Sparking Success with Aaron Opalewski

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (00:00.11)
Welcome to Sparking Success with Aaron Opalewski. Aaron brings you conversations that spark innovation, cultivate leadership skills, and pave the way for your business success. In each episode, we delve into the dynamic world of business and leadership, exploring strategies, insights, and success stories that fuel your professional journey.

Well, hey everybody, welcome back to Sparking Success with Aaron Opelouski. My name is E .J. Swanson. I'm your host and I am so thankful to be here with you today. Aaron, good afternoon. How are you, man? Good afternoon. Feels like morning to me still. I know. I got in a little bit later today than I normally do. So yeah, but you were taking care of some good dad duties this morning and, you know, making sure that your little girl knows and sees and.

Uh, you know, just, just overall being a great dad. So I love hearing that. That's awesome. That's the goal. Trying to be. Amen. Amen. You know, I always say to people like, I'm just trying to be a better dad, just trying to be a better dad, better husband, you know, better follower and, uh, you know, better coworker. So that's right. I love that. Crave improvement. That's right. Yep. Talk about it. Well, you know, today on sparking success, we're going to talk about anchoring achievements to key objectives.

And Aaron, I know this has been a practice for you over the years, and it's been an important practice. It's looks different in different seasons and in different ways. Talk to us a little bit about achievement today and how you take those achievements and anchor them to the objectives that you have in business and why that's important for us. Yeah, I think it starts with like, hey, what is, you know, not everyone is like achievement.

driven, but a lot of people are. I am. A lot of the people that we try and hire, this works back to the six human needs that we've talked about. But if you're significance, recognition driven, if you're growth driven, well, achievements are something that can be something that helps you feel that way. You're accomplishing that. You're fulfilling that thing that you're desiring. So I think.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (02:17.838)
In general, it's a good way to build a track record, build confidence, build self -confidence, and also the ability to have confidence that you can maybe teach other people how to achieve things as well. Like your experience and success. Ed Mallette says it well. He says, you're best set up to help someone in an area that you were once weak in.

And I've got better. That's good. I butchered that right there. That's not how he says it. He says it better than me. But that's the general concept. Like you're best set up to help the person that you used to be there. That was closer. Yeah. You know, one of the one of the things that I love about you, Aaron, is you're strategic about the things you say. You're strategic about the way you say them. And as we were, you know, doing our prep for this episode, I loved hearing you talk about the difference between a goal.

And an objective would you explain that for everyone why you use objective versus goal? Yeah, well, I think it's an important Language difference at least it is to me and there's some people like oh, that's extreme like whatever well my opinion These are the types of things that like if you're gonna keep achieving and going to like a higher gear What you say and how you say it matters, you know, and how you view it, you know your mindset behind it. So I

When I think of a goal, I have goals. I think everyone has goals. And we want to achieve those goals. But.

A goal, for some people, is like a wish or a dream. It's something that they're aspiring to, right? And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I think you should have big goals and dreams and aspire to things in all areas of your life, like absolutely. But an objective to me is like, okay, we have a mission.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (04:19.79)
we have a blueprint, we have something that we need to do, and a lot of times, I'll tie it like, it's not just about me, it's about the team. It's about my family. It's about others. And how does me pushing towards that objective help all those other people? Kind of get to that, I think, in our next point. But an objective is something that...

You're required like it's part of your mission. Okay, I Need to accomplish this objective got it And I like that best when you're doing that not just for yourself, but for others Yeah, whereas the goal is like kind of like a wish or you have an outlet on like, okay. Yeah, that's my goal But I did good on this we didn't get all the way there But you know set big goals and if you know you shoot for the stars and land at the moon. Yep, you know, we're still good Yeah, do you do you feel like?

that comes from being jaded around everybody just throwing out goals or what I hear you saying is that objective is so tied and as it's tied when you have objectives you also set plans against those to get it done and I think sometimes if I'm hearing you correctly what people do with goals is they just throw out a goal and then it's like I hope I get there.

