Unbalanced on Purpose: Brendan P. Keegan on Goals, Leadership, and Time

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This is the Authority Company podcast conversations with leaders who
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are building the future. On I'm Joe PARTI Vila. Today,
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I'm joining by Brendan P. Keegan, an award winning president
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and CEO, investor, board member, and author of the new
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book Unbalanced on Purpose, Move beyond the myth of perfect
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balance and live with intention. After raising more than ten
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billion in capital, leading over two hundred and fifty thousand people,
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and helping drive major.
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Growth at companies like Merchant's Fleet, Brendan brings a real
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world framework.
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For moving past the myth of perfect balance and living
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with more clarity, energy and intention.
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Brendan Keegan, Welcome to the show. How are you, my friend?
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Good? Good, Excited to be here with you today, Joe.
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It's been a long time.
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I've known you for years, Brendan, And you know what's funny,
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I've never seen you as the contrarian type.
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You've always had.
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Leadership roles, you know, these days you're on a bunch
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of boards, but you've taken the contrarian side here, which
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kind of surprised you when I first saw you. Know,
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obviously the name of the book is Unbalanced on per Purpose,
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and for years, as you know, especially since the pandemic.
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Work life balance or life work balance, you know, they
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have they always have the play on words, but you
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come out firing with unbalanced on purpose. When did you
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come to this realization that a little on balance is okay? Well,
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you know, here's how I look at it. Is your
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balance and my balance they're different. They're different like nobody's
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balance is the same. Because your balance goes off of
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what your goals are.
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You know, So if you have goals of, hey, I'm
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twenty five, I want to retire at fifty, well then
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you better be working some good hours, you know. If
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your goal is you know, hey, you know, I want
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to have great work life balance. I want to have
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summers off, I want to travel, you know, I want
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to get married, have kids, and you know work doesn't
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mean as much to me. Then you don't have to
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put those same hours in. But you know, you may
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not be retiring at fifty. So so it's it's my
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goals drive what my balance is. And by the way,
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balance is one thing at twenty three, another thing at
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thirty three, another thing at forty three. You know, you
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get married, that changes your balance, You have kids, that
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changes your balance. By the way your kids are now
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out of college. That changes your balance. So I kind
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of talk about, you know, unbalanced on purpose. There's a
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lot of people who would say, oh, they're you are unbalanced,
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but for them, they're perfectly balanced based on their goals.
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Right, And so with your life, what does that look like?
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What does unconscious imbalance mean to you? Like the idea
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of just living in this unbalanced state with what almost
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being intentional about it?
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Because I think remember Brendan, there was.
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That whole thing about being an intentional with your time,
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making using it wisely. So tell me about this idea
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of unconscious imbalance.
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Yeah. So so I'm just going to give you just
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a super straightforward example, you know myself. So if I
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if I roll the clock back, you know, to you know,
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I'm twenty five, I'm twenty six, just getting married. I
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remember actually working on Thanksgiving and I remember just went
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in the morning, worked a little bit, came home and
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you know, I was with my fiance and we were
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at the in laws and that was great. Fast forward
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to now with the family, like I'm taking Wednesday off,
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Thursday off, Friday off, not working. So having a family,
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you know, changed what my work hours are and taking
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that step further. I made a decision early in my
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kids' life, not not when they were born. It probably
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took me to wise up till they were four or five,
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about the time they really started having events, you know,
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like school plays were the first events, school graduations, kindergarten.
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Then they started playing sports. I just made a decision,
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I'm not going to miss anything, period. So that changed
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how I you know, what hours I worked Now. I
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still worked a lot of hours. But for instance, when
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they were in high school, they had games every Wednesday afternoon,
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and everybody at my company knew, do not look for
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Brendan in the office Wednesday at two. And by the way,
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he's probably not going to respond to you two to
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six on Wednesday, but he'll be back online at seven.
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That's just a choice. So you know, you can be unbalanced.
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And then that change. And again I think what drives
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that change is what are your goals? So my goals
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at twenty five, the amount of time I was investing
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in family at twenty five was very little. Family was
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a fiance. Family were parents that you know, you know,
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we didn't see each other every day. At forty five,
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family was two young kids that I coached in sports,
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and I wanted to be around as much as possible.
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So just the amount of time I put into family
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at twenty five versus forty five dramatically different. But that
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was me based on I wanted to be around my kids.
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That's great and it's a great example about the two
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to six thing, because one thing that you mentioned there,
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you said it really quickly, was you can't get them
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two to six, but you know what, at seven, he'll
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send you a note where some people would be like,
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my work life balance is two to six. I'm taking
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off of this work for personal engagement. But then after
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that it's after six clocks, so I'm not gonna I'm
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not gonna.
