Episode 692 - Energy Behind the Execution

In this episode of Monday Morning Mojo, Phil discusses the importance of surrounding oneself with inspiring individuals and reflects on his love for music. He highlights the creativity involved in reimagining classic songs and emphasizes that success often comes from the execution of ideas rather than their originality. Phil encourages listeners to study successful people, adapt their strategies, and focus on executing their plans with positivity and hard work.

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Transcript 

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I am Phil Buchanan, executive chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push and motivational insight to live your best life.

Thanks for joining. Hello, greetings Cannon Nation. It is Phil here with episode 692 of Monday Morning Mojo. Longtime listeners know that music is a big part of my life. Now that doesn't mean playing music, making music, singing music. Heck, I can't even carry a note to the post office. But man, do I love to listen both live and on xm, the radio, Spotify, iTunes, wherever.

My wife and I recently attended our youngest daughter's sorority parents weekend. Uh, she is a senior at the University of Georgia. So this concluded a total of eight combined undergrad years of parent weekends between our two daughters. Now, during one of the recent late night. After parties of Parents Weekend, my wife commented how funny it was that our daughter's crowd listens to a lot of eighties music and she was right.

While we were out. We heard Queen Billy Joel, journey Madonna, Tina Turner, prince Minute Work, REM. A lot of the great music that we used to listen to back in the eighties. It was a fantastic trip down memory lane. It created a bit of nostalgia. Music has a way of taking you mentally and emotionally to very special places in times of your life.

I think that music is an essential way of feeding your soul. Uh, new music today is constantly being written. Some of it's very, very good. Uh, much of it, not so much to my taste, but occasionally you'll find a very confident artist. I. Who will take a piece of music that's already been done and they'll redo it.

Sometimes that's called a cover, right? Uh, they seek to occasionally keep the original, mostly in check. Sometimes they step a little bit outside the lines. For example, Darius Rucker took old crow medicine shows wagon wheel, and created a great cover. Luke Combs in just the last couple of years took Tracy Chapman's 1988 hit Fast Car, and except for the little country twist, kept it as a very, very quality cover.

Yet again, sometimes an artist has both the imagination and skills to elevate an original to something that becomes in and of itself incredibly unique. Whitney Houston took Dolly Parton's original. I will always love you and put that song on steroids. It was distinctly Whitney, yet the essence of the rhythm and musical backgrounds were connected to Parton's original.

Taking a hit and completely re-imagining the work takes confidence. It takes vision, it takes bravery, and it takes skill to pull it off. Over the last couple of years, I've become a big fan of Britain's Got Talent. I watch the reruns via YouTube. Now some folks don't like Simon Cowell, one of the judges on the show, but I, I find him fairly fair and objective.

So it was last year that a lady by the name of Sidney Christmas wowed the fans and the judges, and most notably Simon Cowell. And completely blew everyone away with her rendition of tomorrow from the musical Annie. That musical score was originally sung by Andrea McCardle. You and I have heard it a thousand times, but I had never.

Heard it the way Sidney Christmas delivered it. She took a hit and completely reworked all aspects. She wowed the world and was eventually crowned the 2024. Overall winner of Britain's Got Talent. It was very, very well deserved. So back to my parents' weekend, there was one song that played that night that I had listened to a lot back in the eighties.

It was a song that was done by the Proclaimers. It is entitled, I'm Going To Be Now. Sometimes we have a tough time remembering that, but their famous line, uh, it's, it's a great sing. Along goes that I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more. Again, when the music comes on, you know the song. Now, I have always loved the words, the cadence, the melody, and again, when it played last Saturday night, it was so much fun to hear.

But back to Britain's Got Talent for a moment. In a recent show, a contestant name Vinny McKee, completely reimagined that song and turned it into a commanding performance that left again the audience and the judges gobsmacked. His theatrical rendition was so unique, so stunning that it challenged and complimented the original work in a way that has seared his rendition into my memory as a truly unique and differentiated experience.

Will he win this year's Britain's Got talent? Uh, who knows, but I will remember his rendition probably for the rest of my life. So you may be saying, well, Phil, this is all very interesting, uh, nice stories about music and remakes, but what's the point? Well, the point's really fairly simple. I think too many of us believe that in order to stand out to make a difference, we have to come up with something totally unique, totally different, something so original.

Nobody else has ever seen it In reality, I. What I find really matters is the execution of an idea or a plan, and not the origins of that idea or that plan. You know, one of the things that I have heard consistently in my consulting career from many wealth management firms is a statement to the effect of, eh, we've tried that before.

It, it, it didn't work. Now my question back. Is always the same. Do you think it was the concept that was faulty or the execution of that idea? The thing I want you all to remember is whether you're working to improve your net promoter score, if you're seeking to expand your client base, whatever the objectives are, we tend to spend so much time on coming up with the plan to accomplish that.

I. I would argue that the energy that you put into the execution of your plan is much more important than trying to be too creative or too out there with new concepts and ideas. I. I encourage you to be curious. Study successful firms, study successful people evaluate the factors and the strategies that they use to be successful.

Now, chances are you're never gonna be able to copy somebody else's strategy and ideas in a verbatim way. That's, that's not the objective, but. If you are curious and you use very successful people strategies to inform your own, and then you own your plans and you operate to your strengths and you focus on execution, incredible things can occur.

Be relentless, be positive, and put in the work. Now whether you're gonna be as good as the original doesn't really matter. What matters is that you achieve your goals and sometimes the results you get are far better than the original. That was an example that took place last year on American Idol with a winner by the name of Abby Carter, rendition of Billie Eilish.

What was I made for? Was so inspiring that Eilish herself, call Carter to congratulate her. Amazing, when you think about it, set your goals high. Be creative in your ideas, but don't fail to study how the best do it and put your energies behind the execution of your ideas. It's amazing how far you can soar.

Monday Morning Mojo is a production of Cannon Financial Institute, executive producer of Monday Morning. Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force for good. Have a great week and thanks for being part of the Mojo community.