating with your yeses and your nos when it comes to opportunities? Kim Butler: Yeah, it’s a great question. So I think no is, first of all, a complete sentence, and second of all, one of the most important things that we can do when we’re in a room like that, because there literally are so many opportunities that get bantered about that you couldn’t possibly take advantage of them all. And so being really clear on what you’re looking for, and yet with an open mind, and again, being there to serve and being willing to say, “No, not now,” or, “No, not me,” or, “No, thank you,” or even maybe having like a parking lot section of your notes where if you’re unsure about something, you put it in the parking lot section so that you can think about it later, but it’s not something that’s gonna tie you up right now. All of those very, very valuable skillsets to have, because then you can be more assured that

[08:00] the yeses that you do employ, “Yes, I would like to talk with you further about that. Yes, I would like to,” you know, fill in the blank, whatever it is, “look at the perspectives, meet your partner,” you know, whatever it might be, “meet again, have a private c-conversation,” you know, “talk later,” whatever it is even more valuable. Because the last thing that you wanna do is walk home with a whole bunch of business cards, a complete lack of memory as to who was what. I have found myself taking selfies with people, like, “I wanna remember who… You know, who, what you look like, who you are,” and then just maybe scribbling a note on the back of a business card. Ideally, also something personal about that individual so that I can really connect with them if that is my goal in the future. And then, as I’ve already said, being okay saying, “No. No thank you, not right now.” Because it’s just unbelievable the opportunities that we can say yes to when we clear

[09:00] the way by saying no to others. Spencer Shaw: you dropped a nugget in there that was so good. You did it s- like, you did it so fast, like it was just natural. What you did is you said taking a selfie with people there. And what that does and I’m just reading through because th- there’s stuff between the lines on this. You’re helping your memory remember. You’re helping them feel special, feel heard. And even if it’s a no, it’s like, “Eh,” that’s a friendly no, and that’s okay. That’s great. So I wanna wrap up with this last little piece, which is this: So we’re we’ve gone through, we’ve talked about the opportunities. What is, if you had to sit in the elevator, ground floor, you’re taking it up to the 10th floor, you’ve got 30 seconds, what do you say to a

[10:00] listener when they’re saying, “I’ve got this opportunity in front of me,” or, “I want this opportunity to happen”? Kim Butler: Wow. Yeah, that’s a big question. So… And I want it noted that you didn’t ask, “What do I say that I do?” Right? ‘Cause that’s what most people think is what’s your elevator talk, right? This is what questions do you ask to help, if I interpreted your question correctly, somebody else ferret out an opportunity. And I will tell you that my number one go-to way to help people figure out if an opportunity is best for them is the Kolbe profile. So, if you are a listener of this podcast, you are well aware of this. kolbe.com, K-O-L-B-E. It’s $63 these days, not 55, I was corrected the other day. And it is the most valuable tool to help you as an individual, and possibly along with your significant other, ferret out

[11:00] whether opportunities are right for you. I’ll give you a quick example. If you initiate and follow through, so that’s the second Kolbe number. Kolbe’s information is summarized by four different numbers. Mine’s 4-4/9-2, for what it’s worth. So, if your second Kolbe number is resistant to follow through, which means you’re not really a systems person, you’re more of a do it your own way kind of person, then you should not be buying franchises because you’re not gonna wanna follow their system. Whereas if you tend to initiate and follow through, you might be very content and very benefited by a franchise because there would be a way for you to have a system ready-made to go, and you just plug in. And then there’s a variety of other things that I know from studying Kolbe for so long that are just so helpful in helping people figure out what opportunities are best for them. So, that’s my go-to. Now, of course, if somebody doesn’t have the Kolbe, I want them to spend the

[12:00] $63 and go get it before I am super confident in answering that question Spencer Shaw: Oh, I dig that. What you did is you said, “Hey for you as an individual, you gotta find that out.” It’s very similar to what we said in a previous episode about our opportunity and emergency fund. The Colby is the opportunity and emergency of getting things like that figured out. Kinda cool. Okay. Listeners we appreciate each and every one of you. If you’re not following the podcast, make sure you’re doing that. It could be on Spotify, Apple, anywhere you listen. Also, clips on YouTube, other stuff on socials. Check us out. We appreciate you listening to the show