Winning the Game: The Importance of Starting Strong

Eric and Dale explore the importance of starting strong in order to finish well in any endeavor. Eric shares his insights on what it means to truly start strong, emphasizing the value of being fully present and attentive in the moment. Using the concept of WIN as an acronym for "What's Important Now," he reveals how prioritizing the initial conditions of a project or goal can significantly impact its overall success. From personal routines to business strategies, the idea of a strong start proves to be a game-changing mindset that can drive results in various areas of life. Stay tuned as Dale and Eric dive deeper into this concept and explore its applications in customer acquisition and building trust with clients. Get ready to discover the power of starting strong on this episode of the Game Changers Podcast.

[00:01:59] Attention burns calories; jet lag is tough. Afternoons are challenging, but wife helps. Sleep matters, even napping aids recovery. Good information is crucial for valuable assistance.

[00:06:23] Prayer, meditation, reading, journaling, planning ensure successful day.

[00:09:29] Retain clients, invest in employee retention.

[00:12:05] Relying on energy for engaging speeches.

[00:14:40] Repeated scripted plays breed offensive team confidence.

[00:17:39] Align plan, action, and reporting for success.

[00:22:09] Focus, not competency, determines success. Game changer.

[00:23:28] Strategic planning leads to desired results.

Transcript

Dale (00:01.664)
starting strong to finish well to unleash your best in life and work. Welcome to the game changers podcast. I'm your host Dale Dixon. I help leaders be their best on stage and in front of the camera. And I'm the chief innovation officer for a better business bureau. Eric Bowles coaches trains and inspires leaders to unleash their potential and the potential of those around them. Eric, great to be with you today.

eric boles (00:24.098)
Great to be with you, my friend.

Dale (00:26.088)
We are just reminiscing five weeks on the road, bouncing from one coast to another. Just, I'm super curious real quick. What's your approach to jet lag and dealing with time changes?

eric boles (00:40.338)
Oh, great question. I think I've been doing it so long that I don't know if I really thought about the process of it, but the reality is, one benefit I got is if it's dark outside, I'm sleepy. And when I see sun in the morning, I wake up. So that is the one thing that does help me. I can get up in the morning, I can do pretty good at going to sleep at night. My challenge.

Dale (00:55.264)
Yeah.

eric boles (01:08.914)
is in the afternoon. My challenge is, you know, it gets, I mean, right after lunch, you know, where it, now you would think because I'm on the West Coast, typically that when it's, you know, one o'clock or two o'clock on the East Coast is, you know, I'm starting to be awake. I'm not because I start really awake early. And so when it hits me, it hits me pretty hard.

Dale (01:10.927)
Mmm.

eric boles (01:35.762)
So it's always important for me. I don't, I eat light. I engage also in the role that I play in many of these, whether I'm presenting or more importantly consulting or strategic planning, those sessions. I like to be fully present as well. And really paying attention is tiring. Like, when you use your attention, I mean, you're burning calories like you are.

Dale (01:58.122)
Yeah.

eric boles (02:05.026)
paying attention and so, you know, that's usually the, dealing with jet lag, that's usually the hard part. It's those afternoons that you usually kick in. I don't always do a great job of this, but my wife helps me a lot with when I get home or when I'm going, she just reminds me of the things that I need to do to sleep, you know, because sleep really makes a difference, even if I need to nap. You know, just these little moments that kind of help me recover.

Because wherever I'm at, my value to an organization, to a leader is not only the information or the assistance I can get, but to give good assistance, I have to base it on good information. So I got to pay attention. It's hard to fake it, man. It's hard to fake it. I said the only thing worse than, you know, people can tell if you care or not. The only thing worse than not caring is fake caring.

Dale (02:53.392)
and be fully present. Yeah.

eric boles (03:03.158)
Trying to fake pay attention is hard. Hahaha!

Dale (03:06.144)
Exactly.

