SNS 161: Saturday Night Special – Interview with Steve Fredlund Founder of Small Small Business

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Welcome to tonight. Saturday night, special episode 100 N 61.

[00:00:05] Steve Fredlund: I'm Steve Fredlund. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talents and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find what it means to be a happy leader is key.

[00:00:22] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:32] I tell people here's the good news is you're not a ball. You actually have this agency where you can start, you can stop. You can change directions without waiting for some outside force. And it's this battle against default. I call it where we're just. There's inflammation that comes when we just do everything by default.

[00:00:52] And I think that's our human nature is to do things by default.

[00:00:56] Scott Maderer: Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship [00:01:00] 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, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:22] In Saturday night special. I interview Steve Fred. I asked Steve to share with you his faith journey and how it affected his work today. I also asked

[00:01:31] Steve Fredlund: Steve to share with you

[00:01:32] Scott Maderer: why leader happiness is so important to success. And I asked Steve about his saying that as a leader, you are not a ball. One area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity.

[00:01:49] Getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be really tough. I've got a course called [00:02:00] productivity for your passion. That's designed to help you do this and then to hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done, but actually getting the right things done.

[00:02:15] What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your person. Because the truth is a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type. But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work, but there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone.

[00:02:43] And we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out over@inspiredstewardship.com slash launch. Steve Friedland spent 25 years in fortune 500 companies, including Medtronic, 3m, private, [00:03:00] financial, and Alanis. He has an MBA and is a fellow of the society of actuaries. Three years ago. He started small, small business where he and his team provide entrepreneurs, small business owners and nonprofit leaders with a level of support, usually only available to larger organizations.

[00:03:19] Steve has an overlapping 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience, including serving on six boards of directors and leading a community wide effort to transform a community in Northern Rwanda. Steve has spent his entire life in east central Minnesota with his wife and their three children. Steve loves podcasting poker and disc golf.

[00:03:41] He is currently on a quest to help leaders, including himself become HAPPI. Welcome to the show,

[00:03:47] Steve Fredlund: Steve. Oh, thanks so much, Scott. I'm so happy to be here.

[00:03:51] Scott Maderer: So before we dive in and talk a little bit about your message and what you're speaking on now and sharing with the world, I wanted [00:04:00] to talk a little bit about your journey.

[00:04:02] What brought you here? Cuz I think it's really interesting and relevant. Can you share a little bit about your background and how you've interacted with faith and religion. And I know you did some work in R Rwanda as well, and that triggered some changes in how you viewed things and what was going on.

[00:04:21] Can you walk us a little bit through that journey that got you here

[00:04:24] Steve Fredlund: today? For sure. Yeah. It's a long and winding journey, so I'll try to keep it under about two hours here but no, I I everyone's got four and a half hours.

[00:04:32] Scott Maderer: It's good. It's good. Make it positive. Your audience. That's it's all good.

[00:04:35] Steve Fredlund: No from a faith perspective grew up in the religion of. Whatever was going on at the time. There really was no sort of structure, no real belief there. Just going through the motions, got into college got to know my wife a bit or who would be, become my wife.

[00:04:52] And we started going to church more often. I ended up getting really into it. Like I, I just loved it. I loved the. Experience, I loved what it did for me. I loved singing. [00:05:00] It was more of a, like a free church sort of atmosphere and fast forward. I really got involved in church leadership. So I ended up being involved in on church boards and I started planting churches and all this kind of stuff, and really became an evangelical leader.

[00:05:13] And eventually I actually transitioned part-time out of my fortune 500. To become a part-time executive pastor at the church that I was involved with. And eventually that actually became full-time. So I was really in it. And then I started having questions. Oh shoot. And everybody told you tells you, you shouldn't ask questions because it goes down bad.

[00:05:34] Places, but I did, I asked questions. And so I was just one of those folks that I just always have questions and I just couldn't get good answers. And so that happened about the same time I started getting involved in Rwanda. So I started a nonprofit doing work there and going over there, I went over there four times with different teams and just some of the questions became magnified.

[00:05:53] Just even because my whole paradigm was around American religion and now I was starting to see Christianity from a different [00:06:00] perspective, from what it looks like in Sub-Saharan Africa. And some of those questions escalated some of my other questions and long story short, I just had a lot of questions and my wife was having the same questions.

[00:06:09] We had some friends that had the same questions and we just really we're wrestling together for several years. And I call it deconstruction. I know that's a term that a lot of people are familiar. But I do consider that where we actually got down the point where we're saying what do we actually believe here?

[00:06:22] All of the stuff that we've believed, did we really believe it? Where did it come from? Did we really own it? That kind of thing. So my journey is really about extensive faith

[00:06:33] And then a lot of questions and we all kinda landed at different places. So I am still, I consider myself a theist and I guess an exploring the theist an optimistic theist that sort of thing.

[00:06:44] But I know that's maybe more than what you're looking for, but that's a, oh no, that's perfect. That's the context within how everything else operates here

[00:06:51] Scott Maderer: For anyone who's maybe not heard that word, at least from your point of view, define what you mean by thes.

[00:06:58] Steve Fredlund: By a theist. So I believe in God, I [00:07:00] believe there is a God, I believe there is a higher power.

[00:07:02] So theist literally means believing that there is a God. There is some sort of power. I don't know what that looks like. I still clinging to the Christian perspective of things. That's where I'm optimistic on those sorts of things. But at the end of the day, I just believe that there, there is.

[00:07:19] Force there's some higher power. There's some something of good in this world, to the extent it controls things. To the extent we have to believe in it, to have eternal life. All of those are questions that are unanswered, but I believe that there is something bigger than us. That's involved here.

[00:07:35] Scott Maderer: And we talked a little bit in some of the pre-interview I've been raised a Methodist and I'm involved in Methodist leadership and and the joke for Methodist is, yeah, we all pretty much are going. Yeah we really don't know the answer to any of these questions.

[00:07:49] Yeah. We we just get together and hang out together because we're all I don't know and I discovered that that was an interesting part of my journey. So I was involved most of my adulthood in evangelical [00:08:00] churches Baptist churches or Pentecostal churches, that sort of thing where it's very it's so faith based and it's so holy spirit based and it's you're just so engaged in that sort of, part of.

[00:08:13] Steve Fredlund: And I'm not gonna say they weren't thinkers, but it was more about the heart than less about the brain. As far as how that stuff goes. And then when I finally resurfaced after deconstruction, it was at a Methodist church and people weren't like that. They were very different. They were like what you were describing.

[00:08:28] They were like, they were thinkers. They were. Really just noodling stuff. And they weren't really they didn't really get the whole some of the stuff that I'd experienced. And so right. I was thinking that all churches are the same, but they're so different in how they approach it.