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Deal with work.
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So there is that idea of I get.
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I mean, you use the perfect idea word of like
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unconscious imbalance because even though you've you've checked out for
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four hours, at seven o'clock, your team and your employees,
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they're going to be getting an email from you if
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you sent them an email, which I think is incredibly
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important for people to bring up because Brendan, you and
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I had talked about in the past, like the idea
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of like when people go on vacation and then they
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spend the first two days back going through emails like
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you and I can't relate to that. But the idea
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of like not even looking at your email, Like, first
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of all, I respect people's ability to do that. I
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can't do that, But this idea of like imbalanced balance
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is like, okay, cool, I'm gonna during the day, I'm
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gonna take time away from it family, but I guess
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at seven o'clock, where most people will probably be winding down,
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I'm gonna start up again. That's super important to point out.
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But what drove me get it logging back on at
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seven was that I had a goal of being a CEO,
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so as the CEO, the decision I made to be CEO.
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I made the decision that at seven I had to
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log back on. Now, if I had said, you know,
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I don't want to be a CEO, I would like
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to remain an individual contributor, then I could have left
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the office of two and logged in the next morning
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at eight am. Right, my goals said, if you want
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to be CEO, you can still do this for your kids,
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So that's great, but you then are going to work
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seven to eleven at night. So you're gonna take four
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hours out in the afternoon, but you're gonna put four
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hours in at night. So my kids, it's so interesting
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now to hear them talk about that they didn't see
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the work behind the scenes that they see now. And
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I asked my daughter, what do you mean. She goes,
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I didn't know when we would go on vacation. I'm
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going to take your example. You know that you were
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up at four, you did your work out, and then
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you worked in you know, three hours before we got up,
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and then when we went to bed at nine o'clock.
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When they were little, that I worked till you know,
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eleven or eleven thirty. She said, we just saw that
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you were at the amusement park with us. We saw
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that you were on the beach with us. You saw
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that you were on tour with us. And I said, right,
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you know, that's because I wanted to be present for you.
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But I still had at that point a CEO role
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that demanded certain hours. But I also would tell people
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when I would go on vacation. And this is really important, guys.
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Here's when you will hear from me. You know, Eastern
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Standard time, you will hear from four to seven four
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to eight in the morning, and you will hear from
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eight to midnight, but from you know, six in the
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morning till whatever, six seven, eight at night, I'm generally
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gonna be offline. And you know, i'd say, hey, if
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something's an emergency, dial you know, text me nine to
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one one. If it's almost an emergency, eight one one.
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And by the way, if you're just trying to get
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me information, it's for one one. And that that was
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our code. And I can tell you a funny story.
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We were on our way to go diving with our
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snorkeling with whale sharks and we're in a van. There's
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twelve of us in the van where we're in Mexico,
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and I got a nine to one one and the
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entire van found the call absolutely fascinating. And I will
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tell you because it was a nine one one, I
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droped it. I dropped a few inappropriate f bombs with
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kids in the in the van, but my point was
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nine one one. That meant doesn't matter. You know. Now
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we were in the van, it's like you're calling me
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back right away.
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Wow, that's good stuff. And I wonder because I know
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a lot of the content and.
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Your books are your towards leaders.
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But how about this idea of leading by example, like
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they see the big as with the hot sauce working
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like this. Did you expect or hope that this sort
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of commitment would rub off on your people or did
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you or is it one of those things where you
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were like, Hey, I'm Brendan Keegan, I'm cut from a
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different cloth.
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I'm not going to expect that. How did you hand up?
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Because I think some leaders do that where it's lead
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by example, but lead you better follow what I'm leading with.
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No, you see, like, my expectations are in line with
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what role you've chosen in the company. So if you're
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my CFO, then my expectations are very similar to myself
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because you have taken the CFO role. If you are
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an office clerk, an office administrator, if you're a receptionist,
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I have no expectations that you're going to do any
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work before eight thirty or nine, And I have zero
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expectations that you're gonna do anything after five none. Matter
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of fact, I would find it odd if a receipt
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just was working at seven at night, I'd be like,
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what are you doing?
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So something illegal is happening in the office there, Bright.
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I'm like, you know, you know, you're stealing post its.
