How Do I Make Myself More Promotable – Ask Clay Anything

Audio Transcription

Ten minutes grabbed the duck tape and mentally prepare yourself for yet another mind-expanding knowledge bomb from America’s number one business coach, Clay Clark.

Chuck, we have a question here from a thriver by the name of Brian G and a chap. I actually gave a kind of A. I have an intro music ready to go for, for Brian, but first off, can you kind of read the question for our listeners so they can so that they understand the question that we will be answering before we play Brian g intro music.

I like what you’re doing here. I like this. Okay. Brian g writes in and yes, I’m not a businessperson. I’m a welder that is tired of being under the welding hood. I have 25 years of experience and worked on, worked in several shops. I started working at a large company with the thought of moving into leadership.

Let’s say. Well, let’s. Let’s, let’s, let’s reset. Let’s read the question one more time with Brian Jean’s question, Brian. Alright, here we go. Hey, I’m not a business person. You know what? There’s too much talking to let me do this. Let me skip. Let’s skip ahead. Let me get back to the instrument where it’s really, really getting into the beat here. I liked it. Okay. Brian, she likes that too, so because Brian, he’s a gem. Ge Is it. Here we go. Chat back to you.

I’m not a businessperson. I am a welder. I was tired of being under the welding hood. I have 25 years of experience and I’ve worked in several shots. I started working at a large company with the thought of moving into leadership. I feel that I’m in the same dead end situation is with all the smaller companies I’ve worked at in the past. What are some things I can do to make myself more promotable?

You want to regulate? This guy wants to regulate this guy. By the way, what’s interesting is that song is called regulate. Yeah. How often do people in conversation say the word regulate? I mean, I’ve never had a conversation with you where I’m like, it’s time to regulate. Oh yeah. I have that conversation off. Had that conversation. I’m about to regulate on you. Okay. Well, first off, what number real quick, do you know the lyrics to that song regulate? Um, I used to. I mean, I could. Yeah, they’re coming back to me. Well, I think it’s important that the listeners know the lyrics to a song. I do too. And then I have a point that relates to Brian. I promise it’s going to take a minute to kind of get back to the, to the question. Even if you don’t. I like this rabbit trail.

Let’s do it. So the song says it was a clear black knight, the Clear White Moon, warren g is on the streets trying to consume some skirts for the eve so I can get some funk just rolling in my ride. Children all alone. He says, I just hit the east side of the LBC on a mission trying to find Mr Warren g, a car full of skirts ain’t no need to tweak or you skirts down. What’s up with two? One, three. I think there’s more people out there and I’m not saying it’s about Brian. If there’s more people out there that know the lyrics to this song, then who know? The details of their business. Oh, I see where there’s more people that know you go in the lyrics to that song, then know how to become the best they could be in their industry. So Brian, I’m going to give you my, my tips here and I want to make sure that these tips I’m have very actionable for you.

So first off, you want to be the first one at work every day or a day, regardless of whether you get paid extra for this. Now Dr. Breck you are an employer. You show up, you have managed a team, therefore you have been an employer. I have managed the team to manage a team and employer. I’m with. If somebody’s got to work every day to the first car there, Dr Brian? Yup. What time would they have to get to work to beat you everyday to work. I actually spend more of my time outside of the office in the morning. Yeah. Well what time do they have to get there to beat you? They’ve got to be there before 8:00 to beat you too. And we start seeing patients at nine. Okay. And so, whose car typically is first at your office, do you know? Typically that’s Rebecca. And what does she do?

She is, uh, just recently been promoted to a one of our office managers. Yay. But if, if it, let’s just say that you hired a guy by the name of Brian [inaudible] and Brian was being managed by Rebecca [inaudible] and if he wanted to get promoted, what would, what, what would you be going through? What kind of conversations would you and Rebecca have if you hired this guy who does a great job by the way? But he always gets to work first. I mean, that’s a great start. Isn’t that a great start? Great start. That’s an immediate wow factor. It is. Hey, whoa. Who’s here? It was part of record saying he’s be me here. That’s a great story. Also, I want to just clear this up for you a chuck. Tell the the, the terrible, terrible story about how I used to think Marshall’s name was brandon.

Oh yeah. No, all of the exact details. But basically, uh, the root of this story is when you hire and manage a lot of people, a lot of people, you cannot pour your care, I call it your care, you can’t give away your care too quickly because a lot of them are gonna end up screwing you, right? So you don’t need to care about their feelings or anything until they prove it. And so that’s clay’s philosophy and a lot of scenarios. And so, uh, I believe Marshall Morris, one of our coaches and, and super stud was working for you for a while, maybe a couple of years, couple of years, and he was not in the top 10. Correct. So that, that you got the top 10 made a little bit more money, right? Survey the clients after the wedding. Exactly. You did a great job as voted by the customer that you moved into the top 10.

