¶ Mistakes Made by Small Business Owners
All right , everybody , we're back again . My buddy , Eric Howardton . What's up ? Mark Got a smile on his face . Yeah , because I know that the pre-talk , the pre-show talk that we've had .
Ah , you're in a mood , bro . You are in a mood .
Listen after four-hour Zoom meetings it just makes you want to explode . Ok Well , you're freaking out , You're in a mood . I have no tolerance for it anymore . I just don't . So we said it at the last podcast we're probably unemployable . Ok , that's so true .
That's the reason we were able to do a podcast without fear . Exactly , thank God , the U of A employs me and pays for benefits and all , but that's an environment that allows you to have a good environment that allows you to have you can express yourself .
Yeah , you've freed , it's the academic freedom that we have . But no , I am fired up today , and this is another episode of Big Talk About Small .
Business . Hey , we had the last show . We just released it , yeah , with our wives .
Yeah , I thought that was pretty awesome . I did too . It was really good . I thought we came up with a lot of really good stuff . We tackled a lot of we did .
And what are the most important issues ? The most important thing I felt like I learned , which was when I watched the video yeah , I was like my wife is so much better looking than I am . She is good looking . I mean , she sounds good . Yeah , she does . She's better than me .
Yeah , I thought the same thing . Yeah your wife is definitely better than you too . I look like Carl Maldon . Ok , my nose is so big that it freaking blew me away .
You know it's like . I think it's the angle of the camera man Over time .
Your nose just grows Does it get bigger your nose gets bigger , your ears get bigger , everything else gets smaller . Well , the male species we're just not , we don't age that well . I mean , honestly I think , do you take care of yourself , though ? Oh , absolutely , what do you think ? I mean , of course I do , do you ?
Like I don't think I take not nearly as much as my wife , though I'm kidding . I know what did you eat for lunch today .
I had steak and shake cheeseburger with fries . I had a McDonald's sausage McMuffin with hash browns and two donuts during my zoom eating , and tonight maybe I'll have some ribs or something . Maybe you know .
Maybe , Maybe , Do you think our wives are eating like that ?
Oh god , no , there's no way . I think Sonya starts out with , like kombucha , you know , have a salad at lunch , you know , she'll eat like half of her dinner .
Right .
It's like eating from that steak and not eating it .
We went out last With these lotions and stuff , like my wife , like sometimes the skin care wreck .
My wife will .
We're going to get ready for bed and she's over there and she puts on chapstick , right .
And I look over and I go , I'm like this is what happens in museums .
Like please , bertie , can I have some of that , because my lips have been chapped for like three weeks and I haven't put anything on . Now that's what .
I'll do you know man ?
And then she'll put some . I'm like , well , you put it on for me because it feels so much better it does when you do that , yeah . And then she puts it on and I'm like it's a freaking god dang miracle , like I feel like a new person again . I know . But , I hadn't put on the chapstick .
But there they are , lathering themselves up all the time , just staying Oil of au lait and all that stuff .
I don't know what the hell it all is , either , but it's great , yeah , it is , and we're lucky . But I will say this though one thing , no , honestly , I do think keeps me going is I move a lot . I don't spend a lot of time sitting in one place , right , which is part of the reason why I'm unemployable in corporate America .
But you know , I just don't . You could sit my desk .
No way . No , if you know that if you move a lot , that actually you know you're less likely to be overweight , and all that , although I could shed a few ? Yeah , undoubtedly , but I just move a lot .
But if you , if you didn't , you have to give a feels real .
I don't want to do that . I know you don't . I love my , those chilies , baby back ribs . I don't care what anybody says , oh , I haven't had them in forever , they're good , they're good . You get them dry , ok , which they have a variety of , and then you get that chipotle honey , chipotle barbecue sauce and they're just fantastic .
It's the one thing chilies does really well , really . They have a good they have a good cheese dip though ?
Yeah , they do . That sounds pretty cool .
Well , you know , while we're talking about restaurants , I did want to talk today a little bit about some of the mistakes that small business owners seem to be making over and over and over and over and over and over again .
Ok , I don't know about you , but I can't go in any business or do business with any business or get involved with any business that I don't see 27 things that could be done better .
I mean true , you know , and some people would say I'm just super critical , but it's not that I just that things could be done better there within the business owners and managers control .
So you talk about when you get involved in a business or when you go , just like you went to . You went to Steak and Shake today . Yeah , I did , I went to Steak and Shake today . Did you notice things ? Yeah as a customer .
Look , the guy who owns the Steak and Shakes around here is a good friend of mine and I really like him and I think he's a good operator . Yeah , generally his Steak and Shakes are more profitable than the typical Steak and Shake and he gets a lot of attention by their board of directors as sort of an owner's representative . He's a really smart guy .
But yeah , I mean , it's the typical thing
¶ Challenges of Working on a Business
. You go through the the line , you order OK , what do you want ? I want a hamburger , no cheese , mustard and onions only on it . Yeah , the guy's like , ok , you want a cheeseburger with ketchup ? I'm like , no , ok , I didn't say a damn thing about ketchup . Right , all right , right .
And I said and I want some salt in the package for my fries , just throw a salt in the bag . Ok , we'll take care of you . I go through , I get my stuff , I leave Of course there's no salt in there and I get a friggin' cheeseburger . All right , right . And it's just like an everyday occurrence . I think we all go through this and it's maddening yeah .
It really is . It's because they have they have the . The owner has the control to do something about that .
Yeah , and , like I said , I don't want to be critical of my friend .
You see all that , yeah , yeah , yeah .
And I've been like a secret shopper for him before . Yeah , yeah , like I go and steak and shake and he'll . He'll say , ok , what's going on , how many people are in there , how long did it take them to see ? Yeah , yeah , and if there's any problem man , he jumps on , he's on , he's on , he's going to be on this one .
Yeah , well , he is , if I inform him of it . Yeah , but no , I think you know and again , you know , I used to be a Vistage chair . You know what Vistage is ? I do . It's a . It's a CEO support group , yeah , and , and I think they do a lot of good for a lot of business owners who basically have nobody else to talk to .
Right , and you can put a board together of their peer , of your peers , who are other business owners and , you know , share issues and problems and opportunities and get some input . That's the good part about it .
The bad part about it is that certain sort of philosophies or or buzzwords get used routinely in tons of communication in you know whether it's the speakers or whether it's what you see online and all . And I'm not just , I'm not saying this is unique to Vistage , but one of those axioms that people have , yeah , is work on your business , not in your business .
You think of that . I hate that .
I do too . I mean there's zero way . Zero way . In fact , that's usually the crux of every problem in any business that I'm ever involved in . Here it doesn't matter big , small , medium . You're right , you're absolutely right , people that are working on it and not in it are . They don't ? They don't understand what the real problems are ?
Yeah , and then therefore , they can't solve it . And that causes the bureaucracy , that causes the politics , that's caused the alienation , that causes the turnover of the staff . Right , I mean , how many times have I seen staff turnover because their problems are solved .
They can't be yeah Right , and they just get frustrated .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , I mean . And then , of course , the new , these clients . That's why your business degrades . Yeah , that's also another reason why companies can't be innovative . Yeah , and I've seen that happen a thousand times . I deal with that a lot .