Okay, so that was just a bit of a rabbit hole. But I wanted to let's dive into today's topic and this idea of starting strong, which is the focus in order to finish strong and whatever endeavor we're talking about. And you mentioned that this really came from a number of conversations that you've had over the course of the last week with some of the clients. And so break it down and what you what you're thinking for as a

for starting strong. Is this the planning stage where we talk about sharpening the axe for 50 minutes if we only have one hour to cut down a tree or Yeah, lead us through it.

eric boles (03:40.032)
Okay, so.

eric boles (03:44.951)
Yeah.

eric boles (03:48.65)
Yeah, it is. It's in that realm. Let me start. I started this way without being too, from a statistical or technical standpoint. Everybody wants to win. You know, we all want to win. We have to define what a win is. But for the simplicity of it, we want to win the game. Whatever sport it is, my goal is to win the game. Well, in order to win the...

the game, there's a number of things that need to take place to ensure that happens because winning is a byproduct. We start with that in mind, but that doesn't create the win. What creates the win is what we do in the moment. The word win, many people will know, they've heard the acronym before, I've been told all my life in football, also I've been told in business. Win is an acronym for what's important now.

So when I, in the culmination of doing enough of those winning plays, so the word winning is, it's just the momentum that happens when you keep doing what's important now, right? And I keep doing that back to back to back to back and then you end up at the end result where you want to be. The problem happens sometimes. We get so enamored and so excited about winning, about we want to win. We don't really define what's important now. Like, because

It's now that matters because now leads to what we do next. It was, it was the, you know, it was, Edward Deming, we're all familiar with Deming's work, right? With all the work that Dr. Deming did and his contribution in terms of quality. But after 50 years of all his statistical study, he discovered that every process has a beginning and end. But if you can get the first 15% of every process right,

you have an 85% likelihood in terms of success for the whole project. So the key is can I get the beginning right? Can I get these initial conditions right? And then we can ensure at least 85% of desired outcome. Now that sounds like a really big number. I'm trusting them and I've seen a lot of things, but even if many of us aren't analysts, but if we just use our subjective data.

eric boles (06:07.358)
our own personal lives. Usually when I get the beginning of my morning right, the rest of my morning goes pretty good. Now I'm not going to say the entire day, but even if just the morning up to lunch, if I can get that first 30 minutes right, I get a good workout in the morning. You know, I get a chance to, you know, do my prayer time devotion for some people's meditation. If I do my reading to grow my mind, if I do some journaling, and then I have my day planned.

the probability that at least that first half of my day starts well goes up. And then for me, I break my day, like it's halftime. Can I get the third quarter, you know, the start of third quarter, which is start of second half. Can I get the beginning of that part? Right. So if I can win that, right, the probability that the rest of the day finishes well is high. The reason I say, you know, I'm not a big fan of, if I don't win my morning, right.

the rest of the day goes terrible. No, I split my day in a half time. I may not win the first half, but can I win the second half of my day with a good start? So when we're doing it strategically or as a leader of a company or with leaders, I have them look at, okay, we know what our big bets are for the year. We know what our strategic plan is. We know what our goal is. What do we win? What's important now? What do we need to win now? And I even bring it all the way down to...

Dale (07:08.945)
Hehe.

eric boles (07:34.478)
today. What do I need to win this week? And if I need to win that this week, how do I win now ensuring that I win this week? So it's just constantly backing up to the very thing I can actually do now.

Dale (07:47.54)
Hmm. I'm just thinking about the variety of applications where we see this concept and action from and it is it's the subjective. But for the person who's sitting out there, thinking I don't know that I

eric boles (07:57.838)
person who's sitting out there thinking.

Dale (08:03.776)
strong start really sets me up for success. Think about customer acquisition.

eric boles (08:07.386)
Think about customer inquisition.

