 Aloha. Welcome to Keys to Success, which is live on the ThinkTech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11am. We are your hosts. My name is Janelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Welcome to today's show. The goal of this show is to provide professional and personal development tools and profound insights on how to achieve success in life, career and or business. Cam Napier, editor and chief of Pacific Business News, was our guest on our last show and his words of wisdom can be accessed on Newman Consulting Services website, NewmanConsultingServices.com or our landing page, Danelia.org. Our theme for today is the peace to success in business and life. Our guest today was on our previous show and there was so much fabulous information on the critical success factors in business and life that was shared that we invited him back. Joining us today in the studio as our guest is Reg Baker, a national recognized expert on small and mid-sized businesses. Mahalo for joining us this morning. Oh, it's great to be back. Hey, Reg. Good to see you. Reg, share with our viewers, if you will, a little about your background. I have, well, not to bore people with too much detail, but I've been in Hawaii since 1973. I've been here for quite some time. I went to HCC, Hollywood Community College, went to Manoa, UH, Manoa campus, spent some time on the mainland with Price Waterhouse in LA, specializing in consulting with financial institutions. So we were setting up asset liability management systems and working with different companies to define the metrics that they needed in order to be more successful, to give them the benchmarks. And then eventually came back to Hololulu with Ernst and Young. I was the manager on the Bank of Hawaii job. The Bank of Hawaii asked me to join them. I ran international operations for a few years and I ran our trust operations. Then I went out and started my own practice and kind of focused on the small and mid-sized business marketplace for the last 20, 25 years. That's great. We like to always tell a little bit about the background so that it qualifies you to talk about the piece to success, right? And that's exactly our topic, piece to success in business and life. So let's go ahead and start with that conversation. We want to get right into it because there's lots of piece to success, right? Well, you know, it's been an interesting process. I started coming up with some of my little trigger points and some of my thoughts, you know, from a variety of different things that I've done over the years and tried to make it as simple as I could. And I started out with five piece and then I grew to seven piece. And the more I get into it, the more piece to success I'm finding. So here's more to 18 now. It's up to 18 piece now, which is really amazing. Okay. And it's not that everybody has to memorize all 18 piece, but it's, you know, and some will be more relevant to some people and some businesses and to others. And so it's just, you know, it's kind of a fun way to define some of the things that you need to be paying attention to as a girl business. So what's our first P? You know, I've been asked, what's the most important P? Okay, that's a good, that's a better question. Wait a minute. We're going to rush into that. We've got a show to do here. Let's start from A and go to C, all right? All right. Well, I don't have any A's and I don't have any. I got a lot of P's. Okay. Well, there you go. There you go. Let's start with the P. But you know, I tried, and one of the P's is prioritizing. Okay. Which is kind of what we're playing with right now is which one of these 18 P's are the most important? Which one comes first? Which one comes last? And a lot of it depends upon the business and the person. There are some people that have tremendous strengths in certain areas and maybe not so much in other areas. And so their first P might be different from somebody else who has a different mix or a different skill set. And so sometimes it just makes sense to kind of go through the P's and see which is most important to you at that particular time. I'd also suggest that sometimes those P's move around a little bit. You know, what's important this year may be a little different next year. Correct. Okay. But prioritizing sounds like a good place to start. Well, prioritizing is one of those P's that I just recently added because as the P's were getting bigger and bigger, I asked myself the same question. Which one is the most important? Which one should we start with? Well, let's talk about prioritizing because, you know, one of the things I personally find is that when I've got a really lot of projects going on, it can become very overwhelming. And that's exactly when you need to prioritize. One of the biggest challenges and something that, you know, is we do consulting. And one of the things that we really look at is somebody's desk space. If you walk in every morning to a desk space that is filled with stuff everywhere, it's already overwhelming. And you are still, and you are not really prioritizing your task, and you end up doing not much of anything all day. So we