Right , I mean , like you , if you're not working in the business , understanding what the market needs and what the clients need and the customers need , you're , you're , you're not going to have a , you're dead , you're dead .
And you know you're , I never really thought about that , but you're right what you said about innovation , because what happens is the bureaucracy tries to take over for sort of common sense from the top , yeah , yeah , and and then , once you have the bureaucracy , then innovation just grinds to a friggin halt . It just gets so slow .
Well , you know , what they're doing is they're they're they're going kind of to like a visage group , whether that be the board or that be a group of other people that are involved , that have different reasons of being involved in your company , and they're taking the attention of the leaders to where it becomes a different reason as to what the products and
services are that you're providing , because you're not talking to your customers anymore . Right , you're not talking to your team , you're not . Yeah , I mean , that's a good point you know you're over here figuring out what the what's the Strategizing ? Yeah , yes , what the what the investors want to see ? Yeah , right .
And well , that's another issue all together right there . But the investors , are they working in the business ?
No , they don't know . No , they care about one thing Money , Money . Yes , you know , and so it's true . You get your consultants , they care about their monies . You know everybody's Well they're all their consultants .
Too often they want to con you . They want to tell you what you want to hear , because most of them can't afford to lose you as a client . It's true , I like to be an insultant myself . That's very nice , okay , because I'm going to tell the emperor he's got no clothes because I don't need that client . I got lots of other ones waiting to hire me .
That was my attitude at least . Now I'm not doing that . Yeah , yeah , yeah , you know you get the idea , but let's go back to something again . Let's just talk a little bit about this whole idea of working in your business . I have seen so many small business owners back out of their businesses too early .
Yeah , whether they're buying the mandate of work on your business instead of in it , or they're just frigging lazy and overly optimistic , or in love with their company such that they don't think that they need to do what they really need to do to keep it all going . Yeah , right , yeah , whatever the reason is , they're not involved enough .
What do you think ? Yeah , I mean , you got to be like so I like to think of , so you just fight spider , right , right . It's been a company I've been part of for a long time and , as it's growing and we you know , we , our business grew , what I realized was that , like I never got out of the business , I never worked on the business , right , right .
You're a working manager slash owner , absolutely yeah , like I mean , and I work or slash manager , slash owner what yeah , I've ?
been I'm . I tell you what I am is . I'm a freaking dog . Yeah , I'm going out and getting the business Right and I know for the business sake , because it's because of the there's a problem to fix .
You're relentlessly focused on that problem , yep , and what I've realized is that over time and as a business group , you have to be able to release Like I agree , I think that there's there's a sure you can't be do everything like that's like new .
I mean , that's another problem . Some people go fall into . Oh yeah , they can't grow beyond 20 , 25 people , because they can't let go .
They can't let go . So there's , there's , there's a maximum span of control , perfect navigation of that , and you can't do one way or the other , and so how you play that middle line .
What I learned was is that , like , as things developed out , there's definitely a lot of things that other people are good at , and that's finance and all these other types of things , hr , legal , whatever it might be allowing them to take that over without feeling insecure or that I was not valuable anymore to the company .
Yeah , but then , at the same time , staying in the business and knowing what I was really good at . And so I think , as in my experience was and it still is today , what I'm really good at is working in the business in a very specific area that's provided incredible value back to the company .
Yeah , everybody in this company needs to be working in the business . I think we actually developed a culture like that . White Spider , I don't disagree .
I mean you got to do what you do best , yeah , but it does take a team . You can't do everything , so you've got to be willing to delegate with certain aspects and trust that Right .
What you need is other people that are working in the business , and so I have as fortunate . You know , like both my co-owners were all 100% in the business . We were never working on the business , right , you know .
What's that ? You're working on the business . I think , oh , you're playing at business . Yeah , you're playing at it . It's like a game to you .
Well , I think a lot of people like that have a serious endeavor . Yeah , I mean like they think that business can become a . It's like a homework assignment or sort of side project , especially if you've worked and you've been employed somewhere . Yes , I've seen this happen .
A lot of these folks that have been employed and they've been done really well , made good money , sure , and they go out and then they invest into a company and then they don't . But they don't want to be a manager , they don't want to read all the day to day . Yeah , I want to be an investor , Right .
And they can't do it Right . I mean , it sort of came up in our discussion with our spouses .
Yeah , you know we talk about work-life integration , this whole idea that you never really totally shut down that you know there are times you're going to do personal stuff during the workday , but then there are times you're going to be responding to calls , emails , texts , crises after work , right , yep ?
If you think you can just divide it up and say this is when I work and this is when I don't work , and you're the quote owner of the business , because maybe that's the way you did it in corporate America , I don't know .
It ain't gonna work . Yeah , the reality is is that business is absolutely crazy and chaotic , and complex ?
Yes , it is .
And full of all kinds . Nothing but a big ball of freaking problems and every you get left out and opportunities ?
Yeah , absolutely , because the problems are in all this Right , right .
But I mean like you can't , it's not something that can be compartmentalized .
Yes , Business cannot be , and I think that that's , and when I said investors earlier , like this , there's this the problem with that thinking is , is that if you do invest in something and you put your money in it and you're not in the business , you just made a very potentially bad investment .
It's possible it's gonna bite you in the butt , it could work out . Maybe there's other people that are doing it all and you're just a minor player in the providing capital . I mean it can work out , it can . I mean I'd still rather invest in those companies than I would .
The public stock market , that's where I don't know a damn thing about what's going on and somebody always knows more than us . Yeah , always , three , okay , but yeah , I hear what you're saying . I mean , I think I just want to go back to what you're saying .
So you got to be good at doing something in the business , right , and you got to part with some of the things that you do that maybe you're not the best at or don't want to do , and get other people doing those well .
But I also think , as a business owner , every so often , on no specific schedule or particular , you know I'm not going to say now , once every two weeks , blah , blah , blah , no , but you do need to just like periodically , inject yourself into some areas of the business that maybe you don't normally work in just to see what's going on .
Yeah , you know that's a good point . Yeah , were you at Swig Group or Swig White ? It was at the time when you worked there with me . After we got the company back and we found out that the customer service inbox was not being monitored , I had to you . Remember that , absolutely , there were like hundreds of leads for consultant jobs .
I heard , actually I remember specifically you sit there listening to it Over all these messages and just watching you get more and more fired up .
It just like the minute millions of dollars lost . It was due to the absolutely stupid and completely avoidable thing like somebody leaves or gets fired or whatever and nobody bothers to find out where that's going Right , and it just is maddening , I mean .
So , yeah , I hooked myself up to the customer service inbox and we had a system so I could , if it was dealt , if I dealt with it , it was out of there . Yeah , and it was just an eye opener . I saw so many different problems and complaints .
Why do you think that happens , though ? Like , how does something like that happen ? You know , I think that because I remember you doing that right , and then you actually taught me about jumping into nooks and crannies of the business and , specifically like very important things , and that's a hard thing as an entrepreneur .
Right , you got a million things to be focused on , but what are the ones that you need to go probe into ? Make sure that there's not a fail going on right there ?
Yeah .
And you taught me through that that day , like how can there be such a fail and it's such an epic one , but it's when you turn around and there's not anybody that was responsible for it . Right , no they left the company Right , so therefore it fail at falls and no one , and it's no one's fault All of a sudden .
