What's up, striver?

This is your host, Neal, and I want to welcome you back to another podcast episode.

I am fired up for today's show.

Today, I'm going to be teaching you something that I think is extremely important, both in business but also in personal life.

And that is I'm going to talk to you about the get, and I'm going to talk to you about the keep.

What do I mean by that?

Well, so often in life, people focus on how they get something, but they rarely focus on what it takes to keep it.

Well, today we're going to dive deep into that and give you some things that can change your life.

Get ready.

This is your captain speaking.

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

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

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

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

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

As we too are pumped for today's flight.

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

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

Enjoy today's flight, be blessed, and remember, the best is yet to come.

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.

What's up, Champion?

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

Man, I'm fired up for today's show, but I'm always fired up.

But today we got a powerful one for you.

We got a banger today.

Today I'm going To be talking to you about the cost of obtaining versus sustaining.

I'm going to say that again.

The topic we're speaking about today is the cost of obtaining versus the cost of sustaining.

Now, I'm going to tell you that this is a deep, deep and important business principle.

But this is something that can help you no matter where you're at in life, personal or business.

Doesn't matter.

You know, this leadership podcast focuses on several different things, but we have three main focuses.

It focuses on leadership, it focuses on business strategy, and it also focuses on personal development.

And the things that we're teaching today can be applied in any of those three areas, but specifically it can be applied in business, but also in your personal life.

The cost of obtaining versus the cost of sustaining.

This is something that I teach people on a regular basis, both through my coaching endeavors, but also just in executive management.

And when you understand this, when you have people who are able to understand this on a different level, it'll change the way you operate.

In fact, I will tell you that in this, the cost of sustaining.

I'm sorry, of obtaining versus sustaining.

Between those two words, obtaining and sustaining, there are giant pitfalls waiting for you if you don't know how to do this correctly.

So I'm hoping that today I'm going to shed some light on some things that you haven't thought of before or encourage you on the things that you already know, but maybe you need to pick back up.

But I believe that if you listen to today's podcast, it's going to help change the things that you do in business.

And it's going to help you to prevent from spending more money than you're supposed to.

And it's going to help you stop the waste.

So here, the first thing I want to tell you is this many people, when they go to buy something or acquire something or start something new, especially in business, oftentimes they're viewing that from the standpoint of what can I get or what can I gain?

But very rarely do they look at it through the eyes of what will this cost to maintain after I acquire it?

And there lies the pitfall.

I'm going to tell you this is significant in business.

I have seen some of the best and brightest minds in business do this.

I've seen people who have celebrity status make these mistakes in business and in their personal endeavors.

I'm telling you that this is a significant thing.

And for people who don't understand this concept, it can bankrupt them.

I'm going to say it again for people who don't understand this concept, it can bankrupt them, it can cause their businesses to go broke, and it can cause their endeavors to fall short of the promise that it once had.

Because through the misappropriation, or I shouldn't say appropriation, but the misspending of money, it can cause them to go down pitfalls that can ruin them in their business or take them years, I'm saying years, to try to bounce back from when they should have been down the road further doing that thing they were called to do.

This is significant.

When we talk about the cost of obtaining versus sustaining, very often we have people think only about the initial onset, but they never stop to think about the deeper picture.

This is what I refer to as that there is always a second cost.

Another way of saying this is sometimes there is a hidden cost in business, but there is always a second cost.

Sometimes the cost of acquisition can be visible if it is usually budgeted or tracked, but the cost of sustainment, that's hidden, unfortunately.

In other words, it can creep in over time through different things.

It can creep in through operational strain, it can creep in through team bandwidth.

It can creep in through things like maintenance or support or resource allocation.

You know, I don't know if I've ever encountered a business and I'm honestly, in all my years of management and all my years of consulting, I don't think I've ever once ever come across a business where there wasn't some type of resource contention or resource allocation challenges that a business faced.

In fact, I don't even know if it's possible in business.

Do I think businesses can get very good?

Yes.

But even companies that I've seen that are debt free, owe money to nobody and have very, very healthy incomes coming in, even those companies struggle with this because sometimes those resource allocations come down to competing priorities, conflicting priorities, or too many initiatives that just pop up, pop up, pop up, man.

