Goal Making and Goal Setting in Corporations

Everyone, welcome to another episode of the Stone

Genius podcast. Today, we have a very special

guest. We have Debbie Longo. She's joining us.

She is the founder of Life in Bloom NY, like

New York, lifeinbloomny .net. She is an executive

behavior coach and we're going to find out more

about that. Welcome to the podcast. Debbie, how

are you today? Thank you very much for having

me. I appreciate it and I'm very good. I'm going

to stop right here because I said life and bloom

and why, like New York. But is that a New York

accent that I'm hearing too? Long Island. Long

Island. I love it. So let's hear a little bit

more about you, Debbie. Can you explain? I introduced

you as an executive behavioral coach. Can you

tell us a little bit about that and maybe some

other things that you might do? Life and bloom

and why started off. my company as a life coach

company i've been in this business for twenty

five years approximately. The end why is for

new york. But i don't live in new york anymore

so a brief introduction or explanation would

be i do all types of coaching and after covid.

There was a lot of issues with companies going

bankrupt, going out of business. And I knew that

I could do something to help these companies

because the way I teach it is it doesn't matter

what goes on in life, in my surroundings, in

my environment. Outside forces don't have anything

to do with me and succeeding in business. Succeeding

in my life being successful and when i can do

that then whatever can happen it doesn't matter

and i don't wanna point to something happened

to me there was covid and i don't wanna say that

that is the reason why my business failed and

why i went out of business so as an executive

behavior coach what do you think is the most

difficult thing to maybe modify as an example.

And I've used this on this podcast before. When

I was a trainer with Sprint, I did new hire training.

During the first two weeks, they would go through

all sorts of stuff. So the first week we would

get people that say, they'd raise their hand,

I'd call them, I don't understand this shit.

And I'd be like, What stuff don't you understand?

I wouldn't reference that they said the word

shit. I didn't call them out. I go, what stuff?

Although I did stress that word. What stuff?

Pause, dramatic pause. What stuff don't you understand?

At the end of the, by the end of the first week,

those people were self -correcting. They were

saying, I don't understand this shit. I mean,

this stuff. And I was just like, what stuff don't

you understand? And by the end of the second

week, they were saying stuff. And so I personally

always felt just for me personally, that it was

always best to demonstrate the desired behavior.

So there wasn't any question. I didn't ever see

anyone else doing this. What do you, as an executive

coach who's dealing with behavior all the time,

what do you find is the most difficult thing

to change within the human behavior? The thing

that I teach the most out of anything is to get

rid of negativity. Because when I'm negative,

That affects my whole entire life. And this is

one of the reasons why I started life coaching

to begin with was because I was around so many

people that were negative and I became negative

and then my life just became destruction basically.

But I can help business owners and companies

succeed in business and they can raise their

profits and get promotions. Do good in the stock

market, get bonuses and this entails a lot of

different aspects. So I did some podcasts about

respect and now I want to do this one about the

goal making and goal setting because these are

all positive things that we could do in our company

because something will happen. This world is

not perfect. Just because I'm good and I'm doing

good and I'm successful in life, it's not going

to be perfect. It's not going to happen. So therefore

I need to find ways where I can be successful

with through anything. It doesn't matter what

it is because I want to take all those outside

forces and I want to take everything in my surroundings,

my family, coworkers, whatever it is. I don't

want to. know them. I want to erase them, put

them aside, however I'm going to do it. And I'm

only focusing on me and my behavior, my thoughts,

my actions. Because that's a pretty big change

for a lot of people. So how do you get someone

to make that dramatic change in their own? If

someone tells you, oh, this is your goal, if

you do this, like I have a problem with that.

Like my goals rarely align with others and that

doesn't always bode well. So how do you get someone

to buy into the fact that your goals that you

want them to attain or maybe have set for them,

how do you get them to understand that should

be their same goals as well? First thing is that

this type of thing has to be 100 % organic. So

nine times out of 10, I don't do that much advertising

or promoting i do these podcasts i do talks i

do lectures. And i can talk to people that way

and i can get the word out so people have an

understanding about what coaching is now when

i develop their program they say oh yeah i like

what you said i want to hear more about. Now

i'm gonna develop a whole program for them. And

it's going to be outlined. Everything is going

to be in great detail. I don't charge for any

of this. If they say, OK, I want to do this.

