Neal Reyes

Hey, what's up, guys?

Neal Reyes

This is your host, Neal Reyes.

Neal Reyes

I want to tell you that today's episode is a banger.

Neal Reyes

I'm going to be talking to you about something that I learned years ago within my life that you can apply.

Neal Reyes

It's a framework you can apply to any area in your life.

Neal Reyes

And if you teach it to your employees, I believe you'll see changes and the most success you've ever had before.

Neal Reyes

Get ready.

Captain

This is your captain speaking.

Neal Reyes

We want to let you know we've been cleared for takeoff.

Captain

We have clear skies today with no winds, so we are expecting a smooth and highly enjoyable flight.

Captain

However, should you experience some personal turbulence, don't worry as you've chosen the right airline.

Captain

As we are trained in navigating unexpected bumps, our destination today is high performance and success.

Captain

Sit back, relax, get hyped, or do whatever you do.

Captain

As we too are pumped for today's flight.

Captain

We understand you have options when you fly, and we are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us today.

Captain

We recognize by choosing to fly, Neil Reyes, you are committed to growing personal development and reaching higher than you ever have before.

Captain

Enjoy today's flight.

Captain

Be blessed, and remember, the best is yet to come.

Champion

What's up?

Neal Reyes

What's up, champion?

Champion

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective.

Champion

For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living?

Neal Reyes

Why?

Champion

Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing.

Champion

I'm an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership, and technology.

Champion

I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm.

Champion

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.

Champion

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 I'm locked in and all in.

Champion

This is the Executive Perspective.

Neal Reyes

Hey, what's up, champions?

Neal Reyes

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to today's episode.

Neal Reyes

Today, I'm going to be teaching you about what I consider to be and have learned within my career.

Neal Reyes

The most effective way to measure excellence.

Neal Reyes

Again, this is what I refer to and I say the most effective way.

Neal Reyes

Another way I could say it is, this is the number one way to measure excellence.

Neal Reyes

Now, some people might say, well, excellence, what are you talking about?

Neal Reyes

You know, I'm talking about excellence.

Neal Reyes

In anything you place your hand to excellence in any single thing you do.

Neal Reyes

This is something that the year showed me many, many, many years ago.

Neal Reyes

It's something that I've applied of as a level of measurement within my own life.

Neal Reyes

I've done it with my kids, I've ingrained it and shown it to them.

Neal Reyes

I show it to all my staff, any department or organization I ever run, I show it to them.

Neal Reyes

This is for me, if you get this deep down inside of you, it can help you be successful.

Neal Reyes

You know, I really believe that one of the fundamentals of success is consistency.

Neal Reyes

Consistency is the key to success.

Neal Reyes

And these principles that I'm going to show you today, I believe will place you on a pathway to be able to measure excellence within your life.

Neal Reyes

It'll help you, it'll help your staff, it'll help your employees, anybody you deal with, your family, no matter who it is.

Neal Reyes

In fact, I'm going to share some personal experiences with, with you as well of how I applied this even within my own life with one of my children.

Neal Reyes

This is what I consider.

Neal Reyes

There's four levels is what I'll start off with.

Neal Reyes

And this is what I consider to be the most effective way to measure your progress or to measure whatever it is that you're doing.

Neal Reyes

Now, I want us take a moment here to explain to you that when I'm teaching this to people, the number one thing to understand is that no matter what you do in life, whether if it's something with business, whether it fits with something a company you work in or a company you own, if it's you're going back to school, no matter what it is, the goal is never to strive for perfection.

Neal Reyes

The goal is to have progress over perfection.

Neal Reyes

One of the things I teach, the teams that I run and when I'm consulting, when I'm coaching with clients, no matter what it is, I tell them that anything that we do, anything that we decide is worth doing or needs done within life, we should be able to measure it so that we know if we're being successful.

Neal Reyes

Especially, and I'm going to say it again, especially when it comes to the business world.

Neal Reyes

If you're in business and you're an owner or you're an employee, you know, in previous videos we talked about the differences between an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur.

Neal Reyes

If you're an intrapreneur and you're working inside someone else's business and you're helping them to be successful, no matter what you place your hand to or do, you should Always be able to have a rule, or I say a rule, but a grading stick, so to speak, where you're able to measure your success.

Neal Reyes

Now, something we may talk about in the future, you know the difference between things like sometimes you'll hear phrases like KPIs or OKRs.

Neal Reyes

We're not going to get into that today.

