¶ Transforming Law Firms With Entrepreneurial Strategies
So , and if you did a little baby one every day for the next year , that's 200 little baby processes that have assigned accountability that make your team and system work like clockwork , right , hey , law ?
firm owners . What if I told you there's a blueprint to transform your practice from chaos to clarity ? Today I'm sitting down with Pete Moore , the entrepreneurial coach , who's about to blow your mind with the five Ps that can completely revolutionize how you run your firm promise , product process , people and profit .
Imagine a law practice that doesn't just survive but thrives , a practice where you're not just another overworked lawyer , but a strategic business owner who knows exactly how to build a system that works for you , not the other way around .
We're diving deep into how to identify your dream clients , create fail-proof systems and introduce a life planner that'll help you actually live beyond those briefs . No more , I'm busy . We're talking about designing a life and a law firm that gives you true freedom .
If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start building the practice you've always dreamed of , this episode is your wake-up call . Let's go . Hey guys and welcome back to the show . Today . I'm excited to welcome Pete Moore to the podcast . Pete is a business coach and the host of the Simplifying Entrepreneurship podcast .
Pete's got a great story that involves ownership of multiple businesses throughout his lifetime , and he's developed a system where he helps business owners figure out a way to execute on what he calls the five P's , and that's what Pete and I will be talking about today . Pete , welcome to the show .
Hey , thanks so much for having me , Brian . It's a real pleasure Looking forward to chatting with you and chatting with your audience here today too .
Pete is from the great white North of Ontario , Canada . We were chatting just before we got on . It's December and it's cold up there . Pete , why don't you give us your background ?
Well , you know , ultimately a lifelong entrepreneur it's really all I've ever done . I worked for somebody else for about six months as a full on a full-time basis and started early on 1994 with as a franchise , bought my first franchise and owned that till 1999 .
It was bathroom renovations and all around you know that sort of stuff multiple truck operation and grew it and had a lot of fun there . And in the same time , we bought another franchise , which was a cleaning franchise that we bought . It was existing , kind of failing , and it had 20 clients and we grew it to almost 300 before we sold it .
I became a business broker and helping people buy and sell businesses , which is how I found one of the businesses that we still own , which is called ShoeTopia . We're retailers . We have a couple of shoe stores here in Ontario and you know I've been doing that since 2010 and a couple of other little pop-up businesses as well , depending on what's going on .
But I spend most of my time , brian , helping other business owners will cut through their frustrations and create more freedoms in their businesses with simplifying entrepreneurship , and I just love talking business , which I mean we're here having a podcast today and it's just something that ignites me .
I just get a lot of love out of talking business to different business owners I always have . So you know , I said a few years back I should just actually take what I'm already doing and make it into a business , which I've done and I'm enjoying speaking and enjoying stages and mastermind groups and one-on-one coaching and all that kind of stuff .
So that's where I spend most of my days these days .
I'm excited to hear about your methods , but first I want to know what happened to you in the six months that you were working for somebody else that you decided never again am I doing that .
Well , you know , interesting . But I had businesses before that too , like ever since I was young . I was cutting grass and doing different things little landscaping jobs and what have you . So it was in my blood growing up .
And then when I finished school , business I went to business school and I finished school I went to work for my dad's best friend and his name I'm actually named after him , his name's Peter and loved his business great business , working in geosynthetic products and all sorts of different landscaping things , and got my grasp of that .
But it was really working with Peter at the time that he taught me a lot about business and he did before I worked for him as well .
And you know , I just said this just isn't for me working within the parameters of somebody else's business , so I just had to go out and do my own thing and he appreciated that and , you know , helped me along and my folks were always great supporters . So you know it was , it was . I've never looked back .
I mean , I've had opportunities to go work for some other people along the way and I just I just couldn't bring myself . I say you know , most entrepreneurs are actually unemployable .
That's what I was thinking . You know , it must be something with an independent streak in you that sets you down the path of I'm not going to let somebody else or I can't work for somebody else . Who's setting the framework of the rules and the clients you can and can't take ? And the hours what ? When you say that most entrepreneurs are unemployable ?
What do you think our main problem is ? Why do you think that is ?
You know , I think for the most part we're OK with the risks that come along . Most entrepreneurs are bigger risk takers and , believe me , I've failed on a few of them , there's no doubt .
You know , and certain things go really well and certain things don't , and so long as you take those learnings to make the next time even better , then that's the way I look at things .
Other people just aren't okay with the risk and entrepreneurism isn't for everyone , and that's okay Because ultimately , the people that are entrepreneurial , they have this vision , they know what they want , they are okay with goal setting to get there , they're okay with with the ups and downs of things .
