Monday Motivation: How To Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb.

Good morning. Good morning, Cadre. It's Luke here. Hope everybody had a wonderful start to your holiday season. I know that that first weekend before can drive, maybe lots of driving, lots of connection. Maybe there's just a lot going on in your life and that is all. Okay, I see all of the names pop in. Good morning. Good morning, everybod. Like I said, hopefully everybody's getting their Monday started off right. For me, for example, just real quick, just break into the weekend. I get it. If you're doing all the driving thing and navigating.

So it's like pick up, come back, stay overnight, drive, drive back, come back. So yesterday was like just all for my wife and I, just spending some time, good quality time together. And what do you think we did? We sauna twice. We kept it going and we had this like beautiful afternoon sauna. And then we just kept it going until later at night and we did it again and we just had this like awesome couple hours of connection, which was really important because otherwise sometimes you get lost in all of this during the holidays.

So. Good morning, Colleen. Good morning, Sue. Oh, it's so good to see you here, Nate. What a wonderful human being you are. And then I saw just countless names pop up their screen avatars. So I just want to say thanks for all y'all for coming. It means a lot to me. It's something that I live for, is doing this Monday motivation. This one today is important as a friend, as a colleague, as you're coaching and mentoring people, as you're working with other folks. You can use this everywhere, okay? You can use this one everywhere for your children, right?

How do you. How to stick out like a sore thumb. Okay. How to stick out like sore thumb. I talk to my kids about this all the time. I have four beautiful children and I talk to them all the time about how to stick out like a sore thumb. My little, little guy. That's seven, right? Hi. Speak wonder. I look forward to Monday motivation. Well, I look forward to always hearing from you, Sue. Okay, so here we go. So even my little guy, my 7 year old, I always talk about the best attitude, right? He's going to learn about the other things.

But like right now, it's always about being the best attitude, having the best attitude. Okay? So again, how to stick out like a sore thumb. And the best attitude just isn't smiling at work. It's not just. It's just not just smile. That's. That, that's nice. That's 25%. That's 35%. But this other part that's attitudinal is think of the behaviors that go with it. How many times are you out for coffee, out for lunch, out for dinner, meeting with a friend, and the within five to 10 minutes, there's negative speak about somebody else.

But, but on the surface, it looks like somebody has a great attitude because they're smiling. Right? But that. So I just want to make sure that, that, that the best attitude also comes into, like how you talk about other people, how you show up for other folks. Okay, so number one, we always talk about the best attitude in our family. I always talk about it when I'm helping, supporting, and coaching, leading, guiding, being a good friend, all of it. Right. Number two, I have been in countless, countless meetings, countless board meetings where everybody wants to be the smartest person in the room.

Talk. And what I have done in the past is I write everybody's name down and I put a check down of when they speak. And what you're going to find is on this, you know, five, seven, ten names, you'll always have about two people that will be talking the entire time. And, and, and to the flip side of the coin, I've also been in many boardroom meetings. I've been in advisory board leadership meetings, director meetings, executive director, VP meetings, where there's always the one person in there and they're just listening.

They're just listening. They're just taking it in. And I have to give an example. This individual's name is John Bixby, and he's part of the Cadre Advisory board. And when John was listening into a meeting, all of a sudden he piped up and he said, wow, that is blank. And there's some confidential information there. But regardless, my point is, is he didn't speak a lot, and then all of a sudden he just went Teddy Roosevelt on us. Right? Like carry. What's that? The old adage, speak softly but carry a big stick.

Right. And boy, did he hit us with the big stick. And it's just those are some very, very impactful moments in time. So, again, when you're talking to your colleagues, when you're talking to your friends, like, do you talk more or do you listen more? And this is something, I'll be very frank, is something I'm still really, really working on, because I feel like. I feel like sometimes I'm coaching a lot, and coaching a lot means talking a lot. And the reality is it doesn't have to. So he went Teddy Roosevelt on us.

