Uniting Minds: The Junto Way with Parker Harris

Parker Harris

[00:00:00] Parker Harris: You know, my, my long term objective with what I'm building is to bring this, uh, peer to peer structure, these like roundtable conversations, uh, lower and, and, and, uh, right? Like I, I have a lot of mentors that are in their seventies that are like, Parker, I don't have ten people that I can talk to about the things that matter most to me. So I think there's a lot of social isolation that happens with older people. Um, and I think that this type of, like, environment where there's no, like, expert or, or guru, or like, even a leader, right? Where it's, it's almost like, uh, emergence theory and, and like a school of fish, right? Where there's not like one fish that's leading the pack. Like all the fish will lead at different times based on the context.

[00:01:04] Ed Watters: To overcome, you must educate. Educate not only yourself, but educate anyone seeking to learn. We are all Dead America, we can all learn something. To learn, we must challenge what we already understand. The way we do that is through conversation. Sometimes we have conversations with others, however, some of the best conversations happen with ourself. Reach out and challenge yourself; let's dive in and learn something right now.

[00:01:54] Today we're speaking with Parker Harris. He is the founder of Junto Global. Parker, could you please introduce yourself and let people know just a little bit more about you, please?

[00:02:07] Parker Harris: Sure. Um, I'm a lifelong learner, so it resonated, uh, the way that you guys describe your podcast. And, um, I grew up in a middle, middle class family, lower middle class family in San Diego, California, and started working at a young age. And, um, I really enjoy adding value to people. That's something that's, um, I think work taught me was, was how to enjoy adding value to other people. And, uh, I started my first company at a pretty young age, um, and, and ended up getting involved in early stage technology deals, and, uh, um, I studied finance and eastern studies, and then went to work for a large Fortune 100 company and, uh, I didn't like it very much.

[00:02:49] And, um, I talked with a lot of the, uh, the executives there and different people within the company and it turns out they didn't like it very much. Um, so I started to, um, look at, at things that I enjoy doing that I was willing to suffer for that, uh, other ways that I enjoyed adding value to people. And I originally started Junto for myself about thirteen years ago as a, a peer group to discuss ideas, to learn from each other around things that were relevant to what I was going through. And, um, and it's something that I, I really saw a lot of impact from. And I decided to make it my mission and something I'm excited to, to share with the world.

[00:03:36] Ed Watters: Yeah. I find that very therapeutic in many ways in all compartments of our life when we bring people in and are open to different ideas and discussions that really matter. Uh, what types of discussions do you actually have in these groups when you come together in these mastermind groups?

[00:04:02] Parker Harris: Yeah, I mean, a big thing is figuring out what's relevant to the group. What is the topics that if we talked about would add the most value? And I always liked the idea that like the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our questions. So we seek to introduce high quality questions, um, into the group to explore together and then, um, and meet people where they're at. You know, sometimes people have a business challenge, sometimes they're having a personal challenge, sometimes it's not even a challenge, sometimes it's an opportunity. And again, sometimes it's an idea that's worth discussing.

[00:04:33] So, um, it really goes any, you know, goes into a lot of different directions based on what the individual members of the group are going through. You know, again, we go into topics, business related, exploring technology trends, exploring marketing trends, um, drilling into opportunities and challenges that an individual person has, uh, in their business.

[00:04:56] We also explore health, relationships, personal development, uh, ways to have a bigger impact with, with our family, our communities, our team. Um, so at the end of the day, we're working to create better, better leaders, uh, better individuals, and, and enrich their life and, and see that ripple out. So it's, it's, uh, it's interesting to hear how these kinds of conversations can start bleeding into like family conversations, uh, conversations between, uh, partners and couples. Um, and, and,

[00:05:27] and a big part of, you know, one of the, one of the ideas that I also really like is, is sharing tools with people, right? It's like you can tell someone something, they'll ignore you, you can show them and they'll forget, or you can give them a tool and you'll change their life forever. So we like to share tools with each other and, and then have them, have people share those tools with, with other people in their life.

[00:05:50] Ed Watters: Now you're, you've based this whole thing on the Thirteen principles of Benjamin Franklin. This is huge because a lot of people don't even understand what that is. Or sometimes now, today, they don't even know who Benjamin Franklin is, which is kind of sad. But, what made you go in that direction and use these thirteen principles to guide the group and basically your life with what you're doing?

