Podcast Episode 11
Unlock Your Creative Potential with Creative Briefs

CCP11_Final_Audio.mp3

Brilliant Miller [00:00:00] So I love that, by the way. And let’s change that from GIGO, garbage in, garbage out to goodness in, goodness out. Not to be self-righteous about it. Right. It’s not “look at me, I’m so good.”

Dean Miles [00:00:09] But it does make a difference.

Brilliant Miller [00:00:12] You get, like, everything in life, right? You get out what you put in. Mr. Dean. Miles, good to see you again.

Dean Miles [00:00:20] Mr. Brilliant Miller, I look forward to these times together.

Brilliant Miller [00:00:23] Me, too. Another episode of the Coach’s Commonplace Book podcast, and there’s a podcast that we’ve created as a way to spend time with each other, to learn and grow, to share things. We’ve learned, particularly with coaches who are new or maybe they’re established, are looking for ways to take their impact, and their income to the next level. So how to be a great coach, how to earn recognition in money, how to live a good life. The foundational premise to these things. It all sounds simple. Maybe they are not always easy. How’s that?

Dean Miles [00:00:52] Yeah, it’s the stringing them all together, Right? That is the craft of being an entrepreneur. The craft of being a successful coach that’s having an impact and being able to pay their bills to really important aspects.

Brilliant Miller [00:01:07] That’s right. And maybe that’s why it’s called a practice.

Dean Miles [00:01:10] Indeed.

Brilliant Miller [00:01:12] A one-time thing, as we’ve discussed before, and now it’s a verb, not a noun. Is it the other way around? We do both, but it’s a number. We have a practice.

Dean Miles [00:01:21] That’s right.

Brilliant Miller [00:01:22] Which we bring to life. We verb our noun. Remember now, that could go a lot of ways.

Dean Miles [00:01:28] That’s a book title.

Brilliant Miller [00:01:29] Yes. Verb your nouns. So. Okay. Then I like to start. I know you and I think we’re birds of a feather. In this way I think people listening, learning nerds, personal growth junkies, we’re interested in being our best selves, helping others to be their best selves as well. What is inspiring you lately? What has been part of your information diet?

Dean Miles [00:01:51] I have had the privilege of reading two books that are in final draft, so they’re just the longest PDFs that you could ever receive in an email. One is called “When Leaders Lose” by a good friend of mine, Glen Williams. He’s been a coach for a very, very long time, lives in Australia now. Some of his own personal stories of just sometimes it doesn’t work out and then what do you do? So he found himself terminated for some things outside of his responsibility, but yet the buck stopped at his desk as the chief operating officer, and he wasn’t ready to be fired. Right. I mean, he’s got bills to pay and he had a vision and all those different things. And so as he tells his own self-discovery. So that’s been interesting to watch and to read. And then he’s asked me to give an endorsement to the book, which I’ve done. And the other one is called Be Coachable. So this is the final draft of a book that Marshall Goldsmith is co-writing with Scott Ossman and Jaclyn Lane from the 100 coach Agency. And it’s this idea of. Okay, so you’ve chosen to be coached. What does it mean to be coachable? And so they have the three of them experts in the field, and they’ve interviewed 20 different coaches, and I was selected to be one of those coaches. Brilliant. Sure, sure. My experience of 20 years of coaching, of what I think it takes and what it means to be coachable. So that’s been fun to see.

Brilliant Miller [00:03:30] Why do I think the people who might most benefit from that book will never read it?

Dean Miles [00:03:37] Yeah, no, that’s true. So one of the strategies behind this and it’s for larger organizations, I think, is how this book is going to be used. So if you work for a Ford Motor Company and they’re going to they’re trying to instill a coaching culture. It will be like a required reading for an entire team. Wow.

Brilliant Miller [00:03:56] When Leaders Lose. What an amazing thing to be so open about that. And not so long after it happened, it sounds like.

Dean Miles [00:04:05] Right.

Brilliant Miller [00:04:06] It reminds me a little of that. I’ve never read the book, but I came across a book one time called. So you’ve been publicly shamed. Like, what a random thing. But there are people out there that have had this experience of whatever reason, you know, being under public scrutiny and finding that being unfavorable. But I do, as you know, I love books, and I am grateful that people will take decades of their life experience or an intensely personal experience from a period in their life. Put it into 200 pages. You can buy it for 15 bucks, read it in 6 hours. And it’s just it’s amazing.

Dean Miles [00:04:41] Exactly right. The brilliance of Glenn Williams, I think his firing this is probably close was probably 15 years ago. Just went and dug himself a hole. I mean, just I mean, left the country, went to Australia, and just disappeared for a while and then went to a lot of therapy when got a Ph.D.. And then just along the way, do some deep introspection, learn some things. And so now, as is putting it out there for all of us to be able to learn what he learned. It’s really powerful. It’s really, really good. I’m glad I read it now.

Brilliant Miller [00:05:20] That’s awesome. Well, thank you for sharing. Congratulations on being included in this book. Be coachable.

Dean Miles [00:05:26] Yeah, I’m excited about that.

Brilliant Miller [00:05:28] I look forward to when I get my copy, you’ll sign that chapter for me?

