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{\b\fs48 Episode 1557: Interview with Jones Loflin About his Book "Focused As a Bee"\b0}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ }

{\cf2 [00:00:00]}

{ Thanks for joining us on episode 1,557 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Hey, I'm Jones Loflin. 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 focus your time and attention each day is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.}

{\pard \line \par}

{If my work helps people to have better relationships, if it helps them to be their best selves, if it helps them take a step forward in a way that stores marriages, helps them to be better parents, I helps them to be a better team member at work. To show that light that's in }

{\cf2 [00:01:00]}

{ there, that's not supposed to be put under a bushel, but it's supposed to be put on a hill.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ 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 time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.}

{\pard \line \par}

{In today's podcast episode, I interview Jones Loflin. I ask Jones about his book focused as a bee, along with several of his others. And I also asked Jones about how he arrived at using Bees as a model for how we need to overcome distractions. And I also asked Jones to share with you how important focus really is to your success.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I have a great book that's been out for a while }

{\cf2 [00:02:00]}

{ now called Inspired Living. Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it, as well as purchase a copy there.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. Joan Loughlin is a keynote speaker, coach and Arthur who helps individuals and organizations struggling with too much to do with three decades of experience. He offers simple, yet powerful strategies for focus, time management, and change.}

{\pard \line \par}

{His books include juggling elephants and always growing, and his latest release focused as a bee offers fresh insights on how to maintain focus in a world where we are constantly being distracted.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Welcome to the show Jones. I. }

{\cf2 [00:03:00]}

{ Oh, thanks for the opportunity to be here, Scott. I'm excited about what we'll explore today in our time together. Absolutely. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Yeah, that it's always an exploration 'cause I, I prepare questions and then I, usually ask something else anyway, so that's just the way the world works.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I don't like to have a conversation. So at this end of the day I'm shared a little bit about your journey and some of the work you've done. I love, you've got a lot of great books and I love all of the titles of them because they're. They're clever juggling elephants, and now the focus is a bee that we're talking about today.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But when we talk about where we are today it really usually never tells the whole story. I always think of intros as like Instagram photos. They don't show the whole story. So what, talk about your journey back up a little bit and walk us through what got you to the point where this is the work you're doing and this is the message you're putting out in the world.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Absolutely. Thanks for that. Several years ago, back in another lifetime, I }

{\cf2 [00:04:00]}

{ was a high school teacher. I was a high school agriculture instructor here in North Carolina. And so that's where I started out my professional career. Then went into speaking and training in the nineties and then had the big break in my career came in 2000.}

{\pard \line \par}

{In fact, I'd also say it's a. Personal launching point to improve my life in 2000 when somebody handed me a book called, who Moved My Cheese. Now your listeners under 35 years of age are going, what? But that was a book and they can go to look it up and see more about it, but it told the story.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It was a parable. And it told the story of how to look at change. And so it just really radically helped me to see change from a freshman. Perspective, and that helped me to grow my career and even my life in ways that, that I hadn't been in the past, continued that journey. Have written a few books along the way and my whole idea behind the work that I do.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Yeah, you hear my tagline of it's about helping people make the best choices with their time. My big overarching emphasis is just to help people be able to say, you know what? I spent }

{\cf2 [00:05:00]}

{ today, I used my time well in service to what's of value to me. And if I've done that, if something I've said or written helps people do that, then I've had a good day myself.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So that's professionally what got me here. I am thrilled that who I am is the husband of Lisa. We've been married 35 years. In June, we have two amazing congratulations. Children. Thank you. I have one really cool son-in-law and another really cool son-in-law in the wings. Now. My daughter Sydnee got engaged this past weekend.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Excited about that. And so that's, that's my family. What do I like to do? Give me some decaf coffee and somebody across the table and let's have a conversation. Let's talk about fun stuff. Let's talk about the world. Let's talk about anything. Let's talk about travel. Then I also like to get outside and grow stuff }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ okay, so you know, you mentioned you were a teacher. Of course. I was a teacher as well, and I laugh because I think sometimes people don't realize how, at least if you're a good teacher and. I'm not gonna say }

{\cf2 [00:06:00]}

{ all teachers are great, but at least if you're a good teacher, how much preparation that actually gives you for other things in terms of, organization and time management and leadership and communication.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And motivat, people think, oh, they're just a teacher. And it's no, actually there's a lot of skills you can learn if you're a good }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ teacher. How did you think that prepared you? Yeah. First of all, you said it, the organization, being able to organize your thoughts and being able to put them in an, in a, an order that would resonate with people.}

