Episode 1284: Interview with America's Chief Results Officer Blaine Oelkers

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,284 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Blaine Oelkers: Hello, I'm Blaine ERs and 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 create the life you really want by creating consistent habits is key.

[00:00:24] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this and the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott And it stands for what you think about, you bring about. And so what you think about, you bring about now it's said, and as a man thinking in his heart, so is he we become what we think about. Earl Al said Gandhi said a man is what he thinks about all day long anyway, so you can look back and see this every.

[00:00:52] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the [00:01:00] person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true column. 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.

[00:01:25] In today's interview with Blaine Elker, I ask Blaine about why he calls himself America's Chief Results. Officer Blaine also shares how his faith and consistency are so key to his journey and jurors and Blaine also talks with you about what personal. Really means. One reason I like to bring you great interviews like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the power in learning from others.

[00:01:53] Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard [00:02:00] to find the time to sit down and read, and that's why today's podcast is brought to you by Audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial.

[00:02:13] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from, and instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Blaine Elker is America's only chief results officer.

[00:02:37] He's always loved to help people get results, and he knows which habits bring success and results, how to create them instantly and stick with them for a lifetime. He is a leading authority in personal implementation and consistency. A Habit Master with a documented streak of 1,453 days in a row, and counting a TEDx speaker with over [00:03:00] 190,000 views.

[00:03:01] A LinkedIn top connector, a graduate of Purdue University in Stanford University's social. Entrepreneurship program. He's the co-author of three books and he oversees over 20,000 weekly personal implementation check-ins per year. Welcome to the show, Blaine.

[00:03:18] Blaine Oelkers: Hey Scott. Thank you for having me on and let me say, I have learned a lot from previous episodes and I'm happy to be on with you today, but.

[00:03:26] Also, I want to acknowledge all the work you do to put this together, put it in online, helping people. You have a big, what I call results Ripple. And I predict that you are touching lives not yet born. That somebody 20 years, 30 years from now is gonna find this podcast. it's gonna change their lives.

[00:03:45] And I hope today we can help change somebody's life as.

[00:03:49] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I that's one of the things I love about podcasts is the ripples they put out that sometimes you don't even see 'em it's just planting seeds and that's all worth it. You [00:04:00] mentioned results in that and you call yourself, we mentioned in the intro the chief results Officer, tell me about that . Where did that come from? Why is that the title that you use and where did that come from?

[00:04:12] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah so it actually the genesis for me being able to become a Chief Results officer actually happened a number of years ago. I was on a business trip, my degrees in computer science.

[00:04:24] I was working for, A software company and I came home from a business trip and my son, Bo, he was kinda like giving me the cold shoulder. And so I asked my wife Beth, I said, Beth, what? What's going on with Bo here? He says you were gone so long, he forgot who you were. And I was like, wait, what?

[00:04:40] That hit me like later that night it hit me like, Deeply, emotionally. And then I realized when I was a kid, I came home to the empty house cuz both my parents worked. And so that night I made this clarifying decision that I was going to work from home no matter what. So I started a couple of businesses.

[00:04:56] It took a year. My wife and I were conservative, so it's like we wanna [00:05:00] have money saved and all this stuff. And we actually had another child on the way, but a year. I broke free from the job and that was 27 years ago. So for 27 years now, I've been this work from home dad. But what it afforded me, what it afforded me was the time to do a lot of self-development and maybe self-reflection talk to God a little bit, figure out like why am I here?

[00:05:24] And so I did some of that and I realized that I like to help people take control of their lives. By taking control of themselves, what I call personal implementation. And I had some friends who were starting mastermind groups and they said, Hey Blaine, why don't you be our like mindset results person?

[00:05:41] And I said, oh, that would be perfect. That would be like the dream thing for me. So I started doing that and I. Came up with some frameworks and I helped them get results like week in and week out. But then they started calling me the Chief Results Officer Hey, you're helping us get results.

[00:05:55] You're the Chief Results Officer. So I thought that's an interesting title. I'll [00:06:00] take it. And then I went to the United States Trademark and Patent Office, and I actually got the registered trademark, so the R with the circle so I could be America's only. Chief Results Officer. So now for the last decade, that's been the primary thing that, that I've been doing.

[00:06:17] And I do feel like I'm on the planet to help people get results like personally. So go back

[00:06:23] Scott Maderer: A minute. You mentioned when you said the results that know, you were working in the masterminds and you like to help people take control of their lives by taking control of themselves.

