Episode 1280: Interview with Dan Bruder founder of Blendification That Helps Business Return to Their Real Purpose, Service

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,280 of the Inspired Stewardship

[00:00:05] Podcast.

[00:00:06] Dan Bruder: I'm Dan Bruder. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find and blend between work and self is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer,

[00:00:37] that has kind, that has evolved into this platform where this word. This approach called Brandification and I think it just

[00:00:46] Scott Maderer: embraces this

[00:00:47] Dan Bruder: natural connection of work and life, but it goes beyond that. It really says if we say we are

[00:00:53] something, we believe in something and we act a certain way, we need to back that up with our actions.

[00:00:59] Scott Maderer: [00:01:00] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your. Your talent and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:31] In today's interview with Dan Bruter, I asked Dan about his journey and why he focuses on blending life, not balancing it. Dan also shares why he works on focusing on people, not technology or profit when working with businesses. And Dan also talks to you about how we can create meaning in our lives, both at work and at home.

[00:01:53] One reason I like to bring you great interviews like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the. In [00:02:00] learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read, and that's why today's podcast is brought to you by Audible.

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[00:02:42] Dan Bruter, co-founder and c e O of Planification created planification to build a platform that would return businesses to its original purpose of providing solutions that positively impact employees, customers, and communities. For several years, Dan [00:03:00] developed and enhanced the Planification ethos by delivering the strategy whiteboard and personal whiteboard programs through conventional consulting teaching in MBA and executive MBA programs and writing the planification system book.

[00:03:14] Planification is also a popular TEDx talk with over 200. Thousand views. Dan realized that traditional consulting models and workshops do not allow everyone in the organization to be touched by high price consulting content. And consequently, Dan partnered with an accomplished software. Entrepreneur Sean, diverse, and together they created a new business segment, consult, tech, consulting and technology blended together, blend application, leverages consult tech by activating businesses and employees potential using the strategy whiteboard.

[00:03:47] And personal whiteboard consulting programs delivered through software applications with Planification software, the same strategy framework used for business planning and execution. The strategy whiteboard is [00:04:00] also applied to employees' personal growth and development on the personal whiteboard, creating a natural and a complimentary connection between work and life.

[00:04:11] Welcome to the show, Dan.

[00:04:13] Dan Bruder: Thanks, Scott. Glad to be here. Looking forward to chatting.

[00:04:16] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I'm excited to have you on. So we talked a little bit in the intro about kind of your personal journey and how that got you to begin to look at life a little differently and work a little differently. Can you talk a little bit more about what was it about your journey and your history that led you towards this idea of planification and work-life?

[00:04:42] Yeah,

[00:04:42] Dan Bruder: it's been a constant evolution and going back to my childhood I grew up in what would be considered a rough neighborhood today, and most of the people in my neighborhood didn't really make it out of that lifestyle. And I [00:05:00] fortunately had decided to pursue athletics and athletics.

[00:05:04] Kind of kept my head on straight and ended up going to college and playing a little bit of football. Not as much as I wanted, but I play, played enough to keep me focused in school. . And then when I got outta college I re I, I started working. I initially went into the banking industry and I learned some really valuable things from Bank one.

[00:05:24] One of the banks I worked at their motto was, if you build your community, you build your bank. And they started investing in me. Sending me to training, teaching me how to serve customers. You We call that customer service . And just teaching me things like, why

[00:05:41] Scott Maderer: don't I listen that? No, I was just calling what is what is this customer

[00:05:45] Dan Bruder: servicing?

[00:05:46] But they took some interest in me and helping me get better as an employee. And I later on moved into the resort business with Marriott, and we all know Marriott, what a fabulous organization. Yep. And Marriott started [00:06:00] doing the same things and I And Marriott

[00:06:02] Scott Maderer: invests a lot in their people. Yeah. Oh

[00:06:04] yeah.

[00:06:05] Dan Bruder: Incredible organization. And over time I started becoming more and more grateful for the opportunities that I had working at these organizations that spent time investing in me. Now, of course, they were investing me so that they. Create a more productive employee, more loyal employee. But I was feeling like, man, they're investing in me.

