Latest / The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast / Escaping the Business Prison: How to Move from Operator to Owner | Liz Landry

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Escaping the Business Prison: How to Move from Operator to Owner | Liz Landry · The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast

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Most of them wake up one day feeling like a prisoner in their own business.
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Yeah.
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Instead
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of zoning in and focusing on what's most important for you to do
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in your highest dollar per hour activity,
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you essentially become the best paid help desk in the history of help desks.
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There's no magical moment that tells you it's time to go past that
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and start handing off the ownership of that thing to somebody.
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I'm telling you the result I want,
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I'm giving you the context of why it's important and why it ties
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to the overall strategy.
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I'm letting you go run.
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Our identity of who we are behind the scenes there is just as important
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as who the people on the other side of it are becoming in the way we hand it off.
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Hey folks, welcome to another episode of the Relentless Pursuit of Winning podcast.
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My name is Rick Meekins. I'm gonna be your host today,
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and in our studio we have Liz Landry.
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How are you today, ma'am?
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I'm doing fantastic. How are you?
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I feel like I am fantastic as well.
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It's almost the end of the week and we are ready for the weekend.
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Folks, if you haven't done it already,
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I would be grateful if you'd like,
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subscribe, and hit the bell so that you can get updates every time we drop
1:15
a new episode. And without further ado,
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let's get to it. So Liz, tell our audience,
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give us give give us a little background on who you are,
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what you do, and why you do what you do.
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so the easy answer that nobody ever understands is I am
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an organizational leadership consultant.
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And people say like, what? What what's that?
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What's organizational leadership?
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Uh-huh.
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essentially that means that I work with folks who own businesses or work inside
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of large businesses on the back end stuff,
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right? The leadership, the way the organization is structured,
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the way that we put positions inside of our organizations,
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all the all the complicated things that are the behind the curtain
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of actually running a business.
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and primarily the focus on the leadership and the development of others inside
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of it. How did I end up in this wild,
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super sexy world of organizational leadership?
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kind of the way most people end up where they are,
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because I really was terrible at it for for quite some time.
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And I was so bad at it that it was either find a new career in somebody else's world
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or
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Get my get my stuff together and figure it out.
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And so in order to get my stuff together and figure it out,
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I went through a lot of learning lessons.
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I always say that some of us learn from other people's mistakes and some
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of us are the other people. I was definitely the other person,
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the one who made the mistakes that hopefully others can learn from for a long time.
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And eventually found myself going,
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Wait, I do have this. Like I got this.
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Mm-hmm.
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I can do this now. Like I know it now.
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Like and I I all of a sudden started seeing it in such a
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a clear and understandable way that I started helping others through that.
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About, gosh, seventeen years ago at this point,
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I started helping others on that after all my trials and tribulations
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of my first several years of owning my own business.
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And and that's kind of how we ended up here today.
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Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wonderful.
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I think back to I I used to do consulting and and people would say,
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I don't understand what Rick does,
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but you need to call him. Do you get that?
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Right? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
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~
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People are like, I don't understand.
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Like, really, what's consultant mean?
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Mm-hmm.
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I'm like, you can call it what you want.
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You want to call it a coach. You want to call it a leader.
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You want to call it a trainer.
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Right. Like some people kind of just call it anything they want.
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You know, if you were to ask my parents what I do today,
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I'm pretty sure they'd be like,
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I don't know, she's some kind of motivational speaker or something.
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Ha ha ha ha.
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Like I you know,
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they don't they don't really know.
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I get that. I was just like, yeah,
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Ricky's a podcaster. I don't know how he makes money,
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but you know, he talks to people all this time.
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Yeah, I don't know what that is,
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but it's it's there.
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Awesome,
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awesome, awesome. Well, I I love I love ops.
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So that's that's a that's a big deal for me.
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We talk about ops, we talk about leadership.
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I wanna know from you, what is what is the what is the big idea?
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What's the what's the big thing that you want people to walk away from either
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working with you or just from listening or watching to this show?
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You know, it's interesting. I work primarily with small business entrepreneurs,
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right? Small businesses are defined as anything under 500 employees.
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So, like when I say small businesses,
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some of these small businesses can be quite large as well.
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And some of them are literally one person with a a part-time support staff,
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right? And so we span the gauntlet there.
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And I've noticed one very, very,
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very, very common thread with all of those people.
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And it's that Most of them wake up one day feeling like a prisoner
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in their own business.
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In this thing
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Mm.
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that they built, they created,
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they wake up feeling like a prisoner.
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and I did too, right? Like when I say I some of us learn from other people's
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mistakes and some of us were the other people,
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like I made all the mistakes. I did all of them.
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And I woke up and I was like, I hate my own business.
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I hate this thing that I built,
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I hate this thing that fuels my life,
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right? And there were perks to it,
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but like I hated it. I was miserable,
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Mm-hmm.
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right? And I think so many small business owners and so many people that start
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a company.
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And they take the thing that they're really good at and they decide they're gonna
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build it into something bigger,
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wake up there, and then they just kind of accept it that this is just what it is.
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This is the price I pay to have this thing that I wanted at one time.
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And we kind of say, like, that's our penance,
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right? Like we wear it almost like a badge of honor that we suffered through that
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and and did it. And it doesn't have to be that way.
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And I think that We can have freedom not from our businesses or our jobs
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or our roles, but freedom within them.
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Mm-hmm.
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~ and it
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and it comes down to one very,
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very simple concept that is incredibly simple,
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but not quite as easy to execute because there's a difference between
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how simple is the concept and actually putting it into practice in the real world,
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right? A whole nother whole nother ballgame.
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but It's the idea that handing off execution of things in our world,
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right? The actual doing and the execution of things is one thing.
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And then
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Mm-hmm.
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handing off the ownership of the outcome to that is something entirely different
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with people.
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And the
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Mm.
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reason most small business owners feel so stuck in their world is because they
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are doing the first. They have learned
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Mm-hmm.
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and they understand how to hand off the execution of something.
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Mm-hmm.
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But unfortunately, There's no magical moment that tells you it's time
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to go past that and start handing off the ownership of that thing to somebody.
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And here's exactly how you do it,
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right? Like that path has never really existed.
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We have these two things, but most small business owners don't know the bridge.
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of actually how to cross that and get to that next part.
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So they live here and they scale from here.
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Give it give us an example
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of that. What give give us an example of,
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you know, going, I'll say going halfway in in that conversation.
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Yeah, so let's look at an example of handing off the execution of something,
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right? And and I'll use you as an example.
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Rick, I need you to run the pricing reports on product ABC for me.
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Great. Right? And everyone out there's like,
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okay, yeah, I asked my assistant to run the pricing reports.
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Got it. Or the sales reports or whatever it is.
