The Perfect 100

Hello and welcome back to the Perfect 100 podcast.

Today's guest is a retired full-time preacher who took his knack for financial consulting
along with his creative flair and started a business about a year and a half ago as a

bookkeeper.

He's affectionately called Dr.

Lange in our chapter.

He is a member of our chapter.

I want to welcome Daniel to the podcast.

Hey Daniel.

Hello, hello.

So the Dr.

Lange thing, I'm not sure where that came from.

It's funny if you're in our chapter, it's funny because our president always refers to
Daniel as our secretary treasurer, which is not a big surprise based on the fact that he's

a bookkeeper, did I miss how that generated?

You know, I asked our president about that, Mr.

Jonathan, I call him the Don Jonathan.

uh He's our leader, you know, right now.

And I asked him about it one time and he just said, you know, I got that doctor look, but
I don't know about that because when people look at me, as soon as they say that, there's

a doctor in the room and they see me, they say, nope, he's not a doctor.

Well, we will lovingly keep the title for the podcast.

So, all right.

So we're going to dive a little deeper and tell us a little bit about, well, tell us your
seat.

Obviously, I've already said you're a bookkeeper, the seat that you hold, but tell us how
long have you been in BNI and give us a little bit about how long you've been in the

chapter.

I know, but tell everybody else.

Yeah, definitely.

So uh I've been a BNI member since last year, May 2024.

And I currently am serving as the secretary treasurer for the East Memphis chapter.

And so I hold the bookkeeping seat and I own Lane Bookkeeping.

I'm the owner, solopreneur, uh everything.

uh And then I offer outsourced bookkeeping services for churches, nonprofits, and small
businesses.

Yeah.

so you can tell us more about that.

And rumor has it you might be the Secretary of Treasury next year.

I don't know if that's true or not.

I'm pretty sure that's a shoe and there's no discussion about a new one.

Perfect.

All right.

So go ahead and give us your 45 second when you're ready.

Okay.

Hi, I'm Daniel Lange with Lange Bookkeeping, securing your financial integrity.

I specialize in outsource bookkeeping for small businesses, churches, and nonprofits.

And so from reconciling your books to processing payroll and producing clean financials, I
make everything line up behind the scenes so you can really focus on what matters most.

uh My ask is if someone is...

that you know is overwhelmed, owns their business, wearing a lot of caps, um behind on
their books, and just wants reliable monthly financials, I would love an introduction.

All right, 10 minutes is fair even.

All right, I 10 minutes, 10 seconds.

10 minutes would be a lot.

All right, so this census is the perfect 100.

Let's go ahead and dive right into your power of one and see where you're at.

I already know, but let's show, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see the report on
the screen.

So I won't belabor the point in getting, reading everything because you have a 95, which
is almost...

the perfect 100, but very, very close.

Not quite there, but awesome, which is about as close as you can be.

The only area that you are not green in is CEUs, which is funny to me, because just one
more podcast and you would have had it.

um Tell us.

How, I know, I'm gonna guess based on your strengths that you have uh a process.

um So how have you consistently stayed in the green?

know you're a, you've pretty much been in the green as long as I can remember.

what is your, what makes you, what puts you into the green on the regular?

Well, yeah, it's really funny that you say I'm down on CEUs because that's the one that I
think last time we spoke and you kind of showed me my power of one, I was at the highest

level.

I'm definitely a learner naturally and that's very easy for me.

em So that, think it has helped me a lot in the green, even if I'm down a little bit right
now, but naturally I like to soak things in and

learn as much as I can, especially, you know, last year starting a new business and just
joining BNI, you know, immediately I wanted to know as much as I possibly could.

So I think the CEUs uh have helped me stay consistent.

uh also, you know, as far as what helps me stay consistent is, uh you know, doing the
one-to-ones.

uh I keep a schedule, you know, I keep

structure in my business and maybe we'll talk more about that later, but uh you know, I
like getting into the one-to-ones and getting to really know someone and start building

that trust over time.

I'm very patient, so you know, can play the long game and you know, so I really appreciate
those deeper relationships.

Okay, so was there something that, whether it was just how you are personally or something
that triggered you to say I really should be trying to strive to be 95 or in the green,

the higher end of the green, which is where I typically see you?

Yeah, know, think internally, naturally, I work best in a very focused kind of setting.

And so, you know, for the one-to-ones, for example, you know, that allows me to be really
engaged and focused.

Same with the CEUs, you know, I can really stay focused and engaged on what's in front of
me.

know, there are, that's one of the unique things about BNI is there's multiple

venues, settings for us to improve and grow our business.

So the weekly meeting is just one part of that, you know, and so a lot is going on in
that.

And that's one of those, you know, I don't know if I excel as much as I do with the
one-to-ones or the CEUs with that.

You know, I kind of have to go home after that and then absorb and think about what
happened, you know.

So I think that, but that, you know, that's what's good about BNI is

There's not just one setting where you can ah grow your business.

There's multiple venues available to you.

Well, and I'm interested to hear because you started BNI, you've never been in BNI until
you started your business, which I said earlier was about a year and a half ago.

And the chapter started in May of a year ago in May.