[00:06:27] And everything that I learned at work is actually helping me become a better boyfriend. At the time, I was gonna say husband, but at the time it was a boyfriend, but later on a husband. And then it helped me become a better father and introduced me to this whole idea of engaging in communities and.

[00:06:47] But it all came from work and I looked at work as this place of being, like I said, extremely grateful. So I said, I gotta, I'm gonna hang on to this because I don't know where I would be if it wasn't for my [00:07:00] work or my jobs or my companies tapping me on the shoulder and saying, Hey, what about this?

[00:07:04] And what about that? They gave me opportunities to move. They gave me opportunities. Now they're clearly a financial opportunity here too, but there was so many other things. I got outta work that connected to my personal life and I started realizing that work and life were really one and the same. and I didn't do anything with it, but to me it was like, man, what I learn at work, I can actually use in my personal life.

[00:07:28] I can practice it at home and then the next day I can bring it back to work. I'm, I've been practicing these skills and we start creating this connection of work and life and that kind of went on and on. For years. And then as I started getting deeper and deeper into my faith in studying the Bible, I came across Romans 8 28 and that says, all things work together for good.

[00:07:54] And I'm like, gosh that, that kind of describes this whole thing of work and life [00:08:00] working together. For something good. And that has that has evolved into this platform or this word, or this approach called brandification. And I think it just embraces this natural connection of work and life, but it goes beyond that.

[00:08:16] It really says if we, I, if we say we are something, we believe in something and we act a certain way, we need to back that up with our. And we need to blend our actions with the outcomes we want to create and the things that we say we want to do. So it's really this brandification, this concept goes far beyond just work and life.

[00:08:38] So I really feel like I've been super fortunate to have worked in organizations and and I really made it my cause in life to, to basically go back and. Organizations, the free will and the opportunity and the permission to admit that they impact people's lives in various different ways.

[00:08:58] Let's embrace that. [00:09:00] And that's good. Or for is real . Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. We have to look at both sides of that sword, right? So that's really where this whole concept came from it really. Evolved into this.

[00:09:10] Scott Maderer: So let's let's talk a little bit more about kind of both sides of the equation for a minute.

[00:09:15] Not the both sides of the sword that you were just talking about, but, so a, as an employee as somebody who has a work life, A lot of times we try to compartmentalize our life. So we we have who we are at church, we have who we are at home with our spouse. We have who we are with our kids, and we have who we are at work, and we have these kind of different compartments of our life.

[00:09:39] And I know a lot of people that kinda n never the twain shall meet this is who I am in this role and not the rest of my life. How do you see that approach and what, where do you think that comes from? Or how does that Come how does that interact with what you were just talking about, which is not the same as that.

[00:09:58] Yeah.

[00:09:58] Dan Bruder: You, you [00:10:00] described me early on and I even go back to middle school and high school and later on in college and then after college, I I had certain friends. That behaved in a certain way. I won't describe that. . and they shall

[00:10:18] Scott Maderer: remain nameless for their own protection.

[00:10:20] I

[00:10:20] Dan Bruder: got it. Okay. There were some challenging influences and then I had this other side of me that was a career focused, business focused how do we do something with our life type thing? And I found that I was living two different lives it's like, Hey, when I got around certain people, I would act a certain way.

[00:10:38] And then when I got in my business world, I didn't want anyone to know. That type, that side of me or that other things or those people I experienced. And what happened was is I was, I'm not saying I was living two different lives, but it was actually strenuous to play these different roles.

[00:10:53] And so as I became older and more experienced, I realized that I need to pick one role [00:11:00] that's more meaningful, more sustainable. That is who I am, who I want to become, and stick with that and make that. Ev every part of my life, work, life, home life, community life, personal life, everything. And it really required me to develop one solid foundation to rest everything else on and then build from that.

[00:11:21] And it what it did, it created. This opportunity to reduce stress in my life. I didn't have to wear multiple hats. I didn't have to I could change I could move away from the civil syndrome multiple personalities. It wasn't that bad, but you know what I'm saying?

