127: Maxwell Leadership Exclusive: Using Time or Abusing Time

1. Build out an ideal work week to determine when your energy levels are high and when you are doing what you enjoy. This way, you can be intentional about building your schedule and identifying where you need help.

Your job is important, but so are your family, friends, and outside passions. Have a hard start and stop time — and don’t let any lines blur.

 

2. Manage your time so that your 24 hours are impactful and you’re making a difference in the areas that need you the most. We all have special gifts and a calling, and if you’re not managing your time well, you are missing your calling and opportunities to make a difference. Think about what your hourly rate is and where you’re going to make the most impact.

 

3. Having a Virtual Assistant increases your capacity and provides you a ‘thinking partner’ in your business. This person understands you and understands how you think. And they often love completing the tasks you hate.

Listen to more episodes from the Maxwell Leadership Podcast: https://johnmaxwellleadershippodcast.com/

Mark Cole:

Welcome back to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. If we’ve not met, my name is Mark Cole, and I have to tell you, after hundreds and hundreds of episodes, today is a new day. I get the privilege of co-hosting this podcast week after week, but today is special. It’s special for me. It will be special for you because today I have a special guest with me today. Lisa Zeeveld is here with me. And now you’re gonna know a lot more about Lisa when we’re done, but she goes by LZ and this is an affectionate nickname. She got to pick it. There’s a whole story behind it, but she allowed me to call her LZ, and I can’t wait to introduce you to her. Now, you may know her as the CFO of BELAY.

Mark Cole:
I’ve had the incredible privilege to share with you about BELAY week after week. But I’m gonna tell you today, we’re gonna deep dive in an incredible leadership journey of how Lisa — LZ — began to lead, and now as a CFO, shows what a product of the product looked like. Now, she’s no stranger to us because BELAY has become a valued partner and a sponsor of this podcast. BELAY is about recruiting the right people for organizations, which in turn allows leaders to get out of the weeds and focus on the most important aspects of leading people. In a very real sense, BELAY gives leaders back their time. Oh, does anybody just wanna breathe that in? They give back time to busy leaders like you and I. So I’m honored to have LZ co-host with me today, and we’re gonna dive into a lesson from John, which I believe will help you understand the importance of your time. John’s gonna share his own thoughts on the nature of time and the important leadership skill of managing priorities. As always, we have a free bonus resource for you this week. It’s going to be a fill in the blank pdf, and it’s a worksheet that accompanies John’s lesson. If you’d like to download that worksheet, please visit maxwellpodcast.com/tie, click the bonus resource button and follow along. Well, that’s it for now, LZ and I will be back. Here is John C Maxwell.

John C. Maxwell:

Thoreau said, you cannot kill time without injuring eternity. Let me give you some thoughts about time. Number one. Time is an equal opportunity employer. That’s a fact. Time is an equal opportunity employer. Sometimes I compare time to the fact that all of us have what I call identical suitcases. All of us have the very same size as far as the suitcases, but some people can pack more in than others. Have you ever noticed an experienced traveler just seems to get more out of the stuff that they put in the suitcase than an inexperienced and an inexperienced traveler? Well, they did. They want to pack all their suitcases, isn’t that right? They wanna take more than they ever need, but the experience traveler understands how to mix and match the clothes and the whole process. But basically, we all have identical suitcases of life, and what we put in them is gonna be very different.

John C. Maxwell:
But pretty much the time as far as what we have today is everybody gets 24 hours. It’s the same amount of time. Second thought about time, the lack of time is not the problem. It’s the lack of direction. In fact, when I say the lack of time is not the problem, it’s the lack of direction. Here’s what I want you to know. I think when people talk about time management, I hear people say, ‘Well, I’m going to a time management seminar. I’m reading a time management book.’ I think time management is an oxymoron. I don’t think there’s such a thing as time management. I’ve never known anybody to be able to manage time. I’ve never known anybody to be able to manage time and get more out of time. Say, ‘I’ve managed time so well, I got 25 hours out of today. It was just huge. Man, I just, I added 17 minutes to my schedule today.’ 

