Hey, what's up, champion? This is your host, Neal, and I want to welcome you back to another fire episode. Today. On today's podcast, we're going to be talking about the difference between being ready and not ready. In other words, being ready in season and being ready out of season. So many people in life are seeking their big break today. They're either waiting for the phone call or they're waiting for the acceptance letter, or they're waiting for that next big opportunity. But what do you do before the next big opportunity comes? Well, you got to be in preparation. You got to be ready so that when that call comes in, you're going to smash it and make the most of it. But so many times in life, we have people who they wait to get ready until they should have already been ready. In other words, they don't start to get ready until the phone call does come. Sometimes they make it, but in most cases they don't. And there's no guarantees in life. You're going to get a second opportunity. So we want to help you make sure you're ready for when that phone call comes. We're going to dive deep in this today. Get ready.

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What's up, champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective. For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living? Why? Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing. I'm an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership, and technology. I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm. My number one passion is people, and I receive significant gratitude in life from sowing into others and encouraging them as they grow to achieve their fullest potential. If you're a high performance individual like me, or you're simply ready to take your business, leadership or inner potential to the next level. Then strap in because. Because I'm locked in and all in. This is the Executive Perspective.

Hey, what's up, champions? This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you back to the Executive Perspective. Today. We have a fire show for you today. Today I want to talk with you about you can't fake readiness against. The topic for today is you can't fake fake readiness. You know, this podcast at the Executive Perspective focuses on three main areas. We'd say this in every single episode. We focus on leadership. We focus on business strategy and personal development. And when we talk about you can't fake readiness, that touches down on every one of those areas, but also every area in life. This podcast is designed for high performers. It's designed for people who desire to perform at their best, to connect with their best, and also to connect with their best version of themselves or their best performance, themselves or their best life. You know, whether that's fulfillment, if it's joy, if it's happiness, if it's bringing back the joy within your life because it's been absent. Whatever it is within your life, this podcast focuses on touching down on high performance and helping you to connect with your best. Well, oftentimes as high performers, we encounter unpreparedness, or another way to say it is people not being ready. But also when we focus on ourselves, and this is a big one, because as high performers, we do this. We want to make sure that in every circumstance we show up in, we're ready to go. We're ready to perform at our peak performance, at our best performance. We may not always feel our best, but we know we always want to perform our best. You know, there are days where sometimes you just don't feel like giving a whole lot of effort. But as high performers, we're built different. Champion, you're built different because you've got greatness deep down on the inside of you. I say this in every episode that I believe in you. I know you've got greatness deep down on the inside of you. You just need to continue to cultivate it and grow it and develop it and then bring it on the outside where others can see it as well. Well, today we're going to get into the heart of something that's pretty important, and that's that you can't fake readiness. In other words, when the moment arrives, when your moment arrives, you're either going to be Ready or you're not going to be ready. But faking it only works so much. And we're going to talk about that today because we want to make sure that you not only understand the importance of being ready, but we want to encourage you to keep showing up for yourself so that you can be your best. Because when you show up for yourself, it allows you to be your best, not just for yourself, but for others as well. And we already know that by you connecting with this podcast. Success matters to you. The first section I want to talk about with you today is Real readiness leaves evidence. That's good right there. I'm going to say it again. Real readiness leaves evidence. You can't fake certain things within life. I'm going to read you some that you can't fake, especially in performance, high performance. But you can't fake things like consistency or discipline or preparation. Why? Because people see it. You know, I'm a big proponent, and I say this in many of our episodes, that I'm a big believer that consistency is the key to success. You can't fake things like consistency if you are a consistent person or if there's someone you look up to or you know, and they're consistent. They're consistently showing up every day. They're consistent with how they show up, they're consistent with why they show up. Those aren't things that you can fake because those things take dedication. And dedication is hard to fake. Another thing is discipline. You know, it requires discipline to show up day in, day out and day out. So many times in life, people are looking to rely on motivation. And I think motivation is amazing. But motivation can also be fleeting or it can be whimsical at times. What do I mean by that? Well, there's gonna be