Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Brent Pattison, welcome to the Midlife Fulfill podcast, a maximum episode.
Brent Pattison [00:00:06]:
Bernie, fantastic to be here. Thank you very much.
Bernie Borges [00:00:09]:
Well, it’s fantastic to have you. Thank you for joining me. Brent, I know that you have told me that your purpose in life, at this stage of your life, is to provide small business owners with what you call a path to their unique vision of success. And while we’re not here to discuss that from a business perspective, you have in fact developed a system that you call the three p’s that is used in your consulting for businesses, but I was so fascinated by it, Brent, that I asked you to come on the show, come on the podcast, and explain that system, but through the lens of how we can use it in our lives, especially in our midlife seasons. Because, you know, I really do feel that business is a metaphor for life, and I was really intrigued when we had our first conversation about the three p system, and I thought, wow. Great topic. Let’s explore it. Let’s unpack it.
Bernie Borges [00:01:07]:
So, Brent, give us a little context. Before you tell us what the three p’s are, how did you come up with it?
Brent Pattison [00:01:12]:
So as far as how I came up with the three Ps, it actually goes back to when I was a relatively new supervisor. The company I was working for sent us for these quarterly off-site guided trainings that were tray trainings provided by a leadership expert. And in one of those this is probably in my early twenties. But in one of those sessions, the the host of the session, his name was doctor Harvey Silver, and we we would attend these every quarter. But during every one, he seemed to remind he he used this quote from Lee Iacocca. And if you don’t know who Lee Iacocca is, he was the president of Ford Motor Company. He came up through the ranks. He actually was credited with basically creating the Mustang.
Brent Pattison [00:01:56]:
And he went on to become the president of Ford Motor Company, ran the company successfully. And then after leaving Ford, he went on to become the CEO of Chrysler when Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy. Within a couple of years, in addition to inventing the minivan that we all have come to know and hold in whatever regard we hold it, he also turned around Chrysler’s fortunes from on the verge of bankruptcy to losing a couple billion dollars a year to being in a super successful and profitable company. At any rate, during these leadership training sessions that I attended, the person who was leading them kept reminding us of this quote from Lee Iacocca. All business operations come down to three things. All business operations come down to three things. People working in the business, the product that you create for your customers and profit people, product and profit. And the instructor, Doctor.
Brent Pattison [00:02:52]:
Silver continued to repeat that lesson that all business operations according to Lee Iacocca come down to those three things, people, product and profit. And the reality is it just resonated to me. It had simplicity. Yeah. Sure. I like alliteration, but it was just simple. It was a simple way to understand all of the complexities of business and what was necessary in business as you make decisions because making decisions is the fundamental key of being a good boss, of running a good business is making good decisions. But it’s about making balanced decisions.
Brent Pattison [00:03:26]:
And the way I actually now like to say it is win win win decisions. Decisions that have a positive impact on the people, on the product for the customers, and on the profit of the business itself because and that there’s this connection between them that you have to have happy people working in your business if you wanna create a product that’s going to create happy customers. It’s gonna create a happy customer experience. And ultimately, those happy customers are what creates happy profits in the business. The more profitable, the more fuel into the business, the more people, more product you can grow, and it becomes this continuous connected cycle.
Bernie Borges [00:04:07]:
Okay. So great. Thank you for the explanation, the background, the context. You know, there’s a concept that I learned early in my career as well that, I have just taken through every aspect of my life. And it’s a simple concept, the concept of reframing. And that’s what I really wanna do in our conversation, Brent, is I wanna reframe the system of the three p’s from business to how we can apply this concept, this system as you call it, into our lives in our midlife seasons.
Brent Pattison [00:04:41]:
Yeah. So I’ve I have given this a lot of thought. You you know, you talked about, you know, my purpose, Bernie, and that at the end of the day, making businesses better if there’s a way that we can make businesses better, we ultimately let’s face it. We make society better. So if we can also then translate that same model in a way that makes sense, I like that I like that idea of reframing. Ultimately, there’s a simple reframe here. If I consider the three p’s of business to the three p’s of my life, it still is about the people in my life. The product becomes the experiences that I create for those people, myself included, because I’m one of those people.
