Your clients are the people in the sphere of influence. Are you working with the right clients? Are they giving you pain? And what kind of pains are you having? What kind of freedoms are you having with your clients? Here's another one, your suppliers. Anybody that is supplying you any part of what it is that you offer to your clients, so that you can fulfill the promise that you make to them, which is that first step, is part of your
people's sphere of influence. So your suppliers can give you an incredible amount of pain points, or an incredible amount of freedom, depending on who you align with. And are they aligned with your promise? Are they aligned with your product? Are they aligned with your profit? And like even your suppliers, are they aligned and do they offer what it is that your client actually wants? Not what they want your client to want, what you need your client, because it's your promise, not theirs.
This is The MindShift Podcast where we share real stories, real strategies that will help you find real success. This is the place to hear from people just like you who've taken their ideas, goals and dreams from a point of inspiration to realization or when life knocked them down from a point of breakdown, to breakthrough. I'm your host, Darrell Evans. Let's get started with today's episode.
Hey, my friend, welcome back to The MindShift Podcast. If you are taking some time out of your day to be here, I just want to thank you in advance. We don't take it lightly that you're spending some time with us. And today, you're in for an amazing episode. And let's just jump right in. My guest today helps entrepreneurs transform their frustrations into freedoms by using a variety of frameworks that help cut through the chaos and overwhelm of running a
business. Now, you might say, well, Darrell, isn't that what you do too? You, you got another business coach on? Yes, I do. He's a business made, simple, certified coach. And he's the founder of simplifying entrepreneurship, his coaching business and his very successful podcast, which I had a chance to be on about three or four months ago and had an absolute blast. That's how we connected. He's currently writing a book around
his 5 P framework. That is to help provide entrepreneurial freedom in these five areas that we're going to talk about today. That is your promise, your product, your process, your people that will hopefully help you increase your profits. Who am I talking about? Talking about my guy, Pete Mohr, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks so much for having me, Darrell. And it's just an absolute pleasure to spend some time with you again.
Man, we had a blast when we got connected some months ago. And listen, I'd like to say we're cut from similar cloths.
There you go.
Even though we've taken journeys from totally different places, but boy, we had a lot of ideologies and commonalities. And I was like, man, I gotta bring you on and chat with you, but where are you joining us from today?
I live about an hour outside of Toronto here in Ontario, Canada, and small town. I'm a small town guy, just love living in a small town and the community around it and all that kind of stuff. But close enough to the city and close enough to all that stuff too, you know.
Yeah, yeah. I love it. By the way, thank you for being here today. I know you're a little on the mend. You hadn't been feeling well, the last week or so. So definitely appreciate you. I always say that the mark of a true entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who keeps commitments to themselves. Because you could have easily just sent us a note and said, Hey, Darrell, I got a putt today. Not feeling well. So I just wanted to honor you for that commitment. And . . .
Well thanks. I mean, it would have been a time if we did this at the end of last week, because I couldn't talk. I would have been squeaking out of my voice. But I'm getting my voice back. So at least I will be able to get through this one for sure.
Given that this is a podcast, I guess the voice is important, maybe.
Kind of important. Yeah. And I literally last week, there was two days I could not talk, I was squeaking.
Pete, tell everyone a little bit about your entrepreneurial story. I mean, obviously lots of years in the space, but catch our audience up on what led you to entrepreneurship. What have you done along the way? And let's just start there.
Well, for those that are watching on video, you and I both share a bald head.
Right.
We've already pulled it all out, right?
Yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah. Is that genetic? Or by choice? You know, mine was genetic issues.
Yeah, me too. So anyway, at the same time, yeah. I've been through a lot of stuff. You know, I've been an Yeah, man, I really appreciate the variety there. And I think entrepreneur all my life Darrell. Like when I was a teenager, doing stuff, baking crafts, selling different things, and cutting lawns and all that sort of stuff. It's been my life and I worked for somebody else for about six
months. And after university and I'm like, meh, you know, I've had little businesses before this and through university, I'm just gonna go back to being my own business owner. And since 1994, I've owned franchises. I've had bathroom renovation companies, cleaning franchises, we currently own a couple of shoe stores. I've been a business broker helping people buy and sell businesses. So I've done a lot of different things, had a lot of different
experiences. Met some great people, I wouldn't change it for the world. I love entrepreneurism and just everything about it. it's gonna lead to part of what we get into today, which is, though you were able to go into those different entrepreneurial ventures, and I think it's going to lead to this 5 P framework, is that it's the frameworks of running a business that a lot of entrepreneurs get wrong, right?
It's not about the special e-commerce product, or it's not about the service of the day or the latest technology that's out. It's not about catching trends. Would you agree with that in your, in your years? It's not about catching the right entrepreneurial trend. I don't disagree that trends help. Yeah.
I'd rather go with the wind than against the wind.
Yeah, yeah for sure.
But talk about this idea of what some entrepreneurs think about, "Oh, I got to be in the right place at the right time." I think there's something to that, but talk more about that.
You know, Darrell, I think being at the right place in the right time, never hurt anybody. But you don't have to be, right?
Right. Right.