[00:06:33] That's how you, that's how you phrase that. Yes. Okay, so one of the things that comes up I talk about a lot in my coaching as a stewardship coach. I help people with time, talent, and treasures. But my joke that I tell people is, you come to me for help with time or treasures. You feel like you're stuck in your money or you're stuck in your productivity or your time.

[00:06:56] But really and truly all I ever help with is talent, because how you handle your time and how [00:07:00] you handle your money is all about how you handle your. So saying the same sentence in a different way, it sounds like, where did you come up with the idea, or why did you go down that road of taking control of their lies by taking control of themselves?

[00:07:15] Where did that come from? Yeah

[00:07:17] Blaine Oelkers: So for me and I, the company I start is called self fluence. So it's the power you already have to influence yourself and sometimes we even say the power that God granted you to influence yourself. And for me, what happened was I did a lot of self-development, a lot of mentors.

[00:07:35] My, my favorite mentors, Jim Ron and I got to share the stage with him and spent hang out with him for a while. But what I realized was, Where I had the most control was with myself. And so I always gravitated towards that early on is that's where I had the most power of influence was over myself.

[00:07:55] Now I can try to influence others and persuade people and try to get people to do [00:08:00] things, but it was much easier for me to work on myself. And I felt like that the rising tide lifts all ships, right? That, that if I can improve myself, wait a second, all of a. Why did everybody else get nicer? They got nicer because I started liking myself better and had more self-confidence and the world around me changed when changed that, that inner world or that self-worth.

[00:08:23] But the main reason I started there was it was where I felt I had the most control. So you've mentioned a few times too, talking to God or as you said, had the power that God has put within us to work on ourselves. How do you think your faith journey has intersected with this work journey and career journey to become a stay-at-home work from home person and developed the attitude of chief results.

[00:08:50] Yeah. I had I don't know for it's different for different people. But for me, when I was a little boy living in uh, Marstown New Jersey, [00:09:00] in our backyard, we had these two little hills and they were at the right time of the year, it was grassy and it smelt really good and fresh grass.

[00:09:07] And I was lying there looking up at the sky. It was a really nice day. And I had this overwhelming feeling that God was. That that something else was there and it, and for me it was God. And so that feeling of that God is always around that, that always stayed with me.

[00:09:29] So I was raised Catholic and then actually my wife and I, my wife converted to become Catholic. But then we then we went to the, for our kids, we went to this vacation Bible school. So then we, I got a dual citizenship. I became Lutheran and now, The kids are outta the nest, and now we're going to a non-denominational Christian Church.

[00:09:49] But anyway God has always stayed in there. He's always stayed with me. And I felt like he, he was always there. So I what I do, what I like to do is I like to [00:10:00] bake God into everything that, that I do. And I'm known as a little bit of a habit master or a consistency master.

[00:10:09] And what I did. I my greatest number of days in a row, it's like 1,535 days. In counting that streak that I have is related to God in that it's with an app called the Bible app, you version Bible app and the app keeps. Tabs of your streak, how many times you're in there. And so anyway, I talk about 21 second Habits, how to create a habit in 21 seconds, not 21 days.

[00:10:34] But what I did is that habit that I chose to concentrate on was that and part of the reason was so that when people ask me about it, it's it's, I can naturally easily bring. Bring up God in, in whatever podcast or whatever thing I'm doing. So anyway, I feel like he's always there and I've had that thread through, throughout, throughout my life.

[00:10:58] Scott Maderer: So you you mentioned there [00:11:00] having that streak of over 1500 days in that app. I can't, I don't even remember what my streak is. I use the same app, but it's I think it's like 1200 or so. It's just nice it's up there, but probably not quite as many as you, when.

[00:11:18] When you look at habit formation and how people begin that thing, you mentioned forming a habit in 21 seconds, short 21 days. So that obviously catches people's ears. Talk a little bit about how you see habit formation. So not necessarily the practical how-to though we can talk about that too, but just from a from a theory perspective, how, what's your view of habit formation?

[00:11:44] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah, so habits, for me, habits tend to define where your life ends up because you neurologically. Now they're, as we can see, the brain deeper and deeper. We're realizing that neurons that fire together, wire together and we're [00:12:00] creatures of habit. . And so those habits, good or bad end up defining you because they're the programming that's typically running, and a lot of that does somewhat run on automatic pilot.