Neal Reyes

But this is a measuring tool or measuring system I'm about to show you that you can use in any area of your life.

Neal Reyes

So the four areas that we're going to talk about today, these are the four steps we have from the bottom to the top.

Neal Reyes

It's a four point system and it's so simple to follow.

Neal Reyes

The very lowest would be not enough.

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You then have the next level.

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Number two is just enough, number three is good enough.

Neal Reyes

And number four, the highest is excellence.

Neal Reyes

Anything you're doing in life, and I'm telling you it doesn't matter what it is, I've used this in my personal life when I'm working in the backyard building something.

Neal Reyes

I've used this in organizations when we're trying to scale our business and make more money.

Neal Reyes

I've used this when I'm helping clients and coaching them or consulting them or in my own efforts in my own business.

Neal Reyes

Basically, it's a grading scale that you're able to use against yourself to measure your level of output or the desired outcome.

Neal Reyes

You know, anytime we have goals in life and we're striving to accomplish something, we should always be able to have a way to measure if it's successful or not.

Neal Reyes

And this four point system that I'm getting ready to teach you about can be the key to your most successful year yet.

Neal Reyes

I'm telling you, I learned this years ago.

Neal Reyes

It was something that the Lord showed me deep within my own personal life.

Neal Reyes

And then I showed it to my oldest, which is my daughter Taylor.

Neal Reyes

Now, Taylor's 23.

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Now.

Neal Reyes

She was nine years old when I showed her how to do this and it changed the course of her life.

Neal Reyes

And then her brothers followed in her footsteps.

Neal Reyes

I have three other sons, I have four children total.

Neal Reyes

And her three brothers followed in her same footsteps.

Neal Reyes

This is something I've ingrained in my life and something my wife Katie has ingrained in hers.

Neal Reyes

We do it throughout the Reyes household and in every business I touch and every meeting I'm in and every decision I got to make for business and every task we pick up, every project we do, we.

Neal Reyes

They always go back and measure it based along this four point scale.

Neal Reyes

In fact, I taught this to My team so much within work that one year for my birthday, they blessed me with this beautiful canvas.

Neal Reyes

And on this canvas that they blessed me with, it has my four levels that I'm teaching you today.

Neal Reyes

It's this beautiful picture, and in front of it there's these words in a fancy font, and at the bottom it says, not enough.

Neal Reyes

Next one up, number two, just enough.

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Third one, good enough.

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And the fourth one at the very top, excellence.

Neal Reyes

And so many times when we're in meetings, in my conference room that I use, I sit at the head of the table on one end, and right behind me, there's a Vibe board that I use.

Neal Reyes

It used to be a whiteboard, but now it's a Vibe board that I use.

Neal Reyes

And then off to the side of the my vibe board is this canvas.

Neal Reyes

And so many times, friend, for years I've done this with them.

Neal Reyes

I'll be speaking with them, and they'll be talking to me about either at some a task that they're working on, a project, an initiative, something they're doing within the organization.

Neal Reyes

And so many times they're talking to me.

Neal Reyes

And as they do, I help them to be able to grade their level of effort, but also the level of effort of their employees.

Neal Reyes

And as they're explaining that to me, no matter how good that thing might be or how I won't say bad, but maybe level of room for improvement we could do, you'll see me raise my hand over my shoulder and I point, and what am I pointing at?

Neal Reyes

Well, you can't see it in this video or on this podcast, but right behind me is my canvas.

Neal Reyes

And I ask them, what level of effort is that based on our board?

Neal Reyes

And they'll tell me, and they sometimes when I first started doing this, they'd have to take a minute to think about and they think for a second and they'd be like, good enough and I'm back, okay.

Neal Reyes

Or other times they'd say, that was excellence, boss.

Neal Reyes

And I bet that sounds good.

Neal Reyes

And what I'm doing is I'm not being hard on them, but I'm teaching them how to grade themselves and their people.

Neal Reyes

And the more I ingrain this within their thought process, within their mindset.

Neal Reyes

It's like a framework that's with them at all times.

Neal Reyes

The more I ingrain it within their thinking, the more they'll repeat and ingrain it within their employees thinking.

Neal Reyes

And then we have a culmination of effort where all of us are thinking on the same level of how to measure our efforts.

Neal Reyes

And when I'm not in that conference room and these people are holding their meetings for their teams.

Neal Reyes

They sit at the head of the table where I sit and they're doing the same things with their employees.

Neal Reyes

We have glass windows on our conference room.

