Kevin Stafford 0:00
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. I might call it tennis with coaches as we bet ideas and concepts and enthusiasm and interest and intention back and forth. I have already been talking for a few minutes with Rene Russo, who I’ve already spoken with once and you have probably very much enjoyed. Well, I’m bringing her back again because well, selfishly jealously. I just I wanted to talk to her again, any excuses Great. Let me reacquaint you with Renee. Renee is the CEO of rise up business coaching limited, as a certified EOS implementer. She helps entrepreneurs gain control of their businesses through the Entrepreneurial Operating System. Renee is also a certified Exit Planning advisor. I love this role, helping entrepreneurs unlock their wealth and achieve their life goals building their life by design. Love that positioning always have Rene, it’s fantastic to have you back on. I know, we talked relatively recently. And you know, it’s never too soon, I think to have a conversation with you. So thanks for coming back on.
Renee Russo 0:57
Thank you, Kevin. It’s awesome to be here. Actually, I feel like our last conversation has been resonating with me so much. And I’m really, really pleased to be back. Oh, that’s great. That’s
Kevin Stafford 1:08
great to hear. It’s always like, well question myself. It’s like I really haven’t the impact I want to have. And it’s like it’s very, it’s very lovely to hear. Thank you for that for a little bit of feedback. I just want to I like shining light, or amplifying a letter magnifying lights. It’s kind of it’s fun to do. So. Let me let me tee you up and let you go. Because like like I kind of intimated before I hit record. I just I have complete and utter faith that I can pretty much tee you up on just about any subject. And you’ll just kind of snap your fingers and be like, gotcha. And you can just go broad wide, deep every everywhere you want to go I’m I’m excited to see where this conversation takes us.
Renee Russo 1:43
I love playing tennis. I love tennis. So
Kevin Stafford 1:47
all right, love, love. Here comes the service. So obviously well not obviously, but we’re recording this towards the what is already the end of the first month of 2023 which appears to have flown by for almost everybody I’ve been talking with over the last month, very in a very positive way very full, very busy, a lot of momentum, a lot of intentions formulating into action, a lot of plans beginning to come to fruition. So talk a little bit we’ll start out by how your 2023 has gone so far in that regard.
Renee Russo 2:16
Great. Yep. So I took my first ever personal retreat on the 25th of December to the 31st of December. FYI, it’s really cheap to travel on those days. Waikiki, I took a book that I underestimated the power of on the trip with me. And as I lay on the beach, I opened it up and I found myself immersed in a personal mastery operating system. So I am attention divergent. So systems really helped me harness my energy, focus it and apply it consistently to move towards the goals and the things that matter most to me in business. And I now teach that to business owners. That’s my job as an EOS implementer. I help our owners apply system to build valuation, architect the exit, get what they want. They’ve lived their life by design. The piece that I was missing in all of this was the person, the self, and the importance of personal personal mastery, and understanding of what matters most to me as a human being spiritually, emotionally, community, family relationships, what matters most and having a systematic way about going about achieving those outcomes and what I want to see in my world as a human, that’s the piece I was missing. And as I opened this book, I felt like I was it was like moving into a whole state of new state of being new level of awareness. So coming into January, I was coming in hot. With the tools and our framework and understanding are what matters most to me. And I haven’t let off the pedal ever since. I’ve always been good at setting new year’s resolutions and having these conversations the part I’ve struggled with most is making them stick. But I realized the piece that was lacking was a system to drive the discipline execution and focus around what matters most to me as a human. So needless to say, it’s been a great start. Bring it on 2023
Kevin Stafford 4:44
I really, really really love that and I feel like that’s that might that might even be like a sub theme of my week because I’ve I’ve had multiple conversations that focus on that distinction that personal the really yes or the word personal and how how key that is to really unlocking like a new level of just having a conversation recently about how or I was having a conversation, and it occurred to me that very often as we’re, as we’re looking for systems to execute our intentions and our goals, we often take them from outside of ourselves and kind of apply them over top of ourselves. And we kind of like, usually, we ended up sort of bending and twisting ourselves to fit the system. I say, usually, it’s a thing that happens sometimes. Excuse me, like I inhaled a cloud of dust right there, got too excited. And so we’re discussing how I think it’s very important to realize the power of the personal in setting your foundation and allowing you to really, like properly and truly execute a system, and really give the form and shape the discipline and intention that you start with. And I love that you came across that realization. And I love the way it’s manifesting in the way you’re speaking about it. Because I could tell that it’s like you were already an impressive human being. And I talked to you before this realization, and I, I found you to be terribly impressive. And I love the way that this has shifted and empowered, almost like an extra light, a slightly shifting perspective, it’s opening up a new, a new wave way forward for you. I’m gonna take a drink of water and let you talk I just, yeah, fascinating. And So Pat, empowering.
