Latest / Business Roundtable / The Founder Freedom Flywheel: Mindset, Systems, and Delegation

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The Founder Freedom Flywheel: Mindset, Systems, and Delegation · Business Roundtable

0:31
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
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Speaker 1: David Carr, founder of Stewards at Business, where we bring
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Speaker 1: people together to accomplish great things, including awesome new guests,
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Speaker 1: and today we have Justin Lund on the podcast. Welcome Justin.
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Speaker 2: Hi Dad, thanks to be here, Glad to have you here,
0:48
Speaker 2: Glad to have you here.
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Speaker 1: Now, Justin, before we get into the meat of it,
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Speaker 1: because you're going to talk about some great coaching, guiding principles,
0:55
Speaker 1: frameworks that you use and helping business owners really scale
1:00
Speaker 1: and develop their business more effectively. But I always like
1:05
Speaker 1: to let our listeners kind of hear a little bit
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Speaker 1: about those guests are coming on as your journey as
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Speaker 1: a business owner. You know the things that you've gone through,
1:14
Speaker 1: and why do you do what you do today? What
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Speaker 1: gets you up in the morning and say, man, I
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Speaker 1: love doing this. I love helping business owners improve their businesses,
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Speaker 1: making them run better. So take us back a little bit, Justin,
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Speaker 1: give us a little bit of your background here and
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Speaker 1: I'll be asking you more questions through the podcast so
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Speaker 1: everybody else will get.
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Speaker 2: To know more as we get in here. Yeah, I'd
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Speaker 2: love to, I'd love to. Thanks for the opportunity. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: I guess, you know. I started at a young age.
1:37
Speaker 2: There were things like Tony Robbins on infomercials on TV,
1:41
Speaker 2: but it kind of got me going. My brother, actually
1:44
Speaker 2: older brother, bought one of those. And this is the eighties,
1:47
Speaker 2: so I think they were three hundred bucks for the
1:49
Speaker 2: personal power, yeah yeah, and he let me just use
1:51
Speaker 2: it and listen to whenever I wanted. I thought that
1:53
Speaker 2: was the neatest thing. I was probably eight, you know,
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Speaker 2: I was a little kid. Yeah, but I thought it
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Speaker 2: was cool. This guy just getting everybody all pump up.
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Speaker 2: And he talked about flying in his helicopter into these
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Speaker 2: events that he would speak and I just thought, man,
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Speaker 2: that'd be cool. Be your own lass. You know, this
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Speaker 2: is cool. And then fast forward through several years life
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Speaker 2: and jobs and different things that I did, got married,
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Speaker 2: I had some struggles with addiction and painkillers, went through
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Speaker 2: that some of those challenges that led me to start
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Speaker 2: learning about Well before that, I was in sales and
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Speaker 2: I loved the blend of psychology. I took psychology classes
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Speaker 2: in college, but I wasn't really into I didn't really
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Speaker 2: want to go into therapy or anything like that. When
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Speaker 2: I got into sales as a way to put me
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Speaker 2: through the through college. I loved it because I was
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Speaker 2: using psychology learning more about it. But I can talk
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Speaker 2: just like Tony Robbins in my sales pitch, you know,
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Speaker 2: I was like how to accomplish goals and dreams. So
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Speaker 2: I love that part of it. But that's where the
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Speaker 2: introduction of drugs came from. That I went into a
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Speaker 2: rehabilitation facility and that was all about psychology. I mean,
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Speaker 2: I really got to learn about myself. I learned about frameworks.
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Speaker 2: I learned about systems and why I might make the
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Speaker 2: choices that I made. Sometimes some of the things that
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Speaker 2: were triggering that were just below the level of consciousness,
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Speaker 2: and I learned how to bring those up to the
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Speaker 2: level of consciousness, so I was aware of them. Coming
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Speaker 2: out of that situation that chapter, I had a bit
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Speaker 2: of a motivation, maybe even a chip on my shoulder
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Speaker 2: to really prove to the world that I wasn't just
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Speaker 2: really a worthless bum, that I could accomplished something. So
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Speaker 2: I put everything into a business and I started to
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Speaker 2: see some good success and results with that, and I
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Speaker 2: grew that very rapidly over the next few years. It
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Speaker 2: reached seven figures, then eight figures, and then just shy
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Speaker 2: of nine figures. Through that process, I brought an individual
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Speaker 2: into help me because I'm not good with numbers and
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Speaker 2: I was really the taxes scared me and I had
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Speaker 2: some look at beliefs like that. And the short version
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Speaker 2: of the story is he kind of took me to
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Speaker 2: the cleaners and took tens of millions of dollars for me.
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Speaker 2: So this big enterprise that I had built with almost
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Speaker 2: one hundred employees ninety something million dollars of revenue just
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Speaker 2: like emptied it all the way and with that kind
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Speaker 2: of committed some tax complications, you know, where there were
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Speaker 2: four signaures on tax returns and claims and the taxes
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Speaker 2: that were filed that said there was three hundred thousand
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Speaker 2: dollars of revenue in a year when there was thirty million.
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Speaker 2: It's like, oh my gosh, yeah, it's not quite right.
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Speaker 2: So that created a four and a half year battle
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Speaker 2: legally to try to go back and substantiate you know,
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Speaker 2: who did what when where, go through the process of discovery,
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Speaker 2: killing back a dozen even hundreds of shell companies. Our
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Speaker 2: money was funneled and siphoned taken, So all these things,
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Speaker 2: and I wasn't good at the numbers, the accounting, the taxes.
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Speaker 2: I had to get a master's degree in it from
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Speaker 2: the Boulepard knocks. Yeah, oh man. And so that brought
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Speaker 2: me like through the about the middle of that litigation process,
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Speaker 2: a friend of mine called me and said, don't you
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Speaker 2: have guys that do like payroll and stuff now for you?
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Speaker 2: And I said, well, I mean, I guess you know,
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Speaker 2: because I had I employed a number of accountants and
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Speaker 2: bookkeepers and even lawyers on staff when I was fighting
5:32
Speaker 2: that battle to try to get out of that situation.