strongly recommend that you prioritize your desk. You know, I like to put everything in one pile and then just go through it and prioritize it. Sometimes you need to just take a deep breath and take a break and then come back and recognize which one's more important than something else at that time. You know, and everybody has their own approach to setting their priorities. And again, different people have different priorities for different sets of circumstances. But I think part of my process is what's the worst thing that could happen in each one of these different priorities or these tasks that I get to accomplish. And if the results are really bad for this one, and maybe not so bad for this one, I'm going to pick the one that's that it could have the most negative effects on me or my business and make that my priority to get done. If I had to pick one task to do, which one would that be? That helps me set the priority. And as you mentioned earlier, delegating, getting, you know, delegating some of those tasks to others who can assist you because sometimes we always sometimes we have a tendency to think when no one can do it as good as us, when in fact, hey, it could be close. And that was to work. Exactly right. I mean, nobody, we all have expectations for ourselves. And we set the bar pretty high. And we're usually pretty good at hitting that mark. Nobody will be able to do that exactly like we do. So we have to be realistic. Or one of the P's is practical. In setting the bar for our employees and the people we work with. Is it, you know, if we set the bar too high, we're going to be disappointed. And practical is a major, major P, because you can have a high dream. And we don't want that to intervene in what we're doing. That's right. You got to be, you know, it's not a P, but realistic is part of being practical. And, and, you know, what's possible, another P, you know, so, you know, to be practical in setting our priorities and doing a delegation to the people and making sure that they have the skill sets. I mean, we may have a long list of priorities. We know what our skill sets are. But when we start delegating out our tasks, we have to make sure that our tasks meet their skill sets. And it's a practical assignment to make. So true. Because if we don't focus on that, we find that we lose employees or employees are unhappy. And sometimes it's just because of that lack of communication as to, you know, what, what they can do really well. And just like us as business owners, we have those areas we do well in. And they were those areas that we need to delegate. And so you need to know your staff capabilities and know who you're delegating jobs to. And don't put a person in a predicament, you know, don't give them something that you, that they can't perform. Right. And to motivate them sometimes, you do need to challenge them occasionally, but you have to make sure that they have the tools or the training to get it done. And so, you know, understanding what their skill sets are, the pluses and the minuses and be able to complement that with some training keeps them motivated and focused. And also other part of part of having a business is all the employees working together. You know, we love the fact that our staff, you know, if someone's lacking in an area, they'll ask somebody else and they'll help. And you know, that's really what it's about teamwork. So that's all a part of that P as well. It is. No, you got to, you know, performance. Right. Performance. You know, you got to, you know, monitor everybody, communicate what the expectations are. Give them the chance to show how well they can perform and if they need help in performance and let them, you know, give them that help and let them show them their ability. Great motivation, particularly with some of the younger folks that are coming in now, they, they want to be able to prove themselves quicker. You know, they don't have the patience. Patience. Yeah. That, you know, maybe some more mature people would have. Yeah. So true. And as you were saying that you have, when you give a staff member something to do a task to perform, you have to provide that training to have, have you done that before you've given this person something to do, you need to know if you provided that person with the proper training to be able to accomplish it. And that's where the planning and the preparation comes in because you've got to, you know, as you're making these assignments, you got to kind of plan a little bit as to who should get that assignment. And then you also have to prepare that person for that assignment to, to communicate maybe what the expectations are, what the performance level is, you know, this is really what I want you to be able to accomplish. Are you comfortable doing this? You know, and, you know, that planning and preparation become two important P's at that stage. Absolutely. OK. What's the next P? Well, there is an interesting one that we can probably have a little bit of fun with. I think it helps to have a, you know, be a little psychotic. A little psychotic. Boy, that's a really good subject. So we're going to come back to that. We're