But you're serving in leadership.

You're on the executive leadership team.

And I know that a lot of people were in the season now.

It's the summertime where we're looking to October to start fresh with new leadership.

and you served right away.

So you didn't have a choice really.

Well, you always have a choice, but everybody, what I meant was everybody in a new
chapter, somebody has to do it whether they're new or not.

So it's a little bit different when you're starting a brand new chapter that everybody
might be new, right, to their role.

is there, would you say to somebody who is new to BNI that they can't serve or shouldn't
serve?

Or how have you found that serving right off the bat?

No, I would say serve, you know, because it gets you involved.

you know, I really benefited from coming into a new chapter as someone who was new.

So I didn't feel as intimidated, even though, you know, as I got to know everybody, there
were people in there that been and be an eye a long time, you know, and so we're used to

this, but still just being part of that, uh that newness of it all just really seemed to
fit.

And so stepping into that role just seemed, you know, just like, you know, all of us were
doing that and have to do that anyway.

So, you know, but even if, even if you're in a chapter, maybe that's been around a long
time or something, you know, still someone had to be at where you were at one point and

you just have to make those jumps and, you know, and it teaches you a lot.

Yeah, you learn when you have to stand in front of people and talk about stuff.

You tend to have to sometimes learn it more, right?

You understand it better because you don't want to look silly standing in front of your
peers.

So you generally get a deeper understanding.

They say if you don't know something, teach it because that's good way to learn because
you're going to have to absorb what you're trying to teach to somebody.

So that's a good thing.

All right, let's roll over to your Palms report.

So this is, there were 26 total meetings of which you were present for 25.

You have zero absences because you had a managed in there.

Referrals given inside seven, referrals given outside 27.

Referrals received inside five, referrals received outside 19.

Visitors six, one to ones 30.

And thank you for closed business given.

$8,735 and CEU's 23.

So in 26 weeks, 23, that's the one little, you only needed probably, the percentage is .92
for that.

You were almost at 100 % and you would have probably, and again, to remind everybody, it's
a six month window.

So it's a steady, you've gotta keep it rolling over that six week period.

You only missed a couple of weeks where you didn't have one and you had a couple of weeks
where you had two.

You just missed it by a little bit.

But which category, looking at what's on the screen there, which do you think has had the
most impact to your business?

So, I mean, I would probably go back to the one-to-ones.

ah That's allowed me to really build and establish my network.

ah You you really choose who you want to network with and who you want to be part of that
ah closer, that power team, so to speak.

Everyone is really, once you step into that chapter, everyone...

becomes part of your network, but then you have to build those relationships and really
you can only keep so many close, really close to you.

uh And so, you know, that has allowed me to just really benefit, uh I think the most from
it.

I mean, the CEUs have been very helpful too though, the education process and uh learning
a lot from Ivan Meisner.

I admire uh just his work ethic and his thoughts on a lot of things.

So, and others as well who are part of that.

uh

So the whole BNI uh corporate has a lot of good uh ideas behind it that you can build and
integrate into your business, and they all work.

Right.

Yeah, even as somebody who's been around for, in BNI for a very long time, I am a, I have
high ideation.

And that for me is, I sometimes just need to hear somebody else talking about something
that gets my, you know, juices flowing, so to speak.

It gets the, the brain ticking and the brainstorming pops up and you know, I've got a
whole bunch of, or I remember things I've forgotten, which is often.

ah So the older I get, the more I forgot.

ah So I enjoy listening to reading, whether it's reading or listening.

I like to listen to Audible when I listen to books and because I could just squeeze that
in better in my schedule.

But I love all of that for that.

Now, I'm curious, do you take these reports, the Power of One, the Palms Report, are those
personal benchmarks for you or is that more a condition of leadership that you feel like

you should be there?

Or what does that look like in terms of the reports for you?

Yeah, know, I mean, the leadership, have to be an example, you know, I mean, since I've
been part of the leadership, we've had a lot of number of new people coming in.

And, so, ah you know, right away you kind of become that person that people are going to
be looking to that you were just there, not just months ago and didn't know anything.

And so, uh you know, that that's the leadership is part of that, but I think a bigger part
of that is the personal.

benchmarks that you're trying to achieve because I haven't really found anything in BNI
that I said, you know, that's not really important.

That's not helpful.

uh Each of the structures that are in place are things that you say, yeah, know, those are
things I need to do.

I need to be visiting uh one-to-one.

I need to be educating myself.

uh I need to be part of these weekly meets, know, where I'm interacting and meeting new
people and...

and continuing my relationships with people that are already there.

all of that is, I think you want all of those parts to be part of your business
development and growth.

Right, well, and you're also, because again, I know you and I'm also in the local chamber,
you're in a leadership role in the chamber.

Was that a deliberate kind of situation where you showed up and said, this is really, I
wanna contribute in that way or how did that go?

You know, I've read a lot of leadership books before and you just made me think about
this.

know, leaders are not people really who make themselves leaders.

They're people that are chosen, uh you know, and people that, you know, they come
alongside and they say, you know, we want you to, we'd love for you to serve in this

position.

uh

And so, and then you make the decision, do I have the time?