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Speaker 2: So as a favor, we told her that we would
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Speaker 2: do her books and file her and take care of
5:43
Speaker 2: her payroll. She loved it so much that she told
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Speaker 2: five of her closest friends and they all called us
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Speaker 2: and by it. Within a year, we had fifty clients
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Speaker 2: that we were doing their books, their payroll, all the admin,
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Speaker 2: all the things that suck about the business. You know.
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Speaker 2: They they started a business because they like to make cookies,
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Speaker 2: but that's what they want to stay in the kitchen.
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Speaker 2: They don't want to stay in So we just took
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Speaker 2: that stuff on and just build them by the hour.
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Speaker 2: And that's kind of what got me started in with
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Speaker 2: that and my role in that because I'm not an accountant.
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Speaker 2: I'm not. I won't find me spent an extra time
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Speaker 2: in spread shet yeh, yeah, me neither, But I did
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Speaker 2: through those experiences of life in those fifteen years and
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Speaker 2: the hard fought lessons that I learned, I recognize that
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Speaker 2: I don't need to be scared of spreadsheets. I don't
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Speaker 2: love them. My role through those years as we begin
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Speaker 2: and Propel was born, just like an outsurf outsourced service provider.
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Speaker 2: I would work with the founders on their growth strategies.
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Speaker 2: I would work with the founders on a tax strategy
6:51
Speaker 2: or just even tax like just thinking about it and
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Speaker 2: giving them basic simple frameworks as well as just kind
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Speaker 2: of unlocking some limiting beliefs. Having having gone through this
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Speaker 2: having a PhD in limiting beliefs and how to overcome them.
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Speaker 2: Relate to that, yes, yeah, so that's kind of what
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Speaker 2: landed me here. And now my sweet spot is really
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Speaker 2: just working with other founders you know that have that
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Speaker 2: are one or two or three or five years into
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Speaker 2: their process, some much more, but you know, it tends
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Speaker 2: to be a revenue target that I see where people
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Speaker 2: hit some of those. Yeah, lifecle the business, right, you know,
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Speaker 2: you've been there, and they hit I call it a
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Speaker 2: capacity ceiling of some sort. They start out doing the
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Speaker 2: thing they like to do, but then within a period
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Speaker 2: of time, and usually it's you can tie it to
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Speaker 2: an amount of revenue, they start to get these other
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Speaker 2: draws on their attention. You know, they hire people, they
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Speaker 2: have tax issues, they have all these things. They have
7:48
Speaker 2: nothing to do with the business they started initially. And
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Speaker 2: that's where there's not a switch. There's nobody there to
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Speaker 2: tell them, hey, it's time for you to now stop
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Speaker 2: being a plumber and start being a human resource manager,
8:01
Speaker 2: union to spend five hours a month learning how to
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Speaker 2: manage human beings. You know. So those great problems because
8:08
Speaker 2: we kind of just deal with what we have to.
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Speaker 2: We put out the fire and then we jump into
8:11
Speaker 2: the next thing. We get to the next bid, we submit,
8:14
Speaker 2: the next quote, we do the next RFP, you know,
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Speaker 2: whatever it is. We go back to the business of
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Speaker 2: trying to run the business. And these things tend to
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Speaker 2: build and fester, and what that usually creates is some
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Speaker 2: sort of a pain threshold. So I'll see founders start
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Speaker 2: climbing and they get to the ceiling, and then they
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Speaker 2: start going down again, because that's that ceiling is kind
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Speaker 2: of where all that pain starts to come to the
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Speaker 2: surface of tex issues, payroll issues. You know, they'll hire
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Speaker 2: an operator and then pay the one hundred grand a year.
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Speaker 2: After six months, they realize the only thing that change
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Speaker 2: is their balanceingt They've got less money now because they
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Speaker 2: paid all this money to somebody they didn't really know
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Speaker 2: how to manage. They didn't have the systems in place
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Speaker 2: for a person like that to come in and actually
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Speaker 2: be successful. Kind of start back to the beginning and say,
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Speaker 2: let's work up this this process. I call it a
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Speaker 2: delegation Pyram. You got to start the foundation. You don't
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Speaker 2: build a house from the roof down, you start on
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Speaker 2: the ground. Yes, absolutely, that's my tweet spot. I love it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I want to dig into it. So the
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Speaker 1: reason I appreciate you sharing your journey justin in the
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Speaker 1: sense of a lot of business owners. You know, they
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Speaker 1: haven't got to that level where you got where maybe
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Speaker 1: in ninety million revenue, but here's the reality. But you said,
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Speaker 1: if you don't have the right systems and the processes
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Speaker 1: and people in place that can all be gone and
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Speaker 1: new complications, and so you know, listening to you Justin
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Speaker 1: as an example, having somebody that's been there, done that
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Speaker 1: can help guide you avoid some of those pitfalls and
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Speaker 1: go further faster, hopefully with your help.
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Speaker 2: And you know, Justin, you and I we talked before
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Speaker 2: this podcast.
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Speaker 1: I'm focusing only on one aspect of this part of
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Speaker 1: the of the delegation is the people specifically, And this
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Speaker 1: is why I love having you come in, because I
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Speaker 1: love having working with folks like you, Justin with business owners,
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Speaker 1: because you're getting them to think more strategically, stepping back
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Speaker 1: and not being in the weeds of the business, which
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Speaker 1: is easy to do. Like you said, you getting pulled in,
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Speaker 1: That's what I heard you said, getting pulled in a
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Speaker 1: different direction, and before you know, you look up and
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Speaker 1: you're like, we've drifted where I'm not clear where we're at.
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Speaker 1: I don't have a real an understanding of all these things.
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Speaker 1: And so maybe maybe spending more time and energy and
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Speaker 1: I'm excited to break this down with you in one
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Speaker 1: area of the business where I was just talking with
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Speaker 1: a business owner today, Justin where he was like, oh,
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Speaker 1: I've been focusing so much on the sales side bringing
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Speaker 1: in the revenue, but the operation side has been neglected,
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Speaker 1: and we've had a lot. Now we just had a
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Speaker 1: ten ten thousand dollars problem because we didn't.
