How to Create Momentum When Nothing Is Working

You’re working hard.You’re showing up. You’re doing everything “right.”

…so why does it feel like nothing is changing?

In this episode, Erin breaks down the real reason momentum is missing in your leadership and your community—and it’s probably not what you think.

Momentum isn’t something you wait for.
 It’s something you create.

And if you don’t understand how to create it, you will burn out trying.

This episode will help you shift your mindset, refocus your energy, and start seeing real movement again—in your team, your culture, and your results.

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Transcript

1:05

Welcome back to another episode of the Aspire for More with Aaron Podcast, where we are going to be mentoring you to become the best version of you possible because that's the only way that you're going to influence anything inside of your leadership, your community, or your company. Okay? That being said, you matter. And you know that because you're here, you're listening to me, and I just wanna reaffirm that for you, you matter. And today I'm going to add on to last few episodes that we've had talked about building your capacity. We've talked about building team capacity. We've identified how we can find flow. We have to remove the friction and investigate the resistance. We, that's how we move forward. We find that flow. Now we're gonna talk about momentum because creating momentum is the number one thing you can do to create success in your life, in any aspect of your life. So if you are working so hard. And you are not making or seeing any difference, or you feel like nothing's happening. You're talking, you're loving, you're showing up, you're doing all the things, and you're feeling as if nothing is happening. Like every change, every initiative, every conversation, anything that you do, nothing is happening. And the worst part feels like you're doing all the right things. Nothing is happening until you're getting frustrated because the momentum's not there. I believe this episode is gonna help you identify why it's not there and how you can create it for yourself, To actually feel the movement again inside of your team, feel the energy shift from constant negativity. No evidence to seeing the evidence that actually things are starting to move in your direction. Why is this important to you? Because momentum is not something that you wait for, okay? Other people are not going to just bring you momentum. As a leader, as a person who wants to be successful, momentum is something that you create. You create it. You are responsible for it. No one else. When we understand that piece, everything can change. And we're gonna go over the five mindset shifts and things that I would do if I were to walk into a community today and start building momentum for the success that I want. And honestly, I've had the experience. I took four underperforming communities into high performing teams and Operations and occupancy, four of them. And we are talking about occupancy numbers from 55%, 67%, 75%, six, some other 60% all the way to 95% to 118 months or less. Okay? It can be done and it can happen quickly if you start focusing on the right things. So let's help you save some time and energy and frustration, and let's get into the five things. That I would do. Okay. As you know, I have been there where I feel like I am pushing everything uphill. You are the one carrying the energy. You are the one solving the problems. You are the one trying to keep everyone focused, and it's exhausting. can I say a very John Max, a very John Maxwell Ian thing for you? Everything worthwhile is uphill. Everything worthwhile is uphill, a hundred percent occupancy, which is worthwhile, is uphill. a high score on a survey which is worthwhile is uphill, Everything you want, anything that you want that is worthwhile is uphill. A happy marriage, a happy life. Finding joy, driving a nice car, living in a nice house, keeping it nice. All of that stuff is up hill, and it can be exhausting unless you really love to keep things nice, unless you really love having a mediocre life. the only reason why everything going uphill is exhausting is because we might not have the momentum. The momentum is missing. Whether we haven't created it yet, whether we've lost it, whether we never had it. Momentum is what's going to put the energy back into places that makes going up those steps worthwhile. Has anybody ever watched, American Ninja Warrior. Going up that ramp at the very top, is challenging for a lot of people. It requires a lot of momentum. It requires them to know when to leverage certain options for getting up the ramp, right? Or if you're on a monkey bars and you're watching your kids on the monkey bars, or if you're. You have somebody who's a cheerleader or into gymnastics or playing sports. You understand when people leverage certain movements, that's called momentum, And when we put our energy in the places that can never return that amount of energy and expect an outcome, we get frustrated. When I was expecting something from people and the foundation wasn't built and the leverage wasn't there, I would get frustrated. I would get resentful, and then there would be zero