I'm telling you that these things are giant resource drains that can burn out your staff.

They can create toxic cultures, toxic work environments, and they can turn around and cause good people to leave your organization in search of somewhere that just has their act together a little bit better, man.

And I'm going to tell you that oftentimes the people who leave your organization are your highest performers because these are people who understand there's got to be a better way to do business.

There's other people that are in need of their skills.

The people that hang on.

Sometimes they're the most loyal and the most dedicated, and sometimes they are the highest performers, but oftentimes they're also the ones with just the least amount of ambition.

So they're not willing to go look somewhere else, and they'll continue to put up with whatever you're putting them through.

That may not be a popular topic, and you may have your own opinions about that, and you're certainly welcome to.

Neil does not know everything.

Okay?

But what I do in the executive perspective, I'm teaching you from the things that I've seen and experience and learn.

I'm teaching you through the lens of my perspective.

Doesn't mean it'll always be right.

It may not always be right for you, but it is always truth in there.

Because I'm teaching you from the truths that I've learned.

They don't have to be your truths, but they are truth.

Because I'm not making things up.

These are the things I've seen and the things that I've learned.

You know, one of the biggest things that impacts organizations is competing interests.

Oh, man, I'm telling you, that's a big one right there.

Or competing or conflicting initiatives.

Meaning you show up on Monday and the company says, this is our main priority.

Go do this.

And you do that all day long on Monday and all day long on Tuesday.

And on Wednesday you show up thinking you know what you're going to do that day.

But on Wednesday, something new pops up and now you got to go chase this.

And Thursday something new popped up, and maybe Friday something new popped up.

And you go over the weekend.

And then on Monday, someone's asking you what happened to the thing you're working on on Monday.

But that was like four or five initiatives ago.

Because the companies just keep coming up with new stuff.

There's a difference between the cost of obtaining and the cost of sustaining.

And what I will tell you is many times in business, I see people chasing after the new, bright, shiny thing.

And so they'll say, like, for example, I've got my green tea here with me today.

And someone might say, we're going to work on this day.

And it's like, we're going to work on this, this bright, shiny thing.

And then the next day someone says something else.

And what do they do?

They put the green team down and they pick up the next new thing.

And then the next week, maybe it's the same thing over and over.

And what happens is after a while, they have a bunch of things started, but nothing complete.

And a bunch of partially started things, man.

That shows confusion, which sows frustration into the workforce.

And if you're at the very top and you're making those decisions, then there's a chance you might be part of your biggest problem.

And I know it's a tough pill to swallow, tough cookie, but here's.

I'm going to say it again.

If that's your leadership style, sometimes you're part of your biggest problem.

And you might be a great individual, you might be wonderful to work for from a personality or character standpoint, but from leadership style and leadership skills, you might be awful to work for because you keep putting in shifting and competing priorities and you're running your employees on redline, meaning they're wore out chasing the next new thing.

The next new thing.

You know, sometimes, like if I'm talking social media, like if you look at something like reels or tiktoks, sometimes the most effective reels and tiktoks are ones where they show somebody doing something where people stay watching longer because they want to see them close the loop.

Like, for example, you'll see a reel or a TikTok where someone's slicing a pizza or carving up a watermelon or slicing a pineapple, or they're starting their morning coffee.

And people watch all the way through.

Not because it's so much engaging, and maybe they're listening to what they're saying while they're talking, but what's really keeping them engaged is that the way their mindset works is that they want to see the loop close.

In other words, they want to see something finish.

That's a human behavioral mechanism.

It's part of psychology.

It's a proven human behavioral mechanism where people like to see the loop closed.

And if you're constantly starting new initiative after new initiative after new initiative, then what can happen is you're preventing the loop from ever closing.

And you might make your workforce feel like they're not working or not doing anything meaningful.

Sometimes they may feel like they go to work and they get good hours and good pay and benefits or whatever you offer them.

And that's great, but they don't ever feel like their life has purpose or meaning because they're not doing anything meaningful, because they're not accomplishing very much.

Man, I'm telling you guys, if you catch on to what I'm telling you today, this will change your business.

In fact, I can feel it in the spirit.

There's a small to medium business owner out there that they just had the lights come on.