Can I commit to it?

And so on and so forth.

So I kind of got brought into the role as time went on.

Same thing with BNI, you know, I was asked, maybe prodded even a little bit, you know, and
the same thing with the Bartlett Chamber, you know, same, same thing, you know, I was

brought, prodded probably a little bit and, and even got, well, it's a longer story, but
you know, now I'm serving as the president there, at least for now.

And, and so.

Yeah, you just kind of get brought into that position by making yourself available and
just meeting those qualities of leadership, I think.

All right, awesome.

So let's shift gears a little bit.

Because I'm in your chapter, I have a little bit different observation, I guess, in terms
of, you know, if somebody wasn't in my chapter, I wouldn't be able to hear these things.

But you've been very intentional in your 45 seconds that we do in our chapter asking to
connect to a CPA.

What have you noticed in terms of results for that?

You've had kind of a campaign, I would say, of looking for a CPA.

Yes, Yeah, I'm playing the long game and em I've been consistently now asking for, you
know, to find a CPA that's independent, that's gonna round out our chapter well and round

out my business.

um It's very important in fact to my business uh for several reasons.

So...

um

I have already, you I had a sit down with a lunch meet with a CPA that one of the members
knew almost immediately.

So I'm already starting to see the fruit of that.

I know that this effort, this campaign, as you call it, is probably not going to be over
right away.

It's going to take a little while.

Yeah, I'll be on that one for a while.

But I know that the rewards are going to be high once we get the right person in.

So, yeah, it's been good.

It's been good.

It's a little bit of challenge to me right now because I have to do some digging and
searching to find the right people.

It's not just as easy as going down a list and saying, okay, this name, this name, I have
to, but once we get that person, we find that person, it's really gonna be a benefit to

all of us and especially myself.

Yeah, it's interesting you say you have to go down the list.

We'll talk about that when we get to your strengths.

I think that there's some tie in there, which will make obvious sense.

uh What if, you, could you imagine that somebody in the room really wanted to help you,
really wanted to refer you, but they didn't know any CPAs.

uh What kind of ask would you say would make it easier for them to help you today if they
didn't know a CPA?

Yeah, if they didn't know, you know, I'm always on the hunt for small business owners that
need help with their bookkeeping that are overwhelmed.

Like I mentioned, my 45 second there, you know, and they can always help me out by helping
me connect with people in my power sphere, my, my, my, you know, which is yes.

And so payroll providers, CPAs, financial advisors, you know,

maybe fractional CFOs that are working with small businesses and giving them financial
advice and strategy.

um Really the world is kind of my ocean when it comes to bookkeeping.

In the small business world, everyone needs to keep the books.

Yeah, think that, and one of the reasons I wanted to ask the question is, if you've ever
been to a chapter where every, not everyone, a lot of the people tend to say, have the

same ask every week.

Eventually, it's kind of like if you watch TV and the same commercial comes on frequently,
after a while,

you may not hear that commercial as well as you did the first time because you've heard it
and you're like, okay, I don't like, um I don't know, whatever the product might be.

um If it's a TV commercial, know, I'm not into that.

It's not my thing.

I just, every time it comes on, I just tune out.

So some things to think about as you're moving forward in your, a strategic standpoint,
cause you know, that's my number one thing is to look at.

different ways to get your ends, you know, to met, so to speak, the means to the end is
asking in the commercial.

if you're and you never know, because our chapter tends to have a lot of visitors.

So you might actually say it the day that somebody knows somebody that's a visitor and you
get that great connection.

But also the bigger, you know, portion of the room are people that have heard that already
and do want to help you.

So anybody who's listening to this, you know, be mindful that

asking for different things often or interspersing, changing it up can often get you
sometimes the thing you weren't expecting uh from a strategic standpoint.

So let's go into, because we're talking about strengths, let's look at your strengths.

And Daniel has taken the full 34, but I'll stop at, I will start with the top five.

So Daniel's number one is analytical.

You search for reasons and causes.

You have the ability to think about all of the factors that might affect a situation.

So we kind of talked a minute ago about, you you're going to get that list and you're
going to check it twice or three times or four times.

um Number two is discipline.

And this is a new, no one so far on the podcast has had discipline.

we'll talk a little bit more about that, but discipline is you enjoy routine and
structure.

Your world is best described by the order you create.

uh Number three is responsibility.

You take psychological ownership of what you say you will do.

You're committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Can't think of any two better things that I'd want in a bookkeeper than both of those last
two things.

uh Number four is focus.

You can take direction, follow through and make the connections necessary to stay on
track.

You prioritize then act and number five is achiever.

You work hard and possess a great deal of stamina.

You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.

uh So we'll talk a minute about discipline, which is your number three.

uh

Oftentimes, because nobody's heard, well, we haven't discussed discipline here, it's about
order.

It's about, I wrote down some words, systems, organization, precision, detail-oriented, I
don't know if I said structure.

that, tell us more how that plays out for you.

in a big way, you know, mean, it's a big part of how I run my business.

uh You know, I know what time I'm going to start, what time I'm going to end.

I know how much time I'm going to dedicate to each of the parts.