[00:06:27] Parker Harris: Yeah. So it's interesting in Benjamin Franklin's autobiographies, the things, you know, he, I think most people would know him because he's on the 100 dollar bill. Um, so people like, uh, like Benjamin Franklin's. Um, you know, he's also a pioneer with electricity and, and, and, and science and technology. Um, and, and some people would say he's pretty pivotal into the, the things that made the United States unique early on in terms of separation of power, and, and the Republic and,

[00:06:55] uh, kind of some of those like founding principles that, um, allowed us to, uh, change over time to self steer and to, to not just be, uh, a pure democracy where the majority always wins. You know, to look out for the, the goal, you know, the, the interests of minorities as well. Um, and so in his autobiography, he, he lays out these thirteen principles, uh, for moral virtue.

[00:07:21] And then he also talks a lot about Junto, which is a group that he started in his early twenties, um, when he lived in Philadelphia. And, and so that, you know, I was, I was reading his autobiography and at the same time I was organizing a lot of events that were more like speaker events where we would bring in an entrepreneur, an executive, an investor to share their wisdom with us, share their story and, and learn from them.

[00:07:49] Um, and I think over, over time, I started seeing the patterns that those people talked about and their contribution through speaking became less and less impactful as I, you know, as it was those, some of those times it was like twenty or thirty years removed in terms of, you know, what works for them. And at that time, the challenges I was having was just balancing, you know, working a lot, work, you know, trying to work out and be healthy, uh,

[00:08:20] starting to date, and just, then needing still to clean, and cook, and grocery shop, and just live a successful independent life. It didn't leave a lot of room for, um, you know, these type of conversations. So, um, after organizing a number of these speaker events I just saw more and more impact from the peer to peer conversations at the beginning and the end of the event then from the actual speaker. And I was like, what if we just do that and, and saw Benjamin Franklin's Junto as a, a model that we could learn from.

[00:08:56] Ed Watters: Yeah, I, I like it. So alot of this comes into the realm of helping us through personal development, that's huge in life. If we really hone in on the skills of personal development, we can find out who we are instead of what the noise is telling us we are. And I found that that's a big difference, who we think we are and who we truly are. What defines a person to you? What makes them who they are?

[00:09:38] Parker Harris: Ooh, um, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna answer this a little bit indirectly and maybe get to it. But for me, what I constantly see is, what people think the problem is, is not normally the problem, right? Like a lot of times people think like their

[00:09:56] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:09:56] Parker Harris: problem is they don't have enough money, right? And it's like, um, maybe. [00:10:00] Um, but I think the problem potentially is, is usually deeper than that. And a lot of times with entrepreneurs, it's like, Oh, I don't have enough customers, or we don't have enough revenue or enough profit. And it's like, well, let's, let's drill into that. And usually that problem is not a marketing issue or a financial issue. It's usually something deeper around, uh, execution, um, understanding data.

[00:10:26] Um, really even understanding their why and how they process triggers. Um, a lot of this lines up to like vision and beliefs, limiting beliefs, or, you know, something we could, you know, spend hours talking about. But I think a lot of things drill into like that belief and identity layer of, of a person that kind of will hold them back or keep them, um,

[00:10:50] not being able to hit the goals that they have is because they literally have an identity and beliefs that don't support their larger goals. Um, and I also think, you know, no, you know, that whole cliche, like, No man is an island, right? Or no one, no person is an island. I think even our community and our success team make up who an individual is.

[00:11:17] So, um, we have a framework in Junto that we use to identify the bottleneck and that incorporates both, both business and the personal development side of things. And, um, and I will say like sixty to seventy percent of the time, it's, it's not a business issue. It's a, it's something deeper that's, that's holding someone back from getting their goal.

[00:11:39] Ed Watters: Yeah, I believe that. That, that is big, you know, if we can identify those trigger points in our life that holds us back, which they're there and really they're easy to identify once you start identifying your personal problems, uh, it's, it's about opening up and forgiving yourself. I really feel that I did not start learning who I was until I was able to forgive myself for the things that I've done in the past based on what I was taught by my parents, my siblings, my teachers, all of this. So forgiving myself was a big key. What, what is your take on forgiveness of oneself?