[00:08:40] And I think naturally the way that I think about the world is more of a Methodist tendency where, Hey we're open to everything. We've got our own set of beliefs, but. It doesn't mean that we're necessarily right, but let's talk about it.

[00:08:52] Scott Maderer: And if you don't believe exactly what we do, that's probably okay too.

[00:08:56] We can hundred percent, no, a

[00:08:57] Steve Fredlund: hundred percent. I was like, wow, this is very [00:09:00] different than what I expected. I

[00:09:01] Scott Maderer: mean, obviously that's not true of every Methodist church out there. And its not the same and I think that's an important thing is a to separate. A church from the larger body, because you could have a church of any particular religion that takes on its own because of the leadership, because of the congregation, because of history, whatever takes on its own flavor, its own character.

[00:09:25] You also then have. Religious character that's different than faith. And recognizing that religion and faith are not necessarily the same thing and that's okay.

[00:09:37] Steve Fredlund: yep. Yeah, no a hundred percent. That's a great description. Yeah.

[00:09:41] Scott Maderer: And so I think it's important to call out that, that journey that you had because I think it's relevant to the message that you deliver today as well, in terms of now you work on.

[00:09:54] Leader happiness. And I think part of your journey was discovering. What [00:10:00] was, and wasn't, hundred percents and leadership. Yes. So why do you think that's an important topic to, to focus on what's? What's important about leadership leader, happiness.

[00:10:10] Steve Fredlund: Oh it's just, I it's come to me so much for me.

[00:10:12] Cause I look at my own journey over the years of. Whether it was the, in the church world or in the corporate world, or now running a small business. And there's ebbs and flows happiness. And it's not always based on your level of success. Some of my most insightful moments were when I was the most successful that I'd been, I was at a fortune 500 company.

[00:10:32] Just got a big promotion, great relation with my wife and my kids. And I was miserable. And I was like, Is going on here. I had no idea what was happening and I felt like I had no right to be unhappy. Because I knew what was going on in Rwanda is

[00:10:45] Scott Maderer: everyone outside was looking at you going, dude, you've got everything.

[00:10:48] Why are you

[00:10:48] Steve Fredlund: Who can I complain to? I'm not gonna complain to my mom who we grew up poor and she did everything. She could to work a bunch of jobs so that we could rent out the basement of a house. She's not gonna get this. I'm make you $200,000 and I'm [00:11:00] miserable. Like what is, that's crazy going to Rwanda and seeing people.

[00:11:03] That's right on a dollar a day, and so I think for me, part of that was I felt like I had no right to be unhappy and miserable but I was. And so I've explored that. And as I've talked to people about that more and more people are saying, that's my deal too. I'm so miserable. And so learning that happiness isn't necessarily tied to success.

[00:11:20] And I know we know that, but actually walking through that is a different story. And so that's part of it is realizing that, but how can we become happier than if it's not linked to our success at. All of it, how can we do that? And so that's the exploration that I've been on is what's actually driving us to be happy or unhappy even in the midst of our job.

[00:11:38] And the reason it's important is for us personally, right? We wanna live happy lives where our relationships are gonna be better. Everything's gonna be better for happier, from a business perspective. It's huge because you talk about employee engagement, you talk about productivity, you talk about retention.

[00:11:52] All of those things are so tight, tightly correlated to. Employee happiness and employee satisfaction. And [00:12:00] so if you want a more productive, more retained, more engaged workforce, they need to be happier. So it's important individually, but it's important from an organizational perspective as well. And do you think

[00:12:11] Scott Maderer: You focus on the leadership side of it.

[00:12:14] What's the relationship between leader happiness and employee happiness, so to speak. It's

[00:12:20] Steve Fredlund: huge. You set the culture, right? We talk about corporate culture, organizational culture. It could be even in your friendship group, it could be in your hobby group. There's a culture of things that's set.

[00:12:30] And when you have a leader that's not happy when they are unable to keep their unhappiness away from the group. It sets that culture, it sets that environment. It makes it miserable for everybody. And so that's important. And then the second thing is if you have a leader. Not happy. It means they don't, maybe they don't necessarily value happiness.

[00:12:47] And so they're not really going to do anything they can to help their people be happier as well. That's part of management, that's part of leadership not to make not this ethereal happy. Like we don't need to bring a birthday cake in every day. That's not what I'm talking [00:13:00] about, but the kind of leadership that says, all right, how do what makes my people tick and what can I do to actually give them some satisfaction in this job?

[00:13:08] Not only. For them as a person, because I care about them. If you're a manager that doesn't care about your people, that's a problem already, but let's assume you care about your people. You want them to be healthy, mentally, physically, all of that stuff. But then organizationally, the more that you can actually keep them happier, the more productive they're going to be, the more they're gonna stick around and all of that kind of stuff.

[00:13:26] If you, your managers have to be happy people, and again I'm an introvert, I'm an engram five. I'm an I NTP. So I'm not my version of happy. Isn't what a sales marketing person, happiness looks like. Sure. An HR person I'm, this is me happy. It looks the same as me sad. But I think it's important set that culture of happiness.

[00:13:47] And that's what we're looking for in this thing.

[00:13:49] Well,

[00:13:49] Scott Maderer: and I think that's actually an important thing is recognizing the fact that different people have D. Meanings when you talk about happy. So with that in mind, cuz again, I like [00:14:00] to define terms and we're using a lot of terms. How do you define happiness?

[00:14:05] And I recognize that's a nebulous word, but how you

[00:14:08] Steve Fredlund: define no, I've. I've come to learn because it's in the eye of the beholder. So I say happiness is when your current reality is lined up with your desired reality. I mean that, that's it. If you think of anything that you're happy about or that you're not happy about it's a congruent towards an incongruence between what you want and what there is, right.

[00:14:27] If you're unhappy that you're not getting paid enough well, that's because your desired results is being paid more and your current reality is being paid less. And it's just, I know that sounds nebulous. It doesn't sound like really specific, but that's the point. And so our whole goal is to that the more aligned we can take get our current reality.

[00:14:44] Lined up to who we are, what we really want in this world. And when I say really want what we authentically want and not what we should want, not what others expect of us, but the more that we can really understand who we are, what we want and then work intentionally to get our reality lined up to that, the happier we're gonna [00:15:00] be.

[00:15:00] I use the analogy is like our back our backbone as our central support system for our body. And when that's out of alignment it's uncomfortable, there's pain, there's headaches, we lose sleep, we become irritable. It's the same thing with our. Sort of our mental stuff of what we want out of life when there's not alignment, that's what causes unhappiness.

[00:15:19] And for me, that was my example, when I was miserable. That's what it turned out to be is that this big promotion I had gotten moved me to a place where the strengths that I was required to do on the job were not. My actual internal strengths strengths finders is an exam. It's a tool or it's a tool an assessment tool.