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Speaker 2: Think about that, and I got to fix all of that.
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Speaker 1: That's a lot because I was all focused over here,
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Speaker 1: but that was being neglected, the operation side of it.
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Speaker 1: So it's like it's a challenge, right for a business owner. No,
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Speaker 1: it's on top of all this stuff totally.
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Speaker 2: So what you just described, I mean, I can see
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Speaker 2: that visually in my head so well, because I've talked
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Speaker 2: to hundreds and hundreds of founders that describe a picture
11:00
Speaker 2: is very very similar, if not exactly the same to that.
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Speaker 2: So picture this way, You're going this direction, sales, sales, sales, sales, sales,
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Speaker 2: oh wait, operations, operations, operations, oh wait, customer service, customer service, delivery, delivery,
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Speaker 2: you know. And then so you've got this way, this way,
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Speaker 2: this way, this way, and then you get to the
11:18
Speaker 2: end of the month, the end of the quarter, the
11:20
Speaker 2: end of the year. And because you went this way
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Speaker 2: twenty five percent of the time, and then you went
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Speaker 2: this way twenty five percent of the time, now you're
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Speaker 2: back where you started. And you're just feeling like, what
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Speaker 2: the hell am I doing? You know, and it feels
11:35
Speaker 2: that feeling it probably the best word to describe that.
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Speaker 2: I've heard most people say it's just stuck, you know,
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Speaker 2: I just feel stuck or trapped, like nothing's changing, you know.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, right, you're stuck or or you know,
11:49
Speaker 1: or totally burned out too. You're like, I don't even
11:51
Speaker 1: know if I want to do this anymore, yeah, you know,
11:54
Speaker 1: or I feel trapped in my business, you know, yep, yep, exactly.
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Speaker 1: You've heard that, but now you've you've been able to
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Speaker 1: get on the other side. So from this getting stuck
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Speaker 1: or having a breakdown, you have been able to help
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Speaker 1: fix businesses and see some things even said even you
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Speaker 1: said earlier, you know, some the limiting beliefs or mindsets
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Speaker 1: about some things. I think that they hear these things
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Speaker 1: out there, and I felt like, at least for me,
12:18
Speaker 1: just I felt like sometimes they felt like, well, I
12:19
Speaker 1: should know all this stuff, I should figure out all
12:21
Speaker 1: this stuff on my own.
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Speaker 2: Maybe be aware of it.
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Speaker 1: But to your point, you know, you're kind of your
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Speaker 1: own limiting factor, right, You're you're a certain point where
12:30
Speaker 1: you're you're the governor, you're the you can't go any further,
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Speaker 1: So speak a little bit about that their journey of
12:35
Speaker 1: like where you've seen business owners and you've worked with them,
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Speaker 1: where they're like, Okay, I'm willing to be coach, I'm
12:40
Speaker 1: willing to look at the strategy or feeling like they
12:42
Speaker 1: have to know all the answers. Talk about the little
12:44
Speaker 1: differences that you see in the success.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly, so that's a big as. Okay, the founders
12:51
Speaker 2: usually looked up to they're the bombs, right, So you
12:54
Speaker 2: have all these people, especially if you have a team,
12:56
Speaker 2: you know, two, three, five, twenty five people, they're looking
12:58
Speaker 2: up to you. The answer is always to you. So
13:00
Speaker 2: what that creates It's a bottleneck, right, It's the top
13:05
Speaker 2: of the bottle. It's the smallest part of the bottle.
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Speaker 2: It's where the least amount of throughput can go. And
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Speaker 2: I try to practice and teach things to the people
13:16
Speaker 2: that I coach. You don't want to be the smartest
13:19
Speaker 2: person in the room. And I tell my team all
13:20
Speaker 2: the time, if you guys are waiting for me to
13:22
Speaker 2: have all the answers, we're screwed. Like it's not gonna act.
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Speaker 2: I like to say things like that, just to emphasize
13:29
Speaker 2: and reiterate that we all need to go find answers
13:33
Speaker 2: to the problems that we're dealing with. So I deal
13:35
Speaker 2: with there's I call it the freedom the founder freedom
13:37
Speaker 2: flywheel because it's kind of a three sided thing that
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Speaker 2: has motion, right, and the three pillars of this is mindset, systems,
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Speaker 2: and delegation and those we go through this process, we
13:50
Speaker 2: work on some mindset to kind of see what might
13:53
Speaker 2: be holding us back, what's sticking. You know, somebody might
13:55
Speaker 2: think I have to solve every problem. When somebody comes
13:58
Speaker 2: to me, I have to answer because who else will? Okay,
14:01
Speaker 2: so we got to work on that. Right. Once we
14:03
Speaker 2: work on that, then we need to develop some systems
14:06
Speaker 2: so that when people approach that person for answers to everything,
14:11
Speaker 2: there is not just a reaction, but there is a
14:13
Speaker 2: set of dominoes that fall. Oh this happens boom boom
14:16
Speaker 2: boom boom boom boom boom. System. Okay, system anything that
14:19
Speaker 2: saves your self time, energy, money, system acronym. So remember that.
14:25
Speaker 2: And then delegation like how can you get it off
14:28
Speaker 2: of your plate so that you as the founder, because
14:31
Speaker 2: nobody knows more about the business and these people started
14:35
Speaker 2: a business because they have some passion, they have some
14:38
Speaker 2: I think entrepreneurs are some of the just brightest, you know.
14:41
Speaker 2: And that's why I learned and rehab that if I
14:43
Speaker 2: could deploy my mind and my faculties into something good
14:47
Speaker 2: instead of some stupid addiction that was taking it was
14:50
Speaker 2: all consuming, might just be able to accomplish something pretty cool,
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Speaker 2: you know. And that's what all these founders are up against,
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Speaker 2: this capacity ceiling where the pain threshold is so great
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Speaker 2: and they feel like I'm burned out, I'm stuck. But
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Speaker 2: all they need is a little shift in mindset, development
15:07
Speaker 2: of some systems, and then to delegate the things off
15:10
Speaker 2: their plate. So we go through time and energy audits.
