66 – “The Assessment Guy”: Tom interviews Ken Keis

Episode 066 – Ken Keis
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody it's Tom here with episode 66 of screw the commute podcast. We got a great guest today his name is Ken Keis. You're going to be amazed at his story and he's really an authority on behavioral assessment and strategies and a lot of great stuff. So stay tuned for that. Hope you didn't miss episode 65 with Joel Block. Now this guy covers stuff that I am clueless about. He was a hedge fund manager which is the fancy word for a professional investor. He had some really great insights on thinking and the stuff to do with your money as a entrepreneur so you don't want to miss that. Check that out later. Go back and listen to episode 65. One quick announcement our podcast app should be live when you listen to this so you can download that from the App Store and you'll be able to do lots of cool stuff with our podcast conveniently right from your mobile device. So check that screw the commute app in the App Store. Our sponsor for today is the screw the commute private Facebook group where you can interact with me. My staff and with other great entrepreneurs and like minded people that's a place where my staff and I put in training and business tips several times per week. You can ask questions and get feedback on things that you are doing. I'll tell you more about that later. But you could find that at screwthecommute.com/Facebook.

[00:02:09] All right let's get to the main event. Ken Keis is a PhD he's the foremost global authority on behavioral assessment strategies and processes. He's an expert in leadership purpose and wellness. He's authored over four million words of content. Now I wonder who counted them. I bet you that's probably four million and one hundred two thousand now. But we're happy to check that so that includes 500 articles for books and a dozen and a dozen assessments. Now did you know that less than 10 percent of the population believe they're living out their purpose and only 13 percent of the global workforce say they are engaged. For Dr. Keis This is not acceptable. Ken's purpose is to help others to live lead and work on purpose. Ken are you ready to screw the commute.

[00:03:19] Well my commute resulted in twenty two steps from my bedroom to the Home Office which I'm in.

[00:03:24] That is excellent. I think mine's about the same. And I don't know how many seconds maybe twenty eight seconds but that's the way to live at it. But the tell everybody what you've been doing lately.

[00:03:36] Well I actually started out as a dairy farmer and 30 years ago I transition into the professional development space. Firstly as a sales trainer I used to be a sales professional it was number one on our team.

[00:03:48] Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute you were a dairy farmer. Is that what you just said.

[00:03:52] I said listen I was you think about business and the entrepreneurs that are listening. That's very entrepreneurial. But I was the first born male third generation Eastern European descent on our family dairy farm. And so that's what Dad wanted me to do.

[00:04:08] And how many cows did you have.

[00:04:10] Well at that time were milking around 100. And now I think the family farm is about 160 which is small for our area now because everything's double triple or quadruple.

[00:04:20] By hand or did you have those machines.

[00:04:23] Machines. I'm not I'm not as old as you. I'm younger and younger than that.

[00:04:30] Well I heard a comedian talking about just think about the first person how weird they must've been to ever drink milk you know where did they get it. What were they doing. I'm so glad that we've evolved from that over time so. OK. So you were a dairy farmer and then what happened.

[00:04:50] Well I actually couldn't work with my dad. So I left and worked for the federal Department of Agriculture and then I worked and as a sales position.

[00:04:58] You mean you couldn't get along with your dad.

[00:05:01] That's pretty well it because both of us wanted to be in charge. Does that sound familiar as an entrepreneur.

[00:05:06] Well family businesses have some of the biggest trouble because people the personalities get involved rather than this is the job. This is the boss. This is not the boss. There's a hierarchy but with families that can get very mixed up very quickly.

[00:05:23] In the research around family business and those of you that listen the entrepreneurs you know Dr. Stanley's work is less than 10 percent of businesses make it to the third generation. And you know what. I actually started my own farm finally and then I just got up one morning. It was about five thirty in the morning at sun was coming up and I said Listen I'm not. Is it OK for me to keep doing this 20 years from now. And I said absolutely not. So then I knew sort of my answer re engineered or reverse engineered my answer. But what is it that I needed to do. So I wasn't exactly sure what the transition was going to be but I knew that doing this whatever that was in the dairy farm wasn't going to be my permanent place.

[00:06:04] So you should have done an assessment on your dad and then sat him down and gone over the results.