John C. Maxwell:
I found that time just keeps on going. Whether you and I do anything with it or don’t do anything with it, it doesn’t stop to wait. You know, time doesn’t look at me and say, ‘Hey, John, you’re not real productive. I’ll just hang on until you’re ready.’ Time just marches on. So, when people say they’re managing time, I don’t think they’re really doing that. I think what we want to talk about is not time management. I think we wanna talk about priority management. That’s how they get the best use outta time. You don’t manage time, you manage your priorities. And that’s the goal of this lesson. The goal of this lesson is for us to priority manage our life in such a way that we get the greatest return that we possibly can out of time.

John C. Maxwell:
Let’s look at your notes for a moment. Clayton Barbo in his book, the Joy of Marriage, writes again and again. I meet married situations in which the couple speaks of not finding time, just can’t find the time. I’ve never yet stumbled across 20 minutes lying on the sidewalk, though, once I found a $20 bill, nor have I ever met anyone who just happened across two weeks of time, somebody had left in the park. I doubt that anyone else has done so either for the simple lesson that time is not found, time is created by us for the things we want to do. It often requires conscious planning to create those chunks of time that we can devote totally to the other. So, lack of time is not the problem. It’s the lack of direction. It’s the lack of prioritizing our time correctly. 

John C. Maxwell:
The third thought on time is this. Time is more valuable than money because it is irreplaceable. The most precious commodity we have on earth today is not money. It’s time. You can replace money. You can’t replace time. Once it’s gone that day, we never get it back. You don’t really pay for things with money, says author Charles Spaza in What to Do Between Birth and Death. I love that title, What to Do Between Birth and Death. A lot of people have never figured that out. You know that, don’t you? They, they just haven’t figured that out. You pay for them with time. And then he explains, in five years, I’ll have put enough away to buy that vacation house that we want. Then I’ll slow down. That means the house will cost you five years or one 12th of your adult life. Translate the dollar value of the house car or anything else into time, and then see if it’s still worth it.

John C. Maxwell:
Thought number four, this is a Peter Drucker quote that I love. Nothing else distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender, loving care of time. Peter Drucker, the great management expert, basically says that the thing that sets us apart as executives is how we manage time. If a person who is young can begin to understand the value of time and really use it effectively and not abuse it, think of how effective and productive they can be in their lifetime. It’s kinda like the man who missed the plane and somebody saw him, he ran up and the plane was just pulling out, just missed it. And he said, ‘Oh my goodness, if you would’ve run faster, you would’ve made it.’ And the man said, ‘No. If I’d have left earlier, I would’ve made it.’ And I guess what I’m wanting to really help, especially the youth that would hear this lesson, is you have the advantage that the rest of us don’t have.

John C. Maxwell:
You get to start a little bit earlier, you get to use it from starting right now. We’re always in a hurry. I heard a or a saw cartoon recently that showed an American couple dashing up the steps of the Louvre in Paris. And as they approach the guard at the door, they begin shouting quick, we’re here to see the Mona Lisa, but we’re double parked. I want to get it in, and I want to get back out into my car. And so many times when I think of the use of time and the abuse of time, I think we miss the very best sometimes that life has to offer because we don’t understand the value of time. And I’ve been going through an exercise this year of carefully planning my next five years. They’re real prime for me. And I’m saying, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta do it right.’

John C. Maxwell:
These next five years are vitally important to me. The other day I received a thank you note from a friend, and on the thank you note it said, what I have in your notes, ‘I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to thank, for all the walks I want to take, all the books that I want to read and all the friends I want to see.’ And I thought how true that is. But I want to do the very best I can to understand time and make the very best use of it.

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Mark Cole:

I love what John says, LZ, when he says lack of time is not the problem. It’s the lack of direction. Now let’s think about that because podcast family, I hope that you’re joined us by YouTube. If if you have the moment, because you’re gonna love, Lisa is in the studio with me. But if you’re listening as well, I just want to tell you, all of us struggle as leaders with time, priorities, time management. We all have the same amount, but yet some of us get more out of it than others because we know how to manage it. So I’ve got some questions I’ve gotta ask you. It’s been a long time coming, ever since we’ve gotten to partner on helping executives to be more effective together, ever since they brought to me that we would have the privilege of partnering with you guys. I’ve always wanted to sit down and talk to an executive on why, why do you wake up and do this? But then podcast family, not only today in the studio with me as Lisa, CFO of BELAY, but also you’re a product of the product. You started as a virtual assistant. And then now our CFO, you’ve gotta tell me the story. You’ve gotta give me the journey.

