Okay. So, you've heard the pitch before, and it's the same as always.
Let's have a couple of questions and then I'm going to share with you some from your point of view,
how to make this work in your business.
I got a question, I guess.
Yeah, man, it's so helpful to hear it again.
Every time I hear it, I learn some more.
And the piece that you were talking about, the example you gave as of developing dashboards is,
I mean, you know, we've just talked about it, but it's still where I'm at.
And that was very helpful.
I would love for you to include that as an elective, if you would.
Yeah, the dashboards.
Yeah, that's a huge deal.
So, in regard to these projects and pitch days, I mean, are people working on more than one project at a time?
They can, when they get good.
But when they start off, don't let them.
And don't let projects go longer than six weeks.
In fact, six weeks isn't a...
If a thin slice takes more than six weeks, it's not much of a thin slice.
So, when they're first starting, we try to encourage them to do something they can do in one deep work session.
They have to have an immediate success that like, hey, I went through the process.
I pitched it.
I deliver it the next Wednesday.
Ta-da, I won.
Do that two or three times and then they'll get bolder and the slices can become more substantive.
By the way, I'm going to actually have Jenny do a presentation on exactly how it looks at Brilliant in a second.
So, we're going to really dive down here into the detail.
Awesome.
Yeah, so let me give you, if I may, a couple of quick thoughts around this whole idea.
So, this is much more for you as the executive, as you're putting this together.
So, this is sort of a kingdom executive hack, if you like.
What's the thing that makes it work, right?
So, first thing, you've got to build a culture that everyone innovates, right?
So, you want to create a culture of innovation and teaching your people how to innovate.
And this is not as hard as it sounds, right?
You don't have to be super good.
You just have to start.
So, don't put yourself on this high standard in your head.
Just get everybody thinking and starting something.
And these simple pitches are so simple to do.
I'm going to show you exactly how it looks.
So, how I learned this as an engineer is that, you know, engineers, especially software engineers,
man, we go through so many projects.
And the bigger the project, the more likely it is to fail,
because we always try to do way too much.
We try to guess at the requirements, and then we start doing a whole lot of
just-in-case stuff instead of just-in-time stuff.
So, what do we actually, just-in-time, what do we need today?
Focus on what's today.
Don't focus on what we might possibly need in a six-month's time or a year's time.
That's a bad idea.
At 109 successful projects and thin slices at Brilliant since 2001,
and no one has cancelled, and not one, everyone's on time.
Now, we say that not because we're boasting,
because I'm trying to make it feel like an invitation to you.
You too can do this.
Seriously, you can do this.
It doesn't matter about the education level.
It doesn't matter how well-trained.
They can have zero project management experience.
Our team had zero project management experience.
Seriously, we didn't have any, you know.
It just, they're just ordinary people, and I can't stress this enough.
You know, when you give ordinary people a basic framework,
that's what starts to make them extraordinary.
So, this is not magic once you know the hack.
So, let me share that.
You can teach your team with these three simple steps.
So, let's go through that.
So, the power hack for creating a team of innovators firstly starts with a different mindset.
I started off in that presentation explaining it, right?
So, thanks to Glenn for this picture.
So, this picture, which what we're not doing is we're going to build a car.
Yay!
Now, we're halfway through building the car.
Now, we're three-quarter way through building the car.
And then we go, ta-da, we can build a car.
And they say, yeah, but can you lay, can you, can it cart, you know, can it cart manure?
No, it's a car.
But we asked for a van, you know, because it needs to, does it close?
What does it do?
Where do you, you know, where do you put the horse?
You know, horse?
No one said anything about a horse.
So, it's, that's the problem.
And almost every example we can come up with is this boil the ocean.
Try to sit down and figure out all the requirements and get everybody's input
and just create a monstrosity of a mess.
You are so, you have such a high probability of failure doing that.
So, drop that.
Go to this.
But he said, Hey, you know, we've got two buildings and we're trying to move from
this building to another building.
We don't jump to, Oh, you need a car.
Let's build a car.
We say, well, let's give them a skateboard.
Well, it works, but they're unhappy.
You have to learn to balance on a scale.
I can't balance on the thing.
Okay.
Well, what if we put a handle on the skateboard?
That's step number two in the little picture there.
And then the next one is, well, I'm exhausted.
Well, what if we give you a bicycle?
And then what if we put an engine on the bicycle?
And then we eventually, we give you a car.
Now it's a simple example.
But what's being illustrated is thin slicing because each slice, you learned
what was missing, you learned that you were, and you noticed the little
character didn't start off happy.
Your first thin slice is going to be a happy team.
Yay.
We've got transportation.
No, you have a skateboard.
What do I look like?
A teenager, you know?
So you're going to have unhappy people.
And I think that's the problem.
You're not trying to get happiness.
You're trying to start the learning process.
And if everybody knows that, expectations are more realistic.
Okay.
Let's get into it.
So here's a cool little video of what thin slicing is supposed to mean, which
it's not running, so go video, go.
So I'm not sure this I'll send a little video, but basically what this is, there's
a guy who's incredibly talented and he takes these super thin slices.
The slices of the bread is so thin.
It can, you can see through it.
Right.
And then he makes this whole sandwich where these ultra ultra thin, I
must have incredibly sharp knives.
And that's the point you, when you have to take the, you know, at brilliant,
the joke is it's got to be so thin.
It looks see-through, you know, it's like, that's how thin it's got to be.
And so this idea, this is the power hack teaching people.
What's the smallest, smallest thing you can do to learn.
Not what's the smallest thing you can deliver.
What's the smallest thing you can do to learn on how to deliver.
That's a different idea, right?
Oh, there it goes.
That is pretty thin.
There you go.
This is innovation.
Thanks Glenn for the video, by the way.
I think this is a great visual.
Don't you think really brings the point home.
Should show this to your team.
This little video, we should make it available or make it available for you guys.
You can show this to him.
Cuts this so thin.
You're just waiting for it to collapse, but it doesn't.
He's very talented.
Alright, three steps.
I promised you step one.
Teach your team to do these thin slices and keep asking them.
Is there a thinner slice?
Is there a thinner slice when they start off?
They need to feel the wind.
So when they do their first bite and then they feel the wind
for a second time for example, they feel completely unsetted.
Very conscious of their individuality and totally physical ability.
It's loss of self-implanation.
So when they start off, they need to feel the wind.
So when they do their first pitch, make sure it's something that they can fit
into one deep work session, even if it only takes them two hours.
Let them come back and proudly present to the team.
I took the super thin slice.
I figured out how to get the data from QuickBooks into the spreadsheet.
See the data in the spreadsheet?
Yeah, it's updating.
Well, I don't know how to update it every hour, but I got it to work once.
That's all.
You got it there, right?
Next thing is set one hour a week for them
to be able to present and to be able to pitch.
Pitch is when you start.
Present is when you've done.
So same hour.
So now look how it works.
When we say it's not an hour late, what we mean is at one p.m.