Neal Reyes

And sometimes when I'm walking by and I look in there, I see them reaching over their shoulder, pointing up, and I know what they're pointing at.

Neal Reyes

They're pointing to my board and they're asking their people, what level of effort is that?

Neal Reyes

Was that not enough, just enough, good enough or excellence?

Neal Reyes

What I'm going to tell you is what I've come to learn and my time and management, just everything.

Neal Reyes

Executive leadership, just everything.

Neal Reyes

Most people.

Neal Reyes

I'm going to say this again.

Neal Reyes

Most people within this world, on an average basis, they'll hover between not enough and just enough effort.

Neal Reyes

And I'm telling you that's across the board.

Neal Reyes

Remember I told you earlier that I'm a firm believer that consistency is the key to success.

Neal Reyes

Well, this I'm telling you, as with all the businesses I've ran with, the teams I've led, with the consulting I've done, the coaching, I mean, just going through and through and through it.

Neal Reyes

I'm going to tell you most people in life fall in between the effort zone of not enough to just enough.

Neal Reyes

They do just enough to get by.

Neal Reyes

They do just enough to get to work.

Neal Reyes

They do just enough during their workday, they do just enough within their marriage, they do just enough within their relationship, they do just enough with their children.

Neal Reyes

They do just enough and just about every area of their life.

Neal Reyes

And usually what I find is people consistently are between the not enough zone and the just enough zone, meaning that there's many times in there they're really hovering at or just above not enough.

Neal Reyes

And I will tell you that sometimes in life people operate below not enough.

Neal Reyes

Now, I don't have a category for below that.

Neal Reyes

If it's not enough for me, it's not enough.

Neal Reyes

You might think of one, but for me it's a simple four point scale.

Neal Reyes

And when I'm reviewing our people and we're doing annual reviews, I have them use this same scale to communicate with our people.

Neal Reyes

You know, we may have a scale from HR that we use like a five point system, but within our environment, I have them reiterate this to these people.

Neal Reyes

What were their efforts throughout the year?

Neal Reyes

Was it not enough?

Neal Reyes

Was it just enough?

Neal Reyes

Was it good enough or was it excellence?

Neal Reyes

This matters.

Neal Reyes

I'm telling you.

Neal Reyes

This is a very important set of measurement that you can use.

Neal Reyes

And some people might say, well, that kind of sounds harsh if you tell someone they're doing just enough.

Neal Reyes

And maybe sobering, but I wouldn't call it harsh.

Neal Reyes

But as with anything within leadership, it's all based on your tone, how you deliver it as well.

Neal Reyes

I mean, is there a way to deliver that and make it sound harsh?

Neal Reyes

Certainly there is.

Neal Reyes

But there's also a way to do it in love and with respect and honor, where you can help that person become better.

Neal Reyes

You know, when we're using these measuring sticks within or this measuring system within our environment, it's never meant to berate somebody.

Neal Reyes

It's never meant to belittle them.

Neal Reyes

In fact, I'm huge, huge on giving praise to our employees.

Neal Reyes

I believe praise should come frequently.

Neal Reyes

It should be genuine, and it should be often.

Neal Reyes

And it should also be public.

Neal Reyes

And that might be the most important one.

Neal Reyes

You know, it's important to acknowledge your people in front of others, acknowledging them in front of their peers, acknowledging them in front of other teams or departments.

Neal Reyes

It's so important.

Neal Reyes

And if you ever, ever get the chance to see one of your employees out in public and you happen to see them and they're with their spouse or their children or their girlfriend or their boyfriend or whatever, you should always acknowledge them in front of their family.

Neal Reyes

Now, you don't do it if it's not genuine, because they'll see through it or they'll know that, hey, he's puffing me up in front of my family.

Neal Reyes

But when I'm at work, it's like, that guy, don't even talk to me.

Neal Reyes

But if it's genuine and it's who you are, it's important to honor those people.

Neal Reyes

I want to go ahead and share with you a story now of when I first explained this to my daughter Taylor, when she was nine years old.

Neal Reyes

So on this house that my wife and I used to have, it's a woodside, a home that we still live in previously, is what I should say.

Neal Reyes

My wife had decided that she wanted to have a little water feature in our backyard.

Neal Reyes

And on this water feature, she wanted me to build, like, a little pond for her with some stones that water would trickle down.

Neal Reyes

Real pretty.

Neal Reyes

She had a pretty design for it.

Neal Reyes

And then she told me she wanted me to.

