Coming up, I'll reveal the number one habit of highly productive people and then jaded
Americans are skipping college all together. They're looking at it and they're going,
hey, this isn't for me and I'll explain why next. Let's go. Helping you win in your
work life so that you win in the rest of your life. I'm Ken. This is the Ken Coleman
show. All right, let's talk about the number one habit of highly productive people. Now, I
will fully admit here right out of the gate that I am not the most organized person in the world,
but I am highly productive. So some of you might be thinking, well, I'm just a disaster with
details and I just, I don't need a little exercise here in how to be productive throughout my day.
And I'm not your guy, but it is a myth that you have to be super organized to be productive,
but you can be disciplined. So the problem we're going to take on today is that those of you
who aren't highly productive, I'm telling you there's a reason why and it's because you're
reactive instead of proactive. So while I'm not the most organized guy in the world, I am highly
prioritized. So how did you get here where you feel like I'm not as productive as I could and
should be? Well, there's a phenomenon known in psychology circles as emotional contagion. Now,
that sounds scary, doesn't it? But think about it. You ever been in a crowd of people and somebody
starts to freak out and panic takes over and you hear somebody scream and horror. I mean,
the time I think of is multiple times I've been on the beach with my family a couple of times,
some of the kids were in the water and I'm paying attention anyway, but you see some people freak out
and ever forget we're on the beach one time in a big old brown blob was moving slowly through
the water and I mean people started freaking out, man. Yeah, I remember is down to the left and I
saw it. You could hear the the the screams and then the you could just feel it. And so your
immediate reaction is, oh, what is it? And you look at the water and I remember seeing the brown
blob and I was like, kids, come on, get out of the water. You know, I panicked my poor kids.
You know what it was? It was a giant manatee, which is basically like a golden retriever of the water.
You know, they're not going to hurt anybody. They're just kind of floating along.
Today, today, today, kind of like E or of the water, right? Just big old blob and everybody
realizes that so panic, you know, kind of went away and I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting.
And so emotional contagion occurs when you mimic usually without any type of conscious effort,
the emotions and the expressions of people around you. So like that beach seat, right?
That's emotional contagion. And so it's important to realize here that our emotion
is what fuels our action. Let me say that again. Our emotion fuels our actions.
All right. So let's get off of the beach and in the office. All right. So let's create a scene.
Somebody rushes to your desk or to your office and you can tell that things aren't going well
at them, right? They just, you could see it. They're tight. They're tense. Maybe their face is red.
Maybe they're sweating. Maybe they're cussing. Maybe they're just biting their nails. They're
freaking out. They've got a worker emergency. That's how it's presenting, right? And they bring it
to you and they need you to drop everything in that moment and help them get engaged. And again,
this could be a coworker. This could be you if you're a leader and you've got an employee
that's coming to you and they're freaking out. And so this is exactly like the scene on the
beach. Here I am a parent. And I'm charged with taking care of my kids. I want my kids to be safe.
And I see commotion. I hear commotion. And that is followed by emotion. And everybody starts freaking
out in the moment. And we're all just a mirror. Now is in that situation, if it was something
dangerous, is that a good thing? Of course. But it's pretty obvious in the moment, large dark
blob swimming along the shoreline. Whoa, we got to react better safe than sorry. Let's get the kids
out of the water, right? Of course. But in this work situation, it may not be very obvious to you
initially that this is a real emergency. I remember I used to work with a guy here in the office
that would bring this kind of stuff to me all the time. And I used to say to him, hey, bro,
your emergency is not my emergency. And I never forget the first time I said he looked at me kind
of like a dog looks at a stranger, you know, kind of what do you mean? I said, listen, I understand
that right now you're feeling like you are an emergency situation and you're freaking out. But I have
listened. And my initial reaction here is this is not my emergency. And it may not be your
emergency. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to breathe. And we're going to talk.
And then we're going to ask questions. And we're going to think they'll decide how we're going
to react. It was a calming mechanism for me because I intuitively knew I had much more experience
than this young guy and we were working together. And so what felt like an emergency to him did not
feel like an emergency to me. And so I was able to go, okay, let's relax. And here's what happens.