And I know how much, you know, I need to be, uh I look at all the different parts of my
business that I need to be focused on.

And I try to build structure.

immediately, know, to make sure that I'm hitting all of those things.

So it's a weekly challenge ah though, you know, and sometimes that's the problem with
being structured is every single week you're never going to hit that strict structure

perfectly and it's going to annoy you a little bit sometimes, but ah you know, it really
goes a long ways.

And once you realize that ah it really works to your benefit, to mine anyway, it works
great.

Yeah, and each of us to our own, right, is each of us has our own thing.

we can put the full 34 up, So Daniel has provided us with his full 34 report.

so to add depth to the top five, just, I won't give the definitions of each of the things,
but the number six is context.

Number seven is consistency.

Number eight is relator.

Number nine is learner.

And number 10 is command.

So.

you can start to, least I can, see the things that you already mentioned.

Command is something that will, tell me how Command plays for you.

Yeah, command is what helps me speak clearly, speak confidently, and that's what helps me
build trust ultimately with clients and networking partners.

uh having a very strong and clear command, uh which is also kind of part of focus too, uh
that really works well and it's important to me.

That's how I want someone to communicate to me.

I want someone to be...

Commanding, clear, confident, you know, and that speaks well to me.

So it's natural for me to want to speak that as well to others.

Yeah, and you have that sort of quiet confidence, again, kind of because I know you, ah
you don't have a struggle.

And I think maybe from your previous life, that standing in front of a group is not a
challenge for you.

And you have, and I use the words creative, I think that you bring an interesting twist to
things sometimes that the average bear doesn't.

So that I can see that command, you know, kind of come up when you are standing in front
of a room and trying to get people to follow along with what you're, you know, trying to

accomplish.

When you think about your full 34, what if, or let's just look at your top 10, what do you
feel like is a superpower that you didn't give yourself enough credit for before you saw

your report?

that I didn't give myself enough credit for.

yeah, yeah, because I like to call them superpowers.

know, that anything in your top 10 really the top five for sure.

But really the top 10 when you have the fuller picture can become your you know, those are
the ones you're in all day.

And some of them you if you only get your top five, you're missing obviously six, seven,
eight, nine, 10.

And the six, seven, eight can be very, very close to each other.

So I've had guests on the podcast before who said, you know, I really didn't

I feel like I do this and in addition to whatever their report said, I feel like I do this
is probably in their top 10.

They just can't see it.

So are there any superpowers that you you once you got the report, you're like, you know
what?

Okay, okay, I can see that I can, I should, I should give myself credit for that.

Sure, yeah, you know, and it's funny because we just talked about command, but I feel like
that's the one that I do, you know, uh internally, because I'm very analytical, I find

myself always questioning what I'm saying, second guessing myself, especially after I've
said something.

You know, I used to joke with my wife because when I, back in my previous life, as you
mentioned,

preaching sermons, teaching classes.

The worst time was not coming up to it and leading up to it.

I always felt very confident if I was prepared and I knew what I was gonna say, what I
wanted to say, and I was commanding in the moment too as well.

But it was the time right immediately after where I would sweat bullets and say, okay, did
I say everything right?

Did I say everything I wanted to?

Same thing with my 45 seconds, it's the after.

Did I say that right?

But when I'm in the moment,

I can take that command, but it's that analytical part.

so, you know, maybe I need to take more credit for that.

And I've had others tell me that as well, know, Dan, know, once you older mentors of mine,
you know, that have said, once you've said it, you know, don't think about it anymore.

It's it's done.

Right, Yeah, I have, my analytical is number 12 and I feel that, what you're saying is,
and I think maybe a little bit of us, all of us do that, but some people might just move

on, right?

But I definitely have that thinking it through after the fact kind of situation, and I
have high command, but I have command in my top five.

em And command for me looks a little different in, um for me it's helping others to take

to get done what they need to get done, meaning I've always been the one in the room when
something was going not so well that somebody would come to because they were afraid to

say, raise their hand and say, this isn't the way it's supposed to be, it's not going
well.

And nobody else will say anything to the higher ups and often, because I worked corporate
for a long time.

Nobody's willing to say anything, but I'm the one that will.

And so everybody recognizing that.

If just tell Tammy, she'll tell everybody is because I'm not afraid to take that risk.

eh know, but when you look at your strengths, your top set of things, especially
discipline, helps people avoid risk, right?

Is your, your number, you know, your superpower is to create something for someone or
yourself that is avoiding risk for them.

Would you say that's true?

Yes, I would say that's true.

I think there's some parts of internally, again, that kind of help correspond to one
another.

Maybe you do even in reaction to.

So, you know, my analytical side of everything requires me to really be disciplined so
that I know that I'm doing it correctly, you know, and that I'm not having to second guess

myself as much.

So it's almost trying to compensate and.

And as I work on that, probably get a lot better at that.

Yeah, and you've got context too is number six.

So do you find yourself looking back over what's already occurred to avoid things from
happening again?

Yeah, and I have, so I'm kind of, I have futuristic, your futuristic's 22, mine's in my
top, well, mine's number six.