days where you feel really motivated to do things. There's gonna be other days where you don't have any motivation at all. But it's on those days that matter that you get up the most and show up at your best self. It doesn't matter whether it's something simple like going to the gym, or if it's showing up as your best self within your leadership. You know your employees and your staff will always follow your lead. And even when you think nobody's watching, someone is always watching the leader. They're feeding either off of your body language, they're feeding off of your mood, they're feeding off of what energy you show up with and what energy you're bringing today. Are you bringing energy where you're high impact today and you're ready to knock it out and just take on the world, or are you just kind of just slouching around the office and kind of negative and grumbling and bickering? And you know that that impacts people. Discipline is an extremely important character of high performers. And then you also have preparation. You can't fake these things. You can't fake consistency, can't fake discipline, and you can't fake preparation. With preparation, you're either ready or you're not. You know, there's a biblical scripture that I reference oftentimes when I talk about preparation, and it talks about how you got to be instant and you got to be ready both in season and out of season. What does that mean? Well, in season and out of season, there may be different times that you need to perform, and you may not be quite ready to, you know, there is no off season as a high performer, you know, oftentimes. And if you look at even like professional athletes or things, sometimes when they're not playing with teams. I can think of years ago, I was playing adult soccer, men's soccer, and there was a gentleman who I was playing with who had made it pro. He had went from college and he made it pro. He was running back, and he was with the team that had signed him, and he was doing pretty good. But after a while, they cut him. And he was in between teams, and in his in between team time, he was staying active with training for football. But he also came out and joined soccer because he knew soccer was a lot of running. And so he came out there so that he could stay in shape. Now, he was still working on his football drills, but the reason why he was staying in shape is because he was waiting for that next call, because he knew that if he got another call to go try out for another team, that might be his last call he ever got. And he didn't want to show up unprepared. He wanted to show up, dialed in and ready to go. I can think of another time where I was playing soccer. This time it was indoor men's soccer and obviously play competitive levels, but I was playing a very competitive level, and we had a goalkeeper who was playing mls. I won't say his name, but he was in Major League Soccer here in the US and he was a goalkeeper for a team, and he had been with them for several years, but they ended up cutting him because they got some other goalkeepers and he was in between teams. But rather than come back home and just slouch around and hang out he was staying active with it. And he came and joined summer league with us. And as he joined summer league with us, this was a very, very competitive league. This league was filled with a bunch of former pros and college players and things. It's a pretty high competitive league. And as he was in there, he is playing goalkeeper for us. So nonetheless, we had a really good season that year because we had an amazing goalkeeper. But he was staying active because he knew he needed to stay ready so that when he got that next call, he was ready to go. Your time of preparation is to prepare ahead of time, not once you get the call. If you get the call for something, maybe it's that next big opportunity that you're seeking. If you turn around and wasted your time prior to that call, when that call comes, you may have to watch opportunity go by. These are things that you can't fake. Consistency, discipline and preparation or preparedness. You can't fake those things. Talent will open the door for people, but readiness, Readiness is what will keep you in the room. I'm going to say that again because that's an important one right there. Talent opens the door for people at times, not all people, because sometimes you got to get the right break. But talent oftentimes will open the door for someone. But what keeps you in the room is readiness. You know, if you call someone up, let's say, for example, you're a public speaker, and let's just say you're not staying dialed in or you're not ready. Let's say in your mind you're only going to go and speak and prepare once someone calls you up to speak on stage. Well, the best speakers always have speeches that they're working on. They always have material that they're ready to deliver. They're always working on it. You know, I remember hearing from Les Brown one time. I was at an event and Les Brown was speaking. Awesome, awesome, man. If you've never heard him speak. Amazing, amazing, man to listen to. But one of the things he was talking about, and I'd never heard this before he had said it, but he was talking about Martin Luther King and he was talking about the I have a Dream speech, how popular that was. And just about everybody in America knows that I have a Dream speech. And even if you don't know all of it, you've heard of it and you're at least familiar with it. But the I have a Dream speech, you know, what I didn't know that Les Brown said at that event was that Martin Luther King, when He said it that day. It was without a doubt, a very impactful speech, one of the best that's ever been said. But Martin Luther King, by that point had already said that speech over 300 times. This is what Les Brown said over 300 times. He had already said that speech. So when he showed up that day, this wasn't new material for him. This was something that he created and he cultivated and dialed in and worked on over and over and over again. And when his big moment came, he turned around and just smashed it. When I talk with you about that, I believe in you and that I believe you have greatness on the inside of you. You just need to continue to cultivate it and build it and grow it and then bring it on the outside so that others can see it too, and that whatever you're doing, go and smash it. Give it your best. Go all in. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. 300 times prior to that, he gave that same speech, but when his moment came, he went out and smashed it. You know, if you have people who speak and they're called to speak on stage, if you get the call today and someone needs you to show up tomorrow, between traveling to wherever you need to go and preparation for travel time and packing and stuff like that, you may not have a whole lot of time to get ready. And when you show up, you don't want to just give a speech. You want to give the speech that shook the room. You want to give the speech that the person who invited you out is like, oh, my gosh, that person moved mountains today. I've got to make sure that they're part of every stage that I'm on because of how big their impact is and whether if it's realistic for you to be on every stage with them or not, that's the impact that you need to leave. You need to leave it life changing. When you go speak on stage, your job is not just to have a good speech that people walk away from and no one remembers what you spoke about. You know, so many times you come across speakers and you know they gave a good speech. You even know you laughed. And maybe there were times where you thought about crying in it because they brought up something that was emotional. But afterwards, if someone asks, was it good? You're like, oh, it was great. What'd you learn? Or what they speak about. You know, you have to turn around. And when you're delivering speech, you have to give connection points. It's not about just giving emotional highs and lows. You have to give connection points. And the way you do that is, is by being ready and staying ready. Remember, you can have the most gifted people in the world, the most gifted orators in the world. Talent will open doors, but readiness is what will keep you in the room. Now, here's our first leadership truth bomb of today. You can't fake what the spotlight forces you to prove. I'm going to say that again because that's powerful right there. You cannot fake what the spotlight forces you to prove. In other words, people may know your reputation, they may know what they've heard about you, but when it comes time to shine and the spotlight is on you, you can't fake what the spotlight is going to force you to prove. In other words, once the spotlight's on you, you're either going to be ready for that moment or you're going to miss it. The next thing that I want to talk to you about is big leagues require big standards. I'm going to say that again. Big leagues require big standards. Now, when I talk about the big leagues, obviously that can refer to professional sports, but I'm talking about the big leagues of leadership here. The big leagues of business. You know, showing up in the big leagues of high performance. This is what you've been called for, champion. You know, so many times when I'm working with people and especially when I'm coaching one on one, I talk to people who that it resonates with them that they just feel like they're called for something greater within life. And no matter how big of something they've already accomplished and achieved, they're after something even more. You know, if you take a high performer, even like Elon Musk, and whether you like the guy or not, you cannot deny his success. You know, Elon Musk has Tesla, and he designed a very, very successful company. And Tesla, in fact, the stock and stuff has traded at times the most high, the highest there is. I mean, this company has just been blowing up. You would think that he would have looked back and said, man, I'm doing pretty good. I'm going to go buy me a few yachts and a few homes and I'm going to kick back and enjoy easy life. That's not what Elon did. Why? Because Elon's a high performer. He wanted the next thing. So what did he do? He went and started designing things like starlink and other things. I mean, this guy just now, he's talking about placing people on Mars and things like that. I mean, for this Guy, it's just the next one, the next one, the next one. And while Tesla was good, he certainly doesn't look down on that. Tesla was a vehicle, and the money he made from that was a vehicle to help him go and accomplish even more. When you have people who have high performance identity inside of them, they're always looking to accomplish more. And understand this. What separates someone like Elon Musk and you may not be a great deal. Yeah, he's very successful, and he's very wealthy. However, he's someone who had a dream inside of him. He's someone who had some big ideas inside of him, but he backed it up with action. And as he backed it up with action and showed up at his best, that thing showed up for him as well. What you have deep down inside of you, Champion, is the same type of makeup. You've got greatness inside of you. You just have to cultivate it and bring it on the outside so others can see it. Now, you may not go create a car manufacturing company. You may not go create something like starlink, but there's a lot of other great things that you can do and make to where you make your mark on this world as well. You know, there are people who have written some of the most amazing pieces of literature that have lasted throughout time. And their invention may not have been something that changed the world through an invention. However, their creation and their literature has helped