And I mean , I don't have much hair , and you don't either , but so we've probably already pulled it out in in our . You know previous years of doing this kind of stuff and that's why you know , when I work with clients , the experiences that I've had since 1994 , you know 28 years now of running .
You know full-time businesses , let alone the other little ones , and stuff like that .
I don't want people to have to suffer through some of the things that I had to suffer through and I want better lives for them , and that's one of the reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing and you know , it's my belief that entrepreneurs are the backbones of their communities . They're the ones that are the little their communities .
They're the ones that are the little league coaches . They're the ones that are the deacons in the church . They're the ones that are fundraising for the hospital or for the new gymnasium or for all this other stuff . They're usually the leaders in their communities .
And if there's some small way that I can help those entrepreneurs either have more time that they will give back to their community or have more money that they'll give back to their community , then in some small way I felt that I've helped that community too , and that's like one of my main missions and goals . It's like how many entrepreneurs can I help ?
So , because I know that if they have more money and more time , they are going to inevitably give it back to their communities and their communities are going to benefit from it .
Well , that's what we're going to do here with this show is create more time for law firm owners , doctors , other high income professionals who want to get out of the doing of their job , and maybe not even that , but want to be able to focus on their zone of genius within that job and not have to worry about the HR or the cases that maybe you shouldn't
have taken and all those little things that suck down your time and suck down your energy and prevent you from having the time and the bandwidth to go out into the community and do all of these great things . So , pete , we started off by talking about the five P's and I'm excited to hear you talk about P number one , which is your business's promise .
Yeah , yeah .
So I'll quickly go through the five P's and then we'll outline promise . So the five P's are your promise , your product , your process , your people and your profit . And yeah , it all starts with the clarity of the promise . And you know I people talk about vision and mission and all that sort of stuff . I look at vision and mission as more internal .
I look at the promises more sort of external . It's like what are you writing on your wall ? What's your promise to your clients ? And we own shoe stores and so what's on the behind us at our our till is basically look great and feel fantastic .
So if I can have somebody come into our shoe stores and leave paying their bill looking great and feeling fantastic , we have delivered the promise in spades and they're going to happily pay their bill and they're going to walk out the door and they're going to say you know what ? Shootoe , topia is my favorite shoe
¶ Clarifying Your Business Promise
store . So what's your promise for your business ? And here's the easiest way to outline it what's your client's problem ? Two , how do you uniquely solve it compared to anybody else in your industry ? Three Solve it compared to anybody else in your industry .
Three , so that they can live a better life , because people buy products or services to take away a pain that they are experiencing . They want to live a better life . Everybody buys a better life . It doesn't matter whether you're selling a steak so that you can have a great meal on Saturday .
A better life it doesn't matter whether you're selling a steak so that you can have a great meal on Saturday , or whether you're selling a trip to Aruba , or whether you're selling , you know , a divorce proceeding right , which is hey , I just want to get through this , get it over with it so that I can live my better life .
So you got to tell me how I can transition from the pain that I'm feeling with your unique process so that I can get there as quickly as I can . Oh , sorry .
Go ahead and what you've done is you've taken what otherwise would be a commodity like shoes , which I can buy at Shutopia or on Amazon or on Zappos or any other place , or on Zappos or any other place , and and you've engaged your customer with a promise that keeps them coming back over and over and over , and you've created a customer for life .
You know when you have your promise nailed with ultimate clarity , everything . That's why we're going to talk about the next few P's , because the alignment happens when you have your promise , a lot like perfect clarity on your promise , right , and you can have several promises in your business .
So if you have a law firm and you do houses and you do businesses and you do divorces but you don't do criminal , well that's fine . So make sure you have your promise for each of those pillars , because then it becomes all of your marketing tools .
It depends on all of the different things that you're going to set up your products for your processes , for your people , all of your hiring , firing is all going to be around . That it's got to be crystal , crystal clear , because your job as the business owner is to create clarity for everybody .
Because here's where most business owners doesn't matter if you're a lawyer or you're a dentist or a shoe store owner . It doesn't matter . Here's where most business owners fail Decisions aren't being made at the lowest possible level of their organization .
So I'll rephrase that again , or just restate it again Decisions must be made at the lowest possible level of your organization every time , because when they aren't , you're dragged back in . Just people keep coming to you for these answers all the time . And if you've , I'm asking you the listener . Do you ever ask yourself why don't they just make this decision ?
Why aren't they just doing this ? It's probably because you don't have clarity around the promise . You don't have clarity around the process involved in making that decision .
You haven't assigned accountability properly to the right person , and when you start really wrapping all of the stuff around that and that becomes more of a system that works fluidly , you can be free to do what you truly love in your business .