Neal Reyes

She wanted to be able to grow some climbing rose bushes.

Neal Reyes

Behind it is a backdrop.

Neal Reyes

And so I said okay, and asked her what she wanted.

Neal Reyes

I had built her trellises and things like that before in our backyard to grow things of that nature.

Neal Reyes

But this time she had a design of a picket fence.

Neal Reyes

I'm not sure where she saw it on probably Pinterest.

Neal Reyes

When Pinterest first came out, it gave me so much work.

Neal Reyes

I'm just joking, but, but sort of serious.

Neal Reyes

But anyways, when so she had this design and I said, all right.

Neal Reyes

And so I bought the stuff I need to for the pond, put the rocks the right way, ran all the tubing, the water pumps, all that kind of stuff.

Neal Reyes

And then I went and picked up this picket fence.

Neal Reyes

Now, this picket fence, it was like a six or eight foot section of picket fence.

Neal Reyes

And what I did, when it stands off the ground, it's not the kind that's like a six foot tall fence.

Neal Reyes

It only comes up a little above waist height.

Neal Reyes

And so I go ahead and take the backyard.

Neal Reyes

I do my measurements, I go ahead, I stain the picket fence, I do all, everything I needed to.

Neal Reyes

And then I turn around and with the post hole digger, I dig two holes so I can drop the picket fence in it.

Neal Reyes

Once I got the picket fence to exactly the height I wanted, I mixed up some concrete and poured it in in each of both of the holes.

Neal Reyes

And then at that point as it started to set, I'm adjusting the fence so that it's level.

Neal Reyes

And around this time, it's almost sunset, and my daughter Taylor comes out.

Neal Reyes

She's nine years old at the time Taylor comes out and she says, dad, what are you working on?

Neal Reyes

And so I explained to her what I was working on.

Neal Reyes

But what her real question was is she saw that I had a level in one of my hands.

Neal Reyes

Now, I wasn't using a big level, but the level I have, it's maybe about 10 to 12 inches.

Neal Reyes

It's a smaller level.

Neal Reyes

And she saw me putting it against the picket fence to make sure it was level.

Neal Reyes

And so she inquired, she said, dad, what does that do?

Neal Reyes

And I said, well, Miha, this is a level and what a level is designed to do.

Neal Reyes

And I showed her how it worked.

Neal Reyes

I said, you see this little air bubble?

Neal Reyes

And well, when that little air bubble is between those two little lines, that tells you it's level.

Neal Reyes

And that means it's even.

Neal Reyes

Because the last thing I want to do is build a fence for your mom and it be crooked and her staring at it every day.

Neal Reyes

And I like it.

Neal Reyes

And so she understood and she goes, can I help?

Neal Reyes

And I said, sure.

Neal Reyes

And I said, but here's what we got to do.

Neal Reyes

You got to measure it on both sides of the fence to make sure that it's even.

Neal Reyes

You Then have to measure it from front to back, so to speak, so that it's not tilted forward, it's not tilted backwards.

Neal Reyes

Then you got to measure it across the top.

Neal Reyes

That ways it's even.

Neal Reyes

So, you know, I gave her like, maybe four or five different points of access for her to level.

Neal Reyes

And I hand it to her, man, little Taylor goes to work.

Neal Reyes

She puts it on there.

Neal Reyes

Pop, pop, pop.

Neal Reyes

I mean, she was done, I think, like in like 10 seconds, maybe not on that.

Neal Reyes

Probably like seven seconds.

Neal Reyes

She said, okay, it's done.

Neal Reyes

And I said, it's done.

Neal Reyes

And I mean, she.

Neal Reyes

She had spent any time on this.

Neal Reyes

I knew this thing wasn't.

Neal Reyes

This wasn't ready.

Neal Reyes

And so I look at her, said, baby, what do you mean it's done?

Neal Reyes

And she goes, yeah, it's done.

Neal Reyes

And I said, miha, would you say that you did your very best on this?

Neal Reyes

And she looked at it and thought.

Neal Reyes

She goes, well, it's good enough.

Neal Reyes

When I heard that, I knew it was time for my Miha, my little daughter, to learn a lesson.

Neal Reyes

I said, baby, I want to explain something to you.

Neal Reyes

After we go to bed tonight and the sun goes down.

Neal Reyes

If the Maker almighty himself, if God almighty, decided to come to our backyard because he desired to go for a stroll during the cool of the night, because he knew what you were working on today and he decided he wanted to walk in our backyard, this is the maker himself, and he walked by your fence.