[00:06:11] Well that was that was my pre master's degree PhD. Any of that kind of stuff was interesting for those of you that are listening. My grade 9 teacher said I would never amount to anything because I couldn't read or write. I have minor dyslexia and so I mean you and I grew up at a time in school before computers. So when computers were invented and all of a sudden there's a red line under almost every word that I'm typing. I said well why is that. Well that's because they're misspelled. Dr. Keis so that's how I was able to develop my writing skills through the computer and all of a sudden you made typing and doing all this. I never would have thought way back when when I was 16 that I would be an author. I mean who knew.

[00:06:55] Wow good good for you. So. So what kind of what kind of folks do you work with now in this assessment business. I've heard of this in Myers Briggs stuff like that. We're talking about.

[00:07:07] Well that's one of our tools we have a holistic model Tom. So when we think about developing the whole person our tool the personal style indicator or the sales style indicator or we have the entrepreneurial style success indicator for all your listeners is we built ours because we weren't happy with the other tools out there back then. Our company's been around now for 40 years 1979 founded by Dr. Terry Anderson and then I bought the company in 2002. So I've been around this now for 15 16 years but I actually got connected that company in 1990. So that how we're read at the time of the recording of this 28 you know moving on to I've been in this industry now for 30 years. So yes we help people through a series of tools so we have a wellness assessment self-worth leadership skills learning styles personality and you know our people prefer ours because we really wanted to create something for the learner. So when you take it Tom you get clear about you know what is it. What are my strengths what are my challenges how do I work with others what does it mean with all my relationships and all the research is clear talent smart that this which is subsidiary Kenneth Blanchard that only 2 percent of the population could realize their purpose or their potential without this knowledge. So what in over 70 percent of the population or the odds are for people even listening to this podcast don't know what their personal style or personality is. And it's critical because it influences every single decision. All my engagement levels what I prefer to do what I prefer not to do all these things and so I can be intentional by knowing this.

[00:08:39] Well let's let's go to you. I heard you mentioned you had an entrepreneurial one. And yes it's possible that it might come out and you're sitting there looking at the person say you should never in a million years try to start a business. Is it nature versus nurture or what is it.

[00:08:59] Well we actually in this assessment which has two parts to it. It talks about both. We actually believe in nature and we also believe in nurture and that's the reality of it. So we have preferences now nowadays right now and we were talking about it when you're on my podcast. And thanks again for being on Secrets of Success with Dr. Keis. So it was great and I appreciated that. Is that now there's more opportunities to create businesses than ever before the virtual ones. Here we are on a virtual podcast recording you know via different systems that were never available before. So our entrepreneurial assessment helps you understand your business strengths what some business challenges you would have what kind of leader you might be. But it also compares you to the mindset of 4000 successful entrepreneurs. And so how do you think. And now if you don't think like or don't have the background of the most successful entrepreneurs that's fine. But now you have a development track so it doesn't necessarily say that you should or shouldn't because the other side is Tom. How many different businesses are there. So if I would never survive as an entrepreneur as a corner store owner I mean 24 7. They are constantly just. That's not it for me this virtual kind of business you know our expertise is really to help other people in their personal professional development in a holistic manner. So if it's me I'm also a wellness coach have a diploma nutrition genetics and so we just help people say hey you know if I have know my purpose but I'm constantly ill or not well or don't have energy what good is that or if I know my right business but I can't lead others then what's that. So then that's why you have a leadership skills so that's where all the content comes from. And we have nine different authors that have contributed to this journey this company over the last 40 years to be able to serve the listeners on screw the commute.

[00:10:54] Ok so how does somebody take one of these tests. I mean is this something that only for big business where it's a fortune or can individuals assess themselves.

[00:11:03] Oh absolutely the way our tools are all learner friendly and go to our crgleader.com site and all the assessments are there. You can purchase them there all the way from you know just 35 40 dollars to 50 dollars.

[00:11:21] And so they can evaluate the results themselves.