momentum. But I was the one that was putting energy in places that could never return it. I was not leveraging the right things. So we're gonna talk about how to avoid that. We're gonna talk about momentum is not built in big moments. Okay? I could sit here and tell you that I, am. Launching the a hundred percent leader program, or that I'm open up to have three to five more one-on-one coaching clients. And I would think that that's a big moment because I know the success that I'm having in these people's lives. But that doesn't mean that you're gonna call me and ask me to be your coach. I think it's a big moment for me to say that to you. But it's gonna take me saying that over and over and in the right situations for the right people to say, I wanna be a part of this because momentum is not built because I tell you that I'm available. Momentum is built because I show you the value of listening to podcasts like these or that you see the value of listening to podcasts like these or that. I say it enough that one of you are gonna say, yes, I wanna be a part of it. That's momentum. And if everything feels heavy, something is off. We're spending our energy in the wrong places. We're not leveraging the right people. We're thinking about things in a way that's. Harming us instead of serving us. It's not always the people. Sometimes something's off and sometimes it's us. So I wanna talk to you today about the five mindset shifts that will change how you create momentum as a leader. You, not them. The first mindset shift is to shift the expectation to appreciation. That's it. Number one, you have to swap the expectation to appreciation. I have been guilty of walking into leadership expecting that people should know this, right? They're a nurse. They should be expected to know how to do this. They should do this. They should care more. They should want more for themselves, right? The word should. Is a cancer to a confident team, the word should bears a lot of guilt inside of us. Well, I should know how to do that, or I shouldn't have to say this to them, or they should know what to do. Okay. How does that make you feel when you say that? How does it make you feel when you say like, I should have known better? Stop. Shoulding on yourself and other people. And I know that's a really funny comment and Anna Hall was the first one that I heard that from. So shout out to Anna Hall from the Purpose Equation and at Front Porch stop Shing on yourself and stop shooting on other people. Expectation without awareness will create frustration and resentment and stops momentum in its tracks like stops it. But appreciation builds momentum. Appreciation shifts your focus from what is not working to what is working, and that is a shift of energy and where your energy goes, your focus flows, right. Or where your focus goes, your energy flows, and everything grows. So just like what's right is always available. When we're looking at everything that's going wrong, it's like what is going right? If you were in that moment where it feels like everything is going wrong, you've got. five state reportables or self reportable incidents. You've got three people calling off consistently. You've got a nurse director who you think is about to walk out the door. You need to start looking at what's going right,'cause it's a choice, number one. Number two, start appreciating the people who are doing things right. cause when you start appreciating people. People will start noticing your time and attention focused on areas that are going right, and you're gonna start getting people who want that energy, who want that focus and start seeing, oh, it's a lot easier when we start doing things right. You start thanking people for showing up. I remember distinctly a time in the community where. I had two call outs on a three to 11 shift, and there was no advanced warning, and I was angry. I mean, like I was angry, I was frustrated, and I went into a meeting, I went into shift report and I brought that negative energy with me. I went into that meeting where they were talking about the with the day shift and the second shift needed to know, and you could feel the energy change The minute I walked in and I was speaking very bluntly, very directly, very matter of factly and in negative tones, and what was a every day normal meeting, became obviously very defensive. They absorbed my energy and in that moment I realized. The two people who deserve my negative energy were the people who called out with no warning or didn't show up. But the people who needed my appreciation were the people who were there and willing to stay over. And in that moment, I started thanking people for being here. I started showing my appreciation for them. Their attitudes started changing. So yes, people calling out, people not coming, people calling. No, no call, no show. Those people deserve your frustration. Okay? But who is getting that frustration and who are you not appreciating because of the people who are frustrating you, where your energy goes. That is where growth will happen. And so if I know that everything worthwhile is uphill, then I'm going to start appreciating people who are willing to go with me uphill.'cause when I start appreciating those people, you're gonna