[00:15:38] And that was what my mentor showed me is that before my big promotion, man, those top five strengths, I was just leveraging those every day. After the big promotion, there were nowhere in sight. I was, there was a misalignment. So even though it was a great job, great pay, great bonus, all that stuff.

[00:15:54] It wasn't aligned with who I really was. And that's what was driving the unhappiness, not anything about my manager or my [00:16:00] coworkers or anything like that. And a

[00:16:01] Scott Maderer: couple of things to, to dive into there. When you talk about the desired reality and the current reality art of alignment, I think it's important that people recognize that can be because.

[00:16:14] They're really out of alignment. It also can be because maybe you don't understand what your desired reality is. hundred percent.

[00:16:23] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. There's a hundred percent. Like it all starts with, you have to know yourselves. And I used to poo that stuff, especially like personality tests. I'm an analytical guy.

[00:16:31] I was like, always don't make me take that personality test. Who cares? Now I've learned to understand how important it's to really understand who you are as a person, because it's the Allison wonder. If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Like you have to know who you are and what you want so that you can intentionally align to it.

[00:16:47] Now, your current reality is made up of a couple things. One is the variance of life, right? There are some things that we can't control that make us unhappy. I can't pretend that you're gonna be happy all the time. There is C [00:17:00] there is cancer there. Wars in, in Europe there's things that happen that we can't control.

[00:17:06] That's the variance of life, that's the human experience, but the other part of life, we have more control than we realize. And I think that's the part that I'm really focused on is trying to where we have control, recognize it, and try to then align that to who we are, but you're right. It starts with. Who are we really at the core?

[00:17:23] And if we can't answer that, and most people, honestly, can't the people that I talk to, I ask 'em a couple questions and they pretty soon realize after a couple questions, they don't really know who they are. They don't really know what they're trying to do outta their small business. They don't really understand their life.

[00:17:37] And I think they see that shocking, but then as they start to unpack that and then become intentional about that, now they start to make a, make more alignment in their lives. And they become happier.

[00:17:46] Scott Maderer: And it's it's understanding yourself, but it's also a, again, how many people are.

[00:17:52] Living out someone else's dream, how many people are doing what they've been again, you took a promotion probably in part [00:18:00] because it's like everyone around you is telling you, dude, take the promotion.

[00:18:04] Steve Fredlund: yeah. That's what you should do, right? Like you're right. I We make decisions generally.

[00:18:08] Three ways where we make casual decisions where we're not intentional. One is we make decisions by default, right? Cause that's, we do things way they've always been done. And that seems easier to do it that way. We do it because we should, which is my situation with the. The promotion when you go to the corporate world, what you work hard and then you take promotions.

[00:18:27] That's what you should do. That's the whole game. That where the whole, yeah. know, People are promoted

[00:18:32] Scott Maderer: to their level of incompetence comes from yeah. No happened. Reach the level where you're no longer in alignment. It's oh yep. That's it. You've

[00:18:38] Steve Fredlund: kept out. That's the Peter principle.

[00:18:40] Exactly. And and then the third is just doing what we think other people's expectations are of us. They expect me to do this. And so we make so many decision. By default or because we should, or because people expect that of us and and they're not intentional. They're not necessarily aligned with who we are.

[00:18:57] And then we wake up one day and the accumulation of all of [00:19:00] those decisions is in part what our reality is grounded in. And we're like, this isn't even who I am. How did I get into this life? This is even my life. Like you said, this is somebody else's life. This is the. This is the Budweiser commercial version of life.

[00:19:14] It's not true to who I am. And I think that's where understanding who you are is just so critical because I am an introvert in an extroverted world in a lot of ways. A lot of the commercials, a lot of the messages, a lot of the stuff in corporate America is really. Geared toward the extrovert and that's not a pity party for me is, but I have to recognize that's a message for the extroverted masses.

[00:19:34] That's not a message for me. That's not going to, even though that looks good. That sounds good. When I get into the situation, I'm gonna hate it. So what

[00:19:42] Scott Maderer: are some of the things that, that Either the leader themselves or the people around them, whether that's other leaders, whether that's their team or using leadership in a non-work environment the family members and that, or church members and that kind of thing.

[00:19:57] Yeah. What are some of the things that [00:20:00] those folks can do? Practical tips or actual actions so that they can move toward. This more happier state. Yeah. I

[00:20:09] Steve Fredlund: think it's setting the tone setting the culture of being authentic and transparent and encouraging people to really dig into who they are.

[00:20:18] And that's a cultural thing, but the practical side of it is leaders can say, you know what? I really want to get to know each of you better. I wanna know what makes you tick. You're all individuals. I want each of you to be happy where you are in this position. And I know it's not gonna necessarily organically suit everybody.

[00:20:34] So I just wanna know who you are, what you want and can, is there a way that we can tweak this a little bit to be more aligned with. Who you really want because ultimately I want you guys come into work happy, or I want you to come into this thing happy. And so I think you set the tone, you set the messages.

[00:20:47] There are so many different tools out there to help you understand yourself, but it could even be a workshop where you bring, you have people come together, you take a half a day retreat, and we're just going to explore this. And I'm gonna just set this stage of [00:21:00] authenticity. And some people are gonna B at.

[00:21:02] They might not be the right people to be in your organization at some point. So you've gotta figure that out for your situation. But just being honest, I think the leader sets that tone of saying here's my journey. Here's where I've been happiest. And I think it's so critical that we're all happy because this whole idea of work life balance.

[00:21:18] Even though I understand the concept of it, I'm not a fan of it. Because I think what happens in a lot of the messaging there is that we say your work can be really terrible. It can be just awful. You're going to the coal mine. It's dusty, it's dirty. You're coughing up lungs. You're all those horrible things.

[00:21:36] If you balance that with enough family time, your life is good. And I think the other message is saying, how can we make our work happier? And again, we still have missions, we still have things we have to accomplish on the job, but you can do that in a way that actually allows people to be happier.

[00:21:53] On the job rather than just saying, I can't wait for Friday. And I hate Monday morning. What if we started to actually [00:22:00] integrate some of those things where we became happier? So what we can do as leaders is model that ourselves, tell our stories be transparent, be authentic, and then invite other people to do it and say that ultimately what we want is want you to be happier and you need to tell.

[00:22:12] Where this fits and then eventually you get to know your team well enough. Like I know when I was a leading in the corporate world, I knew when we did something who was going to love it and who was gonna hate it. And so then the question is, okay, the people that are gonna hate it, how can I actually change this a little bit so that they can engage with it and be happier?

