YL

Leadership and Performance Development

Inspiration

Lessons from Cameron Hanes: Taking Action for Success

Inspiration, Leadership

Cameron Hanes is a legendary bow hunter and ultra-marathon endurance athlete. I recently finished his latest book “Endure: How to Work Hard, Outlast, and Keep Hammering.” For decades, Cameron has been perfecting the art of bow hunting. Day in and day out, he continues hammering his craft, ultimately allowing him to execute clutch shots on mature majestic bull elk in the wild. He also runs 20 miles daily to keep himself in top physical shape so his body is prepared for the moment. His preparation is relentless, taking no days off. He is taking action for success.

Pursuit of Passion

Although I am not a hunter and do not run ultra-marathons, I take many lessons from Cam Hanes’ examples. I believe we are a product of the extracted actions of others. I am always examining the behaviors to see what I can apply in my own life. In the case of Cameron Hanes, I admire his persistent pursuit of passion. He never wavers from his soulful desire to hunt. He knows he must train to increase his probability of success in the wild. The wild is unforgiving, and Cam must always stay razor-sharp.

For decades, no one knew who Cameron Hanes was. His countless reps have improved him in all areas of life and helped him ascend to the top and gain respect among the elite, not only in the hunting community but also among countless others who draw inspiration from his work. You don’t hang with Joe Rogan or David Goggins, run stride for stride with Lance Armstrong, or work out with UFC Champion Colby Covington if you are a toe dipper. This man has kept hammering for decades and has earned the honor and reputation as the world’s best in his niche.

Where in life can you apply the vigorous pursuit of greatness?
What is your passion?
What can you do daily that supports that passion and increases the probability of extreme success in that field?

My career pursuits have always been about my passions. My love for sports and competition drove me to become a Physical Education teacher. I get to have fun every day and incorporate play into the lives of my students. I have coached football for almost 15 years. Most people only watch it on Saturdays and Sundays. I lived the game for half my life, teaching players how to compete and confidently contribute to their community. This helped me strategically build a leadership and performance platform, my true passion today.

I’ve recently built my first official small business, Youniversalife Lawn Care. I’ve always enjoyed working outdoors in my yard. There is always a gratifying sense of accomplishment after completing my yard work. I wanted to extend this a step further by investing in an industrial-grade SCAG mower and acquiring my first mowing clients. I mow over 20 properties that bring monthly income for my family. It’s a few extra hours of work a week. Although it is defined as work, it is also a joyous business. I like learning the ins and outs of an effective business. I love sweating in the heat while riding a 37-horsepower mower, zipping across landscapes. Instead of spending hours in the gym every week, I carry a weed eater and leaf blower. I wear noise-canceling headphones and play podcasts that teach me anything I want. I’ll listen to new music when I grow tired of informative conversation.

Most of what I’ve learned about business has come from working on a mower. I have effectively married personal development with work, doing them simultaneously and earning a side income. Teaching Physical Education allows me to incorporate movement, exercise, and play into my daily routine. I double-dip my professional life with physical, emotional, and social health. My Youniversalife Leadership & Performance is also an extension of this. Teaching PE gives me the freedom to stretch my curriculum. I uniquely get to create content for my students that helps them achieve success through leadership and performance development. These concepts fall under the overall wellness umbrella. I have strategically aligned my passions with my work to create a giving and expanding lifestyle.

Work-Life-Youniverse

Some people wish to keep their professional life separate from their personal life. I would argue that one should support the other. They should work together, compoundly build, and create a better version of you. I do not want to work a job where I obsessively wait for the weekend escape. It’s my goal to continually work and strategize how to align the two better daily. I call this my “Work-Life-Youniverse.”

Physical Education Teacher
Youniversalife Leadership & Performance Platform
Youniversalife Lawn Care
Husband and Father
Faith

In theory, this life strategy is like repurposing content across social media platforms. When you create content in written form, you can repurpose it by creating a short video that supports that thought. I repurpose my leadership content, reshape it to fit the classroom and a large group context, and deliver it, hopefully resonating with my students. If my principal asked me for a curriculum on leadership, I would point to Youniversalife.com and show him a library of content I’ve crafted through years of work. I could confidently speak about leadership and performance for extended periods because I’ve accumulated content and archived it by various subtopics.

