People easily get attracted to things and they want to try it right away to see if it works. They look at an industry or something that catches their eye and they say, “I’m going to do that.” They find out later on that their heart is just not in it. Strategist and consultant Keith Wayne MacGregor helps entrepreneurs and executives develop and achieve wealth-building, mission-based milestones by understanding what their purpose is. Throughout his career, Keith has managed private accounts of USD2M+ and worked in a variety of fields, including radio, television and film, international marketing and importing, investment capital and trust management, the art gallery business, and the dressage training industry. Learn more how you can discover and appreciate your true purpose so you can be of service to others and do it profitably.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Mission-Based Milestones with Keith Wayne MacGregor
In this podcast, we are going to focus on really understanding how we can take back our time by appreciating what our purpose is and how that purpose will make it easier for us to do whatever it is that we are here to do and that we want to do. I also have a great guest with us, Keith Wayne MacGregor. He’s a dear friend and also a kindred soul. He’s an entrepreneur, so he knows his way around being in business and growing business. He works privately as a consultant and a strategist and he helps entrepreneurs and executives to develop and achieve mission-based and wealth-building milestones. When we can be mission-based and be building the milestones towards our wealth and abundance, that is what we’re here for. Keith, without further ado, welcome.
Thank you so much. I’m grateful to be here.
Tell me how did you come up with your platform of helping people to understand what their purpose is and be more mission-based? How did that surface?
The way that it happened for me, from what I observed, is very similar to how it happens for everyone. I think what happens is people try stuff, they get attracted to things and they see if it works. They look at an industry or something that catches their eye and they say, “I’m going to do that.” They find out later on that their heart’s just not in it. I’ve a lot of different companies. I did importing from Kowloon, Hong Kong when I was younger in my twenties and I’ve had a few different companies. For me, my bliss is consulting and the startup entrepreneurial. Why am I doing this mission-based stuff? It’s because in my experience, I succeeded for a while but eventually it just fizzles out. I came to that just based on what wasn’t working and thinking, why doesn’t this work? It really is the cliché, my heart’s not in it.
How many people go along doing something that they really don’t enjoy and they’re doing it just because it provides a paycheck? Wouldn’t they probably make more money doing something that they love just because they love it and they put their heart into it?
I don’t know if you remember conversations that we have but to this point, I was very young when I met Bob Proctor in Toronto. We’re both from that same area and I was about fourteen years old. I went as a guest with my father’s insurance company. My dad was a life insurance salesman. I met Bob way back and he was talking about Think and Grow Rich and the Law of Attraction and all that. In my early twenties, I actually did what Bob was doing. He gave me copies of his books about, limiting beliefs, goal setting and goal achieving. He said, “Just go do it. We need teachers here. Just take my stuff. It’s not mine any way.” I thought, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to be like that. when I was talking about all that stuff, as great as it was, it wasn’t really me. It didn’t touch me inside.
It wasn’t my big passion. Although this work is similar, I just hadn’t found the exact language for me and it wasn’t about the Law of Attraction, which is obviously Bob’s thing for decades. It’s really about trying things on. If you know that it’s got to be a purposeful thing because in our industry there is so much information out there with the media that we have now and technology. There are so many avenues of learning and coaches and programs and systems. I think a lot of people know that they have to have something purposeful. We never really had as much, at least people from my generation anyway. We didn’t have all the stuff that younger people have now. I think they know more to find what’s in their heart.
Mission-Based Milestones: It’s really about trying things on to know that it’s got to be a purposeful thing.
We also know that we’re in a time where we know a lot but we don’t do what we know.
That’s a whole other conversation. As everyone talks about your mental blocks, emotional blocks, all that kind of thing. For me, it’s really about finding that passion, the language within one’s self. What is my experience itself and what do I believe I’m here to do? You and I have talked about soul or sole purpose to bring whatever your beliefs or disbeliefs are, into play. I think on a human level, regardless of faith or belief, I believe that every human being has some experience of themselves that’s not physical. It’s our thoughts, our thinking, our desires, whatever you want to call them. It’s all about finding the one thing above all else that we experienced about ourselves in a non-physical language that says, “This is who I am and I’m going to somehow bring this out into the world. This is in service to others, and to do it profitably, and make a living at it.”
I just want to point out that it’s possible to do all of those things. It’s possible to be living in what you believe to be your purpose, what you’re meant to do, what special gifts you have, and to make money at it. There are people who are saying, “I shouldn’t be making money from that.” Have you experienced that too where people feel guilty about making money for a gift that they have?
Yes, especially in the entrepreneurial service world. I’ve also talked how the ever-expanding personal life coaching business is and how quickly, in the last decade or so, Millennials and so forth are committed. That’s great because it shows a higher awareness. They say, “I haven’t been around very long and people don’t know me. I’m not a Bob Proctor or Les Brown. I really can’t charge a certain amount.” You talk to the marketing guys and maybe in practice that’s true on one level, but it also doesn’t mean that you have to do yet you’re fourth free group coaching call. Test it out and then put value on it because if you don’t put value on it, other people won’t either.