[00:11:26] Absolutely. And then I have some video clips and then we also have some online courses if you want to take a course which is a little bit more money to be able to learn about the dynamics. So like an example as I just did a conference I was speaking in a conference during our values assessment. So in 75 minutes I was able to get people to get clear about what did they value what are their needs what are their fears and able to do that in less than seventy five minutes. I mean this doesn't have to be a burden Tom. That's the problem. A lot of these I'll call it psychometric tests where I do to you they're really only for the test giver they're not for the test taker and so our tools we do with you not to you. And so it's really learning I have 15 year olds and Grade 10 that take the tools to help get clear about you know their direction in life and what's important to them and they can be intentional in those individuals who are just young entrepreneurs and and growing up and making choices.

[00:12:21] I mean life's confusing right now right. So there's so many opportunities even if you think from a job point of view there's 40,000 job titles out there in the U.S. well that can get pretty confusing. So my job as an individual the job you as the listener is to go on this journey of clarity and you know what do I really like. What do I dislike. What are my values what's my personality what are my leadership skills what are the things that are important to me. And by doing that then you define the kind of business that you want to. Want to own want to operate. Want to be in you know where are those passions. Because we know Tom I know I just completed 30 years in here I just did this seminar. I've never been one more I'll get say excited or passionate people dancing. Where'd you get all this passion. I said Well I don't know that is intuitively or internally in me but I still love it 30 years later in fact probably even more.

[00:13:22] These assessments. Well I heard you say about 40,000 different job titles out there and I heard somebody say one time don't worry if your kid doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up it probably hasn't been invented yet.

[00:13:38] You're quoting me then.

[00:13:43] So. So if somebody is out there in a cubicle or or or even like you said the younger person it has been in the workforce yet they go to your site and what's the name of this assessment.

[00:14:00] It's called the entrepreneurial style and success indicator.

[00:14:08] And they pay the money they get it. Now how did they take it that they take it online or they download.

[00:14:15] It's taken online it's all mobile friendly. So if you if you're taking on your phone you can complete on your phone or on your notebook or your desktop whatever your iPad. So all are responsive design. We keep it there so you purchase it. It's immediately available. You can take it instantly. Now there's all these cute ones that are online and Facebook and I want to do it. Well those are those. Those are not real assessments there. They're just a little fun quizzes. So if you want something that's deeper of more value than you complete it. And then I have a short video at the end of each assessment once you complete it doesn't take you very long. Depending on what assessment it could be as short as 10 minutes it could be as long as 20 minutes depending on which tool that you're taking. So 10 to 20 minutes. And it's interesting. It's funny Tom where when my kids were going to university and they just finished recently they said well we're not going to. We're not going to spend forty five dollars or thirty dollars on ourselves. It's too expensive. And I said OK. And then then it wasn't five minutes later they were going to a movie and then having beer with their buddies. So they're spending over forty five dollars just on entertainment. So what a person spends their money on is also saying what's most important to them. Are you worthy of a few dollars of an investment. I mean if you're not then you're not taking your life seriously and no wonder there are so many people that are confused you started the show with saying you know 90 percent of people really are not connected to their purpose. There is more confusion. There's more options than ever before. But it also means that I need to be more intentional. I need to get involved with some of these kinds of assessments and tools and resources. I mean assessments aren't the end all be all they are one part of developing clarity figuring out what you want to do and all the work that you do as far as marketing and helping people to you know sort of embrace this entrepreneurial spirit Tom thank you for all that work that you do here on this podcast plus all the other stuff you've done for the decades that you've been in this business. So that's the work my job as an individual. Those of you that are listening is to get clear about what your job or what your opportunity is or with the business you want to get into.

[00:16:24] Okay. So let me put you on the spot here a little bit and have you make up a hypothetical on the spot. Let's say somebody sits down and takes this entrepreneurial style success indicator and so give us some examples of something that might come out on the success indicator and then what that person how it helps them make a decision to do what.

[00:16:54] Well part of it is it's good to understand. What is this what are the strengths they're going to bring to a business. So not I mean I know that we want to develop some skills and not all of us can do everything you know bookkeeping I just absolutely detest. I hate it and I was doing it when I first started. It's not the best use of my gifts talents and abilities. It would show up as a not necessarily the accounting but just maybe my attention to details maybe I'm not that oriented. Maybe I'm more better at strategy or some of you might be very very good at structure but part of your development is is developing assertiveness and being out there and being more open to promoting. Sometimes what happens is that we get into partnerships not all entrepreneurships were entrepreneurial ventures or a single person. So what it will do is say well if I'm going to hire or if I'm going to have a contractor serve me I tend we tend to want to hang out with people who are like us but you might want to hire or have a contractor who is opposite of you which actually irritates you because now it feels it fills in the gaps. They may think differently differently than you and that's what you want.

