Podcast Episode 212 Unedited Transcript Listen here Get Yourself One of These and Have All the Hard Decisions Made for You David Loy: Hi and welcome to In the Loop with Andy Andrews. I m your host David Loy. Andy Andrews: Yes, you are. David: Yes, Andy, thank you for joining us once again. Andy: I m excited to be here. David: I m sitting here, laughing, because we have fun while doing this. Andy: I have a great time here. I just have a great time. David: But I need you to know that I have fun for a different reason and the reason that I have fun is I get to watch when we re across the table from each other, I get to watch your face as your mind works. You probably don t get to see that. Andy: I don t get to see that. David: I get to watch. Andy: Is that a good thing?
David: It s very entertaining because I get to watch you as you piece together the things that nobody else notices. I guess that s why you are a noticer. But you make connections that I just can t even comprehend. Andy: I used to drive my parents crazy. David: I was going to say, you were probably the most entertaining kid in junior high school. I mean, you were just. Andy: Either the most entertaining kid or the most disciplined. David: I m sure that you just have either people rolling their eyes or rolling on the ground laughing. Andy: It was an addiction early on in my life to make people laugh. And I just think people pay attention when they laugh. So I just, I loved doing it then, I literally, I was addicted to it. And I did get in trouble a lot for it. David: Is there anything that stands out that you just came up, I don t know, randomly? Andy: I do, I do connect dots. I do see patterns or something and I don t, you know, I see it when I do history and I see it in songs. It s funny, a lot of times I ll be with the Gaithers and I ll be sitting up on a stage with them and some song will start and to me it sounds like the lead in for a popular song and I will lean over to Wes Hampton or somebody and I ll sing that song. And so they re just like trying not to laugh so that Bill doesn t call them down. I think I was like in kindergarten and I did, I kind of combined a couple and so they thought I was like this odd ball. 2
David: And everybody I m sure was just baffled. Andy: Oh the kids were laughing, you know, and the teacher didn t know what to think and my parents at home, like, what did you do? I said, I just sang two songs at once. And they said, what? I said, I just sang two songs at once, I combined two songs. David: And what were the two songs? Andy: The ABC s and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, cause I said, that s the same, it s the same music, it s the same thing. David: Well you have to now do this for us. Andy: Really? Alright. David: Can you do it, can you remember? Andy: Alright. David: Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time. Andy: Singing two songs at once. David: For the first time on In the Loop, since kindergarten. Andy: This is just for you David, just for you. David: Ok nobody else is listening. 3
Andy: Alright here we go. ABCDEFG how I wonder where you are. QRSTUV like a diamond in the sky, now I ve sing these songs together, don t you ask me to do it again ever. David: I bet your peers in kindergarten were just, the jaws were like on the floor. Andy: Oh yeah, you know, I m five years old taking bows, thank you, thank you, I ll be here whole week, don t forget to tip your teachers. David: You re coming up with your second set. Andy: Yeah. I ll be right back ladies and gentlemen. David: That is fantastic. Oh gosh, I wish people could watch this. We might have to do a video podcast at some point so people can watch this take place because I guarantee you, watching Andy s mind, watching his face as his mind works is pretty funny. Ok, let s get to a great question that came in, Andy: To actually get our minds working. David: Let's get people more than a smile, let s get them some great content. This is a question that came in from Megan by email and let me read her question to you. She says, hi Andy, I m an avid listener of your podcast. In fact, I listen to them every day at the gym. So once a week hasn t been enough for me. Thank you for saying that Megan. She says, I had recently have started with the archives. And I m inspired every day by the value that you and David bring through these podcasts. Andy: That s cool. 4
David: That is very cool. She goes on to saying, my question Andy is about mission statements. Do you have one and if so what is it? And what was the process you used in coming up with it? Also how important is it to have one for yourself or for a business or an enterprise? Thank you Andy, I look forward for your answer. I will keep checking in with new podcast as I make my way through the archives. Sincerely, Megan. That s a great question Megan. And let me say real quick, she brings up a great point. I think itunes has the most recent fifty podcasts, so you can go back, there s obviously a lot of content there. But they only have the most recent fifty episodes. And we re up into the two hundreds, more than two hundred episodes now. So if you want to go back like what Megan is done, go to andyandrews.com, click on podcast and every single one that we ve ever done is there. So I know what she s doing, she s going back through and getting all of those. You can download them, you can put them on your phone, you can play them through the website. All of those will always be available on andyandrews.com. Andy: Wow, that s really cool. David: Thanks for doing that Megan, thanks for pointing that out. Andy, what are your thoughts on her question about mission statements? Andy: That is, that s a great topic, because we haven t talked about that much. And she asks, is it, is this really necessary, or whatever? Is it something that has great value? And I think that it s very necessary. She said, do I have one? I have two. I have two. I have one for myself and my business and then I have one, our family has one, ok. And so, and I ll tell you mine for my business is, I ll tell you what the other one is, but mine for my business is very simple, very quick. And 5