[00:12:35] Parker Harris: Yeah. I, I think self forgiveness, self love, those, you know, those things are important. For me, I think the unlock was, was courage. And, and I think it takes courage to

[00:12:49] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:12:49] Parker Harris: forgive. And I think, I think part of forgiveness also is acceptance too. And I think, you know, um, I think most people live out a story that they created or an identity that they created, um, at a very young age. Potentially, one that doesn't, doesn't serve them. And until we've given the, you know, until we have the tools to identify that story and, and eventually start to rewrite it, um, you know, I think, I think things can be, be really challenging.

[00:13:26] Ed Watters: Yeah. I think, uh, our world, we're kind of stuck in a quagmire, if you will. We, we aren't sure the direction that we need to go right now. And I feel strongly that it's up to the individual, each of us have to step up and take charge of our own personal life. And that means the people, the places that we choose to be around, hang around. Because it didn't start happening until I started weeding out the negative in my life. This is a big thing,

[00:14:10] the people, the places that we choose to be around. Sometimes we're stuck and we're forced in these situations, but a lot of the times it's a personal choice. How important is it to make your own choice? And furthermore, how does one know if they're making the right choice?

[00:14:40] Parker Harris: Yeah. I mean, what's interesting, uh, what comes to mind as you say this is, I found this out recently, I was really surprised is when, when the, the Revolutionary War started, or what, like, you know, when there was like talk about, uh, creating our own nation, you know, back to Dead America, um, what percentage of the population do you think was interested in fighting like a revolution and like creating a separate country?

[00:15:12] Ed Watters: Uh, I, I believe it was one to three percent, something like that.

[00:15:18] Parker Harris: Yeah. It was like less than five percent of people who were

[00:15:21] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:15:21] Parker Harris: like actually interested in that, you know, it wasn't like fifty

[00:15:25] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:15:26] Parker Harris: or

[00:15:27] Ed Watters: No.

[00:15:27] Parker Harris: whatever, right? It was

[00:15:28] Ed Watters: Exactly.

[00:15:28] Parker Harris: such a small percentage.

[00:15:29] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:15:30] Parker Harris: And I'm like, Whoa, like that's amazing that, you know,

[00:15:33] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:15:33] Parker Harris: it only took like one to, you know, five percent of people to, to create what, what this has become, right? This great experiment.

[00:15:42] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:15:42] Parker Harris: And so

[00:15:43] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:15:43] Parker Harris: I think even, even hundreds of years ago, you know, most people are just interested in, like, doing as little as possible and then, and then having as much pleasure as possible. Um, and I think a lot of times, like, you know, to like, there's like a victim mentality, right? Like people are just like, feel like they're a victim of a story and then they're just, you know, self medicating or, or covering that up or, or, you know, trying to create as much pleasure as possible. I think

[00:16:13] Ed Watters: Right.

[00:16:13] Parker Harris: very few people are like living that hero's journey or, or, or see themselves as the hero. And, um, and I'm not sure those percentages are changing that much, you know? I'm not sure

[00:16:25] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:16:25] Parker Harris: if there's like

[00:16:26] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:16:26] Parker Harris: more or less of those now than there was hundreds of years ago or thousands of years ago. Um, potentially more, maybe there's more people that, that are emerging that are like interested in doing things and leading. And people are living longer, you know, and, and, and there is more opportunity to create impact in different ways.

[00:16:47] But I think it goes back to like, you know, learning to enjoy adding value or not. Like, you know, you're doing this to add value to other people and, and it also adds value to yourself. And, you know, there's probably other versions of the story where, where you're not doing that, you know? Um, so, remind me what your original question was and let me make sure that I, that I answered it, but that's, that's what came to mind.

[00:17:13] Ed Watters: Yeah. Well, you answered the question. You know, we, we really tend to sleep a lot and I, I like that you stated that, you know, most of us just want to go along to get along and that's really no way to live life. Once, once we push those bounds and we challenge ourself, we start to challenge other people. And if, if we aren't up to the task of challenging not only ourself, but other people, we aren't going to advance anywhere.

[00:17:57] We're going to stay right here. And right now, I, I see a lot of different people starting to finally step up and say, No, this, this can't be, we have to do better. And, you know, one to five percent, that's a low number, but yes, it is always that way. And once those people take control and start pushing a better agenda for our world, that's when we all start prospering.