[00:22:32] Scott Maderer: So a lot of it is, again, it's back to that. Helping people get into alignment, which means helping people discover. What they really want. Yeah. What they're really good at and then try to use people. It's that old idea of should you spend all of your time working in your strengths or overcoming your weaknesses and it's not ignore your weaknesses, but it's also don't spend most of your time there,

[00:22:58] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. There, there are [00:23:00] two different models and it's interesting. When I'd go into a corporate company a new company, get a new job or whatever, I would talk to the HR folks. I'd say, what is your model of this? When it comes to strengths and weaknesses, are you a no, we gotta, let's get let's work on our weaknesses or are you, or let's just do the minimum we have to on our weaknesses, but really dive into our strengths because that's a critical paradigm for an HR or any group to have.

[00:23:22] And I'm much more of the. The, it sounds like where you are, where man, leverage your strengths, get into your strengths. You might have to do some things to kinda get your weaknesses to a level where they are accepted, but there's so much more productivity and happiness and joy that comes when you are operating in your strengths.

[00:23:38] So man equip people to to free them up to do that.

[00:23:42] Scott Maderer: I think it's also something that came to mind while we were talking is I've had experiences or I've seen others where. For instance, they have a job everything's going well, they're enjoying it. They love their job.

[00:23:55] They love everything. And one small air quotes around the word, small [00:24:00] one small thing changes. Maybe it's a a particular employee leaves the company. It could even, not even their boss, maybe even just another coworker. And now all of a sudden. They're no longer happy and it's almost like a night and day.

[00:24:17] Somebody flipped a switch. What how do you see those kinds of situations?

[00:24:22] Steve Fredlund: Yeah I think there's something going on where they were just teetering on the edge. Anyway, they already were out of alignment. And they just the, it was the, that was the thing that happened that had 'em fall on the ice and now they broke their back.

[00:24:35] But it was already misaligned. I think those folks are already on the edge. If they're that close to having reaching the tipping point, then they weren't really grafted into the organization, into the mission, to the vision, that sort of thing. So they were probably going to be. Some point anyway, they're probably gonna be angry at some point anyway, because they were just right there on the edge.

[00:24:54] And so I hear people say that man, the only thing keeping me there is Billy. If it wasn't for Billy, I'd be [00:25:00] out of there. That's exactly of the situation you're talking about. And so how do we help those people become happier? So it's not so reliant on Billy and that's where this whole idea of helping them become happier at a higher level increases the retention.

[00:25:12] So they're not just right on the edge there because that's the death spiral for organization. Like you're talking about Man. I hate my manager, but I love the coworkers. And then one of the coworkers get so frustrated as the manager that they leave. And now you're like if they're leaving, I don't know.

[00:25:26] Now I wanna get outta here too. So I, cause now I gotta have more time for my manager. I gotta take on their responsibility. So I'm

[00:25:32] gonna

[00:25:32] Steve Fredlund: be outta here and then Sally's gonna be outta here and pretty soon it's just this death spiral. I think those folks are probably already. Teetering on the edge.

[00:25:40] And I think that's a for your listeners if you're in that place where you're going, the only thing keeping me on this job is X. I think you've. Two things that you can choose. One is keep plowing through and just hope that X thing doesn't change or be intentional about saying, how can I actually change either my internal posture, my position, [00:26:00] my paradigm, or is there some things that I could do with my job?

[00:26:03] Could I approach my boss or could I approach know, my nonprofit leader, whatever it is and say Boy, if we could just do some more of this, I would really get more engaged. And I think those conversations are very welcomed by good leaders because they don't, they have blind spots.

[00:26:18] I think we expect our leaders to be able to know everything about us, know what we're thinking. I feel victim to this. I'd be getting internally more and more frustrated, but I never shared that with my boss. And then one day I would just quit and leave and I think they were like, why would, I didn't know, he was upset because I didn't communicate that I was upset.

[00:26:34] And there were some things that could have been done that would've kept me there. You've used we've talked

[00:26:38] Scott Maderer: a, a lot about alignment and you just used the word intentionality. Where. Why are alignment and intentionality? Why do you of focus on these two parts when you're talking about how happiness and this and the leadership?

[00:26:52] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. Be because when we know ourself and we know who we are, our core identity and the goal is to get aligned to that. Because that's where [00:27:00] happiness lies. It takes intentionality. I tell people Hope is a very powerful thing, especially in the spiritual world and much of our life.

[00:27:07] Like I hope for a lot of things. There's a lot of Ukrainians hoping for things. There's a lot of faith, people hoping for things and hope is very powerful. It gets a lot of people through a lot of things and I don't wanna discount hope, but hope is not a strategy. right when we're saying we wanna become happier.

[00:27:22] If we just say, I hope I get, I hope I'm happier. That's not a strategy. I hope I am too. I hope you are. I hope you are happier. That's great, but that's not a strategy. And so that's where intentionality comes in is because we need to actually do some things or we don't need to. I think I'm inviting you to do some things with intentionality to help you align your current reality to your desired reality.

[00:27:45] That is really what it is. And if you just are going year after year, day after day, of saying, man, I hope things get better. I hope they do too. But your odds of things, getting the odds of things, getting better are just as good as somebody. Who's not hoping they get better. Like there, there's [00:28:00] no difference in, in the power of your hope.

[00:28:02] I guess that's maybe where faith could come in. So maybe if you're praying and you're hoping for things, if you believe that could actually be. Somehow contorted to your advantage. That's great. I think for a lot of the world, that hope is just hope. So that's where I really encourage people to be intentional and know who you are and then make intentional decisions that are actually going to start to push your current reality toward that.

[00:28:23] And that could be a number of different things, right? That could be who's in your friendship group, things that work, it could be all kinds of things that you can do. These minor changes in your life that are actually going to move your reality toward what you want.

[00:28:35] Scott Maderer: And recognize that there's two sides to that equation.

[00:28:37] We've been talking about desired reality and current reality, you can change. Current reality, which is making external changes, you can also change your desired reality. Yep. Which is making internal changes. Both of those are valid

[00:28:51] Steve Fredlund: yeah. I think that's a great point, cuz I focus a lot on clarifying what your desired reality is, what your what I call your core identity, but [00:29:00] yes, that can change.

[00:29:01] That can be you can absolutely change your perspectives. And some of that is because you. Maybe you just need to, because the world doesn't operate the way that you're thinking of if you're desired, reality is I'm gonna be a billionaire and I'm gonna be a rockstar and I'm gonna, whatever you play for the NBA, be in the NBA.

[00:29:16] Scott Maderer: Exactly. You're four foot 11. I don't think

[00:29:19] Steve Fredlund: that's coming yeah. You can keep hoping for that to happen and you can do whatever you want and do your exercises at the gym and stuff, but you're always gonna be disappointed when those things don't happen. So yes, you shift your desired reality to be more in alignment.