Renee Russo 6:17
I love this common theme, this awareness of the self and the person in the midst of all of the living and being in doing that we’re all experiencing every day. The one common trait or the element that I see showing up as a limiting factor with my clients, that shows up in their business in their ownership journey is themselves. It’s the common constraint that we’re doing a lot of work to control the environment, and set it up for success on all of those levels. But the one area that we are not addressing, and that it’s showing up as a common constraint is the entrepreneur themselves. They’re not clear around what matters most to them, what they care about what they need, and many of them are exhausted, burnt, low state of competence, low vibration, and I, I’ve been perplexed by that, like, how can I show up? How can I show them that they’re important? And they need to, you know, you know, build their competence? How can I teach them that they matter. And what I realized is that if I, the self, if I don’t matter, nothing else matters.
Kevin Stafford 7:36
I couldn’t agree more.
Renee Russo 7:39
So then I discovered the I matter, personal mastery system, and it was like this alignment, or like this code and lock the blockchain opened up. And now I am like, Oh, my word I need to, I need to create the ripples of conversation around this. Because if I don’t matter, nothing else matters. And I can be as outbound with my intentions, my focus my controls and my systems as I want. But I at the center, hiding in plain sight is the thing that matters most.
Kevin Stafford 8:11
You hear me use one of my favorite words, one of one of the words I feel like it becomes more and more central to my to my being personally and professionally alignment, that that alignment and you were talking about how that when you’re just the burnout, the grind of it, the exhaustion, and I’m in my head, I’m almost imagining like, like sparks coming off of a train that’s trying to hit its brakes or something like that, where there’s just so much friction, and it’s just creating so much heat and slowness and, and real wrong kind of fire, like the kind of fire that burns you out, as opposed to, you know, warming and nurturing others. And I think about that, and how alignment is really something I know alignment. It’s a big word. It’s a big umbrella under which a lot of other concepts and a lot of other intentions and ideas sort of shelter. But being in alignment, it just it has such an an exponentially amplifying effect on everything else you’re doing. It’s it removes that friction that’s really just kind of grinding you down and burning you out. It puts you closer to being in step with the people around you, whether it’s your team, your family, any other relationship you might be having the people that you work with and for it puts you that much closer to being in alignment with them so that you’re moving and more in concert and it becomes less of less less frictional and more like a dance, you know where you’re moving in concert together, not the same steps but you’re moving with each other. I know I’m starting to mix my analogies here but
Renee Russo 9:31
less than less friction, more flow. And in order to make the shift from friction to flow, we need an approach. We need a way to harness that energy harness that potential and create flow. Remove the barriers remove the distraction all of the noise and external forces will always be there. But when we come into so and we focus that energy, and that attention, we can create more flow in our life, and align ourselves with all the things that matter for us professional family, friendships, community purpose, at the center of that is the so I, and that’s where the real work is, I believe going into 2023, we’re coming into some level of awareness that the real work is internal. The real work is internal, the real work is here, hiding in plain sight, we have to get back to basics.