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That's handing off the execution of something because I said,
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Rick, I need you to do this. And I told you exactly the report I wanted you to run.
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Go run it. Get it to me.
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Handing off the ownership of something,
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and this is in a very simple context,
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right? Like so just use this as the example is Rick,
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we need to be making better pricing decisions on product X,
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Y, and Z. I need you to pull all the relevant data and sales trends that
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we can use to make that decision.
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I'd like you to run the analysis on it and have your recommendation to me
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by the end of the week. I'm not telling
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Mm, mm.
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you the specific report to run.
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I'm telling you the result I want,
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which is I need to be able to make better pricing decisions,
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right? On our products. And
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Mm-hmm.
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then I'm giving you the context of why it's important and why it ties
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to the overall strategy. And
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Mm-hmm.
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then I'm letting you go run. Right.
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And those are two incredibly different things.
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Because after I have those conversations with you enough,
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eventually it's gonna be Rick.
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We need to be making better pricing decisions on these.
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Can you run the necessary information to make sure we're doing that?
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Right. And then it gets easier and easier and easier.
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But most of us were never taught how to actually convey the context that's
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in our brain, how to tie something to the ultimate vision and to hand somebody truly
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the outcome of what it looks like when we win with that task,
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as opposed to the specifics of the task we want done.
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Those are two wildly different things.
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And they develop people in two wildly different ways.
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You know what you know what I what what the the the gut comes,
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you know, the gut punch comes to me for me,
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comes to when I hear that. You know,
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it's like the first example, and I I know you're using a very simple example,
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but the first person sounds like an an executive assistant.
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You know, you can just go into the system,
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just run the report. The second one sounds like someone that's more knowledgeable.
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They understand more the big picture.
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You know, and so what it sounds like you're saying is just like,
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hey, we need just to move from A to B,
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but it sounds like there's a more
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complex process in that. Can you d dive into that a little bit?
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Yeah, it's right. So
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if we look at the first example,
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like you said, with an EA, right?
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This is the handing off of the execution of tasks.
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So if I hand
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Mm-hmm.
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off the execution of tasks, like let's imagine I am just I'm me,
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I'm a party of one. And this is,
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you know, my specialty as small business owners.
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But the reality is that in corporate infrastructures,
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it's the exact same thing because this is just it's just leadership at
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the end of the day, right? but when we look at it,
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I'm handing off the task to my executive assistant to run the report,
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right? These are where our great taskmasters come in.
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And it's like they're really good at doing the tasks,
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but if I don't tell them what to do,
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things don't necessarily get done,
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right? And this is where
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Mm-hmm.
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we get frustrated. It's like, well,
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why aren't they, why can't they do more?
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Why don't they see the the forest and make the decisions on their own?
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And it's it's because we haven't developed them there.
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But it
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Yeah.
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is, it's it's the handing off the execution of tasks.
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And so when we look at that, example A,
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the EA, everybody who you bring into your world or that works for you,
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right, the first day on the job starts there.
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Because they don't have any context.
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They don't understand the strategy of the business.
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They don't understand the vision,
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right? Like, Rick, I'm a very capable person.
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If you hired me into your world today,
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guess where I start? Right there.
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I'm gonna be like, well, what do you actually need me to do?
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Help me be productive today. But like,
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you gotta tell me what to do because I don't know anything about your world yet.
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I'm brand new.
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Right.
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I'm super capable, but I don't know anything.
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And so literally everybody starts right there,
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even the most talented people.
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The challenge is as we're as leaders,
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if we don't actually evolve them past that and build them into the next person.
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Because there's two sides to that coin.
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There's us building the person who can think,
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and there's us transitioning our behavior and our identity behind it.
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Because in that
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Mm-hmm.
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first example, I'm a manager. I'm managing a process and a system through
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Mm-hmm.
10:38
the execution
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of somebody else, someone else's hands doing the task.
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Let's
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Right.
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say that's a 10-hour task. I'm gonna get
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60% of my time back on that task,
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right? 60, 70%. So if I hand off 10 hours a week worth of work,
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I'm gonna get six or seven hours back of time.
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I don't get the full 10 because I'm still
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Mm-hmm.
10:56
spending about three hours telling them what to do,
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managing the outcomes, inspecting what I expect,
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making sure it's done right, correcting,
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nudging, course correcting, doing those things.
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And I'm still
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Mm-hmm.
11:07
carrying the weight of the decisions on my shoulders.
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They're just the hands doing the tasks.
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And the second option.
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This is where we get incremental,
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or I'm sorry, we get exponential gains back.
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I hand
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Mm-hmm.
11:18
off the outcome, I take about 30 seconds to say it,
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and I get 10 hours a week back.
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And that begins to compound. And the more that person has developed
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to think that way and to have ownership,
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that work compounds even more.
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And so instead of getting just 10 hours of productivity,
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I might be getting 12 to 15 hours of productivity out of that because the person
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Mm-hmm.
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has the context that's in my brain.
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And on that side,
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Mm.
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I'm a leader.
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Because I'm teaching other people how to think.
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Our identity of who we are behind the scenes there is just as important
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as who the people on the other side of it are becoming in the way we hand it off.
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and that's not a natural skill set that ninety nine point nine percent of us have.
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Like the day
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Yeah.
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we end up in power over something,
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whether it's our own business or somebody else's,
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that doesn't just magically come with a job title,
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right? Like that's built
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Yeah.
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in people over time.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean that that that leadership transition.
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I mean, go you know, especially,
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you know, going from, you know,
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that one to five people to fifteen people to twenty it's it's it's different roles.
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You know, and I think it'd be really helpful to,
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if you can, to kind of outline what that,
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you know, what that mental shift looks like.
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You know, going from that individual contributor to running five people
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to run fifteen people, et cetera,
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et cetera.
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There's a lot of really smart people who aren't successful in the world.
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truly, a lot of really smart people who are not successful,
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who live small worlds and they've had failed start after failed start after failed
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start, right? And there's a lot of really successful people who
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are of completely normal mind,
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body, spirit, intelligence because they're hard workers,
12:51
right?
12:52
Mm-hmm.
12:52
Hard work in the beginning.
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will always outpace intelligence,
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right? Like the ability to get it done,
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the ability to lift something off the ground to do it.
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Like hard work works when you're the only one or you have a very finite lane.
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And the challenge is that hard work stops working as soon as you bring other people
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into your world. You can't out muscle leading people.
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And so it's interesting that you know when we see successful people,
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the hard work gets something off the ground.
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It really does. No matter what your industry or what you do,
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hard work
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Is the thing that got you there.
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It wasn't intelligence. Because if you're not willing to put in the hard work
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to go along with that intelligence,
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it's a dog eat dog world, right?
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Like
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Yeah.
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you're not gonna win the game.
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So you gotta put it in the beginning.