Yeah , but it's your problem . Right , it's your fault . If you're the owner or the mail chair , okay , it's your 100% your fault , but that's scary to think .
So how do you ? So ? Why don't you educate us ? Because I think that this is the one of the lessons I learned from you .
¶ The Importance of Customer Touch Points
Where do you look for those Like where are the important things to look for ?
I'm not sure I mean where they're all over .
Yeah , things to deal with customers .
Yes .
Okay , I mean , that's probably the number one . That's it , anything . You know the whole idea , one of the things you know . People are like I didn't learn anything and got my business degree . That helps me as an entrepreneur . I want to say bullshit to that .
Yeah , okay , because I remember I had a textbook , a small business management textbook , and one of the ideas in that book was all about customer touch points . Now , they never talked about that . When I went through marketing education in the 70s and my MBA in the late 70s , I never heard this term touch points . But it was a beautiful concept .
It's every single way your customer interacts with your business . It could be hitting your website . What happens ? Make enough phone call to it . It's Google . It gives me directions to go there . They're wrong . Yes , okay , yeah To you know the actual contract or a proposal , or the product delivery or customer service after the sale .
All of that is a touch point and you can go wrong in any one of those . And if you look at the whole process from A to Z and you start getting involved in those touch points , that's where the rubber meets the road baby . That's what she's like oh , I love it , dude .
It's so true . No , I'm glad you shared that because it's that is like like I didn't really understand like where you were coming from on that . But that's what you're doing is like you're looking at these customer touch points like you're . I think you're subconsciously doing that and you'll like you'll , and that's why you'll actually go check the phone messages .
You're like one day all of a sudden , hey , there's a touch point , oh that , and you just check it , and then you're like I'm not going to check it every day , oh , okay , but then you discover the speed . You bring up this hornet's nest . It's like you go into this tree and you grab the , the , the beehive and bring it in .
All these freaking bees are swerving all over the place .
You're like a honey bear , but you are your business problem , honey bear , or it's like you you buy an old house that's a wreck and you start gutting it and you find out it looks pretty good . I mean I've had some of them that like you could go in there , we could live in it and be totally comfortable .
And then you open up the wall and you find out everything inside is completely rotten . I did this rock house . It was supposed to be Fulbright's first house . It looked pretty good when I bought it . So we start gutting it in the entire , under the windows in the front of the rock house . We peel the plaster off and there's no studs . It looks like a fire .
They're gone completely . They rotted away from years of water leaking in there . There's no insulation , there's no studs , there's no . You're looking at the back of rock that the sheathing on the outside of the house even rotted away , okay , and you're like , oh my God , yeah , but it looked good on surface .
You know we're doing okay , you know and yeah , you're right . I mean you got to get into these things , but I just thought that touch points thing is just such genius .
Does you get me ? The voicemail is one that gets often overlooked . Like I'm sitting here as we're talking thinking about God , I wonder what the voicemail is like back at White Spotter . It's on a cell phone right that I'd set up , like years ago Cause I was working in the business .
Sure , like I set up the phone , You're doing everything , yeah , well , it starts out at you , yeah .
But I mean , but even after , like , this was like only two years ago . I mean , started like a decade but yeah , two or three years ago I got the phone connected to a cell phone because we were moving offices and I was going to be damned if we did not have a way for a customer to get a hold of it During that time .
That was what was going on in my brain , looking back on it now , trying to give really good customer service .
Yeah , and then I set up the voicemail , uh huh , cause I'm going to make sure that the damn thing was working in case somebody would get a hold of this . And then I held onto that for like months , yeah , and then I gave it to somebody , right .
And I'm scared to death to find out what happened . Yeah , I know , See how many unanswered voicemails or miscalls there are , and you know you got a pretty well managed company . Obviously it's growing like crazy , right , yeah , and you've been very successful and you can still have these things . I mean another company I work with .
I just one of the the what a few weeks ago I just get this email that said you're now the Facebook administrator for our owners group and I get in there and the first thing .
I see that was the first mistake that they got it's like it's like 90 inquiries from people trying to get on the group and some of them go back to January three or January four and some of them are direct leads from people who want to buy stuff from us . I was just like blown away by that .
You know what I mean . How did you ?
react .
¶ Business Ownership and Customer Experience Discussion
Well , the first thing is , I , of course , reported it to one of the owners of the business , who , in turn , informed me that he's the one who assigned me to be an administrator , because I know I'm keeping an eye on things .
Okay , and so that was the first thing . I think that's a beautiful bar .
And then when he told me he was supposed to be responsible for it , then I contacted that person directly and said , hey , you know , this is what I found . And when I found out is he's like yeah . I try to help out there when I can . No ownership , no ownership of it .
Okay , now , when I reported that back to the owner , of course he redirected the guy and said , well , now take care of all those , you know . Yeah , and I went in there and it's clear . I mean they did deal with it quickly yeah . But I mean , I think it's a very typical problem , don't you ? You need small businesses .
It is I think it's like that in big businesses , in big businesses .
Yeah , you're right , yeah , big businesses . Sometimes nobody bothers to look into this stuff .
What I thought was neat too , that you were talking about is like even the Google Maps .
Drives me mad . Like who , like who's responsible for that ?
Who's responsible for that ? You know what I mean . You got to like and just as an entrepreneur you like . I love the discussion , though , about these touchpoints in anywhere the customer can be touching in the contracts . What does that say ? You know , I got a contract the other day , just like two days ago , about something . There's misspellings and Right .
It reflects really poorly . It does , man , I'm just like I'm done , yeah .
Yeah , yeah , it was terrible , like you , just totally like and that's a customer touchpoint , judge them .
I've done that .
Judge them heavily yes .
And you , as you should , because your thought is they're not careful , they don't care , they're not yeah .
Yeah , it's like , and that means that I don't care as a customer Right .
It's every single thing , like there's a particular Mexican restaurant in East Fayetteville Okay yeah , you used to live over there .
Yeah .
You might have been to that Mexican restaurant .
Do you know where I'm talking about ?
when you want to sit on the patio in the back and you walk through the bar to get there and the bar is elevated and it's going to see it's in it and you walk back through there and then you go down a long hall it's about 25 feet long , yeah , and there's bus carts with dirty dishes lined up all the way down that damn hall .
So it's like I'm going over there . I went have a nice meal , yeah , and you know , enjoy myself , and instead I get to look at all this shit from all the previous customer . By the time I get to the door to go outside I've lost my appetite . Yeah , absolutely . I mean , doesn't anybody see that ?
If I was the owner of that business and I came there and I saw that , I'd be like what the hell is this ? Get this crap out of here . No , clean this up . I don't want to ever see this . Our customers should never see this , you know ? Yeah , absolutely . Why isn't somebody saying that ?
I don't know , because it's disgusting , like in your restaurant , like your whole , like it's all about the experience .
We're not trying to be nitpicky yeah , we're not , but you're in business . It's a basic thing .
Yeah , you're in business , mm-hmm , and you got to understand . When you get in business , you got to put your best foot forward every single day . Amen , brother , you know what I'm saying .
Yeah , like you don't half-ass a business , it's like a baseball team or something . You don't go out there Right Not going to give it your best ?
that night you don't show up for the game not to win .
Yeah .
That's one of those that's thinking okay , just as long as you played your best , then that's all that matters to me .