In that moment, I'm able to keep my priorities at the front of the situation because by the way,
there could be some good situations that come your way, right? And let's not just think professionally,
but let's also think about it in our personal life because this is a great truth to grab today
that we need to be proactive, not reactive. So an urgent opportunity that seems really great
may not be a slam dunk. Yes, for you, the person that's bringing it to you says, this is a slam
dunk. Yes. And you may be going, it's not a slam dunk. Yes, to me. So whether it's an emergency
or an opportunity, let's be proactive. So how do we do that? What needs to change?
When these emergencies and opportunities come your way, there are two things that you need to do.
And you could just think of these two things as a hack for staying focused and on course for
your priorities. The first thing you need to do, step one, make sure that you revisit your priorities
because this can't work if you don't have priorities. So first thing is is you decide what you say
yes to. And when you decide what you say yes to, guess what? It's easy to say no. So then we can
revisit these things. Opportunity, emergency comes at you and you go, huh, let me think for a second.
By the way, it's okay to say, I'm going to get back to you and revisit those priorities if it's
been a while. Are the priorities that I had still the priorities that I need? And so you walk back
into what are the things that I said I need to say yes to. And when I get clarity on that, now I know
what I can say no to. And by the way, you have a great explanation as to why you've already decided
step two, use a decision making process much like the Eisenhower matrix. This has been around for
a very long time. And it helps you look at new tasks or new asks up with your priorities. And so
the the Eisenhower matrix asked you to put these tasks or ask into four categories. One, urgent
and important meaning I got to do it now. It is urgent and it is a part of the things that I say
are priority. So I got to do that now. Second, not urgent and important. Now this is not urgent,
but it is important. So that means I can do it later or I can delegate it now. Then third is the
urgent, not important. So that is I'll schedule that. I'll put that out in the future and I'll get
to it. And then finally not urgent, not important. You know what that is as easiest know in the world.
No, delete it and forget it. Here's the point. You need to be proactive, not reactive,
so that you are working and living on purpose and watch your results blow up.
Do you feel trapped in your work, a career that's going nowhere? You can get a fresh start with
my friends at Bethel Tech. Even if you have a zero experience, Bethel Tech can prepare you for
a great technology career in just nine months in demand areas like software development,
cybersecurity, data science and UI UX are high-paying, high-growth tech industry roles. Plus right now,
Bethel will give you $1,000 off your tuition. Rules and restrictions apply. Learn more today at
Bethel Tech.net slash Ken Coleman. 40 million people are already staring down the barrel of
more expenses in their life in the form of student loan payments re-engaging, reoccurring now.
They're coming back and we at Ramsey Solutions have been helping people for decades.
We've given so many people, millions of millions of people, the tools, the encouragement to get
debt free and get out from underneath these student loans. And so we're going to do it again.
We're hosting a free live stream on Tuesday, September 12th at seven central, eight eastern seven
central. This is a free live stream. Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz and Jade Warsaw are going to be
guiding you through a clear plan to pay off your student loan so that you don't have to freak out.
Number one, and number two, you stop looking to Washington, DC to forgive them because they're not
going to. And you can do this and we're going to be there to walk with you. It's a free live stream.
So if you've got somebody in your family, it's freaking out over this. You got some friends that
are freaking out about their student loan payments coming back online. This event is for them.
RamseySolutions.com slash student loans. That's where you sign up for free. RamseySolutions.com
slash student loans. Well, this is timely. In my hands, a headline from the AP. More Americans
are skipping college. I have been staying on top of this story, giving you updates as new data comes
in. And I don't think this is anything to be worried about. In fact, I think this is actually great
news. In short, if I were to leave it at this, the decline in college enrollment will force
higher education to change or they will go extinct. And that's a good thing. Let's break it down.
Undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022. This from the national
student clearinghouse. This new generation, these Gen Zers, they don't see the value of a college
degree like previous generations have. The cultural message, interestingly enough, it's not changed.
The cultural message is go to college. You'll be more successful. You're going to make more money
if you go to college. There's no data that is worth standing on that says that you will be more
successful. Is there some data that shows higher salary? Yes, but that's based on older data.