And I applaud you for your honesty and vulnerability within yourself, right there in your Car where you're listening to this because you know the person I'm describing is you.

And even though that's not who you want to be and that's not who you thought you were, you're recognizing now that maybe you might be some of your biggest bottleneck or roadblock within your business.

Well, I've got great news for you, Striver.

You can change that in a day just by shifting your mindset.

You may not go and shifting your mindset may not go close all those hundred things you have your people chasing.

But it can narrow it down where we say, we're going to stop doing that.

And sometimes when you learn to just stop doing something, that's success in itself, I'm going to stop doing this today.

And then maybe you say, okay, going forward, here's our one, two or three top priorities, but that's it.

And if the things I've given you don't align with that, then they're just noise.

Don't do them.

But let's examine what we have started.

Which one of them lines up closely enough to 1, 2 and 3, and what's the most important?

And let's start there and then start chopping away.

And what's okay to reassess and find out or figure out that maybe some of the things you started that you thought were important, they don't even ring true to your brand.

They don't even ring true to who you are or your vision for your organization.

Those are things that maybe you'll never be known for anyways, because there's something completely different.

You know, for example, if you're a donut shop and all of a sudden you were trying to make breakfast burritos, well, someone may not know you for breakfast burritos.

You're the donut shop.

That's okay.

You don't have to make breakfast burritos.

Or maybe for you, I'll give you something even more starch in comparison.

Maybe, for example, you were doing donuts and you're amazing at doing donuts, but all of a sudden you wanted to make Chinese food.

Well, you're not known for the Chinese food.

That's okay.

There's a lot of other awesome Chinese restaurants out there.

Let them be awesome.

But you be the best at donuts.

Be the best at making donuts.

That's okay.

Donuts aren't boring.

Everybody loves donuts.

Not everybody eats them, but everybody loves them.

But donuts, be the best donut person.

In other words, when you get back to the core of who you are, and what you're supposed to do, you'll make amazing donuts and you'll be the best at what you do.

Now, that being said, let me give you an example of something where I've seen the second cost really hit businesses.

You know, in businesses, you have what's known as your initial investment, and then you have your reinvestment.

I'm going to say that again.

You have your initial investment and then your reinvestment.

Typically, your initial investment is the investments people make.

And we'll take it from the standpoint of maybe customer attribution or attrition.

People initially invest to earn customers.

What's the reinvest?

The reinvest is the extra expenditure they make to now try to keep and hold on to the customer and within businesses.

Many businesses measure what the investment of gaining new customers looks like, but they don't measure the reinvestment.

And those costs can sometimes be astronomical.

What are the investment costs?

Sometimes the investment costs are the advertising you do, the coupons you send out of different things to get new people in the door.

What's the reinvestment?

The reinvestment is that once that customer has come through the door, it's all the things you're spending money on to make sure they don't leave and that they come back.

And what's worse about this is if you're bad about closing the back door.

What do I mean by that?

Well, closing the back door means you know who first of all came into the business.

And as they came into the business, understand, customers don't come in through the back door.

They come in through the front door.

But for them, when they're approaching the building, the door they're coming into, that's the front door from their perspective.

But you champion, if you're at the back of the store where they ring up, well, then from your view, the front door is not the front door.

It's the back door.

You don't want them leaving the same way they came in.

In other words, once they come in, you want them to stay.

You want them to stay with your business.

Now, I'm giving you an analogy.

Okay?

Obviously, you got to let people go home.

You can't lock the doors and keep them.

But I'm giving you an analogy.

In other words, you got to close the back door.

What does that mean?

It means you need to pay attention to who's coming in and who's staying in.

But when people leave, you have to understand, if you're good at business, you got to listen and understand why are they leaving and why haven't they come back?

And it's in those moments, those reinvestment dollars to get them back in are what can cost the company significant amounts of money.

That's why clarity can be key within business.

Remember, today we're talking about the cost to obtain something versus sustainability.

I have another thing for you.

Oftentimes what causes the most hardship in business, especially in these areas, is when they have lack of systems or SOPs to support what was gained.

I'm going to say it again.

Oftentimes it's the lack of systems or standard operating procedures, SOPs to support what was gained.