{\pard \line \par}

{That was certainly one of the big biggest ones. The second one was just how to connect with people. You know yourself as a teacher. If you can't connect with a. Students on a human level, they're never gonna be interested in what you're, trying to teach them or how you're helping them learn.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So just that whole idea of connecting with people where they are, noticing things about them. Those are two of the things that I think are most resonating with me as I think about what did I do as a teacher that helps me }

{\cf2 [00:07:00]}

{ today. So }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ one of the things I like to highlight too is the intersection between our faith journey, whatever that looks like for us and our life journey and the messages that we put out and how those things feed back into each other.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So share a little bit about your the faith journey part of }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ your journey. Sure. Absolutely. Funny enough if people see something about my company, they'll see it's Hope Inc. Which stands for helping us prepare for excellence. My wife and I had this goal that one day we wanted to run youth camps, some Christian youth camps, and the acronym was gonna be helping others prepare for eternity.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that was. That was many moons ago that we had that thought. I grew up in the church. I had a loving mom and dad who took me to church every Sunday, got me active. Really appreciate that grounding in my life. And then I'll never forget talking about my journey. I'll never forget.}

{\pard \line \par}

{My Uncle Hoyt who's now long since passed. He was talking to me one day and he said, I needed a wrench for something and God, I looked behind the seat }

{\cf2 [00:08:00]}

{ and God provided one and I. And this is gonna sound really weird, but that was the first time that somebody had really made, oh God really works in your life in a personal way.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that was, I was a middle school kid I think at the time. And I'll just never forget how mind blown I was about that. 'cause God was here and I'm here and we pray to him, but wow, God's working right with you on the little stuff. That was transformational for me in my faith journey because then I began thinking about how is God working in my life right here, where I'm at and the things that, that I have going on.}

{\pard \line \par}

{You fast forward to college experience, had some amazing people speaking in my life there. One of the beautiful journeys for my wife and I is that we, in the nineties. Were able to help start a new church, a new United Methodist Church in our community. For your listeners who'd never done that talk about a kingdom experience to, to, birth there was a pastor and a family, but we were the next ones.}

{\pard \line \par}

{We were a members three and four. In this group }

{\cf2 [00:09:00]}

{ and just to be able to see how hungry people were for a fresh perspective on what it means to, to live a godly life and to reach people where they were that will always count as one of the highlights in my faith. Journey. Lisa and I continue to be active in our church now.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I love teaching and to all ages whether it's fifth graders or senior or I should say older people. I don't even know what word I'm supposed to use for that. More seasoned people mature. I think we can use mature. That's, I think mature is allowed. Yeah. Yes. So just the excitement of helping people see where God is working in their life.}

{\pard \line \par}

{That's always been something that's been a big part of my journey.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So the latest book focused as a b, you're the approach that you're taking there and the idea, focus, and then obviously a B. What inspired you to use BS and take that approach towards. How people work and how people are focusing and productive and these sorts of things.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Sure. The first one was that my }

{\cf2 [00:10:00]}

{ daughter Sydney and I are beekeepers. Someone gave us a hive of bees back about, I guess about six years ago. And we loved, of course, the dad and daughter adventures and there's nothing like, suiting up and going and working with thousands of bees that wanna sting you.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that was always fun. So it was just the joy of. Working with the bees and then beginning to see how they do things and how God created them to be so focused so they could get so much accomplished. And so as we were learning those things and talking about them, we began to ask ourselves, is there more here?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Is there a message that could be beneficial to people to help them to be able to be more focused on what's most important to them? And of course, we practiced, these principles in our own lives and then began to, okay, how would we teach those to others? And that became, the book.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Now the book itself has its own story focused as a b because often we say busy as a B. People, oh, I was busy as a B today. And the reality is you might have been }