Lisa Zeeveld:

No, I’m excited to share with you and thank you so much for inviting me. This is gonna be a blast. I’m so yeah, so I happen to be friends with our, our CEO, Tricia Shortino. And she basically gave me a phone call and she said, I’ve got a friend of mine who is starting this business, this crazy idea of wanting to help out busy leaders by providing them an assistant. I’m like, well, that makes sense. And every everybody needs an executive assistant. And she said, yeah, but hold on a second. He wants to do it remotely. I was like, oh, wow. You know, I mean, that was not a thing. Right? This is 2010. Yeah. And and I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do that.’ Been felt really called to be home with my two kids.

Lisa Zeeveld:
And I said, ‘This is an easy fit.’ And so started working with a leader for five hours a week. And then that five kind of grew received another client really quickly, and then actually had the opportunity to serve our founders as an executive assistant. But my background was in wealth management. Yeah. And so it was a real easy fit for me to kind of take what I had learned in my, you know, working prior all the things that I knew about being an executive assistant, now a virtual assistant, and really help our founders grow the business. So here I sit today, 12 years later.

Mark Cole:

As the CFO. You know what’s interesting, Lisa, is COVID made us all feel virtual, right? And what we’ve discovered is that the idea of a woman that is super passionate about their family. I mean, you started sharing with me of your kids, one’s in Clemson, one’s in Auburn. And you, I could just see your face light up. And yet this opportunity has given you a chance to keep them a number one. In fact, she warned us podcast listeners. She said, listen, I’ve got a function on my phone that they get to break through at any time. So if it goes off, forgive me, I gotta take my kids’ call. And I love that whole intentionality. And yet you’ve figured out a way to create something for yourself to where you could keep that level of priority and then help other people like me, with their priorities, become effective. And I just think both your product is invaluable. It’s incredible. But your story of going from assisting to now CFO and who knows what’s next.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Well, I think, and that’s why I continue to be so passionate about it, right. Is because I know what it was like at that stage you know, in my life and in my career to want something where I could feel like I was needed outside of the home. Make a little bit of money. I always like to tell people who are looking to serve as a Virtual Assistant. It’s great soccer money. It’s great vacation money. Right? Like, it gives you a little something to put in your pocket. A little jingle that makes you feel good. But you still get to serve your family. Now, on the other end of it, I’m super passionate because I have my own Virtual Assistant. And I know what it is like to serve and to be served. And I love what we do because we are really empowering two sets of people to do what they need to do and what they’re best at doing.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. And, Lisa, we have people that lead bigger companies than mine and yours that listen to our podcast often, and they’re already cutting into the chase because you understand what I understand what you’re just described. I have a virtual assistant. She’s at in Pennsylvania. I’m in Georgia. And what I discovered is, is when she has the ability to do what she loves to do, which is to help me and matter, and her work matters, but she can also keep her family a priority. It’s a happy assistant that does incredible things. And what you have done is you’ve created a system, you’ve created a product to where busy people like me that wanna redeem time, and we’re gonna talk about that in just a minute. Can find people that can also have multiple priorities and do a good job. So some of you, like me, are saying, ‘Okay, I got it. I got it. I already bought in. I need a virtual assistant.’ I’m gonna get right to the cut to the chase with you. Because I told LZ and Mallory, who’s in the studio with us, we need to give them a way to figure that out quickly. And you can go to belaysolutions.com and you can find a virtual assistant that’s going to give you back time. And that’s what you guys do.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. And these are people who love what they do too. So they want to help somebody take things off of their plate, grow their business, spend more time with their family. Like you said, we’re gonna talk about that.