And you know, you know, those people, I know those people, and we kind of sit back and we're kind of like, man every time that lady does something, she seems to be at the right place at the right time. Well, a lot of times, that's because she's put herself there. And that's an interesting thing, too. She's allowed herself to be in that place at that time. And that kind of philosophy around this, I mean, we have to put ourselves in situations that are going to
issue benefit down the road. And as entrepreneurs, when we look at that kind of stuff, I mean, there's so much that's a gut feel. And I think, you know, as you age, as you go through all these experiences, you know, 27 years of running my own businesses, I've seen a lot of different things. So I think my gut feel now, even though when I was 23 years old firing up that first one, I thought I had good gut feel, and all this kind of
stuff. But you know, looking back now, 27 years later, I probably am saying, hmmm, I did probably for a 23 year old, but not nearly what I have now.
Right. Right.
And so can I put myself in maybe better situations now and be in the right spot at the right time a little easier now than I could back then? Probably. And I think And from that perspective, that allows me to that's just part of the wisdom that you garner along the way of the trenches that we've gone through. And, you know, every mistake that we've made is a learning experience. So after 27 now understand situations maybe a little better, and set myself years of mistakes, I've learnt a lot.
up to be in the right place at the right time, as some people would call it.
Wow! I love the way you brought that through. You know, it's interesting, after 27 years, I'm touching on 30. We both have similar journeys, started first businesses early in the 20s. Like we'd have to be idiots at this point not to have picked up some distinctions along the way. Right? And so let's talk about today's current economic environment, because at the time of recording this, this is not a CNN negative news story. Nope, I'm not hating on CNN. The initials are very convenient,
constantly negative news. I'm not trying to, it's not a bad bash on CNN.
Negative sells.
But today, the news, the headlines right now have a lot of people concerned. We're entrepreneurs, we both run businesses, we both coach businesses, and there's just a tone, there's an energy that is changing and a shift is changing
in the winds. I say the the storm clouds are brewing, inflation is high, gas prices are high, commodity prices are high, shelves are empty in grocery stores because of supply chain, mortgage rates, rental rates, all of these things, people are starting to hunker down and start to get in this conservative mode. But we talk to entrepreneurs who move the economy forward. And so what are
you hearing on your side? And what are you saying to your clients about what they are seeing, hearing or participating in? I'm really curious what your thoughts are.
It's interesting, Darrell, because it really depends on what sort of avenue they're in and what they do for a living. Because some businesses are more recession proof than others.
True.
But, and some businesses are made for recession, you know, so that kind of thing happens too. So I mean, understanding sort of what this means to your unique situation in your business, is a really important piece and looking at it with a lens of I'm going to say three to five years is also an important piece. Because sometimes we say, well, three to five years is kind of like, it's a weird timeframe. And we got to just deal with what's this year or whatever the
case is. But I do think that understanding this sort of three to five year timeframe of what's coming ahead is an interesting piece to align, what it is that you need to do in order to make the best of those next three to five years. And you know, when we look at that kind of stuff, most of the time when we dig into depression type situations or recession type situations, it's not a one year turn. So having that sort of little bit longer term vision as to how this can affect your industry.
Like, if you're an insurance salesperson, then you're going to say, Okay, well, what's this going to do? Are people going to be buying cars? Am I going to be selling as much car insurance? Or what's going to happen with this other stuff? Or maybe you're a grocery store retailer, like you were saying a while ago. How does this affect the fact that people might not be eating out as much and they're going to eat at home, so what do I need to bring in that's going to complement nighttime meals?
Or if you're a restaurant, how are we going to recreate our offering to entice people to come and spend their dollars with us? As seen sometimes as more of a, let's call it a luxury good as opposed to a necessity? So where do you play in the necessity, or what I would call sort of, are you a need, or a want?
Mmmmm, wow.
The needs and the wants are an important piece. So we sell shoes, we have shoe stores, right? So people need to wear shoes. So are we going to
sell less shoes? Potentially, we'll sell less of the, let's call it the want type shoes, but the need shoes, they're still going to need their work boots to go to work everyday, they're still going to need their running shoes, they're still going to need their sandals for the summer, they're still going to need their winter boots for the snow, like there are certain pieces there that people are going to need, maybe the quantity are not going to go out
as much. But understanding and honing your product base, which is one of the P's, right? But holding that product or service offering to what's ahead is so important. And does your promise really align with what's coming as well? And sometimes we need to shift this. And we've seen the shift in people's promises in the last couple of years because of what COVID has done.
So what they were doing in their business, whether it's a service or product oriented business, doesn't really matter, maybe isn't quite the same as what they're doing now, post COVID. Because things have changed. People do things in a different way. They're spending more time in different ways, and conducting business in different ways. I just had lunch with a friend of mine who hasn't been to the office in two years. And he's like, I'm going to start going in one day a month, right?
So all of these different things have changed. Well, if you haven't changed your product or service offering to reflect that, what people are actually doing as opposed to what they were doing. Now that's looking back to COVID. Now we take it from where we are now and look ahead and say, Okay, what are the things going to happen? What are the things that are going to change through the next three to
five years? And how do I align my promise and my product and service offering to that so that I can enjoy the best of what I can enjoy over the next three to five years?