Then I say, let's take the first step. You have

the outline. Now let's take the first step. So

this is like baby steps. So they are basically

what's happening is they're basically going to

erase everything, clear their minds, and they're

going to listen. To what i'm saying and hopefully

take action on the things that i'm doing and

then there's going all the way down their mind

and then they're building it up again they're

getting rid of the negativity by completely erasing

it and now when they go up it's gonna be gradual

levels gradual steps of becoming positive so

it's extremely slow process now could be that

somebody is doesn't really need that maybe there.

just negative in some areas. That's not the case.

So when you had mentioned earlier about goal

setting and goal making in corporations, is that

more difficult? Because I believe that you work

with companies of all sizes. How does the mom

and pop less than 10 people in their shoe store?

How is making Goals and setting goals different

at a company that size or one of a much more

substantive size. The only difference is the

amount. Let's just use money as an example. If

they want to increase their sales. by fifty percent

next year then they would make all different

types of goals for their employees and their

managers to increase that amount of money so

the only difference between the small company

and the big company. Would be the amount of money

that they want to increase because with the big

company it could be like three million dollars

and with a small company it could be a million

so that's a big difference but the. pattern,

the way that we do it is going to be probably

exactly the same for the most part. I was just

wondering whether there is a more difficult getting

to buy in. Are you just saying, hey, executives,

I'm teaching you or your team, whoever's part

of that team, I'm teaching you all and you all

disseminate it. So whether you're teaching an

ownership group that has a company size of seven,

but it's still one or two. an owner or two partners,

you could have two partners in a large company.

So is it more difficult to get buy in or is the

level that you're working with? Oh, these are

one of the compound questions I warned you about.

Is it more difficult to get the buy in of the

people because of the size of their company?

Not really. It is no, because it depends on whether

they want to make the goals succeed. and how

they're going to do that and how they motivate

their employees. And that's really the bottom

line, because I want to focus on how are we doing

this? What is going on in everybody's mind when

we are communicating to them what these goals

are and how exactly we're going to achieve it.

And this is going to be an exact step by step

thing. This is not a thing that's estimated.

How long does it take generally to implement

a plan like this to help turn a culture turnaround?

Because I know how hard it can be to have negativity

within the workplace around you. But I also know

that it's much more difficult getting rid of

someone now than it was when I started working

in the early eighties. I heard some weird stuff

and it like would never fly. A company would

Hopefully not say some of those things now, but

I'm just wondering, is it more difficult to get

rid of that negativity now that once it's already,

I've always been the type of person that thinks

every bad decision a company makes goes back

to hiring because I used to see the wrong person.

I went on after sprint to a, a staffing agency

and did nearly 2000 interviews. And I found that

if you hired the right. person, then that made

such a difference because it was really hard

to get someone to buy in that just was there

for a paycheck. So how do you get someone that

is there for a paycheck? How would you address

that? Or if someone came to you and go, I have

someone, how do I address this to them? The hiring

process is very, very important, but remember

outside forces don't matter. So it doesn't matter

who it is, what it is. What's going on? What's

the situation? If I am a boss or I'm an executive,

I want to be able to know 100 % exactly what

to do and what to say in every situation. The

hiring process is a lot different now because

everybody's focusing on everybody else. And now

there's lawsuits, discrimination. And now A lot

of bosses or business owners are very, very cautious,

maybe almost fearful that they are afraid that

if they say something or if they do something,

they're most likely going to get sued. And that

is not a good way to think. But outside forces

don't matter. So if I say to myself, I know this.

for a fact that there are lawsuits but in my

situation this will not happen to me. I will

be able to know and understand exactly when an

employee is going to do something wrong or I

need to enforce their job duties or whatever

it is. And that will be a calm and professional

manner and they will understand it and nothing

will come of that. Okay. There will be no lawsuits

and there will be no problems. And this is the

point that I want to get to. And that does not

happen overnight where I can know that we call

it creating a knowing, which basically means

that I know it 100%. There's no doubt in my mind.