15:13
Speaker 2: We take a look at what things are, What are
15:16
Speaker 2: the things in the business that really light you up?
15:18
Speaker 2: What are the things the business that really suck? What
15:21
Speaker 2: are the ones that doesn't mean they can't be done?
15:23
Speaker 2: And you can just pick, oh, anything that sucks. But
15:25
Speaker 2: there's a system that we can create, and there's delegation
15:28
Speaker 2: tactics and playbooks that we can implement quickly so that
15:32
Speaker 2: you can still inspect what you expect. Okay, I didn't
15:36
Speaker 2: do that and lost twenty five million dollars. Okay, so
15:39
Speaker 2: don't do that, like don't bury your head in the sand.
15:41
Speaker 2: You have to inspect it. But if you have the
15:44
Speaker 2: right mindset to go into creating a system, and you
15:47
Speaker 2: have somebody that can help you to create the systems
15:49
Speaker 2: where you may lack a little bit of the knowledge,
15:51
Speaker 2: then you have the delegation tactics and inspecting what you're expecting.
15:56
Speaker 2: Then you've created. You give yourself a little more room
16:00
Speaker 2: your calendar, a little more space, a little more time,
16:01
Speaker 2: a little less feeling of stuck. And when you're okay,
16:05
Speaker 2: I can breathe. Now, now what are you going to
16:07
Speaker 2: do with that new time? Can you it back into
16:10
Speaker 2: the areas that light you up, the areas that bring
16:13
Speaker 2: you more revenue, the areas that you know those things,
16:16
Speaker 2: And some of it needs to go into self development,
16:18
Speaker 2: Like if numbers are your weakness, you have to spend
16:21
Speaker 2: a little bit. You do not need to be a CPA.
16:23
Speaker 2: You do not need to go to college and get
16:25
Speaker 2: a master's degree in accounting. Now, one of the first
16:29
Speaker 2: things I set up with clients is I tell them
16:31
Speaker 2: to set up a meeting with their CPA four times
16:34
Speaker 2: a year, Like do it today after our first coaching.
16:37
Speaker 2: There you go, book it. Don't do it in March,
16:40
Speaker 2: don't do it in April. You may do it just
16:45
Speaker 2: after these big pressing deadlines and just get on the
16:48
Speaker 2: phone and talk and just let them know what's going on. Yeah,
16:51
Speaker 2: well you brought up a couple good points.
16:53
Speaker 1: So as I'm following you, it's it is first the mindset,
16:57
Speaker 1: then then we get into the systems. I'm making figure
16:59
Speaker 1: out to delegate. So I hear I think this is
17:00
Speaker 1: important as you're breaking it down. When I'm hearing justin
17:03
Speaker 1: is because I think a lot of times people say
17:08
Speaker 1: and I want you to speak to this subject because
17:09
Speaker 1: I'm sure you probably hear this a bit, and I
17:11
Speaker 1: hear this sometimes I'm trying to help people and I
17:13
Speaker 1: really can make a difference. And that's why I have
17:15
Speaker 1: you on the podcasts because I you know, voices like
17:18
Speaker 1: they always need to be heard. But some people say
17:20
Speaker 1: it's usually you know, they might have the money, but
17:23
Speaker 1: they was like, well I don't have the time for this,
17:24
Speaker 1: Like is this gonna like take me away? And that's
17:27
Speaker 1: a mindset of like, you know, I don't have enough. Instead,
17:31
Speaker 1: you know, tell me, just how do you reframe it,
17:33
Speaker 1: because I know you do. I just want to hear
17:35
Speaker 1: it from your way of like to the business owner
17:37
Speaker 1: just says, well, I don't know, Can I just go
17:39
Speaker 1: on a little longer and not doing this? And you know,
17:42
Speaker 1: the pain is there, and what happens We can kind
17:44
Speaker 1: of get numbed to a pain, right justin I mean,
17:46
Speaker 1: you've dealt with addiction and certain there's a certain point
17:47
Speaker 1: where it's just you're like, okay, just we're just kind
17:50
Speaker 1: of it's our new normal and that's not good, right,
17:53
Speaker 1: that's our normal.
17:54
Speaker 2: That's what we know right now. Yep. Well, yeah, let
17:58
Speaker 2: me speak to kind of two sides of that issue. First,
18:01
Speaker 2: the latter is the new norm is actually a pretty
18:05
Speaker 2: vicious dopamine release cycle. Okay, So when you are dealing
18:09
Speaker 2: with the pain, and so let's say the pain is
18:11
Speaker 2: everybody runs to you. You're the hero, You're the firefighter.
18:15
Speaker 2: Well that there's a little voice in the back of
18:17
Speaker 2: your head that's not very loud, but it says, look
18:19
Speaker 2: how important I am, Look how much validation I get
18:23
Speaker 2: at a day's work. And so with time it becomes
18:27
Speaker 2: very hard to let go of that. And that's one
18:29
Speaker 2: of the things that takes if somebody's I've got a
18:32
Speaker 2: few clients right now that they're twenty twenty five years
18:34
Speaker 2: in business, and it's very hard for them to let go,
18:37
Speaker 2: and it's it's hard for them to even see younger
18:39
Speaker 2: guys that haven't. They don't have that much history of
18:42
Speaker 2: the habits they're recognizing a little quicker typically that oh whoa, yeah,
18:48
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't want to be the hero. I
18:49
Speaker 2: want to be on a beach man. I want to
18:50
Speaker 2: be enjoying the business. Yeah. So that's one thing that
18:54
Speaker 2: you've really got to be mindful of and then just
18:56
Speaker 2: think about it. You know, you have all these people,
18:58
Speaker 2: all these issues, and you have to solve it. What
19:01
Speaker 2: did that say? The underlying messages I'm important, I matter.
19:06
Speaker 2: What I say is the high you know, my way
19:09
Speaker 2: or the highway kind of thing, And that just makes
19:11
Speaker 2: you feel like, Okay, I may not I may not
19:14
Speaker 2: know how to scale this business to ten million dollars.