Well , and that's where so much of our time goes on a day-to-day basis is , you know , the person that's come to you with a teammate , or the client with the one-off issue that now I have to take some time and some mental energy away from the deep work of of guiding the business and think now , how do I solve this day to day issue of of you know ?
Um , the example that jumps to mind for me is something like requesting medical records , like , can we pay this expedited fee ? Yeah , I don't know , that's like a $25 decision . Why ? Why is that coming to me ?
Well , that's my failure to articulate down to the team that you know decisions either under a certain dollar value , or or or or their purview , or my failure to articulate that the process requires us to do X , y and Z , and so we've got to make decisions in alignment with that process .
You said it , that's , that's P , number three process , right . And when you're finding yourself asking those questions , it's automatic you just kind of go back Well , what's out of alignment here ? And when you're finding yourself asking those questions , it's automatic you just kind of go back Well , what's out of alignment here ?
And you know , one of the other questions I love when somebody comes to me with a question is what would you do if I wasn't here ?
I like that framework and the one that I . The other one that I like is don't come to me with a question unless you've thought of three ways to solve it and you have a recommendation , for which one I should choose .
Right , and that's the same thing , right ? What would you do if I wasn't here ? Give me your recommendation before I'm going to tell you what I think Right . And so when you start asking questions like that , the questions don't come in as much . Questions like that , the questions don't come in as much .
But if your promise is clear , they should be able to make the decision , even if it is a one-off . If they relate it right back to the promise and you're like okay , well , this is the promise , what we're doing , and I'm going to make my best judgment decision because that person's not here today .
In essence , I'm making my best decision based on the promise that we're making to our client . How is that a bad decision ? So long as I am fully aware of the promise and , in my best judgment , knowing that I've been hired and trained in the alignment of that promise , the decisions become easy decisions become easy and then Pete .
what would your methodology be for if you have a person who's consistently making the quote wrong decision ? In that , uh , in that scenario ?
Well , I mean , like the methodology is really for any , any people . I mean you . You need to , um , make sure you're reviewing properly . You need to communicate what's the expectations , what the processes are , where they're falling down on the processes .
Like , if your processes are clearly dictated , then you know you can actually map this kind of stuff out , and if they're continuing to do things wrong , then they need to be moved out . I mean , let's face it , that's what happens with people that aren't in alignment .
And so when you make these things around understanding the promise , aligning your products to it , you know , aligning your processes , aligning your people to it , it almost pushes those people out because they don't believe in the promise or they aren't aligned . So it's just as good to attract the right people as it is to repel the wrong ones .
To attract the right people as it is to repel the wrong ones . And you know what , as the leader , in continuously saying what we do , all this sort of stuff , and like I said , it's your job to communicate with clarity the promise .
And when you're doing that , all the time people are either going to say yay , I'm in , or maybe I'll look somewhere else , Cause this just doesn't align with me , and that's okay . It's better for us when they leave quickly so that we can get somebody else in in alignment and then we can move this ball ahead with momentum .
¶ Crafting Your Unique Promise and Experience
How ?
do you suggest that businesses go about identifying their promise in the first place ?
It's really you know they're like I said , you can sort of understand the pain that they're suffering . Right , and you can do that in a variety of different ways . You can , you know , literally just talk to your clients and you can set up groups if you want .
But ultimately , if you've been at this a while , you know what most of those pains are , a while you know what most of those pains are . The interesting thing is how are you doing ? How are you rectifying those pains any different than anyone else ? And do your customers know that ?
Because that's your differentiating factors , right , like what makes you different from the other person down the hall or in the next building with the same shingle that says , you know , lawyer or chartered accountant or dentist or orthodontist or whatever professional services that you are . You know it , it's . It's how are we making this uniquely different ?
Because people are buying experiences , right , and you need to show those areas that make you different , or else you're just one of the same and you said it . You know you can buy footwear anywhere . Well , people , if all they want to do is buy the cheapest , lowest cost shoe , sure they can go to Amazon and press click .
But if they actually want to come in and try it on and have somebody serve them , a professional , and have a proper fitting and try a variety of different ones at the store , all that other stuff that's unique to the way we present our .
You know what I call the heart of ShoeTopia and I have a whole model around that on how we treat somebody and how we , you know , from the time they walk in the door until the time they leave and look back and say , hey , shoetopia is my favorite shoe store . There's a model around that right , and we try to live that with every experience .
So what's the model that you're living that's uniquely different to those of your competitors ? It's something that you need to do some work on . And I mean , as we're recording this , it's early December and everybody kind of starts thinking about the new year and all this kind of stuff . And what are we going to change ? And you know .