Therefore you could almost double your pet. There you go. And so forever clay referred to Marshall is brandon [inaudible]. I didn’t know who he was, didn’t know who he was and wasn’t in the top 10. Exactly. Didn’t know, didn’t care. So he cracked the top 10 and here the story goes like, who’s this Marshall Fella that I’m paying so much money to? Who is this guy? He’s like, by you, right? Like right next to me. I’m asking this question. My name is not brandon. I am Marshall, my dad. That’s Marshall. That’s right beside you. But I think that’s important to understand. The reason why I didn’t know Marshall in somebody else loaded out the DJ’s, somebody else loaded in the disc jockeys, somebody paid him, somebody else to handle a hr, somebody else. There’s all these. So I didn’t interact with him very much. And so when someone who’s the first person to work, you get known more, you notice it.

People notice that that is your purple cow. Now the second thing you want to do is you want to ask your direct supervisor, what can I do to improve my craftsman ship my work, my results, my skill? What can I do to improve? You have to ask that question every single day. Why do you think people don’t do that? Because in my mind, that is like the most natural thing I can think of like you do that all the time. You asked that question time because I legitimately want to get better. Why wouldn’t you also ran your own business? That’s true. And so most people, I think they’re, they don’t want to come across as a suck up. Yeah, I think that’s a huge thing. Um, which by the way, whoever is dying on that hill, she don’t do that. There was a guy years ago who worked for me who dropped off coffee everyday.

He found out that I liked coffee this time, my life. I would drink coffee every morning and he found out that what kind of coffee I liked and Dr Breck he was the first one to work. I would sit down at my desk, you know what was always there, couple of your favorite coffee, right? It’s remarkable. And you got remarked about, right? So you noticed him. I remember a couple of the employees were like, this guy. He’s a freaking suck up dude. Is this? What does this guy think he is? He thought, we just suck it up to the boss of me. Command is free, you know, and I’m going. I remember having to address a group of men probably five or six guys and I go, Hey, if this is what sucking up looks like, I love it. You guys suck up. Seriously, I know. That’s what I’m saying.

Like, oh, so you’re empathetic and you’re nice to people. Boom, thing to do. Now again, Jonathan Kelly, what John did was, which is interesting as he found out that I loved football, we’ll watch it. So he bought me a Peyton Manning Jersey one year because I love Peyton Manning’s work ethic. Uh, I’ve always been a Patriot’s guy, but I really did appreciate Peyton Manning, his work ethic. And so John bought me a jersey, but he always brought me beverages and stuff. The point is I noticed him more because he put the effort into getting my attention right? Sure. And he brought unbelievable results to the workplace and he always asked, what can I do to get better? So step one, be the first one to work to always ask, how can I improve? Step three, you want to bring the four e’s in the P and for sake of time we’ll break them down here for you, but Jack Welch says, in order to be a top level employee, you must bring excellence in all four of the ease and one p, you got to be excellent and with the four e’s and excellent with the p one, you got to bring that energy.

Chuck Reed, What Jack Welch says about energy energy is the ability to go, go, go, to thrive on action and relish change. People with positive energy are generally extroverted and optimistic. They make conversation and friends easily. There are people who don’t complain about working hard. They love to work. They also love to play in overall, just love life. Dr. Breck, talk to me about how great it is when an employee brings energy to work everyday. I love that. I love that. Yeah, I mean, that’s. We gotta have it, you know, we have people coming to us that aren’t feeling their best and uh, yeah, we’ve got to have the energy so we can pass it onto them. So they energize, you know, energized. What about the person who can, who can not only bring their good, their own energy, but it couldn’t come to work and energize other employees, Dr Beck, how important at that level, so you’ve got to have that positive energy of yourself, but then when you can help energize other people, that is absolutely next level, you’re.

You’re not only, you’ve got enough to overflow for others. Chuck, can you read Jack Welch’s definition of energize? This is the ability to get others revved up. People who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible and enjoy doing it. The ability to energize is apparent in someone with an in depth knowledge of their business who sets a powerful personal example and has strong persuasion skills. Now, if you’re honestly listening to this Mr Brian g or anybody else out there and you’re saying to yourself, I do all of this and I cannot be promoted and you want to be promoted. There is a time to move on for certain companies. So as an example, um, I have a friend of mine who I knew very, very well from college who worked in a company where he kept being promoted all the time and he went to his boss and said, boss, I do not ever want to be promoted again ever.