Neal Reyes

What?

Neal Reyes

He turned around and look at it and be man.

Neal Reyes

Now, that is excellence.

Neal Reyes

Or would he look at it and go, taylor, Taylor, Taylor.

Neal Reyes

Because he knew it was only good enough.

Neal Reyes

I said, baby, how we do things matters, and how you do some things is a reflection on how you do all things.

Neal Reyes

If God almighty comes down to our house tonight and he looks at that, is he going to acknowledge that as your best?

Neal Reyes

Now, Miha, if that's your best, then I'm pleased with that.

Neal Reyes

But I want you to search down inside and you tell me, is that your best?

Neal Reyes

Now, I want you to understand that as a parent, I wasn't asking her for my best.

Neal Reyes

I was asking her for her best.

Neal Reyes

Now, her best may exceed my best at some point in life, and maybe it already has.

Neal Reyes

And maybe in different areas it is.

Neal Reyes

I mean, if it's in the area of like, drawing, oh, she probably exceeded me far before, a long time ago.

Neal Reyes

Or singing, she probably exceeded me long time ago.

Neal Reyes

But in that particular area now, my level of excellence was higher than hers because I had more experience with it.

Neal Reyes

I was more experienced with the tools I was using and the craft I was doing.

Neal Reyes

But I wasn't asking for my level of excellence out of her.

Neal Reyes

Pay attention because this is speaks, this is heavy.

Neal Reyes

When you're asking for excellence out of your people, you're not asking for your level of excellence out of them.

Neal Reyes

You're asking for their level of excellence.

Neal Reyes

And so when I asked Taylor and if she would have told me that it was her excellence, I'd have been fine with that.

Neal Reyes

But I knew in my heart it wasn't.

Neal Reyes

And she came to that same realization.

Neal Reyes

She thought about that thing for a minute and she grabbed that level out of my hand so fast and she goes and starts working on the fence and she's measuring, measuring, measuring.

Neal Reyes

And now this thing that she took like 7 to 10 seconds to before.

Neal Reyes

We're out there for a while now she's measuring things and I'm watching her and I mean it looks like she's not even making adjustments anymore.

Neal Reyes

Right when I'm getting ready to tell her like, how's that look?

Neal Reyes

I mean she, she moves to another section and she's measuring, measure, measuring enough to where?

Neal Reyes

Remember I said we started this thing when she came out the measuring of it when it was about to sunset.

Neal Reyes

Well, it's getting dark on us now and she, and we need something to see.

Neal Reyes

So she goes, dad, can do you have a flashlight?

Neal Reyes

And back then, and that's like I said, this had been a while I had a BlackBerry back then.

Neal Reyes

You know, iPhones are just coming out and androids around, but I had a BlackBerry and it was fancy spancy man, that thing had a flashlight on it.

Neal Reyes

And so I turned the flashlight on and she's using my little flashlight for my BlackBerry.

Neal Reyes

And she goes, she steps back from it and she looks and examines it and I'm getting ready to ask her, hey, is, are you good?

Neal Reyes

And she goes back one more time, makes few more adjustments and she steps back, dad, that is my very, very, very best.

Neal Reyes

And I said, okay sweetie, that sounds good to me.

Neal Reyes

She hands me back the level, she hands me back my BlackBerry and we went inside.

Neal Reyes

I will tell you with everything in me.

Neal Reyes

With everything in me.

Neal Reyes

I know.

Neal Reyes

With everything in me.

Neal Reyes

I know that, I know that.

Neal Reyes

I know that God almighty, the maker himself decided to walk through my backyard in the cool of the evening for a stroll.

Neal Reyes

And I believe that when he walked through my yard that night, when he saw that fence, he came to examine the handiwork of a nine year old little girl who for the first time in her life understood the difference between not enough, just enough, good enough, and excellence.

Neal Reyes

You see, I didn't share the full story with you, but I took her through the same thing I've already shared in this video or this podcast, where I told her about those four different levels that most people operate.

Neal Reyes

Some of the context I gave her, though, that I'm going to give you now is that most people who are the high achievers in life, I'm talking the high performers.

Neal Reyes

These are the high performers, the achievers, what some people call the ballers of life.

Neal Reyes

These are the people that when they're working on something, they're consistently in the good enough category.

Neal Reyes

And they'll have little sparks or flashes of excellence, but they're good enough people.

Neal Reyes

And those are the people who are often seen as the overachievers.

Neal Reyes

They're seen as the people who they place in the top levels of management.