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So I look at it as the role defines the
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level of work you need to put in now. In
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my in the book, I actually used this example of
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these two twins. One has chosen to go into investment
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banking and at twenty three years old is getting to
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the office at eight and getting home at midnight. And
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one has chosen to be a school teacher, you know,
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and you know, getting getting to work at eight, leaving
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at three, having weekends off, teacher's days off, having the
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summers off, and both of them are balanced based on
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their goals, and I use them throughout all nine chapters
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to explain that based on the season of their life.
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Like the twenty three ar old that's an investment banking
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is like, hey, right now, I'm putting a tremendous amount
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of time to building my career foundation, and I'm going
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to push off marriage. I'm going to push off kids.
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So a little bit later, the school teacher's like, hey,
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I actually have a boyfriend, and i'd like to get
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married sooner and later. I'd like to have kids. I'd
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like to settle down. So they're both actually accomplishing their goals,
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and they're both balanced based on what they are trying
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to achieve. And that's one thing I talk a lot
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about just in general when I'm mentoring people. Don't let
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somebody else put their expectations or their intentions on you
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because you have different goals.
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Now, that's great stuff, Brendan.
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And one of the things that a nothing we've talked
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about in the past and something we're passionate about is
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the busyness epidemic. This idea that especially this is definitely
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a Western culture thing, how we wear business with as
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almost like a badge of.
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Honor, like it's our cape.
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And it's become such a strong cape that when that
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word is dropped into conversation, it's like a mic chop.
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It's almost like saying my cat died is the same
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level as I'm busy. People will respond to the cat
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dyeing like, oh to the busy, Oh my god, I
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can only imagine how busy you are?
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What what's going on?
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Like?
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First of all, First of all, I hit on this
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in the first chapter. I hit on it, I think
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in the first couple of lines. I call it the
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delusion of busyness. Okay, everybody thinks they're busy. The reality
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is most people aren't. So for instance, I'll have somebody say, hey, Bernond,
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I love to get thirty minutes of your time, and
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I know you're busy, and they're stunned when I go, actually,
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I'm not busy. Do you want to meet today, tomorrow,
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the next day? You know. And here's the thing. Busyness
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has become a status symbol. Like if I say, you know, nope,
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I'm not busy, is it I'm not important. I don't
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have a good job, like you know, I'm not spending
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time with my family. Like no one says, you know, hey,
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how you doing good? Good busy? No, Like you just
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don't hear that. Now. What I do enjoy and I've
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always considered myself like a little bit of a leadership
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scientist without the you know, cape and the PhD is
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you know. I'll have some of my good friends say
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I'm so busy and I actually know what they're doing,
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and I'm like, you're not busy, You're really not. You know,
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you have a nine to five job. You're like the
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receptionist or the administrator. You know, your kids are out
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of college, you don't have a lot of hobbies, like
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you're not busy, but we are conditioned to say that.
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And it's interesting, the more we say that, the more
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we actually convince ourselves. But like when people say I'm busy,
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they don't say it just to as a status symbol.
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They actually believe it. They could pass a polygraph. But like,
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is scrolling Instagram or Facebook or reading Reddit for an
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hour a day busy? No? And you know, we could
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go back to nineteen hundred and say, you know, ready
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for this, People in nineteen hundred were busier than we
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are today And you might say, no, way, they didn't
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work as much as we do, and I'd say, well
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they did because their household chores all just to to
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live took longer. They didn't have Instacart for their food,
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they didn't have door dash to have delivered. They didn't
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have you know, a yard service to come do their yard.
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They did their yard, They made their milk, they made
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their butter, they cleaned their own house, they did their
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own laundry. They didn't have dry cleaning. So if you
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took all the hours of things that we outsource to
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other people and say hey, wait, we have to do that,
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you could argue that someone in nineteen hundred had more
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to do and they were busier than we are today.
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Now what if we filled that time with We filled
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it with social media, we filled it with television, we
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filled it with radio. We've filled it with going on
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trips and driving. You know, nineteen hundred, they weren't saying, hey,
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do you want to go to Europe for a week's vacation? Right?
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You know, you know, they were saying, hey, are we gonna,
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you know, take a couple of days off and go
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buy horse and buggy and go visit somebody, you know,
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three four hours away. So so I talk about the
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delusionion of busyness and and it kind of sets the
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book up a little bit.
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Now I love that, and it's funny.
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One of my favorite like on the Street interviews ever
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was Jerry Seinfeld. And you know, Jerry's very sarcastic and sardonic,
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and the person just to you know, hold up a
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camera say hey, Jerry, how do you how do you
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have time to do all these things? Because he was, like,
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I think he had published a book, he was producing
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a TV show what have you? And then typical Jerry
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Seinfeld fashion said I have the same amount of time
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you do.