19:16
Speaker 2: I may not know how to have an exit and
19:18
Speaker 2: get out of here, but at least I'm important in
19:20
Speaker 2: what I do every day. So that's a bad thing
19:24
Speaker 2: potentially that you Yeah, the other part of that is
19:32
Speaker 2: people feeling like, uh, maybe I'll just do it myself,
19:41
Speaker 2: you know. That's that's it's kind of what you were
19:44
Speaker 2: speaking to and what's coming to my mind. I don't
19:45
Speaker 2: want to, I don't have to. I'll just figure it
19:47
Speaker 2: out on my own. Yeah, just take me longer to
19:50
Speaker 2: teach somebody else than a will to just do it myself.
19:53
Speaker 2: And that's true in a sense. But those are some
19:56
Speaker 2: of the blocking mindsets that again with mindset systems and
19:59
Speaker 2: then delegate. So the way I try to get into
20:02
Speaker 2: that is show them well. One of my philosophies is
20:05
Speaker 2: quick wins, David, I try to you know, I could
20:08
Speaker 2: sit and talk about mindset for weeks on end, but
20:11
Speaker 2: a lot of people are like, okay, cut to the chase.
20:14
Speaker 2: I'm busy, what are we going to do? So I
20:16
Speaker 2: have a library of playbooks, and one that I would
20:19
Speaker 2: pull out in this case is called recording and routing. Okay.
20:23
Speaker 2: So when somebody says, I spoke to a woman yesterday, Okay,
20:26
Speaker 2: I've got a session with her today, and she's like,
20:29
Speaker 2: I've got all these things and nobody knows how to
20:31
Speaker 2: do it but me, And I'm doing all these things,
20:33
Speaker 2: and I'm working eighty hours a week and it's just
20:35
Speaker 2: it's killing me. I can't. I'm like, okay, well, how
20:38
Speaker 2: hard are the things you're doing? And what I'm going
20:41
Speaker 2: to go into with her today is recording and routing
20:43
Speaker 2: because the work that she's doing is admin work. I mean,
20:46
Speaker 2: it's basic. I can outsource it to somebody in the
20:49
Speaker 2: Philippines for twelve to fifteen bucks an hour and get
20:51
Speaker 2: it done probably better than her, you know. But they
20:56
Speaker 2: need a playbook to follow, they need a construction manual
20:58
Speaker 2: to follow, and she created one. So in her mind,
21:02
Speaker 2: she's very scared to do that because that's not her
21:06
Speaker 2: strong suit, that's not what she excels at. So you
21:10
Speaker 2: know what I do. I grab this. This is how
21:12
Speaker 2: I create. I record. I have a rope tripod that
21:15
Speaker 2: I keep with me in my bag and everywhere I go.
21:18
Speaker 2: And when I'm doing something that I don't like doing
21:20
Speaker 2: that I do again and again and again. I pull
21:22
Speaker 2: out the tripod, I stick my phone on it, I
21:24
Speaker 2: record what I'm doing, and then I route it to
21:26
Speaker 2: the right place now with a few so I have
21:29
Speaker 2: a playbook that kind of breaks down how to do this,
21:32
Speaker 2: how to record it, how to take a few different
21:34
Speaker 2: iterations of it, how to upload it and the right
21:36
Speaker 2: prompt to use with chat GPT, and then you've got
21:39
Speaker 2: version one of a playbook. And then you take that
21:41
Speaker 2: playbook and you turn it into a checklist. Now you
21:44
Speaker 2: have your first SOP. You know, it's it's standardized, it's
21:48
Speaker 2: ready to use. It's not perfect, but it's ninety percent perfect,
21:52
Speaker 2: eighty percent perfect. And if you can get that stuff
21:56
Speaker 2: off of your plate. So back to your question, like,
21:58
Speaker 2: what if somebody just feels like, nah, I don't really
22:00
Speaker 2: want to let it go. It's gonna be longer. It's
22:02
Speaker 2: harder for me to teach somebody else and just do
22:04
Speaker 2: it myself, and they're gonna mess it up anyway. Well,
22:06
Speaker 2: if you can get back five hours this week, seven
22:10
Speaker 2: hours this week taking some of these things off of
22:12
Speaker 2: your plate, that's a huge win. And even if they
22:16
Speaker 2: only do it eighty percent as effective as you would do,
22:20
Speaker 2: but it's zero percent of your time. I'll take that
22:24
Speaker 2: trade every single day of the week for sure.
22:28
Speaker 1: Right, And they don't see that without somebody like you
22:31
Speaker 1: justin coming in and auditing it and saying, look, what
22:33
Speaker 1: are these things that you're doing. And this is the
22:36
Speaker 1: power of having somebody like yourself Justin, and I do
22:38
Speaker 1: it on.
22:39
Speaker 2: The people's side too.
22:40
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, lean in and that's why we have
22:42
Speaker 1: you on the podcast and other guests he come check
22:45
Speaker 1: out Justin. We're gonna make sure you guys can connect
22:47
Speaker 1: with him because we're connect them on LinkedIn and other
22:49
Speaker 1: links and all that stuff. Will have all that in
22:51
Speaker 1: the show notes. But you know, just recognize, are you
22:54
Speaker 1: in that space right of the mindset and if not,
22:57
Speaker 1: the mindset they can Hopefully we'll get getting that place.
23:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure it creeps in even while you're working with
23:01
Speaker 1: folks that might come back in. I'm sure, Justin.
23:04
Speaker 2: But the point of like going quicker and you've done this.
23:08
Speaker 1: Through multiple multiple businesses and different types of industries and things,
23:12
Speaker 1: and saying, okay, how do we get through and start
23:14
Speaker 1: creating your baseline, like I like your flywheel of you know,
23:18
Speaker 1: the systems in place, so that way we can then
23:22
Speaker 1: actually because you then you can get to the point
23:24
Speaker 1: where you're talking about delegation. But you can't delegate if
23:26
Speaker 1: you don't have it clearly identified like all the things
23:29
Speaker 1: that we do right correct.