Neal Reyes

They made me grow into senior management or executive management because these are the ballers of life.

Neal Reyes

These are the high performers.

Neal Reyes

But even these people.

Neal Reyes

And understand, I'm not judging you because I don't know who you are, but you tuned into this podcast for a reason.

Neal Reyes

And even if you just stumbled upon it, I believe God is bringing this like a spoken word to you because he's helping you to unlock your next level of greatness.

Neal Reyes

Man, I feel that when I say that he's helping you connect to something new in this podcast so that you can connect with your next level of greatness.

Neal Reyes

And what I explained to my daughter is that most of those people, they operate, remember, most people, average people, average between not enough and just enough.

Neal Reyes

But your high performers, your overachievers, your ballers in life, those guys are the good enough people with flashes of excellence.

Neal Reyes

But then there's a different breed of people out there, and there's not many of them, but there's a different breed of people that everything they set their hand to, they endeavor to make it their very, very, very best, their excellence.

Neal Reyes

You see, when I looked at that fence that Taylor helped me level that day, it was beautiful.

Neal Reyes

But if we went back today and now she's 23, she might be able to do it even better today.

Neal Reyes

Now, some people might say, well, the ground might have settled down.

Neal Reyes

I'm not talking about that.

Neal Reyes

I'm just talking about just in general, her level of excellence has increased.

Neal Reyes

You know, if you followed me for any period of time and if you're just connecting with me, well, then I'm excited you're here.

Neal Reyes

But, you know, I started speaking on Camera many years ago.

Neal Reyes

And I remember what my first studio I was recording in looked like.

Neal Reyes

And I was so grateful to be able to have a place that I could turn on the camera, turn on some lights and do a recording.

Neal Reyes

But when I look at where I'm at now and the TV studio I'm at now, I'm in a TV studio where I'm recording this podcast now.

Neal Reyes

This is my fifth TV studio that I've had.

Neal Reyes

When you're looking at me through the camera, if you're watching this on video, most of you are probably watching a pot or listening podcast.

Neal Reyes

But if you're watching this on video, and just real quick, if you want to see it on video, go to my website, Neil Reyes.com NeilRayes.com and on there, there's a section where you can watch our videos.

Neal Reyes

But if you're watching me on this, the background that's behind you, everything that's here, oh, we've grown, we've come up a little bit.

Neal Reyes

We've had our come up in this area.

Neal Reyes

This is something that we did.

Neal Reyes

But here's what I'm going to tell you.

Neal Reyes

If I were still recording videos the way when I first started, when I first started, I had bought this little Sony camera and I put it on this little tripod and I'd have to balance it just right because the tripod, fully extended, was like 8 inches.

Neal Reyes

But the Handycam that I was holding was so heavy.

Neal Reyes

It was a bit.

Neal Reyes

A little one, but it was heavy enough that if I set it on there wrong, it would tip over and fall.

Neal Reyes

So I had to balance it just right with two legs extended on the tripod, one leg down so it balanced just right.

Neal Reyes

I turn on my lights and at that point I had went to like Home Depot or Lowe's and bought those little aluminum shop lights you'd use on your car to check your oil at night.

Neal Reyes

I turn those on and I get in front of start teaching.

Neal Reyes

And I could only teach for a few minutes because those things were pumping so much heat.

Neal Reyes

Man, I look like I just ran a marathon.

Neal Reyes

After about 15 minutes, I had to turn those things off and cool back down.

Neal Reyes

And you'd hear my dog in the other room walking.

Neal Reyes

You hear his nails on the, on the, on the laminate floors we had, or his collar.

Neal Reyes

And you may still hear dogs on small because we're dog people.

Neal Reyes

And when I'm here in the studio, I have my dogs with me.

Neal Reyes

And so sometimes they come in.

Neal Reyes

But what I'm saying is, at that time When I was recording, when God looked at what I was doing, he didn't see mediocre.

Neal Reyes

He saw my very, very, very best.

Neal Reyes

That was my very, very, very best at that time, with the resources that I had and that I believe for it was my very best.

Neal Reyes

But if I were still doing videos that same way today and recording the same way today, what was once my excellence wouldn't be excellence anymore.

Neal Reyes

It might have slipped to adjust enough.

Neal Reyes

Or for me, probably not enough.

Neal Reyes

You see, there's different levels in life that we grow at our excellence and as we grow in our excellence, it's so important, I'm going to say it again.

Neal Reyes

It's so important to grow what I refer to from glory to glory to glory.

