Carl J. Cox 5:31

Slowly. And and, and I’ll do a shameless plug for you, Anthony. His book alignment that I have here for those are looking at how to get your people strategy and culture on the same page is a wonderful book. And so critical on making sure any strategy works. You know, if you don’t have buy in the culture in the team, if only one person thinks is a good idea, it’s not going to work. And you got to make sure your entire teams there. And especially with growing organizations, having something like this is really huge. So anyways, encourage people to pick that up. So we were talking a little bit ahead of time, you’ve been working on a bit of a new endeavor, as your firm has continued to grow. And you’ve added been adding new people, can you add more value? Tell us about this new endeavor you have in this not for profit portion and give our audience a little flavor and perhaps something that they might be looking into?

Anthony Taylor 6:25

Yeah, absolutely. So being in Canada, we couldn’t travel to the states we couldn’t travel to, to your hometown to work with you. And so we actually also saw that it negatively affected a lot of mission based organizations, they would say, well, well, what can we do? So we tried to like, are we in a lot of clients and claims and education with clients in the restaurant industry, they’re all kind of scrambling, we said, Okay, well, what can we do it this time. So we created this not for profit program, where now we’re going to be running it twice a year, where we have a limited intake for nonprofit organizations, to help them lead their strategic plans, virtually, but at a significantly discounted and subsidized rate, then it’s really to help those organizations that are having an impact in communities that we would want to be in to help them have the maximum impact. You know, we see strategic planning, I see strategic planning as a way to change the world. Because a clear strategy is Carl, I’m sure you’ll agree with a clear strategy helps employees be engaged, if your employees are engaged, they’re happier, they mean that people have great jobs, if they have great jobs, they have happy families have happy families, they have happy communities. And so strategic planning changes the world. And we wanted to put this not for profit program together

Carl J. Cox 7:41

to make that happen. That’s really special. What has been, you know, the what has been for you? What have you seen in the not for profit world? That has been a you know, COVID? Of course, right? You know, but But what is on top of code? What specific challenges have they had, which has made it more difficult today than it was two, three years ago? Yeah,

Anthony Taylor  8:03

absolutely. I have one more thing I want to plug but I’ll wait wait till later. But what’s been really challenging for some of them is not being able to meet in person. And so the kind of standard, you know, getting together, having your board meetings, having those those side conversations and all that stuff, they haven’t had the chance to do that. And they, the other piece of that is the personal life, and the volunteer life and the work life all like smash together. And so you find volunteers that are doing whatever they’re doing from the side of their desks, or if it’s a mission based organization, they’re having to take care of their kids and family, they’re stretched even more thinly. And so being able to prioritize to get clear on what they need to do is is really at the heart of

Carl J. Cox 8:49

helping them. So now go back to your plug thing. So what was that before I forget that what’s that additional thing you want to do?

Anthony Taylor  9:00

I’m so glad you asked. So, uh, on October 21, very close to your marathon. We’re hosting a diversity and inclusion summit. And we got together 11 speakers from four different countries to be able to speak about diversity, inclusion, what’s happening in their workplaces, what’s happening in their life, and just for them to share to engage in a conversation about it. You can check it diversity, inclusion summit SME Strategy, but I just I’m super pumped on it because all this time at home has given me opportunities to do more, more things. And I’m just excited to do that and to bring it to the community of leaders like your audience. That’s cool. And

Carl J. Cox 9:43

have you seen on a global basis based on what you’ve talked about? Who how significant have the changes been? You know, when it comes to that, are they Is there a country that’s really like leading the way so to speak, or are is kind of other people Waiting on others right to find out who’s going to be the leader in this?

Anthony Taylor 10:04

Oh, man, I want to say North America, it’s really big in Canada, you know, today is actually like Truth and Reconciliation day. And that’s there’s so much stuff going on there. In Canada in the US, I think it’s just so public. In Europe, I think there’s a lot of like undertones of racism. So there’s just there’s so much but I think everybody is now it’s moved to the top of CEOs and executives lists in terms of a thing that they need to be thinking about. And so we want to provide just a place to have those conversations if you’re interested in taking it on. And I think that there’s a business case for doing it not just a personal kind of case find it. Right.