You did not even play in your best , yeah right . Tell me you're playing your best , yeah right . Oh , I'm sorry .
It doesn't matter if you win or lose .
Yeah , have fun . That's the mentality of that type of that's bull crap .
Hey , losing money ain't fun . No , I know , and that's what happens in business if you don't win the game , you know what ?
drives me crazy . You know what drives me crazy ? Absolutely insane .
I'm just probably going to piss somebody off for restaurant business .
Okay , I absolutely refuse to go to restaurants when they're closed on Monday .
Dude , I am with you , Are you , of course ? Why would everybody close on Monday ? I mean Eric in Fayetteville , 70% of the good restaurants close on .
Monday Close on Monday .
What I mean I'm like you don't have to be a brain surgeon to go . You know what ? I bet if we're open on Monday , we'll get a lot of business from everybody else being closed . What do you think ? Wow , it's the worst thing . You're a genius .
It's the worst thing ever , man . It's so ridiculous .
Hey , it's so bad in Fayetteville it is . While our workers want to have time off too , get some different workers , then have a different team .
Okay , come with a different player . Yeah , because that's a customer touch point . I pull into your business .
Let some people be off on Monday and some people be off on Friday , but we're open Monday and Friday . Jesus , I didn't know that was going to , but you're really so Of course it's a great frustration and it's idiocy , and if you want to make money in the business , you start thinking about doing things that your competitors are not doing .
If they're not open , you'd be open .
So another thing about being an entrepreneur and getting into the business , yeah , is you have to watch out for your team , right ? And so sometimes the team may not be thinking the right the way in order to grow Sure , grow in the business . So I have one person who's actually right above us I know he can totally hear us .
Okay , on our team that that's been struggling with his capacity . Okay , it's because he's he's working on something like a specific thing , but he needs to be able to to graduate past that , right , and so he he stayed , he remained stressed out . We just had lunch about this .
So what I had him do was it's like so basically , okay , we're in the , we're in this video room right now , right , and so I need him to figure out the process and the workflow to quickly and efficiently get the video production and all the stuff put together and out the door . Right , right Point of this business .
It's a job . You got to turn all this stuff out . It's complicated . You got to . You got to process .
And we know that , like , in order for video pie casting business to win , it's got to be the I mean , there's got to be value to it . Sure , so you as a customer , if you're paying me , I need to be one of the least expensive , competitively priced , with the highest value , fastest turnaround . You'll be able to do this at scale .
Yep .
But I . So we got , we got this guy Parker's his name .
Yeah , so we're totally in .
Great guy yeah , yeah .
He's great , yeah , but he's . He's too busy editing the podcast instead of building the process .
So he's got to figure out how to edit podcasts faster or get somebody else doing it .
The second one yeah , but he's so busy editing the podcast he can't work on the process , right ?
Well , he's quality conscious , he's conscientious , he's thinking like a craftsman . He is , is what it is , but he needs to be thinking like he's got a craftsman . He needs to be thinking like what though ? The superintendent maybe Like it ? Okay , the business yeah , no , I mean , I get that .
So you know what ?
Yeah , so my engineers , designers , architects , creative people . There are a lot of people who have that sort of wiring . Yeah , Don't you ? Oh , totally .
I'm sure I was . I was actually that way .
Software developers there's some of them like that Right .
Yeah , I mean like so . Yeah , but I think it's important , though . What I'm happy about what I did in this is that I see Parker . He seems stressed out and overwhelmed , and you can see it on somebody's face . So , as an entrepreneur , you gotta be , you gotta be .
You don't want them to be feeling that no , you care about them , exactly , yeah , and and so I started figuring out what's going on . I'm like , well , why are you ? Why are you still editing ? Like in my mind , I'm like I would have found somebody else a day a long ago , right , because we're thinking
¶ Leadership and Target Customers in Businesses
like as an entrepreneur . Right , sometimes you got to go touch base with your team .
We might think well , you don't . You know , I don't want to spend the money . I'm trying to keep the overhead down here . We're trying to grow this business and not just burn through cash blog etc etc . Right , yeah , that's right . So you got to let them know .
That's okay , because , in order for us to get to where it , it has the volume that it needs to pay the overhead . We got to grow . Therefore , we need to expand what you're doing through other people . That's right . It's the bottom line , yeah , and so you're educating them . You say you gotta .
But see , I think the point is like you got to be able to look into your company and find the like , because otherwise they're going to be just problems , that brood . And as soon as that you can go into that and help make that change , the better and the more the company will grow .
And so what I did was I grabbed and I was like listen , I was like I talked to him about it , figured out what was going on that was keeping him stressed out , Uh huh , you know . And then he helps me identify .
And then , when I did , though , I was like listen , okay , in two days , the next two days , I want you to spend an hour every morning coming into the office and I want you to write down this process for video editing .
So that's the beginning of being able to get somebody else to do it , and then I'm gonna be with you three days later , and we just got to have lunch today , right , and he sat down and he showed me this document is a simple document , but I'll on every process and I was like , okay , go back , make these notes . We made these notes .
You refine that process , don't create more processes the things that need to happen , right ? What is it doing today ? Right ?
Yeah , that's a good point , right , and so the goal , though , is this next week he's not going to be doing anything , he's not going to be doing anything more , and so we've been able to get through that , and now he's got an outline of a process for somebody else to come in , start doing the work while he's building the new process that's to allow him to
move up in the terms of what he's doing and make the business advance .
There you go , yeah , yeah , it's coming soon . I mean , I know , I totally understand that is yeah , it makes , it makes total sense . But I think it's very typical of the problems that one can encounter . I'm not .
I'm not trying to go off this subject because I think it's a great example , but there's another one that I got out of a textbook I was just thinking about the other day . That's really , really a good idea . You may have be familiar with this . Well , there's two . There's two other concepts that I learned from a small business textbook .
One of them is the lifetime value of a customer . Oh , yeah , so you know , they go into the fast . Let's go back to the fast food restaurant . They go in there , they order their fries . Their fries taste like shit . They're cold , they're like , eh , lousy fries , I'm not going back to Burger King , or whatever it is right .
And then if you went back to the employee that served up those cold and mediocre fries , they'd probably be like , ah , so what ? Yeah , yeah , you know . So the guy doesn't . You know he didn't buy it . We lost . We would have made a $1.32 profit on that guy's meal . Yeah , big deal , big deal . Okay .
But the problem is when you start looking at the lifetime value . What if that guy comes in every week for 52 weeks out of the year for 10 years ? What's the real value of that customer ?
If you look at all the revenue , forget the profitability of it , because that's going to be impacted by the volume of the business , right , because that overhead is going to be spread out over a bigger number , right . But if you said they spend 10 bucks a day , they come in once a week , they do that for 10 years , that's 5,200 bucks .
Yeah , from serving up a lousy order of fries that you lost , yeah , I think that's a really important thing . When you start talking about trying to get the people in the business to understand the significance of what we're doing , yeah , you know .
That's a hard thing to communicate . It is , but I think it goes back to your original point . Yeah , if you're working on the business , you're never going to see any of that . Number one , you're not going to see it .
Number two what you said you might think it's a marketing problem . Your revenue is declining . Maybe it's a marketing problem . We need to kick up the advertising right . I mean .