Dale (08:10.828)
It is acquiring the customer is usually the hardest and most expensive. And then, then the job becomes keeping the customer. That would be the rest of the 85%. But getting the customer, that's the truly hard work.

eric boles (08:17.099)
Yep.

eric boles (08:29.038)
Dale, when you just said that, if I sit back and look at my, you know, I have a lot of clients, we got a lot of prospects, but my clients, the one I've been working with for a long time, I will tell you, we go much further, but we go much further and it's much easier because of the level of trust, because of the engagement. But establishing that, getting to that point.

where the trust level's there. You gotta go through all the gravitational pulls. You gotta go through the inertia. The way I like to combine it is the majority of the fuel that's used on a plane is getting off the ground. And where's most of people's marketing dollars spent? What usually creates the most anxiety for all of us is not, oh, we got too many clients. No, I mean, that's a good problem. Some people may have that. But the reality is...

It's the acquisition of a client. It's the holding on to a client. Hey, if somebody wants to be very transparent right now, and be honest, if you have a retention challenge, right? If you're struggling right now with retention of your folks, there's a high probability that the majority of the people you're leaving, you're losing, you're losing them in the first six to nine months.

Dale (09:55.113)
Hmm.

eric boles (09:55.146)
yet the amount of money you spend on them before they really contribute anything is extremely high. So the number of organizations I look at and say, okay, what's winning look like? This, well, in order to win like this, there's probably a high probability having really good people working for it. You understand what to do, how to do it, how to engage with the customer, create what we like to call, there's a great book out called Unreasonable Hospitality, right, those who really get it.

But in order for them to get to that place, we got to hold on to them long enough to get a return on that. Yet so many people work on getting people in the door, but they don't realize we got to get the first 15% of that right. Now that first 15% don't confuse 15% of the process, meaning that's equivalent to, you know, only 15% of the time. No.

That 15% of the process in terms of resources, time spent where it may be significant, but the 85% that follows should be significantly easier, significantly effort, almost effortless. I got a good friend named Andrew Walzer from Walzer Automotive Group, and it's a great, it uses that language, it's so right. He goes, man, we know we're doing an effective job for our customers and everybody when we become more effortless.

And it's just brilliant on Andrew's part. Like that is it. But effortless doesn't mean easy. Effortless usually takes a lot of effort upfront, right? And doing those things. So when we talk about that's what a win looks like. So how do we win? Well, like what's important now to make sure that happens.

Dale (11:32.788)
Yeah.

Dale (11:41.44)
Two more areas where I think we see this in real life. Number one, speaking. If when you take the stage, or when you get up in front of a group of people, if you can nail that first 30 seconds. As a speaker, how do you feel when you get up and you nail that first 30 seconds, the rest of the presentation becomes effortless because you've put the work in.

eric boles (11:52.21)
and nail that first 30 seconds. Come on, man. As a speaker, how do you feel when you get up and you nail that first 30 seconds? The rest of the presentation becomes Flows. Because you put the money in. That's right. One of the things that I rely on or that I depend on when I'm speaking is I feed off of energy. And so since I feed off of energy and I don't care who the

client is a group it is now fortunately I know how to create energy for myself if I can't feed off of the audience you always have to have a backup plan but I find out real early that the more you can engage the group with each other not just with me just to be engaged with the head and the heart and this is why I tell leaders very often I said look you're very beginning might have a little head in it but get a heart story early

get something that connects across the board. Because once you're connected with your group and you get through that first initial part you talked about, the rest of it is flow. Now you're flowing and that's the space we wanna get to. And this is why I always encourage individuals, don't begin your day disrupting a flow. Oh, I gotta check my emails, I gotta check the news, I gotta check that. Well, even if you get all that stuff, your ability to be effective with all that

garbage is low. If I can get effective first then that stuff may come it won't have the same impact the way I like to describe it this way Dale. If I can get my fire burning hot early then all that distraction wood and wet logs they just get burnt up but if I start with that and I'm never going to get the fire burning in the first place and this happens all the time. So one last example

Dale (13:45.908)
So one last example and let's take it to the football field because you know that one so well. What's a coach's approach to the first of the game and then right coming out of halftime?

eric boles (13:50.83)
What's a coach's approach to the first of the game and then coming out of half-time? The beginning of the game offensively and defensively, but primarily offensively. The first 10 to 15 plays are always scripted. Now understand it's a big football game, but the first 10 to 15 plays, which on a good game or a good day, every team may run. The goal is, you know, if you can get 80 plays in.