Carl J. Cox 10:44

Anthony when you were talking about your answer, or answers earlier, it really resonated with me, which is the inability to have the personal conversations, and more importantly, that it’s the conversation after the conversation. You know, I It’s one of the things I’ve been, I think I met you I flown more this year, in 2021. I have my entire life. I didn’t expect that in this kind of crazy COVID world that we have. But the reality we’re business has been bringing me. However, what I’ve what I’ve realized is it’s been the it’s the conversation after the meeting, that all of a sudden, or it’s the it’s the dinner meeting after the fact, right? We’re somebody who is uncomfortable to say something during the meeting, they’ll give you the additional insights, or you pick it up by their body language, right. But it’s harder to pick it up in the front half of the body, if that makes sense. The top half of the body, you know, and in simple Zoom meeting. So how I’m kind of curious, how are you helping people to get through what I call those intangible Crucial Conversations, you know, the nonprofit world that they weren’t having to? It’s hard to have today? What are you doing? I’m kind of curious, what are you doing to help connect them better right to their whether it be to their people are donating money right to the organization to the cause? They’re volunteering for organizations? Perhaps they’re in a business? What are some insights or things you’re learning to help improve that make that better? Yeah,

Anthony Taylor  12:10

I mean, I want to say it’s the same stuff as before, like as in it’s the same conversations, I think it’s just the on the list of priorities and where it falls for people is different. You know, for some organizations, they are saying, hey, you know, like, we were mandated to do a strategic plan. And it’s part of our organizational mandate, or it’s part of what we do. Now in this kind of like online internet world, your back to back on Zoom meeting, like it just didn’t even register that it was possible to do it, like three hours on Zoom. So how we do it as five, three hour meetings to go through our entire strategic planning process, which we would normally do over two days in person. Um, but it’s just like taking the time out to do the strategic, but most people just had it, they’ve never done it before. If we think of like innovation in the business world, you know, you had to go to a bank to deposit a check. You couldn’t fill out a loan application without being in person, the banks, insurance companies, all those guys, they said, We need to figure this out, because otherwise we’re not going to have the business. Well, some of the business world figured out, hey, there’s an effective way to do meetings. And you know, like FaceTime, you see, you actually get more context, in some ways there. The challenge is making sure that those zoom meetings, because they take so much mental attention, that you need to have a really clear and engaging agenda. Otherwise, it’s just like, it will just melt your brain, which is not, we’re in the business of,

Carl J. Cox 13:37

you know, I go back to our Madison trip that we did together when I helped, you know, as a tagged along, if you may, you know, and then the presentation that you’re doing and and help out with that facilitation a little bit. And once again, we had that kind of after dinner, right, where we glean some insights right from that dinner that we didn’t pick up from the original facilitation. But I’ve been doing like you’ve been doing as well. I am also I have clients in Mississippi and Massachusetts and in different places throughout the United States where I haven’t physically shaking their hand but their clients and I’m working with them to help facilitate there. I’m curious from your perspective, in that five three, it’s actually pretty I’ve been doing similar things as you it’s interesting that we haven’t even talked about this, you know that the way how you’re doing it’s kind of interesting how we’re doing something similar. What has what has worked better in those five, three hour events compared to the traditional two day event? You know, that you have with somebody so give me give me that. What’s Batman?

Anthony Taylor 14:37

This is it might be an unpopular opinion. I prefer online. Wow. So why I really, I really, I really do because it’s really focused. And I find at the end of a two day strategy session, we actually have a pros and cons document. But at the end of today’s session, most people’s brains are pretty melted, especially if in that light Friday Night Dinner, they have a few cocktails and take advantage Like getting to go out, you know that Saturday morning is not always the shiny group of folks. But three hours short, they stay really focused. But the other thing, and I think you’ll appreciate this as somebody who really lives in the world of execution, is that instead of having it be like a two day thing, and then it’s sort of like withers away after, because it’s like three hours every week, they’re always in the conversation of strategy. So it’s not just the planning session, if you think of like a two day off site for a three year strategy. Well, what do you do with the other 35 months, it’s like, you have to build the systems, the structures in place to support the strategy. And I think a regular checking program or regular program like that, does it better. And I also think it takes less time and money, you don’t need to fly everybody in, you know, you don’t need to spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes getting into a boardroom, you can actually it’s easier to jump into strategic work with the right agenda, the right structure, but I’d be interested to hear how you have done it and how it’s worked for you. We could talk for hours, we know that Yeah.