[00:11:37] It's. It's just trying to get real clarity in my life. And I think that's what happens with us is that we tend to hold on to certain shadow behaviors in our lives that were very effective at certain points in our life, but aren't effective. Today as we've matured and grown and we feel guilty by letting these [00:12:00] things go and we, we call it shadow focus.

[00:12:03] And when we start focusing on our shadow behaviors we tend to move backwards and and I think we all have shadow behaviors. and those behaviors hold us back. And the key is identifying what those behaviors are, what behaviors are holding us back, but not demonizing them. Because the truth is that those behaviors may have served us well sometime when we were in middle school or high school.

[00:12:27] But they're not serving us very well now. So I think we have this and this is based on my experience. I can't speak for everybody. I think we have. Certain thing inside us that, that wants us to hang on to certain things that aren't necessarily good to us, that actually that, that aren't necessarily good for us.

[00:12:43] But we hang onto 'em for various different reasons and we need to separate from those things in order to create greater growth in our lives and fulfillment, joy in our lives. And some of those same things that helped us a long time ago are actually holding us back. If we look at it from the other point of view at [00:13:00] I, I've been in the corporate world and I've been in various companies and businesses as an employee and often up in leadership.

[00:13:09] Scott Maderer: And I've sat in those executive sessions and had leadership discussions with other leaders where the message is basically how can we keep people from bringing their person. Stuff into work. We don't we just need these people to show up and get the job done. how do we keep all that other stuff out?

[00:13:30] What would you say to that employer that's struggling with the idea of what does it mean to have the recognition that their employee's work life? Home life all of that is part of who they are when they come to work during

[00:13:44] Dan Bruder: the day. Yeah. That, that, that's a good a good topic because everything I just said now comes into the work side and the employers are the ones saying, Hey, don't bring that tr that junk to work.

[00:13:56] Yeah. And then we force these people to create a barrier [00:14:00] between their work and. and and that's unfortunate. What do we do about that? I think the challenge is that what's going on outside the doors of a business is dramatic change. So technology. And social factors are dramatically changing how business operates, how we communicate, how we meet, how we lead, how we do our jobs, and the idea of separating work and life.

[00:14:32] To me is an antiquated concept. We call that work-life balance. . think that's a myth by the way. And so when we seek work-life balance from the personal side, and then at the same time the businesses are telling people don't bring your personal life to work. What we're doing is asking people to create a d create a wall between two very important segments of their life.

[00:14:56] And I think that's, that is a challenge and it's not good [00:15:00] for the business. Now, at the same time, I'm not suggesting that every employee brings all their baggage into work. What I am saying is let's embrace the fact. That we have human beings that are sitting in front of us that have real issues, real opportunities, real goals, and let's bring that to work.

[00:15:17] Let's help them pursue their life goals through work, because work plays a very important component of people's lives and if we can embrace that, and use technology or whatever else is happening in society in order to help people succeed in life. We're gonna, we're gonna feel a sense of fulfillment on our own.

[00:15:38] And I I've talked to enough executives when they're all said and done and they've got a huge bank account, they don't look back and say, Hey, look at all the money I made. They look at, they say, what? Look at all the lives I've impacted. In fact, there's one executive that we've been working with and he said I wish we started this process 20 years.

[00:15:55] because he's really focused on he focused for most of his [00:16:00] career on building wealth and found out once he achieved wealth that it wasn't as important as helping other people.

[00:16:06] Scott Maderer: It's the life of success versus the life of significance. So sometimes, yes. Yeah.

[00:16:10] Dan Bruder: Yeah. Mo Moving from Success to Significance, I think that was in the book halftime.

[00:16:15] So a

[00:16:17] Scott Maderer: good book. Yeah. It's, it was in both halftime and then John Maxwell also talks about it in a couple of his books as well Yeah. One I think it was Bob Buford, one of 'em stole from the other, right? Yeah.

[00:16:28] Yeah. Bob said it first, and John stole it from Bob, I'm pretty sure.

[00:16:32] But but there's several things that John has popularized that he openly admits he took the idea of for someone else. He has no problem with admitting that No.