So I just encourage you , because if you've been doing what you're doing for a long time , it's easy to get . Well , we just do the same old , right . And if it's the same old , the same old , well , it's not necessarily the same old .
People are looking for the delivery of the services in a different way than maybe they were two or three years ago , pre-covid right . And if you haven't changed some of the products and processes around that , then you've got some work to do .
Well , and if you're running a quote , a good business , you probably are doing things that are unique and you don't even realize that they're unique . So one of the things that we started focusing on at the law firm a couple of years ago was our customer service .
You know , we , we sat down and , and when you call any other law firm , typically the receptionist if there is still a receptionist picks up the phone and embarks law offices into the phone , right , sometimes it just goes straight to a phone tree and you have to type in a number . Well , we don't have that .
We have a director of happiness who answers the phone at the front desk and it's like a ray of sunshine coming through the phone .
And so we noticed that we did all of these things a little bit better than everybody else , and so we stopped focusing on I have the biggest verdicts , I make the best objections , I'm the smartest lawyer and I know all the judges . Because , as a client , how would you ever know that ?
Right , like , unless you're embedded in this industry , you really have no way of differentiating my services from anybody else . And it's the same with realtors , it's the same with mortgage brokers , it's the same with doctors , right , you never know what's behind door number two , had you chosen the other door .
But what you do know , as the client , is how you were treated and how you felt the whole way through . And so for us , as we looked around and said , what is it that we do differently , we realized that it really had nothing to do with the provision of legal services at all .
So I'm wondering if you have other like when I'm thinking about the promise and the unique problem that we solve .
Right , there's nothing unique about solving the auto accident problem , but there is something unique about the way that we solve it , which is I'm going to take this problem off your hands and you're not going to have to worry about it anymore , you're not going to have to call me for updates and , as a result , you're going to have a better life .
So , as I work through your promise framework , I think that's exactly what we're doing here . But do you have a lot of businesses that you work with where the promise and the solution is , in a way , tangential to the actual provision of services in the way that it would be for me ?
It's interesting . Here's one of the things I like to do when I start working with somebody is just pull up their website and typically , especially in personal services like professional services , the law service is all about them or you know the website is all about them . The reality of it is is most of your clients don't give a hoot about you .
What they give a hoot about is how can you help me ? So the website itself should be a tutorial on the promise of how you can help them through their problem , not about how long you've been in business and your nice looking board table and all this other stuff it's got to . They don't care about that .
What they care about is they care about and down the website . You need to show that you have a bit of authority . Sure , that's fine , but from from that perspective , they really care about how you can take them from that problem through to their better life right now .
So if you can pin that in the first sleeve of your website , essentially whatever that is , like I said , our promise at Shootopia is look great and feel fantastic . That doesn't say Shootopia has been in business for 22 years and we have two stores and we are blah , blah , blah . All this other stuff .
You can find that buried in the bottom of my website if you really want to go looking . I don't know that anybody ever goes there , but all they really care about is what can you do for me and I think so many professional services get lost in that , because you need to build authority . But you actually have to show them that transition .
So understand that pain , understand how you uniquely take it , take them through it so that they can live that better life . And each of those pieces is marketing for you on how you want to play that and you know whatever tangent you want to take it on .
You can say hey , listen , you can focus on the better life all the time and you can work it backwards or you can focus on the pain and work it forwards . But from whatever that is understanding your processes that lay in there . Like you said , one of your processes that middle P , is answering the phone properly , right ?
What does it mean to answer the phone ? It means , you know this is my script when we answer the phone and this is when somebody walks through the door . This is what we say . And when some you know when somebody goes into the boardroom , they're treated with whatever coffee or tea or whatever . The process is uniquely yours .
Are the bathrooms clean , like all of these different things are little processes that make that experience uniquely , different than somebody else .
So , whatever those are , some of them matter to people and some of them don't , but they finish the whole experience , and it's the whole experience that they're going to remember , with all those little details , knowing that you've taken the time to think this stuff out , train your team and deliver to them their better life .
So let's talk about the team , because one of the P's is people , obviously . So let's talk about the team , because one of the P's is people , obviously . And you know , you have something , and I forget where I read it , but something I'm paraphrasing about the vision and the mission , like don't matter if the leader is the only one who knows it .
Yeah , so tell me about that sort of stuff . And so , when it comes to people , you know I put people into three different categories One , which I'm sure you've talked about and everybody kind of understands who is your ideal client ? Right , we won't spend too much time on that one today . But two , who are your ideal teammates ?