I love the distinction, right? The facts of whatever's happening right now are the facts, as we talk about in MindShift. But the fact is you can make new decisions based on those facts. And so you just eloquently broke down that, okay, what does the next two to three to four or five years look like? And I know you're trying to survive, some people are trying to make it through this
right now. And like you said, even in the pandemic, there were businesses that just blew up in the pandemic, while others were deemed non essential and had to weather some storms. You just reminded me of a story. We have a favorite Greek restaurant that we go to. And pre pandemic on certain days of the week, they were obviously full.
Yeah.
And it's, it's interesting, because I was concerned that they wouldn't make it. And when I say we've tried all sorts of Greek restaurants in our close region of where we live. So I go into the restaurant just a couple of weeks ago. And I've noticed the trend, that the dining room is still relatively light. But now they've got four iPads, or four of these devices, because of all the incoming orders that are . . . Takeout.
. . . whatever they call them, Door Dashes, and Uber Eats and I'll, so she, she is the general manager, I just can't think of her name right off the tongue. So the business shifted, right? So they're taking all the orders that are now being picked up by somebody else where I'm still going to pick up my own food. So it's just shifting, right? It's just shifting.
It is.
So I love what you said.
They've made the best use out of their kitchen, right? They have this hard cost. And it's their kitchen. And it's like . . .
Can't get rid of it.
No.
Right.
So what are we going to do?
Yeah, we just got to find a way to cook food.
Right? We're going to pump it up in several different ways and put it out in different markets in different areas. Still the same stuff. And you know what, by the way, I'm a huge Greek fan, love, load up the Tzatziki and like, bring it on.
Come on man.
Yeah I love it.
Garlic sauce. Come on man. Like, garlic, feta, fry, I mean, look, it's out of control. Let's go. And you're making me hungry.
Yeah.
Hey, let me ask you this. In your coaching clients, when you get a new client, I want to talk about that new client that comes to you.
Sure.
I just want to compare and contrast.
Yeah.
Kind of how people show up in your world and what's going on in their world. I want to obviously break down your 5 P framework. But what is the number one problem that most of your newest clients are struggling with when they begin an engagement with you? What seems to be the highest percentage thing that's plaguing them that you have to work on with them first?
They've almost always reached a glass ceiling of some kind, Darrell. And ummm . . .
In which area of the business?
It really depends. But quite often, it boils down to the fact that they are at their max level.
So their capacity, they feel like, there's just operationally they're doing too many things, overwhelmed?
I can't, I can't do any more. Right? So it's like, I can't do it. So I don't work with a lot of startups. I work with people that have been at it for a while, usually 3, 5, 10 years type thing, they've got to a point where, you know, they've been the primary decision maker, and they're still making most of the calls and stuff like that. And you know what, maybe at one point in time, they used to assign accountability in some of
their previous jobs. But when you start off, you kind of get in this, that first 1, 2, 3 years, you're making all the decisions for everything, and you get in this rut where it's hard to start releasing again. And so it's really understanding of this idea about
Yeah. where you want to play, like, what's your best use? You own your business, and it shouldn't own you is one of the lines that I use all the time. So, you know . . . Amen.
If you own your business, where do you want to play in it? Like, what's your most value to the business? And if you're going to spend two hours a week in your business, where would they be? And let's start looking at that, so that you can own that. And then let's start parsing off the rest of this stuff. And so I go through a variety of different things. And the big thing with most entrepreneurs is that our lives and our businesses are tied, right, to a certain degree
there. It's ying and yang. And so the idea there is that most of the people that come to me, they usually, one, their partners are sick and tired of hearing about it, at home, it's like . . .
Because it never shuts up.
I just don't want to hear about it anymore. Right? So I hear that a lot.
It's like, you talk too much. Right? You never, was I've run DMC. You talk too much, you know, you never shut
Yeah. up about this business. You know, so, but it's true, right? And then so the next thing is that your friends don't know what the heck you're talking about. Because they're not entrepreneurs. And they're not like, like, you know, my wife, or my husband doesn't want to hear about it anymore. So I'm going to talk to my best friend, but my best friend works in the government, he doesn't know what I'm talking about, and can't really help me
out with anything. And then, then you say, Well, my door is an open door, come and talk to me at work. And so you have an open door policy, and you want everybody to come and tell you all their ideas and everything like that. And I think a lot of business owners have this sort of philosophy that it is an open door, and I do want them to
come. But most of the time, your team doesn't want to come because you hold their paycheck and, and they still feel somewhat resistant to telling you exactly what they feel. Because if you don't like what they say, then somehow there may be repercussions. So you know, it's just, it's a weird thing. So who do you talk to? Well, that's usually when I get a call, it's like, you know, what,
I need a coach. And I need somebody who can help me through this, we can talk through these things, we can put some stuff in different frameworks, you know, I love different frameworks and I know you do too. So we put them in frameworks. And we get sort of what I say, the crazy mind out, which, you know, like we talked about earlier, with bald heads, we've already pulled our hair out. But, you know, we get all this stuff out of our heads and onto frameworks that help us make decisions.
Right.
Because when you get so flushed up that all of your days are putting out fires, and you're at the ceiling, and you can't break through and you just don't know what to do and everything. It's like you got to actually take that out and align it in some sort of framework that makes sense so you can start assigning accountability.
And when I say assigning accountability, I mean, assigning accountability, I don't mean just putting somebody's name on an organizational chart, and you still making all the decisions.