Carl J. Cox 16:06

Don’t worry, folks, there is a there’s a and point to the podcast. Would I think what you said is really interesting is when you can start creating a habit that one of the problems I’ve always seen, and it’s always been, the reason why I don’t like retreats, is there’s this almost fake event, and I’ll put it it’s almost feels a fake, right, you’re outside of work, you go to a really nice place. You get all the snacks throughout the day, you have these wonderful sessions, we’re writing on whiteboards, and you know, different pieces of paper. And then you just say you might have a couple of drinks, and then you go off, and then you go on your weekend. And unfortunately, people don’t go back to it often. Right, you know, that if even if even if we come up with a wonderful strategic plan, that the real important part is, is the habits that are created on thinking about strategy consistently, throughout our period of time, you know, instead of, you know, so many people do one time a year? Well, how do you self correct one time a year? You know, you know, there’s people who do it four times a year, well, isn’t it? Why not 12 times a year, and they’re going for that at a tactical level? Why not 52 weeks a year? You know, the more we’re doing self correction said the value of having these more recurring meetings that I wouldn’t have historically had either, right? You know, it’s enabling this concept of more check ins. The second thing I think that’s valuable is, you know, sometimes like a fine wine, that takes a while to taste better, right, you know, at the end of the day, and to be more to go down the palette. Well, that’s sometimes how I think sometimes strategic ideation is, it’s, a lot of times, it’s easy to write something on a whiteboard. It’s easy. You and I are always dealing with Type A personalities, King Kong, right, you know, Wonder Woman’s of the world, they could do anything, right? The problem is in the real world, you cannot do everything, you’ve got to focus on the few things, it’s going to make the greatest difference in the world for your organization. And so when we can get to there is interesting. Literally, one of my clients in Boston, we just literally had this big aha is like, Oh, you mean, really, we only have to focus on this one thing. And it was like this big question mark. And we’re like asking him, are we sure? He has like, absolutely. And and, and now we’re going to test it right, we’re gonna validate this, Anthony, and make sure that this is the one thing that’s going to be the most important thing for them to focus on. And it’s, by the way, it’s one thing with some complexity, you know, behind it, but but that, to me, we’ve met this is that was our fifth session, it should go enough. It was our fifth session of the two hours we were doing to our sessions, this particular case, I’m not sure if that insight in that acceptance, that insight would happen if it wasn’t over five different separate sessions. I don’t think it would have been acceptable in a strategic meeting and a white board saying, Oh, we’re just gonna do this one big thing. Yeah, I’m saying like, you know, I mean, I don’t think people would have been comfortable as like, well, where’s our three to five things? Yeah. That we’re going to work and conquer on. So I don’t know. I’m just kind of curious. What’s your response to that, from what you’ve seen,

Anthony Taylor 19:22

in the words of one of my characters from Letterkenny Canadian TV show suggested that that marinate and let it marinate and get the flavors and get everything through it. One of the other things that I find interesting when you think of strategy execution, going back to that, like five weeks, two days, like three years, is that like, sometimes you’ll come up with an idea and maybe it’s wrong. Like the goal and I this might be a Carl Cox quotable. It’s just just because it is a goal does not mean it is the goal. And so as you’re tracking it, you need to make sure that it evolves and maybe it changes. Like I was talking to someone recently. They’re like, hey, we did our strategic plan two years ago, and they’ve got sorted have guilt that they didn’t execute their strategic plan. I was like, Man, you had to keep your business alive. Like you had to keep that going. And if you didn’t do that, I would have been more mad. And so, in addition to having the regular check ins, what I’m inviting people to do is think about building your capacity for implementing strategy. So that over, instead of thinking, hey, there’s like a three year vision, they say, Well, if you focus really, really well, for that first year, you’re going to be leaps and bounds ahead. So that year two to three is going to be even better. And and you know what I mean? So like, really, or zero to one, one to two to three. So looking at it in stages, but also making sure people have the capacity to implement it long term to focus on building capacity to implement strategy, not just implement strategy.