Dean Miles [00:05:32] Indeed.

Brilliant Miller [00:05:33] That’s cool. You know, a few things that I have been reading or using. I actually want to start with a product.

Dean Miles [00:05:41] Wow.

Brilliant Miller [00:05:42] You might have come across something like this. So this is a bag called Silent Pocket. I think that’s the product’s name. It’s by a company called Silent. Their website, it’s spelled Slnt. So they take the vowels out and it’s a Faraday bag. So when you put a device inside it, when you put your phone inside it, it turns it severs all the connections Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular. It’s like it just disappears completely. So I bought it because I thought this would be great for creative stretches rather than turning the phone on and off, which can be annoying. And that’s, first of all, problem, right? But just how easy it is to put in here or if I’m driving or if I’m in a meeting sometimes, then a very deliberate helps me to be more conscious about when I’m interacting with my device. So I don’t use it all day, every day. But when I do, it’s with intention and I think it’s actually a really cool thing.

Dean Miles [00:06:40] I really like that. My mind goes into it just I’m always looking for good metaphors to use for coaching, and I think that could just be a metaphor of there’s times I need to put my happiness in something like that and. Where just protected. Right. It just is. It can be interfered with or dinged or notified or pushed or. Yeah, this is a safe space.

Brilliant Miller [00:07:08] And other times you got to take that happiness out and let it radiate. Right.

Dean Miles [00:07:13] Metaphors break down.

Brilliant Miller [00:07:14] There you go. So I’ve been enjoying that. Most of their versions don’t have this. This is actually So you could lock it with another lock. I don’t know who I got it because I could put an airtag on the outside. Yeah, in case I lost my phone. I could still find my phone.

Brilliant Miller [00:07:34] And then you couldn’t find the device. But, anyway, so that’s one thing that I’ve been enjoying and I hope benefiting from the other. I’ve been reading a couple of books. One is about golf. So one of my new passions and challenges, you know, who starts golf in their forties. But as you know, I have and a friend recommended a book called Golf in the Kingdom by Michael Murphy. And apparently it’s some kind of a classic in spirituality in golf. It’s a little bit unusual in many regards. But this guy, Michael Murphy, he’s the founder of Epsilon. So the legendary personal growth and spirituality retreat along the Pacific Coast Highway was popular, I think, in the sixties and seventies, especially where many teachers came and many thought leaders convened. And apparently he was a golfer as well. And so he’s written this. It’s kind of a parable, but I’m finding a lot about it that’s very thought-provoking, including, you know, just these different ideas of maybe golf was a sport that evolved as a way of men. You know, this game that was once the game of kings and nobles and royalty, that it’s a way for them to compete without war. It’s a way for, you know, especially men, of course, women. Many women play golf, but you’re using a club. But it’s not a weapon, you know, And it’s a way perhaps for whenever someone tells another player like, hey, great shot or nice job or amazing drive or whatever, that it’s like a socially appropriate way of actually telling another person, I love you, you know, like these kinds of gossip I just geek out on and I’ve been I’ve been really digging in this book.

Dean Miles [00:09:17] I like that. I think my experience on the golf course, I also see, of course not myself but men through such clubs. Yes, those clubs. Yeah. Throw them in the water. Well, there was this in the news today. Two guys, two older guys from my age got upset with the speed of play of two younger guys that just happened to be mixed martial art fighters. Let’s just say the old men dads did not fare well in this fight, though. So anyway, but I like where you went, where this book is. I knew some of these positive things from this game of golf, but it does reveal a lot of our character. I find, gosh, it stretches me and aggravates me in ways that I just didn’t know. I could be aggravating.

Brilliant Miller [00:10:13] Yeah, no, I’m totally with you there. And I think there’s so much about it that it is really an amazing sport, and it took me a long time to discover that for myself, which is a whole other discussion that I won’t go into at this time. But what you shared, and I think I saw a video, I think I saw that video is a video of that golf brawl, right?

Dean Miles [00:10:36] Yeah. Yeah, I saw that.

Brilliant Miller [00:10:37] I saw that online. But it makes me think of something related to golf and the power of language, because I found this social media post and I see if I can pull this up here real quick. But the question was posted, like on this social media forum about what’s the what’s the most rage you’ve seen on a golf course. I can then invite people to share their stories, right? Yeah, I thought, this is interesting. So here’s this one poster that says, My dad tells his rage story. He was having a bad day and he was down in a gully. After about three attempts to get out, he said, for $0.02, I’d give up this effing game. His smart-ass buddy tossed two pennies at him. He left his club and ball in the gully and his bag and pull cart where they were and he walked off without a word and he didn’t play again for 30 years. Wow. And I thought about that, right? We never know. We never know where someone is in their life, what’s going on with them, their internal state, or even what’s going on in their relationships, in their career, and things like that. We don’t know necessarily the power of our words and the impact on another person or actions. And for something that I obviously I mean, I think that person didn’t anticipate this would be that the thing the tipping point to push his friend over the edge of walking away for years. For 30 years. Right. So to me, that was just a reminder of the power of language, the impact that any one of us can have with something that seems insignificant, you know, inconsequential. You just use never know power.

