Awaken your Why

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Hype Leadership Podcast. David and Lindsay Curry are dynamic entrepreneurs focused in high performance leadership and coaching in sales and service. Through the Hype Leadership Podcast, David and Lindsay strive to serve in your journey towards a high performance life. And now, here are your hosts, David and Lindsay Curry. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Welcome to Hype Leadership Podcast. My name is Lindsay Curry and this is my wonderful co host, David Curry. And we are excited for the episode for you. Awaken your why. And I'm, I'm really excited to just jump into that. But before we do, we always theme our podcast around quotes that have some meaning. And today's quote is the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. And that is from Mark Twain. So, David, that is a deep quote, is it not? [00:01:01] Speaker C: That's. Yeah, that's right up my alley, isn't it? [00:01:04] Speaker B: It is. I mean, I'm sure you've put immense amount of thought into that quote because you are the quote master. So let's hear what you got. [00:01:14] Speaker C: Well, I would say I've, I've at least experienced one of those days. You know, I'm here, so I have experienced the first most important day of my life, and that was the day I was born. I'm still, you know, it's a big. It's a big topic. I'm glad we're talking about it, but I think it's one of those things that, you know, almost can be buzz word today. You know, a lot of people talk about your purpose, your why, and for me personally, that has been a long journey. And I think one of the most important things that I could teach on today is the fact that it's okay if you don't feel like you've reached that second most important day yet. Right. Like the day that you figured out the. The epiphany, the aha moment of why I'm here, you know, and now I'm chasing this bigger purpose and I'm going to make this global impact that's going to change the world. You know, sometimes that is just something that you're always going to have to realign yourself with. And that has been my experience personally. So I'm excited to unpack that. You know, what is, what is our purpose? What does that mean? How can I get closer to what that is and work towards that? [00:02:34] Speaker B: So I know, you know, when you talk about that, your purpose and your why, this is something that actually, Glenn, Glenn Crabtree, who's actually been on the podcast several times, the president and CEO of Orca Life. We actually sat down maybe in 2017, and it's actually a really cool exercise. I didn't think it was going to be as powerful as it was, if I'm being honest, because, you know, you hear about all these self help exercises, but it was a Simon Sinek exercise and it talked about knowing your why. And in that exercise, you can Google it and look it up, but it actually walks you through those seven steps, like each layer going down to really get to the root of your why in. And it's, it's a little bit of an emotional, emotional exercise because you're walking through and it's asking you questions, you know, based on, you know, your childhood and, and what, what is it that's driving you? What is it that's, that's, you know, forcing you or, or moving you to maybe act a certain way. So I would encourage folks to do that because that was something that really stuck out to me when we were kind of talking about this, David. Because that was something that impacted when we were brand new in the business to really kind of get clear on what it was that we wanted to align ourselves with. [00:03:56] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think that brings up a good point. Right. Of these different stages of your life. And maybe where you're at, it's easier to align yourself with a bigger purpose. One thing I know I've done in the past is I've read a book by John Gordon. It's called the Seed. I love John's work. It's very simple lines. Well, with me. And one of the aspects that John speaks and teaches to. With your why and your purpose is your tran. You have to transform from the inside out. And I like that because it ties back to what we've talked about with culture, you know, and one of, one of these big things everybody talks about, but you just don't know exactly how to explain it or teach somebody. Well, you do this, you do this, you do this. And now you all of a sudden have this big clear purpose, or you do this and you do this and you do that. And now all of a sudden you've got the perfect culture at your business. One of the best ways I've heard it always said, and again, it comes from the inside out. And I, and I'll quote Maxwell. When you talk about culture, culture is not what you say, it is who you are, Right. So when you think about that purpose, it's aligning yourself and bettering yourself and, and changing yourself from the inside. So the way that you show up not only to what you do, but maybe to how you interact with everybody on a regular basis is different than, than it was before. And when you're aligned internally, then it helps you walk daily towards maybe that bigger purpose or I'll say bigger goal. And I know, Lindsay, one of the things you want to speak to today was like our purpose verse, our goals. And that those are kind of two different things. [00:05:58] Speaker B: They are, because when you think about it and, and I want to encourage everybody