[00:18:21] So we're helping people to bring language to understand self to understand work to understand relationships. The other one even from a customer point of view our number one rated program we ever created was called Why don't you sell the way that I buy which uses our sales style tool which is a sister tool to their entrepreneurial one. And we did it in for Chrysler and we did it in 40 countries of different languages and you'll win as a customer or as a entrepreneur most of times we will have a customer support point or not. And so now I'm understanding different customer styles. How do I sell to them. How do I market to them. How do I build relationships with people that are different than me. That's what this process is about. And you know what. We never stop learning about it. I've taught this now for nearly 30 years and I'm still learning about how I can use this. The other one is about being in charge of self. One of the things we do is you know all the all I've done multiple podcasts as you have done. But one of the things we teach is this self-awareness is so important. If I'm not I'm not sure who I am and I know I don't know who you are then how can we have this intentional interaction. So not only am I aware who I am but then number two is self mastery.

[00:19:35] You know sometimes in business we have to do things we don't like. Right. So yeah. So even though I don't like details even though I maybe don't want to be focused on that. That doesn't mean that I don't have to develop the discipline or the structure or the processes around me Tom. So that I can be successful in my business. And so part of this to say OK can suck it up princess. This is what you need to do here. And so I help to sort of adjust and then set up strategies that work for me. So an example is let's say I don't like a lot of detail but maybe I could do an hour a day of it. Well then that's how I do it rather than beat myself up and feel guilty of all the things that I haven't done. You know I can do an hour a day. That's what my business needs. Maybe I can hire this person over here or get a contractor to do the bookkeeping and put it in a quickbooks or simply accounting or whatever among using. And then I can still look at the numbers I can still be aware of it. So now I'm starting to again be intentional with this if I want to have a partner if I bring a team together whatever it is we give structure and processes and systems to be able to do that successfully.

[00:20:44] Now are these when somebody takes an assessment is it confidential.

[00:20:49] Absolutely. So now the other one is as you can even send assessments out to your partners or team members and you can choose. We spent multiple seven figures setting up our online learning system. TOM It took us actually five years and a million lines of code for the current version to set it up so I can send it to you Tom and I can decide after I purchase as a person sending it out does Tom see it. Do I see it or do we both see it.

[00:21:18] The results you mean. So I can send it to an employee but they don't see the result. I see them.

[00:21:22] Correct in that but that's set setup in advance or if I'm taking it. Yeah it's only if you're entrepreneurs want to go online take it right now then yes you're the only one that's going to see it.

[00:21:35] So anything funny or bizarre happened in your business.

[00:21:40] Well not sure about bizarre but I was trying to think about that because you'd actually sent that question to me in advance and I think it was more bizarre where we actually started our business and I bought a second house down the street and I have a little print shop as well which I'm winding down a little bit now because back then when I bought the company I didn't have any of these tools online. Think about it just just 16 years ago. So we actually had the neighbors phone us in and I was evicted from my own office because the city bylaws didn't allow three employees in a residential location. So then I rented another offsite place and then I recently bought an office building where I do have some staff there. So you know we have six or eight people that kind of hang out in our business. They are all the different things that are going on as part of that process. I tend to work from home most of the time.

[00:22:37] That's a good point because you know I'm working out of my home my entire life. In fact I when I had my nightclub for six years I lived above the nightclub. So I've always worked out of my home. But you have to watch out some places that are more strict than others and if you have traffic and some neighbor's mad at you.

[00:23:06] It was it was not needed we were great neighbors. I did improvements of the house I improved the value of everything. We weren't bothering people at night or anything like that. We have no idea based on the city bylaws here. They don't have to tell you who complained. So now I had three staff members guess what's allowed in a residential area. Well two. So what I really needed to do is to fire one person.

[00:23:32] Or remove them or let them work remotely now if they're trustworthy.