[00:16:41] Dan Bruder: That that's

[00:16:42] Scott Maderer: important. And I think him and Bob are both I don't think there's any competition there. I think they're, they know each other and are friends as well.

[00:16:49] So you talked a little bit. Life balance and the idea of that being a myth. Unpack that a little bit. Why what's different between work-life blending and work-life [00:17:00] balance.

[00:17:00] Dan Bruder: If we look at work in life and if we were to look at our lives as a pie chart and we identified all the things we did and we categorized those as pieces of pies, the largest piece of the pie in terms of time commitment would be how much time we spend in work or work related.

[00:17:20] In fact, if we looked at just our waking time, almost half of our waking time is spent in work or work related activities. So if we have a goal in life, or we want to pursue something in life, achieve anything in life, we probably should look first at the thing we do with most of our time. I, I know so many people that say, yeah, here's what I want to do in my life.

[00:17:42] And they volunteer an hour a week or an hour a month and say, this is what I'm passionate about, this is my calling. And then they spend an hour a week or every month doing it. And I think to myself, man, if you're truly called to do something, why don't you incorporate that [00:18:00] into your work and seek an opportunity through work that you.

[00:18:04] Obtain what you're really looking for in life. And so I look at this idea of work-life balance as creating a separation, but the truth is work and life should be blended. We should be looking at life excuse me, at work somewhat selfishly saying, Hey, how can work help me? Achieve what I'm looking for in my life.

[00:18:25] The other day I was talking to some folks, there was about 20 people that I was talking to and I took 'em through an exercise and we went through and we identified the business's cause. And they wrote down what their causes. Some of them had a mission or vision, so they basically leveraged that or a purpose.

[00:18:42] And then I asked them now go ahead and do that on your own. Come up with your own personal cause. And they did that. That was a little harder. And some of them struggled with that. And then I said, now take your personal cause. And your business Cause put those together and tell me if they're congruent.

[00:18:57] Now these were all owners of businesses, so [00:19:00] they have the ability to actually influence their business around their personal lives. And there was one c e o. He was almost in tears and he looked up and he said he goes, this is my problem. He goes, I. See no connection between what I want outta life and what I'm doing in my company.

[00:19:18] And I asked him, I said, so I, how does that make you feel? And of course he says, I feel terrible. I I hate going into work. And I said, better yet, how does that make your employees feel? Do they know this? Oh, yeah. They hate their jobs too. . Oh yeah. And the thing is he had no congruency between his.

[00:19:35] And his life. And we have that ability to choose. A lot of times we have the ability to choose how work can enhance our lives. And we can't do that if we have this work-life balance mindset. And so I think work really is that place where we pursue our potential through our work or through our vocation or our calling and we need to call that out and that.

[00:19:58] I didn't make this up. . [00:20:00] This comes from e Ephesians 2, 2 10 says, we're created for good works. It just says we've been created to do something good through our work. Why not embrace that? And that's what I think we need to be doing as leaders of organizations and looking at everybody as really an opportunity to help them succeed in.

[00:20:19] Scott Maderer: And it work is unto the Lord do, in other words, do your work. Like it's something that God would be proud of, not. Ugh, I have to go to work again today, . And that can be hard to do, that can be challenging in some situations. You know what about the person that does see that incongruity?

[00:20:38] Could be the business owner, could be an employee, doesn't really matter that does see that, hey, this isn't aligned right now. What are some of the things that they can begin to do to bring that more into alignment?

[00:20:50] Dan Bruder: I think the leaders of the organizations have the opportunity and almost the responsibility to build a process within the organization [00:21:00] that outlines.

[00:21:01] It's the organization's clear destination, what it really stands for, what it is. So the process, and I think there is actually a specific process for doing this and what I ask companies to do is really creating meaning through the business. and and that starts out with coming up with a really clear business cause or statement of cause not a vision or mission.

[00:21:26] If you ask somebody who's 25 years old, what a vision or mission statement is, they laugh at you, right? It's a 1990s platitude for something that we're still trying to figure out. But if we have a real, and

[00:21:39] Scott Maderer: most mission statements are just a bunch of words on a piece of paper and don't really say much of anything, a lot of times either.