You know, it's interesting, right? Decision fatigue is as stressful, and as much of a burden and weight as physical fatigue.
More sometimes.
Right. You know, how do you get tired when you sit at a computer all day? And I'm just assuming you're an online business of some sort. Certainly, not everybody does that. But decision fatigue is real. And part of what you're describing, if you are a beginning entrepreneur, you know exactly what we're talking about. Like, at the beginning, you're like doing everything.
Yeah, for sure.
And then it reaches a point where you can't do any more. And at some point, you just want to throw your hands up and say, I don't even want this business no more.
Yep.
That is almost always where I kept someone is like, I've grown this thing. And now I don't even want it anymore. Or I'm doing all the things. What's interesting about frameworks, define, in your words, what a framework is, and why they're so essential, not just to getting out from under overwhelm, but to really the growth of the business. Yeah.
So for me, I use what I call one page tools. So almost So I mean, these are the different frameworks. And everything that I create in a framework will fit on one page. So we have a different idea like I have a plethora of different tools. So it depends on the issue you're coming at, you there's lots of different tools
that you can use. But the idea know, procrastination activator, the tolerance transform, or the, you know, one page prop, all these different ones, it's like, whatever decision making tools, you know, all these things, let's get it. And so we put them into frameworks is like, what are we working on? Why is it good? Why isn't it good? What do we need to do? What are the action steps to move us forth?
Now once we have that all sort of out of our crazy mind, onto a piece of paper, and then it seems doable, as opposed to when it's up in your head, you spin it, you go to sleep with it, you wake up and you're thinking about all this stuff. Now I've got it down on a piece of paper, I understand what I'm scared of, what I call the worries in the wands, I understand what I'm worried about, I understand what
I want out of this thing. I of a framework is get it out of your head onto a piece of paper, understand, now I'm starting to put together the action plan. And who is going to help me with this. That's the accountability or I use an iPad, I put it on all my iPad, I mean, it doesn't portion. So who's going to help me with this, so that I can now take this sheet, and I can just hand it over. I can basically just say, it's out of my head
now. And we've talked about the sheet, you're on the accountability for step one, three, and five. And so you need a copy of this, you're on the accountability for step two, and four, you need a copy of this. This is my team, we've got a three person team for this particular project. Here's the accountabilities, it's all on one sheet, we all know what we're talking about. And let's move the ball.
really matter. But the idea is getting it out onto a framework so that you can now share the framework with everybody who needs to know.
So good. 22 years ago now, I think roughly around this time, someone said something to me that has never ever left my thought. And that is your brain is not for storing ideas. And it has a primary function called conserving energy.
Yeah.
It has two main functions, I think psychologically, but keeping you alive. That's a pretty big one, and then conserving energy. And I was like, huh, and the more we dug into that, the more the comment was get it out of your head and onto a piece of paper, back then it was paper, today it's iPads and those things.
Yeah.
And then the idea of the framework is, and this is what I think a lot of people think entrepreneurship is Pete, they think it's innovation all the time. It's not coming up with some new way to solve the same problem for this client, that the other client had a different way. It's no, let's come up with the process, the framework, the methodology, that is then duplicatable, and it doesn't matter if you're a franchise like a McDonald's, you've owned franchises, or if
you're a solopreneur. The bottom line is there's a framework. Like, what's your framework for booking a meeting?
Yeah. Exactly.
What's your framework, right, for starting your day? What's your framework for shutting down at night?
It's always people.
Oh, I was, I, Darrell won the prize! If I'd of What's your framework for spending time with your family? Like I work with people sometimes that to your earliest comment, in this segment, was about this blurring of the lines. Like, I'm okay with the fact that the lines are integrated, like, I got over that a long time ago, I got over that a long time ago, there is no work life balance in my life. There is work life integration. And once I redefine that, that spoken! Why is it always people Pete?
means I can put boundaries and time block appropriately. I want to ask you about you've got these 5 P's right? Promise, Product, Process, People and Profit. I'm going to tell you, I'm not going to tell you, I'm going to ask you, which of those P's is the biggest P-ain in the butt for most of your
It's always people. entrepreneur clients? I can tell you which one it is for me, but I'm not going to say. I'm not gonna say what it is in my life.
Why? But which one of those P's seems to be the the biggest issue when
Well . . . it shows up in your coaching relationships?
Why is it these doggone people? We hate 'em!Why are they always the problem?
They're also the biggest enjoyment for most, right?
You won't make it without 'em.
You can't.
You can't fool yourself dude, you won't make it without the people but they're the biggest problem.
It works both ways.
Right. Absolutely.
And when I look at people, I just think of my team. I'm here with you now. I'm not at my shoe stores. I mean, I only go to my shoe stores about maybe half a day a week, because I have the right people in place. We have the right process in place. We have those things in place. Now. Somebody quit over the weekend, so I'm gonna have to fill in and that's just part of being the owner, right? Like, you fill the gaps and stuff like that. But that's
unusual. That's the liberty that I have with my business, right. And I've allowed myself that. So when we look at these different things, you know, on the people portion, I break people down into three different areas, because I think there's in the sphere of influence of people around your business, there's three most important sectors.