Mark Cole:

Let’s do, okay. I’ve got some questions. And I told you I was gonna ask some questions. But I just could not let our podcast listeners, many of you, many of you have that aspiration to do something significant. You’ve got C level in you, but you just have not been able to find the right mechanism. And your story needs to be told, LZ, your story of keeping your family, keeping your faith, keeping your aspirations, keeping your dream all, and still being able to climb and do something great with your influence. I’m proud of you.I’m very proud. All right. So where you spend your time, it really reveals kind of what you think is most important, right? We’ve talked about priorities. What adjustments can we make in that area to be more effective?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I mean, I think it first starts out by taking an inventory. You know, you don’t really know where you need to spend additional time and attention unless you look at it all Right. I mean, I think that’s why a lot of us go to our doctors annually. Like we think we’re pretty good. Until you get some blood work done, and maybe some, there’s some things off. So when it comes around to time, I think you need to take an inventory of it, you know, how do you feel at the end of the week? we, we happen to be recording this on a Friday, so thinking of Friday. Did my kids get the best of me this week? How about my spouse? Do they know how much I love them and that they’re a priority? Or maybe there’s some things in your business that you just didn’t get to.

Lisa Zeeveld:
And so by taking an inventory and saying, you know, I did this really good and I probably should have worked on this a little bit better, it gives you a really good perspective on how you need to change and where you can really turn the dials so that when you get to the Friday, or you get to the end of the month or the end of the year, a lot of people take inventory at the end of the year. You can say, you know what? I did really good. Because it comes down to intentionality, like you said.

Mark Cole:

Oh, I love what you’re saying. Take inventory of your time. You know, often we just let time happen to us rather than make time happen. John teaches in his book, Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 — podcast family, you know this — but he teaches on the law of priority to be the best leader. And he teaches there are three areas you need to inventory. What gives you a reward, what gives you a return, and what’s required of you. So the things that give you a reward is the things that just make you go, ‘Oh, if I could just do this all day,’ the things that give you a great return are the things that when you do it, there’s a multiplying effect. And then the things that’s required of you, hey, you wish you didn’t have to do some of them, but you have to because it’s one of the things that you do. And I think what you’ve just said right here at the very beginning is you need to take inventory of your time and you need to figure out what are the things that require your time, and what are the things you might can find somebody else that can help you with that will allow you do you to do the things that only you can do. I I love that.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Exactly. Yes.

Mark Cole:

Okay, so what is our, what does our most productive days look like if you, if we begin to build kind of this perfect day, what are the characteristics that we should put into the everyday routine?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. So, I mean, we talked about taking inventory and when you take that inventory, you’re gonna find some things that maybe you wish you would’ve done better. Again, you’ve got some things you wanna celebrate, but it’s not enough to wait until you’re done with that time to go, ‘Hmm, wow. I should have done that better.’ Right? I loved in the clip with John, how he says the suitcase analogy, right? That we’ve all got the same suitcase, it’s the same size, but what are we putting in it? Those who plan well are going to pack well. And so one of the things I love to suggest to our leaders is to do an ideal work week.

Mark Cole:

Ooh.

Lisa Zeeveld:

And an ideal work week is gonna take all those priorities, the things you’ve done in inventory about Right. And you’ve said, ‘Hey, I really won here. This is a celebratory day. Because you know what, I wanted to focus on my business this week. I had maybe some big pitches. There were some new things I had onboarding some new, I rocked that this week. But, my family kind of fell to the wayside.’ Well, now that you’ve done that, you know that you don’t wanna feel that way every week or every day, or every year. And so by looking at ideal work week, you’re able to actually schedule out, put some time constraints on the things that you know, that you need to do all the time or that are important to you. And by building that ideal work week, you’re understanding where your energy’s high, where your energy’s low.

Lisa Zeeveld:
And then you don’t get to the end of the week and go, huh. You still wanna take an inventory, but you don’t get to the end of the week or the month or the year and go, ‘Man, I missed an opportunity there.’ Instead you go, ‘Wow, I did pretty good.’ And you continue to do that. I recommend that you do that quarterly at a minimum, because life happens. Life moves really fast. You don’t know what’s gonna come your way, but then you’re being, again, goes back to intentional, my favorite word. Outside of love. Intentional comes a real close second. But then you’re intentional about building your schedule. And here’s the other thing you’re gonna find where you don’t have time, because remember, we keep, we don’t find time. It’s not on the sidewalk. We don’t run across an additional two weeks anywhere. Yeah. But we can say, you know what? I don’t have enough time to fit everything in, and you’re gonna learn where you might need some help.