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The challenge is those people are so used to that being a tool that works
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so well for them. They can outmuscle it,
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they can out hustle it, they can out-hour it,
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whatever it is, that they're willing to do the work.
13:46
But that no longer is the only tool we need to do the job once we hire
13:50
Mm-hmm.
13:50
people. So let's imagine that.
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That we've got three people now,
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right? And we're still using the outdated operating system,
13:57
as I would call it. It'd kind of be like today trying to use an iPhone from 2013
14:02
and run today's apps. Like it's just gonna seize up.
14:05
It's not going to work well, right?
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It's an outdated operating system.
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It can't keep up with the tools.
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It doesn't have the tools it needs to run today's programs.
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That's kind of what using hard work to lead people is.
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It's an outdated operating system.
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And we can muscle it for a little while,
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really up to about three people.
14:22
Mm-hmm.
14:23
And the reason
14:24
why is three full-time people is roughly going to take you 30 to 40 hours
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to lead and manage those people in a week if you're using
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the outdated operating system,
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right? If they're
14:34
Mm-hmm.
14:34
only operating at what I call task leverage,
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which is that execution of tasks,
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we're
14:39
Mm-hmm.
14:40
still managing all the thought processes,
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all the ideas. We're pulling the strings and puppeteering everything they
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do on a weekly basis. That takes a mental load.
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That's time.
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Imagine if you scale that now to seven or eight people.
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You're gonna find yourself 60 hours a week down going,
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I don't even know what I did this week.
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All I did was answer questions and tell people what to do.
15:01
I didn't actually
15:02
Mm-hmm.
15:02
get to do my job, right? And then imagine if you scale that to 15 people.
15:07
Now you're just buried. Now you got the walls built around you.
15:11
Your business might be productive,
15:13
but you're just juggling a thousand things.
15:16
Yeah.
15:16
Instead
15:17
of zoning in and focusing on what's most important for you to do
15:20
in your highest dollar per hour activity,
15:22
you essentially become the best paid help desk in the history of help desks.
15:27
right? And and
15:27
Mm-hmm.
15:28
we see business owners do this all the time.
15:29
The tools don't scale the same way.
15:32
I I was speaking to somebody earlier about this and the concept,
15:36
and and we used it, we related it to kind of to a video game.
15:40
If you ever played video
15:40
Mm-hmm.
15:40
games when you were a kid, I'm a child of the 80s.
15:43
I like Mario
15:43
Mm-hmm.
15:44
Brothers, right? Like the old 1D,
15:46
like Mario just kind of goes in a line the whole time.
15:48
Mm.
15:49
When you get to the end of a level,
15:50
you win something. You usually get a tool or a prize or coins for
15:55
cle completing the level. And it's like great.
15:57
Cause that tool, you're probably gonna need to beat the bad guy in one
16:01
of the next couple of levels, right?
16:03
And so you're collecting
16:03
Right.
16:04
these tools as you go for doing a good job.
16:07
The problem is that in business.
16:09
The better you get, those tools don't naturally show up.
16:12
You have to be conscious enough to say,
16:14
I need new tools in my toolbox to lead these people.
16:17
Otherwise,
16:18
Yeah.
16:18
I'm just gonna have a really hard job with really good branding,
16:23
right? And that's where they end up.
16:24
Because if we stay the manager as we scale and we don't change the identity
16:29
of who we are behind the scenes and what our job responsibilities actually
16:34
are and the way that we lead instead of manage,
16:36
it's just a
16:38
foregone conclusion that forgot to s put itself on your calendar that you're gonna
16:41
Mm-hmm.
16:42
burn out.
16:43
Mm-hmm. W what what do you say to the I don't know,
16:46
the the electrician or the welder,
16:47
you know, that starts the company and they're starting to expand.
16:50
They love what they do. But suddenly,
16:53
as you said, they're they're managing,
16:55
they're leading, you know, and they're losing that love for what they did.
16:58
I mean, what do what do you say to that person?
17:00
You have two choices. And choice number one is that you hire somebody else
17:07
and you spend a lot of money to hire in a leader who will then build while
17:10
you go do the tactical thing that you love to do.
17:13
Mm-hmm.
17:13
Most people don't want to do that,
17:15
right? They started their own business to be their own boss and they they want
17:18
to have their own business. They just don't know how to do this and
17:22
do the thing that they love inside of it,
17:23
right? so that's option one. You can do that.
17:26
Most people won't and most people don't like the idea of cutting that check,
17:29
right? And and I get that. you have to have an extreme trust in whoever
17:32
you hire to be able to do that.
17:34
That's not the route most will go,
17:35
but understand that's an option.
17:36
Option two, the one that I specialize in helping people with and the one that
17:40
I I recommend to most people is first of all,
17:43
it's to understand the difference between your two jobs because you
17:47
do actually have two jobs and you have since the day you decided to do this.
17:51
You are the operator who is, like you said,
17:54
the the welder, the technician.
17:56
You know, the sales caller, you are the customer service rep,
17:58
you're also the the manual labor for quite a while.
18:01
And then you're also the owner.
18:03
You're the person who has to focus on the overall strategy of the business,
18:07
the vision of where we're going,
18:08
understanding who our client is and how to run pricing strategies to appeal
18:13
to them and the marketer, right?
18:15
Like all those things. But you have two of those jobs and understanding
18:20
the job description of the second one,
18:21
the actual owner.
18:23
And what it
18:23
Mm-hmm.
18:23
does, it's not just balancing the books.
18:25
There's an actual difference on the activities that you do,
18:29
and they're quieter activities.
18:31
So they don't push on you as urgent,
18:33
right? And so they tend to get pushed to the evenings and the weekends,
18:37
and then they get pushed aside.
18:39
And so what happens when we do that,
18:41
we keep using the same outdated tools because we're still working
18:44
off the same outdated job description.
18:45
And that's when those walls start to form.
18:47
The reality is that the the larger your business revenue starts to get.
18:52
And you bring people in, the more it goes like this.
18:55
Imagine it's it's like this, right?
18:57
In the beginning, you're all operator,
18:58
you're a little bit of owner. And then it starts going like this,
19:02
right? Now, here's the beauty of it.
19:06
Generally, once it actually passes this way and it's working well
19:11
and you're doing it correctly,
19:12
you're not finding freedom from the work.
19:15
You're actually finding freedom within the work.
19:19
Because that's the point where you've now got capable people who can
19:22
do and handle these things. And you get to choose to spend the time where
19:26
you love in your business and you get to hand off the things you don't love.
19:31
You don't love bookkeeping? Great.
19:33
You've probably earned the right at that point to hire out your bookkeeping,
19:36
right? Like that's not something you manually have to keep,
19:39
right? You don't love the marketing.
19:41
Great. You've probably earned the right to do it.
19:43
You love doing the the welding because it's an art to you.
