Episode 55: Finally 2021 And Q4 2020 In Review!
In what felt like a very long year, we are finally down to the last month. Full of hope for a totally new and better year, if not the best one yet, Amy Vetter celebrates as she takes us into her Quarter Four review of 2020! Though challenging, this COVID year has offered a number of great lessons and insights we would never have imagined. Amy shares some of those with us as she moves through the moments from the last quarter with guests and goes through the big themes that came out. Follow along as you take a trip down memory lane and refresh the amazing wisdom imparted from the year that is one for the books!
—-
Watch the episode here:
Listen to the podcast here:
Finally 2021 And Q4 2020 In Review!
Sacrifice And Uncertainty
This is our 2020 wrap-up. I'm going to review our guests from the last quarter of 2020, and some of the big themes that came out of those interviews, as well as give you my own message for 2020, and going into 2021, so that you can reset yourself as well and review the year, understand where you've been through, and also think about what the opportunities are for 2021. There were some main themes of these interviews, and they're relevant to the times that we are in. One of them is about sacrifice and uncertainty. There's never been a time that there has been more sacrifice and uncertainty in our lives because there's nothing we can predict.
There are things that we may understand better than we did in the beginning of this pandemic. One thing we do know is there is a lot of uncertainty and we have sacrificed a lot. In this sense, when you take it from an entrepreneur standpoint, many of us sacrifice in order to get through the hard stuff. One of the interviews that I had with Paul Peterson from Wiss was all about going through the hard stuff and how we have to withstand the pain when we're in it. Through my own life experiences, there's no factual research to this at all, just more life experience. Some of us are born to withstand more emotional pain than others, and it's a hard space to be in. Not that it's not hard for everybody, but I do believe some of us are born with this natural way to know what to do when things are hard.
For all of us, we've learned how important mental health is in the situations we've been in and what we have to do to take care of ourselves. Some of the things Paul talks about and the evolution of his accounting firm and change in leadership was that you can't control an outcome, but you do need to understand what you believe in, and what is that belief system that you're working around as you go through hard things. The other important thing to think about that he brought up is when they were going through some hard changes in the firm and which way it was going to go for the group of people that were pushing for change for the future. They went through an exercise to understand what's the worst outcome that could happen if we were to move forward, the way that we are, or that it doesn't happen. Can we withstand the pain of that risk?
It's important that we do put those things on paper because a lot of times, we spin in our head and we think about all these things that could go wrong, but not thinking about, is it bad if it does go wrong? Is it worth what we're going through the sacrifice that we're going through, that uncertainty, in order to get through this hard thing? If the worst-case scenario is bearable, then the risk might be worth it in the end. It's important to write those things down so that we understand why we're doing what we're doing and not have fear of the unknown. When we can rationalize these risk factors during uncertain times, then we know that we can withstand the pain as we're going through it.
The thing about pain that's important is to realize that every person around has their own human reaction going on internally. We may not know what that is, or they're not readily sharing what's going on inside of them, but everybody has it happening, whether they say it or don't say it. When we get to that place of humanness, then what we can allow ourselves to feel is that we're not alone in the process. We do sometimes have to take a leap of faith with people that might not seem that they're going through things, but they might not be an open person and want to be that transparent. From a human perspective, no one is bulletproof, and everyone has things that are going on internally for them and has their own fears. When we can get to that point where we're all human, then we can come to a place when we're going through hard things with other people like Paul was talking about in changing the leadership at the accounting firm, or hard circumstances that we know that we're all in this together.
We might have opposing views. We might have differences of opinion, but there's a basis to being human. When we can connect to that human place, then it allows us to start moving forward and seeing people as people and that each person is walking through their own stories. When we're going through hard times, that sacrifice and uncertainty during those times make it worth it if we understand the outcome that we're trying to achieve. What that comes down to are our passion and purpose. If we know why we believe in what we do, then when we're going through hard times if we can keep our mind on why we're doing what we're doing and why this is hard right, it makes the hard times a bit easier because we can shift our mindset to focus on something else.
We had a number of interviews focused on those same things. I interviewed Brian Fox, who also talked about the beginnings of Confirmation.com, and how hard those times were in the beginning, where there was very little cashflow coming in and they were working month to month. Coming back to that place of passion and purpose helped him and the people around him understand why they were sacrificing what they were sacrificing and living in uncertainty. That's the thing, whether pandemic or not, when we're a leader in a business and an entrepreneur, we live in times of uncertainty all the time. With a number of these entrepreneurs that I had interviews with, that belief in yourself is so important. We can all learn from that, no matter if you're an entrepreneur or trying to get through the day and bring things together for yourself and your family. When we believe in ourselves, we can accomplish what's ahead of us.