23:30
Speaker 2: And often when you try to and this is another
23:34
Speaker 2: major common mistake is you know you feel that pain.
23:38
Speaker 2: You're hitting that level and you feel the pain of
23:39
Speaker 2: all this time and effort and energy. Same with the
23:41
Speaker 2: woman I just mentioned from yesterday, she's feeling the pain.
23:44
Speaker 2: She hired an assistant and now has nothing but negative
23:48
Speaker 2: things to say about that. A system you know now again,
23:51
Speaker 2: not only is that is the work not She's working
23:55
Speaker 2: just as much and now has less money to spend
23:58
Speaker 2: because some of that money is going out to pay
23:59
Speaker 2: ass who is ineffective and she's in effective because we
24:04
Speaker 2: didn't start with the mindset and the systems before we
24:06
Speaker 2: got to delegation started saying here's a bunch of stuff. Yeah, yeah,
24:10
Speaker 2: I tried to train and then tried to retrain. So
24:12
Speaker 2: she's reducing her time that she could work into her
24:16
Speaker 2: she's reducing her money by paying this other assistant. So
24:20
Speaker 2: all these things go down. And that's such a common
24:23
Speaker 2: pattern that I see with small business owners as we
24:26
Speaker 2: just again, we start a business because we have a
24:28
Speaker 2: thing we like to do. And I use like baking
24:31
Speaker 2: cookies as just an example, because you can picture this person.
24:35
Speaker 2: They got a little chef hat on and they got
24:36
Speaker 2: flour on them, and they're in the kitchen and they're
24:38
Speaker 2: having fun. You know, now enter spreadsheets payrolled nine forty
24:42
Speaker 2: one withholding return forms like the irs, like, has nothing
24:46
Speaker 2: to do with the business that they started. So that's
24:50
Speaker 2: typically if you follow that analogy along, it's like you
24:53
Speaker 2: start because you're good at it. You know how to
24:55
Speaker 2: make a cookie to put smile on people's faces, and
24:58
Speaker 2: you're like, maybe I'll go do it this, you know,
25:01
Speaker 2: and then before long you're dealing with all these problems
25:04
Speaker 2: out there that have nothing to do with bacon cookies.
25:07
Speaker 2: And that's where you're like, I don't know what to do.
25:10
Speaker 2: And you reach this point where you just need you
25:13
Speaker 2: need to look at mindset, systems and delegation and David
25:16
Speaker 2: with that process that flywell creates levels, Like as soon
25:20
Speaker 2: as you go through that cycle once then you can
25:22
Speaker 2: level up. And as you get to a new level,
25:25
Speaker 2: there may be a new devil, you know, So there's
25:27
Speaker 2: more mindset and systems to deploy and bring in to
25:31
Speaker 2: bear there. And that's why I have a delegation pyramid.
25:34
Speaker 2: Starting at the bottom, it's getting rid of the administrative,
25:37
Speaker 2: the admin stuff that you you know, the payroll, the email,
25:42
Speaker 2: the calendar, the basic stuff that's necessary evils. Then you
25:46
Speaker 2: go into more of the fulfillment and the delivery and
25:50
Speaker 2: the onboarding side of it. Then in marketing, then you
25:55
Speaker 2: go into sales, then you go into leadership. Okay, what
25:58
Speaker 2: a lot of people do is try to jump to leadership.
26:00
Speaker 2: They feel this pain and they're like, I need somebody
26:02
Speaker 2: that can just lead this mess, and they go hire
26:04
Speaker 2: a CEO or coo. Uh huh. Terrible move because they
26:09
Speaker 2: have no experience in building any of that foundation up.
26:12
Speaker 2: They can't even manage their own email, and they're trying
26:14
Speaker 2: to manage themselves.
26:15
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it's the same thing I see too,
26:18
Speaker 1: justin where I see people do like, oh, I don't
26:20
Speaker 1: really like doing sales really well, so I'm gonna hire
26:23
Speaker 1: some salespeople. But if you don't know the process and
26:25
Speaker 1: understand it, they're gonna do like you said, if best
26:28
Speaker 1: maybe eighty percent or something, they're gonna do it less
26:30
Speaker 1: than you can so and then you're gonna frustrate I'm
26:33
Speaker 1: spending this money, they're not getting it done, like yeah,
26:35
Speaker 1: because you didn't understand this right right.
26:39
Speaker 2: And even sales is a great example because there's a
26:41
Speaker 2: lot of people. I worked with a lot of software
26:44
Speaker 2: development firms and a lot of software guys don't like
26:47
Speaker 2: to sell. They're introverted. Right. Here's the interesting common theme
26:52
Speaker 2: that I've seen with all the software guys that I've
26:54
Speaker 2: worked with, introvert as they are. Once you get them
26:58
Speaker 2: in a situation where there's an opportunity, unity and a
27:00
Speaker 2: prospect to talk to, and that prospect has questions and
27:04
Speaker 2: they're talking about the service. So the offering that they have,
27:07
Speaker 2: these introverts light up. Why because they're talking about their expertise,
27:13
Speaker 2: they're talking about their sweet spot. Yep. So they think
27:17
Speaker 2: limiting belief that they can't do sales, and then they
27:21
Speaker 2: try to delegate something that is second in my pyramid.
27:25
Speaker 2: It's second to the top. For you delegate that second
27:28
Speaker 2: to last. Okay, so they if they can just stay there.
27:33
Speaker 2: There's different things that we do that with like magnetic
27:36
Speaker 2: marketing to just bring people into their world. If you
27:39
Speaker 2: have prospects that are leaning in, that are familiar with you,
27:41
Speaker 2: that know what your service is about, we can make
27:44
Speaker 2: sales calls not really feel like sales calls. They're just
27:46
Speaker 2: conversations with people, and even introverted software developers kind of
27:51
Speaker 2: like that, you know, to get out of the code
27:53
Speaker 2: for a minute. Because who else could talk about those solutions.