No , that's still true . But , the biggest reason , though that's a problem if you're working on the business . Why would I ever if I was the person making the bad fries ? You have two flying crabs about it If I don't ever see you as the owner caring about it . You're right .
The leadership . Of course , you've got to set the example yourself . I think that's such an important part of why you have to do some of these mundane tasks occasionally , right yeah ?
That's part that's so in a big talk about small business , right , the ? In order to be successful in the small business people and because you're the entrepreneur and the owner that's around and working in the business , people will respect that . Yes , they will have confidence to follow that . Yes , they will not allow things to slip by as often .
Right , because they know it'll impact you . And if you're a good leader like that and not even trying to be a good leader like something that used to upset me a lot is like like trying to learn to be a good leader . You know , I know that you've learned . We're always trying to be better at everything . I know you Totally .
You're so conscientious , oh , totally Just dedicated to self-improvement , like I think you said that's an after-think .
That happens Like you . Just you drive to perfection in conquering what you're setting out to do and then you're just there for just a lot of times by chance , being a good leader that people will follow , right , because you're doing the right thing and you're , and you're doing it .
You're demonstrating , yeah , you're demonstrating , leading by example . It's the most powerful form of leadership . Always is Exactly so , that's a big problem .
If you're not willing to work in the business as a small business owner , then you're going to be suffering .
Yes , quite a bit To your point . I really think that's a big , big problem .
Here's another concept that I think is really great , out of a textbook for small business , and Lord knows you've been a marketer for however long , you have long time right , and you know this is a problem Identifying your ideal and target customer and clearly communicating that to everybody in the company .
One of the tactics we used to have people do as students in their new venture business plans is make up a graphic , you know , of the ideal target customer .
So , yeah , you're going to stereotype , okay , but it's going to be a certain type of person , a certain age , a certain sex , wearing certain clothes , listening to certain music , driving a certain vehicle , living in a certain kind of home Okay , and the more you can have that absolutely burned into your brain , clearly , visualization For everybody in the place , then
everything that the business does is going to line up with that and be consistent with that expectation . It's true , and that's a thing of beauty . When you do that , man , the business is going to explode . It's very true . It's so , so true .
You know , I'll have to admit like so I have a very clear picture here's this is my problem Like I'll have a very clear , very , very clear picture of our target audience Not a deal one , but I don't know that I'm doing a good job painting that and sharing that visualization . What you just said kind of reminds me of what I need to do .
I think I mean like to paint that graph , because I don't think that everybody understands that . I know .
I listen , I , when you say that , I'm thinking back to myself and all the ways I failed there , yeah , in that regard .
¶ Understanding Customer Needs in Business
So I used to build a lot of houses , as you know . Yeah , yeah , yeah , these specular have total gut to the studs . All new cell , you know , or new houses . We built some new ones and I always had in mind the specific type of buyer I was going to sell that to Like divorce woman in her 40s .
He's got a small dog , you know , and likes to cook , and I mean I'm telling you I'd have a dog washing station . I got a one car garage because she's only got one car , really . I've got a craft room for where the other garage bay maybe would be , because she likes to do , you know , really , yeah , and I'm going to put a kitchen in it .
That's going to be fantastic , where friends can come and sit and talk with her , and I'm going to have colors that are going to appeal to a woman and not a man . I could go on and on , but I don't know that I ever articulated that to the workers .
Okay , yeah , that's a problem , it is , it really is .
People in there like painting and trimming out . Yeah , they're making minor design .
They're making them decisions on a daily basis for small things that could impact that Right .
And you had to be the you like .
why am I guarding that Like it's some freaking secret ?
You know , or is it because you mean , in my case I'm like I don't really think about that . That's needed to be discussed . I know what's like to me .
It's just . No , it's obvious . Yeah , but it's not .
You know , and I've been finding out lately , on in spider land I went , I went . Well , I just kind of went a little bit goofy . The other day Got on a big soapbox oh , what a tangled web you weave in spider land . That's , that's good . That's good .
And I and I was sitting with folks and like and we're just we're getting ready for this meeting the very next day and we had some presentations and some stuff that we're going to show the client when we got there and in a dawn dummy in the middle of that meeting this isn't about what you are going to be presenting .
These folks in this room don't even understand why it's important to present any certain things .
Yeah , so I go off for literally 45 minutes recasting fundamental vision and what I've noticed was is , when I got done , the look of relief and confidence that I had from those folks in the room and in gratitude because I've explained something to them that's never been explained before by anybody in the business . They've been there for a long time .
That's a great point and they were like literally like this has been so helpful . Yes , and you know that was a perspective .
They've been very much perspective .
What's funny , Mark , is that like two years ago or three years ago , like I had it , like that wasn't appreciated because I was just , it was smaller than it was . You know , there were more . I was more involved with all the different people . Right , they all hear you .
They all hear me all the time doing that shit . You know , right , right .
But now that it's gotten bigger and everybody has different direct portion apartments and stuff , that's that's that was so much needed .
Now I think that that's something that's important for businesses the bigger they get , you know it's different when you you know as an entrepreneur like if you have a very startup , small business , versus whatever you do for a business , like things change on you .
Absolutely . You know what that brings up . Another subject that I that's related . You know I used to work with architects and engineers , right , and what I would find is commonly they're out there giving presentations , sometimes for massive projects , like it's got a $25 million fee , not construction costs . You know Right .
Just design fee .
Yeah , Just design fee . These are big , big jobs or 50 million or 10 million or whatever . And nobody ever sat down with the presentation team and said this is the single most important thing to the client here .
Okay , yeah , that this thing be done on the schedule that they have , or that this meet the certain standards yeah , Performance standards or that you know this gets designed awards , whatever the criteria . I always ask the client , like what's the single most important thing that you accomplish with this project ? And you better design everything around that , yeah .
It better be commented theme throughout the presentation and you better highlight it .
But they don't do that . They do not think . The typical architects and engineers never do that . So you get the structural engineer up there and he drowns on about lateral forces and frigging . You know , blah , blah , blah , blah . And the HVAC engineer is up blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah .
Nobody really has defined like the lowest initial cost , the lowest operating cost , the schedule . No one bothers to do that . Right , it just blows me away , you know . So it's just , it's along the lines of what you're saying Now . People don't understand why , the why behind it , you know , and even like , why is this the customer we're focusing on ?
I'll tell you another one . You know , I'm sure you've been . There's a certain seafood excuse me , cajun restaurant in our town and if you remember it , it's in a two-story building . It's very small . It usually does a pretty good business . Okay , it's got the restaurant upstairs and it's got the bar on the first floor and they're not connected .
So I go in there one time with my ex-wife , and this is years ago . Okay , we're going out for Saturday night or whatever it is . We go over there . I swear to you , eric , 75% of the people in that place were college professors that I knew . They all got their tweed sport coats with the suede patches .
Okay , yeah , they're gotten down shirts and the brown loafers and khakis or whatever , and they're sitting around sipping white wine Okay , listening to Chade on the CD playing in there , or whatever . You know , Am I painting a picture for you ?
Oh yeah , they're 40 to 70 years old , highly educated , sipping their wine , listening to Chade planning to get their Cajun dinner , or whatever . So we get in there . It's like I'm sorry we don't have a seat for you now , but if you want to go down to the bar and wait , we'll let you know when we've got a table .