In other words, for you, you might be excellent at getting them in the door, but how do you keep them in the door?

Well, if you're excellent about making the sale and getting them there because you had a lot of promise, you're great at getting them in the door.

But if you're really bad about honoring the promise and they come in and say, well, man, you told me you had the best donuts in the world.

But when I came in, those donuts were hard.

They were like from three days ago.

And I couldn't even buy to throw the thing in the microwave to soften it before I can even eat it.

Well, what happened?

You were great at making the sale, but you weren't good at honoring your promise that you had the best doughnuts.

And so what's going to happen?

They're not going to come back.

And not only are they not going to come back, they're going to go share their experience with someone else, possibly because they're going to be at the little league soccer game or baseball game or the soccer game or something for the children or at a school event, and someone's going to mention donuts, and they're either going to say, oh man, don't go to such and such, or these donuts are amazing.

Where did you get these?

And it's going to be one of your competitors.

I'm just painting up some examples.

But understand, these are how the things work.

That's the difference between obtaining and sustaining.

The next thing I want to talk to you about are some common pitfalls, business pitfalls that are associated with this first one.

Hiring a key role, but not integrating the employee properly.

So many times you have companies that are great at hiring, they may even be great at recruiting, but they're very weak in the area of training.

And so the employee comes in and they give them their nice desk and their workstation, and then it's Trial by fire.

It's like they're drinking out of the fire hydrant because you don't have any training in place and you don't know how to integrate the employee properly to help them be successful.

You know, as leaders, one of the most important things we can do is help others be successful.

And specifically we have to learn to set them up for success and not for failure.

Man, that's an unlock right there.

We have to learn how to be able to set people up for success and not for failure.

Another common business pitfall is launching a new division or a new product without long term support.

Whoo, man, I see this over and over and over.

People rushing to build the new website or to roll out the new product or to open the new division.

Sometimes for you, maybe it's not a whole division, maybe it's not a division in a region or something.

Maybe it's you want to open the new location, but they're in such a hurry to do so, they do it without turning around and having a long term support structure in place.

Guys, if all you do is obtain, but you never figure out how to sustain, you're not going to have longevity.

You're here one moment and you're gone the next.

You know, in business you can either strive and aim to be a shooting star, or you can be like the sun or the moon.

What do I mean by that?

Well, let's say you're a shooting star.

Shooting stars shoot quick and they burn bright, but they also burn out fast.

They're here one minute and gone another.

And sometimes people see them, but only for a second.

And for the ones that didn't see them blink and they're gone.

It was there and it's not, but you instead should be a rising sun.

What do I mean by that?

The sun shows up every single day.

The sun is very visible and easy to see.

And even if you're not looking at it, you can feel and see its impact.

Everything's bright and if it's in the summer, it gets really hot.

You can feel its impact.

And as you feel its impact, what happens in those moments is you also can depend on it.

You know, it's not like anyone wakes up in the morning and it's dark and they're like, crap, I forgot to turn the sun on.

No, that never happens.

The sun's there automatically.

Whether you wake up on time or not doesn't matter.

The sun shows up every single day and the sun is completely consistent.

And you want to know what's happened Tomorrow the sun's going to be there again.

And next week, guess what?

Sun's going to show up again.

And next year, guess what?

The sun is still going to be there.

In business, you don't want to be a shooting star, you want to be a rising sun.

The next thing is purchasing new technology without proper implementation strategies.

Man, I'm going to tell you, this is one of the biggest things that I see in my world as a cio, but I will tell you and I'll paint an example.

I've taught my teams for years now that when people come to them and say, we need to buy this new piece of software, or we need to buy this new piece of technology, or we need this new solution, I always teach them the standpoint of I'd love to help you with that, but I need to understand your need, not just the solution.

Why is that important?

Man, I'm telling you, this is worth consulting dollars just right here.

Why is that important?

Because oftentimes what happens in businesses is they have a technology they're using.

Maybe it's their payroll system, maybe it's their time and attendance system, maybe it's their inventorying system that they use to manage their inventory of their store and their shipping and receiving and fulfillment or whatever it is.

But they have this system and they have frustrations with it and they don't like it.

But instead of working with an organization saying, hey, these are what our requirements are, this is what we have.

