To get to your next big idea you need focus and clear goals. That means finding and staying in your lane along your journey. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Roderick Jefferson. Roderick is an internationally recognized business and motivational speaker.
Roderick learned how to stay in his lane by trial and error. He learned how to stay in his lane and how not to stay in his lane. His mom used to say, “No matter what, you still learn whether it’s how to or how not to”. With age and wisdom, he learned what works for him, what doesn’t work for him, what he enjoys and when he should stay out of the way. Roderick believes many people are trying to nudge things or fudge things to make it work for them. He believes life’s too short to try to force things. If it’s not there it’s not supposed to be a part of your life accept that, it’s as simple as that.
Reasons Some People Don’t Pick a Lane
Roderick believes there are a couple primary reasons that people aren’t in the right lane. First, people don’t know what their lane is. They’re trying to go in too many directions at the same time without focus. The second is a lot of people have control issues. They’re trying to micromanage every piece of life and are stuck in the minutia of the details. He’s not saying that you shouldn’t drive your career or drive your life, but at some point, you can’t try to micromanage and control every component of life. Finding your North Star is more important than living in the minutia.
Interacting with Those Around You
When Roderick was laid off, he had some time to think about accountability in and ownership of his life. He asked himself, “What would I do differently if I went into business today versus when I went into business back then?” It came down to a simple thing, and that is treating people the way that you want to be treated. You’ve got to figure out how to blend IQ (Intelligence Quotient) with EQ (Emotional Intelligence). All too many times leaders are very good at the IQ piece, and they tend to overlook the EQ piece. That’s damaging because at the end of the day what really matters is people and your relationships with the people around you. Lifting them higher will lift you higher.
Getting and Giving a Little Help Along the Way
Roderick suggests you get yourself a good mentor that will tell you the good, bad and ugly, not just what you want to hear. He also suggests building an informal board of directors around you, Roderick calls them his “tribe”. You can never be too high, and you can never be too low because they help balance you out.
The second piece is, before you go into a new role in life, talk to other people that are already doing it. Learn from those people who have been there before and be willing to ask the hard questions such as “Where did you not do as well as you wanted to, where did you screw up?” Everybody wants to ask, “How can I be the best?” You become the best because you realize you don’t have to step into that proverbial hole and break your ankle because you took action without getting the right advice. Learn from somebody else that’s done it and learn from their mistakes.
If you’re in a leadership role, remember, people are not titles, people are not positions, they are people who need some help along the way just like you. They’ve got real life going on. There are things happening in their lives outside of work. So, remember you’re dealing with people, you’re not dealing with a program manager or a project manager. You’re dealing with somebody that’s dealing with real life problems and issues.
How to Pick Your Lane
Here’s what Roderick did when he was moving out of Corporate America and becoming a founder. He got out a whiteboard and started analyzing his situation by creating three columns. 1) What am I really good at? 2) What do I absolutely love doing? And 3) What is the need in the market that people will pay for?
And then as you go through these lists, it’s not quite a pros and cons, it’s a list that will make something jump off the board at you for an “a-HA!” moment about finding your lane. That’s how Roderick came up with the service offerings for his company. That became his lane because he had the experience and the expertise; and he also had the passion for something that had a need in the market. If that third piece doesn’t happen, you don’t have a business, you just have an expensive hobby.
In this episode we also dive into topics such as:
- How to connect your passion to profits.
- How to create your ideal client avatar, or profile.
- What a “partner ecosystem” is and how to build yours.
- The three categories of a “partner ecosystem” and why they’re important.
- The criteria you should have when choosing partners.
- Why “hoping” for success is a bad business plan and what to do instead.
- The three things you need to do to start driving your own life in your own lane.
- How to avoid “shiny object syndrome” and stay in your lane once you’ve found it.
- The power of informational interviews and how to conduct them.
- How to approach people for informational interviews.
- How the rubber meets the road after the informational interview.
- How to “keep on keepin’ on” during business down cycles.
- The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to pick your lane and stay in it until you reach your big idea.
…and more golden nuggets of advice!
You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”
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About My Guest
Roderick Jefferson is an internationally recognized business and motivational speaker. He has shared his dynamic and energetic voice in various events, including keynotes, guest lectures, webinars, podcasts, and domain expertise panels, with companies such as the ATD Conference, B2BMX Conference, Cisco, Collibra, LinkedIn, MindTickle, Revasum, Oracle, Sales Assembly Conference, Sales 3.0 Conference, Sales Enablement PRO Conference, Salesforce (Dreamforce), SAP, Seismic, Showpad, SiriusDecisions, Uber, and Zoom.
Roderick is also an acknowledged thought leader in the sales enablement space and the author of Sales Enablement 3.0: The Blueprint to Sales Enablement Excellence, which is the #1 new release and a best-selling book on Amazon.
Company Website: https://roderickjefferson.com/keynotes/
Book Link: https://roderickjefferson.com/book/
Speaker Highlight Reel: https://bit.ly/3zRVNJa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roderickjefferson/
Instagram & Threads: @roderick_j_associate
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2JkaAMW
Facebook & Bluesky: @thevoiceofrod
Companion Workbook (Presale): https://roderickjefferson.com/companion-workbook-sales-enablement-3-0/
Keynote Speaker Highlight Reel: https://bit.ly/3zRVNJa
Social Media Channels: https://linktr.ee/roderickjefferson
