Higher Up Podcast
A podcast that aims to empower individuals in various aspects of their lives, including business, church, school, and personal growth. The goal is to inspire listeners to make a positive impact on those around them, helping them reach their full potential and strive towards greatness. The show features practical tips, real-life stories, and insightful conversations with experts in their fields, all geared toward lifting others up and creating a world where everyone can thrive.
The hosts, Benji and Brady Wilson, are accomplished entrepreneurs in the business world. Their mission is to empower listeners in every aspect of their lives, from business to personal growth. They seek to inspire others to make a positive impact on the world by sharing their own life experiences and having conversations with other successful guests. Together, they explore living a Higher Up life!
Higher Up Podcast
Ep.030: Halftime Adjustments - Part Two
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In this final part of our halftime adjustment series, we dig into the surprising power of staying the course when everyone else is pivoting.
We talk about why “shiny object syndrome” kills momentum, how small fundamental changes can create massive results, and why doubling down on your current plan might be the boldest move you can make. You’ll also hear how a simple calendar shift completely changed one leader’s effectiveness and how the story of Haggai gives us perspective when vision and reality don’t line up.
Whether you’re adjusting your strategy or recommitting to it, success comes down to execution. What one fundamental needs your focus right now to finish this year strong?
well, bitch brady, welcome in to episode 30. Hit the big three.
Speaker 2Oh, we finally made 30, 30 30.
Speaker 3I remember when I turned 30. That was several years ago.
Speaker 1Mine was 10 years ago, 11 years ago. I always forget if I'm 41 or 42. I don't know. But no, we had a great part one. So we jumped into the mid-year halftime adjustments. What are you guys doing? We talked about that. July 5th is the middle of the year and is a great time to kind of look at how are things going for you, how are things going for your team. You know, we talked a lot on the last episode and I'll let you guys kind of dive in. But we talked a lot about just how people feel when halftime comes. Should I make adjustments, should I not? And why it is important to do those things and not just you as owners do it, but why you should do it with your team. So I'm excited we're going to jump into part two. We got into it last episode and said, hey, you know what, we got another two-parter.
Speaker 3So we're going to split it up. Seems to be a common theme of those two-part episodes.
Recap of Halftime Adjustments Part 1
Speaker 1It is. It's these lengthier topics, but I feel like they're good. We but I feel like they're good. We got a lot of good feedback on it. We saw good stuff on, you know, LinkedIn, instagram, facebook. We appreciate you guys just sharing that stuff, commenting any of it. I mean it helps a lot. So well, hey, let's jump in real quick to the recap and then we'll get into wrapping up part two of this topic. So, brady, kind of talk us through just a little bit short recap, just in case somebody missed the last episode, and then we'll get ready to jump into more about it.
Speaker 3Yeah. So I mean you know we're talking about halftime, halfway through the year, adam, you set that up perfectly. As far as in business or just an organization, it could be even personal, like in your family or whatnot. But when we think about halftime from a sports analogy, it's this picture of you're in the locker room and you're evaluating how the first half went. Is it going well or is it not going well? And really the question behind the question is to adjust or not to adjust. That is the question. So what we did at the first episode was kind of laid out okay, it's time to make some adjustments, like we, what we're doing is not working. Um, and we need to make some of those adjustments.
When No Adjustments Are Needed
Speaker 3You know when I I think one of the core pillars or the core thoughts that we had from last episode was as a leader and especially as we start to grow and our team start to be getting or start to get larger is from a leadership perspective. You know, I think and I know I struggle with this is, you know we want to be right, but one of the core themes that we talked about was leaders don't get paid to be right, they get paid to get it right, and so that's when we start bringing other teammates around us, other leaders surrounding ourselves, with good people and inside of collaboration. I think we talked about this in Proverbs. It says in the multitude of counselors there's wisdom. So who are we? Even though we might have a good idea, are we vetting out that idea with discernment and what changes do need to be made so we could go out in the second half and really perform? So that's really what we talked about last time was and we encourage you guys, go back to a lot more detail than that, but go back and look and listen to or watch last week's episode and we unpack a lot of that stuff of when and how to make changes, and so this week, what we're really going to, we're actually going to do the complete opposite. And last week we talked. Last episode we talked about how to make changes. This week we're going to talk about not making changes. Okay, so I think we're just going to dive in. So basically, this is you know, when we ask the question to adjust or not to adjust. So this week is about no adjustments needed and I'm just going to tell you I mean, you know, for a lot of us leaders and I'm speaking for myself.