Pacific time on Wednesdays, you come and make your pitch
and you say, I'm doing one deep work session a week
and this needs three deep work sessions.
I'll see you in three weeks.
Well, we know today's date, right?
So today's.
So we just literally add three weeks, three Wednesdays from now,
and we always present on Wednesdays.
And you say, well, what if it needs more time?
Just make sure it's counting in deep work sessions, not in weeks
and days and hours.
Remember, we start with appetite.
So this is so now in three weeks time, you're coming to present.
And when we say it's not an hour late is because it's still one p.m.
on Wednesdays, some are pitching, some are presenting.
And then once you're presenting, all they're presenting is they're deliverable.
They're not going through the whole project again.
But sometimes you've got a lot of projects going on.
They might just quickly remind us.
Remember, three weeks ago, I said I was solving this problem.
This is that it takes literally three, four minutes to say,
here is the yes, the deliverable.
Here's what I learned.
I found out you can't get data from there to there with.
out doing these other steps. So, my next thin slice is,
and that's what you want to hear. You want to let them stack the next slice.
Okay, because of that, I have another thin slice. So, here's my next pitch.
So, they don't have to wait another week to do a pitch. Let them do a presentation
pitch. So, anyway, if they've already learned and already shaped up the next
one, go. I'm going to let Jenny talk to the
practicalities of this. And then count the deep work sessions as
a way to allocate time, because the number one excuse is
that I don't have time for this. Oh, you absolutely do, because you have a deep
work session. It doesn't interfere with your other
work, right? Why? Because deep work is new work.
It's innovation. So, if you're using deep work to do
existing work, that's called focus work. You don't have a deep work session. You
just have a focus work session. And finally, your current work is which
is your team and the shallow work. Emails, meetings, and stuff. Shallow work.
Okay, so to get you to deep work. So, here's what it looks like
when you look at our Notion template. You would literally open up, hit new,
and you would, the first thing is helps you set boundaries. What's the appetite?
Set the date and time, right? So, we say this is going to be three deep work
sessions. I look at today's date and I set the
date. I'm telling you the date I'm going to
deliver this at the next session on Wednesday. So,
today is the second. So, on the 23rd of April
at 1 p.m pacific time, I'm delivering this product.
That does something to the brain, for sure.
Number two, what problem am I solving? The problem I'm solving is
getting data from QuickBooks to the Google Sheet. What's included?
Well, what's included is just, am I going to get all the data?
Am I getting what data? Am I getting one piece of data?
What's included? What's not included is, I'm not building a whole dashboard, guys.
I'm just wanting to get the one piece of data. Which data?
I want to get the P&L for the month. The month to date P&L
to the spreadsheet. Okay, we understand what you're doing.
Next question would be, we call high level, the fat market design. The high
level, what's the deliverable? Well, the deliverable is to show you a
spreadsheet with information, with the P&L in it.
And can you do a rough drawing? Sometimes it's not necessary, but the rough drawing
is I draw a square and I write QB in it
and I point an arrow and I draw another square and I write Google Sheets.
That's the design. If they put too much detail into this, then they're already
starting to design the solution. That's not the
idea. So now everybody clearly understands what I'm doing, right?
Now, the risks and rabbits, by the rabbits we mean rabbit holes.
Where could I get stuck? Well, I could get stuck because I don't know,
you know, because, you know, I don't know how QuickBooks Online works or I could,
I could get distracted by whatever, right? I could get distracted by,
oh, I found this tool, it's called Coupler and Coupler will import,
you know, from 30 different sources or maybe I should also import this and that
and I couldn't get, yeah, one thing, stick to the plan. Two,
what would I expand? If it went well, what would I add? Well, if it went well,
then I would like to not only import it, but I'd like to automate it so it imports
every hour or at least frequently, once a day or
something. And then what would I cut out? Well, I could cut out just finding out
where the data is and which tool could get me there.
Even though I don't physically let it land in the sheet, I can find out,
is there a Google plugin sheet that would show me how to do it?
I won't actually do it, but I could cut it out. Now, notice what I'm doing here.
I'm setting expectations. So if I come back and said, well,
I did deliver the minimum, I delivered number three over there because
I got stuck and because I got stuck, all I came up with is, yep,
the plugin is called Coupler, lets you access, I haven't figured it out,
but guess what my next thin slice is? All right, you see, then they make the
pitch, tell them the problem, solution, what it is, what it's not, all the
rabbit holes have been identified, and what you're going to do with your
project. And so their presentation, they fill that in,
shouldn't take more than 20 minutes. Their pitch is simply to go
through that list I just went through. Just go through this, start, pull that
sheet up, hit screen share, show that to your team, show the next page,
next page, you're done. That's it. That's all you have to do, right?
So teach your team to thin slice, set a time that all projects land on.
And you think, well, we, you know, it's not practical. Honestly,
this is the most practical, simple way. Remember, simplicity drives speed.