Brent Pattison [00:05:19]:
Right? I have to be happy with the decisions in the way that they’re having it. The experiences I create for the other people in my life, the relationships, that’s essentially my product. That’s my personal product. What I do to interact with the people I interact with is the quality or what is creates the experiences that is the product that me as an individual creates. And that ultimately, that profit, well, that’s really the fulfillment that I get from those strengthening of those connections from the relationships that I’ve built with the people in my life. Whether that be friends, family, coworkers, or otherwise, it it really does those three p’s of business do translate very well to the three p’s of of Brent.
Bernie Borges [00:06:04]:
Okay. So great overview. Let’s unpack them a little bit more. So let’s go back to people.
Brent Pattison [00:06:10]:
Sure.
Bernie Borges [00:06:10]:
You know, on the surface, Brent, it seems obvious. Right? Because, you know, the the world is made up of people, and our family is made up of people, and Mhmm. Everything we do in life and interact is is people. But if we just dig deeper into that, what is it that we we should be thinking about? Like, how do we manage our relationships with people? I know we don’t have four hours, but, like, it’s a big question. Right? Well But if we think about that first pillar there of people Yeah. Like, how do we get our head around that? Because it is big.
Brent Pattison [00:06:46]:
Well, it it it is big. And so when I talk about success in business and what supports the three p’s of business and what supports being a great boss in a business isn’t much different than what supports being a good boss of your own life, Bernie. I talk about the three p’s of leadership and the three p’s of management combined. But in the way that we communicate people with other people, it’s ultimately that framework. And one of the things that I’ve been very focused on is that from a foundational skill set, one of the most foundational skills of being both a good leader and manager or being a great boss in a business, well, it translates to being a great boss of one’s life, and that’s our ability to have good conversations. In business, they may be coaching conversations to help other people grow and improve. But I think, ultimately, if we’re having conversations with other people in any context, if there’s a motivation to help strengthen, help that relationship grow and improve, Bernie, and have that mentality, that purpose that that’s really why we’re having those conversations is to help the relationship or help that person, even if that’s the case, grow and improve, then that translates inside and outside of business. And one of the things that I talk about in a coaching context in business, but, again, applies in life is that when we’re having those conversations, what we really should be thinking about is what’s in it for them.
Brent Pattison [00:08:13]:
I use that acronym quite often with it, w I I f t. What’s in it for them so that we’re not having conversations from a selfish perspective of what I wanna get out of it. But what would the other person want? And I make sure that that’s part of the framework of my understanding of the conversation. I’m helping people grow and improve, and I in order to do so or I’m helping the relationship grow and improve. But in order to do so, I need to think through that mindset, that framework of what’s in it for them.
Bernie Borges [00:08:43]:
I love that. And, actually, something you said at the very beginning of that part of our conversation is you used another p word, Brent, and that’s purpose.
Brent Pattison [00:08:53]:
I did.
Bernie Borges [00:08:54]:
What is the purpose in a conversation? What is the purpose that we have in a relationship? And because we have multiple relationships throughout our span of life, then I think if we reframe that p, that people p in terms of what is the purpose of each relationship, each person that we’re touching and engaging on a daily basis. And I love your reference to WIFIT. Right? Because we all know WIFIM, what’s in it for me, but I love turning that around and making it about what what’s in it for them. That is fantastic. So love that. Great, great place to start on people. So, okay. Product.
Bernie Borges [00:09:32]:
This one’s a little bit more, I guess, metaphorical. Right? So let’s unpack product a little bit.
Brent Pattison [00:09:39]:
Well, let me unpack it in a business context first, and maybe we can work on that reframe as well. So in a business context, I think sometimes a lot of businesses or even people in a business think of the product as the thing, the service that you provide, or the the phone that you sell as the product, but that’s just not true. Your product is the sum of all aspects of your customer facing event. That’s the sum of your marketing, your sales techniques, how you create and then how you get that product into somebody’s hand, the fulfillment of it, as well as, you know, after you’ve sold them a product, the support that you provide them. It’s that entire connection right from the marketing all the way to the close and when the customer’s using. That’s your product. Your product is the experience that you create, not the thing. The product is the customer experience.
Brent Pattison [00:10:35]:
Well, the same thing goes in in life. Our product is the experience we create with other people, the experience of interacting with me. Right? It’s either a positive one or maybe it’s not so awesome.
