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The greatest problem solving skill never taught · Inside Strategic Relations

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  There are some things I can do inherently well when it comes to problem solving
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  that I can teach you in a matter of minutes so that you can solve
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  bigger problems more effectively and get better results. I'm justin hit from inside Strategic
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  relations where we talk about critical thinking and problem solving. One of the concepts
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  I'd like to share with you today is called backing out of a problem,
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  where the problem becomes the solution and some kind of ancillary or tangential event eliminates
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  the need to solve the problem. So hopefully I can give you a practical
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  example. Let's say you're in a village and you have food insecurity, clean
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  water problems, but you do have some basic access to technology. You have
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  a certain amount of knowledge or information. Now this you may relate because many
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  of the folks are subject matter experts, and you may have knowledge in an
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  industry, and sometimes you ask yourself, why don't other people know these things?
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  Well, the problem that you're facing may be solved by helping other people
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  understand the basics of what you know so that they're better prepared to hire you
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  for a service. Now, again, many of the people that are on
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  this newsletter are subject matter experts that are either looking for career advancement, they're
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  seeking out ways to improve their situation as far as being a consultant or a
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  business owner or executive. And this expertise and knowledge is difficult to convey,
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  but it's necessary for the hiring manager or a recruiter or a client to understand.
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  So backing out of the problem, and the problem, of course is
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  the not the exposure, but the transforming your knowledge into revenue, we now
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  look at what can we do. So I'm working with somebody in a foreign
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  country and they do legitimately have limited resources, and I've asked them. I
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  said, look, I will pay you to produce a video that teaches me
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  how to do something that you know very well. All I need is a
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  ten or fifteen minute video. I'll put it on one of my podcasts,
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  I'll put it on one of my newsletters. I'll wrap some content around it
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  to see if my audience is interested. Because their problem of food insecurity,
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  not having clean water, and other other issues associated with that, nutrition and
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  hunger, that kind of thing I know how to solve, but I know
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  it's not going to be solved by just giving them money, because it could
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  be a scam. It could be they don't use money properly. They may
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  be just asking for money because it's the only possible solution that they know of.
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  And so I said, well, do the video, and they say,
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  well, I don't have any data. I don't have any you know
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  good, I don't have a good video camera. And so what they're doing
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  there is instead of solving a problem, which is how can I find a
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  video camera? How can I record this video? And by the way,
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  this person has the title of a content creator, they are a digital marketer.
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  So the access to these things may not be sufficient, so they could
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  believe that the camera they have isn't good enough. They can believe that they're
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  not comfortable speaking. What we do when we back out of the problem is
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  we document the problem. We write in a list all the excuses, because
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  excuses are really the bigger problem here, all the excuses that are keeping you
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  from doing something. And then we look at the skill set that's necessary to
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  overcome these problems or excuses, and then we, on a third sheet of
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  paper, take massive action. Now I know a lot of folks will just
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  worry and not take action, but I'm telling you literally make a list of
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  the problems you face, the challenges, the concerns, the frustrations. This
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  could be a journaling exercise, this could be an end of the day activity,
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  just to get those problems out of your brain. You often find that
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  some of the things that are top of mind are more action oriented. So
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  you're worried about needing to do something thing, and so you just can put
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  that worry on a to do list and then come back to it later.
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  But other things are legitimate. You're concerned about the economy, you're concerned about
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  food security, You're concerned about immediate needs like food and shelter. So you
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  make a little list. Now you might be saying with justin, I don't
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  have a pad of paper. Well, for god's sakes, you're listening to
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  a podcast on a digital device. You can use a notepad, you can
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  use something else. It's about creative thinking. It's about understanding the foundations of
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  our concerns. It's about addressing heads on that fear and doing something anyway,
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  So you have this list. And in this case, he's saying he doesn't
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  have camera, he doesn't have you know he doesn't. I'm believing he's not
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  English is the second language. I'm believing he's not comfortable doing something in English.