19:47
Great. How much time do you want to spend doing the welding?
19:50
And what are all the other parts aside it that you don't want to do anymore?
19:54
Right. But you've got a team
19:54
Mm-hmm.
19:55
that can handle it. So you can focus on the work that you love.
19:59
You know, the idea is not to escape the work.
20:01
It's to do the work we love. And most small
20:03
Mm.
20:04
business owners aren't actually looking to escape the work.
20:06
They just want to do the thing they love to do in their business.
20:09
The challenge is is they've still got to do this until they get to
20:13
the point where they can do only that.
20:16
Yeah, yeah. I was talking to a guy,
20:18
it was a couple of weeks ago. He has a it's an auto auto detailing business.
20:22
He's got I think it's like him and like his two sons or something like that.
20:25
And I was talking to him, I was like,
20:27
you know, what's what's your exit plan?
20:28
It was just a just a general question.
20:29
he's like, Man, you know what?
20:30
I'm not gonna hire anybody because no one can do the work the way that
20:34
I want it done. What do you say to that person?
20:37
He's I think he's about 40 years old,
20:39
you know, so he's maybe has like ten or fifteen years left left to w left to work.
20:43
I mean, what what do you say to him?
20:44
That is like the entrepreneur mantra,
20:46
right? Like we all say that no one will do it as good as me.
20:49
Nobody will do it like me. And it's like,
20:51
yeah, they'll actually probably do it better than you on some stuff,
20:55
right? there are some things that people won't do as good as us,
20:59
right? Like there's some things that you you can't outsource early
21:02
and that you shouldn't outsource early,
21:04
or that, right? Like the idea of,
21:06
I'm it has to be me. But here's the thing if we look at an auto detailing business,
21:11
that's a great example.
21:12
What are all the things that are associated with it?
21:15
Right. There's lead generating to actually find clients.
21:18
There's marketing that goes into that.
21:20
There's run in the books. There's the supply orders,
21:23
right? Like there's the customer service.
21:25
There's the follow-up, right? Like all of those things back end,
21:28
like detailing the car is a very small portion of it.
21:33
And if he loves detailing the car and he's like,
21:36
no, I really like that's the part I want to hold on to.
21:38
And I am actually concerned nobody can do it to me like me yet.
21:41
Great. You hold on to that. Start getting hire the people to do the other things,
21:45
right? start offloading those things.
21:48
I think the second thing to look at there is nobody will do anything exactly
21:53
the way that you do. But the reality is,
21:55
is if we convey the context that's in our brain on why we do things,
21:59
right? And how it attaches to the overall vision and
22:03
what we want the desired outcome to look like and what the experience
22:06
we are doing for the client is,
22:08
then people get developed to not only do what we do at the level that
22:14
we do it, they frequently can augment it and do it better if you made
22:18
the right hire. Right.
22:19
Yeah.
22:20
And I think we take that for granted.
22:22
And the reason why is it's hard for us to slow down and to convey all that context.
22:27
Look at the the two examples I gave you.
22:30
Rick, I need you to run the report on pricing for me,
22:31
pull this specific report. Boom,
22:34
done. I'm on to the next thing.
22:35
Versus the other one where I need to slow down and convey the context
22:40
and explain to you how it attaches to the overall vision and why it's important
22:43
and what I'm looking to accomplish with it.
22:46
Right. I've got to convey that out of my brain.
22:49
And what's going to usually
22:49
Mm-hmm.
22:50
happen is, okay, well, what about this?
22:53
Are is this important to you? Right.
22:55
They're going to ask questions.
22:56
And as
22:56
Mm-hmm.
22:57
a driver and an entrepreneur.
22:59
Like you're used to moving fast.
23:00
And this requires you to slow,
23:00
Mm-hmm.
23:02
right? It requires you to slow down and
23:04
convey that. And it will take more energy on the front end.
23:07
But before long, it won't take any energy because you don't actually need
23:11
to convey all that because now they've got ownership of it.
23:13
Right. And a car detailer, it's the same thing.
23:16
We'll convey and train to that point where one day we truly can just let go.
23:22
We stay close enough to watch the work,
23:24
but far enough away that they can learn and we can.
23:28
Correct and coach on the back end.
23:30
Mm-hmm. You know, the the the hard thing,
23:32
I think, you know, as entrepreneurs,
23:34
you know, we we come in, we're very disciplined,
23:36
we're, you know, about customer service,
23:38
we're about, you know, getting our product out,
23:40
et cetera, et cetera. And there's not really it's it's hard
23:44
to have the conversation, you know,
23:46
where it's just like, hey, you know what,
23:48
I'm really tired. Da-da-da-da-da-da.
23:50
I need a solution. I need to, I mean,
23:52
had it's it's like there's there's a level of of
23:55
Accountability that's missing.
23:57
There's a level of direction that's missing.
23:59
There's a l there's there's a level of loneliness.
24:01
Like even a spouse, you know, that might be on the journey with
24:04
us doesn't necessarily get, you know,
24:06
what we're experiencing. How do you advise?
24:08
How do you work with folks? I mean,
24:09
it's like you almost want to quit it.
24:11
So well, I think all of us have wanted to quit it.
24:11
Yeah. Well all of us have wanted to quit at some point.
24:15
Yeah, all of us have wanted to quit at some point.
24:17
We're like,
24:17
This just isn't worth it.
24:19
Right, right, right. So w how do you advise people?
24:21
What do you how do you how do you guide people from,
24:24
you know, that state where they're stuck to,
24:26
hey, I've got a thriving business to even,
24:29
you know, you've helped people,
24:30
you know, get to the point of exit.
24:32
I mean, how do you how do you talk talk to us about that?
24:34
You know, it's interesting when you look at that of the loneliness factor.
24:38
And I think a lot of it actually stems from two primary points.
24:41
Point number one is we don't actually define what freedom looks like to us.
24:46
So we don't actually know what we're working towards.
24:48
Right. our culture generally in the United States is geared towards retirement
24:53
is the ultimate goal, right? Like that's the golden ticket.
24:55
That's the thing we all kind of like since we're little,
24:58
it's retirement, retirement, retirement,
25:00
retirement. And that's what I'm saying.
25:02
Like when I talk about that, it's not freedom from the world.
25:04
It's freedom in the work. We
25:06
Mm-hmm.
25:06
we kind of just have this big idea of it's well when I retire.
25:09
Well, when I retire, this is the end game.
25:11
This is when the fun shows up.
25:13
This is when the joy shows up.
25:14
This is when the purpose shows up.
25:15
And it's like, no, you've got to
25:17
Mm.
25:17
define what the freedom within the work looks like for us,
25:21
first of all. Otherwise, you're just gonna grind yourself down to nothing
25:26
on in the sake and in the name of this thing that may never happen,
25:29
right? Like we're not guaranteed
25:29
Yeah.