going to take a short break. This is Keys to Success on the ThinkTech live streaming network series. We're talking with Reg Baker regarding our theme today, the P's to success in life and business. My name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. We'll be back in a minute. So please stay tuned for more Keys to Success. Aloha. I'm Kaley Ikeena, president of the Grassroot Institute. If you want to be an informed citizen, we invite you to watch every week as we bring wonderful guests together on Ehana Kako, a weekly program on the ThinkTech Hawaii broadcast network every Monday at 2 o'clock PM. We talk with people who know what they're talking about when it comes to the economy or the government or to building a better society. So we'll see you then on Ehana Kako, which means let's work together every Monday at 2 o'clock PM on the ThinkTech Hawaii broadcast network. Aloha. Hello. My name is Crystal. Let me tell you my talk show. I'm all about health. It's healthy to talk about sex. It's healthy to talk about things that people don't talk about. It's healthy to discuss things that you think are unhealthy because you need to talk about it. So I welcome you to watch Quok Talk and engage in some provocative discussions on things that do relate to healthy issues and have a well-balanced attitude in life. Join me. Welcome back. This is Keys to Success on the ThinkTech live streaming network series. We encourage you to call our hotline at 415-871-2474 to join our conversation or tweet us at ThinkTech H.I. if you have any questions or comments. We've been talking with Reg Baker regarding our theme today, the P's of to success and business in life. I'm Danelia. And I'm another half the duo, John Newman. Welcome back. Now, Reg, let's pick right up where we left off, you know, with... Psychotic, wasn't it? Psychotic? Hold on a minute. Yeah? Well... Okay, I've got to hold on. Yeah, you've got to hold on. Okay, that's a part of P in life and marriage. Yeah, and preparation. Preparation. Patience, right? And patience. Patience is the key. I like that. Patience. Have some patience. Okay, yes, dear. Okay, Reg. And that's a good one to remember. Yes, dear, in marriage as well. Have patience, my dear. Oh, so we stop with psychotic. Let's pick back up on that. Right. Well, that's that's one of the P's that we can have some play full-time with. P is another playful, is another P. There you go. But psychotic is kind of interesting. They say one of the definitions of success is a psychotic on a mission. You know, and you know, a good example of that would be jobs over at Apple. Yeah. He had a reputation. Yes. And he was borderline psychotic in his attention to detail and getting into micro-managing things and you know, and look at the results. You know, the you know, being a psychotic on a mission is one of the definitions of success. You've got to be totally passionate. You've got to be psychotic about making it work. You know, to reaching that level of perfection, maybe practical perfection would be a better definition. But yeah, you got to be a little bit over the top sometimes if you're going to make your business or your life. Because some of life's major breakthroughs have been done by people that was labeled psychotic. They are. And I'm you know, I'm not using the clinical definition. I'm just kind of using a high level of passion. You know, it could be viewed as being psychotic sometimes, particularly by people who don't understand it. That's a tweetable term. A high level of passion. I think business owners that at some point in their careers have become a little, you know, non-clinical psychotic. You know, and that's not a bad thing. No, not at all because it's that you have a lot of passion. You're focused on what you're doing. You really, and actually, when you have passion, you actually love what you're doing. And that's a part of life. Well, and some of that is just providing some very high level of customer service. You know, I mean, you don't want to be like everybody else. You want to be better. You want to do more. And you know, sometimes, you know, getting to that level requires a little extra effort. You know, and as for the psychotic, you know, tendencies tend to come in. Well, you tend to think about work. You know, you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what you've done, what you haven't done, what you can do, you know, and that all contributes to that non-clinical term. Yep. Right? It does. Okay. What's the next one? Well, you know, we've got some that are probably not so playful, but one is, one P is playful. You've got to play with things a little bit and see what mix works the best. You know, I mean, you can't be 110% focused without having a little bit of fun. You know, otherwise, you're going to lose your employees. You're going to probably lose some of the passion. Right. And so having some playfulness, I think, would be good. Playing with the formula a little bit, you know, to see what mix works well, particularly in the branding and the advertising area, you know, the promotion, you know, when you're promoting the product, you know, the business, or even