Carl J. Cox 20:48

Yeah, having exactly having the resources and the focus, and you touched upon something I like to say is, which is strategic planning as a hypothesis, it’s not a fact. And I think that’s really also hard, right? Because it’s like, oh, we spent all this money put everybody together in this two days, but honestly, I’ve never seen a Plan B, right. Like ever, like, I’ve never seen 100%. And I never want to see honestly, 100% Because think of just going let’s go back to where we were in Wisconsin. And whatever, November of 2019. If we were helping out with organization, that point of time, nobody was projecting COVID to hit in the impact that had on every business, whether it’s good or bad, or indifferent, right, everybody was impacted one way or another. And so the ability to be able to adjust and be okay with that. Okay, with that adjustment in and not completely abandoned. Now, one of my clients did, they had to completely abandon they were, you know, that they were they had, they were a transit company, and nobody was riding the bus anymore. It was like that, okay, I get it, you know, they had it, they had to really pivot significantly, right? Because nobody’s run the bus. But for other organizations, who did you see? Just of your clients, or maybe things you observed in the world? Who were the ones that were really able to take advantage of COVID? Meaning, take advantage of the uncertainty or the opportunity to change their business and come out better as a result? Did you? Did you have any experiences within your clients that had something like that?

Anthony Taylor  22:34

I’d have to wrack my brain, just say we’ve got a large client group. But I think there was a net 50%, improved, net 50%, decreased. Restaurants had a hard go, you know, certain professional services, marketing firms, like people in that kind of realm. Anybody serving people like Uber, like Uber, Uber Eats like any like food restaurant platform, if you able to adapt, and that’s kind of where I’m just I don’t believe in like a three year firm strategic plan, which I think we agree on, because there’s so much stuff that we could change. So you need to be nimble, you need to be adaptive, right? These aren’t my clients. But I recently saw two examples of like, what was it Shopify started off as a snowboard company? Slack started off as a video game with a good in app messenger or a good app, like communication platform like that, like the strategic plan is, hey, I’m going to grow this company into this. But the adaption and the recognizing that there’s a market opportunity is both the scary part of entrepreneurship. But that’s like, what’s great is if you can adapt, and you say, Hey, we’ve got an opportunity, like, Let’s rock and roll and follow it. So you need to have flexibility in your plan. And you also need to have a team that doesn’t get stuck in the document, but more on the outcome, what’s the outcome, grow the business have impact support people, and then that will be the guiding factor, so you don’t miss out on opportunities. So I didn’t exactly answer your question. But I’d say 5050. Someone said last.

Carl J. Cox 24:04

I say Anthony the question. Of course, I love to ask all our audience bears when it comes to for your clients. How do you measure success in their strategic planning process? In their process with

Anthony Taylor  24:20

their plan?

Carl J. Cox 24:21

First, I’ll say process and I’m gonna say plan next. So so how do you measure success with each each of those things?

Anthony Taylor  24:27

So I measure success in the process if everybody feels lighter.

Carl J. Cox 24:31

Hmm. And what do you what do you mean by that you have any mean but what is lighter mean?

Anthony Taylor 24:34

Lighter means that most of the time in a before a strategic planning session. Everybody has a bunch of things that they’re wondering about. They’re on like their front of their brain. They’re like, what about my project? How do I fit in this? They’ve got concerns, they’ve got doubts. They’ve got uncertainties. At the end of our two days, everybody feels way clearer. It feels like a weight has been lifted off, and they’ve moved from like, wondering if they’re on the same page to serve. They’re on the same page, which allows them to move faster, like through the implementation and actually getting everybody clear. So that’s the like, the lighter feeling. And you can see it on people’s faces. For those listening, if you’re thinking about doing a strategic planning session, it’s hard to say, Hey, your clients are going to be lighter, your team is going to be lighter, but it’s a huge, huge, huge ROI value for your people. Anyway,

Carl J. Cox 25:23

so that’s, I know that that was really interesting. And the reason why it really resonated with me is I am, I have bring on somebody on board and I was delegating some social media marketing practices things. So I didn’t have to do on my own. And it literally after the meeting, I was like, Oh, thank you. Like a real lot that was off my back. You know, I mean, because I had gone through the thorough process of training, this is what I like to do, have you do it, so I could free up more time, and have and be more focused and have them do something that’s going to be effective for the business as a whole. And so it’s interesting, you bring out that lighter experience. But what happened is, there was alignment, this is clearly what we want to do this, how we want to execute it. So now let’s talk about a plan success. Right? How do you know that you put together a plan that’s nailed it? Well, I’ll judge the success