¶ Optimizing Business Processes for Efficiency
Think about the worst person you've ever worked with . Think about the best person you've ever worked with and I'm sure you know their names , because everybody does . It's like oh yeah , I never want to work with a person like that again . And oh , oh yeah , I'd take 50 of these people If we could just get them right right down on the list .
You know , vertical line , left-hand side , all the characteristics of that worst ever person . You know Jim was the worst person I've ever worked with . Here are the characteristics of why I don't ever want to work with somebody like that again . Jane , best person I've ever worked with .
Here are the characteristics of why this person we would hire time and time and time again , and understanding with clarity what that means is a really important thing for you to develop all of the things around your HR how do you hire , how do you fire , how do you train . How do you like all of those things Like ?
I need more of these people and less of those we talked about attract and repel . We want to repel the gyms and attract the Janes right . So that that's . That's a key one .
Your team it's usually the biggest frustration for almost every employer , but it's usually the biggest freedom for them as well , cause without a great team , you don't have any freedom right . And so the third P you've got your ideal client , your ideal teammates and your ideal outsource suppliers , anybody else that helps you deliver your promise .
So think about all of those , your marketing people . It could be your bookkeeper , it could be anybody who is either sort of on the periphery of your business that you use to help deliver your promise in a unique way . They need to have the clarity of your promise . They need to have the clarity of everything going on too .
Who's your best ever outsource supplier ? Who's your worst ever ? You can do the exact same thing If I flip back to my shoe stores . We sell a lot of different brands . There are certain brands that I would really I mean if my clients didn't love them and if we didn't do really well with them , I prefer not to work with .
I know what they are and I actually scorecard them and I scorecard the best ones and I do my very best to give as much business as I can to the best suppliers , even if they are a minor brand for me .
And what I love about that is , as you're talking about shedding these vendors who are not your ideal people to work with , my mind goes to well , yeah , where else would you find somebody to do the website or do the CPA services or whatever ? But in 2022 , coming into 2023 , the world is large , and especially for outsourced online style products and businesses .
Man , if you have your attribute of the vendors that you want to work with and you spend some time narrowing down the list of opportunities to work with people , you really could get to a team where you're very , very happy with everybody who you're sending business to .
For sure and think about it , you know , think about building a scorecard for each of those three . We already have most of us anyway , who are actually doing employee reviews , have a scorecard for employees , right , but do you have a scorecard for ideal customers ? Do you have a scorecard for ideal outsource suppliers ?
What does the best customer ever look like and how am I going to arrange my marketing and all of my language to attract more of them ? How do I want to repel those ones that have drug every little bit out of me for no profit ?
We're doing the same with each of these three , three sections of people , because once you start aligning those , then we just said about people can be the biggest frustration if you get all those terrible ones , but they can also be the biggest freedom .
It's like man , I wish I had 10 of those clients , 10 of those team members and 10 of those suppliers , because everything would just start to roll and we would get more of the last P , which is profit .
Right , and when all of those things are in alignment and everybody that's listening to this podcast understands compound interest , we're talking about little bits and little tweaks on each of these pieces and as you grow and grow and grow .
With these little tweaks , more profit comes in the bank at the end of the day , and when you have more profit in the bank , you can start doing what you want to do with some of the areas of your life , of why you're a business owner and why you aren't going to work for somebody else .
So for the person who's out there listening to this that thinks , man , I have problems in every single one of those areas that Pete just mentioned , yeah , where would you advise that you pick one and get it right , or that you start working on all four or five ?
at the same time . Start with the lowest hanging fruit man , and I mean it's just if it means I need to write a process and how to answer the phone , because I know we aren't answering the phone properly . That's where you start . You just have to start .
And people procrastinate because everything seems big and overwhelming and it's like , oh my God , I'm never going to get this going . Well , just start with something small . I can write a script on how to properly answer the phone right now and in our next team meeting .
So , and if you did a little baby one every day for the next year , that's 200 little baby processes that have assigned accountability that make your team and system work like clockwork . Right , we answer the phone in this manner and , yes , that's up to you as the business owner to either assign accountability for somebody to manage or for you to manage .
But that's part of being in a position of management or ownership is that we do need to have the accountability to make sure things are doing . And if you're not good at holding people accountable , then you need to have somebody who is . And I've got another framework around accountability , which I call it the four A's of accountability .
You need to , whatever that product is , or whatever that is like . Let's call it answering the phone . You need to assess it , address it , align it and assign it . So , assess what we need to do , address what we need to do and is it in alignment with our promise , and once that's the case , I'm going to assign it right .
And that's where , when you're assigning things , you're assigning accountability right . And , yeah , you need to have the frameworks in behind it to make sure that it's happening . That's all part of it . But that's just a little baby one , and you could do that today , right ?