for my business it is, my mission is to help others live the lives they would if they only knew how. David: Let me clarify that real quick. I think people that are listening to the podcast regularly have probably heard you say that phrase before but I don t know that everyone connects that with a mission statement. I think the term mission statement sometimes feels a little overwhelming or a little bit bigger than people need to make it out to be. Andy: And I think a lot of them are probably longer, our family one is a longer. David: But you said that your business mission statement on here, a couple of times, I think it s worth pointing out that it doesn t have to be some big long paragraph. Yours is very simple. Andy: In fact don t you think that if you can get it down to just very simple, you should. Because here s what a mission statement is to me. A mission statement creates a boundary that allows you to play freely and create freely and deal freely within those boundaries. And you can know where those boundaries are because your activities and everything you do, your investments, your investments of time, money, investments of relationships, it all should fit within the boundary of that mission statement. And you should be able to see that very quickly. Is this part of who I am and who I am working to become, is this a part of my mission in life? And if it s not, than, if it s outside of the fence, than to me, I don t have, I don t even have a decision to make. David: Right, you don t have to spend time thinking about it because it s outside of the perimeter. 6
Andy: Because I spent time thinking about the mission statement. I spent time building the fence. I know what that fence And so if my activity takes me or has the potential to take me, if something I m looking out has a potential to take me outside that mission, if what I m learning, what I am doing, whatever it is, what I m reading, what I m watching, what I m becoming, if it does not help me, if it doesn t create the kind of Andy that can help other people live the lives that they would love to live, if they only knew how to. If that doesn t help me help you, than that s outside the fence. I don t even have to think about it. David: That s really good. That s a great line. Spend time building the fence so that you don t always have to spend time searching for the border. Andy: Yeah, that s a great way of putting it, because I think so many people spend so much time in their lives deciding whether they're going to do something, is this good, should I do it or not, talking to people, talking to this. And living your life according to a mission statement is just a little narrower focus of living your life according to principles, ok. Because I think that if you decide the principles that will accomplish your mission statement, and I ll give you an example of how this kind of works, a real life example. This was, a number of years ago when finances were very, very tight, Robert and I were offered by a beer company, a very famous beer company to put a sign behind me. And just when I would go to college campuses and some corporate events, stuff like that, that sign would be behind me. And I wouldn t have to say anything about it, it would just be the sign, behind me. And the offer that they made to do that was more than we had made in the past two years combined. You know, it was a good six-figure offer. And Robert and I made the decision on it in about sixty seconds. Because we had already decided that one of our guiding things is, we were not going to, that I would not be a part of advertising alcohol or cigarettes or whatever. Because I just, I didn t want to be a part of helping somebody stumble, you know what I m saying. There 7
are some, you know, make up your own mind about whether to have a glass of wine but I am certainly not going to be pushing you to do it, ok. And so that was something that we decided way early, alright. So and it was a principle, it was one of our core things. We had not really established a mission statement at that point but we were establishing principles that we were going to run our business, and my whatever this is that I was doing and becoming. And so the thing is, that when most people, I feel like when they get a six figure offer when they ve never made six figures in their life in a year, when they get a six figure offer, the very least they re going to do is agonize over it. And it s probably going to take a long time and there s probably going to be a lot of rationalization involved. But literally we did not feel bad about it, we didn t think about I because that was something we had already decided with the fence we built. We spent time building the fence and so we didn t have to spend the time deciding who s getting in the fence and who s out of the fence, the fence was there already. David: It s there already, that s great. Andy: Hey can, and I know you re taking a breath like you re going to ask me something but I definitely want to talk about the family. David: Well that s what I was going to bring up. I know, let s say, probably a year ago, we did an episode about the family mission statement and why that s important and why people should spent some time creating that. But I don t recall, I don t think at least that you read yours. So if you want to cover that real quick, that will be great. 8