So, you know, some of us look ahead and, you know, and find the way forward.

And some of us look back and avoid what.

You know, we don't want to repeat the sins of the past so to speak and you need both.

You need somebody, if you have a team of people or you want to hire somebody for your
business that can support you in your business, it's good to have both of those things,

especially if you're one and they're the other.

Right?

That's a good thing.

Have you, were there any strikes that were, they felt a little too true, like they were
calling you out?

Felt a little too true.

Yeah, I mean, the analytical definitely calls me out.

The discipline calls me out.

The tunnel vision, the focus that calls me out.

The relator uh side of me, definitely that's a major part of me.

I care about whether or not I'm relating to people and if I'm connecting.

That's very important to me.

which is kind of a unique thing in my field because I feel like, and maybe they're going
down a different road, another road, but you know, there's a lot in my field when it comes

to accounting.

you know some accountants and you know, I love accountants and everything, but I actually
feel sometimes like in my field, I'm a different bird because a lot of accountants that I

know are very non-relating.

know, they're very good with the books and uh be on the computer keyboard.

Yes.

Yes.

And so, yeah, it's just kind of unique circumstance for me.

for sure.

And I feel that also because I have Relators my number two.

you know, while I have all that kind of strategy and influencing Relators, you and I share
that Relators are only relationship building in the top 10.

So, but that's pretty cool because Relator likes to go deep with people.

So that's a different, it's a different relationship.

It's not sort of the, you know, I go in a room and I make everybody my friend.

It's I want to get to know you specifically and understand what

you know, what's important to you, which for me, I, you know, I like that because I guess
that's what I like to do.

So, so I appreciate that.

Have any of your strengths shown up in weird places or unexpected places that you didn't
expect them that you notice now that you're kind of thinking about them, you know, whether

that's at home or, you know, something you do outside of it might be BNI or, you know,
something outside of what you do for work.

Yeah, strengths that maybe if I understand your question right, you know, maybe underused
or

maybe that you didn't recognize it might be, you know, when I was thinking about
discipline, I have not given my parents the assessment, but I'm going to guess that

discipline is one of my dad's top 10.

ah It took me back to when I was a kid.

uh We would be assigned chores and those chores needed to be, they didn't just need to be
done, they needed to be done a certain way.

And if they weren't done a certain way, then there were repercussions of that.

You don't sweep this way, you sweep this way.

Which I'm like, I'm just sweeping, I don't know.

um But it was very important that it be done from this way to this way to whatever.

That's kind of what I mean, is it showed up for you.

It doesn't have to be disciplined, but any of them showed up in other places that you were
like, okay, now I see that.

well, yeah, seeing it in other places and, you know, it's interesting because sometimes
the, well, the context is always changing and some parts of my life, maybe I bring other

things out more.

uh So for example, I know when to be commanding and I know when to be submissive and
following, you know, the lead of someone else, which is kind of my discipline structure

side of me, you So.

You know, I can definitely see just, but for me, the CliftonStrenghts more or less really
brought out what it helped identify what was there maybe that I already knew was there,

but now I got to see it and I got to see it analyzed and put together.

And it was really neat how it all kind of aligned and I nod my head and I say, yeah, you
know, that's me, that's that.

Yeah, definitely.

most common thing I hear is, yep, that's me.

That guy, you know, I don't know how they do it, but they got me.

uh So you've, you spend a lot of time building relationships and you know, and obviously
with Relator in your top 10, that's a, that's an important thing for you, but you've been

in different, as we mentioned earlier, you were in, you're in the chamber, you're in BNI.

So maybe now that you, but from your previous life, you had to build relationships as
well.

How have you seen,

or what did you used to believe about building relationships in your, before you had your
own business that you no longer think is true?

Hmm.

Well, ah when it comes to building relationships, I feel like it's the world that I was in
before has just kind of naturally brought it, come into the next world.

And so it's just kind of strengthened my beliefs about things like building relationships
and seeing the benefits of that.

ah

So I don't know if it's really contradicted anything that I didn't believe previously.

It's really just enhanced and strengthened that.

And I've used that to kind of platform myself into continuing that journey.

So.

Well, and life is a journey, right?

As I think that a lot of us ends up and if you're in BNI now, you know, we do definitely
have some younger people who are starting out and I have, can think of several people who

are in their twenties that started a business, understood the value when they got into BNI
and they have really built a strong business based on BNI, but that isn't the case for

everyone.

You know, a lot of people.

you know, life's a journey so you pick up all the things along the way and they roll into
what you're supposed to do.

You you may or may not have figured that out until, I always tell my stepson who's going
to be 27 soon, you know, we just had a long conversation over the weekend about what's

next and he's in the military so he doesn't have full control over what is next.

He only has certain, he can provide some sort of boundaries I guess around I would like to
do this or that but there's no guarantee it's, you you serve the need of the military.

but I think that you never necessarily have it all figured out, right?

But you think you should.

He's 27, he's like, should know this, that, and the other, but you just really don't.

And I think that's an interesting thing that over time we all, but when you look at
CliftonStrengths is no matter what you're doing, you're applying that special set of gifts

to the thing that's in front of you at the moment.