[00:12:10] Now, bad habit elimination, like that's a separate discussion and there are tips and tricks to do that. But in creating new good habits I feel like. that can really turn people's lives around. And typically where you are now, whether you like it or not, was partially due to the fact of your habits and what you're doing.

[00:12:34] And in this concept of like self fluence, the ability that you already have. To take control of yourself that you don't need anything new. And so some people they'll say, oh, I'm terrible at creating new habits, and my New Year's resolution is gone by January 15th and all that stuff.

[00:12:51] But I have to bring people back to not only are you a creature of habit, but you are already a habit master. And there are things [00:13:00] that you don't think about. Now. Now, science. Scientifically it probably takes about 60 days to really create a new neuro pathway that's automatic pilot, no willpower required.

[00:13:11] But we can hack that system and I can talk about how to hack that system to get the 21 second habit. Those habits are there and people are already really good at habits. There are things like things you do, like you have the habit of waking up every day. Now if you don't, if you break that habit, you don't care cuz you're not here anymore anyway.

[00:13:29] But there are things that you do every day. All the time. And so that's and good and bad,

[00:13:36] Scott Maderer: the key. Yeah. Good and bad. Yeah. Good and bad. Yeah. Because you also could have the habit of hitting the snooze button every morning when the alarm goes off ,

[00:13:42] Blaine Oelkers: Exactly. And there's like the habit of distraction is really getting bad.

[00:13:47] What I mean by that is, even myself I will if I have a few extra minutes, I'm going to my phone and I'm going def the news media, social media. I'm not going to the Abide app, which is my, [00:14:00] one of my favorite apps of choice. It's a Christian meditation app I'm not doing that stuff.

[00:14:04] And even I thought the other day even when I'm at a traffic light and maybe I have 30 seconds. I'm still, if I'm by myself, I'm still grabbing the phone and I'm wiring myself to not think about something, to not take, maybe take that moment for God or whatever to make that a more productive time for myself.

[00:14:22] Scott Maderer: Or even just a moment of silence, ,

[00:14:23] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah. There are days that I love to get in the car and not turn anything on. You're exactly right. Exactly

[00:14:29] Scott Maderer: right. And I think that's actually part of the problem that we have. We create that sensation or that habit of constantly wanting input.

[00:14:38] I know I'm victim of this I always want podcast on or checking something on the app or reading something or playing a game or whatever. And we get out of the fact that at the end of the day some of our time should be spent actually not doing anything and not feeding any input in, but just being [00:15:00] present.

[00:15:01] but I don't think that's something we do as regularly in today's world. Yeah,

[00:15:05] Blaine Oelkers: a hundred percent. Jim Roan had a great quote that he told me. He said, wherever you are, be there. And he was about, if you're at work, do work. If you're at play, be at play. You know where, wherever you are.

[00:15:16] Be there. I think is so important and that thinking time, what people don't realize is that it's in the downtime that your subconscious mind can work on some of these harder issues. And people don't realize that you are productive when you give yourself a rest, right? And that can be sleep the physical rest too, but also the mental rest where, you know you get out in nature and you.

[00:15:41] Let yourself be. And I I'd like to just get out for a walk sometimes with nothing in mind, so anyway, there are it's good for your brain to take rests and don't think you're losing results and productivity because that's the time that, that [00:16:00] your mind's working on things and and it's helpful.

[00:16:03] You, you'll be more productive later because of you mentioned the 21 second habit a couple of times and hacking that habit loop or that habit formation. So if somebody heard that and they said, yeah I don't, I know I really don't care what Blaine said.

[00:16:19] Scott Maderer: He said, I'm good at habits. I'm really not. I every time I've started a habit, I do it for 10 days and then I slack off and I quit, and all of those things. What are some of the tips or tricks that you use with people to help them get started on creating that?

[00:16:35] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah. Yeah. So tactically the way I discovered the 21 second habit was actually my wife, and luckily she still doesn't have this, but a number of years ago she had nearly daily migraine headaches.

[00:16:46] And so the doctor said, look, here's this headache log. You gotta fill it out every day. What do you eat? What are the triggers? What's the weather like? What's the barometric pressure? All these things. And my wife could do it for a few days, then she'd forget or then [00:17:00] she would lose it. And it was very frustrating for her.

[00:17:03] And so one day I was there watching her brush her teeth and my wife is. A habit master at brushing her teeth for two minutes in the morning and two minutes at night. And she has never missed that. And when I'm doing a live seminar and ask people how many people brush their teeth in the last 24 hours, they ha all the hands go up.

