In this episode, we continue to dive into the inspiring book by Jesse Cole where we discuss his idea of Yellow Tuxing Yourself. This is the concept of having the mindset of being a CEO and the inner work that you need to be a leader into three main categories, mirror moments, committing to growth, and being a sponge.

Mirror Moments

When Jesse talks about mirror moments, he's talking about having a good hard look at yourself as an entrepreneur, as a business leader, and as a human who has to play that role every day. Often times, in our haste to be productive, we tend to plow through the day just to get things done and skip this part entirely. And if you take some time to set these things up early on in your career, you're going to save yourself a world of energy, disappointment and struggle down the line.

A very important concept is aiming to be different and better in your industry. Because the way great brands stay great is by continuously finding and looking out for pain points and then areas of opportunity. It's not good enough to be the leader in a brand today, you also have to be the leader in the brand tomorrow.

And so if you don't care about doing it better, don’t invest time and money to continuously do better, then you're not going to make it long term as a brand leader.

Committing To Growth

This is all about pushing boundaries and staying relevant in the industry. And so if we had just stopped when things are going great and not pushed the boundaries, and continue to learn and see what other ideas were out there, in different industries that we could apply to our craft then we would have been marginalized. We would have had nothing unique and interesting to say in our field, because it would have all just sounded like everybody else.

Another part of growing is being honest with yourself. What you love to do or areas of interest might be hurting your business when you are not competent enough in that field. You can still educate yourself, learn the concepts, and how things are done but delegate and let other people do it for you. And so Jesse talks about that difference between knowing all the parts of a business and doing all the parts of a business. Hire the people that you need to hire, don't try and absorb all the jobs, because it's keeping you from doing the thing that's going to make your business succeed.

Being A Sponge

Jesse talks about some outside help that he brought in for his business, an out of the box thinker. And after one day with this guy, listening to his ideas and soaking his wisdom up like a sponge, it completely transformed their business.

This success story was setting up a bookstore and stacking his book in every corner and different sections of the store. You could see the book in the business section and self-help. Even putting a sign that said shoplifting is encouraged! It was all about drumming up awareness and getting the book in people's hands. And it worked. His promotions were covered in national publications like people in USA Today because is was fun and unique.

It was a great example of how someone in a different industry with a different marketing plan can give new ideas or concepts and Jesse was able to figure it out in his mind how he could apply that to his business.

And so you don't have to just look at people who are doing and saying the things that you already know. Be open with going outside of that scope.