When I go. to the kitchen and I turn on the light

and do I think that that light is not going to

turn on if I turn on that light I know 100 %

that that light is going to turn on there is

no doubt in my mind and I use this example a

lot because everybody turns lights on but to

relate that to the business world is a lot more

complicated because I wanna Be able to take out

all of that. That is going to be all that negativity

outside for us, all these different things. That

is going to be the death of me and my company.

And that's just a matter of time. But it's up

to me to change my thinking and my behavior.

Only me as a boss, as an executive, whatever.

And then other people are going to follow me

and I'm going to lead by example, but this is

why this is so important. And what you're saying

is very, very important because these are realistic

issues that people do have today. They do think

these things business owners. When a company

is setting a goal, does it matter the industry

that they're in or regardless of industry? is

goal setting important? It doesn't matter about

the industry. If I need to make the goal and

I need to make the way that I'm going to make

it, if I'm writing it down or I'm enforcing,

that's going to be different between companies.

But my behavior and the way that I think that

this goal is going to come out and the end result

of it and the way it's going to be enforced,

that's all my behavior. That doesn't have anything

to do with the company, the size. Do you see

ownership that regardless of how you tell them,

you reinforce it to them? Do you find companies

that they're going to fail? I'll give an example.

When I was director of operations for a company,

the owner of the company wanted a new employee

handbook developed. So I took a lot of time,

made a 70, I think it was 70 some odd page handbook.

But he, his partner, and then some of the salespeople

he liked, they don't want to follow all the rules

in the new handbook, but they thought it was

very important for everyone else to follow those

rules. So you would have a discrepancy like that

with an owner, but they would also do that to

their salespeople when setting goals, which I

didn't really mind. I didn't mind seeing those

things change, but When you're trying to get

an ownership group to adhere to something, do

you find that difficult or by the time that they've

arrived to you, have they already gotten past

the, oh, we're just kicking the tire. We really

want to do this, but maybe not. That depends

on the person, the company, but here's the thing.

I teach this, so I want to lead by example. So

I want to make sure that I know 100 % that that

company will will succeed and what I am teaching

them and what I'm explaining to them will work.

But here's the thing. This is something that's

permanent and they are going to now take this

information because I don't want to see them

again. I love everybody and I want to talk to

people on the phone and I have no problems with

that. But. The way that i teach it is i give

them this information i teach it to them explain

it to them they practice it and then they say

okay debbie we're done and now they gonna go

and take that information and implement it. Into

their work force and that's something that's

gonna be permanent and that's an everyday thing

providing that they keep doing that now is somebody

depends on. where the person that what level

there at when they come to me but some people

don't know anything and some people might say

i just need help with a few things but nine times

at a ten if they say that that's fine and i will

go by that. But a lot of times sometime during

the process they usually have to learn a lot

of. techniques and different things that they've

been doing all over again, only because of if

they do it with any negativity at all or any

doubt, then they'll fail at it. So I want to

make sure that I am the person that's really

leading by example. And it is important and confidence

goes a long way. Sometimes people would ask me,

they're like, how did you do that? Or how did

you get in there or whatever? It's like, because

I look like I belong. I was exuding confidence,

not being a shill. So when someone has their

plan, they've introduced it, their goals, you

would just mention that they may have to retrain

or rethink how they've operated previously. Do

you or is there a need for you to do like tune

up maintenance, like to make sure they don't

slide like Let me check you at three months.

Oh, you're doing all right. I'll check on you

in a year or something like that. Or are you

just expecting them to reach out if they need

your assistance again? I have different packages

and plans and things that we tailor to the case,

the individual, the company, whatever the situation

is. And if they want to. Come back to me in three

months. Now that would probably be something

that I would recommend or not at the end of their

training. We'll make it like a mutual agreement.

I would say, maybe this might be a good idea.

What do you think? And then they would say, yay

or nay. Then we could come back in three months.