Neal Reyes

In other words, it's your come up, it's how you grow as you develop, it's a development process for your teams.

Neal Reyes

It'll be the same way.

Neal Reyes

It's how you grow and it's how you develop.

Neal Reyes

And once you've developed in this area and if you can train this to the people closest to you, and I'm going to tell you that the reason why this measuring system is so effective is because it's really no respecter of age and it's no respecter of title or position.

Neal Reyes

This level of measurement works for everybody.

Neal Reyes

You know, earlier I touched real briefly on terms like KPIs and OKRs and those are good.

Neal Reyes

But the thing about a KPI or an OKR in business as their position specific, I'm going to say that again, KPIs and OKRs are almost always position specific.

Neal Reyes

But this framework that I'm talking about today, this framework of excellence, this can be used across the board, regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of title.

Neal Reyes

And something that you can use to measure your own efforts.

Neal Reyes

And it's also something you can use to measure the effort of others.

Neal Reyes

And where true success comes in within this framework is when you learn how to do it within your own life, live by it like it's second nature, and then you begin to train it to others almost like a train the trainer.

Neal Reyes

And I will tell you that everyone I've taught this to has embraced it.

Neal Reyes

Everyone I've talked to, they've appreciated it and they've grown towards it and they've liked it because it's something they can use in every area of their life.

Neal Reyes

And it's something that makes doing their job or their responsibilities just a little bit easier.

Neal Reyes

Because what they shift from or they shift to is they're now measuring the quality of Outcomes, you know, whatever they set out to do, whether if it's a directive that's given to them or an initiative, or if it's something they're just doing on their own.

Neal Reyes

And by being an initiator on their own, they.

Neal Reyes

This system gives them the ability to measure the quality of what they set their hand out to accomplish whatever outcome they were hoping for, whatever goal they were hoping for.

Neal Reyes

This allows them to measure the quality of that outcome.

Neal Reyes

You know, sometimes in life, people set a goal and they look back and the only measurement of success they have is, did we accomplish the goal?

Neal Reyes

Yes or no.

Neal Reyes

Or they'll turn around and say, hey, maybe the goal is a certain amount of sales you have to hit.

Neal Reyes

And then they turn around, they look back, they said, hey, we needed to hit this many sales within this time frame.

Neal Reyes

Did we hit it?

Neal Reyes

Yes or no.

Neal Reyes

Or maybe it's a project they're working on.

Neal Reyes

Maybe they're working on building a new website, or maybe they're whirling out new benefits to the company.

Neal Reyes

You know, maybe they switch companies that they're using for benefits and now they're rolling out new, you know, medical and vision and dental and that kind of stuff.

Neal Reyes

And as they're rolling that out, or maybe it's, you know, annual reviews and they're giving compensation increases or whatever it is.

Neal Reyes

This framework that I'm teaching you, it can be used to measure anything, I mean, anything.

Neal Reyes

And remember your four basic things.

Neal Reyes

Or I say four basic, but your four levels of measurement.

Neal Reyes

At the lowest, just not enough.

Neal Reyes

I'm sorry, at the lowest, number one, not enough.

Neal Reyes

Number two, just enough.

Neal Reyes

Number three, good enough.

Neal Reyes

And number four, at the highest, excellence.

Neal Reyes

And I want you to understand something.

Neal Reyes

If you adopt this for your own framework, you're probably not going to hit excellence all the time.

Neal Reyes

I don't want to paint an erroneous picture to you, but you at least have to understand where the mark is, you know, in closing, there was a time a while back, I remember I was doing, cranking out videos every night.

Neal Reyes

And I remember I was recording, I would record them, but after my family would go to bed.

Neal Reyes

So, I mean, sometimes I was in the studio, like at 11:30 at night, finishing at 12:1 in the morning.

Neal Reyes

And then I still in some cases had to go and edit it, produce it, or edit it, render it, load it, get it online so people could watch it the next day, because that was my level of effort.

Neal Reyes

There's better systems out there to do it in.

Neal Reyes

I've learned them since then, praise God.

Neal Reyes

I've learned them since then, but at that time, that was my best I was able to do.

Neal Reyes

And I remember sitting there one night, it was about 1:30 in the morning.

Neal Reyes

I just got done editing it.

Neal Reyes

I'm looking at it.

Neal Reyes

I caught something that I made a little bit of a mistake on.

Neal Reyes

To be fair, others who are watching it probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Neal Reyes

But sometimes when you're watching it, you could critique yourself a little harder.