to shape cultures. Greatness shows up in all different facets, but it's something that you have to be ready for. So remember, big leagues require big standards. Fake it till you make it might work in the kiddie pool, but the deep end will require the real deal. I'm going to say that again. Fake it till you make it might work in the kiddie pool, but the deep end, that's going to require the real deal. What do I mean by that? In other words, if you've ever had children, and I have four, and I've helped train every single one of them how to swim, I've taken them to swim lessons, and then I took them to daddy swim lessons, where I helped them really learn how to swim. And in the kiddie pool, it's easy for kids to fake it back. I'm swimming. I'm swimming. You're like, you're swimming, but really they're just kind of splashing and kicking around. But you got to build them up, not tear them down. But if I take those same kids at that same moment and I go chuck them in the deep end, well, they're going to sink pretty quick. At that point, it's sink or swim. And if they're not prepared for that moment, they're going to sink pretty quick. But I'm a better dad than that, and so I didn't do that with my children, but I did help them learn how to swim. You can't fake it when you're in the deep end. The next thing I have for you is leaders and high level players can spot fake from a mile away. I'm going to say that again. Leaders and high level players, high performers, you could say. But I'm never talking above that. I'm talking high level players. Leaders and high level players, they can fight, they can spot fake a mile away. And you know what? When they spot fake, it stinks to them. They don't like it because they don't believe in fake it till you make it. They understand that might work at the little leagues or that might work in the kiddie pool, but when you get up there with the big dogs, when you get up there in the big leagues, you better be the real deal. Leadership truth bomb. Second leadership truth bomb of the day for you. You don't rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your preparation. That's solid. I could just end this podcast and go home right now. This is. I'm telling you, man, if you've made it this far, you just got the sauce right there. You don't rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your preparation. Man, that speaks right there. You know, so many times in life you'll see people, especially people who compete, that sometimes they play up to the level of competition they're playing or they play down to the level of competition they're playing. But what you have is you don't rise to the occasion. Now, yes, there's a way that you can rise. Not saying that's not true, but to show up day in, day out to win championships. And I'm not just talking championships in sports, but championships in life. Championships in the business. What's a championship in business? Well, that's having your best and most profitable year ever. That's having more profit at the bottom line than you've ever had before. More sales than you've ever had before, more new clients signed on than ever before. More new branches open up, more new locations open up, more new divisions open up than ever before. I mean, there's a lot of different ways you can measure that through KPIs or OKRs. But when you set your goals There, There's a lot of ways you can win championships, but you don't rise to the occasion. You fall to the level of your preparation. In other words, no matter how much you may try to rise, it's hard to rise past what you prepared for. You got to be ready. You got to make sure that in the off hours, when no one's watching, when you're behind closed doors, that you're putting in the deep work. Now, our third thing I have for you today is talking big doesn't deliver big. I'm going to say that again. Talking big doesn't deliver big. In other words, talking big isn't the same thing as delivering big. Vision matters, but only when it's backed up by work systems. And listen to this one. Self mastery, man, that's a big one right there. Vision matters, but only when it's backed up by work. I'm going to say hard work, by systems, good systems, and by self mastery. Those are such big things right there. Self mastery. Remember I've been telling you over and over that I believe in you, champion that. You've got greatness deep down on the inside of you. You just need to continue to cultivate it, grow it and develop it, and bring it on the outside where others can see it. That's what self mastery is. It's by working to master the different areas of your life. It's not seeking perfection. You're not trying to be a perfect person, but you are seeking self mastery where you overcome the personal challenges you have in life. Any type of. Whether if it's character shortcomings or whether if it's just personal development shortcomings or skills gaps. And you're doing self mastery to apply it to those areas so you can grow and show up and be your best. Confidence without competence, it's just noise. I'm going to say that again. Confidence without competence, it's just noise. You know, you can have people who carry a lot of confidence in life. They feel like they can do anything, but if they don't have the competence to do the job you're asking them to do or the task that you need them to do, then it's just noise. You know, I'm a pretty confident person, very confident, actually. And if someone asks me, man, we want you to go out there and you're going to sing the national anthem at the super bowl this year. I got this. But the first moment they heard me sing, they'd be recognizing they asked the wrong guy to sing that day. Why is that? Because I'M a confident person, but I don't have much competence in the area of singing. In other words, Megan, I'm not a good singer. Well, at least I don't think I am. All that being said, though, but I know that. So if they had