When I expand my Youniversalife Lawn Care business, I will draw from the leadership and performance knowledge I have acquired. I understand the nuances of relationship building and how to motivate individuals to perform at a high level. When they don’t perform, I know how to help them become productive employees for the company. I am well-versed in conflict resolution and how to navigate crises quickly. I have been developing these characteristics by no accident.

How can you implement the Work-Life-Youniverse strategy?

Step 1

Identify your passion that brings you great joy and fulfillment that can potentially be monetized with good strategy:

  • Physical Fitness
  • Nutrition
  • Budgeting
  • Writing
  • Investment Strategy
  • Landscaping
  • Welding
  • Carpentry
  • Coaching
  • Music

The possibilities are endless with enough creativity and willingness to work consistently.

Step 2

Pursue a career that brings value across several fronts

  • Income
  • Professional Development
  • Paid Time Off (PTO)
  • Acquired Equity in Your Company / Workplace
  • Childcare
  • Health Insurance
  • Corporate Gym Membership / Wellness Incentive Program
  • Paid Creation Time / Incentives for Creating Solutions and Products
  • Helping Others
Step 3

Create a business plan that binds your passion and primary career together. The time margin that exists in your career provides room for your passion. A business plan is a roadmap for its operation. The final destination may not be known, but the initial steps can be strategized. Identify the initial components that must exist to get it off the ground. When these steps are completed, additional steps begin to come into focus. Taking action is the most important piece of the journey.

Today’s business climate is ripe with opportunity. The e-commerce industry alone has opened avenues for opportunity that didn’t exist 10 years ago. Shopify is an e-commerce sales platform that allows anyone to create a shop, create products, drop-ship, or even sell print-on-demand items. Once your business plan is established and you build your brand identity, you are immediately ready to create and sell online. Create your brand digital designs with Canva or Photoshop and transfer them to products in your online store. Market your brand and designs on your personal social media, and BOOM, you’re now operating your first business. You may sell 2 products in year 1, but that’s passive income that didn’t exist before and requires little attention after establishing the store and brand.

Expanding Your Brand Across Multiple Industries of Passion

When you create a business plan and name for your business/platform, do it to expand the brand across multiple industries of passion. Do not box your brand in with a niche specific name. Research names that are available for use online. Find out if there is already a domain name or website online. When creating a website, effective keyword research is vital. You must determine what others search for through Google and other search engines. Do not neglect this step because it can expedite your growth.

Forward-thinking is a key strategy for success. You must always think 5 steps ahead and forecast what will come. There may be blindspots along the way, but you shouldn’t be naive to opportunity. Successful businessman Patrick Bet-David discusses the next 5 moves in his book Your Next Five Moves. I love his take on how alignment is the key to fulfillment. He suggests that we keep these four points in mind:

  • Your vision must align with the ideal future self.
  • Your choices must align with your vision.
  • Your effort level must match the magnitude of your vision.
  • Your values and principles must be the support pillars of your behaviors.

This framework allows you to plan for the future and identify markets where you can win the game. Or take it from another successful entrepreneur Alex Hormozi, who takes a deep dive into how to make your passion a business reality in an Interview with Chris Williamson. He emphasizes identifying the things you don’t want to do or be and relentlessly moving in the opposite direction. This identified course of action leads you to potential business ideas.

Wrap Up

Not all passions and interests should be monetized. An argument could be made that life requires time for leisure, and we shouldn’t mix it with monetization. Codie Sanchez discusses this debate with guest Ali Abdaal on her BigDeal Podcast . They both have mixed feelings on the subject but agree that if the concept fits your lifestyle and you find joy, pursue it. When the pursuit becomes a grind, we should distance ourselves from monetizing our feel-good passions.