Tuesdays and Fridays or anything like that just set it up right look half your team or most your
team probably aren't even doing deep work sessions but now they have a reason to do deep work sessions
right maybe they try to because they're the type of people who try to step into that but now they
understand what they fall it'll make all the difference and then how many deep world uh
supposed to be deep work not world deep work sessions will you men just translate that into
weeks okay let me hand you over to jenny jenny but let me take some questions first and as jenny
preps up what do you guys think have we made that simple enough
yeah all right now in emily's case where you were in a big organization emily you can do this with
a small sub team i think just within your report so don't have to have the whole organization do it
oh yeah for sure um i also was going to say you know from the two projects last year i've actually
i'm going to start uh a new book and i've already like how you describe the innovation of breaking
it down all the way to the thin slice it's not uh innovation work but i i was so successful last
year with all the deep work and the thin slicing on the projects right so so because you've been
doing it for a while so yes yes so last year i had quite a bit of projects right now um we've just
we're really building out that mexico market right now so they're focused on that um but
i am just doing exactly what the lord has said to do and resting in it and letting him just do
everything and i'm i'm just with him on it so um i know that there'll be some changes you know but
corporate is so slow like i just it's they're so slow and they just like acquired a whole new like
a hundred thousand shipment company so and i go down there to headquarters and run into the ceo
all the time i actually ran into the wall last time i was there that was his fault though that
was not mine like but um anyways yeah so yeah i love that i'm not right now yeah well glenn you
can comment on corporate cycles and i mean your team is pretty sizable yeah um oh goodness there's
so much uh on big companies and the challenges with big companies um i remember uh we're doing
consulting for one insurance company and um in this particular case i really got an aha and i
realized one of the big problems was the funding models of how companies budget and do the annual
budgets was a large contributor to the problems that existed you you mentioned dion um that
statistic of 70 70 or whatever when you do this big designer plant there's um and if anybody's
interested the actual there's a source there's a company called the standish group a consulting
organization that publishes a report annually called the chaos report and what they do is they
study uh particularly big transformation projects i think mainly like erp implementations big
software type projects and so on and what they do is they they look at the patterns of success
what they discovered was this they said that of those projects that were successful
and by that there's only a small percentage of projects that are deemed successful meaning
on time on budget by whatever measure they had determined
fully 66 of the functionality delivered was not used or was rarely used
and that's a shocking statistic and what they did is they traced that back to impart this issue of
this big design up front so what happens is somebody gets given a budget to go and do something
now they've got this chunk of money what they're going to do is they're going to run around and go
and ask people all the questions what are your requirements what are your requirements what are
your requirements and what they do is they just layer layer in um all of these requirements that
come from from people but people are pressured to give requirements and they're not actually
requirements and they're not actually clear on what the real ask is what the real requirement is
so they're just making stuff up so now what you've got is you've got this bloated set of
requirements and that's the thing that ends up getting delivered so this goes back to
the power of thin slicing breaks that that thing but most big companies don't do that they go back
to the budget model big budget big design up front this big boatload of requirements and
as a consequence things are always late and never delivered what they want and I think part of that
ties back to funding cycles and the way that companies are funded and so on it's quite shocking
but I think the other thing I wanted to highlight Dion is something you said which
inferred which is the actual thin slicing helps you to actually more
quickly get to understand what the real questions are but and the real issues
that have to be solved because when you start out it's invariably not the thing
the thing is not the thing and and it becomes only evident through these thin
slices what the thing is and so the fastest way to get to figure that out is
to do decent slices and figure out along the way and last comment I'll say is
that Paul Graham who was one of the founders of Y Combinator in Silicon
Valley he has written about this aspect as well about how oftentimes startups
when they start out the thing that they end up when they when they get a
breakthrough and actually get successful is not anywhere close to the thing that
they started out doing in the first place yeah and so I think this whole
thing there's so much power in this thin slicing that is is even for big
companies is it's incredible yeah I had mentioned that I had a lightning
platform startup that I mean very successful ready to just hit the ground
running to save money on transaction fees because we have so many transactions
like 16,000 shipments a week and we you Jake we use JP Morgan and I know they're
they're kind of getting into the blockchain thing but I'm like this is
not just cryptocurrency exchange like this is literally using the blockchain
platform to even do fiat currency and our whole currency exchange is in Mexico
and I'm like and then so I mentioned it to the VP and he's like well we're not
there yet like what does that mean like I'm I just am like okay Lord I am gonna
practice patience right now and just let you do what you need to do and I'm right
here with you so yeah you know sometimes that the innovation can be focused
around your process not around product in other words hey guys this is broken
you know that thing we talked about at the beginning of the call where we
started was saying hey this is broken this process is broken I don't know what
you're doing I need to know you figure out how to tell me and then why don't we
try it what's the least thinnest slice we can do well why don't you give me
this one number every morning whatever so what will happen is as Glenn said the
problem is not the problem and by the way it's never the people that are the
problem it's the process or the innovation or them in being empowered as
the problem almost always right so don't get mad at the people just fix the
process and you fix the process by thin slicing so if your people created a
process they own firstly they'll be proud of it they have a sense of
ownership but here's the most important thing it can swivel and turn and you
know if something happens in the market or you have a sudden change or your
sudden new requirement we suddenly have to tackle this you know then the team
that created the process will fix it and adapt it to the new situation because
they now know so when things are relatively calm as a great time to teach
them innovation so that when you really need them to step up you're not still
training them and trying to build processes you're just building new
processes does that make sense so for sure this is a I want to hand it to
Jenny well you are you touched on several of the points that I was going
to bring up one of them is that we use thin slicing in two ways here at
brilliant we use it for new projects innovation with new projects and
innovation with processes so internal processes as a matter of fact we just
had one of our employees update our processes on notion and she completely
changed the layout and notion so that everyone knows where to find information
at any given point in time and it's consistent across the board and when you
are introducing this to your team it's going to take two or three go-arounds
with each team member I know that Dion touched on all this and from the
practical application with the team I want to reiterate to you that this is
where you end up it's not where you start off where you start off is you
will have to do a bit of hand-holding and it will take a couple of times to
walk them through and so when someone comes on the team at brilliant I will
sit with them and we'll walk through the first couple of pitches together until
they get their footing and then they present to the team and because this is
part of our culture the team is super supportive when people come on and this
has really become a primary way that our team functions from a place of peace and
because we're not trying to boil the ocean and we can
take it, I've heard it said this way,
how do you eat an elephant?
And it's one bite at a time.
And so taking that one bite at a time approach
for the team means that they can,
no matter the size of the project,
they can take that on
and they can be successful at it as well.
And they feel very supported through the process
with the pitches and the presentations
because that's where the team weighs in,
gives input and feedback.
And also there's collaboration.
So there can be a whole thin slice
that's based on collaboration,
reaching out to other team members
to further the project along.
So I wanted to give that little bit of upfront,
practical bit of implementation
for when you present this to teams.
So the thin slice that I chose to show you all today
that our team has done, just to give a little context,
this pitch was done in September of last year
and our social media person,
we had a social media manager
who decided to go on
and pursue other great things in government.
She didn't ask us before she left,
but she went on and we sent her out very willingly
and want her to grow in that area.
And as a result, what happened is
we didn't have anyone dedicated to our social media.
And so our social media really went stagnant and stale.
And as you know, in today's time,
social media is a huge way to communicate your message
and to reach people.
So one of our team members, Jaylin,
saw that our social media needed some time and attention.
It needed some love.
This was not at all within her specific realm of duties,
but she saw that it needed attention
and very much felt that she could tackle it
with a thin slice.
And so this was the first thin slice that Jaylin did
for our social media shape up.
So I'm gonna share my screen here.
Okay.
And so here you can see that we have this shape up
and I'm gonna make this full screen so you can see it.
And so when she completes this,
she is going to assign it to herself.
She gave this shape up, this particular thin slice,
she gave that two weeks.
And so for her, the two weeks meant two deep work sessions.
She pitched it on September 4th
and then two weeks later is September 18th.
We have recently implemented, where's the impact?
So the impact is in our marketplace.
Is the impact high, medium or low?
It's a medium impact.
And what is the effort for her?
The effort was medium.
So here is where we set the boundaries
and we set the boundaries with the appetite.
This is where we start.
She felt like she had two deep work sessions
to give to this first thin slice over two weeks.
And the problem that she is solving
is that we had at the time a passive social presence
and that there was disconnection from key target demographics.
So we have a particular demographic
and we wanted to see if we could
maybe reach a younger demographic.
So what's included?
What was included in this particular thin slice?
The two deep work sessions over two weeks.
So she was gonna, she broke it down
into two different deep works.
I must say that Jalyn makes everything very beautiful.
So this is not necessarily what it looks like
on everyone's thin slice is you don't break it up
typically into deep work one and deep work two, but she did.
And she got the first deep work.
She would work on inventory assessment.
She would see what she had, what we had,
where the previous social media manager left off at
and what we had content wise
that we could use moving forward.