And for me, it's always, I'm meant to learn something from

whatever it is, right?

Have you found that to be the case?

Yeah, I mean, and you can even though there's certain items at the bottom of that list,
know, that that, you know, futuristic is kind of bottom, you know, my list.

There's some things down there where you can say, you know, if you don't apply these at
all, you're going to be in trouble.

And that that probably is something that, you know, I learned a lot of life lessons just
being in ministry for 15 years.

And so, you know, one of the things that I think I came into uh

within that service was, okay, you know, I'm going to uh preach the word of God and it
doesn't matter what people think.

You know, it doesn't matter.

You know, this is the word of God.

This is all that matters.

And then over time I had to learn that, well, thinking about how people are gonna receive
things and maybe think about, you know, things and being more empathetic on the other side

of things.

before afterwards, that can really go a long ways.

And so that was something I learned during ministry and then I've brought into here, it's
just as important now, even, it's very important as you're building your business to be

thinking some futuristic, how's someone gonna receive this?

How are they gonna receive you when you say these things?

And I've been in those one-to-ones where someone said, I don't care what people think, and
I was like, that's your problem.

You don't care.

That might be a problem.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, it's funny you say that because that does permeate in a lot of places, right?

It isn't just, it's social media, it's chapters, it's, you know, life in general.

uh But I, because of who we are individually, we look at whatever's in front of us through
the lens of what our experiences are and what our strengths are.

ah So, know, I don't care what anyone thinks can be successful for some people, but
generally, you know, the kind of organization that we are in is BNI.

It matters because everybody is evaluating whether or not they'll send your client.

You know, if I'm going to send you my good client, I'm going to decide.

based on what I can see, you know, and sometimes that's a report, sometimes it's your
whether or not you're in the room when the meeting starts or you've left before it's

ended.

You know, all the things that we track are designed to create an overall persona, if you
will, of how you're going to be in your business.

It does matter unless it doesn't matter to you that you're not gonna get the referrals.

Everything you do matters.

all right.

Looking at, know, kind of because you have a unique blend of talents like we all do, is
there any small habit, maybe daily or weekly, that you do that has helped you stay top of

mind with people or build trust with people that you can share with us?

I think staying consistent and ah dependable, ah available is really the key word that's
coming to mind for me because people, you know, I learned to ministry this as well.

You know, it's all about people and Bible.

It's all about people and God.

Those are the two things that matter the most.

so bringing that over into the business world, it's the same.

It's putting people first.

ah

you know, that's who we're serving uh in our businesses and our work.

And so, you know, if I'm getting a call, you know, and I say, oh, I'm busy with this task,
you know, ah that can be hard, you know, that can be difficult.

And we do need to protect our, you know, our structure to some degree.

We don't necessarily want some people just taking over, you know, our businesses.

But at the same time, we have to remember too that

That's what we're in this for.

We're in this to serve and to help.

so sometimes we've got to just, we've got to get out of that comfort.

For me, the structure and time and scheduling is a comfort zone.

I've taught myself early on, even before I came into the business world, that putting
people first is really what counts.

so.

Yeah, and I subscribe to that as well.

I suspect that because responsibility is your number three, that that plays well for you.

That's part of what you do.

And actually, one of the, what's the word I'm looking for, the blind spots for
responsibility can be taking on too many things, right?

It's not protecting your time.

I'm also, my responsibility I was looking at is 13, so it's...

kind of follows up right behind the strengths is I can over task myself with letting,
giving things for other people I'm always available.

So it becomes that balance.

It's a good thing, but it can also become a bad thing if you don't set those boundaries,
which kind of going back to your discipline is saying, okay, here's as much as I can do

right now.

Otherwise you can't deliver the type of service or the whatever you're trying to give to
people that you need to.

uh

this is a little bit changing the gear is have you ever received a referral that came from
completely outside your industry and it surprised you?

I know you've only been here for a year and a half but have you gotten any oddball
referrals that really kind of where you're like oh okay.

Yeah, you know, I came into this really wanting to help churches, you know, and then I
kind of decided, OK, I'm going to go more, even more general nonprofits.

And then I realized I really need to go way outside, you know, because even though that's
a, you know, a place that I want to focus in on, I now realize that there's a lot of these

businesses, business owners that

you know they're ready they're ready for this market and they need assistance they need
help so you know that I've quickly opened myself up in a much more general way even though

I might still have this long-term goal of wanting to work more specifically with churches
but uh you know so in that process I have you know I've connected with restaurants I've

connected with you know uh trades lots of trades you know HVACs and plumbers and things of
that sort

uh And, you know, I don't know if there's any like really oddball ones out there, but, uh
you know, there's definitely, I did meet once uh a uh commercial, what were they?

They were commercial drone company and so commercial photography.

And so then they, you know, they fly these little drones around and I was kind of able to
just kind of give them some assistance with that.

uh

But yeah, know, there are some interesting industries that come into our BNI meetings,
know, and they only book things so.

who someone knows.

And it kind of almost goes back to what we were talking about earlier is if you focus,
I'll give an example.

I can think of a whole bunch of mortgage people and closing attorneys whose number one ask
every week is realtor, right?