[00:17:22] Maybe there's some dentures in there but few and so she was a master at that. So I said, look, let's do this. Take the headache log and put the toothbrush and the toothpaste on top of it. And when you brush your. Fill it out, then you are always gonna know where it is. And you're gonna spend four minutes a day on that log.

[00:17:39] And so that is the first key to the 21 second habit is why I call habit linking. So it's linking to a habit you're already a habit master at. And so she did that. She went, she did actually she went from. Not doing it for two, three days in a row to 90 days in a row, gave the doctors the stuff, and now maybe every couple of months she might have a migraine, but it's mu much [00:18:00] improved.

[00:18:00] But that's the first key is habit linking. The second key. I'll give my example. So I, at that time, that's when I said, look, I wanna start some new habits first thing in the morning. I want to jump into the Bible app every single day, and I wanna take a mind shower. So people like physically wash their body every day, or most people every day.

[00:18:18] And then, but I wanted to wash my mind. I knew that social media, news, media, some well-meaning family and friends, they were giving me a lot of head trash. And I thought, you know what? Let me wash my mind out every. With a a 10 minute mind shower. And so those were the two habits that I wanted.

[00:18:35] And so I thought to myself, okay, key number one, habit linking, what do I do every morning without fail? No willpower required. And that is what can be for good or evil. That is the smartphone so what I do is sometimes my alarm is going off on the phone, but most of the time I wake up with that alarm.

[00:18:52] But the first thing I do is I pick up my. And so what I did is I moved all the apps off the homepage of the phone and I just put those two [00:19:00] apps there, the Bible app and Headspace or Abide, or two different meditation apps you can use for the mind shower. And I put those there and I said, look, here's the deal.

[00:19:07] When I first opened my phone for the first time in the morning I see those two apps and I have to do those before I'm allowed to do anything else on the phone. Now that's the second key. So the first is habit linking. The second key is you have to surf. The urge to wanna do something, to give you the energy and the fortitude to do the thing, right?

[00:19:27] So when I open my phone, I wanna see if the kids texted, I wanna see what orders came in. Maybe I do want to check my email my, the social media, the news media. There's this big wave of things that I really wanna see and do. , but I use that fuel, I surf that urge. I transmute that urge into doing those items.

[00:19:48] And that's the thing that I've done now for over 1500 days in a row because I open my phone every single day. Now, some days I'm tied on time and you know what, maybe I gotta do a one minute [00:20:00] Bible lab and a three minute mine shower, but I always do it right then and there.

[00:20:05] So habit linking is one then surfing the. And then because we are pain and pleasure penalty, reward driven, it's good if you ma I call it leverage. If you can add some leverage to the new habit. Meaning that if you do your new habit for 30 days in a row, maybe give yourself a little treat or buy a book or do something good.

[00:20:28] But then the flip side too is if you fall off, which we're human, it happens, have some kind of a penalty, have an accountability partner or your spouse or someone. That says, Hey, if you when you, if you fall off you're gonna have to clean the kitchen floors or I know something some little penny.

[00:20:44] Those things help. And then what's nice is that once you get three or four days in a row not only does your self-confidence go up, but you don't wanna break the chain. And it becomes more and more powerful. I started one about 600 something days ago, riding a Peloton bike, but then I got [00:21:00] covid and, but you know what?

[00:21:01] I still got on that bike and I rode even on the Covid days to. Keep my streak alive. It's still alive r right now, so I like streaks. I like consistency, but habit linking surfing and urge and then putting some leverage in. I believe that can help anybody master a new habit. And there's lots of things you do throughout your day or once a day you get dressed.

[00:21:24] I I had another, I had a client. She's I want to do a daily plan every day, Blaine, but I'm not doing it. I said what do you do every morning that you don't have to think about? That happens every day. She says, I make coffee and have a cup of coffee, and I'm there it is. So put the pad of paper by the coffee machine.

[00:21:39] You can't start the coffee till you start the plan. You can drink the coffee while you do the plan, but the plan has to be done first. So she surfs the urge for the coffee, which she has naturally every day. No willpower required. So anyway there's the 21 second habits in a nu. So

[00:21:54] Scott Maderer: you know that when someone's got that streak going and they're started, like you [00:22:00] said, we're all human.

[00:22:00] You inevitably all, oftentimes you'll have something that throws you for a loop. A lot of folks then have the tendency of it's the I had a little slice of pie, so I might as well quit the diet. I fell off the wagon, so I might as well not ride tomorrow too.