Speaker 3This is a hard thing to do Because we might have a good play, we might have something that we know is going to work, but if we don't start seeing results early enough, then we take the whole playbook and just throw it out. It's halftime and like, hey, you know what? It didn't work. So we're just going to completely change our whole strategy for the next half and sometimes if we're not careful, that can be very detrimental. You know, I know, as leaders sometimes we can have shiny object syndrome.
Speaker 3Well, what's the next best thing? Or oh, let's do this, or oh, let's do that, and really what we do is we put our teams into this decision fatigue. That just really wears them out. So this is really more about staying the course. Like we set the course, we know what we do is going to work. It may take a lot longer than three months, it may take longer than six months, it may take longer than nine months, but we have to stay the course. So just jumping into that, what do you, what do you guys got for that? What do you think about that?
Speaker 2I would say sometimes that people you know and we've been guilty of this, excuse me, is they. They get the plan together, they go out, they execute the plan. The results aren't coming. Think about going to the gym. Right, you go to the gym, you put in all that hard work and you're not seeing the results you want and then, boom, here comes the results. The next week, sometimes halftime, does the same thing.
Speaker 2You think you've got to change the book because either you're executing or you may not be executing. It doesn't mean you necessarily need to change the book, just tweak what you have and continue to continue to run the play that you, that you have designed, and execute that play. The results are going to come. You just got to stay consistent. If you don't stay consistent with the process I mean, obviously, consistency is everything right If you stop the consistency, you're not going to be as successful as you could have been Doesn't mean you won't be successful, just means you won't be successful as you could have been. So I think that you know you're right. The next shiny thing is just because we want to change it, change it, don't change it. You don't have to change it. It's okay. Just run the play Everything. Don't have to change it, it's okay, just run the play. Everything else will be everything else will take care of itself.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, I heard, I heard one time, uh, mark Pettis. He's the lead pastor of church of the Highlands. Uh, he was doing a podcast and he was talking so much about. You know, obviously, readers, uh, are leaders or leaders and readers, whichever way it goes. I mean you, you want to read, it helps you lead, it helps you get better. But, as a consumer culture he mentioned, you know, we read so many leadership books and self-help books that sometimes we can get in a position where all we want to do is change things.
Speaker 1I think, brady, you and I have talked about this in one-on-ones before is that we consume these leadership books that says, hey, you should do it this way, or hey, this is what worked for me. And sometimes we read those and it's like you're constantly changing your process right, like over and over again. Like you said, new shiny doesn't always just have to be materialistic, it can be processes. And we read a book and we're like, oh, you know, we should be doing that. Why aren't we doing that when really, like you said, do we need to make an adjustment? Because, honestly, maybe that worked for that individual or that company or that industry, but does it necessarily fit for us? One of the things we've talked a lot about at the church lately is what is our church culture right? Like, who are we? Just because we see something that another church does on social media, like, oh, that would be. I think people would find it hilarious or I love that topic or I love that series they're doing. It might be a complete miss with us in our church.
Speaker 1So I think sometimes you have to also be careful about what you're reading, what you're consuming. Maybe it doesn't fit you or your team, maybe not just your industry, but one Serpro does, pro does something. You know that you say, hey, this doesn't work for us. I'm glad it works for them, but, team Wilson, this is how we move.
Speaker 2So I will add to that too. If you said a good point about an idea that you see or hear from someone else, maybe the timing is wrong to just take that idea, write that idea down, because that idea could be your next year strategic plan, one of the objectives for your plan you know to execute. So don't think that it's not a good thing, Just does it mean right now.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I think part of this reality is if we, if we really step back and look about not making these adjustments, you know, um, or staying the course, staying focused on what we're doing. It's not because a lot of times not every time, but a lot of times it's not because the process is broken, it's because it's hard, and sometimes we just don't want to do the hard things. I mean we are, we are driven as a society that, especially in America, you know it's just things are not hard and um, you know, and sometimes you just got to walk through hard things, and so it's not because it's broken, it's because it's hard, you know. So I think it's staying focused on and really broken is because it's hard, you know. So I think it's staying focused on and really, and I think also and we, I don't know, we talked about this last episode but sometimes you got to get away, you know, from day to day or go off, and you know, a lot of times like and we've talked about C12 a lot and one of the things that we struggle with because I'm in a, I'm in a um, a room of 12 leaders every single month and the one thing that we really struggle with as a team or as men, is really getting away and retreating and it's getting off by ourself and really reflecting on, not just spiritually, which is good, but really thinking about getting away from day-to-day stuff and really thinking about, okay, getting away from day-to-day stuff and really thinking about, okay, from a halftime adjustment perspective, what is it that I need to do, and not really be distracted with all the noise of the things that are around me. So this is more about staying the course, and so what are the things that we did set that we need to keep doing?