asked me, hey, we're gonna have you sing the national anthem. I've been like, you're sending some backup singers, right? No, I'd just be honest with them because you know what? I'm not gonna fake it till I make it. I know I'm not a good singer. But let's take it this ways. If they turn around and said, hey, prior to the super bowl, we're going to get both teams together and we're going to bring them together and we want you to give them a motivational speech that can help them prepare for that game. I got you. I'll take that deal all day long. But you know what? I'm not just going to show up on the day and do it. I'd start practicing today. And the super bowl is nowhere near today when I'm recording this podcast. The NFL is in the off season right now. They're not even in. But I'd start practicing right now. I'd start picturing myself in that and doing that right now. Because when I show up, man, I'm going to smash that thing. And those guys lives will be changed. Not just for the game, they'd be changed for life because I'm going to show up and smash that thing. But it's all due to competence. Confidence without competence is just noise. Now here's our third leadership truth bomb of the day. Big dreams without discipline are just well decorated fantasies. I'm going to say that again because that one hits hard. Big dreams without discipline are just well decorated fantasies. Now the next thing I'm going to take to, and this is our fourth and final point for the day, is readiness isn't perfection, it's ownership. I'm going to say that again. Readiness isn't perfection, it's ownership. You know, I say in this podcast over and over that we're after excellence. We're not after perfection or progress over perfection. Readiness isn't perfection, it's ownership. It's taking ownership of whatever it is you're going to need to show up. And do you know if you're wanting to show up and wait for that big moment that you're waiting for, there's no guarantees in life you're going to get the big moment or get the big call. But what's Even less certain than that is that you'll ever get a second one. When your big moment arrives, you're either ready or you're not. You're either instant and ready in season or out of season. That's what that means. When it's ready and when the biblical verse, that or the Bible verse says, be ready in season and out of season. In other words, if, like I said, if I got that phone call that I was going to be speaking at the super bowl, of the teams, I'm preparing right now. It's the off season, but I'm still preparing right now. But you want to know a newsflash? If I got the call today and they said that that thing was in two weeks and they needed me, I'd already have my preach, my speech prepared today. I wouldn't even need to go create it. I already have it because I've already been putting the work in, the deep work and the behind scenes, behind the scenes. I've already been putting that work in. I've already done this. I've already cultivated it. You know, they might be professional athletes, but this, this is what I do. This is what I've been called to do in life. And when I first connected with that, with the Lord, I started cultivating that greatness on the inside of me so that when the call came, I'd be ready to show up. This is what I talk about, about cultivating the greatness that's inside of you. When we talk about readiness isn't perfection, it's ownership. I'm going to give you a couple points to help go with this. The first one is you don't have to know everything in life, okay? You don't have to know everything, but you do have to own your lane. You know, sometimes me and my wife, I talk about my wife Katie. She's such a blessing to me. But we talk about how we have different lanes within our life and within our house. And sometimes I think she has more lanes than I do, but anyways. But once in a while, Katie is absolutely gifted. I mean, in a different life, Katie could easily go open up her own business right now for interior design. I mean, that woman is gifted with it. And she's got good taste. Good kind of means expensive, but anyways, good. But she's got good gay. She's really got good taste. She's amazing at it. And once in a while, she's designing something around the house, and I'll be there. And I decided to add my opinion because, you know, I mean, I want to be in that lane, too. And, and I get reminded real quick, stay in your lane, honey. And usually I've gotten good about catching that. I drifted. I drifted off in the other lane. But you know, in life we have our own lanes that we have. You don't have to know everything, but you do have to own your lane. Whatever your lane is, whatever you're responsible for knowing, you got to take ownership of that and make sure you dial in and earn it and learn it the best you possibly can. And not just once or twice, but over and over and over and over. You also have to know your strengths. You have to shore up your gaps. You have to lead from real depth. I'm going to say that again. You have to know your strengths. In other words, remember I talked about, they asked me to speak at super bowl and I know I'm not a good singer. You got to know your strengths. You got to shore up your gaps. Where are you missing some skills? And then you got to lead with real depth. And our final leadership truth bomb of the day as prepared. People don't need to fake it. They prove it. Guys, I want to thank you for joining by and stopping today to grow with us. I want to invite you to swing by our website@neil Reyes.com where you can find all of our teaching resources. I also want to remind you one more time that I believe in you, champion. I believe you've got greatness on the inside of you. You just got to continue to cultivate it, grow it, develop it, and then bring it on the outside where others can see it, too. As always, thank you for taking time to stop by and grow with us today. Have a blessed.