So what I found and you know, this is for me personally, it doesn't it hasn't really mattered what I call what you call it a goal. OK, that's good. Because I'm going to go after, you know, accomplishing my goals. Yeah. But me as a communicator and a leader to other people in setting something that's bigger than, you know, myself, where, you know, you don't have.

full control over that, right? Yeah. OK. Or even in my goals that I can't accomplish on my own, right? Which is almost all of them at this point requires. It's so much more than just about me. It's almost comical. I can't even think of it that way. Yeah. So OK. Well, explain.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (06:37.804)
What's your definition of a goal? It might be different for everybody, right? And so the more someone's definition is like, oh, that'd be a nice to have, or someday, or like, yeah, there's people that accomplish their goals, and then you see people that, you know, that's why, like, New Year's resolutions. Yeah. New Year, new goal. People are, yeah, New Year, new me, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. Like, people start out with good intentions, and then they kind of fall off. Well, that was their goal. OK.

So I know more than not, like people are going to struggle with that type of thing. What's going to help them do better with it? Well, in my opinion, when it's an objective, it's like, hey, this objective is tied to your roles and responsibility on how you contribute to an organization, to your team, your sports team, to your family, whatever it is, to something bigger than you. This is your part of the mission. This is the part of the mission you own.

You look at, I think where I first heard this was in the military sense. So let's think about that. This is the ultimate. This is life and death. And there's objectives. Do you think the goal is to go in and save someone? And we'll see what happens, but this is the no, it's an objective. It's a mission. And you're part of that objective mission is life or death for the rest of your team. You have to be on your part. So.

That's right, the guy first heard it, and it's not necessarily going to be life or death. But it may be the difference between, or probably will be the difference between accomplishing a team mission or not accomplishing it, is if the individuals can do their objectives or cross over their objectives. So I hope that answers your question. Yeah, It does. That's tons of clarity. And it's like someone that's like, if they're thinking, oh, that's a good question.

be nice to do on their goals. Well, I can get them to clearly understand, like, no, this is my responsibility to do this part of the mission when it's their objective. Yeah, that's good. You know, there's a thread that I hear you, I feel you saying, and there's this aspect that you attach a deeper meaning to the objective. Is that true? Yeah, well, I think that's where we kind of go next within this is we want to...

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (09:00.942)
Okay, what's the objective? And we're kind of talking about how to potentially do that or paint a picture on how a team needs to work together. But it's like, okay, I want to attach a meaning to it. The first meaning that I want to try and attach is how it impacts others on the team. That's good. Because I think most people, I think, whether they act with good intentions or they get off track, I think most people want to have good intentions. They're...

They want to be good to other people. They want to be a good teammate. But then life can get in the way. And some people are more disciplined than others in working through that. Well, so let me start by attaching objectives, the meaning to how it affects others on the team. Because for some people, that's what they need. That's what drives them. Or to like, man, when I don't make my 30 calls in this area, when I make 29,

instead of 31. And I missed my part of this. Right. That's impacting everyone else on my team. Right. I'll make these two extra calls. Yeah, it's like the it's like the old adage, you know, in in when we're growing up in school and stuff like that, right, you get into a group project and the one person, you know, doesn't pull their part. Yeah. And within that, if they're not, you know, attached to those other people,

They very easily just let it go, right? And then the whole project fails or a big chunk of it. Correct. And that's really true within the marketplace as well. Like there is, you know, a substantial meaning around the people that you work with, the people that you're providing for. And when that objective is tied to people, there's just more to it. Sure. So there's that. And then there's knowing the person and what their needs are. Yeah. And what drives them. And so.

The better I understand that, I can also, because I think it's not, we're all inherently want to take care of ourselves. And I think that we should. I believe it's the analogy of if you're on a plane and the mask come down, put your mask on first, because you can't really help others until you take care of yourself. I think that's true in a lot of aspects of life, specifically in business. I need to make sure I'm owning my part of the objective first and doing really well before I can help.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (11:22.734)
others. Yeah. So, okay, it's okay to have, you know, as long as you have that other side, right, where it's like, man, I want to do well for my team, I want to help my team. And I think a lot of people do. It's okay to take care of yourself first, or you're better set up to be a person that can help them, right? Yeah. If you are handling your own stuff. So what motivates them? You know, what are their needs like? And how can I tie this objective to helping them accomplish whatever they want to do?