One, your team, which can cause you a great amount of freedom, or a certain amount of pain, depending on what happens, like it hurt over the weekend to hear that a person was going to leave the store and move on to some other things. And good for her, she's moving on to something that's, you know, more in alignment with her and all that stuff and I wish you all the best. But at the same time, it's like, Ah, this is causing pain, Right. But ultimately, they can give you so right?
Yeah. much freedom as well. And freedom of time, freedom of money, freedom of relationship, freedom of purpose, all your different freedoms that you want as an entrepreneur, come through your people. And so here's another one, your clients. Your clients are the people in the sphere of influence. Are you working with the right clients? Are they giving you pain? And what kind of pains are you having? What kind of freedoms are you having with your clients? Here's another one,
your suppliers. Anybody that is supplying you any part of what it is that you offer to your clients, so that you can fulfill the promise that you make to them, which is that first step, is part of your people's sphere of influence. So your suppliers can give you an incredible amount of pain points, or an incredible sphere of influence. Depending on who you align with and are they aligned with your promise? Are they aligned with your product? Are they aligned with your profit? And like even
your suppliers? Are they aligned? And do they offer what it is that your client actually wants? Not what they want your client to want? What you need your client, because it's your promise not theirs? Yes.
So these are the sort of things that revolve around the people portion of your business. And the interactions between those, a lot of times are broken. And it's like, why are you working with that person? Well, because we always have. Like, they were one of my first suppliers. They're one of my first clients, like, I can't give them up. Well, yeah, you can. Because if they're no longer fitting the bill, then they're no longer fitting the bill, it's time to release,
right? So we get through some of that stuff. And sometimes it's like, you know what, at the end of our relationship, like, as we're going through our conversations and stuff, they come to these epiphanies. And it's like, Man, I just can't do work for this person anymore. Or I just can't use this supplier anymore, or I just can't have this person on my team anymore. But they already knew that in a
lot of cases. And it's just through the conversations of the coaching and going through these different things and getting the stuff out of their head and onto paper, that it's becoming even more clear,
Wow, Pete, you just nailed so many things. And if you're listening to this right now, and you're having problems with people, this is the real work on all three of those areas, right? Your internal team, your external clients, or your clients that fund the business and grow the business. And then those relationships is always gonna be about people. And if you're listening this right now, you're not having any problems with your people, don't worry, your time will come. Your time will
come. It is really one of the essential growth requirements of an entrepreneur, CEO of a business, the ability to, to really manage the different personalities and the different aspects. But I think some of that goes back to what you were saying earlier, which is frameworks, right? I learned early in my days that people want to work for companies and leaders, and entrepreneurs who can actually set a vision for the future.
For sure.
So they can believe in something, right, because a lot of places they could work, the other thing that they really looking for from you, is a path of success, like what does success look like? And when you lay down frameworks for how we do it here in our business, on these little decisions, they don't have to use as much energy, because they're following a framework that you've installed into the business. And I always say that, that's how you can help people
help you. Like your job is to help them be successful so it helps you and people get it backwards. They get it backward. I hired this person and they're not getting the job done. Well, that's your fault. Maybe you missed the framework. Maybe you haven't set the vision. Maybe you're not holding them accountable. Maybe you're holding yourself accountable. And I know you see all of this show up in your world. I saw something in my research background, just getting ready
for the show. You have something called the wheel of momentum.
I do.
Can you talk to our audience a little bit about what it is, what it's for, and how it helps entrepreneurs.
Yeah, for sure. You know, just before we dig into that, I just have to finish off your thought. You know, it, because it really came to mind when we were talking a little bit about this idea around hiring and bringing people on and and assigning them accountability. But a lot of times what happens with the owner when they're going through that is, they don't have the right process. So it's actually, they haven't onboarded that
person right. I went through this with a client not too long ago where she said, Well, I hired a marketing person and said that she could do all the marketing and everything. So she came in and she's not doing, like, Well, does she understand what you're asking? She goes, Well, it was all on a resume that she did all this stuff. And it's like, I gave her my
passwords to stuff. And you know, it's like, okay, and this was a lady who's grown, she's an awesome entrepreneur, grown incredibly quickly, has a great team, all this stuff. But some of the processes along the way, haven't been formalized. And sometimes it's around that kind of stuff, too, right?
It is. And Pete, you know, that one hits my heart. You know why? Because, because in our digital marketing agency, I can tell you that companies come to us, and they want us to take the wheel. And then we simply ask them, Well, what do you want? Well, I just want you to handle it.
Yeah. Just get it done.
Just get it done. Do all of it. Like all of what? What do you want? So I think we're being facetious and joking about
Yeah. something, but there's a lesson in it. And it is, just decide what does success look like for this individual? But that starts with you. So if you're gonna go hire a marketing person, what is the outcome that you want them to achieve? And through their skills, they could reverse engineer. I dare anyone who can set a goal. Now you could set an unattainable goal. That's a different conversation. But setting a goal that's even unattainable is better than not setting one at all. Yeah.
I'd argue. Because it gets us in a path where we can actually take action, we can see where we're going. I think the issue though, is when you bring people in and just say, hey, just do it. I call it punting your responsibility in my world.
Yeah.
