We need a vision that is as clear as our fear with John & Ashely Marsh

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Do you need a vision as clear as your fear? During this time of uncertainty, it is critical for companies, communities and couples to prepare a vision for both surviving the Covid-19 pandemic and thriving once it passes. In this episode,. Ty interviews John and Ashely and deconstructs their methodologies for how they created a vision for the next 30,60,90, and 120 days in their companies. If you feel that your emotions are ruling your decision making during this time, you will find the practical insights from this episode invaluable.

Insights & Inspirations

  •  “We must get a vision that is as clear as our fear to move us forward” – John Marsh
  • the vision gave me the power to live and being intentional, not accidental, was the key to not just surviving something, but finding a way to thrive. – John Marsh
  • we started making sure that our mental factories were not getting piled with a bunch of garbage. – John Marsh
  • “How will these impact those plans that we had and which things are no longer as important?”  – Ashely Marsh
  • what we began to realize is when there’s obstacles and adversity, there’s always opportunity and they’re mixed up. You got to behold what’s going on. You have to behold the future while being aware of where you are so you beware and you behold at the same time.  – John Marsh
  • one of the things that I think is super important is always having the information in front of you… and I’ll look at them probably once an hour, and I look at them to remind myself of what I need to focus on. Where are we now? Have I come up with any new ideas of anything that can be more creative to get somewhere more quickly or more effectively? – Ashely Marsh
  • And we wanted to set an expectation that we would meet again and tell you as we update. We asked everyone questions, how much time can you afford to work? What’s the minimum number of hours that you can run your home budget on or do you want to take some time off if you didn’t want to work on a project? So we started that communication early, and we did it the words matter, and so we did it, got our words right and met with our people as quickly as possible. – John Marsh
  • We found that collaborative works. I mean, we’ll use Google Docs and be writing together. It has to be words, images, and emotions in our opinion. So it needs a great story.  – John Marsh
  • So you kind of wrote a document that we all collaborated together as we were going through this process. And first step, what does the vision in this time look like? What does that mean? And so we did develop this written plan to survive and thrive. The next thing that we really spent a lot of time on was kind of developing a relationship map of where we have favor. – Ty Maloney
  • Ashe and I have learned that great mentors (have tremendous value) in the multitude of wise counselors and godly counselors, there’s wisdom. – John Marsh
  • So what’s an old head? He’s been through some stuff. And so I called Wes and I said, “When the oil industry turns and you’ve been through them over and over, what do you do?” He said, “Well cut quick and cut deep. Most people don’t cut quick enough and don’t cut deep enough.” – John Marsh
  • … just to say ultimately, what do we want to do and who do we want to be in this, and we want to be generous people, we want to be people with a vision, or be people with grace and character. And we both want to be the ones on the other side of this to say that we were able to give in the midst of a drought, and whenever there was a famine that we still had a storehouse that we could give out of. – Ashely Marsh
  • So we started with the people, then we went to the capital and the capital, we said, it’s like bowling balls, baseballs, and BBs. And we started dealing with bowling balls first because usually, it takes as much time to deal with the bowling ball as it does a BB. – John Marsh
  • And so we wanted to communicate with our banks, lenders, partners, large, work with that in those numbers and make sure we were finding the right capital strategy because we needed not only to preserve the capital through expenses, but we needed to also look at our income and potential financing opportunities that may need adjustments – John Marsh
  • I mean, in the absence of a story that’s yours, people are going to tell the one they want to tell. And that’s more dangerous now more than ever. . – Ashely Marsh
  • our team says, I speak bumper sticker. And I have to admit that’s true. But I do that and they said, “Well, why do you speak bumper sticker?” I say because it sticks. – John Marsh
  •  I just keep moving new words to feel like we’re living in one of the longest run-on sentences I’ve ever experience. No commas, periods, pauses or paragraph changes.  until my heart says, “Yes, that’s the right words.” And it takes a little work, but the words matter, the words matter deeply especially if you want them to remember them. – John Marsh
  • removing misalignment and having expectations, which are unvoiced demands that are not out there are just things that will suck the energy out of your ability to be confident, be clear and be consistent. – John Marsh
  • I do believe that there is a place of people think that and lack of verbal disagreement that there’s not a disagreement. And so if you don’t understand what your spouse is saying or what they’re suggesting or a way that they use a word, to be willing to say, “I don’t understand or that is not what I heard.”, or just to speak up, not to be combative, but to clarify..- Ashely Marsh
  • sit down with people you trust and say, “Help me make this better. Help me work these words.” – John Marsh
  • Yeah, no I mean, I think what’s essentially amazing, the economics of leadership comes into question in these times, when the price, the promise or the vision that you had, if it’s fuzzy, then the price that you have to pay to pull through this crisis is going to be really tough. – Ty Maloney
  •  I feel like we’re living in one of the longest run-on sentences of experience. No commas, periods, pauses or paragraph changes.  – John Marsh
  • I do believe that there is a place where people think that and lack of verbal disagreement that there’s not an agreement.  – Ashely Marsh
  • Henry Ford is, “Whatever you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” 
  • the visionary is one who has a clear idea about what should happen or should be done and has a powerful imagination, sees the future, and an integrator’s one who integrates harmoniously unites the major functions of a business, marriage, relationship. – John Marsh
  • Can we get to the same place with a different approach? Are we talking about the same thing? – Ashely Marsh
  •  But the first step would be we said we develop a written plan to survive and thrive. For us, we broke that into a 30 and 60, 90, 120-day plan at different income increments. – Ty Maloney
  • The second step was we developed a relationship map where favor exists, and then we created touchpoints for each of those relationships. So that included our mentors. It included customers, partners, vendors asking specific questions and getting clarity on where each one of these individuals was at this season.  – Ty Maloney
  • The third thing is that we created the margin for miracles.  – Ty Maloney
  •  Fourth, we communicated clearly, confidently, consistently.  – Ty Maloney
  • And then lastly, we maintained momentum. So we talked about this cadence and creating a meaningful kind of cadence of accountability. – Ty Maloney
  • for me the difference in the way frustration and anticipation feels it’s not that big a difference. Frustration is anger and anticipation is hope.  John Marsh
  • … it’s more important who you’re with and what you’re doing. – Ashely Marsh

Information & Links

Closing Questions

What have you read that we should read?

Who do you know about doing good work in the world that we should know about?

    • The team and organization of GiANT

Where have you been that we should go?