25:30
we're gonna make it to that age.
25:31
Like we don't know.
25:32
Right. And so if we just say, well,
25:33
I'm paying the tax today to get the reward then instead of getting some reward
25:37
now and some fulfillment and freedom now,
25:39
like that's a problem. And I think that's one of the things that that stems from.
25:43
I think the second part of that is because we're willing to pay the
25:47
tax forever on it, right? Like we're just because that's our belief is we'll
25:50
pay the tax now and the freedom will come.
25:52
We got to stop be willing to pay that tax twenty-four seven.
25:54
It's not gonna be that way. I think the second part of that is is kind
25:58
of that video game example.
25:59
Because we are the owners, we kind of are just,
26:02
we have this idea that we should know.
26:04
Like it's my business. Of course,
26:05
Mm-hmm.
26:06
I should know how to do this. It's my business.
26:09
I I
26:10
built it. Well, I have to handle it.
26:12
And we almost look at seeking that camaraderie or talking about our faults
26:17
or the places we're struggling as a weakness or shame that we don't know how.
26:21
Like, how could you start
26:22
Mm-hmm.
26:22
a business and have 10 employees?
26:24
And what do you mean you don't know how to do it?
26:25
Keep a profit and loss statement.
26:27
And what do you mean
26:27
Mm-hmm.
26:28
you don't actually have a thorough interview process,
26:30
right? Like, because what we see is the outside of other people's worlds.
26:34
We don't see behind the curtains.
26:35
I see behind the curtains of a lot of businesses.
26:38
And let me tell you
26:39
Mm-hmm.
26:40
everybody goes through this. This is normal.
26:42
But nobody's really wants to admit or talk about it.
26:46
And because revenue's building and success is happening from the outside,
26:51
right? The business is growing.
26:53
We can't actually really even name what's off.
26:55
And because we can't actually name it and put our finger on it,
26:59
we hesitate to say it. And we
27:00
Yeah.
27:01
build ourselves into that world of loneliness.
27:03
you know, if I could give any any advice to anybody out there and
27:08
and this happens with all the entrepreneurs I talk to,
27:10
they're like, How do you know?
27:11
How did you know that's what I'm struggling with?
27:12
I'm like, well, because that's literally what everyone goes through.
27:14
We are not unique in that.
27:16
Mm-hmm.
27:17
Everybody that starts a business kind of goes through this on the back end.
27:21
And it's that learning curve out there.
27:23
So I think the first thing is if if you're feeling that isolation
27:26
is understand that you're actually not alone.
27:28
a peer group of small business owners,
27:30
they do understand, right? Like
27:32
Mm-hmm.
27:33
that's the thing. Two, there are resources out there now to get the education,
27:37
get the training, get coaching,
27:39
get guidance, you know, hire consultants and things like that to help
27:42
us in our small businesses. And that doesn't mean you have to go out
27:45
and hire a $75,000 a year consultant.
27:47
You might read a
27:49
$25 book or listen to a free podcast or,
27:52
you know, get a training program that's $100 a month for six months,
27:56
right? Like it doesn't have to be this big thing like what we see on TV.
28:00
There, there's resources out there.
28:02
but the loneliness is challenging.
28:03
And if you don't seek out those resources and the community of the other
28:07
Mm-hmm.
28:07
people who are like you, you'll keep building your walls higher because
28:11
you feel like I should just know because it's mine.
28:14
Right. But that's not the reality of it.
28:16
You're not born with this kind of skill set.
28:18
You're born with hard
28:19
Yeah.
28:19
work, sure, but you're not born with this kind of skill set.
28:22
Absolutely. Absolutely. So so we're we're out,
28:26
we're able to go out, we're able to get resources,
28:28
we're able to get people around us,
28:30
you know, kind of guide us through.
28:32
I think one of the other challenges that we face as entrepreneurs,
28:35
again, you know, we're go time,
28:37
you it's it's the the actual implementation,
28:39
the integration of what we're learning.
28:40
It's like, you know, we do, you know,
28:42
kind of that spaghetti test. All right,
28:44
let's try this, let's try that,
28:45
let's try this. And it's just our nature because we're driven.
28:47
How how do we really make this work?
28:51
Because you it's almost like you're asking for a different personality.
28:54
You're asking for, you know, me,
28:56
the entrepreneur, to suddenly become the project manager,
28:59
you know, and the leader and the owner and,
29:01
you know, all all these other hats.
29:03
You know, it's a different set of hats than we had when we first started
29:06
and we were just grinding it out.
29:07
So how how do we do that?
29:09
one is awareness, right? So once you have awareness on these situations
29:13
and that what like the role of an owner really looks like,
29:15
right? The leader, the visionary,
29:17
like those kinds of things, the strategy.
29:19
once you have awareness on it,
29:20
it becomes a conscious choice to not change and to not take action on that.
29:25
And I say that like it's that so easy to do,
29:28
right? Like, just do it. I understand it's not that easy.
29:31
but what I have learned a long time ago is if it's not in your calendar,
29:34
it doesn't exist. And
29:36
I don't care if you use a paper calendar.
29:37
I don't care if you use a post-it as a calendar.
29:40
I don't care if you use Google,
29:41
your phone, Chat GPT, whatever.
29:43
But if there's not something telling you the things that you need to be doing
29:47
on a weekly basis to move your business forward,
29:49
not just keep it afloat, right?
29:51
Like not just
29:51
Mm-hmm.
29:51
bring in the revenue, but to actually move it forward and to
29:55
Mm-hmm.
29:55
do the things to grow it and to lead it and to hire and to understand
29:59
the overall strategy and the vision,
30:01
then you'll constantly be on that hamster wheel.
30:03
In your early days,
30:04
That's a smaller amount of time,
30:06
right? It's the, it's the this again,
30:07
right? We're going like this. In your early days,
30:10
that's maybe 10 to 15% of your time when you're a true solopreneur
30:13
to start getting the education,
30:15
to start looking at things from a,
30:18
I'm gonna step back from the doing and I'm gonna look at it from a 30,000 foot view
30:22
to understand what's happening in my business more,
30:25
right?
30:25
Yeah.
30:25
As your business grows, you bring on employees,
30:27
revenue increases, you've got to be spending more time in it.
30:31
some quick numbers.
30:33
That can tend to, you know, give some benchmarks here.
30:36
and this is different for different different industries,
30:37
but I find these to be general benchmarks for small businesses.
30:41
At about a half a million dollars in revenue,
30:44
you should probably be spending about 20% of your week as the owner of the business,
30:49
possibly 25%, right? And so if you look at that on a 40-hour work week,
30:54
that's one full day,
30:55
Mm-hmm.
30:56
give or take, right? As the owner.