[00:18:36] Because I have this believing where, well, it's Gandhi, be the change you want to see in the world. I have it on my wall. And I think if we start emitting that to the world, others will emulate. And I really think that's true, because all, most people are doing is they're watching other people. Those are movie stars, you know, people of influence, and that's where they're getting their status quo story. And from, I know from the, at least the 80s, 70s on, we haven't had those good moral leadership people that people are looking up to. How do we get people starting to look at what is truthful instead of what is popular?

[00:19:45] Parker Harris: I mean, what comes up for me is, is, you know, if you want to change the world, like, start by changing yourself, right? Like go internal. I think this, this will, it's a personal development and lifelong learning, but it's really easy to like look out [00:20:00] and, and wish for things to be different or, or blame someone else for the way things are.

[00:20:05] And I think it's harder to go inside and do that forgiveness work, uh, you know, to accept reality the way that it is. And to accept ourselves for who we are and, and then, you know, what entrepreneurs do at the end of the day is they marshal resources to turn an idea into reality. And, you know, learning to marshal resources is a very challenging thing. Um, and, and school doesn't do a great job, uh, teaching us to, to do that. It's more of like memorize this, right? And, and in the age of a smartphone, like what's the value of that, right? Like

[00:20:43] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:20:43] Parker Harris: there's not much value. So, um, I think it starts by just, you know, if we can figure out who we are, what, what is, what is true about ourselves? What is our true strengths? What is our true weaknesses? You know, truth is a really interesting thing. I think it's starting to get talked a little bit more about, Ray Dalio wrote a book called Principles, which principles and truth relate a bit. Uh, one of my favorite books says that accurate thinking is the biggest enemy to evil. Um,

[00:21:17] and I think there's a lot of debate that could go into the accurate, like, what is accurate thinking? Um, but at the end, you know, one of the things I think accurate thinking involves is the ability to stand in paradox. Like that, there's like, you know, paradoxical truths and, and those are two ideas that seemingly like conflict with each other, but are somehow both true.

[00:21:42] And I think most people are really interested in judging one side of the paradox versus the other side. And like, they're willing to like, even die for one side of it, right? And I think what a leader really is called to do is to be able to like stand in that paradox, see that these are both true somehow. And there's this, there's a conflict between these inherent truths and not

[00:22:07] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:22:07] Parker Harris: judge one versus the other, but almost communicate, you know, both, both sides of that so other people can see it. Um,

[00:22:16] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:22:16] Parker Harris: So that's, that's what I'm working to learn to do.

[00:22:19] Ed Watters: Well, uh, I, I am 100 percent with that, you know, and that is truly the answer once we find the power to do that. Because I don't agree a hundred percent with either side because I think that they're so far out there and they need to come back to the center where we can actually talk and gain some common ground.

[00:22:48] And I'm seeing a lot of individuals starting talking groups that are bringing both sides together and they're having a moderation in front of them, a moderator, and they aren't there to argue or fight. They're just there to express how they feel about each question. And then they can actually answer these questions in honesty without any bias involved.

[00:23:24] And it is amazing how many times people that think that they are so far apart, find themselves right here next to each other, with just very few disagreements on things. I am really enjoying this because I've waited so many years looking for people to do just that. That's what I started Dead America for is to try to bring things back to the center. And I don't have to agree, I should be interested in why. And you, you mentioned this, the why factor earlier in our conversation. That is the most important thing. When a good conversation happens, we can start understanding that why. What else do you have coming out for people in these group discussion type things? And how do people get involved with the Junto group?

[00:24:37] Parker Harris: You know, there's something that comes to mind as, as you said all of that is, like, you know, that that's the sides are so far apart. But then when you start talking to them, they're right next to each other.

[00:24:47] And one of my favorite movies is, uh, the, The American president or American president or something. It's like Michael Douglas and, uh, Martin Sheen and, um, the gentleman with Parkinson's, I forget his name, it's not Jamie Foxx, Martin Fox, uh, the guy that was from Back to the future. Um,

[00:25:05] Ed Watters: Oh, yeah. Michael J. Fox.