Mark Cole:

Wow. Okay. So help me. You and I have a similar story. You, at BELAY, you started entry level, just administrative assistant in a virtual capacity and then walked yourself up to CFO. I was entry level telesales, as you guys know. And then now have the privilege of leading at the CEO level, the ideal work week. To an executive, doesn’t that almost feel like, yeah, what’s that? I mean, is that, so how do you as an executive carry the weight of the unknown and the surprise effect that happens and fit that into the ideal work week?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Sure. Yeah. Well, you’re gonna really start with how many hours you want to work, right? And so that’s what I do. So I typically work, you know, my ideal schedule would be nine to six. Reason for that is I got used to getting my kids on the bus or taking them to school. That was really important to me. And so I didn’t wanna start my day. Now of course, I might answer an email or a text message while they were having their breakfast or whatever, but I wasn’t gonna take meetings until from nine to six. So that’s already laid out for me, right? But then I’m gonna say, you know what, in the mornings I really enjoy, I find out I’m most productive. If I can get in my inbox and I can read those emails perhaps it’s reading you know, the New York Times or publications that are important to you and your business.

Lisa Zeeveld:
And then I’m gonna get into some meetings, but I’ve been tracking my energy level, and I know that after three meetings, I’m no good. So you kind of start to lay all these things out in the allotted hours that you have within a day. And then here’s the key, the cool part. The key part is going to be having an accountability partner, which is gonna be an assistant. That’s gonna say, when somebody comes into your inbox and says, ‘Hey, can I have lunch with you? Or can I meet with you?’ Your assistant’s gonna be like, ‘Mmm, nope. I’m sorry. I know what that ideal work week looks like, and they can’t do it right now.’ But you’re always gonna think your business is more important. You’re always gonna think that you need to go out to lunch with that person, have dinner. I meet leaders all the time who volunteering is what ends up on their calendaring and burdening them. Because they wanna be active in their local church. They have things that they’re passionate about, but they’re seeing each of those individually instead of looking at it holistically. They’re still one person. And so how do we fit it all in? And that’s what your ideal work week is gonna do.

Mark Cole:

So, podcast listeners, you heard John, you’re now hearing LZ talk to you that you can prioritize your time. CFO of BELAY, your droping gold for us. Thank you. Let’s let the next question. What are some hard constraints that you can put into your time each day that will allow you to be successful at both work and home?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah, I think it’s having that start and stop time. It’s not letting it bleed over. It’s realizing that your job is important, but so is your family. Or it could be, because we’ve got people out there at all different seasons and stages of their leadership. And so they may go, ‘Hey, you know, right now it’s just me. And so I wanna stay after work and I wanna pour into my job or pour into my business.’ What they don’t know is that’s gonna lead to early burnout. Yeah. And so it’s easy for me to sit here and say, well, my family, because I, you know, but it could be find something that you’re still passionate about outside of the office because you’re, again, you’re a whole person. We want you to be healthy. We want you to live a long time and have a great life.

Lisa Zeeveld:
And so maybe it’s just friends you need to go see. Again, maybe it’s your, your church or you’ve got another community activity, but it’s sane. I’m only gonna work nine to six, eight to five, seven to four, and then I’m done. Same thing with meetings, hard constraints. I’m gonna have this meeting for 45 minutes and when it’s done, it’s done. If we need to continue, let’s schedule another meeting. But when you start getting two lackadaisical and just letting time take over it, that’s when you start losing it. In my mind, I’m so visual. I imagine this, you know, we’re walking down the sidewalk and it’s just time’s falling out of our pocket, rght? It’s just left and right because we’re not managing it the way that we need to manage it. We’re not gonna manage it to actually find more, we’re not gonna have 25 hours, but we’re gonna manage it in such a way that those 24 hours are the most impactful, and we’re making a difference in the areas that need us the most because we all have special gifts. We’ve all been called to do something, and if we don’t manage it well, we’re missing our calling and missing the opportunity to make a difference.