[00:29:32] Reality, just because that's going to make you happier. Good point. So one of the

[00:29:38] Scott Maderer: expressions that I know you use in some of your talks I wanted to explore with you a little bit. So you tell people when you're talking to audiences, they're not a ball. Yeah. Yeah. What do you mean by, they're not a ball?

[00:29:53] Steve Fredlund: It's this idea of an object in motion tends to stay in motion. An object of rest tends to stay at rest [00:30:00] unless there's some outside force that affects it. And so I use the example of a tennis ball. If I set a tennis ball on the stage, it's just gonna sit there.

[00:30:08] Literally. It's gonna sit there for Eter. Unless some outside force moves it the wind blows or I kick it or somebody comes and picks it up or whatever. And so it's just going to sit there. And so through that example, I tell people here the good news is, you're not a ball. You actually have this.

[00:30:26] Agency where you can start, you can stop, you can change directions without waiting for some outside force. And it's this battle against default. I call it where we're just this inflammation that comes when we just do everything by default. And I think that's our human nature is to do things by default.

[00:30:43] And if you look, I could give all kinds of examples by that, but that's what we do generally is that's the way it's always been done. That's the way my family's always done it. That's the way I should do. So we, we don't really make intentional decisions. We make casual decisions. And if you make no decision, by the way, that is making a decision.

[00:30:59] And so it's [00:31:00] like that tennis ball, we just sit there waiting for some external force to roll us toward this job or to throw us toward that career or whatever it is. And when that happens, we just go willingly. We just go wherever the world takes us whatever somebody says we should do, we do.

[00:31:14] And my point is that we're not that tennis ball. We don't have to wait for that outside force. And even when there is an outside. We have that agency where we can actually change directions. We don't have to follow the flow of that ball. So that's a fun example. I think of that.

[00:31:28] Scott Maderer: It's a way of illustrating that idea of yeah.

[00:31:31] Intentionality with something that people can remember quite frankly.

[00:31:35] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. So don't be a ball. Don't just sit there and go. And that's where the hope comes in, right? Like you're, it's almost like you're the tennis ball sitting on your living room floor going. I hope somebody picks me up and brings me to the kitchen.

[00:31:45] That's almost that it's sad, but that's a lot of ways how we live our lives. We just hope for somebody to pick us up or to kick us or to roll us. And we hope it's in the right direction. And then when it's not in the right direction, we're unhappy and we get miserable and we get angry [00:32:00] when all the time we could have actually rolled ourselves to the kitchen.

[00:32:03] Scott Maderer: And there's a difference between hope or faith. And. And again I believe is it possible for a miracle to occur that goes against all known laws. I actually believe that's in the realm and

[00:32:16] Steve Fredlund: I actually believe, I believe that too. I believe that too. I just don't think it's very likely.

[00:32:20] Scott Maderer: Yeah. And

[00:32:20] Steve Fredlund: it's not, I don't think it's a strategy. I don't think it's a strategy. I totally just so you know that that's where I came out of and that's, I'm still there. Like I believe miracles happen. I don't. I'm not as clear on how they happen as I used to be. But I do, I believe they do happen and I believe they can happen in your life.

[00:32:35] And I believe that amazing things can happen to you that are either random happenstance, because the universe aligned for you or some higher power made that happen for you, whatever it is. But I think as a strategy, I don't think that's good. I think we should still, at least my inkling is that we should still do what we can to move ourselves in the direction of our dreams and what we wish to happen.

[00:32:57] And see if we can get there that [00:33:00] way, in addition to maybe hoping for the miraculous well and what I

[00:33:03] Scott Maderer: think I know, and I've worked with people in really dire situations in my coaching with around finances, around other things where I. You look at it and externally from the outside, there's yeah.

[00:33:18] Oh my, how is this going to ever work out? And the funny thing is when people begin to work towards improving the situation, even though logically, you may look at it and go, Hey of a sudden thin all of a sudden things start to happen that you could describe as miraculous that begin to move them in the direction better.

[00:33:39] It's almost like the universe again by design, by default I don't care what you believe is designed in such a way where it's like, Oh, you're moving the right direction. Okay. Let me help you

[00:33:49] Steve Fredlund: along now. yeah I think that can be true and I'm not gonna discount that at all, but I also think that as you start to really assess your problem, that say that financial problem, and you [00:34:00] start to make some small decisions in your direction.

[00:34:03] You start to make other good decisions as well. And you start to notice things that are going in your favor that you went to before. If you're mired in financial ruin, all you notice is the negative things. The phone bill was $10 more than it was last month. Of course it was right. You start to notice those things as you start to make maybe the right decisions and you get another job or you've whatever you've, you drink less coffee, whatever it might be, then you start to notice that those positive things.

[00:34:29] And I think that does change your whole perspective on things. So I think, yeah, in your perspective the universe could start aligning with you and saying, all right, I'll get behind this screen. I'll start directing you. But I think you also just things more. It's like when we start looking for a car and we're like, okay, I want a Toyota Camry.

[00:34:45] We notice Camrys everywhere, but we never noticed them before. And I think it's the same thing when we start to change our mindset toward aligning ourselves as what we want. I think we start to notice those things more that are in alignment. We, and we celebrate those. I don't think it's an either or

[00:34:59] Scott Maderer: I think it's a [00:35:00] both.

[00:35:00] And in other words I don't think it. Either of those. I think it's both of those. Yeah. It's a, cuz it's a feedback loop. It's momentum, yeah. If yeah, the physics description is momentum is it and momentum can be positive or negative. And the problem is when all you're doing is seeing the negative.

[00:35:17] Then your momentum is negative and everything conspires to make it even worse. , yeah. And

[00:35:23] Steve Fredlund: all the energy you're putting on in the universe is negative on

[00:35:26] Scott Maderer: every and everything coming back to you is negative just by default because that's all you're looking for. That's all you're recognizing.

[00:35:32] And now you're adding energy that adds to itself. And when you turn the other direction, but it does take sometimes. Something to help you turn, whether that's agency on your own, whether that's an event, you know that yeah. I've had enough moment whatever it is or it's help from an external person or others on the team and that kind of thing.

[00:35:54] So it's. Yeah I don't think it's an either or I think it's a both end oftentimes,

[00:35:58] Steve Fredlund: or at least. Yeah. That's [00:36:00] really good. And I think sometimes that triggering event can almost, can just be clarity. Like I found that as people, like some people mired in that stuff, they just they feel hopeless until somebody like you comes in and says, all right let's just take a breath here.

[00:36:12] Let's take a pause. Let's figure out what's actually going on. Let's actually look at the numbers. Let's look at what's coming in.

[00:36:17] What's

[00:36:18] Steve Fredlund: going on. Let's see how far apart we are. And even if it's shockingly bad, I think just having clarity around what that is and the steps and you giving them hope of, okay.

