Business Coach : Be Thankful For Everything
CLAY CLARK: So you’re walking around. You’re walking to the guest bathroom saying, all right, I’m thankful for this. And you look at your pictures of your family, and you express thankfullness for your family. Thankful to be a business coach as well.
-Yeah. And I’m also thankful for the thermometer too.
-The thermometer?
-You know–
-The thermostat.
-The thermostat.
-Yeah.
-What did I say, thermometer? Thermostat. In fact, I told my wife this the other day. She just cracked up laughing. I said, Barbara, you know, I am so thankful for this thermostat. She says, what are you talking about? I said, you know how cold it is? Do you know, I don’t have to get up and put on three coats and walk to the coal house and bring coal in. All I have to do is reach on the wall and literally turn that knob to 72. And it works. Some people need a business coach in all areas of life.
-Now, see, this is different from me, because I complain that my bathtub is not as big as my other bathtub I used to have. I come from a place where, you know, how I grew up. I grew up– so the other day, I was just talking to my wife. And I’m like, all I want is a bathtub that’s twice the size of this bathtub. I want the whirlpool. I deserve this. And so–
-Well you know, there is there is something called relative.
-OK.
You know. And maybe this is where relative lifestyles come in. But I’m a baby boomer. And for those of us who were born in the American south during the time in which I did, trust me, I have a lot to be thankful for.
-So you express thankfulness. And then do you get out a piece of paper and write out your to-do list? Do you get a day-timer? What is your process? These are the questions a business coach would ask.
-You know, the process that I really gravitate toward is realizing that I can’t do everything at the same time. So the list becomes very important. I mean, I don’t try to prioritize the list while I’m writing it. I just write everything down that I have to do.
CLAY CLARK: I want to walk you through, because I want to make sure I don’t miss anything. So you have a sheet of paper. I’m just going to make it up. It’s probably 8 1/2 by 11.
-Yep, that’s what it is. It has lines on it.
-You have a pencil or pen?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: I use a pen.
-OK, you have a pen. And do you just write the items you need to get done?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: No, I put a little check, a little line. Draw a little line like that. Now I write staff meeting.
CLAY CLARK: Staff meeting. OK, so staff meeting, we’re putting that on here. OK. What other kind of stuff do you put on here?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: OK, draw another line. Call Garren.
CLAY CLARK: Call Garren.
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah.
-How do you spell Garren?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: G-A-R-R-EN.
-OK, so we go through and we make this list of items.
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah, just down– just like that. Right.
CLAY CLARK: And as we get through, then what we do?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: And then once I make that list, I look at it. And if it’s good the way it is, I leave it. But if it’s not, I would then put numbers on the side of it.
CLAY CLARK: Over hear?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah.
-OK, so you’re going to put a 1 here.
CLIFTON TAULBERT: I may put 1 there. OK, it do you ever put something on your list like, call Barbara and tell her– call my wife and tell her she’s amazing. Do you put stuff like that on there?
-No, I would put, like, we need to go to dinner tonight. I’ll put that we need to go to dinner tonight.
CLAY CLARK: OK, so, dinner with amazing wife. I’m just adding that amazing part.
CLIFTON TAULBERT: And she was appreciate that.
-OK, so you add that. So you look at your list, and you go, well, I need to do this first?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah. I look at what I need to do first, and then I would number it so that the least important has the highest number.
CLAY CLARK: The least important has the highest number? OK. Why is that?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Well, because if I don’t get everything done– you know, if I didn’t do that list– I may go down and take up valuable time doing something that is not critically important and leave off something that is really, really important to have gotten done.
CLAY CLARK: At the at the risk of belaboring this, what are some of the other things that might be on your list today?
-Call the bank.
CLAY CLARK: Call the bank.
-Oh, they love for you to call them.
-Call the bank. What else would you put on there?
-Let’s see. You know we have a coffee company?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
-So I have to call the roasting plant.
CLAY CLARK: For the people who want to buy this coffee, what’s the name of the company?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: It’s Roots Java Coffee.
CLAY CLARK: Roots Java Coffee.
-Yeah.
CLAY CLARK: And if anybody buys any of this coffee, are you upset with them? I mean do you encourage the purchase of this coffee?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yes, this is the best coffee in America.
-OK, best coffee in America. You heard it first. We need to order big bags and have it shipped.
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah, that’s what FedEx Ground does.
-Call roasting company, OK. So in this list here– staff meeting, call– what would go first?
-OK, that list– staff meeting, called Garren, called the bank, call roasting company. Now, here’s another thing. The day before, if there was a problem, and that problem involved the roasting company or the bank, that would determine what would be first. Now assuming there are no problems, it’s just a normal day, staff meeting would be first. Or a business coach meeting.
-Staff meeting first. OK, got it.
-Staff meeting would be first. And then I would probably call Garren second. And I would probably do the bank third. It would probably go down the line. 1, 2, 3–
CLAY CLARK: So you go through it. Now, how long do you take, total, to make this list every day, as a general rule?
-Because I give it a lot of thought, and I try not to have things on there that do not matter, so I’m saying I probably carve out maybe 10 or 15 minutes every day to make that list.
-10 to 15 minutes every day.
CLIFTON TAULBERT: Yeah, to make the list.
-Now, when you don’t do it, do you feel panicky, like you’re behind?
CLIFTON TAULBERT: I can honestly tell you, if I do not have a list to check to see how I have lived out my day, I am left wondering what did I accomplish. A business coach can help if you aren’t used to keeping a checklist.