That data is changing as I sit here and talk to you now. You can gripe about that all you want to.
You're wrong. I'm right. A college degree does not guarantee success.
For those who for go college, it's in history. Historically, it has been
lower lifetime earnings. I'm going to pull that out for eucenics who always like to defend
a college degree because you think it's somehow tied to your personal brand. It's not.
Get over yourself and listen to what I'm saying. The Georgetown University Center of Education
and Workforce says that those without degrees are more likely to lose jobs. That's not true.
That's not true. I just talked about the fact that and I'm going to be talking about more here
in our last segment. You need to go to YouTube to see this segment for those of you that are
on podcast and radio. But we have more trade jobs than ever before.
They're the safest jobs, by the way. The trades exploded during the pandemic while white collar
jobs got sent home. Come on, folks. Get your head out of the sand or out of your, you know what?
It's changing. Times are changing.
This is from Zach Mabel, a Georgetown researcher in Zach. He's got his head in the sand.
It's quite a dangerous proposition to the strength of our national economy. No, it's not.
It's not. We have, listen, we have manufacturing positions open. We have welding positions of,
we have electrician jobs, but we have, we have carpentry jobs wide open right now.
That would help our economy. Tell you what's going to hurt our economy is when we have a housing boom
and we don't have anybody to build houses, you don't.
Why is this happening? Well, let's take the pandemic when college students were essentially left
to their own devices to learn on their own and watch video classes and check in.
They started to go, wait a second. I'm going into debt for this. I'm not learning anything.
I'm watching my friends make really great money on YouTube.
That's what's changed the perception of things. All the while they're seeing student debt
soar and they're seeing the headlines on this and they themselves are freaking out because
they're tens and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. It can't afford it. Can't use the
degree they had. That's their own conclusion. Now, let's look here in Tennessee, my home state
at a, at a real situation in Jackson, Tennessee, just to our west here in the national area.
The county that is in, that holds Jackson, Tennessee has just four out of 10 of the county's
public high school graduates immediately going to college in 2021. That's down from six in 10 in
2019. Now, it is a steeper drop in Jackson, Tennessee and that county than in the nation overall,
which had a 4% decline according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Jackson's leaders are saying that young people are taking restaurant and retail jobs
that pay more than they have before. They are also being recruited right out of high school
by manufacturing companies and I love this. I love that manufacturing companies are going to
high schools and go, hey, kiddo, and set a going to a college you can't afford and get a degree you
cannot use. Watch come work for us. Vicki bunches ahead of workforce development in the area's
chamber of commerce. She said students can't seem to resist sign on bonuses and wages at far
exceed any they've ever seen before. Yeah, because these students aren't idiots. They're these are
smart kids. Now, across Tennessee, the education experts in Tennessee are ringing their hands
because they think that this is only going to accelerate. Take the 5.6 billion dollar Ford plant
near Jackson that's going to produce electric trucks and batteries. It's promising to create 5,000
jobs and it's already attracting young workers. Yes, I love it. Daniel Moody is a one of these young
people 19 recruited to run plumbing for the plant after graduating from a Memphis high school in 2021.
He is earning $24 an hour and he's glad he passed on college. He said if I would have gone to college
after school, I would be dead broke. The type of money I'm making here. I'm not going to be making
that while you're trying to go to college. He's right.
More young people are pursuing programs other than a four year college degree and some states are
seeing a growing demand for apprenticeships and the trades, which of course will give them a
certificate and other credentials that they can use. Give you another example. Before the pandemic,
Boon Williams was the type of student that colleges wanted on their campus. He took advanced
classes and got straight A's. But he grew up around agriculture and he thought about going to
college for animal science. And then when his school outside Nashville sent their students home
for most of his junior year because they were freaked out and the teachers unions probably didn't help
and they shut schools down. This kid said, forget these virtual classes and log it on.
He started working at local farms, breaking horses or helping with cattle. He said,
I stopped applying myself once COVID came. I was focusing on making money rather than going to
school and how can you blame him? He's going to sit at home and watch his teacher teach on his
zoom class. No thanks. So a family friend told him about apprenticeships and he jumped at the
chance to get paid while learning a craft. Today he works for a plumbing company and takes night
classes in the trade. He goes in the long run, I'm going to be way more set than any my friends who
went to college and he's right. You watch this young man go into plumbing, make really good money.