30:58
Focusing on your personal development,
31:00
focusing on the long term vision,
31:01
the strategy, the clarity of what's to come in the next 12 to 18 months,
31:06
developing
31:06
Mm-hmm.
31:06
your people, right? Like that's one full day.
31:09
And I know that's hard to do, but I also know that if it's not in your calendar
31:13
and you don't budget for it, it will never happen.
31:16
You get to choose
31:16
Yeah.
31:17
how that one full day looks like.
31:18
Maybe it's Thursday and Friday afternoons after lunch,
31:21
right? Like maybe you take Saturday and it's your dedicated day.
31:23
Maybe you're like, hey,
31:25
Wednesday, we don't want to take any sales calls.
31:27
This happens every Wednesday. Doesn't matter as long as it's in there
31:30
and it's it's a big chunk
31:30
Mm.
31:31
so that you can really sink into that activity.
31:33
Once you reach about a million dollars in revenue,
31:35
you're really going to be inching towards that 40,
31:39
50% mark, which is when people start to really find it challenging,
31:43
right? Because now you're dedicating half of your week because
31:46
it feels almost unproductive because it's the behind the scenes quieter work.
31:51
Once you reach about 2 million in revenue,
31:54
it's about 75% of your week should be spent on those owner activities.
31:59
Now, the beauty of that is if you've reached $2 million in revenue,
32:02
and again, this is varies a little bit by industry,
32:05
but these are just kind of guidelines.
32:06
If you've reached $2 million in revenue,
32:08
you've got a good support team behind you.
32:10
You've got a sales department,
32:11
likely, you've got a full operational team,
32:13
right? Like things are moving correctly in the right direction.
32:19
And so
32:19
Mm-hmm.
32:19
that 25% that you have remaining is not being the help desk to anything.
32:24
It's not doing the things you hate.
32:25
At this point, you're spending 25% of your week doing the thing that you love to do,
32:30
whatever that is for you, right?
32:32
And then you've got your owner activities.
32:34
And then as the business grows again,
32:36
revenue surpasses by that, you might even start outsourcing some of that owner.
32:40
You always hold the strategy, but you might start outsourcing some
32:43
of that other leadership positions.
32:45
So that comes off of your plate.
32:46
Right. And so you start honing in more.
32:48
it it's a transition. And we have to respect the fact that the day
32:53
we start a business, we we have two roles.
32:55
We are the operator and we are the owner.
32:57
And if we don't respect the fact that we are the owner from the very beginning
33:00
and give it the space it it deserves,
33:02
we'll constantly just be on the hamster wheel,
33:05
no matter how much revenue you make.
33:07
Mm-mm. Mm. That does make sense.
33:08
That does make sense. That that hamster wheel is is is killer.
33:11
give give us an example.
33:12
It's easy to get stuck there 'cause it 'cause right,
33:14
like hard work's always worked.
33:16
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly.
33:18
And it's like the the mindset shift sometimes,
33:20
the letting go, you know, is is sometimes difficult,
33:23
you know, because you know, it's it's like we're never in a situation,
33:26
I shouldn't say never, but a lot of times we're in situations where
33:29
we bring somebody in to do a particular job.
33:32
And we're expecting them to do that job and they're not necessarily capable,
33:35
even though they look like it on paper.
33:36
And it's just like, you know, and you gotta pull it back and then like
33:39
you get like this kind of you know,
33:41
this this memory, you know, each person you bring in is like,
33:44
Are they gonna be able to do it?
33:45
So you have like the hesitation and it's like again,
33:47
The candle burn. I call I call it the
33:47
and it's exactly.
33:49
kid that touches the candle. One one once bitten,
33:52
right?
33:53
Exactly. And again, you you're lonely in this.
33:55
You know, you're the only person doing this.
33:56
So it was just like, but yeah,
33:58
totally. What what what was the great what was a great project you worked
34:02
on where you brought someone from that,
34:04
you know, that that hamster wheel,
34:05
let's say, you know, into a place where they were you know,
34:08
point you know, they're they're they're kinda thriving.
34:10
They're they're freedom. They have that freedom you were talking about.
34:14
Yeah. I I'll give you a great example.
34:16
This is somebody that's been a longtime client of mine for about eight years
34:19
and is also a close friend at this point.
34:21
We've worked together for so long.
34:23
And, you know, when we started working together,
34:25
which was the late 2018s, so like 2018,
34:28
2019, I think,
34:29
Mm-hmm.
34:30
we started working together. she was making good money.
34:32
she had a good job, right? She had a little bit of support and in her business,
34:36
right,
34:36
Mm-hmm.
34:36
administrative support that was kind of there,
34:38
just taking care of some of the
34:40
the bulk of the heavy tasks like paperwork,
34:42
right? Like the cumbersome stuff that's that none of us as entrepreneurs like to do,
34:46
right? ~
34:47
Yeah.
34:47
and and she was she was in sales.
34:48
And so she was out selling, she was making decent money and she was doing that.
34:52
And the reality came down to well,
34:55
you've got a good job and you're making money.
34:57
Is this actually what you want long term?
35:00
And she looked at her timeline and she's like,
35:02
well, both of my kids are gonna be graduated and out of the house in
35:05
You know, her her actual youngest son just graduated high school
35:08
and he's moving into his dorm next week,
35:10
right? And she looked at it and she's like,
35:11
No, like I wanna I don't want to be bound to this location when that happens.
35:16
And, you know, I don't want to be stuck here.
35:18
Like I wanna travel and I wanna do these things,
35:20
but I can't do that if the if I'm the only one bringing revenue into the team,
35:24
right? Like if I'm the only
35:24
Yeah, yeah.
35:25
one building revenue in my business.
35:26
And so we started reshaping her business.
35:28
and it it took about 18 to two years to eighteen months to two years.
35:32
For her to really formulate and settle into,
35:35
I'm ready to do it. Right. Like,
35:36
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
35:37
I'm ready
35:37
to do it. Right. And and so at that point,
35:40
she she started making different decisions and she started looking at,
35:43
well, what's the infrastructure I need?
35:45
How do I lead? How does this happen?
35:47
Who do I need to show up as? How how do I stretch my own bandwidth as
35:52
a leader to get the right people in place and to start handing off some
35:56
of those tasks? And when's the next right time to do some of these things?
35:59
you know, and and today.
36:00
She's probably making, I don't know,
36:02
six times what she was making then,
36:04
when when she started in her own pocket.
36:06
Yeah.
36:07
Her net worth has grown exponentially since then.
36:09
Yeah.
36:10
and I actually at the beginning of this year had her director of operations send
36:14
me the numbers and I was like,
36:15
How much time has she taken off?
36:16
Not days off on weekends, like scheduled time away from the business,
36:21
like vacations, right? Like that kind of thing.
36:22
Yeah.