Dean Miles [00:12:11] What a powerful, great reminder that is.

Brilliant Miller [00:12:13] Yeah. The other thing that I’ve been reading lately, and I just finished a few days ago, and in fact later today I will interview this author is a book called Finding the Words Working through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose. And there’s a book by Colin Campbell, the really amazing story, true story of Colin and his wife, Gail were traveling near Joshua Tree one evening, June, I believe it was June 12th, 2019. So just before the pandemic, he’s got, you know, his wife in the passenger seat is two teenage kids, Ruby and Hart, in the backseat. A drunk driver 90 miles an hour doesn’t break T-bones. Their car kills both of his kids, and totally changed their world in an instant and just shared what that was like, how he’s continuing to process the grief, you know, how to live, how to ask for the support he needs, how to make sense of it at all, how to deal with despair. Like and he’s a writer, is that he teaches screenwriting. He’s actually won or was nominated for an Academy Award for some of the short films he made, But he calls it finding the words because he found that over and over and over, people thinking they were offering him solace would say, there are no words.

Dean Miles [00:13:31] And so we thought that’s kind of a copout. But if you say there are no words, that means there’s distance between us. It’s not worth trying. You know, ultimately, it’s futile to even attempt to language this or understand and connect and so forth. And so he’s written this as a way, again, of helping people who are grieving, helping people who love people who are grieving. And although that’s not me, I certainly haven’t had a profound loss like that of two children. I find literally I cried when I read parts of this book. It was just it was so touching. And I’m grateful to Colin for writing it. And I suspect that many, many other people will find his words. I would say healing. But even when he talks about looking at time, people say time heals, time doesn’t. He calls B.S. on that. And he says time doesn’t necessarily heal. But what it does is it allows us to make space in our hearts.

Dean Miles [00:14:26] Right.

Brilliant Miller [00:14:27] Where the pain and other things in life. But it’s not that there’s a healing that takes place. He uses the description I always had with this.

Dean Miles [00:14:35] Yeah. And with those times you find words. I really like that idea and that challenge. And even as coaches, we do two things. I mean, we’re helping that client find words. And then we’re also ourselves are trying to find words to inspire and to shift perspectives. I just I’m just struck brilliant by we do this nearly every week and have for months now. And you and I read a lot. Mm-hmm. I think we’re on both sides of that. I think we represent different sides of this enjoyment. I think you really enjoy it. And I’m still learning to enjoy it, but it’s necessary. My coaching is so influenced by reading. And so for those of you that are listening and watching this podcast, there’s no shortcut to being a great coach if you’re not reading this information diet.

Brilliant Miller [00:15:37] Yeah, absolutely. I think about something I heard Tony Robbins say where his mentor, Jim Rohn, had counseled him to read every day and at least 30 minutes a day. And when he asked, like, what? What should I read? It doesn’t matter. That’s why I try to say, it could be a magazine. It could be for pleasure, it could be a scripture, it could be personal growth rate. It could be an industry-related publication. In a way, it kind of doesn’t matter as long as you’re ultimately reading broadly, but you’re doing it, you know, regularly. And Tony said, but every day. And that was when Rose said, no, Tony, you don’t have to worry about reading every day, only on the days you eat. So, yeah.

Dean Miles [00:16:17] Yeah, message received.

Brilliant Miller [00:16:18] It’s kind of important. It’s kind of important. But that’s true, right? Like we know in the same way you are what you eat physically that I think sometimes we forget that. That literally the things we consume become us, right? Physically. And the same thing with what we consume mentally, emotionally, and intellectually becomes us. Right? And we all know the gigo. Garbage in, garbage out. But the opposite hopefully is true as well. Like beauty in goodness, in intelligence or knowledge in or out. So, yes.

Dean Miles [00:16:50] Well-said. Well-said.

Brilliant Miller [00:16:52] So I love that, by the way. And let’s change that from GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out to goodness in, goodness out. Not to be self-righteous about it. Right. It’s not. Look at me. I’m so good.

Dean Miles [00:17:02] But it does make a difference.

Brilliant Miller [00:17:04] You get, like, everything in life, right? You get out what you put in. So with that. Let’s go ahead and transition. Let’s go ahead and transition to the next part. Speaking of words. Speaking of language. Right. Last time we connected for a coaches commonplace podcast, one of the things we talked about under the banner of helping ourselves and those who are listening and watching to earn recognition and money for the work we’re doing, the coaching we’re doing. One of the things you and I explored, Dean, was the idea of using creative briefs as a way of bringing ideas to life. And I talked about this is something that I was introduced to maybe ten years ago by a friend of mine who has a background in communication and design. And evidently, you know, for him or maybe for people in that industry, that’s just kind of standard operating procedure. You know, you’re not going to go make a big ad spend or you’re not going to go embark on a long creative project like a book or a film if you don’t have a smaller version of it. Right. Sometimes called maybe a treatment or a synopsis or, you know, we might call it a pilot. But like, even smaller than that, a chunk like a one page, two or three page thing, maybe an executive summary. You can think of it like that. But a creative brief is a structured document that I’m sure there are many ways to approach. But what I’ve got is I actually have a little file that I save in my Evernote. And when I began something new like this Coaches commonplace podcast, The School for a Good Living podcast edited it years ago. Sometimes for live events, sometimes for products. I’m developing like a group coaching program. I’ll sit down and I will pull out my little Evernote file and I can always find it because I’ve called it elements of a creative brief. I realize I could do a screen share, move into the 21st century here, but I wanted to talk about it, So let me pause before I dive into the elements of a creative brief to describe, you know, how I use it, why it might be helpful to people and just ask, Is this something you’ve ever used? You’ve had exposure to anything like it? Like, what’s your experience with this?