If we could try some things, if you're not sure

about. You mentioned to me that you might not

be too sure about this, this and this, but if

we could try some of these things and you could

maybe try them on your own to implement them

with your employees, and then you could talk

to me maybe in a month or two, and then we'll

revisit these situations, these issues that you're

having. And then if they are not working at that

time, then. We could maybe do some more work

but that's gotta be a mutual agreement and that

really depends on the situation because i wanna

tailor it exactly to that company to that business

owner there are no two clients that are exactly

the same it's like a fingerprint. Every time

i do this i start from zero and i'm creating

something it's like creating a business. Every

time you get a new client, you're creating a

completely different business. That's exactly

what it is. So how much knowledge do you need

to know of the customer's field to fill that?

If it's almost like creating a new business,

then you're going to have to be adept at how

their workflow may go or whatever they're into

and whatever you're addressing. How do you address

that? So we have a conversation. And then i give

them a survey to fill out and i give them some

questions then. I might give them another set

of questions that are more detailed and i need

to have enough information in order for me to

make this plan because i don't charge them. The

consultations and i could do like a workshop

and. Lecture and i don't charge for these things

and then i make the plan and then i give it to

them that's all free. I need to have a lot of

detail in order for me to make this plan. So

they're really going to understand it because

they have to want to do it. This has to be a

going to 100 % say, I really like this. This

is a great idea. If they're not sure, then it's

not going to work. Is there a field or maybe

even a business section like sales or production

or accounting? Is there something that you've

either worked with, whether purposely or unpurposely?

Is there like a group? Or maybe even find yourself

most comfortable with it. Do you see yourself

kind of doing the same types of groups or could

even be referrals so they may be in the same

industry? What do you see on that front? It's

interesting that you asked that question because

believe it or not, people that are spiritual

like chiropractors, doctors, nurses, health care

workers. They understand about behavior. They

understand about living on a different level

than a business owner that's only going to care

about making money about themselves and not take

into consideration anything that their employees

are doing, whether their employees are happy

or satisfied. or the way they're treating their

employees. So the health care people are easier

to work with, but that's not saying that anybody

else is not easy to work with. I'm just saying

this just from my own personal experience. So

do you prefer or is there an industry like, oh,

I'd really like to help that industry sometime?

Or is there a preferred industry you have right

now? Or is it those healthier? Because just because

they may be the easiest may not mean that they're

the most. Sometimes it's the most difficult customers

that you're like, oh, I'm glad we finally completed

a deal. I don't ever want to do that again. But

you kind of get some sort of reward or something

out of it, I guess. If somebody has prior experience,

let's say they went to school for psychology

or something. I don't teach it on a psychology

level, but. If they have different types of experience

with the mind, then they're going to be more

teachable nine times out of 10. But personally,

I like a challenge. So if somebody doesn't really

want it and is really trying and they're constantly

banging their head against the wall, then that's

fine with me. But I can't say that there is one

industry. that's better than the other or one

that I like to work with than the other. I want

to know that individual person, that business

owner, that boss, that executive. What is he

willing to do? What lengths is he willing to

go to to change his behavior, help his employees,

maybe change the employees behavior? And then

that will inadvertently increase sales and profits

because they don't know what to do. They don't

know that there's a problem. Even if they know

there's a problem, they might know, but they

don't know how to fix it. And then if it's a

point where they're not sure if it's a problem

yet, then they can fix it. It's easy to fix,

but then they don't know it. So then they go

on and on with all of these issues that are happening

in the workplace with the employees the employees

trying to control. What the boss is doing what

the policies are the boss is not enforcing the

policies and the boss is saying every single

day can you stay an hour later and the employee

doesn't want to. But they think they're gonna

get fired so they say yes and then the boss doesn't

pay them an hour a day five hours a week and

then the employee gets really upset employee

gets a resentment. The boss gets a resentment

the boss says you have to go i can't work like

this anymore and now because the employee didn't

stick up for themselves and they didn't say.

I cannot work. That's it. I cannot work. This

is past my hours. Then the boss will respect

them more. But because they didn't do that, that

starts a whole thing. But we want to focus on

who is the person that's going to lead by example.

The employee is not going to lead by example.

It's got to be the boss, the executive, the business

owner first. That is. the most important thing.

And if we can succeed at that, then the company

will have great employees. The employees will

be fantastic. They will wake up in the morning

and they can't wait to go to work because they

know that they're working in a positive environment.