[00:36:27] If we start taking the right steps in this direction in two years we might see this turned black. That might seem like forever, but it feels like, okay, this isn't impossible. And I think it's just that

[00:36:37] Scott Maderer: alone. Yeah. It's borrowed hope. Yeah. Oftentimes the first moment of hope you get is borrowed from someone else.

[00:36:43] Yeah. That's good. When someone else comes in and goes, oh

[00:36:46] Steve Fredlund: Yeah, we could do this. We got this. I've seen this happen. Yep. Okay. you're like, yeah. I've had that feeling before. I'm glad that you're confident in this because I'm not. So I joke is

[00:36:59] Scott Maderer: coaches get [00:37:00] really good at playing.

[00:37:01] Ah, because somebody can come in and describe the world's worst situation. And by the way, everyone always tells you their situation is the worst situation in the world. Correct. Cause for them, it is by the way, that's totally, it is the truth, yep. It's not that they're wrong for them.

[00:37:17] That is the truth. Absolutely. It, to be able to look at 'em and go, okay. Yeah, we could do. Yeah. This is not insurmountable and mean it, and it's not a lie either. It's not a manipulation. It's not falsity. It's. Yeah, it's possible. yeah.

[00:37:33] Steve Fredlund: Now do you know I'm a poker player or is that just a random?

[00:37:35] No, that was random. I didn't know. You were a poker player. Yeah. yeah. Actually started a poker podcast that, that took off big it's big membership site and all this stuff. So I'm a, I love playing poker and I think I, I talk about this, that I've learned so many life lessons from that, and that's one of those.

[00:37:49] Yeah. Too, is being able to kinda look people in the eye and then assess them and all of those. Interesting. Yeah, no I

[00:37:55] Scott Maderer: think poker is a skill that just I think improv is actually a skill that [00:38:00] coaches need to train it. Yeah, because improv is all. The flow of energy in a conversation and maintaining the flow of energy.

[00:38:07] So it always is moving forward.

[00:38:09] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. And I think, I always think I'm gonna write a book at some point about how poker is like life. But one of those things that sort of informed our conversation today is that poker is skill and luck. And so is life. Like life like in poker you can make all of the right decisions.

[00:38:24] It's really a game of decisions, but there can still be negative Varis things can still go against you. Just like you just got lucky. You just like the other way around. You can make bad decisions and positive variances kicks in and it's life. I tell people there's gonna be variances up and down.

[00:38:40] There's gonna be pros and cons. You might be on the good side of it some years and bad side of it. Some other years you might have runs of bad variance. The more happy that you can become is based on the accumulation of the good decisions you make. Like you give yourself the best chance. So if you want to make a ton of money the best you make decisions that are aligned [00:39:00] with that.

[00:39:00] Now it might not go your way or it might. But that's gonna give you a better chance of winning of succeeding based on whatever your level of success is than making bad decisions. And that's my point about intentionality is make the right decisions year after year. And eventually those should accumulate to a better result and by result whatever your version of success is and might be peace, it might be contentment.

[00:39:20] It might be money. It might be relationships, whatever that is. It's one of the other areas that I, I think pokers like. I agree. I agree.

[00:39:30] Scott Maderer: So I've got a few questions that I like to ask everybody, but before I, I go to those, is there anything else about your speaking or your coaching work or your poker website for that matter?

[00:39:39] Since we brought it up that you'd like to share with the Lister.

[00:39:43] Steve Fredlund: I think ultimately by the time this airs who knows what my focus is at the time I was assessing even just last night who am I done so many different things, really? What I consider myself is really like a serial problem solver.

[00:39:55] What I do is I, what I love to do is figure out where are their problems? Where are their needs, where are [00:40:00] their things that are missing and to see if I can be part of that solution and come up with that. And so that's why leader leadership. Happiness is. The thing that I'm focused on now, because I've just, I've recognized that as I've worked with small businesses, that's just such a need right now, that's the thing that's missing in people's lives.

[00:40:15] It's actually getting in the way of their success. And so that's solving that problem. If you get to know my background a bit that I'm involved in a lot of different things, I've done a ton of different things, but I think what the common theme is, I just love solving those complex problems.

[00:40:28] And so that's my niche in the world, I think is if you've got a tough problem or a blank sheet of paper that you want turned into something. Man. That's where I get my fire from. So who knows if happiness will be my long term focus, but right now I just see it as a big void in our workplace.

[00:40:44] Scott Maderer: So if they come across this podcast in five years, cuz that's the thing about podcast, right? Cause they live forever. Yeah. Check out his site. You might be surprised at what's there.

[00:40:52] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. Cause if you Google me, you're gonna be like, okay, he's done. He's doing work in Rwanda. Oh wait. No he's doing poker.

[00:40:57] Wait now he has a dis golf podcast. Oh no. He's talking [00:41:00] about leadership. Happiness. Oh wait, no. Over here. He's talking about how do you solve problems better? And they're gonna be like, what does this guy do? And so I was trying to figure that out myself, like what is the common theme? And ultimately I'm a problem solver.

[00:41:11] So that's what I love to do.

[00:41:12] Scott Maderer: So in, in the language that, that if I use the faith-based language it's why a lot of times people will use words like calling purpose and assignment. Interchangeably. And it's no, those actually don't all actually mean the same thing because your assignment, how you're playing out your purpose, isn't the same.

[00:41:34] And yet that core purpose you keep describing as being the problem solver, being the problem. It keeps showing up in everything you do. That's a good way

[00:41:42] Steve Fredlund: to put it. Cause I think I've thought of my assignments as my purpose over the years. I've started a number of different like divisions inside fortune 500 company.

[00:41:48] And I would think of that as like my purpose, my calling and that sort of thing. And I think looking back, those are all assignments in years. Those are assignments yes. In your vernacular, but what's that underwriting theme I'm brought into different places. My purpose [00:42:00] is to go to those complex.

[00:42:02] Problems or the people that are really in tough situations or their businesses are the nonprofits are, I was just up yesterday, up at up at a county meeting where they're having all kinds of problems and like they bring me in to help solve their problem. And it doesn't even matter what the widget is.

[00:42:15] I don't even it's so weird to me. You don't need to know that's,

[00:42:18] Scott Maderer: it doesn't

[00:42:18] Steve Fredlund: matter. That's so weird to me that it doesn't matter, like what it is the core of it is. You've got a complex problem that you can't solve. And for whatever reason I have. Skillset. Now I don't wanna work with you for 20 years, but I'll come in and help solve your problem.

[00:42:32] Scott Maderer: Like I, yeah, one of the things back when I was in the corporate world, I would often get called into the meetings where the business unit, the operations unit and the finance unit all needed to talk to each other. Because I was one of the few people in the company that could speak all three languages.

