Billy Keels  0:00  Steve, revealing truth, what happened when I didn't want my boss's job? Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com. Revealing truth. What happened when I didn't want my boss's job is the episode for you, especially if you have ever asked yourself the question, if you've looked at your boss's role, their job, their calendar, and you said, You know what, I don't know if this is something I want to continue to do or aspire towards. If you just give me a couple moments, this episode is going to tell you and share with you a story, but it's more importantly, going to help you to figure out what is the next logical step, or what is the next step. Whether it's logical or not, I guess that's from my perspective, but it's to help you figure out what is the next step for you in your path to becoming and the reason that I want to talk about this because this is one of the things that continues to come up, right? I'm I'm continuously speaking with people, either because you've come in through the newsletter, or we are talking to you one another through direct messages on LinkedIn, and eventually get on a phone call. But this seems to come up over and over and over. I know that I asked the question at a certain point in time when I was at a business meeting in Madrid and having a meeting with the President of the region and the Managing Director at 645 or 630 in the morning, because we were going to meet with CEOs of a very well known, branded hotel chain here in Spain. And I remember thinking to myself, this is really cool, because I was like, in the spotlight as an account executive. However, I was like, Is this what I'm really aspiring towards to meet in hotel rooms or hotel breakfast salons at at 630 in the morning to talk about a meeting prep for the thing. I enjoyed it. I like, I really, really liked it. But is that what I was going to continue to aspire towards? And that was for me. And if I ask myself the question, as special as I like to think I am, I'm sure that you have asked yourself, or, you know, someone who's asked a very similar question, because at that point in time, like, all of the things that were going on in my life, like I really enjoyed, like I was making really good money. I had all the platinum status, whether it was hotel chains or it was air airlines, and I had really nice luxury car, German luxury car, and the bank account was overflowing, and I knew I was making way more money than I was actually spending. So life was good, like life was really, really good, but what I started realizing was there was beginning to be some uncertainty to the long term career path that I'd set out for myself, because at this point, I'm probably four or five years into the new role. I was almost, I didn't know that I was almost going to be leaving corporate life behind, but that was closer than I actually realized, because in the background, I was generating revenue that was not directly related to the time that I was putting in at my employer, right? So the system that I started to build was working. So when I get to the revealing truth, like what happened when I realized I didn't want my boss's job? Because even when I was at this point in time, like this big meeting in Madrid that I was telling you about, I was still thinking that I wanted to continue to go for the top job, but things started moving around, and I started doubting that, because I didn't know whether or not I wanted to keep up that rhythm, that rhythm of consistently, like managing what was urgent, not necessarily managing what was important, being in the front line, being at all of the different meetings, rather than making other choices to utilize my time more efficiently, give it higher leverage, But the fact that I stopped just to ask myself the question was, what helped me to start to become much more aware of what was happening? Because up until that point, like, the next logical step was to go for the my boss's role, right? Why? Because that's what the org chart said. Like, it was a matter of, like, continuing just to move up, because that's at that point in my life, that's how I was measuring success. Did I move up the org chart, and was I making more money? And did I have more people, in terms of people that were reporting to me right now that I look back on it, I mean, I understand it, I guess I don't feel bad about it, because that was the way that the the system is set up, right? And I just realized that that's the way that the that the system set up. But that doesn't mean that that's the way that you have to follow, which is why I'm sharing this today with you now. Because if you're having these questions, you're having these doubts, you're not alone. I've been there. That's why I'm sharing with you now, because when I got to the point where I knew it was matter of sitting down and creating a plan because I had missed my son's third birthday party. And I have done, I've talked about this multiple times. I know I've done even podcast episodes on it, but there was just something about missing that birthday party that was that threw me out of alignment, right? It just threw me out of alignment. I was there. I saw him in the morning, but I'm. Missed the party. So there was something about it within me being in a business meeting in Germany, like at this point in time when I missed my son's birthday party that didn't sit well with me. So that something else that started helping to add fuel to the proverbial fire, if you will. Because as I started asking myself these questions, do I want to keep doing the status on the airlines. That was cool. But is that really? Was that really the thing do I want to continue to go after my boss's job? Because I started looking at their calendar, and whether it was my boss or my boss's boss, it seemed like they literally, I had more time in my day because I could actually manage what I wanted to get done with clients. But my my boss and my boss's boss, their client, their calendars were clogged with everything from QBRs, which are quarterly business reviews, to weekly meetings to one on one meetings to then meeting with the one on one and the prep for the one on one and the post for the one on one, and then the QBR pre and post and all that kind of stuff. And you're