just your own personal brand, you know, that promotion requires some playfulness, you know, try the Twitter, try the Facebook, try the LinkedIn, try the different avenues to different types of advertising, you know, and just play with the mix a little bit, trial and error, if you will, and see what works. Well, it's interesting, playful. Also, I think that is so true, but also getting back to the office environment, you know, we've seen business owners walk in and not even say good morning to their staff when they walk in, and they just make a straight, V-line straightforward, their office close the door, never to be seen again, you know, and so that affects everybody in the office. So, you know, it's really when you're, when your staff are giving their 100% they're giving their best, and then the day starts off that way. It really limits the business, it limits the staff in so many ways mentally. So we just strongly encourage playful. I think that's a great P to success in business and life, you know, is laughing a lot, really being able to laugh at yourself. You know, one of the things that John and I attribute a successful marriage to is the fact that we laugh a lot. We really, we really enjoy each other, we really enjoy life, and we feel the same way in our, in our work environment. It's a great way to reduce stress levels. So true. And your staff members need to know that they can be playful, you know, and that's something that's lacking in quite a few businesses, you know, it can be too sterned atmosphere, and that, that's not productive. Well, and that leads to another P, personality. Oh, yes. You know, what's the personality of the company? You know, call it culture, call it whatever you want, but for me, and I'm psychotic about P's, you know, you know, what's the personality of the company? You're overly passionate. I'm overly passionate. Not psychotic. So, you know, but every company is going to have its own personality, you know, and it would help if you were able to define what type of personality you wanted to have and then take some active steps to, to cultivate that and to make that happen. It's interesting because when we're dealing with the personality of the business, what happens a lot is that when, when you see a company, a lot of the personalities of the employees match the personality of the business owner, you, you attract what you are, right? And so, you see that in different companies. So, if the business owner is really playful, passionate, all of, a lot of the P's that you've already mentioned, you find that a lot of the employees are the same way. If the, if the business owner is kind of real low-key, doesn't, you know, it doesn't laugh a lot and so forth, you find that, what you attract as well in business. Well, and sometimes that happens for survival. True. You know, the employees need to start and, and kind of become a little bit of a clone of the owner. Mm-hmm. You know, if the, if the owner of the company or the manager of the department doesn't allow creativity and doesn't allow people to be playful, then in order to survive, they have to become a mirror image of that. But that's also, that's also unfortunate because that's when we tend to become unhappy too. Right? And so individuals become unhappy in their, in their jobs, in their careers because of that stifling. And we do encourage supervisors to understand that just because you have an employee who might know something that you don't, that's, that's a definite reflection of you because they will work with you and you will grow together and that's really important. There's a playful little, you know, snipplet that I, I like to use, but if you hire everybody in your own image then somebody's redundant. Yeah, that's so true. That's so true. We always say that about marriage too. We tell people. Well, quite a few people are redundant. But we say that about marriage too, you know, what happens is that when people marry somebody who's just like them, they're bored after three months, and when they marry someone who's totally the opposite to them, they're ready to strangle them after three months, you know, you've got to work that out. There's a balance in there, absolutely. Okay, another P? You know, we can play with professionalism a little bit. Yes. You know, and that's part of the personality and the culture of the firm. But, you know, sometimes people tell me that they have a hobby and they've taken the hobby and they're making money at it. You know, and it's not, they don't take it serious. They're having some fun with it and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. But if they want to take it to another level and they want to be able to create something that they could be really proud of, then they need to have a little dose of professionalism in there because maybe it's not a primary source of income for them, but it is a reflection of themselves. You know, it's their brand. And if they're wanting to get, you know, respect for what they're doing, then they need to be a little bit professional about it and hold some certain standards and do things that they're going to be proud of sharing with