And then she would spend her second deep work
in batching content.
So she wanted to create a month's worth of content
with some reels.
And eventually she wanted to move it over
to where all of the content coordinated
across podcasts and social media,
as well as even on Brilliant Plus app.
So that was what was included
is an inventory assessment and batching content.
What it was not is she's not starting from scratch.
She's not creating brand new content.
She's not creating long form content.
And she is not, it is not unsustainable content production
meaning that it is weekly content.
She's not posting.
daily content.
So fat marker design, this is what is the deliverable.
The actual deliverable here is an inventory assessment
on a Notion page.
It's a simple system for tracking the social posts
and captions in a Notion table, and a Google Drive folder
with 15 unique posts that would be linked to a Notion table.
So there are going to be three deliverables here.
And here is her rough drawing.
Again, this is much more beautiful
than typically what a rough drawing looks like.
And so this is what she said that the deliverables
would look like.
So you see the Google Drive folder, the tracking system,
and then the inventory assessment.
So we move to risks and rabbit trails.
What could get us stuck?
So she felt that too much time spent
on deciding which content to use.
We have a lot of content, so which content could she use?
And how would she expand or add to the solution
if the project went well?
What would she add in?
She would update the social media bios
and link it to the new Brilliant Movement website.
She would also add in interview clips from the Kingdom
Advantage podcast.
Now, if she got in there and she realized
it was taking more time than what she'd allocated to it,
what could she cut out?
She could cut out everything except the Instagram content.
And that would be her only deliverable
is the Instagram content.
And so that was her pitch for upgrading the social media.
Any questions surrounding that?
No.
Either I did a really good job or you all are very puzzled.
I have a question.
Go ahead.
Go ahead, Amber.
Well, I'm just going to say I love it
because there's so much communication and detailed
communication.
So I love it.
That was amazing.
I could see.
I like all the details that she put in there.
That's something that I really like doing it.
Yeah.
I think the question is how much detail.
Jenny, do you expect them to add?
And if they put too much or too little, how do you manage that?
How do you teach them, basically, to do this?
That's a great question because if there's too much detail,
then the slice is not thin enough, right?
Then you venture out into a bigger project than what
you have allocated there.
And so focusing and bringing it back
in into what is the thinnest slice
and reiterating to the team, OK, what is the thinnest slice?
What could you do?
So for instance, say social media
and if she was even starting that.
If this was her very first slice and social media hadn't
started, we would first begin, is this even viable?
So you would take it back even a thinner slice.
Is this sustainable?
Is this going to be a long term?
And you would only spend one, like Dion said,
two hour focus work session to see,
is this going to even be a viable project to do?
So constantly bringing it back to the thinnest slice.
Just as an example, one of my very first thin slices,
and Dion will remember this with great probably agony,
was sales tax.
I have not done a thin slice before.
And if you can imagine, sales tax
is a tough one to do a very thin slice because it's
a very broad subject.
And it's very complex.
And each state, each city has different rules.
And so he kept asking me, what's the thinnest slice?
And I kept going to the end product.
Well, we have to find out what we have to pay,
where we have to pay sales tax.
We have to get the registrations.
I was listing off all of the things
that we would have to do.
But the very thinnest slice was, what determines nexus?
What determines our presence in a city or state
that we would have to pay sales tax in?
And it was like a light bulb went off in that moment.
And I thought, oh, OK.
I don't have to go to the end of it.
I have the permission and the freedom
to start at the very beginning and find out,
where do we even start?
What determines that we have to pay sales tax or, I'm sorry,
collect and remit sales tax in a specific state and city?
That's good.
Really helpful.
I got two questions for you, Jenny.
One is, how long, as a person who's
had the opportunity to onboard a number of new employees
into this, how long do they land?
When do you start leading them into deep work and innovation?
How long are they with you?
Well, that's a really good question.
I actually thought about this.
And I would have to say, we start it instantly
in that we talk about it.
But there does have to be a reasonable amount of time
for them to be onboard.
So I would say 90 days.
Once they get familiar with,
and they get through the probationary period,
which is 90 days,
then we really start to work on the deep work
and the thin slicing.
And one of the best ways to bring up the thin slice is,
I'll just use Jalyn for an example.
She kept bringing up the social media
and wanting to see something in the social media.
And so we had the conversation,
you know what, that'd be a great thin slice.
So it's another way when someone brings something up to you
and says, hey, in a specific area, a project or a problem,
something that's not working, great.
Why don't you do a thin slice in that area?
That sounds like a great thin slice project.
And then it's also not, it's not like a hands-off,
you know, everyone can have input
and everyone can have ideas.
Ideas don't have any rank.
Yeah, that's, thank you.
That's good.
And then I guess, you know, we've, for me today,
this, the concept of thin slicing,
I think making it thin has really become clear for me.
But as you've helped people step into this practice,
is there some aspect of it that you've seen,
you know, kind of, or a way to get them into this
that has been consistent across people?
I mean, what's the aha moment that you've seen people
be able to adopt it and run with it?
Sure.
I think sticking, the consistency is key.
Consistency is key.
And Dionne, because you've taken a lot more people
through this, you might have something else
to add to it as well.
But for my part, what I've seen is consistency is key.
And so it's embedded in our culture.
And even when someone comes on new,
they're already familiarized with pitches and presentations
because that happens weekly,
whether they're pitching or presenting weekly
or even monthly is not the issue.
They're a part of that prior to their first project.
So they're familiar with the language.
They're familiar with the process.
And then it comes the time where we talk about
implementing deep work and bringing in
the thin slice projects.
And really the best way that I have seen with someone
is one of two ways onboarding them.
One, they highlight a problem.
Hey, this is not working.
Great, that sounds like a great thin slice for you to take.
Or two, you bring them in on a thin slice project with you
and you bring them into it.
That way you can do that with them.
They can get more comfortable and familiar with the process.
I've done that with several team members.
We have done a thin slice project together
so that they can get comfortable with the process
and familiar with it.
Really, really good and helpful.
One last, if you'll indulge me,
how many people are in those meetings?
Like, I mean, we have a big team.
How many, what's practical in the pitch meetings?
We have everyone on our team as part of that
because the key there is the feedback from the team,
is having the feedback.
And so one of, Dion gives the story,
he has given the story of a tech company.
I'm not gonna repeat it properly,
but essentially there was an issue with the app
and the secretary came up with the solution.
And we had a similar instance here
where the team was pitching for the app.
We had two team members pitching for the app.
We were implementing routines.
And then we had another team member, Cindy,
who was not having anything to do with the routines
and asked a very key question about the process
about how to deliver the content to our community
that ended up shaping how they implemented
the routines on the app.
So that's why I think it's important to have people
from different areas,
because they're gonna have fresh eyes.
And that's where the collaboration comes in as well.
They'll ask questions that maybe you didn't think of
or they'll catch things that you didn't think of as well.
Thank you.