So and if you did a little baby one every day for the next year , that's 200 little baby processes that have assigned accountability that make your team and system work like clockwork Right . What should a system do which is a process ? Right ? A system should save you stress , time , energy and money .
It should save you stress , time , energy and money .
It should save you stress , time , energy and money . So , and when you're setting these things up , just think about that . Answering the phone Is it going to save you stress , time , energy , money ? You're darn right , it is if it's done properly .
And if it isn't done properly , you can go back and just tweak it a little bit until it is , because those little tweaks are easy . It's the bulk that you need to get through right .
And so , whether it's hiring your next person , whether it's you know , it doesn't matter what process , whether it's an HR process , whether it's an operational process , whether it's cleaning the mirror in your bathroom on how to properly clean a mirror in your bathroom all of these things need process so that the expectation is set , it's an alignment with the promise ,
and everybody knows to make decisions at the lowest possible level of their business right . When somebody comes in to your business , they don't want to have to go through three levels of management to get the answer . They just want the answer .
Do you have a best practice tool or software , uh , for where to record all these ?
processes . Sure , I mean , um , here's , here's another thing . People learn in different ways , right ? So , uh , we tend to have everything written as much as we can . So we have manuals , right , and we , we have , we put everything on personally on Google drive and everything shared to whoever needs it on Google drive .
That's how we do it , so the process is written in form on Google there . But we also use loom extensively L O O , M and basically we , we video if it's anything that we can video online and we're , we're showing process through sort of computer programs and stuff like that .
We have loom videos for all of that that people can watch and learn , Cause some people are more visual learners and audio learners , right . So we tend to use and and we've , we've , we've got back ends of YouTube and and you know , for for different training videos and stuff like that too .
So we do use a variety of different tools , but I'm sort of tool agnostic .
The idea really is that you need to have it in different formats because people learn differently , and so , as much as you can start off with something that's like here's the manual , then sometimes you need a little bit more in depth , and that's where a tool like loom is great , where you can literally just show it to them and talk them through , and take your
mouse and drag it around and say , hey , click here and do this and go here and you know , and then you know finish . So that kind of stuff is um is really good , good and we certainly recommend a few tools like that .
But it doesn't really matter specifically what the tool is , it just matters about make sure it's in a couple of different formats and whatever you know . However you're documenting it or whatever file system you use , um is uniquely yours . That's fine , so long as it works for your team yeah , loom is fantastic .
So people aren't familiar . Loom's actually a screen sharing software , so it'll be a little video of you down in the bottom corner explaining , but then you're showing on the screen . Just like Pete talked about where to click the mouse , you know , open a file , how we save files , things like that .
So Loom is fantastic for that , pete , I can hear all of the entrepreneurs in the audience having this resistance to creating processes because , number one , it sounds like hard work , but number two it's , you know , as an entrepreneur , it's really not . It's not what we're good at . We're good at solving problems and and often solving the unique problem right .
So , creating the system , it's easy to get to get kind of squirrel syndrome and chase down the rabbit hole of of every single one off , and so do you have a framework for thinking about ? You know , the 20 of the process that covers 80 of our problems , or or something like .
Or maybe outsourcing to somebody else in your organization to create the process and to create the video if it's something that you're not particularly skilled at or knowledgeable about .
Well , the latter is what I usually do . Anybody that's actually doing whatever it is we want to document is the person that usually starts creating that process for us . I'll you know , it's easy for me just to flip it back . And we've been talking about the shoe store .
So you know , let's just say we use Shopify as as our point of sale system , and let's just say we use Shopify as our point of sale system , and so let's just say Shopify comes out with a new way to receive shoes . That's a process , right ? So in it comes .
So I need to know , you need to give me the checklist of how to receive those shoes , so that at the end of my checklist there's a sticker on the box and I can now go take the box and put it in on the shelf , right ? So that's , it's now been received , po , all that other stuff . So what is that process ?
Well , I would not be the person to ask for that because I don't receive at our stores . I mean , I spend about a day a week in our stores and that's about it . So I asked the person who does the receiving can you draw up the process for this ? Because ultimately , everybody needs to be cross-trained in your organization , right ?
That's part of the depth of your people portion , and so when that person goes on vacation , we need to have somebody else who can step in . I can actually receive , you know , if I had to .
I know where to go to get the file and I will watch the video , and it will take me 20 minutes to receive that box , where it would take them three , but I could do it because we have the process in place to do it , and so that's the thing I usually have them do it , and then what they often will do is they'll say , hey , pete , you never receive , so
will you run the process ?
and test it .