But it starts with the business owner. That's

the one who has to be positive first. People

don't realize employees are really paying attention.

to what their boss is doing, what their surroundings,

what the other employees are doing. A lot of

times, bosses just think, oh, they're doing their

own work, but they don't realize they're really

paying attention with what's going on all around

them. And that is the reason why these types

of things, goal setting, goal making, is creating

a positive thing. And that's getting rid of negativity.

But also it's motivating the employee and the

employee wants to work. They want to do good

things for the company. They want the sales to

be higher. And what's a good way to do that?

Commission. That's a good way. But a lot of people

don't like to work on commission because you

don't get a salary. If it's a certain amount

every month, every week or every month, you're

not going to get that. That's just the way that

a commission job works. So a lot of people don't

like that, but they can reward with small amounts

of money, but they don't necessarily have to

do that. There are tons of ways to do this, but

we want to make sure that the business owner

is motivated enough in order to teach his employees

and his whole entire staff, even his peers. Maybe

his board members a positive way of thinking

and a positive way of running the company. And

if I can succeed at that one more business owner,

that's not going to fail. And then they're not

going to care about the outside forces. And the

thing that I don't like about commission sales

jobs is that often whoever's in charge doesn't

actually know what motivates. their employees.

Because of that, they're shooting themselves

in the foot. I remember at the last commission

job I had, so I was different than other people.

Most people would be, if they sold something,

they would be like, like if they made, I don't

know, 60 bucks on something. And I used to be

a Nikon rep. So say they, someone else sold something

and they made 60 bucks on it. That'd be like,

oh, that was like working two extra hours. And

in my head, I'm like, that means I can leave

two hours early. Because to me, it was always

about, I had a number set. But the thing was,

my goals, because I would get pushback. And this

is where I would be in ownership. Don't always

see eye to eye. Where the pushback would be,

I would always tell them, give me a number. If

you give me a number that I can leave at noon

every day, give me that number. Let's just see

how often I hit it. And if I hit it a great deal

of times, then they would be upset thinking that

number was too low. The number that they gave

me. So I always had trouble with goal setting

and goal expectations because often my, I'm going

to blame ownership here. They were not doing

a good job of selling to me, getting me to do

the buy -in. We used to talk about it. heads,

hands, and heart, being able to have everything

in your head into it, your heart into it, your

hands into it. And it's very difficult to get

someone to do that. So when you're talking goal

making, are you talking goal achieving? Are you

talking, is there a difference between goal setting

and goal making, like making a target and setting

a target? So I don't know if those two are different

or if you meant making was that you meant achieving.

The first thing is. You're right when you say

that the boss a lot of times doesn't know how

to make the goals or how to motivate the employees.

Because I was in sales for a long time and that

was true. And that's why commission jobs are

self motivating. Because if I'm not motivating

myself, then I'm not going to make money. But

it turns out that you make more money at a regular

job than that. Then a commission job than a regular

job. It was funny because they just didn't know

the words because here's the deal. They wanted

me to like work a full day. And let's say I had

a goal $6 ,500 in a day for a whole day. If they

would have come to me and said, when you hit

$13 ,000, you can leave. They would be surprised

at how often I was doing that at like noon or

one o 'clock. And so I'm basically doing a half

a day. The problem that I would find with ownership,

then they would get mad. Even though they would

get mad that I was leaving early, not that I

was doubling everyone else's goal. Like if everyone

else stayed all day and had a $6 ,500 goal, and

if I hit $13 ,000, I could leave whenever, and

they would get mad that I left at noon, make

that to everyone then. But a lot of people didn't

want to work that hard. I always talked about

you don't have to treat everyone equally, but

you do need to treat them fairly. Because I remember

when 25 years ago, I was a manager at Best Buy.

And we had all these young guys that worked for

us. And then we had a couple of older gentlemen.

And I say older now, but they're probably like

what my age is now, like mid fifties. This is

when TVs were still gigantic, huge pieces of

furniture, big boxes and stuff. And so the TVs

were kept out on the floor and then you would

have to into the night, if someone bought them,

you'd have to use what we'd call the big Joe,

the big lift to get up and get the TVs and bring

them down. So at the end of the night, the young

guys would always ask me, they'd be like, why

don't you ever make Ned take down the, do the

TVs? And I'm like, I am fine with that, but we

will be here till 10 30. And they're like, okay.