First thing that you spoke about was the thoughts of ourselves, the non-nonphysical. How do you take that? When you understand this essence and you understand, “Here is what I feel is my purpose in life,” what’s the next step? How do I get there? These are what people are thinking. How do I find that out and then how do I put that into practice?
You really can find it without hiring people like you and I. I help people uncover their sole purpose language is my language around that. You can work with somebody that you align with, that you feel congruency with. Do the process and uncover the language. It can also just unfold naturally. A friend can say something to you and you might say, “I’m all about love or I’m all about trust or I’m all about compassion.” It really is the non-physical essence of one’s self. What am I all about in the non-physical place?
Test it out and then put value on it because if you don't put value on it, other people won’t either. Click To Tweet
I had one Christian client who is all about God’s love. Their essence was to bring more of God’s love into the world. Once we find whatever that experience of non-physical self is, then we look at the life purpose statement, which there are many models out there. Jack Canfield has a great one in his book with the 63 steps with his The Success Principles. It’s really about, what are my skills, what’s my knowledge and what are my interests?
What’s the best way to take love, trust, compassion or whatever it may be? How do I take that and make coffee mugs and have it all be about compassion? Maybe you’ll have messages on inspiration on a mug, like certain sayings or whatever. How can I make mugs and put coffee mugs out into the world? Just as an example of life purpose thing. How do I do that with the team and get into a market that’s already established profitably and serve people through that essence of compassion?
If we can find that, whether it’s cups, whether it’s art, whether it’s the gaming apps or whatever your interest might be. The key is to always come from that non-physical experience of self because that’s your template. If making the mugs doesn’t help you create more compassion in the world, don’t do it.
If it’s not bringing it across in the way that makes you happy. There are lots of different vehicles to spread love or that you can spread compassion or integrity or whatever. I think sometimes people get caught up in thinking that it’s got to be one way versus the other. That happened for me when I moved back from living in Zurich, Switzerland. I was questioning what was this experience about for me.
I know that it must be spending sixteen years in a foreign country. What is that and how can I use that going forward? What does that mean for me? I came up with from my own self-discovery and unfolded that it’s about culture. Understanding where our culture has been, where it’s going, seeing it from outside of ourselves, seeing different perspectives and that I want to influence the culture.
I do agree that there are a lot of people that go with the trend. Sometimes you’ll go to a strategist and they’ll say, “If you’re all about compassion, we’re going to put that in a gaming app and my company can help you do that.” You’re going to let this happen. It might be something that the person has zero interest in it whatsoever.
I started to create something that I was not excited about. I liked the idea of it so I thought I’m going to create this community, this platform where people are going to share their cultural experiences. I had the thought together. When I thought about working on it, it was about a blog site and I don’t love writing. I decided that wasn’t going to be the vehicle.
I could just shift to something else and recognize I don’t love that. What is it that I do enjoy doing? I do love software. I ended up making a piece of software that I deliver, which in a way that I feel has an impact on changing the way people behave. That leads to changing the culture. That’s my interpretation and if as long as I feel that energy and excitement around it, then I’m in the right place.
You said people sometimes they know but they don’t do it. I think the reason why they don’t do it or why you and I don’t do certain things is because we’re all about the compassion. What happens is we allow outside sources to say, “You’ve got to do it this way. You got to do it that way. This is the best way” If that isn’t what you’re interested in, and especially if that’s not where your skill set is, and if you’re required to do that to bring your compassion and your essence out into the world, you’re probably going to fail.
Mission-Based Milestones: The key is to always come from that non-physical experience of self because that’s your template.
The life purpose that you’ve chosen is the delivery mechanism. Like you said earlier, “What action am I going to take? What am I going to do to fulfill my inner essence, out into the world thing?” If you don’t choose the right one, you’re never going to do it. That’s why people come and say, “I’m really successful. I’ve got lots of money and I’ve got great customers and I’m grateful that I have this thing,” but there’s something missing. Sometimes what’s something missing is that they’re not doing the thing that they want to do in the way they want to do it or they’re doing something successfully because they have a big team around them and they’re doing all the work. They aren’t really involved in their company. They just manage it and go way to go a good job but they’re not really in it.
It can be twofold. I think if you really love what you’re doing and it’s coming from a place of, “I love who I am and I’m bringing who I am out into the world. In a way that I love doing it that way,” that’s where the magic is. That’s where the profitability and the viability is for entrepreneurs. If you spend your time figuring those two steps out first, “Who am I in my non-physical experience self? How do I bring that out in the world? What do I do in a way that I just love doing it? I wake up in the morning and I think I get to do more of this stuff,” then you do take back your time. You have all of your time because my perspective on what you teach in terms of taking back our time, it’s really how I spend my time. It’s mostly on only what I love to do rather than what really sucks.
We get things done faster. We get more creative about the way that we approach things. It brings out the best in us, which means that we’re more efficient and effective in doing it.
I have clients that have careers as well as entrepreneurs and executives who have careers. They don’t own the company, but they’re an executive. The ones that are late for work never are the ones that love what they do. The ones who love what they do are the first guys there and the last to leave. Jay Leno was like that. He always said that your staff doesn’t mind if you’re making more money than they are, as long as you are literally or figuratively the first one in the morning and the last one to leave at night. They don’t care because you’re putting everything you have into your life and they’re helping you. It’s another conversation about personalities and different thinking styles.