find more people who will join that climb uphill because they understand that you appreciate the hard work. So when you replace expectation, when you understand that I have to create a foundation of learning, I don't care. I'm going to assume that no one knows anything. That's a secret. By the way, too many times we assume people know things that they don't know. And so my advice to you is assume no one knows anything. There is a curse of knowledge for people who have been in the industry for 20 years, we assume a lot, assume. Everyone knows nothing. And start building a foundation of your standards, your values, and your expectations on how we're gonna climb this uphill battle. And then start noticing the small movements of how momentum is helping this uphill climb. Get easier. Call out the small wins. Recognize the effort. Not just the outcomes. When you recognize the effort, people will try harder and more consistently. Okay? Your expectations of other people and what they should be thinking, what they should be doing, what they should already know drains the energy out of the community, but your appreciation. Will multiply it. And if you don't believe me, find a resident inside of your community or an employee in your company that is so appreciative of every little thing and see how they're treated, and see if the energy around them is different from the energy that you have around you and on. And to add to that point number two, you are the momentum. You are the leader, whether you're the department head leader, whether you're the executive director, whether you're the regional director. It doesn't matter what your title is. It doesn't matter if you work in your living community or not. You are responsible for the momentum. This is where a lot of leaders don't wanna go because that means that we have to be accountable and responsible, and that is a big load to carry. It means that we can't blame other people. But see, blaming gives away our power. And if I'm a leader of a department or if I am a leader of a community, I don't wanna blame anybody because I don't wanna lose my power. As a leader, I understand I'm the tone setter. If you are a leader or you want to be a leader, you are the tone setter. I am the person who carries the energy. As a leader, you are the person who carries the energy. You are the example. So if I understand that. That if I'm gonna exchange expectation for appreciation, and I understand that momentum starts with me, no one else, it starts with me and I have to do the same things over and over again and tie them back to why going uphill. Everything worthwhile is uphill. So going uphill is very important. Then I have to be three things at all time. Three things at all times. I have to be consistent with my words and my actions. I have to make clarity, a goal. I have to be clear at all times why I am doing this. My actions and my words have to align and I have to be clear. I have to be consistent, I have to be clear, and I have to be convicted, have to have a belief. I have to have a belief that we are a hundred percent community. I have to say that over and over and over again. If I am at 55% occupancy and I believe that my leadership is a hundred percent occupancy and that my community is going to get there, I have to say that over and over again, and I have to start thinking, what does a hundred percent. Mindset mean? What does a hundred percent leadership mean? What does a hundred percent occupancy community mean? It means that I have to be consistent with my words and my actions. I have to be very clear about what my expectations are and what I appreciate, and I have to be very convicted of where we're going, but I have to say it over and over again. What is the one thing, if you're an avid listener of mine, that I say over and over and over again that you would say about me at the end of every podcast episode, I tell you to aspire for more. For you, knowing that you are enough. Change your story, change your life. Invest in yourself. You have to grow in order to lead, in order for your community to rise. That's the vision. I say it all the time. Every episode that I do is to build that level of momentum for you. Every episode that I do builds momentum for me. In my business, in my knowledge, in my expertise, I have to do this daily. We have to build our momentum daily. I have to be consistent, I have to be clear, and I have to be convicted of belief. There's a friend of mine named Natalie Kunkle and she told me. She said something to me and it has literally lived in my mind, and I'm like, that is so true. Every community needs a leader to believe in something. Your conviction matters how consistently you say it matters and how clear your actions and your words tell the story matters you build it and you live it daily to create the momentum. What do you believe? Do you know? Are you communicating it? You are what creates momentum inside of your community. What you believe and what you see and where your energy goes is whether or not you're creating momentum or not. So don't wait for other people to create it. You create it, model it. If your energy is inconsistent in the areas that are important to you, your team's energy will be inconsistent as well. it really is