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I'm not. I'm not more busy or you're busy. I
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just I have I have the.
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Same you know, twelve to ten working hours of the day,
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and I get things.
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Done during the time.
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And so I think Brandon, it's not even like almost
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like a business issue. It's like a prioritization issue, like
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people just do not prioritize things, because I'll often I'll
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use the example of like I'll say to someone, hey,
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do you have three hours tomorrow.
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To do this one thing? Like oh no, no, no, no,
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so busy.
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I'm like, oh, man, because Joe Rogan would love to
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have you on his podcast and it takes three hours,
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would you do oh you no, No, I do that.
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I sit down for Jill rigansres but I just don't
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have any other three hours of the day. So it's
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I think it's more of just prioritizing what's important and
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like you said, stop wasting time scrolling doing stuff on
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social media, watching you know, an eight hour sit down
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binge of Netflix. It's a prioritization problem that I think
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a lot of leaders, and I think even non leaders
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grapple it.
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Today.
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Well, I think everyone grapples with it. So so you know,
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as I go through my book of I call balance,
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the I call the six circles of connection, and I
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kind of order them. Where the first circle is is
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yourself is your self circle. And what I have found
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is the more time you put into yourself, the more
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an energy you have for others. And so the first
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circle is self. The second circle is family. And I
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gave the example. You know, my amount of time I
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put into my family at twenty five versus forty five,
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very different. At twenty five it was five or ten percent.
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Visiting my parents with Thanksgiving, visiting them at Christmas. You know,
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I I live far away, you know, would come home
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in March or April, visit them over the summer. So
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you know, four or five family visits a year. Family
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box was was checked now out of four or five
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games in a given week, you know, when my kids
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were younger. The third one is friends and friends. Here's
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what I find. I find when you're twenty five, you
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put ten, fifteen, twenty percent of time into friends. That's
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who you go out with on Friday night, That's who
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you go out with on Saturday night. Okay, All of
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a sudden, when when you're married and you have kids
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and they're in high school. At least for me, I
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abandoned a lot of my friends. Not intentionally, but it
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was like I put time into work and then boom,
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family took up twenty five thirty percent of my time.
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And so if somebody said, hey, Brnan, when you want
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to get together in golf, and I'd be like, how September? Look,
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you know, the last three months away, I'm like, I'm sorry.
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I got travel across all June, July and August. Man,
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I'm tapped out, you know. So that's what I call it.
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Third circle. The fourth circle is faith, you know, putting
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time into your faith so you remain balanced. And again
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that takes different times throughout your life, you know. Number
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five and six is community, you know, like volunteering, being
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a member of your community. You know, for me, I
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put a lot of hours into coaching. I viewed that's
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how I could give back. And then the sixth is professional.
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Now you might someone might say, well, geez, why is
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professional six? Why isn't it first? Well, if we put
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it first, we would just fill that up. You know,
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it's almost like a default for a lot of people. Sure,
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and so I kind of go through those and say
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you go through seasons where you know professional at one point,
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you know, stet twenty three year old investment bank or
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professionals eighty ninety percent, you know, and then but all
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of a sudden, that investment banker when they're forty three,
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forty five, their professional might be thirty forty percent because
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they've they've pulled it back. So when you look at
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those But here's the thing I talk about, be conscious
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about it. I'll give a good example and I'll give
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a bad example. A good example is, you know, a
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number of years ago, actually four years ago, I was
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going through a sale process, selling the company, and I
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remember sitting my family down and saying, Okay, guys, not
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going to have you sign NDAs, but very confidential, we're
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going to be selling the company. Well, dad, that's great.
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You know why A you're telling us, Well, for the
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next six months, you know, I'm not going to have
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as much time as I normally have for stuff, and
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there's gonna be times I'm gonna be a jerk and
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maybe a little impatient just because there's a little bit
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more pressure on me at work. So for six months
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they would kind of be like they would give me
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a little bit of a little bit more rope. I
399
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would hopefully, you know, I still made their events, but
400
00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:44.079
it might be you know, not as not as optimal.
401
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But here's the deal. Soon as we sold and the
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deal was over, I recognized that I sacrificed friend time
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and family time. And then as soon as we sold,
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I was reinvesting into those circles. And I remember I
405
00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:03.759
took twelve of my friends on the New England Patriots
406
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jet out to a game against the Raiders, and I
407
00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:09.680
remember saying when we got there, I said, hey, guys,
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this is a gift for me. You know, I'm sorry
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for being a really crappy friend the last year. You know,
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I just haven't had time for any of you. Now,
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I did get a kick out of one of them said, hey,
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if this is the reward, be a crappy friend to
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us next year too. But that was me consciously saying
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my answer was no to my friends for a year.