Dean Miles [00:19:11] It’s not to the level where I could be utilizing the tool. The closest I’ve done. Brilliant. If I go back. Oh, no. 18 years. We just creating a business plan. Sure. And an element of that business plan or just some of these ideas are beginning to gain momentum. You know, to be a how will I be known? But that was a long time ago. My default. So here’s what I really am going to do. Here’s my excuse. I just start stuff. I have other people on my team. So, Ken, if you’re listening, stop smiling. Chen is really good at being the other side of the conversation that I’m having myself. So, Dean, what’s the goal and how will you know? And what’s the exit strategy? How will you know that this isn’t working? And I’m more like, Can. Come on. It is a buzz kill here. You’re killing this. Let’s just start. And so I’m. I’m very much of a. It feels right. It looks right. I’m excited about it. Hit record. We’ll figure it out later. Yeah. Sometimes that works, and a lot of times it doesn’t. And it’s really expensive.

Brilliant Miller [00:20:31] Yeah, it can be.

Dean Miles [00:20:33] A creative brief would have saved probably a lot of zeros over my last eight years. Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:20:39] Well, and hopefully if you know this is useful, you can use other people who maybe weren’t familiar with this or aren’t already using it and can use it and save themselves some of that expense. And not just the financial expense. Right. But the time.

Dean Miles [00:20:52] Right.

Brilliant Miller [00:20:53] Maybe the opportunity cost. And part of what I love about a creative brief as well is that, first of all, it makes your ideas a little more concrete than just what’s floating around your brain. You can share them more easily with other people in writing, right? And how often we think we understand something until we go to write it down.

Dean Miles [00:21:12] It’s so true.

Brilliant Miller [00:21:13] Then. So it helps us to clarify our writing. It helps to preserve it. It helps to be able to share with other people, to get their input on it, to preserve it historically as well. So we can refer back to we can refine. Maybe you do this on a cycle annually, quarterly, you know, something like that. So those are some of this. And I was reminded as I was preparing for this that, you know, a few years ago I interviewed Beth Comstock, who used to work for GE. And I’m this she was the first female vice chair for GE. So a very experienced business leader, incredible, incredible acumen and vision and capability. And she talked about in her book, imagine it forward. She talked about while it wasn’t exactly a creative brief, it was along the same lines. So this is like a variation on the theme that maybe someone could use instead, which was she would write a press release from the future and it would be, Hey, buddy, this thing is real. The day this thing is rolled out, what is it that would hit the business wire? What is it that somebody might find online? What is it that we would send to a journalist to see if they actually want to do a piece on this? And, you know, she might sketch out a few things. She was fortunate to have a communications team she could maybe give to someone to help, you know, just a few bullet points to draft out. But then it’s like it’s a little bit like that warm, cold, more of this, less of that. Yet we’re on right now. That’s not right. Oh, I forgot this. Right. But same basic principle that you’re working backwards from an imagined future. So just an idea.

Dean Miles [00:22:39] Yeah. Here’s what that’s making me think of Brilliant. If I go back 15 years ago, there was. There was a lot of noise in the social media space, but it wasn’t as much as it is today. If you could just get the discipline of writing, if you could get the discipline, just putting anything out there, you could be ahead of the game for sure. I think what you’re challenging me to and I’m sure our listeners, it’s worth more than that. If you’re going to compete. I mean, this whole idea of this commonplace is not just to be a coach, but to be a great coach. And if you’re going to be a great coach. This is the habit to have is to go through a creative, brief slump. I think all of us are waiting for you to like, please quit teasing us.

Brilliant Miller [00:23:31] Tell me what it is.

Dean Miles [00:23:31] What’s in it?

Brilliant Miller [00:23:32] Yeah. Yeah. And in just a moment, I will. And I’m reminded, like you said, whether it was a business plan. Right. Whether it’s a creative brief, whether it’s a press release from the future, whether it’s a quarterly. Okay. Document, like, whatever helps us envision the future. Envision what success looks like. And then I’m reminded of the quote I’ve heard attributed to Eisenhower about plans are worthless, but planning is everything. Yeah. And there’s a time for execution. And there’s a time for analysis. And there’s a time for, you know, anticipation and imagination. So it’s not to get stuck in any one of these modes, but to recognize where we may maybe benefit from spending a little more time in another one of those. And then as we know to this idea that no plan survives contact with reality. But. Right. So no matter how thoughtful it is, you know, that Mike Tyson thing, everybody’s got a plan how they get punched in the mouth. But to have a plan. And then the last thing, what you said then, like about just getting started, you know, we’ve probably all heard this saying the secret to getting ahead is getting started. Right. So there is a time to just get into it. So let me get into the creative brief.