You can't just hire someone and punt your responsibility to set the vision, set the goal, set the direction, and give them a vision for what success looks like. It doesn't mean you know how to do marketing, doesn't mean you know how to do social media, run ads, do PPC and all that stuff in my world. But it does mean, oh, we would like to grow the business by 50k per month, over the next six months. And in order to do that, we believe we're gonna need 100 leads a month to do that. At
least you set a goal. And now the person can backtrack and reverse engineer. So what I hear you saying is very much that's part of that accountability. But that's accountability on the entrepreneur side. Like that's where we, I know you have to coach that, No, Miss, Mister, Miss entrepreneur, you got to set a vision for this thing, right?
That's it. That's it, and set the process up. So you know, but that pulls us into the wheel of momentum too.
And Pete, you know, the other thing is, is setting the process up is not just you Googling and finding stuff on YouTube all night, right? It's working with somebody like Pete, who's got the processes, who's got the frameworks. All of them may not work for your business, he probably won't even give you them all, because they'll all overwhelm you, he'll give you the right ones. I know, that's what we do in our business as well. I want to go back to that wheel of momentum though, I didn't forget.
No, it's all good. And it's just, you know, one of the things when we were talking about why people come to my services as a business coach, and it's because usually momentum has stopped. They're at this glass ceiling, and they want to continue on, they want to level up in some way. So the wheel of momentum has spokes. So it's a wheel. And it's a circle if you're picturing it. And so it has six spokes. And I like things that start with P's, and C's and M's and things like
that. So this one is six C's, and the C's are clarity, confidence, competence, cooperation, capacity, and creativity. And they happen in order for a reason, because everything starts with clarity. So like we talked about the frameworks and systems and, and the tools to get stuff out of your head, getting clear on what it is you want to move the ball on is so so so important. Because once you're clear on it, once you have that out there,
even in some sort of form. Now I'm starting to say, hmmmm, this feels good, like the gut feel side of things is starting to say, hmmmm, I think we might build or make something of this. So your confidence starts to build. And when your confidence starts to build, as the leader, you start to communicate this idea, and you're, you're going around to your teammates, saying what about this? What about that? Maybe talking to a few customers. Would you like this? Is this something you think you
could use? Maybe talking to some of your suppliers. If we did this, could you guys supply us with this? Hmmmm, this sounds good. So I'm building my confidence. And after I've built my confidence enough to say, this is something we need to do, then I need to dig in on competence. So what is it that I need to do, understand, learn and activate so that this can become a reality? And when that starts to work, we look for cooperation. So who else can
help me with this? Is there somebody else on my team, externally, you know, maybe they're halfway across the world, and I'm going to zoom with them once a week, doesn't really matter these days, the technologies are all there. But I'm looking for cooperative partners, or collaborators that are going to help me take this through. And once I've found those, what does that do? It builds capacity. And when we have capacity of this idea, so now we have clarity, we feel confident about it, we're
competent. So we actually feel good that we can actually get this done. I've got the right people around me, the cooperation, and my capacity is getting to the point where I'm building capacity easier than I ever had before. And I'm feeling good about our capacity level. Now, I can start becoming creative again. And that's the end of the loop where you're going to start, okay, if this
happens, then what? So now we've got this whole thing working, and everybody likes it, and it's working well, it's creating profit and all this sort of stuff. Now, what's the next step? So now as the entrepreneur, I'm setting up and thinking with my thinking time, what's the next step for this? And that's where the creativity juices start to flow because you can't really be creative about stuff, if you don't have
capacity underneath you. Like, if you're at your wit's end every day, you don't have time for creativity. If you're at your wit's end, if you don't have another decision in your decision making power, you don't have time for creativity. It's not until you get through all of these things and you actually have the capacity within your existing organization, that you
can become creative again. And the beautiful thing about creativity is, once you start becoming creative and getting this stuff down, what are you doing? You're building clarity. And when you build clarity, you build confidence and competence and cooperation and capacity. And that's why it's a wheel that just keeps chugging along.
Pete, I'm so happy you broke that down with such clarity to use your first C. But I wanted to emphasize to the listening audience that whoever you're working with, if they cannot articulate their processes and their systems and their frameworks in an easy to understand way, you're working with the wrong person, Pete just broke down this wheel of momentum, and was able to articulate it. So if he can just say that very simply on the spot, he didn't know I was going
to ask him that. But he knows the framework, he uses it as a repetitive model with his clients. And I think there's a lot of people out here today that are trying to get advice from the latest YouTube video. And then the person who sold them the online course 497. And, and all it is is regurgitated stuff. And it's not actionable, because it's not even their own
stuff. Like, you've got to work with someone who has the skin in the game through the work that they've already done, and can then see what you can't see. There was something you said Pete twice, you've referenced it twice. I want to touch on this before we bring this to a close. You've talked about gut feel, or instinct, now several times. And what's interesting to me is that some could listen to this and say, well, if I've got a framework or a process, then where is there room for my
instinct and gut feeling? I particularly believe that intuition and gut should ultimately be your end guide, even if you've got the framework, the process and the system. So what do you say to the person about this, trusting your gut, gut instinct, intuition. I think they all kind of sit in the same general sphere. But you've mentioned it a few times. Talk about where instinct fits into this whole equation when we're talking about framework and process and systems and wheels of momentum.
Talk about that.
Sure. It's an interesting thing, Darrell. And like I said, I think as, as we have more years under our belt, those, those . . .
Are you trying to say we're old.