[00:23:37] Exactly. Exactly. I mean we have now moved our business to cloud based for our files just recently you know the same thing with CRM. Remember if you remember you're a customer relation management like goldmine or some of these other ones. They were on your computer.

[00:23:58] So what do you like best about working for yourself and what's the worst part about work.

[00:24:09] It's the same. It's the two sides of the same coin myself. I working for myself and the independents that I have. I just love that it's important. I really couldn't work for anybody else right now. Tom at this point in my life it's just not where I'm at. The other side for those of us that are entrepreneurs. Guess what. We're accountable for self. So every day you get up you have to set up your own structure your processes systems so that you can be successful because the other side is just like not be as disciplined as you want or. So one of the things that happened for me when I first got involved in this business I was not near as disciplined on a daily basis because I started from my apartment as I am now. I love working from home now. I've just grow and matured. I've now moved into this writing. I used to really be a speaker who writes Now I'm a writer who speaks. And so that's that's been the shift in my. I never thought that that would happen. But way back when in the 90s we had a contract with Chrysler and I was on the road 300 days a year. So it was my own business but I was in an airplane every day of the week and flying. So I was I remember one year I had one hundred and fifty flights. So in a seven year period of time I was away fifteen hundred days. It almost cost me my marriage. So when we think about business I mean it's been very good to me and it's put me in a position where I'm one of the top experts of assessments in the world now but because of that experience. But I would never do it again.

[00:25:53] I can just see assessment of your wife. I'd like to have a husband that I could remember his name.

[00:26:01] Exactly. Well a lot a lot of cell phones and she says well for all intents and purposes we had two our kids were younger than she is I was a single mom I would come back Friday night and I'd leave on Sunday. And I did that for seven years. So you know I get that. You mean the business was good to us but now I'm mostly home so I'll travel and speak at conferences a couple of times a month now. But now it's what I want to do not what I have to do per say. So when you look at working for yourself is you knowing yourself what what works for you what structure works for you. You know when I'm doing writing I always write from home I never write from the office anymore I will go in the office and work with the team because I know that when I'm at home that's where I do my best writing. And so start paying attention to the clues. Life is constantly leaving as clues of environments structures processes relationships that will work for us. But are we paying attention to be able to make sure that we set up our life or set up our business to really not to service from a self-centered point of view but from a self honoring point of view. And that's where the assessments come in. You know when we think about our values assessment what are we measure motivational values. So an example is let's say you need tranquility as one of your values. But you are in a credit collection department in a business well that's in conflict. You're gonna hate your job every single day. Right. And it's not that you should feel guilty about it or you're not committed enough where you're not trying enough. It's just that the nature of the work and the nature of you are not a match. And so why would you do that to yourself every day.

[00:27:40] Yeah I would love to fight it out that would be perfect for them.

[00:27:44] Yeah. Yeah. So you and I could take those jobs as part of it. So my encouragement. Everybody listening here yes. There's lots of things in our business that we have to do that we maybe don't prefer. But can the majority of what we're doing really play to our passions play to our purpose played our preferences. All these things and am I moving towards a position an opportunity a business that includes as much as possible on those criteria.

[00:28:15] Absolutely. All right we're going to take a quick break for Our sponsor. And when we come back we're going to ask Ken what's a typical day look like for him and how he stays motivated and he has a freebie. For those of you that stick in till the end here. So stick around for that. All right. Screw the commute. Private Facebook group is where you can interact with me. My staff and with other great entrepreneurs and like minded people. And it's a place where my staff and I put in training and business tips several times per week. You can ask questions and get feedback on things that you are doing. And I give you a quick tips that have made and saved me tons of money over more than 40 years in business and myself and my staff also give more in-depth postings on all kinds of business topics so check it out in the show notes that screwthecommute.com/Facebook.

[00:29:17] All right. Let's get back to today's great guest. Ken Keis. He's also the host of the great podcast secrets of success and he's the foremost expert in the world of behavioral assessment. So Ken what's a typical day look like for you. What time do you get up with exercise. What's life like with the kids in the family and all that.