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But I didn't want that to become who I was.
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I just wanted to check back in. So that's a
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good example. I'm gonna give you a bad example. Early
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in my career, we were doing a startup. I was
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out in Silicon Balley. I was working eighteen hours a day,
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and you know, I'd always worked out every day, and
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you know, like this morning I worked out. It's been important.
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But my self circle suffered and I stopped working out,
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and in like six months, I put on like twenty
424
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pounds because I was working. I was eating like crap.
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They were having dinner broad in every night. It was
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a race. You know, the internet boom was taken off,
427
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so it was just a race. And I remember an
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employees saying to me, his name was Dan, saying, you know, hey, Brendan,
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you know when you got here, used to work out
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all the time. You're in great shape, and you know,
431
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now look at you. I go, yeah, that's turn of time.
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He goes, hey, Larry Ellison's running oracle and he has time.
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You have time, you just aren't making it a priority.
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And you know, I thank Dan for saying that one,
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for having the guts to come up to your boss
436
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and say you're looking a little fat there, buddy. But
437
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then when I sat there and said, wait, here's the
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CEO of one of the world's biggest companies and he's
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got time. How do I not have time? And what
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I did realize by putting more time into my self
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circle and physical fitness and then mental fitness. It actually
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made my work more productive.
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That's great, and it's great to hear that you did
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not have your family sign an NDA.
445
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That would have been really weird, Brendan. So the good
446
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god on here, good good job there.
447
00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:02.440
Let's talk about this because so everything we've talked about, right,
448
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you're pointing folks in the right direction from the lessons
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that you've learned about. You know, your time and space.
450
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You know, whether you're twenty five or forty five. You know,
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we talked about this business epidemic. We talked about, you know,
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being able to manage your time with your family and friends.
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If an author reads this, Brendan, because you know, the
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one thing about entrepreneurs and leaders, it's like that survival mechanism,
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they're like, hey, if I do all this that Brendan says,
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I got all my circles, I start doing all this,
457
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but and I start to pull back from from from
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my professional circle one, does that make me softer?
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Am I going to lose my edge? Am I going
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to lose everything?
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What do you say to someone who's afraid of taking
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these steps and not that you expect people to do
463
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this overnight, flipping in almost like a regarding Henry thing
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with a new person.
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The next day.
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But there is some trepidation for people to be like man,
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the idea of pulling back from work seems very dangerous
468
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to me.
469
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Yeah, well, here's what I'll tell you if so. You know,
470
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I mentor a number of people, and I'm mentoring some
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of the next generation now that happen to be in finance,
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and I'll tell them, you know, set a goal that
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you're going to leave the office at eight, and then
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you're gonna go home and do the extra hours. And
475
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here's what you'll do. If you say you're gonna leave
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at eight, then when the day starts winding down at
477
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five and you go, I've got three more hours, you'll
478
00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:19.680
crank three hours of work. If you say, you know,
479
00:23:19.799 --> 00:23:21.880
I don't know what I'm gonna leave probably ten or eleven.
480
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:25.079
That three hours of work can easily bleed into four hours,
481
00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:27.599
can bleed into four and a half hours. You know,
482
00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:31.519
the dinner break can become an hour, not thirty minutes.
483
00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:35.000
The chit chat with somebody can become thirty minutes, not fifteen.
484
00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:38.279
So what I find is that when you become more
485
00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:45.200
disciplined with your time, you actually become extremely efficient at
486
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:49.000
using that time. So if you say that's it, I
487
00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:51.960
want to work on my fitness, but I'm tired at
488
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:53.480
the end of the day, I can't do it during
489
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:56.359
the day. I'm gonna get up thirty minutes earlier. Then
490
00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:00.799
if you do that, then you're manufacturing thirty men more minutes.
491
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:04.240
The other thing is, over time, you will start to
492
00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:08.200
build systems, systems being you know, this is this is
493
00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:11.480
my morning routine, and my morning routine is going to
494
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:15.319
set my day up. You know. For instance, this is
495
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:17.160
a really simple one that I teach a lot of
496
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:20.079
young leaders. You know, really do a good job on
497
00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:22.680
your action list for the day. Don't list thirty things
498
00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:25.119
and get five done, but be really diligent about that.
499
00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:27.640
So all of a sudden, the meeting gets out fifteen
500
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:29.920
minutes early, and you go, oh, I got fifteen minutes.