people. When we teach what you just talked about as forward, we also interject presentation. Professionalism walks hand-in-hand with presentation. That's another P. I'm going to add to that. Forgive me. Forgive me. But they walk hand-in-hand. Your professionalism and the way you present yourself dictates professionalism as well. Yeah, it does. Okay. It does. And some of this is, you know, some of the other P's can be kind of mundane, but pricing is another one. I mean, how do you price your product? Do you want to be the price leader? You want to be the price follower? You know, I've had some clients that I've worked with that complained about cash flow challenges and different other ailments that they might have. They hadn't had a price increase in years, you know. Or they were under pricing. Busy. Really busy. But they were the low price option, although they were delivering a quality product. And so we went through the exercise of just doing a little bit of research. We were able to increase the prices by four or five percent. Still under the competition, didn't lose any business because they couldn't go anywhere else or they didn't want to. And so they ended up getting a nice little bump in cash flow with hardly any effort or cost increase at all. You know, and, you know, sometimes people are just so adverse to looking at that as a possible solution. They just, they're afraid of losing the business. That's true. Yeah. And there's ways of doing it that can minimize that or eliminate it. Right. What do you feel is one of the biggest obstacles you've had to overcome in your career and your life? I guess persistence. You know, sometimes everybody gets tired once in a while. Yes, that's true. You know, and sometimes it's healthy to take a break. You know, I mean, you don't have to feel that you have to do something every day, every week, maybe every month. If you need to have a little bit of downtime, catch your breath, recharge your batteries. But the main thing is to be, you know, persistent, to keep trying, to keep working at it. You know, tweak the model a little bit, be playful with it, you know, go maybe in a slightly different direction. But at some point, if you're patient and if you're persistent, you'll find that right combination to keep things going. I'm in the best spot that I've ever been in, in my career right now. It's great. And it's taken me 30-something years to get there. It's a journey. And I've played with the formula. I've played with the direction and the brand. I've done different things. And it's gotten me to the point where I'm at now. And to be very blunt, I'm very happy right now. That's right. I do see, you know, Reg, I've known you for a little while now. So I do see less ring calls and less, you know. That's playful. But you've gotten to the point you've brought us up to the point as this just keeps the success. And our signature question is what are your top three success habits? For me personally, I never stop learning. I always want to learn something new. And whether it's relevant or not to what I'm doing, it keeps the brain exercised. Okay. You know, so learning is an important part to, you know, having that inherent curiosity about things. And you never really know when something is going to be applicable. Particularly if you're dealing with a lot of different types of customers. You know, there may be that one key customer that all of a sudden you just hit on something, a topic or a subject that they are really into. Now all of a sudden you've got a different type of relationship. So I like that learning aspect. Okay. Another one is that I, how do you, I guess define success. You know, you need to be able to have some sort of a metric or some sort of a performance standard that you're looking for. You know, happiness is kind of a tough, you know, type of thing to manage or to, you know, count. You know, but what's my benchmark? What are my performance metrics? What am I trying to accomplish? And that also changes. I remember many, many years ago I had a very large company and we were doing 7,000 returns a year and I was very happy. Right. I would not be happy doing that anymore today. Right. Well Rich, we're out of time. We'll have to wrap it up. Reg's, Reg Baker's Words of Wisdom with regards to Keys to Success can be found on Newman Consulting Services webpage, NewmanConsultingServices.com and landing page, denilia.org. Thanks to you, our viewers and listeners for tuning in. Thanks to our broadcast engineers, Zuri Bender, our floor manager, Nick Sexton and to Jay Fudele, our executive producer who puts it all together. Thank you, Reg, for joining us today and sharing your insights to success. And thank Tech Hawaii, forgive me, thank Tech Keys to Success. We'll be back next Thursday at 11 a.m. So please, tune in again and ask your friends and family to do so as well. And you're going to leave with a positive quote? Okay. And today our quote comes from Darrell Carnegie and it says, success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get. My name is Denilia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm another half of the duo, John Newman. Aloha.