[00:21:46] Dan Bruder: I know. Yeah. And that's the challenge. As a leader we do have the responsibility to actually, when we put something on the wall, we have to make sure that is actually happening inside the hall. And iden, we identify clear cause, identify what our [00:22:00] intention is for employees, customers, and community.

[00:22:02] And then we go in down to the real granular level and say, what behaviors and habits do we want to see working within our organization? So once we define these things, now we have basically defined our organizational culture, and then we have to come up with more of a. How do we build a plan to get there?

[00:22:21] How do we have, build a we can call it strategy, but some sort of a plan to build that up that engages everybody in the organization. So I think the leaders have the responsibility to create the destination or the cause of the organization and then build a reinforcement model through planning and execution and implementation and repetition.

[00:22:44] So that people can see that their work has meaning towards something that's outside of themselves and they can connect what they do on a day-to-day basis to the organizational cause. And to me that is leadership. If we can lead people [00:23:00] to fulfill their potential while at the same time fulfilling the organizational's organization's potential, I think that's a real win in life for us.

[00:23:10] But it's not. It's much easier to just say, Hey we have a goal to generate X dollars in revenue this year, or X dollars in profit now go do it and we're gonna do it because I told you but it's much more challenging

[00:23:25] Scott Maderer: to come up and maybe we'll do some profit sharing or something and that should motivate you to do it too, right?

[00:23:29] Because you'll get a bonus.

[00:23:30] Dan Bruder: No. Right on. So that's again, the leaders really take on that responsibility to build an organization that's fulfilling. For for the employees. But at the same time if we flip this thing upside down and we look in Jesus said, we need to love one another, essentially help one another.

[00:23:49] And I interpret that as help others pursue their personal potential. And what better place to do that than work And if we do this effectively, we can allow individuals, [00:24:00] employees to connect their cause to the organization's. Cause we have a winning formula, I think. So you mentioned earlier that kind of bottom line mentality that I think we get into a lot at work of let's, what's the profit?

[00:24:14] Scott Maderer: Let's make sure that the, if you're a publicly traded company, the shareholders are taken care of. If you're not a publicly traded company, it's still of that profit. First kind of model. Nothing against Mike's book, profit first. Different use of profit first.

[00:24:31] But, and I guess the way that people, a lot of times set it up is it's you can either pay attention to profit or people, it's an either or. What would you say to that kind of mindset and how do you suggest companies look at it? I. .

[00:24:45] Dan Bruder: You obviously I would disagree with either or, and put an and in there and then basically take it a step further to say, really, if we can blend people in profit, we're gonna have a much better situation.

[00:24:57] Money in and of itself is a [00:25:00] good substitute for what we really want and what I find is that people and organizations tend to default to something that's very easy to. and very simple. And that turns out to be revenue, profit, and money. So we can't blame them because we've been told for years to keep it simple, stupid, right?

[00:25:20] The old kiss concept and but what we really need to be thinking about is we, as human beings we're pretty impressive creatures. God created a really impressive thing when they when God created human beings. So we can obvious. Focus on more than or we can do more than one thing.

[00:25:40] So by just saying that all we are here for is to generate a profit minimizes what we can do in life. So I think when we look at what we can do with people, what we can do with. With profit cuz we do need profit. And really the truth is any company that has a lot of profit has been awarded with [00:26:00] a tremendous opportunity to do some really good things.

[00:26:02] Cuz I know I've had money and I've had times in life where I didn't have money. And I can tell you I did much better things when I had money for people then when I didn't have money. And I can't seem to hide from that. I had good. When I didn't have money, but I did more when I had money and I believe that's true with businesses too.

[00:26:22] They can reinvest in their people in growth when they are making a profit. So I think making a profit is a really key metric on the path to making a difference. And if we can look at both of those as blended or a cause and effect the relationship, I think we'll be in much better shape than just focusing on really just focusing on one of 'em.

[00:26:42] Cuz in business, if you just focus on your people on lose side of the profit, you know that's not necessarily a good model either.