They didn't want to be here until I said that

they thought the difference was that I didn't

treat them equally. Why are we always having

to take down the heavy stuff and he gets to clean

and do the light work? That wasn't the difference.

The difference was, do you want to leave at 930

or do you want to leave at 1030 when that's done?

Actually, I think his name was Jed, now that

I think about it. Sorry, Jed. So anyway, that

was one of the things that I always, let's treat

everyone fairly, but we don't need to necessarily

do them equally. often when you have created

a plan, someone's come to you and they're like,

oh, let's do this. And then you come up with

a plan and they're like, oh, I'm not so sure

about this. Do you get pushback or do they ever

want to like temper it down a little, like dip

their toe into the pool, so to say. Let's answer

the question about the difference between goal

making and goal setting. That was a long time

ago. Good memory. I want to know how to make

the goal specifically. Is it a daily goal is

it a weekly goal i have certain amount of money

that i need increased in sales and i need to

know how i am going to make these goals to reach

this one the end goal is whatever amount is the

increase in sales i'm just using that as an example

the goals making is just that. But I either make

the goal or I don't. And if I don't make the

goal, then the next week or the next month, the

goal has to be higher because I need to make

that end goal, which is the end of the year or

however I'm making the goal, whatever the situation

is. And I think that I approached it a little

different. And I actually wrote down his first

and name, first and last name here, but I'm only

going to use a first name. When I was a trainer

with Sprint, I was doing a store visit into the

month and We're just going to use for simplicity

sake. Let's say that people in a sprint store,

this is early 2000s, had to average a phone a

day. Let's say they had to do 30 phones a month.

So my position and district manager positions

were considered same level. So I was able to

have this conversation with him and he blew up

at me for this. There was someone on the floor

that he was talking to about, it was near the

end of the month and he was talking about monthly

goals. And let me put where I... come from first.

I'm a big believer that you can't hit any goal

until you hit your daily goal. Doesn't matter.

And that's what leads into this. It doesn't matter.

I will never say your goal today is your daily

goal. I don't give a shit. Your goal is your

daily goal. So what Jeff did was he told this

person, he goes, oh, I see you've only sold like

five phones this month. It is like the 28th of

the month. He's like, man, you're going to have

to sell 25 phones over the next two days. And

he was not kidding. and saying it in a way that

if you want to talk about negativity, if you

want to see someone hit with a negativity stick,

I actually said something to the employee before

I said something to Jeff, because I said, no,

I go, your goal is whatever your goal is. How

many are you supposed to have today? And they're

like, one, I go get one. And they're like, and

I go, and if you get two, good job. You can't

get to 25 before you get to 23 or 21 or two or

one. And that's how I always saw that is sometimes

managers got so focused on that goal that they

would literally, I'm sure security cameras were

still a thing back then, but I would have said,

if you would have just seen this person, this

employee's face going, I'm worried about getting

one today the way my month has gone. And now

you're literally trying to tell me I need 25.

Thanks. I appreciate that. So I guess My question,

short question long, how do you monitor once

it's implemented by the company that you're working

with? Is there any post monitoring that you do

yourself? Like you said, I believe earlier surveys

maybe are things like that. Is there a thing

that you do after it's implemented to see if

it's actually working or do you just kind of

take the the company's word for it that it is

working or not working? The goal has to be realistic.

So in the example that you gave, if you are not

comfortable, if the employee is not comfortable,

they don't think they can make the goal, then

that's it. The goal should not go any farther

than that. And the company is going to tell me

everything. I'm going to show and teach them.

They're going to say to me, this is working.

This is not working. And I'm going to believe.

whatever the company is saying, because if they

say something is working and they're not and

it's not, then they're going to be the ones that

are shooting themselves in the foot, not me.

But I want to always make sure so I ask probing

questions and sometimes I repeat the questions.