[00:22:16] Or I might not gonna do it anymore. What's your answer to folks that kind of have that tendency to quote, give up whenever they fall off, even? Yeah.

[00:22:27] Blaine Oelkers: We are human and it's gonna happen. And so it, it happened to me my, my mind shower I know I was about 400 days into it and I did the Bible app, but I didn't do the mind shower.

[00:22:40] And then I forgot I was a, I was at an event and it just got real busy and it got past midnight and I didn't do it and so I think what happens is sometimes you need a little break take a little break. But then you gotta get back and ride again. And ride better, so I always [00:23:00] tell people, look, it's about you bettering your best. So you got the line in the sand. So let's say you did five days in a row and then you fell off. Get back on, because now for you. Compare yourself to you, not to other people, right? Okay, my record's five. Let's see if I can beat five, right?

[00:23:15] And then switch it up. If it's not exciting for you to do that habit, maybe you change it a little bit. Maybe and, or maybe you switch it to something different. But you get better by doing so. I would recommend. Get back on, compare it maybe change it if it doesn't, if it isn't exciting enough to you and then look to add in some leverage meaning on the good side and the bad side.

[00:23:38] So people are driven, like I said, by pain and pleasure. So if you say, look, my record's five, if I can do six days give yourself a prize that's big enough, a reward that's big enough that motivates you to go do it, or a leverage, right? So my wife, she's really good with the leverage.

[00:23:53] She's if you don't do. She knows I don't like to wash the big garbage cans out on the street that [00:24:00] so she'll say you, you're gonna have to wash the garbage cans if you don't do that. Now she really wants to make sure I do it. She says, you know what your leverage this time is?

[00:24:07] You have to wash the neighbor's garbage cans, on the side of, on the side where they don't want you touching their stuff. So anyway there, there are ways to have fun with it and have some kind of accountability partner in that and in the habit. If you do have somebody if you have an association with other people who are trying to do that new habit too that's pretty helpful as well.

[00:24:32] And then if you ride better next time, maybe you do the old Seinfeld thing with a calendar. You put a big red X on the days that you actually do your thing. And then you don't wanna break the chain like visually, you can see it. There's apps called Don't Break the Chain. Where you actually see.

[00:24:47] So you can make it a little bit more, more physical. It's also another thing to help you is to celebrate every day that you do it right. Have a little celebration. Could just be a little happy dance. For me, I can throw on some eighties [00:25:00] music and just celebrate that, that time sharing it with others is good.

[00:25:04] Keeping it easy is good. Dialing down the re. Is another trick to success. What I mean by that is someone will say, look, Blaine, I'm gonna exercise 30 minutes a day. And I go, okay, that's great, let's do it. So they do it for two days and then they're out, right? So I said, okay, look, let's dial down the resistance.

[00:25:21] Why don't we exercise for 15 minutes? Let's see that they do that for a couple days. It falls off. So then we drop it to 10 minutes or five minutes, but I say you gotta win early win often you have to build, it's a battle of the brain chemicals, and you wanna win that battle. So you gotta win early, win off often.

[00:25:36] So take it way down, even if it's a minute. You can gimme a minute of exercise before you get in the shower, pushups, jumping jacks, run in place, whatever you have to do. But you want to build that. And you're gonna, you're starting to build that. , that neuro pathway, the neurons of success.

[00:25:51] And then you start to win that battle and the energy levels come up, belief in yourself comes up, self-confidence comes up, and then you really have begun that [00:26:00] brain rewiring. So when you have this approach towards personal development and what people do to change themselves, to rewire themselves, if you had to boil down personal development to one thing what would you say it really is?

[00:26:15] I have an acronym called Y Tabba. So it's seven simple one syllable words. And it stands for what you think about, you bring about. And so what you think about, you bring about now it's said in Dr as a man thinking in his heart. So as he we become what we think about Earl Nightingale.

[00:26:35] Gandhi said a man is what he thinks about all day long anyway, so you can look back and see this everywhere. But for me, that's the biggest thing. What you think about, you bring about and the power of the mind is much greater than you give it credit for.

[00:26:52] And so I think if people could realize the power of their own mind and how that shapes their reality. [00:27:00] Now, again I'm not saying just think it all right. What you think about, you bring about, you bring it about, there's an action component. As. As you figure out what to do, or as your mind is giving you things to do, you're taking action.