[00:26:49] Scott Maderer: Long term you. Go out of business and yeah. Now you don't have any people to pay attention to anymore. don't lie. Yeah and I think sometimes we do set it up as that kind of not [00:27:00] just an either or either, but it's almost like anyone who pays attention to profit is automatically evil and you should only pay attention to people.

[00:27:07] But like you just said, that can be just as false or just as damaging. The opposite, which is I'm gonna ignore my people and just burn them up and burn 'em out. They're, and they're they're replaceable. Let me just concentrate on the money side of it. I think that balance or that blend as you're talking about with brandification, that idea of blending them together is probably much better recognizing that they're connected to each other.

[00:27:32] Cuz if your people aren't happy they're gonna be . I don't think they're motivated to do a good job and make sure that things are running smoothly, either if the people aren't connected to their work I think what there's studies out there that show that having autonomy, having a connection to your work how much that.

[00:27:55] L lengthens the time that somebody will be employed [00:28:00] and the job that the quality of the job they do and those sorts of things

[00:28:03] Dan Bruder: as well. Yeah. And I guess the big question is how do we create independence, autonomy, and connection in a disconnected world, right? ? And we are becoming more disconnected.

[00:28:17] And I think that's the real challenge for business or organizations today, is how do we operate in this new place, and that's the problem that we have to. As business leaders and really for that matter, I would say as society. Society,

[00:28:33] Scott Maderer: Yeah. And with technology and now there's hi hybrid Merck models work from home models both with all of the different things now, social media, even just pol political.

[00:28:48] Polarization all of these different things that seem to be driving disconnection as opposed to connection. How do you think. We can begin to integrate [00:29:00] and be more connected against some of these challenges. What are some of, what are some of your thoughts in that arena? , and I know it's a huge problem, so I don't expect you to have all the solutions.

[00:29:09] Dan Bruder: I think that's that question needs to be answered, Scott. And because we have, we are operating with an outdated playbook in this new world. Our playbook, and I say ours, our playbook. Is mostly adapted from a world that had people working with software inside a business where there were eyes on them at all times.

[00:29:32] And the games changed and we're still using an old playbook and a lot of times I look at technology and technology to me has provided us with a tremendous opportunity to work from anywhere to stay. Involved but not connected. Historically technology has been in business has been to create more productivity.[00:30:00]

[00:30:00] So there's been a focus on technology or software productivity, and we've seen all these things from c r M systems project tracking software, goal setting software. They were all in this family of becoming more productive and generating 0.01% more improvements in one metric there or one metric somewhere else.

[00:30:23] and and then COVID happened and we were forced to work from home and we then leveraged and turned to this technology to help us stay involved in meetings. And we used Zoom and Google meets and z all these other platforms to to help us meet. But what we found after Covid was while people were able to stay productive, By working in different places and they were still able to meet, we actually lost our connectivity.

[00:30:57] So we maintained productivity, but lost our [00:31:00] connectivity, and it was technology that enabled us to remain productive, but it also caused us. To be less connected. So now I think, and you ask what do we do? We're at a stage right now and I think a very critical stage in using technology to move beyond productivity and create connectivity for our organizations.

[00:31:21] Now, I know that the technology has the capability. To provide connections for human beings and bring that connection back. We just haven't seen any software do that because most of the software in the business world has been focused on productivity, and it even goes back to your question about people and profit.

[00:31:41] The software has been focused on profitability and its lost focus. On the people side of this, and I think that we have the ability or the capability to bring software or build software that actually creates connectivity and brings people back [00:32:00] into the qua equation without losing sight of productivity.

[00:32:04] And if we can bring people back in through software, through technology, then we're actually creating more productive people because they're more fulfilled. They see that their work has meaning and that's where we've seen a shift over the past few years, is people have been able to continue to work, but they've essentially lost their connection to work.

[00:32:24] Scott Maderer: And I think, yeah, the we've. I'm gonna ask you your opinion, cuz you, you mentioned COVID and the pandemic. Do you think it caused it or do you think it just exacerbated it and made it more? Oh

[00:32:37] Dan Bruder: yeah. Yeah. I think it accelerated it. I but it in, in a meaningful way though.