Mark Cole:

I love how you visualize a time falling out of my pocket. I love that. Another thing that you teach and talk about is rocks and pebbles. So let’s talk about these big responsibilities. Or these smaller big responsibilities, rocks. Smaller responsibilities, pebbles. How do we, how can I benefit from delegating those to a to a a support person?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Sure. Yeah. I mean, CFO so I’m gonna talk money here. If you’re a leader in some capacity, probably money’s pretty important to you too, but think about what your hourly rate is and again, where you’re gonna make the most impact. And so those are your big rocks. Those are the things that we need to put in there. But let’s be real. You may love planning your travel. You may love getting in your inbox to see what’s happening for the day, but your hourly rate is too much for you to be in there doing those things. And the big rocks need you more than those little things do. And so it’s really taking and saying, what can nobody else do in your business, right? And, and for me, right. I have to do run financial reports.

Lisa Zeeveld:
I’m not running them now because I have a support team to do that, but I am the one that has to review them and I have to put my name on them. So that is the most important thing I’m gonna do that day. I don’t need to be the one that’s scheduling that lunch. I don’t need to be the one that’s in the inbox or travel. And so, but here’s the cool thing is I know because I’ve been there. Remember you, you introed me this way. There’s somebody on the other side who cannot wait to do that, to do that.

Mark Cole:

Love it. Yes. They were made for it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

They were made for it. My assistant, Kate, she loves that. She just gets excited to get in there and to know that she’s helping take care of me. I always say she’s my extra brain. She helps increase my capacity, but she’s gonna get in there and she just gets a thrill out of it. And that’s what I want her to do.

Mark Cole:

Well you’re touching on something that I think is incredibly important for all of us leaders. Leadership is done better in partnership.And what we’re touching on here without really saying, it’s a thinking partner. Sometimes we think we’re better at something than we really are and we need somebody in our life to tell us, ‘Hey, you think you’re better at that than you should be than you are.’ So why don’t you give that to me where you can do this over here? Because you’re really good at it. And that aspect of the partnership is really something that begins to cultivate as well. Which takes me to the next question. Delegation. For some of us, the lack of delegation eally can be the linchpin to priority management. How do you build that trust? Talk to me about the trust factor and how you can see that work with a partner like this.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I mean you just have to, out of the gate, you have to trust, and I’m sure you got a lot of listeners right now are going, I don’t know about this.

Mark Cole:

Out of the gate. Yeah.

Lisa Zeeveld:

You know but, you really do, you have to come into it and say, ‘I’m already going to trust that you’re gonna do the right thing and you’re gonna be the one to help me.’ Delegation’s a leader leadership skill. And it’s something that a lot of us have to work at. it’s like muscles, right? You gotta work at it. You gotta go back and say again, having that thought partner, that accountability partner, somebody who’s good at it is going to help you do that. but ultimately start with you know, a small amount of things. ‘Hey, this is what I want you to do.’ Watch them do it if they, you know, they’re not gonna get it right the first time. Right. That’s the other thing that we, that I hear leaders all the time say, well, I tried to have an executive assistant, but man, after two weeks I just gave up.

Lisa Zeeveld:
I’m like, two weeks? Nobody learns anything in two weeks and we’re complicated people. Right? And so it’s really hard to match personality and to understand work styles. All you gotta give it time — especially in a remote environment. But once you go out the gate and trust that they have your best interest in mind that they wanna do a good job, then just slowly give them more and more and more things to do. Praise them when they do it right. You know, direct them if they need, you know, some help in another way. But yeah. I think like you said, trust is the start of that. and you’re gonna get better at it the more that you do it.