No! But I mean, it's the reality, right? And wisdom is an interesting determination on some of the choices that you make with what we're now calling gut instinct. And so sometimes early on, what do you want to do to build your gut instinct? You want to really surround yourself with people with wisdom. You want to surround yourself with good mentors who have been there and done it so they can help you along the way, so that they can help massage some of those feelings that you have around
different things. But do you still need the data? Do you still need all of those, you know, critical points to make those decisions? You absolutely do. I had a great chat with a client of mine this morning. She's an osteo and she's growing her business and adding more people and all this kind of stuff to her business. She goes, Okay, well, I've got my year end documents in. What is it that you usually look at when you get your year end documents in to
propel you to the next year? And it's like, Well, ultimately, it's just a piece of the equation. It's not the equation. It doesn't make the decision for you. All of these different things. As entrepreneurs, what's our primary job? To make a decision. We've talked about that a few times in this episode today too Darrell. There's only so many decision making powers
you have in a day. So here's one of my phrases around decision making, which is, a decision should always be made at the lowest level possible in every organization.
Got it! Wow, okay. Never heard that one before.
The only way that can be achieved is if the process is right. So how important is process in freeing you up as the
Got it. leader from your time? Incredibly important, because the people that are going to make that decision instead of calling you. Oh, what do you think about this? It's like, talking to you the listener, how many times have you said, Why don't they just make the dang decision themselves? Like they know what to do. Why are they asking me? Because you will allow them to ask you. Yeah, you've never enabled them to make the decision. Yeah.
Yeah. You haven't set up the process for them to make the decision, have the accountability around that, so that it's just done. How many of those times does that happen to you, in a day, in a week, in a year? How much frustration is that? An incredible amount. So anytime, any decision, like I'll flip it back to my shoe stores. I don't do returns for customers. I mean, I'm rarely in
the store. But if somebody came in and said I need to return this pair of shoes, I would actually grab one of the people that works with us and say, You know what, I'm going to introduce you to Tim, and Tim is way better at doing returns than I am, and he will guide you through what you need to do, right?
That's right.
You're talking to the wrong person.
Correct.
I don't have that accountability. Right? So I have different accountabilities and my job as the owner of the business, is at a different area of accountability. And if I wasted all my times with something like that, or some minor sort of decision on whether we need toilet paper this week, I mean, my decision making power's used by eight in the morning, as opposed to making the decisions that actually are going to make a difference for my business and my team and my people. Yeah.
100%. So good. Pete, just to crystallize what you just said, is one of the things as entrepreneurs, sometimes we jump off in entrepreneurship land, and we're All of it is handleable. It's doable. And I all by ourselves. So we have to do everything. But then we have always say that whenever you're running into a sticking point in to bring on people and try to start to delegate and do some of the business, because you can't just build all the systems in a
day. You can't build Rome in a day, as they say.
Oh, gosh, no, it takes time.
Every time you feel a sticking point in your business, every time you feel like your energy is off, those things, hold other people accountable. And ultimately, recognize that that moment and you probably agree with this, recognize that there's an opportunity there for a system to be put in place or a framework to be put in place or a process to be put in place.
And if you just stop and take though, we don't realize that we really didn't fully enable them that five minutes, 10 minutes to put that process in place, document it, jot it down, get it out of your head, how would I like this to work next time because I didn't like the way it worked. Just now I didn't like that. How would you like it to work? Document that. Even if you can't implement it right now,
as much as we think we did. We just tried to punt something off even if you don't have the person to delegate it to, get it out of your head, right? But if you don't have it clear in your mind, you got to work with somebody like Pete, who's got our plate onto theirs, and didn't realize that there was a the framework and you tell Pete Oh, by the way, I was doing this and it just didn't go well.
Pete's gonna reach in his toolkit, this handy dandy toolkit, he's gonna pull out a framework for you more than likely. So, Pete, man, I enjoyed sticking point that they couldn't make the decision this conversation. Like I said, we have so much in common in the way that our journey has been similar, different businesses, but we haven't owned any of the same types of businesses. But because they didn't understand what the framework was that that just lets you know, entrepreneurship is systemic.
It's not about, all the things that matter, product, the process, that, all the things they say, they still matter. So would allow them to make the decision, which is ultimately thank you so much for taking some time. I know you're on the mend from your illness, and your voice just came back. So I'm excited that I was one of the first people to get a chance to what you wanted in the first place. chat with you now that your
voice came back. You got something to share with the audience that they can take advantage of, is that right?
Yeah, you know, one of the best things that I have that I can give here today is an assessment, essentially, and the assessment takes about 10 minutes to do. It's on my website, says take the assessment at www.simplifyingentrepreneurship.com. In about four different spots.
You can't miss it. But when you click that button, and you go and take the assessment, it takes like I said about 10 minutes, and you'll get back a 50 to 60 page PDF outlining all of the things that you're doing awesome in your business, as well as the things that are red lighted, as well as the things that it's like, hmmmm, maybe I need to work on this and this.
And whether you find the courses, whether you call Darrell, or you call me or anybody else in your sphere of influence to help you through some of these things, it just gives you a guideline as to what you need to work on and also gives you a pat, because it's nice to get a pat in the back too. It gives you a pat on the back and saying you own this already.
Yeah.