It's hard to lose when you can run 80 to 85 plays in a game and even more right like that means you had the Ball a lot you controlled it all those things are great But think about 15 plays you're getting close to those numbers right like 80, you know That's 20% 100 plays about 15% we get it But what's part about is we script it and the reason is scripted is so we can replay it over and over we practice it We do the perfect play drill

Are there adjustments made? Yes. But do we change the order? Yes. But it's still the same 10 to 15 plus and everybody on the team on the offense knows that we've done it over and over again. Do you know the level of confidence you go into the beginning of the game? When you have the first part of the game, you know what you're running. You know what you're going to do. That is such a big deal. Cause it is what cascades the rest of it. If you go into the game and you don't know what play may be called

at the beginning and how many plays you got to play book? A lot. It's hard to be effective this way. And then the second part you just got to do describing it coming out of halftime. This is why you always hear coaches, basketball, football, whatever it is. Can you win the third quarter, especially the beginning of the third quarter, the first five minutes of third quarter are everything. So for, for so many of the teams who've won championships, all you got to do is a stat, go assess how well in football,

How do they do in the third quarter? In basketball, do they win the third quarter? It is crazy how accurate winning teams are. Championship teams seem to all win the third.

Dale (15:54.944)
Okay, so now let's make this real in the business. And you talk about leading strategic planning and what does that look like. So as you are working with a client, what steps are you taking with them to basically map out those first 10 to 15 plays of the game?

eric boles (16:15.822)
The first 10 to 15 plays is action steps. So you know just for simplicity what are the action steps we're gonna take to and if it's our goals for the next year our action steps it's not only for the next week but what's our what needs to take place in the first in the next 90 days?

that collapses as much time to that ultimate goal we can go after. Once we lock on to that, we then just keep working backwards. We don't wanna work backwards from the end of the year to now. That's sometimes too big. And I tell leaders, our world's changing too fast. But what's our 90 day goal? Where do we wanna be 90 days from now? In alignment with what we've defined for the year as winning. Okay, we got that. Now let's start working backwards. What actions, what needs to take place for that to happen?

we begin to pull that out. Okay, now that we know these are the actions, we now need to turn around and then determine, right? Okay, who's owning each one of these actions? Doesn't mean they gotta be the one to do it. They are the one responsible for it. Because we wanna make sure what's important now means we're doing our job, what we need to, and that comes along with accountability. So a conversation about intentions and planning, that's the problem with planning many times. We plan, so we have a willingness to plan, we just don't always have a willingness to act.

Okay, so we want to make sure the plan and the action go inside. So not only do we determine what we need to do, who's responsible for doing or at least having it done. May not be the person to do it, but at least having done. The next question is, when will it be done and when will we report on the action that was done? So this is why I tell people when they'll be able to get to what's important now, you may need to completely repurpose the meetings you already have. The days of people just...

giving assessments of what they're working on and where no you shouldn't be working on anything that isn't connected to our big bets You shouldn't be working on anything that now if you're responsible for keep for the maintenance of the work that needs to be happening That supports all the other stuff. Okay, great, but it needs to be in alignment with we're ultimately trying to go This is so important because this concept of winning the first 15% Of win what's important now?

eric boles (18:35.422)
What it begins to do the most, Dale, is it begins to highlight, shine a light on all the noise and distraction and waste that we actually do that's self-created. Many times we believe, anybody says, well, how do I get to that when I don't have time? Whoa, we better sit back and determine then why don't you have time? Because this is what we've already described as winning. Why are we doing losing plays if they're not connected to winning?

And it needs to be looked at. I mean, this is where I like to call it the truth. It's the truth test, right? Like it's absolute truth. Does that connect to us winning? And if it doesn't, let's not figure out should we keep doing it, just figure out what should we be doing that's leading us to winning? Everything that isn't connected to that cannot be, one percent, time's a resource. No time is a priority.