One day I'll say a question and then two days

later I'll say the same question or maybe I'll

say it in different ways. And that will get the

person to think the client. And once the client

is able to really think things through and really

understand things, then I'll be asking less questions

because they're now going to be the one that's

going to be doing the talking. And now they're

going to be saying to me, now this is my issue.

Now I think I know how to solve it. Is that what

you like to hear they're coming to you saying,

I can now solve it at this point? So that was

one of the things that I used to do in management.

I did not care if you had a question. I wanted

you to come with questions because if you don't

ask the question, generally going to be done

wrong. But there are always three ways I'd answer

the question. It would either be, man, that is

a great suggestion. Go ahead and implement that,

get it started. Or it would be, I really like

that. You put a lot of thought into that. Here's

why this would work or why it wouldn't work.

This is the components that would, we can pull

out of it and work or wouldn't work. Or I would

say, Hey, I really appreciate you thinking about

that, but I think for efficiency wise, I've done

this in the past and this just may work better

this way. And so letting them know that because

it's always about encouraging them and having

them critically think to come to me. Because

that was always the best. I remember once I was

a manager with Best Buy back in the 90s. And

when I was gone, they had hired someone for one

of my departments who looked like he was like,

I don't know, 10 years old. He looked young.

And so when I get back, I even remember his name

and I stay in touch with one of these guys. I

met Kyle for the first time when we're staying

there talking in the audio department. And I

asked Kyle, I go, Hey, Kyle, how old are you?

And you only had to be 16 at the time, I don't

know if it's still the case, at the time to work

at Best Buy. He could have been 16, which is

still young, but he looked young. He goes, I'm

going to be 18 next month. And without missing

a beat, and this is the guy he's staying in touch

with, Chris House, he goes, he didn't ask you

how old you're going to be next month. He asked

you how old you are. But it was like, man, he

listens to me. Because I know that I've said

that it just was so impressive because we keep

circling back around to demonstrating the desired

behavior to elicit a response from them. It's

really cool when you as someone who is generally

doing the training, seeing someone that's really

absorbed that because once again, we've talked

about they have to buy into whatever you have,

whatever, whether like you said, whether it's

raising sales 50 % or it's the industry, the

staffing industry that I was in was a lot of

industry work and construction cleanup and disaster

cleanup. And so we were always worried about

injuries. So even being able to implement something

that you can see a tangible, hey, the number

of injuries drop down. That has to be a big thing.

Are there still techniques that you're coming

up with as you implement this? Like you say,

like you have a current client, they bring something

up and you're like, oh, I've never thought about

that before. Not in front of them, of course.

And then you kind of have to develop a new plan.

So are you developing new plans or is it an ever

building criteria or curriculum? I guess I should

use that you use, or is it just kind of the same?

And June will be just like me. We're talking

about each individual client. So I have the plan.

And then every day every time i talk to them

most likely the plan is gonna change so then

we have a conversation and then i was gonna talk

to them about this tomorrow but now because of

this conversation now i have to make a whole

different. Plan to for the conversation tomorrow

and that's only because i don't know what is

gonna happen how they're gonna react and they're

gonna response to. What we said yesterday or

last week. So it's a thing that is just constantly

changing. And also if I work with somebody, I

have a client and then she brings up cause every

situation is unique and she brings up something

or something happens there. And then I could

use that not the same situation, but that idea

of what happened. I told this client this and

she implemented it this way and this was the

result now i could use that on another client

with the client situation with the new client

situation and they're not gonna know that not

that matters. Because that's just for my information

but that's gonna now help so i use the ideas

and the things that i do in client a to help

client b that happens all time. I'm going to

ask this and I don't know if it affects you or

not, but it's becoming a more and more common

question. Do you use AI in any way to help lay

out a plan, help if you get stumped or maybe

you're not quite as familiar with a particular

industry that you've not worked with before?

Have you used or are you beginning to or plan

to use AI at all in your plan building? I'm going

to tell you a little secret about myself. I don't

use AI only because my marketing guys use it

for promoting. Well, they say they do. So, but

my plan, the things that they're going to implement,

what I'm going to say, the way that we're going

to have the conversation that all comes from

my mind that just comes to me. And that is a

gift that I have had ever since I was born, basically

was a young child. So I'm quiet and I sit in

a quiet place and I think about what happens.