Yeah.
This is great, Jenny.
Thank you.
I think Bridget, you had your hand up there.
Let's get Bridget.
Yeah.
Sure, I just had a quick comment.
As a person that came into the culture at Brilliant,
because I only came on full-time last year.
And so as a person coming into this culture
that had already been going,
it was amazing that that was actually what was expected.
And I think because it was in the culture
and when people did their presentations,
it was always a very positive experience and very exciting.
So it was just assumed that I'd be presenting.
presenting something. And as Jenny said, when I came on, she
did the process with me, and she helped me do my first pitch. And
it also goes alongside with the other cultures that we've been
developing in these teachings, like the culture of trust.
Because if you feel like you're going to be shot down, and
somebody is going to really be negative about your idea, that
doesn't help. So I think because we had a team of trust, and
Jenny had, you know, really worked hard on that circle of
safety that we have, anybody can present anything. And we've got
to brag on Cindy, Jenny, because she's definitely one of the
older people in our team. And when you watch her doing a
presentation and pulling up a notion document and her thin
slice, her figure and diagrams and everything, it is really
impressive. And it gives her such confidence. And so it's not
an excuse, it's just an age thing at all. I mean, it's
really amazing what Cindy's done. I've got to commend her
for that. But also, you know, with our, with our perspective
at our team is that you don't just mention a problem, you've
got to come up with a solution, which is very much what we teach
at Brilliant, you know, you can't just have a negative
mindset, you've got to come up with something positive. So it
really all feeds into each other. Now I know not all your
companies are kingdom minded like that. But it really helps
the culture to be forward thinking and coming up with a
solution that rather than just complaining about a problem. And
I mean, Dion does it with me at home, and I've been working on
situations, this is okay, what is the thinnest last we could
come up with. So it's not overwhelming, we're trying to
rearrange a room or do something around the house. It's a very
practical way to turn a problem into something positive, that
you can actually do in one day or in a weekend. And it's, it's
just, it's just been a lot of fun. And it's just, it gives you
a positive outlook rather than just sitting with something
negative. So I'd really encourage you to just start. I
mean, that's the thing. Sometimes I think, well, you
need everything working, just start doing a few to get it
going.
That's great points. Thank you for adding those.
I have a quick question.
Yes.
So it sounds like the overall goal is for the people to come
up with their own thin slice project ideas. But I know there
is a part where they're presenting to the team, and
they're asking, does this, you know, well, the team can input,
is this valuable, you know, maybe the team votes, I've got a
few things I can do, what would you guys suggest? What if? What
if there's things that I feel like would be good thin slicing
projects for people? Is how do you how do you go about doing
that? Is it advisable? Or is there any negative notion of,
you know, putting it on their plate?
Dion, you could probably speak to that. But I guess, yeah, I
definitely speak to that. But stay on, Jenny. Yeah, we just
add me to that thing there.
For sure. Firstly, great question, Jeremy, I think that
what, if there is something important, I interrupt the
system all the time. Let's put it that way. Jenny does a very
good job smoothing that over. Because we don't want our
people to feel micromanaged. But we do, we do need to focus on
priority things. So sometimes, somebody's into or about to do a
deep work. So because of the predictable nature of the every
Wednesday, I know that I'm not interrupting them. You know, so
I'll often say to Jenny, I need so and so's time to do this,
this and this. And because of our culture of go directly to
the person, not through the structure. I don't go through
Jenny to go to someone to go to when somebody first works with
us, they kind of find that, you know, but difficult to get used
to just go straight to the person who has the information,
because we trust the person to also because think of what's the
difference between an employee and a leader. An employee is
somebody who manages their outputs when they told what to
do. What a leader does is they manage their inputs to
determine how they can make the biggest contribution and they
manage their output. So there's inputs, there's prioritization
and these outputs, and we're training our people to manage
too many inputs and which one's most important. But as the
leader, there are times you need to override that because there's
something priority, some priorities coming up, right,
some issue. And so often, I will interrupt the process and say, I
need this done. And because we're looking ahead, and often
we're looking further ahead than as the leaders were the leader
of leaders, we're looking far further ahead than maybe they
are. And often they're there. So that's why we started
implementing the is what's the importance of this is this low,
medium or high, because if it's a high important thing that
they're delivering on, then I have to figure out how to work
it out with them. Or we have to take so often to what Jenny will
do is
take stuff off them to give them more deep work session so they can double up.
So that's a way to do to it as well.
So I think it's a,
it's a little bit of like a negotiation rather than an instruction because what
you're trying to teach them is give them the,
the feeling of respect and dignity. That's what I was looking for.
It's the making the process dignified. Not I'm telling you,
I don't care about that project. Do what I say. It's more important as opposed to,
Oh, I really, Oh, you, you made that a priority. You know,
I can see that would be a priority. This is also a priority.
So how can we double up? What, what can we take away?
And so in the beginning you might be,
have to be the person who doesn't find someone else can, or, or ask them,
who do you, who knows your job, who can help with this, et cetera.
So that little negotiation there is you're investing in them, but yes,
you absolutely have to interrupt the system.
And then there's been cases where somebody improved the process that hurt the
innovation. So, you know, didn't mean to,
thought they were doing a great job, but then, you know,
you have to have so many days for this and so many days for that.
And what it did is it made our innovation cycle too long. I want super,
I'm trying to make our innovations faster, shorter.
I want to bring them down to hours, not three days prior notice.
Now in, in her defense,
she was dealing with a lot of last minute stuff,
which in her defense was unnecessary. That didn't have to happen.
It was just poor planning on other people's parts for the most part, right?
Some of it wasn't, but her point, all I'm saying is her, I didn't,
we didn't demean her point. We just said to her,
you're going to have to make an exception for that. So we can say, okay,
by and large, that's the process, but we also, so every time,
sometimes we innovate ourselves into not innovating. So it, it's,
it's a fun journey because again,
it's about the people first teaching them to fix processes. So Jeremy,
what I would do if I were you is pick the most painful one right now,
what's really driving you up the wall right now.
And which person do you think you could give that and turn that into their first
thin slice and start to address that issue and then set them free to do it.
But the nice thing about the cycle is, cause you know,
how it works in most business,
would you look at it and then they don't do anything for a month and you come
back. Did you look at, Oh, I got busy. This kills all that because it's,
it's Wednesday, the 23rd at 1 PM. There's no delay.
There's no missing deadlines here.
So as far as managing it, um, notion sounds amazing.
I've, I've,
I've wanted to kind of look into it and see if that's something that would help
us to manage the in-house projects. You know,
we've got our CRM that does kind of all of our production and operations for the
company, but as, as something to house these and be kind of organized,
that'd be better than a spreadsheet. Has any of you,
I know Slack has, um,
they added the lists where you can do projects and then there's a canvas
attached, you can attach a canvas and stuff.
And I've kind of thought about maybe utilizing that, you know,
just to kind of house and manage these pitch projects.