I'm like , okay , where do I go to that ? You got to go outside . I'm like what ? Okay , the wife had her heels on . It's winter , it's slippery , yeah , yeah . Yeah , she wasn't that graceful in heels in the first place .
But we get down , you know , we slide on down the hill because there aren't even any good stairs to get down there , and we go in and we open the door of this bar . What do I expect to see when I go in there ?
you think I think you , from your previous experience upstairs , you'd expect to see more of the same .
Exactly .
Same atmosphere Right Chade .
Chade .
Yeah , chamour Chade , chamour Chade , chamour Chade .
And something nice , right , and you know what I find when I open the door ? No , and I walked into another world . The place is empty . There's about a 25 year old bartender back there smoking a Marlboro . Hell yeah , there are crushed Budweiser cans on tables and ashtrays full of cigarette butts . That actually sounds great . And there's a game playing somewhere .
Okay , and I'm like the dude's wearing shorts and friggin . You know ? Fayette Chill t-shirt , or ? something like that I was like what happened here ? Yeah , don't . Why would those people send the type of customer that we are down there to that bar , which is clearly aimed at college students ?
Totally like . Stick it on the target yeah .
Who is your customer ?
Who is ?
your customer Right and are you doing everything to appeal to them ? You've got daughters , okay , so your daughter now is probably old enough , well , I don't know . She's not old enough to remember whenever crumby was what every friggin teenage girl wanted , right , okay . So I mean I got a , I got an older crop and I go over there to the mall .
She were going that ever crumby .
Oh yeah .
Yeah , it smelled like cologne . The smell Exactly . It would knock you out when you came in . The music was always really loud in there .
The lights were dim but yet freaking spotlight . Look like you're walking into a concert , Exactly .
Okay , now me , I'm an old guy . I would be like , okay , you kids go in there , yeah . You find what you want . Come out , get my credit card . You can go back in and pay for it . They knew their audience though . They knew their audience .
They knew exactly who their audience was and boy did they go after them and they were very successful at that time , absolutely , doing it Absolutely . And you got every business has got to know what's on it the touch points that they had too Right , you can't please everybody .
No , I think a lot of small business owners think that yeah , yeah , you know , it's like you see these stores and I mean I've seen the financials on a lot of them , because my students have to work with a small business in my small business class and one of the requirements is you get the financials , cause I'm not going to sit there and come up with some
BS program to increase revenue and profits and value when we don't know anything about them . That's just dumb . I want these guys to have specifics and be able to really talk about what the changes that they're suggesting these business owners make , what they would do for the business .
But in any case , I've seen some of these businesses where they make no money year after year after year , or the owner works 50 hours a week and they make 15,000 a year or some other stuff like that . And then you look and you talk with the owners and ask them who their target customer is and they're so far afield their offerings that it blows your mind .
I had one . I had students work with this retail business three years or four years , you know , in a row , and the owner of the business said , when they asked her like , who's your target customer , she said it's women , young women from the ages to 18 to 25 .
Now when you go in the store you know what she was selling in there Expensive gourmet pasta , no cards , expensive dish towels . Am I painting a picture for ?
you .
Is that what ? 18 to 25 year old women are buying . No , it's what friggin 65 year old women are buying . Okay , and that's what she was the owner . And so then it was even better .
So I told my students I go okay , now you've got to prove your point to the owner , because the owner will still argue with you about , oh , I've got whatever he friggin 18 to 25 year old woman wants , when you know they don't okay .
And so I said okay , now put yourself out a little survey , monkey study online and say you got to be a woman , 18 to 25 to respond All right . And then ask them have they ever heard of this store , yes or no ? If so , if yes , have they ever been in it , yes or no ? And then , if so , have they ever bought anything there ? It was fascinating .
There were like 200 and some odd respondents . There were like two or three that had heard of it , Maybe one had been in there and nobody bought anything . So now you can go back to the owner and go look , if this is your target audience , you're missing the boat .
You completely missed the boat . And you can fix that . Yes , you can . You know you can't be an entrepreneur or a small business owner , so you have to be confident . But you can't be overly confident .
Overly confident , I know Like you have to be paranoid , but not overly paranoid .
You have to be organized , but not overly Right .
You know , but I mean like for real , like you've got to be able to like , look at things in the face and know when to like . You know it's funny .
It's been a paradox of pushing and pushing , going past the word no and no and no to get a business somewhere it needs to go , because you're so confident about it but not so ignorant that you shut down a business that doesn't work .
Yeah , or you can't change . You can't adjust your target . You just cannot adjust .
Yeah , I mean it's true , it's a crazy world , but just while we're doing the show right , I mean like , because this isn't something that you can just , you know do it explain , like you know , if you ever have people sit down and want to take you out to coffee and get your advice about it .
I go to people , I go to coffee with people and I am not exaggerating . Three or four times a week , right , ok , with people . I don't know what people I know . And they want they're hoping from you to give them some great .
Yeah , if within hours worth of coffee after they spent 40 minutes telling you about the business .
Right and 20 minutes telling me about their background , because I always want to know that , because it helps me understand them .
Yeah .
Yeah .
So that's why I mean this , but that's a good point of this podcast , so right . So hopefully , like you literally need to have hundreds of episodes with all kinds of different scenarios yes , to start to get understanding about what you're about to walk into with business , right ?
And yeah it's . You're not going to get it all from a seminar . It's not all going to be a catchy program . We don't have any great buzzwords to define all this .
There's no pro forma templates that we have lined up for different industry .
Yes , no kidding For you to download and launch your new business off of Right . It's you know , I think that's
¶ Opportunist vs. Planner
you know . This whole idea I mean a planning versus responding to the market . I think it's a really interesting one too . Maybe we need to tackle that on a future Episode here , yeah , like , are you an opportunist or are you like a big planner who's going to make something out of nothing ?
You know the opportunists like sees these opportunities and just jumps on them Boom , boom , boom . They cast sort of a wide net of options , but then they select the ones that they think are best . Yeah , as opposed to , let's plan every single detail out on this thing .
And , and you know I mean I'll answer you on my side , I'm definitely the opportunist , I am too .
Well , you totally are because you totally change your business , absolutely .
Like multiple 180 .
Just boom , yeah , that's that's responding .
Have we not done that ? I mean I mean , look , there was a . You know like you gotta go for it . Man , right , I mean carpet deal , bro , like , like , if you have something in your face , you have to go get it .
I thought it was interesting , though , like your wife was talking , yeah , in that last podcast . Yeah , about how you know she's perfectly happy Now . She's got a good job . Okay , she's a nurse practitioner . They're highly in demand . There's a huge shortage . There's not enough doctors . She's always going to be able to . She's got a master's degree .
She's always going to be able to make a living , right , yeah ? So maybe she's not as paranoid as like a middle manager working for Megacorp who could get fired in any minute due to no fault of their own , sure .
But she also said , like I know , if I make this much money for the rest of my life and I can have a nice house and provide for my children , I'm totally happy with that . Yeah , yeah . Why do you need more than that ?
Oh , I'm falling . Did she say that she ?
did dude . Yeah , it's definitely . Yeah , it's , it's not even a matter . This is what I can't totally explain it , yeah , and maybe you can , but it's it's like why ? Because I can have it , because I can do it , why , because I can do that ? Yeah , okay , this needs to be done , dammit , because that probably needs to be solved , and they don't .