Neal Reyes

And I saw this, and I knew it was something I should fix.

Neal Reyes

And I just.

Neal Reyes

I'm like, all right, I'm gonna rate myself real quick.

Neal Reyes

I guess that's okay.

Neal Reyes

And then these words came out of my mouth.

Neal Reyes

That's good enough.

Neal Reyes

Oh, man.

Neal Reyes

The moment I heard that word, those phrase, it's good enough, I knew in my heart I wasn't ready to go to bed yet.

Neal Reyes

I wasn't ready to hit the render button and go to bed and set my alarm to wake up a couple hours later so then I could load it online.

Neal Reyes

No, I knew.

Neal Reyes

And that moment, I still had at least about another 40 minutes to an hour of work ahead of me because I had to go back and fix what I had caught.

Neal Reyes

I made a mistake on.

Neal Reyes

Why?

Neal Reyes

Because it was my level of excellence.

Neal Reyes

When the words came out of my mouth, it was good enough.

Neal Reyes

I don't endeavor to be a good enough person.

Neal Reyes

I don't endeavor to live by good enough standards.

Neal Reyes

Me, Neil Reyes, I endeavor to live by excellence.

Neal Reyes

And when I set my hand to something or I say I'm gonna do something, I endeavor to do it with excellence.

Neal Reyes

Because just like this story I shared with you about Taylor, where I was new in my heart, and I asked her if God Almighty, the maker himself, comes down to our backyard tonight after we go in and he decides to go for a little stroll in the cool of the night in our backyard, and he comes across your fence, is he gonna marvel at it or is he just gonna be like, baby, you could have done more?

Neal Reyes

And I'm not trying to paint a picture of God, that he's harsh to people.

Neal Reyes

Good.

Neal Reyes

He's not.

Neal Reyes

And while this is not a Bible study, there are.

Neal Reyes

There are stories after stories within the Bible where he talks about where someone exhibited a different kind of faith.

Neal Reyes

And he marveled at it.

Neal Reyes

He said, faith like this, I've not seen.

Neal Reyes

Well, when I have him see the work of my hands that he sent me to do here on Earth, I want him to see a level of excellence he didn't see from others.

Neal Reyes

It was an uncommon type of excellence.

Neal Reyes

And so when I'm working on that project and the words come out of my mouth, that's good enough.

Neal Reyes

I knew in a moment I was gonna have to stay up longer.

Neal Reyes

And you know what?

Neal Reyes

I even said a prayer.

Neal Reyes

Lord, please help me get this done.

Neal Reyes

I'm so tired.

Neal Reyes

I want to go to bed.

Neal Reyes

But he helped me.

Neal Reyes

He sustained me.

Neal Reyes

It still took me a little over 40 minutes to get done, but he helped me.

Neal Reyes

He sustained me.

Neal Reyes

He gave me a second wind.

Neal Reyes

And I know the reason why he did so was because he knew that it mattered to me.

Neal Reyes

Because even though others, when they looked at that, might have not known the difference, I knew what the difference was going to be.

Neal Reyes

It was a standard of excellence.

Neal Reyes

It was an integrity of my heart that I would know the difference.

Neal Reyes

And while I wasn't after perfection, I was after progress.

Neal Reyes

And I had already progressed to the place within making videos at that time that that video had I rendered in and published it in that moment and wouldn't had met the mark of excellence I had come to expect of myself.

Neal Reyes

The standards I built, but also what I believe, this level of excellence that both God and others saw in my work.

Neal Reyes

Guys, I hope that this podcast has ministered to you today.

Neal Reyes

I want to invite you to swing by our website where you can connect with all of our resources.

Neal Reyes

You can go to our website@neil Reyes.com and on that website there are links to our ministry, there's links to our leadership, there's links to our coaching.

Neal Reyes

But one of the most valuable links that's on there is the links to all of our media.

Neal Reyes

We have our podcast and we have our videos.

Neal Reyes

And while we post those on social media and places like YouTube and others, the number one place to find out about everything Neil Ray is is@neil Reyes.com in fact, I'm going to tell you that even on our site, we post content that we don't even produce or post in other places.

Neal Reyes

You can only find it on our website.

Neal Reyes

I want to invite you to check it out.

Neal Reyes

I believe that there's something there that can help you tremendously, just like this podcast.

Neal Reyes

I'm so grateful you stopped by and I want to thank you for taking time to grow with us.

Neal Reyes

Be blessed.