Would you recommend anything particularly?
We should probably take stock in notion or they should give us commitment.
Yeah. Cause we keep promoting notion.
Promoting notion.
And the reason that I say that is because, uh, that is the one place, like,
like I mentioned, one of our team members went in and, um,
she organized notion so that we have pages where all the information is
kept. Um, and instead of being scattered, it's,
so if you think of it as folders and then sub folders,
it started to get really scattered and she wanted to keep it in front of every,
you know, in front of us on the same page,
rather than having a bunch of sub folders, but have it all on one page.
And that has been really helpful because when we are working so quickly and
we're innovating so quickly,
we need to know where we can go to get the most up to date and accurate
information and not have it spread across several different platforms.
And that's what notion does. You can link it to Google. So if you have, you know,
a drive or some documents that you need to keep in Google for the sake of
sharing, then you can link Google, uh, though,
those documents or those folders into notion.
And it keeps everything in the right space and everyone can
have access to it. And they're constantly innovating.
Notion is constantly innovating to make things, uh,
more usable, um, accessible. I, I could go on and on and on,
um, about notion. So I'm a fan of notion. And I think it, it, for the business,
I don't know how we would function without QBooks and without notion.
We wouldn't be able to.
So maybe that's a thin slice project I could give to somebody and say,
figure out. There you go.
Yes. I like it for sure. I think yes.
I was going to quickly show you guys notion, by the way, let the session go
extra, because I thought this is so critical rather than introducing another
topic, and I said we would do two topics, but I think this is so helpful,
which makes us look, because, by the way, we're learning with you, right?
I don't care about how many people come to in a circle, how many companies.
I care that you move into your yoke
and that you produce a high performance team for that functions from rest.
If we're not doing that,
we have to ask our backup because that's our mandate from the Lord.
Our mandate isn't to have cool meetings and meet nice people and, you know,
collect some fees or whatever.
That's not what we're doing.
What we're trying to do is genuinely I want this to be the best investment you've
ever made because it puts you in a place with the Lord and with your team.
You've always dreamed to have. Right.
So you already solved the problem, Jeremy.
Give the idea of somebody going to look
into Notion and tell us if we should use it.
I think we're also realizing that having
somebody like we've got several people in our team who could come in and teach
Notion and get it going, because in the beginning,
Notion will act as think of Slack as your means for managing informal communication.
Right.
But when you start trying to store documents on Slack, that's a disastrous idea.
Right.
When you're going back to a previous Slack chat to go and find a document,
that's not where to save your documents.
What Notion is, Notion is your source of truth for all things in your business.
So here's our procedures.
Here's our thinking.
I could show you the Notion table I was talking from a few minutes ago.
We teach from Notion.
The entire conference ran out of Notion.
We put all our documents together in a Notion.
And, you know, when we interacted with Sage, who ran the things and they've been
doing, you know, what, over 1,200 of these conferences,
they're still trying to do everything in a spreadsheet.
And we just looked at them and said, seriously, you know,
2005 call, they want their tech back, you know, stop already.
And so my deal with Barry is we're going to help them with Notion.
So I think it's not that.
So the design behind Notion was that what if you could have one app where people
could make up anything their business needs without hiring a programmer?
And that's what they slowly working towards.
So the reason that it has gained such and
they are just literally thousands of videos on YouTube.
So when one of our team members says, oh, I need some tech help with whatever.
One of the first things we say is,
have you watched five YouTube videos and you still don't know how?
Then ask another team member because you're interrupting a very expensive team
member into interrupting their workflow because you don't want to press play on a
YouTube video. Not sure that's valuable.
So so that's, you know, and people who say, well,
I didn't learn this and I'm not good at learning software.
Listen, we have people in their 60s here at Brilliant.
You know, we have in their 20s, but we also have people in their 60s,
almost 70, who are learning this, didn't know anything about Slack or
Notion or anything, and they just kept watching a lot of videos.
You know, and Notion is so vast that to say we know Notion is a joke because you
can literally write code in it, I mean, it's can make it anything you want,
but it can send out forms, do surveys, capture information.
The whole of this in a circle is all run on Notion.
Every aspect of it.
So all I'm saying is that that's one tool,
what we would like you guys to do and take these last few minutes together
and maybe, Jenny, you can weigh in on this.
How do we start?
I think that's the question everyone's asking.
I want to do this. You guys convinced me.
Got the thin slice thing, got the three steps right.
Teach them to thin slice, set a time and and then, you know,
work everything out in terms of deep work sessions.
So, Jenny, how would you go about installing this?
If you are coming, if you are new to the company and you came
with all your training, nobody really knew this.
How would you start?
What I start?
Well, I would start first with the weekly
trainings, right, and introduce the thin slice, and then I would immediately set up
the pitch and presentation days and depending upon however many,
because, Ben, that was your question, however many people are in there,
you have to really set the timeline to to account for all the people.
We we were previously doing 30 minutes and now we extended it to be an hour
because we had to go back to the team and really reiterate how important this is
and that everyone should be pitching and presenting at least one time a month.
So I would start with the training and
reduce the the thin slicing and then I would go around to each
person and I would set up a project for them to pitch and I
would do that with them. I would walk through the process with
them, even with the with the pitching if they needed support
pitching it, walk through that process with them until they
became familiar. So a couple of two to three times, you know,
with each person and, and like Bridget said, and Dion said, we
have people on our team that really after what they have
learned and they have accomplished, not knowing is
just not an option for anyone. It's it's just not we've had.
We've had, you know, Cindy who, who says I'm just not a tech
person. And she is the first person to pick out something
that is not working with tech. So she's not allowed to say that
to us anymore. Because she figures it out. She finds the
issue and then she figures it out. So that's how I would
implement it, Dion.
Yeah, that's very good. So guys, if you want to take a moment and
think about, if you have a bigger team, you can divide them
up, especially if they're in like different areas of the
business, Ben, I'm thinking of your team here, or maybe Mark
your team because they have different focuses, you know, so
maybe administration, construction or manufacturing or
separate, you know, your respective companies. So I would
you could group them in but in the beginning just to get the
culture going maybe for the first month doodle as much as
you can all together. I understand that if you're
running your manufacturing facility, you can't have
everybody off the production line, I get that. So you'll have
to adapt it. The idea isn't to get it perfect. The idea is to
start. That's the key start and introduce it to your culture,
and then insist on it. Because and in a way that you can do
this, because we want to make you the smartest person in the
room. If you leave here, we want to have taken your career to a
whole new level, because that's the kingdom way, right? God
invested in you long before you were even born. You know, Christ
died for us while we were still sinners. So we had no five step
plan to becoming a better anything. We weren't even there.
So the point is that he, he initiates so be that person that
says, and by the way, if you don't know, just keep asking the
question, is this the thinnest slice? Is this the thinnest
slice? Now you might think you know the answer to that. But let
me give you three ideas that will help you get to the heart
of that. A lot of times people think the thinnest slice starts
with me having an idea about what the basic problem is. Glenn
already alluded to that the problem is often not the problem.