to just think for a moment, okay, over your life span of where you are at this moment. How many different types of goals have you had? I know the goals that we, David, that you and I had, what, 12 years ago? 12 years ago are completely different than what they are now, right? We, we now. And then we had no kids. Now we have three kids. We now have a business together. We have a number of responsibilities. So our, our goals shift, right? Your goals are, are constantly shifting. And it's really based on the season of life that you're in at that moment. Hey, what is it? Because some of you are like, hey, look, I've already accomplished this goal. But as far as the purpose, the purpose is really, it's really your compass and not that your purpose. I don't want to say it can't change, but I will say it'll evolve as you grow, as you mature, as you're growing, it will evolve. And you know, it's. It's always going to continue to evolve. As far as when you're moving that business, it does. [00:07:09] Speaker C: And I think as I spoke to earlier, you know, this is, this is a, is an evolving thing. It is something you're always going to chase. And it comes back to me as you speak to that, you know, goal versus purpose. We also have taught in the past on goal verse, growth, growth. And one of the most easiest ways to describe the difference there is if I set a goal and just say us particularly, we started the business and I would say primary goal was getting to a point that financially we could pay our bills, maybe have a little bit extra money in the bank and, you know, do life a little bit different than we were doing it before we started this business. Once you achieve that goal, there begins to set in comfortability and complacency. Complacency then creates nothingness. And that can be the slow death of now. I have gotten so far away from my purpose just because I achieved this goal, right? If you set a goal, you achieve the goal. Where do I go now? And sometimes if we set big goals it could be even worse to achieve the big goal. Because now you've achieved this big goal, you've really created some comfortability and that creates even more of a complacent mindset or a freedom to live in complacency. So that is the difference. When we set goals and we achieve, we now have to start over again where if you have shifted yourself internally from a goal mindset to the growth mindset, you know, you know, going in that, yes, maybe I have this target, but I also know that growth is my continued effort and I've achieved this plate, I've achieved this landmark, but I've not landed on the plateau. Right. I've got a landmark and I'm continuing to go up the hill. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Because when you think about David, when we partnered with Amerilife, we really, we had primarily focused on final expense and serving seniors. And they were really about the holistic approach. Right. The cross sell opportunity. And so we really almost had to reinvent ourselves, right. Really shift our perspective to thinking different, that hey look, you can do more than one thing in a home. This client, our clients that we serve can have more than one of our products. And so I know that that's been a, a very gradual shift and as far as our, our agencies and our agents just helping them see the value in that, that, but that has been something that we, we personally had to reinvent ourselves and, and look at that differently. [00:10:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And if you look at today's landscape, you know, we just talked about it earlier on a call, take, take the Medicare world for instance, and what CMS is doing and the regulations that are coming down that are, are impacting the way that us as agency ownership are playing within the Medicare space. You know, the regulations that CMS is putting on are changing the landscape and it's forcing people to adapt. Right. The way that I was doing things 10 years ago, the business path that I was on, creating my income, this plan for the future that I had in mind, it is being changed by outside forces at the moment which are putting pressure on those people to figure out different ways of doing their business. Where, when you had a, if you have that growth mindset as we did, it's funny because I was telling the story earlier. We were talking, I was talking to a guy that we're, we're getting into some new things with some seminars and some Social Security education and expanding our business. And he said, okay, so if you've got AUM Asset under management in your mind, then yeah, you're going to do this, do this, do this. And I said, hold on a second, hold on a second. Right. And it took me back to the day that really we were in the process of building out the Hype Financial website and we were just getting started with this podcast, which has been over a year now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We are going to be doing some stuff on annuities, we're going to be teaching on annuities, we're going to be big in the retirement space. And at that current time, we were not, we knew nothing hardly about it. And if you wanted help in retirement, we were not the experts that we are today in that field. But it's great to look back. People say, you know, don't get stuck in the past, don't look in your rearview mirror. But it's also to say it's great to look back and see how far we've come. And it was that a year, two years ago. We're talking about, yes, we are going to be in this space. We do need this kind of education, we do need this outlet on our website as something that we can provide to the client. And now you look back at that today and that's so true in what we're living in. And I think about that as we go forward. Right. It's, it's really about vision, you know, it's about the long term vision and hopefully aligning that vision somewhat to the purpose that you internally have that's feeding you as to why you're going to do it. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Well, and really, in a nutshell, it's about getting uncomfortable because once you get comfortable, it's time to get uncomfortable again. Right? Because you said that's the, the slow death, right, Is so getting uncomfortable. And no one likes to get uncomfortable, right. If it's too hot or it's too cold or, you know, you're, you're working out and then they're asking you to do, you know, 50 burpees or whatever. Like it's, it's about getting, getting that uncomfortableness. So. Yes. [00:13:46] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that's where a lot of people, and I personally can get a little bit convoluted with purpose. And like you said, there's a difference in a goal and a purpose and there's a difference in your passion and a purpose. Right? The passion is that emotional feeling, the rush, the, the, the joy that you get out of achieving something or doing something. Right. It, it gives you this emotional gratefulness and, and feeling. But the purpose is kind of that, like you said, North Star compass as to the bigger reason why I'm going to push past some of these downs and continue to chase that passion that I have or find a new passion that aligns me to this bigger reason why. So as you think about where we're at now, right, where we are definitely in a leadership role, we've got a lot of people that look to us for guidance. They look to us for vision. How do you feel that that purpose that you have aligns with leading the business? You know, purpose and business? [00:15:06] Speaker B: Well, as far as purpose in business, you know, when we, When I think about that, I think about actually before I got into this business, David, because we had. Many of you might have heard this story before I've shared it. I don't know, maybe one of the first episodes. But I had. We had a boutique that, that I'd started. And you know, we were going broke, right? We were going broke. So. And we were expecting at that time with our first son. And so at that point I really had to. Because we were broke and we had another mouth to feed and could barely feed ourselves. So I really had to think, okay, I enjoy connecting with the people that came into my boutique. I loved it. I love talking to them. I loved helping them find the perfect gift. It was what, what filled me up. Just those conversations and finding them a gift, them calling me on the phone, hey, can you find me this gift for my daughter? And so with that, that in mind, you know, I did enjoy helping others and, and conversating with them. So when looking to, to that next career that was going to give me the same, the same joy as far as insurance that I found that when I was sitting in the homes and, and talking to our, our clients, right, Because I was able to help them. I was able to connect with them. And, and most, you know, another thing that we were missing, David, is we didn't have enough. We didn't have enough income. We didn't have enough. So that was something that was also going to change and has changed the trajectory of, of our lives and of our, our, our family, right? What we're able to do for our children. So that, that's always been a big impact. So when I think about how am I serving, serving our agents within our agency, it's really just helping them get to that next level, whether that's hiring somebody or maybe that's. Maybe they don't want to hire somebody. Maybe that's expanding into either Medicare or retirement planning, allowing them to get to where they want to be much faster than what it Took us. And so I think that's so important because understanding where, where you're in your agent, where your leader wants to go and helping them, helping them along the way. [00:17:40] Speaker C: Yes. And you know what? I think that I'm hearing you say and knowing you, I know you well, you know, married what, 13 years now. We've been through a lot and we've done a lot, we've done a lot of work on identifying these things. And one thing that is also true when seeking your purpose is identifying knowing your strengths and living in that strength zone. And that is certainly a strength of yours. Right? Connecting with others, helping others move towards these goals. You know, where you have that, that growth mindset, you have that driver mentality of. I forget how you put it a couple weeks ago, but it was like, I'm an achiever, I'm always seeking out the next achievement. So with those strengths of yours that you are, you are always looking for the next achievement and you love connecting with people. That aligns perfectly with the role that you've put yourself in at orca. Me personally, those strengths are not the same for me. You know, the connection ability with, with our agents is maybe not as much of a strength of mine. It's, it's something more that is intentional work to be as, as good and as natural as you are. And it will never be as natural as you are. But what is a strength of mine is, is knowledge and discovery and it's a motivator and factual driven decision is something that I'm very good at. You know, blunt, factual based conversation is something that I always win at. So that is something that I can use as my strength to put me in a place that works towards my purpose of being an educator. Being somebody that has the fact, has the research, has the knowledge to put somebody in a place that loves to connect with others, to use a knowledge that I've worked for to help them be better because they, they don't usually win with that strength. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Correct. Well, and you know something else I want to point out is David, you're, you're a great visionary. So if anyone that's, that's listening to this podcast and you're thinking about your business right now and yes, the quote that you state all the time and I should be able to remember it. But if you want to, if you want to go, what is it? Go alone. [00:20:26] Speaker C: You want to go fast, go by yourself. [00:20:28] Speaker B: There you go. [00:20:29] Speaker C: You want to go far? Let's go together. [00:20:31] Speaker B: There we go. So thank you. So when you think about that surrounding yourself with, you know, just happens to be my husband. But surround yourself with someone that complements your, your limitations. Because you're right. I mean, as far as the knowledge and discovery, if it's going to help me move the business, sure, I'm interested. But just to learn something, just to learn something that's personally, that's just, that's not me. I mean, I was sitting down learning about Mesopotamian this morning to help my son pass his test. I didn't know a daggone thing about Mesopotamia and I didn't remember it in fifth grade. So fun fact. [00:21:09] Speaker C: Well, there are limits to the knowledge and discovery. There are also stages of that. You know, it's like once you learn something of don't necessarily care to go back there. So that's okay. That's what grace is for. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:23] Speaker C: I want to ask you a little bit about Orca. Right. And we founded Orca 2016. We were early on in the business when you think about the purpose at that point, you know, for me and for most, I think we were brought into this space, into this industry because life was tough and because we sought opportunity for financial freedom and the ability to change what it is that's facing us every day. Building a business business comes with systems, right? There's systematic processes that have to be in place for you to scale. That's the most important thing about a business. If you want it to grow bigger and feed your purpose or take you to these big purposeful places, it's going to be different for everybody. And everybody needs some guard rails to run within. So when you're, when you think about Orca and the purpose of the company and some of those guard rails maybe that we put in play, how has that helped us go from where we were as a small, very small agency to where we are now. The partnerships, the alignment, how's that played out? Daily, daily life, interaction, decision making. [00:22:38] Speaker B: Well, I was chuckling a little bit when you said systems and processes because I know our, one of our best, best buds, Kevin Glasscock. We would always chuckle because we were never as systematic or about the process as you were. Our minds just couldn't see it. But again, that's why we have you as our visionary to, to forecast what your vision was. So when I think about the, the early stages of Orca and anybody that is growing your business or you're about to start a business, what, what we did was we developed a roadmap and we actually had all the leaders in the boardroom and we were putting up Sticky notes on the board of, you know, what was going to be our, our guiding, you know, our guiding force on these decisions that we were going to have to make. And, and some of those was belief. Like belief in what it is that we were doing, who it is that we were serving. Another one was progressive business. How are we going to continue to progress? Because think about it, we formed this business in 2016, and my goodness, think about 2016 to now in just technology and the capability of, of doing everything virtually and how far. I mean, at that point we are still writing paper apps and now everything is an E app. So, so how are we staying ahead of the game? So a growth mindset that was, that's one of ours. Continuing not to rest on our laurels, but always looking to be able to grow. And I think I know for a fact that Amerilife has helped us expand in, in such a way that they probably don't even realize as far as introducing that holistic approach, really, because we were so fe focused for such a long time and it's like our blinders were on so we couldn't see, hey, you know what, the homes that we're in, we could also help them with a Medicare policy or retirement planning. And so it took a while, right, because we're creatures of habit, but really to shift that perspective. So anytime that we as ORCA have to make decisions as far as for our agency and for our leaders, we go back to our, to our principles and, and look, hey, is this progressing the business? Forward, forward. Do we really, do we believe in this? Is this growth oriented? Is