Dean Miles [00:24:37] Okay.

Brilliant Miller [00:24:37] Here’s what I see. So I think there are seven elements. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Oh, I’ve got nine. So nine elements. That’s a lot. There’s a lot to cover already. Okay. But the first one is the background. I might say ten, because I would have a title like I would actually call it. If this is the creative brief, I probably wouldn’t write one for a blog post necessarily, like an outline for a blog post, but this might be like the creative brief blog post. Creative Brief. So that’s the title. That’s what I would probably put is number one, and then I date it. So I have a sense of when was this and created. If I updated it, then I will just say revised the state. So again, there’s a little bit of versioning then. Then the first thing I’ll put his background. So this is this is one of the most helpful parts is where I just start to do a brain dump. It’s like, boom, where am I? What is true? What’s in my way? You know, like, what other resources are available. So what’s the background? The background might be like? I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about creative briefs for a long time, but for various reasons, have never gotten around to it. You know, I’m at the point where I’m ready to do so. Let’s go. Like, that might have been my background. Little thing. Boom Reader has some context. Next thing is the objectives. What are the objectives? And then you would just articulate that as though you were speaking to a friend. Right. So if my objective is to share something that’s been useful to me with others in a way that they will also benefit from. And to enjoy the challenge of the creative process. Boom. That’s my objective. Next is target audience. Who is this for? And I think getting that out early makes the creation process much easier because now we have a real person, whether it’s kind of profile or an avatar or a specific person. And sometimes it can be one person, but who’s your target audience? And then what’s your key message? If you could reduce this to a bumper sticker. Mm-hmm. Is there something like, Hey, creative briefs are great, or creative briefs will help you to accomplish more in less time with less stress or something. Right. And then execution tactics. Well, that would be maybe, you know, largely text. Maybe I’ll have a photograph to accompany it. Or an example of one of my. And maybe there’ll be a link to another thought leaders, you know, sample, creative, brief, something like that. Creative considerations. Now, again, that’s like, what are the creative considerations? Well, I want to do that. I’m not going to do this using video. Or maybe I am. You just say, What are the creative realities of this? Am I going to narrate, you know something? Is it going to be an audio file, whatever, which goes right hand in hand with the mechanical considerations? So you might have creative considerations that will drive the mechanical considerations or the logistical considerations. I call that either one. And it’s like, Hey, I’m not a great video editor. I could use some help in that regard. Or a logistical constraint might be if you’re writing for a piece, you know, like a publication. The constraint might be this must be 500 words or something a reader could read in 10 minutes. You know, there’s something like that that I suppose could be a creative or a mechanical consideration. It’s kind of a gray line there. And the last one is measurement. It’s actually second. The last one is measurement. How will you know that this was a success? That can go along with objectives, of course. But what’s your measurement? Is this a thousand readers? Is it five shares or whatever? What measurement? That I just completed it. That might be it. Got it done. A shipped? Mm-hmm. And then the final one is next steps. Because by the time you’ve gone through all that.

Dean Miles [00:28:08] Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:28:09] While you might not have absolute clarity, you’re going to see the next, I think, the next steps on your path. And if that’s, you know, again, a brain dump, it might be a couple of things. It might be 15 things is next step. Some of those you might delegate, some of them you might schedule right then. But just the practice of that and I find that going through all of this usually takes me about an hour. It might even be a couple of sessions, but by the time I’ve done it, I have more confidence. I have more clarity. As I’ve said already, it’s easier to share with other people. And I just find this is a really simple thing. It can be incredibly valuable.

Dean Miles [00:28:44] Brian, I’m so glad you shared this with this. My mind goes to a little bit of Look who I think I’ve been doing this. Mm-hmm. But in my head. The opportunity and it’s just not the same. Is taking that time to put it down on paper. Sit with it. There is something about powerful for me, at least when I go to bed and then wake up in the morning, I don’t remember anything else. And I know there’s much is forgotten and then it is more difficult to share and get other perspectives around it. I’m curious. Of which, where do we tend to get stuck? You know, in doing a creative brief.

Brilliant Miller [00:29:37] Yeah. You know, where I tend to get stuck is in there. By the time I get to the mechanical considerations that I find that I’m often stuck there because I can’t see all the how.

Dean Miles [00:29:50] Mm hmm.

Brilliant Miller [00:29:51] Right. But I actually, like. Like I’m okay with that because I’ve got enough for me. I’ve got enough clarity and enough momentum coming from that top-down of just the background and the objectives and so forth. And then that’s also where I’m usually ready to share this with somebody and invite them, especially if it’s somebody who might be involved in the execution of this in the further development of this. And then usually what you’ll find, you know, if you’re if you’re with the right people for you and you’re in the right setting. That this thing almost writes itself by that point. Right. You’ve got other people who are also committed. They’re also invested or somehow they’ll benefit from this. Then it’s like that. It’s kind of like when I do workshops where I teach goal setting. And people share what they want in life. That always the energy in the room goes way up. Right. When people talk about what they want, why they’re excited about the future they want to live into. And that’s what a lot of these meetings I’ve seen happen is people they’re like, Oh, there is a plan, there is a vision, there is a pathway, there are resources available, and then I can help and then boom, they start. People will start helping to write this out. But like I said, it’s usually about mechanical considerations for me.