[00:42:48] And so literally the finance department would go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the operations and business departments would look over at me and I, so what they said was

[00:42:58] Steve Fredlund: Right to the translator [00:43:00] translated and

[00:43:00] Scott Maderer: then and not quite that explicitly, but really I was the guy that for a lot of the details, because I knew all three units.

[00:43:09] Enough to know what they were speaking and could translate between them. And that's a huge role. As a, I'm a former actuary, that's what I did in the world of man. When you're actuary talking to sales people, you're just like both sides are just like shaking their head. Can you just.

[00:43:23] Steve Fredlund: Please speak this common English, speak English, just please speak English. It's we're I know I've been going as easy as I can and they're going, I'm going as easy as I can. Like I don't get it. No, we needed you in those meetings there, Scott. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:36] Scott Maderer: It it's again, it was it.

[00:43:38] That communication is one of the things that shows up in my strengths. And so I'm able to do that, but, so here's a question that I like to ask everybody. And given your background, I'm interested to see what you have to say with it. My brand is inspired stewardship. I talk about stewardship and a lot of different things when I talk about stewardship but I've come to [00:44:00] find that everybody hears different things when you use that word.

[00:44:03] So for you, what does the word stewardship mean? What has the impact of that understanding been on your life?

[00:44:10] Steve Fredlund: Yeah it's been a word that I thought a lot about just because of my spiritual background, my religious background, that sort of thing. We wanna be good stewards of what that is for me.

[00:44:18] It's whatever I've been entrusted with. Whether that is something that's inherent in who I am. So my personality my ability to solve problems, whatever those sort of giftings are, whatever we call those giftings. Those. Whatever those are. I feel like those have been given to me for a reason. And I think my responsibility is to steward those, which means to use them for good to advance society, to advance the world, to advance humanity and not use those for evil, right?

[00:44:42] Because just like your ability to communicate, my ability to solve problems can be used for evil to use those for good. So I think whatever we've been entrusted to. Inherently. And as far as who we are, but also financially family relationships positions wherever anybody trusts me in a situation or brings me in to [00:45:00] talk to me or whatever it is, any of those situations, I think those are all stewardship opportunities.

[00:45:04] They're things that they come into us. They're under our, I have control over them in a. I have control over my skillset. I have control over my finances control over my relationships that I'm involved with. And my job then is to use those for good that, I guess that's a, how I would think about it.

[00:45:20] Okay. Perfect. Did I pass? Yeah there is no pass or fail,

[00:45:25] Scott Maderer: right? Of course you did. actually, it's interesting cuz I ask everybody that question and I do get slightly different answers. And it's and I don't think that's because everybody's right or wrong. I think it's literally one it's like the word leadership is another one of those words that we all use the word and yet , we all, it means

[00:45:45] Steve Fredlund: very different things, slightly

[00:45:46] Scott Maderer: different things in different context.

[00:45:48] And yet we don't ever bother to tell people. This

[00:45:52] Steve Fredlund: is what I mean by that word.

[00:45:54] Scott Maderer: We just assume everybody means

[00:45:55] Steve Fredlund: the same thing clarity. It's so important.

[00:45:58] Scott Maderer: Yep. And I [00:46:00] think getting to your topic of happiness, I actually think that's one of the sources for unhappiness in teams.

[00:46:05] Yep. Is. We're all saying things and we're all assuming that everybody understands them. Yes. And means the same thing and yet more often than not,

[00:46:16] Steve Fredlund: we don't. No, I think that's right. Like when I go work, I work with like boards of directors and nonprofits and different things like that. And they'll bring me in to get where they want to go.

[00:46:24] They're stuck or whatever. And one of the first things I do is. Okay. We're not gonna share with each other. Just tell me, first of all, tell me what the mission statement is without looking at anything without whatever. And usually people can't even tell you look at piece of paper. But then I say, all right, now, what do you mean by that?

[00:46:38] I'll ask each person individually separately, like outside of the group, what do you mean by this mission statement? You said, this is your mission. What do you mean by that? And ask all of them. And then I'll bring out the results back to the group. And I won't share who said what? But I'll say here are all the different perspectives on what your mission is.

[00:46:55] How are no wonder you're stuck and I think that's,

[00:46:57] Scott Maderer: that's kinda out of alignment because we're all [00:47:00] going

[00:47:00] Steve Fredlund: slightly different direct. So when a decision comes, you're looking at it through the lens of this, you're looking at through the lens of this, how do we know? And same thing with like leadership, I think leaders owe their followers and a definition of what they mean by leadership and to get everybody aligned with that whole thing.

[00:47:13] Here's what my role is in the team as your leader. Because some of them, it's going to be very different than others. I'm in charge of everything, everything flows through me versus I'm going to empower you to make all of your decisions. Now, in some situations, one might be right, the other might be wrong your team needs to know what you mean by leadership and what you expect of them as a follower.

[00:47:34] Scott Maderer: It's again, it's the difference between delegation and dump. Delegating means you've clarified the expectations. Yeah. Dumping is go do this. Yep. It's why come back with it done. And they're, and you're like, oh, this is all wrong. And it's and I'll give you like, this is why I'm a bad manager because I'm more of a dumper.

[00:47:53] Steve Fredlund: And I don't mean, I don't mean to be like, this is honestly, what's gotten him in the way, so to speak of my leadership thing and made me realize. [00:48:00] I'm not really a leader manager type of person. I'm a dumper because of exactly that. And I think part of that is I grew up 25 years doing actuarial work where that was the model of how it worked.

[00:48:09] Hey, here's the thing, go do it, get it back to me when it's done. And I still do that. And I get so frustrated when I hand something off and then there's, they have a million questions and they have all this stuff and of course they should. But I'm just like, oh, I just, I, cause I let that go outta my mind.

[00:48:23] Once I handed it off okay, you go run with that. Now it's out of my mind. Totally. Terrible management. So I think that's where I recognize I'm not really a manager type of person.

[00:48:33] Scott Maderer: so here's this is my favorite question. And this is what I jokingly tell everybody is the easiest question of all of the questions.

[00:48:40] So if I invented this magic machine and I could pluck you from the seat where you are today and transport you into the future a hundred to 150 years and magically through the power of this machine, you were able to look back on your whole. And see all the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts that you've left behind in the world.[00:49:00]

[00:49:00] What impact do you hope you've left on the.

[00:49:03] Steve Fredlund: Yeah, it's, it is such a good question. And that's changed for me over the years. That's part of my own clarity journey is I really wanted to have this impact to be memorable and okay, this is my thing. And I think what I'd like to see is just the cumulative effect of all of the better decisions that were made as a result of my being involved.

[00:49:20] Whether that's in a fortune 500 company and I did some things where helped improve like a retirement strategy and all these sort of like things like that, but just in people's lives, I guess I've helped them. Clarify who they are, where they want to go, what they want to do. And they started making different decisions with their family, with their relationships in their business.

[00:49:37] The cumulative effect of that I think is something that I would like to see because I do want to feel like I lived a life that mattered. But I no longer think it's gonna be some astounding. Headline thing like, oh, never see Fred Lynn from 300 years ago. That's this is not reality.

[00:49:53] I don't think at this point. But just, I'd love to be able to see that. And that includes my own family. There was [00:50:00] some, my wife and I both had some issues growing up and that sort of thing. And I feel in a lot of ways we turned the tide of some things. And I would like to see that legacy continue and say okay, that was the point where this history ended and that history started.

[00:50:15] So that could be my own family. It could be just in the relationships that I've had and helping people work through some of their issues. There been some people that have, as I was an executive pastor, people that were going to commit suicide that weather was me or whatever they changed their mind.

[00:50:29] And what's the result of that in society. And the legacy. So all of those things. I don't know. I really I want to feel like I matter. I really do. And to my fam media family, they'll tell me, I matter, that sort of thing, but it's bigger than that. I want to feel like of the there's whatever the quote is the art, the whatever, humanity bend toward justice, right?

[00:50:52] There's the long arc of humanity, or you can look at it from a spiritual perspective, whatever it is. Force of good a force of movement. I wanna feel like I was on the right [00:51:00] side of the good that right side of that movement. And so when all of humanity is declared complete or whatever that looks like, and we see what the reality was in terms of of what was good and what was bad.

[00:51:11] I wanna, hopefully I want to feel like I was a contributor on the side of good.

[00:51:15] Scott Maderer: I like that. Given what we talked about a little earlier, this question might actually be the hardest question for

[00:51:22] Steve Fredlund: you.

[00:51:23] Scott Maderer: what's on the roadmap what's coming next for you as you continue on this journey.

[00:51:27] Steve Fredlund: Yeah. And I, this is where, part of my own reality of I'm understanding myself, I used to have it mapped out and now I realize.

[00:51:34] The realization that I'm a serial problem solver is really helpful to me. Because I used to think what is wrong with me? I would do a job, like I'd get asked, Hey, we need somebody to start this unit capital markets, hedging, start it. And then after two years, I'm like, I'm bored. I wanna do something else.

[00:51:48] I think what's wrong with me. And all of these things that characterize my life. I thought of, I can't decide what my purpose is. Because they were my assignments. And so I just struggled with that. And so even now, as I look forward, I [00:52:00] wanna be able to say, oh, I'm gonna be helping leaders become inspired for 15 years, and then I'm gonna retire.

[00:52:05] And then that's gonna look like this because I'm never gonna retire. I don't know. I think I, I don't know. I don't know. And I think honestly, where I'm at right now that used to bother me. And right now I feel like that's okay. What I wanna do is I wanna engage because of my personality. I wanna engage right now in helping leaders become happier, because I think that's gonna change the world in a really cool way.

[00:52:26] And then I'm gonna see what the next problem is that I feel commissioned to solve is. And so that's sort from a work perspective. That's my best answer. I hope I've, I'm on stages talking to people about this. I hope I'm on podcast talking to people about this, but I don't want to put myself in a box around that.

[00:52:43] I just want to do what I need to do right now to. This insight into the hands of leaders so that they can become happier. Their people can become happier and then move on to the next thing. From a relationship perspective, I wanna keep growing my relationship with my wife. I wanna keep growing my relationship with my kids and my friends.

[00:52:59] I want to have [00:53:00] more more deeper relationships with some friends. Long answer to short question. I don't know. And I think that actually, sorry I'm going on a little bit of a tangent, but it actually explains like when I'd go to the HR group, cause I was always a successful individual contributor and they would always ask me, what's your five, what's your five year plan?

[00:53:18] Where do you wanna be? In five years? And I drove them crazy. Cause I'd always say. I don't know I, I don't have a five year plan. I'm not trying to become the CFO. If it happens. And I think they always hated that. And I think that's consistent now with my reality about who I am is that I don't care.

[00:53:34] I really don't care where I end up in 10 years. I don't have a goal and that's not for everybody. I think most people should have that five year, 10 year goal. I'm not saying this is what you should do with your life. I think for me specifically, It actually is pointless to do a five or 10 year goal because I don't know.

[00:53:48] That answer long answer, short question but like I said, I,

[00:53:54] Scott Maderer: I, I, for most people the other question's the hard one. And you were like, oh yeah, I know exactly what answer [00:54:00] this one's a hard one for you.

[00:54:01] Steve Fredlund: This isn't a super. It's a super hard question for me. And I think this is part of my own journey to happiness, my own journey of being authentic and true to who I am is saying.

[00:54:11] I think the right answer for me is, I don't know, and I don't care right now. I'm gonna solve this problem. And then when the time comes, I'll figure out what the next problem is. I want a different and do a

[00:54:20] Scott Maderer: different problem, but see, that's actually probably more an alignment with who you really are. I am we go back to the beginning and the first thing we talked about it it's part of.

[00:54:30] Steve Fredlund: And that's why any formulaic sort of thing, like I think again, five year, 10 year goals, all that stuff is great for a lot of people, for many people, but for many people, but we have to be authentically true to who we actually are. Yeah.

[00:54:42] Scott Maderer: So you can find out more about Steve on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube as Steve, Fred Redlands, that's F R E D L U N D.

[00:54:53] Of course, you can find out more on his website as well about his speaking, the services he offers. And see what [00:55:00] he's up to this week@steveredland.com. I'll have links all of that over in the show notes as well. Steve, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:55:09] Steve Fredlund: No. You asked a lot of great questions.

[00:55:11] Thanks for probing that out to me, I'd say just it comes down to just being true, to true to yourself. And I love this idea of inspired stewardship. Each person probably has their. different twist on what stewardship is and for your audience being inspired. I like that idea of, it's not just this road thing.

[00:55:28] It's what inspires you, how how do you take care of the things that you've been trusted with? Be inspired, whether that's through your faith or it's through some other source or whatever, but man be inspired in your life. I think that's a great way. Just approach to approach it. And if you don't feel inspired talk to somebody who can help inspire.

[00:55:44] Maybe that's a professional therapist, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's a group, whatever it is, but figure out a way to get inspired to that. You start living your life excited and happy and all of those things, whatever that looks like for you. Because again some of us are introverts, excitement doesn't look the same way as others.

[00:55:59] But [00:56:00] what does excitement look for you and try to tap into that as much as you can.

[00:56:03] 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 listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:56:30] 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. Until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.