this the right thing to do? Guiding principles? Is this the right thing for, for our agents and for the families that we serve. And I think that allows for us to have a compass. Right. Allows for us to know our purpose and to stay focused on where it is that we want to go and help our, help our agents and our leaders along the way. [00:25:34] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, and it's funny, as we work through that, it's, it aligns exactly with the internal as to who we are. Right. So when you think about, and what we talked about, seeking out your purpose, it works from the inside out. The reason why we have been able to stay aligned with our roadmap that's 10 years old and has been unwaveringly guided through, guided us through the future is because it was, it was value based. Right? It was value. What do you believe in at your core and how is that going to align us with the business? And you know, as you talk About Amerilife, the one thing I think about and the one thing that's very important for everyone to soak in. You said it, alignment with others, right? But not just other people that can complement your strengths, but also other people that have been there before, been there longer and maybe bigger than you might see yourself today. And that's kind of the role that we serve here at orca. Like the Scott Perry's, the Mike Vitris, the Scotty Elliott's serve for us as our leadership through a marilife. And that I think about their careers, right. And, and I've, I've not been close enough to them to know what life has been like through the places they've been that's brought them to where they're at today. But I do know they've spent three times the amount of their life in this business and driving people forward towards business success. That's been purposeful. Right? And they could see that farther than we were able to see it at the time, because they've been there, done it, and they, they know they've got the vision and they work through values again. When it's, when it's internal, it's hard to, it's hard to waver. So that's a good thing about it, right? It's, it comes back to the being honest thing. You know, it's like, well, if you're always telling the truth, if you're always answering that question honestly, if somebody's interrogating you and then three months later somebody comes back to ask you about the same situation, if you were honest from the front, it just is what it is, you know, and maybe that's the factual side of me. It's easier to do that because it is what it is. Right? But, but being true to yourself, knowing the internal value that you have and aligning yourself with your strengths allows you to keep finding your purpose. No matter where you may be, what goal you have achieved, that starts to create comfortability. So I think that that's very important. The community, the values and the growth mindset, right? When you, when you pair those things together, you will constantly realign yourself with a bigger purpose. And I think that's very important. So let's talk about people, because I know I've been there personally, I've been there personally this week. You know, again, it's something that you constantly may have to reevaluate and reset when somebody is in that spot that gives them trouble to why am I going to continue to do this on Monday? You know, I Feel like I would get more passion chasing this rabbit than I would continuing to go down this path that maybe I've been down. I've seen some success. I've created some comfortability. Have I reached the end and I need to do something else? How. How can you get out of that stuck feeling that I. I think comes on maybe constantly for some. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Sure. So purpose, you know, something I read was purpose shows up in those small decisions. So if I were to ask all of our podcast listeners, did you feel like getting out of bed today? Right. They probably wanted to lay there an extra 10 or 20 minutes. Right. 4:00am Wake up. Okay. But you made that small decision to get up, because David on Thursday morning goes to a man challenge group where he's surrounded by men of faith that share their faith. And, you know, that is a small decision that you make every Thursday morning. And I'm sure there's a lot of Thursday mornings that you do not feel like getting out of bed. But that's one small decision that you do every day because. Because your faith is important to you in. In supporting those that are at your table, because you all are. You're a band of brothers. So that is one small decision. And it's not always the big picture. It's not always the big picture. And you know, David, you've really touched on it a lot. It's about living in your. In your strength zone. And so living in your strength zone. And sometimes, you know, there's. There's plenty of assessments. There's plenty things out there that you can Google and find. They can. They can assess you on what your strengths are. But do you enjoy being around people? Do you enjoy working and doing spreadsheets? Do you enjoy talking over the phone or maybe in person? Like, what is it that that brings you joy? And I would encourage people to take inventory of that this week. Hey, I felt great when I talked to so and so. Or, you know, hey, I felt great after I knocked out a spreadsheet that. Knocking out a spreadsheet that. That gives me anxiety. And I don't get anxiety, but spreadsheets