Mark Cole:

You know I’ve had so many friends use BELAY. I’ve had a friend that helped start BELAY. You got to be a part of all that. And one of the things that I love that they would tell me through the years of, of, of your world is you bring the best of the best that were designed and made to come in and support. And then us as leaders, as executives, as people that are trying to get focused, it is our responsibility to come back and trust. I want to camp right here for just a moment becauseI believe the best way to demonstrate trust to someone is one patience. Give them time to learn you. They know the craft, they know the trade. They know the trade. BELAY wouldn’t bring them to you, but give them time as a person to understand.

Mark Cole:
The best way I know to help somebody understand me is what I call contextual leadership. Not, ‘Hey, I need you to go book this travel. I really need to get here and I want to get back to this family thing. So can you find me the best option?’ When I give that little additional context, there’s all of a sudden a trust that goes cause we’re solving this and getting this together. And so I love that you put into your system and into your language, the necessity of trust within those two relationships.

Lisa Zeeveld:
Yes, absolutely. And clear communication. Like you said that contextual leadership, it’s that clear communication. And what we find is that people need help on both sides of that, right? So we need to encourage our leaders to have clear communication. They think they do. Sure they do.

Mark Cole:

Sure they do. Don’t we all? Just ask me. I’m a great communicator.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right.

Mark Cole:

It goes back to John say nothing else distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender, loving care of time. And oftentimes we go, oh, you’re saving me time so you’ll never get any time with me. That’s not saving time. You’re actually creating more of a challenge if you don’t spend time building that trust and making that connection. 

Lisa Zeeveld:

I meet with my executive assistant for an hour every week. How can I fit in an hour? Because again, I know someone’s going, I already don’t have time. Now you want me to go get an executive assistant who needs another hour of my time. That one hour is going to save me 10, 15, 20 hours in the week because I’m able to delegate things to her. Now here’s the great thing. We’ve now been working together four years. That’s very exciting. So she’s already reading my mind now. It didn’t happen at first, but to your point, I spent time with her. She understands me, she understands how I think. So that hour now, we’re advancing our relationship to more complicated issues because I’m investing in her.

Mark Cole:

I love it. belaysolutions.com is where you want to go to go ahead and figure out how to get a partner on your team. We talk about, can I ask you another question again?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes, please do. All right.

Mark Cole:

Either now or in the past, what are some reasons that you see that keeps leaders from delegating?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. I mean I think you hit on it earlier, trust. I think trust is is really big. I think sense of urgency would be another one. I can do it faster. It’s gonna take me longer to train somebody hear that all the time. Oh, I don’t have time to train anybody. It’s just easier if I do it. And then the one that comes really close to that is ego.

Mark Cole:

Wow. So break that down.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Because you’re gonna say, well I’ll do it better. I don’t need anybody. Why would I need somebody to come in here and help me book my travel? I got this. I can do it all on my own. You know, they feel weak by having somebody come and assist them. Now this is what really blows my mind though is that rarely does a business leader feel that way about many other positions in their organization.

Mark Cole:

Is that right?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Right? So they’ll go out and hire somebody in sales. Because they’ll think, ‘Oh, you know, I’m pretty good at sales, but I know I can find somebody better.’ Or they’ll say, ‘There’s no way I can do my own books.’ You know, or I’ve been doing this Google spreadsheet. Becasue most people start out that way.

Mark Cole:

Yeah, exactly.

Lisa Zeeveld:

But you know what, and now is the time. I’m gonna go ahead and, and bring in somebody to build an accounting team or I’m gonna hire my CPA to do that. But for some reason it is really hard for busy leaders to understand that the commitment, that the resources that you spend to hire an executive assistant are as important if not more important than those other roles within your organization. Because you’re able to grow your capacity. You’re able to focus on the things that only you can focus on. But yeah. Put your ego to the side, realize that they’re gonna do it so much better than you.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. As you were talking right there, LZ, I was reminded that John said, if you have a dream that is bigger than you, if you don’t have a dream that’s bigger than you, number one, I apologize. I’m sorry that the world is all about you. It’s such a small world. You ought to get out and see the a a bigger world. But when you have a dream that is bigger than you, you cannot do it without a team around you. And so we say this, ‘I don’t have time to train somebody else.’ You don’t have time to not train somebody else because every day you delay, is the day you are delaying your dream coming to pass. Every day you delay, getting somebody to help you is another day you’re not getting home and having that balance that you want. So it’s up to us as leaders when you don’t have time, you are actually creating a revolving door that you’ll never have time. And so I I love that you do that. Okay. So our good friends at BELAY — LZ, you came bearing gifts. Now you put pressure on me next week in our podcast, guys. I know. I know. And so I’m really excited about what you’re providing for our team. This our for our podcast family today. Tell us a little bit about this eBook.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got an eBook for everybody.