These are all the things it doesn't do that we need it to do, and these are all the things we do need it to do.

And these are the nice to haves, but we can deal without.

And these are the must haves that we can't.

These are the deal breakers that if they don't have this, we can't move over to it.

And when you can understand from a standpoint of what the pain points are, sometimes you may already have the right system, you just didn't have the right implementation.

In other cases, though, if you just let them come and tell you what the new solution is you need and you buy it, that's where you enter the hamster wheel of rotating solutions.

Because what didn't work in that one, the last one, may not work in this one because they're never addressing the need, they're only addressing what they think is the solution.

But if you get down to what the need is, you might find you have the right solution.

You're just missing an employee to help run it.

Maybe you're missing A key component of the original implementation, something was left out.

But you may find that the next solution they brought you, that's not even the solution they need because it doesn't address the core problem that they're having.

You need to figure out what the need is so you then can address the solution appropriately.

Guys, I'm telling you, if you listen to what I'm saying, this will save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars if you do this correctly.

I've seen it before.

No matter the size of the business, this will save you hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.

If you catch on to what I'm telling you, understand the need, don't just let them present you the solution.

And if you do that, what I will tell you is the solutions that are the best are the ones that you can see the end of, beginning on the end from the beginning, meaning you have a solid implementation.

In fact, what I have found is oftentimes people pick the right solutions, but they don't have the right plan to implement it.

And because the implementation and the testing of that thing is so bad, before they bring it on, they cost.

And it cost the company so much money, and they spend so much money in extra activities or missing efficiencies that the system should help them with because they didn't roll it out correctly.

Another one is expanding before stabilizing your core systems.

Your core systems can be technology, but they can be other things too.

It could be systems of management, management processes, SOPs or standard operating procedures.

It could be key metrics to understanding how you mark success and what's the key marker of success.

It could be key systems on.

You open this new restaurant, but if you open it too far from the home office, do you have a supplier who can even bring the right groceries to you?

Did you maybe forget to train people on the right recipes?

If it's something else, maybe it's fulfillment and you ship out products.

Maybe you're a supplement company or something.

Do you have the things in place to support that?

Do you have the core systems?

Now I've got a leadership truth bomb for you and I'm excited to share this with you.

Too many leaders chase the win, but don't lead beyond the finish line.

Oh man, I'm telling you, that strong a leadership truth bomb for you.

Too many leaders are busy chasing the win, but they don't lead past the finish line.

So what does this say about leadership vision?

Well, good question.

This is what this says about leadership vision.

Immature leadership equals tunnel Vision on the short term or on obtaining immature leadership is equivalent to tunnel vision on the short term or just obtaining.

In other words, when a leader or leadership group, staff, whatever, if they're only focused on how to obtain, it's like they've got blinders on or tunnel vision because they're only focused on the short term, they're only focused on the immediate and how to obtain.

It's like that truth bomb I told you about, where you have a leader who's only focused on the win, but they're not focusing on what happens after they cross the finish line.

You know, that finish line, that may feel like the end of the race for you, but when you're a leader, that's actually just the starting point.

I'm going to say that again.

When you're a leader, picture you're on a track and you're running.

When you're running to that finish line, that may feel like the end to you.

But as a leader, that's not the end, that's just the starting point.

Now someone might say, no, that's not true, you started when you came out of the blocks.

Now that may be when you first initiated, but the starting points, really when you cross the finish line, because what are you going to do after that?

You know, even if you're the athlete who does that and you're like, nope, I finished my race.

Well, unless that's the only race you're ever going to run, the moment you cross that finish line, you've already got to start preparing for the next one, for the next meet, for the next thing that you're going to be doing.

Business is very much the same.

The other thing that it says about leadership vision is now I told you what an immature leader is in the sense of short term vision.

But the mature leader, they're focused on long term success.

So immature leaders, they're focused on the immediate, they're focused on the now, they're focused on the short term or how to obtain, and that's it.

Mature leaders, they're focused on the long term success.

Here's a better way of saying it.

A weak leader or immature leader, and sometimes immature just chalks up to not enough experience.

But an immature leader, a leader who hasn't developed in this, they're only focusing on the get.

They're only focusing on the now.

