PP 035: Boasting vs Building Your Business

Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity! This is your host, Kim Sutton. Today, I want to talk to you about the similarities between raising a family, and raising or building your business.

At the time of this recording, I’m just coming out of the holiday season. And it seems that I’ve been inundated with so many posts on social media about what people got, what people gave, and it all seems to be about money, money, money.

Now, I have to admit. The Christmas season drives me a little bit crazy. Perhaps it’s just because I am a Christian, and I like to look at the holiday season as a celebration of Jesus’ birth. And it seems that so many people get wrapped up in the presents. For me, that’s really hard. I don’t want to see people getting wrapped up constantly – and not just around the holiday season – about money.

And this year, especially around holiday time, I was seeing so much of it. It wasn’t even just about the holiday presents. It was entrepreneurs boasting about their huge launches – and by huge launches, I mean, they were dishing out the dollar value that they had supposedly brought in, and they were bragging about their new offices, or their new home that they’re buying with the money that they had made this past year.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m really happy about people’s successes, and I want to congratulate them on their success – but there comes a point when modesty and humbleness needs to be taken into effect.

Boasting vs Building Your Business

This is something that Dave and I have made a real effort to teach our kids, especially the older ones. When they get something, they don’t need to go and put it into people’s faces, because there’s a lot of other children and people out there who aren’t as fortunate as we are. Even in the times that we’re struggling, we like to stay humble. Regardless of whether we’re struggling or thriving financially, we always want to stay humble.

In the community that we live in, there is a wide array of economic circumstances in the families. There are wealthy families, and there are definitely struggling families. And we know it’s not doing anything good for the struggling children to constantly be hearing about the lavishness that other kids are experiencing.

Just like when you or I are dealing with maybe a launch that didn’t go as well as we planned – and then we hear about other people’s supposed launches that just, you know, blew the tops off and earned them millions. It doesn’t necessarily make you feel awesome all the time to be hearing about these successes.

Boasting vs Building Your Business

I feel like I might be rambling a little bit, but the point I’m trying to make is: Rather than brag about your income, let’s think instead about the impact that you can be having when you talk to people. How can you support people when you’re talking to them? Ask them what they need. How can you support them? What are they struggling with right now? And then offer them words of encouragement, and maybe resources or referrals to people or to tools that may be able to help them with whatever they are dealing with.

This maybe with their personal life; this may be what their professional life. This could be for any aspect of their life. But how can we help the people around us? We won’t ever know what people are going through unless we ask. And when we’re too busy boasting about all the successes that we’re having, it’s really hard to remember that other people need help.

While I just said we have to be careful about boasting, I am going to boast for just a moment, because I want to commend my boys on their performance and actions. They’ve only been in trouble limited times in school, and honestly – most of the time, it’s because they become involved in incidents where they are actually trying to stand up for their friends when they are being bullied by others. They haven’t gotten in trouble for boasting; they haven’t gotten in trouble for showing off. And they all have friends, because they know that they are very giving children and will do anything to help those in need.

It’s a lot easier to build a network when we’re helpful, and when we’re giving, and when we’re good listeners. I’ve spent the last several days watching and listening to Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy, and I was really taken by one of the statements that he made. And what he said was, “It’s not about the income you make. It’s about the impact you make.”

Moving forward into this next year, I want each of you to think about the impact that you’re making. How are you helping others, and what more can you do for the community around you?

Remember, boosting isn’t good for business. The best way to build your business is to see how you can help others with their current situation. The best way to build your business is to give to others with no expectation of payment or any type of reciprocation.

Now with that said, go forth and have a positively productive day!