Mark Cole:

Come on. I love it.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes. Just when you thought that Christmas might be over, it’s not.

Mark Cole:

It’s not! Merry Christmas. Happy birthday. That’s right.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Happy New Year. I come bearing gifts, but yes. Lead Anyone From Anywhere.

Mark Cole:

Oh, hold up. Hold up. Lead Anyone From Anywhere. Which is such a virtual great statement in the world that we live in right now. Okay tell me more.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Everybody’s on the go. And they want to be. They need to be. So this is the book for you. And here’s the thing. If you want to learn how to lead somebody and they’re right next to you, this works too. Cause it’s anywhere, anyone from anywhere.

Mark Cole:

So even the person sitting right in the next cube beside me.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Totally.

Mark Cole:

I’ve got a name that comes to mind right here. Okay.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yes, yes. So that means everybody needs to go and to get this book. And it’s very, very simple. All you need to do is text MAXWELL to 5-5-1-2-3 to download it again. That’s MAXWELL to 5-5-1-2-3.

Mark Cole:

All right. So our YouTube listeners and viewers, proof I have it right there. It’s on my phone and I want to know why you haven’t already done it. You’re slower than me. And when it comes to technology, don’t take pride in being slower than me. Lead Anyone From Anywhere. It’s a short read. Look at this chapter two, doing more with less the benefits of fractional hybrid workforces. Aw. I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m so excited.

Mark Cole:

Hey, LZ. What a quick, wonderful way to add value to people. And I would just love you one more time to just, what’s the heart behind BELAY and what are you guys doing for people like me and people like our podcast listeners, that we can’t do for ourself? This is why I wanted to partner with you, what you’re getting ready to say. And we did not even script this. But I know what you’re getting ready to say because I’m a benefactor of it. I have so many friends that are a benefactor of it. Why BELAY and why are you so passionate about helping our podcast listeners?

Lisa Zeeveld:

Yeah. Because we want to give busy leaders time back. Right?

Mark Cole:

Come on. Yes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Time back. We want to help make their lives better. I believe that in my core, before we started recording, I told you that I have been a virtual assistant. I know what it is like on that side. Now, leading the organization, we get tickled over all the success stories that we hear about people who are able to make their kids’ ballgames, who are able to give back to their communities more, who are able to grow their business. We love this. We love it. We love it. We love it. And so we wanna help busy leaders get more time, time to do the things that they’re passionate about.

Mark Cole:

Oh man, you have added so much value today. LZ, don’t forget text 5-5-1-2-3. You get a free ebook, Lead Anyone From Anywhere. Those of you that just wanna go straight to the bottom line, I need help. You’re waving the white flag, go to belaysolutions.com. Hey, thanks for partnering with us. And the reason I say that is because we are about adding value to people. And if I can say anything about BELAY, you guys add value to people so that they can multiply value to others. When you take something off, you give me more time. I can go home and be a better dad, a better grandparent because of what you guys do. So thank you very much. Hey, I wanna close today as I always like to do. I want to talk about Thymus. Thymus is impacted by the podcast, transferring the vision from the heart to the head.

Mark Cole:
We’ll put that in the show notes as well as with all the links about BELAY for you. But here’s what Thymus said. He said, ‘Every minute I spend listening to your podcast,’ Think about this. What we’re talking about, ‘Every minute I spend listening to your podcast is an investment. And I take every word seriously. My life has never been the same since I started following.’ Thymus, that’s why BELAY and Maxwell leadership do what we do. We want every minute to multiply back to you so you can do what only you can do. And here’s what I know you can do. You can bring about powerful, positive change to the world around you because everyone deserves to be led well.