Bernie Borges [00:10:47]:
Yeah. No. I I I love that. And, and, of course, I happen to know that you have, I think, thirty plus years experience in the customer experience industry. So for you to bring that lens to the conversation and I think you make a really compelling point, and to me, it reminds me of the importance of self awareness, Brent, and I think you know that self awareness is something that I’m big on and something that I think, we we can all we should all be thinking about. And so if I’m more self aware of the experience that I create and an example I’ve shared on previous podcast episodes is once upon a time, fortunately, it was a long time ago, and I’ve addressed it since then. But once upon a time, Brent, I was told by workers, you know, colleagues of mine and people that were on my team that I am, quote, unquote, intense. And once I became aware of that, now looking back on that, I realized that I created an experience for those people that was received by them as, well, Bernie’s intense.
Bernie Borges [00:11:49]:
And once I learned that, I learned how to overcome that and sort of, you know,
Brent Pattison [00:11:54]:
dissolve that. You’re gonna have to tell me how, Bernie, because that’s one of those things that I still work on because I the reality, that’s feedback. You and I share that in that regard. I’ve I’ve I’ve had the exact same. And and even even still, and I think it comes down to having that passion that we especially when you know that something can grow and improve, when there is that opportunity of challenging the status quo and really taking that that growth mindset of that things can be better. I’m super excited about it, but that may come off as intense to other people. So having that self awareness is very important.
Bernie Borges [00:12:27]:
Exactly. Well, I mean, the short story on that, Brent, is even though I didn’t use this exact phrase, I used the with it Mhmm. Approach. Not not not that phrase, but instead of thinking about me, I thought about the person I was engaging with, and I I want I focused on making sure that that person felt that I was present in the conversation
Brent Pattison [00:12:49]:
Mhmm.
Bernie Borges [00:12:49]:
And I was really engaged, and I was listening, and it was about the conversation we were having. And then the other thing that I did very intentionally is I smiled more. That simple. I smiled more. You know? And there’s two things people universally respond to. One is their name
Brent Pattison [00:13:09]:
Yes.
Bernie Borges [00:13:09]:
And the other is a smile.
Brent Pattison [00:13:11]:
Smile. Especially especially when that smile is coming from from the heart and it’s not, not a forced one. It has to be authentic.
Bernie Borges [00:13:20]:
Exactly. Exactly. So I think all, under product, you know, product equals experience for us. Yeah. And and I think that’s, that’s a great way to frame that up. Okay. What about profit? This is another one that we really have to get metaphorical on. So, let’s unpack that one.
Brent Pattison [00:13:40]:
Well, profit in a business, and I’ll I’ll I’ll steal someone else’s metaphor, but, profit in a business is the fuel. It’s the fuel that keeps the business alive. If the business isn’t profitable, if your expenses are more than your revenue, your business is gonna cease to exist, which means you’re not able to create those experiences for your customer. You’re not able to employ those people. The profit is the fuel. Well, in the context of self directed your self directed business of self, let’s call it, your profit is that I think, honestly, Bernie, it it is that fulfillment. Like, yes, there’s money within our our lives, but if we’re really talking about in the context of relationships, profit is the fulfillment that we get out of that, of seeing how we by strengthening our relationships, that we see the the positive impact that has on others and creates for ourselves, that the profit is that fulfillment, that meaning that’s created from strengthening those relationships, it makes us mentally healthier. It makes us physically healthier.
Brent Pattison [00:14:46]:
Like, the quality of our relationships have such impact on our both our mental and physical health. Like, I know you’ve probably read the Harvard study that has been ongoing for nearly eighty years. Yep. But the the one thing that they’ve determined to be true is that the stronger, the healthier the relationships, the connections with other people, the healthier, though, these people are both physically and mentally.
Bernie Borges [00:15:14]:
Yeah. So what comes to mind is I’m listening to you explain that is really, you know, fulfillment equals profit. Right? It’s a synergy. Because like you said, profit really fuels a business. So likewise, fulfillment fuels us. It keeps us energized. It keeps us motivated. It gives us purpose to continue to do something or maybe purpose to go do the next thing that we feel energized or motivated to go do.
Bernie Borges [00:15:46]:
And so I love that that that synonym and that relationship between fulfillment and profit. It’s it is the the profit in our life. I would even take it a little bit further, and I guess we can even just throw a whole bunch of synonyms out, things like family
Brent Pattison [00:16:04]:
Yeah. You
Bernie Borges [00:16:04]:
know, things like community. You mentioned the Harvard study and how the Harvard study says, you know, it’s all about connection, social connection. All of those things, I think, you know, come together to, to to enable us to have, quote, unquote, profit in our lives.