hard load, hard process to understand that your team is a reflection of the leader. And if that's true, which I believe it's true, what is your team saying about you and not a hundred percent of your team? Okay. But look at the 20% of your team. If we look at it from an 80 20 perspective, what is 20% of your team saying about your leadership? Because it's a reflection. And that's an interesting thought to think about. It's a little sobering, but if you wanna build momentum inside your community, you need to know that answer. All right. So number one, We're gonna replace expectation with appreciation. Number two, we're gonna understand that I, as a leader, create the momentum inside of the community. And if I was inside of community for the first time or inside of a a, a new position, the number one thing that I understand is that my meetings that I lead create momentum. So number three, meetings create momentum Now. Meetings have a bad rap. People think that it's such a waste of time. We have too many of them, or we don't have enough of them, or they take too long. All these things are true. Your meetings either create momentum or they kill it. And so I'm gonna ask you a question. Are your meetings creating momentum or are they killing it? If you ask me one of the most powerful meetings that, any leader inside of a senior living community can do to create momentum is the standup meeting. It's the most powerful meeting we have. And so is your standup meeting killing momentum or creating momentum? Because that meeting standup is where momentum is built in real time. So here's what I know and here's what I'm gonna tell you about the standup meeting. You as the executive director, or you as a leader, as a participant, inside of a standup meeting have three roles. And if your department head and you lead a meeting, you have three roles. You have three roles in every meeting that you do. You can be the encourager, the example. The Empowerer, is that a word? Empowerer. So what does that look like in a standup? Standup is full of information that to me, sets the tone of the goals for the day. I ran a standup meeting because I wanted everybody to be clear. Of what the goals were for the day. Who's in the hospital? Who's the tours that are coming? What are the most important things for this family at the time? Are you know what's going on with them? What are some hot button items that we need to understand? Where are they gonna be at? Assisted living memory care? What's the tour path? Who's working today? Make sure we can introduce them. These are the things that are important. What's for lunch today? Are they going to eat lunch? who's moving in, who's moving out? What are the activities for the day? what do we need to help with keeping those silos down? So in that standup, I, as the leader of standup, am gonna recognize the effort. I'm gonna be the encourager. I'm gonna tell somebody who had a bad day yesterday that they did a great job getting it through the bad day. And then I'm gonna tell somebody else, thank you for stepping over and helping activities out, and then, then I'm gonna tell every single one in the room that the tour that's happening today, we need to make it a priority to introduce ourselves to them. Right? Recognize the effort of the people who are doing that. Your time and your attention and your appreciation. Builds momentum, and if I have to be consistent, clear, and convicted, I'm gonna do that through encouraging people in a meeting every day. Then I'm gonna be the example. Me this meeting needs to be short and sweet. Now, sometimes they're long and there's reasons for that, but consistently they're going to be short and sweet. So I'm gonna model focus. Your time is important. Their time is important. I need you to come in. I need you to be prepared for the meeting. I need you to know what our occupancy is today, what our moving goal is for the month, whom our, our move outs are for the month and where we are with people moving in. I need to know the top three things that are going on inside of your community. Because I am the dot connector, I'm gonna make sure that everybody wins today, and I'm gonna be the example of focus and clarity in this meeting to make it effective. And then the empowerer, because my goal in standup is to ensure there are zero silos. Who needs help today? Who is swamped today? Who can't help? Who can, how do we work together to achieve the goals of the day? What are the goals of the day? How do we make sure that all of us are focused on that? That is how we make every meeting create momentum for us.'cause we're going to encourage, we're going to be the example and we're going to empower other people. There are no silos. There is no guessing. There is no wondering where our time and energy should be spent, and if I am a leader, the executive director in the standup meeting, when I can do this consistently, I can see who is struggling and who is not. I can see who is not gonna make it. I can understand who can answer questions and who can't, and by not being able to answer questions, I can see where they're struggling, but only if I am consistent in this area. That is the priority. If we're not consistent, we're not gonna be able to see the things until it's too