I just want to be. The boss was like, you want to be stagnant? He goes, yeah, I just want to be a coder. I enjoyed coding. I don’t want to manage people. So in the boss was like, well, we need you to be promoted because you’re the best coder we have is. I know, but I just don’t want to manage people. So I, I want you to know that in the Boston, okay. And he’s been there a long time and it’s a good relationship, but he is clear he doesn’t want to manage people. There are some companies where there’s just not that many spots available. And if you don’t want to manage people, you just can’t work there. That’s true. Or maybe you work for a bad boss sometimes. Maybe work for a boss that’s not a good guy. Not a good lady. Not a good person, and they’re just not going to promote you because of nepotism.

They’re not going to promote you because their wife or their sister or their husband is in charge of something and you’re not gonna get Chub. You’ve seen that before. Oh yeah, and so that’s one thing working for a family business. You got to accept some times is that you know, if the husband of the business is in charge of accounting and he wants to do accounting, you probably have zero chance of ever being promoted for that. Accountants don’t know where to go. Now, the next notable quotable chat, the next area we want to focus on if you want to get promoted, is what execute, and this means being able to execute is having the ability to get the job done. It turns out a person can have positive energy, energize everyone around them, make hard calls, and still not get over the finish line. Being able to execute as a unique and distinct skill.

It means that a person knows how to put decisions into action and push them forward to completion through resistance, chaos, or unexpected obstacles. People who can execute know that winning is about results. I just see a lot of people that for whatever reason, they just, um, you know, they just, they just can’t get it done. Yeah. They bring great energy. They energize other people. They’re excited about work. They’re nice. They just can’t finish the search engine optimization report on time. They just can’t balance the checkbook. They just can’t answer the phone properly. Turns out that’s a pretty important aspect of businesses doing what you’re supposed to do. Right. So, but you wouldn’t believe how many people are shocked right when they’re fired for not being able to do job. So Brad’s got to check his worlds. Yes. Make sure you’re making some really good, good, good looking weld.

Work on that. And I’m not saying they’re not or that you are. I’m just saying objective. Lee asked the boss, how can I make these better? Because maybe the boss, I think she could improve and hasn’t told you. Write surveys, you know, get the feedback. Find out. Now the next, each up is what I love this one. This is a, as he says, edge edge. Having edge means having the courage to make tough yes or no decisions. Smart people can assess a situation from every angle, but smart people with edge know when to stop assessing and make a tough call even without all the information. Yeah. So this is just an example. We had an employee about a year ago who sent me a full page email of like 30 things that are upset with not one or two, but like 30 things that’s bought them all up and all of them were like, I don’t like the overhead music.

Um, I don’t like my boss. I don’t feel like I’m being considered for promotion. I don’t like the culture. I don’t like the required reading. I don’t like it. Just, I mean, a ton of stuff. Yeah. So pull the person aside and said, hey, you know, um, you have about 32 grievances, 32, um, theses, you know, Martin Luther had his theses, he nailed to the Catholic churches wall to the door of the Catholic church. You’ve got your 32 here, 31, whatever it is. I’m not going to change any of those. So do you think it’s wise that we just go ahead and part ways today and they were like, are you kidding me? I have been busted my button the one time that I share it with you, but how I feel about this place. You’re gonna let me go. Yeah, actually, yeah. But I think that some people want to go to work for a great restaurant and then they went to change the menu, right?

Or the name or they want to change the org chart and it’s not going to happen. Client will want to talk to you about this. Actually. Can we change the name of the thrive time? Show to the CIF time. Show a. what’d you say, chuck? Sometimes the, uh, on. Well, no, I feel like I feel like that would really help me out. You know, I was thinking about this and now let’s move on to the final area that the Japanese said. You got to read. The four e’s and the p passion. People with passion have heartfelt, deep, authentic excitement about work. They care really care in their bones about colleagues, employees and friends. They love to learn. And grow and they get a huge kick out of the people around them. Doing the same passion is something that people, Yawn and meetings don’t have passion.