I’ve been to your workshops, I think they’re amazing. The information is there and it’s understandable. It’s really great for people who think, right brain, left brain. It all comes out perfectly and it really is about taking back our time. It’s all about what you are spending your time doing. Have it be the thing that you love to do and make money doing it. In the making money part it really comes with the final step.
Once you have your life purpose and we’re going to go into the software business as you did, and now let’s have a strategy. What kind of software? What’s our market going to be? Who do we bring in as alliance partners? Let’s take all of the pieces of the puzzle and sequence them. What do I need to do? In what order so that I can have my quickest time spent? That’s usually the thing that helps people the most, the quickest. That’s the first thing we need to do to help somebody and to serve them with whatever we’re doing.
I think those four, depending on what strategy. Are strategy and sequence on the same step or they are the same?
They are different but I find strategy and sequencing really one without the other is a waste of time.
A great example that I use sometimes is you can make a cake. You can take all of those ingredients, put them all in a bowl and then put it in the oven, and then take it out and mix it up. That doesn’t work. You can use all the different steps but if you’re using them in the wrong sequence then you’re not going to get the result that you’re looking for.
That’s a perfect example because it really helps people who have never done business before. They’re new entrepreneurs. They have no association experientially to sequencing in an entrepreneurial business world but they sure have been in the kitchen.
The strategy could be the ingredients but it’s also how much of each thing. Your eggs might be your marketing. If you market but you don’t have some of the other pieces that you need to gather, like a clear definition of your target audience, then you’re wasting money. You’re not going to get the results. It’s like forgetting an ingredient and not putting them in the right sequence. It’s going to have an impact.
Mission-Based Milestones: If it’s not the way it makes you happy, there’s going to be an empty place.
For your customer base in mind and maybe for your audience being mostly entrepreneurs, it takes away so much of the struggle and you save so much time if you do those things first. Who am I inside as a human being? What’s my experience? How am I going to express that in service to others? Take all of the ingredients of the cake, put them all out on the counter, and then with the team if necessary, figure out what ingredients to put in the bowl first. Just do that in life and it really is key.
That’s the work that you’re doing in the world in terms of time, because time goes by really quickly and sometimes when you’re in your twenties and thirties you don’t realize it. I have a lot of clients that come to me that are in 40s, 50s, even 60s. They’re asking, “There’s something missing in my life and I don’t know what it is.” It really is that component of what’s the essence of who you are and is that being expressed out in your work into the world. If it’s not the way it makes you happy, there’s going to be an empty place. I made money doing stuff that wasn’t really my thing. It’s great and you pay the bills, but I don’t think it creates wealth over time because eventually I think you’d crash and burn. You just can’t sustain it because it’s not what you want to do.
It doesn’t create fulfillment. If you look at wealth as not just financial wealth, but health and abundance of heart and relationships, it’s not going to create that fulfillment.
For me, relationships are the very first thing. It can work if the financial wealth building is your thing, and so anything that does that quicker, better, faster, as the marketing cloud, then that’s great. I have partners and friends that are in their seventies and one in his early eighties.
Eventually, they get to a place where they’re like, “It’s really not about that at all.” As time goes by and we spend our time on the things that we think are meaningful and purposeful, time will go by and catch up with us. As the cliché goes, and you’re 70 or 80 and you’re going, “What the hell did I do that for? Why didn’t I do something meaningful and purposeful?” They can’t take back that time now because they’re 80.
Relationships are the very first thing. Click To Tweet
It’s a perfect lead into how can people get ahold of you so that they can start that process? If they feel like they’re empty or they feel like they know they’re missing something or they’re looking for that, how do they get in touch with you?
My website is easy to remember. It’s KeithWayne.com. If you just want to do an email thing, it’s Keith@KeithWayne.com.
Thank you so much for being here. It was as always a great conversation.
How many years have we talked about doing work together?
I’m sure there are more things coming.
It’s perfect and thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
To our audience, thank you for investing your time in the ways that you can be more strategic in how you approach your time. There’s nothing more strategic than getting to the heart of what drives you. When you do that first and you build from there, you’re only going to build success and build fulfillment. You’re going to do things faster, more creatively, be more fulfilled in doing it and make more money. That’s the way that you’re going to take back time as we relate it in this episode. My name is Penny Zenker and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Links Mentioned:
- Keith Wayne MacGregor
- Think and Grow Rich
- The Success Principles
- Keith@KeithWayne.com
- http://www.KeithWayne.com
About Keith Wayne MacGregor
He is a 30-plus-year entrepreneur, working privately as a consultant and strategist, helping entrepreneurs and executives develop and achieve mission-based, wealth-building milestones. Throughout his career, Mr. MacGregor has managed private accounts of USD2M+ and worked in a variety of fields, including radio; television and film; international marketing and importing; investment capital and trust management; the art gallery business; and the dressage training industry. Keith holds a number of certificates and diplomas from independent consulting and training companies, as well as from Durham College, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.