scare me to death. There's so many lines and so many numbers, and my brain is just like, what is going on here? So. And David lasts because he knows how I am. But that's why we make a great team. And that's again, why I say, typically, when you are starting a business or maybe you're in the midst of your business, I would encourage you to look for a business partner or surround Yourself with someone that, that brings, that strengthens your limitation because that's how you're going to continue to be able to grow and identify your why. Because think about this. If you're having to do a lot of things that you don't enjoy, if I had to do spreadsheets every day, I would, I would have quit a long time ago. So when you think about that and you surround yourself with, hey, you can delegate that to somebody that is great at it and then you can live in your strength lane and then that fills you up, that brings you joy. [00:32:49] Speaker C: Yeah, they make people and programs and hopefully someday to do spreadsheets for everybody, that's a very small amount of people out there. Strength or passion. But you touched on something. I think that helps with the why, at least for me. And it's usually when you get outside of yourself. Right. So you do want to look internally at what is important to me. But it is, it is usually going to be the others that continue to allow you to show up. And we talked about that this morning. And to be honest with you, that community is the big reason why it's so important for me to show up. Not because I care so much about letting myself down, but I do care a lot about letting other people down or even the negative side of the judgment or the thoughts of what people may think if I showed up this way versus showing up that way and in that community. And accountability is always going to be something that drives you. So not only when you get yourself right and you're internal, you have to find somebody that's going to go along with you. You said it earlier. If you want to go fast, yes, you can go achieve your goal probably pretty quickly by yourself. But what do you do at that point? Right. Where is if we want to go far? And when you think about purpose, purpose is the bigger why, the bigger picture. If I'm chasing my purpose, I have to align up myself with others that are like minded, that are looking to work towards something bigger than themselves. And when you're working in community and you're working like minded, it does create bigger impact and it does give you a bigger reason why. So I know, Lindsay, you talked this week about maybe an exercise that you all did at the women's conference down there at marilife. It was, and you helped me with this. I mean, just this week you helped me. You said, why are you doing this? Like, where, where is it that you want to go? What is it that you want? So when, when you're helping that agent that somebody that may feel stuck and it's time for them to realign. Where can I start with identifying maybe my next why? [00:35:28] Speaker B: So, so it was actually exercise at the women's conference that one of the presenters had presented to us and it was really about how are we as leaders able to help impact what we're doing? Because again, we can all get lost in the, the day to day shuffle. And we were just talking about like how you can get lost. So you know, one of the things is looking at, okay, who is it that I primarily help serve, right? Is that, is that an agent? Is, is it, you know, a secretary? Is it contracting? Who is it within your business that you help serve? And how can you, you know, looking at that, how can you help, how can you help them, right? How can you help expand their business? And then the why, the emotional part, you know, why are you doing that? Are you doing that to help leave a legacy for your family? You know, are you doing that to, to leave a legacy for, for the business? What, what is that? So really just kind of, you know, I want to encourage everybody to just really take, take a minute and just think about what is it that brings you joy, who is it that you're serving and, and you're not going to find it over in the next minute. But, but keep that as reflection over the next few weeks. I mean, we're already in October. We are already in October. The New Year's going to be here. That sounds crazy to say, but it's right around the corner. And what are some things that you want to do more of that bring you joy? And maybe what are some things that you can delegate or take off your plate that no longer serve you that will get you closer to identifying your why and becoming more aligned with who it is that you want to show up as every day? [00:37:20] Speaker C: Shoo. Yeah. Ain't that right? Fourth quarter. Fourth quarter. Man, it's hard to believe we prepare now so we don't have to repair as we start next year. Right now is the time. I love that now is always the time. So it's good stuff, Good stuff. Deep quote. Love it. Go out and find. Hopefully you're living second most important day of your life. Chasing the big dreams like Follow subscribe Share hype.financial Appreciate you guys being here. [00:37:59] Speaker B: Thank you all. [00:38:00] Speaker A: David and Lindsay Curry are focused on hyper performance coaching and sales and service. Reach out today at 502-314-2789 or visit Hype Financial that's H I P E Financial to learn more. Thanks for listening to the Hype Leadership Podcast.