People that asked, do I get paid for that? Don’t have passion, but it’s interesting that a lot people who [inaudible] and meetings and say, do I get paid for that? Think they have passionate that they’re the most passionate just stating of passion. I mean this seriously. No, it’s very true. You’ve got to bring this into. How do you know if you have passion? The people that are reading books about how to become the best welder possible. If were a welder, people who are salespeople who are studying how to become a better salesperson. They have a passion that the mortgage provider who’s studying how to become the best mortgage provider. That is how you know if someone was passionate, they’re willing to do over and above. They’re willing to work on their craft after work. They have passion and then put that into action. We’re working on it and then they do it and then the people around them will grow from that as well and they love it. But again, if you’re, if you are working for a bad boss, it, this does not work. Right? So, uh, again, I, I want to give Dr Breck and chop the, the opportunity to share a final tip for you, Brian as it relates to getting promoted. But again, the next time you, you’re thinking about what do I need to do to get promoted, thrive nation. I would encourage you to think about what would Jack Welch say and Jack Welch would say, it’s four years in a p a. maybe it’s where I’m at,

how Jack the Jack Welch is a phenomenal manager, phenomenal CEO. He grew ge by 4,000 percent during his tenure, 4,000 percent. He took a stagnant company and took it to the next level for 20 years in a row. And when he left, Ge fell apart. This guy knows what he’s talking about. There’s some wisdom right there. I would encourage everybody out there, if you’re trying to get a promotion, ask yourself, what would Jack Welch say, Chuck, back to you? Uh, my last tip would be to over deliver always. Okay. And, and embrace the concept of accountability. Be the person in the shop and the office in the. Wherever that is. Okay. With feedback that says, yes, I got that done. Actually got it done early and you’ll get noticed a dress sharper than everyone else. Show up to work for everybody else to be nicer to the boss that nobody else be nicest.

Be Nicer to the boss’s wife. Be Nicer to just really make it your goal, to exceed everyone’s expectations in every way possible. Dr. Breck, what’s your final hot take? I love everything I’ve heard so far. I think it’s all great advice. I’m going off of the premise of the question that says I’m not a business person. That’s the one point I would point out is you may have to assess the whole situation and uh, if that’s maybe in question, maybe it’s time for you to step out and do your own thing. Maybe you’re, you are a business person and maybe you need the room to grow and move and be the entrepreneur, but maybe not, but you gotta you gotta be honest. You got to assess if there’s no room to go up and there’s not a, a good lateral move to move to another company where you can go up, um, you might actually be feeling the pain of needing to be your own boss.

Awesome. Um, this is an interesting and I’ll just, I’ll just kind of wrap up the idea with this. If you think that you want to own your business, I would encourage you to come to a workshop first. Yes, absolutely. And meet real entrepreneurs so you can see how hard it is because I see a lot of people that I’m like, well, I executive sample one of our companies. People say, can I get a mat to stand on [inaudible]? And I say, well, yeah, I mean, what, what do you do that for? Now? You know, my, my feet hurt. I, I stand every day about six hours a day and I just want the man, my feet hurt. But Chuck, you see me, do I ever sit down? Nope. No, but it’s like from six to five, six to six, six, 5:30 AM to six every day, every day.

So I probably stand 70 hours a week. I don’t know. I mean, so is an entrepreneur. I’ve wait a guy a shadow me the other day, uh, from Dallas and he got to the office at six to meet me for the shadow and uh, we worked together until five and he was like to, to this every day that he was just like so tired. Hold on these, when do you go get lunch? I just don’t know, but all I’m saying is that’s a, that’s a different. Bringing large brewers at different world. It’s a different mindset. It’s, it’s a. and you have to work like that for many years before you can create the time freedom. And so I am in the process of building the nation’s largest and most successful business podcast. So I am in grind mode right now. I’m grinding. That’s what I’m doing.

But if I wasn’t like with the DJ business, I got to a point where it was kind of like I was kind of coasting almost. Yeah. And at that point, um, it might’ve seemed easy when you come to a workshop, you can remain real entrepreneurs that have started their own thing and we answered their questions, uh, one by one so you can actually see what the path this is, you know, what they’re going through right now is the same path you’re going to be going through. So it’s really helpful. And Brian, you can buy your tickets today by going to thrive time show dot comments, thrive time show.com, or if you’re trying to save some money, um, you can just leave us in objective review on itunes. So you just subscribe to the podcast on itunes and take a screenshot of the objective review after you subscribe.

Or You could leave us a review on the Google map. And as soon as that screenshot to [email protected] [email protected]. And we’ll send you those tickets in. The only cost you have is $37 instead of the 2:50 to 37 covers the lunch for both days. You Got [inaudible] Los Cabos, you got two days of workshops from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. You got the boom workbook, and let me just keep an audio real quick so you can hear what a thriver had to say about their experience at the workshop and that way you can kind of decide. Brian with the workshop is right for you.