Dean Miles [00:31:04] Yeah, you talk about just, you know, getting that point in and sharing with someone else. I just can’t help but to think about Chad Djibouti now. To be able to give this list as a prompt. Oh yeah, this is the title or this is the background. This is what I’m trying to do. I think this is my target audience. I think this could be my key message. Help me, Chad. GPT was in creativity around some tactics, some considerations, both creative, mechanical, logistical. What would be some good measurements for those? Because sometimes I don’t even know what I don’t know. So to use something like that as an assistant. Could help those of us that just don’t have that much experience with it.

Brilliant Miller [00:31:48] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, right along with that, I do want to point out that what is absent from this book can fit into the mechanical and logistical. Logistical considerations. Is budget.

Dean Miles [00:32:02] Right for.

Brilliant Miller [00:32:03] This is defined. This is intended to help with that divergent thinking, creative and expansive thinking first. Now, yes, there’s always resource constraints somewhere, but part of what I like about this document is it frees us up to be forward looking and creative without getting stuck on that. Again, all the house and all the limiting factors that at some point, yes, it’s important to acknowledge those, but not at the outset, I think. And it’s like that saying that doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Dean Miles [00:32:34] Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:32:36] You know, so this can help to get that to get it out. And there’s that famous saying and writing don’t get it right, get it written, get it down.

Dean Miles [00:32:43] Start so good, so good. I mean, you and I have many friends that have pushed you and I separately and even together on this topic that until it’s clear on the inside, it will never be clear on the outside. I think Sam Walton had a quote similar to that. And I also think about Marsha Goldsmith’s comments of you’ve got to be competent and you have to be known as competent. That being known as Compton and really really challenging because if you can’t even self-describe. What you’re objectives are and who your target audience is. It’s hard to be known as competent when you’re not even you’re just anything to everybody, you know. And I can’t introduce you that way. Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:33:29] Yeah. So thanks for exploring this with me today. Dean, I know you and I have talked about this before, and we did last time, and I, like I said, I find this really valuable. I tend to only use it a few times a year. But, you know, sometimes it’s the little things that can make the biggest difference.

Dean Miles [00:33:51] I think the challenge can be from twice a year to. I’m sending away more messages than twice a year. It’s almost something I probably should look at, if not monthly, but weekly. Not creating a new brief, but even just going back to briefs of where is it now and what’s still true, and are the objectives still meaningful? Yeah. Yeah. Are the key messages still relevant? You know, I think about that. The acronym for Mr. T? No, I pity the fool. But Mr. T v as I knew it as Google him. But it is a means is a relevant and is a timely and. I heard that a long time ago, and it helps me to go back and think about things that I’m doing. And does it fit the Mr. T test?

Brilliant Miller [00:34:43] Yeah, I like that. Well, cool. Well, then, with that, I know we’ve got a little time left and we typically like to touch on all three of these facets of good living, earn recognition and money, and be a great coach. The other two things I had in mind that we could talk about today are. What about good living? We could talk about a specific breathing practice, the one about being a great coach. I thought it might be valuable to explore. Making commitments. How and why? What do you think? I doubt we’d have time to explore both of those in a meaningful way. What do you want to talk about? What do you think people listening would and watching would maybe most benefit from? What do I want to go with this conversation?

Dean Miles [00:35:32] Yeah, I’m going to I’m going to blend them together. I have a story. A world where breathing and a commitment come together for me.

Brilliant Miller [00:35:40] Are we allowed to do that? This is like choose your own adventure. Turn to page 79 or.

Dean Miles [00:35:47] I like it. And I got this or a ring many, many years ago, so. ouraring.com. And one of the things that this ring measures is your heart rate variability and just your overall restoration. And so it will give a prompt to do a breathing exercise which I’ve just been a skeptic of. I mean that’s some snake oil thing and I don’t have time for that. So I wanted to see if I could beat this system. So I would tell it that I did it to see if it would give me different numbers and it didn’t. And there’s other times I did it and I didn’t tell the ring that I did it and my numbers did improve so there wasn’t some placebo effect. It seems so insignificant, brilliant to do these breathing exercises, these breathing mindfulness moments, 3 minutes to 7 minutes of not talking about half hour that almost 60 minutes, those powerful as well. But something as short as 5 minutes can have a measurable, statistical meaningful, significant level impact. On the restorative, regenerative aspect of my human being. Yeah. That’s crazy to me. That is that impactful now. Emma willing to make a commitment to do it. That’s how I blend these two things together. That idea of commitment. I’m no longer impressed with ability as a not unless impressed with the ability and less impressed with insight. And I find myself less impressed with the results. Where really has my attention these days is someone’s ability to make a commitment to do what they say they were going to do, where they’re continually to develop their integrity. Were there, known as doing what they said they were going to do. I’m impressed with that to my core.