What do they get?

What are they getting?

How do they get it?

What's the now?

That's it.

But the mature leader, they're focused on what they get.

How do they get It.

In other words, how do they obtain it?

But they're also focused on that once they obtain it, how do they keep it?

In other words, they're not just focused on just the get, they're focused on the keeper.

They're focused on how do they get it and how do they keep it and maintain it and grow it into something more?

You know, if someone opens a new division or if they open a new location, they may have goals in their mind of what they want that location to do when they open up.

But really, once they get it and then how do they keep it?

Well, what they're focused on as well is also how do they grow it.

In other words, how do they make even more than when it first opens up?

Once they've established themselves as a brand, how do they make even more and grow?

Why is that important?

Because the more that one grows now, they may have to open up or get to open up even more locations or more divisions.

It's about growth.

It's about increase.

Strivers.

That's what we do, champions.

We grow and we increase.

That's so, so important.

I got another leadership truth bomb for you.

Sustaining is a team sport.

I'm going to say that again because it's a big.

Sustaining is a team sport.

Leaders must think in systems, not just sprints.

Oh, I'm going to say that again.

Sustaining is a team sport.

It's not an individual sport.

If you're the head of your organization or the head of your department or head of your division, head of your team, if you're the only one who's thinking about the get and the keep, you got a lot working against you there.

Because if you're going to achieve the get and maintain the keep, you need people coming alongside of you helping you with that thing.

But when you build a culture or foster a culture within your organization that's focused on the get and the keep from the bottom to the top, meaning from the entry employees all the way through the main leaders.

Oh, man.

Now you've got a recipe for success that other people are going to want to hear about, other people are going to want to learn from.

That's the things that people write books about or make movies about.

Those are the people that they want to interview because they want to say, hey, I see you.

I recognize the model of success you built, and I want to know how I can replicate that.

I want to know how I can learn from that and do that over here.

Powerful, powerful stuff.

But remember, sustaining is a team sport, and leaders must Think in systems, not sprints.

One of the things I will tell you is when I'm working in business, one of the biggest thing I try to teach cultures within business or teams is that it's better to create systems around processes and not around people.

I want to say that again.

It's always better to create systems around processes and not people.

Here's why.

There are so many businesses out there that are lopsided in their bench.

In other words, they don't even have a bench or they have a weak bench.

They have one person that can hold them hostage in that organization because that one person has all the knowledge of that one specific area and they're gambling that that person's going to show up to work every single day.

You know, I've been in business long enough now that I've had not one, but multiple employees who have worked for me who have passed on while they were working.

Now, I didn't.

When I say while they're working, I'm not saying at their desk, but what I'm saying is that the employee maybe went home one day not feeling well.

They never made it back into work because they had to go to the hospital or something happened and they died unexpectedly.

Maybe for you it's not that dramatic.

Maybe for you it's.

You're banking on an employee who's always going to be there because they love it.

But someone else one day shows up and offers them a much more competitive offer than what you're giving them.

Or maybe they're just fed up enough with you because you have so many shifting things.

They always have to do that.

They just don't want to work under that because it's stressful and they don't like it.

Or maybe you're the boss that has the expectation that they have to work four hours of overtime every day and you're not okay with them taking their weekends off.

And after a while their marriage is struggling and their kids aren't seeing them and they're like, this stinks.

I don't want to do this.

And they leave and find something else.

Well, regardless of which situation it is, whether the person passes on and graduates to heaven or whether the employee turns around and just quits because out of frustration, or they just get a better job even though they love you, they just get a better job.

If you have your processes or, I'm sorry, if you have your success built around a person and not around a process, or if you have that system I'm talking about built into a person and that person is no longer there, then what happens?

I've actually seen this impact organizations.

It's significant what happens in those moments.

You got to be prepared, you got to be balanced.

How do you do that?

One of the best ways to do that is through cross training.

But again, the leadership truth bomb I had for you.

Learn to build systems around processes, not people.

And when you do that, everybody's more happy.

And here's what I'll also tell you.

Even if that employee shows up every day because they love you and love their job, and even if they're healthy and they're safe and just, you know, they show up to work every day, praise God, we want people showing up every day not because of just their job, but because we want people to have healthy lifestyles.