Without fail.

And if you only ever ask for a realtor, you're only ever going to get a realtor.

Right?

You're never gonna get the, about this one or that one?

know, thinking outside that sort of boxes, so to speak, is I have to kind of be, because
that unexpected one, which is maybe why I asked the question, right?

Is that unexpected, you know, drone flyer person is going to be maybe a great source that
you wouldn't have thought of.

And, you know, not that you're going for, you know, I'm looking for companies that do that
specifically, but.

Sometimes getting outside the window of always this one thing can give you more
opportunities because everybody's against maybe tunes out after a while if I always ask

the same thing every time.

So it's good to kind of spread that out occasionally and think about that.

It's that one time I look somebody specific up in a company that I think nobody's ever
gonna know that.

And I ask in the meeting, I'm looking for someone at this company, that company, and then.

three people raise their hand like, yeah, I know somebody.

Right?

It never ceases to surprise me when I ask for something odd that I get it.

But the asking is the first instigator of that issue.

All right.

happened with the CPAs.

I don't know if you noticed these last couple weeks, but someone all of sudden will say,
yeah, I know that person or hey, that office is in my building.

Yes, yes, yes, for sure.

So uh we've I've done been doing this thing where the last guest on the podcast asked a
question for you.

And so and I'll have you leave one for the next one.

So the last guest left this question.

Can you tell us a story about the best referral you've ever received?

The best referral that I've ever received ah Yeah, you know ah When I when I came into
BNI, you know, there was there was someone in our chapter that ah Immediately kind of came

up to me and said hey we can we can work together we can partner together and so ah That
that pretty much brought me in, you know I said well, okay if there's someone here that

can bring me in that can partner with me and ah and so since that time

I work in the financial world, so I've quickly began to understand that I'm really in the
long game with this.

I have to build relationships, I have to build trust.

I haven't received a lot of referrals in BNI, but I have built my network out quite a bit.

then here, I've been about a year now.

in a couple months and so now I'm actually just now I think starting to get some
referrals.

So, uh you know, uh I did have a referral to a plumber and actually even though it wasn't
a large client, I think that was probably one of my favorite because uh they came to me

with kind of a new upstart, a couple um starting out.

didn't know a lot about QuickBooks or anything, or even about just growing their business,
the profitability of their business.

So that was kind of exciting because I was able to teach them a lot of things.

And once they were able to see their numbers, I think it gave them a lot of confidence
because they didn't even know what their profit margin should have been in their industry.

And I was able to kind of, with the books, by tracking your finances and organizing them,
you can...

uh

you have the data available to you now, where now you can dig in and say, okay, is this
where I'm supposed to be?

And so that's really been one of my, even though it wasn't a huge client or anything like
that, I think it was definitely one of my favorites since I've been in here because it

connected with me, someone that is new and growing.

um I feel like, you know, I always like to say, you know, your success will be my success
as well.

So if I can help you be successful in turn,

as your business grows, then my workload's gonna grow and that's a good thing for me too.

So I like that, I really enjoyed connecting with someone that starting small and now I'm
starting to see them progress and grow and my bookkeeping is helping them with that

growth.

That's awesome.

Yeah, you said a couple of things in there.

The first one that kind of hit my head was the, think that a lot of entrepreneurs, you as
a business coach, a lot of entrepreneurs don't look at their finances, right?

That's the last thing on the list is I'm just gonna do all these other things and the
money and the structure of the money and the spending and all those things.

They don't recognize how much.

their outputting or, know, they're just not looking at it.

And it's kind of out of sight, out of mind.

And they have, you know, and that starts to become a burden because they don't, a burden
they don't even know about that because they haven't looked at that.

And then the other thing you said was, you know, you're in a couple of months in and
you're now just starting to sort of feel the fruit of the labor that you've put in thus

far.

And that's also very common is, you know, most

A lot of people only join for a year and depending on their industry, some industries can
be quicker than others, but when you're talking about money or in my case, coaching a

business, uh some of those things take a little, the sales cycle so to speak is a little
bit longer because there's a lot longer trust.

It's a lot more to prove or integrating things into people's businesses that support their
growth.

often is a sequence of events, right?

Is they start with trying to do it on their own and then little by little things change
and maybe they get an uptick, but you know, it's not a straight uphill climb.

It's a very stair step and sometimes down step, up step, down step kind of situation.

So I love that you brought both of those things up because it's very normal for the kinds
of people that are in BNI.

So I appreciate that.

What's one thing that you're doing that's upcoming that's pushing you out of your comfort
zone, whether it's in business or personal growth as you move forward?

Well, uh I am taking some business coaching here starting this Friday with a certain
someone and.

Who would that be?

I'm pointing at myself if you can't, if you're not watching us.

uh

gonna be good.

Yeah, because you you're talking about what you well, you know, the same is true for me
not not financially.

That was the first thing I looked at.

But, know, the business side of things coming in as you know, from a previous life, the
total change in some respects, uh you know, I've never really sat down to establish my

my business foundation and strategy.

Actually it was funny, I was just telling my wife the other day, I was talking to a
business owner, he's been in it like 40 years or so and he's in financials.