It may seem insurmountable, but there's something that we have to believe in that we can't put numbers and data around, it's gut and intuition that we are going to persevere, that we are going to make it past this point. Brian talks about how important it is in times of uncertainty to have a belief in what you're doing and a purpose. Many times, we don't spend enough time analyzing for ourselves, what is our belief systems and what is our purpose? That's why I have this show, so we can learn from all these other people's stories of how they develop their own belief system, their purpose, their passion, and what drove that overtime to inspire you as well to think about it. Often, we wait for the business to tell us to set goals, or they're very focused on the business goals, but we don't often step back and look at what is our purpose? Who do we serve and why? What is the outcome that we want to create from the work that we do or for our interactions with other people? What do we want people to walk away from us feeling and what is that experience that they should have?
2020 In Review: When we can rationalize these risk factors during uncertain times, then we know that we can withstand the pain as we're going through it.
This is important because what this does is help us make all of our decisions as we go forward. When we're in times of uncertainty that we have to make hard decisions in our career or a business, if we're able to align that back with our passion and our personal purpose, we know that we are on the right track because it does align with that. If something doesn't align with our passion and our personal purpose, we feel it in our gut. It's up to us to listen to it, to observe it and not fight that. Sometimes we have to make the hard decisions because it doesn't feel right. We might not have proof of why it doesn't feel right, but it's something that we need to listen to in our bodies, because that is telling us as part of nature, of being an animal, of why we exist. It's important that we take time to observe that and to not fight it. If we're not clear on it to give ourselves space to be clear on that as well because we could rush around or try to make rational decisions. If we don't give ourselves space, especially when we're going through hard times, we can't observe what's working for us and what's not working for us, and what we might want to do differently as we move forward.
Perseverance And Withstanding The Pain
Another key theme with all of this is about perseverance and withstanding the pain. With that, I talked to Enrico Palmerino from Botkeeper as well about his entrepreneurial journey and things that he had to learn over time in multiple businesses that he's grown to be successful, but the time that you start a business, you don't know that. One of his first businesses, he started as a college student. It’s important to realize that when we go through our business journey or our career journey, it's not how long we've been around, it's how much we trust ourselves to achieve what we put out there. He talked about some key areas to remember as we're going through our leadership careers, or running a business is number one to not make assumptions. A lot of times we make assumptions, whether that's about people, the circumstances that we're in or the state of our business, instead of being open and asking a lot of questions from everybody and to learn.
When we open up our mindset to learning, rather than making assumptions, we might get more data or information that's going to gear us in another direction than we originally thought. It's important to stay independent from the work that we do so that we can still observe it look at it as its own living, breathing thing versus a part of us. Making emotional decisions instead of doing what's right for the business even if it's something that we might not enjoy, but it's the right thing for that business to keep going. The other thing that he talked about is how important it is to listen to your customers and that their feedback should always be first because it feeds into what your future plans are. Make sure that you're serving your customer in the way that you want, and that you build great advisers around you. It’s important that you don't think you're the smartest person in the room. With all of our guests, they've all talked about how important it was to create a community. Making sure that they were open to all of the information that they were receiving from the people around them. Also, they were making the right decision, and for the things that they haven't learned yet, or the things that they haven't done before to draw in advisors or mentors that can help with giving you that information that you have no experience in.
Brian talked about how important it was for him to have mentors as well. Another interview I had with Adam Clater from Red Hat, he also talks about how important it was for him to take on mentors and advisors along the way. His story was all about learning. That was a key theme for all of these interviews about learning and taking on opportunities. Not close yourself off from getting the experience, the advice that you need in order to help with your career or in your leadership as well. Adam's path was unique. He didn't go to college and he's had great success in the corporate world, but it was during that path to his current job is where the learning happened. That was a key thing for him to understand, being open to all the opportunities around him, and working hard for every person that he worked with. We can't ever take anything for granted and take people for granted around us and not realize how important those people could be either now or in the future. The people that you become closest with as a leader are the ones that you feel have skin in the game like you. They care like you. For most leaders, it can feel lonely because they've got this vision that they have to execute and get everyone around that vision.
The problem is if the people around them don't believe in that vision the same or aren't as passionate with the same value system or purpose, then you can't achieve that vision because it can't be one person. It takes the community and the people around you. All of the interviews that I had over the course of this quarter talked about how important it is to mentor your people, give your people the opportunities that they need and provide the learning paths that they need as well. All of them themselves attribute their success to volunteering for everything and saying, yes, when opportunities come your way, rather than over assessing it. I talked to people that I consult and coach with about this all the time. What ends up getting in our way is a lot of times our own excuses and blame for the outside.
When we do that, we're deceiving ourselves because we're doing it because it's something that we don't want to do. It's better to blame the outside or blame someone else versus taking a step back and understanding what our fear is, what's our barrier getting in our way, and try to understand that before we reject the opportunity. If I hadn't said yes to opportunities that at first didn't even seem that great, but I knew in the long run, it was the best place for me to go and get experience for my longer-term vision. Sometimes you're doing things that you don't enjoy. It wasn't the best thing you ever did or the most exciting thing you ever did, but you know you couldn't be where you are without that experience, or without those people that gave you the experience, the learning and opportunity as well.