Find what fits you and be curious. If you’ve found this post interesting, continue reading the Youniversalife Archive and listening to the Youniversalife Podcast. Thank you for your support, and remember to Keep Moving Forward.

Building Your Winning Team

Inspiration

I recently touched on the importance of aligning yourself with influential people and establishing mentors. When seeking mentors, we must note that we seek the uncommon with the intention of building your winning team. There should be a significant desire to find others different from ourselves and those around us by embracing their uniqueness. We must become excellent at identifying uncommon behavior. I compare it to growing your professional scouting department. Every professional sports team has a group of scouts. It’s their job to identify and recruit the best talent for their team. A considerable amount of resources are dedicated to this task. We must scout for influential mentors and search for talent to build our organization.    

Great scouts have a unique ability to read people, where they look for specific and uncommon behaviors. Uncommon behavior comes in many forms. We seek world-changers, people actively pursuing a better life for themselves and those around them. They are continually attempting to bring value to their space. This value steadily increases and radiates contagious energy. They are not moved by the world but by a higher power. They are students of life.  

Let’s face it; we are all people watchers. It is in human nature to read and learn from others. Watching others interact from afar and see how they move through the day-to-day is fascinating. We all wish to comprehend people. If we’re to build our organization, there are key scouting categories we look at:    

Scouting categories

  • Personality
  • Humor
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Steadfastness
  • Voice
  • Embrace the weird

Within each category, a personal DNA exists. This DNA can be transmitted to others. It is contagious. We instinctively take on some of their mannerisms when interacting with someone for an extended period. We take on other’s sub-identities. We pick up on traits and apply them to our lives. Our lives are constructed through these interactions. By placing this into perspective, we must recognize the importance of being around positive influencers.  

In the book 1776 by ‎David McCullough, he examines the unique qualities of General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He explains how Washington was in constant search for world changers. He knew the importance of placing influential men around him to support the cause, eventually leading to freedom. McCullough describes the quality of each man. One man he continually called on and respected was Henry Knox. He was an extraordinary man who was a bookseller before the war. Washington recognized his passion and placed his trust in him. Henry and his men moved 59 artillery pieces from Fort Ticonderoga, 300 miles over treacherous terrain, to Boston. A job that seemed impossible was accomplished by world-changers and later helped win the war. 

Seek out the best! Allow them to infiltrate your life and influence your behaviors. Write a list of qualities that you wish to possess. These are foundational elements that can be built. Be the scout that brings you life’s championships. You should always seek to build your winning team.

Wrap Up

If you’ve found this article helpful, slide over to the Youniversalife Archive, where you’ll find extensive leadership help. You can also check out the Influences Page, which lists literature and podcasts that shape my winning team.

Implementing “Play” for Success

Inspiration

Several years ago, I began an effort to quit using nicotine. Dip tobacco became my escape from daily stressors. Nicotine releases a direct shot of dopamine, the “feel good” neurotransmitter in the brain. When I quit, there was a significant void that needed replacing. At the time, I knew little about how the brain functions. Years later, I discovered Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist from Standford University, who explained this through his podcast. I realized that implementing “play” was the key to success. 

Our bodies release dopamine when we play, allowing us to experience joy and happiness. Huberman has noted that non-competitive play is the best way to experience this. It takes away the stressor of competing to win. Competition is good, but if you want to experience joy and happiness in the moment, play for the fun. Become creative in your adventures and tap the imaginative spirit. 

I see joy firsthand when I teach Physical Education. I observe my students smiling and socializing more when play is fun and creative. Many students retract and lose this experience when I add a competitive component. It becomes something different altogether for them. Tension and stress enter the room with the overwhelming desire to win. A friendly game of Pickleball, where students learn and discover their capabilities, becomes tiresome for many when we add a true competitive element.

Competition is essential for personal and team development, but if the objective is to have fun, limit the competitive piece and allow yourself to relax. Be conscious of how casual games affect your emotional state compared to competitive games. Practice transitioning back and forth between the two, where you find balance. This will produce less burnout, and happiness will flourish.  