Body else doing it Exactly and nobody .
I mean , it's not a have to do necessary . You don't need like a bigger , you've got a . Was that a 3500 duly ? Yeah , you don't need like a 4500 duly , or whatever . Oh , be cool , no , but you know you're not thinking like that though .
But you see this problem , or you see this opportunity , or you see God , I could fix that , or yeah , yeah , yeah , and that's what motivates us , oh yeah , so I just to have more . No , no , no .
Actually I'm motivated by money . I'm not really really whatsoever , yeah , I mean , I'm really not , and I never have been , and I think that that's . I was actually talking that . I'm not really either , so to my other day like I wasn't even motivated about being a business owner or an entrepreneur or all that stuff it was about . There's this problem at Walmart .
Yeah , that , to me , is so blatantly stupid , obvious . That needs to be fixed Right . And it's such a big problem , it's such a big damn problem . It's not ever going to go away .
Yeah , they got to win the war against .
Amazon . Yeah , that's right .
That's it . I hear what you think that's shut the elephant in the room . Yes , amazon , and it's so simple .
It's content . Content can go away . Nothing else can create it . Someone's got to fix this . Yeah , I mean it makes total sense and in .
And I will die roads in a really big problem like that , there's a really big opportunity .
And it's not even about like calculating , like how much money's behind that opportunity . Yeah , it's about the freaking problem has to be fixed and why is no one solving it ? Yeah , and I know how to . I have an idea on how to solve it .
I don't know a hundredth of what you know about this issue . Yeah , online marketing , walmart , all that yeah , I don't know a hundredth of it , but I do know this . Ok , and look , I love Walmart . I got a tremendous respect for the company . I'm not anti-Walmart at all , I mean it is , they are innovative .
They are constantly reaching out , pushing the bounds to do things better and better , and they're shown that they're very flexible and very adaptable . Oh yeah , as a big company biggest company in the world , I guess , yeah , but that said with a but is I still think Amazon's easier to buy shit ? Oh yeah , totally right now .
And why right now ?
But I've said that for as long as Walmartcom is content . They're either reason why I can't Walmart with all their resources . I'll tell you what be as good as Amazon , because the just destroy them .
It's the difference of how they started their business . So Amazon has the same exact problem and barrier as having a brick and mortar stored infrastructure . That's why they can't get . They can't do brick and mortar , because it's a whole different ball game . They're missing the fundamentals there .
Walmart's missing the fundamentals , or has been , with a digital catalog that's chock full of good content , with suppliers and sellers that get into that catalog and fix those product detail pages so that they can gosh dang , sell with a touch point to the end customer who's trying to buy it online and in digital environment .
Yeah , that's the whole missing component .
I believe you . So they just they've been . So that's what you're working on , obviously that's .
Yeah .
And that's why you're successful .
But the problem that Walmart has had is is that none of their , none of the suppliers and sellers think of Walmart in that capacity .
Right , they just think I can sell 800 million of those through their stores .
That's and that's it .
That's all the contracts this year , they're going to pay me 82 cents for each one . Right , that's it . That's the correct , that's the right there . And I know a lot of those people .
I know people that even if the suppliers and sellers stay . Point yeah , like it's there's , the mind is blocked off of . There are people that are dedicated to this brick and mortar type business versus this digital business is . So you have a dividing of that house .
Well , teams that focus on a dot com pure While we're talking about big problems and big companies , which this is obviously right , and opportunities , right . I understand the same things going on at Ford right now . Yeah , the electric vehicle division versus the internal combustion . Yeah , it's like a war inside Ford . Ford's thrown all these resources into electric .
Yeah , it's not making any money . The internal combustion guys are saying we make all the money for this place . Ok , yeah , but obviously at the top a decision was made We've got to be viable as an electric vehicle maker , right , ok , it means that maybe they don't make as much money over there .
Maybe we do have to throw extra resources over there , blah , blah , blah , and but they can't seem to get that like in through the organization .
It's a hard one , mm . Hmm , I mean it's just , I mean it's but it's , I think it's , could it be ?
We're not saying the internal combustion , people aren't important .
No .
That's the thing .
As soon as you do that , it's like , well , what we're not important , we make all the money in this place divide starts dividing the house , which I think to you what you said about Walmart earlier and I've watched it over the last few years it's been painful , you know there's been some , there's been a lot of decisions that have been painful , that one more
time to make . But give them credit on their acceleration and making those decisions and getting the shit in the right of the .
It's how big they are .
Dude . It's going to go down in history is one of the greatest triumphs ever .
They impressed me every step of the way . I mean , they got a lot of bad press when they had their salaried workers work in 39 hours and not getting benefits or whatever . They responded to that instantly . Now they pay for their friggin college educations .
Ok , their starting pay is better , you know , significantly better than you'd get working for anybody else in a similar job . I mean ethical practices or sustainability . They are the number one provider of organic food in this country . People don't realize that . Yeah , yeah , so it is possible .
But yeah , so if Megacorp can do it , why the hell can't you with your shitty little million dollar a year business ?
right .
Right , or two million or five million or whatever it's about getting in it , man , yeah , and I think that the you know kind of goes back to the point . Like that's the , that problem has been my driving , motivating factor and then any other opportunity that comes up that I see that I feel like needs to be fixed Right .
And so , like to your point earlier , for Tara , like she's comfortable , Sure , and you know to to , to have those , that kind of lifestyle . There's zero chance that I could ever do that because it will drive me absolutely insane to see something that needs to be fixed .
But see , from her point of view , though and this is why we had that conversation with the spouses she thinks I grew up in this chaotic environment . Yeah , sure , I provide a rock solid environment for my kids . Look at how they're thriving , you know . See , look at what we've been able to do . Man , I have that's low stress for me .
Meaning her yeah Is the way she yeah .
Man and I , you know I've got a lot of . I've had a , you know , and , as you know , I've grown a lot in appreciating that perspective because it does help me like you know , I'm not I'm . I'm probably half as crazy about that stuff as I could be .
Mm , hmm .
You know , and it does , it does help you to stop and and and smell the roses a little bit .
It's good to get a different perspective . Oh , 100% and as your partner on this stuff , absolutely .
Yeah , Absolutely so . All right , I know we went to a lot of places that you're in . We did
¶ The Importance of Solving Bigger Problems
.
But I mean , the point of all this stuff is , if you are a small business owner , better be in it , or you're an entrepreneur , you better get in it . Better be in it . You better be able to communicate the why to your people . You better be able to figure out how you can innovate faster and reduce bureaucracy .
You better know who your customer you're targeting is , where the touch points are . Where the touch points are and making them good making them all .
Good , yes , okay , and you better be fixing a bigger problem than what if you ? I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs getting the business to make money the wrong idea . Love the fact . I love the fact that you agree with that and we've been listening that message out because it's a byproduct , it's all .
Yes , yes .
And it will drive me insane if you try to just go out and make money , like you will be . I absolutely insist .
I had a friend of mine . He's the CEO of a successful company . I used to be on his board . We sold his company to a Middle Eastern company that I sold other companies to . Very successful , very smart guy . Okay , his son graduating from the MBA program . Like 10 years ago . He goes I want you to go out to dinner with us and just help him .
You know , get some direction . The son , the son . So I sit down and I , by the way , I've known this guy , the CEO , since I was born . He was my brother's friend , my older brother's friend , and he knew , remember , when I was born , yeah , which is really kind of cool that you end up as a director in his company . Okay , yeah , but anyway .
So I sit down with the son , like , what do you want to do ? I just want to make a lot of money . What do you ? What's your passion ? My passion is for making a lot of money . I'm like dude I , I basically I don't even know what to tell you . I can't help you , okay . It's a billion ways for that . By the way , he's now in politics .
Oh , what does that tell you ? A bad way to make money .
I don't know .
Maybe it's a midway . I don't know how they all get as rich as they do when they make like 120 grand a year and yet they all have like net worths of 10 , 20 , 30 million dollars . That's pretty good . Well , that works out , but it seems like it does .
There's another table , money mention there's something going on ?
Oh , totally yeah , there's something . But anyway but you're right , it's . The money is a byproduct . You got to solve a problem , you got to fix something . You got to do something people want . It doesn't always have to be a big problem , though I will . Yeah .
I mean , I realize you know that's true , I agree , I agree Okay . I love that .
Maybe the problem is simply that just to go through the drive up line takes too damn long . I can suffer through the same bird Starbucks , coffee and overpriced food items , but I just want to do it faster . Maybe that's fine . And you know what ? Yeah , you know , I agree , and if I can do that , then I'll steal a lot of business from Starbucks or whatever .
I mean , which is a fun opportunity to go kill ?
It is , it is like they're .
one last thing Not only and I think you might feel this way too Not only is about solving a big problem , but it's kind of about . It's kind of about being , you know , yeah .
Yeah .
Yeah .
I'll show you , yeah , I'll show you a song . You think you're good , I'm better , yeah .
I can be one . I once had a woman who was a real estate agent in Fayetteville , been there for a million years , grew up in the area Well known . She says to me what are you going to do when you run out of houses to redo in Fayetteville , like it'll never happen ? There's an unlimited supply of crap . We make your house better to be re , yeah , her house .
So I could have done a lot with it . It looked like a hell , honestly . Um , but uh , yeah , I mean these opportunities are out there . Yeah , and when somebody tells you you can't do something for us youngest kids in the family , right , yeah , we're , we're a show and we can do it .
That's a good point . Yeah , I keep forgetting . You do , you do . Hey , by the way , your houses were awesome .
Oh thanks .
No , they were freaking beautiful .
Well done , wish I had me a Mark's Wack home .
Dude , I , I don't even live in a Mark's Wack home . No , I live in an old 1900 house that needs like a million things . Okay , I mean it's like the . You know , it is the irony of that , after all the houses I owned and redid , and then what do I end up in ? When it's like super energy efficient , built 1900 , the floors are sagging and bagging .
I just got a $700 electric bill , you know . I mean , it's like the doors . You know , some of them , like the door knobs , are falling off .
It's you know are you serious ?
This is dude . I am dead serious . I you know . I mean it's a cool . No , it's a really cool house it's . It's got a great law , it's a great location Looks great on the outside . We did a lot of work . It looks fine on the inside , it's comfortable .
It's just not important to me at this point to make everything perfect anymore , yeah , but I will say and even in my houses I used to design everything I did learn over time that Sonya is actually better than me .
She just doesn't fall into the ruts that I fell into , yeah , and that makes it more interesting and , I think , more enduring from a design standpoint over time , in a way , not to get so thematic , yeah , sure , you know cause things come and go like right now it's mid-century modern . I did a few mid-century modern houses .
If I was going to be redoing houses now .
they would all be from the 50s , 60s and 70s . Really , that's what people your age and younger aspire to . They want that because their grandparents had houses like that . Okay , my grandparents lived in 1900 , 1920 houses . We all want to harken back to what our grandparents said . I just want to live in a boker .
Well , you're building yourself a freaking palace on a hill right now . It's like a complete compound of development . You know I mean that's going to be wild . When you get that thing done , it'll just sit there , and every time I go to the airport I'll be , I'll be driving past your property and I'll look up on the hill .
They'll try to come up on the hill , though , and I'll see that thing and see that that road you put in the way it like winds its way up it's going to be fantastic .
Yeah , it is .
And then you'll be up there like a lord . Okay , the breeze would be blowing through . It's like you know , just like when we're in second grade , you know , like king of the hill .
Yeah , don't try to come up on the hill , don't come up on the hill , ah , but no , it'll be fantastic .
Or at least let me know your , your argument .
Hey man , this has been fun . It has been , and I hope our listeners got something out of it and I will look forward to seeing you .
Yeah , speaking of if you're listening to this episode . Right , don't forget to subscribe .
Yes , thank you for saying that .
Yeah , subscribe to the newsletter , subscribe to the YouTube channel , and hell , I mean actually sending questions , yes , or topic ideas like hey , have you ever ? Experienced this , it'd be fun . Or if you , even even one , goes far as like saying , hey , I'd like to be a guest on the show .
Yeah , we're not saying for sure , we're going to take a guest , but we might . Right , absolutely , we'll look into it . I mean , it'd be fun .
No , I think that's a great point . We're not saying that because we don't have a guest today . We wanted this Right . I think it's fun for us sometimes we can be more , in a way , more liberated , absolutely , absolutely , and it's fun to do and hopefully it's educational . But , yeah , subscribe , tell your friends , yeah , yeah , um , and we look ?
Well , I think , because the reality is , is we honestly talk about solving bigger problems ? Right , I mean , of course , we would like to have more folks attending to this , you know , and it's pretty cool , right , it's pretty cool to know that your voice is getting on there , but that doesn't really matter .
But I mean , the whole point of us starting this thing up was because we know that , as small business owners , I mean I would have loved to have something I could listen to , that has real practical advice . Yes , exactly it's not a bunch of theory and proformas and all that kind of stuff and buzzwords , buzzwords , yeah , you know .
And and especially with a lot of the false promises Of being a panacea for all your woes , rolled into one Exactly .
You know , or that business is a pitch deck because it's not a pitch deck , you know , or the whole point of what we were talking about today , which is work on your business not in it , cause that is can be some terrible advice because , at the end of the day , if you I mean I know that what I've gone through , but I've seen a bit with Mark when he's
gone through to like it's not easy , no , not an easy lifestyle , and I'm when I hear people say , hey , I want to quit my job . They've been working for 30 , 40 years in a professional setting . They're making good money . See a lot of people go wrong there . Yeah , and they want to go start their own business , because they always want to .
I have seen very , very , very very very succeed , dude , I'm telling you .
Oh , yes , that's why like the franchise business model , which is a gateway to entrepreneurship , right ? They sell a lot of franchises to people like that . When you look at the UPS stores or FedEx whatever they are now you see the Dickies barbecues or whatever it is .
They sell a lot of those to corporate executives that want to be self-employed and be entrepreneurs . I don't see anything wrong with that . No , I think it's a doorway , but they're not all successful , as you said . Right , the right orientation .
No , they don't , we can help those people . We can Just by listening . Yes , and if you do all the subscribing and stuff that , make sure you get notified when those things happen , yep , all right , hey man .
Hey , thanks , been great being with you and Let me show We'll see you all again on another episode of big talk about small business .
See how much you go completely solo , then you did . I just wanted to hear how you sound , you dog Okay .
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