[00:25:08] Parker Harris: Michael J. Fox, Annette Bening, phenomenal movie. And in that movie, it talks about, like, there's a lot that it talks about, but it mentions like the American Civil Liberties Union, which is, so some people characterize as like the far left. Um, but the, and that the mission of the ACLU is to defend the Bill of Rights.

[00:25:27] And I heard this over the last few years, and I didn't know this, but the, the term conservative, like the, you know, conservatives versus like, and liberals, conservatives, what they're conserving is the Bill of Rights. Um, And I didn't know that, like, right? Like it's not that they're just like conservative and they don't want change,

[00:25:47] they're actually just trying to conserve the Bill of Rights, which is the same thing that the ACLU is trying to do. Um, so yeah. I mean, I, you know, I think there's a, there are some really interesting, I think, you know, most people would probably agree on eighty percent and then, and then they don't even want to agree on 100%.

[00:26:05] But then it's like, how does that get done? Um, which is, is, is, you know, sometimes the devils are in the details, right? So, um, I think what's missing, you know, in some ways is just a lot of the great leaders throughout history, oh, like created, uh, you know, an inner circle that didn't all agree with each other, you know?

[00:26:29] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:26:30] Parker Harris: They, there was

[00:26:31] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:26:31] Parker Harris: a lot of like dissent and arguments and difficult conversations, but they would have to like, listen to it and then stand in paradox, right? And,

[00:26:42] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:26:42] Parker Harris: and I, I think that, you know, sometimes that's happening like less and less, right? Where we're creating like echo chambers of people that like all think

[00:26:50] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:26:50] Parker Harris: the same thing and it creates like a fragility to the ideas. Um, because then the other side is just demonized versus like trying to understand it. Um, and I think most people are, are trying to like come up, you know, have, have a good intention. Um, So, um, I didn't, so, and your question was what, what comes up in our groups and how,

[00:27:17] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:27:17] Parker Harris: What was your question?

[00:27:18] Ed Watters: Yeah. What, what, what are you working towards to help bring the sides together, basically, inside your group?

[00:27:30] Parker Harris: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I don't think it's as clean as like sides, like I don't even know if it's two sides, or a hundred sides, how many

[00:27:38] Ed Watters: I understand that.

[00:27:39] Parker Harris: sides there are, um, on a, you know? We, we will dive into civic engagement from time to time, uh, if there's like an issue that's, that's worth talking about. Um, you know, my, my long term objective with what I'm building is to bring this, uh, peer to peer structure, these like roundtable conversations, uh, lower and, and, and, uh, right? Like I, I have a lot of mentors that are in their seventies that are like, Parker, I don't have ten people that I can talk to about the things that matter most to me.

[00:28:20] So I think there's a lot of social isolation that happens with older people. Um, and I think that this type of like environment where there's no, like, expert, or, or guru, or like even a leader, right? Where it's, it's almost like, uh, emergence theory and, and like a school of fish, right? Where there's not like one fish that's leading the pack. Like all the fish will lead at different times based on the context. Uh,

[00:28:51] Ed Watters: Right.

[00:28:52] Parker Harris: so my goal is, is to get,

[00:28:54] Ed Watters: That's huge.

[00:28:54] Parker Harris: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's, I think a lot of successful movements have utilized that type of, you know, frame. Um, and it's just, it's, it's just inherent in nature, too. It's just how nature works. And, and then I also think young people would really benefit from this. Like, college, high school, potentially even lower, there's a lot of like, Oh, what do I want to do with my life? Uh, like, converse, you know, like, questions that come up and I think that it's all about creating an environment for people to, to explore that. To bounce that off of each other and to kind of see what fits.

[00:29:36] And, and I think that these are the environments where knowledge, it goes from knowledge to wisdom, right? There's a lot of things that people know that they don't take action on. And I think these are the environments where, where people get activated to, to do what they know is, is true, or right, or, or good for them. Um, So I'm really bullish, [00:30:00] um, on this, on this format of essentially like going from, I call it like, like, even the internet kind of took this journey where, um, it went from 2. 0 to 3. 0. 1. 0 was when it was very early days. Uh, not a lot of people were using it, it was mostly for engineers. And then web 2. 0 was when it was very vertical, right? You were on like one website and then you'd move to like another website and those were like very separate experiences. And, and then with web 3. 0, it went horizontal where there was these APIs, these application program interfaces that connected the internet. So it was now horizontal.