And then I just take a piece of paper. I don't

use the computer. I take a piece of paper and

I write down everything that comes into my brain.

And then it comes right out onto the paper. And

then I put it in like a word doc or something.

And that could be the conversation that could

be making goals. And that is going to be from

pretty much everything that we're going to say.

And that is just a gift that I have. That's just

a special gift that I've had my whole life. Let's

see. Anything else you have for us before we

go today on goal setting and goal making in corporations?

I think that. Every business owner can be successful

and it's going to depend on the boss, the executive.

That is what it's going to depend on. Everybody,

all their employees, everybody around them is

waiting for them to be successful. So then if

they're successful, then they're going to in

turn help everybody else. They gonna help their

employees they gonna help their business so maybe

those employees let's say for example are not

capable of being successful of looking at themselves

of realizing what their problems and their issues

are and they want to change it so they're saying

to themselves maybe one day my boss will be successful

and be positive and he will help me do that and

then. When that happens if that happens but if

they do something about it it will nine times

out of ten happen then what's gonna happen they

gonna influence the employee and then the employee

might go home. And then they might influence

their daughter with the same situation only with

not work something that the daughter is doing

school but that's really what it starts with

so whoever the person is. Here we're talking

about the bosses and executive coaching and different

things, but whoever the client is, whoever the

person is, then if they are the ones that want

help, then that's the most important thing. And

this will 100 % increase sales and profits. I

can tell you from 25 years experience in this.

Okay this is not a theory there are statistics

to back this up this is all factual information

this is not something that was just. Somebody

woke up yesterday and just dream this up so that's

really what we want to focus on and i'm doing

the all these podcasts with all these different

topics because i wanna explain to people and

get the word out so people can even just not

necessarily understand. But they're familiar

with that they can change and they can do things

differently. And this is what happens if they

do. I've had a love hate relationship with upper

manager most of my life because I feel like a

lot of their decision making process is suspect.

It's you just see stuff and you're like, how?

And that's why I'm glad that there are people

out there like you. that are helping businesses

of all different sizes and individuals even.

Because as you say, I think about you helping

a business, but you're really helping the individuals

there. And like you just mentioned, they'll take

the skills that they learned from you and they'll

go home and maybe help their child with their

homework or setting a goal for buying their first

car or whatever that may be. That's kind of the

neat thing, too, is being able to see your work

not just in that type of setting, but also see

it in the domestic, for lack of a better term,

setting with a family, because that's important.

A lot of times when people work, they see their

peers, their employees, the people that they

work with, they see them more than they see their

family. So they'll go to work for eight hours

they'll come home and then the child has to be

in bed in an hour and then they go to sleep a

few hours later for five hours later. And then

they wake up and then they have to do that all

over again and they're doing that five days a

week so realistically they're only seeing their

family two days a week. What do i think is more

important is it changing the family first. Or

is it changing the work environment first, because

it's going to be difficult for me to do everything

all at the same time. So if I'm seeing, and it's

not that one thing is more important than the

other, but realistically, if I'm seeing somebody

more often, then I have a better chance of when

I change that behavior to implement it to other

people. to do the person that I'm seeing more

often first rather than the person that I'm seeing

less often. And plus the people at my job, there's

more situations that are going to come up, more

problems because I'm seeing them more often.

So there's a lot of different things here. Yeah,

there are. And maybe you'll come back again at

some point. I would like to get into this more

about this and then because. It is fascinating.

We'll talk about it more off air, too, because

I have some things to say as well about how we're

just finishing up. So, Debbie, thank you so much

for being on the podcast. Thank you. I really

appreciate it. You're so welcome, everyone. This

was Debbie Longo. She is the founder of Life

in Bloom NY dot net. She is an executive behavior

coach. You can reach out to her. I will have

all of her contact information. You can go to

Instagram. at The Stone Genius, or you can go

to this show that you're listening to or watching

to right now and find that information. Debbie,

again, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

Thank you very much. You're welcome. Everyone,

you guys have been listening to The Stone Genius

podcast. We'll talk to you soon.