[00:27:11] You can't steer a parked car, right? You got, we gotta be moving here. But I think that's the greatest l lesson and that I did a TEDx talk and in that talk that's what I talked about. They said, you give one big idea we're sharing. And for me that was it, the power of the mind. So when.

[00:27:28] Scott Maderer: You talked about the fact that it's thinking about, but also doing, there's an action component about that as well. How do you think people can get clear? I think one of the things that often keeps people from taking action is they're not yet clear on. The way I put it is you're not really clear yet on what do you wanna be when you grow up, or what do you want to do what your actions are, what your goals are.

[00:27:49] By the way, that can be when you're 65 years old, you're still asking the question, what do I wanna be when I grow up? I actually think that's a really good question to ask a lot, so what do you do? Or what [00:28:00] do you think about. Somebody's in that stage where they're just not really clear yet on what action they want to be taking or what direction they wanna be going in their life.

[00:28:09] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah. That's a great, that's a great question. And it happens to different levels to people all the time and and you need a direction, right? You need a vision, right? Otherwise you're gonna perish. And so what I try to inspire people to do I is to think, to decide and to act.

[00:28:28] And it doesn't have to be perfect, right? It doesn't have to be perfect, but you're not gonna probably know till you start the doing phase of whatever you say you want to do. And so there are exercises you you can do visualizations and different. Things to try to figure out what is that bigger picture thing.

[00:28:48] But you really need to get in motion. A couple of the exercises that I like. One is your hundredth or well, maybe now we'll go hundred 20th birthday party and you are at that party [00:29:00] and you are looking good. You've got the lean muscle mass you've got full mental capabilities but at that party to honor you at a hundred, 120 years old, you know what's.

[00:29:11] Who, what are people saying about you? What does the community say about you? What does you know, your friends and your family and people that you were in business with and all the, what are those people saying about you? And just sit with that for a moment. Now, the first time you do that, it's not, it's a little fuzzy and you just have a few ideas.

[00:29:27] But if you'll take a few bullet points and come back to it, what happens is the visualization over time gets deeper and more things and you hear things. Then you start smelling that favorite food that you like and you bring the five senses into it and it gets, gets richer and richer.

[00:29:43] So that's, , that's one, one visualization. The other one I like I is called the Powerball test. And so the Powerball, have you heard of the Powerball lottery? Scott, have you heard that? Okay so, so you win the Powerball lottery, just you 500 million, no other winners. Now you're gonna [00:30:00] pay a couple hundred million to the government.

[00:30:01] That's fine. They need the help. But then you spend the next year doing it all traveling setting up the trust funds, buying the houses you want, all the toys, the travel, all that. You buy a new car for your chief results officer. You do all these great. Things and it's a year later and you've done everything you wanted to do.

[00:30:20] And you still have a hundred million in the bank and you wake up a year later there's nothing on the to-do list. You did all the partying and celebration, you took the kids, all that stuff. What would you do? At that point, what would you do with your life then? And it's interesting that when I do that in a big workshop 90 something percent of the answers are the same.

[00:30:41] And they all say would help people blank. Now the blank is different. The blank is different for everyone. And this goes right into inspired stewardship, is that cl 90%? Cause I had people even turn in their answers on this one. But over 90% of. I would help people blank and that is [00:31:00] a little peering into now a lot of that blank is based on that person's like life experiences.

[00:31:05] Maybe There was a Sure. Mutual suffering on some point on something. For me, I would help people take control of their lives by taking control of themselves. Self fluence. I would do that. So even if I won the Powerball last weekend, I would still be here today. Now I may be buying you a car but I would still be on this podcast today because that's what I feel.

[00:31:28] Scott Maderer: You'd be doing the Oprah thing though. You get a car, you get a car, .

[00:31:31] Blaine Oelkers: That's right. And what you say? The calling what's your calling? You get appearing into your calling when you strip. The problems of resources. So anyway that's another one.

[00:31:44] Sometimes people use there's a Wall Street Journal exercise where the Wall Street Journal or whatever publication you want, that's of for business owners. It could be People Magazine, but somebody's doing a cover story on you. And what would the headline be? What would the [00:32:00] headline be?

[00:32:00] What would you want the headline to be? Or what would it be? X number of years in the future. And then you go and you outline that article, and then sometimes people write the whole article. there again it's you're looking at the future, but I think whatever you decide, you need to take steps in that direction to see if it's right and see if you have the ambition.