Kevin Stafford 10:48
I think that’s a message people need to hear. Because I, I know that a number of people I’m including myself in this are careful, even maybe resident or, or hesitant around the idea of working on oneself too much for fear of indulging in self centeredness. But it’s really important to understand how intrinsic how crucial self care and self development is, in any good you want to do in the world. And the impact you want to have. You say it perfectly get back to basics, it starts with you, it really does. And there there is there’s not just a way, there’s the way to not being selfish or self centered, but to caring for and developing and working on yourself in a way that’s going to unlock everything that you can do for other people, all the ways you can serve and have impact in the world around you. I think that’s a hugely important message. I think it always has been. But I think especially in tech now in 2023, now more than ever,
Renee Russo 11:44
yeah, we are really good at telling ourselves stories, oh, maybe I won’t put a bunch of time and energy into myself, because people might think that I’m, I’m, you know, stuck up or I’m selfish. Or I might become so awesome that my friends weren’t like me anymore. Or we tell ourselves, I have to do all of these things really well. Otherwise, it’s not worth trying. What I realized is, it’s really about starting small. And starting early, and just focusing on the small important things that really matter most to me. self discipline, is the greatest form of self love.
Kevin Stafford 12:25
You were loaded today. That’s great. less friction, more flow.
Renee Russo 12:31
Yeah, self discipline is the greatest form of self love. Those excuses, we tell ourselves are self defeating. Because at the root, at the core, we don’t think we are good enough. So we talk ourselves out of it. So the way that we offset that belief, underlying belief that we are not good enough, is by starting with small things. And getting that dopamine response, creating that optimism bias of movement towards things that make us well. And just using that as an iterative developmental process. And stop telling ourselves stories that we
Kevin Stafford 13:16
it’s it, you make it sound simple, and it is, it’s still a challenge. But it is very simple. And it has this capacity. And I don’t know if you think you use this word, but there’s the word momentum popped into my head that way that this, you just start small, build, build, build from the from the ground up, and there’s this, it sounds like it’s gonna be this huge endeavor, but the energy that’s created by the small commitments, the small accomplishments, it just, it builds, I mean, I don’t want to say it builds itself because it’s gonna make it sound like it’s all I have to do is this beginning part. And that’s it, but there’s just so much of the heavy lifting, and so much of the energy and momentum is it’s self sustaining Once you commit to the process and commit to the work.
Renee Russo 13:59
That’s it, there’s two things that really help with that is, in Stephen Covey’s work, talks about begin with an end in mind, beginning this work with a future state of yourself, even if it’s a couple of months, and that in mind, something that you’re working towards, and then starting small and applying these disciplines in a systematic way, the power of a system is that it only requires a small amount of energy in just strengthen the system, it actually does become self perpetuating, self sustaining, if we apply a small amount of energy into the system and follow a systematic approach. So to your point, it does become self sustaining. It starts with those small changes.
Kevin Stafford 14:51
It really does. And it’s those small changes and those small decisions that go with them that are so crucial because they’re small but powerful decisions. It’s like if I have two eldest uses I got a random example, if I have to decide every day to work out, or I have to decide every single day or for every meal, I have to choose to eat healthy, that that’s a lot of self discipline, that’s a lot of active choice. That’s a lot of high level brain function. And that, that can seem very daunting and exhausting. But if I commit myself to a system, where it’s like, Okay, here’s the system, it’s, you know, work does these kinds of workouts three times a week, these kinds two times a week, here’s them, here’s a meal plan, you know, here’s, here’s, here’s some, here’s some metrics to hit, here’s some time to just, there’s a plan laid out for me, I can make the decision to adhere to that system. And then just continue to decide, say yes to that decision to say, Yes, I’m going to here to this system, I’m going to follow this system, I’m going to do what the system says, I don’t have to make a decision every time I don’t have to exercise my discipline for each individual act, because the system’s carrying that weight for me and amplifying the power of that small decision at the beginning. And I just, it’s so I’m talking, I’m saying it out loud. It’s so empowering. I’m almost feeling like I’m like, I feel like once we’re done with the call, I mean, like sit down and journal on some On some systems and ambitions. But how can I apply a new system to like these endeavor, I’m like, I’m getting very motivated to talking about it. It’s very exciting.