late. But if we are consistent, we can see what's in the getting in the way, and we can try to remove it or try to educate it, try to support it, try to mentor it. That's why standup is so important. It is not just a meaning. It is not something that you just do every day. Standup is where you build, create, sustain, accelerate momentum. When you're clear today, today will create the results for tomorrow. I. If that is like one soapbox that I have, it is how important standup is, and if you feel like it's not or you feel like it's a waste of time, it is because you are not strategic with the modeling of the focus and the clarity or understanding that this is how everyone knows what to focus their time and energy on and time and energy are why we are losing people from this industry. Let's save people time and save people's energy. All right, number four, momentum is built through the small pushes, Again, it is not one big announcement. It is not, I'm the new person and this is what my beliefs are, and this is what I expect from you. That's not where momentum comes from. Momentum is built through consistent actions. It is not the big changes. It is not the big meetings. It's not the big announcements where I'm stern and direct with my tone. It is coming from small rounding and monitoring and appreciating. Walking around the community and saying, you look nice today. Thank you for being here. Hey, I know you picked up a lot of shifts here recently. I want you to know that. I appreciate that. And how are you holding up? How's your son doing? It's a repeated, consistent action of caring. It's the repeated focus of the same things. You do such a great job making sure that Ms. Sally doesn't have that, that bedhead in the back and her face looks so good. That work that you're doing is making a difference. Let me tell you what her daughter said about you. Huge. A daily reinforcement of what your vision is. You were showing me today that we are ready for a hundred percent occupancy because of the effort that you're focusing and the energy that you're putting in in our residents. That is momentum. You know, if I could bring in a football theme, you're not gonna win the game in one play. Let's just talk about basketball. You're not gonna win the game because you shoot a three point shot. Go back to football. If you're not, you're not gonna win the game because of one play, unless it was an excellent defensive game, right? But you are gonna win if you can move the ball forward over and over again. Let's bring it back to senior living for a minute. We had a month where in my community with 124 residents, and it was just the only people involved in sales were the executive director, me, my sales director. That was it. My culinary director was like number three on the tour tree. My nurses could certainly do, could help and wanted to be a part of it as well. but 12 move-ins was really hard for our team. And the next month, we just didn't have the steam that we once had because all the work that we did to get all 12 paid off, and we had to start over again with the momentum of sales because every minute of every focus and all the energy that we had was to make those 12 move-ins open in a month. And it, I think we only had that one month ever, and it was a lot. But how did we, how did we earn 12 move-ins? Because we were consistent? Because we were doing the work. Because momentum was quiet way before it ever became obvious because she was making the phone calls, she was making the follow ups, she was finding out what was important to them. We were solving problems, and all of a sudden, one day, 12 people showed up at our doorstep, and on the other side of that, we had to regroup and start doing the same things again to even get three to four move-ins the following month. Okay, so consistency is gonna be intensity every time. Like I can't just scream and yell and expect change. I have to understand that change comes from behavior change, which comes from an identity change. So if I understand that, I have to start telling people. We are a hundred percent community. We are a perfect survey community, and if we are a hundred percent in a perfect survey community, here's the things that we have to focus on and then we have to start working and doing that every day. Small, consistent actions, repeated focus, daily reinforcement. These are the things because momentum is built from all the tiny pushes that we do, all the tiny actions that we do, it is so boring before it ever becomes noticeable. And that's why we lose sight, that we think momentum is not happening. And number five, the last mindset shift. An area of focus in creating momentum is to protect your energy, focus your time and energy. On the people who can create and sustain momentum. Hear me out. Not everyone on your team is creating movement. If you, again, wanna look at it from an 80 20 strategy, we know that 20% of your residents are gonna create 80% of the positive feedback. We also know that 20% of your residents is gonna create 80% of the negative feedback, and that same rule applies to your team. If you look at your team, 20% of your team creates 80% of the results. Who are they? Do you know? And if you don't know, let me ask you this question. Where are