I love it. Colleen. Okay, so again, Best attitude, listen and learn. Next one, ask for help or ask how you can help. There was a very, very influential man in my life, Dr. George Randall Smith. And he ended every single phone call. Every phone call. And he meant it. He didn't just say it, said, how can I help you? How can I help you? How can I help you? So lean into that phrase at work with your friends, with your colleagues, with family, how can I help you? Okay. And then also asking for help. Some people feels it's this like sign of weakness.

In fact, in fact asking for help is the only way I would be here today. Like only the only way is, is leaning in, in it. It was super. Like you're vulnerable at first because you're asking for help. It's like just imagine being a 10th grader coming to your teacher and saying, can you spend an additional 20 with 20 minutes with me after class? You know, and some of your fellow students might even hear that you're doing the same thing at work. You're doing the same thing. Like you're putting yourself in this vulnerable position.

And believe it or not, for individuals, if you've done this before, raise your hand. I guarantee clean's done this in radio, guarantee other people have done it in their own jobs. Is when people ask you for help, you're actually so jacked to support them. Like you're like no way. Like you, you see me, you, you see me. So I want to help you. And it's like this, like win, win. Like you feel good intrinsically that somebody would come to you to ask for help. And then moreover, what's more is you get to actually do it.

Okay, so again, number one, have the best attitude. Number two, listen and learn always. And if you can listen more, that's great. And number two, excuse me, number three. Yes. It's an honor to help. I love Clean. She's, she's poking fun at me a little bit. But ask for help or always ask for help and then the last one, and I think this is the most, one of the most important ones, right? If I, if I have two candidates, if I have two candidates and I have candidate one and candidate two and I'm looking to hire for a VP role, an entry level role.

I, I'm going to ask some questions which will then ultimately call it, I'll, I'll figure out about attitude. If somebody can learn and listen and ask different ways that they've asked for help. But to be an action orientated person where everything is figure it out able. We have evolved as human beings in the last 40 years, right? Think of, think about what we used to learn and how we used to learn till today. And I mean, I'm going to say something and our tech team is probably going to laugh at me a little bit, but one of the goals that I wrote down over the weekend was learning more about coding and what normally used to take 20 years ago, 20 years ago, it, you know, I would be in a five year program, you know, learning about engineering and this and this and this.

Like today you can expedite your resourcefulness to this, to literally this. Like imagine, imagine being 1999, graduating and taking a test, and imagine 20 a new catchphrase, figureoutable. You got that right. Speak, Wonder. But imagine taking a test today, right? And you know, as our children, and as our kids and you know, they, they have the capacity and the ability to type in anything within seconds to get answers. Although that allows for lived experiences to become insanely more valuable, Experiential learning to become insanely more valuable.

But the answers that are at your fingertips that used to take years to learn can be learned right now. So again, what would I look for? Attitude, learning, action orientated. And everything is figure it out, able, right? And of course, helping. So those are the four things that if you want to stick out like a sore thumb at work, as a friend, as a colleague, as, as, as a husband, partner, wife, you know, to, to be able to do those things and also as a father for me, mother, you know, like how, how do we show up for each other?

And it's not just about getting that first job, landing that first job, but it's about taking this and leaning into it with your children too, right? So when we talk goals, you know, I always go through the list because these four things, in my humble opinion today are the great separators. And if, if your family and your kids or colleagues you work with or individuals that you intern with to coach and lead up towards these, I would, I would call them like paramount things. As you continue to grow and learn, you will have a big, big change and it will be figureoutable.

Speak, Wonder. So there you go. All right, everybody, it is holiday season. There's a couple big days coming up. I know you're running around and racing around here too, and I just want to say, enjoy it. Smile, breathe, take in these moments with your family and friends. Live it up. Also know when you got to say no, but enjoy it. Enjoy, enjoy it. And I hope that this message today allows you to stick out even more like a sore thumb. So take care, you guys. Thanks for your time. It's always an honor to be here with you all.

How you like that one, Colleen? All right, bye, you guys. Take care.