The problem you think is not actually the problem you end up
solving. So first question is, do I even know what the problem
is? Do I know like the one thin slice can be firstly, can I can
I take one deep work session and figure out the problem? Now the
deep work session, can I figure out who else has answered this
problem? Go and do research, come back with a report, the
deliverable is a report, give me the top three solutions to this
problem. Who else has solved the problem? We're not the first
people in the universe to solve this problem. So who else has
solved them? And how did they do that? Well, another one to come
up with is, I don't know entirely what the problem is yet.
But I at the moment, I think the problem is and then list the
thing that that Jeremy was saying, for instance, earlier,
that's the thing that's driving the CEO nuts, that thing, I'm
going to fix this thing that's driving, you know, the CEO nuts.
I don't know what that means yet. But I'm going to take I'm
going to take one deep work session. So that was the first
thing. The second thing is, try to limit it to one deep work
session the first time, the fastest, the fastest route
between them and a successful process. So they've gone through
the whole cycle once, you know, they shaped it up, don't let
them take more than 20 minutes to shape it up. Otherwise,
they're starting to actually work on the problem. Don't let
him do that. So 20 minutes, do a pitch, one deep work session, do
a presentation, if they can go through those four steps, and do
it quickly and have a sit. And then, of course, you know,
you're, you're sitting in the wings waiting to do what? Make
them the hero of the story. Make them the hero of the story.
Like, oh, my goodness, look what John did. He's amazing. You
know, look what Sally did. She pulled that off. And we had this
problem. Now, Sally, thank you. It's driven me nuts for years,
Sally, I love you. So make them that amazing hero of the story
in that moment. Don't just go great, good pitch, next person.
Take a minute, take 30 seconds, take a minute, make them the
hero of the story. And once you do that, you're in the game. So
because what people will do is what you what you know, you can
expect whatever you reward. Right? A lot of times as
leaders, we're expecting things, but we don't ever reward people
and by rewards, not as financial can just be emotional can be
recognition, people value recognition way above financial
bonuses, for instance, that's a lot of research backing all
that. So I would say
a start the process by what Jenny just said, pick your day, get it going, watch the training
and move it forward.
And I think there's a PDF.
We created a PDF of our notion document, the notion template in notion.
You can create templates.
So in our case, when you want to run a project, you just hit near and and and then we have
a place where we literally just dragging a box from, you know, it's about to be pitched,
it's in process, it's being presented, it's archived.
We literally just drag a box from column to column, the notion that you do that.
So the idea of that is, if you need more help with it, we will, we will talk as a team.
If we did that, let me let me get the feedback from you.
If we did that, who would want help in their organization?
Just raise your hand so I can see you.
Yeah.
Okay.
Several of you want help.
Okay.
So we have to we'll figure it out, Jenny, with our team, because we don't have much
to do.
So let's add that.
By the way, if we did that and one of our team members went and helped you guys and
you guys send us some feedback, we will on our side make them the hero of the story.
You know, we'll go, well, look what they did, because you do this.
I can give you this promise.
You do this six months to a year from now that your people will think very differently
about themselves, about their job and about this business.
For sure.
I said this to Teresa was doing a presentation one day and I called her afterwards and I
said, I wish I had recorded this and could take this recording to two years ago.
Remember when you said that you couldn't this and there's not blah, blah, blah.
But look at you now.
You're a genius.
She's like, I would have never believed I could have done that.
And that's the joy of being a kingdom leader.
We help people to achieve things they never imagined was even in them to do.
And then we make it easy because his joke is easy and his burden is light, which means
if we're doing it with the Lord, they get the benefit.
They the beneficiaries, whether they know the Lord or not.
Right.
Goodness isn't contained.
It spreads, you know.
So just for just be 100 percent sure nobody in your business is safe from God's goodness.
No one.
No one's safe.
No one is safe from goodness.
All right, guys.
Well, I know we did.
We there was a section we didn't do, but I thought this was so, so critical to your success
that it was worth taking a minute and just really diving in.
So hopefully that was helpful.
Cool.
All right.
So I know we usually do a quick wrap up.
Any any what what were the moments for you today that you thought, OK, that one thing
really helped me move it forward?
We'll just open up the mic, let everybody share or anything that you took in addition
to the thin slicing and so on.
Whatever you want to say.
Jenny, why don't you kick it off and then we'll go to Bridget then, Ben.
Sure.
You just put me on the spot.
I was still in I was still in deep work.
I think just really how far, how much has been accomplished just for our team this year,
but just how possible not even and even more than just possible, how easy it can be to
function from a place of peace and rest while still innovating and, you know, working at
a at a at a very quick speed and being a highly productive team.
And I just think that really functioning from that place of peace and rest just cannot be
emphasized enough and what that allows and affords your team to do.
That's great, Bridget.
I think for me, it's just a reminder of enabling people to do things that they didn't think
they could ever do.
And I've seen, you know, some of our team members coming up with innovation that they
would have liked, you said, Teresa and Cindy, that they thought they could do something
like that.
But also, you know, agreeing with what Jenny says that if you have a system for that, it
puts that peace and just rest in your process because, you know, it's going to be taken
care of.
You're not constantly worrying.
Am I ever going to get to this?
There's a place and time for that in your schedule.
And so I think it's it's a lot to take back to your team and really build them into who
they can become.
Very good.
Ben.
And we'll go to Vanessa and then to Emily.
Did you say Ben or Glenn?
Ben with a B.
All right.
So.
So I'm, man, I'm just very thankful that you guys are are committed to our transformation.
And, and I'm seeing it happen.
And I think it is I mean it is first and foremost that, you know, being yoked with him, which creates the space for people to step in and start to own their areas of responsibility, and I'm, I'm thankful for that.
And it's great. And I took a lot. And I'm definitely have more clarity about how to implement deep work which I do think is.
I mean, we'll lead to just will accelerate the transformation happening in our company. And it's tied to, you know, we're doing a lot of good things with these trainings, and I think that, man, I'm excited to see the impact start to manifest even more.
Awesome.
All right, Vanessa, Emily and then Glenn.
Vanessa.
Hey, yeah, I think this is incredibly empowering to people and you mentioned on the very beginning of the call about creating leaders creating a team of leaders and this is exactly, you know how you go about that obviously.
I think that it also takes the onus off the leader of the company, if you will, whoever that may be the president or the CEO or whoever that may be.
It takes the onus off them when they know that other people are pulling the load as well that they are trying to innovate that they are trying to move forward that they are trying to do things that will better the company and better the, the entire culture.
Then all of a sudden, they don't feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. And I think that's a byproduct of empowering other people.
Yeah, that's good. That's what we want.
Yeah, so I liked the thin slicing actually thin slicing it again and not trying to find the solution and in the small steps and in that process. I think that was very helpful.
And just in that place of rest in my situation with this big corporate company and how slow that they're moving and I real quick ran into another VP.
