Jim Swan Podcast Transcript
Jim Swan joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
[00:00:12] Brian Thomas: Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Jim Swan. With over 20 years as a small business owner, entrepreneur, award winning author, and marketing consultant, Jim brings his experience as a survivor of success and failure to the world of business strategy and consulting. He’s turned years of business experience, personal values, and a belief in the power of transformative energy into a laser focused professional objective to support small and medium sized business owners as they expand into their highest and best selves.
With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology and Music from Southwestern University and studies in Arizona State’s University Architecture and Design Master’s Degree Program, he now includes Certified Coach in his educational accomplishments.
Well, good afternoon, Jim. Welcome to the show.
[00:00:57] Jim Swan: Thank you. It’s great to be with you, Brian.
[00:00:59] Brian Thomas: Absolutely. Jim, this is awesome. Get to get up every day, meet somebody new, share their story with the world. And this really is something that is so inspiring for me. And again, appreciate you jumping on.
This is just so fun. So, thank you again. Jim, we’re going to jump right into the questions here, get your story started. You’ve got quite the career as a coach, business strategist and consultant, and now the business consultant at Pine Tree Partners, could you share with our audience, the secret to your career growth and what inspires you?
[00:01:30] Jim Swan: Oh, wow. Great question, Brian, or questions. I would say persistency has been the backbone of my career. I’ve had some brilliant successes and I’ve had some catastrophic failures, lots of highs and lows over the years, but I’ve always managed to come back and keep working at it. So, I would say persistency.
And then on the inspirational side, I try to read something every day, I’m a great follower of the writings of the Tao Te Ching I do a lot of reading in the Stoics, I’m trying to make my way through Marcus Aurelius Meditations right now, and I must say it’s dense, but it’s also inspiring writers like that.
[00:02:09] Brian Thomas: Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Of course, we entrepreneurs have highs and lows. Everybody does experience it, but sometimes it’s a bit more personal or sometimes a bit more painful as an entrepreneur. So, I appreciate you sharing that Jim moving on here, your tenured experience in the world of coaching and consulting speaks for itself.
You’re also an IPEC certified professional coach and have helped many executives, leaders, and businesses turn their businesses around for the better. What is the key to helping these leaders transform?
[00:02:39] Jim Swan: Over the years I have observed, first observed it in myself, Brian, and then I have observed it in clients and people who I engage with. We have a real tendency to compare ourselves to create an ideal in our head, against which we are constantly measuring ourselves. And what I’ve discovered is that particularly for entrepreneurs, those ideals are remarkably unrealistic. It’s the standards that we set the ideas of perfection and what success looks like or will look like when we achieve it. It’s always out there In the foreground, it’s always ahead of us.
And being able to shift that thinking. There was a book I came across a number of years ago, and I reread it regularly. Now I think it’s Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy. I think it’s called the gap in the game. And it talks to this idea of rather than looking at the unachievable, which is the horizon line, the horizon is always there wherever we are in the world, the horizon is there, but we can never get there.
But what we can do is we can measure where we are today against where we started. In this journey, whether it’s a project or a business, and if we can shift that thinking, it’s amazing, the shift that that can bring to a business owner to an entrepreneur and to their business.
[00:03:54] Brian Thomas: Thank you, Jim. Love that perspective.
Obviously, we get caught up in that horizon or that line that we can never attain, right? We do that all the time. But if we take the time, take a deep breath. And just looking back for a moment to see some of the stuff that we’ve accomplished in that short period or long period of time gives a different perspective.
So I appreciate that. I really do.
[00:04:16] Jim Swan: Yeah, it really changes things up. When I push back on people, when I hear them, disparaging their efforts or downing themselves or doubting themselves it’s such a simple exercise, but to remind them to, Thank you. To just reflect on where this project started or where this business started, go back 6 months, 9 months, 4 years, whatever the time period is and understand, see clearly where you were then, and compare today against that and without fail, the light bulb goes off, and people go, Oh, wow, well, I guess I have made progress, or I guess I have had some amazing wins, or I’ve had some incredible ups and downs, but here I am still slugging away at it and it energizes in a way that I have found really remarkable and quite exciting to get to witness.
[00:05:02] Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. Thank you again, Jim, Jim switching gears a little bit. We want to ask you, what do you find causes businesses to lose sight of their goals and vision?
[00:05:13] Jim Swan: Well, Brian, I think it really is a continuation of that last thought, that when we take our eye off of the only thing that makes any real sense to measure ourselves against it’s not the prize.
It’s not that idealized image that we have in our head that we’re going to be trim and lean and buffed and we’re going to be on a yacht in the Mediterranean and we’re going to be surrounded, no, it’s none of that. But what it can be is a very personalized understanding of what success means, to the individual, to me, to you, and being so clear about that and being able to monitor that and constantly measure each day, each week, each quarter, each year’s successes and challenges against that. I think that’s where the real power lies. I watch it all the time. You know, people, you see it on social media,
do you have that seven-figure business? Is your business, has it broken that million-dollar mark or that 10 million mark? And is that the right question to ask? And in some instances, maybe, but I think in most instances, even if you crunch the numbers I’ve worked with some business owners, you know, Brian, who let Yes, they’ve got that million-dollar business.
They broke that barrier. But when we look at their expenses and their net profits, they were much better off making much less but keeping much more of it. And that’s where our work with those business owners really gets exciting when they realize that okay, certainly an achievement Bravo, drove sales or you drove growth to pass this certain mark.
But What’s the reality of for your life for your family’s life for your loved ones lives? And how is that business benefiting you on that level? It changes the conversation. And I think it becomes a much more exciting and rewarding conversation at that point.
[00:07:03] Brian Thomas: Thank you. And I do like your perspective on this. That measurement is so key and of course, everybody’s at a different place, but again, appreciate your insights.
And I know you do a lot of great work with business owners today. So, thank you. Jim, last question of the day, I’m a technologist we’re a technology podcast and platform. We ask every guest regardless of their background, if you’re leveraging any of that new and emerging tech in your business.
And if not. Maybe there’s a cool tool or app you found useful. You might share with us today.
[00:07:37] Jim Swan: Yeah, I have great admiration for those who function well in the world of tech and on the cutting edge of all the great things that are out there. Sadly, I didn’t get those genes, but I do try. And so we’re playing around with ChatGPT AI in our firm right now, trying to understand it, it is an entity better. And then trying to get very conscious of how we might be able to successfully apply it within the framework of our business to help us in ways that we maybe never realized would were possible. So, it’s an ongoing discovery process for us.
Like, oh, wow, we could do that. And some things that it can do don’t make sense for us. We want to have a person more personal touch in some areas, but we’re discovering, yeah, there are some pretty cool things that it can do. So we’re trying to get better at applying that and making it part of our business.
[00:08:26] Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And I appreciate you sharing that. It just shows that you are embracing technology regardless of your technology background, right? That’s just awesome. And chat. GPT has been just. The subject of this podcast for the last gosh, eight months.
Everybody’s usually, yeah, absolutely. But no, it’s good to hear that our audience appreciates that they love having entrepreneurs on the podcast and they get a nugget or a gem from every single podcast. So, I appreciate that Jim Jim, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
[00:09:02] Jim Swan: Thank you, Brian. Me too. Be well.
[00:09:04] Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Jim Swan Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