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  So my recommendation is is to basically use someone else's camera by holding a
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  small workshop in his village where he teaches what he was going to teach me,
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  except to the people in the audience and ask them, hey, look,
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  I'm going to focus on giving you the very best information I can so
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  that you can grow your own food. Because he does have skills. A
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  lot of times people when they face problems, they don't believe they have solutions,
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  but that solution is so close to them that they think of maybe the
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  better answers outside. But in this case, this gentleman has skills. And
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  so if he's teaching these skills and an informative and focused session to people in
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  his own community so that they can do the same, now we're addressing the
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  food security challenge. If he's teaching them how to solve a problem that he
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  also faces, and he can be honest, he can say, look,
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  I don't have all the solutions of this, but here's what I know.
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  What else do you know? Now you've got collaboration in partnership, so you've
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  multiplied the resources available to solve the problem. It's also possible that he can
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  say, look, because I'm focusing on giving you the very best information i
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  can about how to have healthy meat in your home and how to solve food
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  insecurity challenges. If you would just please record the session on your phones and
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  then share it with your friends, now you've got a marketing campaign because a
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  few people will videotape it so that they can watch it later, and then
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  they can share it on their data plans on their phones with their friends and
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  community. And then you say, look, I know you're going to have
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  questions about these things, and so I'll be more than happy if you'll do
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  this for me, which is to record the presentation and share it on social
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  media. Then I will offer an answer any of your questions in the next
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  workshop. So we'll hold a special workshop just for you to answer your questions.
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  Now, what's happened here? Well, somebody in a third world country.
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  I don't like using that term, because what really is a third world
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  country? It's just somebody who claims to be a first word country saying the
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  other person is not as good. But the truth is humans are humans,
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  and humans all have skills and value and if we can package these values and
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  help other people solve problems, then many of the things that we want will
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  come to us. So in this case, he would have a video recording,
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  not necessarily one that he could send to me and get paid for,
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  but maybe he could. But he'd also have a small community of individuals.
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  He'd also have the credibility of a third party recording, and so when those
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  people share it, he could send me a link to one of the people
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  who shared, and then I could just download the video. There's so many
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  solutions in this. Now here is the challenge many of my long term clients
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  and coaching members. This is inherent in the way they look at problems.
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  They see a problem and they write it down, and then they outline what
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  skills that they need to have, not necessarily that they need personally, but
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  skills that need to solve the problem. And in this case it's food security.
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  What do you need the knowledge to grow gardens and food? Well,
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  what do you need to grow the food seeds? Who has the seeds?
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  See what we're doing here. Your car doesn't work. You like the car
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  to work. Who can fix the car? What skills are necessary to fix
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  the car? Who has those skills, and then we take action three simple
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  steps. And the reason it becomes inherent is because the more that you practice
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  it, the easier it becomes. You don't need to write an essay about
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  the problems you base. You can just make a list. You know,
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  here's what we're trying to do, here's what we need to do it,
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  and here's the action we're going to take. Now what you need to do
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  It is not always aligned with what is actually necessary to do the problem,
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  because this individual thinks they need money or a better camera or better tools.
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  And I don't know if you felt that way. You know you want to
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  get into podcasting because podcasting is a great way for a subject matter expert to
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  build an audience and then within that audience to build consulting in career opportunities.
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  But now you're watching videos about what cameras do you need and what tools?
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  You don't need any tools. Just pull out that phone and get started.