[00:30:41] And, um, when you went to another page, um, you know, the other page was still tracking you, learning from that, uh, providing, um, content that may be relevant to you based on who they thought you were and what you were interested in. Um, and I see that, that same transition happening in personal development. Like to me, personal development 1.0 was when it was only for the elites, right? When it was like, uh, you know, monarchs and priests, like, like royalty, and, and, you know, this type of wisdom was not available to a lot of people. And then, um, and then I think it started to get democratized through, through books, and, and speakers, and coaches, and authors.

[00:31:26] And, and, and it created this environment where there was like someone on stage, you know, telling a thousand people, you know, what, you know, these, sharing these principles. And now I think we're, we're in the next stage, what I call personal development 3. 0, where it's now horizontal, where there's not like a guru or an expert that's like has everything figured out and then everyone else doesn't really know anything and they just need to like listen. Everyone kind of knows like, now like, things now and a lot of times they're just not doing anything with that knowledge. But when, when they teach it to someone else like, right? When one person teaches, two people learn. So if we create environments where there's like contextual mentorship and, and people can feel comfortable being vulnerable and like opening up to what their real challenges are and, and what's working for them, um, you know, I, I see it as the future of education and really just the future of society.

[00:32:30] Ed Watters: Yeah. I like how you put that. Uh, is there anything else that you find important that you would like to share with our listeners?

[00:32:41] Parker Harris: Important? Do I find important? Um, I think there's a lot of power in, in, uh, in reflection and like reflecting on, um, periods of time that are less than a year, you know? Um, I think a lot of times, you know, people at the end of the year, they're like, Oh, what are my goals for next year? What are my resolutions, my new year's resolutions? And I think that sets up a lot, like, people up for failure in a lot of ways. Um, I would say like break those down into, into smaller chunks of time that serve, you know, serve you, serve the person, whether that's three months, six weeks, four weeks, one week, two weeks, half a week, uh, one day, half a day. Um,

[00:33:29] I think everyone operates on a little bit different cadence or rhythm, but there's a power in like setting a plan and then looking back after. Like, say, like, we're setting a plan for the week, right? It's like, this is how the week's gonna go. And then at the end of the week, looking at how that week actually went. And then

[00:33:52] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:33:52] Parker Harris: like looking at the difference. Like, what was the difference between how you thought, like, how we thought it was gonna go and how it actually went? And, like, what can we learn from that difference? And I think often, you know, there's some, some things that worked and some lessons learned from that. And there's often failure and things that didn't work and things that we can learn from that. And I think, you know, in school failure is a bad thing, you know? Um,

[00:34:21] Ed Watters: That's, that's a good point right there.

[00:34:24] Parker Harris: Yeah, right? It's like, no, like I want a hundred percent, but like life isn't that way. Like the joke is in baseball, right? It's like, you get to, you get to the hall of fame if you hit 300, which is like a thirty percent success rate. Um, So I think a lot of entrepreneurships are like that too, where it's like if you're getting it right like thirty to fifty percent of the time, you're going to be in the hall of fame. Um, I think relationships are like that, but I think, you know, most people quit or, or they're like, Oh, I don't like failure, this doesn't feel good. Let me drink, or let me smoke, or let me cover this up. Um, and I think if we,

[00:34:58] Ed Watters: Yep.

[00:34:59] Parker Harris: if we can like hold back on that a little bit and, and, and really like dive into that, like, why did I fail? Why didn't this work? Why didn't it go as planned? Eventually things will get better, you know? It might not take one week, it might take fifty weeks, you know? Um, but if we're, if we're playing the right game and setting the right goals, it kind of doesn't matter how long it takes, you know? Um,

[00:35:25] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:35:25] Parker Harris: so that's, that's something I'm interested in is like that, that iteration loop for an individual that involves, you know, reflection, planning, and execution. And then, and then, you know, it's a, it's a cycle. I

[00:35:41] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:35:41] Parker Harris: think another thing that I think is important, I don't mean to interrupt you, um,

[00:35:46] Ed Watters: No, go ahead.

