The Kevin Miller Podcast

If you’ve heard that before, consider it again. This is a common thread we’ve had on the show. Busyness and hurry are not producing good works. The faster we run the slower we produce. Or at least, the shallower we produce. If your life is a blur of lots of shallow work, then speed may be your gig. But to do the great work, the deep work, the valuable and profitable work, we are learning speed kills. This is our Habit’s episode with Jennifer Allwood, my guest from show 773 where we discussed, “Showing up for your own life,” a primary message from her new book, “Fear Is Not The Boss Of You.” In this show as we discuss the Career spoke, Jennifer shares her focus right now amongst success with her book, podcast, and coaching organization, is slowing down to speed up. With so many opportunities she knows there is always a danger of imploding. Her rudder is, “If it’s costing me my peace, it’s too expensive.” This and more in the episode. Connect with Jennifer at jenniferallwood.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That word, “busy”, means, having a great deal to do. Do you have a great deal to do? Are you enjoying the pace? Are you creating your best from the go-go-go grind? I think we are in a special place in time where busy is losing its luster. Not because we aren’t capable of maintaining it, but rather we’re learning it provides lesser, not greater value. Instead of the busy person seeming more important, I’m starting to see them as poor decision makers and living life at a shallower level. Actually I can own this for myself. When I am increasingly busy, I realize I’m at best just maintaining life, I’m not creating and growing it. In show 767 I talked in depth with pastor and author John Mark Comer and his message, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” It was from this discussion I asked the Ziglar audience this question, “On a scale from 1-10, how "hurried" is your life? If it's high (10 = espresso squirrel), what feels like the main culprit? If it's low (1 = sedated tree sloth), what has helped?” You can join these weekly discussions by finding and friending me on Facebook at AgentKMiller.com. Tom Ziglar joined me to read through and discuss many of the comments. Really insightful, to say the least. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fear and being stuck. Everyone can relate to those realities and they are not where we want to be. Jennifer Allwood truly provides a breath of fresh air to this issue, and she does it by relating, commiserating, and having compassion. You can not fully eradicate fear from your life. But you can manage it and move forward anyway. Jennifer cites you can have emotions, feel emotions, recognize emotions, but still do big, hard, and scary things in spite of those emotions. Jennifer uses her social media following of 500K people, her podcast, The Jennifer Allwood Show, coaching groups with thousands of members, and now her #1 best selling book, Fear is Not the Boss of You, to help others do for their businesses what she has done with hers. Jennifer is also steadfast in using her business as a way to serve God and my family. Her goal is to use the tools so readily available—social media, email, the Internet—as the way to make this happen. She knows getting unstuck, pushing through the overwhelm, and doing things in spite of fear are key in growing any business. Friends, this was a fun and poignant discussion and I’m proud to bring Jennifer and this message to you. You can connect with Jennifer at Jenniferallwood.com where you’ll find her new book, “Fear Is Not The Boss Of You”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are in an unprecedented global crisis with the coronavirus. Nearly every American and human is being impacted. I asked this short question on Facebook, “Would you share a positive and a negative regarding how COVID-19 is affecting your life right now?” In just over 24 hours we have in depth comments from 76 people. There was very little sugar coating, but some distinct threads regarding loss of money as the negative and down time and time for relationships as a positive. Really interesting to hear the candid accounts. The question we posed was...what normal do you want to go back to? Is there any current change you desire to retain? I think you’ll find both confirmation for what you are dealing with and inspiration for some benefits you may better take hold of. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you able to concentrate? Focus? Think critically and creatively? In episode #767 I brought you John Mark Comer and we discussed the profound message in his book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” An issue we discussed was the scattered attention caused by the massive distractions of today’s world. What with our electronic devices and social media, our attention spans are at an all time low. The consequences are, as John Mark cites, we are chipping away at our capacity for concentration and contemplation. This is our Habits show and I walked through the seven spokes on the Ziglar Wheel of life with John Mark. In the Career spoke he said a priority is fighting for deep work blocks. He is a pastor and writer, so that may not come as a shock to you. My question for us all is, who does NOT need deep work blocks? Or just blocks of deep time in general? Deep time to be at peace. To think critically and creatively. How much would your life benefit to stop and think deeply about any aspect of it? This and more in this show. You can find John Mark’s book at https://johnmarkcomer.com/ or wherever you buy books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Encouragement. Especially in a time of crisis, it is simply the difference between success and failure. Are you feeling encouraged? Are the “facts”, “reality”, and the latest statistics from the media directing your attitude and anxiety or are you holding fast to faith and truth and inspiration? This is a special edition episode with Tom Ziglar sharing a message straight from the heart of everything Ziglar stands for. Encouragement. Not pollyanna platitudes, but the true belief of those who will overcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As