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  None of my audio or video or content is polished. It doesn't have to
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  be, because I'm looking for individuals willing to take action, not individuals that
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  have excuses and want to procrastinate. And then what I try to do is
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  help you convert the excuses into action so that you can build up the resources
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  that you need to solve the problems that you face. Now, this is
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  not a system that you have to be biologically able to use. It came
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  to me through my dad being a marine, and he'd very often say so,
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  we'd send us out on tasks in the yard, picking up rocks in
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  the yard or mowing the grass, and he wouldn't accept an excuse when we
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  couldn't get the grass mode. He'd come home from work after work and what
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  I understand to be a hard day's work. I've even gone to work with
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  him to see what his days are like. And he comes home and he
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  says, grass is not mode. He's not looking for why I didn't mow
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  the grass, because his expectation was the outcome and result. Now, it's
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  easy to be that way for other people, and to hold other people accountable
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  and with high expectations of what other people should do. But when you turn
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  that back on yourself, you actually get things done. Because when I go
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  out there and mow the grass, what I found out is that even if
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  I stomped the mower, even if I put water in the fuel tank,
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  even if I crashed the mower into trees. No matter what I did to
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  that mower, he's going to fix that mower and send me back out to
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  mow the grass. It was actually easier to simply just mow the grass and
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  get the work done and be done with it. Then it was to find
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  reasons and excuses why I couldn't mow the grass. And what this taught me
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  over time was is that I didn't mind mowing the grass, but I didn't
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  I wanted to get paid for it. So my father wasn't certainly going to
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  pay me, because of course he's having all these expenses associated with maintained the
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  mower. I'd run the mower over rocks, I'd run the mower over stumps,
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  I crashed the mower into stuff, and he just kept fixing it.
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  So he's got a lot of expenses associated with this. But again, he's
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  got to teach me a lesson. He's a little bit stubborn. And the
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  lesson I learned is that mowing isn't that if you just do it. But
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  I'd much rather mow and get money for mowing, and I wasn't going to
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  get that at home, So I asked, can I take the mower and
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  mow other people's yards, because I went up, knocked on the door,
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  and can I mow other people's yards? And yes, I could mow other
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  people's yards. And I get twenty bucks for mowing a yard, thirty bucks
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  from mow in the yard, and that was enjoyable. Now interesting enough,
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  my dad said, well, you know, maintaining a lawnmower is expensive and
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  fuel costs are always going up. Isn't that the way? And so I
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  shared my earnings with my parents, who would drive me to different places the
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  mo But the point of it is is it became an enterprise rather than being
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  an excuse. It became a solution rather than be an excuse. Now I
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  still mowed my own lawn and at the house, but we ended up getting
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  a riding lawnmoarer because after a while I could demonstrate I wasn't going to wreck
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  the mower up all the time, and it's entirely possible. He thought I
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  was a complete idiot for running the mower into trees and running it over rocks
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  and stuff like that, but he was patient and he was asked questions and
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  helped me learn mowing wasn't that bad. Now, I forget these lessons sometimes.
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  And when I was a young kid mowing, I figured out that I
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  can get paid to mow the neighbor's yards. And when I was a teenager,
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  I still was aggressive with the mower and figured out that he's just going
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  to keep fixing the mower. Not that he liked fixing the mower, but
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  if I was going to learn the lesson again, the lesson was is that
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  the problems always exist. But the difference between someone who gets results and someone
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  who keeps problems is the resources, the knowledge, the transformation of information that
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  helps you turn excuses into outcomes. And now you've got an idea what the
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  outcome you desire is. I wanted to get paid to mow the grass.
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  This gentleman wants to have food security. We can now focus on the actions
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  that create those outcomes. So I've asked him to send me a video.
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  I don't care if he films it. I don't care if his local news
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  station films it. I don't care if it's if it's a crappy looking video.
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  I'm going to give him five dollars to create a ten to fifteen minute
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  video explaining something that I've been able to confirm he has a credible outcome.
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  You know, he knows how to do it, and so he's he always
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  got to do is the video. That's it. Now on my side,
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  I don't have to worry about it anymore. But it hasn't been a source
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  of content because I'm not quite sure why he hasn't figured this out yet.