[00:29:40] Well we are now empty nesters. So how about that. My wife works at university as an academic coach so we get to go and have our own space per se. You know I get up around 7:00 ish plus or minus depends again on my own boss. So if it wants to be 715 or 730 or four wants to be six forty five so be it for me. I work out in the afternoons. I have a home gym and so I've found that my bio rhythms I really don't like to go to the gym first thing in the Morning now. I did do that. For several years but it just really wasn't me. So my workout time is 4 o'clock or somewhere about that. And then when she comes home and we have dinners and that kind of works in the morning my first hour is mostly really going through my newsletters. I I read health newsletters or read leadership newsletters. I read spiritual newsletters or a podcast. So I spent about an hour every morning sort of working on myself. And that's the space the day. Do I subscribe to certain things that I want to educate myself and everybody talks about you know continuous learning.

[00:30:49] You know the five hour rule makes sure that you have at least five hours of learning in your week somewhere somehow. And then the evenings I also listen to podcasts on top of that. You know after dinner. And so I mean I love this podcast space because I can take my phone wherever I'm going if I'm working out if I'm driving. I do not listen to the news. I absolutely abhor that. It's just it's just a drain. I do have a news app on my phone and I can look and review the news in about 38 seconds. So if I see the headlines that there's something I'm going to look at and look at the story that's fine. Otherwise I don't bother we actually canceled TV in our house 30 years ago. So when so when the kids were actually twenty five. So when the kids were younger we just said that's it. We're we're not going to have it we cancel it. So we haven't had cable or TV in the house for a couple of decades.

[00:31:43] All right so how do you stay motivated.

[00:31:48] Well some days I'm not quite frankly Tom.

[00:31:51] No no that's impossible.

[00:31:54] I know it's impossible. But one of the things is and this is my encouragement the individuals out there is you know 75 percent of businesses or more fail entrepreneurial ventures. There's various different reasons. But you have to make sure that what you're doing is connected to your passion and your purpose. There's some people that disagree with that but I said I don't get it where people say why a passion is not important it's bunk. The reality is is how I stay motivated is I love what I do. I really really do in doing things like this podcast this isn't work. Are you kidding me. I mean this is just is just me is just what I'm doing or you know hosting a podcasting. And Tom having you on the show and being able to have questions for experts and individuals.

[00:32:42] We had a lot of laughs too. And I don't know. That was not going to be up till January or something right. But yeah. Yeah definitely. Listen he's got a lot of great guest on there. I listened to several episodes for I was on the on his show. The secrets of success with Dr. Ken keis. So make sure you subscribe to his podcast at iTunes or anywhere they have great quality podcasts.

[00:33:12] And so. So Tom part of that staying motivated is why we're doing it. You know when I was speaking at the conference and having a hundred people in the room and everybody's just having fun it was it's not work it's not work. So you know pay attention to it one of the things we teach in and this comes to the free guests or the free gift that we're talking about right. Is that my latest book The Quest for purpose. I talk about it in there where not only are assessments but I get people to journal I give them a series of questions and activities to do to get clearer about what is my purpose what do I want to do in all areas of my life. But one of the things I teach in that is that procrastination long term is actually a good sign. And here's what I mean by that if I'm constantly delaying engagement then I am I doing the wrong thing or am I doing the right thing in the wrong environment or both. And so that's part of it where I said Why do I have to kind of keep forcing myself to do this. Inspiration motivation is a myth. So if I have to constantly force myself to do it every single day then am I really really really in the right space. Am I doing that. And so that's why I don't have to quote unquote stay motivated because I'm actually doing what I enjoy and what I love. This is not work. Are you kidding me. Hanging out with Tom on his podcast it's like what. Anyways I can't even explain it. It's just not work.

[00:34:46] Same with me and I love that procrastination thing because it's the old saying of why do today what you can put off till tomorrow.

[00:34:58] Well it's a little different if I'm a student at the University and the exam is tomorrow maybe I better a better study tonight.

[00:35:06] So. So give us some parting thoughts for any of those screwballs out there want to go out on their own and also tell about the freebie.

[00:35:15] Freebie first so go to my speaker site which is KenKeis.com/Tom. Now I don't know where we came up with that. And I am going to give you a free copy of my e-book of my latest book The Quest for purpose. The whole thing. This is not a little e-book. This is the full two hundred and eighty page book that that is in print.