27:56
Speaker 2: Do you think some outside sales rep is going to
27:58
Speaker 2: talk about a high tech complex AI solution that they're
28:02
Speaker 2: going to build news Not a chance. Yeah right. I
28:06
Speaker 2: even acted as a salesperson in a software development firm
28:10
Speaker 2: that I was a part owner of. This is how
28:12
Speaker 2: I would sell. I'd get on the phone and I
28:14
Speaker 2: would say, Dave, Hey, great to meet you. Awesome. So, yeah,
28:17
Speaker 2: we're gonna get into the nuts and bolts of this stuff.
28:18
Speaker 2: But here's my partner here blank, and he's way smarter
28:22
Speaker 2: than me. I'm just here to tell a couple of
28:23
Speaker 2: jokes and everything. So tell us much one you see
28:25
Speaker 2: it up and all the rest of the conversation with him,
28:29
Speaker 2: and I just take some notes. And I was taking
28:31
Speaker 2: notes to build a contract, and I'd put that into
28:33
Speaker 2: a contract and I'd send them and that was it.
28:35
Speaker 2: We're done. And I worked really well. But he didn't
28:38
Speaker 2: like sales. And I'm like, do you realize you handle
28:40
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent of the conversation, Like you don't really
28:43
Speaker 2: need me, but I'm happy to show up.
28:47
Speaker 1: Well, I think to your point. And this is one
28:49
Speaker 1: thing I like justin is as you're helping them a strategy.
28:51
Speaker 1: It's important that they do the work mindset, understanding who
28:55
Speaker 1: they are. I use you know, I do that with
28:57
Speaker 1: the teams too, in an integrating place. Point right, it's
29:01
Speaker 1: like knowing how to communicate with these different folks. What
29:05
Speaker 1: whether it's in a sales conversation or whether it's you know,
29:09
Speaker 1: in internal communications. Understanding this so that you're not undermining
29:12
Speaker 1: your influence. I understand how you naturally show up to
29:15
Speaker 1: your point justin there's we all have these different mindsets,
29:19
Speaker 1: but then we all have different strengths and abilities and
29:23
Speaker 1: and things we have to know where hey, this is
29:24
Speaker 1: not my strength or I need to be aware, and
29:27
Speaker 1: then how do I better leverage the team?
29:30
Speaker 2: And getting to your point?
29:31
Speaker 1: Where I love if we can get all of the mindset,
29:33
Speaker 1: the systems really dialed in and the delegation, then that's
29:36
Speaker 1: where I love working with you because I'm all about
29:38
Speaker 1: the building out that team. That then we're talking about
29:40
Speaker 1: the leadership. We're really getting all those folks working well
29:44
Speaker 1: together in a line.
29:45
Speaker 2: And this is the business.
29:46
Speaker 1: And I'm sure right justin you're trying to get them
29:48
Speaker 1: stay on mission, vision, your values. What's the big thing
29:50
Speaker 1: we're trying to accomplish instead of getting sucked back into
29:53
Speaker 1: the weeds. What would why did you create the business
29:55
Speaker 1: to begin with? What was the purpose in creating this business,
29:58
Speaker 1: this organization and what I love? And I'm sure you
30:01
Speaker 1: probably do this with justin because one of the things
30:03
Speaker 1: is as you come together as a business owner, is
30:07
Speaker 1: it becomes more than you. Hopefully it's its own organism,
30:11
Speaker 1: it's its own entity. So what does that look like?
30:14
Speaker 1: And how are you stewarding it? And of course in
30:17
Speaker 1: my words, stewarding stewarding it well versus you know, we
30:21
Speaker 1: see many businesses, you know, start off in one way,
30:24
Speaker 1: but they go off the rails, they lose their their kind,
30:27
Speaker 1: of their their mission and like the relevancy I should say, right,
30:31
Speaker 1: you're helping them, I hear, justin keeping relevant, keeping on point,
30:36
Speaker 1: and also being able to adjust. We see a lot
30:39
Speaker 1: of changing things, technologies and demands and so terror wish
30:44
Speaker 1: looking at terrorists or whatever. There's certainly always coming in, right,
30:47
Speaker 1: it's not. It's so it's like you can't just set
30:50
Speaker 1: it and forget it, right a strategy?
30:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, right exactly, And I like what you just said,
30:55
Speaker 2: and that's that's so important to know. Why did you
30:59
Speaker 2: start this business? What was the goal? And you have
31:03
Speaker 2: to slow down to get to that point, you know,
31:06
Speaker 2: And a lot of people that I talked to don't
31:09
Speaker 2: feel like they can slow down. And that's why I
31:11
Speaker 2: like to focus first on some quick wins. If I
31:14
Speaker 2: can get five, six, seven hours back in your week,
31:16
Speaker 2: and I can measure that, I can show you how
31:20
Speaker 2: you have clawed back some of that time. Now, can
31:23
Speaker 2: I convince you to deploy some of that time to
31:26
Speaker 2: actually go back to that question, why did you start
31:28
Speaker 2: this business? What was the point? Because the analogy we
31:32
Speaker 2: used earlier left right forward backwards. If they could align
31:36
Speaker 2: those actions so that they were all going in the
31:39
Speaker 2: same direction, now, four hours spent get you four hours
31:43
Speaker 2: ahead of an hour this way that way to land
31:47
Speaker 2: you right back where you started. So to me, that
31:50
Speaker 2: alignment is critical. I usually can get more buy in
31:56
Speaker 2: for people to spend that time with that alignment, David,
31:58
Speaker 2: once we get a few quick wins, ends with some
32:00
Speaker 2: systems and some delegation, because I often, unfortunately people usually
32:06
Speaker 2: land on my lap when they're feeling like I can't
32:09
Speaker 2: you take this anymore? They're just getting pulled in every direction,
32:13
Speaker 2: and it's like they want to give up, they want
32:15
Speaker 2: to quit, and a lot of people come to me
32:17
Speaker 2: just because they're like, I want to sell this business.