probably laughing. If you're laughing, it's I'm kind of laughing too, because, I mean, that is just what I started seeing, and there was no space to even breathe in my boss's calendar. And so what I started realizing was I needed to accelerate my plan, to give me more control over the thing that was the most important. I thought it was money, because I thought money solved all problems. But the thing is, is it was about how I was actually able to leverage and manage the time, because the time is a fixed asset. It's the 24 hours that every single person gets in a day. And the higher up I moved the org chart, the less control I had of that time, because the role of leadership is to be and serve others. So the majority of my calendar became about serving others, at least. That's what I was starting to see. And that is the thing, that's what happened when I realized that I didn't want my boss's job anymore, and I started thinking, Okay, well, long term like, what am I really going to do? How am I going to continue to contribute? How am I going to help others? How am I going to also keep the status that I had, whether it was the benefits from the job or the paycheck or being able to do things with my family, those were the things that I then started coming to my mind, like, how am I going to manage all this stuff? So I, you know, I'll tell you, there was a moment of trepidation. I was scared. I just didn't know, because I knew that I everything that I was working towards, which was continuing to move up and up and up and up the org chart, when I saw that I had less and less and less and less control over my most valuable asset, which is my time, the whole paradigm shift for me. So that was a scary, scary thing, because now I had to find, really figure out how to re shift and rethink about what is the next step, if it's not my boss's job, what was it going to be? Because that was the only thing that I thought. That was the way that I was showing that I was going to be successful, was moving up the org chart. Well, I will tell you, because my goal was to get to the top of the org chart. I mean, I shared it many times. I wanted to become CEO of a big company, at least early on in my career, but when I realized that I wasn't willing to do what it took to get to the top, because there are some things that you must absolutely sacrifice to get to the top, and I just knew, and I told myself, because at that point in my life, I wasn't willing to do what it took to get to the top job. So although I never, ever got the top job in corporate, right? Because I took myself out of the running because I knew I didn't want to do what it what was needed, and that's okay. But the most important thing that happened for me wasn't that I didn't get the top job. The most important thing was I realized that that in terms of thinking about certainty about your long term career path that doesn't depend on the org chart. You don't need that confirmation that you're gonna move up the org chart to map out your long term career growth. Because here's the here's the thing. This is what I realized. What happened when I realized I didn't want my boss's job anymore. It then put me into an area of, how can I contribute to others? How can I take my experience and make a positive impact and not need a title, just be able to contribute?Billy Keels  9:19  That's the thing that changed. I realized that I started to decouple contribution within the organization or and then the skills that I was learning outside of the organization, the company that I was working for, and being able to leverage the experiences that I had already had in life. So that was the thing that I realized that what that was, what was hap, what happened when I realized I didn't want my boss to job anymore. I realized that there were other ways for me to contribute and still be a positive team player. Still build those skill sets, those transferable skill sets that also helped me later and sometime at a little bit at the same time or right after, to be able to build my own company, those companies that just. Generated revenue, and that revenue is what set me free. It put me on the path to optionality that I talk about all the time, right? And so that's the thing that's important. It's not about going after your boss's job just because that seems like the next thing to do. You can you can still contribute. You can still be the person who is setting the standard. I did it during corporate. You can do it too. So let me. Let me just I said, I want to keep this brief, so I'm going to keep this brief. But here's the thing that is the revealing truth of understanding what happened when I didn't want my boss's job, as I realized. And I want you to understand that you can contribute in many other ways, inside of your organization, outside of your organization, because you continue to build a skill set, that skill set that is valuable, that helps you to lead others towards a common goal, and being able to ultimately continue to generate revenue, continue to contribute to others and live a life that is much more harmonious, that you are where you want to be, when you want to be, with whom you want to be, and if you feel like you're stuck in that and you want to figure out how to get unstuck, well, you know where to find me, as Dion says, I hard to find. But here's what I would also say, if this is not you, but you know someone that this episode today could really help to help them get unstuck, unblocked, share the episode and then take the the next significant action, which is to make sure that you are following up with the person that you share the episode with, ask them what they thought, what they took away, what was the one thing that they took away from today's uh, episode that they can apply in their own lives to help them realize that maybe it's not success isn't just or fulfillment. Success is not just going after your boss's job. It's actually doing the things that you want to do that bring you the most joy, the most love. So while you're sharing, while you're caring, guess where I'm going to be? I'm going to be right here preparing for the next episode. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much. You much. Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com.