Brent Pattison [00:16:20]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:16:21]:
I’m wondering, Brent, is, you know, since on a day to day basis, you are delivering this in the form of consulting and teaching with clients in a business context.
Brent Pattison [00:16:32]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:16:32]:
And I’m wondering if if conversations ever turn to sort of the dimension that we’re discussing here, like, the impact on people.
Brent Pattison [00:16:40]:
Yeah. So I’ve I’ve taught the the subjects of being a good boss or being a great boss is really the the it’s that, you know, praise your way to being a great boss. And, I’ve taught those those concepts in a full fledged three day course at a in a corporate environment, but also just as an hour long keynote and, or even even in a a little introductory fifteen minute presentation to a small group of people. But I I delivered it a few just a very key introduction into, you know, the three p success pyramid that I built for business. And that was one of my favorite takeaways is that especially when I talked about the three p’s of coaching, that support being a great boss, that is that when we have conversations with people in a context where we are trying to help them grow and improve, that we prepare for the conversation by knowing who they are and what’s in it for them, present very well with a sense of presence that is meaning that we’re totally present for the conversation even when we’re the ones delivering the, you know, when we’re the one, but we’re always listening, and then following up on our conversations so that we can then catch that person doing something right so that we can offer them the praise that every one of us is craving, that that concept is applicable in all aspects of life that it’s not you can take that same thing about how to have a well structured conversation, or, you know, not to not to make it sound too mechanical, but have a system of how to have an engaging conversation that is helping the relationship grow and improve to improve the experience by actually knowing who am I talking to? And what’s what do they want? Present in a way that’s truly using listening in whatever possible way that I can, my entire body, if that’s possible, and that I’m following up on my conversations with people to truly strengthen them by then in the future catching them doing something right. So I use it as an opportunity to give praise effectively, to fulfill that craving to be appreciated that is what makes us people.
Bernie Borges [00:18:47]:
Yeah. And, you know, I’m gonna, key in on the word system because you’ve used it several times in our conversation back at the beginning, and you just used it right here in this last story that you told. And what strikes me, Brent, is that I think a lot of us, and I’m I’m being very, assumptive here, but I think a lot of us don’t walk around life saying, okay. What’s my system? What’s my life system? You know, what’s my system for happiness? What’s my system for fulfillment? What’s my system for success? I mean, maybe some people do. Right? I mean, there’s books out there, you know, the Stephen Covey’s books, and I get a list, you know, several of those motivational speakers that have kinda put out books and systems, if you will. But I think most of us don’t wake up every day and say, okay. I gotta make sure I’m implementing my life system today. Right? But I think in the context of the three p’s, it can really simplify our thinking because at the beginning of this conversation, you said these three Ps are the core principles to any business, doesn’t matter if it’s a product or service.
Bernie Borges [00:19:58]:
And likewise, I think what we’re seeing in this conversation is that we can apply metaphorically these same three principles into our life’s system to just bring our best every day and do the best that we can in living our life.
Brent Pattison [00:20:13]:
Yeah. I I I think that you’re right. Look, Just building on, that I’ve read a lot and talked to a lot of people who were successful. And the reality is, Bernie, I think that if there was something that I identified that is seemingly common to people who seem to have that true sense of fulfillment and also have success in all of those aspects of life. And I know you talk about the five pillars of of of life. But based on the conversations with some of the more the most successful people that I’ve had the opportunity or privilege of having conversations with and some of the popular popular books out there, I think, you know, atomic habits keeps coming to mind by James Clear as a as a as a contemporary one. But I think that there is something to be said about having a little bit of that system to how we manage our life. Like, you know, what are the what are those habits, those good habits that I wanna reinforce on a regular basis? And I think having a personal system to ensure that I’m working on building upon my good habits while still identifying the things that I want to improve isn’t necessarily a bad way to go about it.