501
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:32.160
You look at your action list and it already tells
502
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:35.359
you this is what you should do. I know a
503
00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:39.839
lot of young people, if that matter, you know, middle
504
00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:42.400
of their career, people have fifteen minutes, and I almost
505
00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:45.759
spend fifteen minutes on well, what should I do you
506
00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:48.559
know as opposed to, Oh, I'm supposed to review the
507
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:50.640
press release. Okay, let me just go do that. Let
508
00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:54.200
me get that done right now. And so if you
509
00:24:55.079 --> 00:25:01.400
if you really prioritize, you will become more disciplined. If
510
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:05.480
you become more disciplined, you'll become more efficient, and in essence,
511
00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:07.640
you will have more time. You know, going back to
512
00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:11.000
Jerry Seinfeld, you will have more time than the next person.
513
00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:14.200
And I'm very confident that if you could dissect Jerry's day,
514
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:17.240
he had the same time as whoever asked him that question.
515
00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:19.920
But I'm be willing to bet he was much more
516
00:25:20.039 --> 00:25:22.599
disciplined in how he used his days, how he used
517
00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:24.000
the minutes in the hours in the day.
518
00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:25.599
Absolutely no question.
519
00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:27.319
And it's so funny you talk about the word discipline
520
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:30.960
because I think if a say, an underling or an
521
00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:34.039
employee went to a boss, they would say, you know,
522
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:37.799
the idiom works smarter, not harder. But what I find
523
00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:40.880
funny is, and you, being a big sports fan, this
524
00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:43.279
when it comes to the top, it never seems like
525
00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:46.559
they're working smarter, they're just working harder. Like you know,
526
00:25:46.599 --> 00:25:48.359
you're a New England there, I know, a big fan
527
00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:52.000
of the Patriots, Bill Belichick was known to be at
528
00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:54.759
the facility at like five o'clock in the morning, and
529
00:25:54.799 --> 00:25:57.680
he would be there till like one am the next day.
530
00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:00.279
And it's like, there's got to be a better way.
531
00:26:00.440 --> 00:26:00.599
You know.
532
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:02.200
I'm a Jets fan, as you know, Brendan.
533
00:26:02.240 --> 00:26:05.240
And you know, famously one of my coaches, Adam Gase,
534
00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.079
left his wife while she was giving birth to a
535
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:09.599
child so she could do so he could do the
536
00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:12.200
game plan for like the next game against the Bengals,
537
00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:14.680
and they are getting blown out. So this idea of
538
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.279
bosses telling their employees work smarter, not harder, but they
539
00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:20.960
don't always sort of prescribe to that. What do you
540
00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:22.960
say to folks, because you mentioned like the idea of
541
00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:24.720
like when you said, oh, an investment banker is going
542
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:26.400
to be in the office from eight am to apm,
543
00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:28.480
what the hell are they doing, Brendan, Like, why does
544
00:26:28.519 --> 00:26:31.720
it take twelve hours to accomplish what most people are
545
00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:33.279
accomplishing in less time? That?
546
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:36.640
So tell me about this idea of leaders working smarter,
547
00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:37.400
not harder.
548
00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:40.440
Well, you know, and I am a Patriots fan and
549
00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:43.200
i'm you know, probably top ten in the Bill Belichick
550
00:26:43.319 --> 00:26:47.480
fan club. But what I would tell you is that
551
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:53.799
cost him his marriage those hours. Somebody that doesn't ever
552
00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:58.880
strike that balance, it's a real like red warning sign
553
00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:02.079
that you know, hey, your partner might not you know,
554
00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:04.599
be signed up for that for the long term. You know.
555
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:08.279
I would also be interested in looking and dissecting, you know,
556
00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:12.359
their friend circle and their family circle outside of you know,
557
00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:14.960
like their friends and the coaches. Now, you know one
558
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.519
trick Belichick had as he hired his sons as coaches,
559
00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:19.440
so you get to spend lots of time with them,
560
00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:19.880
but you know.
561
00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:21.400
That you have to wait till they were like twenty
562
00:27:21.480 --> 00:27:24.039
years old, but sure in the first two decades of
563
00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:24.599
their life.
564
00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:26.680
But you know how many of their their football games?
565
00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:29.240
Was was he going to? You know? And I think
566
00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:32.079
that that's a that's a fair question. So you know,
567
00:27:32.119 --> 00:27:34.359
there are some people that they feel to get to
568
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.480
the top, they can't be balanced. But I would also
569
00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:41.440
say that person probably has an extreme goal they want
570
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:44.680
to be the winningest football coach in NFL history. I'm
571
00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:47.319
sure there are coaches that you know, are happily married
572
00:27:47.720 --> 00:27:51.559
and see their kids more and then just have better balance.