[00:32:43] I think Covid. And the reaction to Covid really accelerated the use of technology in business by about 15 years, actually to the point where technology isn't ready. For some of what we're asking it to do what we needed to do. And when [00:33:00] we've seen this, because if you look back a, after the post covid part we went through that whole stage of people leaving work.

[00:33:07] And that's because they weren't connected. They didn't find meaning in their work, and they could be productive sitting on their at their coffee table for anybody, and so I look at this. The what Covid did, it really accelerated the inevitable, but it accelerated it very quickly.

[00:33:25] And now we're at a point where we have to develop the technology to do the things that we know that business can do. And that is really creating a place where people connect to other people and belong to something meaningful. and also be productive. But we need to check those other boxes. And as we've gone down the technology path and went into the development side, I'm unbelievably amazed at the potential for technology and what we can do with technology.

[00:33:55] So I'm super confident in technology or human's ability to [00:34:00] use technology to cross off some of these things that are lacking right now. And I know we're gonna do. I know it's I know we're gonna solve this. We're gonna, we're gonna solve this problem, and it's gonna be amazing to see when we get to the point where we are truly creating connections through

[00:34:15] Scott Maderer: technology as opposed to just using technology as a productivity tool.

[00:34:19] So before I ask you a few questions that I'd like to ask every guest, is there anything else about planification or some of the conversations we've been having that you'd like to.

[00:34:31] Dan Bruder: Yeah, I think brandification it's I did a TED Talk back in 2017, and at first it really didn't take off and and right at Covid and after Covid, the view started going crazy.

[00:34:48] And I think this concept of Brandification became popular. When people started looking at work and life being combined and I would challenge people to [00:35:00] peel away that onion and say, brandification is much more than combining work and life. Brandification is getting really clear.

[00:35:08] And we talked about this at the beginning of this conversation, getting really clear on who you are and what you stand for, and then aligning your life around what that is and building your life on a foundation, a solid foundation. And taking that foundation and basically using that as a platform to stay focused in all areas of our life.

[00:35:29] So the idea of Planification isn't just limited to work in life. It's really about creating clear direction for me, based on a solid foundation. And so I just encourage people. A lot of times when I talk to people they think they've got planification figured out, but it's much deeper than just a concept of combining work in life.

[00:35:48] Scott Maderer: Of course my Brandis inspired stewardship. And stewardship is one of those things that I talk about a lot and run my, that is one [00:36:00] of my core concepts that I run a lot of things through. And yet I've discovered over the years that when I use that word, it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

[00:36:08] So I'm a firm believer in let's define terms. So what does the word stewardship mean to you and what has the impact of that understanding had on your. Stewardship is really we've been giving some, in my opinion, we've been giving something and we're essentially renting it, right while the time on life, while we're here on earth.

[00:36:28] Dan Bruder: And it's our responsibility to do something with that. And taking whatever we've been giving and multiplying That goes back to the good works. We were created for good works and so stewardship is how do I take something? It might be as large as planet Earth and make sure that I'm a good steward of this.

[00:36:49] It might be you've come to work for me and you. Are now giving me your time. So I wanna make sure I'm a good steward of your time [00:37:00] and making sure that what you're doing at work is actually helping you succeed in your life. So we of have to Take that idea, stewardship all the way from the larger scale and say what are the things that we were given?

[00:37:12] What are the tools? What are the the skills and the strengths that we've been giving? And use those in order to create a better impact on the people that we can touch. And that to me is stewardship. And again, this really takes us right back to work. It's cuz that's where we spend most of our time.

[00:37:30] Let's start there. , So this is my favorite question. Though some guests tell me it's their not their favorite. So we'll see whether you like it or not. If I invented this magic machine and I could pluck you from where you are today and transport you magically into the future, 150, 200 years, and through the power of this machine, you were able to look back on your whole life and see all of the relationships, all of the connections, all of the ripples that left you've left behind, what impact do you [00:38:00] hope you've left on the.