How does this play, Aaron, within your family, the objectives that are set before you that you set? How is that attaching the meeting for your family affect you when you're doing this? Well, for me, it's just a little bit of a challenge.

It's big, you know, I want to set a good example, you know, for my family. I want to achieve and provide, you know, for my family. I want to show my girls that anything's possible if they put their mind to it and they show discipline, commitment, grit, you know, all these things, right? Yeah.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (12:29.358)
You get more of that perspective as you, I think, get in a serious relationship, get married, have children, or you take on more responsibilities, right? So I'm fortunate, and here's, I'll give you an example, I won't use any names, but I made a lot of mistakes as a younger guy. But here's something I got right. I got into a mental state, whereas, you know,

I wanted certain things in life and it was very money motivated, very growth oriented, very significant and recognition. Like, yeah, I want that, you know, I want that acknowledgement. I want that award. I want, you know, this and that. Like, those were important to me. But I was able to get into a state, even though I wasn't like always thinking about this, right? I'm not sitting here telling you I thought about this every day. But I thought about like, you know what? I am single. You know, I'm working hard.

I'm motivated by all these things, but I'm also working for my future family, who I don't even know yet. Well, that's important for young leaders out there, that maybe they don't have that. So I go to that, not always, but if I see that in specifically, maybe this will change because I have daughters now down the road. I haven't, in one -on -one conversations or with a team, I've spoken to younger,

guys that way and not always. But if I can tell that that's something that's important to them and even if they're single now, I'm like, man, that's something. If you could go back now, you'd give yourself more of that advice. That was a good frame of mind to get into. That was you attaching meaning to an objective. And I would have poured a bunch upon that and made some say, hey, don't make this and this decision. But you're really thinking right here. Go down this path.

So when I see that in somebody, or even, again, we've had people, we're in real life. Someone that's in a relationship, they break up, it's hard for them. And maybe they were thinking they were heading that direction and they weren't. And it's not pulling that out as a tactic, but I see myself in the past in that. And I'm like, man, I know this is a.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (14:57.873)
good for them right now because they're not necessarily thinking this way right now, even though maybe they were. And then that happens. And it's like, hey, keep doing this stuff for these reasons because your future self is going to thank you for that. So I don't pull that out all the time. But as just young adults, a lot of us have multiple relationships. Or you know,

people come in, I mean I want to have a family someday and stuff, so I want to hear that stuff, I'm listening to someone, not like dumping it all on them right away, but as I get to know them or you know if they're asking me certain questions and something like this pertains or I can share some things from my past, I'll try and give them encouragement that way. Yeah, I love that and you know the meaning attached to it I think can go so many different ways, but you know both you know the dependence and desire for...

I'm helping others, you know, that's certainly at the core of everything within your your companies and And it's in your life too. I've seen that in so many different different ways There's also this this thought that you've developed over the year of anchoring achievement with You know in an object when you reach, you know an objective. Yeah I've

I've thought about that before, but not a ton. I don't think I was as dialed in on it to go like, OK, when this objective is reached, I may say, like, here's a reward or those type of things. Unpack that some more for us. Yeah, so not everyone may like this. Not everyone may agree with it. And again, it depends. Like, this works for me. Yeah. This is something that I like.

One, I think it's a nice way to, well, I'll just get into it. It works for me. We'll see where it goes. I can talk a lot on this. Sure.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (17:01.108)
I'll give you a story, you know, so now I do this intentionally. Okay When I was younger in starting to have you know some success I Don't I think I did it Subconsciously at first and then I I started to see where it actually like helped me out at times and I'll try and explain that so again because I'm achievement

recognition, significance driven. I didn't grow up with a ton of money. At one point I had $6 .23 to my bank account. One of the other stories I'll tell some of the younger guys is one of the things that really drove me, just to be honest, is I didn't have all those things right. And I had a girl that I really liked at the time. And...

I thought I was in love with, or maybe I was at the moment. I don't know. It's so far gone now, it's kind of comical. But at the time, she just broke up with me one day out of nowhere. And I was devastated. It was like I had been in one other serious relationship that went pretty south. And then I didn't really have a relationship for three years because I was not trusting that that would work out well. Let my guard down.

Um, fell head over heels for this girl. I thought things were going great, you know, for a period of time and then just like, wham. And then what do you know? Like a week later, find out she's out, you know, with this older guy. Um, family owns a business, very wealthy. Um, and I'm not talking bad about that person or what it upset me. Yeah. Did something within you, but you know, you have.

opportunities in life to like life's what you make of it right so okay that really was hard for me and then I am not saying this is what it was but associated like okay I'm 20 at the time 21 I think 21 I don't have any money or very little money it's kind of like the year before I started to make some money and I think this had

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (19:24.176)
something to do with it. I had kind of got out of my phase of getting in trouble and was starting to get, at least in school, like take it a little more seriously. But that happened and I'm like, okay. I got to do something. I don't want to be poor my whole life. And so that really drove me and for a period of time I was like, okay, I'm going to go.

make a bunch of money and I'm going to go win her back. And it didn't go that way. And I'm grateful for that, even though she's a very nice girl and all that. But it drove me for a while. And that was an objective that I had to go. I had more of a meaning behind wanting to advance. And so that really pride carried me. I haven't talked about this much, but so my first job in recruiting, I

Like the night I got promoted, smashed. Not a good scenario. Smashed. Who do you think I called? Smash, like stumbling around Royal Oak. Probably wasn't a good idea. Didn't go well for me. And I was frustrated about it after, because I don't know what I was expecting at the time. But it was a driver for me. And it probably continued to be a driver for me for another couple years. And then.

I moved on. But like, hey man, use what you got. And that was a scenario that really motivated me at a young age to tie something like, hey man, this is why I want to be successful. I don't want to be in the situation where I get left for some rich dude or something like that. And that's not a really healthy way to look at that. Hopefully you.

And that's not even what happened in the scenario, to be clear. But that's what I associated in my head. But it drove you to that achievement, right? It was part of it. I'd be lying to you if I... I that was a major factor early on for me. And so hopefully this stuff matures for us and changes. So that was a driver. Well, once I started to make some money...

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (21:42.544)
I wanted people to know it. And I say that now somewhat embarrassed because one, look, I'm all for having nice stuff. I think that's completely fine. And I think it's awesome if people have nice stuff or are motivated that way or anything like that. But at the time, my main motivation was just like, I wanted you to know it. I wanted you to know it.

So, you know, I started to buy watches and, you I got into watches. I still have a couple of my first watches. I don't wear them a lot, but they mean something to me. And, you you fast forward a couple of years and the first time that I had like accumulated, not made a million dollars in a year, but like accumulated over a million dollars.

There was a watch I really wanted. It was a gold gold Yacht -Master II. OK. And I remember the first time I looked at it, I was wearing sweatpants in the store. And at the time, they wouldn't take it out of the case and show it to me. They went in. Oh, I remember that, too. I didn't buy it from there, by the way, when I got it. Yeah, good. So about a year later, so that was I was starting to make some money. But it wasn't time for that one yet. And about a year later.

I was like, okay, like we crossed this point where I had made, you know, this much, and I'm gonna buy that watch. And I didn't know it, but that was like an anchor at the time. Fast forward a few. So that was about two and a half years into our first business. Fast forward another two years, and I find myself getting ready to go to a deposition as we were.

basically breaking that business apart. Okay, and this is right before we started spark. And for the like, now, doing a deposition to me is almost like fun, like, okay, let's go right. And I still do this on depositions to this day, I'll get to that in a minute, maybe. But so I'm nervous for this deposition, I'm going up against a lawyer who does this all the time. Yep. Right. And

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (24:07.056)
Well, I had made some money and had some success. I had that as an anchor. It was a new situation for me. And there's a lot of unknown moving into the future. So I'm getting ready. And I've got my suit on because it's in person. Some of my last couple of depths have been on Zoom, which is way less intimidating, by the way. So I'm looking, and I'm getting ready. And I decide, I'm wearing my gold Rolex to this thing.