{\cf2 [00:11:00]}

{ busy, but it wasn't like a bee because busy means you've had a lot of activity. You may not have gotten to the outcome you wanted, but you had a lot of stuff going on.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Bees are focused. Every action that a bee takes is aligned with the outcome they want for the hive. I can't say that. Scott, maybe you can. I can't say that about my day. Not every choice I make every day is aligned toward the outcomes I want. In fact, I catch myself going, Jones, why in the world are you.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Doing that. So that's the big idea behind focused is a b is that our goal is that every action we take every day aligns with the outcomes we want. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Yeah. I remind people as well that there's a big difference between being busy and being productive because, I, I tell a, if I had a big pile of rocks in my backyard.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I asked you to pick up a rock, walk over to the other side of the backyard, put the rock down, and then go back and forth and do that all day. And when you've moved all the rocks, just pick 'em up and move them back to the first pile. }

{\cf2 [00:12:00]}

{ You'd be busy, yeah, exactly. But I don't think anyone would argue that you've been productive.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's like I, and in fact, yeah. I don't think I could pay you enough to do that too long before you just quit, absolutely. It's like at some point it's no, this isn't. I'm not gonna do this. This isn't, yeah. This isn't what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Yeah. When you think about how people think about, doing that the rest of my life, that those things and they talk about so many people are not really happy with their job. They don't feel like they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. I call it calling whatever name. Yeah, sure.}

{\pard \line \par}

{You wanna give it, how do you see what you teach around productivity and focus and these things being related to living out. Your calling. Yeah. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ To me a common thread in all of my books is that we need to stop, we need to give pause in our lives. We are so active that we don't often. And for those of you who understand this term, we don't often }

{\cf2 [00:13:00]}

{ stop to sense the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, holy Ghost, whatever you wanna call it.}

{\pard \line \par}

{That is trying to tell us some stuff, trying to, help us to get that awareness we need about our calling, our vocation our how we want to treat our families, what we should want for ourselves but we just, we stay so active instead of stopping to reflect on that. Someone was telling me the other day, they did an activity at a university. It was a group of college students, and they asked, they told the college students that they wanted them to remove to move their phones or to put 'em on airplane mode. They closed their laptops and for two minutes they could not engage with any technology. They could not talk to anyone next to them.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And some of the people talking about how traumatic that felt. Two minutes. Two minutes, Scott. I think where so many of us need to improve, and I find myself this way, when I feel like I'm ready to stop breaking rocks, it's because I haven't stopped to say, should I be breaking rocks in the first }

{\cf2 [00:14:00]}

{ place?}

{\pard \line \par}

{So I think that's one of the keys for any of us, is to stop and say, what is it that. God is calling me to do, not just in big vocation ways, what's God calling to me to do with my family? What's God calling to me do with my personal life? And then looking for those, not only in just the presence of the Holy Spirit, but in the Council of Godly people of being, living in our lives out based on the scriptures, the text that we know are important.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But I think that's where it starts, is stopping. What }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ do you think keeps us from stopping. During the day when, because a lot of people will say, I know how important it is to plan. I know how important it is to have that quiet time. I know how they'll pay lip service to it.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And yet actually doing it is a whole nother thing. What's that? That gap between, we hear that and we go, ow. Absolutely. I know. Yes. I need to do that. And then actually doing it during our life. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Yeah. It's, it just seems counterintuitive. I. How am I gonna get more done or }

{\cf2 [00:15:00]}

{ how am I gonna get more of the most important things done if I stop?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Because if I'm active, I'm gonna get 'em done. I. Should you be doing them in the first place? Should someone else be doing those things? How do these activities align with the outcomes you're looking for? I'll never forget I was talking with a really busy mom who was talking about I asked her the question.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I says, what's not happening for you that would help you in your life? She goes, time for me. And of course, I ask her, tell me some reasons why you're not taking I wanna be available for my kids, I wanna make sure that I'm, doing the things I ought to be doing as a mom.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And I asked her this question. I said, how would you be a better mom if you did take 15 minutes for yourself in the morning before your kids were up? And those things? And without even skipping a beat, Scott, she said I'd be more patient with them. I'd be more present with them. And so I think that's where we start is what's the value in stopping?}

{\pard \line \par}

{I can get better perspective. I can understand if I'm making good choices with my time, I can }