And if he's smart and he invests like Ramsey Solutions can teach him to do. He could be a millionaire
in his 30s and oh, by the way, good chance that Boon is going to start a plumbing company. And what
is that to? That creates more jobs. Come on folks. This is America. Hey parents wake up.
It's not embarrassing. It's not less than for your kid to go right out of high school into the
trades. In fact, I think it's preferable. Let him go, mom and dad. Let him go.
All right folks, welcome back to the Kid Colbert show. If you're enjoying the program on YouTube,
would you help me? You can do that by liking the video that you're watching, subscribing to the
channel and then sharing the video with someone or even on social media. And then if you are listening
via your favorite podcast app, help us by giving us a follow a five star review and sharing as well.
All right, let's get to the phones. Jared now joins us in Wichita, Kansas. Jared,
you're on the Ken Coleman show. Hi there. Ken, thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's up?
Well, so a few days ago, I've been talking with my boss over the last several years about buying
the business. And he came to me and said, well, I'd like to go ahead and have you do that by the end
of 2024. So I had a little bit of a freak out and started to look around and say, uh, what tools do I
need to be able to transition from this, this role of employer and a part of the business to suddenly
becoming possibly the CEO and running the company. So I just love to get your thoughts on that.
Yeah. So what are the tools or what are the challenges that you need to meet in your mind? Give me
that list because I'd like to walk right through that with you. Sure. So the company is a managed service
provider for IT. And so most of my time is spent with clients and fixing their problems.
Okay. And all of a sudden, obviously becoming the CEO, I'm going to need to know how to manage
people. How many people have been managed? The company is about 15 people right now.
Okay. And you are currently not leading anyone?
Well, so as time has gone on, there's no direct leadership. I have been involved in some hiring
and firing and more of the back side of the business, but really the structure doesn't have any
management other than the CEO. Okay. And how many of the 15 and so including the CEO, so we'll take
him off the table of the 14 remaining. How many of them are on site doing tech work services,
that type of stuff? There's eight of us tech tech people and then we've got a help desk
structure and then all that. Okay. So seven is including help desk where they're doing what?
So they're answering the calls that come in for service and we're a little bit unique in that I
actually travel around and see each individual client once a week to manage their servers and their
emails and computers and all that. But you have there's eight more of you doing the exact same thing?
Exactly. All right. And so now you would move in. Okay. So the reason I'm asking these questions,
if that's the big it. So first thing is is is thinking through. Okay. Now you've got to move into
a leadership role, but you're ready. And the reason I believe that you're ready, I think you're asking
me. Am I ready? Is that what you're asking me? That's part of it, sir. Yes, part of it. So let's
quickly move through that. You're ready. And I'll tell you why you're ready. Because you are a
practitioner right now of the company's primary if not only service. Yeah. So you understand the
ins and outs. You know what it's like on the ground in the customer's office doing the thing. So
you're ready. Because you are able to answer any one of the other folks if they came to you and
said, Hey, I need this in order to do my job better. You would understand the request as to whether
or not it was legitimate or not legitimate. You would understand it. And that's your main role is
to help your team do their job well. That's your job. Now there's one other job. There's two jobs
as the role of a leader. Make sure that they're doing okay. How are they doing? You're checking in
on them all the time. How you doing? Something going on crazy in your personal life. How's that
affecting your ability to your job? I need to know so I can help you. Yeah. That's your job.
Is to check on is to check on them and make sure to the extent that you can help them do well
personally. And then your job is to make sure they have what they need to win professionally. Make
sense? For sure. So if you ask all of your direct reports and we'll get to that in a second,
how are you doing and you know how they're doing? No, no, don't mean snooping. But to the extent
that they begin to trust you and say, Hey, you know, my wife's struggling with this and okay,
boom, I need to know how you're doing. And you're you're acutely aware of how they're doing. Because
then they go, Jared cares about me. And because Jared cares about me, I trust Jared. And I'll be
honest with Jared. And man, are they going to be loyal to you so that you know what they're
dealing with personally so that to the extent that you can help or at least be understanding and
empathetic, that's huge. And then the second question is, Hey, how you doing out in the field? Do
you have everything you need? Do we need a better process? Do we need some more tools? That's your
job as the leader. You asked those two questions on a regular basis. How are you doing? And how can
I help you win? That's all you need to do to win. Period. That will make you a phenomenal leader.