I look at that watch and I'm like, OK, yeah, like you bought this when you crossed over a million dollars in income that you made. But when you look at that watch, you know all of the hard stuff that went into getting to that Yeah, what you overcame to It wasn't about the million dollars so much. It was about the person that I became and all the stuff in between over.

really a six year period or I'm sorry, a four and a half year period of being in the staffing industry and how hard I had worked in that time to learn this craft right and get good at it and all the extra hours all that when I look at that watch all that emotion come back to me and not every time I wore it right a lot of times up to that point. I just wanted to go out and and press. Yeah, yeah, flaunt it for lack of a return. Yeah.

And it impresses guys more than girls, by the way. So, like, yeah, I don't know. Like, that's a whole nother thing. But.

That day, I'm like, I'm wearing this because I know all the stuff I overcome and I'm uncomfortable in this situation. But I know that if I was able to do all that, I'm going to get through this too. And I went in there and I wore that watch that day. And I was probably trembling at some point. I remember just I'd kind of looked down at it. And maybe that's cheesy or people don't like that. But that was my first. I didn't even know I was doing it at that point. But it was absolutely an anchor for me in that moment.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (26:09.68)
Yeah, you know, it's it's funny because for me right now, you know, kind of transitioning through different different spaces and things like that for years upon years, I kept in my office an award I got, you know, our senior year of high school. And it was, you know, to most people, it wasn't a really big, big thing. And honestly, it didn't become a big thing to me until after my dad passed away.

And the award was for, it was like the Citizen of the Year in Macomb County, like Student Citizen of the Year. Now, you remember, but like I was involved in all these different things, you know, like I was helping out this and this and this and this. And I remember getting this award and seeing my mom and dad just light up, like the aspect of like...

this is what we want for our kid, right? And both of us have shared before on this podcast and others, like, we're really hard workers. You know, we have knowledge and wisdom, but we're not just like these geniuses. And I remember that face that my, you know, both of my parents had when I got the citizen of the year for my volunteer service and things like that. And to most people, they're like, EJ, that was, you know, 20 years ago.

But I still keep that in my office because I look back at it. Now for you, it sounds like you've kind of narrowed that down to a couple of different things, Aaron. And there's this meaning behind either making a purchase or going on a trip. What do those things look like for you now, 10 years later? I still like.

Tangible things to it. Okay, I can tie it back now like I'm not Knocking you could do those other things right, but I like to be able to look at it at you know If I have something on or if I'm driving something or whatever it is That I can get in a frame of mind like a lot of times. It's what I'm going through something difficult Okay, and think you know I might look at something and say man like Okay, you've overcome

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (28:28.624)
you've accomplished, like you worked through difficult things in the past. You might also look at it and say, man, like.

this problem now you were praying for like at this point. And so it's a good frame of mind in both ways. I think what's been interesting for me is although like, OK, it's still like a tangible thing like it for me, it's probably a watch. I've done a car before like even our our house that we live in now. Yep. And the house that we're building now are tied to these types of things. OK. But the interesting part isn't about that.

It's about that the like the first one I gave you. Yeah. Like, well, that was early on. Right. And what you would notice about that. Well, that was all about me. My personal income. OK. OK. And I'm not knocking that. Right. But there's been that evolution to that. And I look at those things now in my last couple. It's not I am a part of it. Right. But it's something way bigger than just me. And I think that.

That's good that shows an evolution and that's how it should be like it's not about Aaron do an x y or z It's about our companies, you know, so my one of my last ones ties to like us reaching our igniter. Okay You know, we we bought this building, you know that we're sitting in right and I bought a watch at that time Yeah building has multiple partners, right? when we bought into some pizza franchises, right I I

you know, have an anchor for that. OK. And, you know, OK, cool. I bought part of that. I have some partners in that. And I think what's my favorite part of that story is we brought someone that was working in these stores into the team. And it's the first time being an entrepreneur, they're part of building all these stores, but they weren't an entrepreneur. And now they are. Yeah. And not only that, but I know they're surrounded by a solid team that can be a great mentor to them.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (30:32.208)
continue to grow. And so just a couple of examples of and grown within that. I love hearing that because I think that that's how we're designed. We're designed to be able to grow. And as we grow, those desires, why we do things certainly change within that. And I just want to clarify for people to not only...

you and your family personally, but also your companies. You're very generous outside of here. It's not the first thing that you do. It's like, oh, I cross this and I go buy something. I know that your family is generous to charities, to the faith that you have and things like that. It's not just all about you. And that's a key part of your growth that I've seen.

And now I'm, you know, hearing firsthand as you do this. Has that trickled down into your your family life as well? Like, does your sweet wife, Anna, have those anchors as well that she sets? Or are you starting to develop that within your kids? She has some. Yeah, she has, you know, different, you know, benchmarks and like she likes purses or something she likes. She crossed a few things and.

bought herself a nice purse. Yeah, so she has those as well. I'd say we're in the genesis of building that into our girls. Okay. Know that they're old enough just yet. Well, I don't know if they're old enough or not. We haven't really started that something we're really working with our five year old on how we're, you know, I don't think we've done a bad job by any moment, but we're trying to improve as like that was our first run at being parents. Yeah.

You know, I tie a lot of stuff back to business and our teams, right? And, you know, we're trying to evolve in that. Like, we're doing a parenting class right now. Yeah. And I'm loving it. You know, we're two weeks in and everyone's like, oh, what's wrong? Why are you going to the class? And I'm like, well, nothing's wrong. Right. Like, we just want to, we want to work at it. We've never done this. And we were talking on, you know, our company's podcast about training and development and continuous improvement. Yeah. And it's like,

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (32:50.384)
I'm obsessed with that stuff on the business side. Well, man, if I get really good at that and don't figure out how to apply that or use the same principles on the family side, I'm going to fail in life. Because what's important, like this is important to me. It's vastly important to me. Well, so are they. And if I fail on that side, I've failed. OK.

that's just wired into us on both sides. And I like it that way. I think that's the right way to approach it. Yeah. OK, I'm going to wrap up with this today because I think both of these, the aspect of goal versus objective, attaching meaning to those objectives, and then anchoring that around either a, I'll just call it a,

Item it could be you know a trip it could be a note that you write yourself. Whatever that is Go ahead. I Don't know that I anchor to like Notes or things like that right okay, but if you if you look at my office here or at home specifically because a lot of them are pretty personal maybe so I don't have them just some of like the most important things to me are like

notes or letters or cards that I've like, like those are some of the most important things to me. Yeah. So I don't know that it's necessarily an anchor, but like that something like it's like if you looked around my office, I got like all these like, what's this? What's it's words someone, you know, wrote. Yeah. So that that means something. So I don't know. OK. So I'm interested. No, that's good. I don't know if you want to share this, so I'm going to I'm going to risk it. And you don't have to. But.

Can you just give us super brief? One, you know, just like that always stands out to you, meaning attached to an objective, and then will you share with us in anchor? So maybe in the meaning aspect, it's like a story of, you know, like.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (35:12.47)
seen someone's life improve or, you know, those type of things, or, you know, maybe it's even you personally. And then, you know, again, I don't want to bring you back to that flaunty, you know, Aaron that you feel like you've grown so much out of and obviously we've seen, but like, I would love to know what you feel like is the most epic anchor that you ever, you know, rocked or you ever got. And maybe that's uncomfortable for you, but I don't want to step on toes too much, but, um,

Can you just give us some on each of those? Sure. I mean, one that's top of mind is the last igniter that we cross. OK. And when we set that igniter, we do annual planning. We do a couple of meetings. And this is some of the stuff that we're talking about. Yeah. The focal point is setting up the planning for the next stage. So within that, we were laying out, OK, so here's the igniter. Here's the objective. Yeah.

But we also put up like an org chart and we and we've done this again on the next one that we're working on crossing. Yeah, I'm just as excited for that. Yeah. But what this is a different type of thing. But like this is definitely the meaning to the objective. Right. But because it was like we pulled up this org chart and now we've done it again, like it excites me to even think about it. But so anyways, we pull up this org chart and.

you know, we had talked about this number and I'm like, here's one of the reasons why this this number is important to me because when we cross this number, here's what I see. And what was on the board was additional executive positions. Okay. And so we cross that number. Yep. And in lockstep, across in that number actually a little bit early, which tends to happen as it relates to like momentum and stuff like you get on momentum. And yeah, so we

When we cross that number, we created all of these roles that we talked about. Got it. We were able to do that. That's awesome. And so we've now done that again, and attached some different things like on this next one, like, hey, part of why this is important to me, because I look at this role here, and this role here, this would be a new role, this would be a new role. I think the comp doubles on this role. Yep. And we're able to talk about all that stuff. And that's cool.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (37:40.474)
And again, it's like the fact that we've done that before and actually executed on it for the people that were in that first one. I think it helps them to understand like, man, they're not just, you know, he's not just saying that like, no, this actually happened this last time. This is going to happen when we do that. Right. Right. Like, let's go do it. Yep. So that would be the story that I would tell. I that. Like just the. And.