And that's a good feeling, too. So it's, it's simple. It takes about 10 minutes. And it really is a great detailed look at where you feel you're at within your business right now.
Playing sports growing up, I've always said that you can't know if you're winning the game unless you check the score.
Yeah.
I learned it before I ever became an entrepreneur. You just can't know if you're winning the game unless you're checking the score. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. And by the way, the game is never over. So there's, this isn't a 15 minute, 60 minute clock if it's football, the game is never over. But you need to check the score from time to time. And sometimes when you're in the business all day, you can't watch the game film.
Very true.
These are my analogies because I was an athlete. But if you work in my world, we're going to ask you let's check the game film on how things have been going. And it's an objective view. It's not subjective, its objective. And the reason it's objective is because when you take his assessment, you're putting in the details per the questions. The system is then generating a score. And then you're able to check the score based on your inputs and your inputs, so that
you can say, Oh, now I know. I think one of the best things we can do at entrepreneurship is just be aware. Be aware of where we're doing things well. Be aware of what I might want to work on the next six months, the next eight months, the next 12 months.
I love scorecards, Darrell. You know, I'm a big believer on scorecarding all kinds of different stuff, because it gives you the benchmarks.
That's right. That's right.
Right? Where are we now? Take the same one a year from now and it's like, okay, I have advanced. Sometimes we forget the areas that we've advanced in. And we need to be reminded, but you can't be reminded if you didn't take the benchmark test.
And you need to stop and congratulate yourself on a job well done no matter where you are. And that's the other side of these assessments, assessments or scorecards, you can take a break and take a freaking bow. Take a bow, it doesn't mean the game's over, take a bow, don't beat yourself up because everything isn't the way you want it yet. You haven't been able to take a month off yet. Or you haven't been able to hire the fifth person yet. Whatever. Just take a bow, this
is a journey, right? And these assessments can say, oh, okay, I can pivot a little bit here. Oh, but man, this is really going well, Pete to be in all fairness. I just did an assessment like this from an operational perspective, I ended up hiring a operational guru. I call her a guru, coach, consultant. I knew she had a process for me to evaluate my agency's operations. And we're going through some transition right now. And I said, let me get this person's perspective.
Because even though I'm in it all day, I was willing to say, I just want an outside view. And it was actually not as bad as I thought. But there were those glaring areas where we have the
next opportunity. So Pete, appreciate your background, your journey as an entrepreneur, your willingness now to also be a coach and come back and help the next group of entrepreneurs up, building the frameworks, being a disciplined learner the way you are, because listen, at the end of the day, you don't have to do that, you own successful businesses, you do not have to spend time working with others. So I know that for a fact, because I'm in the same boat.
And I just want to honor you for the time that you invest in entrepreneurship. I believe in it as much as you do. And I think in the base of your name, Simplifying Entrepreneurship, I'm sorry, I wish I could get that name from you, because I really enjoy that name.
You know, entrepreneurs are the backbone of our countries, you know, whoever you're listening to. They're the people that employ people. You know, they're the people that helped build the wings in the hospital, to put up the playground, that put the new steeple on the church, all of these different things. They're the Little League coaches, they're, you know, these are the entrepreneurs. If you dig down into those, leading all of those organizations, typically, it's an entrepreneur there.
That's right.
So our philosophy, and I think you share this too, is like, if I can help an entrepreneur have more money, or more time, then in some way, they're going to give back more money or more time to their communities. And somehow with some little piece and frame, I've been a part of that. And that's very engaging for me to say that if I can help a small community just by helping the entrepreneur get through and do better, then I want to help as many entrepreneurs as I can.
I love it. It's not about Lamborghinis and flying private jets, it's about the impact on communities. That's 100% why I do it. Every person that works in my organization, I know that what we do affects their family. It goes beyond their check. It goes to their family, it goes to their community, it goes to their church, it goes to their grocery store down the street. There's a ripple effect to every good work that an entrepreneur
does. Even those good entrepreneurs that have now become big, big, big companies that a lot of people want to hate on today. Some of those were started in a garage that just became major companies. And sometimes we hate on these big companies, because they've become so big. But remember, some of them started it just like you and I, and some of us listening, in a bedroom or in a garage somewhere. So both of us share this passion for entrepreneurs. Thank you again for your journey. One last
question. gotta ask you before you run. God knows we don't want this to happen. If today happened to your last day, on this planet, what would you want everybody to remember you for?
Being a good family person. You know. At the end of the day, when you take it all back to nothing behind you. There's nothing more important than family, Darrell.
Yeah.
So if I can be remembered as being a good husband, good father, good son, all that kind of stuff. There's nothing more important to me than, than my family.
I love it. Pete Thank you for being here on The MindShift Podcast. Everyone, get over to www.simplifyingentrepreneurship.com. Click on the, Take the Assessment button, follow Pete's podcast as well. I was also on the show, some fine entrepreneurship, all things necessary to reduce that overwhelm. Pete, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you, Darrell.
Hey, my friend. Thanks again for listening to today's episode of The MindShift Podcast. Listen, let's not have the conversation in here. Connect with me on social @MrDarrellEvans on almost all the platforms. With the exception of Facebook. My Facebook fan page is @DarrellEvansFan. Until next week, remember you're just one shift away from the breakthrough you're looking for.