of this episode publishing in March, 2020, we are amidst the coronavirus epidemic. Much will be lost in small business during these coming weeks and possibly months. Not all will be salvaged. The greatest value will likely be how to insulate ourselves from future calamity and not taking the status quo for granted. I posted this question on Facebook, “Is your business being negatively impacted by the coronavirus?” Droves of responses from small business owners who are seeing a slight challenge, a decent decline, or full out catastrophe. I brought one of the best and brightest minds in small business on to co-host with me, Dan Miller of 48 Days To The Work You Love fame. Yes, my very own father. Brainstorming alternative solutions for business is an area of mastery for him. This was a very frank and candid conversation. As you will hear, with some businesses, the best bet is hunker down and wait it out right now. With others, we found options to diversify. Others have options to actually maximize offerings. For all of us however, the show and discussion highlighted how we can all prepare ourselves to withstand nearly any downturn.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being positive instead of negative, we’ve all heard plenty about. But then we go about our days and our lives being...what? Are we really changing ourselves? As I often seek to do, I want to know the root. If we are dealing with any negativity, why? Where is it coming from? I’m not going to tell you, instead, I’m asking. I did ask, actually. I posted this question on Facebook, “Which of these are you most prone to struggle with? 1. Complaining, 2. Criticizing, 3. Gossiping, 4. Sarcasm. And about which? a. Other people, b. Circumstances, c. Yourself. Then, what do you think is the root cause? The responses are still coming in. The question was prompted by my recent show, #763, with Will Bowen, titled “Complaining is poisoning our success.” We’ve gotten great feedback on that show, I really encourage you to listen to it if you haven’t. Actually, it’s a great one to share with those you are closest with, as their complaining helps fuel your own. I had Tom Ziglar join me and we talked through many of your comments with the intent of helping us all understand why we have these feelings, so we can be aware and take steps to curb it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are all busy and we’re all in a hurry. Who just loves it? Who feels they are producing their best work while in such a harried state? Yet, who feels trapped by it? So now I’m going to give you some miracle, “seven steps” formula that sounds nice and shiny, but we all know...nothing is going to change, right?” But alas, there is no formula. It comes down to awareness of what is really driving us, and what we believe. I’m part of a prayer group of about a dozen men, all business owners with big audiences. One of them said we all had to get this book he was reading, titled, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” I got the book. I read it. I contacted the publisher and said I wanted the author on The Ziglar Show with me. That...is what I bring you today. John Mark Comer. John's story is this...he was pastoring a successful megachurch in Portland, OR with six services each Sunday and a marathon lifestyle which left him feeling burnt out and detached from those around him. In a moment of desperation, he asked a mentor for advice. The response he received was this, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. There is nothing else.” From that was born John's new book, "In The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: Staying Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in Our Current Chaos." In this show we unpack the concept and what I found was this; an amazing case for me to change my paradigm and limit the hurry of my life. Why? Personal peace, for sure. But also...better production. I don't want to do a ton of good work. I want to do a smaller amount of truly great work. Just today I got word from someone else that they had read the book and it had significantly disrupted their life with this new perspective. But we go deeper too. I’d tell you we talked about the lifestyle of Jesus, except I’m concerned you’d discount it as I used to, in regards to...Jesus wasn’t married. He didn’t have kids or a mortgage. A 9-5 job. But then...he did have a scant three years to save the world before he was assassinated. It might be worth considering… This is a big show folks. You can connect with John at his website johnmarkcomer.com/ and of course find “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” wherever you buy books.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For all of you with a product or service: 1) Who is your specific customer, 2) What problem do you solve for them, and 3) How do you stand out from your competition? I’m sure you’ve heard messages around these topics before. But listen again. There is very little chance you are communicating these things well, as it’s very counterintuitive to how we think as business owners. We think of the benefit there is for people. Fulfilling a desire. I recently attended a business event with Pete Vargas’ Advance Your Reach organization and they pounded on this issue, “Who is your target market and what problem do you solve for them?” We often have products and services we feel can benefit people and we want to lead with a desire; look better, feel better, save time, save money, get a new home or car, and on and on. Yet people are much more led by and prone to respond to problem solving. Tom Ziglar has shared with us a study that 80% of the populace relates more to problem solving than goal setting, yet 95% of our marketing is goal oriented. So what I have for you in this show is a two minute clip from Zig Ziglar on this issue. We’ll listen to that, then I posted this question on Facebook, “For those with a product or service - who is your target customer and what specific problem do you solve for them?” We had a load of responses and Tom and I got through maybe half, and they were wonderful case studies. You’ll gain much from this! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices