Navigating Corporate BS

This is the Daily Boost Podcast with Scott Smith. How are you? Come on in. Good to have you today. Yes, it is me. It's me. It's me. A little tired today.

Yes, the inner circle call said I was dragging. I'll tell you why. I'm a little bit. Not much, though. But we were talking this morning about that person above you who's like, don't they get it?

Can't they read the room? Don't they get it? I don't understand this, man. And the fact is, well, okay, I'm not going to spoil it right now, but we'll talk about this next.

So if you're in a situation where maybe you work in a professional environment, maybe in a corporation, you're bumping your head against the ceiling, right? You're trying to figure this stuff out. This will appeal to you in a big way today.

It is me, Scott. Good to have you. MotivationToMove.com is where I got stuff for you. I haven't mentioned that for a while. Perfect Quick Planner, things like that.

You can go over there and do that and check that out, if you will. I am a little groggy today because next week I'm going to across Death Valley with my friend Corey Sather, breaking that record.

Badwater Basin, all the way up to Mount Whitney, 146 miles, about 117 degrees from 280 feet below sea level to 14,500 above sea level. And I didn't realize when I said I'll support you on this that I would be part of the expedition team, the support team. It's an expedition in the middle of the desert. And I didn't realize that.

And yeah, it's taking a little work to get there, but I'm having fun. Can't wait to go do it. I'll check in with you and tell you how we're doing with that thing next week. So anyway.

So this morning, let me say this before I start too. Lots of times, and I'll reference this stuff today. Lots of times I will do a podcast where I talk about my peaceful base and teach you how to do that.

A framework, if you will, or maybe the loving cage we did last couple of days at some point. And I'll teach you a framework. But I made a conscious decision that this morning I spent an hour and 20 minutes on an inner circle call on a Wednesday morning. We had nine people on the call.

We had a very, very in-depth conversation. And then I got off the call and had about 15 minutes. I jumped on with an individual that I had a 90 minute call with and we're working through some career things with her.

And then I stopped for a couple of minutes and I jumped on to record. So basically I decided to do this because instead of getting me podcast presentation guy, you're going to get basically a coach guy who was just working, working the people doing my craft here for a couple of hours. And I bring it here. And so what I'm bringing here today is that, that time where maybe it's your boss and

Maybe it's somebody you work for. It could be a stockholder, a stakeholder of some type. And you're like, man, how did somebody that stupid get where they are? You ever said that?

I've said it. I've said it to their face, but sometimes I'm a consultant to these guys. They can fire me and I don't care. He's still going to pay a contract.

I've said it. When I worked for somebody, I said it too. And I got fired. That's what happens. But you know, some people, they fall up. Have you seen that?

And depending on your age group, it's kind of difficult because here's the reality of a corporate environment. If you're working through the process and you got the golden handcuffs on, right? Have you ever thought that if you're 40-ish years old and you're just coming into your power years, that there's somebody in their 50s who's beyond their power years right now and their golden handcuffs are thicker than yours and they don't want to lose those either? Think about the dynamic here.

You are waiting in line, aren't you? My client this morning said to me, Scott, I'm just tired of waiting in line. It's like incompetence, incompetence all the way around me. I'm so much better.

And she is actually. When I hear that oftentimes, I think, really, are you? Because I say the same thing. I'm better than you anyway, in every possible way.

I know better. I'm not. But sometimes when we get that confidence level up, we start hitting harder, don't we? I got to get through this. Why don't they listen to me?

Well, here's the thing. When you think this person above you, who is guiding every aspect of your life and arguably in control of your paycheck and your sanity,

When you say they should know what they're talking about, you're right, they should. But the truth is they don't. They just don't. It happens in all kinds of life.

A few years back, my wife was doing a lot of modeling and acting, and she did a job for the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. It was a big job. It was like a five-day gig, and she was the lead role in that one. She played a cancer patient, and she had to shave her head at the end of this thing.

They kind of shot it in reverse, and she had a cancer show. They show you how you got treated and you were cured, right? So before she went over there, she said, so I guess they already know what they're looking for, so it doesn't matter what I do.

I said, yeah, it absolutely does matter what you do because they absolutely have no idea what they're looking for. She said, how can they take this big commercial they're making?

And show up and do this massive casting of all these hundreds of people to figure out what they want. They have no idea what they want. I said, well, they want a cancer patient. Somebody who looks like a cancer patient.

That's all they know. But they don't know what she actually looks like. They're waiting for you to walk in the door. So she happens. My wife actually looks really good in like a headscarf, like a headband, headscarf kind of thing.

She's really sexy. She's got big round eyes. Just I love it. I always have. And so I just put two and two together as a former producer myself. I said, well, listen, just pull that scarf out.

I like and wear that when you go in there. And they're going to love you. And she said, I don't wear scarves when I do auditions. I have my hair down.

I said, yeah, but you're playing a cancer patient. Put your scarf on. And she didn't. You got the job. They had no idea what they were doing. They knew what they were talking about to make the movie or make the show, but they had no idea who they wanted.

Same thing with your boss. In many cases, they just do not know. And in many cases, you're the power. You're the person that drives their success. You're the person, your team, all the work you do down below as you come up through the ranks is

You're the one that's driving their success. They need you to succeed, and yet they don't want to take their job. At the same time, they have an expiration date, don't they?

They do. If you're in corporate America, you've got an expiration date. What is it, 55, 59 1⁄2? What is it? If you're in tech, it's younger than that.

You got it. If you're a woman in tech and you hit, it's not even 45, is it? And it gets not fair. If you're a guy, you might get a little later than that, maybe in their late 40s, and after that, you better have a really good stylist and a photographer, and you better work out and stay in shape.

expiration date for everybody. I got news for you. Don't get mad. Everything has an expiration date. I think my client this morning, Brian said, I didn't realize I had a shelf life.

You do. So everybody has it. You will get yours eventually. You're just at a different place along the journey right now. So when you come upon this and you're tired of waiting in line and you start to be pushing and you get somebody who's above you who doesn't know what they're talking about, the thing that's going to free you is just understand that they maybe not really know what they're talking about.

They may have other, completely other motivating factors around it. And fair or not fair, you have no choice but to figure out how to make it work. So the advice today was it was a presentation mode. It was where you're going to go in and talk to this person and you're going to try to step up into a leadership role, a position that's open.

You know, the position to open the role they're opening for a leader. And they say, well, we don't really know what the leadership role is supposed to be. So we're going to let you tell us what the role is supposed to be. You ever run into that?

Maybe we get a vendor to tell us what the role is supposed to be. Stupidity, right? Somebody in the house should know the role, right? So what is happening is you're told to create the role, but you don't know what to do because they didn't tell you what to do.

There's only one thing you can do. Use your knowledge, the same thing that has gotten you where you are, the confidence that you have, and then you put this presentation together, whether it be speaking or an official PowerPoint kind of deal, you put that together, designed to show how this vision should. So imagine this. If somebody wants you to be a leader, then you should put a vision about how you would lead.

You shouldn't put a vision, well, if you make me a leader, this is what I do. No. You should simply say, okay, here's what we're going to do. And you cast the vision right in front of them.

You become the leader right then and there as if you're a peer. But to make it work, you have to be a collaborative peer, a collaborative presentation, which means if you just sit up, let me take this back. Sometimes you do a cold presentation just standing in front of the room and doing it. But if you're having a conversation, if it's a meeting, you've been called to discuss whether you'll take the job or not, you're not standing in front of the room.

So therefore, but you're still doing a presentation. So there's something we call a dynamic or a dramatic demonstration. It's very popular in the marketing world. And I use it all the time.

I have forever. And all that means is a demonstration of my skills. That's it. It's like it slices, it dices, it does everything, right? It's the same thing.

Walking through a home show, the guy's got the knife set out, showing how well they work. That's all that is. So if you're going to step up in leadership, you must cast a vision of what you're going to do and have the strategy. You have to know how you would do it.

You have to step into the role of the leader right then and there. But because you're not, because you're still kind of begging for the job, you have to turn it into collaboration.

You have to make sure that you're a team player with this co-leader you have right now and have this discussion back and forth. Basically, this is how I see it. And this is why I think it should go this way. And what do you think?

It becomes very collaborative. That's what people want. You start working in that angle. Now you become a real team player and they begin to see you as an asset and not somebody who's dangerous.

If you're an A player existing under a B player, you hate life. And how many people, including you, are working for somebody who's not nearly as talented as you, but they're above you?

You only have one option. Wait them out or work with them until you get to replace their job or you can leave someplace else. That's three options. Whoops.

How did I do that? The point is this. I know what you want to do. You want to punch him. Metaphorically speaking and maybe physically speaking. Yeah, it's a bunch of having three martinis.

Which one is it going to be? This morning, I don't know if I mentioned this. I don't think I did. On that face your passion call today, inner circle call, I looked at a screen of nine people.

They were all professionals currently working in a corporation. Freaked me out. Why? I've never worked in a corporation. I was in radio when I worked in a corporation.

I know nothing about what you're going through. Not a thing. I've never done it. But boy, have I worked with people to get through it and help them advance along the way.

I looked at that and I said, well, where are my entrepreneurs? Where are my regular people just going to be happy? Stuff like, no, not a one of them. Every single one of them were corporate people trying to climb that ladder, trying to build a career, build the wealth, build the whole thing, and just trying to make it work and build a peaceful base and get out of this cage they built for themselves.

And I thought, how did they get there? Here I am, the former disc jockey, talking to these guys. But what I just told you works. You know why? Because I know how to communicate to people.

I accept the fact they're stupid. And I say that most respectful, grateful way. I just do. I respect the fact that not only do I know how they, I don't even know how they got to their position.

They don't know how they got there. And they have no idea how they're going to stay there. I just accept that. And from that point, I have power. And I can create whatever I want.

If I believe in anything more than anything else I believe in, got to work on how I communicate, don't I? But if I believe in anything more than anything else I believe in, it's that it's up to me to cast the vision.

It's up to me to decide what it's going to be. It's up to me to sit down and answer all the questions nobody has answered. Nobody can answer. Because if I can answer those questions and tell them, this is how I think we're going to do this.

And they go, man, I couldn't figure that out. And you did. Wow. I talked to a lady yesterday. She said, oh, I know how to write the plan, but there's four areas of the plan that I don't understand.

I said, well, that becomes your plan. You say, listen, these are four areas we all have questions about. You need to collaborate with different departments and get your answer. That will be part of your plan.

If you do that, you'll get your answer. You move yourself forward. And she's like, I never even thought about that. Guys, I'm telling you, I know for some of you, this is like, this is a stupid podcast today.

But for some of you, you are living this one right now. You are sitting in your car or you're sitting in your cubicle or you're sitting in the conference room and you're going, your ears are burning. You're steaming out of your head because of meeting you just had.

I'm telling you, they don't know. If you're going to step up, step up. Stop hiding. You hear me talk about being the nicest renegade all the time. You're too nice.

You got to bring out the good renegade, the person who is going to be innovative and have some impact. But you got to remember, if you're a player who has the ability to be a bit of a good renegade, you're a dangerous person. And you're going to make people uncomfortable. They're not going to understand how you communicate and why you do what you do because you are dangerous.

They don't get it. But they need you. So you have to manage that and understand that's your gift. I need to stop there. This podcast is getting long today, okay?

I'm a little passionate about this. By the way, I do. Why not? I work with people in this all the time, obviously. That's what I do. If you've ever thought I could help you, I do private coaching, consulting, advisories.

If you're a corporate player, you can afford it. It's the most expensive thing in the planet, but it's not cheap either. Also my inner circle. And this is really a good thing for you.

You'd love this. If you like what we talked about today and you feel you need to hang around in a room with people who are like living in your world. And we're talking people six up to mid six figures, probably.

Um, If you feel like that, here's how you get in. You send a note to coaching at motivation to move.com. And you say, Scott, I think I might be a good fit.

And here's how you get in. You just do that. I say, okay, let's get on zoom. We'll talk 20 minutes. We'll decide if it's good for you. If it's good for me, there's no sales pitch.

It's $297 a month. No contracts. It's a fricking bargain. I'd like to work with people in this group. That's why I do it. If you work with me personally, it's,

a whole lot more than that. Just promise. But the inner circle is fantastic. So if you're interested, just coaching at motivation.com. Okay. Thanks for allowing me to say that because, uh, like I said, we got to pay our bills around here and, uh, it's a good thing.

I just, I'll leave it at that. It's a good thing. Uh, that's it. I'm done. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good day. I'll be back again.