{\cf2 [00:16:00]}

{ stop and see what my body, if you're just, what is my body telling me? Your body's telling you need to drink more water or whatever it might be but I think that's the value is that.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Stopping gives you that rest, and that gives you that moment to decide what do you need to be doing in the next moment. Fun fact about honeybees they take about 40 naps per day. And you're going, really? How's that? I wanna be a bee. Yeah. Really? Me too. Yeah. When I heard that, I'm like, come on.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But research backs it up. They, after being, so focused on an activity for a while, they stop. They need rest from that activity so that they can be ready to be their best in the next moment. And how often let's take it to the corporate world for a moment. How often do you have back to back to back meetings, all day long and about the second meeting you're in because you didn't stop and process, you're like, now what are we talking about here?}

{\pard \line \par}

{You need to rest from thinking for a moment. You could be fully focused in the next meeting or conversation to deliver your best work. It's hard to do. I }

{\cf2 [00:17:00]}

{ don't question that. That's why I tell people. I think sometimes you gotta use technology. I have some coaching clients that every day at a certain time their watch buzzes or their phone makes notification.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And their job at that moment is to take one minute to do some deep breathing. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Yeah. I think and again, it's earlier you mentioned the sitting without technology for two minutes and how hard it was for those college students, and by the way, somebody heard that was like yeah.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Young people today. Okay. I challenge you to do it, by the way because I don't think, oh, that's those younger people thing. That's a people thing, at least in today's culture. Yeah. We have a hard time. I even just challenge people to not speak for two minutes and be silent.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It is. That's actually really hard to do. We don't like quiet. We don't like silence. We don't like not having our brain fed with all of this stuff, and yet at the same time, we know that. It pulls us away. It, we're focused on the wrong things. We're trying to multitask, we're }

{\cf2 [00:18:00]}

{ doing all of these other things.}

{\pard \line \par}

{How do you see as the intersection or what would you talk about that's the same or different between, we talk about time management, then we talk about focus management or energy management. Yeah. How do you see the relationship between those ideas? Sure. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ I think they all three have the genesis that it starts with our goals, our priorities, our values.}

{\pard \line \par}

{There's some beginning point for all of that is what are those things in your life that you hold most here? What is most important? And then recognizing that we need to have activities scheduled into our day. That's time management. Activity scheduled to our day to carry out.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Those things that are most important to us. So that's the time management piece. The other side of that is that being engaged in the right task at the right moment or the right activity requires energy, requires focus. And so when you're focusing on something that's going to wear you down mentally, physically, emotionally, and so that's why it's }

{\cf2 [00:19:00]}

{ important to take those breaks we talked about a little while ago.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's not just about focus. 'cause I know lots of people who are. Focused like crazy. I mean it, but they're not focused on things that are aligned with their values and what's important. So they're burned out. I know people who can manage, their schedules, have the schedule. Oh yeah, I'm gonna be here, there, I'm gonna be here, there, I'm gonna be there.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But when they get into those places, they're not focused or they're not aligned with the outcomes they're looking for. So I love that question, Scott, is that, what's the intersection between all of those and the intersection is. You gotta decide what you want. Or in the case of what we are, the grounding we use, what's God, calling me to do in my life?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Who's he calling me to be right now? Okay, then how does that play out in my calendar? How does it show up in the way I, work with other people? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ One of the things that, that I've shared on the show before, and I'd like your take on it and your input in it is, it in some ways time management or we use those words, money management, whatever it is.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And it's about }

{\cf2 [00:20:00]}

{ managing those other things, when I like to point out the real truth is all of the core of all of 'em is self management. You're. Doing the self work. All that other stuff really doesn't matter, because you like, unless you could have the really productive schedule, but is it the right schedule?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Yeah. And those sorts of things. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ What do you see as that? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Or what would you add to that? Yeah, I. I was on a campaign probably this is probably pre COVID, where I was gonna stop using the phrase time management. We even looked at removing it from the website and those things.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But we recognized that wouldn't go well because time management's a placeholder term, right? It's if you're, you sneeze, you say, would you hand me a Kleenex? It's not a Kleenex, it's a tissue. That's just a, so I think time management, you're right, is that placeholder term for a ton of other things.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's not about time. Time can't be managed. Time can only be accounted for. It is self-management, schedule management, energy management. It's all of }