32:19
Speaker 2: I'm done with it, I'm tired of it. So getting
32:22
Speaker 2: systems in place makes your business more valuable, because if
32:26
Speaker 2: you are the lynchpin, if you are the hub that
32:28
Speaker 2: everything has to go through, your value is going to
32:31
Speaker 2: be not much because yeah, but if you have systems
32:34
Speaker 2: that run despite you and whether or not you are there,
32:38
Speaker 2: that add value. So what we'll see in maybe half
32:41
Speaker 2: of the occasions is somebody even that wants to come
32:43
Speaker 2: in really get things going so that they can sell
32:46
Speaker 2: out and be done. Half the time they're like, this
32:50
Speaker 2: is better. Now I'm going to see if I can
32:51
Speaker 2: grow this a little bit more because now there's some
32:54
Speaker 2: systems in place that they've learned how to relieve that bottleneck.
32:58
Speaker 2: They've they've learned things like the theory of constraints that
33:01
Speaker 2: show them that hey, this is the area to focus
33:03
Speaker 2: on put everything into that basket and tell you expand
33:06
Speaker 2: capacity there. And it's like, hey, I'm kind of good
33:09
Speaker 2: at this. Well, yeah, that's why you started the business,
33:12
Speaker 2: right absolutely.
33:13
Speaker 1: I know we're getting into the end of the podcast here, Justin,
33:16
Speaker 1: you've graven us some great resources the freedom flywheel. Looking
33:20
Speaker 1: at these things, hopefully people are thinking things a little
33:22
Speaker 1: differently than when they first started listening to this podcast
33:25
Speaker 1: and doing a little maybe self reflection as to where
33:29
Speaker 1: am I and in this flywheel and where do any
33:32
Speaker 1: maybe make some adjustments and perhaps have a conversation with
33:35
Speaker 1: Justin And like I said, I'm going to make sure
33:38
Speaker 1: all of your contact informations in there Justin here on
33:40
Speaker 1: our show notes. Leave comments by the way, you guys,
33:42
Speaker 1: if you're hearing something you want to comment.
33:44
Speaker 2: Share, We love that.
33:46
Speaker 1: We love your feedback of course, liking and subscribing all
33:48
Speaker 1: that fun stuff wherever you guys find the podcast.
33:51
Speaker 2: But Justin, I want to give you an opportunity as
33:52
Speaker 2: we're wrapping up the.
33:53
Speaker 1: Podcast today, as you shared a lot with us, what
33:56
Speaker 1: would you say, you know, is if I'm the business
33:59
Speaker 1: owner that I should really take action today or consider
34:04
Speaker 1: or reflect whatever the case might be for you, is
34:07
Speaker 1: say what you want in part with them to say, Hey,
34:09
Speaker 1: if nothing else, if you took nothing else on this podcast,
34:11
Speaker 1: this is.
34:12
Speaker 2: What I want you to walk away from today. Well,
34:17
Speaker 2: so many things. I first one to offer what I
34:20
Speaker 2: first want to offer to anybody listening is if you
34:23
Speaker 2: found any of this useful or resonating with any of you,
34:26
Speaker 2: then come and find me on LinkedIn or Instagram and
34:29
Speaker 2: David will put everything in the in the notes here
34:32
Speaker 2: it's it's justin Lund is my Instagram handle. Just come
34:37
Speaker 2: and follow, give me a follow, and send me a
34:39
Speaker 2: DM that says Steward Freedom and I'll send you my
34:43
Speaker 2: Founder Freedom playbook that has three components to it. And
34:46
Speaker 2: that's probably the best place to start because and I
34:49
Speaker 2: don't I don't need to email address, I don't need
34:51
Speaker 2: to just all I ask for is a follow. Just
34:53
Speaker 2: try to grow my followers a little bit there. But
34:55
Speaker 2: I'll send you it's a Google doc. There's a series
34:57
Speaker 2: of Google docs, and you just have act to the books,
35:00
Speaker 2: the playbooks that I use, and inside of those there'll
35:03
Speaker 2: be little tips like do you need an executive assistant?
35:06
Speaker 2: Then just message me back again EA, and I'll send
35:09
Speaker 2: you executive assistant playbook. That's I think, David. The biggest
35:13
Speaker 2: thing that people back to your point, I think you
35:16
Speaker 2: nailed it right on the head. Most guys, most gals
35:19
Speaker 2: in this position that are feeling this pain just feel
35:22
Speaker 2: trapped that I just need to keep it myself because
35:25
Speaker 2: it's going to be too hard or take too much
35:27
Speaker 2: time to delegate. Try one of my playbooks. Just take
35:31
Speaker 2: the playbook and deploy it. You don't even have to
35:33
Speaker 2: work on the mindset and do all the woo wo stuff,
35:35
Speaker 2: none of that. Just do that. I promise you you'll
35:38
Speaker 2: see a win. I promise you you'll get an hour
35:41
Speaker 2: or two back. I promise you you'll feel the pressure
35:43
Speaker 2: go down a little. So I just want to help
35:46
Speaker 2: do that. And if you like the content and you follow,
35:49
Speaker 2: that's great too. So happy to help anywhere that I
35:52
Speaker 2: can with that stuff. Great. Thank you, Justin.
35:55
Speaker 1: You guys, this is a great gift, an opportunity for
35:58
Speaker 1: you to get a little bit better time back.
36:00
Speaker 2: Justin've been doing this for a long time. Justin. I
36:02
Speaker 2: really appreciate you coming on and sharing that with our
36:04
Speaker 2: audience today. My pleasure. Thanks for having me Dan absolutely
36:08
Speaker 2: well you guys. You know you know the drill.
36:09
Speaker 1: We love you guys, sharing, subscribing, following along, that's all great.
36:15
Speaker 1: The whole point of this podcast is to help you,
36:18
Speaker 1: the business owner leader, be more effective and how you're
36:20
Speaker 1: showing up every day and feeling really good about the
36:23
Speaker 1: way you're called to show up and lead your team,
36:26
Speaker 1: lead yourself, and again thank Justin for being here and
36:30
Speaker 1: look forward to having you guys back in our next episode.
36:32
Speaker 2: Until then, be well everybody, thanks for listening and