Andy: Yeah and I would also like to tell you, it really only has four real lines in it. It s four things in it. And I can tell you why they re in it. I think why is critical. And so I think that if you are writing your mission statement, if you are coming up with a mission statement for your family, you need to know why you are putting a certain thing in there. You know, I ve always hesitated telling people what the family one is. And I think the reason is because I think that they, the family ones can be a lot more varied and I never wanted to impose mine on anybody else or you know, I really want you to think through yours, ok. You know, I wouldn t even use mine as a template really but here is what it is. And I ll tell you, you want me to do it all and then go back? David: Yeah, let s get the whole thing. Andy: Alright, here s what it is. In the Andrews family, we arise each day with grateful hearts and smiling faces, determined to glorify, serve and trust in God. We live by the highest standards of moral character and integrity, we love, respect, encourage and defend each other. And we re noble stewards of the resources entrusted to us. Those are the four things. David: Ok so break it down. Andy: Ok, and that s up in the hallway, you know, in our main, I mean, you can t come into our house without seeing that. David: That s right, I ve been there, I ve seen that. It s very prominent. Andy: Boys don t come out of their rooms that they do not see that and they know that. And so they arise each day with grateful hearts and smiling faces, it s huge. That is who you are becoming, ok. And so we want our boys to know, this is who 9
you are, you re not a complainer, you re not a whiner, you are blessed, you live in America, you have parents, you have a brother, you have enough food to eat, we could go on and on. And so to do less than arise each day with a grateful heart and a smiling face is disrespectful, it s disrespectful to God who made you. And we are arising with grateful hearts and smiling faces and we re determined, we re determined to show God, to other people, to show that we re, because people say, well they re Christians, ok. And so, you and I know, one of the craziest aggravations in our lives is that we see people and they say they re Christians and they just act in some crazy way and you know, I just want to say, you re killing us here, you know. Do you ever think God rolled his eyes and says, hey, don t say you re with me, ok, you re just killing me here. And so anyway, we want to be grateful, we want to show gratefulness and smile. And so then living by the high standards of the moral character and integrity, you know, you understand that, that s what you want to teach your kid this way, you want to show your children and boy, I ll tell you what, it s one of those kind of things that comes back and really, really makes sure, it really comes back and you are aware that you are within that boundary, that fence as well. Because when you talk to your kids about integrity and you talk to your kids about sliding the truth a little bit or exaggerating too much. Oh boy, don t think they won t notice it when you do it. David: Right, absolutely. Andy: And so it s a great thing for your family, maybe hard for us as adults sometimes. I always think about the Andy Griffith show where Andy really, you know, Opie was selling his bike and Opie did not tell the kid several things about the bike that were wrong. And Andy got on to him, he said, go get that bike and you give him his money back. Well then couple days later Andy s selling his house 10
and these people come in and Opie s going, did you tell them about the leak in the roof? And Andy s like, what, what? And they had his conversation later and he says, Opie, don t do that. And he says, well I thought you wanted me to. And he said, well it s different, you know. And Opie said, how is it different? And he said, well a bike is a bike and a house is a house. And finally Andy just go, you re right, you re right, I can t believe. So anyway, the high standards and moral character and integrity. Then love, respect, encourage and defend each other at all times. Now, I want to explain one part of that, ok. The love, respect and encourage is pretty easy to understand. The defend each other, that would be easy if we re talking about somebody s getting into a fight, jump on their own. But that s not what we re really talking about there. There was instance a couple of years ago when our neighbor, they come on the weekend sometimes and then they leave at the end of the week. And so our neighbor called Austin and she said, Austin, would you please take the garbage can in, it goes out on Sunday night, would you take it in Monday, take it back to the house on Monday? And he said, yes ma am, I ll be glad to do that I will do that. So the next morning we realized that gosh, Austin s not coming home, he s got library thing and some other stuff and he s not even going to be home. And so Austin says, and I m right there with him, Austin says, Adam will you do that for me? And Adam says, I will. And he says, Adam, you can t forget. He said, I won t, I won t forget. And that s a kiss of death. David: Exactly. Andy: And so Austin gets home later and then he gets a text on his phone from miss Robin and she says, may I call him. And he says, yes ma am. So I see him, he s on the phone and he said, oh Mrs. Robin, I am so sorry. Because somebody had come by and said, hey did you mean to leave your garbage can out and called her over in Mobile. And she said, oh. So she called Austin and said, hey did 11