Brilliant Miller [00:37:57] Yeah, me too. Well, hearing you talk about, you know, the power of breathing, even in a relatively short timeframe. 7 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 minutes. I think even a single breath, like literally a single conscious breath. You know, years ago, I became a certified heart math trainer. It’s an incredible organization if people don’t already know hard math. You’re based in the redwoods in California. They’ve been studying heart focused breathing for more than 20 years. Very scientific approach. Team of researchers and scientists. And also trainers. And. Just some of the things I’ve learned truly changed my life from a single breath. And then it totally squared with what I’d learned from Tony Robbins about what creates emotion. Because this is a whole other thing that I geek out on so much because it’s one of these often invisible determinants of our experience. You know what the inputs to emotion are. But I could go a lot of ways with this conversation, but I did want to point to the power of a literally a single heart-focused or a single intentional breath to shift our mood and physiology in many ways. And in particular, when I put breathing on this as a possible discussion topic today, I was interested in talking a little bit about the Wim Hof breathing method, which, you know, I’ve heard is based on or resembles at least a Tibetan, an ancient Tibetan breath practice that is called tumor or fire breathing, I believe is what it’s translated as. And there’s obviously many, many different types of breathing practices, but this one is very intense and it’s something that I committed to trying for at least a week. I said, Look, I’m going to try it for a week and see what kind of difference it makes. I know last time we talked in, part of what we talked about was the cold.

Dean Miles [00:40:05] Right?

Brilliant Miller [00:40:06] Cold exposure. So, you know, Wim is a huge a teacher about cold therapy and about breath. And this one particular practice is something that is pretty intense. So anyway, that was the little bit of the background. And I just wanted to explore that with you, see if you’ve done it, see what your thoughts are, anything like that.

Dean Miles [00:40:28] And I can’t help but I wonder who else is listening when I talk about breathing. When you talk about breathing, I just become so aware of my breathing. Yeah. And so you can maybe you guys can pause and go back. But 45 seconds, you’ll see me take this deep breath. You shallow breathe so much. Yeah. And to take out it was a great reminder. Brilliant. The power significance of just a good cleansing. Well, I can feel this tension being released.

Brilliant Miller [00:41:04] As amazing as it is to me. It’s totally amazing. And I did a program with a teacher named John Wineland years ago, and it was on intimacy. And one of the things that really stayed with me from that workshop was John said that love cannot flow through tension. And whether that’s physical tension because we’re so tight or whether there’s that emotional tension in the atmosphere of our relationships that love, I don’t know that it can’t, but it has a much harder time, right? Like, tension is not a conductive material for love.

Dean Miles [00:41:35] Yeah. So good.

Brilliant Miller [00:41:36] Powerfully relax and make space for and allow what is or what could be. So, yeah, I’m with you there. And then I’m reminded too, when I’ve spent some time learning with Sadhguru, you know, the mystic him, you know, that he makes the statement that if you know how when you observe one’s breathing, you can see their entire past and their entire future. That’s his claim. Wow. Just by watching the breath, I’m like, That’s pretty amazing. And then I think about the fact that the first thing we do when we enter this world is to inhale.

Dean Miles [00:42:11] Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:42:12] Because we inspire. And the last thing we do as we expire is literally the last thing you do when you die is you exhale. And just how amazing. Right. But. Okay. So where is that? You know, you could take almost any one of these topics that are, like, right in front of us, easily available. Not often talked about That can make an incredible difference in the quality of our lives. And I could geek out on it for, if not a few hours. A few days.

Dean Miles [00:42:41] Yes.

Brilliant Miller [00:42:43] But I want to I want to I do want to talk about this. Women have one, and I want to acknowledge that I’m a little bit skeptical. Like I’m also skeptical is the word. But I don’t like talking about like a technique or practice. With someone’s name on it. It’s just it’s just a little hard for me. And on the one hand, I get we connect to people we’re interested in, people we relate to people. So I get that. So there’s a part of me that doesn’t love that. It’s the Wim Hof method, but if Wim Hof is the one who’s taken this practice that was available to all of us.

Dean Miles [00:43:14] That’s right.

Brilliant Miller [00:43:15] And now he’s sharing it broadly. Okay, it’s the Wim Hof method. I get that. But this practice is one where the basic practice is that you take 30 inhalations and exhalations as fully as you can. Like it’s not the kind of thing you would ever want to do in polite company.

Dean Miles [00:43:34] I think I would pass out. You do get. Oh, yeah. I would be lightheaded for sure.

Brilliant Miller [00:43:39] Yeah, it does. And it can be dangerous for people who are in water, People who are driving. Right. People maybe who have medical conditions. I don’t know. It can be dangerous for sure too fast.

Dean Miles [00:43:50] But it just is deep. Is complete.

Brilliant Miller [00:43:52] Is complete. So it says. And so whether it’s in through the nose and the mouth or just in. So it’s not pretty. I guess that’s the just.

Dean Miles [00:44:01] Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:44:01] It’s a full installation. It’s like part of the practices as intensely as you can. And then the exhalation as intensely as you can. And then no stopping. Next inhalation. Next exhalation, 30 times like a bellows. Right. And then when you get to 30 full exhalation hold. Then you hold your breath as long as you physically can.

Dean Miles [00:44:26] You clean yourself originated? Yeah.