Right?

We want people to live successful lives and have longevity with their families.

That's the key to life right there.

One of the great rewards.

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

What happens when that employee wants to take a vacation?

Does the company pause for a week while they're on vacation?

Or if they want to go on vacation for two weeks?

Or does that employee maybe not get to go on vacation because you can't realize.

You realize you can't live without them and so you don't let them take vacation.

Well, that's not a good situation.

Or what happens if you're just fine with them taking vacation.

But in here in their heart or in here in their mind, they feel that they can't.

Somewhere in here, in the heart of their mind, if they feel that they can't take off because it's going to impact the organization, then they're going to turn around and they're not going to be at their max efficiency because they're overworked or they're tired or they're not unplugging enough to reset.

You know, the Lord showed me years ago that every person should take at least two vacations per year.

This is what he showed me.

He showed me, and this is for me, but I'm sharing it with you.

Every person should take at least two vacations per year.

The first one is to replenish the soul, and the second one is to replenish the spirit.

And they can be done in either order.

Now, sometimes you'll have trips that you'll take, and it replenishes the spirit and the soul.

But I'm going to tell you that every person should take two vacations per year.

Now, a vacation doesn't have to be A whole week.

So again, if you're comparing this to like, well, that's a whole week of vacation.

I don't know if I have that much time or money.

You're seeing it wrong.

Vacation could be over a long weekend.

Maybe you just take off on a Thursday early, or you leave Thursday and you head somewhere Friday, and you're there Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then you come back on Monday.

All you do is took two extra days off.

That didn't take you a whole week, but you had vacation.

And maybe it's the one for the soul.

What's the one for the soul?

Well, that can be going to the beach.

That's my thing, man.

I love the beach.

So does my family.

That could be going to the beach.

It could be going to the mountains.

It could be going skiing, water skiing, snow skiing.

It could be, you know, you go to the water park or you go to the amusement park, or maybe you take a trip just to, you know, some people go to places like Vegas and stuff, right?

But I mean, it could be all kinds of things.

But maybe for you, it's, you go to Miami or you go on a cruise or maybe it's, you know, I'm paying a lot of things here.

But maybe for you, you go to a national park or you go on a road trip, or maybe for you it's, you go somewhere where it's just a culinary destination, meaning you travel somewhere just so you can eat the good local food.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Those are amazing trips to have.

But what's the one for the spirit?

Well, the one for the spirit is typically one where you're actually going somewhere to build yourself up spiritually.

Whether that's a spiritual retreat, if it's a spiritual conference, you know, some type of thing where they're feeding your spirit.

And for me, there's one I go to in particular.

I won't mention it right now, but there's one I go into particular and have for years, where it feeds my spirit.

I'm going there to hear the word of God.

And when I'm going there, some of the best speakers, the best of the best speakers are there.

And when they're teaching, I'm hearing things that are firing off inside of me.

And God does something special with that because he knows I've set aside special time to hear from him.

And I spent money to go on the trip.

I spent money for the hotel or for the food.

And those things have value to him because since he sees that I valued his thing he's going to value my thing.

So regardless how you do it, whether that's you or not, maybe for you it's something different spiritually, but every person should take at least two vacations per year.

One for the replenish the soul, one to replenish the spirit.

Now, the next thing we have is how do you lead with sustainment in mind?

You know, we've been talking today about the difference between the cost of obtaining and the cost of sustaining.

Or how do you get.

And how do you keep.

But how do you lead with sustainment in mind?

Well, here's some simple things.

Always ask.

Now, this is so key, this is so important right here.

What happens the day after we get it?

That is so simple, but so profound.

What happens the day after we get this thing?

In other words, you got to have a plan for after the finish line.

Create transition plans from now.

There's three steps to this sometimes, but there's from acquisition, how do you acquire it?

To integration, how do you integrate it or implement it to sustaining, in other words, maintaining it going forward.

There's the acquisition, there's the integration, and there's the sustaining.

What do you do after with it, how do you maintain it?

Develop a culture of ownership beyond launch day.

Oh, man, that's a big one right there.

So often you'll hear good ideas come from people and they say, we should do this and that's great.

But then the next question should be is, after we do that, who owns that responsibility?