For me that's perfect , right , you need to have somebody that doesn't know what the heck they're doing actually test the process , because there's usually gaps there that are assumed and remember the word assume , right , makes an ass of you and me . So you know , obviously there's certain areas .
So I'll go through it , check by check , and I'm like , oh , between number eight and number nine , I don't . I don't know what button to press or I don't know what screen to go to , or I don't know what to do in this particular situation . Can you clean that up ? And then we should be good .
So I'm I'm usually used as a , as a tester of these things , and it's often good to have as many people test a process as you can who never do that particular process .
That's when you start really honing those processes and it's like , hmm , this is really good , because these people in these other departments have no idea what we're talking about and they can just follow it and do it .
And if you can get that sort of humming like that , then it's like , hey , most of the people , once they're used to it , aren't going to go back to that process all the time because that's part of their training . And what have you ? But the next person in line . That person leaves gets shifted to another division .
Whatever the case is , it's there , it's ready and that person has what they need to do the job . Because you can't afford the downtime in the retraining and recreation of everything Like why recreate something when somebody already has all that knowledge ?
¶ Designing Your One-Page Life Planner
So let's shift gears just a little bit and talk about 2023 . You've sent me your planner , so I'm going to edit this out . What are you calling this ? This is a one-page life , one-page planner . Yeah , one-page planner .
So I can do that again . I forgot that I had sent that to you . Yeah , do you want to talk about it ?
Sure , all right . So , pete , let's shift gears a little bit and talk about 2023 , which is coming up in just a couple of days . So you were kind enough to send me your one-page planner . Yeah , why don't you tell us a little bit about that ?
Yeah , well , a few years ago I got sort of fed up . I've tried every planner out there and I'm not saying mine's better , but mine worked better for me and so that's why I developed it . And it's really around . You know , as entrepreneurs , our lives and our businesses are sort of yin and yang . It's sort of . You know , we're always .
I'm not a big believer in this idea of work life balance . I'm more in the idea that there are certain seasons in your business where you just have to work and there are certain seasons where you can play a little bit more . And from that side of things , it's like understanding the ebbs and flows of your business and cross hatching them with your life .
So I've started it off with the one page planner and it's all around really understanding what it is you want out of your life . And this is where we get into your mission and your vision , your own personal stuff . We talked about the promise already , but now it's like what do I envision my life to look like ?
What do I want out of my health , my wealth , my relationships , my mission , my purpose ? You know I told you a little bit about my mission of helping entrepreneurs . You know , on the health side of things . It's my belief that if you're not healthy mentally and physically , you can't run a healthy business . So what are you doing this year , in 2023 ?
What are you going to do to have better health than you did last year ? What are you going to do for better wealth ? What are you going to do for better relationships ? Are you seeing your family ? Are you having supper with them ? Are you going on vacations ? Are you going on date nights ? You're going to the little league hockey game , you know ?
Are you spending the time with your friends that you want to spend ? How are you going to change that ? What do you want from your leisure time ? Do you have any leadership time ? That's another question , right . Do you actually have leisure time ? And if you don't , do you want to change that this year ? Right ?
I like to lay out what I call free focus and flex days . How many free days do you want this year ? Let's no work . Call free focus and flex days . How many free days do you want this year ? Let's no work . How many free days you're given your team ?
Two free days a week , which is 104 , plus however many weeks holidays you know two , three weeks , four weeks holidays , and and so are you getting that many in the given year , and if not , why not ? You're the business owner . But I see this a lot , brian , where the business owners aren't even getting as many free days as their team is . That's wrong .
It's like you know what ? How many do you have this year or next year ? What's your goal for 2023 ?
¶ Balancing Work and Time Off
I'm , I'm . I usually sit in between 140 and 150 .
How do you , how do you arrive at those ? So that's weekends and then and then other time off .
So 35 , so like five weeks , yeah yeah , and so I structure my days where I actually work on a lot . So when I'm working , I don't mind working six days a week . I mean , we're retailers , right . So if I need to go on a Saturday , no big deal for me . If I'm around and I'm working , I'm working .
But then I need to go on a Saturday , no big deal for me . If I'm around and I'm working , I'm working . But then I like to take . I take at least a week off a month , like full week , not every single month , but most months .
And so I like I like longer blocks of time so I can really come down before I come back up , Cause when I'm up I'm like ready to go , let's go , Right . But I've learned this If I don't take my time time , then I'm ready to go all the time , and that doesn't work , that just burns you down , Right .
And so I need the downtime and I need to have at least a week . So we went , we were in Mexico last well , a week and a half ago for the week , Right , and I'm back and I'm going again . And then we're planning a couple of weeks down at Christmas , and you know .