I had mentioned that company that they just the acquisition they just did. Well, he was like, well, we need to get the other one done first. I guess that's been going on for years, a company that they acquired.
So I think my piece right now with the Lord is just, you know, resting in him and I remember when I was driving down there last week.
We were talking and he was just said stay the course just stay the course and in that place of rest in this get to time of learning all these strategic implementation.
So when the when he's ready, it's just going to hit the ground running and that acceleration. So I'm, I'm very grateful. Yeah, so.
Great.
Okay.
Yeah, so right at the very beginning, there was something that you said that triggered a thought for me down, which was that really innovation is is rooted upstairs.
Colossians 2.3 is one of my favorite scriptures. It says in Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
And that's something that I've always sort of meditated and it came back in the context of innovation saying, okay, we as the believers should be at the forefront of all innovation, no matter what it is big, small doesn't matter.
And so, yeah, we are in yoke with him, and we are.
Yeah, we are in yoke with him, which, which coincidentally is against that little picture that I posted I realized as a hit a dash from it was humorous and that it was incremental but it was actually.
At all stages not asking us to do something that we then go and come back to do. So, yeah, so that's I think is the is the, the thought that I came away with was just that thought of this is through the upstairs.
Yeah, God never asks us to do anything that doesn't involve him.
That's right.
Right. Actually just an invitation. Can we do this together. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks Glenn. Well let's go to Tyler and then Jeremy, and then Mark and Shirley.
Yeah, so we're been been mentioned it earlier but we're doing a lot of work that we've never done before.
just hitting a ceiling a little bit of just more business,
more revenue, more problems, more people.
And I think that there have been moments of chaos,
but I think that just the idea of developing the people
to carry the process makes a lot more sense
in trying to find a process for the people.
And I think that the answer is the team innovating
instead of Ben or me or one of the other leaders here,
just the team carrying the innovation.
And so I'm really excited to jump in
and get started with this.
It's gonna spread ownership through the company more.
It'll give Ben more confidence in the team.
It'll bring accountability on pitch days.
And I mean, there's just a lot here
that will give answers for our problems, I think, so.
Yeah, you know, you've all been alluding to it,
but you just said there, Tyler,
there are so many side benefits to this
that we haven't even started listing.
One of the quickest ones is we stop talking about problems,
we start talking about possibilities.
Yeah.
So if you're the one who spots the problem, guess what?
You just got the onus of coming up with a possibility.
Thanks for that.
Glad you saw that and glad you're doing a Thin Slice.
When's that, Wednesday?
Looking forward to it, right?
Now it's, cause you know, the fairies,
you know, the fairy problem,
you get to fire all the fairies,
but that, I mean, you know, it's like people,
somebody should fix this.
Well, we can now fire that nefarious somebody
who doesn't seem to work for us.
You know, that, you know,
I remember standing in the front of a church one day,
somebody walked in and said, you know,
the church should do this and this for kids,
you know, cause he had kids a certain age.
And I said, yeah, well, we fired all the fairies,
so I don't know who's going to do it.
How about you, since you've got a heart for this,
why don't you do it?
He ended up, to his credit,
he actually ended up doing it
and running a very successful program.
So it moves it out of that, the company should,
there's this mysterious people should,
gets away, I should.
We move and then we go not just, I should, I can,
oh, I want to.
And that's where the transformation is, I think.
Yeah, I've been guilty of like owning someone else's problem
for too much, you know,
or trying to be the guy who needs to be the,
oh, well, Tyler did it, you know, or something.
And I need to release myself of that
and just let the people on the team
be responsible for the problems.
Yeah, make your team amazing.
Let them be amazing, that's fantastic.
Jeremy.
Well, talk about, oh my goodness,
what the doctor ordered.
This whole just discussion and training
and everything has just been really,
really right up my alley of what I'm needing.
So I, you know, we've been trying to get some traction
in this area and I feel like consistency
has kind of been one of the challenges
because sometimes I'm just in this whirlwind,
I'm still, this is one of my dilemmas is I,
I'm a slave to my to-do list, not my calendar.
But I hear it's the other way around.
I need to, if I'm gonna be a slave,
I need to beat that to the calendar
and let my to-do list dictate.
And it is just, it's not going well in that area.
So, but the Lord has been so good.
And I just, I have seen him literally
throughout time from the beginning.
Every time I'm in need of something,
he'll just bring it right at the right time.
And he's done that.
So, but I'll tell you, I went through a season,
not to, you know, not too far back
where I felt like I was going through that narrow space
and it was not a pretty fun situation.
It was really, really grueling and painful.
And I, you know, the Lord,
I definitely felt him just kind of like letting me,
you know, go through that.
And now I feel like I'm popped
and he's just like, we're just moving.
You know what I mean?
I feel the wind in my sails and he's just,
you know, hand over fist, just been so helpful.
It's almost like he's in yoke with you.
Yeah.
Almost like that.
Like he's in it with you, in the Lord.
I know.
That's so good.
I will end up, Mark, Shirley, you guys want to share?
Sure, sure.
Yeah.
I'm going to reiterate Ben's words.
I'm just so thankful for your commitment to us on this.
Cause I know this is not the first time you presented this
at least from my hearing on the thin slicing.
And yeah, I get excited about it every time I hear it
but implementing hasn't gotten there.
So I guess for me, the thing I'm taking away today is,
more and more is, is who do you know, who do I have to become?
Because it's I, you know, who do I have permission to become
because the Lord is, I just, you know, I've, I've had success in
the past doing it the old way in the old man, right. So I realized
more and more through this process, that there's a lot that
I have to unlearn. And especially when you're when you
have success, it's hard to let go. And that's what I'm finding
deep within me right now. And then, and then, you know, just
the whole process, the Lord is taking us through in the last
year, with the new leadership, and the new leaders that are
coming into the business, creating, although we're small
right now with our team of leaders, I'm excited about who
the Lord is bringing in. And, you know, being a part of
helping that whole, whole thing come together. That's exciting
to me. So
fantastic.
Okay, well, surely I know you're new, but you're welcome to share
if something you want to say.
He spoke well.
Spoke for you guys. But all right, guys, thank you so much.
I'm gonna pray for us just for a minute, because it just feels
like there's something really on God's heart for you. So, Father,
thank you that you are in yoke with us that you're the most
creative person in the universe. Holy Spirit, you're a genius at
creating and helping. And Lord, I'm asking as the helper that
you would help every single team here, Lord, to implement
innovation from heaven, that we can truly enjoy and see a team
develop who functions from rest, but also perform at a very high
level. We thank you, Lord, that we have this incredible kingdom
advantage, because you are in it with us. We thank you, Lord,
that this is a partnership. And thank you for equipping us today
for opening up new territory for every single company. I pray,
Lord, for a release of new products, new services, new
innovation, even new leaders emerging because of everything
we've discussed today. We bless you and thank you in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Thanks, everybody.