something happen, did they not pick up the garbage or did you forget and it s alright. But Austin said, Mrs. Robin, I am so sorry, that is my fault, I will go get that right now. I will get that done. And so, then he gets off the phone and he says, Adam, you said you are going to do that? And Adam said, I forgot. And Austin kind of, uhh, like that. And then Adam said, you didn t tell Mrs. Robin I did it? And Austin said, I know, and then he kind of, just kind of walks away. And I said to Adam, I said, buddy, I said, in our family mission statement, where it says, we will defend each other, I said, your big brother right there was defending you, he was defending your reputation. He took that blame, he knew that ultimately it was his responsibility and he was the one that kind of sub to that out, ultimately it was his responsibility. But most people would ve said, I can t believe my little brother forgot. David: Pass the blame. Andy: Yeah. But Austin did not, he was defending your reputation. And so that s kind of what that means. And then the last one, being noble stewards to the resources entrusted to us. That one seems pretty evident too, is that we, you know, whatever blessings we get that we use them wisely, that we re wise and we re careful with those blessings, with the resources. And yet it is an awesome way to explain certain things to your children. I ll give you great example here with, there s some things our boys, we want to get some land at some point. We would like to get some land. But there s some other things we have to take care of first financially, but we really want to get some acreage, some woods. And the boys really want that badly but they know there s things that we have to take care of first. And so, when those things are taken care of then we can start looking to get some timberland or woodland. And so there was one point that Adam left a thing on 12
the couch, left like clippers, you know. We have been doing the Christmas tree and it was like, it had sap on it. He left it on momma s nice couch. And so we talk a minute and we go back to the framed mission statement, I said, you see right here, where it says we re noble stewards of the resources that had been entrusted to us? I said, do you know what that means Adam? I said, let me explain this. This means that we re not only wise with how we spend the money but we re careful with the things we spend the money on, that we take care of them, that we re wise with them. I said, because if we ruin the couch then we have to get momma another one at some point. I said, I want you to think about something, momma tells you don t run outside in your socks, right? He said, right. I said, you know that, that like ruins socks? He says, yes sir. I said, that'll put holes in your socks. He said, right. He said, you know, or I said, when you get holes in your socks, mom and daddy have to take money that we did not plan on spending buying a new socks, I already bought you socks. I said, but we have to take money that we didn t plan on and buy new socks because you were not a noble steward of that resource. Now let me tell you how that affects you. You know how there s a few things we have to take care of before we get that land? He said, right. I said, when we have to buy extra socks and when we have to do things, buy stuff that was not taken care of again, that puts us farther away from getting the land because that was money that we could use to put on what we re taken care of. And I said, so, mom and daddy have something to do with moving our lives toward getting some land and so do you and Austin. And that s why you want to, if you want that land, you also want to be noble stewards of these resources. David: And that makes it applicable to him, to his life. And so that s a great example of how a family mission statement can be used and looked at and remembered every day. Andy thanks for going into that. 13
Andy: Or you can just tell him a hundred times not to run outside in the socks. David: I think it s a lot easier to explain the why, which we talked about so many times. I ve just looked this up, the other podcast that we did on this, was episode 131, the Benefits of a Family Mission Statement. And I believe that one, you did not go into your specific family mission statement, but you did spend some additional time talking about the why and the importance of creating one. So that could be a great resource for anyone who s interested, that s episode 131. But Andy thanks for sharing that and for your business mission statement as well. And Megan, a great question, thank you so much. Please continue to listen as you work out. I m glad, it s good to know that people are working out and listening to us at the same time. That s awesome. Alright, Andy we will talk to you next week, thanks. Andy: Looking forward to it. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show! Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY Email: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com Facebook.com/AndyAndrews Twitter.com/AndyAndrews 14