So I lay these things out and sort of lay out on my Google calendar where I want my downtime and you know we plan that . So it's like , hey , I'm going to be booked two cottages this summer already . So I know I've got two guaranteed weeks that we're going to be away and I'll probably take another one or two this summer too .
I pin in as many as I can with certain certain events , and then the rest of the time I grab free days , you know when I , when I can so usually at least one a week when I'm on and then try to grab those other full weeks or 10 days or 14 days off in a row so that I can really have a time to come down .
Because it's my belief that if you don't have that full time to decompress , it's my belief that if you don't have that full time to decompress , it's really hard to be creative and be sort of back into that stuff we're talking about today , the deep thought , because if you don't have time to really decompress , all you're thinking about is that next job and that
next thing that needs to be done and the fires of the day .
Right , I love that , I love that . So I like this is like my favorite time of the year , because I'll print out a whole 12 month calendar and start just start blocking in conferences and events . And you know , ok , I'm going to take this two weeks in August and I don't know what I'm going to do yet , but I'm going to figure it out .
But this is , this is now time inviolable on my calendar .
Right , yeah , so I look at that as as free days , and then flex days are the days where you're either planning your free days or planning your focus days . Focus days are the days where you're making your money . And then in in retail , I also have floor days , which is the days that I'm actually spending on my floor of the retail store .
So and you could say that in manufacturing too , and a variety of different things , but understanding , making sure that I'm in the know of what's happening every day so that I can make better decisions on my business , because I know what's going on within my business , and that's what I called floor day . So you know coming out . So the one page planner .
Anybody can download it . It's free , simplifying entrepreneurshipcom forward slash planner , and the planner really has these one page for each section . So we've got that the your one page life , your one page year , your one page quarter , your one page year , your one page quarter , your one page week and your one page day .
And when you lay it all out , you're chunking this stuff down from these big areas down into the small areas , and we started off kind of talking about , you know , the fact that procrastination is a hard thing and you can procrastinate these big wants in your life but really by chunking them down into these smaller areas .
And you know , laying out what can I get done this year to help my 25 year goal , what can I get done this quarter to help this year , what can I get done this week to help this quarter and what can I get done this day to help that . And you know it's all around gratitude , it's around understanding .
You're not what you're looking for , it's understanding what you want . And , Brian , if you're looking at the sheets , you can see that it's like at the end of the day you're coming back , You're saying what did I what ? What did I win here today ? How am I going to lay out tomorrow ?
You know , starting off the day with gratitude but understanding that you have prime priorities that you need to actually fulfill . If you want to make these buckets of life happen and you own your business , it shouldn't own you .
And if you're the foundation for your business all the time , instead of the business being the foundation for that life that you want to live in , that full life plan , then you got some work to do and you got to align those five P's so that you can actually fulfill it .
I am leafing through , leafing through the planner now . What I love about on the one day , it's really intentional . So you have a block for what I'm grateful for . You have blocks for send thanks to and reconnect with which I'm trying to get better at coming into 2023 .
So you know a lot of little things on this page like here's what I want right Putting out into the universe .
I want these three things and then recent wins , which , which were a big unlock for me in 2022 , is , at the end of each week , writing down the three wins that I have so that when you have those times in the month or the quarter when you're feeling low , you can look back and say well , look at all this shit that I accomplished over the last 12 weeks .
It's incredible Because the way that the mind works is we forget about all the good stuff . It's easy to harp on what's not going right , but unless you've recorded and made a habit out of recording the stuff that's gone well , it's pretty easy to forget that stuff .
So I use my iPad and I literally just download the sheets and I just I use an eye pencil and I just drive them so that everything's digital . But whether you download the sheets , you can type them they're all fillable , you know or you can actually just print them and put them in a three ring binder .
But the idea there is that you're actually scribing these things down because that's when things start to happen for you If you leave them all up in your head . You know , most business , busy entrepreneurs just have so much going on that the next thing just comes into the head and that thing is gone . So , having full clarity , it's like .
That's why I'm reiterating my prime priorities for the day . What are they ? What are the three things I need to get done today ? And those have to align with my week , and my week has to align with my quarter .
And you have your five prime priorities of the quarter , right , and those should align with your year , because when your year is in full alignment with your life , then each of those little things chips away at what you want out of your life , because you know what the business is , the way to get what you want out of your life .
All right , so I will make sure that we link to the planner in the show description If you want to download it . It's simplifyingentrepreneurshipcom slash planner Pete . Where can people find out more about ?
you . I hang out mostly and you know I'm always happy to have a conversation to see if we're a right fit , how I can help you have your best year ever . All right , pete , thank you very much . Happy holidays yeah , make it a great one .