36:23
And I think it was 112
36:24
days last year she took off. and she's taking the entire
36:28
Entire month of September off.
36:30
from September 1st to September,
36:32
I think 28th. she is
36:34
Wow.
36:34
take taking off from her business.
36:36
and it will run and it will thrive,
36:38
and it will still bring in probably six figures of profit,
36:41
right? which is about their par for a month,
36:43
and and it'll be great. And that's where they will run for September.
36:47
it doesn't happen overnight, is the thing.
36:48
It happened slowly and then suddenly,
36:51
because all of a sudden you look around and you're like,
36:53
my gosh, it's working, right? But it's just
36:56
1%, 2% tweaks in the way that we behave.
36:58
But it
36:59
Yeah.
36:59
started with awareness. It started with,
37:01
is this the way that you want to continue to operate?
37:04
And what do you actually want out of your life in the next 10 years?
37:07
What is freedom to you? And that was
37:09
Yeah.
37:09
it. For her, the kids graduating high school was the catalyst.
37:12
And she's like, I want to be able to take at least a month off when
37:15
my youngest son graduates college.
37:16
I said, Well, great, you can't do that with this is your business then.
37:20
So what does it need to look like in order for you to do that?
37:23
Still make the money you want.
37:24
And for the business to still thrive and and crafting that vision.
37:27
And and here she is.
37:29
Yeah, for her. That's awesome.
37:31
That's awesome.
37:31
Right.
37:31
You know, I've I've s I've spoken to a lot of business owners who have been very,
37:35
very successful and they always say,
37:38
My coach this, my coach that. What's your opinion on on bringing in a coach?
37:43
Bringing in someone like yourself?
37:45
well, obviously I might be a little I might be a little biased.
37:50
I think is actually imperative for anybody that wants to be really successful.
37:54
I have multiple coaches, but I will also add the asterisk,
37:57
right? It starts in different levels.
38:00
If you are completely by yourself and you're walking into this brand new,
38:05
a coach will be helpful, but what will be more helpful for you is training first,
38:10
right?
38:11
And and I there's two there's a distinct difference between training,
38:15
I don't know what I don't know,
38:17
and
38:17
Mm-hmm.
38:18
I know what I know, but I need to elevate it,
38:22
right? Like I need help
38:22
Yeah.
38:23
with the execution and the specifics to make it work on my business in
38:28
my world for my goals, right?
38:31
Yeah.
38:32
I don't teach people how to sell the thing that they sell.
38:35
Like that, that's that's not it,
38:37
right?
38:38
If they need to know how to sell the thing that they need to sell better,
38:41
I'm gonna send them to a training program about sales,
38:45
right? Like and marketing strategy.
38:47
But if they need to know how to run their business better and they need to know,
38:50
hey, I'm got this, but this is where I'm struggling over here,
38:53
right? Like that's where a coach takes it to another level.
38:56
I think in the very early days,
38:58
seek training first, right? And then once you have a grasp and
39:02
a foundation and you're like, okay,
39:03
I know the things.
39:05
But I'm not sure how this applies to my business and how I execute
39:09
it in my business. That's where a coach steps in.
39:11
Right. Like there's a there's a difference between those two things.
39:14
And I think I see a lot of people that from day one go out and they hire a coach.
39:19
And I'm like, well, that's great.
39:20
What's the training you're augmenting with that coaching to make
39:23
Mm.
39:23
that coaching more valuable? Because if you take a coach,
39:26
coaches are very expensive for those of you listening that don't know.
39:29
You take an expert in something,
39:31
a coach, somebody who's going to become basically a partner in your business with
39:34
you, right? And
39:34
Mm-hmm.
39:35
you don't have the training, you're dragging that very high dollar
39:39
per hour person down to something that you could get for a much more nominal
39:42
fee elsewhere. Make your dollars
39:44
No.
39:44
work for you. Get the training first or get the training in conjunction with it,
39:48
because they're two very different things.
39:51
wow, that's very wise. That's very wise.
39:53
you one one of the other things that we experience as entrepreneurs is is burnout.
39:59
You know, we're we're we're not keen to taking the rest.
40:02
There's always one more thing,
40:04
you know, that that we feel like we need to get done.
40:06
Wha what do you advise to entrepreneurs?
40:08
How how do we how do we need to figure out how to get that done so that
40:13
we can always operate at our highest and best level?
40:17
With entrepreneurs in particular,
40:18
it's not so much that there's just one more thing that needs to get done because
40:22
and I have this conversation with my team all the time.
40:24
They're like, Well, well, you know,
40:25
when we don't have anything on the to-do list,
40:26
I'm like, Do you actually think that's ever gonna happen?
40:28
Let me tell me more about that.
40:29
Like, do you just say
40:31
that for fun or do you believe that,
40:34
Ha ha ha.
40:34
right?
40:35
There's never gonna be a day where there's nothing that needs to be done
40:39
in the business where we're all just gonna put our feet up and be like,
40:41
there's absolutely nothing that needs to be done today.
40:44
Sure, there might
40:44
Right.
40:45
be things we can push off to next week and take a day off,
40:47
but like I I don't know any business where there's a day that nothing needs
40:51
to be done, right? And that's just the nature of it.
40:54
Like one, we have to understand that there is always things to do.
40:58
And
40:59
Mm-hmm.
40:59
but they're not all important.
41:01
That's the challenge is when everything's in what when everything's urgent,
41:05
nothing's important, right? All things are
41:06
Mm-hmm.
41:07
not equal. We have to be able to clearly define what is actually important
41:11
and what just needs to be done.
41:13
Right. Like those are two different things.
41:14
I think the second thing there we have to look at is the burnout doesn't necessarily
41:19
come from working too hard. It comes from carrying too much.
41:23
When you're the only one who owns the outcomes and the results
41:26
and the responsibility
41:27
Mm.
41:28
and the context and all of those things,
41:30
that's actually where the burnout comes from.
41:32
We can look at people like Gary V.
41:35
He's a great example. If you ask Gary V,
41:37
he works 16 to 18 hours a day in the
41:40
Dude is just endless energy. He nothing burns him out.
41:43
And the reason Gary V does that is because he's found freedom in the work,
41:48
right? He's not mentally carrying all the responsibility.
41:53
He's found the thing that gives him the energy to do what he does.
41:57
And so
41:58
Mm-hmm.
41:58
he can work at that level without burning out.
42:00
And everybody's got that part of their business.
42:03
You want to talk about business strategy with me?
42:05
Like I can.
42:07
I can go on for hours. I'll be happy.
42:09
I'll be energized at the end of the day.
42:10
But if you want to talk sales tactics with me,
42:13
I'm gonna be like, gosh, the end of the day,
42:14
Yeah.
42:15
like
42:15
this was this was the hardest day ever,
42:18
right? like it's just it's it wears in a different way because it's
42:21
not the thing that I enjoy doing.