And I asked him while we were sitting down eating, I asked him, what's the one piece of
advice you would give to me?

He's older, business owner.

And he said, well, do you have your one page business plan written out?

And embarrassingly, know.

I said, no, I don't.

I don't have that.

I've been in the hustle.

I know what I wanted to do.

I'm a groundbreaker, right?

So I got into it.

I looked at this and I said, I want to do this.

And I need to start providing for my family and I need to make this happen.

So I hustle, hustle, and I never sat down.

So that's, yeah, that certain someone that I'm going to be doing business coaching with,
that's coming up.

yay.

So I printed this off because I didn't know if it would come up, but I definitely am
hearing in what you're saying.

I'm holding up Daniel's page 21 of his CliftonStrengths report.

There are blocks that speak to your themes and Daniel's number one theme is executing,
right?

So executing, now you have your, it's.

two, three, four, five, and seven, a number of your strengths are all in executing.

And then in strategic thinking, you have one, six, and nine.

In relationship building, you have eight.

And influencing, you have 10.

Now, it has all of them on there, but if you're looking at, if you're on YouTube, and if
you're on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe right now.

ah But if you see the bolded that it's not surprising that you would let's go and get it.

Let's just do it, right?

Let's just start it and make it happen and work out the systems and let's execute on the
things because that is the bulk of where your top 10 sit.

So it is not even a little bit surprising.

But that's the cool thing about recognizing, and you took this assessment before you and I
knew each other.

somewhere along the line you said, you know, and I didn't ask you that story actually why
you took it, you know, around that.

you want, if there's anything significant you want to tell me about why, but um it led
you, gave you information or tell me, I guess, go ahead and tell me is what, you know, why

did you take it and what did it tell you at the time?

Well, actually, recently I finally finished my bachelor's of, I kind of majored in
biblical studies, of course.

And that was something I started years ago.

So in that process, that was just one of the things actually one of the professors wanted
us all to do in class was to take that CliftonStrengths assessment.

And I didn't realize, you know, how valuable it was, especially meeting you.

So now I see even more how valuable it is.

uh

It's been really good to bring that back out of the closet and bring that to the forefront
and start using that more.

that's, I love that actually.

I'm so, I don't know why I didn't ask you that before, but it's interesting because it
does come up often.

we talked with Matt Carter from her works.

It was in a previous episode recently and he works with college age kids or he was
teaching, know, at that, and they were taking it then and for various reasons, a lot of

organizations.

want you to have the information, but what you do with it is not necessarily what they
teach, right?

They give you kind of the, here's your stuff and it looks good.

And it's like, yep, that you read it you're like, yep, that's me.

And then you tuck it away.

As you said, in the closet, you you leave it in there and then one day somebody like me
goes, okay, what does it actually mean?

And is there, there's value in executing, you know, actually what you can do with what you
have.

So, I appreciate you bringing that up.

And what's kind of interesting too, but in the ministry world, there's a generation before
maybe a couple even where I think we're seeing a little bit of a shift now where before it

was like, okay, we have this image, this identity.

And if you're weak in anything or you're not meeting this certain part, we want to bring
you up and we want to, you know, uh build all these weaknesses up.

Now it seems like we're shift shifting a little bit.

And even in the school that I was attending,

it's shifting where it's like no wait a minute we we all have differences and now we need
to appreciate what those differences are and what those strengths are and capitalize on

those strengths

Yes, yeah, that's a, well, and it's driven by the millennials, believe it or not.

That is a shift, that is a cultural shift.

Gallup does, Gallup owns CliftonStrengths and the Gallup organization's been doing
workplace surveys forever.

that is, I have data, if anybody's interested, reach out to me and I can send you to the
right sources.

But the data now is, there's been a cultural shift in how things are.

accomplished at work.

that is from the generation I grew up in, the same where we used to, you you would have
your employee review and it was maybe they give you a couple things you did well, but

largely would focus on what you're not doing so well and making sure you shored up that
sort of, you know, deficiency.

And that isn't how millennials work.

They have created a paradigm shift in how

work will be done, it has to, they want to be coached, not managed.

They want to have value inside and outside work.

They don't want to work all the time like my generation is like, we just always work.

uh Or people that have Achiever, we always work.

Because that's just who we are.

but that it was a requirement, it's just you work, work, work and that they want work-life
balance and they want, you know, and if your company, if you're listening to this and you

employ millennials, then you're already feeling that.

You know, they want to shift the way we, how all things in work go.

So um and I'm glad to hear that they're shifting.

Universities are shifting and they're adapting because otherwise we're going to be um not
prepared for the continued change that is fast coming.

So all right.

Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast, Daniel.

It's great to see everybody.

Well, I guess I'm not seeing you all, but great to have you all here listening.

And I'll remind you one more time.

I am striving to have a thousand

People subscribe on the YouTube channel.

So if you don't care, if you listen to this on YouTube or whatever podcast medium you like
to listen to, go over to YouTube and subscribe, because that will help me as a BNI member.

That will support me.

I appreciate that.

And thank you all for being here.

See you next time on The Perfect 100.