[00:38:00] We talked a little bit about that and that's COVID did a little bit of that, didn't it? it fast forwarded us by about 15 years. But no, if we were to step forward and look at what the impact is. And the truth is that this idea of planification really is a lifelong calling or pursuit on my behalf.

[00:38:20] And it is something that I'm committed to. And I would love to look back maybe through my kids'. And see a world where business stopped bickering stopped using their PR company to make changes on or spin things in certain directions and looked at organizations that said this is who we are.

[00:38:41] This is what we stand for. This is who we are as a person, and this is who we are as a business. And then align everything within the organization around that. And that means looking at how we treat our employees, how we treat our suppliers. There's so many businesses out [00:39:00] there that say one thing about who they are.

[00:39:03] And then they make large donations to various different areas. And then on the back end of that, if you dig deep into their supply chain, they're exploiting labor somewhere else in the world. And it's just, it's not a blended company. So if I could look forward, I hope and pray that someday these businesses and these leaders are saying, Hey, I have the responsibility for my business to make a positive impact on the world.

[00:39:26] And I'm gonna do that by created a blended organization where we do what we say. And we say what we do and we just go through and we align everybody in the organization, we create this General feeling of helping people succeed through work. And that might be somebody that just started yesterday all the way up to the c e o, somebody that's swinging a hammer on a job site somewhere, giving them the same access.

[00:39:54] To the growth and development that the c e o gets. And we can do this through technology, by the way. [00:40:00] That's the cool thing about this, is we can now touch everybody in an organization and give them the same growth and development opportunities that we typically spend like hundreds of thousands of dollars at the C-suite for.

[00:40:11] So if we look back man, it wouldn't it be awesome if we had business. Taking a seat at the table of positive impact on society through their community and I say community because so many times we want to change the world. But we don't first look at how we can change our community and we will, we would rather put press releases out on influencing various different things at a macro level, yet in our backyard or within the walls of our company.

[00:40:41] We're not even taking care of that. So I say start with our small community before we worry about solving climate change and other major issues like that. Cuz there's so many other things we can do with the people that we shake hands with. We look in the eyes that we. So

[00:40:58] Scott Maderer: as we begin this new [00:41:00] year, what's coming next for you as you continue on this journey?

[00:41:02] What are some things on the roadmap?

[00:41:04] Dan Bruder: We've described a lot of that here and it's really using technology to align organizations and make an impact on their employees, customers, and communities. Our technology is actually being built so that it solves the problem of disconnection between work and employees.

[00:41:25] We have a comprehensive strategy platform that we use within. and we've created a framework we call the strategy whiteboard that aligns organizations. But we've taken that a step further and created what we call the personal whiteboard. So now we give the opportunity for employees to plan and build their lives using the same framework and methodology that the business uses.

[00:41:53] And then we create connections and friends at work. What's next for us is really. [00:42:00] Taking this platform and giving the opportunity for every business out there or every organization to say, Hey, you mean we can actually use technology to connect our people to meaningful outcomes and then play, give them the opportunity themselves to actually build better lives through work.

[00:42:18] And there's a systematic step by step, technologically based platform that can do that. That's where we're going. And I think that's what I was talking about earlier too. Man we can actually do this with technology. It's, and it's happening and it's, and so that's really the next step.

[00:42:34] And I think we've got some exciting things that are fundamentally gonna change and positively improve businesses place in society.

[00:42:51] You can find

[00:42:51] Scott Maderer: out more about Dan on Facebook under Planification. He's also personally on LinkedIn and Twitter is Dan Bruter. That's B [00:43:00] R U D E R. Or find out more about him over on his website@danhyphenbruter.com. You can also find out more about those tools he was just talking about and about Planification over@planification.com.

[00:43:15] I'll have links to all of that over in the show notes as. Dan, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:43:20] Dan Bruder: No. I just really enjoyed this discussion and I thank you for the opportunity, Scott, for taking the time to chat with me. I appreciate it.

[00:43:34] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired [00:44:00] stewardship.com/itunes.

[00:44:00] Rate all one word. iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review, and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the

[00:44:24] Dan Bruder: world.