{\cf2 [00:21:00]}

{ those things that allow us to make the best use of our time. So I'm completely in line with you on that, Scott. Yeah. Yeah. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Because I and I think.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Sometimes it's easier if we call it something else than it's like we don't have to do the hard work of actually, I'm not the, I'm not the problem. It's time's the problem. It's yeah, no, you're part of the problem too. Let's get practical for a minute. Sure. Somebody out there is hearing all of this and they're thinking to themselves, okay, interesting concept.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Focus is a B, that. Cool idea. I get it. I need to be productive, not busy. I need to do the right things. I need to do this hard work. What are some of the first steps that someone could take if they realize, hey. My day's not in alignment with what I wanna do. My but it's not working. What are some of the first things they can do to begin moving the right direction?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Yeah. You said the first one already. Scott, which is getting clear about I. What's important to you? What are your goals? What are your priorities as an individual, as a family, as or as somebody in an organization. I think it has }

{\cf2 [00:22:00]}

{ to start there. What was it Covey said 20, 30 years ago?}

{\pard \line \par}

{You gotta begin with the end in mind. I think it has to be in place. The next step I think, and we talk about this in the book, is you gotta give yourself permission. To focus on those things. And we say you have to give yourself permission 'cause we'll often give ourselves permission to be distracted.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that's that busyness that, that we've been talking about for much of the show. So giving yourself permission to focus. And then in the book we talk about some of the different pieces of that, but it's okay. I'm gonna give myself permission to say that task is most important right now. So I'm gonna give myself permission to prioritize.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I'm gonna give myself permission to plan, and I'm gonna give myself permission to recharge. We talked about bees resting a moment ago and asking yourself even the question, what's the permission I need to give myself to begin aligning my days activities with those outcomes that are important to me?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Sometimes it's permission to say no. Sometimes it's the permission to stop. I'm yet to }

{\cf2 [00:23:00]}

{ meet anyone. If I didn't say, what permission could you give yourself that would help you to be in better alignment with your schedule or your schedule, alignment with your values? And they can always tell me something.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I had someone tell me the other day, Jones I needed to give myself permission to be mediocre. Because everything I do, I try to do at a plus level. And said, when I finally recognized that was, driving me in the wrong direction, I said, you know what? For this task, I'm gonna give myself permission to be a mediocre.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so I think that's where you start.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Now I love that one because I, I think a lot of a lot of us burn ourselves out trying to make everything perfect when the reality is that. Oftentimes some things that we do, it's okay that it's not perfect.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ Good enough is actually good enough in that way.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that phrase is the phrase I use a lot of times Done is better than perfect. Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause if I can get rid of it, if I can get it off my plate, then I can go work on this thing that really gets me excited or that's really more in alignment with what's important to me if I just get that done.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And sometimes }

{\cf2 [00:24:00]}

{ if you're in an organization, sometimes you need to ask what does done look like for a project or a task? We may have, like you said, if we're Type A or we're really, focused on creating something excellent, we sometimes need to ask, what do you see me?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Having as a finished product and when they tell you, you go, oh, I was planning on that was gonna take about five hours, I could knock that out in two hours. Ta Yeah. You've opened up three hours of possibility because you were willing to ask the question, what does done look like?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ And I think the other thing that I've seen happen with that one is. If you don't ask that question about what are you actually looking for out of this? Not only are you possibly gonna overshoot or undershoot, but a lot of times you'll discover that the person maybe hasn't actually even thought about that yet.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Yes. Now we can get some clarity, on Oh, yeah, that's a great question. Let's think about that. It's oh, okay. Yeah. Which helps them too, because that's, I've been asked that when I was in a leadership position and it's huh. Yeah, we need to }

{\cf2 [00:25:00]}

{ figure that out, don't we? Let's sit down and figure that out before you get started, because otherwise you're wast, you're spinning your wheels.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So that's, yeah, that's a waste of my time and your time. Exactly. As your leader. I don't want you over there wasting time either, yeah. That's not good for me, not good for the team. I've got a few questions that I like to ask everybody, but before I go there, is there anything else about the work you do or your new book that you really would like to share with the listener?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Sure. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ I think the key is that it's important to ask yourself the question we've been talking about all day. What's important to you? What do you value and how can you begin aligning your schedule to accomplish those things? And I think it does start with focus. Perhaps it's focusing on yourself.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Perhaps it's focusing on, your calendar, but where does your attention need to be? Our definition of focus is the in intentional direction of your time and energy towards what matters most. There's three parts to that intentional. Time and energy and what matters most. Which one of those three needs your attention right now }