Coaches and teachers should understand the importance of balancing casual play and competition. This promotes an environment of creativity and exploration. With play, the opportunity to discover new strategies and techniques will be unlimited. Playful moments also allow leadership to surface. People are more willing to communicate in relaxed environments. This offers an excellent opportunity for coaches and teachers to identify the inspirational leaders in the room.

If you’ve enjoyed learning about play and how it is incorporated in leadership, take a peek at the YL Archive for additional leadership tools.

How to Be a Champion for Students

Inspiration, Leadership

To be a champion for students, we meet their needs through immediate action. Consistently show up for their demanding life experiences. We must personally take the time to search out students. Go hold a conversation and ask questions about their life and education. Genuinely listen to their stories and react with empathetic body language and words.

Pursuit

Teachers and leaders are champions for kids when we pursue them and build trust. Educators unpack student gifts through conversation. This can be a friendly greeting in the hallway, a deep discussion in class on various topics, or a post-class status report with individuals. Seek to deepen conversation through open-ended questions. Students are humans who like to be heard and allowed to tell their stories. These stories often unpack student gifts. These gifts should then be brought to light. 

Reveal their Gifts

Many students are quick to dismiss their talents. They have blinders to their developed gifts and do not continually cultivate them. They do not know what or how to release their gifts to the world for us all to experience and benefit from. It’s the educator’s job to help students to learn to fly. Give them the eyes and wings to take off. Show them how to build confidence and take another step forward. Make them believers in themselves.

Relationship Building

Students are worth the time and energy it takes to establish relationships. Relationships drive a positive culture and make any institution successful. Relationships through family, friends, school, and community build environments where we want to exist and contribute to.

Relationship building transcends all leadership. It is not limited to the educational setting. It rings true in business, family, and community. Do not underestimate the power of asking questions to extract life stories from individuals. It allows leaders to determine where gifts reside. Gifts that can enter the world and bring great value to us all.

Key Takeaways

  • Take the time to search out students.
  • Teachers and leaders are champions for kids when we pursue them and build trust.
  • It’s the educator’s job to help students to learn to fly. Give them the eyes and wings to take off.
  • Relationship building transcends all leadership.

If you found How to Be a Champion for Students helpful, check out the youniversalife archive for additional leadership content and how to implement strategies into your area of influence.

Equipping Teams for Success

Inspiration

Empowering Growth with Actionable Resources

Youniversally, we all have a deep desire to expand and learn more. Leaders utilize this craving to help others discover their innate abilities. They do this by giving ownership of tasks and equipping their team for success. Great school principals rely on department heads to design curriculums that impact students. They provide data and research-based protocols that will allow teachers to design an effective plan. Great coaches assign leaders within the team and provide them with leadership training. Leaders only give a person a boat with a paddle. They set their team’s course and provide solid instruction to increase the chance of success. There is a purposeful effort to empower growth with actionable resources.

Giving Support & Resources for Idea Generation and Prototyping

Great leaders empower people. They create an innovative culture by providing their team members with development opportunities in the form of support & resources. Leaders pinpoint useful material that feeds the growth of others. 

  • Books
  • Articles
  • Blogs
  • Virtual classes
  • Clinics
  • etc. 
  • Anything that improves performance through implementation.

When team members are supported, they feel encouraged to take action. The creative spirit awakens, and ideas begin to pore out.

Coaching Clinics

Glazier Clinic was the first professional clinic I attended. My Head Coach provided his staff a chance to attend the yearly meeting of coaches in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was an opportunity to immerse myself in the culture of football. It allowed me to meet the professionals in their element. I was able to see what great coaching looked like. These men took their craft seriously and made a continual effort to develop. From young twenty-somethings like me to old grey-haired veterans with seasoned raspy voices, coaches came from everywhere.

Idea Generation & Prototyping

With the proper resources and support, idea generation and prototyping are birthed. When team members are supported, they feel encouraged to take action. The creative spirit awakens, and ideas begin to pore out. Great leaders can teach their people how to harness this activity. The organization of thoughts followed by the implementation is critical. This is prototyping at work, designing products, tools, and strategies, and putting them into the world. If you’ve watched Shark Tank, you’ve seen the creative spirit in action. I love the process entrepreneurs go through to achieve success. The thousands of hours in development for their moment of success. They embrace the process and do not differentiate Work-Life-Play. Great Leaders lead their people down this path of discovery.