Now, okay, to that end, have you ever wondered or thought about there's a better structure?
Maybe we shouldn't be 15 to one. Maybe we should be six to one eight to one. Have you ever
thought through what a structure would look like to just lessen the amount of direct reports?
Absolutely. Some of the some of those things that I've thought about. I've actually talked with
the boss about and he's been willing to implement. He's a great boss. He's been great to work with.
Great. But here's the point. If you're in charge, you can implement it.
Exactly. So, you know, I like to joke around about this, but I'm serious when I make the joke.
But Jesus was the son of God, a perfect person in my mind, according to scripture, and he only
had 12 disciples. So you shouldn't have more than 12 people reporting to you is my point.
And I'm serious as I could be. Everybody lasts when I say it. But think about that.
Yeah. So I like what you've already thought through. So I would think through that structure.
So I think that that's all you need to know that you do have what it takes to lead.
If you just care for people, personally and professionally, you win. That's all you need
to do to lead. Most leaders never understand that. So does that help so far?
It does. All right. What else? We only got about two minutes left. What else what else is a major
challenge for you? Well, I'm just wondering is there are there resources? I mean, as far as
the ins and outs of that of managing people, is there is there anything I should be reading?
Is there anything I should be watching in anything that I can do to enable me to do that well
when the time comes? Sure. I'm going to give you. Yeah. I mean, but I want you to take what I just
told you. Those two things are actually practical. For sure. All right. But I'm going to give you the
bestselling book on trade leadership. Dave Ramsey's number one bestselling book on how we run
things at Ramsey Solutions. I think that'll help. I think you listening to the
Entry Leadership podcast that Dave is now hosting. I think that's another resource. I'm going to
give you the book. You can listen to the podcast for free. I think there's a great book. I would
recommend to you that my former boss and mentor wrote John Maxwell. It's called developing the leader
within you. It talks about the five levels of leadership. I think that's a great book.
And so there's a ton of great things like that. But I don't want you to be so hung up on learning
the next technique that you aren't just doing what a lot of leaders just won't do, which is be
engaged and be present. Now I would just tell you this financially. Don't take a bad deal.
So how are you going to finance this? I got about 30 seconds. Give me the 15 second answer. What's
what's the how are you going to buy this company? He's open to owner finance. So that's that's the
direction we're going. I don't have any of the exact numbers yet. You better dive deep. You better dive
dude. You better make sure that you have access to those books. And if you're not a natural numbers
guy, hire a really good accountant, someone who's got some controller experience in a company
and say, I'm paying you to be my consultant on this deal. And I want you to look these books over
backward forward. Do you see any red flags? Any question marks? Things like that. Dude, that'll be
very vital before you sign any deal because I want you to go into this thing going. How much profit
are we making day one? And based on that, how long would it take me to pay this deal off?
And can I make some tweaks and changes that can speed this up? Because just because this is an
opportunity doesn't mean it's a great opportunity. And I wouldn't sign on the line unless it was a great
opportunity. Meaning you're really excited about the company itself and running it.
You feel like you've got a good game plan to run it well. And it is financially healthy
to where you can maximize it. And this is not a seven to 10 year play that you're paying this off.
This is in two to three years feasibly. We've got ourselves a good situation. Make sure that
the valuation is proper. You know, you're looking at one to three times. You know, revenues.
And do your homework on that. Seek some counsel. People that have bought small companies before.
Bring them in, man. There's wise, wise, wise opportunities here for you. So use them. This is the
Ken Coleman Show. Thanks for listening to the Ken Coleman Show. For more, you can find the show
on demand wherever you listen to podcasts and watch the show on YouTube. You can also find Ken across
all social media by following at Ken Coleman.