Brilliant Miller [00:44:29] Deoxygenated. Right. Because you’re holding on the exhale.

Dean Miles [00:44:34] I gotcha. I go, You’re.

Brilliant Miller [00:44:35] Creating an anaerobic environment, which then when? And I think science tells us this promotes a lot of good things in the body. This helps reduce inflammation, promotes the and I don’t know, I’m not going to pretend to be a scientist or a medical practitioner on this. Right. I know how it feels when I do it. Right. So you do that one time second cycle, same thing. 30 inhalations. 30 exhalations at full intensity. Hold on. The exhale. I should say the way Wim teaches it, you actually do inhale fully and hold for 15 seconds after each cycle. But I’m at a point now and some people literally can go minutes, which is amazing to me because if you pay attention, like if you practice, it’s much easier to hold your breath on a full inhalation.

Dean Miles [00:45:22] Right.

Brilliant Miller [00:45:23] Then a full exhalation.

Dean Miles [00:45:24] Right.

Brilliant Miller [00:45:25] And when has an app that you can and it’s free and then there’s a paid version but you can use he guides you in this. So you do three cycles of this. 30 breaths for legislation. Hold as long as you can. Once you can’t hold anymore, then you take a full inhalation. Hold for 15 seconds, do the next round. Same thing next round. And then stop. I’ve been doing it for the last two weeks. I’m not sure how long I’ll do it. You know, I’m subscribing to this idea. Repeat yourself as long as it is interesting.

Dean Miles [00:46:00] Yes.

Brilliant Miller [00:46:00] I will tell you that I feel great. This is one component. During the cold every morning to I feel great. And it is the kind of thing that I find and I’ve shared it with a few friends, you know, privately on Zoom calls or when we’re together. But I just say when I look at what I see as some form of I don’t want to call it insanity, but some form of unworkable workability in our society. The tension, the aggression, the lack of maybe kindness. Right. My hope is that whether it’s this method and I know nothing is for everyone, this method or something else, people will find something to help them connect more fully with themselves, with other life itself. So I just want to explore this one with you and see what your experience was and your thoughts were and stuff like that.

Dean Miles [00:46:47] I need more of that. Through my through my career of coaching of Thelma’s. I’ve introduced to these types of topics way more than my normal corporate life exposed me to. And so was there such a shriek them around? Q A few others when they’ll start a call with, you know, Hey, just pause for a second is put your feet flat on the floor. This is do ten deep. I’m always shocked about how significantly my body responds in the positive to that. Yeah, well, being embarrassed that I had to be prompted by another human being that I haven’t made the commitment just to do that on my own. I want to be cynical about. I want to make fun of it. But I cannot deny. Its impact on me.

Brilliant Miller [00:47:40] Yemen. And here’s part of the way I see that is so much of our work about coaching is helping people to lay down new grooves, right patterns. Part of what creates that is pattern interrupts. Right. And if you as a coach can actually in that time and space you have with the client disrupt in a good way, in a loving way, the day they’ve been living the life they’ve been living, the identity they’ve been inhabiting, and you can bring that, that’s exactly part of what you’re there for. It’s not your brilliant insight always. That’s right. It’s not all knowledge and learning and all that, but what a tangible way of helping to demonstrate the, you know, the power of a pattern in a room, just a little breathing exercise.

Dean Miles [00:48:28] Well said.

Brilliant Miller [00:48:29] So. Well, then, I know we’re just about at the end of our time. What shall we What’s our final thought? What’s If there’s a thought you want to leave.

Dean Miles [00:48:39] Hanging.

Brilliant Miller [00:48:40] In the universe, Leave listeners, viewers with leave me with Dean Duggan on it. What is it?

Dean Miles [00:48:48] Yeah. I think the creative brief. Brilliant. Is. Is. Seriously, write that down. Write those ten steps down and at least look to forget about a new. A new idea. Go to the last idea you had and run it through the brief. Hmm. That’s what I want to do. So I don’t want to wait for maybe the next idea, because I’ll procrastinate. But what was the last idea I had? And I want to run it through the brief.

Brilliant Miller [00:49:16] Awesome. You know, the final thought here in this conversation today that I want to share is one that came up in a coaching session I recently had with my coach.

Dean Miles [00:49:28] Mm hmm.

Brilliant Miller [00:49:29] And she said something that I had never heard before. She said it was popular in personal growth circle years ago. She said, When you learn what? So it’s always good news. Mm hmm. Right. There’s a lot of times in life things that we don’t really want to know. We don’t maybe have the courage to ask. We’re not ready to face. But when You know what? So. Whatever it is. It’s always good news.

Dean Miles [00:49:55] Yeah. Like that a lot. I like that a lot. That land that a preach, as they say.

Brilliant Miller [00:50:01] All right. Well, thank you for making time. Thank you, everybody. Watching and listening. I hope you found at least one idea that will, in fact, help you to live a good life. Be a great coach. Earn recognition, money. Enjoy what you do. Love yourself more fully. Maybe be more healthy, happy, meaningful. And, Mr. Miles, I hope all those same things for you, my friend.

Dean Miles [00:50:21] Yeah. Take a deep breath.