Renee Russo 16:11
Um, okay, at the risk of blowing up this session, this podcast with too much information, because that’s kind of my MO too much information about it. I recently found myself looking at the story of the men’s British rowing team that won gold in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. But they had not won a medal for nearly 90 years at the Olympics. That Coach Ben hunt, bought in a concept in in psychology, it’s called an implementation intention eboard in the ethos of the with a single question, does it make the boat go faster? So the team all knew what the vision was, the outcome was to win gold in Sydney, it was an impossible feat in their mind, and in the eyes of everybody else looking in. But they use this implementation intention. Every day they ask themselves, does it make the boat go faster? So going to the gym and staying on the rower for an extra half an hour? Doesn’t make the boat go faster? Yes. Going to the pub, eating fried food and having beers on Friday. Does that make the boat go faster? No. So they didn’t do it. And every single day, every single decision was based on asking themselves, that question doesn’t make the boat go faster. And so we don’t have to do it all perfectly. But if we understand what we want to work towards, it could be I want to have 10 More 10% More energy at the end of the day to enjoy time with my wife. Okay, in 90 days from the every day, I know all the things I should do. But there’s a lot of things going on. But if I know that I had that simple question that I asked myself, does it make this boat go faster? Does it move me towards what I want? Yes, then I’ll do it. If it doesn’t, I don’t do it. I can politely say, I understand that’s a priority for you. I understand that thing I could do. But in order to move myself forward to the vision that I’ve created for myself. If it doesn’t move me forward, I don’t. And it can be as simple as that.
Kevin Stafford 18:46
I feel like I’m ready to run through a brick wall right now. Like,
Renee Russo 18:51
yes, that’s it does start with recognizing that I matter. Exactly. Understanding what matters most to me. I’m willing to honor myself with that simple question every day. That does require some work, some preparation, some discipline, willingness to fail. I’ve not derailed the whole plan and just calibrate on a daily basis with daily disciplines weekly disciplines quarterly practices that moves me forward towards what matters most.
Kevin Stafford 19:31
You know what? I think that I think that’s the perfect note to end the conversation on the episode on even though it’s it’s i could i i want to keep talking to you for hours quite frankly, I’m feeling but I’m also feeling so motivated to action that I also just want to I want to say goodbye and just like start doing something that was that was I my expectations for this conversation were already high. You managed to exceed them comfortably. That was I don’t mean to blow too much smoke up your butt. But that was just fantastic. Thank you that you share. aired so much so succinctly with so much impact with so much more to unpack later, it’s you know, I can, I can see why you are, who you are, and why you’re as successful as you are. So thank you. Thank you very much for this conversation. It has been fantastic.
Renee Russo 20:17
You are worthy.
Kevin Stafford 20:19
Thank you. And Oh, also, I was just gonna close out. If people want a little bit, to learn a little bit more about you, what you do who you are, maybe connect with you reach out to you DM you on some platform, where what’s the best way for people to do that to learn more about you and to connect with you.
Renee Russo 20:38
So my company is rise up business coaching its rise up bc.com. I, as you can tell, I’m very passionate about the space of personal mastery is the third system that I teach one for business, one for building value. And the the system that I’m running is called I matter, personal mastery, captured in a book called and scattered the chatter written by one of my favorite humans, Bob shanafelt. It’s brand new, it’s like get a copy, it’s off the press. I am so honored to be able to use this system myself. But to potentially share that and change the world. It’s a revolution. And I’m really, really excited to be on this journey. So rise out bbc.com and scatter the chatter the book you’ll find us
Kevin Stafford 21:31
Oh, well. The links are in the show notes too. I’ll I’ll do a little light Googling and make sure that the I’ll make it the shortest possible distance between here and there on people’s journeys as
Renee Russo 21:42
calorie burn low calorie burn.
Kevin Stafford 21:45
You got it. You’ve got it overnight. Once again, thank you.
Renee Russo 21:50
My pleasure. Thank you so much given
Kevin Stafford 21:52
and to the audience. I mean, you I imagine you’re very motivated right now. So I want to encourage you to be motivated to find out more about Rene find out more about all the links will be in the show notes and we will have the great great fortune of talking to you again here very soon.