Anthony Taylor  26:14

of the plan at the end of it. But basically, it’s if everybody accomplishes their one destination. So methodologically there’s basically the biggest problem that we solve as facilitators at SME Strategy is helping teams avoid the multiple destination trap, they can either go left right center or a million different options. Let’s the challenge. There are too many options, not enough time. If we can get a team clear on that one destination, if we’re successful in three years time, how will we know? And they get there? That’s what success looks like. And we’re going up to trail BC next week with a client. And they posted their one destination on the wall and say we’re hiring you again, because we actually already accomplished this, like a little bit early. Yeah, tons of growth. But everybody had that, you know, call it a Northstar color, whatever you want. But everybody was clear. This is where we’re going. And then they got there. And it’s like, well, what’s next?

Carl J. Cox 27:06

Anthony? I love it. How you I don’t know if you noticed that my number two here on the board is Select Destination. And, and I love it that the reason why I think it’s why use it. The reason why I use it is because the problem with saying we’re doing goals will that reminds people have them cutting weight, losing weight. And we know how successful people are with losing weight. We also know when people are with their New Year’s resolution or goals, right? It’s terrible, right? The the likelihood of people being successful. That’s a reason why the fitness industry and the weight loss industry is a multi billion dollar industries, right? Because people are not successful with doing it. Right. And they keep on failing over and over again. But if you focus on going to a new place, one single destination, then all of a sudden, you realize the goal is not to it’s not a goal. It’s It’s where our itinerary is, if you may, you know, our tinner area is to go there. And then that by definition is your change management, helping two people visualize No, we’re actually going to this new place. This is our core focus. I love it’s my I love that verbiage and choice because it changes people’s mindset a lot, right of that we’re going somewhere new strategy is just the how you get to somewhere to a new destination. Right? That is all it is. It’s how you’re gonna get there. But people don’t think about it is ultimately about a transformation is otherwise it’s just an annual operating plan. You know, all we’re doing is updating our budget. That’s not strategic most cases. That’s just making sure your numbers are gonna be right, right and making sure people have the amount of money they want to do in the respective budgets. But that by definition is not strategic. But strategic. Really strategic is when you tie it all together. Right. But it’s ultimately the moving time so new new. No, I’m curious on the I love that that one destination area behind it. Who fight you I you know, obviously that’s that’s a tough sell, right? Sometimes you’re like, well, we can do 12 things this year, right? How do you get how do you get people aligned on that one destination point?

Anthony Taylor  29:16

Well, I don’t mean that you’ve got a choice. You either are going you’re there’s only one of two options. It’s chicken or fish. You’re either going to one destination or multiple destinations. And then that’s like the first question. And then I sort of I have this building analogy, but I also quote, someone Ron Swanson is famous philosopher. And he says, Don’t half assed two things. All ass one thing. And I use that in all my facilitations because it’s you can either do 10 things a little bit or do a couple things really, really well. But I always bring it back into Simon Sinek he always says let’s start with wire in with wire, whatever it is, but it’s like that’s the I’m sure it’s on the bookshelf somewhere. But yeah, it’s

Carl J. Cox 29:55

back there. The one is another one right But this is I don’t know, if you’ve read this one day rammos drive one direction is a good one. But yeah, it’s, you nailed it right is is focusing on one thing is you’re much more likely much more successful to get there, you know, and and to hit that. So anyways, I absolutely love that. Okay. All right, so now now we’re gonna do all into that fun personal side, Anthony because that’s I like to have both the business and the personal side and you don’t have the most traditional path into doing what you’re doing. You’ve told me that multiple times, you know, like, and, and so for the audience to tell, how did you get to where you are like, how did you start out? And how did you get to this point, where all of a sudden, you’re you’re advising and people are seeking you out from around the world to get to their one destination that they’re trying to reach? And ah, okay, well, I