42:22
What's it?
42:23
And so when we start looking at that,
42:25
it's not the weight of work that actually gets us.
42:30
It's the weight of the responsibility for things that we shouldn't be doing,
42:33
that we're still carrying.
42:35
Mm.
42:35
That actually ends up
42:36
burning us out because those are the heavy mental things.
42:39
It's all the context, the decisions,
42:41
and everything that goes along with it.
42:42
When you begin to transition those out of your world,
42:45
right? The burnout stops. ~
42:48
Mm-hmm.
42:48
and for anyone that's a solopreneur listening on this,
42:50
because I know we've got, you solopreneurs are a very real,
42:52
you know, thing. ~
42:53
Mm-hmm.
42:54
the reality is I think we have a lot of people that stay solopreneurs longer than
42:57
they need to when they could hire that first executive assistant or they could hire
43:02
some contracted support to handle the.
43:04
The bulky stuff like the emails and the invoices and all of that.
43:08
I think we tend to hang on to that too long because we're scared to
43:12
get burned by the candle and we don't
43:14
Mm.
43:15
know necessarily like what that next thing looks like.
43:18
So we hold it, right? And burnout will come from that.
43:21
Like that, that will burn you out,
43:23
right? Because you're still holding all those other things and the mental decisions,
43:27
not just the workload. It's not the workload that burns us,
43:30
it's the weight of the mental carry on.
43:32
Wow, wow, wow. That is that is great.
43:34
I've never I've never had that conversation.
43:36
I appreciate that. let's talk about your book a little bit.
43:38
you you want to tell our audience about it?
43:38
Yeah.
43:40
yeah. So all these things that that we've kind of talked about today,
43:43
that transition of starting from solopreneur to truly building a business,
43:47
right? None of it happens without the people.
43:49
Now, Chan, the problem is that people are always the problem,
43:52
but they are also always the solution.
43:54
So to move past just doing everything literally ourselves,
43:58
it involves other people. And what I've done is craft the very practical because
44:03
I don't like theoretical leadership books.
44:06
Like
44:07
Be a better leader, go inspire your people,
44:09
motivate more. And I'm like, well,
44:11
what does that mean? How do I do that?
44:12
Have better communication. Like,
44:13
I don't understand. What is that?
44:15
Right. I feel really good when I leave those seminars and I read those books,
44:18
but I don't actually know what to do.
44:19
And so I wrote a very practical leadership book that breaks down
44:23
the transition of moving from the execution of tasks to handing off
44:27
the outcomes to then truly having leaders that carry your vision
44:31
and your strategy through your business.
44:33
the very practical stuff, right?
44:34
Like the how-tos. What does this actually look like in the real world while
44:38
I'm holding my business up and building it at the same time?
44:41
Kind of stuff. it's called From Operator to Owner.
44:43
It actually starts shipping October 20th.
44:46
hardcover copies come out. You can find it Amazon,
44:50
anywhere, whatnot. but when you buy a copy pre-sale,
44:53
we're actually giving the audio book out for free with the pre-sales.
44:57
And the reason why is is because we know small business owners need this help now.
45:01
And I don't know if anyone's ever written a book or had a friend that's written
45:05
a book behind the scenes, but like the book has been done since January,
45:08
but it won't come to print until the end of October,
45:11
right? And so that's 11 months that could put a small business out of business.
45:15
And when I looked
45:15
Mm-hmm.
45:16
at it, I was like, I gotta get this in people's hands sooner.
45:18
How do I do it? And that's why we decided to give out the early edition audio with
45:22
any of the pre-sales. And so if anyone does buy a pre-sale copy,
45:25
you can go from for up fromoperatortoownerbook.com.
45:29
Put in your info for the pre-sale information,
45:31
your order number, it'll instruct you,
45:32
and you'll get the audiobook in your inbox in about an hour.
45:35
But I'm super excited. Super
45:35
Fantastic.
45:36
excited.
45:37
Fantastic. And we'll make sure we have the link on your on your show notes page.
45:41
So anybody that goes there will be able to get access to that.
45:44
Cool. one last question for you.
45:45
so the name of the show is called The Relentless Pursuit of Winning podcast,
45:48
obviously. winning is something that most people can define pretty straightforward,
45:52
but the hard part is maintaining that relentless pursuit.
45:55
So what would you recommend to our audience to help them maintain that relentless
46:00
pursuit?
46:01
You know, people ask me though,
46:02
like, how do you give a hundred percent every day,
46:04
right? Like if it's that's kind of what you're looking at is what's
46:06
the res relentless pursuit of going after what you have on days where you're just
46:10
like, I don't have any more to give.
46:13
Now, we all live in the real world,
46:15
right? We have families, we have problems,
46:17
we get hurt, we get sick. The business knocks you on your butt some days,
46:22
right? Like there will be hits.
46:24
Like, make no mistake. This world will
46:26
Mm-hmm.
46:26
knock you down one way or another.
46:29
But if you only have 40% to give one day,
46:31
as long as you give 40%, you're relentlessly giving it at 100%,
46:35
right? It a hundred percent is whatever you have to give that day.
46:38
And so as long as you give it what you've got to give it that day,
46:42
that's a hundred percent, right?
46:43
You are still in the pursuit. It's when you have 40% to give and you say,
46:47
I'm just not gonna give it anything because it's not a hundred percent.
46:50
That's what's gonna that's what's gonna hold you back.
46:52
That's what's gonna kill you. You got 40%,
46:54
give it 40% and that counts as a hundred that day.
46:58
You know, that's that's that's definitely what happens at the gym.
47:00
You know, it's like
47:01
Yeah. Yeah, right. Like some
47:04
days you don't have your normal hundred.
47:06
You know, you didn't sleep well,
47:07
you didn't eat well, you decided to have too many cocktails the night before with
47:10
your friend that's in town. And it's like,
47:12
if you just say, I'm tired, I'm not gonna be able to lift at my PR today,
47:17
like, and you just don't go, you're doing yourself more damage.
47:20
Just go and put into it what you can put into it.
47:23
Exactly. Exactly. Excellent. Excellent.
47:25
if anyone who wants to get in touch with you,
47:26
what's what's the best way to do that?
47:28
easiest way is actually my website.
47:30
It is the fromoperatortoownerbook.com.
47:32
You can also find me on all the socials,
47:34
like any good entrepreneur, the Liz Landry,
47:37
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. I'm pretty easy to find.
47:41
so you can find me at any of those.
47:43
Awesome, awesome. Liz, this has been a great conversation.
47:45
Thank you so much for being on the show.
47:47
Thank you for having me.
47:49
Absolutely, absolutely. And
47:50
folks, thank you so much for watching or listening to another episode
47:53
of the Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast.
47:55
We'll catch you next time.