¶ Big Talk About Small Business
All right , here we are once again . This is another episode of big talk about small business . I'm here with my buddy . What's up , mark Eric Howerton ? How's it going ? Man ? Good man , you got a new setup in here . I know I like this , it's unique .
It's all weird not seeing a microphone in front of your face , though .
It is . It's a little strange just talking to air like this Everybody , but there's no one there . There's lights and cameras , but you're here , that's the important thing .
That is , man , we got some cool stuff to talk about . We just planned it like literally right before we started the podcast .
We did . But I mean , I think the thing is okay you and I , yeah , we sold businesses and all that okay , but we're still involved in so many other oh yes , that we are learning every single day and we have more experience to share every single day .
And I think that the problems that you and I both face in the businesses that we're associated with , they're not unique . Everybody has lots of these issues and opportunities . They're not all problems , but so I think there's always plenty to talk about . Totally , that's topical .
Well , I mean , like you know , literally we could have a problem going on at the business today and be able to bring it up on the show , because that's what business is . There's nothing but problems . It's either good problems or bad problems . All you got to do is go after the good problems . That's your goal as an entrepreneur .
Yep , go for good problems , because it never . You never get to where it really needs to be . I don't care what anybody says .
Well , you doubt if you're somebody , especially if you're somebody who keeps striving to do better . Yeah , I mean , there are some people who , like I , stay small successfully . We were talking about that . You know where they're basically .
They're control freaks , yeah , and they just want their little fiefdom where everybody is a good order taker and does exactly what they tell them to do . There's no innovation that they personally don't come up with , and you know I've dealt with a lot of those people over the years .
They run their business like that for 75 years or till they're 75 years old , and then they want to sell it . Okay , and there's nothing to sell . They always say , well , I don't know of anybody good who can take over . Okay , well , what is somebody going to buy your business where you're so instrumental that every single thing and you're going to be gone ?
How's that Create anything ?
You know it's funny , you say it because I mean , as I'm thinking about a couple of entities that I have going on like I'm having , and even though I've been there and done that a couple of times and in certain ways but you have to stop and you have to really think what am I building that's going to have value to a buyer , because you're never going to be
immune to that , and so you have to really stop and think like is what is what I'm investing in right here , whether it's time , money or both , or people ? Right . Are they going to build a product , something that's tangible , that I can and actually be removed and released from that and it still has value to it ?
Yes , and if I think that that's you know it's funny , like you , I think I get it Like it's intuitive to me to think that way .
That's entrepreneurship versus small business . Yeah , it is .
That is what's intuitive for you to think that way . Right , like there's no question , like we can , if you're sitting there telling me you're going to do X , y and Z and I'm brain , I'm like A , that's not scalable . B , like you're , you're holding the keys to everything . Right and no one else can replicate it .
Like I don't want to build that , no one's going to buy that shit Right , and I don't want a business that only has idiot order takers in it . I want people who think of stuff that I never thought of . Okay , yeah , because they're smarter , or they know more about something than I know about it , or they see a possibility that I wouldn't see .
I , I think it's you know . You got to be pretty egocentric to think you're going to be the best person at everything .
Totally , it's actually you know . It's better if you realize that you're not . Yeah . Get the hell out of the damn way . Yeah , exactly , dude . I've held on to so much stuff in the past that I've just ruined it .
Like I've come to why I'm here recently , like I'm not really a great CEO as a matter of fact , with one of the companies I have , I want to be just the interim CEO until after .
I found her until you fire yourself . Yeah , yeah , I get that .
But I'm just . I'm just looking to recruit a CEO . I just want to build something enough to where a good CEO would like to come in and they can work with it and make sure .
Yeah , you're not a maintenance guy . Yeah , that's for sure I get it . No , we're both too . I mean , I don't want to say inconsistent , because we're not inconsistent . We can both work consistently hard and maintain our attention on something , but it's it's . There's a different energy level to it . Yeah , and intensity , you know what I mean ?
Oh , yeah , totally , and it comes and goes along with your own personal state of mind and everything else that you have going .
It has to be something I think . As an entrepreneur , you have to have the ability to choose what that is . Yeah , I agree , you know what I'm saying . Like there's not , you can't make me do something . I've been figuring that out . I'm like man , I'm just like an old stubborn dog .
Like you can't come and say , eric , go do this , and I'm going to be like well , that's why we're unemployable , that's right , fundamentally unemployable , but yeah , but hey , we were talking earlier about a killer business , not the but there , because there's a hundred of them , but a killer of business is speed .
Oh my God , our lack of speed . Yes , it is such a problem , I tell you . I mean , you've seen it . You know how the bureaucracy creeps in as you get bigger and bigger . It's like , well , we've got to be professionally managed .
So now we're going to add in 10 layers of bureaucracy that don't make the place any money or make us any better at what we do in the name of being organized . And yeah , I mean I , one of the businesses that I work with that you're familiar with , I've been saying to the top management that we need a speed award . We need to emphasize the speed award .
Yes , okay , that we give out once a month to an employee and we single out what they did fast . It could be anything . It could be anything . It could be , yeah , it could be anything Could be a process improvement . It could be finishing something that had been started . You know there's a lot of different variations on the thing .
It could be how fast they got back to a customer , but speed is everything . Delaying , delaying and delaying , setting the deadlines out farther than they need to be , doesn't help anybody to give them , to give them that space .
What the hell's going on with this tape ?
You're moving it around , emma . Yeah , you're skewtin' it . Sorry , but it's okay . Well , the juicier , perhaps studio we could , we could attach these together with some pieces of tape . A piece of tape , yeah , duck tape , duck tape , duck tape .
But yeah , I mean so , like just the like . What is it about ? Like , do you think , folks , what ? I think it's a human nature problem ? I think it is , and then it's anything you can delay , yeah , and then it becomes like poisonous toxicity of where , if you're doing that , then I'm just going to do that . Like , oh , you have ability , so is it a man ?
Could it be a management thing ? Well , everything is a management thing .
Oh well , yeah , you see me , you know , yeah , like you're really good at that . Well , no , I mean every , every problem is a management problem , because management is responsible for managing your business . But they let that go on , they tolerate that behavior , they accept those long , unnecessarily long times to implement change .
Do you think they've accepted that ? So if you were , if I was , your manager , right , and you start like demonstrating signs of being slow or slower than what the need of the business is right , like what ? Look , how would you address that ? Like what would be a sign that research seems to be going down that road ?
I would just I would start asking questions like why is this going to take us so long ? Yeah , okay , what's the point ? And just , you've got to drill down all the way to expose the reality of it that a choice , that the long deadline is really the result of a lot of choices yeah , that maybe does overtoss us , that's bloated up .
Yeah , be nasty . It's like a gut that's been eating French fries for 20 years . Yeah , nasty , exactly . But I mean , but you're right , like I mean I think the longer that goes , like , the more problem .
Like you got to chisel back down on that and it's and if and you're coming into this business and like you're noticing this , like I think a lot of the other management maybe doesn't even know it , it's just normal .
Well , it becomes cultural . It's the way we do things here Okay , and the way we do things here may be not a good way to do things .
¶ Vision Casting and Leading Speed
You know , I think a lot of people get confused about what is success . How do we define our success ? One level is what we survived . We're still here , we're still got our job in $27 an hour Okay , some people might consider that a success . But another way to look at the success is are we really maximizing our potential ?
Are we doing all we could do here to make this business significantly better and make everybody's life different ? It improved a lot of all of our employees and do a better job for our clients and customers and build a better future that's more likely to be able to sustain itself .
Okay , and that question is the ultimate question , and I just think too many people , they just get stuck there . They think , well , this is my lot in life , this is like as good as it's going to get . You know what I mean .
Yeah , they have no vision of inspiration , accomplishment or honor . Yes , it's going to get squished down over time , but I think , like when you're talking about this , like how do you prevent that lack of speed ?
You know you've got to demonstrate it yourself , always as a leader . That's number one . You got to show people how fast you can do stuff . Turn it around fast .
But you see , you are one of the fastest people I've ever met .
You've got to be . But then you know , it's like I was talking to . I had Matt Lewis in a Lewis automotive group talking to my students . You need to get mad on this ? Well , I can't ask this . He is a brilliant guy . Okay , the stuff that he has given me over the last 10 years that I use would blow your mind Really , but anyway .
So we're sitting there in class and it was the best graphic he drew on the board . He's like okay , let's say this is the market and it's a circle , and here's our piece of the pie , and it's like 25% or whatever it was he goes okay , now the market could shrink dramatically .
He draws a smaller circle Okay , but now this is the size of the pie we got to get . It's a lot bigger , okay . And he goes that's , you know , that's what we're going to do . It's not like that's what we're going to try . That's what we're going to do , is what we're doing ? Yeah , that's what we will do .
That , because we are not going to rest and it's not going to be one magic bullet thing . He always tells everybody it's going to be 25 . 25 things , 25 little things that all add up to when the other people are retreating . We're going to advance .
And the reason why that's relevant here is I think a lot of people will easily rationalize the lack of performance for the business . You know , like we're not selling advertising , or we're not selling our product , or you know we can't get good people , whatever the because of the market . Okay , and you can't accept any of that . None of that is a legit excuse .
All right , and . But once those excuses become accepted , then it justifies the . You know , the lack of positive action and change . It don't leads to mediocrity and no growth .
So I'm hearing you kind of say is that it's really , you know , on the positive side of this , it's about the leaders , the entrepreneur Number one . You can't be slow .
You can't be , and the people who are your direct reports can't be either . That's the next place to work .
Right , so you're leading speed . Yeah , number one . Yeah , number two , I think , and you talk about with Matt Lewis , but that probably there has to be vision casting Constant relentless selling , selling people on the vision , yes , and vision casting is a good term .
I like that .
Yeah , and , like you're always , you know one thing that we I noticed this at White Spider right , or what is now Flywheel is that you know we just kind of ended our arrangement , but I was remembering , like you know , we were much more locked in on far as like , like , here's our case studies , there's our capabilities , we have company meetings , and you know ,
with our Walmart team here . But one thing I've been noticing that's starting to miss is this vision casting . Like , why are we here ? Like what Matt was like , why are we here ? Not what are we doing ? Yeah . But why are we doing what we're doing ? And that's just this constant .
And I realize , mark , that when we built that business , our people believed in that over time , right .
And I mean and when they don't believe in that or they don't know what that is , it's starts to show . It starts to show Things wane it does down .
It's kind of cool , but also not cool at the same time , but I mean it was . But basically , these are our team , genuinely believed in why we were doing what they're doing and their why was greater than themselves , yeah , which woke them up to do something greater than themselves and be faster than themselves .
Right , like you have to , if you as an individual , and I think we get it in intuitively again , but I don't do things so that I personally gain , which is a misconception .
I mean , there's all a lot of people out there , your personal gain is the outcome of other people gaining . Yes , the system working .
Yes .
It's not , yeah , and it's not even necessarily the goal . It's a nice byproduct , yeah , but yeah , I get that .
So if this company would , if they could see how , if , why you're doing this and that speed is so important for you to accomplish your , why that's vision casting , yeah . So A , you're leading by example , right , and you're fast as hell , yeah , and then you're passing that vision . What's another thing that can be done until next time ?
Well , I think you know , one of the mistakes I think I've made over the years is that I try to get all people to see this Okay , and I'm like , well , everybody should be able to see this . Okay , and if the next level of management directly below you doesn't get it and see it , then the people below them aren't going to .
It sort of negates the whole thing . They become this sort of fat around the muscle that then stops the progress . So you got to work on the next level down . It's super critical and you know , the problem is , let's say , you got three people who get it and two people who don't , or four people who get it and one who doesn't .
You either have to get those non believers to believe , or you got to move them out . Oh , there we go . Okay , and that's where a lot of people don't do it . Also , the reason they don't is they think , well , if I fire Joan over there , I've got to do her job . I can't do her job . I'm already doing the job of five people .
I'm working 80 hours a week or whatever , and so I'm going to let Joan , because Joan still does stuff that I want to do . Yeah , it's good enough . Yeah , it's good enough , but that's a cancer that kills , so that person then kills it for the other leaders and then those leaders . Of course the people below them don't get it .
They don't see why it's critical .
And there's , there's power in numbers . If you have enough , if you have enough rats that are all passive , negative , slow , self-protected people , it's going to start leading up . Yes , it's comfort in that . And then , next thing you know , you've got an entire organization of rats that aren't fast .
It's like Matt says . They call it five car Charlie , the guy who sells five cars a month . Okay , he wants to drag everybody else down to his level because then it makes him feel better about him . Does that mean he doesn't do that ? Yeah , for his lack of performance .
You see what I mean . But you got to cut that , you got to cut him out you can't tolerate it .
You just can't tolerate . So how ? The real question is how do you go from where you are to where you see the potential in the organization and what you could actually accomplish and what that would mean to the individuals ? I mean , I was saying this to somebody the other day who's business I'm intimately involved with , that , you know .
I said do these people really believe that if we did well , that , like in two years , they could double the money they make ? Like what impact would that have on their lives ? Like they don't have good childcare now , or their spouse has to work , their life is completely out of control , okay , they can't afford to buy a house , so they're renting .
You know , what kind of impact would it be if they could just double what they made , you know , in two years ? Do they even see that as a possibility ? And the answer is most of them don't know . I said you know , what I think we need to do is like single out somebody .
I said if we had a $40,000 employee and we decided to pay that person $30,000 more right now because they're kicking ass , okay , we would set an example that other people could see . And so part of it is management too .
It's like we can't let these structures of well , there's a , you know , we only pay the such and such as $22 and 40 cents an hour to $37 and 10 cents an hour , because that's what the pay scale is , or whatever . It's all bullshit .
You've got to be able to break through that , set an example , make somebody the example and start and build some role models .
I think yeah , you know people got to be able to show this possible . Yeah , they got to see that it's possible . Yeah , and would you say that also , like I mean , instead of spending so much effort into limiting pay , how do you spend the effort to demonstrate how you can increase pay ? Yeah , exactly , and it's .
And if you can tie that to the speed at which this company is black , you got to show that story of the more that we build here and the more products we release , or new products that we release . This equates into more sales . More sales equate into more payroll , more money , more bonuses , all this type of stuff .
Next thing , you know , better opportunities for you , better as we grow , better opportunity for you to get into what you like , to do best , and do best and get pays more . Yeah , because generally we like the stuff that we're good at right . Oh yeah , that's the fun stuff . So here's your chance to do more fun stuff and less stuff that you don't like .
Make a lot more money . Change your life . Okay , not just make more so you can buy a new sofa . Okay , make more so you can meaningfully change your life and that of your family and put yourself on a different trajectory .
You know , I mean I just it just gets really frustrating when the other thing is , you know , you start talking about coming out with new stuff . The conclusion I've come to is the market is so fickle and the marketplace you serve has such a short attention span . The next thing , companies do come out with something new and it's successful .
They're like wow , that's great , it was successful . Okay , it's great , it was really successful . Remember when we did that it was successful . Like , do more of it , do it faster , because they're going to forget in two weeks from now .
The marketplace forgets that we got something new , or two months we got to keep coming out with the new instead of just that was great . I love it's like when you see these companies . We did a promo and it , man , it really got a great return . Did you do another one the same way ? We haven't done that yet . We were really celebrating our return on that .
I'm like do it again . Yeah just keep doing it . Yeah .
You know , yeah , push yourself a little bit . You know there's funny because , like , I think , if you , once you break through that a little bit , people start picking it up on their own , exactly Like it's only hard as cultural , as an yeah , it's only hard as a leader to either a change , one that's negative , that's really that's a hard job to do .
Or maybe impossible . Yeah , it is possible , but it may be impossible . It's hard .
And then when B is just to drive yourself to know that I think it's , it's really here's . Here's been my problem . I'll be honest with you . Instead of me realizing all the time , like what you're talking about , as me being a leader in hell , I drive that .
I found myself in a lot of times being frustrated at other people because they don't understand my energy behind it .
Are you kidding ? I've been the same way . Have you felt that way ? Oh god , yes .
Like I've spent way too much of my own energy being frustrated that other people don't have my energy or my vision or whatever it might be .
I totally
¶ The Manager's Role in Success
get that . But I'm going to take it back to Matt Lewis again . Okay , he says don't forget that the manager's job is only to make the other people more successful at whatever they do the people who make the stuff and the people who sell the stuff and if you're not making their job better and you're not making them more successful , you're failing .
Okay , so he says what he likes to do is , let's say he's a new manager and a group of people because I find he is the most influential person is Usually that's the one who's been there the longest , not the highest performer , because the highest performer they don't have any time for bullshit . Okay , they don't participate in the guy .
It's like you're just out there going from one to the next . They're killing it . They're all about making the money and they don't let anybody . But now they're sweet spot .
They're rolling .
They don't get . Let anybody get in their way . But the old timer , let's say , whoever it could be , five years they've been there . Whatever , they're the one you got to focus on . So you've got to help make them more successful . If you could help make them more successful , they do your job . They're out there selling for you . That it's possible .
You see what I mean ? Yeah , because I had this one guy when I started out . He was selling as a sales manager , like 19 years ago . He's got this one guy who's been there a million years . He's like what do you know ? I've been doing this for 40 years , you know , or whatever , because I was doing this before you were even alive .
Okay , what are you going to do for me ? Are you going to help me ? And he tells the story of how he dealt with this old guy . Okay , so this guy is selling a car , whatever . So he just immediately goes back and grabs the owner's manuals for it . He drives it through the car wash , she gasses it up for the guy .
She starts getting the paperwork processed as his manager , as his manager . Okay , he brings it all back to the guy . The guy's like well , I got to go . He's like no , it's all done . We can , you know , here we go . Let's just , let's move on to the next one . He said once that guy is making twice as much money as he was . After a few months of that .
He's like holy cow . So and so , really helpful . He really knows what he's talking about . And that guy tells all the other people because he's the one that's holding the meeting after the meeting yeah , yeah , yeah , all right , the meeting .
After the meeting you guys are the meeting . It's the most important meeting . Yeah , meeting after the freak of 80 , dude Right , because that's the person you got to win over . And guess what ? You , as the entrepreneur , are not invited to that meeting .
You're not invited . No , they're all talking about you and your freaking crazy , crazy Okay .
Stupid yeah , or bound to be failure soon Exactly .
And it makes so much sense to me . So you got to help . It's all just about helping and showing , making their jobs easier , making them more successful , picking the most influential people out , I mean help you down .
Help me out , mark , because I have a problem of keeping this kind of stuff in mind on a daily .
Like , when I walk into this company or any company , I walk it in with just what I've got going on in my head about what we need to do and why it's important yeah , but I don't ever really think about hey , this is my influential person , I need to make this happen . It's hard to be objective . I get it .
You know what I'm saying Like I get it because you're responding in the moment , you're responding to the situation and there's a lot of external factors that are influencing your thinking .
But if I would be wiser to what you're talking about , like an understanding , how to take , how to find those people to help me or to help align to the speed vision and help and then spend the time on figuring out the stepping stones to where they can see themselves making more money , changing their .
You know , I can do like when I talk about that , like if it makes a lot of sense to me , I'm like yes , that's the answer . But then I go back and I'm just kind of get back , fall into your old ways and get stuff at people for not performing or doing stuff .
But leaving it should and understanding why that's important and why you shouldn't do that or why we aren't . You know , right , like that's a that's probably I'm not the only one that shares that negative kind of thing . I want to be more on that side to where , like how , how would you practice that .
I think there's several things that you can do . One is you've got to hang out with people who have a different attitude but have been more successful than you have . And more successful doesn't necessarily mean money , won't ? That's going to be hard to find in your days , whatever Okay , but but more successful in terms of , like , how they live their lives .
All right , you know what I'm saying . They have maybe more control over their life and they've got a more even sort of of success , consistent Mm-hmm , yeah , you know , in any case , people that you admire that you think know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to business . Right , you got to hang out with those people ?
Yeah , you , because they're going to constantly help you get back on track . That's the thing .
Is that that's probably a good reason to have a board . That's like having a board of advisors , absolutely , I mean .
I think you're a big believer in that . I am a big believer in that . I've been on a lot of them and I know you can make a big difference . I've seen other . Do you have to pay those board of advisors ? Yeah , and every case I do it I got paid . I could tell you that I got soon , you know , unless it was my own business .
Not board of directors but board of advisors , it doesn't much matter , it's really . You know , it's semantics , honestly .
Yeah .
I mean you know whether you got voting directors or people that you don't want to overrule because they're going to leave . What's the difference ? You know what I mean ? You're going to have to listen to them , yeah , yeah , yeah , or or you don't and they're not going to be part of it . But I think that's part of it .
But the other thing is that I think you know just even things like this podcast . It helps us . The more we teach this stuff , the more we refine our message , the more internalized it is for ourselves . The teaching of it , yeah , makes you . It's just like a , it's like a discipline , it's like working out . You know what I mean ?
You're not going to solve your body problem in one workout session , right ? Yeah , it takes a while and the more you teach it , the more you talk about it with other people , the easier it gets for you yourself . Yeah , that's what I've noticed Like teachings really helped me a lot .
Oh , I'd recommend I should have been like teaching yeah .
But it doesn't have to be it . It can be any teaching . Yeah , it can be . You're doing it with people in your industry or with your podcast or your writing , or your core group of people inside the company that you're influencing , cause you've scheduled some like regular teaching .
Yeah , you know , I think that's the thing too you know you could do is you could have I mean , I ate meetings and all . Yeah , I know you do too . I hate them . I just I'm not a fan of them . But yeah , I'll , sometimes you need them . Yeah .
So on the on the speed thing again , right , because , like , if you don't influence that speed , I mean and this is kind of like a blanket statement across any entrepreneurial and small business , speed is so important and I think reason why speed is so important for small business , that's one of your greatest strengths that you have in comparison against some of the
bigger companies are out there .
Exactly , they can't move fast . They can't move fast . A small company can be a lot more responsive to the market , even though they've got less resources . No-transcript Okay , but but if you , if you that'll make the decision and change If you don't
¶ Building a Culture of Success
?
you're right Find that ideal and make sure that your culture that you're building whether you have two people or whether you have 20 , right , and you're still a small business and you start .
And you start , yeah , to go to like , if you start seeing that those people in your culture is not champions of speed , then you're going to like you're basically eliminating one of your greatest strengths in the market . Yeah , I think that's a really good point . So , just like in your case I love that .
Yeah , like in your case , what the business you were talking about like it's not a small industry .
No it's .
It's a industry . It's operated by massive giants , but the thing that we have , that you have there , is speed . But this culture has been brooding over time and it doesn't mean to recognize that . Hey , we are a small company that's got speed . Yeah , you're like completely lost .
Now they see , as we're a small company that has a nice family , laid back atmosphere . No , no , no , no , no . Okay , we've laid back atmosphere , we're family . Yeah , families can be fast families too . Yeah , no kidding , nick can be a family of super high achievers , absolutely .
Yeah , that's what you're trying to build Right . It's not a family of love . Yeah , exactly , love and passivity relax . I'll love you when you're eye achiever Hell yeah , man , this isn't like we're not a family of binge watchers of TV that are zombie out and just going through the motions .
I mean it like you said . I mean I totally understand the frustration because I sit there a lot of times and I and I've said it to some people it's like I don't have time for that , like I can't do that . I'm , I'm , I'm working 10 hours a day , four days a week . I mean , my God , I'm like dude . I am 66 freaking years old .
Get up at f-ing five o'clock in the morning sometime and get some shit done . Okay , I gotta do it . Work to 11 o'clock at night . Maybe there's something you could do that's going to make the next day easier , because you cleaned out your damn due list today instead of putting it off . Instead of a shit , not at five . Boom , let's go home .
Where are we going out to eat ? What are we watching on TV today ? Okay , I'm freaking 66 years old and I feel like I've got more energy than the average 25 year old . That does get frustrating . Yeah , it really does .
So what are your tactics ? With your speak , then ? I mean , like you mentioned , do you just like , if you got shit to do and it's like , just get it , you should have her relentlessly .
Right , I get my due list done . I'm not going to keep pushing stuff . What ?
you do list or you just constantly rotten down shit you got to do yeah .
I've got a million lists right here in my phone and every time I do something I scratch it off and I constantly make new ones . Yes , I keep it all right there . You just run down shit you got to do Constantly .
Knock it off . Knock it off . I had to erase it . I have to . What do you mean ? You have multiple lists in your phone , Like you're .
well , I got due lists for myself . I got due lists for everybody else too . Oh , okay , I'm keeping their due list . So I was like hey , I'm left there with priority , got you .
So yeah , this is that all in one to do list that now other people .
No , you have my project . I can have a project that's got individual listed , individual due lists under that project , okay , but generally it's for the people that I quote .
So , like you have an Eric list I could have , I don't have one . Yeah , no , you three have a bunch of things that you need , right , exactly so you're coming back and need . How often do you go through your to do list like that Like , are you ?
multiple times a day . How else am I going to get anything done ? Okay , the thing is like you , you know . Like you said , though , it's frustrating because I just think the tendency is to push everything out if you can do it . So I do myself like , oh , I want to have coffee with you and talk . Like you know , can we do it in 30 days ?
I mean , I'm saying that now , I'm not saying like , oh , I could do it next week , because I've got one hole there and I'm going to fill it . I'm not doing that anymore . I cannot what's that ? Fill in these little holes ? Yeah , with the beans , with the coffees and with the things that don't advance my goals in any particular way . You know what I mean .
I don't have the time to do that , to go out and meet folks that have coffee and yep , yep , I do some . I'm not saying it's bad . Yeah , I'm trying to understand what you're talking about , exactly , right .
But that's going to look like a side of the mark .
Let's go have coffee at 10 , 30 . Yeah , next week You've got . Hey man buddy , I can't I would .
I'd say can we push that out for three or four weeks , because I've got too much to do right now because you need that 30 minutes an hour , because you know you need to get right here to do list . Yeah , exactly , but anyway .
So I do procrastinate on some things , but I try to push the things out that don't advance my goals and not push the things out that advance my goals . Does that make sense ? Yeah , those are the nice things , but not necessary . And sure a lot of those are critical for maintaining your relationship .
Yeah , yeah , you got to giving so , yes , it also depends on who's asking for you to go with coffee too . Yeah , it does .
No , of course , if it advances your goals you're probably going to prioritize I mean , like a lot of my students , I don't want to put them off because I feel like that's my job . I can't just put them off . Sure , you know , it wouldn't be right . I wouldn't be earning my pay at the yeah , sure To do that , but no . So , yeah , we've got to get people .
But you asked , like , how do you enact this ? We've got a project management type system that we use in one of the companies that I'm part of and that's where all these deadlines and stuff are set , and like we had one recently that it's like well , we're going to do this and we're going to buy August 30 and like August 31 .
I mean , my response is you're kidding , right , august 31 . What ?
Every you know when . It was everybody's response .
But yeah Well is the response of the a few of the highest level people is yeah , you know , maybe that does make sense to not push that out . But again , the tendency of lower level people are your sort of second tier managers , I think is to buy more time for everything . They just want to buy more time .
And it kills that you think why do they ? I think it's important to try to understand . Why are months ?
a good question . Maybe they feel like the quality will be better . I think that's part of it . We don't ever I don't want to have a quality for I don't want to be associated with something that's not a quality .
I just thought of something . I bet you it's a balance . No , here's the reality . People don't usually get paid much more , or they don't can't have visibility as to how they can earn more income , which is why you're working to begin with , unless I get confused , right , they can't see that . So therefore , why would you stress out if you can get paid ?
Right , that's why I want to set the example . Yeah , that's why we need somebody to say look , hey , you just did it . It's amazing , here's your 70% pay increase . Because you weren't and you don't announce it to the entire company .
You just you give it to them . They'll see it .
They'll , they'll , they'll , pick up .
It'll pick up quick . It'll be in that meeting after the meeting sometime . Yeah , like damn .
I just bought a new car . You know , got rid of his 10 year old VW Jetta .
And that dude's gonna be like I love this company , yeah , this place Exactly .
You've got to plant these seeds and show it's possible versus somebody to really leapfrog ahead because they break the norms on behavior of what's acceptable behavior or good enough behavior at Excel .
The reality is , is that a company , if you take care of the company , the company will take care of you .
I'm a firm believer in that and we , we there are some lives that were changed with our team right back in the day , when we accidently now that , but there were so many people that couldn't get in that belief that there's people that did , and so it's a good example . But you can a company can change your freaking life .
It's not like we get too much too lost in the horror stories . We don't wait , and we need to remind ourselves that there's been a lot of companies that have changed a lot of people's lives and , as a matter of fact , yeah , it's the only way .
A lot of lives have been changed and you're right . I mean , yeah , you're absolutely right and and you know it's well I just think that people don't think it's possible , yeah , okay , they just really don't believe that it's possible .
And your job as a leader is to demonstrate , is to cast that , to demonstrate that , to live that possibility .
And to show other people that it is possible .
Yeah , and if you don't have , if you don't have priority on that as an entrepreneur , you're missing a big both because you're going to , you're hindering your speed , which we come back as a massive product .
Which is the main advantage of the small business over the large bureaucratic organization . This is good , yeah , yeah , I mean , I think that's a . I think your point of that being a primary advantage that a small company has is really , really important . We're going through this a little bit at Janice right now .
We discovered that , you know , we market directly to the consumer , right ? Yeah , so we get these leads . We get tons of leads every week . Well , grant the president figured out I can't remember the exact number , but it's something like 40% of the leads come in on the weekend when we're closed . Okay , that's not good that those are not responded immediately .
Yeah , because people change their mind Totally . You know , it's like , well , I was really in the hot Saturday morning . You know , friday night I started looking at this . I was hot Saturday I decided to go to the local Honda dealer and I thought , honda , two way , two way , I missed that one . Totally , totally agree .
Or , you know , I really thought I wanted to do that . Then , monday , I get to work and it's like , oh , there's so many things that are going wrong . Maybe I shouldn't spend 15 grand on a toy . I don't really . That's right . So they changed their mind . They're setting this Okay . The timing of that is absolutely essential that we respond .
That is a really good point . Now we're trying to find the people who will . I mean , he's divided the labor up and made the sales people respond , okay , but they're getting , you know , a certain amount of pushback from people . I thought , oh , this is my weekend , I can't do that . Well , you're going to miss out on sales though .
Yeah .
Okay , do you want to really go ahead ? You want to make another 20,000 bucks this year ? Here's your chance to do it . I want to talk about someone .
Okay , now , I think it's so important and probably roadblocking . It's that point . So that weekend that sells person . They want to be off in the weekend . They're probably getting pressure from the family . Mm-hmm , absolutely , I don't live , you don't live .
I know we don't live as entrepreneurs in a family dynamic that prevents me from working , right , no , I do not Not do that . No , like I'm not going to work out , it's not going to work out . Yeah , it's a hark , like we all know , everyone understands and my wife is very respectful about it . My daughters are Right , I think you're the same way .
Yes , yes , right Now , there are periods of where I need to like I need to Right , focus Right To right . Right , I can't family , I can't go to the beach . So I got to this last year , right , I went to the beach with the . There was on your phone . I was on my phone working , I would . Yeah , I got up . All the girls were still sleeping .
I get up and I go to Starbucks . So I just hammer out five hours worth of work because it's entertaining for me , right , but my wife's like she can miss out to . But my wife in 2.30 in the afternoon , my wife's like , hey , listen for real , it's okay that you're working , but you can't just like be bored all day long . Yeah , you know .
So you got to be smart enough to like you got to have three boundaries . But I think a big thing is is a lot of people get stuck in this world perspective and as the All of you .
it's where their friends are , it's they all , it's their society , it's their culture , it's their family .
It's like dude you are just Todd and created and you are meant to labor you know work .
It shouldn't be a bad thing . It should not be a bad thing , man .
Yeah , hey , like , can you look at anybody that's retired ? They're not happier , no , they are . I haven't seen they really had Now in the first few weeks , yeah , but .
I must have us end up jumping back in with both feet into five things instead of the one we were doing , because there should be honor yeah From working . Yeah , well , we like to win too , it's . It's all part of the game , yeah .
But you can't . I think that the like like how is that like
¶ Entrepreneurship, Work-Life Balance, and Productivity
like ?
I think that for anybody , especially an entrepreneur like you , cannot fall victim If you're going to be an entrepreneur and you and you have a different family dynamic than the fact of your family supporting and understanding that you work , and it doesn't mean you're a freaking workaholic and that you're a bad person , you're going to die and all this bad stuff .
It's that there are people underneath your dynamic understanding and if they don't , you need to be prepared to . Well , that's back to that .
That's back to our spouse's you know discussion . We've got our spouses on here and all yeah . And you know , yeah , my , my last wife I mean her family they were all teachers . They were off all summer . Okay , well , why aren't you off all stuff ? Because I'm not a freaking teacher .
Okay , because that's why you live in this 6,000 square foot house and get a new freaking car every six months and our kids go to private school .
Yeah , okay , I , you know nice shit costs money , yeah , and the only way we're going to be able to support that is by working . It's a harder work .
Yeah , not to say those are the only things , but I mean it does . You know we've got good healthcare . Our kids can get braces . You know we don't have to like . You didn't go to the dentist when you were a kid because your parents couldn't afford it . But they could have . Maybe if they had done something different it worked a little .
You know , maybe they should have signed up for the summer classes , I , you know . I mean , that's a simple equation and it really is , and not the not you know those other fields at all . But oh , no , no , but if that's the perspective of the person that you're teamed up with , it's very hard to change that .
Yeah , and so if you have a , sales dinner and it's like , hey , I got my weekend . I don't want to do this call Right . It's like like the culture again being led by the audience . What are you Is like I'll , you know , I think a good way to handle that is like , oh , I'll take the call .
That's exactly . It's funny you said that because I'll make them . I just said to Grant this morning . I said you and I need to take these leads . Okay , and we're going to set the example . And right , yeah , we will close the sale , all right , and that's going to be a positive example .
And then you , and then you'd let everybody know how much money you made on top . Well , that's , I didn't think about that .
I was late about getting to commission you should put scorecard between you and Grant Great .
Mark me , I'm going to be 18 great .
this month I close the bills on Saturday . I just want to demonstrate that it's possible .
But I know , but if they can see that that's another way to demonstrate money .
Yeah , that's an interesting idea . I mean the thought of , I mean I got to , I got to remember the fact that it's the differentiate between the small and large business suite and and what that maybe maybe get a little more public in our disclosure about how much money the sales people make .
Yeah , that's , that's , you know , just sort of create a little friendly competition .
Yeah , I think you're right .
Yeah , I think that's a good idea . We're out . We're out of time , man Dang Well , it's always so much fun to talk about . I know , man , I learned a lot from it . I did too . It refines my philosophy , which is critical . Can your philosophy be refining them Absolutely ? It changes all the time , eric . It's constantly evolving .
Does it mean it's a wholesale throwing out ? But it it ? You know , I'm not going to say I've never done that either , but don't , yeah , no , it does . It helps to refine your . Your philosophy guides all your daily decision making . You know it's . I'd appreciate it .
Even the tactical conversation about how you get your to-do list done , because I think that that's one thing I've always struggled with . It's just how do I manage , Like dude , if , if my to-do list is so , so vast to like it , it just keeps growing . I understand , you know what I mean . I do .
I totally understand . No , you're a diva , but you , just you , just you just chiseled me .
It's like is it ? Is it a game to you ? Is it an OCD thing to you a little bit ? Yeah , yeah , maybe Like like where you can't relax unless you get that stuff done .
But it's also an example thing for me . I like to have like a a pretty ugly stuff . You know , I like to do the things I want to do on my do list we all do , all right , but I always force myself to do the things I don't want to do First . Truthfully , I do because I don't want to . I don't want to have that over my head .
I don't want to feel like guilty , yeah , because I didn't do what I know I should have done first .
I think you any human being , has the power to become obsessive about a certain thing . I need to become a power . I need to . I need to become obsessive about knocking off a certain to-do list and doing the shitty stuff first , like I can't operate without it . You'll feel better . Oh yeah , I think it makes you feel better when you know videos .
I did that crappy job I didn't want to do . When you have a high productive day , a highly productive day for like , for , like a freaking king .
Then you can actually celebrate .
Yeah , then you can relax a little bit . Yeah , so it's all right , man , good stuff Like buddy . Well , once again , I'm not going to be a big fan of the video . Once again , this has been another episode of Big Talk about Small Business . You can check us out at wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscom . If you'd like to be a sponsor of our podcast , please contact us .
Our contact information is on our website . We'd love to have you . Yeah .
You were going to give it as little pointers about advertising before we started this show right .
But well , nobody likes to sell advertising , I'll admit that . But it's necessary . It is necessary and it can really be helpful to a business man .
I'll be honest with you , like I get people reach out to me all the time and say , man , I've been tuning in on listening . Keep doing it . I love it . You know you mark are inspiring
¶ Investing in Business Growth
. This has been really helpful . I mean like it has legs to it and it's providing valuable content to people and people are engaged Right . You know well , hear your brain . Yeah , so it's a great place to be investing .
It is and aligning your brand with business stuff , any business I ever had that was going to grow faster than the industry . It's part of spent money on advertised . Yeah , okay , because it works . It doesn't work overnight , no , it does work over time . I agree it's absolutely critical . Is that why ? Anyway , we'd love to sell you , you got me , I sure would .
But even if we don't , we'll still be here . We'll still be here doing big talk about small business . So , everybody , have a great week and we'll see you next week .
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