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  But again, I'm coaching him, I'm working with him. I'm giving him
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  ideas and concepts. I want to do the same for you. Now,
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  you don't necessarily have to be a coaching client because we have a you know,
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  an application process, and not everybody gets accepted. I mean, coaching
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  clients are really for people who have a high income they want to transform into
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  wealth, or they have a business. They're a business owner or an executive,
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  and they want to get to that next level of recognition, authority,
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  or even performance in their organization. But I can coach you through this podcast
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  to say to you it's three simple pieces of paper, and you can do
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  this in a journal or in your like an engineering notebook. It's outline the
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  problems. You don't have to do ten pages, so you can do one
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  page, just list the problems that are the biggest problems you have, outline
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  or list the resources you need or desire, or even what you believe might
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  be necessary to help solve that problem, and then we ask the rational question,
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  what can we do today? What can we do right now? And
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  what you often discover is the solution to your problems is within the definition of
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  the problem itself. It's the understanding of the root cause and then ultimately doing
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  something. Now, are you always going to do the right thing? Not
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  necessarily? Are you always gonna Is the problem always going to go away in
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  a timely fashion? No, I've had some problems that keep going off for
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  like four years and it's not getting solved. But then again, are all
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  problems worth solving? See, there's there's a context here that goes into what
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  is it that you want? What is it that you're looking to create?
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  Now, we've got resources on the website at www dot jwhco dot com.
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  There is a catalog there with a bunch of resources we put together. At
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  the main website www dot Inside Strategic Relations dot com. We got a free
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  newsletter with more resources. But you don't need more resources to solve the problem.
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  The main fact that you can identify, define and prioritize your problems can
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  help you start eliminating those problems. Whether it's financial, whether it's a lack
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  of influence, whether it's not being seen by the right people who can hire
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  you. No matter what the problem is, there are solutions nearby. Now,
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  you're not going to necessarily solve the problem individually, okay, and let
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  me explain that before we wrap it up. The typical solution that I find
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  has the longest, the longevity, and the power in the scale is to
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  not try to do to do it yourself. It's to work with somebody or
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  to build a team, or to organize resources to work as a collaborative to
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  solve the problem. Not a you know, we're going to democratically decide what
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  to do, but basically enroll people that have the skills that you don't have
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  to either learn from them or to have them do the work, rather than
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  you try to do everything yourself. There isn't another tool to buy, there
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  isn't another book to read, There isn't anything to get you started other than
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  to list the problems out, identify the resources, and do something that moves
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  you towards a desired outcome. Now. Later along the line, yes,
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  you may need to buy resources, but you'll have more context to know what
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  training program, what coaching program, tools, what software, what management company,
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  what marketing agency, what new idea or concept that you need to learn,
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  And you'll be able to ask valid questions. And I mean validity is
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  in your own mind of benefit. And so you'll stop spending your wheels,
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  you stop wasting time, and you'll start moving faster towards the outcomes you desire.
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  I'm justin hit with Inside Strategic relations where we talk about how to transform
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  business relationships into profits. Guaranteed the problems you face today, solutions exist.
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  They may not be in your grasp right now, but they are much closer
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  than you can imagine. There are solutions out there that we can help you
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  solve. But the main problem we want to make sure you can cover is
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  to position yourself in a marketplace with authority so that you can transform business relationships
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  in the profit. Everything you desire in life, somebody has it and can
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  bring it to your doorstep. What I've talked about today here helps you clarify,
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  identify, or narrow the scope and then ultimately get the action you're looking
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  for. Thanks for listening. Again, if you have questions, visit www
• 17:57
  dot inside strategic relation dot com go to the contact page where you can ask
• 18:02
  your questions, and then we have free newsletters, podcast archives, a membership
• 18:07
  program, all kinds of resources so that you can get started right now,
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  moving towards the outcome you desire. Again, I'm justin Hit. I'm a
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  strategic relations consultant with lots of years of experience and the ability to help you
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  solve complex problems in a profitable way. I want to thank you for listening
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  and being a part of what we do, and I look forward to your questions.