Bernie Borges [00:21:28]:
No. I agree. And and really what I would challenge listener to do is to if if this is not your first time listening to the Midlife Fulfill podcast, as Brent said, I talk about the the five key life pillars, health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. So my challenge to the listener is, how do the three p’s integrate into those five pillars? Right? You know, as as people, how do we look at across those five pillars? Right? From the standpoint of every every aspect that we’ve been discussing here today in terms of our product, how does that fit into the five pillars? And then the profit, how does that fit into the five pillars? I don’t think we’re here to define and discuss that in detail, but I think that they can integrate, and I think it’s maybe the subject of future conversation and or writing, Brent, because I think there’s another dimension there. I’m kind of visualizing visualizing something that’s sort of three-dimensional that I think maybe, needs to formulate, you know, before it actually makes it onto digital paper.
Brent Pattison [00:22:34]:
Yeah. I I think so. And I’d I’d love to see some of the that that reframing that even maybe somebody in your audience comes up with as far as how they how they apply that to whichever pillar of life is is, whether whether that is health fitness
Bernie Borges [00:22:53]:
Yeah.
Brent Pattison [00:22:53]:
Work or or legacy or relationships, of course, which we’ve talked about a a little bit.
Bernie Borges [00:22:59]:
Brent, I wanna shift gears a little bit. Before we get to wrapping here, there’s a particular profit experience that you have achieved in your lifetime that I’d like you to share. And that is you told me that you are the founder or cofounder of the largest, is it Dale Dale not Dale Carnegie.
Brent Pattison [00:23:20]:
Not not largest. So it’s it it it so I cofounded a Toastmasters. Yeah. It was a and it was an advanced Toastmasters club, so for experienced Toastmasters. But Leadership Speak is the name of is the name of the club, and we we cofounded that a couple of years ago, myself and, Brahm Ramon. And between the two of us, we came up with a clear vision for what we wanted the club to become. And we made it the basically, there’s certain hoops you gotta go through to charter a club because you gotta get people interested, but we were the fastest club ever to charter and complete and became become an official club. We made it a global club because it meets online, but we have representation from, I believe, now currently 28 different countries and that the club has membership on.
Brent Pattison [00:24:12]:
And last year, they were the most awarded club for the educational achievement awards that Toastmasters tracks for all of their 14,000 clubs worldwide, but it was the number number one performing club in the world. Yes.
Bernie Borges [00:24:27]:
That is impressive, Brent. And, again, that’s profit. I mean, you are having an impact on people, and that that is profit. So I love that. I’m sure I can include a link to that in the show notes for this episode.
Brent Pattison [00:24:39]:
Absolutely. I you know, I’m a I’m a big I’m I’m a big fan for what Toastmasters is capable of doing because I think, you know, communication skills and what what it teaches is one of the most essential skills that we have in order to create that product that is the experiences of the relationships with people that we interact with. And the better the more effective we are at communicating, the better we’re gonna be, the more successful we’re gonna be. And Toastmasters is one of those organizations dedicated towards helping develop leaders through effective communication.
Bernie Borges [00:25:12]:
I agree. My experience with Toastmasters was many decades ago. I was in my twenties, but it was a phenomenal experience. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Brent Pattison [00:25:21]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:25:21]:
So congratulations on that. Thank you. Brent, if if someone listening wants to connect with you, just learn more about what you’ve got going on in your world, where can we send them?
Brent Pattison [00:25:32]:
Well, they they’re always welcome to visit my company website at three p, so the number three, the letter p, solutions, because there are more than one, but 3psolutions.ca, not .com, but .ca. Of course, you can always reach me on LinkedIn. Pretty easy to find. I’m I think I’m still the only Brent Patterson on LinkedIn in Canada that you’re gonna find. And those are those gotta be the easiest ways to reach and connect with me, Bernie.
Bernie Borges [00:26:01]:
Fantastic. Well, my listener knows that, both of those will be linked up in the show notes. So, Brent, I just wanna thank you for joining me for this maximum episode, for this episode of the Midlife Fulfill podcast. I think this your three piece system has a lot of application in life, and, I think it’s given us all a lot to think about. So thank you for joining me today.
Brent Pattison [00:26:21]:
No. And, again, Bernie, thank you, and thank you for the work that you’re doing on just on the subject of leadership in life in general. I I really appreciate it and the idea that we’re striving for fulfillment, especially in these different seasons in life as you I think I’m stealing your words there, but thank you for for the for putting together this podcast. Thanks for the work that you’re doing, and thanks for having me on.
Bernie Borges [00:26:44]:
Absolutely.