Oh, money's a resource. No, money's a priority, right? And we just want to make sure those priorities are in alignment with what we've determined what is when is. And if we get that first part right, so now when I go into this week, and I know how my actions this week are so critical to the 90-day goal we're going after, it's the momentum. Then when we get together as a team or we have our weekly meeting, man, we're talking about what we've done.

how we're gonna make adjustments to then create the same kind of win for the next week. And if we can, not if, when we keep doing that, the momentum alone is so energizing. You don't wanna spend time doing stuff that doesn't matter. Like winning is fun, like accomplishing and making progress is fun. Man, losing sucks. And sometimes losing, it's not even losing a game, it's just not even being aware you're in a game. Like, it's like, I don't play games that I can't win.

or at least have the pursuit of winning. Ugh, right? And so sometimes work becomes like that. Work, people don't know what a win is, they don't know what a loss is, because they're just doing the same thing. And so this is why this matters so much.

Dale (20:47.088)
It is the flywheel effect. You've got you just described the flywheel and that those first steps gets the flywheel turning and then coming back and reassessing adjusting keeps the flywheel and increases the speed of the flywheel and the momentum of the organization.

eric boles (20:49.718)
Yes.

eric boles (21:09.162)
And the beauty of this is, not only is it great when it's a leader seeing this in a combination, but we know it to be true in all areas of our lives. We all feel most accomplished when we feel progression in our life. In every area of our life where you feel like you're progressing or moving, energy's there. And so this isn't just...

awesome research. No, this is human behavior. We're just talking about basic human behavior. So really what we're fighting against is not the ability to succeed in these areas. That's not gonna stop us. It's the distraction and the noise that it gets usually self-created. One of my mentors would say often, he says, Eric, the only reason your goals aren't...the reason why you won't accomplish your goal will be because of broken focus, not because of lack of confidence.

And it was an aha moment. And he didn't even make it. He said, the reason you won't accomplish your goals will be because of broken focus, not lack of competency. And he said it so directly. And I wanted to argue, I was like, what do you mean lack of competency? But no, there's certain things. He goes, no, there's many organizations, people, individuals, leaders who lack your skill, who lack your knowledge, who lack all that stuff, accomplishing the very thing you're going after right now and even more so.

Dale (22:08.209)
Say that one more time.

eric boles (22:34.894)
They're just better at not getting distracted. They're just better at being focused on the things that lead to winning. That's the difference. And I was like, game changer. Ha ha ha.

Dale (22:46.688)
Hehehehe

eric boles (22:50.083)
Hehehe

Dale (22:54.249)
Okay. I don't think there's much more to add after that. That was your mic drop right there. Boom. Anything else you wanna add? Okay.

eric boles (22:57.194)
I'm waiting my man. Boom.

eric boles (23:03.982)
No, no, this has been great, but again, I said, you asked me, is there anything I want to add? And I said no, and now I'm adding something. No, but just the acronym. It's a good memory, to memory. In order to win, what's important now? And that's what that acronym is. We use it, sports business and everything. It just allows me to create focus on what's in front of me. But what's in front of me still needs to be based on where we want to end up.

That's why the planning matters. I don't wanna just do what's in front of me without it being connected to an ultimate result I want. That's why the strategic planning, the purposeful thinking, that's why Covey said, begin with the end in mind. But once I began with the end in mind, it doesn't mean I stay there. I now gotta do what's important now that's in front of me that leads to that.

Dale (23:52.628)
Okay, we would ask that you the listener, give us a five star rating. That would be a huge help on the podcast. Just take a moment in your favorite podcast app. While you're there. If you haven't done so please subscribe to the podcast so that you're alerted each and every time we drop a new episode. And then finally, feel free to connect with Eric or myself, you can find Eric at the game changers inc.com the game changers Inc all one word.com

his website. He's also active on LinkedIn, you can find him there. I'm at Dale Dixon media.com. We'd love to hear from you. If you've got an idea for a podcast episode, send it our way something we can tackle that would help your business be better and help you unleash your best in life and work. We were all about that. We'd love to hear from you. So with that, have a fantastic day. Thanks for the homework assignment. Eric, you have a fantastic week.

eric boles (24:43.97)
You too, my friend. Appreciate you.