Getting Back to Fundamentals
Speaker 3Bill Gates has a great quote that I found. He said most people overestimate what they can do in a week, but they underestimate what they can do in a year. So what kind of impact can you do? I think it was James Clear that talks about the 1% get better, 1% every single day. Well, after a while, you're going to see that you made a lot of change and a lot of improvement, but it doesn't really look like there was a lot of improvement because it was just 1% every single day. So kind of yeah, just looking at no adjustment needed From a sports analogy perspective, championship teams don't throw out their offense in the third quarter.
Speaker 3You know, speaking from like a basketball perspective we talked about this last time because, you know, Benji and I grew up playing basketball but sometimes you just got to go back to the fundamentals, yeah, and taking those fundamentals, those things that you learned, and making them sharper, making them crisper, making sure that, okay, we've got to execute those with excellence. And if we can execute those with excellence, then it's probably going to come out in our favor.
Speaker 2Yeah, I would add to that too that you know you think about back in the 90s with Michael Jordan. You know you think about today's world with LeBron James.
Speaker 2I mean who are they going to give the ball to? Who got the ball? When there's less time on the clock, games about to end or halftime's about to come? Who's going to get the ball to take the shot? You're going to get it to the person that can make the play. But there are teammates around you that have to do their part. They have to set the pit clean. They've got to make sure that they get in position and get their best scorer in position to make that play. So you're right, it doesn't just take the one individual, it takes the entire team to make it happen. But if one person during the process take your business, whatever that may be, one one thing in the process doesn't go according to plan. It affects the whole team, it affects the whole job, it affects the whole process. So keep that in mind, that you know we got to get crisper, we have to get sharper. We got it. We got to do things cleaner.
Speaker 1Well, let me, let me ask you guys, cause you talked about it in the last episode, Brady, talking about this one too, you used the term like get back to the fundamentals, and I understand this can be a broad question depending on your industry. But what for you and Benji, really, what would some things you would consider to be fundamental in business for someone to think about, Like is it things like communication? Is it things like communication? Is it things like processes? But just two or three things for somebody listening to kind of mull over what would be a fundamental in the business world for them that they need to look at Like hey, maybe I should get back to that.
Speaker 3Yeah, I think that's a great question. Maybe we could just do a whole episode just off of fundamentals.
Speaker 1You were just talking about fundamentals and I'm wondering what is that? It's shooting, it's passing, you're talking about basketball analogies, those type of things, but what are those things that we say, hey, these are the three or four key topics that you need to look at, and that's why I'm talking about communication.
Speaker 2Go ahead. I was going to say real quick, I got one. I mean, our dad taught us for a long time If you keep a check on two things in your company, everything else should take care of itself your culture and your checkbook. As an owner or leader in your company, think about this. You can talk about culture all day long, but if you don't pass the culture down and continue to talk about the culture and your core values and how you're going to help them be successful with the things that make your company win, you know you can. It's not a one and done. You can't just talk about it one time and then not ever bring it up again and say my culture's, you know good, you have to continually talk about it. That's fundamental. That's process. You have to keep doing it. Fundamentals on the checkbook you got to keep a check on your profit and loss statement. You know your balance sheet. You got to pay debt down. You got to make sure that income is revenues up, expenses are down. That's what makes the company profitable. That's fundamentals.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, I would say I would say two things broad stroke, you know, because every industry is a little bit different, but broad. But broad stroke is, um, knowing what's right and doing it is two different things. So there are things that you know of in your business. Let's go from a biblical perspective, from a spiritual perspective. The Bible says if you know what's right and you don't do it, it's called sin right. So there are things that we know that are right in our personal life. So there are things that we know that are right in our personal life and there are things that we know that are right in our personal business. What have you? And when we don't do that, then we're compromising.
Speaker 3So I think fundamentally is a lot of times we know what the right thing is, we know what the right answer is, but we just don't do it because maybe we just don't want to that day or for whatever reason. So I think going back to the fundamentals is whatever industry that you're in, organization, you know what the right things are. The other thing I would say is big John Maxwell fan. But John Maxwell says that success is found in your daily agenda, and so it's kind of going back to what Bill Gates said, but it's every single day. There is not a person on the planet. Now I'm a big time management nerd. I love time management.