{\cf2 [00:26:00]}

{ to help you start living that life that, that you feel called to live?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So my brand has inspired stewardship and I run things through that lens of stewardship. Yet over the years I've discovered that's one of those words that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ you? Yeah.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's ironic that you asked me that, and I think we talked about this in a pre-show call at one point, my word for 2025 is Steward. Because when I hear Steward, this is something that's not mine. But I'm responsible for and so for me, the three things that I look at, every day, am I stewarding, myself, my relationships and my, my business in a way that honors God.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that's. Pretty easy to do a checklist every day. In my quiet time each morning after I've done my gratitude journal, I say how, what's my, I even rate myself sometimes. Yeah. What would I, }

{\cf2 [00:27:00]}

{ how would I rank rate myself on stewardship with the business yesterday? How did I use my time?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Did I make sure I was, should being present for podcast or whatever it might be. But Steward, being a good steward to me is all about taking great care of something that someone else has given you. And God's given me my family. God's given me this business. God's given me this body and this mind.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Am I stewarding them well in a way that brings, honor to him. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I invented this magic machine, and with this machine I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you to the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life, see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ I'll tell you a story that that, that'll highlight that }

{\cf2 [00:28:00]}

{ I think, Scott I, and I think it will, I think it'll get me there. 'cause I'm thinking I, I have to be I was at a conference years ago and someone had a copy of my book Juggling Elephants, which is about managing a working life like it's a circus.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And without saying, I we're walking, if you can imagine, we're walking toward each other. I didn't know he was gonna stop and talk to me, but he flipped up a copy of juggling elephants and he said, your book saved my marriage. And I went. Touchdown. I'm like, yeah, but that, that sums it up.}

{\pard \line \par}

{If my work helps people to have, better relationships, if it helps them to be their best selves, if it helps them take a step forward in a way that. Restores marriages, helps 'em to be better parents helps 'em to be a better, team member at work. To show that light that's in there, that's not supposed to be put under a bushel, but it's supposed to be put on a heel, then that's what I hope my work has done.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I. So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on this journey? Absolutely. Couple of }

{\cf2 [00:29:00]}

{ things. One is, of course, right now I'm spending a lot of time and energy around getting awareness out about focused as a b to give people the opportunity to find value in the book and see if it works for them.}

{\pard \line \par}

{We're also developing something I'm really excited about. We're developing an online assessment that people can go and take and they can determine. What their greatest opportunities for improvement are based on the six permissions that are in the book, and I'm excited about that because what we're gonna be able to do is once they take that.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Assessment, then we can provide them resources to be able to say, okay, here's how you take that next step forward. So that's one of the things that's going on for me. Another one I'm excited about something I've never done before is having my books in a language that I, responsible language other than English, juggling elephants is available in lots of other languages.}

{\pard \line \par}

{My other books aren't. I've had a lot of people talk to me about. My always growing book, which is about leadership, about having that translated into Spanish because there's such a need for leadership books that will help the, the Latina community to }

{\cf2 [00:30:00]}

{ grow as leaders. And it's a simple message about leading with a gardener's mindset.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so I'm excited about that project and getting that completed. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ That's really neat. So you can find out more about Jones Loughlin at his website, jones loughlin.com. Of course, I'll have a link to that in the show notes as well, so you can find it over there, Jones. Anything else you'd like to share with the listener?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Jones Loflin:\b0}

{ One thing is that if you are active on LinkedIn, I put out a lot of content on LinkedIn related to the things we've talked about today. Feel free to go there. I think that's a good place to start. The other thing is, I want to leave you with a quote, not by me but by one of the icons in my life Zig Ziglar, who was a professional speaker, motivational speaker back in the eighties.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Amazing guy. He had a quote that it's kinda my life quote, if you will. And he says, go as far as you can see. And when you get there, you can see farther. And that has always spoken to me that in those moments of fear, those moments when I didn't know what Step 15 looked }

{\cf2 [00:31:00]}

{ like God calls us just to take that next step, have that conversation, stop for a moment and see what is, what you're really thinking about and what's important to you.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But go as far as you can see. And then when you get there, look around. You'll be able to figure out the next step. You're not gonna figure it all out, but one step at a time, you can, accomplish what's most important to you and ultimately, bring glory to God. Absolutely.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Thanks so much for listening to The Inspired Ship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. 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 stewardship.com/itunes.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Rate all one word. iTunes }

{\cf2 [00:32:00]}

{ 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 world.}

}