[00:36:01] I just I got it this morning and I said darn I gotta get on the darn podcast and talk to the actual guy. I didn't want to talk to you because I want to read the book. I sucked it up and but no I was I could books by the dozens mailed to me and I was leafing through that when I said Oh man that's a good subheading let me look at that section. I don't really take that stuff all that often but yeah I can't wait to get back to your book.

[00:36:33] Yeah it's called the quest for purpose for a reason and you know what. There is some work involved. Meaning if 90 percent of the people don't like what they do then the parting comment is there's two or three things here. First of all take a hundred percent responsibility for your current condition. If you don't like what you do if you're not living on your on purpose then your purpose is to find your purpose. So that's number one. Number two is there going to be a lot of people around you every single person Tom around us has an opinion. Now social media of course everybody has opinions. Very few people have wisdom. So when I was I actually had the sales position I had a company car. They were covering my lunch is all my health care everything was all covered and I decided to go and start my own sales training company. My dad said why would you be so stupid to do that. And so there will be a lot of people around you who don't get this entrepreneurial thing. They don't get this business thing. You know you need to kind of drown it out make sure that you're not talking to those individuals. I'm always amazed that people who don't have kids who always have an opinion about how you should be a parent. Excuse me. La la la I'm not listening to you if you don't own a successful business then I'm not listening to you. The other side is tap into other people have gone before you mentor you get their training get Tom's training about how to run a business or market or whatever the case is go to the people the individuals the processes the courses invest in yourself do our assessments you know don't cheap out and say you know I'm going to buy this business but I'm not going to develop myself.

[00:38:17] You know your ability to serve others is equal to or less than your own development. And so you are the number one hindrance to your business going forward because of what you haven't learned yet it's not about you're not good enough. That's not what I'm talking about. It's talking about if you haven't got to ten million dollars is because you haven't connected to a person who's done 10 million dollars to teach you how to do it or a million dollars or whatever the number is for you one hundred thousand dollars doesn't matter. Is that my encouragement is just go and seek wisdom from those people who've been before you such as your programs tom to go forward and then enjoy the journey. I mean this is that you're never there it's just be in the moment be mindful enjoy it right here it's never about OK when I get there then I'll be happy you know that's the Western disease Marshall Goldsmith talks about that just be in the moment enjoy it right there have fun make sure that your business is going in the right direction and if you've made a choice that isn't the direction or isn't turning out exactly as you envisioned it it's OK to change it I'm sure Tom that you've made some choices along the way that you said whoops.

[00:39:23] Absolutely. Who hasn't that's been successful.

[00:39:27] So we've all we've all done that. You know I invest in a company that I was ripped off for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was stupid was my mistake. I have to take responsibility for it and I should have never gone into it. But that's another story for another podcast.

[00:39:41] I invested in a pumpkin farm and they called off Halloween.

[00:39:45] You should have known better.

[00:39:54] Most of us made more oops them than successes but we just kept persevering. Are you persistent or are you consistent in where you do things. So. So this is really great advice. Tell him the site again for the assessments.

[00:40:12] crgleader.com. You also can get to the assessments through the speaker site. So kenkeis.com/Tom and I really want everybody to get that free gift. I really just started doing this Tom where I was. You know what. Let's just give this book away. Let's make sure that we have more people who are living on purpose. And then if they want to learn more or get some of the other assessments and find out about their values or their personality or their entrepreneurial sort of style then they can come and access that from us and my encouragement is that you would invest in yourself don't cheap out and if you're spending more on movies and dinners during the month then you know what your priority is.

[00:41:03] Beautiful beautiful advice. And hey Ken thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to our screwballs. We call them screwballs.

[00:41:12] So well hey I'm one of them so yeah just I'm just having a party I've found a kindred spirit. And Tom thanks very much for doing what you're doing you know serving individuals and having them the show is such an honor.

[00:41:25] My pleasure man. So. So everybody if you like this show please subscribe and leave us to review over at iTunes. If you don't know how to do that we have instructions for you at screwthecommute.com. Don't forget or remember about the screwthecommute.com/Facebook the private Facebook group where you can interact with me and my entire staff and a lot of other great entrepreneurs. And hey we're gonna see Ken again one of these days and make sure you check out all this stuff. Get his freebie in the show notes. Ken thanks so much and we'll catch everybody on the next episode.

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