Anthony Taylor  30:51

know we’re short or short ish on time, but I was I’m actually a waiter by trade, I ran a bunch of different businesses, I put on rock concerts, I had an ESL school, two coffee shops, I had a nightlife directory before the Olympics came to Vancouver, half in English and half in Japanese called happening, which might be funny to some of your listeners. I was a waiter. And I just started doing coaching. And then like I said, it was learned strategic planning, and then started writing books. And eventually people believe me that I could do this. But we’re 10 years in almost 11 years into doing strategic planning. Hundreds of clients across the world. I’ve just accumulated a lot of experience, but I’ll tell you where it came from. And it’ll sort of tie it all in. When I was 25. And starting my business, I said, Okay, I have a hypothesis. And I said, in 20 years, so when I’m 45, everybody that’s a boomer that occupied senior leadership positions, is either going to they’re going to be out of those positions. And there’s going to be a huge, huge gap of people that are technically good, but have never had leadership opportunities, or they were never trained, or they didn’t go to business school, and there’s going to be this huge hole. So I want to be the guy that can support them and teach them business, but not from like a academic perspective, but from like a practical aspect and teach leadership and communication and all of that stuff that helps people so they can do that. And I’m like, I’m halfway through my 20 year plan. So like, I’m good. Like, you know, I’m hitting some of my KPIs now. But I’m not even rocking for another 10 more years. So that’s, that’s really, it’s just I want to help people and that want to help people all over the world. So we’re going to do some cool stuff over the next decade plus, so keep an eye out. For Anthony,

Carl J. Cox 32:41

I’m going to hit on one of the things you mentioned on going back to a bit in the business side of how you’re helping, what is the Forgive me here, but what what’s the one most common recommendation or encouragement that you can tell a young leader, right, where they’re just getting into a critical leadership position? What is one of the more common things that you share with them, so they can mature to be a great leader?

Anthony Taylor 33:11

John Maxwell said, a leader with no followers is just going for a walk. So I recommend to people and a successful leader, this is just this is my quote. But the successful leader helps other people get to where they want to go. And you can only help other people get to where they want to go if you listen and ask them. And that’s like at the heart of alignment is where do you want to go? Where do I want to go? And how does that overlap, I don’t worry about not alignment, I only worry about alignment, and and to help people get there. And then the other thing that I say in around change management is the benefit. This one is a quote for me, the benefit of the future needs to be greater than the pain of change and benefit of the future needs to be greater than the pain of change. So if you don’t have something that’s worthwhile, like, I don’t know, doing a marathon, you’re not going to get out of bed in the morning to go for your runs. Because it’s not worthwhile enough. So it’s gotta be big for you to make a big difference in a big impact towards making it forward. Yeah, and it really hurts by the way I got but it’s worthwhile you know.

Carl J. Cox 34:13

It will be worth while the fitters I heard just talking to person I know here locally in the area Mike veneer and he was talking about how save for his I think marriage, his kids being born, the multiple marathons he passed every single time crossing the finish line was just extraordinary. So I’m praying Mike, you’re right, because it is not fun to put a lacrosse ball on your hip and open it back. Okay, so you’ve made a lot of changes in your own personal life through the way on your own journey, you know, and getting towards this. Clearly you you’ve learned, what are you doing today? You know what you’ve been working on this past year, especially in this kind of COVID World To help keep your game up, you know, help make sure you’re still adding the most value. You know, this could be anything, it’s because you may be doing chess and checkers or you’re, you know, eating a Twinkie each night. I don’t know what it is. Or maybe you’re you know, I don’t know doing Taekwondo. What are the couple things you’re doing? That is help keeping your A game so you get up each morning, right? So you can make a difference out

Anthony Taylor 35:25

there. Man, I was trying to think about this as you’re asking the question, can I have so many things but it kind of goes in waves. So during the pandemic, I got back into playing piano, I found the biggest thing for me to stay at my A game was do something competitive, I really missed playing basketball and soccer. And I meant that I was most myself when I was doing that. I’m stretching and meditating in the morning, although I’m not great at it as a habit. But I do find that and I’m where I’m at today As of recording is I need to make more time for fun, because otherwise I’ll get too much into the just like the work life but fun is why I do it. It’s you know, and so doing that and getting back into travel that’s gonna be awesome, but honestly, I get jazzed by talking to people I get to do my own podcast twice a week. So talking to smart people smarter than me like that juices me up and connected with friends like you like that gives me juice so I’m yeah that’s what I love doing.

