Episode 2-7: Serve At The Highest Level

Hey. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Alex Branning – Your Marketing Coach Podcast. This is episode 2-7. We are in season two. You get a behind the scenes look, and this past week was the Carr Fire up here in Redding. I’m going to share what I learned, what we went through, and how I’m moving forward.

This week has been just an amazingly hectic and chaotic week of so many blessings, so much grief. It’s just been a really heavy week. Some of you know I live in Redding, California, which was hit by the Carr Fire, and luckily we were not, we did not lose anything. We were blessed in the sense that our house was not burned. However we know so many people who lost everything. There has so far been, at last count this morning, over 1000 homes were burned in the fire. 1000 homes in a town of 90000 people. It’s so sad.

My family and I, we had to evacuate on last Thursday, so I am recording this right now on Wednesday, August 1st. The Carr Fire started last Monday, and we had to evacuate last Thursday. We just got back in to town early Tuesday morning, so we were out for about five days. On Tuesday, yesterday, we were just in a daze honestly, depressed. Our beautiful city was a ghost town. Even as I record this, the smoke is really bad, and it’s been a very, it could be a very depressing scene if we did not have hope and optimism.

Every single day, I send a report to my business coach Eric Lofholm, and I tell him what I did that day, how I’m doing, what I did for my fitness goals, et cetera. My report yesterday was very bleh. I hadn’t reported in to him the entire time I was gone. My report to him yesterday was just depressing and sad, and he responded to me in a way that was exactly what I needed to hear. He said, “You know Alex, your feelings are valid. What you’re going through is a disaster, but you need to step up to the highest level of leadership that you can.”

For those of you listening for marketing advice, I’m getting there, I’m getting there, but he said, “You need to step up to the highest level of leadership that Alex Branning is capable of at this particular moment, in this day, and for all the people that are counting on you. You need to step up to be the highest leader possible in your home first, then in your business, then in your community, then to your clients and to your prospects.” And that hit me really hard, but it was exactly what I needed to hear.

Let’s go through that one at a time. What does it look like to be the best leader that I can be in my home as an entrepreneur. It looks like being there first for my family so that we stay in tact, because my family is the glue. It’s the foundation of my life.If my family was in shambles, then it would be hard for me to focus on the other things that are important to me in business. When there’s chaos in the home, it’s very hard to get your mindset right when you walk in to the office and are focusing on serving your clients and your team. My family comes first, making sure that I serve them and all their needs are met.

And then secondly, it’s about my business, my team, my employees that are working here with me to build the Branning Group and make it the best that it can be.I need to make sure that I’m showing up every single day, every single hour, at the highest level of a servant leader as possible, making sure that they are equipped and empowered to give their very best and to answer the questions clients have, deliver an outstanding product, and that can be hard to do when you don’t feel like getting out of bed, but I needed to do that. I needed to pick myself up, get my work boots on so to speak, and make sure that my team was prepared.

And then it came down to putting my best foot forward, being the highest level leader possible for my clients,because my clients, yes they understand what I’m going through, but they still need me to perform at a high level. They need my team to continue to perform at a high level so that we can continue to serve them and give them the results that they’re paying us to produce. That takes, for us, for me … I am blessed to have a great team, so if I serve my team and empower and equip them, then they in turn are able to serve my clients to a high level.

I need to look out for my clients to make sure that I’m serving them, and for my prospects, and so what does that look like? Because I don’t know how long this season is going to last. I don’t know. Am I going to wake up tomorrow and everything’s going to be fine? I don’t know that, but I do know that I need to put my very best foot forward for my clients and prospects every single day, so right now what that means is I continue to put out content that is relevant to the people that are deciding whether or not to work with me. It’s the audience that I have, the communities that I’ve created and serve.

What does it look like for me to put my best foot forward and to continue to serve them? Right now, it means being honest and vulnerable and showing them that life is not all roses, but I’m still putting my best foot forward, I’m still giving it my all, I’m still doing what I need to do, I’m still executing on the things that my team and my clients are expecting from me, and that’s the best that I can do right now.

I continue to do that, I continue to put my best foot forward and to let people know what’s going on, because a lot of times, thought leaders and influencers, and I’m guilty of this as well, we don’t want to be vulnerable and show you where it hurts. We don’t want to show our weaknesses, but for me, it’s important for me to do that and to show, “Hey, this is what I’m going through right now. This is what is happening to me. This is how my family is reacting to the Carr Fire and everything that’s going on in our beautiful city of Redding. This is what we’re dealing with.” And that’s me putting my best foot forward, and so that’s what I’m doing.

For my prospects, I’m still posting every single day on Instagram and my stories, social media, blog, daily videos. I’m recording my podcast. I’m putting out some really good quality content, and I continue to put my best foot forward and execute on that. For my clients, just making sure that I am delivering everything they expect and continuing to over-deliver, and that is me being the best servant leader, that is me being the best leader that I can be every single day.

It’s hard, but that is what I need to do right now. It’s all about doing the next right thing, first for my family, then for my business and team, then for my clients, and then for my prospects.It’s all about performing at the highest level, because we can all make excuses as to why we can’t perform at a high level. We can all … I could look at the fire right now and say, “Well, the reason that I can’t do my best is because this is happening in Redding,” or “The reason that I can’t do my best is because I have something going on in my home,” or “The reason I can’t do my best today …” You have your own excuses, I have my own excuses.

There’s things that are happening all the time that we can put in front of us doing our very best. We can put excuses out there. We can curl up in the warm blanket of mediocrity and not have to step out, take the risk, put our neck out there, but why? What is that going to do for us? How is that going to serve us and the people that are looking up to us, the people that are following us, the people that are rooting us on?

They don’t want to see you just give up. They don’t want to see you go halfway. They want to see you put it all out there. They want to see you take that big step. They want to see you do everything that you are capable of doing, and that requires you to put it all out there and do your very best. That is my message for you today. For those of you that are going through, whether it’s a tough time, whether you’re going through the motions and you realize that you’re stuck or for those of you that are taking as big a step as you can every single day, I applaud you.

Every single day, be the highest level of a leader that you can be, to your family, to your business, to your community, to your clients, and to your prospects.Be the best that you can, take the next right step, and continue to move forward. I’m here to encourage you. I want to see you do your best. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast today, and reach out to me if there’s anything I can do to support you. Have a great day.

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