[00:32:19] Most things fail because the desire and ambition. Isn't high enough for that thing. Sure. So it may not be the right thing. And I also like to say go inward, talk to God about it and Sure. Try to see if if you're living his will for your life you're probably gonna flow a lot faster.

[00:32:40] Scott Maderer: Yeah. I think, I bet you that blank that people have. Might the, one of the ways I've framed it is it usually what goes in that blank either makes you cry, makes you laugh, or makes you sing. You know what I'm, because it's either something that you have some emotional attachment to that's.

[00:32:58] A, a negative you [00:33:00] cry when people suffer from this. You cry when this happens to people it's frustrating, upsetting to you you laugh about it because it's something that brings joy to you and you bring you you're joyful when people experience this or you sing because it's.

[00:33:14] Something that's so deep and connected to your heart that you know, it just, it, you have to sing about it. , yeah. Kinda it's that's one of the ways I framed that for folks, cuz I think what goes in that blank, if it's one of, if it makes you do one of those three things Yeah.

[00:33:31] A lot of times you've got some passion there, yeah. You are. And that, as I think back to what we're in those blanks, they are, they will fit into one of those every time. And a lot of it was the singing and the crying. Maybe more than the laughing, but yes. Yeah. Yep.

[00:33:46] Yeah.

[00:33:47] Laugh. The laughing. I would agree. I think it's less. But if you think about people that, for instance, are entertainers In a healthy way. Cuz I think a lot of people are drawn to entertainment in an unhealthy way. , right? [00:34:00] They're doing it to get approval of others because that's how they feel approval for themselves, which is not healthy.

[00:34:04] But yeah, there, there are people that do it, that category I think. But it, I agree. It's, especially if you're talking to business owners, you tend to see the other. More often. Yeah. But the

[00:34:14] Blaine Oelkers: joy one, yeah, there's things that it brings people joy on, on many levels so I think laugh, laughter with the joy component is is quite common. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:24] Scott Maderer: Before I ask a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests is there anything else that you would like to touch on about as your work as a chief results officer? Something that we haven't touched on? .

[00:34:37] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah I think the other thing is that there's this concept of the power of the mind.

[00:34:42] But also to realize the two other big things that people think about in, in, in results and in them themselves is really this concept of happiness and then being in service. And so I would say that as a Chief Results Officer, I see that theme coming up [00:35:00] too, that people. Instead of comparing themselves to other people, if they'll compare themselves to themselves, they'll be happier better your best rather than beat down the competition.

[00:35:10] So hard to speak but I is using that in the happiness equation and then that financially getting results financially tends to be. Of you being in service, of being valuable to the marketplace. And I really think that's those are two other components that I think warrant some thinking time as you're looking at personal implementation and getting results in your own life.

[00:35:34] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. Yeah. My brand has inspired stewardship and I kinda run things through that lens of stewardship. And you've referenced this a couple of times, but stewardship is one of those words like leadership, that we all use it, but it doesn't necessarily always mean the same thing to everybody.

[00:35:51] So for you, what does the word stewardship mean? And what does the impact of that word had on your.

[00:35:58] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah, I think that [00:36:00] stewardship for me means taking care of, right? So taking care of something and then it's I, for me, it has a little bit of an air of non permanence. Like it's not really, maybe not mine.

[00:36:13] It's, I, it's, there's not an ownership to it. Y and so at many levels for me, Can be stewardship of my own body, let's say know, I'm taking care of it and I'm here as a spirit for a little while but it's not forever. And I think for me, I got at a young age when I talked about Jim Roan, my mentor, and he would say service to many leads, to greatness.

[00:36:37] And he would say the master teacher taught and so for me, I had this concept of serving overselling and. Having a stewardship taking care of people, clients and things like that. And for me if I thought of that has helped me throughout like I used to I used to get really, I still [00:37:00] get a little nervous speaking or coming on podcasts and things like that, but I realized that my nervousness was cuz.

[00:37:05] Thinking about myself and how I look and I was just at an event and I had a zit on my nose. It's things like that it's me thinking about me. But when I released that and thought about serving and this is about the other person and it doesn't really matter if I stumble or I say or whatever.

[00:37:20] It's what, how can I serve? And I got it away from myself that stuff kind of subsides. And then I'm like, okay, being in service. Having stewardship for other people has made things easier and I think more, more rewarding. .

[00:37:36] Scott Maderer: I always laugh cuz people are so afraid of public speaking.