you spending the majority of your time and energy? Are you trying to move the 80% or are you trying, and that's gonna be like heavy and hard and impossible? Or are you looking at the 20% and spending the majority of your time and energy growing, influencing, motivating? Educating those people if you want to create momentum, you've got to identify these four people, your momentum makers, your momentum breakers, your momentum takers, and your momentum fakers, and the people that I would be spending my time on are the momentum makers. Because all of a sudden those 20% of people are gonna influence more people. They're gonna create energy, and then they're going to create the energy that is going to allow us to walk up the hill where everything worthwhile, remember is uphill. So you need to find the momentum makers inside your team to help you get up the hill. Because if you spend all your time trying to fix the momentum breakers, takers, and fakers, that's where you're draining your own capacity. Your job is not to carry everyone. Your job is not to solve every problem. Your job is not to save everyone. Your job is to build with the ones who are ready. You gotta identify'em first, and you have to understand. That we want to change, grow, educate the 80%, because we feel like that's where the success is. And maybe there is. But if you wanna scale your influence and you want a community that's going to work without a hundred percent of your effort all the time, you're gonna have to focus on the 20% that can grow and scale with you. Because then maybe each one of those are going to be able to get another 20% to influence in your direction. Remember where your energy goes, your momentum will grow. You want to build with the builders. you don't want to have to drag the takers, the breakers, and the fakers. Because you're never gonna win those ever. So just to reinforce what I'm trying to say to you and how to create momentum in the five mindset shifts, when you focus on service, experience, relationships, values, empowerment, and you're consistent, and you're clear, and you're convicted, and you're focusing your energy on all the right things in these areas. You create the conditions for momentum, you are not forcing it. You are not forcing people to do things that they don't wanna do, right? You understand that I am the leader and momentum comes from me, and when I appreciate I'm gonna grow momentum. When I understand that it takes consistent effort. And my focus on the people who are, can create it with me and protect my energy and I can protect theirs, all of a sudden we're going to feel the momentum because you can't force it. Momentum cannot be forced. It can be killed, but it cannot be forced. So if you're feeling stuck right now. And if you're not seeing the movement that you want, I want you to ask yourself this, where am I placing my energy? Is it on the 80%, which those are the takers, the fakers, and the breakers? Am I expecting too much and not appreciating enough? Am I building momentum or am I waiting for somebody else to bring it to me? Which is never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen. And am I building it daily? Inside meetings, being an example, and encourager and an empowerer to other people every day you have the opportunity. To choose how you lead. And a leader leads the group uphill because we know that everything worthwhile is uphill. We know that it's gonna require momentum to get up that hill because once we get to the top of that hill, there's going to be a another hill for us to come up because the next great worthwhile thing is going to be there. So when you shift, how you show up. And how you lead and you encourage and you're consistent in your belief system and the, and the ability to talk about the vision. Your team will start to move whether you're getting the people who don't need to be there out, and you're starting to attract the people that you need to get up the hill. When you understand these five mindset shifts, these five focus shifts, you will start creating the momentum. That you're looking for. And it will come from your actions, your beliefs, and your clarity, which is important. And of course I'm here to help you with that. I would love to do that. To be a part of your team, be a part of your journey. Because sometimes what gets in the way becomes the way, which is another one of my consistent thoughts, and you don't know what's in the way. And people like me, coaches, leadership development. professionals, they help you understand a lot of people are just missing the language, the understanding of how to do certain things and how to prepare and how to guide people through all the struggles for the uphill movement that comes with growth, in ourselves and in occupancy. The a hundred percent leader in my one-on-one coaching, and of course episodes like these are always available to you. I appreciate your time because your time is very valuable and I hope that you know that you always need to aspire for more for you knowing that you're already enough. Thank you for being here today. I hope that this has offered you a lot of value and if it has subscribe, share this episode'cause that is a way of supporting me. Thank you. Have a great day. Bye-bye.