[00:35:46] Parker Harris: before I forget is, is like, I think most of the time people, like when we set goals, whether it's health goals or, or financial goals or relate, like any type of goal, I think most people are like really focused on the outcome or like the lagging KPI, is what it's called in like business.

[00:36:09] It's like, okay, like revenue, profit, sales, all of these are like lagging KPIs. And frankly, like, it's very difficult to control the outcome or like, you know, these lagging KPIs. But like starting to think of things more of like leading, like, what do I need to do to, to hit that goal that I can actually control. Um, how many, like, usually that's like making phone calls for, for, you know, business, or reaching out to people, or posting content, or, you know, there's a lot of different leading KPIs that can exist. Um,

[00:36:46] in health, it involves, you know, how many steps did I take, right? How much counting, counting the macros. Like there's, there's leading versus lagging KPIs in, in, in everything, health, relationships, business, personal development. And myself, I struggle with this as I'm, I'm usually really focused on the results and the outcome.

[00:37:08] And I'd attach my identity to that outcome often, too. And breaking that cycle where, you know, your identity, your, you know, your self worth is not dictated by a lagging KPI, but instead on the leading KPI. On the input, on the thing that we can actually control. I think, um, I think that's what successful people do that makes them, that makes them different. And, and it serves them and I'm, I'm working on making that shift myself.

[00:37:41] Ed Watters: So being flexible, uh, and, uh, KPI, Key Performance Indicators, keeping track of those and being flexible when those need to actually shift, that, that's very important. Not only in business, but life itself.

[00:38:03] Parker Harris: Well, I think it's, it's like looking at, it doesn't need to, it, it doesn't, I'm not saying, I think flexibility is important, But I don't think that the goal needs to shift as much as like the work needs to shift. Um, and what I mean by that is, like, usually what needs to happen is like, not just like, Oh, I need to work twice as hard. It's usually like, I need to work ten times as hard, you know, I need to work fifty times as

[00:38:27] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:38:27] Parker Harris: hard. Like, like what I thought was going to get me this goal, like it's not working. And, and what do I need to do differently? And usually it's like a significant change to the leading, um, goal or the leading key performance, the thing that we can control. It's like, I need to do a lot more than that, right? It's like doing, doing two pushups a day is not going to get my body to where I want it to go, but a hundred pushups, maybe that, you know, maybe that'll help. Um, so that's, that's more what I mean, right? It's like, not,

[00:38:59] Ed Watters: Right.

[00:38:59] Parker Harris: not, not, not shifting or being too flexible about what someone wants to create in life. It's more like what they're willing to do to create that.

[00:39:09] Ed Watters: Yeah. And that's more like an Elon Musk attitude. You know, you've got to put the time in to get the performance out. And the, the amount of time that we put into something is always going to dictate the performance level of whatever we're doing. I like that. So do you have a call to action for our listeners today?

[00:39:38] Parker Harris: I would encourage all of your listeners to find their, the people that they really respect that are in their, their circle and start meeting with them regularly. Get them together once a week, once a month, twice a month. Uh, some regular interval to have meaningful conversations [00:40:00] around ideas. That's my, my main recommendation is, stop, uh, stop listening to some expert on, on YouTube or on, uh, on television. And, um, and, and form a success team for themselves, a mastermind for themselves, around their ideal outcome. Whether that's to be healthier, whether that's to be wealthier, whether that's to be happier, um, whether that's to have better relationships. I think, um, you know, I think that the, the benefits of doing that will, will shock people.

[00:40:39] Ed Watters: Right. Parker, it's always a pleasure when I get to speak with people. You are outstanding. How can people connect with you and find you?

[00:40:52] Parker Harris: Yeah. I am active on most social medias, um, Instagram, Facebook, um, LinkedIn. So those are some good ways and, um, and our website too, um, has more information about what we're doing and a way to apply to be part of one of our masterminds.

[00:41:14] Ed Watters: It's been a pleasure, Parker. I want to say thank you for being part of the Dead American Podcast.

[00:41:21] Parker Harris: Pleasure is mine. Thank you, Ed.

[00:41:27] Ed Watters: Thank you for joining us today. If you found this podcast enlightening, entertaining, educational in any way, please share, like, subscribe, and join us right back here next week for another great episode of Dead America Podcast. I'm Ed Watters, your host, enjoy your afternoon wherever you may be.

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