Who owns that thing?

Who's going to continue to make that thing a success every single day?

That's what happens.

Sometimes you have people look at each other like, well, I don't know, I just get paid to come up with the good ideas.

No, no, no, no, striver.

You have to not just think about how to get to the finish line.

You have to think about what's going to happen once you cross that finish line.

You're not just focused on the get, you're focused on the keep.

You're focused on the get and the keep.

Well, what's another one?

Assign, clear post acquisition champions or teams.

There's a software I can think of.

It was a project management software I rolled out years ago, but it actually was more of a collaboration software than anything.

This is one of the most powerful softwares I've rolled out to an environment and this software, what I recognized was in order for it to be a success, I was going to have to get a couple key people across the organization that I could help train on this software and then let them be the champions for me as I roll this out across the rest of the organization so that they could be the champions to help.

They could be part of the team that helped the organization realize just how beneficial this thing was.

You have to have or assign clear post acquisition teams or champions to help you keep that thing a success.

Now I've got another leadership truth bomb for you.

And we're getting ready to finish.

But here's the leadership truth bomb.

Acquisition is momentum, sustainment.

That's stewardship.

Oh, I'm going to say that again.

Acquisition is momentum, but sustainment is stewardship.

In other words, we're focused today on how do you get and how do you keep.

Man, this is so important even in personal life.

Maybe you want that great big beautiful, beautiful home with gorgeous furniture.

And maybe you want a home that has 13 bedrooms in it and seven bathrooms and three living areas and pool and a basketball court and a tennis court and the most gorgeous yard and the giant, giant closet for you and the giant closet for your spouse and the kids.

Bedrooms are amazing.

And you have the game room and you have the, you know, the pantry that's the size of most people's living rooms.

And you just have all these awesome things.

Well, guess what?

Someone's gonna have to clean that house.

Who's that gonna be?

Because that might take a day in itself to clean it or a couple days.

Are you prepared to hire a cleaning service?

Are you going to have the time to clean it?

Especially if you're working full time job or something?

Are your children going to be able to help?

Is your spouse going to help?

In other words, sometimes it's not just about focusing on the get, it's focusing on the keep.

Because you don't want that thing just tearing apart over time.

Now what I will tell you in our final thoughts is I have some what I consider final thoughts of encouragement for you today or final thoughts and encouragement for you today.

And I've got two of them for you.

Don't just chase the wind.

Build the infrastructure to carry it.

Oh man, that's so simple, but it's so profound.

Don't just chase the wind.

Build the infrastructure to be able to carry it.

That's how you hold onto it.

And the second one, and the last thing I have for you today is that great leaders don't just go big, they go deep and they stay.

I'm going to say that again.

Great leaders don't just go big, they go deep and they stay.

Guys, I pray that today's podcast was enlightening for you and encouraging.

I want to remind you that I believe in you.

I think that so important for you to hear.

Everybody needs to know that there's someone out there who believes in them.

I believe in you.

I know that by you showing up every day and listening to this podcast and then putting it to work where you can, the information you gain from here, I know you're a striver.

I know you care about leadership and business strategy and personal development.

Those things resonate with you.

And I want to let you know that I believe in you.

I think you have promise and purpose inside of you and I'm excited for you to bring that out to the outside and smash it.

Go change this world in a positive way.

And if you're already doing that awesome job, keep on keeping on and keep on stepping up.

I believe in you guys.

As always, I want to remind you to swing by our website@neil Reyes.com where you can find all of our teaching resources.

And guys, if you're enjoying this podcast, I'd like to invite you to please follow it and please leave a review on it and please share it with someone.

It's so easy to share the podcast.

We have so many good things that are in this podcast and so many good things that I'm sowing into it with all of my heart.

And I'm doing it to give.

I'm not doing it to get.

I'm going to say that again.

The things I'm teaching in this podcast, it's not because I'm trying to gain something.

It's because I'm trying to give something.

My greatest passion in life are people.

And I receive so much satisfaction and personal gratification in life when I can turn around and sow into others and help them to be able to connect with the very best version of who they are, their very best life, and their very best performance.

Guys, I want to thank you for taking time to stop by and grow with us today.

And until next time, have a blessed day.