[00:37:40] And I ask people how often have you attended a speech where someone else is on stage speaking and everyone's done that. Dozens and dozens of times at conferences and events and all sorts of things. And I'm like, how often were you sitting in the audience going, boy, I hope this person really screws up today so that I can make fun of him and laugh [00:38:00] never Exactly. Exactly. nobody shows up on, they're on your side. Now you, yeah. Granted, you still have to deliver, you still have to be in service and provide something that, that has value in some way, but, It does take some of the pressure off of their, they're not there to see you fail.

[00:38:17] They're there to see you succeed. Right? And accepting leaning into your humanness is now what I say. And so people find mistakes or typos and all this stuff. I just lean into that humanness and we can connect at that around that as well.

[00:38:32] Blaine Oelkers: But that's also, Hey, I'm also in pursuit of mastery. What did I do wrong? Absolutely. How can I get better? And all that. But in the moment, yes I really just try to embrace. .

[00:38:41] Scott Maderer: Yeah. So this is my version of your hundred 20th birthday question that you mentioned earlier. Let's say I invented this magic machine and I was able to pluck you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, 200 years.

[00:38:57] And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back [00:39:00] on your entire life and see all of the relationships, all of the connections, all of the ripples that you've left behind in the world. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

[00:39:09] Blaine Oelkers: Yeah, I mean for me it's that somewhere along the lines, somebody heard something that helped them to take control of their lives by taking control of themselves.

[00:39:20] And I think that through me somehow the ripple effect was where people embraced their happiness, embrace their service embrace their God, whatever that is for them and then embrace the power of their mind. And probably if you, , the one thing I try to be is an encourager, right?

[00:39:39] So I do try to look look with an encouraging eye on people on what they're doing and lift them up and help them along the way. So I'm doing some of that now, but I hope the ripple is bigger out, out in the future.

[00:39:53] Scott Maderer: So as we kick off the new year here, what's coming next for you?

[00:39:57] What's on the roadmap?

[00:39:59] Blaine Oelkers: [00:40:00] Yeah so for me so for me, I am, I've been done a lot of work with mastermind groups where I'm the chief results officer guy. And so recently I started taking some of those things I'm learning and principles and things I like. And bringing those two business owners.

[00:40:15] And so the thing that I like the most is this thing called the Super Results Day. And that's where a bunch of us get together on Zoom for every three hours. And we have a little teaching ti thing that we learned, but most of the day we're crushing our to-do list together. With some accountability and some high fives and really just having fun, getting a lot done.

[00:40:35] And y that's what I'm leaning into right now from a business standpoint. And I'm enjoying the empty nest. So our kids are graduated and out of the nest and my wife and I are back to dating again.

[00:40:48] Scott Maderer: And she hasn't killed you yet, even though they're out of the house right now.

[00:40:52] No. A after working from

[00:40:53] Blaine Oelkers: home for 27 years, we have lots of ground rules. . I'm sure you

[00:40:56] Scott Maderer: do. I'm sure you do. Yeah. I've been working from home [00:41:00] for a few years now, so I'm I fully understand the need for ground rules.

[00:41:09] You can follow Blaine on Facebook as Chief Results Officer, or he's on LinkedIn as Blaine Elker, and that's spelled O E L K E R S, or find out more about his services and the work that he does on self fluence.com. Of course, I'll have links to all of this over in the show notes as well. Blaine, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listen?

[00:41:30] Blaine Oelkers: I did that TEDx talk, and I think that's one of the best ways that we could connect. And so if you go to blaine tedx.com, B l a i n e t e d x.com, you can opt in there, get the talk, and I think it'll have some impact on you. And there's a little. Another results hack that I put in there that shows you how to remind yourself of whatever that goal is, whatever you're trying to bring about and remind you of that 60 to a hundred times a day effortlessly.

[00:41:59] So [00:42:00] I'll leave that as the, as a little plug for that.

[00:42:03] Scott Maderer: Awesome. Of course, I'll put a link to that over in the show notes as well to help people find it. Thanks so much for being here

[00:42:08] Blaine Oelkers: today. I really appreciate Scott, thank you for having me on, and I'll leave you with this, the bad news. The bad news is that time flies the good news.

[00:42:15] You're the pilot, so get in that pilot seat, take control and make it a great day.

[00:42:20] Scott Maderer: Absolutely.

[00:42:34] 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 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 [00:43:00] stewardship.com/itunes.

[00:43:00] 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 world.