Rather than being closed off, during these times when things are uncertain and moving forward, it's important that we keep our eyes open for an opportunity. At the same time, as things are changing, we've never had a time of more opportunity, learning and innovation because people's eyes are open and they're looking for survival. When people look for survival, they start being inquisitive, innovative, researching, and looking for the things outside of our everyday normal. That's the gift of what we've been given during 2020. Whatever normal was in the past will never look the same again, as we move forward. For some people, that can be scary. For all of us, there's a normal amount of fear with that. At the same time, we can find opportunity and gratitude for the things that we have.
Message Of 2020
I leave 2020 with a lot of hard things that have happened in my own life. I could not have predicted like anybody else that was dealing with things happening in their life during the pandemic of what was going to happen. During those darkest times, where we were quarantined, but not knowing when those times are going to be over. It was important to observe, breathe and stay steady because the problem is if we start grabbing at things, then what happens is we get more stressed out than less stressed out. I have gotten divorced during the pandemic. Both of my businesses were affected by the changes, not in a great way originally. I'm starting to see opportunities and changes because of staying steady. Persevering and understanding the importance of the people around me as well. The support systems that I was always aware of, but in times of need, that came through that you couldn't have even imagined when 2020 began because that wasn't readily apparent.
2020 In Review: When we open up our mindset to learning, rather than making assumptions, we might get more data or information that's going to gear us in another direction than we originally thought.
I had always been traveling. I've been traveling 30 or more weeks a year for either business work or speaking. This has been the longest time I've ever been home. I have gone through many changes in my personal life. What I've found are the moments and the things that I didn't notice as acutely that I have much gratitude for. Before, if I wasn't traveling every week, being stagnant was hard. When going through a hard time like a divorce, traveling would have been an escape. Instead, what life brought me was to stay home, stay steady and to be alone many times during this quarantine. Also, with the shifts in my businesses and having to move forward and keep changing the businesses over and over again, to survive. I've also noticed how much I appreciate this new life as well.
I don't know, and no one can ever know, but when we look back and the experiences that you've had as well. If I would have come to the same conclusions or developed certain friendships and support if I was still on the road like I usually am. Opportunities that have happened in my business because I've been able to be steadier in the things that we do once we started shifting as well. The appreciation I've always had for the teams around me. When things are bad you never understand who is really in your life until sometimes the worst of times and the gratitude that I have for those people, whether they work for me or friends of mine is huge.
I’m telling you this story and this message to take stock in what's good. A lot of times this 2020, what I've heard is, “It's 2020. This is the way 2020 is. Because of 2020, all of these bad things happen.” I stepped back and thought about things and I'm like, “I'm not sure.” We're not used to a pandemic, but is it true that these things don't happen? Death happens, divorce, businesses fail. All sorts of things happen in everyday life, but we might not be slowing down yet enough to observe it and to sit in it. A lot of times we can keep with the pace of life and ignore what's happening bad around us and keep moving forward. The opportunity in all of this is that we understand the importance of being steady, pausing, getting still, and observing the things that are going in our life. When it's hard and emotional, feeling that instead of trying to run away from it because when we feel it, it opens up the opportunities of innovation. What I've seen with my consulting clients, friends, and people that I've supported as well, I've seen many great ideas and opportunities come out because we're sitting in it and we're also looking for survival.
Rather than running away from them pain, it's time to acknowledge it and not be mad about it. If we feel some anger, acknowledge that we have anger over it. Think about what are all the great things that have happened as well, and what gratitude can we put into the experiences that we've had this 2020. Those were the right things to happen in our lives so that we could move forward in new ways in in the coming year. Rather than regret, I leave you with the message of sitting in the discomfort if you need to. Taking a meditation, observing what you need to observe. Also, journaling, writing down or making a list of what are the observations that you've had that are surprising. They're the little things, not big things, or the opportunities that you see in the coming year based on what you know that you could go after in the next year. To also take the time to make sure that you understand your personal purpose in what you do every day and where your passion is.
If there's any time that's allowed us to question this, it's now. When we want to move forward and start making goals for 2021, make sure they're aligned with your purpose and your passion that you're not waiting to be hit by lightning, you're looking at all the things that you did get joy from. If you’ve got joy from certain things this 2020 at your hardest times, what are those things and why? Why did those things give you joy and passion? That can help you drive what your purpose is as you move forward into 2021. I want to thank all of you for supporting this show and also the programs that we deliver at the B3 Method Institute. It's meant in order to bring these messages to many people. I have gratitude for all of you that support us and follow us. Also, share it with your friends and family as well when they need these messages too and help in their personal lives. I have gratitude for all of you for sticking with us, for reading, and hopefully benefiting from these messages in your lives and your businesses. I look forward to seeing you and also communicating with you if I don't see you in person into 2021. Happy New Year.
Important Links:
Paul Peterson – Previous episode
Brian Fox – Previous episode
Adam Clater – Previous episode
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Join the Breaking Beliefs community today: