¶ Podcast Promotion and Personal Anecdotes
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We're back here again with another episode of big talk Big , talk about small business . Why do we say it like that ? It's cool .
It's just what we do . Yeah , it's just really cool . I mean , people think you and I are cool as hell .
Well , if they do , they may be right in your case , but mine's another matter . That's right . But no , as an old guy here and we are getting old , oh , we are , my God Now . I don't know if you noticed I don't have glasses on today , because why ? I hate to say it Cataract , cataract surgery .
Oh God .
Man that makes me seem old . I mean , I don't know of any young person that has cataract surgery .
Oh god , oh man , that makes me seem old . I mean , I don't know any young person that has cataracts or no I .
I guess I should have smoked more weed or something . I think it keeps that down from what I've heard , or no , that's glaucoma , but uh , but anyway , uh , so yeah , um had the cataract surgery and for $8,000 , plus my eyewear insurance , I now have lens implants so I can see . I can see my distance vision . It's amazing .
Is it ? Yeah , is that life-changing ?
It is . I mean , it's the first time since I was like seven years old , but I got to put these reading glasses on all the time , so that's annoying .
But those make you look cool though .
Yeah , I don't know about that . I want to get those granny glasses with the rope around my neck . Dude please wear those for the next podcast , because I'm constantly looking at my phone . As you know , like most people , like us , I'm addicted to my phone , so I'm putting my glasses on constantly .
It's really freaking annoying , but anyway , it's a new change I can see . I feel like it's liberating . Can you drive faster ? Yeah , I can drive faster . I don't want to . I'm old now , I don't need to go fast anymore . Yeah , you know , i've't need to go fast anymore .
Yeah .
You know I've slowed down a lot .
Huh , so you used to drive . I remember when I first met you oh yeah , you scared the hell out of me . You took me . I went out to eat lunch with you and you were driving that freaking Mustang Right . What was ?
it . What was your ? It was a 2010 . I did a lot of work too . It had the Ford Racing shaker hood on it that had the functional Ram Air that was like the old Cobra Jet setups .
Yeah .
The six-speed manual and posse and a 370 rear end .
So I had just started working with you and you're like man , let's go grab some lunch .
I'm like yeah sounds great .
I mean , we're talking like you drove about a mile down the road in Dixon Street and I'll never forget like you were . I got in and of course I asked the dumbest question I could have asked you . I was like , man , this is a nice ride , does it go fast ? And you proceeded to show me what I could do .
And then we were on just a small little road down there on Dixon , on West Street , and there was a parking spot on the other side of the road and you're like no problem . And you freaking hammered it and we did like a freaking peel out 180 .
Of course you went over , then you corrected it back over and then you slid it apart in the spot and I there to death that's .
We used to call that the gator mccluskey move . If you ever saw that , uh , white lightning burt reynolds movie , he did a lot of 180s and that's . But that's where you got it from . Yeah , but no , I had that . I also had that 77 , which was not fast black Corvette , you remember ? No , it was a 70 . I think it was a 74 .
That's when we would do our podcast . Yeah , we did the driving Driving the car series yeah .
And then I had a 35 Ford pickup with a 383 stroker in it . That was sweet . You did some videos of me doing burnout stuff . I wish we had some of that footage . Do we not have that ? No , I can't find it anywhere . I wish we did . You were the one that had it .
Yeah , that's probably my fault , but you know , one of the best things we did , remember that funny cartoon series we did .
¶ Entrepreneurial Burnout and History Lesson
Yeah with what was the name of that program ?
It was some kind of software but we had these little funny little vignettes of these people . Yeah , oh my God , those were great . Those were good times , man . Those were fun times . It's always fun working with you . But today we're going to talk about some of the not-so-good times . Oh man , burnout , burnout of the signs of burnout .
Yeah , owners get burnout too . It's not just employees . Okay , contrary to popular belief . Very true , so that's something we're going to get into .
I think that'll be interesting because I think that , like here's the reality from an entrepreneur standpoint nobody really talks about that .
No .
And so if you experience anything like that , which we'll get into the details of it , but you again , as an entrepreneur , you're on a freaking island . Yep , you know you can't teach necessarily entrepreneurism and all the things that go into it , right ?
All you can do is just experience a lot of it , and you can try to prepare people for the unexpected . Basically , right .
Yeah , but if you have burnout , it's not like you're . One day you wake up I'm burnout . I need to deal with it this way . It actually is like a slow , everyday process that probably took about two years to develop , and then you're just stuck in this shithole a lot of people and you don't even know what it is .
Yeah , a lot of people feel trapped by their businesses . Absolutely they can't get out of it . It's like a job . You can just go quit and go do something else . But a business has all these employees and customers and clients that you're hooked up with and have obligations to and debts . And yeah , man , you can't just shut it off . You're , you're committed .
Yeah , it's like a divorce . It's easier than I mean , it's harder than a divorce . Divorce is easier , divorces , you know right , yeah , well , they can't , they can't be yeah they can be .
All right , man . So before we get into that , let's do another history lesson . Okay , down with that . You are such a historian , I tell you . It kind of goes back to what I was just mentioning . As an entrepreneur , you can't until you experience things , and then you have to have some sort of revelation along the way .
It's like oh , this is where I'm at , this is why I'm feeling the way I am , because life is nothing but a spider web of integration of business . It's your life as an entrepreneur , and so I always find it very comforting reading history about businesses , because what I figured out was so a good example of it is today .
You look at Procter Gamble , right P&G .
One of the greatest companies ever created . It's just fantastic . So many great brands so much .
I mean such a freaking fantastic business . It's a machine , yeah , but if you actually rewind to the early days of when that started , it was by two entrepreneurs that were like freaking selling candles out of the back of a freaking horse wagon , just strapping it trying to freaking survive , you know , but you don't like all we see .
as entrepreneurs , we have this vision of seeing this grandiose business and all these wonderful things happening , but you forget that you're actually sweating in the hot sun trying to make a freaking box so that you can eat that day . There's always that time period in most cases .
So that's why I've always enjoyed history for that , because when I look at it and go , oh , I'm not the only one that's living this hell .
Yeah .
It's a good thing so it is uh , you know what again , the book that I've found is one of the best books is the American entrepreneur book . Uh , the one written by Larry Schweikart and Lynn Doty . Uh , it's a Harper Collins uh published book , so it's just a fantastic read . You can do the audio version .
And you can just read those little chapters , each one's independent .
Yeah .
You don't have to read the whole thing , no , you don't .
I mean just absorb it and you'll be comforted in times of struggle . But one thing I thought when I was , you know , I'm going to kind of take it like from day one in a way . So last time we talked about what is an entrepreneur , trying to define that .
But then what I found was really interesting is like we don't think about America , we don't really take the roots of it , like why is America such a thriving , entrepreneurial business venture type of country ? I mean , it's pretty amazing what's happening Just keeps stacking .
But at the root of it is well , we've got to rewind back to when America was even becoming colonized and England was the dominant country that colonized America at the beginning right , yeah , there were other countries in here ?
Yeah , totally , but England , spain , france .
Yeah , england ended up winning majority of the opportunity and what's interesting is in the book it tells us about , well , a lot of folks can point to different reasons . Is it an invention ? Was it luck , you know ? And they're like , no , actually there's a couple of things .
Number one England had a culture of risk-taking to begin with , like there was just a culture of folks that were just trying new things , and I think that there's something to be said there , because now America has that culture today , but England had that . That was a good foundation .
But they said the second biggest reason was is because they created the law of joint stock companies .
Huh yeah yeah , well , I've heard of them , but I I never really knew what that meant yeah , so it's .
it's basically like we know them as corporations today right , right , right and all that .
So you could spread the risk out to multiple owners .
Yeah , because before that , if you and I were like , hey , we're living in England , let's go to the new world , to America , right , let's make some profits , right ? You know , if I went in and I only had 20 bucks but you had 80 bucks , we'd go in together . If I went in and I only had 20 bucks but you had 80 bucks , we'd go in together .
But my 20 bucks and my minority investment , if the business collapsed I actually owned had to pay back those debts , like equal or incompletion , just like a partnership , yeah . So I don't like partnership structures . Yeah , like partnership structures , yeah , and so , um and so .
That was that that discouraged a lot of folks jumping in , because then that means like if you had to raise capital or get financing to pay for a thousand dollars to come across the seas , you know , trying to trade spices or whatever that , if I , if I was just gonna put in 10 bucks like yeah10, .
I would be just as liable , you'd be bankrupting easily , right ? The ship sink and the natives kill everybody , or whatever .
Yeah , total , total out of the gate , and so this joint partnership law allowed you to basically ride the risk of what you invested , and you're only liable for the amount that you were invested in .
Joint stock companies . Joint stock companies .
I'm sorry , what did I say ? Joint partnership , did I ? Yeah , thanks for correcting me in front of everybody on the planet .
Just didn't want to confuse you . No , I'm with you . Joint stock companies .
That allowed us to basically share my liabilities according to what I invested in . I thought that was really interesting . That is according to what I invested in , and I thought that was really interesting . That is so , then . It allowed more people to be able to contribute to these new ventures , right ?
The other thing that was really neat was so they could get more resources to do something big .
Basically , Exactly yeah .
And you spread that risk out , sure . The other thing that was intriguing to me about this new legislation , for lack of better terms , was it allowed for the company , the joint stock company , to survive in case Mark died ? I see Beforehand , if you died , like I'm just now , liable for all the debt and the freaking company goes out Right , like talk about risk .
Yeah , you know what ? I'm saying , sure , but now they could just simply just transfer owners of shares , transfer the liabilities , and somebody else could buy in , and it goes on . And so it's really fundamental and we know that today we live it .
I mean that's why we do companies , that's why we have legal structures , but but we don't really tap it into that being that allowing and being a catalyst , yeah , for entrepreneurism itself and why England was able to dominate the business in the entrepreneurial sector .
That is interesting . I never knew that before .
Yeah , and it just allowed them to trump the other countries that were trying to do the same thing , but it was just because of a simple law that allowed people to take less risk . Yes , spread it out . Spread it out .
Interesting . It's pretty cool .
Yeah , so it's not always about innovation , it's not always about great ideas . It's about formation , it's about structure . It's all this . Yes , there you go . There's your damn history lesson Mark .
All right , Well , thanks for that . I appreciate that You're welcome . Well , I guess now , before we get started on the rest of our conversation today , we should pull a topic from the hat From the Zwei hat . Yes , that's hot . Where did we get this thing ? Oh , I was in my bookcase in my lower-level rec room .
Boy that sounded awfully rich .
It's because it's a little small . I think I left it Sid , like on the back deck a package tray of my 1988 Rolls Royce at some point and it kind of got hot .
And shrunk .
That also sounds really rich . Oh okay , let's see what we have here . Oh , pivot , oh , pivot is the word and the topic of today .
I mean I'm going to let you go off on that one .
Well , I mean , I'm sick of hearing it . Okay , everybody says pivot , pivot , pivot , pivot , pivot , pivot , pivot . I even saw you know , mr Wonderful , you know from Shark Tank Kevin O'Leary talking the other day on a video on LinkedIn about you know , the difference in success and not is the ability to pivot , and he went on pivot , pivot , pivot .
But what he was saying truthfully , I mean it does make sense and that is he said , no business plan is going to be very good out of the box and you got to be willing to change direction based on your experience out there of trying to do what you're trying to do .
I mean , the market tells you what they want , right , and conditions change and the external environment changes . So if you're too stuck , yeah , and you can't recognize that or you won't act on it , you could end up having some real problems . So I mean I think that's , you know again , most overused word today . Good god , pivot .
Okay , agile is a is a close second well , I think , because the problem with overused words like that is that it becomes like it's the same thing as you , you know , say , you know , uh , use excel yeah you know , it's just very , just , a very nonchalant word that people can't latch on to . As entrepreneur , we're not okay .
One of one of the things I should do is pivot . No , actually you should always . You should be very agile person that's just always thinking about , you know , evolving and adapting and moving with , and so if you just say pivot , then it doesn't give enough weight to it .
Yeah , it's , it's or it turns people off Cause it sounds like oh shit , okay , I've heard this so many times . No , it's turned into a cliche , so .
I'm not even going to listen .
It becomes a cliche , yeah .
But the reality is it's important ? It is , but I mean , I personally , I live and breathe it .
¶ Business Pivots and Team Challenges
You did it , I mean your business is the greatest example I've ever seen . You went from a marketing consulting company to a SaaS company Yep , I've ever seen . You went from a marketing consulting company to a SaaS company . Yep , there you go , there you go . If that ain't a pivot , I don't know what is .
And that wasn't like a one-day decision , it's a total redirection .
I mean you're listening to the market , You're seeing what's going on , you're seeing the competitive threats . I mean all this stuff that's happening . You got to constantly be willing to be agile with the market Agile .
You got to throw that in too , don't you ? But no , you know , I think . I think you're more willing as a business owner to not just more willing , you're . You're better able to recognize that you need to make a change .
If you really have a passion for what you do , totally okay , because that means you're super involved with it , you're constantly learning , you're seeking out information all the time because that's what you're interested in , and then you recognize the fact that you got to change . Of course it's . It's , you know , it's more than just recognition . That's part one .
Part two is actually being willing to do it , which a lot of people aren't . I mean , again , I'll use you as a great example . You got this marketing consulting business . You're making a living off of it . Okay , I mean , it's got its issues , like every service professional service provider does , but you're making a living off of it .
A lot of people wouldn't risk that to go in a completely different direction . Yeah , it was like how can I throw away this business that's doing two or three million dollars a year and I make a living off of right and transform it into something vastly better ?
okay um , but so step one is the recognition of the need to change direction , and then step two is actually doing it , yeah , and actually doing it . Is that recognition of the need to change direction , and then step two is actually doing it , yeah , and actually doing it ?
is that's where the rubber meets , the road , baby , and like you know , and even today , like with the business I have going on , it's like I mean you talk about a very highly adaptable , ever changing business . I mean technology , ai , everything's like you know it .
It has me , I can tell you that it has me in my thinking area a lot more than I ever experienced before in business . Like we're really , I find myself just just literally thinking and trying to process about what's what's happening , to be prepared for it .
But I think the hardest when you do make those decisions , you know it's easy for the entrepreneur to make that decision , but then how do you get the team to make that same action ? Because that one's the hard one , right ? Yeah , it is , because I think it comes back to our previous episodes choosing the right folks , do you know ?
That's why , man , like , if you're coming on my team , the one thing I want to know is can you handle and are you willing to embrace and be excited about ?
changing . I wrote an article once on what it's like to work for an entrepreneur .
Not everybody's cut out for that no hell no , they just , you know , they want their job description , they want their pay range , and you know it's just not going to be like that , because we're going to ask you to do lots of different things , and you may think we're crazy sometimes , but you got to have a little bit of faith Most of the time , you know .
But , yeah , the team is really important and that is one of the biggest challenges , but it is based . A lot of it , too , though , goes back to just action . Yeah , because let's face it .
Because let's face it , if you didn't act in the first place to put yourself in business , out in the market , doing something , then you wouldn't be in a position where you can pivot to something else because you've got nothing . That's right . You know , nothing gave you that feedback that you needed .
You don't have that basic sort of platform out there to modify , to change direction because you didn't act . Instead , you're sitting around thinking about it , drinking coffee , fantasizing fantasizing , contemplating entrepreneuring .
Okay , that's a good one .
We should change our entire freaking podcast to entrepreneur but we don't want to be waterpreneurs , we want to be entrepreneurs . It's the waterpreneurs are the ones that never act . You know it was funny .
Like literally two days ago I met with a guy and he tunes in and listens . So I mean , if you hear this , you know I'm talking about you . But so they're talking and he's you know , he's contemplating and considering and he's got these options and blah , blah , blah , and he's thinking about where he's at today and he's not happy , blah , blah , blah , et cetera .
But he's always been talking about starting a business and I'm like , look , man , I'm like the only thing that's going to make you happy in any job that you take is that you're going to be a business owner . Because you've expressed that for the last months that I've been talking about this .
I was like but you're in the same , we're having the same conversation today that we had three months ago and I can predict that Time to be an owner . Right , that's right . I can predict that we're going to have the same one three months from now . I was like I don't want to even talk with you then .
But then like , but what I need to talk to you three months from now is like how many love ? Yeah , man , I'm like giving him some tough love if you can talk to me next time about okay , you went to two shows you got x amount of leads , you got x amount of clients and you know , and you got some revenue going .
That's what I want to talk to you about , because if we talk about this thing again , like we're going to be , you're spinning circles , man , and the reality is are you ever really ready to start a business
¶ Entrepreneurial Burnout and Capital Raising
? It's like having a kid . Yeah , you know like I want to plan to have a kid on this specific date , when I have this amount of money and my house is this .
I never have freaking kids . Wait a minute , I did that , did you . You didn't plan on it ? No , I did . We did wait until we were 30 years old , okay , or 29 or whatever . So my then wife didn't have to work outside of the home . But that all went to hell successfully .
I was unemployed . All that planning didn't make any shit anyway .
We got no money at all . We're living on two grand a month in the Boston area with a pile , pile of crap . House payments are like 1300 a month . We've got 700 bucks a month to live on . That's kid , kid crying , dog barking in the background trying to raise clients .
You know so that , that plan , yeah what did hell yeah , absolutely blew up I mean , if you're thinking about starting a business and that's where you have this passion , that's driving you and you can't stop thinking about it just go ahead and freaking , start that thing yeah , that's the best market research .
I always tell people , yeah Is do it , just do it and see what the market says . Yeah , if you get no traction , time to pivot , right . Yeah , it's simple , it really is simple . You've got to act . You've got to get yourself out there and see what happens .
Dude , I need to tell you about a conversation I had .
I know I'm getting off topic a little bit , but I had a conversation just the other day of where it was a group of entrepreneurs we all had done it a different way but there was one that had been raising capital for a long time and he would have absolutely loved the conversation because it was confidence behind everything that we've talked about , that that it
is not a pipe dream . Raising capital that is your entrepreneurial journey is that you are a professional capital raiser , if you look at it that way . That's the right way to look at it . Don't look at it as I want to start a business , so therefore , I want to raise capital and I'm going to have this grandiose business .
No , you're a professional capital raiser . Yeah , because , but the expression of that was is that it was a miserable rod , because no one's ever happy . Investors aren't happy , no one's happy , no staff . Because you're constantly raising capital .
And not to mention . Isn't that a distraction from the basic operation of the business ? If all you're thinking about is raising capital ?
Yeah , no , totally .
As opposed to doing what the business is supposed to do to serve a client or a customer .
There's a lot of ways to go about starting a business , and I mean that one just be prepared , because you won't do anything else other than raise capital .
Yeah , that's so true . And then what do you end up with in the end ? I mean I could . I had his former student of mine in my class last week talking about that , how he wanted to start a business . He raised all this capital , he started the business , got it profitable , had money in the bank , and then his quote investor fired him from his own business .
All right , Yep . So yep , that can happen . Yep . Now , fortunately , in his case , the investor blew the business up and he ended up buying it back cheap and fixed it . But that doesn't always happen .
Matt , I don't know about you , but when I see when money gets involved in anything , it makes people change real quick . Yeah , it does , and you can't find the folks that don't change because of money very easily .
No , most people . Well , we call it the golden rule . He or she has the gold rules . They're going to change the direction of your business Totally . It's inevitable . Don't kid yourself that they're not going to . They'll be hands off . Okay , bullshit , no one's going to be hands-off , not when it's sucking money Exactly .
And then when it makes money , they sure aren't going to be hands-off either . They're going to want more of that money that's made .
Right , and they're going to want to be telling you how you need to do more . Yeah so let's get into our topic for the day , which is business owner burnout . Let's talk about it . It's real , yep . Any business owner has been an owner for a long time has probably gone through it . I can certainly say I have at various points in my career .
I think you have too . Doesn't mean it's inevitable , but there's a high probability of it . So let's talk about how do you recognize when there's owner burnout and then , maybe more importantly than that , what do you do about it ? How do you get out ?
of that rut . Yeah , man , that's such a good topic . I would say I like the recognition which is really kind of what's the definition
¶ Recognizing and Addressing Burnout
of it ? You know , I think that my experience wasn't necessarily that I was tired of what the vision was . Right , that could be different , Like if you're employed somewhere you could probably get tired of your job because you don't like to do your job anymore .
But as an entrepreneur , you know , started the company because I had a vision that I was really passionate about , and so I never got burnt out on trying to solve that . Right .
What happened with me was just absolute , pure exhaustion to where , like I have , over time , had consumed so much information , had talked about the same shit for so many thousands and millions of times , to the market , here , in , you know , in in expressing and telling the story over and over and over again , everywhere I went , because what , what we could see in
the business , was something that was brand new , that the market hadn't really seen before , necessarily , and so we're trying to express this , and I think that's where a lot of my experience of what we would call burnout was .
I was just exhausted from talking and having to express the same thing over and over again and feeling like I was the only one that believed it in a lot of cases .
Yeah , that could be discouraging .
Yeah well , yeah Well , I mean , I'll be honest with you , I didn't necessarily get discouraged as much , as I was just absolutely just tired . You are a hard worker .
Okay and very intense . You throw yourself into stuff . I do .
It's really , really hard .
It's a problem . It's really , really hard . It's a problem . It's not a problem .
Well , maybe it's a problem on some levels with , like , your personal relationships or maintaining a family or whatever , but it's not a problem from a business standpoint because it takes , you know , if you've got that level of engagement and that level of effort behind something dude , the odds of success go way , way up . Let's be honest .
Okay , people who don't have that in my mind are the ones who are probably most likely to fail .
But , yeah , if it's everything to you , I think the problem with a lot of burnout , what leads to a lot of burnout , is that business is so important to you that when bad things happen in it , um , your world , in a way , is , is is crushed , even if you don't let that happen .
But for the rest of the afternoon , yeah , okay , yeah , it's , it's , it's a big , big blow and it has a big effect on you emotionally and that impacts your energy and your attitude , and so I do think it's kind of like being a workaholic in a way .
Yeah , but it's your business , your business-holic , it's just such an important thing to you that when negative things happen in the business , I think it can be very well , kind of a big blow when you're talking .
I could kind of make me think when we say burnout , are we talking about ? Yeah , I think there's a few different types of it . Right , there's a very and when I hear the word burnout , I think of this long-term , almost state-of-the-art burnout , right , but then there's also micro-burnouts .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , exactly right . Yeah , that's . It would be a micro burnout if you had that , and then you recover from it . Yeah or two , but those are really shit too , man . Oh they are . I mean , too many of those may lead to long-term burnout like and how do you ?
so , like I got ways that I handled micro burnouts , like I think that that's one thing that I've been able to you're good at yeah , that I've been able to get good at , you wouldn't be able to survive if you hadn't .
No , you would have got into major burnout and then major burnout leads to exit . Yes , okay , like give up on the business , right , you know ?
or the business fails , you know , because fails , you know , because you're not involved enough with it , and you start abdicating everything and letting other people do it , and they don't do a good job and you just and in those micro burnouts , man I mean , a lot of times I come to real I'm like man , I'm not working hard enough or I'm not in this part of
the business that really needs more attention , or I'm looking for someone else to do it and they're not doing it right . So I don't , if I don't get in there and just freaking , start doing it and demonstrate on how it needs to be done , and I'm in that micro burnout and I don't .
But I found , like we're like it's been interesting , I can see those things and I like , and you push them to back burner because you don't really want to deal with it . And then a week goes by , another week goes by and it's been a month and you got the same gosh dang problem because you never dove in to get it .
And then you've got to recognize I need to get off my ass and quit being a baby about this and just go get it done .
Yeah , I know Gosh more people I counsel in businesses I'm involved with to deal with the things that they really need to deal with expeditiously and they just don't most of the time . Well , they probably are burned out from it , you know , I mean it's really true . But yeah , I do think you know .
If you go back to the signs of burnout , let's talk about those . I mean , I think it's things like not showing up enough , Yep , Not putting enough time into it , being unwilling to invest in the business because you're not really sold on the future . So therefore you become a lot more risk averse . I mean , you got to admit that's got to be part of it .
You know , lower energy level , which then , in turn , makes you less able to inspire your workers .
Hey , man , I'm going to be the first , I'll be the first to admit like I've experienced that Hell , I'm experiencing that right now in some capacity , in certain things .
You know , and I mean I have for the last 20 years that I've been an entrepreneur , so it's like you know , in a way , like there's not a rosy garden that people want to paint , like we were talking about the other day , about you never hear , you don't see billboards or commercials about going to Vegas with all the people that lost money .
You only see the winners . Yeah , no kidding . Same thing in business you only see the speech , or we have a podcast , and we've had success in business . You only see the speech , or we have a podcast , and we've had success in business . But what we're doing that's different is we're talking about some of the shit that nobody wants to talk about .
Like I lost a lot of money gambling .
I didn't actually but that's the analogy to it , the lottery twice . But how much did you spend on lottery tickets every year before you won where you didn't win ? That's right . Yeah , I mean , I get it . I get what you're saying and that that can be part of it well , it's a real deal right and like , like .
What are some examples that you have of like when I I want to go .
I mean examples that I I have I'm probably pretty good about hiding it , so I'm not going to show it to people when I'm really feeling like that , it just manifests itself in stress and feeling like all your obligations are piling up , and then I just get very tired .
I can make myself perform when I need to for a little while , but then , you know , I want to go to bed early . Yeah , for me , sleep is really critical , yep , and I don't sleep for shit , as you know , because I got a prostate condition that makes me pee every one hour on the hour , right um , which is a thing a lot of us old guys suffer with .
I don't want to take any sleep drugs , because then I wake up feeling like I had a hangover , that's right , and I got to wake up fresh , that's right , baby . Every day , man , I wake up ready to go in spite of my sleep . So I would go to sleep , but then I'm going to get up the next day and I'm going to perform for the time that I have to .
But I'll tell you what . There's two things I think really do help deal with burnout , and one of them , I think , is something most people don't think about . And that is you got to have lots , you got to place lots of bets on the table . That is , you've got to place lots of bets on the table .
If everything's on one number , you're going to be a lot more stressed out if it doesn't work out right away . But if you've got six or eight or ten different things , something out there is going to happen . Good , the odds are , and that keeps you motivated enough , true , to keep all your bets out there on the table . That's right .
So it's less of a negative when something bad goes wrong because you've got these other things out there that could pay off and when you're talking about these things , these are really revenue lines yeah , that's what I'm talking about when I say things .
I'm talking about revenue lines , exactly revenue lines , or other businesses yeah , other ways you can make money and it's not entirely dependent on the one thing now . Is that the way to be the most successful ultimately ? I don't know , you know , probably not .
Um , maybe you are better to just focus everything onto this one thing , but that leads to burnout totally and it's also like you know , we talked about that it's like like if and I and I operate that way , where there are many things going on yeah , and actually it . That can become overwhelming pretty quick well that's true too .
But the but whenever I am feeling burnout and I zoom out and I go to wherever my Zen place is , where I can recollect myself , and I start , it reinvigorates me because I actually forget about some of the revenue lines . Yes , like in the case with this business , like I'm like man . Well , this specific one , it doesn't seem to be getting much traction .
I've invested in that . You know , I'm like shit , that seems very demoralizing . But then I'm like , oh wait , a minute , that's right , I forgot Dude , if we can just go talk to this audience and present this thing and I get reinvigorated and I'm excited again about the business and now I go to work , yeah , but that's a really good point .
That does keep that that has been very sustaining for me . Yeah , in my career . It's like being a workaholic with no hobbies and no family . Okay , you know that it's everything . Yeah , it's the same thing . You got the one business and it's just . All your eggs are in that basket , which I think entrepreneurs do tend to do , okay .
So the other thing , though , that that I think helps is and and you know , I've said this before on the show , that is , and you already touched on it You've got to confront the most difficult problem , the thing that you're procrastinating on . That's the one you got to deal with every day as a first priority .
When I think about the days , I feel like crap , okay , at the end of the day , and there's probably more of them than I care to admit , but you know , smoking 15 lucky strikes doesn't help . You know , starting at like 5 am I'll be honest with you .
But if you want to feel good , but when I think about the days I feel I feel like crap at the end of the day versus the days I feel really good . It's the days that I look at my do list and I do the easy things on it , as opposed to boy . This is the one that's been hanging over me . I'm'm going to confront that today First thing .
I'm going to get that done Now . I can feel good for the rest of the day . Whatever it you , you , you have to confront the stuff that you don't want to confront and in that process , knowing that you can do that and survive and make the changes that you need to make is very reinforcing and it combats the burnout . It really does .
Man , you've actually you know we've talked about this a few times and you know we had the Mark Zwag rules of getting shit done in one episode , which I need to go listen to again . But , man , I've been practicing that a little bit more of of this , what you're talking about and it actually does really work .
Like I remember , one of the the most irritating things on the freaking planet of the earth right now is all these gosh dang logins and passwords that we got to deal with , and they're freaking everywhere and in personal life .
And then you turn around your business and you you turn around in your business and you got eight folks on your team or hundreds I know passwords everywhere . yes , you know , and so I finally got it organized , did you ?
Yeah , and it took literally personally this is on the personal side it took 15 hours of time , but I got the shit done , dude , and now you feel good .
It's like you just went in and like cleaned out your whole kitchen and organized Right .
It's exactly right , yeah , but I mean that , but because of your . You're recommending that like .
¶ Personal Habits and Burnout Prevention
I mean like because it's something I do not want to do , but it's plaguing everything that I'm doing on a daily basis , like every time I go to log in somewhere I'm pissed off because I got to go open this up and open that up .
Figure out what your password was Look in your phone and then it doesn't work and there's a 17-factor authentication .
Oh , I hate those authentications .
It's like sends it to my authenticator app that I don't even know where the hell it is and if I open it up , there's nothing there .
I up , there's nothing there . I mean it's like what ? Or it's just magically there and it's like how the hell that I know exactly , like I can't trust that shit because I don't know I'm gonna do that again . But I mean , yeah , but to your point , like I never wanted to deal with that , got it done and now I feel , I feel good from that accomplishment .
Sense of accomplishment counteracts burnout . Okay .
You know . I wonder if the reason is because marketing business like you never really get everything done . No , you never do . This isn't a job , man , where you clock in at 5 , walk to the post office door and you know home .
I mean there's an attraction to that .
I'll admit Okay .
But then think about like how much time you'd probably waste . You might stop off at the bar on the way home and get messed up . Then you go home at 8 o'clock and you're all angry Smoking , lucky Three strikes yeah . And then you watch reruns of I don't know , the Archie Bunker show .
I could totally see you being at the post office , could you ? Oh , thanks , locking up five , four , fifty , nothing , yeah , like on the dot , you're out , you're driving to the bar and you're smoking , right when you get , I got a 2003 taurus got 178 000 and I bought it from the buy here , pay here law .
Hell yeah right . I'm living in a three-bedroom one-bath rental with a carport filled with shit .
Oh dude , everybody sees You're smoking .
Yeah , you're just smoking the entire time Got my cars parked out front in the yard .
Love it .
No , but seriously , yeah , you were saying I interrupted you about working in the post office , but yeah , it's not a job that ends . You're never going to get everything done . There's always more you can do , but you've got to get a sense of satisfaction . The sense of satisfaction is a basic human need . When you don't get that , you're going to feel burnout .
That's such a good point man , and then you have to build that habit , which I think that's the secret that you've done is you figured that out a long time ago because you were getting things done and you actually felt like they were good days , but now you've got this habit where every morning you're attacking that thing . It's just what you do .
Yeah , it is , it's just problem .
The other thing though I do think it also contributes to burnout for people like us who had professional white collar jobs dealing with all intangible things , yeah , okay Is doing something physical .
Yes , yes , or you know , maybe that's you run marathons or you take photographs of nature or you rebuild old cars or something , something where there's some sort of more physical interaction with the environment . That gives you a sense of accomplishment too you know ?
uh , that's why I love freaking mowing man , I do . I mean , put me on a tractor with a brush , hog bro , kill some weeds . See the little mice running around frantic .
I love mowing , I love power washing . It's probably one of the most fun jobs there ever is , because you get to see shit done exactly . It's so satisfying . I think that too , though , when you think about white , you know like white collar workers , business owners , especially when we get to a certain level of success .
Yeah , we're basically we're paying people to do everything for us . I mean , you've lived like that , I have we're . You know , I got cleaners , I got nannies . I got pool people , I got organizers . I got somebody plowing my driveway . The moment it starts snowing , they're out there . I mean , it's just everything is freaking done . They go to the grocery store .
I had this nanny that would make our meals , and you'd come out when they would have like a plastic wrap around it sitting there on the table at the precise time that you wanted it . But but then , the more of that that you do , in a way , the less happy and satisfied you are .
That's right , because you have none of those little gratifications during the day that also keep you from being burnt out . That's right , you know that's right . That's why we like cutting our grass these days .
Hell yeah , man , you got to leave something for yourself to do , man . Yep , you know , and I think that you know , when we talk about burnout . So like , let's be real . Like I mean , if you look back in time , you know , as we continue to advance , a lot of what we're doing is very mental .
It is .
I mean it's mostly . Was the human mind even designed to work ?
that hard . Any information , that's a very good point . I mean , think about the difference now versus 200 years ago . Totally , we have a farm . You know we get up .
We'd hook up the the mule to our plow and walk behind it and depend on nature and pray for rain , bro , like shit was real , yeah . But now we've lived this fantasy life of where , like , everything we're doing is not really real , it's not a matter of life and death , and so you burnout , can come in and you're like why the hell am I doing ?
this . Yes , you know it's funny . I was thinking today in the shower this is a real sidetrack but I was thinking you know , like , are we gonna ? You know this country's like ? Are we going to ? You know this country is so divided . Are we going to have like some terrible revolution where people are out in the streets killing each other at some point ?
Okay , and the conclusion I came to is no , that is never going to happen again . And you know why ? Because we're all too comfortable . What's worth risking your life for , even though people complain about this or that or whatever . Think about how man lives today versus 200 years ago .
Yeah , you know yeah , I mean , think about it there's not as much desperation .
Yes , there's not that many people . There's not enough people who are really desperate , who really want to leave what they got . True , they could be pissed off . They can still go out to eat that night at chili's , or once a week , or whatever .
They go home , they probably got air conditioning if they live somewhere where it's hot , I was gonna say bro you take away ac , I mean it's like I'll be all pissed off .
I'm like , okay , no more ac . Whoa , wait , wait , whoa , let's everybody get on the hill down .
¶ Escaping Entrepreneurial Burnout and Yard Maintenance
There's like all these things that you would say like I really don't want to give that up , it's not worth like my life for that . Don't shut the power off .
Where's the water ? The water's not coming out of the faucet . Yeah , like , okay . Everybody needs a comp , like , okay , I know we had a vote meeting last week , right , but let's get back together , let's , let's make a deal . I'm a water bag , that's a good point though that is kind of true .
I mean , we just live in a different time . But , like you say , though , you know it's , we got these white collar jobs . You know we're . We're not getting the , we're not confronting the things we really need to confront . We're not um we're not confronting the things we really need to confront .
We're not getting physical satisfaction from these other accomplishments or creative endeavors in our life , and the business isn't going as well as we want Right .
So we get burnout .
And then you know , I think the biggest risk of that is just owner disengagement . Yeah , totally , and once the owner's disengaged , it's on the path of of failure it is .
So let's let's talk about , with the time left , like how do we get ? But I guess we talked a little bit about how preventing burnout , but yeah , if you are burnout , how do you start getting out of that ? Because I mean , I definitely think that there's some tactics that I've , that I've employed , that have helped me get out of those situations .
Well , tell us what those are Well , I mean , like number one , like I've always believed in micro breaks , like one of the benefits of an entrepreneur is that you can't actually— it is a benefit you can't control your schedule to some degree ?
Yeah , and man , if I have to go completely escape , the one thing I've been able to do that sustained me is being able to run away from the business . I need to run away from the damn business .
And employees if they're asking a lot of questions and all this is building up and you get the stress and you're just like , hey , I've got a meeting , I'm out and go spend two or three hours and do it to your family too .
yes , like I mean , you can't like you have to be able to , to not only like just knowing I can escape is a big deal , but actually doing it and knowing when I need to do that is a big deal . I've gotten better at where I can kind of do it before I get to the state .
Right , I know I need to go mow the yard , yeah , and for some reason it's like the only thing that can save me at this moment . You know , I'm like I only want to go mow , like that's the only thing I want . I don't want to go on a vacation . I understand that .
Tell him less , I don't , you know , yeah , and like Burnout's different for an entrepreneur than it is for most people that are employed , like I don't get any relief whatsoever From a vacation , from a vacation .
I don't either At all . You know there's the buildup , all the work you have to do to get ready for it . Then you're there and you're disconnected . And then you come back and there's all the shit that happened while you were gone , which means you've got to work harder . Yes , I don't get any relaxation .
None , it's stressful to me .
I would much rather be at home , where I have everything I need . It's hard , it's there , it's all there . It's like . What do we need to go ? I mean , the hotel room's not going to be as nice as the master bedroom in my house . No , my house , I can assure you .
When you go off and you've got to carry luggage , you've got to put it in your dresser , yeah , and then the plane's late , and then they miss your flight .
The kids need this and you got to do this for that it's all about you know , and buy bottles of water for six bucks and it's pissing me off . Okay , at the airport , everyone else is happy .
Yeah , except me . Oh , and , by the way , we're writing checks for it too , yeah .
I know it's insane . I'm with you 100% on that . Take me to the freaking lawn .
Put me in the tractor , baby .
Let me hear that diesel you and I are more alike than I ever realized . I tell you it's good , it's so true , it is true . That's why I want to start . I've told you about my other business idea , haven't I ? What's that ?
The Old Man's Lawn Club website , where we tell stories about what equipment we used and what was good and what wasn't , how gratifying it was . We have these meditative blog posts on the beauty of maintenance , of yard maintenance . It's great man , oh my God . I think it would be fantastic , because a lot of people feel that .
What I also like is when you go out there and you encounter these problems , right , you're out of diesel , it's like , and then you gotta go to the store . But it's so simple you go to the store , you get the diesel , you bring it back it's weed whacker heads .
that's's my bane of my existence . Yeah , you know where they're constantly jamming and breaking and running out of string and then I can't . You know I hate that . So my wife bought me when we moved to our new house , which has a lot of freaking weed whacking . I mean a lot . She bought me the best steel weed whacker you can get . It's the greatest thing .
It takes the abuse .
And you can get . It's the greatest thing . It takes the abuse and it's a beautiful thing . Dude Steele should sponsor the freaking big talk they should . I know we would give them 10x value add for their investment dollar . I love Steele . I use all their chainsaws . I know they're the best . Yeah , they are the best . They just hold up better they do .
Another good brand is DeWalt . They are the best . They just hold up better they do . Another good brand is DeWalt yeah , DeWalt's good . They just make their stuff well made Anyway . So let's talk real quick before we have to end .
¶ Dealing With Entrepreneurial Burnout
So we talk about micro burnouts a lot , but I have experienced a more deep level of burnout , to where it's just kind of consistent . It almost feels there is a little bit of a depressive fear to it right . You probably are in depressions , which is probably also burnout . But how do you get out of that ? And my experience has been is you can't stop moving .
If you stop , then you are going to live in that and , like I've seen folks that have been real busy , I've had a successful business . They , they sell and then they don't do anything immediately .
yeah , they die some of them , yeah it's like the same thing for retirement yeah , exactly . You know , what I think you can do as a business owner and I don't think you disagree with this either is inject yourself back into the work of the business instead of this bullshit . Work on the business , not in the business . Okay , then I hear all the time .
I hate that so much . I say work in the business . Hell yeah , baby you won't know what the hell's going on . You will get isolated , yes , you will be disconnected from your employees and your customers , and that's the beginning of death . Get back into it . Do the work of the business . You will gain the respect of your employees .
You will feel more satisfied . It will take you back to the reason why you started the business in the first place . You're probably damn good at doing what the business does which is going to make the client happy , right , or the customer . Get back into the business . Play the game , baby . Just inject yourself to the work of the business .
I freaking love it man it that To my point , if I've got any , my experience with that has been when I have been in a position where I wasn't in the weeds of the business again , yep , and it sounds really good . But slowly and surely you're like what's my purpose ? What's my value ? I've worked all this time and now I'm here .
I started as an engineer and now I'm a frigging beankeeper , bean keller or whatever . I like doing engineering yeah exactly what am I doing ?
Where am I going to go ? I mean , and oh , by the way , it's because of work on the business instead of in the business philosophy . Now I'm at this level and I shouldn't be doing this because it's embarrassing . It's gonna look like I've taken steps down all these thoughts , you know these but all of you , like yourself , you know , like that .
No , get in the nasty baby . Yes get your hands dirty , you will feel more gratified and you will get reinvigorated about what your business does and it's I love freaking .
Working with my team yeah , of course , when you think about it , the greatest reward in business from my perspective is just work , is the relationships of my peers . It's the best thing . Your friends , my best friends , are people that I do business with . Man , it's like this ain't high school anymore , bro .
Your buddies and your homies are in the business and if this ain't high school anymore , bro .
Your buddies and your homies are in the business , and if you're all high bodies sitting in the freaking glass office in executive row , you've gotten detached from their homies . Yep , you're right , you know what I'm saying . Like have lunches , go places together . Like just work on the computer .
Don't work in the shipping department for a while . Yeah , slap some labels on , bro , let's stay up . I know a guy he's got a business in uh , spread in tawny town that serves the veterinary supply industry and my understanding is , let's say , they're doing north of 180180 , $200 million .
I don't know what their revenue is , jeez , okay , the owner of the business goes out and works in the warehouse every day , every day . Love it . Okay , shipping the stuff out , because that's what they do . Okay , that's what they do , I love it . It's inspirational . It doesn't separate them from all the workers . It gets them respect .
They want to work harder because they see , here's this guy . He's old , he doesn't need to do that clearly , but he does it .
And you know what he found a secret to it all ? He's not probably doing it because he read it in a leadership book . That's what a good leader does . It's because he's a freaking human that loves freaking , getting shit done yeah , he likes interacting with his people .
As you said , those are your friends , that's your , your world . So , hey , we need to stop , though , okay , we could talk about this topic all day . We're running out of time . Uh , we got one thing that we we'd like to do the linked LinkedIn Hall of Shame .
That's it , which . What's the purpose of this ? Because we see folks on LinkedIn that throw out great recommendations and advice that aren't really great recommendations and advice .
Or pose ridiculous , idiotic questions that should never be asked . That's right . That's what this week's LinkedIn Hall of Shame is all about . A question was posed okay , listen to this and I think this is almost humorous laughable . You're vying for an entrepreneurship role . How can you showcase your initiative in an interview ? Who ?
are you interviewing I ?
know You're not an entrepreneur . You're trying to get a freaking job . What , what , the hell .
I've never had an interview for my entrepreneurship , entrepreneurship role .
You're having an interview for it . That's terrible . That is absolutely terrible I thought that was absolutely the dumbest question I've ever seen .
Number one it continues to feed the monster that there's some sort of position yes , employee position as an entrepreneur . I think the catalyst to that is the investment community are looking for entrepreneurs and it's a role it's not , it's not Exactly .
Anyway , one of the things I want to do with this thing is there's a guy in here on LinkedIn If you don't follow him , you should , Because he's absolutely the hardest core guy you've ever seen . His name is Greg Long , okay , and his title is Super Connector , high Value Introductions , elite , whatever . Okay , he is so hardcore . Here's another one , I like .
Greg Long comments on everything , okay , yeah , and he's just so damn funny that it just cracks me up . Here's one of them . The question how would you deal with a team member who's resistant to change and prefers to stick to traditional methods ? Greg Long's response no problem , as long as Long's response no problem , as long as he's producing , he can be .
As traditional as he likes , whatever .
Just keep producing baby . He's got answers like that for everything . Anyway , you should check out Greg Long if you want , because he finds the dumbest questions ever .
He's a Lincoln Hall of . Shamer stripper he is .
All you've got to do is follow Greg Long , and you'll find more Hall of Shamer entries than anything else .
Mark , what a great combo about burnout . I think that hopefully we've given some tips and advice . I think we have the things that you provided are great , because it helps me add more to the , to the uh , you know , to my repertoire of continuing to be going the journey that I'm on . Yeah , I appreciate that .
Well , you've always been good at dealing with it and getting through it and you maintain a great attitude . Yeah , and that's why people like working with you . Yeah , you know . Yeah , I think you've set a tremendous example for how to deal with problems and uncertainty and setbacks and still overcome them . Yeah , yeah . And emerge victorious in the end ?
Well , by watching and hanging out and seeing other entrepreneurs and just keep driving it . Well , we have to support each other , man we do .
You know we need each other there aren't any entrepreneur clubs out there ?
No , there aren't , that are really entrepreneur clubs there aren't .
I mean , I used to be a Vistage cheer and even that where you're . You know , like your CEO group is supposed to be made up of CEOs of privately held companies , which we were , but in a lot of cases those people are still working for somebody else . You know , somebody else started the company .
There's still a chairman out there , there's these owners out there , and not everybody . They're not dealing with necessarily the same problems as the people who started the business and are still with it and trying to make things happen . So it is good . We need we all need the support of of each other . Yeah , yeah , do what we're trying to do .
Great man . I mean hell . I'll listen to our own podcast because I have to be reminded about it . I do too . You know what I'm saying ? Yeah , because there's just not enough material out there that that makes you feel like you're not a lunatic .
Yeah .
Because everybody else thinks that you are .
Yeah , they do , but they're wrong , they are wrong as shit .
The greatest way to defeat burnout and anything else is pure narcissism . I don't know about that , oh man , they win . You and your narcissism . I mean , I don't know , I think it's a secret .
You are not a narcissist , stop that .
Maybe I'm Woody .
I want to be one . No , you don't .
You don't want to be one , yeah , just like the theory of not giving two shits about what anybody else thinks on the planet .
Well , you have to have some degree of that . You get on your kicks of silverbacks .
Yeah , yeah . Silverbacks yeah , yeah , Okay .
Yeah , that was another one of yours . Yeah , man .
Silverbacks .
Give me something to eat . If I don't get to , I'll kill everybody .
If I don't get to eat , all right . Well , in any case , we want to see you all subscribe . Hit the subscribe button to Big Talk About Small Business . Promote us on social media , talk to your friends about us and if you want to advertise , we'd love to have your ad dollars . Send us questions in Send us questions .
We'll throw in the swag hat yeah .
Send us guests that you think would be good If they're people who've really done it , not people who just live off other entrepreneurs . Okay , I get probably nine out of 10 of the suggested guests . I would say fit that category .
Speaking of , we have a really excellent entrepreneur coming in . We'll announce who it is next week . We do have him , it's going to be a really good guest .
¶ Exciting Guest Announcement for Podcast
Yeah , talk'll announce who it is next week . It's going to be a really good guest . Talk about somebody who's really done it and been amazingly successful in a mature market and he works it .
Man , he ain't playing games Going to be good . Yeah , I like it .
Awesome , alright . Well , until next week . This has been another episode of Big Talk About Small Business , small Business .
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