Carl J. Cox 36:20

And I think you you’re saying the beginning you’re heading to Foxborough here pretty soon. We’re home in the Pats so anyways all this path out there go Pat’s. But you and then where else you said you’re traveling somewhere else to or is it? Potentially Oklahoma or something of that nature?

Anthony Taylor 36:36

Potentially Oklahoma potentially Alaska? I’m going to trail British Columbia next week. And then Yeah, who knows? Maybe Orlando, Florida. But yeah, we got a lot of things but probably my my friends in Alaska, I’m probably going to go see them pretty soon. And friends. It’s that Yeah. Clients, client friends,

Carl J. Cox 36:54

my friend. Hey, that’s nice. When you could add the friend to the client. That means you’re truly making a bigger difference them. So alright, so ask the big question. How do you measure success in your personal life?

Anthony Taylor 37:09

If I can’t tell the difference between my personal life and professional life that’s mean measuring success. But no, actually the more accurate one is if my wife is happy and that means I’m not dropping the ball there. That’s the number one thing so being Yeah, that’s that’s a that’s a

Carl J. Cox 37:26

happy wife happy life is already telling us Anthony

Anthony Taylor 37:29

happy spouse happy house. Absolutely. That’s right.

Carl J. Cox 37:33

Okay, that Thank you. Thanks for sharing that I NC I love your your backstory, I reason why I wanted to bring that up is there’s a lot of people probably their audience are like, I am not feel like or I should be. And I want to make a greater difference somewhere else. I think you are one of those wonderful examples of somebody who completely changed your career multiple times. And now not only do you just come up with a two three year plan to do something new, but you got this 20 year, big, hairy, audacious goal to make a huge difference out there. And anyways, I love that I love your story about how you did that. Anthony, what is a book that you one or two books that you’d recommend for audience that they have to read?

Anthony Taylor 38:11

So before I answer that, I’m gonna say I’m generally never where I want to be, as in I’m always pushing forward. But I think that like the bigger thing that pulls me is what gets me out of bed. So for all of you, if you’re not where you’re at, just you know you are where your feet are. So take take that into consideration and just take everyday because you never know what’s Nothing’s Ever Promised. So enjoy where you’re at. The book that I that’s really resonating with me now is the 5am Club. I read it last year, it really it having that extra bit of time. Yet to do what I need to do to be at my best, it really made a big difference. And yeah, that’s my Reko for today.

Carl J. Cox 38:48

Isn’t that crazy, though? The difference between waking up at 505 or five versus even 545? That 45 minutes is massive. Yep. Dude, it’s absolutely massive.

Anthony Taylor  39:02

I don’t always I don’t always follow it. But when I make time for and that was one of my keys to success when I made time for myself in that in the morning, even if I had like seven o’clock or six o’clock facilitations it made a big difference. And I felt that that’s where I was like measuring success in my own life.

Carl J. Cox 39:18

That’s right. So Anthony, where can people learn more about you? Where’s a good website to find you.

Anthony Taylor 39:23

Holler at me on LinkedIn. connect on LinkedIn, Anthony C. Taylor on LinkedIn, Anthony C. Taylor on the internet SME Strategy. If you search strategic planning something, they’ll probably find me check out my book Alignment.CEO, and then come and join us at our diversity inclusion summit, just like be part of a conversation. We got some amazing people.

Carl J. Cox 39:46

Yeah. And once again, a really well known podcasts as well. And so I encourage you to to I think it’s one of the top 2% or something like that. Is that true? Is that I think I saw two or 3%

Anthony Taylor  39:58

where we’re up there were no yes, it’s a top 3% podcast with the strategy and leadership podcast and we interview smart people twice a week.

Carl J. Cox 40:05

Yeah. Awesome. Good stuff. Anthony. Well, Anthony Hey, this has been great. I can’t wait to see you in person again. Thanks for being on the Measure Success Podcast show.

Anthony Taylor  40:14

It’s my pleasure. I’m proudly Cascadian and I’m glad to wrap it. So thanks for having me

Carl J. Cox 40:18

calm. Absolutely. And everyone else we’re wishing you the very best at measuring success. Have a great day.

Outro 40:26

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