573
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:55.440
And then there's certain professions where when you're in that profession,
574
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:59.400
you're signing up to certain things. Like if you're an accountant,
575
00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:02.319
your kids asking hey, can we go on spring break
576
00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:05.839
in March or April, it's probably a no, right with
577
00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:10.440
tax being due April fifteenth. If you say, hey, can
578
00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:13.160
we go away May or June, the answer is probably absolutely,
579
00:28:13.640 --> 00:28:16.920
I can't wait to go away in May. So you know,
580
00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:22.920
there's different seasonality in different professions, in different jobs. So
581
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:25.160
I think the key is it all goes back to
582
00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:28.480
what are your personal goals and your goals or your goals?
583
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:32.920
My goals are my goals. And there's this other concept
584
00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:36.559
that I talk about where as people were very judgy
585
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:40.640
about other people, very very judgy, and there's a term,
586
00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:44.000
and you know, I think I came up with this term.
587
00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:46.559
I don't know, I haven't filed it with the Patent
588
00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:50.359
and Trademark Office, but it's grind shaming and I've seen it.
589
00:28:50.359 --> 00:28:52.839
It's like I've got a friend who was a very
590
00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:56.079
successful college lacrosse player, professional lacrosse player, and in high
591
00:28:56.079 --> 00:29:00.519
school people would say, bro, why are you working so hard? Like, well,
592
00:29:00.599 --> 00:29:03.400
my goal is to be like like a great college
593
00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:06.799
lacrosse player, not a good college lacross play a great college,
594
00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:10.119
but people made him feel bad because he would get
595
00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:13.480
up before school and shoot, you know, And I call
596
00:29:13.519 --> 00:29:16.200
that grind shaming. And somebody's like, you know, and you know,
597
00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:18.240
my daughter, by the way, happens to be an investment
598
00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:20.160
banking and I see some of her friends, Man, I
599
00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:21.799
don't get it. Why do you work so many hours?
600
00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:25.359
And they almost make her feel guilty for it, And
601
00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:27.920
I call that grinds shaming. And it's just an example
602
00:29:27.960 --> 00:29:30.880
of grind shaming. Or somebody says to the teacher, oh,
603
00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:32.480
it must be nice having the whole summer off and
604
00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:34.920
being able to go to the beach. Well, you know,
605
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.160
you're kind of showing a little bit disrespect to that person. Again,
606
00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:44.559
you choose different professions, you choose different things. Take take COVID.
607
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:49.319
Covid created a whole new hybrid slash remote work force,
608
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:53.519
and I think Covid kind of turned up the you know,
609
00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:56.799
what is work life balance? And you know, some people
610
00:29:56.920 --> 00:30:00.319
redefined how they how they looked at it. I would say,
611
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:03.799
don't redefine it because you want to work remote. Redefine
612
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:07.960
it if your goals allow you to work remote. And
613
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:10.400
so again, to me, it's just as simple as what
614
00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:12.720
are your goals. If those are your goals and you
615
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:15.759
really want to hit those goals, now go look at
616
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:18.599
the six circles of connection, look at the season of
617
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:22.440
life that you're in, and make decisions. So if you said,
618
00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:24.640
you know, I want to retire fifty five, and you're
619
00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:26.680
now forty five and you got four kids, and you
620
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:29.039
say that's it. I got to put ninety percent of
621
00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:31.960
my time into professional to retire, I'd say, okay, are
622
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.119
you willing to do that? And not so your kids
623
00:30:35.319 --> 00:30:38.240
take off for their prom not do the driving hours
624
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:41.240
with your kids, not see their high school football or
625
00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:43.400
basketball or softball game. No, I want to go to
626
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:45.839
all that. Then I'd be like, hey, you're lying to yourself.
627
00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:49.759
You can't put ninety percent into professionals. So retiring early
628
00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:52.400
you probably isn't going to happen. You're going to probably work,
629
00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:56.519
you know, normal into your early sixties, but put more
630
00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:00.000
time into your family. Another person might say, you know,
631
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.119
family's not born to me. I'm gonna put ninety percent,
632
00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:05.880
And I'd say, you know what, those aren't my goals.
633
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:09.160
Those are your goals. But if you acknowledge that's not important,
634
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:12.960
that's perfectly fine. Then that works for.
635
00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:14.960
You, that's awesome.