Like this is why we're going to do this and here's what's going to happen with them within we do it and I gotta be careful with that and if you don't know something's going to happen, you don't want to overstate things. Okay, I think this is going to happen at this point, but there's a lot that remains to be unseen so. More more to that, yeah, but that's you asked for a story. Yeah, that's one that's top of my. That's a great one. I want to change my question just so I can have an out for you in case in.

I don't want to be too forward, but what was the most significant anchor that, it sounds like for you, there's some aspect that it's around purchasing. So let's say, I don't need the most expensive, or I don't want you to have to put that out there like that. But what is the most significant one to you? Is it the Yacht -Master II?

No, I mean, it's hard to tell you which one's the most significant. Because they all have a chunk. Because they all, you know, they're different seasons of the process or experience or the journey.

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (39:29.68)
The one that I visualized the most, I'll just tell you or thought about the most was the AP Brick that I bought. So I bought that, it's the only aftermarket watch I've ever bought, which means I paid more than MSRP, which I don't recommend. In this case, if you buy the right watch, they should hold that value or appreciate more, it depends on the time. Watch...

Prices for all the watch aficionados out there are not like they're lower right now, but I'm not looking to flip that watch. Yeah, I've never flipped one of my watches that I've used as an anchor and that's why because they have meaning to me, right? I just I misspoke. We talked about this in in our prep. Yeah, that's not true. I did that one time and I regretted it. Got it. Watch that I bought the first time I made over one hundred thousand dollars. Yep.

I did sell. Okay. Because I got offered more than I paid for it. Yep. After having it for I think a decade. I sold it because I didn't wear it that much. And I was still I was doing this more and more. But like I'm more like intentional about this now. Yeah. I don't think I'll ever sell one of my like anchor purchases again for this reason. Yeah. I regret.

That okay. I wish one was a really cool watch. Yeah, it was a bright link. Okay, I just like the watch. Yeah, yeah, yeah underwear But I shouldn't have sold that and like okay I could go buy a similar it's not the same style because they update the models and stuff like that But I'm like, it's not the same. It's not the one right so I haven't done that but like I Don't know. I wish I wouldn't have done that. Yeah, cuz it meant more than me than getting you know, I

$500 more than I than I paid for right even though that's like man. I wore this for a decade I'm getting offered more than I paid for it like that's a good. Yeah, it is a good deal, but it's It's about the meaning. Yeah, you know so yeah, I love that well Aaron I think there's a ton of great knowledge that you shared even today. It's got my my head thinking I hope I didn't look like I was spacing out you know as I was listening to you, but my head spit you know spinning and

BoltCreativeStrategies | EJ (41:50.32)
You know, one of the things I love about this podcast as we've continued to develop it, continue to plan it is being able to not only hear your mindset, but also have watched it, you know, be, be proven over the years. You know, you don't just, um, you know, share all the wins. You share the things that are setbacks. I love how you even, you know, just a minute ago recalled like, actually I did do that once. Um, just super transparent. And that's part of success. It's part of.

growing that. And today, I hope that people who are listening take that as a nugget to spark their success and continue to move on. And today, whether you're thinking about anchoring achievements to key objectives, you're thinking through the aspect of goals versus objectives, attaching meaning or anchoring it with something. I hope that each of you...

truly are moved by this. We would love to hear maybe something that you've anchored as you've hit an objective or you attach meaning to as you cross those, what we call igniters here. We hope that you'll tune in again. Make sure you like, share, subscribe to the Sparking Success podcast with Aaron Opeluski. We hope you have a great day and God bless you guys. Aaron, thanks again. Thanks, CJ.