Take Action

Performance through implementation is essential. If the provided material is operational, it can save time and money. Players, employees, and team members must practice what they’ve learned. An awareness of the potential return on investment (ROI) is vital. Leaders need to ask themselves: 

  • Is what I’m providing actionable? 
  • Does the material lead to idea generation?
  • Does it feed a creative workplace?
  • Will my people apply these concepts?

If the potential ROI is high, suggesting such material is critical to developing team members. If the ROI is low, do not suggest it and continue searching for actionable items to provide.

Give Praise to Your Team

Once the team member has the support and resources they need, they enter the prototyping stage, creating actionable products that create value for the team and the public. Encourage your team to bring you ideas. Strive to create an environment where everyone thinks big and innovates. Get excited when someone approaches you with new ideas. Help them bring the concepts to life with energy, supportive ideas, and additional resources. Leaders should verbally reward their people through praise in private and public settings. Meetings are a great place to speak about people who generate ideas. If you choose to implement an idea, speak to the group about who created it and praise them openly.

The Landing

These leadership tools greatly impact development across the board. For more leadership tools, literature, and podcasts, check out the Youniversalife Archive. There is a treasure trove of information that inspires leadership qualities. Remember, leadership is developed with directed intention. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please share it with family and friends. Post it on your social media. You can also leave a review on Spotify and Apple Podcast for the Youniversalife Podcast.

Keep Moving Forward!

Ep. 15: Confidence Part 2

Inspiration

In the latest YL episode (Confidence Part 2), I discuss how to embrace your weirdness & that of others that leads to healthy confidence.

Weird is Good

  • Embrace our weirdness.
  • Take inventory of what we do that is unique.
    • Be detailed
    • Weird should not get labeled personally as a stigma, but a strength.
  • Weird usually brings new ideas and creativity to the world.
  • Things that remain the same or fit the mold don’t move the world forward.
  • A band you like that eventually everyone falls for.

Those that shame “weird” actions, often times lack confidence and creativity

  • They don’t want change and have significant interest in things remaining the same.
  • How the world currently works for them.
  • They may be threatened by change

To Embrace the Weird, We Must Build Our Confidence

  • It increases as a result of our experiences.
  • Stepping into the void and practicing
  • Achieving mini wins & milestones
  • Progress is progress

Those that have joy & those who struggle to find it

The Joy-us

  • The Joyus find the process to be life giving
  • They reflect back on the journey
  • They are grateful for each experience
  • They feel as if they have lived and are grateful for it
  • Hardship is part of it (I’m Still Standing by Elton John)
  • This approach helps confidence to row and manifest
  • They know that the hard times are part of the overall equation that ultimately creaes the next better version of them.
  • Lean into courage. I will go. I will move forward. Send me mentality

The Strugglers 

  • Those who struggle to find joy only concentrate on the end product.
  • Good will only come if I am able to complete it.
  • The process is viewed as a struggle and their is a narrow view of its actual harvest 
  • True healthy confidence is hard to obtain with this state of mind
  • Hard to establish consistency because the confidence is always being undermined by the hardships.

Can You Be Both?

  • Some aspects of my life I’m in the Joy-us state of mind. Some areas I struggle
  • It is a battle between the light and darkness.
  • I fight for the light. I fight for life.

Lean into the Joy-us and establish internal and external triggers that return you to it when struggling.

The Joy-us Athlete

  • What does it look like to be a joyus athlete?
    • Find a role an embrace it
      • Stop comparing your role to those that are further down the road than you.
      • Small seat at the table

Confidence is not knowing you have the ability to do something, but know you will try to do it.

Rob Bell

Check out additional content at Youniversalife.com.

Before listening to Confidence Part 2, be sure to listen to Confidence Part 1 to set the stage for understanding.

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