Speaker 1That's the understatement of the season.
Speaker 3I love organization, I love planning in my calendar and all those things. But even though I love it, it's a fundamental that if we go back to, there's a guy that I'm mentoring in our organization right now and this is one of the things that we're working on. I checked in with him yesterday and we just started last week, but I said, hey, how's your week going? And he said, man, so much better than last week. I said what's the, what's the difference? And he said my calendar. And I said, okay, tell me, tell me a little bit more about that. And he said it's, it's just.
Speaker 3It's really weird, because before I would leave an appointment and I'd get a phone call from somebody and they would say, hey, are you still coming? You know? So just the and and now, now, now he's now. He said it's so easy because it's just, it's on my calendar, it's, it's on the, the next list. I click on the, the entry. It gives me the address, I go to the address, I'm sending invites out to people and it's a game changer and I mean it was one little change, one little fundamental that maybe he knew or or didn't know, but um, so that's.
Speaker 2We're gonna do an episode on that too, because I think there's a lot of people that struggle with planning time management. That'd be a great one to do.
Speaker 3Adam, that might be a five-part episode. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1I mean, but it's so much I mean and it fits with what we're talking about, because there is so much truth to that. And you're right, I mean, a lot of the way that I schedule mine is also comes from what you taught me during that and doing those things. And what's cool the parts that you don't get to see is the things that you, like, taught me to do. We're doing some of those things at the church now because we weren't doing that, we weren't using schedules or things like Calendly or you know, and it was just. It was so much of that. And you don't realize how much of your time is lost with side conversations, with things like that, or somebody walking in and saying, hey, I need this done now, it it?
Speaker 2it, it's your flow. From a fundamental perspective. The human brain cannot remember what you're supposed to do unless you have it down.
The Spiritual Side of Business Planning
Speaker 1No, no, no, no, no, it can't so but, no that's great, those are great, so those are good things for people to chew on, like maybe that's what they're saying you know they're hearing us talk about. Go back to the fundamentals and I'm hoping somebody is like, okay, those are three or four things that I need to check. Am I checking my checks and balances? Am I looking, you know, at my schedule? Am I checking my culture? And these are things that I feel like you guys are doing Brady, you've recently shared some of that on LinkedIn. What you're doing with the team, sitting down with them, culture checking, having coffee with the CEO, giving them a space to say, hey, no, holds bar. Tell me what works, tell me what doesn't work. I want you to be honest, and so those are some things that those are all fundamental things that I think will help anybody listening with their mid-year checkup, their halftime adjustment.
Speaker 3So, as we kind of wrap up this halftime adjustment, I really did not want to skip out on the spiritual aspect of it, because all of us are leaders, leading a business, leading an organization, leading families, and we're speaking to ourselves too, but we are managing this or we are stewarding this for God, and so I want to make sure we have that perspective. And so there was a scripture I'm going to share here in just a second, but I think I was actually reading the other day in my daily Bible reading and something just hit me like a ton of bricks, and it was. You know, a lot of times we think that God wants a partner in his plan. Okay, but really he doesn't want a partnership. What he really wants is surrendered people, and so when we come to the grips with that is okay, well, I think God wants me to partner with him. No, he wants us to surrender to what he's doing this and doing some research for this episode.
Speaker 3But there's a story in Haggai in the Old Testament, to where the Israelites came back from exile and what they were tasked to do was to rebuild the temple. And so they did, but they were discouraged because the temple that they were rebuilding was not as glorious as what Solomon had built. So they're like well, this is going to be not as good as what was before, and so think about that from a leadership perspective. Sometimes we think, hey, we've got these plans, we've got these programs, we've got these things and it's going to look like this, these things, and it's going to look like this. But then when we actually get to further on in the process, we look back and go it really doesn't look like anything that we thought it was going to look like. And so that comes back to that surrender. But this is what it says in Haggai 2.9. It says the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. And so the promise was even though from the outside, looking in, it doesn't look as glorious, it doesn't have the splendor on the outside, it was a word of encouragement that God was speaking through this prophet. That says the future glory will surpass the past.