636
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:17.319
And what works for you now, Brendan is I know
637
00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:21.319
you've been through a very long, successful career of starting businesses,
638
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:25.640
running businesses. Now you are not running a business. What
639
00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:29.039
is Brendan Kegan's default setting now in this world? Because
640
00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:31.039
you know, you talked about the way you used to
641
00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:34.240
run companies and you'd go on vacation in the middle
642
00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:36.640
of the night and do some work and all the
643
00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:38.839
work life in balance that you had.
644
00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:42.319
What's life now for Brendan Keegan that you're not running
645
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:42.839
a company.
646
00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:47.559
Well, so my morning routine is the same, and so
647
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:49.559
you know I still get up every day four thirty
648
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:52.440
and do my morning routine. Now that's because I'm just
649
00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:54.559
conditioned to do that. But I'll also tell you I
650
00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:57.720
have a thirteen and ten year old dog. They're pugs,
651
00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:00.240
and they're conditioned to get up and be fed four
652
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:04.279
thirty every morning. So if I decided tomorrow I'm sleeping
653
00:32:04.359 --> 00:32:07.359
until six, because hey I'm retired, I can. My dogs
654
00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:10.319
would say time out, we're hungry. It's four thirty. So
655
00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:12.200
you know I've still with my four thirty. You know,
656
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:15.640
four thirty eight is pretty programmed. What I spend my
657
00:32:15.720 --> 00:32:18.920
time doing now is I do a lot more writing,
658
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:20.720
I do a lot more speaking, and I do a
659
00:32:20.759 --> 00:32:23.440
lot more giving back to the community. You know, Like,
660
00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:26.039
for instance, as soon as we're done recording this podcast,
661
00:32:26.359 --> 00:32:28.759
you know, I've got a thirty minute mentee meeting with
662
00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:30.839
a college student who I haven't met before. They reach
663
00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:33.039
out to me on LinkedIn and they're asking for some advice.
664
00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:38.839
Now when when early in my career, I volunteered many hours.
665
00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:43.000
As my career took off, my volunteering went down, but
666
00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:47.039
community was still important to me, and honestly, the dollars
667
00:32:47.079 --> 00:32:50.119
I gave went up. So my ability to impact the community.
668
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.079
When I was twenty two was I'm going to volunteer
669
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:55.640
a lot and I'm gonna give very little. When I
670
00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:57.799
was forty five, it was I'm gonna volunteer less and
671
00:32:57.839 --> 00:33:00.720
I'm gonna give more. And now so I'm able to
672
00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:02.599
kind of do both. I'm able to give a lot
673
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:05.319
more time, so I'm able to mentor a lot more people,
674
00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:07.839
be available for a lot more people, do a lot
675
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:10.720
more speaking engagements, going out and talking on leadership and
676
00:33:10.759 --> 00:33:13.920
helping companies. You know, I just did a keynote for
677
00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:17.759
a large multinational bank and I said, Hey, for my fee,
678
00:33:17.799 --> 00:33:19.200
here's what I'd like to do. I'd like you to
679
00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:22.039
make a donation do our foundation, you know, you know not,
680
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:24.279
you know, because that allows me to put more money
681
00:33:24.319 --> 00:33:28.000
into the community. So now what takes up my time
682
00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:31.160
is my purpose in life is building one million fearless leaders.
683
00:33:31.559 --> 00:33:34.680
Is what's every activity I can do to do that?
684
00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:37.240
So for instance, you know, I try to do a
685
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:40.079
podcast every month, and I try to do that podcast
686
00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:42.720
on leadership every month so that people listen to it,
687
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:47.119
and maybe every podcast impacts one, two, three four people
688
00:33:47.160 --> 00:33:50.039
and they hear something in that podcast that gives them
689
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:53.920
fuel to hit their goals. So I'm just really focused
690
00:33:53.960 --> 00:33:56.559
at this point in my life at giving back to others,
691
00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:00.440
building one million fearless leaders, being a better friend, because
692
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:04.720
that's one part of my life that I give myself
693
00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:08.400
a solid D minus at, and continuing to be, you know,
694
00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:09.679
a good family member.
695
00:34:09.960 --> 00:34:12.880
And you can read all about it in Unbalanced on Purpose,
696
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:16.039
Move beyond the myth of perfect balance and live with intention.
697
00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:19.599
He is Brendan B. Keegan. Brendan always great to see you.
698
00:34:19.639 --> 00:34:20.519
God bless him, good.
699
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:23.679
Luck all right? Thanks Joe, thank you so much, and
700
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:24.880
that's going to do it for this episode.
701
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:26.719
If you want to find out more information about Brendan
702
00:34:26.840 --> 00:34:30.320
and our other amazing authors, go to the authority company
703
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:31.000
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