Speaker 3And so, as we're thinking of through halftime adjustments, I think we need to go back to like what are we? Are we taking our plans and are we surrendering those to the Lord first, not our plans, but are we surrendering those to him so that we can steward those plans the right way so that we can make sure that we are following what he has for us. And I think, at the end of the day, it comes down to faith. How much faith do we have? Are we trying to be in control? I'm a control freak. I love to be in control of a situation. I love it, but sometimes I need to release control and give it to God. And Jesus actually gives us a picture of this when he came down from the mountain Transfiguration and you guys can go read it.
Speaker 3But the whole parable of the mustard seed. It wasn't about how much faith that we have, but it's who we have our faith in. And so we take those plans and we say, okay, well, that doesn't look exactly like what I was thinking. God. We take those plans and we say, okay, well, that doesn't look exactly like what I was thinking. God. A lot of times we say, hey, here's my plan, would you bless it? Instead of hey, god, what kind of plans do you have? And then, putting our faith in him as surrendering, to say, okay, we're giving it to you, we trust you and we trust what you're going to do with it If I could say this too.
Speaker 2You know that talking about halftime adjustments, the fundamentals, you know it goes back to. You mentioned mustard seed. It triggered a thought. When you plant a plant in the ground, it takes time for that plant to grow. You can't expect that you're going to go out and get results for whatever you're trying to accomplish, you know, in day one, day 10, day 30. It could happen, but you got to stay consistent with the process because if you don't continue to water the plant, you don't get in, continue to get sunlight, it's not going to grow. So you have to continue. Fundamental, fundamentally, you have to continue to be consistent and that's what helps. That's what helps your halftime adjustment. Like Brady said, it doesn't mean you have to make an adjustment. Uh, this episode is about making no adjustments. So just just be, just be cognizant of that. That sometimes doesn't mean that you have to make an adjustment. Maybe we need to bear down more on the fundamentals and what we're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I think it's, I think there's a lot of truth in it and it's something you've always said, benji, that I that I actually put down as like that on our recent evals like what do you need to work on this year and even though I've heard you say it for years, I still need to be mindful of it is just control.
Speaker 1What you can control, yeah, control, and that's what I when you're talking about that, brady, talking about that scripture and how guys control, you can control and do what we call the queen B roll, Like what is your, what is your role? Play your role in that lane, play your role. And that's something I know for me that I'm having. That's my mid-year adjustment, that's something I'm having to. I get so passionate about wanting to be involved in everything and help with that, because I'm passionate about what I work with, whether that's the work I do with you guys, whether that's the work I do at the church. I'm passionate about all aspects, but I need to realize that that's not where my energy is best spent, and so that's an adjustment that I know I need to make is I got to figure out where my energy needs to go and control the things I can control.
Final Thoughts and Challenge
Speaker 3I got to figure out where my energy needs to go and control the things I can control. So I think, as we think about it, we wrap this episode up. Think about okay, we're in the locker room, we've had this 10, 15 minutes with our team, which for these two episodes has been about an hour and a half, but a long time, halftime, locker room huddle. But what are we doing when we go back out? Whether we're making an adjustment, okay, which we talked about last episode, or we're doubling down on the things that we've already decided we're going to do, there's one thing that is a common thread in all this is turn up the intensity, okay, on whichever one. If you're going to make an adjustment, man, go hard at it. If you're not going to make an adjustment, go hard at it. So play fast.
Speaker 3Sometimes we may get into the game we got to call an audible. You know, sometimes it may be, oh, this may be tough, but bench the distraction. So if there's something that's not working or somebody is not working, we may have to make an adjustment there. But the end of the day is run the play, run the play. Whatever the play is, trust in the play, questions. But if there's one adjustment that you've been avoiding, what is that adjustment and what do you need to make? And then, what is bold obedience look like in your business? Bold obedience what do you need to take courage in today in your business, your faith, your leadership, whatever they may be, to go out in the second half to make it count.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's good. And look, as you're listening to this, maybe you're watching this on YouTube. Remember? Brady's got a clear challenge to us all Don't walk back out on that field without changing something, because there are times that you can tweak that play. Maybe you've run that play a hundred times, but one small tweak in the process executes the play, so think about that. Also, if you'd like some help with your halftime adjustment and you want us to help take a look at that with you, feel free to click the button in the episode link to send us a text or comment on the YouTube video. We'd be happy to reach out to you and help with that. Appreciate you guys listening so much. Don't forget you can connect on all social platforms with us. We're out on every one of them. So at higher up podcast and as always, go out there and choose to live a higher up life. See you next time.
